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THE PHILANTHROPIC WORK

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

CONTAINING A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF HER LIFE
TOGETHER WITH A SELECTION OF HER PUBLIC
PAPERS AND PRIVATE LETTERS •

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COLLECTED AND ARRANGED FOB PUBLICATION

WILLIAM RHINELANDER STEWART

PRESIDENT OF THE NEW TORK STATE
BOARD OF CHARITIES

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By the MACMILLAN COMPANY.

Set up and elcctrotyped. Published Oclober, 1911.

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The Philanthropy Classics Access Project

Over the past three decades more than two hundred
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New material in this edition, copyright © 2006 by the Hauser
Center for Nonprofit Organizations, John F. Kennedy School of
Government, Harvard University 02138.
Originally published in 1911 by the MacMillan Company.

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The editors are particularly grateful to our Editorial Board,
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Richard Magat

Ill

Introduction to the Philanthropy Classics Access
Project Edition

The Philanthropic Work of Josephine Shaw Lowell:
Containing a Biographical Sketch of her Life Together with a
Selection of Her Public Papers and Private Letters contains a rich
set of primary documents for scholars and students of the history
of social welfare. The volume provides a fascinating insight into
the evolution of both the ideology and practice of social welfare
from the dawn of the first great spurt of industrial growth of the
Gilded Age to 1905. It has been profitably used and widely cited
since its publication in 1911.^ It is also valuable for the wealth of

^ William Rhinelander Stewart, ed.. The Philanthropic Work of Josephine Shaw
Lowell (New York; The Macmillan Company) 1911. Hereafter, Stewart. Three
contemporary reviews are found m American Economic Review , v. 2, n. 3
(September 1912): 6M-5, American Journal of Sociology, \. 18, n. 3 (November
1912): 402; The Nation.v. 94, no. 2440 (April 4, 1912): 340-41. One reviewer
predicted that the volume will be a "classic in the libraries of students in the
history of our country ..." Another declared "The story of Mrs. Lowell's social
activities, beginning in her girlhood during the Civil War and continued till her
death in 1905, typifies and illuminates the social development of the period, a
development which she took a noteworthy part m shaping." The first quote from
AER: 684, the second from AJS . Noteworthy as well is the large number of
scholars and historians of welfare history who have found Stewart's volume
valuable. A small selection includes Dorothy Becker, Lillian Brant, and Frank
D. Watson. Much later, Robert Bremner, Paul Boyer and Michael B. Katz
profitably used The Philanthropic Work of Josephine Shaw Lowell in their
discussions of scientific charity and its application in New York by Lowell and
the COS. Dorothy Becker, "The Visitor to the New York City Poor, 1843-
1920." Social Service Review 35 (December 1961): 382-396; Lillian Brant,
Growth and Development of the AICP and COS (New York: Community
Service Society of New York, 1942); Frank D. Watson, The Charity
Organization Movement in the United States: A Study in American Philanthropy
(New York: The Macmillan company, 1922); Robert Bremner, From the
Depths: The Discovery of Poverty in the United States (New York: New York
University Press, 1956); Paul Boyer, Urban Masses and Moral Order in
America 1820-1926 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1978); Michael

biographical material on Josephine Shaw Lowell ~ philanthropist,
social reformer and a leader of the American scientific charity, or
"charity organization" movement. Charity organization societies,
the institutional expression of that movement, were by far the most
important shapers of the country's welfare politics in the era.^ This
introductory essay identifies the editor and compiler, William R.
Stewart, and discusses Lowell's life and work, interwoven and
contextualized with the charitable and reform world in the late
nineteenth century United States.

Largely unknown today, William Rhinelander Stewart
(1852-1929) was a leading architect of the New York State welfare
system from 1882 to 1929. He was born into a venerable and
wealthy New York family and attended Columbia University,
where he received a law degree in 1873. Unhappy with his chosen
career, Stewart devoted himself to public service, while tending to
his many business concerns. He was an active force in the cultural
life of New York City, raising money for the building of the
Washington Arch in Greenwich Village and enjoying a successful
tenure as Chair of the committee to finish Ulysses S. Grant's
magnificent tomb on Riverside Drive. A Republican Party
supporter, Stewart also dabbled in reform politics, working to
overthrow the Tammany Hall machine that dominated New York
politics.

In 1882 Stewart was appointed by Governor Andrew
Cornell to the New York State Board of Charities, a post-Civil War
creation that was designed to oversee all the state's welfare
responsibilities for dependent populations. He was on the Board
for forty-seven years - serving as its president for twenty-four of

B. Katz, In the Shadow of the Poorhouse: A Social History of Welfare in
America (New York: Basic Books, 1986).

' 1 found Stewart's work an indispensable aid for my biography of Lowell. This
introduction is based on Joan Waugh, Unsentimental Reformer: The Life of
Josephine Shaw Lowell (Boston: Harvard University Press, 1998).

those years - before retiring in 1929, a few months before his
death. Stewart's major achievement was the promotion of humane
care for juvenile delinquents, who were previously lumped in with
older offenders. He pursued "abandoning a system based upon
punishment and retribution" and advocated replacing it with "one
which would provide for proper classification, open grounds for
play and exercise, proper industrial and scholastic education, and
care of the boys and girls in separate institutions."' At Stewart's
retirement. Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt provided a tribute:
"Your record is unique in the annals of the State's history, both in
length of time and in the variety and scope of your activities.""^

Teacher and Mentor

Josephine Shaw Lowell preceded Stewart on the State
Board by seven years, and upon his arrival, cultivated him as an
ally and a friend. Younger than Lowell, Stewart openly considered
her his teacher and mentor. "The story of her life," he claimed, "is
full of inspiration, and the knowledge it affords of the amazing
results attained by one woman, almost empty-handed, should
encourage many to follow where she had led the way."^ Indeed,
Lowell commands an important place in the history of social
welfare reform. Brilliant and ambitious, she seized boldly the reins
of leadership of the scientific charity movement and changed the
way many citizens thought about relief and charity, whether they

Quoted in "William Rhinelander Stewart," Dictionary of American Biography,
Dumas Malone, ed., v. 9 (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons): 15.

"* Quote from New York Times, September 5, 1929, 29. "William Rhinelander
Stewart," m Biographical Dictionary of Social Welfare in America (Westport,
Connecticut: Greenwood Press Inc.), 1986: The role of State Boards is discussed
in W. R. Brock, Investigation and Responsibility: Public responsibility in the
United States, 7S(55-7i'00 (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press) 1984.

^Stewart: 11.

agreed with her or not. Her book Public Relief and Private Charity
(1884) set out the intellectual theory for "industrial welfare," and
in addition remained the most used textbook for the next
generation of charity workers.''

The Philanthropic Work of Josephine Shaw Lowell covers
three decades in which Lowell sought to bring charitable practices
into accord with the industrial age. She served as the first woman
commissioner on the New York State Board of Charities, and was
the founder and guiding spirit of the Charity Organization Society
of the City of New York. Within a few years of its establishment in
1882, Lowell's organization became a major part of New York
City's governing structure, and a trendsetter in social welfare
policy. Under Lowell's direction the Society pioneered important
research on poverty, developed and refined the "casework"
approach to social welfare, cultivated fresh leadership, and
promoted the professionalization of social work. The volume's
documents reveal a dynamic connection between reform, politics
and charity in New York City through the life of one of its
principal players.

After her death in 1905 the courtly Stewart spent five years
collecting and arranging a selection of eighty of Lowell's
published and unpublished works ~ reports, speeches, articles, and
conference papers - into a treasure trove of valuable material.
There are also many personal letters from Lowell to family
members, colleagues and friends.^ Stewart's intention was "to
provide a new handbook of reference for the ever growing army of
students of social subjects in our schools of philanthropy, colleges,
and settlements, which they may find explained in her own

"^ Josephine Shaw Lowell, Public Relief and Private Charity (New York: G.P.
Putnam's and Sons, 1884).

' Lowell's sister-in-law, Annie Haggerty Shaw, is the most cited correspondent.
See Stewart, Chapter V.

writings the sound principles which underlay all Mrs. Lowell's
benevolent worked."^ Students and readers will find notable
differences as well as some similarities contrasting the
aforementioned "sound principles" of the last three decades of the
19* century, as articulated by Lowell, alongside those of the 21**^
century welfare activists and reformers.

The chapters, with explanatory narrative provided by
Stewart, examine Lowell's contributions to the field of
philanthropy. Her thirteen years as a commissioner on the Board of
Charities, and her leadership of the Charity Organization Society
necessarily command a large part of the book. Other parts cover
her wide-ranging interests in labor reform, civil service reform,
and women's issues. Stewart intended his twenty-two chapter
volume to serve as a tribute to Lowell's life and career, and he
succeeded. "This record of Mrs. Lowell's life and work," he wrote,
"will serve to perpetuate her memory as one of the most useful and
remarkable women of the nineteenth century."^ Clearly his
admiration for Lowell influenced his interpretation; but that
admiration does not diminish the book's value.

Family, War and Marriage

Stewart' s Philanthropic Work of Josephine Shaw Lowell
begins with three short chapters that provide fascinating
background on Lowell's personal history. ^'^

Lowell was born into a wealthy abolitionist family from
New England. Lowell's Boston-born parents, Francis George
Shaw and Sarah Blake Shaw enjoyed prominence in the worlds of

Stewart: xi.

Ibid.

Stewart: 1-47.

reform, culture, and philanthropy. Their wide social circle included
poet James Russell Lowell, philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson,
writer Nathaniel Hawthorne and novelist and anti-slavery activist
Lydia Maria Child. The benefits of wealth, privilege and education
flowed from the parents to their five lively children, Anna, Robert,
Josephine (nicknamed "Effie"), Susannah and Ellen. Stewart
provided a charming anecdote of Lowell's earliest years.
"Josephine was always a brilliant child," he gushed. As evidence,
Stewart quoted Sarah Shaw, who described her ten-year-old as "the
genius of the family. She can cook, cut out things, trim hates and
caps, speak French, German and Italian, and write poetry. ^^ Effie
received her education in Boston, Staten Island, New York (the
Shaws' new residence) and various places in Europe, where the
family spent several happy years in the 1850s. They returned to
America only to be caught up in the sectional turmoil that preceded
the Civil War.

When war broke out in 1861, the teen-aged Josephine took
pen in hand and recorded her thoughts on the conflict. Josephine's
sisters and daughter allowed Stewart to include excerpts of the
diary in the volume, a sign of their great trust in him. "A Young
Girl's Wartime Diary" above all preserved for posterity Lowell's
intense commitment to slavery's abolition as the main goal of the
war, next to preserving the Union. ^^ Josephine's earnest entries
revealed that, along with female friends and family, she
volunteered her services to the United States Sanitary Commission.
"The Sanitary" taught Lowell the virtues of organization and
efficiency in dispensing aid to the northern soldiers. One of the
many pleasures of the Stewart volume is the knowledge gained
regarding the careers of Lowell's philanthropic colleagues -

Stewart: 6.

■'A Young Girl's Wartime Diary," in Stewart: 10-37.

especially Louisa Lee Schuyler - from their youthful Sanitary days
through the Gilded Age when they figured so prominently in New
York charity/''

Josephine anxiously followed her bother Robert's wartime
career, first as an officer with the Second Massachusetts Regiment,
and then as the colonel of the first northern black unit, the fifty-
fourth Massachusetts Regiment. Her diary ended before Rob
Shaw's heroic death leading his regiment at the assault of South
Carolina's Fort Wagner in July of 1863/"^ Comfort from this
tragedy came from her betrothal and marriage to Colonel Charles
Russell Lowell of the Second Massachusetts Cavalry/^ Charles
Lowell, a nephew of the poet James Russell Lowell, was a good
match for Josephine Shaw. The couple shared many interests,
including an idealistic vision for a reunited America. They lived
together briefly in Virginia from their marriage, in October, 1863,
to the early summer of the next year. At that time, the twenty-year-
old Josephine returned to her family's beautiful estate in Staten
Island to await the birth of their child. Colonel Lowell died at
twenty -nine in the battle of Cedar Creek on October 19, 1864.
Afterwards the grieving young widow gave birth to her daughter,
and contemplated her options for the future. ^^

'' Stewart: 543-44.

^'' Selected letters between Robert Shaw and Effie, his favorite sister, are printed
in Russell Duncan, editor, Blue-Eyed Child of Fortune: The Civil War Letters of
Colonel Robert Gould Shaw (Athens: The University of Georgia Press, 1992).

^^ Information on Charles Russell Lowell can be found in Edward Emerson, Life
and Letters of Charles Russell Lowell, Introduction by Joan Waugh (Columbia:
University of South Carolina Press, 2005, repr, 1907) and Carol Bundy, The
Nature of Sacrifice: A Biography of Charles Russell Lowell, Jr., 1835-64 (New
York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005).

^'^ Accounts of the Shaw family and the war can be found in: Joan Waugh,
Unsentimental Reformer, pp. 37-97; Waugh, "It Was A Sacrifice We Owed: The
Shaw Family and the Fifty -fourth Massachusetts Regiment," in Hope and Glory :

At first, Josephine continued in the path of her activist
parents, whose Staten Island residence she shared. With their warm
support, the attractive and personable Lowell joined the New York
branch of the Freedmen's Relief Association. From 1866 to 1871,
she supervised the establishment of public schools for African-
American children in Virginia, often traveling south to visit,
inspect, and write reports. She thrived in her new role, but was
force into retirement when the organization collapsed. In 1872
Lowell turned to charity, traditionally women's work, but a field
that was undergoing an exciting transformation in the postwar
years.

Changing Charity

By the time Lowell began her career private charity was no
longer the exclusive domain of the church and good-hearted
philanthropists. Public welfare - usually provided by local
government - came under increased scrutiny because of its close
association with the corrupt practices of urban political machines.
Leaders of a reform movement, called "scientific charity," or
"charity organization," advocated placing all relief- whether
private or public - on an efficient, scientific, and businesslike basis
to cope with the destabilizing forces of industrialization in the late
nineteenth century. The problems of urban poverty especially - a
growing homeless population, masses of people thrown out of
work by frequent economic depressions, and uncontrolled
immigration - called for a recasting of welfare policy for a
dangerous age. The practitioners, who adopted the label of "social
scientists," represented a new breed of educated experts whose

Essays on the Legacy of the 54 ^ Massachusetts, eds, Martin H. Blatt, Thomas J.
Brown and Donald Yacovone (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press)
2001 : 52-75; Lorien Foote, peeking the One Great Remedy: Francis George
Shaw and Nineteenth Century ReformfAthen, Ohio: Ohio University Press)
2003.

Vll

goal was to identify, investigate, and solve serious social problems
roiling the country

Lowell was one such eager young social activist who
joined with other charity professionals to discuss and debate
strategy and objectives. She presented papers entitled "One Means
of Preventing Pauperism," and "The Economic and Moral Effects
of Public Outdoor Relief," at annual meetings in newly minted
groups such as the National Conference of Charities and
Corrections or the American Social Science Association/^ In 1873
Lowell volunteered for the New York State Charities Aid
Association, founded one year earlier by Louisa Schuyler. Lowell
served as a visitor for the Association's Richmond County (Staten
Island) committee. She embarked on an energetic round of
inspections to poorhouses, almshouses, and jails, becoming an
expert on "pauperism," considered a massive social problem
throughout the 1870s. Much later, Lowell connected the Civil War
years with the origins of the SCAA: "Our great national sin,
slavery, was answerable for manifold and various evils, among
others for the barbarous condition of the poor houses and jails of
our country, so far behind those of other civilized nations. . . As
soon as the war was over, however, and strength could be gathered
for fresh work, these lesser evils were attacked, and in this State
especially, the very men and women who had contended against
slavery, and who later had 'enlisted for the war' under the Sanitary
Commission were gathered together again by their old leaders for
the next fight."^^

In 1876 New York's Governor Samuel Tilden heard
Lowell's SCAA report read at a meeting detailing the findings of
her investigation into the effects of pauperism in Westchester
County, New York. Impressed with Lowell's analysis and
recommendations, the governor appointed her to a position on the
New York State Board of Charities. Lowell, the first woman to
occupy a state office, solidified her growing reputation as a well-
known specialist on charity and welfare concerns during her
thirteen-year tenure on the SBC. Commissioner Lowell inspected,
reported on, and recommended reforms for hundreds of institutions
housing dependent populations. She was especially interested in
changing the condition for young women either in jail or confined
because of mental retardation, advocating separate female asylums
and reformatories. Lowell was distressed by "the prisonlike [sic]
character of some of our reformatories."

Her relentless ten-year campaign resulted in the
establishment of state reformatories for women at Hudson, Albion,
and Bedford, as well as a new State Custodial Asylum for Feeble-
Minded Women. For Stewart, Lowell's "labors to rescue the erring
and feeble-minded of her sex," were her greatest achievements as a
commissioner; other chapters of the book reveal that she was
active in additional areas - such as the care for dependent
children. ^^ Lowell's impressive record was tied directly to her
abilities to work closely and successfully with various interest
groups as well as state legislators with the goal of making New
York's welfare operate more efficiently and humanely. She proved
an able politician and was consistently eloquent in pressing for

Dorothy Ross, The Origins of American Social Science (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1991).

^^ Papers listed in Stewart: 552, 556.

^' Quote from Stewart: 77-78; See also Stewart, Chapter VI "Work for the State

Charities Aid Association:" 72-86.

-" Stewart: 87.

■' Quote in Stewart: 115; Her State Board work is covered in chapters Vll, Vlll,
X,X\,X\\mIbid.

Vlll

reform recommendations to public authorities on a local, city and
state level

Not too long after she was appointed a commissioner,
Lowell felt that her work on the State Board was not really
addressing the confusion in the private realm of charities. There
were too many charities in New York City providing what Lowell
termed as "indiscriminate relief" To solve this problem, she
founded the Charity Organization Society of the City of New York
in 1882. New York's COS, like Baltimore's, Boston's, Chicago's,
and Philadelphia's (among others), advocated placing charitable
relief on an efficient, scientific, and businesslike basis. In an
attempt to guide and control social welfare practices in America's
largest city the thirty-eight-year old Lowell assumed charge of the
Society, while at the same time keeping her position on the Board.

Lowell believed that charity organization should preserve
the best of the old style philanthropy infused with new ideas and
new methods. She argued that the goal of an industrializing society
is to bring about a stable social order at whose center is the
productive individual. A critical step in that direction would be to
make a clearer dividing line between charity (private) and relief
(public). This could be done by abolishing all outdoor relief
(defined as cash or other assistance given to the needy so that they
could remain at home). "It is not right," Lowell declared "to take
one part of the community for the benefit of another part, it is not
right to take money from one man and give it to another, unless for
the benefit of both. "^'' This abolition was not unconditional. Lowell
observed that many groups - the aged, widows with small children,

~ Lowell frequently was called as an expert witness in Albany, as when she
testified to a New York State legislative committee looking into department
stores' labor politics. See Stewart, Chapter XVI, and Waugh, Unsentimental
Reformer: 198.

l^oweW, Public Relief and Private Charity: 1-2

the mentally ill, the disabled - must be taken care of by public
agencies, such as those she was used to overseeing as
commissioner for the New York State Board.

A Scientific Approach

But the majority of people currently receiving public relief,
according to Lowell, would be better served in every way by
private charities run under the principles of scientific charity.
Charity Organization Societies, Lowell asserted, should step up
and assume a new and expanded role for private charity, which she
defined as "a voluntary, free, beneficent action performed toward
those who are in a more destitute circumstance and inferior in
worldly position."^** Lowell admitted that the immense wealth
created by the industrial economy was also creating great poverty,
and with it, a widening gap between the rich and the poor. How to
bridge the gap? Charity organization proposed to encourage the
prosperous members of the community to acknowledge the
mutuality of society, in a thoughtful and earnest manner through
"friendly visiting" under the auspices of the Society.

Lowell reviewed the functions of the volunteer worker in a
pamphlet published by the Society entitled "Duties of Friendly
Visitors," whose motto was "Not Alms, but a Friend. "^^ The visitor
was a trained volunteer whose job it was to screen the applicants,
evaluate their situation, and recommend intelligent action to be
taken by carefully selected agencies. By the 1890s, however, much
of charity organization work was done by salaried employees, the
majority of whom were women. The first professional school for
social work, founded under the auspices of Lowell's COS, was

'Ibid, ^9.

Stewart: 142-150.

established in 1898. Later, the school was taken over by Columbia

University.

Lowell's stellar reputation was critical to the achievements
of the U.S. charity organization movement; she shared ideas and
advice with other COS leaders such as Robert Treat Paine and
Annie Adams Fields of Boston and Mary Richmond of Baltimore.
She personally recruited two notable figures in the City's social
welfare history, Robert Weeks de Forest and Edward T. Devine
into the Society. Lowell, Paine, Fields, and DeForest were upper
class philanthropists who did not accept salaries. Yet their
advocacy of the professional social worker would transform
radically welfare delivery by the early twentieth century. Largely
because of their vigorous leadership. Charity Organization
Societies became influential in the university classroom, the
business boardroom, and the legislative hall

At first, Lowell and the COS pushed for programs focused
on punitive solutions to poverty, such as the elimination of the
homeless from the city streets through enforced "beggary laws,"
the exposure of charitable fraud, and a careful separation of the
"worthy" from the "unworthy" supplicants for relief through the
case method. The New York's COS tough image was reinforced
by a "Committee on Mendicancy," which maintained a special
department for the control of vagrancy and beggary on the city's

■ For an illuminating and enjoyable account of COS history see Edward T.
Devine, When Social Work was Young (New York: The Macmillan Co., 1939).
A very small selection of scholarly works on charity organization include:
Elizabeth N. Agnew, From Charity to Social Work: Mary E. Richmond and the
Creation of Social Work (University of Illinois Press, 2003); Frank D. Watson,
The Charity Organization Movement in the United States: A Study in American
Philanthropy; Dawn M. Greeley, "Beyond benevolence: Gender, class and the
development of scientific charity in New York City, 1882-1921," (Ph.D. diss..
State University of New York at Stony Brook, 1997); Michael B. Katz, In the
Shadow of the Poorhouse: A Social History of Welfare in America.5^-\09; Joan
Waugh, Unsentimental Reformer: 149-183.

Streets. The Society established woodyards and lodging houses
with the goal of removing the homeless from the streets and
providing them with a small income from work and a safe place to
live, while ensuring their reentry to the productive labor force. The
emphasis on punishment and repression meant that the COS often
found itself under attack from the press, churches, labor unions,
other charitable societies and the public for its supposedly harsh
and cold-hearted approach to poor relief and the problem of
poverty. Critics chastised the movement for being more of "an
organization for the prevention of charity" than for the relief of
genuine distress. An equally damming, but more humorous
assessment was provided by the Boston poet John Boyle O'Reilly:
"The organized charity scrimped and iced/In the name of a
cautious, statistical Christ."

Lowell's views on the benefits of charity organization were
refined, and in some ways, modified throughout the 1880s and
early 1890s in speeches, articles, and newspaper interviews, many
of which are included in the Stewart volume. By the last decade of
the century, charity organization's emphasis on solving poverty
through individual reform was complemented by "preventive
philanthropy." Lowell was the leader of this trend, just as she was
in formulating the harsher programs. The New York Society
became known for projects that not only encouraged self-help; but
also promoted the establishment of community-based social
services that provided incentives for people to seek the benefits of
independence. In 1885 Lowell gave a speech in front of the
Congregational Club of New York in which she pleaded for a fresh
understanding of the causes of poverty. Heed the call of "The
Bitter Cry of the Poor in New York," she advised the audience, and
she warned that that the causes are both individual and societal.

The remedies, Lowell concluded, are not going to come easily or
cheaply.^''

Reform Advocate

The depression of 1893 was a watershed event for both
Lowell and the organization she led in terms of an even great
emphasis on preventive philanthropy. The needs of the jobless
poor in that year and the next overwhelmed the capacity of both
private and public welfare agencies. For the first time, Lowell
acknowledged that relief, under extraordinary circumstances,
might be a right for working people. She designed and
implemented the "East Side Relief committee" a special work-
relief unit set up to combat the effects of the depression. It was a
flexible and innovative response by Lowell and the COS that both
reflected experience and prefigured the more "progressive" future
slant of the Society. Shortly after the depression ended, the Society
joined with settlement houses to push laws that would address the
problems of the City's tenement slum buildings. Lowell and the
COS played a key role in supporting state legislation ameliorating
industrial poverty. ^^

Lowell was aware of scientific charity's inadequacies well
before the depression hit the working people of New York. In
1889, much to Stewart's dismay, she resigned her position on the
New York State Board of Charities. In a private letter - included
in the volume - Lowell sought to explain her decision in the face of

■ Lowell "The Bitter Cry of the Poor in New York: Some of Its Causes and
Some of Its Remedies," Christian Union 31 (March 1885): 6-7.

'^ There are many examples from Stewart; see also Joan Waugh, "Give This
Man Work! : Josephine Shaw Lowell, the Charity Organization Society and the
City of New York, and the Depression of 1893," Social Science History 25:2
(Summer 2001): 217-46.

some family opposition. "Five hundred thousand wage-earners in
this city, 200,000 of them women and 75,000 of those working
under dreadful conditions or for starvation wages," she began.
Then, she asserted strongly: "That [the plight of wage-earners] is
more vital than the 25,000 dependents, counting the children. If the
working people had all they ought to have, we should not have the
paupers and criminals. It is better to save them before they go
under than to spend your life fishing them out when they're half-
drowned and taking care of them afterwards. . . Exactly what I can
do, I do not know, but I want the time to try, and as my term is up
now, I had to seize the opportunity to leave the Board. There! "^^
Lowell's quest for solutions to the labor question brought her into
the Working Women's Society; it compelled her to begin writing
on the need for reconciliation and fairness between capitalists and
workers, to advocate the right to strike and organize, and to
champion the virtues of the working class. From the late 1880s on
she embraced an extensive, even dazzling, agenda of reform,
energizing and reaching out to movements that spoke of social
justice and equality of condition. By no means did Lowell abandon
her belief in the efficacy of charity organization. She simply
realized that it was only one among many weapons available in the
reformers' arsenal.

Thus, Lowell worked tirelessly for labor arbitration,
supported specific strikes and the "living wage," organized the
Women's Municipal League, founded the Consumer's League of
the City of New York in 1892, and played a prominent part in the
anti -imperialist movement of the early twentieth century. Her
papers on these topics are thoughtful and passionate. Lowell was
always seeking new insights into social problems, while still
maintaining conservative positions on issues like pauperism and
uncontrolled relief Overall, Lowell's priorities t/z'J change as her
frustration level over the injustices of economic inequality rose

' As quoted in Stewart: 358-9.

noticeably. "I feel myself. . .almost obliged to apologize for
belonging to the charity organization society," Lowell declared in
response to an attack on labor at an 1895 charities conference. "If
the charity organization societies of the country are going to take
the position of defenders of the rich against the poor which I do
think is the danger which stands before us, then I shall be very
sorry that I ever had anything to do with the work."'"

Lowell's clashes with the City's ruling Democratic
machine, whose appeal to immigrants distressed her generation of
reformers, are also amply documented in Stewart. "Tammany
[Hall] killed the children of the poor by hundreds last summer,"
she asserted in a speech designed to drive home the need for
improved civil service standards that would hire qualified workers
- in this case trash collectors who let refuse pile up with serious
threats to public health ~ to actually do their jobs, instead of
simply being rewarded for political favors.'^ Lowell pressed for
Charity Organization Societies and like minded groups to demand
city governments improve its services to the poor. Most politicians,
she worried, seemed only concerned with reelection, and not with
the well being of the people.''^ In mounting her opposition, Lowell
mobilized women in such groups as the Women's Municipal

As quoted in Charities Review 4 (1895): 465-92, 465; Examples of Lowell's
position on labor are found in Stewart, Chapter XVll, "The Work for the
Emancipation of Labor." Lowell's anti-imperialism is shown in Ibid., "Moral
Deterioration Following War:, 466-470; Examples of her firm position on relief
can be seen in Ibid., Chapter XIX, "Tramps:" 446-459.

^' Quoted in "Wrongs of the Poor: Lack of Room in Schools, Unclean Streets,
and Crowded Tenements Due to Tammany's Misrule," New York Daily Tribune
17 October 1901. In Stewart, see "The Economic and Moral Effects of Public
Outdoor Relief," 158-174, and Chapters XVIII and XXI.

^' Quote from Stewart: 495; her political work is in Ibid., Chapters XVI, XVIII,
and XXI.

League and the Consumer's League, urging them to make their
presence felt in the political realm by ensuring that their poorer
"sisters" and their children were protected from economic and
sexual exploitation. '■'

Gender formed a central preoccupation for Lowell. A
survey of Stewart's thorough chronological bibliography of her
writings as well as his helpful topical index reveals that this
preoccupation was present from the beginning to the end of her
career.'"^ Lowell's service on the SBC and in the COS always
demonstrated a strong concern for poor women. Distinguishing her
from many other adherents of scientific charity, she supported
generous relief measures to poor mothers who were not "morally
deficient," which, as she admitted, were most of them. "This sort
of help is not demoralizing nor pauperizing," she stated, "because
it only places the family in a natural position. Women and children
ought to be supported, and there is no sense of degradation in
receiving support."'^

Lowell's concern for women and children reflected a
traditional view of the family, in which the father provided for, and
protected, his wife and children. Violations of this natural order,
either by individuals or by the failure of the state, propelled Lowell
into radical positions. She proposed, for example, to build
government funded "model tenements" for widows with
children."'"' Thus, Lowell was a vigorous advocate for protecting
the groups she identified as capitalism's most vulnerable and
blameless victims. When she rallied to their causes as she did for

' Stewart, Chapters XVI and XVIII.

' Stewart: 551-561 and 562-574.
'Ibid. 273.

' Ibid: 473-74.

Xll

the female department store clerks, Lowell also called on upper-
and middle-class women to support her actions. She insisted that
women were citizens too, and their combined power, could and
should affect policy, especially in the realm of welfare.

Lowell was no feminist. She did not favor equal roles for
men and women. But she did favor equal rights, supporting the
suffrage movement. Lowell's activism was based on using
women's distinctive moral qualities. In an address entitled
"Relation of Women to Good Government," Lowell observed that
"Whatever other advantages or disadvantages may have come to
the human race, and to women themselves from their being shut
off in the main from the struggle for existence, it seems to me that
there has been one great gain, their more acute moral sense." She
explained that philanthropic women had a duty to use this "acute
moral sense because as a class they have a more sensitive moral
instinct than men as a class, and I therefore hold them to a stricter
moral responsibility."''''

This statement reveals a paradox embedded in Lowell's life
and thinking. The more she expanded the scope of her own power,
the more she made it possible for other women to consider
alternative career choices. From the 1870s, she promoted female
professionalism in many areas - social work, police matrons,
teachers, and so on. She also tied the benefits of civil service
reform to increased employment opportunities for women. On a
personal level, clearly she considered herself a professional
woman, even if later generations defined her as a "lady bountiful,"
in the elite volunteer tradition.'^

Josephine Shaw Lowell died in New York City on October
12, 1905, a beloved and well respected citizen. The news of her
passing was widely reported, and her accomplishments extolled in
several noteworthy commemorative ceremonies. Stewart's final
chapter, "Memorials" records the high regard in which she was
held by her contemporaries.^^ Subsequently, Lowell's historical
reputation has experienced an uneven trajectory. Early
examinations of her work were largely appreciative, but modern
scholarship has tended to condemn her (as well as the entire
scientific charity movement) for her advocacy of harsh politics
toward the poor. Lowell's impressive record of developing and
sustaining preventive programs addressing the roots of poverty has
often been ignored or downplayed, as has her embrace of labor.'**'
A reasonable assessment of Lowell's career would acknowledge
her strengths as well as her fiaws. The Philanthropic Work of
Josephine Shaw Lowell provides the tool to evaluate critically the
attitudes and the actions of one of the principal leaders of an earlier
generation of charity reformers. The wealth of primary documents
offered in Stewart's volume give students, scholars, and interested
readers the opportunity to render their own judgment of her
contributions.

^'ffii J: 444-445.

^^ Dorothy Becker explores this theme in "Exit Lady Bountiful: The Volunteer
and the Professional Social Worker," Social Service Review 38 (1964): 57-72;
See also Kathleen D. McCaiihy J^oblesse Oblige: Charity and Cultural

Philanthropy in Chicago, 1849-1929 (Chicago: The University of Chicago
Press, 1982.
^'Stewart: 517-549.

""^ A small sample of her many modem critics include: Paul Boyer, Urban
Masses and Moral Order in America, 1826-1926; George M. Fredrickson, The
Inner Civil War: Northern Intellectuals and the Crisis of the Union (New York:
Harper and Row, 1965); Lori D. Ginzburg, Women and the Work of
Benevolence: Morality, Politics and Class in the Nineteenth-Century United
States (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1990); for a refutation, see
Waugh, Unsentimental Reformer: 1-15.

Xlll

Author Biography

Joan Waugh is Associate Professor of History at UCLA History.
Her first book was Unsentimental Reformer : The Life of Josephine
Shaw Lowell (Harvard University Press, 1998). Waugh' s next book
is a study of the character and legacy General Ulysses S. Grant.
She just published as co-editor with Alice Fahs The Memory of the
Civil War in American Culture (University of North Carolina
Press, 2004).

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Grateful acknowledgment is made to the following per-
sons, and others who have supplied information or offered
suggestions for the preparation of this volume :

Miss Sadie American, Mrs. Francis C. Barlow, Charles C
Burlingham, Miss Ellen Collins, Mrs. George William Cur-
tis, Dr. Annie S. Daniel, Miss Katherine Bement Davis,
Miss Jean Disbrow, Charles S. Fairchild, Mrs. NicoU Floyd,
James H. Foster, Richard Watson Gilder,iMiss Gertrude E.
Hall, Robert W. Hebberd, Miss Sarah Cooper Hewitt, Major
Henry L. Higginson, Dr. Robert W. HiU, Wellington D.
Ives, Charles D. Kellogg, Franklin B. Kirkbride, William
Pryor Letchworth,i Miss Carlotta Russell Lowell, George
McAneny, Miss Anna E. H. Meyer, Robert Shaw Minturn,
Dr. S. Weir Mitchell, Miss Amelia R. Moore, Mrs. Fred-
erick Nathan, Miss Clara M. Paquet, Miss L. S. W. Perkins,
Mrs. William B. Rice, Jacob A. Riis, Mrs. Henry S. Russell,
Mrs. William H. Schieffelin, Miss Louisa Lee Schuyler,
Dr. Stephen Smith, Frank S. Witherbee, James Wood.

1 Since deceased.

iii ';?'.

k'ii

mn-

INTEODUCTION

A DOUBLE purpose has impelled the undertaking which
this volume represents. Seven years' association with
Mrs. Lowell on the New York State Board of Charities
early convinced me of the originaUty and value, both of
the work she accomplished and the oflBcial papers which
she from time to time presented to the Board, and this
impression was afterwards strengthened by evidences of
her active and useful work in other fields of social service.
While many of her papers are preserved in the records of
the State Board, and others might be discovered scattered
in the reports and proceedings of the different charitable
organizations to which she belonged, not a few, of no less
interest and merit, had never been printed and were in
danger of being lost. The rescue from oblivion of these
fugitive writings, and their inclusion with a selection from
those already published elsewhere, under the covers of
one volume, would, it seemed manifest, be a worthy task.

Not long after Mrs. Lowell's death, the sentiments ex-
pressed above were explained to Miss Lowell, and I was
commissioned to discover some literary friend of her
mother, both competent and willing to compile such a
work. The search proving unsuccessful, leave was given
me to carry out this plan, which was undertaken with
a justifiable diffidence born of inexperience in literary

X INTRODUCTION

work, but with the resolution to spare neither time nor
pains in the attempt to present as satisfactory a collection
of Mrs. Lowell's writings and outline view of her varied
philanthropic work as might be expected from so untried
a pen.

Much of my leisure for the last five years has been de-
voted to this task, which has proved not only more en-
grossing, but also more extensive than at first seemed
probable. More than one hundred and fifty of Mrs.
Lowell's public papers and five hundred of her letters
were assembled, and it became immediately apparent that
if the publication was to be restricted to the limits of one
volume of reasonable size, — as seemed desirable, — it
would be necessary to exclude all long and technical
papers, and such as might be readily consulted elsewhere,
and also those which possessed mainly a passing uaterest.
For this reason, none of the numerous and able papers
presented to the State Board of Charities has been ad-
mitted. It would be diflficult, however, to overestunate
the importance of Mrs. Lowell's work as a Commissioner
of the Board, and the attempt has been made to give in
narrative form the history of several noteworthy achieve-
ments which added lustre to her fame, and to enrich the
story by occasional quotations from her reports to the
Board, and the insertion of some of her letters. This
part of my work has mainly consisted in " stringing things
together," as Mrs. Lowell herself once said of her own
work in compiling a book she published on " PubUc Re-
lief and Private Charity."

The endeavor has been made to compress introductions

INTRODUCTION

and explanations, and indeed aU of my own composition,
in order to leave more space for Mrs. LoweU's writings;
and this plan has been so far successful that nearly two
score of her papers and addresses are included in the fol-
lowing pages. More than half of these relate to one or an-
other of three subjects of general and continuing interest,
of all of which she was an early and profound student, —
Charity Organization, Labor Questions, and Civil Service
Reform. To the chapters under these titles, nearly half
this volume has been devoted.

The first and controUmg purpose in mind during the
preparation of this work has been to provide a new hand-
book of reference for the ever growmg army of students
of social subjects in our schools of philanthropy, colleges,
and settlements, in which, they may find explamed in her
own writings the sound principles which underlay aU
Mrs. Lowell's benevolent work, and learn something at
least of its results. The story of her life is fuU of inspira-
tion, and the knowledge it affords of the amazing results
attained by one woman, ahnost empty-handed, should
encourage many to follow where she has led the way.

If my aim to contribute a helpful volume to the Utera-
ture of philanthropy has not failed, the other purpose
always held in view will also be reahzed, — for this re-
cord of Mrs. Lowell's Ufe and work will serve to perpetu-
ate her memory as one of the most useful and remarkable
women of the nineteenth century.

W. R. S.

New York, October 12, 1910.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

FAOC

ACKNOWIEDGMENTS Vii

Introduction ix.

I. Eably Years 1

n. A Young Girl's Wartime Diary 10

in. Marriage 38

IV. The Worker ......... 48

V. Letters to Mrs. Kobeet Gould Shaw .... 62

VI. The State Charities Aid Association .... 72

County Visiting Committees 77

VII. The State Eeformatory for Women .... 87

VIIL State Cahe foe Feeble-minded Women . 115
IX. The Charity Organization Society of the City op

New York 122

Duties of Friendly Visitors 142

Sunday School Talk to ChUdren 150

The Economic and Moral Effects of Public Outdoor Relief 158
Poverty and its Relief : the Methods Possible in the City

of New York 175

Charity Problems 189

The True Aim of Charity Organization Societies . . 196

The Evils of Investigation and Relief .... 207

The Uses and Dangers of Investigation .... 217

Emergency Relief Funds 223

X. Improved Care for the Insane 228

XI. Work for Dependent Children 244

A Paper Read before the New York State Association of

Teachers 257

Children 267

Report upon the Care of Dependent Children . . 276
Xil. Special Investigations for the State Board of ,

Charities 284

xiii

XIV

CONTENTS

PAQB

XIII. Work to Improve the Condition of the Almshouses

OF THE State of New York .... 294

XIV. The Women's Reformatories at Albion and Bed-

ford 306

XV. Police Matrons for New York City .... 820

XVI. The Consumers' League 334

XVII. Work for the Emancipation of Labor . . 357

Papei- read to the Working Women's Society . . 372

Industrial Peace . . . . . . . . 880

Workingmen's Rights in Property Created by Them . 390

Industrial Conciliation 394

The Rights of Capital and Labor and Industrial Con-
ciliation 400

The Living Wage 409

XVIII. The Woman's Municipal League .... 416

What can Young Men do for the City? . . 422

Relation of Women to Good Government . . . 435

XIX. Tramps 446

Letter to Commander Booth Tucker .... 446
The Influence of Cheap Lodging Houses on City Pau-
perism 453

XX. Miscellaneous Papers 460

Imprisonment of Witnesses 460

Tlie Elmira Reformatory 461

Inspection of Private Charities 462

Moral Deterioration following War .... 466

Booker T. Washington 471

Model Tenements for Widows with Small Children . 473

XXI. Work for Civil Service Reform 475

The Reform of the Civil Service and the Spoils System 483

Civil Service Reform and Public Charity . . . 496

The Ethics of Civil Service Reform .... 500

Spain and Civil Service Reform 506

A Hard Lesson in Reform 509

Report of Committee on Civil Service Reform . . 512

XXn. Memorials . - 517

Chronological Bibliography of Mrs. Lowell's Writings . 551

Topical Index 562

Index 575

ILLUSTRATIONS

Josephine Shaw Lowell, by Saint Gaudens, 1899 . • Frouti^iece

The Shaw Homestead on Staten Island

Josephine Shaw and Colonel LoweU, 1863

CoL Robert Gould Shaw, 1863

Mrs. Lowell, from a crayon portrait taken in 1869 .... 48

The Home near the Kill van KuU

The Houses 120 and 118 East Thirtieth Street 52

Monument to Col. Shaw on Boston Common, by Saint Gaudens . 70

476
George William Curtis

CPIAPTER I

Early Yeaes

Heredity was kind to Josephine Shaw, who, on Decem-
ber 16, 1843, was born at West Roxbury, Massachusetts,
for both her parents belonged to New England famihes
of distinction and culture. Her father, Francis George
Shaw, was of the fifth generation of a widely known and
honorable mercantile family of Boston, eldest of the eleven
children of Robert Gould Shaw, a respected and prosperous
shipping merchant, whom an old cynic praised, saying :
"There are only two honest men in all Boston — Mr.
Adams and Mr. Shaw." He was a great-nephew of Major
Samuel Shaw, of the Revolutionary Army, afterward ap-
pointed by President Washington to serve the new re-
public as its first diplomatic representative in China, and
whose ship, the Empress of Japan, first displayed in the
Pacific and the Far East the flag of the United States.

Francis George Shaw was a man of distinguished ap-
pearance and unusual character. An original thinker,
philosopher, linguist, and philanthropist, he was so modest
withal, that the general public had fittle opportimity to
penetrate his reserve. Within the circle of his family and
intimate friends, however, he discovered a nature simple
and religious, inspired by lofty ideals, patriotic motives,
and the love of humanity, and untainted by selfishness.
While still a young man, he found commercial fife so un-
fl 1 I

2 JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

congenial that he withdrew from business and retired to
a farm at West Roxbury, content, within the limitations
of the moderate income then at his command, to devote
his days to the care of his wife and children, and the
ptirsuit of his favorite studies, especially such as related
to social questions. For this purpose, the choice of West
Roxbury as his residence was wisely made, as the socialistic
community of Brook Farm had recently been estabUshed
there, and his inquiries were stimulated by the intellectual
companionship of the brilliant group of colonists who there
followed the precepts of Fourier, among whom was George
WilUam Curtis, — afterwards to become his son-in-law.
In later life, by inheritance from his father, Mr. Shaw be-
came possessed of a comfortable fortune, which he received
and administered with an earnest feeling of stewardship.
Voluntarily avoiding the ownership of a greater estate
which once seemed within his grasp, to the end of his life
he gave his thoughts and means to the spiritual and
physical welfare of his fellow-men, and to those especially
whose poverty, ignorance, or servitude seemed to him the
result of unfair conditions or oppressive laws. The hope
held out in Henry George's "Progress and Poverty," that
a way might yet be found to restore to their rights the
disinherited of civihzation, brought comfort to his decUning
years. The loss of his only son during the civil war
he bore with an external Spartan cahn, and few reahzed
the depth of his grief.
Long after Mr. Shaw's death, Joseph H. Choate ^ paid

' At the Josephine Shaw Lowell Memorial Meeting, United Charities
Building, November 13, 1905.

msm

EARLY YEARS 3

this tribute to his memory: "He was a man among ten
thousand. Born to wealth, he treated his wealth very
largely as a trust for the use and benefit of suffering man-
kind. To every good cause he lent his sympathy, his
advocacy, and his material support, — and yet he always
exercised a wise and sound discretion." Endowed by
nature with many similar gifts, Mr. Shaw and his son-in-
law were inspired by the same motives, and united in
an intimacy which led Mr. Curtis thus to eulogize him :
"The strength, simpUcity, and sweetness of his nature, the
lofty sense of justice, the tranquil and complete devotion
to duty, the large and human sympathy, not lost in vain
philanthropic feeling, the sound and steady judgment,
the noble independence of thought, the perfect courage
of conviction, the unity of sympathy with understanding,
. . . and a character without a flaw, seemed to belong
to what we call the ideal man." The quaUties exhibited
by her father and thus eloquently described descended
to his daughter, and his influence upon her life and its
results cannot be overestimated!

Josephine's mother, Sarah Blake Sturgis, one of the
twelve children of Nathaniel Russell Sturgis, a Boston
merchant, in her twentieth year married her cousin,
Francis George Shaw, their mothers being half sisters,
daughters of Samuel Parkman, one of the leading men of
Boston. Her ancestors were people of strong, original,
and upright character, and so from girlhood she was con-
trolled by established principles and an exalted sense of
duty. Yet, notwithstanding her unbending strength, the
dominating impression received from companionship with

4 JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

Mrs. Shaw was that of a woman with whose good breed-
iug were bleuded sympathy, cultivation, and charm.
To these admirable quahties, she added the graces of
generosity and hmnor; her deeds of kindness were con-
stant, whUe abounding humor sweetened and softened all
she did. Whatever things were best in art, Uterature, or
music instantly appealed to her, and were loved from the
time she first saw or heard them ; and with the aid of a
retentive memory, she was able - even towards the close
of a hfe prolonged to her eighty-seventh year — to recite
whole pages of Shakespeare and Milton, her favorite poets.
As Josephine survived her mother only two years, having
always Uved with or near her, Mrs. Shaw's constant com-
panionship and example must also have proved continuaUy
helpful in the formation of her daughter's character and

in her later career.

The possession by both Mr. and Mrs. Shaw of so many
attractive quaUties of heart and mind drew within the
famiUar circle of their friends many interesting and not-
able people; among these were Margaret FuUer, Lydia
Maria Child, James RusseU LoweU and his first wife,
the Storys, Mrs. Brownmg, ' Francis Paxkman, Agassiz,
and Beecher. The wartime Massachusetts people of
note — Governor and Mrs. Andrew, Charles Sumner,
Theodore Winthrop, and others — were household friends.
The long hst of their acquaintances included such dis-
tinguished and different people as Mme. Mohl, Fanny
Kemble, Charlotte Cushman, Thoreau, Emerson, Long-
fellow, Thackeray, Browning, Charles Kingsley, Wendell
Phillips, William Lloyd Garrison, Ole Bull, Theodore

EARLY YEARS 5

Thomas, and Henry James, Sr. When a little girl, Mrs.
Shaw had known John Adams, and as a young woman
she had met Andrew Jackson in the White House, — "A
rough old fellow, wearing carpet slippers," she used to say.

When Josephine was three years old, Mr. Shaw brought
his family from West Roxbury to Staten Island, New
York, where for three years they occupied a rented
house near Sailors' Snug Harbor. ^ This change of resi-
dence was occasioned by the failing sight of Mrs. Shaw,
and her desire to be near a specialist. Dr. Samuel Elliott,
under whose treatment she entirely recovered. It is
interesting now to reflect that but for this physical dis-
ability of her mother, Josephine might have lived, and
worked, and died, as she was bom, a Massachusetts
woman.

In 1851, Mr. Shaw took his family abroad, and they
remained in Europe for nearly five years. These were
years of rapid development for Josephine. She had a
marked facility for the acquisition of languages and be-
came proficient in Italian, French, and German. She
attended school in Paris for several months during their
last year abroad. Her uncle, Joseph Coolidge Shaw,
from whom Josephine derived her Christian name, was
a Roman Catholic priest,^ and Josephine and her sister
Susannah, during a winter spent in Rome, were allowed
to attend a convent school at which they were the only

' Sailors' Snug Harbor. A private charitable institution, founded in
1807 under the will of Captain Richard Randall for aged and decrepit
sailors, at New Brighton, Staten Island.

' In 1851 he entered the Jesuit novitiate at Frederick, Md., where
he died before completing his studies.

6 JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

Protestants. The affection which Josephine then formed
for the nuns remained with her through life, and on sub-
sequent visits to Rome as a woman, she returned to the
convent to be warmly welcomed by them. In the varied
works of philanthropy to which her life was afterward
devoted, Mrs. Lowell must have been aided by the spirit
of religious toleration which she thus early acquired.

Mr. and Mrs. Shaw had five children, — Anna, who
afterward married George William Curtis ; Robert Gould,
who was killed at Fort Wagner ; Susannah, later Mrs.
Robert Bowne Minturn ; Josephine ; and Ellen, who
married General Francis Channing Barlow. Josephine
was always a brilliant child. Her mother, writing of her
when she was ten years old, said: "Effie is the genius
of the family. She can cook, cut out things, trim hats
and caps, speak French, German, and Italian, and write
poetry." Within her own home and to her intimates
Josephine was always known by the diminutive name
used by her mother in this letter.

In 1855, Mr. Shaw brought his family home, and after
a summer spent at Newport, they settled in a house which
he built on Bard Avenue near West New Brighton, Staten
Island. The marriage, on Thanksgiving Day, 1856, of
Josephine's sister Anna to George William Curtis, was an
event which exercised a marked influence on her future
life, for Mr. Curtis became for many years a member of
the household, and she had the inestimable advantage
of close companionship with that scholarly and patriotic
man during some of her most impressionable years. To
her Mr. Curtis's library was always open, even though

■A $^^, K

'^•% I

K
■J}

■

EARLY YEARS 7

he might be there reading or working. And this was true
also in later years when he moved into a house of his own
near by. While Uving on Staten Island, Josephine went
to Miss Gibson's school in New York. In her seventeenth
year she went to school in Boston, and the winter of her
eighteenth year was also spent in that city.

As a young girl, Josephine was pretty and charming
and fond of general society. This was before the days of
golf and tennis, but she had her horse and rode well.
Croquet was the only lawn game, and she played it with
skill. The earliest recorded indication of the hfe of de-
votion to others, which was afterwards to be Mrs. Lowell's,
was given when she was thirteen years old. Near her
father's home on Staten Island was a settlement of poor
Irish families. She became interested in them and used
to have the mothers and childreii come to spend the after-
noon on her father's lawn, where she would give them ice-
cream and cake — a custom which she continued for
many years.

The fifties were years of preparation for the great
struggle for the preservation of the Union. The Shaws
were abolitionists, and the atmosphere of their home was
so intensely patriotic that their children naturally grew
up with a sense of responsibility for public affairs and the
desire to serve their countrj'. Before the war broke out
in 1861, Robert Gould Shaw had enlisted in the famous
Seventh Regunent of the New York National Guard.
When President Lincoln called for seventy-five thousand
men, the Seventh volunteered, and on the 19th of April,
1861, Shaw marched off in its ranks and reached Baltimore

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

soon after the Sixth Massachusetts had passed through
that city on its way to the defence of the national capital.
These two regiments were the first to arrive in Wash-
ington. Shaw's Harvard biographer thus describes his
personal appearance at that time: "A pale, thoughtful-
looking young man, with a manner so quiet as to seem
almost lazy, — such was Robert Gould Shaw to a casual
observer, but his well-defined nose, firm, clear-cut mouth,
and the steadfast glance of the peculiarly colored light
gray eye, together with his alert, quick, decided step as
he moved, showed that beneath his quiet exterior lay all
the qualities that belong to a man of more than common
character." Thirty-five years later, the New York Sev-
enth went to Boston to take part in the dedicatory cere-
monies of the Shaw Monument on Boston Common.

After her brother had left for the war, Josephine, then
in her eighteenth year, joined the Woman's Central As-
sociation of ReUef for the Army and Navy of the United
States. In this, the earliest organized charitable work
of her life, she was associated, among others, with Miss
Ellen Collins, of New York City, her friend and co-worker
in many benevolent movements ; also, with Miss Gertrude
Stevens, afterwards Mrs. William B. Rice, Mrs. Lowell's
friend and colleague in the State Charities Aid Associa-
tion and other philanthropic enterprises. Of their early
patriotic work, Mrs. Rice gives the following account :

"We worked together, from morning until night, in
the office of the Woman's Central Relief Association.
This was a branch of the Sanitary Comnaission covering
several states and having its headquarters in New York

EARLY YEARS 9

City. This branch had over nineteen hundred contribut-
ing societies scattered over the states of New York, New
Jersey, Connecticut and Rhode Island.

"We girls unpacked and repacked the boxes of clothing,
special goods, &c., sent for the soldiers, wrote letters, and
made ourselves generally useful. Mrs. Lowell was greatly
interested in the work, which we used to refer to familiarly
as the 'San. Com.' She was so young, — I think it must
have been her first public work, and she gave it up only
a few days before she was married. I found a little note
from her among some old papers a few years ago, asking
if I could take her day at the office that week as she could
not come, and neither could her sister. That was the
day of her marriage to Colonel Lowell, October 31, 1863."

CHAPTER II

A Young Girl's Wartime Diary

In the eventful days immediately after the battle of
Bull Run, Josephine Shaw, then a young girl of seventeen,
began a diary, the only personal record she left behind
of her daily life. The four httle old-fashioned copy-
books in cardboard and paper covers, containing nearly
three hundred pages of pencil entries, including the period
from July 23, 1861, to November 9, 1862, are full of
interest, for in them are set down not only the feelings
and opinions of the sensitive and intelligent writer, at
that time of national crisis, but also those of the patriotic
and cultivated New England family to which she belonged.

July 23d, 1861. Yesterday was the saddest day this
country has ever experienced. In the morning the papers
said that we had gained a great victory at Bull's Run,
taken three batteries and were pushing on to Manassas
Junction. We found afterwards that these accounts
were exaggerated, and that the action at Bull's Run was
merely the beginning of a battle, which appeared to be
favorable to the Federal forces. About half past three,
Anna and Mother had gone to drive and I was sitting
in Mother's room, when Nellie came up crying, and said,
"Our whole army has been cut to pieces and entirely
routed." "Which army?" I asked. I immediately
thought that we had been driven from Virginia and the
three divisions of our army completely destroyed. I went
down to ask Anna, but she could tell nothing excepting

A YOUNG GIRL'S WARTIME DIARY

that our men had run from the enemy and lost everything.
In a few moments Father, George and Mother (who had
met them and walked back with them) came in and we all
sat on the piazza in a most unhappy state of mind. The
report was that a panic had taken possession of our army
as they were attacking the batteries at Manassas Junction
and they had all run, with no regard to anything else but
saving their own lives. Our loss was said to be about three
thousand and that of the enemy very severe also. Father
had brought down a letter from Rob, saying they (Patter-
son's Column) were about to march somewhere from
Charlestown, but we have heard this morning that Pat-
terson was expected to make a junction with McDowell
and would have saved the day had he done so. As we
sat all together on the piazza feeling very miserable,
George didn't enliven us much by saying, "The next
thing they will do will be to march on Washington, take
possession of it, and then Jeff Davis will issue his con-
ditions from the Capitol and offer us peace." After talk-
ing it over we all felt better and prepared to hear that it
wasn't quite so bad as the reports said.

In the evening Mr. Appleton (a neighbor) came in to
George's and told us that Patterson's forces were supposed
to be engaged at Manassas. We didn't tell Mother,
although we all knew it, for it would have caused her
useless anxiety. Lou Schuyler (who is staying here with
her sister) heard of the report on the boat but didn't
speak of it. In the evening Sam Curtis and I went to
Mrs. Oakey's and Mr. Oakey demonstrated in a very
scientific manner that this couldn't possibly be true. In
spite of his cheering remarks, we all felt very badly and
merely hoped we might hear better news in the morning.
Our hopes proved true, although even today the news is
so humiliating that we feel as if we couldn't trust our own

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

men again. They ran with no one pursuing ! The enemy
didn't even know such a direful rout had occtured. In
their reports they say only that they have gained the
battle, but with fearful loss on both sides. It was evi-
dently the battle on which everything depended for them.
Theii- four best generals, Beauregard, Johnston, Davis
and Lee, were there with ninety thousand men, while our
force was only twenty-five thousand. I can conceive
what must be the feelings of the men under Patterson ;
they might have turned the fortune of the battle and were
doing nothing f Poor fellows ! Our men ran as far as
Fairfax Court House and the Rebels took possession of the
territory as we left it. McClellan is called from Western
Virginia and we shall have to retake by slow degrees what
we have lost in one day. This morning our loss was said
to be only five hundred, but what are we to believe ?

This afternoon all the most humiliating circumstances
of our defeat proved to be false. Our men behaved with
the greatest courage and bravery, charging and carrying
the batteries and fighting with as much intrepidity as the
most veteran troops could display, until the force of the
enemy became overpowering by the junction of Johnston
with Beauregard. Then, and not imtil then, they re-
treated in good order. Mr. Russell, of the London Times,
is said to have said that nowhere in the Crimean War
had he seen men make such splendid charges. This
morning I and the Oakeys went down to the sewing meet-
ing and worked hard until three o'clock, when we came
home and heard the joyful tidings that our men were not
cowards. The false reports were from the exaggerated
statements of civilians who had witnessed the battle and
been very much frightened themselves, and all the agony of
yesterday was occasioned by the readiness of newspaper
reporters to transmit any stirring news to their employers.

A YOUNG GIRL'S WARTIME DIARY

One little incident showed the difference of feeling be-
tween today and yesterday. A few days ago Mother
bought Frank a uniform and George had promised to buy
him a knapsack yesterday, but when he came down from
town he said to Frank: "My dear little boy, you must
forgive me this time for when I got to New York, I heard
such terrible news that I had no heart to buy your knap-
sack." This afternoon Frank came over in great glee,
with knapsack and fez.

I know a great many men in the army who are : My
brother, and first cousin, H. S. Russell, in Gordon's Regi-
ment (2d Mass. Vol.), Capt. Curtis, Lieut. Motley, Lieut.
Morse, Capt. Tucker, Lieut. Bangs, Lieut. Robson in
the same Regiment ; Joe and Ned Curtis, the former
belonging to the Ninth Regiment, N. Y., the latter, a
surgeon in the Georgetown Hospital. My cousin, Harry
Sturgis, in Raymond Lee's Mass. Regiment. My uncle,
Wilham Greene, Colonel of the 14th Mass. ; Dr. Elliott
and his three sons of the Highland Regiment; Capt.
Lowell of the XJ. S. A., and Theodore Winthrop, who died
for his country at Great Bethel, June 10th, 1861. Also,
Rufus Delafield, a surgeon U. S. A. Twenty brave men,
— nineteen living and one dead. — O. Wendell Holmes,
Caspar Crowninshield.

Aiigust 2d, 1861. Today I went up to the Cooper
Union instead of Susie, as she was not quite well and
could not go. Lou Schuyler and Miss Collins were there
and I copied lists of donations for the papers, while
they unpacked, arranged and repacked articles for
soldiers.

August 3d. I stayed at home all day and ga--. e out work
to twelve women. Fifteen have been here today. More
anecdotes of BuU Rvm. Arthur Dexter (the husband
of one of the Curtis cousins) is captain of a Rhode Island

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

Company and in marching had hurt his foot very badly ;
in fact, so badly that he could not bear a boot, so he went
into action with one boot and one shpper and leaning on
a cane, which he did not throw away until the charging
began. That's the right spirit. Mr. Dana came here
this evening and told us of a man who was going down to
Manassas to reconnoitre as the men came back. He said
they came on pell-mell, well frightened and disordered,
by hundreds, with no pretence at command or obedience,
so that it was melancholy to see, when suddenly turning
a corner they came upon a whole company, marching
quietly up, ranks close and eyes to the front, with the
Captain marching in front. The sight was really sublime,
in the midst of the flight, and he called out "What com-
pany?" but the only words he heard were, "Steady, my
men," and the brave fellows passed on without his being
able to identify them. Yesterday, someone told me the
following : In the battle the Captam of one of the com-
panies ran away, the First Lieutenant fell and the Second
was wounded, of course leaving the men without officers,
when the Furst Sergeant stepped out of the ranks and say-
ing a few words to the men, led them on ! Where we fail
is in the commissioned oflScers. The men are splendid.

August 7th. Tomorrow it will be decided whether
Dan Oakey can obtain a commission in de Trobriand's
Regiment (55th) . If he goes, I have promised to knit him
a pair of stockings.

August 9th. It is just a month since Rob's Regunent
left New York, and Uncle WilUam's went today, bound
also for Harper's Ferry. Our last sight of Rob was from
the Flora; he was standmg on the paddlebox of the
Kill Van Kull waving his handkerchief to us, and we saw
him imtil the steamboat rounded the point between
Snug Harbor and Factoryville. I pray God that the next

A YOUNG GIRL'S WARTIME DIARY

month may pass as safely for him and Harry. Mother
had a letter from Mr. Ohnsted, taking rather a gloomy
view of the state of affairs. George, also, is rather de-
pressed and everybody generally wants Lincoln to change
his Cabinet. I don't see the use of being depressed ; if
Washuagton had been depressed, our country would never
have been born. The true spu-it is, "If new difficulties
arise, we must put forth new exertions and proportion our
efforts to the exigencies of the times." And we should
feel as our dear old Uncle Sam ^ writes in a letter to his
father : " I have so much faith in the justice of our cause,
and am so sure that Providence, in its own good time will
succeed and bless it, that were twelve of the States over-
run by our cruel invaders, I should know that the remain-
ing one would not only save herself, but also work out the
redemption of the others." Bravo, Uncle Sam ! That's
the spirit of the Revolution and the spirit we need now.
For my own part, I believe (to put it rather strongly) that
if we had no soldiers and all the officers were drunkards,
the Cause, by its own force of right, would run without
help from anybody. No matter if everything isn't going
on just right, "Our cause can't fail," because it's God's
cause as well as ours.

August 15th. Spent the whole day cutting out shu-ts
at home. This evening we hear (through the Rebels)
that Lyon has been killed and our forces defeated in
consequence of our attempting to stand the attack
of 21,000 men with 5,000. Bull Run over again. As
the news comes from the Secessionists, it is, of course,
exaggerated and we may hope that it is only a check,
if it be a reverse at all. The pubHc mind appears to
be in a very despondmg state ; all the news from every-

' Major Samuel Shaw, who was on General Knox's staff in the
Revolution and first United States Consul to China.

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

where is uncomforting, our army is said to be in a dreadful
condition and every responsible person at Washington,
from Lincoln down, is either "a knave or a fool," as a letter
from the Capital to Mr. Gay said today. George wrote
a very fine letter to Mrs. Gaskell (24 pages) and read it to
us this evening; also some splendid resolutions he has
formed for the committee of Richmond County. Eng-
land and France are to have a consultation as to the course
they shall pursue in regard to us, and Father and George
say that if they say we must absolutely make some settle-
ment, we shall of course do so, because we cannot possibly
fight all the world. Ah, well ! We shall see. These are
extraordinary times and splendid to live in. This war
will purify the country of some of its extravagance and
selfishness, even if we are stopped midway. It can't help
doing us good ; it has begun to do us good already. It will
make us young ones much more thoughtful and earnest,
and so improve the country. I suppose we need something
every few years to teach us that riches, luxury and com-
fort are not the great end of life, and this will surely teach
us that at least. Mother had a nice letter from Rob
today. He still enjoys himself, although he does have
to sleep on the bare ground in a little tent of boughs and
has hard work to do. He says a Connecticut Regiment
came there a few days ago, and on their arrival the men
dispersed and got drunk, whereupon one of the officers
was not ashamed to ask Rob to send a guard of Gordon's
men to make them behave, which he did, and since that
time they have had chief charge of the Conneeticutians,
who don't mind their officers in the least.

August 17th. Mr. Field and the Curtises took tea
here. Mr. Gay' was to have come but for some reason
didn't. These fearful times make us so suspicious! I

1 Sidney Howard Gay, managing editor, New York Tribune.

A YOUNG GIRL'S WARTIME DIARY

know that we all go to bed tonight fearing that he had
bad news and wanted to let us pass a quiet night and not
hear it until tomorrow. It seems always as though we
were walking over mines, which may at any moment blow
up and destroy all we love most.

We never knew before how much we loved our country.
To think that we suffer and fear all this for her ! The
Stars and Stripes will always be infinitely dear to us now
after we have sacrificed so much to them, or rather to the
right which they represent. What can be the end of all
this misery ? Nothing seems to be done by us and every-
thing is done by the Rebels. Discontent with the Ad-
ministration is growing fast, and if they don't do some-
thing, there are many people who will be disgusted with
war and ask for peace. " How long, oh Lord, how long ? "
It is true what Mrs. Child ' says : "The Lord is tedious,
but He's sure." We must do something soon. It's im-
possible that this inaction should continue much longer.
This suspense is horrible.

August 19th. Mrs. Tweedy kindly asked Susie, Nellie
and me to spend a week or two at Newport and perhaps
Nellie and I shall go. I think we should enjoy ourselves

for a week.

August 2Jfih. On Thursday (22d) NelUe, Howard^
and I left New York at 12 : 15 and coming by the Shore
Line reached Newport at 9 p.m. Yesterday we walked
down to the beach in the morning and in the afternoon
went to see the ComtUution, the ship where the Cadets
live. We took a sailboat and when we had gone over the
ship, visited the fort. It was a very pleasant trip and
with pleasant people. Wherever we go we hear pleasant
things of Rob. Yesterday a young Mr. Tuckerman in-

1 Lydia Maria Child, author.

2 WilUam Howard White, a cousin, brought up in the family.

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

quired after him, saying: "Mother will be so pleased to
hear something of Rob ; we can't help calling him Rob, —
yon know everybody does, he's such a general favorite."
And then Minnie Temple says that Gus King (who was
in Rob's tent in Washington in April), upon seeing his
photo, exclaimed, "Oh, do you know Rob Thaw? Why
he'th the beth fellow I ever thaw !" It is so pleasant to
hear such things of the dear fellow.

August 26th. There is not much news to be had in
Newport, and the minds of the people here are occupied
with other things to the exclusion of the war as an all
pervading thought.

August 31 St. Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah! The Tribune
says today that Fremont has declared Missouri to be un-
der martial law and granted freedom to all the slaves. I
rather think Mother feels well tonight ; I only trust that
it's true. Uncle WiUiam went on tonight, so Nell and I
wait until Tuesday to go with the Wards. This afternoon
we went on board the Constitution to a hop and danced
with the "middies." Oh ! if Fremont only has freed the
slaves, what a step it will be. Joy ! Joy ! Joy ! Hurrah !
Hurrah ! Hurrah !

September 1st, 1861. It was only confiscation, but that's
better than nothing.

September 4th. We left Newport yesterday at 11 o'clock
A.M. and arrived here (Naushon) ' at 6 p.m. Fremont's
proclamation is of great importance as a sentence of death
is passed among all men found armed against the United
States and it frees all the negroes belonging to the Rebels.
This morning we had a bath and after dinner took a splendid
ride. Our party consisted of Misses Webster, Watson,
Ward and Shaw, and Messrs. Grey, Ware and Winter.

' An island off Martha's Vineyard, where John M. Forbes had his
country home.

A YOUNG GIRL'S WARTIME DIARY

September 8th. Cousin John ^ read a sermon. Lilly
Ward and I swam across Mary's Lake, with the occasional
aid of Will Forbes ^ in a boat. Tried shooting at a mark
for the first time in my Hfe. Hit the target five times out
of six at 100 yards. Took a long walk and ended the day
by a row in the harbor. Two boats raced. We beat.

September 16th. Yesterday there was a letter from the
President to Fremont sajdng that he wished him to modify
his proclamation in regard to slaves and that he expressed
his desire publicly at the request of Gen. Fremont, whom
he had privately informed of it before. Today those
nasty papers say that Fremont will resign. I wish they
might all be cut off in the midst of their career and not be
allowed to publish a single issue for sk months.

September 19th. Spent today and yesterday in
collecting contributions for our Society, $110.00. Mr.
William Winthrop spent the evening here and states
It as his opinion that the war is to last three years,
while Father and Uncle Jim think that it will be over in
three, or at most six, months. May they prove the truer
prophets.

September 22d. Yesterday it was two months since
the Battle of Bull Run and we have had no general
action yet. . . . Gen. Fremont's failmg appears to be a
desire to act independently. It was for that he was
court-martialled, and for that that Lincoln blamed him
in issuing his proclamation. It is a verj' natural desire
in a true lover of his coimtry to take the way he thinks
best to save her, but a subordinate officer should obey
the orders of the Conamander-in-Chief.

' John M. Forbes, a Boston merchant doing business with the East,
and a great helper of the Union cause in Massachusetts.

' Son of John M. Forbes, and afterward Lieutenant Colonel of the
2d Mass. Cavahry of which Charles Russell Lowell was Colonel.

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

September 25ih. Gen. Fremont is to be allowed by the
Achninistration.to carry out his own plans unmolested
and he is going to take the field himself, which is a
good move as his reputation is at stake. Mother had
a lovely letter from Mrs. Fremont, telling her, among
other things, to "Watch my Chief," and speaking of
"Our General." It is really delightful to see a woman
so much in love with her husband.

September 26Lh. Today was the National Fast and
Mother and I went over to Brooklyn to hear Mr. Beecher,
but behold ! when we reached the Church we found it
shut and the sexton said that Mr. Beecher would not
preach today, as he had said all he had to say on the state
of the country, and didn't know what to preach about,
liis daughter Hattie was married last evening.

After the disappointment, "ma chere mere" and I
betook ourselves to Mr. Chapin's ^ where we heard a
.splendid sermon. One thing he said particularly pleased
me. Speaking of the Nation, he said: "God Almighty
doesn't thresh chaff ; it's wheat he takes the trouble with."
It was so true and exactly what I had thought myself
that the Lord would not give us so much suffering if it
were not to purify us in the end.

September 29th. Mother and Howard went to hear
Mr. Beecher, and tallcing of Fremont, etc., etc., he told
her she must have trust in God. "But I do," she an-
.swered. " What good does it do you ?" he asked. "You
trust in God and worry all the time. It's just as if I
should pay my passage through to Albany in the cars and
then walk up all the way."

October 3d, 1861. Everything goes on as usual. We
have no battle yet, although September has passed, the

• Rev. Edwin Hubbell Chapin, 1814-1880, minister of Universalist
Church, Fifth Avenue.

A YOUNG GIRL'S WARTIME DIARY

month in which they were to take place. The weakness
of the Rebels is shown, I should think, by that one fact
and they keep having doleful accounts of the condition
of their army. Uncle William Greene says that "Peace
will come upon us like a river." Would to God it
might.

October 17th. Letter to Father from Rob. They have
very stormy weather and the tents are not of the most
comfortable under such circumstances. Cousin Annie
Greenough wrote to Aunt Katie that Dr. Sargeant (2d
Mass. Vol. Reg.) has just come up and left Rob with a very
bad cough. He advised him to ask for a furlough, but
our dear soldier would not, considering, I suppose, that
his duty required his presence, and I like it much better
that he should realize the responsibility of his position.

October 29th. We heard today various things to make
us proud of Massachusetts men. A man who saw the
fight at Balls Bluff says that whenever one of then- number
fell, he was instantly brought within the lines by some of
his comrades who rushed out to get him. The men fought
all the way to the Une and retired in excellent order. Alice
Forbes writes to MoUie: "Wendell Holmes was knocked
over, but, jumping up, he waved his sword and was cheer-
ing his men on when he received another wound which
disabled hun. Tell his friends of his gallantry."

November 2d, 1861. Dear old Scott has resigned !
Touching scene, war-worn veteran, farewell speech, sur-
render of command, etc., etc. Mother and Father feel
rather badly tonight, for we see in the Post (a truthful
paper, the only one we beheve) that a messenger was sent
out about a week ago with an order for the superseding
of Fremont by Hunter. This, added to a violent storm,
suggestive of fleets wrecked, makes us rather gloomy,
though to speak the truth, I don't see why Lincohi should

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

supersede Fremont when he is in the field pui-suing Price
with great energy. If his command is taken from him,
Father prophesies that he will be our next President.
Who can tell ? It is a year day after tomorrow since Old
Uncle Abe was elected, and he has not made himself
despised by the people yet. If he is a little too good-
natured, he knows how to hold his tongue, — one of the
first and cardinal virtues.

November 12th. ... I began knitting mittens last
Monday.

November Hih. And have already knit four pairs.

November 30th. All has been quiet for the last fortnight,
but now we hear reports of a bombardment of Pensacola.
They come through the Rebels and so we have no reasons
for beUeving them, and great ones for not beUeving them.
We must wait for reliable information.

An order has been issued by Cameron to Gen. Sher-
man commanding him to use the negroes at Beaufort to
pick the cotton and then to ship it to New York to be sold
on account of the Government. Free cotton, I rather
think, will be as good as slave. Who one short year ago
would have imagined that we should have shiploads of
cotton picked by paid negroes?

December 4lh, 1861. The latest, best and most ardently
wished for Republican triumph has been achieved. Fer-
nando Wood is defeated and George Opdyke is Mayor of
New York. Hurrah ! We scarcely hoped for such de-
lightful news. A Republican Mayor of New York !
The idea is positively an almost inconceivable one.

December 16ih. Today is my birthday, — 18 years.
Sent today 42 pairs of mittens to Rob.

April 3d, 1862. No news today excepting that the House
and Senate have both passed Lincoln's bill offering to buy
the slaves from the border States. A very great advance.

A YOUNG GIRL'S WARTIME DIARY

One anecdote of President Lincoln, on very good au-
thority, I must repeat. Mrs. Andrew being introduced,
he immediately began : "Well, Mrs. Andrew, how do the
Governor and Butler get on?" "You probably know
more about it than I do, Mr. Lincoln," was the reply.
"Well," answered Abe, "the more I hear of it the madder
I get with both of them," and upon her endeavoring to
say a word for her husband, he reassured her in the follow-
ing words : "Oh, you know I never get fighting mad with
anybody." Mrs. Andrew told the story to Mr. Gay the
day it occurred and Mr. Gay told me, so it came du-ect.
The next anecdote Mr. Gay gives on his own authority,
i.e., the President said it to him. He was speaking of
some little charge brought against him by the Tribune,
and after saying it was neither just nor fair, he pro-
ceeded: "But I don't care what they say of me. I
want to straighten this thing out and then I don't care
what they do with me. They may hang me." Dear old
fellow ! The following I cannot vouch for, although a
Unitarian minister told it. It shows Mr. Lincoln's
quickness in escaping questions and conversations which
wouldn't be agreeable. Bishop Clarke having been to
see him on business, thought he would consider it
peculiar if he didn't speak of religious matters before
leaving, so he began: "Mr. Lincoln, you have a heavy
responsibility. I hope you have strength to bear it."
"Oh, yes," interrupted old Abe. "Mrs. Lincoln was
just saying this morning that I was growing fatter every
day. Why, when I was inaugurated I could meet my
fingers and thumb around my ankle, but I noticed today
when I was putting on my stockings that I couldn't do
it now by an inch." Bishop Clarke left.

April 9th. Father goes to Washington tomorrow on
behalf of the Contraband Society, to try and persuade

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

the Government to take the matter in hand. They have
so much to do that it will be a difficult matter to get them
to do anything. Dr. Hooper * goes with him, representing
the Boston Society.

April 12th. A year ago today the first shot was fired
at Fort Sumter. One year of war ! and here we are
with 700,000 men under arms, great battles fought and
to be fought ! George was counting over this evening,
what we had accomplished this year in Freedom's cause,
and he named the following five great steps : 1st, The
Government of the United States has entered into a
treaty with England for the more effectual repression
of the slave trade. 2d, This year has witnessed the
first capital punishment of a slave trader. 3d, Steps
have been taken for faciUtating general emancipation.
4th, Slavery is abolished in the District of Columbia (a
thing which has been petitioned for since Mother was
23 years old and which only the war had power to accom-
plish). 5th, Negroes are permitted to carry mail bags.
Ten common years might have effected that, not to speak
of what makes such things possible, — the great revulsion
in pubhc feeUng on the questions of freedom and slavery.
It is exactly like a revival — a direct work of God, so
wonderful are some of the conversions.

April 15th. A year since Lincoln's Proclamation, in
which he says that the object of the 75,000 men was
to repossess the forts of the United States, and today we
hear of the unconditional surrender of Pulaski, one of
the strongest, and the defense of Savannah. Yorktown
is still untaken and we hear nothing of the Merrimac,
except reported bursting of shells, running ashores, etc.,
etc., none of which are probably true. I heard today

' R. W. Hooper, a physician of Boston, who took great interest in
the war.

A YOUNG GIRL'S WARTIME DIARY

of Wendell's promotion to a captaincy. He told me in
Boston that he only wanted to be captain for the sake of
leading the men in battle, and now he will soon have his
wish. Poor Mother is very low spirited and of course
must be, for Rob is in continual danger, as his Regi-
ment is acting as skirmishers, scouts, etc. She was
speaking yesterday of not being able to do anything
"until she had heard." I suppose it is to hear that Rob
is shot.

April 18th. Father says that they (the Committee)
had various interviews with the President and were very
much charmed with him. He was much perplexed in
regard to the contrabands, and said "He prayed that if it
were possible that cup might pass from them." He
seemed favorably impressed with the plan they proposed,
but the main object they had in view (to have Mr. Olmsted
nominated as Military Governor) had failed, as Mr. Chase
had already offered the place to someone else. They
succeeded, however, in causing the Administration to take
a more active interest in the question.

April SI St. Letters today from Rob for Mother and
me, dated 11th and 16th instant. He seems rather blue,
owing, I suppose, to his doing nothing, and the feeling
that at Corinth and Yorktown laurels may be won. We
hear today that Banks pushes on and has occupied New
Market. I hope for the boys' sake that they may be in
action before the war is finished, for they would feel dread-
fully to come home without seeing a battle. George read
his new lecture this eve, "The Way of Peace," and it is
splendid.

May 9th, 1862. Today Mother received a note from
Dr. Walser, the physician of the Hospital at Quarantine,
saying that 250 woimded and sick are expected to-
morrow and that his provisions were most insufficient.

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

so we have been very busy trying to get some new things
to help him. The letter came at 5 p.m., and now at
10:30 A.M., we have already got $100. to pay sewing
women, seven pieces of cotton, 12 made shii-ts, 22 cut out,
slippers, etc. This is doing pretty well, I think.

May 16lh. Yesterday a letter from Rob for Father,
saying he had made up his mind to enter the regular army
and asking him to do all in his power to get him a com-
mission. I should be very sorry if I didn't know that Rob
knows what he's about and wouldn't undertake such a step
without thought. He says he thinks the war is to be a
long one.

May 19th. Rob came home tonight. In the first
place, when Father came down this afternoon he brought
a letter from Rob, dated Washington, where he said he was
with Copeland,' who was trying to get permission to raise
a regiment and wished to make him major. Father upon
receipt of this telegraphed asking how long he was to
remain in Washington, with the intention of going on to-
night in case he stayed long enough. Apparently in an-
swer to this came a telegram from Copeland : "Lieut.
R. G. Shaw's leave of absence extended ten days by order
of Major General Banlcs." We thought then that he had
much business on hand and might possibly get home, but
otherwise Nellie, Clover ^ and I were going on with Father.
We thought of it, that is. After tea as we sat in the parlor,
a man came up on to the piazza and we said: "Who's
that?" The door opened and Rob stood there. The
confusion was extreme, as may be imagined, but we
calmed down shortly.

May 20th. Yesterday we had a beautiful and touching
proclamation from Lincoln, rendering General Hunter's

' Morris Copeland, Quartermaster 2d Mass. Infantry.
* Miss Hooper, daughter of Dr. Hooper.

A YOUNG GIRL'S WARTIME DIARY

order freeing the slaves of North Carolina, South Carolina
and Georgia null and void. One of the most extraordinary
things that has happened for a long time was the calmness
with which that order was received. We have certainly
advanced twenty years. The confidence in the President
was shown by the entire acquiescence in everything he does.
We feel that he is earnest and means to do right. A
unique man. Rob's attempt to get a commission is fruit-
less. Mr. Sumner told him it is impossible.

May 22d. Rob started to go back todaj' at 7 a.m. and
now his visit seems ahnost like a dream. A thing I had
been longing for for eight months passed so quickly!
Well, all human affairs are the same, the unhappy mo-
ments are long and the happy ones short. That's all
bosh, though, for they all seem, short to me. Rob is very
much dissatisfied with the little prospect of fighting they
seem to have and has two plans on hand for leaving the
regiment. One to enlist in the regular cavalry, if he can-
not get a commission, and the other to try to get a place
on Fremont's staff. Mr. Gay has written to him to ask
him, and I have little doubt of his saying yes, for Mother's
and Father's sakes.

May 27th. Rob and HaP both safe. The Boston
Transcript says: "Captain Carey telegraphs for pubUca-
tion the following account of the regiment: Captain
Mudge and Lieut. Crowninshield wounded slightly;
Major Dwight and Dr. Leland probably prisoners. All
the other officers safe." I didn't feel yesterday as if any
misfortune had or would take place, so the news didn t
create a great revulsion in my feelings, but poor Mother,
who had been really waiting to see Lieut. R. G. Shaw
killed, was, as everyone would expect, very much affected.

May 29th. First letter from Rob since the battle.

^ Colonel Henry 8. Russell.

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

"Quite a fight " he calls it. A bullet struck his watch and
made a dent in it, else his stomach would have received
it. As it was, liis thigh was bruised. The papers give an
account of very severe fighting, fatiguing and harassing.
The Second behaved very well and covered the retreat.
Dear follows !

June Sd, 1862. Rob's watch came today. The blow
was exactly on the edge and a quarter of an inch farther
out would have been fatal. The hands are lost and it is
broken apart.

June 6th. Letter from Rob giving a description of
a cavalry charge on two of their companies, before he
reached Winchester, and then of their march through
Winchester. Short but graphic, and Father thinks of
having it printed as being interesting. All the account
of brave deeds, bayonet charges, calmly receiving the fire
of the enemy and withholding their own, and all the
stirring accounts of courageous men, make one so long
to be with them. I should of all things enjoy a forlorn
hope (I think). Well put in, I suppose, but still I really
do think so, for I'm not an atom afraid of death and
the enthusiasm of the moment would be sublime. An
immense body of brave men is grand and I would give
anything to be one of them. I cannot express what a sense
of admii-ation and delight fills my soul when I think of the
noble fellows advancing, retreating, charging and dying,
just how, when and where they are ordered. God bless
them ! Mother says she hates to hear me talk so, but I
think one loses sight of the wounds and suffering, both
of the enemy and one's own force, in thinlcing of the sub-
Hme whole, the grand forward movement of thousands of
men marching "into the jaws of death," calmly and coolly.
God bless them ! I say again. I saw today the report
of a Lieutenant in the First Massachusetts expelled for

A YOUNG GIRL'S WARTIME DIARY

cowardice in the face of the enemy. Such a thing I can-
not understand. I should think a man would be afraid
to be a coward in front of his men, all looking to him for
example. I should think he'd go and shoot himself.
I remember hearing it said that . . . would never have
been taken prisoner if he had behaved well. And then,
think of a man, with consciousness of such conduct, dar-
ing to come home and show his face in Boston ! Bah !
Perhaps he did behave well after all, though.

June 10th. This is the anniversary of Theodore Win-
throp's death, and we've just got used to missing him.
As Mother said today, "It doesn't seem a year since he
died, but it seems as if he had been dead years." Think
of his falling with Nellie's and my photographs in his
watch ! I can't realize it ; a man who will be known in
all history and who is now spoken of as a second Sir
Philip Sidney.

June 25th. Today New York was in a fever and stocks
went down, down, down, because Lincoln and General
Pope went up to West Point by special train last night to
see General Scott, who it was reported was going back to
Washington with them, which also occasioned intense
excitement, when, behold ! he went as far as Jersey City
and there remained at one of the stations. Lincoln being
called upon to make a speech came upon the platform and
told the people that if they could only know the object
of his visit, they would find it much less important than
they supposed, but that he couldn't tell them what it was,
because Stanton was very particular about the press, and
he didn't know what would happen to him if he should
"blab."

July 2d, 1862. McClellan, quoting old Dr. Beecher,
might have said to me last night : "Don't return thanks
for me; I'm a good deal hurt," for instead of Richmond

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

being in our possession, we are 27 miles from it and our
Fourth will be a very sad one. Looking at it from a
military view, as I did at first, I still insist it's not so
very bad, but Father reminded me of the 50,000 killed
on both sides, of the numberless wounded and of their
friends tonight, and the thought is indeed dreadful.
Oh, the agony of hundreds of thousands in our land
at this hour ! God help them, for nothing else can. At
first I only thought of the whole result and felt as
Father says he does, that it is in Our Father's hands and
if it is good for us to suffer we must bear and it matters
little what the end is. So we grow through it, but oh !
the thought of those poor suffering boys and men, in the
hands of the enemy, too, and the cold young faces turned
up to the beautiful stars ! It is enough to break our hearts.
Every new battle makes one feel how wicked, wicked it is,
the desolate homes and empty hearts, created by men's
evil deeds. Young boys going out to die for their country
willingly and joyfully are grateful to the heart and mind,
but the men who made it necessary that they should do
so are base, and oh, so wicked !

July 4ih. Our loss this morning is reported at 15,000
and that of the Rebels at 40,000. Jimmy Lowell was
killed,' and his mother sees it for the first time this morn-
ing. I didn't kjiow him before last winter, when he was
introduced to me at the Agassiz's and much to my grati-
fication asked me to dance. What rendered it pleasanter
was that, being lame from his wound, he hadn't danced
at all that evening. Poor Mother ! I won't say poor
Son, for he died for his country and such martyrs are not
to be pitied.

11 :30 P.M. Just come home from Col. Howe's (Agent
of N. E. Regs.) where, in spite of troublous times, we
1 At the battle of Glendaie, Virginia, June 30, 1862.

A YOUNG GIRL'S WARTIME DIARY 31

went to see the fireworks. There was a soldier there
spending the night who had been wounded and Col.
Howe brought him down because he'd heard him say:
"Oh ! How I wish I could be in the country today."
I talked to him all the firework time and he told
me about his wound, the battle, etc. He was only
17 years old when he enhsted last August in the
Third New York Reg. and had been at Edisto Island
all wmter until the attack on James Island in which he
was wounded in the jaw, or rather the front part of the
lower jaw. Teeth and all were knocked right out by
a bullet passing in behind under the tongue. All his upper
front teeth were gone, too, and one would have supposed
that he couldn't talk, but he managed very well with his
face plastered up. After he was hit he walked by himself
half way to the hospital and two drummer boys helped
him the rest of the way. When he got there the pieces
of bone hanging out were cut off. The fireworks and our
brightness seemed so incongruous in his sight and in the
thought of thousands suffering tonight.

July 8th. Col. Howe told us of one poor boy shot
through the head who, in a fit of delirium, imagined him-
self a prisoner and all his nurses rebels, and so railed at
and abused them, ending with : "I don't care what you
do with me. You may cut me in pieces, you may kill me,
but I will hurrah for the Stars and Stripes." Dear Boy \
Oh, I wish I were old enough to go on a hospital ship or
offer my services as nurse. When I hear of these poor
fellows, I feel so dreadfully mean to be dressed up in
white muslin and enjoying myself.

July ISth. I feel as blue as blue can be tonight.
Everybody seems down and altogether it's doleful.
Father says he has a presentiment that some great blow
is coming and didn't feel quite comfortable this morning

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

when I mentioned that it was Just a week to Bull
Run.

Nalmni, August lllh, 1862. After that comparatively
long time of inaction it begins again, and near home this
time. We get the news late here, and we were at the
"Sanitary" when Eugenia Mifflin told of a battle in the
Shenandoah Valley, in which she said Major Savage and
Captain Abbott were killed and Sam Quincy taken
prisoner. Rob's safe, as I was sure from the beginning,
for being a Staff Officer, any accident would have been
reported. There are only two or three officers untouched
in the Second, Richard Carey, Dan Oakey and many
others being among the wounded.

August 12th. This has been a sad day for the three
houses that stand on the Nahant shore, with the moon
looking so calmly down on them, the moon who knew all
Saturday night and yet wouldn't tell. Richard Carey
is dead and his poor young wife has been crying bitterly
all the afternoon, left with her one Uttle girl to whom she
has taught her father's name and kept him always in her
mind. She had her trunk packed and was much excited
this morning, expecting to go soon to nurse him, when
came a telegram to her Father from Col. Andrews,
saying: "Captains Carey, Abbott, Williams and Good-
win, and Lieut. Perkins were found dead on the field of
battle. Send your son on for their bodies." ^

August 29th. After thirteen months' hard fighting,
pouring out of blood and money, and all alternations from
hope to fear, from fear to hope, here we are back at Bull
Run and Manassas Gap again, with the Rebels within
twelve miles of Washington. We hear nothing definitely,
only contradictory reports of attacks, defeats, retreats,
repulses, etc., first on one side and then on the other,

' This fight was at Cedar Mountain.

A YOUNG GIRL'S WARTIME DIARY

but on the whole things look black enough for us. Soon
we may expect an Emancipation Proclamation. (I hope.)

Naushon, September 5th, 1862. It doesn't seem very
pleasant, after eighteen months of anxiety, loss and sorrow,
to be back in the forts around Washington with the Rebel
Army besieging us, but such is the case. There have been
sundry battles, skirmishes, etc., and that's the result, —
we've got into such a custom of masterly retreat, that we
don't know how to advance. Of course, all our friends are
constantly in danger now, because the army is concentrated
in front of Washington, and besides that, things look dark
enough, for the Rebels are very energetic.

September 8th. The Rebels are in Frederick, James-
town and Poolesville. There's no hope of our cutting
them off because they never go anywhere without leaving
means of retreat, and we are so slow we never catch any-
body.

September 9th. Notliing looks bright and cousin John
who went up yesterday and returned today, said all
Boston is as "blue as indigo." The enemy has been
reinforced and now they say they intend to march on
Pliiladelphia and New York, though I think that's all
talk, for how can they get North if we couldn't get
South ?

September 20th. On the 25th of the month a procla-
mation is due from Mr. Lincoln and everyone looks for
emancipation. If he issues such an edict of course the
pro-slavery generals must either resign or fight for freedom
with a will, because if slavery is extinct, not to be revived
under any circumstances, all their hopes of preserving
it are past and they will be tired of shilly-shally when
there's no object to be gained by it. Oh, that the Lord
would only put it into Lincoln's head to do something
strong and decided ! We must ride this time through.

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

flection that it was New York and only the upper gallery
at that. I suppose waiting is wholesome and trust that
it is as Mr. James said, that "When the people do wake
up and know themselves, we shall have blessed happy
peace forever." We, as a Nation, are learning splendid
lessons of heroism and fortitude through it that nothing
else could teach. All our young men who take their lives
in their hands and go out and battle for the right grow
noble and grand in the act, and when they come back
(perhaps only half of those who went) I hope they will
find that the women have grown with them in the long
hours of agony. Mr. James brought Nellie and me today
two photographs of Wilkie,' who had gone off in the 44th
as Sergeant, and on the back was somebody's or some-
thing's escutcheon with the motto, "Vincere vel mori."
It seemed a very fitting one for a young soldier going forth
in all the ardor of a first campaign. Dear boys ! How
noble they are, and yet how can they help being noble?
I have longed so to go myself that it seemed unbearable,
and Emmie Russell ^ wrote me from Florence that it
always made her cry to see soldiers, partly for thinking
of our army, and partly for chagrin that she was not a man
to go too. We can work though if we can't enlist, and
we do. It is very pleasant to see how well the girls and
women do work everywhere, sewing meetings, sanitary
hospitals and all. Lou Schuyler told me at the Sanitary
yesterday that there were 150,000 sick and wounded now
in the different hospitals to be cared for ! and I suppose,
poor fellows, they are cold and tired and miserable, even
after all that's been done for them ! God help us all.

October 29th. Rob is home again for tomorrow. That
dear General Gordon, feehng that he ought to be at home

' Wilkie James, brother of Professor William James.
' Afterwards Mrs. Charles L. Pierson, of Boston.

A YOUNG GIRL'S WARTIME DIARY 37

for Sue's wedding, and not being able to get him a fur-
lough, sent him to New York on official business. We
thought he was on the advance, far away, when suddenly
at 2 o'clock he appeared, having come down with Annie
Haggerty,^ whom he had gone to see in New York. He
looks splendid and seems in good spirits. To have him
at home is lovely. We were saying this morning that we
were all together but one, and now that one has come
He said tomght, poor boy, that he wished we were done
with this fighting and expected to be "slaughtered before
It was over." I suppose they must all feel so, seeing
so many of their friends and companions dying around
them. Tomorrow, Harry and he meet. They've not
seen each other since Cedar Mountain. So far the Lord
has been very merciful to us, in turning all our sorrows
to joy.

October SOth, 1862. Well f Sue's gone and we've had
a perfect success in the wedding, with only one thing to mar
our enjoyment of the day. This morning three gentle-
men appeared and asked Father, for the Governor to be
Provost Marshal of Richmond, Queens and Suffolk
Counties, and he refused the offer. Mother, NeUie and
I felt dreadfully because we thought of the great good he
might do, and of the dreadful rascal who will probably
be put in, but he felt he couldn't do it well (of course he'd
do it better than anyone else they give it to), and I think,
too, that Rob's advice had something to do with it, for he
said that it required a military man and that he knew
Father couldn't do it.

Rob went back this afternoon, not much wanting to
certainly, dear boy. It must be dreadfully hard to go
away from this nice, homey house into cold, weariness and
fighting.

' Afterwards Mrs. Robert Gould Shaw.

CHAPTER III

Marriage

The diary ends abruptly as it began. Among the
entries for the first day, — July 23, 1861, — is a list of her
friends in the army, including the name of " Capt. Lowell
of the U. S. A." It is a remarkable and characteristic
fact, that this is the only mention made, in all the papers
of Mrs. Lowell which I have examined, of the man whose
name she bore for more than forty years. Their acquaint-
ance must, when this entry was made, have been only
a slight one. In the spring of 1863 when Lowell was
organizing the Second Massachusetts Cavalry in Boston,
he again met Josephine Shaw, and became engaged to her
after he had seen her only nine times. Miss Elizabeth
C. Putnam, a friend of Mrs. Lowell's, said : " It was in
the spring of 1863 that I first saw Effie Shaw. She was
sitting on a packing box at the Camp at Readville,
the afternoon sun striking across the feather on her
hat, and lighting up her delicate complexion, her fine
hair and fair brow. She was staying with Mrs. John
Forbes at Milton, and Lowell had asked her to be his
wife."

Her love was most worthily bestowed. The necessary
limitations of space permit only brief mention of Lowell's
family, and the important incidents of his career. Charles

,.J.i-iV/C ) .L-dBi-l

■h ^i^-' • •■'■■si"' :•■■■-':

.;; .'*i* V

w^■:«!%;;

m i

I ■

JOSEPHINE SHAW AND COL. CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL. Ifi63

MARRIAGE 39

Russell Lowell, Jr./ was born iii Boston, January 2, 1835,
the eldest son of Charles Russell Lowell and Anna Cabot
Jackson, his wife, and grandson of Rev. Charles Lowell,
D.D. The poet, James Russell Lowell, was his uncle.
Entering Harvard in 1850, he graduated at the head of
the class of '54. Duiing his college years Lowell held
a leading position, being especially noted for his inde-
pendent intellect arid commanding will. Much of his
time was devoted to sociological studies, and his com-
mencement oration showed deep and intelligent interest
in the welfare of the people. He took with him from
college the reputation of a thoughtful and brilliant youth
of whom much might be expected in the future.

Lowell immediately began to earn his own living, and
the year after his graduation, at the age of twenty, was
already in a position of trust and promise, at the rolling-
mill of the Trenton Iron Company of New Jersey. While
thus employed, the shadow of a grave disease fell upon him.
A friend found him in his room: bleeding at the lungs, and
it became necessary for him to resign his position, stop
work, and seek health outdoors in a mild climate. Then
followed three years of travel, of which more than two
were spent in foreign coimtries, much of the time on horse-
back, so that he became an expert rider. By 1858 he was
suflficiently recovered to return to America, but not at
first for life on the Atlantic coast. In 1860, feeling

' Much of the information relating to General Lowell given here
was obtained from his biography by Professor James M. Peirce.
Harvard Memorial Biographies, Vol. I. " The Life and Letters of
Charles Russell Lowell," by Edward W. Emerson, has also been
helpful.

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

stronger, he took charge of the Mt. Savage Iron Works,
Cumberland, Maryland, where the opening of the war
found him at the head of a small city of workingmen.

When Lowell heard the news of the attack on the Sixth
Massachusetts in Baltimore, he resigned his position at
Cumberland, and went immediately to Washington, being
obliged to walk from Baltimore, as the railroad track had
been torn up. Arriving thus among the first comers at
the capital, April 21, 1861, he made personal application
for a commission, both to President Lincoln and General
Sherman. He was a man of striking appearance and
manner, and having created a favorable impression, was
commissioned Captain of the Third — afterwards Sixth
— Regiment of U. S. Cavalry, May 14, 1861, and at once
began recruiting and drilling his company in preparation
for the field.

The Third Cavahy was with the Army of the Potomac
in the Peninsular Campaign of 1862, as part of Stoneman's
command, and Lowell was nominated for the brevet of
Major for distinguished services at Williamsburgh and
Slatersville. His brother James, wounded at Glendale,
June 30, died a prisoner, July 4 of that year. As aide on
the staff of General McClellan, Lowell was conspicuous
for bravery at Malvern Hill and South Mountain, and
also at Antietam, where his horse was shot under him;
in this battle a bullet passed through his coat, and another
broke his sabre. In recognition of his gallantry General
McClellan selected Lowell to carry to President Lincoln
at Washington thirty-nine captured colors, the trophies
of the campaign — a high honor, and equivalent to a rec-

MARRIAGE

■il

ommendation for promotion. November of '62 found
Lowell in Boston, organizing the Second Massachusetts
Cavalry, of which on April 15, 1863, he was appointed
Colonel. It was at this time that he again met and be-
came engaged to Josephine Shaw, whose brother Robert
was his friend.

When Lowell's new regiment was ready to take the field,
he led it from Boston and was given command of the
cavalry of the Department of Washington, with head-
quarters at Vienna, Virginia, fifteen miles from the
capital, where he was kept busy watching Mosby and
preventing his raids. On starting for the front Lowell
gave his fianc6e a horse which had been wounded under
him at Antietam and from fright was useless in battle,
a big Virginia roan named Berold, which she rode during
the summer and autumn of 1863, and for many years
afterwards, the horse living to a great age. Lowell is
said to have had thirteen horses shot under him before
he himself was killed.

The career of young Shaw in the army should be
traced as well as that of Lowell. His promotion had been
rapid. From the ranks of the New York Seventh he had
applied for, and on May 28, 1861, received a commission as
Second Lieutenant in the Second Massachusetts and started
for the war with that regiment; he was commissioned
First Lieutenant July 8, 1861, at the Battle of Cedar
Mountain served as an aide on General Gordon's staff,
and on August 10, 1862, was promoted Captain. Early
in 1863, when the Government decided to form negro
regiments, Governor Andrew, by letter, offered Shaw the

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

colonelcy of one to be raised in Massachusetts. At this
time Shaw was in camp at Stafford Court House, to which
place the letter was carried by his father. After some
hesitation due to misgivings as to his ability to fill so im-
portant a position, he accepted the commission of Colonel
of the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry,
which bears date April 17, 1863, and immediately gave
all his energy to the organization of his new command,
the first regiment of colored troops, from a free state,
mustered into the Federal service. On the 2d of May,
1863, he married Anna Kneeland, daughter of Ogden
Haggerty, Esq., of New York, and on the 28th of the
same month, he left Boston for the seat of war, at the head
of his command. Their triumphal march through Boston
has often been described. Early in July Shaw wrote
from St. Helena Island, South Carolina, to General Strong,
expressing a desire to be in his brigade, a wish which was
soon after gratified. On July 18, the day of the battle of
Fort Wagner, Shaw wrote home from Morris Island :

"We're in General Strong's Brigade. We came up here
last night, and were out again all night in a very heavy
rain. Fort Wagner is being very heavily bombarded.
We are not far from it. We hear nothing but praise of
the Fifty-fourth on all hands."

After writing this letter, which was his last. Colonel
Shaw received orders to report with his regiment at Gen-
eral Strong's headquarters, and there he was offered the
post of honor, because of greatest danger, the advance,
that evening, in the assault on Fort Wagner. Here was
the opportunity he had waited for, "when his men could

COL. liOBi'urr uould sii.vw, isos

MARRIAGE 43

fight alongside of white soldiers, and show somebody be-
sides their officers, what stuff they' were "raad!i of." ■' "

The closing incidents of Colonel Shaw's life we!re well
described in a letter written shortly" aft&i the battle by
the surgeon of the regiment :

"General Strong had been impressed with the high
character of the regiment and its officers, and he wished
to assign them the post where the most severe work was
to be done, and the highest honor was to be won. I had
been his guest for some days, and know how he regarded
them. The march across Folly and Morris Islands, was
over a very sandy road, and was very wearisome. When
they had come within six hundred yards of Fort Wagner,
they formed in line of battle, the Colonel leading the first,
and the Major the second battalion.

"At this point the regiment, together with the next
supporting regiments, the Sixth Connecticut, Ninth Maine,
and others, remained half an hour. Then at half past
seven, the order for the charge was given. The regiment
advanced at quick time, changing to double-quick when
some distance on. When about one hundred yards from
the fort, the Rebel musketry opened with such terrible
effect, that for an instant the first battalion hesitated ;
but only for an instant, for Colonel Shaw, springing to the
front, and waving his sword, shouted 'Forward, Fifty-
fourth ! ' and with another cheer and a shout, they rushed
through the ditch and gained the parapet on the right.
Colonel Shaw was one of the first to scale the walls. He
stood erect to urge forward his men, and while shouting
for them to press on, was shot dead and fell into the fort.
I parted with Colonel Shaw, as he rode forward to join
his regiment; as he was leaving, he turned back and
gave me his letters and other papers, telling me to

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

keep t.l-.f.m jnd forward them to his father if anything
occurrad "

"Bv?/,e!y be led the men, and fell as a brave and noble
soldi.'.r shctil'i, Ia tho very front, into the fort, and now
sleeps there with the brave fellows who were with him
in his Ufe, anxiouH to shield hira, to rescue, to avenge."

Two days after the assa\ilt on Fort Wagner, Colonel
Lowell wrote to Miss Shaw :

"A. has just sent me a report about dear Rob, and it
does not seem to me possible that it should be true. We
have been talking over the good fellows who have gone
before in the war. There is none who has been so widely
and dearly loved as he."

In another letter he wrote :

"Everything that comes about Rob, shows his death
to have been more and more completely that, which
every soldier, and every man must long to die. But it
is given to very few, for very few do their duty as Rob
did. I am thankful that they buried him with his 'nig-
gers,' for they were brave men and they were his men."

The heroic death of Colonel Shaw profoundly stirred
the hearts of northern people, and brought many touching
proofs of sympathy to his young widow and his father's
family; his bodj' was not recovered, and was probably
buried where he died "with his niggers," as his ad-
versaries said. The people of his native city, with the
aid of Augustus Saint Gaudens's art, have worthily com-
memorated his name and fame, and also made record of
the officers and men of his command who died with him,
in the monument on Boston Common.

MARRIAGE

Lights and shadows, in swift succession, brought joy and
sorrow into the life of Josephine Shaw in the fateful year
1863. The spring and summer had witnessed her only
brother's marriage and death ; the autimin saw her union
with the man to whom she had given her heart. Although
Mrs. Shaw at first preferred that the marriage be post-
poned until the close of the war, she was persuaded to
change her mind, and in her twentieth year Josephine
became the wife of Colonel Lowell at the Unitarian Church
on Staten Island, on the 31st of October, 1863, and went
to live with her husband, at his headquarters, a little
farm-house at Vienna, Virginia. This was a tranquil
interval in the war, and so it was possible for the young
couple to pass much of the winter of '63-i together, and
Mrs. Lowell devoted many hours to the care of the sick
and wounded soldiers, in the military hospitals near by.

Emerson, in his life of Lowell, says :

"Chaplain Humphreys wrote home of the kindly and
refining influence of Mrs. Lowell's presence in the camp,
and of the hospitality that welcomed the officers in turn,
at the little home which the colonel and she had estab-
lished there. . . . With the foreigners in the hospital I
was greatly assisted by the wife of the Commander, who
visited the patients verj'^ frequently. She delighted the
Frenchmen, Italians and Germans by conversing with
them in their own languages, that so vividly recalled their
early homes. She often assisted in writing letters for
the disabled soldiers, and when I sought to give comfort
to the dying, her presence soothed the pangs of parting,
with a restful consciousness of woman's faithful watching
and a mother's tenderness."

lli':'

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

MARRIAGE

But the brief period of happiness with her husband in
the camp at Vienna soon passed, for in July, 1864, orders
called Colonel Lowell to more distant and dangerous duty,
and his young wife returned to her father's home. On
the 20th of the same month, Colonel Lowell was given
command of a new Provisional Brigade, and at Winchester,
September 19, when in command of a Reserve Brigade
by appointment of General Sheridan, he participated in
a superb charge. On the 15th of October, the army was
surprised at Cedar Creek, in the absence of General Sheri-
dan, and, after his historic ride from Winchester, saved
by his return.

Emerson gives this touching extract from one of Lowell's
letters to his wife : "I don't want to be shot till I've had
a chance to come home. I have no idea that I shall be
hit, but I want so much not to be now that it sometimes
frightens me." But it was ordered otherwise; Lowell's
wish was not to be granted. The following account of
his last fight is taken from the Harvard Biographies, and
Emerson's "Life." On the 18th of October, 1864, Colonel
Lowell was ordered to make a reconnaisance, and, at the
head of the Reserve Brigade, led the Cavalry Corps into
action. Of this movement, General William Dwight,
commanding the First Division of the Nineteenth Corps,
wrote: "They moved past me, that splendid Cavalry;
if they reached the pike I felt secure. Lowell got by me
before I could speak, but I looked after him for a long
distance. Exquisitely mounted, the picture of a soldier,
— erect, confidant, defiant — he moved at the head of
the finest Brigade of Cavalry that today scorns the earth

it treads." And so Lowell rode into action. Soon a horse
was shot under him. Then at 1 p.m., on October 19,
he was wounded by a spent ball in the right breast, the
lung collapsed and hemorrhage ensued. For an hour
and a half the wounded man lay on the ground, under
temporary shelter, until he heard an order to advance,
when with assistance he remounted his horse, sitting firm
and erect, but the voice was gone, — he could only whisper.
In the hail of fire, in which Lowell sat his horse, he re-
ceived his second mortal wound; a bullet severed the
spine at the neck, paralyzing the body. The wounded
officer giving no sign of suffering, and retaining a clear
mind, dictated loving messages for his wife and family,
and gave orders for his command. Early next morning,
October 20, 1864, at Middletown, Virginia, in his thirtieth
year, he died. "We all shed tears," said Custer, "when we
knew we had lost him. It is the greatest loss the Cavalry-
Corps has ever suffered. " Sheridan said of him : " I do not
think there was a quality which I could have added to
Lowell. He was the perfection of a man and a soldier."
For a year Colonel Lowell had done the full work of
a Brigadier General of Volunteers, and by a sad coinci-
dence his conmiission to this rank, determined on days
before, was signed on the 19th of October, 1864, the day
on which' he received his death wound at Cedar Creek,
and too late for him to wear the higher honor he had
earned so well. The funeral of General Lowell took place
on Friday, October 28, at the College Chapel, Cambridge,
and his remains were afterwards interred at Mount
Auburn Cemetery, with the appropriate military honors.

CHAPTER IV

The Worker

After the death of General Lowell, his widow, not yet
twenty-one years old, lived with her parents on Staten
Island. There her daughter, Carlotta Russell, — named
for her father, — was born, November 30, 1864. The
power to rally from the tragedy which had clouded her
life did not come at first. A friend describes her at that
time as "going about the house with her little girl in her
arms, not sad but with a quiet look as if she were living
in another world. Time afterward softened the poignancy
of her grief, and those nearest to her felt that her life was
a happy one." She had a sitting room in her father's
house in which she kept near her Lowell's sword and
other treasures, and there she used to work. Berold,
his favorite horse, was cared for in her father's stable until
his death, and she and her little daughter spent part of
each year with General Lowell's family in Massachusetts.

But grief at her husband's loss was not permitted to
paralyze Mrs. Lowell's energies, and she soon began her
wonderful work for the alleviation of human misery,
which was to last for more than forty years. Shortly
after the close of the war, the Freedmen's Association
was formed, with which Mr. Shaw was actively identified,
and his daughter joined one of its committees having
an office in Bible House on lower Fourth Avenue, New
York City. Among the objects of this association was

^•Cs-iE-i^;; :i-r-\ .

MR?. ' OW-u., FKOM A CRAY()N FORI RAIT BY SAMUEL
WOB!Ci;STUR ROW3E. TAKEN IN 1869

THE WORKER 49

the establishment of schools for the colored people in the
South, and in furtherance of this work, when she was only
twenty-three, Mrs. Lowell and IMiss Ellen Colhns went
to Virginia in 1866, and visited many schools for colored
children in Richmond, Petersburg and other places,
stopping as they journeyed, at little country homes.
There was much active opposition at that time to this
kind of educational work, so that the position of the
teachers was difficult. Most of them were young women,
and lived with white famiUes willing to help the freedmen.
The visit of the two young northern women brought
needed encouragement to the teachers, and because of it
more schools were opened. The friendship between Mrs.
Lowell and Miss Collins continued until Mrs. Lowell's
death. Miss Collins, on Mrs. Lowell's nomination, was
appointed a "Viisitor" by the State Board of Charities
in 1876, and was annually reappointed for many years.
Her visits to the public charities of New York City, and
reports of the conditions found in them were thoroughly
practical and useful to the Board, and directly contributed
to bring about reforms which have made life less hard for
the city's poor, sick and unfortunate.

In December, 1869, having sold the homestead on Bard
Avenue to his son-in-law, Robert B. Minturn, Mr. Shaw
removed with his little family, then comprising only Mrs.
Shaw, Mrs. Lowell and her little girl, to a smaller house
near by on the shore of the ICill Van KuU. All of Mrs.
Lowell's letters subsequently dated from Staten Island
were written at this later home.

Mrs. Lowell revisited Europe in 1870 with her daughter,

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

a cousin, and a friend, and letters of introduction made
thera known to many distinguished people. They visited
the Kingsleys at Eversley, and also in the Inner Cloisters
of Westminster, and were hospitably entertained at
the homes of Dean Howson and his wife at Chester, and
of Canon Venables at Lincoln. They also made the ac-
quaintance of Canon Benson, afterwards Archbishop of
Canterbury, of Hughes, and of Carlyle. The sympathies
of the latter were with the South in the Civil War, and
Mrs. Lowell, who had several interesting conversations
with him about the great Rebellion, thought he did not
fully appreciate either the quality or the patriotic motives
of the young men who had fought in the armies of the
North. Wishing to influence his opinion on a subject
so sacred to her, Mrs. Lowell afterwards sent him a set of
the Harvard Memorial Biographies, containing, among
others, sketches of the lives of her husband and her brother,
northern men who had laid down their lives for their
country. In acknowledgment of this volume she received
the following letter :

Chelsea, 10 March, 1870.
Dear Madam :

I received your gentle, kind and beautiful message and
in obedience to so touching a command, soft to me as
sunlight, or moonlight, but imperative as few could be, I
have read those lives you marked for me ; with several of
the others ; and intend to read the whole before I finish
— many thanks to you for those volumes and that note.

It would need a heart much harder than mine not to
recognize the high and noble spirit that dwelt in those
young men, their heroic readiness, complete devotedness,
their patience, diligence, shining valor and virtue in the

r \

THE WORKER 51

cause they saw to be the highest, while alas ! any difference
I may feel on that latter point, only deepens to me the
sorrowful and noble tragedy each of their hves is. You
may believe me, Madam, I would strew flowers on their
graves along with you, and piously bid them rest in Hope !
It is not doubtful to me that they also have added this
mite to what is the eternal cause of God and man ; or that,
in circuitous but sure ways, all men, Black and White,
will infallibly get their profit of the same.
With many thanks and regards, dear Madam, I remain,
Yrs. sincerely T. Carlyle.

The necessities of the war had drawn many women into
hospital work, and after it was over, their interest in such
work continued, although the military hospitals soon
ceased to exist. On the invitation of Miss Louisa Lee
Schuyler, a number of these New York women, including
Mrs. Lowell, met at her house in 1872, and formed the
"Visiting Committee of Bellevue and other Hospitals."
This started such a stream of well-known women, down
East Twenty-sixth Street, to Bellevue, that it was said
to be the fashionable promenade of the City of New
York, and Mrs. Lowell then began her acquaintance with
the public charities of New York City, whose adminis-
tration she strove for a generation to improve. It was
at this time also that she became interested in the
Richmond County Poorhouse on Staten Island.

Mrs. Lowell spent the winters at her father's house on
Staten Island tmtil 1874 when, as she wished her daughter
to attend school in New York, Mr. Shaw bought her the
house No. 120 East Thirtieth Street. For many years she
used to return to Staten Island for the week ends, and fre-

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

quent visits were paid in summer to her husband's sister,
Mrs. George Putnam at her home at Ponkapog near
Boston. After the death of Mr. Shaw in 1882 her mother
rented the house next door, No. 118, and Uved there until
her death in 1902. The houses were made to connect on
the first floor, and there was constant going and coming ;
the three women, Mrs. Shaw, Mrs. Lowell, and her daugh-
ter were one family. A friend said of them "I had never
before been with people who talked over the affairs of city
and State exactly as they would those of their own family,
and on Decoration Daj', when the flag hung across the
doors of these two houses, one knew what it meant to the
women within."

Governor Tilden's appointment of Mrs. Lowell in 1876,
when she was only thirty-two years old, as the first woman
commissioner of the New York State Board of Charities,
came as a well merited recognition of the pubUc services
she had already performed; the circumstances which
obtained her this distinction are elsewhere described.
Mrs. Lowell accepted the appointment, and her official
position afjforded opportunities for the prosecution of her
work in a wider field. The publication and circulation
of her able reports as state papers, not only preserved
them in the archives of the Board, but also gained for
the writer increased influence and a larger following. Mrs.
Lowell was reappointed by Governor Cornell May 25,
1881, for a full term of eight years, at the close of which,
in 1889, she retired from the Board, to be free to take
up other work, notwithstanding the expressed wish of
her colleagues that she accept another term of office.

,-:(>

'}■

THE WORKER 53

No commissio: .er of the State Board of Charities ever
rendered more faithful and efficient service than did Mrs.
Lowell during the thiiteen years of her membership, and
her retirement was regarded by her associates as both
a personal and a pubhc loss.

Work, effective and continuous, was easy and natural
to Mrs. Lowell ; she was endowed with a strong constitu-
tion, and all her habits of life were such as to fit her for
instant response to any call for service ; she was an early
riser, and retired early, and no petty cares were allowed
to make demands upon her time. The years of her great-
est activity were before the drudgery of correspondence
and the preparation of papers had been diminished by the
assistance of the private stenographer ; and typewriting
machines and manifolding inventions, now in common
use, were then little known ; so she early learned to
rely entirely upon her own hand, and depended upon it
throughout her life. Her handwriting was large, rapid,
even, and strong, and the interlineations or erasures in
her letters or papers were few. By dint of constant
practice, she became a clear and concise writer, and to
the habit of logical and orderly statement, she soon added
an easy and finished hterary style. In a letter which she
wrote to her sister-in-law, Mrs. Shaw, on the last day of
1893, she said: "I have just counted the record of my
letters since January 1, 1893. I find this is the 1899th !
That's rather good for my own hand, isn't it? Or per-
haps bad? I only hope that half have been of some
use to somebody ! " Unfortunately for the success of the
task of the biographer Mrs. Lowell retained no copies of

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

the letters she wrote, and with the exception of the diary,
some manuscript papers, and a few letters addressed to her,
to which she attached special value, practically nothing
helpful in the preparation of this work was found at her
house and search for it elsewhere thus became necessary ;
she had evidently labored for daily results, entertaining no
idea, or refusing to be influenced by any, that her work
was of great historical interest and value, and that she was
really breaking a path in many fields of philanthropy.

The house. No. 120 East Thirtieth Street, which Mrs.
Lowell and her daughter occupied from 1874 until 1905,
was not large, having but two rooms on the first floor,
and it was her custom to receive visitors in the sitting
room which fronted on the street. Because the light
was better and room for her papers more abundant in the
dining room, in which her desk was placed, much of her
writing was done there ; she frequently received intimate
friends in this room, and many important consultations
were held there, while, in true womanly fashion, she used
to poke the fire, whose fitful hght illumined her noble face.
Good books were Mrs. Lowell's constant companions ; she
possessed a considerable library, and habitually read aloud
to her mother in the evenings. She had a lively sense of
humor, a gift so helpful when life is devoted to serious
work, laughed heartily, and would often lay aside her corre-
spondence to read aloud a comic story or an account of
some heroic act, and then resume her work. While not a
musician, she had an inherited love of good music, which
she cultivated, and frequently attended concerts ; she was
fond of the theatre, but always avoided tragedies.

THE WORKER

In her attendance at committee meetings, Mrs. Lowell
was absolutely punctual, coming just before the ap-
pointed hour, and wasting no time in unnecessary talk.
She had a retentive memory, which was strengthened by
careful training, and kept herself well informed upon
the sociological subjects of the day. Her vocabulary was
large, and although she was quite proficient in three
European languages, she never yielded to the temptation
to display superior knowledge by quotations from them,
but habitually and skilfully made use of the purest and
simplest English words she could find in which to express
her meaning. She had rare moral courage, being entu-ely
without either self-consciousness or fear ; and by practice
became a ready, fluent, and convincing speaker, equally
effective in persuasion on the platform of a great hall,
or with a friend by her own fireside. While she had
unusual gifts of eloquence at conomand, she was never eager
to speak, but if the subject under consideration was opened
by others, and progressed satisfactorily, was content to sit
with folded hands, and depart without opening her lips.
But if, on the contrary, the cause which she had come
prepared to advocate seemed in danger, she would seize
the first opportunity to speak, and earnestly take part in
the debate, in a manner which showed both her thorough
understanding and her preparation for the discussion.
She was a courteous and cheerful antagonist; and her
espousal of any cause generally carried it to victory.
During the Uves of her brothers-in-law, George Wilham
Curtis and General Barlow, she often consulted them
about her work, and it was her invariable custom to read

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

her papers to her mother and daughter, and to welcome
their suggestions and advice.

Her official position as a commissioner of the State
Board of Charities, and her long and active work for the
Charity Organization Society of the City of New York,
had identified Mrs. Lowell in the public mind as the friend
and promoter of organized and systematized public and
private charities ; but she nevertheless believed first in the
home, and its influence, and strongly disapproved of any-
woman undertaking public work, or charitable interests, un-
til even the smallest home duty had been fully discharged.
She was always at heart opposed to what is called insti-
tutionalism, and strove to preserve the home, stoutly
maintaining that even a poor home, if its conditions were
endurable, was preferable to a good institution ; and she her-
self never became institutionalized, as happens to so many
who are officially connected with charitable administration.

No self-interest entered into Mrs. Lowell's character ;
she lost herself in the people she loved, or whom she was
trying to help. Flattery could not touch her, and the
complimentary things which people said, or wrote about
her, made no apparent impression ; when she was a girl,
she was not indifferent to admiration, but after her hus-
band's death she did not hear its appeal. From that
time until the end of her life she was always dressed in
black, but did not wear crepe ; and her dresses, while sim-
ple, were always suitable for the occasion. Her hair was
neatly coiled quite close to her head, and not ungracefully,
for it was naturally slightly waved. Of medium height and
weight, and exceedingly refined in her personal appearance,

THE WOEJKER

SBn"

is*'*'

Mrs. Lowell was not beautiful, although her fine head, in-
telligent eyes and clear skin made her very attractive.
She was in everything feminine, and unhke many other
women who have attained prominence in pubhc affairs, she
never for a moment lost any of her womanly charm.

There was about Mrs. Lowell's home a simplicity which
made every one, rich or poor, feel welcome there, and it
was a sanctuary to many perplexed and troubled souls.
The arrangement of her rooms was such as to suggest,
to persons of small means, new ways to make their own
humble apartments more attractive. Mrs. Lowell was
not rich, as wealth is estimated now, but her circumstances
were comfortable. Although she had a fine sense of beauty
she cared little for the personal possession of things,
futilities they seemed to her, and allowed herself no
extravagances; so, as her wants were few, her income
proved more than sufficient for her needs, and she always
had something to give, when her heart and judgment im-
pelled her to open her purse. Had she restrained her hand,
she might have ridden in her own carriage ; but she pre-
ferred to give to worthy objects, and contentedly walked
or rode in the street-cars, as she went busily about the
great city, whose streets she trod so long. Full well she
reaUzed the truth of Joaquin Miller's lines ' :

For all you can hold in your cold dead hand,
Is what you have given away.

The simple charm of Mrs. Lowell's daily life was re-
flected in her personality. Her step was quick and firm,

' From his memorial poem to Peter Cooper, 1791-1883, phil-
anthropist and founder ot Cooper Institute, New York.

■■■■^

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

and all her movements so well adjusted as to show the
full control exercised over her body by her mind. Even
toward the end of her life, her eyes were bright and sym-
pathetic, and her abundant brown hair only faintly tinged
with gray ; her skin remained fresh and clear as a girl's ;
and some one beautifully said of her face "that it always
seemed like an alabaster vase with the Ught shining
through." She was sweet with an inward peace, and
strong for any task.

In her religious beUef Mrs. Lowell was firm and sincere,
but liberal and without bigotry. She was brought up in
and always held to the Unitarian faith, and while living
on Staten Island attended regularly the little Unitarian
church at Sailors' Snug Harbor.

Here her brother-in-law, George WiUiam Curtis, for
many years conducted the simple services when there
was no pastor. " This service," says her daughter, " was,
I think, more congenial to my mother than any other.
She was a great beUever in going to church and always
went wherever she was." She made the Sabbath a day
of rest, except when work seemed to her an evident duty ;
and chose such recreations for the day as did not involve
the labor of others. Throughout her life she loved to
read the Bible.

An aristocrat by birth and culture, all doors to which
these qualifications give entrance were open to Mrs.
Lowell, but she went seldom into general society, pos-
sibly because experience of it had taught her that the
time might be better employed, and moved only in the
higher aristocracy of usefulness. She was democratic

THE WORKER

by nature and training, and was content to live and
work with everyday people, whose names did not ap-
pear in the social columns of the daily papers. It was
not only Mrs. Lowell's to do, but to inspire ; she was a
quickening spirit, and breathed the breath of life into
many others. And she was always a spur — sometimes
an uncomfortable, pricking spur — to the laggard; and
she was a standard-bearer to those who tried to lead.

Always reticent in personal matters, few except the
members of her own family knew of the attack of a painful
and mortal disease, which advanced steadily until, after
a few months of uncomplaining suffering, she passed to
her reward. The rector of Grace Church, Dr. William
Reed Huntington, conducted the funeral service at her
residence,' and she was buried beside her husband in
Moimt Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge. Left a widow
at twenty for her country's sake, Mrs. Lowell had for
forty years, with consecrated purpose, waged a continual
battle against ignorance, vice, and crime ; and in the effort
to right the wrong had unflinchingly, with clear eyes and
a tender heart, followed where duty seemed to lead. This
was a sure preparation for her saintly and heroic end.
We who shared in her work now hold her in loving and
thankful remembrance.

One of the most interesting, significant, and hopeful
phenomena of the nineteenth century is the birth and
growth of organized philanthropy. The history of this
world movement will some day be written, and the his-

' Shortly before Mrs. Lowell's death, she moved to 43 East SLxty-
fourth Street because the erection of high business buildings had shut
out the light and air from her residence in Thirtieth Street.

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

THE WORKER

torian cannot fail to make prominent mention in it of
five women, all of the English-speaking race, leaders in
as many benevolent crusades, whose humane activities
were embraced within its span.

Elizabeth Fry,' under whose dauntless leadership the
prisons and jails of Great Britain were reformed in its
opening years, will first command his praise. Nor mil
he neglect to pay tributes to the humane services of two
heroic women who simultaneously, toward the middle of
the century, successfully contended against official igno-
rance and neglect in hospital management. One of these
was Florence Nightingale,'' whose ministrations in the field
hospitals of the Crimea not only brought reUef to the thou-
sands of wounded and dying soldiers there, but also devel-
oped the profession through which women trained nurses
have come, with their skilled and gentle services, to cheer
and reUeve the sick and wounded, and comfort the dying of
the civilized world. The other was our own country-
woman Dorothea Lynde Dix,* the early apostle of State
care for the insane, whose labors in this cause were bi'ought
to a successful issue in twenty states and in Canada.

Of the women who rendered distinguished service to hu-
manity during the last quarter of the century, Octavia
Hill,'' the devoted English woman whose long, unselfish,
and intelligent efforts for the improvement of the homes

' Elizabeth Fry, an English Quaker minister and prison reformer,
1780-1845.

^ Daughter of William E. Nightingale of Derbyshire, England, 1820-
1910.

' Born in Worcester, Massachusetts, 1802 ; died. 1887.

* Still living at Marylebone Road, N. W. London, in^lQlO.

of the London poor, continued into the twentieth century,
have inspired an army of settlement workers to follow
in her footsteps, will surely receive the commendation
so richly deserved. On the shining roll will be emblazoned
also for generations yet unborn, the name and fame of the
"City's Saint" of New York, the story of some of whose
charitable undertakings this volume all too imperfectly
narrates. Should the judgment of the future historian
accord with the estimate now entertained by those best
acquainted with Mrs. Lowell's work, he will claim as her
most useful achievement the success of her long labors
to rescue the erring and feeble-minded of her sex. She
early recognized the temptations and dangers to which
young women of wayward tendencies or defective will
were exposed, all the more severe in the metropolis be-
cause of the swiftly changing social conditions, floodtide
of imnaigration, and congested population centering there,
and devoted years of her life to secure them refuges.

When, as the result of her indomitable championship
of their needs, the State of New York, in 1878 established
the first custodial asylima for feeble-minded women in the
United States, if not in the world, and in 1881 the first
house of refuge for women in the State, thus adopting
as wards of the State all young women of these classes
needing its care, Mrs. Lowell's greatest victory for hu-
manity was won. Since that time, other states and
countries, following the example set by New York, have
opened similar doors of hope and shelter to thousands of
young women, all of whom, and multitudes besides, have
reason to bless the name of Josephine Shaw Lowell.

CHAPTER V

Letters to Mrs. Robert Gould Shaw

For many years Mrs. Lowell carried on an affectionate
correspondence with her sister-in-law, Mrs. Robert Gould
Shaw — the Annie Haggerty of her girlhood diary, who
after long residence as an invalid abroad died in Boston
in 1907. Mrs. Shaw preserved many of Mrs. Lowell's
letters, from some of which extracts are here tran-
scribed, as they exhibit not only varying phases of her
character, but also give her opinion of some public
men, and explain her reasons for undertaking different
kinds of philanthropic work. A few other letters to Mrs.
Shaw are reserved for insertion in following chapters, for
which they seem particularly appropriate.

West New Brighton, June 17, 1878.
Dearest Annie :

I have got home today from what has been an interest-
ing and busy little journey of a week.

Last Monday I left here at eight and went, by train, to
Binghamton, arriving at 5 p.m. I at once procured a
buggy and went off two miles to visit an Inebriate Asylum
and stayed till eight, when the Superintendent drove me
back to my boarding house. Tuesday at nine I called
on a lady on business (about poorhouse work), and then
went off to a Convention of Superintendents of the Poor ;

LETTERS TO MRS. ROBERT GOULD SHAW 63

there were about a hundred, I should think, and I was

the sole and solitary woman ! They talked away until

twelve, when we scattered for dinner and returned at two

and stayed till five. There were some other ladies there

then, so it was pleasanter — in the morning I felt as Robbie

Barlow did once at the circus, when a great many guns

were fired off, and he kept ejaculating : " Oh, I wished I

hadn't came! I wished I hadn't came !"

At five I drove out to an Orphan Asylum, with one of

the Managers, and then to his house to tea and back again

to the convention, where again there were no other ladies,

and where I addressed the meeting on the subject of

tramps. A httle after ten the session came to an end, but

the next morning at nine, they were at it again and sat

until twelve. Then I got my dinner and at one went off

in a buggy to the Poorhouse and there remained for a

couple of hours — came back and took the train at 4 : 30

for Rochester to attend the meeting of the State Board of

Charities on Thursday. Luckily for me several of the

members were on the train, for we were left and never got

in until one o'clock a.m. ! Thursday we were in session

13 hours, with one hour for dinner and one for tea and I

got to bed about twelve o'clock. Friday I spent the

morning at a Reformatory and at 4 : 30 left for Syracuse,

reaching there at 7, when I went straight to the asylum

— went all over the house and saw the children in bed.

Next day I was up at six and saw them at breakfast and

after breakfast I went all over the institution and saw the

schools and left for New York at eleven and got to Thirtieth

St. at 7 P.M.

July 9, '82.
Dearest Annie :

Bob Minturn began to talk to a colored man on the »
horse-cars the other day at Cambridge and fou'- ' V j^a^j

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

been in Rob's regiment. He said: "Our Colonel wasn't
like dem colonels dat says: 'Now, boys, go and take
dat fort and I'll stay just hyar ' — No, our Colonel says :
' Now, boys, dere's Rebs in dat fort ; will you follow me ? '
And we pokes out our heads and says : 'Yes sah !'"

(Date missing. Written early in '85.)
Dearest Annie :

4c * * * * St: *

On the train coming from Albany Thursday, I had a
long talk with Theodore Roosevelt about poUtics. He
acknowledges that the best part of the Republican party
supported Cleveland, and I think his reasons for vot-
ing for Blaine are rather mixed, but he is so young
that he will get over the bad effect and will do good ser-
vice yet.

He said he couldn't help wishing he was " in the fight "
when he goes to Albany, but it was a wise thing to refuse
renomination under the circumstances, because, otherwise,
everybody would have said more even than they did that
it was his political ambition that dictated his course. He
is going to work in the State Charities Aid this winter
and do some writing. He has quite a literary turn, you
know. He says his baby is as sweet as can be. Anna
Roosevelt takes care of her. She is nearly a year old.

120 E. 30th St., Feb. 12, '88.
Dearest Annie :

Here during the week, at the Metropolitan Opera House,
we have been having the " Trilogy" and heaps of Boston
people have come on to hear them. I am going to give
you a list of the friends we had here yesterday. Friday,
Howard White slept here so he was at breakfast. At 10
— young lady from Iowa on business; at 11 — Amy

LETTERS TO MRS. ROBERT GOULD SHAW 65

White and Lucy Russell ; at 1 — Rose Howard (from
Brookline) she and Amy to lunch ; at 4 — Nannie Cod-
man ; at 4.30 — Mrs. Wister and two young cousins of
hers, McAllisters; at 5 — May Minturn and at 6 —
G. W. C. (Nannie, May and George to dinner) ; at 8 —
Rob Minturn; at 8.30— Mr. and Mrs. Burlingham —
and it was snowing and sleeting all day ! On Thursday
I had a very different kind of a day, but equally lively —
I will rehearse its history.

At 10.30 I went to our "Charity Woodyard" at 19th
Street and Ave. B., at 12 to 32 Nassau Street, to meet
Mrs. Barney from R. I. and four gentlemen of the Prison
Assn. to talk over Police Matron Law ; at 1.30 — to office
of my colleague, Mr. Stewart, and then to lunch with
him at a down town restaurant ; at 2.30 to the C. 0. S.
office and received "applicants" — at the same moment
came in two men from Canada and a man from Florida —
all three had come with money to look for work and had
spent it all and needed help ! At 4.30 — to my Com-
mittee meeting — two ladies and six men and most lively
discussions, and at 5.30 home ! I had a most interesting
day, of course.

George was here Tuesday night and again last night
on his way to and from Boston. He had been invited
to a dinner by the "Tavern Club" and had a beautiful
time. The members are all young professional men and
the only "old ones" were Charles Norton, Harry Lee,
Mr. Osgood, Henry Higginson, Uncle James Lowell and
George. Mr. Norton presided and made a most eulogistic
speech about George — as the principal guest — to this
George responded, and then Uncle James read a poem to
George, which is to be published soon. George says it is
"the greatest honor of his life." There was much clap-
ping and cheering and then music and then an end.

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

LETTERS TO MRS. ROBERT GOULD SHAW 67

March 18, '88.
Dearest Annie:

I have sent you some little accounts of our "BUzzard"
— and suppose your Semi-Weekly Evening Post will tell
you the story. It was really the most amazing storm
we have ever had here — Monday no one went down
town — there were no trains, no horse cars, no mail, no
way of getting out. May Minturn was in Philadelphia
(just to see Gertrude) meaning to come home Monday,
and it was not until Friday morning that she could come !
Edith was at the Codmans' in Boston and she has not
come yet. We had no milk from Monday to Friday, and
had to hve on condensed milk and were lucky to get that,
as our grocer went out of it Tuesday and the streets were
so packed with snow that it could not be brought up town.
However, now things are all right again — every one
turned to on Tuesday and the sidewalks were cleared and
on Wednesday all the gutters and culverts had been
opened and Thursday and Friday and Saturday the snow
had been melting pretty steadily. I was told that men
made from $10. to $20. on Tuesday shovelling snow, and
Mother paid $6. — for the work Monday, Tuesday and
Wednesday, in front of these little houses.

On Thursday George came up to pass the night and
we went that afternoon to the reception to Mr. Irving,
of which I send you an account. It was very interesting
and Mr. Irving appeared very well. George told us
thrilling tales of the storm on the Island — how one gentle-
man (Mr. K. his opposite neighbor) went to St. George
to take the morning boat, found none and stayed all
day at the station, the storm being too severe to go
home. And how another of our friends, who did get
to town earlier, was foolish enough to come back by a
late boat and spent the night at the station ! Anna was.

■"■fl

of course, most interested in the storm and could not re-
sist going out to do a little sweeping of the piazza in the
midst of it.

Have you followed the new Emperor's '■ course with the
pleasure that we feel? It is a most pathetic situation,
isn't it — this man under sentence of death, working to
do what he can in the short time before him — it gives
all he does and says a sacredness.

March 3, '89.

Dearest Annie:

*******

Today is Mr. Cleveland's last day as President, a real
misfortune to this counti-y, I truly believe. He has stood,
a firm rock, opposed to the folly and extravagance of
Congress and his very last veto (of a bill to pay back to
the states a war tax of 1861 !) is perfectly splendid — so
wise and clear and full of principle. He is a great man
and a true patriot.

Naples, May 7, '92.

Dearest Annie :

We took the most beautiful drive to Sorrento. The
weather was heavenly and the blue sky and blue mountains
were like a dream, so soft, so misty, so indescribable.
The two girls were enchanted with Sorrento and we stayed
there until Friday, taking the Capri excursion by steamer
Thursday. Our windows hung over the water almost,
and Venus set opposite to Vesuvius and into the Bay,
upon which the moon, from behind out of sight, cast a
most mysterious white light.

' Frederick III, Emperor of Germany, and King of Prussia, March
9-June 15, 188S.

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

Dearest Annie

Florence, May 21, '92.

We have been in Florence ten days now and I find it as
lovable as ever. We lived here two winters, once in the
Casa Ricasoli, now taken down, just at the corner of the
Carraja Bridge, and once in the Villa Lustrini, near the
Porta Romana, so I feel much at homo here. We are
now at the other end of the Bridge, on the North side, so
it is cool and lovely all day and we see the hills and the
Duomo and Campanile and the Palazzo Vecchio tower,
with the river at our feet. It is beautiful.

We go out in the afternoons here and drive in the en-
virons. Such beautiful views — the only drawback being
that our dinner is at seven and interferes with the sunset.
The other day we got them to give it to us at six and then
went to the Cascine in the train and then up to the Piazzale
Michael Angelo, near San Miniato. The City, lighted
under our feet, with the river glancing all through the
valley, was most beautiful.

Dearest Annie :

London, Sept. 3, '92.

You have seen that all our hopes were in vain and that
our dear George died on the 31st. George is an awful
loss to us. He has been a constant happiness to us for
more than thirty seven years — never a break or an
unpleasant thought or word has come between us. As
Lotta says : "Besides our loving him so much, he was the
hfe of eveiy thing."

Well, dearest Annie, Goodbye — it must be one loss
after another to the end — Goodbye.

LETTERS TO MRS. ROBERT GOULD SHAW 69

West New Brighton, Jan. 7, '93.
Dearest Annie :

Last Sunday, after I had written to you, Mr. Saint

Gaudens came down to look at Rob's pictures. He is

full of enthusiasm about the monument, which he has

decided is to be as follows : A great bas-reUef, 12 ft. X 14

ft., the background a mass of soldiers with muskets and

bayonets, and Rob on horseback riding beside them, his

figure and the horse pretty much fiUing the whole space,

life size.

March 5, 1893.

Dearest Annie :

Last night mother had an inauguration dinner, — Mr.
and Mrs. Charles S. Fairchild, her mother, Mrs. Lincklaen
(Gov. Seymour's sister) and Mrs. George Ward. We
had each a small flag, and coffee out of Uncle Sam Shaw's
Cincinnati cups. You know Mr. Fairchild took the most
prominent part in the movement against Hill last spring.
He told me that IVIrs. Fairchild started him by asking
him what he meant to do about it, and by her scorn when
he said he didn't know. He remarked that he had to go
out that evening, and she told him that he had better go
and stay until he found out what to do ! He thereupon
set to work and he and others gave the first impetus to
the great popular movement that nominated Cleveland.
He said when they came back from Chicago, Mr. Cleve-
land wrote him that the work of the convention "would
be the admiration of all men who believe in morals as a
force in politics, and the wonder of all who do not."

120 E. 30th St., Nov. 26, '93.
Dearest Annie :

Mr. Saint Gaudens was delighted to find the photo-
graphs of Dick, and said he was just the horse he wanted,

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

and he thought Rob's pictures were beautiful. He very-
much wants a suit of clothes — have you any ? Coat,
trousers, shoes, would all be useful. Mother has only
the cap and overcoat, you know. He was much pleased
to have the little photograph with you, because it shows
the whole figure and the proportions. He says Rob was
always a great hero of his, and that he feels that this is
the best chance he shall ever have to do anything great.
Mother did not like the idea of having a monument, you
know, but she is very much pleased, likes Mr. Saint
Gaudens (who is very simple and luiaffected) and also
the little rough sketch he has made for the monument.
I wish Father could have seen it — he would have been
pleased, too, I am sure.

Dearest Annie

Feb. 25, '94.

I wonder if you are much distm-bed about the bomb-
throwers? What a crazy, dreadful set of creatures, and
how all the newspaper talk only serves to set off some other
lunatic to do the same thing. Certainly the modern
newspaper is a verj'' "mixed good." The view a reporter
takes of things is generally the wrong view, but it helps
to make public opinion. Well, there's no use talking
about it — only I am glad you and Aunt Anna Greene do
not take your dinner at a caf6.

120 East 30th St., Sept. 25, '98.
Dearest Annie :

We (I especially) are most intensely interested in
Theodore Roosevelt's campaign for Governor — it is a
misfortune that it is a "machine" nomination, but the
fact is that the popular demand forced it on the machine,
■ind it really is a triumph over Flatt, although he supports

LETTERS TO MRS. ROBERT GOULD SHAW 71

■^

it. Mr. Roosevelt has done great service in every place
he has held, and his moral tone acts like a tonic wherever
he is. He has tremendous force and life in httn, and many
people, who never do anything themselves, complain of
him as lacking "judgment," but I think the results of
his action show that he has been pretty nearly right
every time. I have a great respect and admiration for
him in every way. For six years he was U. S. Civil
Service Commissioner and did fine work, and it is said
that Dewey's victory at Manilla was due to his orders when
Assistant Secretary of the Navy. '

CHAPTER VI

Work for the State Charities Aid Association

The patriotic work of the Woman's Central Relief
Association, an auxiliary of the United States Sanitary
Commission, in which Miss Louisa Lee Schuyler, Josephine
Shaw, Miss Ellen Collins, Miss Gertrude Stevens, and
others were engaged, has already been mentioned. Soon
after the close of the war, many of its contributing societies
in New York State were reorganized as Visiting Com-
mittees for the public charitable institutions, under the
leadership of Miss Schuyler, and many of the active mem-
bers of the Relief Association interested themselves in
this new work. From these Visiting Committees as a
nucleus, the State Charities Aid Association was formed in
1872. Mrs. Lowell immediately joined the new Associa-
tion, and soon afterwards, in 1873, became a member of
the Richmond County Visiting Committee. From 1875
to 1876 she was successively member, secretary, and chair-
man of one of the Association's four Standing Committees,
— that on "Adult able-bodied paupers," which had head-
quarters in New York City. She was also in 1876 elected
a member of the Executive Committee.

The Richmond County Poorhouse near Castleton, on
Staten Island, was not far from her home, and Mrs. Lowell
made herself familiar by frequent visits with its condition,
and gave her practical sympathy continuously to its aged

'A3

THE STATE CHARITIES AID ASSOCIATION 73

inmates, among whose average population, at that time of
about one hundred, there were a dozen or more insane,
and an occasional idiot, epileptic, or blind person.

Under her chairmanship of the Committee on "Adult
able-bodied paupers," the following resolution was adopted :

"That an investigation be made as to the methods,
expenses, extent and results of poor law administration
and relief in the several towns in the County of West-
chester, with a view of ascertaining how near the same
come to the greatest practical efficiency and economy,
and that the investigation extend over a period of ten years
last pa.st."

The time to be covered by this investigation was
afterwards changed to include the years from 1864 to
1873, and the burden of the work of making the investiga-
tion devolved upon Mrs. Lowell, who also wrote the
report for the committee. When the work of gathering
statistics was undertaken, in part by local correspondents,
and in part by special agents, it was found that contrary
to the express provisions of the law no records were kept
in most of the towns of the amount spent for outdoor
relief, or of the persons relieved, though the amounts
appropriated, as shown by the reports of the Supervisors,
were very considerable.

In regard to the entertainment of tramps, grave abuses
were discovered. Although the methods varied in detail
in the different towns, it was everywhere true that tramps
were lodged at public expense, and that the oflScial profits
of the overseers bore a direct relation to the number
reUeved. Mrs. Lowell in her report says :

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

"Each overseer is thus a centre of pauperism and va-
grancy and his interests are directly opposed to tliose of
every other member of the community, the paupers and
vagrants included, though they may not think so. . . .
The only persons who have any official relations with
pauperism and vagranc.y are constantly under temptation
to foster these evils."

The report suggests that the remedy may be found in a
change in the character and position of the overseers,
and maintains that the persons receiving aid directly from
these officials should not help to elect them, that their
term of office should be long enough to enable them to
gain some experience, and that their compensation should
not depend upon the number of paupers and vagrants
whom they can collect around them. This conclusion,
based upon the conditions found to exist in Westchester
County, is confirmed and supported by letters from
Superintendents of the Poor of various other counties,
to whom the Committee appealed for opinions.

Although Mrs. Lowell was unavoidably absent, her
report was presented and read at the Fourth Annual
Meeting of the State Charities Aid Association, held in
Masonic Temple, on the corner of Twenty-third Street
and Sixth Avenue, on February 24, 1876. The President
of the Association at this time, and until 1882, was
Miss Louisa Lee Schuyler; but she yielded the chair-
manship of the annual meeting to the distinguished
leader of the New York bar of that day, Mr. Charles
O'Connor, just then recovered from a dangerous illness.
A newspaper report of the meeting in a city paper of the

THE STATE CHARITIES AID ASSOCIATION 75

following day observes that the large and hrilUant audience
feared that the great lawyer might not be able to come.
"But this fear was dispelled before eight o'clock by the
appearance at the foot of the central aisle of Mr. O'Connor,
accompanied by Governor Tilden, Dr. Austin Fhnt, Jr.,
and Mr. Joseph H. Choate. As soon as the audience was
fully aware of his presence, it greeted him with a round of
hearty applause." Continuing its report of the meetmg,
the paper noted the presence on the platform, besides
those named, of Howard Potter, Benjamin H. Field,
James Roosevelt, John Crosby Brown, Alexander Hamil-
ton, Jr., George L. Schuyler, Robert J. Livingston, Theo-
dore Roosevelt, member of the State Board of Charities,
President Barnard of Columbia College, and others.

After brief introductory addresses by Mr. Potter, Vice
President of the Association, and Mr. O'Connor, in which
the objects of the association were commended and the
public invited to further its philanthropic work, the princi-
pal address was delivered by Mr. Choate, afterward, from
1895 to 1899, President of the Association, and reelected to
that office in December, 1905, upon his return from Eng-
land. In the course of his remarks, he congratulated the
Association upon the presence on the platform of the dis-
tinguished reform governor, and in the inimitably smooth,
serio-comic vein for which he was ah-eady famous, said
of him :

"If like Alexander, he is seeking new worlds to con-
quer, and new rings to break, why, if he will lend us
his ears we can show him foemen worthy of his steel.
We can point hun out hospital rmgs, and poorhouse rings,

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

rings of overseers of the poor with tramps whom they will
entertain, rings of able-bodied paupers in all the counties
of the 8tute." Changing his tone to one entirely serious
he continued; "The association found what is known
as the poorhouse system a gross, degrading, abominable
system of plague spots — nothing less, dotted throughout
the State, one assigned to each of the sixty counties.
Children and abandoned women, the old and the young,
the rich and the poor, the sane and the insane, the innocent
and the criminal, huddled and jumbled together into these
poorhouses, to the complete and utter degradation and de-
struction of all of them. They found too, throughout the
State, able-bodied paupers as if by special legislative en-
actment, fostered by the good treatment they receive ; they
found millions, actually millions of money, distributed in
outdoor relief, wasted, thrown away upon the undeserving.

"Now we come next to the subject of able-bodied
paupers. That is a grand historical subject. I do not
understand how these women grappled with it. I can
see very well how Mr. Roosevelt, or Mr. Schultz, might
undertake to grapple with one sturdy beggar. But here
the curiosity of women, that unfailing tower of strength,
comes in. They propo.sed to find out the facts, and in the
masterly report read here tonight, signed by Mrs. Lowell,
you have the whole subject.

"What do we find in this report of Mrs. Lowell ? That
tramps and able-bodied paupers are encouraged in their
idleness in this State. Hotels, open houses, are kept
for them by overseers, ring politicians who dispense
the public money in such a way as to encourage tramping.
These overseers have a motive for this; they are paid
so much a head for every tramp they entertain. If they
give a tramp a ten cent breakfast, they draw twenty
cents from the State. It turns out that they have realized

THE STATE CHARITIES AID ASSOCIATION 77

from this source in Westchester County more than the
average county doctor or average lawyer in that county !
Well, it is no wonder that tramps are numerous."

It requires little stretch of the imagination, even after
the lapse of thirty years, to think what must have been
the effect upon the audience, when, toward the conclusion
of his address, Mr. Choate remarked: "The Association
is adopting Mr. Greeley's views and saying to the tramps
'Go West.' Let them go to Montana, and Colorado,
and New Mexico, and Washington, and Oregon. The soil
is pining for them ; the forests are waving them a welcome ;
the rivers are waiting to wash their feet."

Shortly after this meeting. Governor Tilden, who had
been deeply impressed by Mrs. Lowell's paper and her
personality, appointed her to a vacant seat on the State
Board of Charities, whereupon her official work as a
member of the Association terminated.

Many years later, in 1895, Mrs. Lowell deUvered the
foUowing hitherto unpubUshed address, to the members of
the State Charities Aid Association, in which she described
the evils existing in 1872 in the poorhouses and jails of
New York.

County Visiting Committees
Our great national sin, slavery, was answerable for
manifold and various evils, among others for the bar-
barous condition of the poorhouses and jails of our country,
so far behind those of other civiUzed nations. The thirty
years during which reforms were steadily growing else-
where, were here devoted by the reformers to the one

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

great fight ; it absorbed all their time and strength, and
meanwhile all lesser evils took firm root.

As soon as the war was over, however, and strength
could be gathered for fresh work, these lesser evils were
attacked, and in this State especially, the very men and
women who had contended against slavery, and who later
had "enlisted for the war" under the Sanitary Commis-
sion were gathered together again by their old leaders for
the new fight.

The reports made of the condition of the poorhouses of
New York in the fifties and sixties seem scarcely credible
— insane men and women, chained naked in outhouses ;
children born, growing up and bringing forth more chil-
dren in the poorhouses ; the sick, the insane, the idiots,
the babies, men, women and children, all together, with
no care and no control ; the whole thing was frightful.

The decent people living in the counties in which these
horrors existed knew nothing of them ; never for a mo-
ment felt that they had any obligation towards the poor
creatures within those dreadful buildmgs, or any interest
m cutting ofT the stream of misery, pauperism, vice and
crime that had its rise within their walls. The State had
been roused and shocked by the horrors depicted by Dr.
Willard and Miss Dix, to the point of establishing an
asylum for the chronic insane,' but very much the same
things went on, after the asylum was full to overflowing,
the individual sufferers only being changed, and the
pubUc was quite satisfied that its duty was done.

' The Willard Asylum, established 1865, at WiUard, Seneca County,
New York, and opened October 13, 1869.

'-5
I

THE STATE CHARITIES AID ASSOCIATION 79

The State Board of Charities was established in 1867,
and among its manifold duties was that of visiting the
county poorhouses once in every two years. There were
fifty-eight poorhouses and only eight Commissioners,
but nevertheless they have done good service in discover-
ing and reporting many fearful evils. Still their work
would have been slow indeed had not Miss Louisa Lee
Schuyler organized the State Charities Aid Association
to carry on a more constant, thorough and continued at-
tack tlirough its County Visiting Committees.

Beginning with her own county of Westchester in
January, 1872, and the Bellevue Visiting Committee for
New York, before the Association itself was formed. Miss
Schuyler established a system, which during the past
twenty-three years Has done untold good and been the
cause of an incalculable gain to the State and its people
in many different ways.

The plan was a simple one : to form in each county a
local committee for the purpose of visiting the county
poorhouse, encouraging county officials in a conscientious
discharge of their duties, detecting and remedying wrongs,
securing the moral and physical welfare of the inmates
and gradually bringing the whole poorhouse administra-
tion up to a civilized standard, which I think it safe to
say was nowhere found in this State in the year 1872 or
for many long years thereafter.

The worst poorhouse I ever saw myself was in one of
the central counties of the State, and an irresistibly
grotesque element was added to its horrors by the naive
hospitality with which the good-natured superintendent

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

showed us the sights ; from the very clean dairy, of which
he wavS proud, to the filthy bunk, of which he was not
ashamed, where "John pigged in" as he expressed it.
"Yen," he explained, as he poked at the bundle of rags
covering John, "he's half-witted and he'll swear awful
if you stir him up. — Here! John! John!" Then as
we hurriedly escaped from John and the broken plaster,
black laths and Ijedbugs of the poorhouse itself, into the
yard surrounded by broken-down outhouses, and asked
about a miserable family, man, woman and three young
children sitting there, he answered: "Oh! they've been
here about four or five years. Oh, yes, them children, the
two littlest was born here."

It was evident that he had no doubts in regard to any
part of his dominion, and no idea that there was room or
reason for improvement. In many poorhouses, to this
condition of things was added also neglect and cruelty,
and it has been a long and weary task, not yet finished,
to instruct local public opinion as to what common decency
and common sense demand in a poorhouse, and to arouse
public opinion to secure it. As usual, in our unhappy
State, "politics" is at the bottom of these evils as of most
others, and this too has rendered the task of the local
Committees much harder to accomplish.

But in 1893, after twenty-one years of work, the Associ-
ation was able to write concerning its County Visiting
Committees :

"The central idea of the State Charities Aid Association
is the visitation of public charitable institutions by unpaid,

To this end it aims to organize

iSf

:l^

•^•,-

unofficial local visitors.

THE STATE CHARITIES AID ASSOCIATION 81

in every county a Local Visiting Committee, unsectarian,
non-partisan, composed of both men and women, includ-
ing representatives of various professions and occupa-
tions, thus claiming fairly to represent the people of the
county, and collectively the people of the entire State.
In forty-eight of the sixty counties of the State there now
exist such Visiting Committees, with a roll of seven hun-
dred and fifty members. During the ten months ending
September 30, 1893, thirty-two committees have made
two hundred and twenty-five visits to the poorhouses and
almshouses of the State, exclusive of the very large num-
ber of visits made by the Committee of New York County.
These figures can convey but little impression of the work
which they represent. To appreciate theii- real meaning
one must accompany a group of these workers on their
visit to the poorhouse, note the minuteness and thorough-
ness of their examinations, the evident harmony and spirit
of cooperation that exists between those in charge of the
institutions and the visitors, the brightness which lights
up the faces of the inmates as one by one they are pleas-
antly greeted by the \dsitors with kindly words and often
presented with a paper or book, the consultation between
the visitors and those in charge as to what should be done
with some new arrival whose case deserves special atten-
tion, how this or that difficulty may be adjusted, and
observe that evils that cannot be remedied under exist-
ing conditions are noted by the secretary and reported
to the Central Association. Bearing in mind that these
visits are made by these same people at varying intervals
throughout the year, and that in forty-seven other coun-
ties this sort of work is being done with more or less
regularity, we may thus form a truer conception of the
tremendous step that has been taken by the State Charities
Aid Association, not only toward bringing the public

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

charitable institutions to a high standard of efficiency
but also toward bridging the chasm between the fortunate
and the^most unfortunate, toward developing that truest
01 all chanty, personal interest in persons.

'At the time of the organization of the Association, in
.1872, so many flagrant evils existed in the almhouses, the
results of bad systems and no oversight, that the work
of the committees was in many cases necessarily largely
in the line of correcting active abuses of various kinds
At the present time it may be said that in most of the
counties comparatively little remains to be done in this
hne. The removal of the insane and the children has done
away with the occasion of many of the most serious evils
Ihere has also been a steady improvement in the con-
struction and arrangement of buildings, the separation
ol the sexes, cleanliness of inmates and provision for read-
ing and amusement. Much indeed remains to be done
but in only rare cases is it in the line of correcting the old-
time abuses. For this reason there has been a tendency
on the part of a few of the committees to relax their efforts
and cease visiting, or to visit less frequently. In most
cases, however, a broader view of the work is being taken.
The merely negative side of the work of visitation and
inspection is, after all, the least important. A wide and
ever increasing field of positive constructive work opens
before such a body of local workers in every county The
study of the causes of dependency through the history of
individual inmates, which in some counties has been un-
dertaken, leads to a truer conception of the real nature of
the poorhouse and who should be its inmates, and a deeper
sense of personal responsibility for the well-being of the
merely unfortunate inmate and the reformation, if possible,
ot the pauper. Such a sense of personal responsibility
may find a wide field for exercise not only in the improve-

THE STATE CHARITIES AID ASSOCIATION 83

ment of the lot of the inmates of the poorhouse, but also
in the visitation and supervision of dependent children
who have been placed in famiUes by officials, the after-
care of the insane, and, in general, a personal oversight
and befriending of all who for any reason have needed
special care or treatment, which has, for the time, deprived
them of normal relations to family, home and- neighbor-
hood."

One very encouraging and interesting fact in regard to
the visiting committees is that their personnel has con-
tinued without great change, except by death or change
of residence, from the time of their organization.

Besides then- own work of visiting the poorhouses,
many of these committees have become the centres of
local charitable work, and many individual members having
been led first by their membership in these committees
to study the grave questions of pauperism and crime,
have extended their work in other directions, accomplish-
ing good in fields outside and far removed from those
nominally covered by the work of the State Charities
Aid Association.

The founding of the Working Girls' Clubs by Miss Grace
Dodge is one of the most interesting instances of this, and
also the establishment of the Hospital Book and News-
paper Society, and the society for Instruction in First Aid
to the Injured ; the establishing of the Bellevue Training
School for Nurses by the Hospital Committee of the New
York County Committee of the Association is directly in
the line of the work of the State Charities Aid Associa-
tion, and has blessed many people who never heard

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

of the State Charities Aid Association, never saw,
and never will see, the inside of a public institution even
as visitors, while it has conferred untold benefits upon
the inmates of hospitals all over the country. The
work of the Bellevue Visiting Committee began in L872,
some months before the Association itself, and it was after-
wards called the New York County Committee, it has
perhaps done more work and accomplished more results
than all the other county committees combined, leaving
out those for Kings and Erie counties which have had,
of course, kindred problems to solve.

At the time that the Bellevue Committee first entered
on its work, I remember well the scorn with which two
young physicians, both internes of the hospital, spoke to
me of the folly of those "silly women," who expected to
accomplish any reforms in Bellevue ; one of them adding :
"To begin with, no decent woman ought to be seen inside
the gates." Pardon me if I pause here to protest against
this curious but common masculine argument — that men
and indecent women may freely associate anywhere, but
no "decent woman" is to enter in, even to save and re-
form.

But to return to Bellevue, I remember also hearing Dr.
James Wood (who, for thirty years, with other leading
physicians, had held official positions in the Hospital,
while not one of them, apparently, had ever attempted
any reform) describe the condition of things in the past.
He said: "We could not prescribe stimulants, for the
pauper nurses drank them all, -indeed they used to
dnnk the alcohol out of the spechnen bottles — and one

THE STATE CHARITIES AID ASSOCIATION 85

morning during a typhus epidemic, when I went early to
the hospital, I found in one ward three corpses in the beds
among the sick, and the nurses all drunk on the floor."

These were the kind of women, too, who were taking
charge of the hundreds of children, sick and well, living on
Randall's Island under the fostering care of the city when
the Randall's Island Visiting Committee was formed in
February, 1873, and the "Children's Law," of 1875,
removing children from poorhouses and forbidding them
being received in them, was the result of this Committee's
work in conjunction with the State Board of Charities.

But I need not go on ; time would fail me to tell of all
the work done by the New York and Kings County Visit-
ing Committees and the Visiting Committees of the
County Poorhouses.

The point to be dwelt on is that there still remains any
quantity of work to do ; that the State Charities Aid
Association has hundreds of trained and intelligent volun-
teers, ready to do it ; that they need, however, the sup-
port, moral and financial, of the great body of their fellow-
citizens, whom they are serving and whose interests they
are defending.

As Mrs. Lowell shows in this paper, conditions in
the almshouses and other charitable and reformatory
institutions of New York State a generation ago were
such as to give ample employment for the reforma-
tory efforts, not only of the State Board of Charities,
but also of the State Charities Aid Association, and
other private philanthropic agencies, all earnestly seek-

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

mg, each as best it might, to raise the standai'd of care
for tlie sick, unfortunate, and delinquent wherever they
were found. Early in the field, and always ably led bv
devoted men and women, the work of the State Chari-
ties Aid Association has prospered, and it has rendered
many important public services, which it is a pleasiu-e to
acknowledge here.

£ i

f '^1

i ii

i'1'

CHAPTER VII

The State Refoematory for Women at Hudson

When Mrs. Lowell took her seat as a member of the
State Board of Charities, April 29, 1876, John V. L. Pruyn
of Albany was President of the Board. Early and
interesting evidence of the promptness and sympathetic
intelligence with which she entered upon her official
work is shown by the following letter addressed only a
few days after her appointment, and before she had yet
attended a meeting, to Commissioner Letchworth, of the
Eighth District, then Vice President of the Board.

West New Brighton, May Ibth, '76.
My dear Mr. Letchworth :

I am glad to see that you object to the prisonlike charac-
ter of some of our reformatories. I was shocked at the
cells and general jail look of parts of the House of Refuge.
It can never be a fit place for young children and ought
to be converted into a juvenile prison, which it really
is now.

I have never thanked you for your kind note of welcome
to the State Board of Charities. I hope I shall be able
to be useful.

The hope that her services might be useful was more
fully realized by her work in and out of the State Board
than any mortal knows, and indicated the dominant pur-
pose of her life.

••■ 87

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

She immediately began a series of thorough inspections
of the jails, penitentiaries, and almshouses to which at
that time young women were committed as criminals,
vagrants, or paupers, and familiarized herself with con-
ditions in those institutions. She also began a pains-
taking inquiry into the treatment of young criminals and
vagrants in other states of this country, in England, and
in the countries of continental Europe.

Within less than a year Mrs. Lowell was prepared to lead
in a crusade for refoimed methods of caring for young
women of the delinquent and vagrant classes, and pre-
sumably at her instance, a bill was introduced in the Legis-
lature of 1877, "To provide for the custody and reformatory
treatment of vagrants." This bill was considered by the
State Board at a meeting held June 14, 1877, and on
motion of Mrs. Lowell, it was

"Resolved, That the act to provide for custody and re-
formatory treatment of vagrants be referred to a committee
of this board to consider, and that they suggest such legis-
lation on that subject as they deem expedient, and report
at the next meeting of the board."

Pursuant to this resolution, a committee of three was
appointed with Mrs. Lowell as chairman. The minutes
of the Board omit the names of her associates. This
committee at the next meeting of the Board, held Septem-
ber 7, presented two reports, Mrs. Lowell submitting that
of the majority; the Board, having considered both re-
ports, added Commissioners Foster and Donnelly to the
committee, thus increasing its membership to five, and

THE STATE REFORMATORY FOR WOMEN 89

instructed the committee to report at the next meeting
of the Board.

Meanwhile Mrs. Lowell continued her work in the
institutions and with her pen, and when the Board met
January 3, 1878, presented a "Report on pauperism in
regard to vagrant, feeble-minded, and idiotic inmates of
the almshouses of the State." The Board received the
report and ordered one thousand copies printed. The
minutes of this meeting contain no reference to any
report by the committee of five. At the meeting of
March 14, 1878, the Board approved the report on va-
grancy, above mentioned, and adopted the following
resolution :

"Whereas, The poorhouses and jails of the several coun-
ties of this State contain a large number of vagrant, dis-
orderiy and idle persons for whose employment no ade-
quate provision is made, therefore,

" Resolved, That the Legislature be and is hereby re-
quested to provide for the establishment of workhouses for
the detention and employment of these classes, and for
such able-bodied vagrants known as tramps, as are not
provided for by the proposed amendments to the State
Pauper Law, and to prohibit the commitment of able-
bodied persons of these several classes to poorhouses, jails
or other places of idle detention."

During the session of the Legislature of 1878, a bill was
introduced in the Senate which provided for the estabUsh-
ment of workhouses to which delinquent women might be
committed. This bill was noticed by Mrs. Lowell, who
always followed closely legislation affecting charities or
social subjects, brought to the attention of the State

■A

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

Board at a meeting held June 14, 1878, and on her
motion the following resolution was adopted :

"Resolved, That Senate Bill 322, year 1878, be referred
to a committee to be appointed by the President, with
directions to report at the next stated meeting."

Commissioners Lowell, Foster, and Ropes were there-
upon designated as such committee.

When the State Board met November 12, 1878, Mrs..
Lowell presented a report for the special committee
thus appointed. This report was considered of such
importance that, contrary to custom, it was ordered
printed in full in the minutes of that meeting.

The report, which bears Mrs. Lowell's signature alone,
opens with a statement that since the last meeting of the
Board the committee hud conferred with the Board of
Managers of the Elmira Reformatory, and after consider-
ing the view of that Board are of opinion :

"That the wisest course in regard to the great reform
contemplated by bill 322 is to press upon the Legislature
the necessity for a reformatory for women, and request the
passage this winter of a bill providing for the purchase of
a site for such an institution.

"The probability that the plan proposed of hiring
buildings and using them as workhouses for women,
would prove a failure, owing to the difficulty of finding
suitable buildings, has influenced your committee and in-
duced them to advocate placing the contemplated re-
formatory on a more permanent basis. It is better to
wait even many years, if that prove necessary, in order to
niake a good beginning, rather than to accept some half

THE STATE REFORMATORY FOR WOMEN 91

measure at once, and bring discredit on the whole plan
by failure."

Thus Mrs. Lowell, wise and watchful, defeated, single-
handed, an impracticable and ill-considered measure,—
one which, viewed from the present standpoint of the
ordinary student of applied philanthropy, seems ridiculous.
Included in this report was a proposed address to the
Legislatm-e which, Mrs. LoweU writing for the committee,
modestly said, "your committee has prepared, and asks
that it may be printed and transmitted to the Legislature."
It began by reminding the Legislature that by concurrent
resolution of May 27-29, 1873, it had "directed the State
Board of Charities to examine into the causes of the m-
crease of crime, pauperism and insanity in this State."
Mrs Lowell, close student of human natiure, withm and
without legislative halls, well knew that the Legislature
did not care to be told its duty, or to be addressed
on such uninteresting subjects as reformatory measures,
but that it did Uke to have its directions complied with
and respected. Having thus secured the attention of
the Legislature, the report referred to the examination
made, pursuant to this legislative resolution, by the Secre-
tary of the Board, with the assistance of some of the Com-
missioners, into the antecedents of every inmate of the
almshouses of the State, and reminded the Legislature,
that the results of this inquiry were submitted to the Leg-
islature in the tenth annual report of the Board (1877) , and
that "even a casual perusal of that report will convince the
reader that one of the most important and most dangerous
causes of the increase of crime, pauperism and insanity is

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

unrestrained liberty allowed to vagrant and degraded
women." Continuing, Mrs. Lowell gave the details of
many almshouse cases taken from the records, all showing
"too clearly what is the common fate of vagrant girls when
committed to our poorhouses."

The proposed address to the Legislature concludes as
follows :

"There are two distinct and separate objects to be
arrived at in dealing with these women : to reform them if
that be possible, but if that cannot be done, at least to cut
off the line of hereditary pauperism, crime and insanity
now transmitted mainly through them. Neither of these
objects can possibly be attained while this class of women
is left under the control of county authorities, whose
action is necessarily, from the constant change of individual
officers, spasmodic and uncertain.

"No argument can be advanced against the policy of
withdrawing this class of offenders from the care of local
officials, that will not be equally strong against the prac-
tice of maintaining certain classes of criminals by the
State. State prisons were established, no doubt, because
it was found that no local machinery was fitted to cope
with the more dangerous offenders against law and order.
The incompetency of local machinery to deal with habitual
offenders of what is supposed to be a less dangerous type,
is equally proved by the facts quoted above.

"In order to grapple with this gigantic evil and to
stop the increase of pauperism, crime and insanity in
this community, a reformatory for women, under the
management of women, governed on the same principles
as those which control the managenent of the State Re-
formatory at Elmira is required.

" We therefore, strongly urge the passage of a bill provid-

;?■

'<■ , 9,

t "-^

W f

^■r

THE STATE REFORMATORY FOR WOMEN 93

ing for the selection of a site, and the adoption of plans
for such an institution."

Mrs. Lowell wrote, and she alone signed, as chairman, the
foregoing report, whereupon "discussion ensued" in the
State Board upon the report with its proposed address
to the Legislature, and it was accepted, ordered printed
in the minutes and considered at the next stated meeting.
The minutes of the State Board show that on January 15,
1879,

"Commissioner Ropes called up the special order,
being the report of the Committee on Senate Bill 322

(year of 1878).

" Commissioner Lowell offered the following :
" Resolved, That the report of the Committee on a re-
formatory for women be accepted, and the address to the
Legislature contained therein be adopted by the Board,
prmted and transmitted to the Legislature and that
the substance of it be also incorporated in the annual

report.

" Commissioner Miller moved the followmg amendment :

" Strike out all after the word ' resolved' and insert ' That

the report of the Committee on Reformatory for Women

be accepted and adopted, the Committee discharged and

the report published as an attached paper m the annual

report.'

" Discussion ensued.

" The President put the question on the adoption ot
Commissioner MUler's amendment and it was decided m

the affirmative. , ■, ^- t ,.u

" The President put the question on the adoption ot tne
resolution as amended, and it was decided in the affirma-
tive."

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

The State Board was evidently not inclined to follow
Mrs. Lowell's lead at that time, in her crusade for a
woman's reformatory, if this took it into legislative halls.
The discharge of the Committee relieved it from further
consideration of this subject, but Mrs. Lowell's belief
in the righteousness of her cause was not diminished, and
she continued her propaganda. At a Board meeting held
September 10, 1879, on motion of Commissioner Lowell,
it was

"Resolved, That a committee be appointed to prepare
a paper upon the subject of a State reformatory for
women for the annual report, to be presented at the next
meeting,"

and the President appointed Commissioner Lowell as
such committee. The report thtxs called for was presented
and read by Mrs. Lowell, at a Board meeting held January
13, 1880, and ordered printed in the annual report of the
Board, as an appended paper.

How hard Mrs. Lowell must have worked, for the thou-
sands of young women whose cause, all unknown to them,
she was championing with such ardor ! Within six months
she prepared two papers, "One Means of Preventing Pau-
perism and Crime" and "Reformatories for Women," both
duected to the same object, — the removal of all young
women from the almshouses of the counties and then- fu-
ture care in suitable State institutions. They are so char-
acteristic of the wi'iter and her style, and were so helpful
in bringing about the great reform she advocated in chari-
table administration, and the establishment of the State
reformatories at Hudson, Albion, and Bedford, and of the

1 -■
I 1

THE STATE REFORMATORY FOR WOMEN 95

custodial asylums at Newark and Rome, that liberal
quotations are made from them.

The first of these papers to be published, "One
Means of Preventing Pauperism," was written for the
National Conference of Charities and Correction at
Chicago, June 12, 1879, and before the Conference as-
sembled, Mrs. Lowell addressed to the President of the
Board, who attended it, the following letter :

120 E. 30th Street, June 7th, '79.
My dear Mr. Letchworth :

I have written a paper for the Conference which I
should have sent to you had I been quite sure of your
address. Being unwilling to risk its non-arrival, I have
mailed it to Mr. F. H. Wuies, Grand Pacific Hotel,
Chicago, and hope it will arrive safely. Will you be so
kind as to inquire of him if he has it and see that the right
thing is done with it ?

It is, of course, on the subject of a reformatory for
women, and if it is printed by the Conference of Charities,
I shall want a thousand copies struck off for use m our
next campaign! If it is not printed, I shall have it
printed myself, I think, and therefore it is important
for me to know what disposition is made of it. May I
ask you to "keep an eye" on it, and write me about the
paper after the Conference ?

I hope that the meeting will be a success.

This interesting paper opens thus :

"The Legislature of New York, by concurrent resolu-
tion of May 27-29, 1873, directed the State Board of
Charities to examine into the causes of the uicrease of
crime, pauperism and insanity in that State. In com-

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

pliance with this resoUition, an examination which occu-
pied the Secretary of the Board, with the assistance of
various commissioners, for the greater part of two years,
was made into the antecedents of every inmate of the
poorhouses of the State, and the result submitted to the
Legislature in the tenth annual report of the State Board
of Charities."

[Then follow the shocking histories of a few only of the
women found in the almshouses of New York State.]

"Women who from early girlhood have been tossed from
poorhouse to jail, and from jail to poorhouse, until the
last trace of womanhood in them has been destroyed."

"These women and their children, and hundreds more
like them, costing the hardworking inhabitants of the
State annually thousands of dollars for their maintenance,
corrupting those who are thrown into companionship
with them, and sowing disease and death among the
people, are the direct outcome of our system. The com-
munity itself is responsible for the existence of such
miserable, wrecked specimens of humanity. These
mothers who began life as their own children have begun
it, inheriting strong passions and weak wills, born
and bred in a poorhouse, taught to be wicked before they
could speak plainly, all the strong evil in their nature
strengthened by their surrovmdings and the weak good
crushed and trampled out of life, hunted and hounded,
perhaps committed to jail while their tender youth had
yet some germs of virtue remaining, dragged through the
mire, exposed to the wickedness of wicked men and women
whose pleasure it is to sully and drag down whatever is
more innocent than themselves, in the power of brutal
officials, — what hope could there be for them ? And
how shall we cast a stone at them, whom we ourselves

THE STATE REFORMATORY FOR WOMEN

■'.

reproduce their kmd, anu oriub i ^ thpmqplves

whose existence must be one long misery to th«™- We

fnctitution sometimes continually changmg from one to

not sDend years, if necessary, m mstitut ons aescnoe
by Vr-or Haikes of New Jersey in the follow: ^ords^
'Preventive and reformatory institutions are not o be

ZZ a. Places of P-^-^r t^e t^t n1 Zl
rectional education. . • • In *^^°^ ^'^J .Peered
taught, the vicious ^^''^'\X^^'CLy becomes
and the hopeless encouraged. I^^^^^^^^^T^^^ ^^o would
habitual, and good -^^ ^^^^l'^; ^ t^^^^^ own

and designing offenders. ^^_

Stty pauper^m aad dise«, but it must not be tor-

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

gotten that the treatment here prescribed for them should
also be appUed to the reformation of the men whose evil
propeasitics may be likewise handed down from one gen-
eration to another."

[Continuing, Mrs. Lowell gives statistical information,
evidently gathered with much care, showing that in the
year 1878, in the State of New York, outside of the coun-
ties of New York and Kings, there were sentenced to the
county jails, or to penitentiaries, or admitted to alms-
houses, "662 women between the ag&s of fifteen and
thirty, guilty of what are called 'minor offences,' and
dependent for longer or shorter periods on the public for
maintenance, 254 of whom are prostitutes and 276 drunk-
ards. More than a third of these women are under
twenty-one years of age, so that probably for them, at
least, many years of a shameful life are in store, during
which time the public will maintain them." The names
and histories of the 662 young women were obtained from
the official records.]

"The presence of these women in the poorhouses, peni-
tentiaries and jails, under the circumstances, renders it
certain that they have less than the average self-control.
They have entered on the downward course. In neither
jail, poorhouse nor penitentiary, will they find anything
to help them turn back ; on the contrary, all the surround-
ings will force them lower, and this would be the case,
were they much more able to resist than they are. In the
jail and penitentiary every door to virtue is closed, and
every avenue to vice and crime is open. In the poorhouse
they find others like themselves, and although the de-
grading influences may not be so strong as in jails and
penitentiaries, they are there, and strong enough to pre-
vent any chance of rescue. Having an inherited and

THE STATE REFORMATORY FOR WOMEN

deep-seated repugnance to labor, these women, both m
the poorhouse and jail, are supported in absolute idleness,
without even the bodily exercise which is necessary for
health. They are shut up in poisonous air, suffermg a
physical degeneration only to be compared with the
ruin wrought at the same time in their minds and souls.
"To rescue these unfortunate beings and to save the
industrious part of the community from the burden of
their support, reformatories should be established to
which all women under thirty, when arrested for mis-
demeanors, or upon the birth of a second illegitimate
child, should be committed for very long periods, not
as a punishment, but for the same reason that the insane
are sent to an asylum, and where they should be subject
to such physical, moral and intellectual training as would
re-create them. Such training would be no child's play,
since the very character of the women must be changed
and every good and healthy influence would be rendered
useless without the one element of time. It is education
in every sense which they need, and education is a long
process, tedious and wearing, requiring unfaltering hope
and unfailing patience on the part of teacher and pupil.
Consequently these reformatories must not be prisons
which would crush out the life from those unfortunate
enough to be cast into them; they must be homes,—
homes where a tender care shall surround the weak and
fallen creatures who are placed under their shelter, where
a homelUce feeling may be engendered, and where, if
necessary, thev may spend years. The unhappy beings
we are speaking of need, first of all, to be taught to be
women ; they must be induced to love that which is good
and pure, and to wish to resemble it ; they must learn all
household duties; they must learn to enjoy work; they
must have a future to look forward to; and they must

100

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

THE STATE REFORMATORY FOR WOMEN 101

be cured, both body and soul, before they can be safely
trusted to face the world again.

"The following description will give some idea of an in-
stitution where the necessary circumstances might be
obtained :

" 1st. —A comparatively large tract of land (frem two
hundred and fifty to five hundred acres), to allow of free
out of door life without any communication with the outer
world.

" 2d. — A series of buildings, each to accommodate from
fifteen to twenty-five women, and so arranged as to afford
ample means of classification.

' "3d. —These buildings to be under the charge of
women officers.

"4th. — The inmates to be trained in as many kinds of
labor as possible, all household work, sewing, knitting,
cooking, washing and ironing, inside the house ; and out-
side to work in gardens and greenhouses, to take care of
cows, to be dairy maids, etc. ; the object being theu- im-
provement in every respect, and also theu- being finally
fitted to support themselves by honest industry.

" 5th. — Besides this education in labor, their mental
and moral faculties should be enlarged by constant teach-
ing, a school being one of the main features of the re-
formatory.

"6th. — The endeavor should also be made to restore
the physical health of the women, and they should be
kept under the care of a physician of their own sex.

"7th. — The diversity of buildings would afford means
of grading the inmates, and a transfer from one to another
would mark a step in advance, or a temporary fall to
a lower grade. By this means, the constant 'looking
forward' necessary to a hopeful life would be obtained.

"8th. — The board of managers, which should be com-

posed of both men and women, should have power to
place out the women committed to their charge, in situa-
tions where their wages should belong to themselves, but
where they would still be under guardianship and liable
to recommitment to the reformatory in case of ill conduct.

"Under such a system many of the women, who with
our present jail and poorhouse education are doomed,
might without doubt be rescued. They need to be saved
from temptation, wliich assails them from within and
without, and to be guided aright, and many of them will
respond joyfully to the efforts for their improvement.

"If, however, there were no hope of reforming even one
of the thousand of young women now beginning what may
be a long Ufe of degradation and woe, if the State owed
no debt to those whom it has systematically crushed and
imbruted from their earliest years, even then it would
be the wisest economy to build houses for them, where they
might be shut up from the present day till the day of their
death. They will all live on the public in one way or
another for the rest of their lives, many of them will con-
tinue to have children, and to cut off this baneful entail
of degenerate propensities would be economy, even though
the term of guardianship ended only with the unhappy
hfe itself. For self-protection, the State should care for
these human beings who, having been born, must be sup-
ported to the end ; but every motive of humanity, justice
and self-interest should lead to the extinction of the line
as soon as possible."

Mrs. Lowell lived to see three State reformatories for
young women estabUshed on the lines she projected in
1879, in this report, — Hudson, Albion, and Bedford. In
all of them, seven of the eight conditions which she con-
sidered essential to their successful operation have at least

102

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

in part been met ; the State has not, however, provided
any of these three institutions with a site of adequate size.
The second paper above referred to is Mrs. Lowell's
report on "Reformatories for Women," which was pre-
sented to the State Board of Charities at a meeting held
January 3, 1880. This shows careful study and a mastery
of the subject which merit even fuller quotation than
space allows. She begins in her usual direct manner :

"In compliance with your resolution, I respectfully
submit this paper on 'Reformatories for Women.' Such
reformatories are needed foi- women who are now almost
constantly inmates of public institutions, whether jails,
penitentiaries or poorhouses, and who perpetuate the
classes of criminals and paupers, themselves belonging
alternately to both. Under the present plan of providing
for them, they are constantly sinking deeper and deeper
into the abyss of vice and crime, they are a serious burden
upon the hard-working part of the community, and are,
moreover, continually adding to that burden by pro-
ducing children who are almost sure to inherit their evil
tendencies. These women are the same individuals
whether they be committed to jails and penitentiaries as
criminals or to poorhouses as vagrants and paupers. It
is as the inmates of poorhouses only that the State Board
of Charities, as such, encounters them and becomes aware
of their dangerous and corrupting influence, but as all
attempts by government authority in other countries and
states to reform this class of women have dealt with them
in their alternate character of criminals, it is from the
history of such attempts and from the records of experience
gained thereby in prisons and concerning prison discipline
that I must draw my principal facts and arguments in

THE STATE REFORMATORY FOR WOMEN 103

favor of a change of system in our own State. My object
is to show that the project of reformatories for women
supported by public funds is neither a new or untried one."
Then she refers to the work of Mrs. Elizabeth Fry in
1817, for the reformation of women prisoners in Newgate
Prison, London, and of a committee of ladies she formed,
which, after twenty years' work, unproved the whole
prison system of England. English jails in 1821 were
then described in almost the same words as those Mrs.
Lowell used in 1880 to describe the jails of the State
of New York. Excerpts to- emphasize her points are
freely made by Mrs. Lowell, from Mrs. Fry's reports,
and from the English Jail Act of 1823. She notes that
by 1841 the reforms were generally approved, and had
also been adopted by the French government. Continu-
ing, she says in her report :

"It appears by the above extracts that more than fifty
years ago the English jails were redeemed from the disgrace
of imprisoning men and women together under the charge
of male officers, and I doubt if such a legalized inde-
cency could be found today in any civilized community of
Europe. The United States is half a century behind in
the care of her jail inmates, and in the State of New York
at any rate, men and women, the innocent and the guilty,
are still imprisoned together in degradation and idleness.
"Fortunately for the good name of the United States,
however, two of the states have, within the past few years,
adopted Elizabeth Fry's recommendation and have each
'one prison appropriated solely to female prisoners.'
In 1873 a 'Reformatory Institution for Women' was
opened by the State of Indiana. It is governed by a board
of three women, and all the officers, except the physician

104

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

and the steward, are women. The superintendent, in the
report for 1878, writes as follows :

The success in the prison is without a parallel in prison
history; a well-organized family performing their daily
duties willingly and cheerfully ; the most hardened soon
submitting to the influence of Christian kindness and
forbearance, and at the expiration of their terms are pre-
pared to reenter society as good servants, or the lost places
in the family circle. Eighty-two per cent of those dis-
charged have been reformed and are now useful members
of society ; no runaways and only one recommittal in five
years.'

"In November, 1877, the 'Reformatory Prison for
Women' was opened in Massachusetts. The Board of
Prison Commissioners and the Advisory Board, consist-
ing, respectively, of three men and three women, in a joint
report made to the governor of the State in October, 1878,
spealc as follows :

The first year of the existence of the Reformatory
Prison for Women has come to an end and has been
marked by none of the catastrophies foretold by those who
were faithless as to the success of such an institution.
Women have proved themselves entirely adequate to the
control and management of women. No disturbance
worthy of notice has taken place, and no prisoner has
escaped. Turbulent and insolent prisoners have been
subdued and reduced to obedience as successfully as if they
had been under the control of men, and we believe with
better results to the character of those under discipline.
A large majority of the prisoners have been habitually
orderly and industrious, and easily controlled.' "

The report concludes with the statistical information
relating to women inmates of jails, penitentiaries, and

Hs^m'i

THE STATE REFORMATORY FOR WOMEN 105

almshouses in 1878, which was included in the paper read
to the Chicago Conference, and the folloNving paragraph:
"Such being the experience of England, Indiana, Massa-
chusetts and Ontario in regard to female prisoners, the
citizens of the great State of New York may well d^-aiad
of their legislature that some steps be taken to place her
in the rank of states which deal wisely and humanely with
their dangerous classes. Having set an example to tjie
whole world in the Elmira Reformatory for men, it would
be a like act of wisdom to establish an institution of a cor-
responding character for women."

Mrs Lowell continued, both in the State Board and
out of it, her campaign for women's reformatories ; a few
of her letters written on this subject have been preserved,
-all are worth printing, but space will not allow; her
efforts at length led to the adoption of the foUowmg pre-
amble and resolution, which she presented at a meeting
of the Board, March 8, 1881 :

"Whereas, In the inquiry made by the State Board of
Charities into the causes of the increase of pauperism, it
was conclusively proved that vice, pauperism, idiocy and
insanity are to a great degree hereditary ; and

"Whereas, The present organization of the poorhouses
of the State renders it impossible that the vicous and
pauper women, who become the «^°;thJ^« . ^^^?«^^."^,^^
pauper children, should be trained and disciplined m those

'" "^;t::;: vL . systematic course of instruction
a certain number of such women might be reclaimed and
the State saved from great future expense ; therefore,

"Resolved, That the State Board of Chanties recommend
that the Legislature establish an institution for the custody

106

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

and discipline of vagrants and disorderly women, under
the charge of officers of their own sex."

The State Board of Charities henceforward stood be-
hind Mrs. Lowell in her great enterprise. A preUniinary
skirmish only in her campaign for a woman's reformatory
had now been gained ; the final victory must yet be won
in the Legislature, and she now endeavored to convince
it of the righteousness of her cause.

Shortly after the State Board adopted Mrs. Lowell's
resolution, she published another pamphlet, "Some Facts
concerning the Jails, Penitentiaries and Poorhouses of the
State of New York," in which she pointed out, in proof of
her statements, the shocldng conditions then prevailing in
these institutions, and quoted more recent statistics from
the latest report of the New York Prison Association,
and a plea by Bishop Huntington in behalf of the female
prisoners in the Onondaga County penitentiary.

Distribution of this pamphlet of Mrs. Lowell's was
made to the members of the Legislature of 1881 upon the
introduction of a bill for the estabUshment of a reforma-
tory for women. It was also widely circulated through-
out the State, where it helped increase the number of
those who were interested in social questions, and enUsted
a large and active following in support of the bill.

Mrs. Lowell had made many friends among the leading
men in the Senate and Assembly during her success-
ful work of 1878 for the Asylum for Feeble-minded
Women, and to these she now again appealed, encouraged
by one great victory for humanity, and supported by
public sentiment and the press. Success in the Legis-

»% 1-'

•K?'

-:*■,

THE STATE REFORMATORY FOR WOMEN 107

lature was not long delayed, for on May 2, 1881, the bill
she had framed was enacted as " An Act to provide for the
establishment of a House of Refuge for Women." The act
provided for the establishment of the new institution at
some point outside the counties of New York and Kings,
and for the appointment by the Governor, with the con-
sent of the Senate, of five managers to serve without
compensation. Section 5 of the act directed the man-
agers to organize within six months from their appoint-
ment, and to purchase land and one or more buildings
suitable for the detention and employment of such women
as might be committed to their charge.

"In case no land and buildings thereon, suitable for the
purpose, can be purchased, the said managers are hereby
authorized to select and purchase an ehgible site, withm
the limits of the State as aforesaid, and to cause to be
erected thereon appropriate buildings with accommoda-
tions for two hundred and fifty inmates, together with such
household accommodations for the superintendent and
family, and for subordinate officers, as said managers may
deem necessary."

This act, a model of its kind, made careful provision
for the protection of the State from financial loss in the
construction of the buildings, appropriated $100,000,
for the land and buildings, and directed the Board to
appoint a woman superintendent.

Section 8 provided that when the House of Refuge shall
be ready for the reception of inmates,, all justices of the
peace, poUce justices, and other magistrates may sentence
and commit "all females between the ages of fifteen and

108

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

■!

thirty years, who have been convicted of petit larceny,
habitual drunkenness, of being common prostitutes, fre-
quenters of disorderly houses or houses of prostitution,
to the said House of Refuge for a term of not more than
five years, unless sooner discharged therefrom by the
board of managers."

Other sections of the bill made it the duty of the mana-
gers to provide for the employment of the inmates, for
the formation in them "of habits of self-supporting in-
dustry," and for "their mental and moral improvement
and good order," and authorized a system of credit by
which a possible balance for work performed above the
cost of maintenance might be paid the inmates on dis-
charge. By all of these provisions the legislative sanction
to Mrs. Lowell's views on the best methods of reformatory
treatment for young women was given, and there is strong
reason for the belief that the bill became law substantially
as drawn by her, embodying in concrete form her con-
victions, slowly matured during years of almshouse in-
spection, as to what the State ought to do for its own
protection, and for the reformation of the classes of young
women to whom the doors of the new institution were
soon to swing open.

Governor Cornell appointed a board of five managers,
of whom two were women, in May, 1881, who subsequently
reported to the Legislature that after diligent inquiries
and examinations, they were unable to purchase land
with buildings thereon, suitable for the purposes of the
institution ; but during the year a plot of thirty acres on
the northerly side of the city of Hudson was purchased

i ■

THE STATE REFORMATORY FOR WOMEN 109

for $3000 and premiums were offered for suitable plans
for buildings. Delay ensued, and in the meantime, to-
ward the close of 1882, a much more eligible and desirable
site of about forty acres, lying on the southerly side of
the city of Hudson, was offered for the institution, which
the managers thought it best for the State to purchase.
The appropriation being about to lapse, a bill was intro-
duced in the Assembly of 1883, reappropriating S95,000
and making an additional appropriation of $25,000, but
this failing to pass the Senate, all proceedings under the
law of 1881 were necessarily ended.

How extremely disappointing this delay, suspense, and
legislative indifference must have been to Mrs. Lowell !
It must at times almost have seemed to her that she
would not Uve long enough to witness the fruition of her
work for the young inmates of the almshouses and jails,
whose need for more hopeful care she had for so many
years been pleading. But she did not lose heart, and
her letters of that period show her still at work for the
reformatory.

The House of Refuge bill was again introduced in the
Legislature of 1884, early in the session, and shortly after-
wards Mrs. Lowell wrote as follows to Mr. Fanning : ^

February 22, 1884.
My dear Mr. Fanning:

I have yours containing Judge Cadman's letter and the
copy of the bill relating to House of Refuge for Women.
I should wish to make an amendment, substituting the

'Asastant Secretary of the State Board of Charities.

110

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

approval of the State Board of Charities for that of the
Comptroller. Could not this be done?

In thinking more of Judge Cadman's letter and the bill,
I have become quite enthusiastic for our poor House of
Refuge, and want to start out on a new crusade for it ! I
shall write a note to each member of the Legislature and
send to yon to be delivered at the Capitol, together
with copies of the enclosed papers and my paper on Re-
formatories for Women, if you consider the addition of that
a wise thing.

Please let me know, and have large envelopes addressed
to each of the members of Assembly and Senate to be kept
until I send you my notes and papers like enclosed.

Have you plenty of 'Reformatories for Women'?
I have, and will send them if needed. Meanwhile, please
send me at once, list of Senators and 150 large half sheets.

This bombardment of the Legislature was effective,
and by the passage on May 21, 1884, of Chapter 314 of
the laws of that year, the board of managers was given
the means to purchase the site on the southerly side of
the city of Hudson, where the institution now stands, and
to erect the necessary buildings.

Although the original appropriation for the House of
Refuge had lapsed, as we have seen, the hfe of the board
of managers was continuous, and it held meetings from
time to time. The great importance of a strong and up-
right board, under whose immediate supervision the build-
ings of the institution should be erected, rules for discipline
and administration adopted, and the staff of officers
appointed, was fully realized by Mrs. Lowell who kept
herself well informed on all that concerned the reformatory.

■•;

-V

THE STATE REFORMATORY FOR WOMEN 111

Two years elapsed after the passage of the second act
establishing the House of Refuge, before the buildmgs were
ccmpleted by the contractor and turned over to the State
in May, 1886. Another year was taken by the managers
in furnishing the buildings and appointing the officers
and employees, and the institution was finally opened April
15, 1887, the first inmate being received May 7.

A few months before Mrs. Lowell had written the follow-
ing letter to her sLster-in-law :

West New Brighton,

December 19th, '86.
Dear Annie :

You will be interested to know that another step has

been taken towards the opening of the 'Women's House

of Refuge' at Hudson (my reformatory that I worked so

hard for for so many years). I stopped there on my way

to Albany week before last and found the furniture almost

all in, the fence put up, and the Superintendent and two

of her assistants already at work, preparing to open within

a month or two. There is no doubt that the buildings

are excellent — cheap, simple, suitable, pretty, all but

the prison.

The Superintendent has just the right ideas, it seems to
me, and is a woman of character and experience. For-
tunatelv, we put into the law that she should appoint her
own subordinates, so she is choosing them slowly and
wisely. Altogether I feel much encouraged, and am glad
things are going slowly, for there will be all the more
chance of their going right. I have had many disappoint-
ments about this thing, but they all turned out right m the
end, and there is nothing to regret now, unless Governor
Hill puts in some new managers to upset things, — and
he has two more years to stay in office. . . .

112

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

The work of the House of Refuge at Hudson, now
known as the New York State Training School for Girls,
has continued for nearly twenty yeai's, and during all this
time, until her death, Mrs. Lowell retained her earnest
and intelligent interest not only in the institution and its
inmates, but in all legislation which might affect it and
them. The institution, which had an original capacity of
two hundred and fiftj', was soon filled ; from time to time
its enlargement has been considered. Amendatory acts
affecting the inmates and the government of the re-
formatory have been introduced in the Legislature. Mrs.
Lowell was always on the watch to further good and to
prevent ill-advised legislation, as this letter to Mr. Fan-
ning shows :

120 East 30th Street,
Feby. 17th, 1892.
Dear Sir:

I have just received a copy of Senate Bill 367, intro-
duced by Mr. Osborne to amend the laws establishing the
House of Refuge for Women, and although, probably, the
bill was framed by the Managers, it seems to me that
there are some provisions which ought not to become law.

As the amendments are not printed in italics, and as I
have only had the bill for an hour, I shall probably omit
several things that ought to be noticed, and I write at
once in order to call your attention to those which have
struck me in a hasty reading.

Page 2, section 8 of the present law is amended so that
"any female between the ages of twelve and twenty-five
years " may be committed. This seems to me a very great
mistake; the present limits of age are fifteen and forty
years and were intended to include women lilcely to have

■i

THE STATE REFORMATORY FOR WOMEN 113

children. By excluding women over twenty-five, large
numbers of this dangerous class could not be restrained m
the House of Refuge, while on the other hand to mclude
girls between twelve and fifteen is quite unnecessary,
because the House of Refuge at Randall's Island receives
girls up (and this is my impression but I have no copy
of the law) to sixteen years and that institution answers
every purpose for the training of these girls without the
disadvantage of their being associated with women much
older than themselves and of course much more deeply
experienced in vice. I protest strongly against this change
which has, so far as I can see, not one argument in its

favor. , ^ ,-

On page 6 it is provided that the Board of Managers
of the House of Refuge for Women shall have power to
place the children of inmates in " any asylum for children
in this State" and to pay for them at a rate not to exceed
S2.50 a week. I am. not at all sure that it is necessary
that the children should be by law a charge upon the
counties from which the women come, and that the
county would be responsible for their board m any insti-
tution within its limits to which the Board of Manag«^
should commit them. In any event the payment of 32.50
a week is too much smce some of the counties pay only $1
a week for children in institutions and none that I know
of pays as much as $2.50 a week. It would seem as if this
provision, giving the authority to pay this excessive rate
of board, to "any asylum in the State" were intended to
pave the way for the opening of a special asylum m the
neighborhood of the House of Refuge for Women to re-
ceive these children and be maintained by these payments
for board There is no reason that the State should start
any such institution and relieve the counties of the care
of those children.

114

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

On the same page in section 11, it ought to be provided
that the persons employed to convey women from the place
of conviction to the House of Refuge should be women.

On page 7, the appropriation of $150,000 I should say
was a very large sum and should not be made without
its being specified what use is intended to be made of it.

Several years of work were required to secure the enact-
ment of an amendment to the law recommended by Mrs.
Lowell, that women and not men should be charged with
the duty of conveying the young women from the place
of commitment to the Refuge. Serious abuses in transit
had emphasized the necessity for this change, and these
compelled the LegLslature to provide that women officers
should have entire charge of delinquent women after
commitment. Subsequent laws have provided for police
matrons to take charge of women when arrested, and for
women probation officers to attend the sessions of the
courts and secure the parole of women, who, in the opinion
of the magistrate, can be restored to good habits through
the aid and counsel of such officers.

It must be evident from the story told in this chapter
that to Mrs. Lowell, more than to any person, is due not
only the establishment at Hudson of the first reformatory
for women in New York State, but also as a consequence,
the adoption of the important and benevolent principle
of State care for erring young women, who through the
training and opportunities of such institutions may be
saved and restored as useful members to society.

.^.

CHAPTER VIII

State Care for Feeble-minded Women

The history of the establishment of the House of Ref-
uge for Women at Hudson illustrates the willingness of
the people of the State of New York to assume any reason-
able philanthropic responsibility. Mrs. Lowell's thorough
exposition of the cruelty, injustice, and folly of sending
young women of the vagrant and delinquent classes either
to the almshouses or the county jails, and her campaign
of ten years' duration, induced the State to assume the
guardianship of such young women as Hudson, Albion,
and Bedford reformatories now shelter in large numbers.

Side by side with these unruly young women, Mrs.
Lowell found in the almshouses many others of feeble
naind, or idiotic ; who were, from weak will or defective
intellect, unable to distinguish between right and wrong ;
for whose safety and that of the community greater cus-
todial care was necessary than the county almshouses could
give. Simultaneously with her campaign for a State re-
formatory for women, she carried on another for a State
custodial asylum. Commissioned to the State Board
in 1876, she was, as the records show, at work for such an
asylmn the following year. At a meeting of the Board
December 4, 1877, " Coromissioner Lowell presented a
paper in which she had collected the facts stated in

115

116

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

the Secretary's report on pauperism in regard to vagrant,
feeble-minded, and idiotic inmates of the almshouses of
the State. A. discussion ensued in regard to the care of
unteachable idiots, . . . and Commissioners Devereux,
Letchworth, and Lowell were appointed a committee
to consult with Dr. Wilbur, the superintendent, and with
the trustees of the State Asylum for Idiots at Syracuse,
as to the best means of securing proper custodial care for
unteachable idiots." One thousand copies of Mrs. Lowell's
report were oi'dered printed.

Some of Mrs. Lowell's letters preserved in the files of
the State Board show that she was continually at work
for the future asylum. Thus under date of March 15,
1878, she wrote to the Assistant Secretary :

"Please do not send away those copies of the 'Extracts'
unless you think that there are plenty more for the
Legislature.

" Will you also remember that the Board desires an ap-
propriation of S15,000 for 1878 and the same amount for
1879 to be used to establish and carry on a custodial
asylum for idiots, and when you have the opportimity,
speak of the subject to members of the Assembly and
Senate."

Again on March 23, 1878, to Dr. Hoyt :

"I thought you were present when the Committee re-
ported in regard to the custodial asylum for idiots. The
Board of Trustees of the idiot asylum at Ss^racuse at the
request of the State Board has agreed by formal resolu-
tion to take charge of the proposed custodial institution,
provided the State Board can obtain an appropriation

■I i

'ii &

STATE CARE FOR FEEBLE-MINDED WOMEN .

from the Legislature of fifteen thousand dollars for 1878
and the same for 1879.

" No place has been yet decided on for the institution
nor any particulars as to the management agreed upon.
The idea is that the institution should be an experiment
for the present, and one proposal was to limit the age
of female inmates to the years between sixteen and
forty-five.

" The matter has been presented by letter to the Chair-
man of the Committee on Ways and Means and the
Chairman of the Finance Committee, and I hope there
will be no objection to it. I am very glad you have
already interested yourself about it and also that Messrs.
McGonegal and Loomis have spoken of it to their repre-
sentatives."

Victory in this campaign was not long delayed, for at
the Board meeting of June 13, 1878, "Commissioner
Lowell, from the Committee on a custodial asylum for
adult idiots, submitted a report which was read, accepted,
and ordered filed. The report stated that the efforts of
the Committee to secure an appropriation from the Legis-
lature for the purposes of a custodial asylum had been
successful, that an appropriation of $18,000 had been in-
serted in the supply bill for this purpose, and that this sum
was placed at the disposal of the Board of Managers of the
State Idiot Asylum, who now have the matter in charge."

Within less than two years Mrs. Lowell had successfully
led the State Board to secure the adoption by the State,
as its wards, of feeble-minded or idiotic young women,
who up to that time had been exposed to the dangers of
county almshouse care.

118

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

The managers of the State Idiot Asylum at Syracuse
acted with commendable energy under this legislative
sanction, and in the summer of 1878 secured the lease of a
vacant seminary building at Newark, in Wayne County,
which they opened in Se])tember of that year, with a
superintendent, matron, and two inmates, as the Custodial
Asylum for Feeble-minded Women. Mis. Lowell inter-
ested herself from the beginning in the new branch, and
contributed in every possible way to make the experi-
ment at Newark the success she believed it should be.

At the request of the State Board, made by a formal
resolution at a meeting held February 12, 1884, Mrs.
Lowell prepared and presented at the April meeting a
memorial to be transmitted by the Board to the Legis-
lature, recommending "the establishment of further and
definite provision for the custodial care and sequestration
of idiotic and feeble-minded girls and women, for their
protection and the protection of the State from hereditary
increase of that class of dependents on public charity."

After serious delays and opposition, a bill was passed
establishing the Custodial Asylum at Newark as a per-
manent and separate State institution, and not as a branch
of the asylum at Syracuse, which on May 14, 1885, took
its place among the statutes of the State. The first sec-
tion provides that "The asylum established by the State
Board of Charities at Newark, Wayne County, for feeble-
minded women, is hereby continued and shall be a body
corporate, and shall be known as 'The State Custodial
Asylum for Feeble-minded Women at Newark, New York,'
and shall be under the management and control of a

■;

STATE CARE FOR FEEBLE-MINDED WOMEN 119

Board of Trustees to be appointed as hereinafter pro-
vided, and shall be under the general supervision of the
State Board of Charities."

The Governor appointed a board of nine managers which
organized at the Asylum June 2, 1885, and entered upon
the discharge of its responsible duties in the administration
and development of the new institution. The mana-
gers have in their annual reports to the Legislature traced
the healthy growth of the asylum and given account of the
beneficent work carried on within its walls for the educa-
tion and care of the inmates. Although appropriations by
the Legislature for new dormitory cottages have not been
made as rapidly as needed, there has been a very sub-
stantial increase in the size of the asylum which on October
1, 1910, sheltered 792 inmates, classified according to their
degree of intelligence, in the enlarged original building,
and in several outlying cottages, erected on a fertile and
beautiful upland site of forty acres.

At the dedication of the Custodial Asylum at Newark,
June 10, 1890, the President of the Board of Trustees,
Hon. S. S. Peirson, dehvered an interesting historical
address with details relating to the origin and develop-
ment of the institution not elsewhere narrated. He re-
called that prior to 1851 the pubhc charities of the State of
New York comprised only those for the care of the insane,
the deaf and dumb, and the blind, and outhned the growth
of a movement for the assumption by the State of the care
also of the idiotic and the feeble-minded, which resulted in
the establishment in 1857 of the New York Asylum for
Idiots at Syracuse. Dr. H. B. Wilbur, Superintendent of

120

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

that institution for many years, had said in one of his
first reports to the Trustees : "Tlie design and objects of
this asylum are not of a custodial character," and after
twelve years of experience, he again reported : "Tliere is
one class, constituting twenty per cent of the whole
number, who, in the absence of any proper custodial in-
stitution, are suffered to remain with us," and he recom-
mended that the Willard Asylum for the Insane should be
allowed to receive them. The State Board of Charities
took up substantially the same thought, and, continued
Mr. Peirson:

" The joint action of the Syracuse Board and the State
Board is shown in the following minutes of the Secretary,
at a special meeting of the Board of Trustees held at
Syracuse, March 12, 1878. The object of the meeting
was to be the consideration of the question of a custodial
institution for the idiotic. A committee of the Board of
Charities, consisting of Mrs. J. S. Lowell, Mr. W. P.
Letchworth, and Mr. J. C. Devereux, was heard at length
on the subject. After full discussion by the Board of the
whole matter, it was :

'Resolved, That we are willing to assume the respon-
sibility of the management of a custodial institution.'

"It is well known that Mrs. J. S. Lowell of New York,
a lady well known throughout the State and nation for
her philanthropy, was the moving spirit. The result of
their joint labors was an act of the Legislature in 1887,
appropriating $18,000 'for the support and maintenance
of adult idiotic and feeble-minded females at an experi-
mental custodial asylum, under the management of the
Trustees of the New York State Asylum for Idiots.'

STATE CARE FOR FEEBLE-MINDED WOMEN 121

Before November, 1878, a building intended originally for
a collegiate institute had been rented at Newark, and nine
inmates received from county poorhouses and eighteen
from the asylum at Syracuse."

Mr. Peirson then related that the experiment at Newark
having proved successful, the State Board and the Trustees
of the State Asylum at Syracuse united in recommending
tlie purchase of the site and buildings; but there was a
difference of opinion as to whether the institution should
be established as a new State charitable institution or
continued as a branch of the State Asylum at Syracuse.
The State Board and I\Irs. Lowell strongly supported the
former plan, but a bill had been presented sanctioning the
latter plan, and after "the hottest fight of the session,
was defeated. ... In 1885, this district was again repre-
sented by a Wayne County member, the Hon. E. K. Burn-
ham ; ... his first act was to introduce the bill that had
been prepared the previous session. . . . After fierce debate,
and the true merits of the bill had been fully demonstrated,
opposition ahnost vanished, ... the Governor's signa-
ture in due time was attached, and on the 14th day of May,
1885, one of the noblest charities in the State was per-
manently established."

When the asylum became a separate State institution,
the managers suggested that, as Mrs. Lowell had carefully
watched over its experimental days, and was regarded by
them as its founder, it should bear her name ; but she
declined this honor.

CHAPTER IX

The Charity Organization Society op the City of

New York

" It is an unhappy circumstanco that one might give away fivo hun-
dred pounds a year to those that importune on the streets and not do
any good." — Samuel JonNSON.

The Charity Organization Society of the City of New
York, one of the most useful organizations in the whole
range of philanthropic work in the United States, was
founded in 1882, on the initiative of the State Board of
Charities and through the continued efforts of Mrs.
Lowell, then a Comniissiouer of the Board. As early as
1843, the New York Association for Improving the Con-
dition of the Poor had pointed out in its first annual re-
port, that "without cooperation too little will be gained
in the contest with the forces of experienced and crafty
pauperism ; with it, the walls of Jericho will fall down."
But no practical steps had ever been successfully taken
to insure such cooperation between the charitable societies
oaring for the poor in New York.

The minutes of a meeting of the State Board of Chari-
ties held July 15, 1877, a year after Mrs. Lowell took her
seat, contain the following entry :

"Commissioner Lowell stated her intention to investi-
gate during the present year the system of administering
temporary or outdoor rehef in the several counties of the

122

THE CHARITY ORGANIZATION SOCIETY 123

State, and submitted for the approval of the Board a form
of blank to be used for the purpose of collecting from the
superintendents of the poor information and statistics
upon the subject."

Although the minutes, for more than three years,
contain no reference to the investigation undertaken by
Mrs. Lowell, she no doubt made it, as time permitted,
for at a meeting held July 15, 1881, she presented a
"Report in Relation to Outdoor Relief Societies in New
York City." In this paper she said that seventy-one
societies, exclusive of dispensaries, were asked by letter,
accompanied by blank, to furnish information as to
their mode of work; that forty responded; that sta-
tistics respecting some others were obtained from
outside sources; and that for this reason, the figures
given in tables appended to the report were incomplete.
Statistics for 1880 were given ; then followed a classifica-
tion of outdoor relief societies into four classes : (1) those
giving general relief; (2) the dispensaries; (3) those
which care for the sick only; (4) those which are
primarily educational and reUgious. Note is made that
few church societies are reported, "although it is to be
presumed that every church in the city had some organ-
ized means of distributing ahns." Statistics were ob-
tained from sixty-six organizations in all, by which it
appeared that in 1880 an aggregate of $546,832 was dis-
tributed in charity among the poor, while about 525,155
cases were reported as having received some form of
charitable relief. Then Mrs. LoweU made the foUowing
strong argument for organized charity :

124

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

The f oregOHig figures, whether we regard them from a
financial or humanitarian point of view, are sufficient to
convmce us that so important a business as the administra-
tion of chanty has become in New York City requires to
be carried on on business principles, if the great evils of
wasted funds and corrupted and pauperized citizens are
to be avoided. Some system is required to enable these
various societies and organizations to work in harmony
to attain the end they all aim at -some plan by whicii
each may be helped by the knowledge and experience of
all. That there is not already some such system in
New York is a matter of regret to many of the wisest and
most thoughtful persons who have practical experience
m dealing with the poor, especially as almost all the other
large cities in this country and in England have proved
the value of associated work in diminishing pauperism
and poverty in their midst."

Mrs. Lowell supported her plea by apt quotations from
the first annual report of the New York Association for
Improving the Condition of the Poor, from a paper pre-
sented in 1878 by Mr. Henry E. Pellew of that Associa-
tion to the National Conference of Charities held in
Cincinnati, and from the reports of several outdoor
charities of New York City. Writing for the three New
York Commissioners who formed the committee, Mrs.
Lowell concluded as follows :

"We have been able to collect only very imperfect
statistics, and we have studied these statistics in a neces-
sarily superficial manner, and yet we are led to the h-resist-
ible conclusion that there is at present inevitably great
waste of energy, effort and money, owing to the want of

THE CHARITY ORGANIZATION SOCIETY 125

cooperation among the societies which administer the
charities of New York City, while the same cause operates
to encourage among the poor, pauperism and degrada-
tion.

" It is becoming that the State Board of Charities should,
so far as possible, assist in an effort to remedy the evils
apparent to all thoughtful students of the facts presented
in this report, and we propose the following preamble and
resolution for the consideration of the Boai'd :

" Whereas, There are in the City of New York a large
number of independent societies engaged in teaching
and relieving the poor of the city in their own homes,
and

" Whereas, There is at present no system of cooperation
by which these societies can receive definite mutual in-
formation in regard to the work of each other, and

" Whereas, Without some such system, it is impossible
that much of their effort should not be wasted, and even
do harm by encouraging pauperism and imposture, there-
fore,

"Resolved, That the Commissioners of New York City
are hereby appointed a committee to take such steps
as they may deem wise to inaugurate a system of mutual
help and cooperation between such societies."

Whereupon, "on motion of Commissioner Craig the
report was accepted and Commissioner Lowell requested
to furnish a copy for the annual report of the Board.

" On motion of Commissioner Stephen Smith, the pre-
amble and resolution proposed by Commissioner Lowell
in her report were adopted by the Board, and Com-
missioner Lowell was designated to act as chairman of
the committee."

126

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

Under the authority conferred by the foregoing resolu-
tion of the Board, the committee, under Mrs. Lowell's
leadership, formed an association of representative men
in the City of New York interested in philanthropic work,
and knowing by personal experience the waste of time,
energy, and money resulting from the lack of cooperation.
The active support of such leading citizens as Abram S.
Hewitt, James C. Carter, Charles S. Fairchild, and Seth
Low was secured , and many leading clergymen of different
denominations, CathoUc, Hebrew, and Protestant, gave
their counsel and aid to the movement. The delibera-
tions of this association or commission resulted in the
formation of the Charity Organization Society of the City
of New York, which was organized by the election of
officers on February 8, 1882, Samuel Oakley Vanderpoel,
M.D., being the first President. The Legislature shortly
afterwards incorporated the society by special act May
10, 1882, and its constitution was adopted at a special
meeting of the society June 5, 1882. In drafting this
constitution, Rev. S. H. Gurteen of the Buffalo Charity
Organization Society was helpful. Throughout the form-
ative period of the society's work Mrs. Lowell's was the
directing mind.

An interesting sidelight is thrown upon the earnestness
and efficiency of her work for the Charity Organization
Society at this time, and upon other sociological subjects
to which much of her thought and energy were afterwards
given, in the following extracts from letters written to
her sister-in-law Mrs. Robert Gould Shaw:

THE CHARITY ORGANIZATION SOCIETY 127

Dear Annie :

October 30th, '81.

The next day was all business, arranging for a small
meeting in the evening to discuss the best means of charity
organization in New York City. We had invited several
clergymen and others, but had not many present. Dr.
John Hall (who I thought was a CathoUc priest) and Mr.
Heber Newton representing the clergy, Mr. Pellew and
Mr. Gibbons the laity, and Mrs. Rice, Ellen Collins and
Mrs. Lockwood the femality. We discussed for an hqur
and the outcome was that they thought the best way to
do the work in New York was to have the State Board
take up the matter, which means 'a very long and hard
struggle for the next year, I suppose. I am ready to do
it, however, for I think it the most important thing there
is, next to Civil Service Reform, of course. . . .

March 19th, '82.
Dear Annie :

All the week it seems to me I have been busy folding
up circulars ! I agreed to see to the distribution of
fifteen thousand papers (three different kinds) so I have
had to have the five thousand envelopes addressed, and
on Friday and Saturday I had four young women folding.
They were precious slow, I think, compared to my rate
of work, and I expect to have them on hand for a day or
two more at least. It is for our new Charity Organization
Society, and of course I shan't do it again, but now we
have no office and no secretary, so I undertook it. I
don't know whether I sent the circulars to you, but think
I didn't, so I shall. We have a good set of workers and
we have just engaged the secretary of the Philadelphia
society to come to us, so I think we shall get along very
well, though the work is going to be something tremendous.

128

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

Did you see that an old lady (Miss Burr) has died in
New York leaving three million dollars to charity? If
she had only asked me I would have told her what to do
with it. One million ought to go to public libraries and
one million to build and partly endow an insane asylum
for poor people who aren't paupers. Those two things
would do an immense amount of good. I wish I had three
million ! And why couldn't she have left some for model
lodging-houses, like Mr. Peabody ? She has put a great
share of it into the common charities, orphan asylums
and sick, and left a good deal to women's seminaries out
west, which is a good thing, of course. About public
libraries, however, with reading rooms and sitting rooms
attached, 1 am beginning to feel very strongly. People
ought to have decent places to go to on week-day evenings
and on Sundays. The one Nellie belongs to does a great
deal of good and they have $30,000 to build with, but
that will only put up one building, and they need six,
they say, and I say twenty or thirty. There ought to be
such libraries all over the city. .

^ . March 28th, '82.

Deae Annie :

We are working on with our charity organization schemes,
and last week Gertrude Rice (Stevens you know) and I
went round to the various charities to ask them to co-
operate and found all the officers very cordial and ready
to do all we wanted. Gertrude is a most satisfactory
person to work with, very efBcient and full of sense and
no personal feelings to interfere. She takes a great part
of the Association work on herself when Louisa Schuyler
is away, as at present, in Florida. Mr. John Jay also
is quite active in the Association now, being Vice-Presi-
dent. . . .

m
M

THE CHARITY ORGANIZATION SOCIETY 129

Dearest Annie :

May 23d, '82.

I have been having a busy charity organization week —
annual meeting last Monday, committee meeting Tues-
day, hunting up workers Wednesday, small conference
Friday, and another meeting last evening. We are doing
as well or better than we could have expected, finding
much interest and encouragement. We need more money
and more people to "take hold" at the top, however, and
lead the others. I see many pleasant people, especially
men, upon whom we are trying to throw the responsibility
of this work, so as to bring the business faculty to bear
on the charity problem. What we need are more men of
leisure with the tradition of public service like so many of
the "nobility and gentry" of England. Our young men,
those that we catch, are very good, but usually too busy.
However, I can't complain for we have had very good
fortune so far. It is interesting to see how much runs
in families, however; the Roosevelts and the Dodges,
for instance, you can depend on every time, — they are
most satisfactory wherever you meet them ; being all rich,
too, they have time to work, which is decidedly a good
thing. . . .

February 18th, '83.
Dearest Annie :

I begin "way up" at the top as if I had a good deal to say,
but I don't know that I have, unless an account of the
various poor people who are being brought to our notice
by our Charity Organization Society. They all want
work, work, work ; many are widows with young children ;
many are men who have had accidents ; so far, we have
not really found many "unworthy," or at least, those are
not the ones that make an impression. I more and more

130

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

feel, the moie I see of these suffering people, that things
are all wrong. It cannot be right that men should slave
all their days for bread and butter. They do need time
for some amusement, or at least for I'est, and they do
need money enough for their labor to enable them to lay
by for a sick time or for old age without giving up all that
makes life worth living.

Whether Hcnrj'- George and Father are right and that
plan will help to make things straight I can't say, but that
they need putting straight I am very sure of. . . .

May 5th, '83.
Dearest Annie :

I cannot think of any news for you, — I don't do much
but chai'ity oi"ganization work and not much of that, and
feel as if I might do a great deal more. I am learning
all the time and am going to write two or three papers
this sunamer, which I hope will tend to disseminate right
views of charity, and that seems to be my only field of
usefulness.

Common charity, that is, feeding and clothing people,
I am beginning to look upon as wicked ! Not in its in-
tention, of course, but in its carelessness and its results,
which certainly are to destroy people's character and
make them poorer and poorer. If it could only be
drummed into the rich that what the poor want is fair
wages and not little doles of food, we should not have
all this suffering and misery and vice.

Good-by and excuse this tirade.

Mr. Charles D. Kellogg, the first general secretary of
the society, fresh from four years' similar service in in-
augurating the Society of Organized Charity of Philadel-
phia, says :

)

.■J
■1i

THE CHARITY ORGANIZATION SOCIETY ICi

"I was surprised to find at the outset so many well-
devised and far-sighted preliminaries already initiated,
which were easily traceable to Mrs. Lowell's forethought,
so that the task before me was at once shorn of much of
its anticipated difficulty. The principles laid down at
the outset were so wise as to require but trifling new
adaptation for many years, and the high character and
thoroughly representative capacity of the citizens who
worked with Mrs. Lowell to found the Charity Organiza-
tion Society, and their unity of purpose, were such that
the inauguration of the society was accompanied by far
less distrust and jealousy than was encountered in other
of the large cities."

On October 10, 18S3, Mrs. Lowell, as chairman of a
special committee appointed by the State Board, pre-
sented a report on "The Organization and Work of the
Charity Organization Society of the City of New York,"
in which she communicated the facts above mentioned,
relating to the founding and incorporation of the society,
and continued : "Almost at the beginning of the active
work of this society, thirty-five relief-giving societies and
nine churches agreed to use .it as a mediima through Avhich
to exchange information in regard to their mutual bene-
ficiaries. The Department of Public Chai-ities and Cor-
rection also agreed to give all the mformation which it
might have about those who received city coal, and money
appropriated for the relief of the adult blind, and about
those persons conomitted to the penitentiary and to the
workhouse ; $2500 for current expenses was contributed
before the society had fairly begun work. . . .

"The effort to get more cooperation has been so far

132

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

successful that on March 31 the charitable agencies which
had agreed to report to this society had increased from
forty-four to one-hundred and thirty-eight. They can
be classified as follows :

Thirty general societies for temporary outdoor relief
Six national societies for temporary outdoor relief
Fourteen asylums and institutions for indoor relief
Eighty-eight churches and religious congregations.

"District committees have been organized in six districts,
five of which cover that portion of the city on the east
side, between Houston and Seventy-second streets, and
one on the west side from Houston to Fourteenth streets.
These committees are composed of earnest men, sixty-
eight in all, who have faithfully given time and labor in
seeking a solution of the great difficulties which surround
the questions of poverty and charity in this city. Each
committee has a plain office located conveniently in its
district, properly furnished, and each has its paid district
agent. The society has found one hundred and sixty-
seven men and women willing to act as friendly visitors
to those needing them. . . . The support given to the
society in money has been very generous. The amount
collected for the general work of the society to March
31, 1882 inclusive, was §15,659.25. . . .

"The most striking facts brought to light by the work
of the Charity Organization Society are those relating to
the number of people reported to them as having had
relief or being criminals, sentenced to the workhouse or
penitentiary, and those relating to the houses in which
these people live.

THE CHARITY ORGANIZATION SOCIETY 133

"From January 1, 1882, to October 1, 1883, the names
of about 45,000 individuals were reported to the society,
representing a population (at the small average of four
persons to each family) of 180,000, or more than the popu-
lation of Buffalo, Pittsburg or Washington.

"In relation to the houses inhabited by this large num-
ber of persons, the annual report of the society says :

'"A street register has been made by taking all the
names from the alphabetical cards and putting them on
other cards, according to streets and street numbers^
These cards are arranged by the street numbers, and each

street is kept in a package by itself These reports

show that ahns have gone into, or that crimmals have
resided at 12,336 street numbers during the past fifteen
months The houses would make a street six and

five-sixths times the length of Broadway from the Battery
to Fifty-ninth Street, or thirty-three miles m length.

" ' We find also from this street register that ahns-gettmg
families tend to congregate together. A dozen such
families are often reported as Uving at one street number.
The greatest number of famiUes reported from one house

during fifteen months is eighty-three We beheve

that this teaches that the habit of looking to charity for
support is contagious, that it rapidly becomes the fashion
in locaUties.'

"The above statement that 'looking to charity for sup-
port is contagious,' should cause those who administer
charity funds to consider well the wide-spreading evU
that may follow the relief given even to persons really in
need and really worthy, and to reflect whether, after all,
it might not be wiser and more charitable to restrict all

134

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

THE CHARITY ORGANIZATION SOCIETY

135

dinict relief to that given inside of institutions, which has
this advantage that it does not corrupt others while
relieving the sufferer.

"Another feature of relief-giving which has been
brought to light by the registration system of the Charity
Organization Society is the large proportion of able-bodied
men who appear on the lists of the charitable societies.
A circular of the conunittee of the society on cooperation,
dated May 18, gives the following facts :

"'Of 6964 cases, 4577, or over 65 per cent, were men
with or without children, and so far as appeared, able-
bodied. And but 1908 cases out of the 6964, or less than
27^ per cent, were widows with children, or families where
the bread-winner was reported to be sick.'

"I have given this brief statement of the work of the
Charity Organization Society to show the Board its general
character, because the society is the outgrowth of the
action of the Board taken two years ago."

The cordialitj'' and measure of cooperation between the
different relief societies and the Charity Organization So-
ciety were well illustrated bj'^ the fact that the society was
the guest, during the second and third years of its active
work, of the Association for Improving the Condition of
the Poor, which generously gave the free use of the second
and third stories of its house at 79 Fourth Avenue, until
the quarters became too narrow for the rapidlj' expanding
needs of the Charity Organization Society.

The following letters to Mrs. Robert Gould Shaw, give
further illustrations of Mrs. Lowell's work for the Charity
Organization Society during its early history.

May 15th, '87.

Dearest Annie :

Mr Munroe belongs to a small and modest, but,
I think, an important association of which I am president
the "Labor Bureau Association." We have a Labor Test
Wood Yard," where men asking for charity are given work,
and we hope to develop it into something very useful in
time Mr. Bannard^ (a lawyer) and Henry Iselm (the
youngest of the family that used to live next us on Staten
Island) and two or three more have worked very hard this
past winter to make it a success, and they have formed
very good plans for next year.

I consider it of the greatest importance, for relief to
able-bodied men is one of the worst and most dangerous
phases of charity, and our object is to make this work
a condition of relief, and the relief societies and mdl^ad-
uals are coming more and more to use our yard. We
have many safeguards and conditions to prevent the
abuses that charity employment is apt to lead to, and
we go on slowly and carefully, but, I am sure wisely, and
I feel encouraged and happy about it. . • •

February 5th, '88.

Dearest Annie :

I do not think we have had any occurrences
lately, -personally I am doing nothing but Charity Organ-
izat on Society work. I am getting to be nothing but a
schoolma'am. Every Thursday at a committee meet-
n. I tTlk and lecture, and I am going to give talks abou
" Friendly Visiting " among the poor at various meetings
this month.

1 Otto T. Bannard. Vioe-president of the Oharity Organization Society
since 1899.

136

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

Last Thursday I read a paper to a small " Working
Women's Society," which Miss Perkins has joined and
which, we hope, may do great things in time. Many of
the women spoke afterwards and were very interesting
and intelHgent. They have had a practical education in
life, which shows in their faces which are strong and in-
dividual, but of course they need a great deal of advice,
and I am thankful that Miss Perkins is with them and
ready to work with them. The meeting was a small one
at Cooper Union, and Miss Perkins presided.

April 29th, '94.
Dkabest Annie :

Usually I allow no business on Sunday, keeping the
day for friendly letters, but I have been at it all day. At
10 to 11 :30 visit and talk with an agent of the Charity
Organization Society; at 11 : 30 to 1 to Mary Putman
Jacobi's to talk about Woman Sufifrage and a little speech
I am to make next Thursday evening ; at 3 the president
of the Charity Organization Society came to talk business,
and then till 6 I wrote "C. 0. S." things, so I have not
read nor written any letters until now, 8 : 45.

Besides this, I am .still busy finishing up our East Side
Relief work, and with "C. 0. S." affairs. Meanwhile
the trees are all in leaf, and the spring days are so tempt-
ing that I ran down to see Anna and Mrs. Gay last
Wednesday. Anna was full of an election for School
Trustees she had just been attending the night before,
voting for the first time in her life. Women can vote on
school questions here and . in fifteen other states. . . .

Women have always been influential in the manage-
ment of the Society, and Mrs. Lowell and her friend Mrs.
Rice, who had been closely associated in its work from

'IK.

THE CHARITY ORGANIZATION SOCIETY 137

the beginning, long served on the Central Council and
Executive Committee, Mrs. Rice being the official rep-
resentative of the State Charities Aid Association.

Much of Mrs. Lowell's work for the Charity Organiza-
tion Society was so quietly done that only those associated
with her knew it.

"She was," says Mr. Kellogg, "active in the early
efforts of the Society to secure from Congress favorable
action upon a system of postal savings, so successful in
England, which soon led the Society to estabUsh its off-
shoot, now under independent management, the Penny
Provident Fund, with its more than three hundred sta-
tions and ninety thousand depositors.

" She was equally earnest in the Society's efforts to in-
duce the city government to establish municipal lodging
houses abeady authorized by the State Legislature, for
men and women temporarily stranded in this great city ;
failing in which, the Society at its own cost established its
own lodging house and wood yard on West Twenty-eighth
Street,— now so well known to the community— which the
tardy city fathers supplemented some years later by the
Municipal Lodging House on First Avenue, the predeces-
sor of the present institution in East Twenty-fifth Street,
said to be the best in the world of its kind. The Society's
laundry and work rooms for unskilled women also were
results of her earnest endeavors to aid the poor by educat-
ing them up to higher earning powers, rather than to
weaken their moral fibre by unearned alms. In these
and all related efforts she was generous with her own
private means to aid in their fulfihnent; and many a
benevolent project was seconded, and many a struggUng
soul was lifted into hope and victory by her unrevealed
liberality. She emphasized the work and strove to en-

138

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

large the number of the volunteer friendly visitors, by
whose loving ministries in the dwellings of the poor then-
home life might be elevated, their habits improved, their
temptations lessened, their courage stimulated, and their
social relations sweetened. By such contact she felt also
that the producing causes of dependence and distress
could be the better discovered and counteracted."

Another of her associates in the work of the society, Miss
Alice M. Decker, writes thus of Mrs. Lowell's methods of
work :

"Mrs. Lowell joined the Third District, now Corlears,
Committee in 1891, and for over ten years she was chair-
man of the sub-committee, meeting each Friday morning
for the consideration of the applications for assistance.
She was most punctual and regular in attendance, remain-
ing away only for illness, or for some other meeting which
she thought of equal importance. She gave to all per-
sons in distress the greatest thought and care, not only
for their immediate need, but for their future betterment.

"Her very presence was an inspiration and none could
attend the district meetings without raising their desires
and trying to better their life's work. Her judgment,
arguments and personality'- made these meetings of the
greatest value ; her sympathy was so large that she her-
self often said that she could not do friendly visiting.
As an instance, when she came to the ofRce one afternoon
during holiday week, when four widows with their children
were enjoying the Christmas tree, she immediately gave
them each some money as she thought they looked so
poor. Frequently after attending a meeting she would
telephone after reaching home, fearing she had not been
sufficiently explicit, and thereby some person might suffer.

■•'■•'

.■J

THE CHARITY ORGANIZATION SOCIETY 139

"In passing along the streets she was constantly on the
alert, and no crippled child, or person in need of help, or
any violation of the law escaped her notice and attention.
I find it is impossible for me to tell how much the district
committee, the agent and the neighborhood workers
owe to the judgment, advice and loving kindness of Mrs.
Lowell."

Another of Mrs. Lowell's fellow-workers in the society,
Mrs. Louise F. Ford, pays this tribute to her associate :

"I remember when I first came to the Charity Organiza-
tion Society in 1888. Mrs. Lowell was on the central
office committee where I was employed. In a talk
with her about taking up the work, she emphasized the
fact that it should only be entered into with a feeUng of
consecration. The confidence which she placed in me and
in any workers who came in contact with her, made the
responsibility not only more acceptable, but sweeter and
a privilege. I think one of the most beautiful and up-
lifting influences which Mrs. Lowell created was through
her belief in people, and this was an incentive to live up
to her high standard. Her tenderness for the poor and
troubled, and her ability to enter into any part of human
life which needed thoughtfulness and kindness, as well as
material help, were beyond any one's else whom I have
ever known.

"I am acquainted with a number of Mrs. Lowell's
beneficiaries and it is remarkable what an impression she
made upon them. They have come to me and talked
about her, and how much she has been a part of their
lives, what an inspiration she was, and how strongly she
impressed upon them the real meaning of true friendship
for those in a different class in life, but whose strong good
characters she seemed to understand and appreciate.

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JOSEPHINE SI-IAW LOWELL

The absolute justice of Mrs. Lowell, the purity of her life,
the truth which was imprinted upon every word she said
and every look she gave, and her every act, will never be
effaced from the memories of those who knew her. Her
example I know will hve always."

When Mrs. Lowell died in 1905, the Charity Organiza-
tion Society had for twelve years occupied offices in the
United Charities Buildmg, erected on the northeast corner
of Fourth Avenue and Twenty-second Street by Mr. John S.
Kennedy as a home for this society and other philanthropic
organizations. During these years its work had steadily
broadened and increased. Among the noteworthy ac-
tivities of the society, the Joint Application Bureau
deserves mention. This Bureau, maintained in co-
operation with the Association for Improving the Con-
dition of the Poor, greatly increased the facilities for
serving the poor and is kept open every day in the year
from nine in the morning until midnight for the receipt
of applications for relief, and for the prompt supply of
pressing needs, and in it the care of homeless men and
women by the two organizations is concentrated.

Another useful department is the Registration and In-
vestigation Bureau through which confidential informa-
tion about all the families ever known to the society is
avaUable to persons having a legitimate interest in them.
The society also maintains ten district offices covering
the Boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx, each with its
own staff and under the supervision of a local committee.
It still maintains its wood yard and laundry in a separate
building at 516 West Twenty-eighth Street, to provide tera-

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THE CHARITY ORGANIZATION SOCIETY 141

porary employment for men and women. In 1905, some
fifty thousand visits were made to the poor in their homes
by agents of the society and about fifty thousand dollars
was expended for the relief of families under its care.
The Tenement House Committee and the Committee for
the Prevention of Tuberculosis recently formed have done
good work.

The Charities Du-ectory of the City of New York, one
of the pubUcations of the society, had in 1905 reached
fifteen annual editions, and Charities, the weekly pub-
lication of the society, now continued as The Survey,
was in the eighth year of its existence; the School of
Philanthropy, begun in 1898 as a summer course of six
weeks, was then entering upon its second year as a full
course and had been established upon a permanent basis
by the endowment of Mr. Kennedy. A reference library,
always open to the public, had grown until it contained
several thousand bound volumes and as many pamphlets.

The foregoing outline of the present-day activities of
the Charity Organization Society, under the able ad-
ministration of Mr. Robert W. de Forest, who has now
been at its head for twenty-two years, will convey
some idea of its immense usefulness not only in the reUef
of the poor in the City of New York, but also in the educa-
tion of trained charity workers, and in the circulation of
in.structive literature on current sociological topics.

For a longer period than she uninterruptedly devoted
to any other branch of her philanthropic work, Mrs.
LoweU was actively and closely identified with the
Charity Organization Society. She died on the twenty-

142

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

THE CHARITY ORGANIZATION SOCIETY 143

fourth anniversary of the meeting of the State Board at.
which the first steps were taken for its formation. "On
her initiative," said Edward T. Devine, now the General
Secretary of the Society, "it came into existence, and
since its birth in 1882, she has been its guiding spirit
and its most faithful, untiring and efficient member.
She served continuously on its Central Council and its
Committee on District Work, and at different times also
on other committees."

In the development and expansion of the work of the
society, Mre. Lowell was always active and influential,
and it is impossible either to overestimate the value of
her service, or the usefulness of the society to the city,
in the general progress in charitable methods and resources
since 1882, when on her initiative, the steps were taken
which brought it into being.

Duties of Friendly Visitors ^

" Charity organization i.s not a work to which any man should put
his hand, unless he is prepared to give to it some measure of devotion.';

This is the motto I should be glad to see adopted by cm-
society, for it contains a truth which we must all bear in
mind, whether we be members of the central council or
of the district committees, or friendly visitors. It is
hard work which we have undertaken; work requiring
time, and thought, and patience and judgment. T have
been asked to speak of the duties of friendly visitors,

' Printed by the Charity Organization Society of the City of New
York, May, 1883.

and though I shall be able to make only a few suggestions
on this all-important subject, still I am glad to do it,
and I must say at the outset that the best success of our
Charity Organization Society will depend eventually upon
the devotion and the wisdom of the members of our
district committees and their visitors. We at the
central ofRce may form all sorts of vdse plans, and may
do the very best we can, but the practical carrying out
of the principles of the society depends on the district
workers. It is they who come into personal contact
with those we seek to aid, and it is they whose influence
will raise or degrade them.

And first, we must make a distinction between classes
of cases. We are constantly coming on Chronic Cases, so
to speak, old or permanently sick people who can never
hope to earn a living. The only thing to be done for
such, unless we simply pass them by, as perhaps in the
early stages of our work we must, is to provide for them
permanent rehef of one kind or another — either put them
into a suitable institution or secure from individuals such
regular relief as will place them above the need of casual
help, and then see to it that they do not beg.

Then come cases of temporary sickness. Here the
object must be to effect a cure as soon as possible. Per-
haps a change of rooms may be necessary; perhaps the
sick member of the family should be removed to a hospital ;
perhaps work must be suggested, and, if possible, found
for some of the others. Each case will need different treat-
ment, and many different societies and people may have
to be asked to help in the cure. The great danger to be

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144

JOSEPPIINE SHAW LOWELL

•?

avoided is the formation of permanent habits of depend-
ence by means of the temporary help procured.
/ The third class, out of work cases, are the most difficult
of all, and the most important, perhaps. "The distress
of those capable of work," to quote from an account of
the Elberfeld system, "is not to be treated as if it were
an incurable disease, and as if it were only necessary to
keep the patient alive from day to day, no matter how ;
but as an exceptional condition, the cure of which should
be carefully and scientifically considered, that the patient
may return to the normal condition of self-support." I
have said these out of work cases ai-e the most difficult
of all, and they are so because the suffering is often very
real and the famQy in much distress of body and mind,
and yet the chances of doing a permanent injury to the
character by unwise action are a hundred to one.

And here we are brought face to face with the hard'
question of relief-giving. The first impulse of many
visitors is to exclaim : "If I cannot give relief, what can I
do ? How can people be helped who are hungry and cold J
unless they can be fed and warmed?" It seems at
first as if there could be no answer, and, provided the
hunger and cold do actually exist, they must, of course,
be first removed. Our visitors must remember, however,
that usually the hunger and cold are not so pressing or so
sharp as they are represented to be ; that the suffering
family is not living in a desert, but among human beings,
who do not look on and see their next-door neighbors
starve ; that, as a fact, the daily supplies are forthcoming
day by day. They must judge more by their eyes and

THE CHARITY ORGANIZATION SOCIETY 145

intellects than by their hearts, and if they see stout and
healthy-looking people, with children who appear good-
natured and in a measure contented, they must accept
the statement that there has been nothing eaten for twenty-
four hours rather as a fanciful way of describing the general
poverty than as the exact truth. However, whether they
feel constrained to supply temporary relief or not, they
must bear in mind that the final aim of the visitor must
always be to discover by inquiry, thought and consultation,
some means of helping the family permanently on to its
feet ; and they must remember that, if it can possibly be
avoided, it is well, while the plans for permanent improve-
ment are being matured, not to procure temporary relief
from any source, because the fact that it is supplied will
tend merely to keep up false hopes in the hearts of the re-
cipients that something will happen to enable them to
avoid the great exertion which may, perhaps, be required
of them in seconding the plans made for their good. One
distinguishing trait of almost all people who have sunk low
enough to have to seek alms is the baseless hope that in a
week or so things will be sure to go better with them, and
any reUef given them merely serves to confirm them in this
shiftless "waiting for something to turn up." A visitor-'l
can usually, if he or she will only take trouble enough, find
some sort of means of letting the head or some member of
the suffering family earn a dollar to provide for their im-
mediate necessities. Some chopping of wood, scrubbing of
floors, sweeping the yard, a dozen clothes to wash, errands
to run, anything to avoid teaching the dreadful lesson that
it is easy to get a day's Uving without working for it.

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JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

The first requirement for a good visitor is that he should
really give his mind to the case of the family placed in his
charge, that he should study it in every way, considering
what plans he himself would be likely to try were he in
a like situation. Often it is brains more than anything
else that is lacking to the poor, and the visitor must not
only supply the brains in the formation of plans, but must
spend time and hard work in persuading his poor friend
that the plans are the best that are practicable for him.
A great part of the work will be educational ; the visitor
will find extravagance, shiftlessness, perhaps vice. All
sorts of influences must be brought to bear. We are for- I
bidden to give any spiritual teaching, in order to avoid /
all suspicion of proselyting, but one of the first things
a visitor should do is to find out what church the family
even nominally belongs to, and try to strengthen its re-
lations with that church. Should there be no response
on the r)art of the family to these efforts, he should go
to some member or to the minister of that church, that
he may search them out and, if possible, bring them back
into their own fold again.

One very important point for a visitor to aim at is to
find out all about the man of the familj--, where there is one.
Charities and charitable people are too prone to deal ex-
clusively with the woman, accepting her statement that
the man is looking for work. Now, perhaps he is and per-
haps he is not ; but it should be fully established, first,
that he has no work ; second, that he would be glad to get it.
The man and the woman should be seen and advised with
together in regard to their present condition and future

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THE CHARITY ORGANIZATION SOCIETY 147

plans. Wliere there is a real desire to help themselves,
the man will be ready to accept his proper place as head
of the family, responsible for its support ; and where he
keeps out of the way and lets his wife do the running and
the begging, the visitor may well :4uspect that all is not as

it should be.

In regard to seeking for work, a visitor can often help
wth suggestions and letters of introduction, after he
thoroughly knows his family ; but, as a rule, no one has so
much time to look for work as the man himself. If he is
ready to work ten hours a day, let him spend the ten hours
looking for work. The great lesson we want to teach
people is to depend on themselves, and not to look to any
one for anything except friendly advice and counsel.

Another matter to be considered in connection with work
is that anything which encourages the wife of an able-
bodied man to become the breadwinner of the family is
injurious. A woman's whole time is not too much for her
to devote to the care of her children ; and the children of
decent, industrious women often grow up to be vagabond
and vicious because their mother has had to leave them to
the education of the streets. Where the woman is a widow,
this becomes sometimes a sad necessity, from the evil
effects of wliich charity may well help her to guard her
children ; but where there is a husband and father able
to work, he should feel it a disgrace that his overburdened
wife should be called upon to earn even fifty cents a week
toward the support of the family. After the slack time
is past and the man is again at work, the opportunity comes
for the visitor to make special efforts to persuade the

148

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

family to prepare for the future and to lay by for the idle
time of the next year; he can then inculcate lessons in
economy and in saving which may be the means of lifting
the family permanently on to a higher level than they
would ever have attained without his friendly encourage-
ment. If he has made them really look upon him as their
friend, they will be willing to put their weekly savings
into his hands, so that they need not be tempted to spend
them. No family that has been in want, and been helped
out of it, should be deserted by their visitor until he has
seen them safely past the dangerous period in the following
year.

An unending field of labor for visitors is to be found in
the instruction of children and the encouraging of their
parents to put them at trades requiring skill, which will
insure them a fair Uvelihood. Poverty and crime, in our
country at least, are to be found almost entirely among
the people who have no habits of steady occupation and
no regular means of earning a living. They can do any-
thing, they say, which usually turns out to mean noth-
ing. Now, if the children in every shiftless family could
be taught to do some one thing well, could be taught
even to keep their own lodgings in decent order and to live
economically, a great step would be gained. The visitors
might perhaps persuade their own servants to train a
young gii-I to fit her to be a good servant and to earn good
wages.

Widows and women with disabled husbands who have
young children form a class by themselves, and may
receive direct relief if only it is guarded and graded in ac-

THE CHARITY ORGANIZATION SOCIETY 149

cordance with their circumstances. The condition of a
woman who must perform the part of both father and
mother to her children is indeed pitiful, and hero i,s a field
where a friendly visitor may expend care and thought
for years perhaps. The right plan to adopt is the follow-
ing : 1st, Find what the woman can live on decently.
2d, What she can earn without neglecting her children.
3d, Secure for her regular help, which she can depend
on receiving on a fixed day of the week or month, and
which is to be sent to her, so that she need waste no time
in going for it, and which, with her own labor, will make
up the svun absolutely required for her family. 4th, As
the children come to an age to help, see that they are
trained to do so in the best way, and gradually diminish
the reUef until it is entirely withdrawn.

A very good plan with widows with young children is
to induce two to live together ; one to go out to work, the
other to care for both families at home. This saves rent
and other expenses, and the children are not neglected and
allowed to grow up worthless and idle. In such cases
the amount of outside aid needed is reduced to the
minimum.

The difficulty is, not that there are not hundreds of
ways of helping people, but that we will not take the
trouble to carry them out. If you choose to say: "I
can't be bothered by giving my clothes out to be washed ; "
"I can't have a man coming every day to run errands;"
"I can't have a httle girl in my house breaking the things
and troubling the servant," that is all right perhaps.
You must do what you think best, but do not deceive

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JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

yourself by saying that you do not know how to help
poor people without giving them money. Acknowledge
frankly that you will not or cannot take the trouble to do
it, and that, consequently, you have not the faculty to be
a friendly visitor of the Charity Organization Society.

Finally, all of us who ever attempt to have any dealings
with the poor would do well to bear in mind the follow-
ing admonition of Miss Octavia Hill, "Let us never weakly
plead that what we do is benevolent ; we must ascertain
that it is really beneficent too."

Among Mrs. Lowell's unpublished papers are copies
of five addresses she delivered in 1888 to the children of
a Sunday school in Harlem. Although written for the
comprehension of youthful minds, they contain many
valuable observations on "Charity and Relief-giving."
The first only of the series is here included.

Sunday School Talk to Children

I have gladly availed myself of the invitation of your
Superintendent to meet you for a few Sundays to talk
about "Our Duties in Connection with Charity and Relief-
giving," because I believe these duties to be very definite,
very plain and very imperative, and I Icnow that there is
a wide difference of opinion in regard to these duties
among intelUgent and benevolent people. I am glad to
know also, however, that these differences of opinion are
to be found only among inteUigent people who have not
given much thought to these subjects, while, on the con-
trary, among the students of the problems presented by

THE CHARITY ORGANIZATION SOCIETY 151

charity and relief-giving there are practically no differ-
ences of opinion.

Today I want to clear the ground by giving an ex-
planation of my terms, and by telling you what it seems
to me should be our attitude of mind and heart in dealing
with these subjects. I have used the two terms "Char-
ity" and "Relief -giving," which are often accepted as
synonymous, because to me they mean widely different
things, sometimes diametrically opposite things, although
undoubtedly relief-giving is frequently a part of charity.
Charity is wishing well and doing good to those who
have no legal claim upon us. Relief-giving is supplying
them with material help, food, clothing, etc., which
may be done without either wishing them well or doing
them good.

Under these definitions, "Public Charity" is a mis-
nomer, if it is intended to describe by that term the relief
of a certain part of the community by a tax on the rest.
The money raised by taxation for the support of those in
want is simply a public fund, paid from self-interest in
the same spirit and for the same purpose as the far larger
amounts spent for the police. It is for the public pro-
tection, and there is no element of charity in it, since the
persons whose money is spent are actuated by no feeling
of kindliness towards those who receive it, but, on the
contrary, pay their taxes grudgmgly and in an unwilling
spirit. Public officers not unfrequently justify them-
selves in extravagance in the use of public funds for the
relief of the poor, on the ground that they must be chari-
table, but this they cannot be. No one can be charitable

152

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

with another person's money. A person in expending
public funds may be honest and conscientious ; he cannot
be charitable, and the sooner it is understood that ex-
travagant expenditure of the people's money is no charity,
but a breach of trust, the better it will be for the com-
munity.

Public relief, then, must of necessity lack one of the
requisites of charity, for the givers of it do not wish well
to those who receive it. It often lacks also the other
requisite, for it not infrequently does harm and not good.
It is given in two ways : to families in their homes, called
outdoor rehef ; and to individuals in public institu-
tions, called indoor relief. When given to families,
it too often acts as a premium on idleness and vice, and
ends by creating generation after generation of paupers,
who look to the public fund as to a family inheritance upon
which they may always depend. In some of the counties
of New York the fifth generation of paupers is now receiv-
ing public relief.

Relief in public institutions may do good if properly
administered, and it certainly has its element of charity,
though the charity is not to be found in the hundreds of
thousands of dollars paid by the tax-payers. It is found
among the paid officers and subordinates who spend their
hves in unselfish work for those committed to their charge.
It was found in the little Irish woman who for eighteen
years, at a salary of eight dollars a month, received and
washed and cleaned every woman who came into the
almshouse on Blackwell's Island, so deUghted to be able
to change disorder into order, to make clean that which

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THE CHARITY ORGANIZATION SOCIETY 153

was unclean, that, when she died, I was sure thaf she
would hear: " Well done, good and faithful servant; thou
hast been faithful over a few things, I will set thee
over many things," and would receive some great work
of purification to do.

There was charity in the heart of the matron at the
Lunatic Asylum, an Irishwoman too, who for thirty years
gave all her time and thought to the poor benighted
creatures around her, teaching and helping them. There
is charity among the nurses who are faithful and full of
patience with the lunatics, the crippled, the idiots, bear-
ing almost more than could be expected were these un-
fortunates of their own blood. No one should be unmind-
ful of the great charity to be found among all these.

Besides public relief of these two kinds, we have private
reUef-giving ; that is, money given by those who do own it,
to those whom they do wish to help ; very different from
public relief, and often as I have said, a part of charity,
but not always, by any means ; for charity, besides being
benevolent, must also be beneficent ; it must, as I have
said, not only wish well, but it must do good ; and rehef-
giving is not at all sure to do this ; it may often do — it
does often do incalculable harm, harm so cruel that the
benevolent relief-givers would be appalled could they
realize it.

You will see now why I have made my subject cover
both charity and relief-giving ; charity, the wishing well
and doing good to those who have no legal claim upon us ;
pubhc rehef-giving, which can never be charity, and pri-
vate relief-giving, which may or may not be charity.

154

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

I have divided our subject into three parts, one of which
we shall consider on each of the three following Sundays.
They are as follows :

"Our opportunities for Charity."

"The dangers of Relief -giving."

"Our personal obligation to those in trouble."

And now I want to speak of what I believe should be our
attitude of mind and heart when we imdertake to study
these questions.

First, we should always regard them in relation to the
welfare of the whole community, not as being con-
cerned merely with the people whom we think we want
to help, or whom we suppose ourselves to be helping.
It is the habit, I fear, of a great many people to divide the
population of the world, of the country, of the state or of
the city into two classes : the rich and the poor ; and
they have a theory that the rich support the poor; but
Mr. Hewitt once gave the correct view in the following
remarks made at a public meeting of the Charity Organiza-
tion Society of this city :

"Here are the rich and there are the poor, separated
by the great mass of honest, hard-working, prosperous,
well-to-do people. The problem is to reduce the number
of the poor by finding channels of occupation for them,
so that they maj'' not feed and prey upon the product of
the industrious. The problem is to take the idle rich —
they are not all idle, but some are — and to develop in
them the sense of trust, that they hold these profits which
have been taken from the earnings of the great mass, and
are taken every day from the earnings of the great mass

THE CHARITY ORGANIZATION SOCIETY J55

(for you know perfectly well that whatever the rich have
has to be earned day by day by those who work) to develop
in them a sense of trust, and so to organize the channels
of communication between those who are consumers
otherwise of the fruits of human industry, and these
deserving laborers who have drifted out of the ordinary
channels of occupation ; — to bring these two agencies to-
gether, and make them useful to each other so that the
great working class may accumulate still more, and not be
shorn of their proper earnings, as they otherwise will be,
by the consumption of the poor and of the rich."

Mr. Hewitt is right, I am sure, in the classification he
makes of the population of the world; — in the centre
the great mass of workers, on each side the consuming
idlers. This great mass of workers, whether by hand or
brain makes no difference, are those who keep the world
going, who clothe, feed, house, teach and train them-
selves and everybody else; — they are the only people
who are needed ; — the idle poor and the idle rich live on
them, and are equally dangerous and troublesome on
whichever side they may happen to be consuming the
product of the workers.

Now, the interests of the workers are the important
thing to be considered, both because they so far out-
number the others, and also because it is they upon whom
all depend, it is they whom the community has to thank
for all it is and all it has, and whatever time or thought
we may be giving to the idle poor or to the idle rich, our
constant object must be to reUeve the workers of the bur-
den of their support, for the sake of the workers them-

156

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

selves, and for the sake of the idlers as well, whose man-
hood and womanhood demand that they be raised from
this pitiful and degrading dependence in which they live.

Everything we do and abstain from doing should be
with the view of diminishing the ranks of the idlere and
adding to the great army of workers. We must always
keep in mind a picture of the normal, the ideal com-
monwealth, where all its members are useful, supporting
themselves and adding to the common stock. We must
resent and refuse to accept as permanent a condition
of things where some of the people, because of illness,
because of incompetence, because of vice, are dependent
on the rest.

Instead of being proud of our hospitals we should look
upon them with shame as showing how many sources of
ill-health are to be found in our city ; our asylums for
children should cause us to hang our heads because of the
thousands of homes destroyed by ill-doing, the parents
deserting their children and casting off the first duties of
life. Let us always remember that whatever the cause of
dependence (I am speaking, of course, of dependence other
than that which is natural and right, of children upon
parents and of parents upon children) the state is bad and
is productive of bad results. A man ought to support
himself, and he ought moreover to support his family;
and those two simple facts are never to be forgotten
by any one who tries to help his fellow-man.

Every idler transformed into a worker is a double gain,
of course, for not only is the common stock relieved of
the support of one dependent, but he, in his turn, adds

THE CHARITY ORGANIZATION SOCIETY 157

to that stock, and thus there is moie for everybody,
which is not an unimportant consideration, since there
is not now enough wealth in the world to make every-
body decently comfortable.

So much for our attitude of mind in regard to these
questions. Equally important is our attitude of heart.
We must believe in, we must feel, the "Brotherhood of
Man." We cannot be just, we cannot be charitable, we
cannot be anything we should be without this. If we talk
of "the poor," if we say what "they do," if we judge
ourselves by one standard and oiur brothers by another,
we cannot help them. To feel the brotherhood of man
is the first, the second and the third requisite. This is
what makes Walter Besant's book so full of sympathy;
this is the secret of Tolstoi's power. They each feel the
brotherhood of man and each is inspired by it, though
the practical results are so different.

The Russian sees that men are brothers, and says :
"Education and cleanliness keep us from our brothers;
we must be near to them ; they are dirty and ignorant ;
we must break down the wall ; we must be dirty and
ignorant too." He is appalled by the mass of dirt and
ignorance and sees no other hope of getting near to his
brothers but to sink to their level.

The Englishman sees that men are brothers ; he says :
"Dirt and ignorance keep us from our brothers ; we must
be near to them ; we must break down the wall ; we must
make them clean and educate them." It is the English-
man whom we must follow in practice, but we must fill
our hearts with the self-sacrifice of the Russian.

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JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

And what is this feeUng of the brotherhood of man
but the recognition of the dignity of human nature ? No
matter how low, how degraded, how brutish may be the
man or woman, we need all the more to recognize in them
the immortal soul. The less they know and feel their
divme origin, the more must we be penetrated by the con-
sciousness of it.

The Economic and Moral Effects of Public
Outdoor Relief '

I have not been able to assent to the report of the Chair-
man of the Committee on Indoor and Outdoor ReUef, only
because, as it seems to me, he does not draw the distinc-
tion which is necessary between public and private relief.

I admit, of course, that there are persons who need relief,
that is, help, in their own homes, and that both Pitt's
argument and Mr. Sanborn's argument apply to such :
"Great care should be taken, in relieving their distresses,
not to throw them into the great class of vagrant and
homeless poor." Such people however, are, to my mind,
not proper subjects for public relief at all ; for what is
pubhc relief, and upon what grounds is it to be justified?
Public relief is money paid by the bulk of the community
(every community is of course composed mainly of those
who are working hard to obtain a hvelihood) to certain
members of the community, not, however, paid volun-
tarily or spontaneously by those interested in the individ-

' Reprinted from the 17th Annual Report of the National Con-
ference of Charities and Correction, held at Baltimore, May 14-21,
1890.

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THE CHARITY ORGANIZATION SOCIETY 159

uals receiving it, but paid by public officers from money
raised by taxation. The only j ustification for the expendi-
ture of public money, money raised by taxation, is that
it is necessary for the pubhc good. That certain persons
need certain things is no reason for supplying them with
those things from the public funds. Before this can be
rightly done, it is necessary to prove that it is good for
the community at large that it should be done.

It is always necessary, also, in considering the expendi-
ture of public funds, to give up the vague notion that these
funds come from an indefinitely large central source of
supply, which can be drawn upon constantly without affect-
ing any one. There is no such central source of supply.
Every dollar raised by taxation comes out of the pocket of
some individual, usually a poor individual, and makes him
so much the poorer, and therefore the question ia between
the man who earned the dollar by hard work, and needs it
to buy himself and his family a day's food, and the man
who, however worthy and suffering, did not earn it, but
wants it to be given to him to buy hunself and his family
a day's food. If the man who earned it wishes to divide it
with the other man, it is usually a desirable thing that he
should do so, and at any rate it is more or less his own
business ; but that the law, by the hand of a pubUc officer,
should take it from hun and hand it over to the other man,
seems to be an act of gross tyranny and injustice, which, if
earned far enough and repeated often enough, leads to a
condition of things where there is not sufficient produced
for everybody, and therefore all suffer, the men who earn
the dollars as well as those who do not earn them.

160

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

It is good for the community that no one should be
allowed to starve ; therefore, it is a legitimate thing that
the public money should be used to prevent such a possi-
bility, and this justifies the giving of public relief in ex-
treme cases of distress, when starvation is imminent.
Where, however, shall be found the proof that starvation
is imminent ? Only by putting such conditions upon the
giving of public relief that, presumably, persons not in
danger of starvation will not consent to receive it. The
less that is given, the better for every one, the giver and
the receiver ; and, therefore, the conditions must be hard,
although never degrading. On the contrary, they must
be elevating, and this is by no means incompatible with
severity.

To those who object that, because the community re-
lieves a person, that person should not therefore be reduced
to pauperism by being placed in an institution, the only
answer is that the receiving of relief from the community
constitutes pauperism, and the refuge from pauperism is
either in self-support or else in the giving of help from
private sources. Because certain persons think that cer-
tain other persons need help is no doubt the best reason
why they should help them, but not a good reason why
they should require the community to help them.

There are undoubtedly many, many persons who do
need help, and many, many more who would be glad to
get it, and who think they need it ; and many, many more
who do not think they need it, but who still would take
it if olTered to them. Where is the line to be drawn?
If there were a store of public property created by no

THE CHARITY ORGANIZATION SOCIETY 161

individuals, the result of no personal exertion or labor, —
for instance, were the United States still possessed of all
the property, lands, mines, etc., which have in the past
belonged to the people, and were all these now rented,
and the surplus income not required for the expenses of
government divided per capita among the citizens of the
United States, is there any individual, rich or poor,
who w^ould refuse to receive his share ? And, if not, why
not ? Simply, because there would be no unpleasant con-
ditions attached to receiving it. There would be no
stigma connected with it, because every one would rec-
ognize that he had a right to receive it, that it was public
property, and that he was in exactly the same position as
every other citizen of the United States. Then, further,
what would be the effect of this payment upon the char-
acter and upon the conduct of the people of the United
States? Excuse the extravagance of the supposition,
and say, for the sake of illustration, that the sum paid to
each man and woman over twenty-one years of age was
$500 a year. Would there not be quite a large proportion
of the community who now earn $500 a year who would,
upon being assured of this income, cease to work for a
living? Some of these, so ceasing, would devote them-
selves to higher pursuits than earning a living, to study,
to art, to philanthropy. Some, on the contrary, would
spend their substance in riotous living, and would become
much less worthy, much less decent, than ever before in
their lives. But all who ceased to work for a Uving would,
undoubtedly, very soon become less fitted to earn a living,
would become less energetic, less skilled in a money-mak-

162

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

ing direction, less able to succeed. And what would be the
effect on the children ? Would they, with the assurance
of $500 yearly income upon reaching their majority,
probably be as energetic, as self-reliant, as fitted to earn a
living, as they would have been without this assurance ?
Does experience prove that the children of persons who
do not have to exert themselves have the same indepen-
dence and the same power to support themselves as the
children of those differently situated?

We have been speaking of an income paid to every
member of the community, regardless of his own exertions
or character, and we have assumed that this income came
from a source of wealth, the rent of public property, not
created by individuals ; but could there be any such
source of wealth? The rents of public property would
have to be derived from the energy and industry of the
men who used it ; and were these and those who followed
them to content themselves with the $500 coming to each
of them from the pubhc treasury, and therefore cease to
produce, very soon the lands and the mines themselves
would lose value, the rents would fall because of the want
of industry of the people, and the community would lose
a part, at least, of its regular income, and be driven to
earn its own Uving again by the sweat of the brow; but
it would have lost many of the qualities upon which
success in earning a living depends. The people would
earn a worse living than they used to, and would be dis-
tinctly less well off than before the distribution of the
public property began, until they recovered their energy
and indust^3^ Now, this is, as I have said, simply an

THE CHARITY ORGANIZATION SOCIETY 163

extravagant supposition; but, considering what human
nature now is, were these conditions possible, are not such
the results which must follow the general acquisition of an
income which would accrue to each citizen of the United
States without any exertion on his part ? At any rate, ex-
perience shows that this is exactly the effect on those who
receive public relief, except that to the unfortunate di-
minishing of the energy and earning capacity of the re-
cipients is also added a moral degradation, because there
is a stigma attached to pubUc relief, arising from the fact
that the money received is actually the property of in-
dividuals taken from them against their will and not be-
longing to the pubUc; and it is necessary to overcome
a sense of shame before any one is content to become a
pauper, and the loss of this sense of shame in itself con-
stitutes a distinct moral degradation, and leads to still
further deterioration of character.

If the advocates of public relief contend that there
should be no stigma attached to its receipt, the answer is
that, in that case, the tendency would be toward the con-
dition where the whole people would be ready to accept
an income from so-called public funds, and that the re-
sulting loss of energy and industry would be sufficient to
plunge any nation into a greater poverty than any now
suffers. Public reUef does not have an enervating effect
upon the character of those who receive it because they
are different from other human beings, but because they
are human beings, and are actuated by exactly the same
motives as the rest of the race. It is not because paupers
are primarily more lazy than other people that they will

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JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

not work for a living if they can be supported without
working. If you will consider, you will find that you do
not know any one, or, if you do, you regard him or her as
a most extraordinary individual, who works for a living
when it is not necessary, when the living is supplied from
some source without any conditions which are dishonor-
able or irksome. The whole difference between a pauper
and any of the rest of us who do not earn our own living
is that he wants and gets very little, while we want and
get a great deal, and that our views of what are honorable
and dishonorable conditions differ materially from his.

Of course, to be logical, I ought to go on to the position
which Dr. Chalmers took, that it would be better for the
community that there should be no public relief, indoor
or outdoor, none in the poorhouse and none outside the
poorhouse ; but I am not prepared to go quite so far as
this, for I do think that, besides energy and the power of
work, there are other human faculties which need develop-
ing, and that the community should acknowledge an obliga-
tion to succor, and even to support, those of its members
who are absolutely unable to fight the battle of life, and
that there should be a sure refuge from starvation. So far
as this refuge is furnished from the funds raised by taxation,
however, I am persuaded, as I have said, that the only
safe way to provide it, is under such stringent conditions
that no one shall be tempted to accept it except in an ex-
tremity, and under such conditions, also, as will as soon
as possible make the recipient of help able to support
himself again and do his part in supporting others. I
mean that public rehef should be indoor relief, inside the

THE CHARITY ORGANIZATION SOCIETY 165

doors of an institution, where cure and education should
be the primary objects aimed at, — cure of disease, moral,
mental and physical, and education in self-control and self-
dependence. The community may well say to any of
its members: "If you cannot support yourself by your\
own work, it is a pity. We will support you by our work ; \\
but we will not make it so pleasant for you that you will \
desire to continue the condition, and we will train your I
mind and body so that you will be able soon to undertake /
the care of yourself." /

You see my argument is that the work of the mass of i
every community is an absolute necessity, in order to pro-'i
vide for it the means of hving ; that no human being will \
work to provide the means of living for Mmself if he can j
get a living in any other manner agreeable to himself (you
will observe that I do not say men will not work, but that
they will not work for a living) ; and that the community
cannot afford to tempt its members who are able to work
for a living to give up working for a living by offering to
provide a living otherwise ; and that public relief must be
confined to those who cannot work for a living, and the
only way to test whether they can or cannot is to make
the living provided by the public always less agreeable
than the Uving provided by the individual for himself, and
the way to do this is to provide it under strict rules inside
an institution.

The practice of any conamunity in this particular is a
matter of great importance, for there can be no question
that there is an inverse ratio between the welfare of the
mass of the people and the distribution of relief. What

166

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

some one has called "the fatal ease of living without work
and the terrible difficulty of living by work" are closely
interrelated as cause and effect ; and, if you will permit
me, I will try to show by a short allegory what this re-
lation is.

Once upon a time there lived in a valley, called the Val-
ley of Industrj^ a people who were happy and industri-
ous. All the goods of this life were supplied to them by
exhaustless subterranean springs of water, which they
pumped up into a great reservoir on the top of a neigh-
boring hill, the Hill of Prosperity, from which it flowed
down, each man receiving what he himself pumped up,
by a small pipe which led into his own house, a moderate
amount of pumping on the part of every one keeping the
reservoir well filled.

Finally, a few of the inhabitants of the Valley, more
keen than the rest, reflected that it was unnecessary to
weary themselves with pumping, so long as every one else
kept at work. The Hill of Prosperity looked very at-
tractive; and they therefore mounted to a convenient
pomt, and put a large pipe into the reservoir, through
which they drew off copious supplies of water without
further trouble. The number of those who gave up pump-
ing and withdrew to the HUl was at first so small that the
loss did not add very much to the work of the mass of the
people who still kept to their pumping, and it did not
occur to them to complain ; but those who could, followed
the others up the Hill until it was all occupied, and by this
tmie, although those who remained in the Valley did find

THE CHARITY ORGANIZATION SOCIETY ]67

their pumping a good deal harder than it was when all
who used the water joined in the work, yet every one had
become so accustomed to some people using the reservoir
water without doing any pumping that it had come to be
considered all right, and still there were no complaints.
Meanwhile, the people on the Hill of Prosperity having
nothing to do but enjoy the prospect, some of them began
to explore the neighboring country, and soon discovered
another valley at the foot of the Hill, running parallel with
the Valley of Industry, and called the Valley of Idleness,
and in it were a few people who had wandered from the
former Valley (for the two were connected at the farther
end), and who were living in an abject misery, with no
water, and apparently no means of getting any, so long
as they stayed where they were. The people from the
Hill of Prosperity were very much shocked at the suffering
they found. "Wliat a shame !" they cried. "The poor
things have no water ! We have plenty and to spare,
so let us lead a pipe from the reservoir down into their
Valley." No sooner sa-id than done ; the pipe was carried
into the Valley of Idleness, and the people were made more
comfortable. But as soon as the news was brought into
the Valley of Industry, some of the pumpers who were
tired or weak, and some who were only lazy, left their
pumping, and hastened into the neighboring Valley, to
enjoy the free water ; but the pipe was not very large,
and soon there was want and suffering again, and the
people from Prosperity Hill were much disturbed, and
decided to lay down another small pipe, which they did.
But the result was the same, for the new supply of water

168

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

attracted more people from the Valley of Industry.
And so it went on, new pipe, more people, new pipe, more
people, until the inhabitants of Prosperity Hill were full
of distress about it, and exclaimed, "It seems a hopeless
tav«k to try to make these people happy and comfortable ! "
And they would have given up in despair, but a new idea
occurred to them; and they said, "They do not seem to
know how to take very good care of their children, and we
will therefore take their children from them, and teach
them to be comfortable and happy." So they built large,
fine houses for the children, and they carried water in
large pipes into the houses. And some of them said, "Let
us put faucets, so as to teach them to turn on the water
when they need it," But others said: "Oh, no! How
troublesome it is to have to turn a faucet when you need
water f Let them have it as we do, free. " And sometimes
one or other would suggest that, after all, perhaps it was
not quite right to waste so much of the water from the
reservoir, and that the large pipe itself, which supplied
the Hill of Prosperity, ought to have some means of check-
ing the flow; but the answer was, "It is necessary and
right that the water should be wasted ; for otherwise the
people in the Valley of Industry would have nothing to
do, and they would starve." Usually, however, the Pros-
perity Hill people were too much engaged in taking care
of the inhabitants of the Valley of Idleness to give much
thought to those of the Valley of Industry; and their
anxiety was quite justified, for they had to keep up a per-
petual watchfulness, the people increasing so fast that it
was necessary constantly to lay more pipe to keep them

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THE CHARITY ORGANIZATION SOCIETY 169

from the most abject suffering, and even this device never
succeeded for very long, as I have said.

In fact, no one thought much about the Valley of
Industry, or its people. Those in the Valley of Idleness
only thought of them long enough to reflect how silly
they were to keep on pumping all the time and making
their backs and arms ache, when they might have water
without any exertion, by simply moving into their Valley.
The children born in the Valley of Idleness did not even
know there was a Valley of Industry, or any pumps, or
any pumpers, or any reservoir ; they thought the water
grew in pipes, and ran out because it was its nature to.
As for the people on the Hill of Prosperity, they were, as
we have seen, rather confused in their views in this par-
ticular ; and, besides thinking that their waste of the water
from the reservoir was what kept the people in the Valley
of Industry from starving, they used also to say some-
times : "How good it is for those people to have such nice,
steady work to do ! How strong it makes their backs and
arms ! How it hardens their muscles ! What a nice, in-
dependent set of people they are ! And what a splendid
quantity of pure, life-giving water they get out of our
reservoir !"

Meanwhile, you can imagine, though they could not,
that it was rather hard on the men in the Valley of
Industry, not only to have the water they pumped up
drawn off at the top to supply two other communities,
but also to have thehr own ranks thmned and their work
increased by the loss of those who were tempted into the
Valley of Idleness, to live on what the Prosperity Hill

170

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

people and the Valley of Idleness people liked to
call euphemistically free water, because they got it
free, though actually it was not free at all; for the
Valley of Industry people paid for it with their blood
and muscle.

I might go on to tell you how the situation was still
further complicated and made harder for them, and indeed
for almost every one, when a few of them obtained con-
trol of the inexhaustible subterranean springs ; but here,
I think, the allegory may end for the purposes of this Con-
ference, and it seems to me to teach a lesson which we
may well heed.

I have so far considered only the effect of relief upon the
character of the recipient, from the point of view of the
public welfare and the mjury done to the community, as
a whole, by the lowering of the producing power, the energy
and industry of its members. This view is the most im-
portant ; but because of its very importance, because it
deals with the welfare of the whole community, it is not
apt to appeal so strongly to our sympathies as considera-
tions which affect individuals, and I shall therefore turn
now to the effect on individual men and women of pre-
senting to them the temptations of relief. You will ob-
serve that I no longer say public relief ; for I do not wish
here to discriminate between public and private relief,
the evil effects upon the individual man or woman receiv-
ing any relief, as distinguished from the help of friends,
being about equal. We have seen that it is not in human
nature to refuse any gift which comes hampered by no

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THE CHARITY ORGANIZATION SOCIETY 171

disagreeable or dishonorable conditions; we have seen
also that energy and the power of self-support must be
diminished, as are all other faculties, by disuse; and,
these two statements being accepted as facts, it follows
that no greater injury can be done to a human being
whose whole success and happiness in life consist in
his power of exerting himself and supporting himself,
than to tempt him by the offer of gifts, which will not
support him, but which will lead him to suppose that
he need not support himself, and therefore will induce
him to give up the use of his self-supporting faculties.
Can anything more certain be devised for destroying
manhood ?

As it is now given, relief seems to have all the disad-
vantages it possibly can have, and none of the advantages.
It serves to weaken the character, to excite the gambling
spirit, the recklessness and extravagance which come of
chance gains; but it does not give the quiet and peace,
the power to live for worthier objects than mere physical
support, which an assured income supplies, while it also
destroys all the incentive to activity, energy and in-
dustry which are usually supplied by the struggle to
make a living.

I am becoming more and more strongly convinced that
the giving of relief in the manner which is now the custom
is a cruel injury to those who receive it, both because it
does produce such ruin of all the faculties which constitute
what we call character, and also because it offers what to
any but a heroic nature must be an overwhelming tempta-
tion.

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JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

Wlien we consider the hardships, the struggles, the suffer-
ings of the mass of those who are commonly called the
working people, of those who earn from day to day the
support of themselves and their families, when we remem-
ber how much hard work it takes to earn one dollar, and
often how hard it is even to get the hard work to do, and
then think of the reckless way in which a dollar is given
here, there and everywhere, often simply for the asking,
can we wonder that many succumb to the temptation to
ask ? The contempt for charity (I hate to so debase the
beautiful word, but that is the use to which it has come)
which the mass of honest and hardworking people most
fortunately feel is their only shield and defence against the
temptation so constantly held out to them ; but the tempta-
tion is potent enough to decoy its thousands within the
baleful influence of relief-getting, and, once under the
spell, the salvation of the victim seems impossible, for
the rewards are too great on that side and the struggle too
severe on this. Imagine a poor, sickly woman, with little
children to support. By hard work, which makes her back
and head ache to the limit of endurance, she may earn a
dollar a day, and keep her children from starvation. By
asking for relief, by begging from door to door, she can
make more in one day than a week's work will bring.
Except for her pride, except for her self-respect, what can
weigh with her in favor of the badly paid work as against
the well-paid begging ? Has any human being the right,
instead of going to her assistance in her extremity, so to
tempt her to degradation ? Or imagine the man who by
a month's work can earn fifty or sixty dollars. He has a

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THE CHARITY ORGANIZATION SOCIETY 173

sick wife. He has three or four little children. He knows
there is plentyof money in the hands of benevolent persons.
He writes a letter, setting forth his straits. He receives
S25 in return. Can that man ever again be free from the
temptation to gain another $25 by the writing of another
letter, instead of spending twelve weary days in getting
it ? You see, these people are not in comfortable circum-
stances. They cannot have what they want, often not
what they need, even by maldng all the exertion of which
they are capable. Then, if to them comes the tempta-
tion to get it all without any exertion, is it not, as I
have said, heroic, if they resist, and is it possible that
any one with a heart and a conscience and an imagina-
tion can be wilUng to stand as the tempter where the
temptation is so dire and the results of giving way mean
moral ruin?

It seems imnecessary to say that, if it were a question of
giving an income sufficient to live decently upon to certain
persons for life, the moral effect would not be so bad,
would often not be bad at all ; but the trouble here is as
to the choice of the favored persons and the danger of in-
definitely enlarging the number of pensioners until the
resources for their support and for the support of the com-
munity as a whole are brought so low as to cause extended
and general suffering, and therefore, the only way for the
public to supply any such comfortable hving is to supply
it under conditions which so far detract from or at least
counterbalance its comfort as to make the number of per-
sons ready to accept it self-limited. As to what may and
ought to be done in this direction by those persons who.

174

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

having a large share of the goods of this world, are
called upon to help those who have less, I can only
say that I think there are many poor, feeble, suffer-
ing women now struggling for their daily bread, whom
it would be a very desirable thing to supply with an
income sufficient to keep them in comfort to the end
of their lives, and that the injury to their characters
would be no more and no other than the injury of
resting in comfort to the characters of the many strong
and happy women who now live on incomes which they
do not earn.

Finally, the real condemnation of reUef-giving is that
it is material, that it seeks material ends by material
means, and therefore must fail, in the nature of things,
ever to attain its own ends. For man is a spiritual
being, and, if he is to be helped, it must be by spiritual
means. As Mazzini has said: "The human soul, not
the body, should be the starting-point of all our labors,
since the body without the soul is only a carcass ; while
the soul, wherever it is found free and whole, is sure to
mould for itself such a body as its wants and vocation
require."

Those who claim that relief must be given, even though
it does destroy the character, because without it they fear
that there may be physical suffering, besides forgetting
the fact that it makes more suffering than it ciu-es, forget
also the awful question :

"What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world
and lose his own soul ? Or what shall a man give in ex-
change for his soul?"

it-

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THE CHARITY ORGANIZATION SOCIETY 175

Poverty and its Relief: the Methods Possible in
THE City of New York^

Wherever any body of Americans interested in the
question of poverty and its relief meet together this spring,
the first thing they should do is to rejoice. During the
winter of 1893-1894 we were forced by the emergency to
do many things which seemed to us dangerous, and we
dreaded to meet in the winter of 1894-1895 the evil con-
sequences of our actions ; but from all the cities comes the
same report, — the evil consequences have not ensued.
This means that we did the good we meant to do and did
not do the harm we feared we were doing. It means that
our earnest desire not to hurt the souls of those in need,
while we helped their bodies, was so strong and so genuine
that our influence upon them was good ; and it may well
give us renewed faith both in human nature and in the
spirit in which we have tried to do our work. I believe
the secret was that we did care more for the souls and
characters of the people we tried to help than for their
bodies, and that we did therefore treat each one as an
individual person ; and, even though we had to deal with
hundi-eds, we never lumped them and treated them whole-
sale as a class.

It has been most remarkable that the people, hard
pressed as they have been again this winter, have not suc-
cumbed to the temptation to turn for help where they got
it so freely last year. The Secretary of the University
Settlement in New York, who himself gave out hundreds

'In "Proceedings of the National Conference of Charities and
Correction " held in New Haven, Connecticut, May 24-30, 1895.

176 JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

of relief-work tickets in 1893 and 1894, and who watched
carefully the special relief-work given from the Settlement
to the striking cloak-makers this winter, said he found
only six of last year's applicants among the five hundred
who came this year. At the Charity Organization Society
District Offices, where relief-work tickets were also dis-
tributed in 1893 and 1894, there has been this year the
same remarkable absence of applications from those who
were helped then.

And, as I have said, the account is the same from other
sources. To take only three of the largest societies in
New York :

The number of "cases treated" by the United Hebrew
Charities during the first three months of the years 1894
and 1895 was as follows :

1894 1895

January 3,625 4,447

February 4,175 3,449

March 4.592 2,997

12,392 10,893

The number of applicants to the Association for Im-
proving the Condition of the Poor during the same period

^^- 1894 1895

January 4,797 3,883

February 5,560 3,539

March 5,021 2.920

15,378 10.342

and the number of applicants to the Charity Organization

^""''^^y- ^891 _189^

January 5,091 2.569

February 4,651 2,317

March 4,005 2,230

13,747 7,106

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THE CHARITY ORGANIZATION SOCIETY 177

Thus, as I have said, we do well to rejoice ; for a great
danger has been escaped and a great lesson has been
learned.

I But let me make now a practical apphcation of the lesson
learned, and try to sketch the rough outlines of a plan by
which, in ordinary times, people in distress may be helped
physically without bemg hurt morally.

To turn to the special field assigned me. New York City,
the problem of reUef in New York is the same as in other
large cities, — how to provide such help as is needed for
the people who belong in the city without attracting to
it persons from outside, and how to help effectively such
of these last as do come.

The problem would be simple enough if there were only
a given number of people in the city suffering from poverty
and want, which number could not be increased, and could
be decreased by every individual lifted out of misery;
but the truth is the exact opposite to this. While the
conditions continue which bring people to distress, while
the great city attracts from all quarters and corrupts those
who come, the suffering and misery will continue, no mat-
ter how many are relieved.

It is not only or chiefly selfishness wliich should lead
every large city to dread an influx of the homeless and
unemployed ; for, in the nature of things, little can be
done for them which will not finally be more of an injury
than a benefit both to them and to others. The natural
attraction of the city is felt not only by the most intelli-
gent and energetic of country men and women, who rightly
believe that their chances of rising are infinitely greater in

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JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

the metropolis than at home, but by the happy-go-lucky,
who hope that something will turn up every time they
make a change, and by the purely lazy or vicious.

Every charity, notwithstanding the best efforts of
those who conduct it, adds to this attraction ; and the
result is sad beyond expression.

As Edward Denison said thirty years ago :

"A prominent characteristic of our social economy, and
a main cause of its unsatisfactory condition, is the igno-
rant rush of population from the villages and smaller
towns toward the great industrial centres. ... It will be
objected that, if the people flock to the towns, it is be-
cause they find themselves better off there than in the
country. But do they ? My complaint is that the rush
is an ignorant rush, which carries its dupes over the
precipice into the gulf of pauperism, of crime, of disease,
of starvation, of despair. ..."

The problem is to drain a poisonous marsh into which
run streams of pure water to be polluted in its depths.
Shall pumps be applied to suck out the poisonous stuff
and suck in still larger floods of fresh water to absorb the
deadly miasm, and so create an unending task of pumping,
or shall the streams be cut off?

Practically, what solution of the problem do I propose ?

That the chronically homeless and unemployed shall
be dealt with almost entirely by a system of public relief,
the exception being made only in favor of such private
relief agencies as will bind themselves to take sole care,
and permanent care, of such individuals as they undertake
to deal with at all, — to provide home and work and educa-
tion and religious teaching for them.

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THE CHARITY ORGANIZATION SOCIETY 179

The public relief I advocate would consist of three
stages : the first, a decent lodging place, where cleanliness
and strict order and discipline should be enforced, and
where, at the discretion of the pubUc authorities, men or
women might remain from one to seven days, while ar-
rangements for their permanent disposal could be made ;
second, a farm school, where a training lasting from six
months to two years should be given to fit its inmates for
country work and country life ; and, third, what General
Booth has called "an asylum for moral idiots," where men
and women who have proved themselves incorrigible shall
be shut away from harming themselves and others. As
General Booth says, "It is a crime against the race to
allow those who are so inveterately depraved the freedom
to wander abroad, infect their fellows, prey upon society
and multiply their kind."

I fear that to many my scheme of public relief will seem
harsh and cruel; but I believe it to be far more kind than any
other, both to the unhappy beings themselves, who are now
by mistaken leniency lured into a life which surely leads to
physical and moral death, and to the community at large.

Having now described what I think public relief should
do for the chronically homeless and unemployed, I
must take up the question of how private charity can help
others in distress, — really help them, I mean, — help
their characters and their souls as well as their bodies.

Three things are necessary :

1. Knowledge of the facts.

2. Adequate relief for the body.

3. Moral oversight for the soul.

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JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

In New York City it seems to me that we have the means
of supplying all three, if only we would use them.

We have the Charity Organization Society to supply
the knowledge of the facts. We have rich relief societies
to supply the adequate relief for the body. We have
churches, synagogues and devoted private individuals
who long to help, to supply the moral oversight of the soul.
Besides these positive means of effective work, we are
also favorably situated, because we are almost entirely
free from the complications of public outdoor relief, which
is reduced to a minimum in New York City. Without
indulging in any extravagant fancy, I shall try to draw a
picture of what might easily be done with our available
forces.

The Charity Organization Society is, of course, one of
the latest societies established, but it was the natural out-
growth of the charitable effort of the city. AH those who
were seeking to improve the condition of the poor, and to
Uft them morally and physically, felt that they must no
longer work independently and at cross purposes, but must
join themselves together in some representative body,
where delegates from all the different benevolent societies
should meet and consult and keep constantly in touch
with each other. For this reason the Association for
Improving the Condition of the Poor, the German Society,
the French Benevolent Society, the St. Vincent de Paul
Society, the Hebrew Benevolent Society, and many others,
upon the suggestion of the State Board of Charities, united
to form the Charity Organization Society, — the society
to organize charity ; and representatives from all became

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THE CHARITY ORGANIZATION SOCIETY 181

members of the Council, and inaugurated a system by
which not only the societies which established this new
society, but all others in the city, and all churches and in-
dividuals, could get reliable knowledge of the facts about
e\'ery individual whom they wanted to help in any way,
thus furnishing a sure foundation upon which to base their
plans of help. If thoroughly carried out, this would have
three most fortunate effects. It would prevent all "over-
lapping," since, if the names of all persons applying any-
where for relief were sent in to the registration bureau of
the Charity Organization Society immediately, no two
societies and no two individuals could be helping the same
person in ignorance of each other's action ; it would pre-
vent deceit on the part of those needing relief, because de-
ceit would be immediately discovered ; and it would effect
a decided saving of money by the relief societies, partly
because all investigation at then- own expense would be
unnecessary, since the work is done without charge by
the Charity Organization Society, and also because they
would cease to give relief to those not really needing it.

Through this saving it would be possible for them to
give adequate relief in every case ; and this is undoubtedly
one of the things most needed in any good system of relief,
although it is a necessity but little recognized in prac-
tice, even by those who most loudly advocate the value
of relief in theory. Yet can any one really approve of
inadequate relief ? Can any one really approve of giv-
ing fifty cents to a man who must have five dollars,
trusting that some one else will give the four and a half
dollars, and knowing that, to get it, the person in distress

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JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

must spend not only precious strength and time, but
more precious independence and self-respect ? Is it not
a pity that all relief societies give to so many people, and
give so little to each ? Would it not be far better if each
were to concentrate upon a smaller number of persons, and
to see that each one of those was really helped, that the
relief given to them really relieved them ?

There are many families in every cit}-- who get relief
(only a little to be sure, but enough to do harm) who ought
not to have one cent, — families where the man can work,
but will not work. The little given out of pity for his
poor wife and children really intensifies and prolongs their
suffering, and often prevents the man from doing his duty
by making him beUeve that, if he does not take care of
them, some one else will. On the other hand, there are
many families who ought to have their whole support given
them for a few years, — widows, for instance, who cannot
both take care of and support their children, and yet who
ought not to have to give them up into the blighting care
of an institution ; and these families get nothing, or get
so little that it does them no good at all, only serving
to keep them also in misery and to raise false hopes, or else
to teach them to beg to make up what they must have.

Ought not charitable people to manage in some way to
remedy these two opposite evils — to do more for those
who should have more, and to do nothing for those who
should have nothing, saving money by discriminating, and
thus having enough to give adequate relief in all cases ?

The knowledge which the Charity Organization Society
can give would help societies and churches to distinguish

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THE CHARITY ORGANIZATION SOCIETY 183

more carefully than they do now between the people who
should not have any reUef at all and those who should have
a great deal.

All relief-giving, however, is such an unnatural way of

remedying the evils from which our fellow-creatures suffer

that, even when it is necessary, as it too often is, it tends

to pervert and injure the character of those who receive

it. Therefore, in order to make it as little dangerous as

possible, moral care must always go with it. Even the

widow with the little children, if she finds that everything

is made easy for her, may lose her energy, may even, by

being relieved of anxiety for them, lose her love for the

children ; and the children themselves growing up without

feeling the necessity of exerting themselves, may be ruined.

Therefore, a watchful friend must always be on hand to

see that these evils do not follow \ipon the receipt of the

physical help which must be given ; and this friend ought

logically to come from one of the reUgious bodies, and

ought to have a special training to prepare him or her for

this work of moral oversight. Already in some churches

in New York there are bodies of visitors who receive such

training. There are also small bodies of visitors in the

various districts into which the Charity Organization

Society has divided the city ; but these bodies of visitors

are far too small, and the districts are far too large.

Instead of eleven district committees there should be
forty local centres, whether established by the Charity Or-
ganization Society or otherwise it matters very little;
but in each of these local centres committees should be
formed, and here delegates from all the local charities and

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JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

from churches should meet each week or oftener to consult
together, not only as to the welfare of the whole of their re-
spective districts, seeking always to make the work of the
various societies and churches as effective as possible by
thorough cooperatjpn, but also to consider and consult
as to the best means of helping any person or family in
distress, who had applied for help or about whom any one
came to ask advice. To these meetings should also come
any individual who is especially interested in trying to
help and raise families of unworthy and shiftless and
disreputable character, and they should receive such
advice and assistance as the members of the committees,
from their study of such matters, ought to be exception-
ally competent to give. Thus, in the case of a person ap-
plying to any church society for assistance, the regular
course pursued should be as follows : First, all the particu-
lars known should be sent to the Charity Organization Soci-
ety, and a thorough investigation requested. Then, upon
receiving all the information as to the person concerned
that could be supplied in this way, if it were found that no
one had the care of the family, the church should appoint
an especially intelligent and sympathetic man or woman
to take the moral oversight ; and he should at once go to
the district committee meeting nearest to his own house,
lay the facts before the committee, and ask their advice
and help. If physical relief were required, the best
source from which to obtain it would be pointed out;
and, in any event, the visitor would at least have the ad-
vantage of talking over the possible ways of helping, and
would get encouragement from the experience of persons

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THE CHARITY ORGANIZATION SOCIETY 185

who were constantly considering the needs of just such
families.

In regard to physical relief to able-bodied men and
women the experience of 1893-1894 would seem to show
that, while relief-work as a regular annual means of giving
relief would probably be very bad for the community as a
whole and be encouraging the less efficient and energetic
workers to depend on it, yet its influence on the character
of the individual may be good, and if very carefully
guarded, it may be the best means of giving such relief
as is absolutely necessary and inevitable.

But I do not wish to be supposed to be presenting an
ideal relief system. There is no ideal system of relief.
For relief-giving by system is an evil ; and even though a
necessary evil, as at the present stage of our social de-
velopment it seems to be, yet the only ideal in connection
with it is that it may in time render itself or be rendered
unnecessary. I think no one yet knows how this can
be done; but the means by which we shall reach the
knowledge of how to do it I believe to be evident, and that
is by the patient and careful study by educated men and
women who go to live as neighbors of the poor workers
in the crowded parts of the city, of the actual people who
must be helped and of the conditions that must be changed.
The fact that such educated neighbors can do a great
deal to make those around them happier and better is
self-evident ; for, however wonderfully the overruling
and omnipotent "Power that makes for Righteou.sness '^
may turn what seem to us fatal surroundings into a means
of grace to the human soul, yet there are many ways in

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JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

which pleasure and beauty can be brought to toilers in
swarming tenement houses by those who have had larger
opportunities. In daily intercourse with the children, with
the bo3'-s and girls, and with the young men and women,
much can be done to awaken nobler ambitions and create
higher ideals. But, important as this personal work is,
I do not think it the most important work to be done.
The chief value, to my mind, of the colonizing of the
more highly educated and, from a worldly standpoint,
more favored individuals among those who hve in densely
crowded neighborhoods, and work hard for a good part of
every twenty-four hours, is that they come to know them,
to know their lives and to know their needs, and can report
them to the people who have the power to supply what is
needed.

Experts are required now in every field. Most people
have not time to attend to more than their own immediate
surroundings and business. So many things press for
attention that much which is of the greatest importance
is pushed aside, and therefore it is necessary that each
part of the pubhc weal should be especially studied by
those who devote themselves to personal observation and
the collection of facts ; and such students and collectors
of facts in sociology are, or ought to be, the men and
women who take up their residence among the plain
people, as Lincoln called them, and observe their daily
life near at hand and all day long and every day.

The reason charity, so called, although it is sad to
degrade a beautiful word, is so often discredited, and
more often so discreditable, is that it has usually worked

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THE CHARITY ORGANIZATION SOCIETY 187

without any knowledge of this daily life. It has kept
out of the way of it, and has tried in a feeble and ineffectual
manner to deal with the broken fragments, the failures,
thrown out by it. When men and women have broken
down because of long hours of overwork and horribly
bad surroundings to work in, charity has put them into
hospitals, and has either never thought or said anything
about the causes of the breakdown, or it has complacently
remarked that it was a pity that such conditions were
necessary for business reasons.

When charity has found men and women drunkenX
and shiftless and unable to care for their children, charity \
has taken their children away from them, and has said l
"That's the way poor people are" ; but it has not asked |^
why they are so or tried to prevent their being so.

When girls have gone wrong and boys have stolen,
charity has provided refuges for the girls and has put the
boys into prison, and has talked as if such ruin of lives,
and what looks like ruin of souls, were inevitable, never
even wondering what other outlet for the natural love of
pleasure and adventure, so carefully provided for in the
case of other boys and girls, there was for these boys

and girls.

Now, that is all changed or is changing ; and it js, I
believe, because men and women are learning the actual
life of the mass of workers who do not break down, but who
only die ; who are not drunken and shiftless, but who lead
lives of such heroic self-sacrifice and devotion as we cannot
lead because the demand is not made on us, and of the
lives of the boys and girls, who grow up brave and pure

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JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

through and in the midst of circumstances which, as I
have said, seem to us fatal.

But, notwithstanding all the virtues and all the heroism
of the mass of the people, they do need and ought to have
a great many things they do not have, and the whole
community ought to help them to get them ; but the first
step toward helping them to get them is to know exactly
what they need, and this knowledge the residents in
college settlements and the individual residents in tenement
houses must get for us. They must report the neglect of
the city government to do its duty, whether as street-
cleaners, as police or as educators. They must report the
oppression of employers, whether the oppression be the re-
sult of individual carelessness or, as is often the case, the
result of trade conditions. They must cry aloud for more
air, more space, for a larger and better life in every way
for the great masses of men and women in our cities.

Not only does self-interest require that we help to
lift our fellow-men, to make them useful citizens, law-
abiding, and industrious, but no one can escape re-
sponsibility for the intellectual and moral development
of the race. As Drummond says :

"The directing of part of the course of evolution has
passed into the hands of man. A spectator of the drama
for ages, too ignorant to know that it was a drama, and
too impotent to do more than play his little part, . . .
Nature meant him to become a partner in her task, and
share the responsibility of the closing acts. It is not given
him as yet to bind the sweet influences of the Pleiades or
to unloose the bands of Orion. In part only can he make
the winds and the waves obey him or control the falling

THE CHARITY ORGANIZATION SOCIETY 189

rain But in a far grander sphere and in an infinitely

profounder sense has the sovereignty passed to him. For
he finds himself the guardian and the arbiter of his per-
sonal destiny and of that of his fellow-men . The moulding
of his life and of that of his children's children m measure

lies with him He shapes the path of progress for

his country and his time. The evils of the world are
combated by his remedies, its passions are stayed, its
wrongs redressed, its energies for good or evil directed
by his hand. For unnumbered millions he opens or
shuts the gates of happiness, and paves the way for
misery or social health. Never before was it known and
felt with the same solemn certainty that man . . . must
be his own maker and the maker of the world."

Chaeity Problems 1

What is the ideal of charity ? It is the good Samaritan,
who took infinite pains to help one stranger whom he
chanced upon by the way, and if every one should be
neighborly in this sense to any one who falls into distress
and comes naturally into his life, no one would have to go
about hunting for people to help, or, in other words,
there would be no need of "chanties"

Charity is not an occupation ; it is not even a piece of
life. It is life. It pervades all relations. A man cannot
be charitable and yet overwork and underpay his em-
ployee; a woman cannot be charitable and yet browbeat
and scorn her servants or back-bite her acquaintances.

If the nature is charitable, it will show itself in charity to
all, rich and poor alike. If the nature is uncharitable,
to 'be a member of twenty boards, to know all about the
1 Published ia the CharUies Review, Jauuary, 1896.

190

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

dangers of pauperizing and the advantages of organized
charity, \vill not make it otherwise, but will probably
intensify the hardnass. And because charities are con-
founded with charity, because to be connected with
charities does in some unaccountable manner satisfy the
conscience which thus fails to feel its own selfishness and
cruelty, are among the reasons why charities do inter-
fere with true charity. It seems often as if charities
were the insult which the rich add to the injuries which
they heap upon the poor. But people usually are not to
blame for substituting charities for charity, at least
not entirely to blame. They do not see the world as it is
because they have not been brought up to do so, and not
having much imagination, they do not for themselves
discover the truth, and it is necessary to understand the
facts if this error is to be avoided.

The facts are that the great mass of the population in
any community is working hard to keep that community
alive. They work primarily for themselves, but they
work also for all the idlers, who, though they do nothing
to keep themselves alive, yet are kept ali\-e and are fed
and clothed, some at but little expense per head to the
workers, and others at a large expense per head. Of course
it is this great mass of men and women who work who
ought to be the objects of charity, of love, partly because
they are the great mass, partly because they are the
workers, partly because their lives are very hard and
could be made much easier by a Mttle charity, even by a
very little thought, on the part of their fellow-men.
Strangely enough, however, this great mass of the people,

THE CHARITY ORGANIZATION SOCIETY 191

these men who work all night in cellars to give us our
daily bread, these men who bring the milk and the vege-
tables to us every day, these men who dig out from dark
caverns the coal that warms us, who, by their faithfulness
and intelligence, carry us safely on thundering railway
trains, to whose watchfulness we confide our Uves without
a thought ; these women who cook for us and wait upon
us and clothe us; all these men and women without
whom we could not Uve in comfort for one day, without
whom we could not live at all for one month, we forget.
We seldom think of them at all, unless we are forced to.
When they undertake to seek some slight improvement
in their lot, we have to think of them, but it is with some-
thing of the feeling, perhaps, which the slaveholder felt
upon hearing of an insurrection of slaves. Their hard-
ships, their suffering, their weary bones and aching heads
are nothing to us ; we accept all the benefits they confer
on us and never even give them a thought, far less our
love, our charity.

They usually do not complain or ask for sympathy,
and they seldom receive any. They struggle and work,
they live and die, and very few people trouble themselves
about them, little reahzing that instead of helping them,
they are often sadly hindering them, and even adding
to their hardships by their vain efforts to help an entirely
different set of people — the people who are the "benefi-
ciaries of charities." These are the poor idlers, the
failures, the broken-down men and women who could not
stand the strain of the working Ufe because of some special
weakness either of body or mind or character. These

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JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

people do appeal to charity, they do ask for help,
they do enlarge upon their distress; and though, as I
have said, to try to help them, though vainly, often re-
sults in increase of suffering to the great mass of men and
women who work, j'et charities still continue and still
are supported by thoughtless people who pride themselves
on their kindheartedness. This harm is done in various
ways. Charities sometimes tempt their beneficiaries
to idleness, and sometimes they do not. In the first case
the harm done is directly to the persons so tempted, who
thus lose character, independence, and the means of self-
support, and indirectly only to the mass of the workers,
who thereby have a larger number of idlers to support,
while their own numbers are also diminished by deser-
tions to the ranks of the idlers.

On the other hand, the charities which do not tempt
to idleness often do not do much harm and sometimes even
do good to the persons they undertake to help, while
they do a great deal of injury to large bodies of workers.
This harm is done by giving relief in aid of wages, as
it is technically called ; that is, by giving small sums to
persons who, in consequence, are enabled to work for less
wages than they otherwase could live on, so that they,
competing for work, underbid other workers, and gradu-
ally, if their number is large enough, and unfortunately
a very few comparatively can produce this effect, bring
down the wages for all the workers in their particular
trade.

A simple illustration will show how this happens. Let
us imagine a small town where twenty women go out to

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THE CHARITY ORGANIZATION SOCIETY 193

scrub at $L50 a day, for four days a week, having a hard
time, of course, but managing to live. Some charitable
ladies in this town, full of conomiseration for four or five of
these women whom they employ, think it would be kind
to get up a charitable society to help them. Strangely
enough, it does not occur to them that perhaps the best
way to help them would be to pay $2 for scrubbing. No,
that would "raise wages," which to some people seems the
wickedest thing in the world ; but a charitable society
founded on the most approved modern lines, which will
not " pauperize" these poor women, is exactly the thing ;
so it is organized, and each woman can get $2 worth of
sewing a week, to be paid for from the funds of the society.
What will probably happen ? There being some competi-
tion for the scrubbing, the women who secure the relief
work offer to do scrubbing at $1.25 a day instead of
$1.50; the ladies, charitable and others, are not loath
to pay less than formerly, and employ those who
work the cheapest ; then gradually, the others are told
by their employers that Mrs. So-and-So works for $1.25
and they must do the same, and so the result is that the
women who scrub and also do charity sewing, instead of
earning $6 a week as formerly, earn $7, while the rest, who
only scrub, earn $5 instead of $6. That is, instead of
$120 paid in wages each week to twenty women, the
twenty women get $110 a week, of which $100 is wages
earned for real work and $10 is money paid for reUef
work, and the good of the extra dollar a week to the five
charity workers is but a poor offset to the loss of a dollar
a week to the other fifteen women.

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JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

Nor is it likely that the harm mil end here. For prob-
ably the number getting charity work will increase and the
wages go still lower until they are all working at scrubbing
at II a day and getting $2 worth of sewing a week, which
would mean that each woman earned, as before, $6 a week,
but it would be $4 in wages and $2 for relief work;
that is, there would be $80 paid in wages each week
for the same amount of scrubbing as formerly, and $40
m relief, the gain to the women being nothing, the loss
being the added work of sewing besides the loss of indepen-
dence.

This is no hypothetical case ; it is exactly what happened
all over England from 1792 to 1834, during the years
when relief in aid of wages was given to all working
men from the public funds until wages were brought
down so low that there were no working people in England
who were not also paupers.

But although charities are dangerous, especially the
large charities which attract all the weak and the incom-
petent to depend on them, charity is necessary, and also
some kinds of charities. Charity must feel for the great
world of working men and women, must earnestly desire
their welfare, listen to their wrongs, and do its best
to help them in their efforts to shorten their hours of
work and increase their wages, never forgetting also that
nothing will really help them which does not also help to
raise their characters, to make them more honest, more
industrious, more intelligent.

Charity must be extended to a man's own immediate
employees and to all who work for him, to servants,

THE CHARITY ORGANIZATION SOCIETY 195

clerks, saleswomen, and demands consideration for their
welfare, their health, their feelings. Educational chari-
ties are always good. Too much money and time and
thought cannot be given to teaching of all kinds— knowl-
edge to the ignorant, wisdom to the foolish, skill to the
helpless, goodness to the wicked, that is, in teaching
people to be and to do something. Emerson says : "He
who gives me something does me a low benefit ; he who
teaches me to do something of myself does me a high

benefit."

Finally, it is necessary to protest against a most lament-
able misunderstanding of what is called organized charity ;
people suppose it to mean apparently that they are
each to put a little money into a machine, and that
from this machine there will come out a great quantity
of money, which will be wisely and kindly distributed
to a great many people. They do not pause to consider
how wisdom and kindness are to be developed by a
machine or to reflect that these attributes can be exer-
cised only by human beings in their relations to human
beings. Organized charity means, in fact, only that
charity,, real charity, love, if it is meant to reach stran-
gers, those outside the natural lines of our own lives,
must be organized, that is, must be properly ordered,
because if not, if it be disorganized and disorderly, it
will do harm where it was meant to do good in the ways
already described.

Organization does not dispense with human sympathy.
It only prepares the way for it. As a system of water
works in a city does not make the life-giving water unneces-

196

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

ary, but only offers a means by which it shall reach
those who need it, so a system of organized charity
merely provides the means by which sympathy and the
desire to do good may bring hfe and hope to the desolate
and oppressed. It relieves the charitable of no duty
It only makes their duty more imperative, because clearer
and more effective.

The True Aim of Charity Organization Societies ^
A Charity Organization Society means a society for
orgamzmg charity; it means the attempt to put intelli-
gence and order in the place of ignorance and chaos.
The first society of the kind was estabUshed in London in
1869 by men and women who had spent their whole lives
m worldng for the poor in London, and who, having given
time and thought and life to the work, had become con-
vinced that they were not doing any good, but on the con-
trary were doing harm. They found that they were
working at cross-purposes; that those in one part of
London were ignorant of what was being done in the
other parts; and they came to the conclusion that what
was needed was more intelligence, not more feeling and
heart; that earnest workers who were tiying to help
those m distress should come together, compare notes,
and help each other to accomplish their common purposes
Ihe example of London was followed by Buffalo in
1877, and later by Philadelphia, Boston, New York and
other cities, and there are now about one hundred and

THE CHARITY ORGANIZATION SOCIETY 197

ten societies in the United States that work on this prin-
ciple of associated charity. The idea has never been
that a new society should be formed to do new work,
but that the existing societies should unite to do their
work better and accomplish their primary object — the
helping of people in distress.

The cause of the great difference in the new way of
doing the old work in London was that the men and
women who established the Charity Organization Society
believed that poverty could be cured ; they beheved, as a
result of their lifelong study of it, that poverty was due
to certain causes which were removable ; and that has
always been the fundamental distinction between the
old and the new charity. The old charity accepted
the idea that the distress of poverty and pauperism Is
necessary. The new charity rejects this idea; it says
that poverty and distress are due to certain causes which
usually have their roots in the character of the people
who are in distress, and therefore its great aim is to influ-
ence the character of those whom it seeks to help.
And if in England, where the struggle for existence is so
much more severe than it is in the United States, men
and women who had given their lives to charitable work
were able to agree that the usual cause of poverty is to be
found in some deficiency, moral, mental, or physical, in
the person who suffers, it certainly can be accepted as
still more generally true in this country. And this,
which makes the daily work of charity discouraging, is,
rightly looked at, an encouragement. If it could be said
that there were in the United States numbers of honest,

198

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

industrious, intelligent, and energetic people who were in
a chronic state of distress and suffering, that would be a
horrible situation; and yet it would be a situation which
would make the helping of them easier and more encourag-
ing than is the helping of the people that now have to be
dealt with; for, since their distress is due to inherent
faults, either physical, mental, or moral, it becomes very
difficult to cure it.

But besides the weaknesses which make difficult the
helping of people who want help, there are weaknesses of
the would-be helpers which make it far more difficult.
The development of character is not easy. It requires a
great deal of intelligence, patience and sympathy; and
it requires, moreover, as a foundation, a correct concep-
tion, not only of the people who need help at the moment,
but of the whole population of the world in general. This
may seem an extreme statement, but it is true. The
theory that there are two classes of people, the rich and the
poor, and that the rich support the poor by giving them
work and money, is contrary to the truth ; and those who
hold that view are incapacitated from being of very much
use to their fellow-men.

The fact is that the population of the world is divided
into two classes, two very important classes, but poverty
and riches are not the distinction between them. The
distinction is one of character and life. The workers
and the idlers constitute the two classes into which
human beings are divided. The workers are those who
usefully serve their fellow-men; and they are workers,
whatever be their occupation, if this condition of useful

if:

■■z X

THE CHARITY ORGANIZATION SOCIETY 199

service is complied with. They may spend all night
mixing bread ; they may lie for ten hoiu-s every day on
their backs in the dark, hundreds of feet under ground,
picking out coal ; they may set type all night in a news-
paper office ; they may sew all day, or wait on table, or
wash clothes, or cook, or run errands; they may plan
railroads; they may superintend factories; they may
write poems ; they may sing, or act, or preach, or teach ;
they are always workers, if what they do is of use to the
world. The idlers are the people w;ho live on the workers.
They may be rich or they may be poor ; and one peculiar-
ity of the poor idler is usually absolute degeneration of
character. It is a sad fact that a worker is easily converted
into an idler, and it is this fact which makes the attempt to
help unfortunate people so difficult a matter. The truth
is that, looked at from a temporal amd material poijit of
view, the mass of the world's workers have a hard time of
it. There is little room for enjoyment, often no room
for self-culture, for the common worker. He has to forego
many of the pleasures and some of M^hat many people
call the necessaries of life; and often the uncommon
worker, the captain of industry, or the genius in any de-
partment of work, has also to toil terribly, as Sir Walter
Raleigh puts it. To the uncommon worker, the genius
whose high intelligence and noble nature enable him to
see the real value of things, to live laborious days is
not a hardship, and he cannot be tempted by the offer of
any of the lower pleasures to give up what is in reality the
highest fimction of his nature. But alas ! the common
mass of men and women is not made of such stuff. They

200

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

seem to need the pressure of necessity to force them to
exercise their faculties.

And in the different meanings to different people of this
word necessity is to he found, in a great degree, the cause
of the great differences in their condition. I am ignoring,
of course, the pressure of unjust social laws and legislative
enactments which produce hardship and cause more
people to become idlers than would otherwise be the
case. But while acknowledging this unfortunate effect
of unjust conditions, I still believe that one principal cause
of the great differences in the material comfort of different
classes of persons hes in their standard of living, or, in
other words, in their view of what are the necessaries
of life. The e.x-slave of some of the West India islands,
where there is much common land, where the climate
makes clothing unnecessary, and where one bread-tree
will furnish sufficient food for a family, has so far
lowered his standard that he desires nothing ; and so he
plants his bread-tree, makes his hut, and will not work for
himself or any one else, having all the necessaries of his
life without working. Nor does the pauper work in
those other countries where clothes are required, and
food ready to eat does not grow on trees which can be
had for the planting, but where food, clothing, and shelter
can be got from the public without any unpleasant ac-
companiments; for, although he wants more than the
black man, still he can get all he wants without work.
And going higher up the social ladder and coming to the
man who wants a good house, good clothes, and good food,
but who gets all these from his father, we find that he does

■4

THE CHARITY ORGANIZATION SOCIETY 201

not work for exactly the same reason that keeps the black
man and the pauper from working. He gets aU he
wants without working. Such being the tendency of
human beings not to work when they can get what are to
them necessaries without it, a high standard of hving is
one of the most important factors in raising the condition
of>e people. And one of the great dangers to be guarded
against in this country is the lowering of the standard of
living by the influx of foreigners. This also points to the
most important service that can be done for these for-
eigners, which is to raise their standard of living until
they will not live in filthy tenement hoiises, or allow their
children to go without education for the sake of the pit-
tance that they can earn, or work for wages upon which it
is unpossible to live decently and bring up a family to be
healthy, intelligent and self-re.specting members of the

community.

Now, by this long and rather roundabout road I have
come back to the various things which charity organiza-
tion societies attempt to do for the people who are
unfortunate and who need help. The object is to
make them workers and not idlers, and to educate them
to a higher standard of living if they happen to have a
low one. But, in order to come to any decision as to the
kind of help which any person or family will require, it is
necessary first to learn to know each of them, to find
out whether each individual is a worker or an idler, to
know the character, history, and general tendency of
each; and this cannot be done except by really sym-
pathetic study. It is impossible, when they are in mis-

202 JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

(fortune, to find out the truth by a few questions. The
desire to help them and to help them in the best way
must be sincere, and they must believe that it is. Then,
having learned about them, it is always necessary to re-
member how easy it is to tempt the average human
being to become an idler. In the case of a family where
the misfortune is of a temporary nature, where want of
work has brought want of bread, it does not do to take
the course that seems so easy and natural and so right at
first sight. It does not do to send groceries, coal, and
clothes, recklessly pouring out before those tempted
people what to them represents the results of two or three
hard daj's' work, and giving them perhaps the first lesson
in the terrible truth that it is very easy to get a hving
without work, and this just when they are suffering
from the torturing difficulty of getting work to make a
living. Instead of this, it is necessary to tiy in every
way to devise some means by which what is needed may
be worked for by some one in the family, by the husband
or father, if it is in any way possible. Of course, some-
times there may be absolute destitution, requiring iimne-
diate relief, though this is rare in any community; and
even where this is so, it is possible, by supplying what
is needed for one day, to gain time to think over some
plan by which the head of the family can provide, as he
ought to, for the next day, the next week and for all the
weeks thereafter.

There are many men and women who are suffering be-
cause they are confirmed idlers, and who are idlers partly
because they can do no work well enough to secure decent

THE CHARITY ORGANIZATION SOCIETY 203

wages for it, and partly because they have no energy and
no ambition ; that is, they suffer from radical deficiencies,
both of character and education, which act and react
upon each other, each evil only aggravating the other.
Such people as these are the most difficult and dishearten-
ing to help, for there seems no foundation to build upon.
But if there are children, it does not do to turn away
discouraged ; it does not do to take the easy course and
supply with gifts of money and necessaries all the defi-
ciencies left by their want of character and skill, for this
is to educate the children in exactly the same way that
the parents have been educated, to rely on other people,
— to be, in a word, paupers. Such families as these will
furnish hard work for years to any one who is sufficiently
courageous and unselfish to undertake their care. Of
course, the objective point is the proper education of the
children, to make them feel the responsibilities that
their parents never felt ; to teach them the skill that their
parents never learned ; to give them the character their
parents never had ; — a long, hard task, requiring courage,
devotion, and the realizing sense that every little bit of
improvement which may be put into the souls of those
children is just so much gain to them for eternity.

There are dangers that beset the work of a charity
organization society, as there are in all other fields of
human effort ; and one is the making a fetich of investiga-^
tion. Investigation of this kind is not a good thing in
itself ; it is an catI. It is not desirable to try to learn all
the facts about other human beings, if they do not want
to tell them ; the only excuse for investigation is to learn

204

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

the way to help them. Investigation is and must be one
of the cornerstones of all the work of scientific charity,
but the tendency to look upon it as a thing to be carried
on almost for its own sake should be resisted, lit is an
invasion of privacy which ought not to be undertaken
except with the object of helping people ; that is its reason
and justification. If a person comes a-sking help, and con-
tinues to ask it after it has been explained that he cannot \
be helped unless inquiry is made into his antecedents and
present condition, he puts himself into the hands of the
society to be investigated, and he must be investigated,
because he cannot be helped without that knowledge.
What a person needs cannot be known without finding
out what he is ; for how otherwise can one help him, give
him what he needs or keep from him what he ought not
to have ? The thing to be constantly kept in mind is, that
investigation is not an end in itself nor a good thing in
itself, but that it is the means to a good end, which is the
helping of persons in distress.

Still another danger is that of taking short views, of
tliinldng only of the people in distress ; it is necessary
to think also of the effect of what is done upon other people.
Sometimes helping the individual may be objectionable
because it will injure other people. For instance, it is said
that one reason of the very low wages of working women
m Paris, which makes it impossible for any woman to earn
a living there by needlework, is the work that is done in
mstitutions for poor women and sold at low rates ; that
is, those good people who have charge of institutions for
poor women are so possessed with a desire to maintain

THE CHARITY ORGANIZATION SOCIETY 205

then- institutions and to teach the few women they have
in them, that they injure thousands of working women
for the sake of the few hundreds they have directly under
their eyes ; and this lowering of wages is one of the most
disastrous effects of any extended relief system.

Another mistake is made in taking a negative position;
in telling people not to give carelessly and selBshly, in-
stead of teUing them that they must give carefuUy and
thoughtfully; in constantly saying don't, instead of do.
The societies thereby expose themselves to the charge of
telling people that they must not help the poor, when
their one object is to help the poor and make other peo-
ple help them.

The charity organization societies fail also to explain
another important matter. It is often difficult (o under-
stand how careless giving actually increases physical
suffering and distress, and how it may, and often actually
does, make people poorer. But it does so by undermining
the independence, self-reliance, and energy of persons
whose only capital consists in those invaluable qualities.
It takes from them their only source of income and
support, and does not give them enough to make up for it.
If any one were to say, "I will pick out a certain family,
and I will give them a hundred doUars a month for the
rest of their natural lives,"— that would not hurt them any
more than a hundred dollars coming from any other source.
Such income often prevents people from working for their
living; but it also often leaves them free to do somethmg
that is better worth their while. The trouble with indis-
criminate and careless giving is that it prevents people

206

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

THE CHARITY ORGANIZATION SOCIETY 207

from making the exertion necessary for their own support,
while it does not give them enough to hve on — only enough
to starve on ; and by and by gets tired of giving them
even that. If a man makes eight dollars a week and
four are given him, and he stops making the eight, as he
is almost sure to do, he is certainly very much poorer
and suffers a great deal more than while he made the eight ;
and iu the nature of things he is soon left without either.
The aim of a charity organization society should be
to get people to do far more in every way for those in dis-
, tress than they have ever thought of doing. It should
teach them that people ought to give more time, thought
and money than they are in the habit of giving. To take
only one example, the case of a widow with young children.
A working man dies and leaves a Uttle money, and his'
widow tries to get along with it and succeeds for a little
while ; then it is gone, and she and the children are de-
pendent. What is the usual course of things? People
give her a httle money here, a little money there, and she
spends almost all her time running around for the money
until she gets to be a regular beggar, and the children beg
and the whole family goes to destruction. People have
given them money because, as they truly say, it was such
a pitiful case. What ought to have been done? First,
all the relatives should have been made to give something
regularly ; then what the woman could have earned, with-
out neglecting her children, should have been taken into
consideration; and then somebody should have given
her enough to make up the rest of her support in a decent
way, so that the children would not have been left to starve

> .

and freeze or have been forced to beg. But there are very
few people who are willing to give one woman ten dollars
a month for ten years, diminishing it, of course, as the
children grow older, and watching over them, all that time.
That is the way, however, in which dependent widows
and children should be taken care of. It is a question of
letting them become beggars or of watching over them
and giving them enough to make sure that the children are
brought up properly ; the watching being more important
and more difficult than the relief.

Every different case of distress can be dealt with in the
same spirit, but it is not necessary to go into details. The
principles of the charity organization societies can be
summed up in two texts: "Man shall not live by bread
alone," which applies to the poor as much as to the rich ,
and "What shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world
and lose his own soul?"

The Evils op Investigation and Relief'

There are two fundamental axioms which every charity
organization society established during the past twenty-
nine years in any part of the world has tried to learn, to
put into practice and to teach :

1. That, in order to help any person who is in chronic
distress, you must find out the cause of the distress.

2. That, having found the cause, you cannot remove it,
or cure the distress, except by careful, intelligent, patient,
personal work. Or, to put it in other words :

' A paper read before the Training Class ia Practical Philauthropio
Work, June 21, 1898. Published in Charities for July, 1898.

208

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

Assuming that the distress is a disease, in order to cure
it yon must learn what it is and then use skill and con-
• science in its treatment.

Surely these are reasonable axioms, and they appear
to be so closely connected, so mutually interdependent,
that it seems evident that one is of no use without the
other. That is, if you are not prepared to give careful,
conscientious treatment, the inquiry into the causes of the
trouble is useless, and to give careful treatment, unless
you know what the trouble is, is sheer waste of time and
effort.

But, notwithstanding the fact that these two hands
of charity, so to speak, must necessarily lose their useful-
ness and power unless they work together, there is great
danger that this may be forgotten even by charity organi-
zation workers themselves, since the two" functions have
to be performed often by different individuals, and it is
certain that the teaching of the charity organization
societies has been misunderstood, and most grievously
misunderstood, by many people who have adopted the
perverted opinion that to inquire into the cause of the
trouble afflicting a poor man or woman is in itself a good
thing, no matter what use is made of the knowledge
obtained, and who think that in holding this opinion and
carrying it out they are only doing what the charity organi-
zation societies tell them to. Therefore, it seems to me
that all charity organization people should protest against
this idea, than which nothing could be more false to what
we really do believe and trj^ to practice.
We had in New York, in the hard times of 1893 and

THE CHARITY ORGANIZATION SOCIETY 209

1894, a most painful experience in this regard. The very
word investigation seemed then to have been made a
sort of shibboleth by the newspapers, and, in too many
cases, by the ministers also. To every remonstrance
against methods of relief-giving which were injurious to
the character of those who were supposed to be helped
by them, and cruel in their entire disregard of their com-
fort, happiness, and moral and physical well-being, it
seemed to be considered a sufficient answer to say, "All
the cases have been thoroughly investigated," and it was
evidently thought that this answer ought to be entirely
satisfactory to the charity organizationists, even though
the investigations were made, not for the purpose of fm-
nishing guidance and knowledge for a long course of
treatment by which weak wills might be strengthened,
bad habits be cured and independence developed, but in
order that a ticket might be given by means of which,
after a long, weary waiting in the street in the midst
a crowd of miserable people, whose poverty and beggary
were pubUshed to every passer-by, some old clothes or
some groceries might be got.

Think of the destruction of self-respect, the crushing
out of aU shame, the fostering of every unworthy feeling,
which such an experience must result in. Yet this was
what, in too many cases, investigations were made for dur-
ing that winter in New York, and both newspapers and
ministers seemed alike to accept the theorj' that so long as
the people were found upon investigation to be worthy,
it mattered not how much their characters were injured,
provided only their bodies were fed, or, in other words,

ry 1

210

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

how thoughtlessly the work of making them unworthy
was carried on.

Since such dreadful results can come from a failure to

recognize the true uses and limits of investigation, and

since they have arisen from a misunderstanding of the

teaching of charity organizationists, I believe it to be our

duty to declare that investigation, in itself, is bad ;

that the only excuse for trespassing upon the privacy of

other human beings, for trying to learn facts in their Uves

which tbo;y prefer should not be known, for seeking to

discover the weak spots in their characters, for trying to

find out what pitiful personal sorrows their nearest and

dearest have brought upon them — the only justification,

I say, for doing all these painful things, which are too often

included in the single word investigation, is that the

person in distress has asked you to help him, and that you

mean to help him, to help his soul and not only to feed

his miserable body, and that you cannot help him unless

you do know all about him.

But I must turn now to the other subject in regard to
which the views of the Charity Organization Society have
been almost as much misunderstood as they have been in
regard to investigation, that is, the subject of relief.

Relief is, equally with investigation, held by us to be an
evil, but m our present state of society to be also a neces-
sai-y evil. That is, we consider both to be essential, but
both to be very dangerous, and, therefore, that both must
be guarded and managed so as to do as much good and as
little harm as is possible in the nature of things.
The reason the charity organizationists have been sup-

THE CHARITY ORGANIZATION SOCIETY 211

posed to recommend investigation in toto, and to con-
demn relief-giving in an equally wholesale way, is because
in every community where a charity organization society
is started, no one, as a rule, believes in any iiort of investi-
gation, and every one does believe in every kind of reUef,
and, therefore, the advantage of the former has been
dwelt on, and attempts have been made to show the dan-
gers that are inseparable from the latter.

When Edward Denison went to live in the East .End of
London during the great "East End Distress," he wrote
to a friend words to the following effect, "Every shilling
I give away does fourpence worth of good by helping to
keep their miserable bodies alive, and eightpence worth
of harm by helping to destroy their miserable souls."

I believe that this is the very best that can be said of
relief, and of relief under the best circumstances, for this
relief was not given by a public official sitting in his office
and dispensing orders to persons who applied for them,
nor was it given by the agent of a charitable society sent
out to try to discover during a half-hour's visit whether
a family she has never seen or heard of before requires
relief. This relief was money given by Edward Denison
himself, a man of exceptional intellectual and moral power,
who was giving his life as well in trying to learn how to
help the starving people, for whose sakes he had left
a home of luxury and culture to live in the dreary waste of
East London ; and it was given to people whom he knew,
whom he was studying day and night. And if this was
the result of his almsgiving, what must be the results of
the common, careless reUef-giving that we know?

212

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

Personally, I believe that relief is an evil always.
Even when it is necessary, I beUeve it is still an evil. One
reason that it is an evil is because energy, independence,
industry, and self-reliance are undermined by it ; and since
these are the qualities which make self-support and self-
respect possible, to weaken or undermine them is a serious
injury to inflict on any man. Self-support is the normal
condition of all. A man who does nothing in return for his
living, whether he hves in misery or in luxury, is despi-
cable, but to a poor man the injury is greatest, for his power
of self-support is his only capital ; he has absolutely noth-
ing else to depend on ; if he is deprived of this we cannot
give him anything to make up for what we have taken
from him, even on the side of material well-being, while
of the fatal moral injury done we can have no doubt on
comparing a pauper or tramp with a self-respecting man.
To go a step farther : besides supporting himself, a man
ought to support his wife and children, and his indepen-
dence is destroyed if he cannot, and to do it for him is to put
him in an unnatural and degraded position, which, if con-
tinued, will surely deprive him of both the desire and the
^ ability to do his duty. If we could only thoroughly rec-
ognize that, whatever be the cause of dependence, whether
It be sickness, want of work, laziness or vice, the state of
dependence is bad, and produces bad results in the
character, which reappear as bad results in the surround-
ings, that is, in more and more poverty and suffering —
if, I say, we could only see and feel how baneful, morally
and physically, dependence is, we should be so possessed
with the dangers surrounding the giving of relief that we

THE CHARITY ORGANIZATION SOCIETY 213

should be willing to take any pains, to suflFer ourselves,
and even to see our poor friends suffer temporarily, for
the sake of saving them from those fearful permanent evils.
The trouble is that we exaggerate the importance of physi-
cal suffering.

But do not misunderstand me. I am talking of relief.
Do not go away and say that I have said we must not help
people. We must help people; we all need help, and
always shall. Being finite beings, it is impossible to im-
agine that, in any future existence even, we should ever
reach a point where we should be self-sufficient and
need no help from others. Since, then, every human being
needs help, it is of course the duty of every human being
to give help ; but, unhappily, we often do not know how
to help, and there are many ways in which we can hurt
people even when we mean to help them. It is a pleasant
truth that the bulk of mankind is obliged, by the very
fact of living, to help other people, whether they want to
or not. Every one who works at what is useful to man-
kind is helping his fellow-men every day of his Ufe. We
do not think about it very often, but we should be badly
off if the butchers and bakers and milkmen and brick-
layers and tailors all stopped helping us for any length of
time. Human beings have come to rely so entirely on
each other for their daily means of living, that they would
soon (that is, those of us who live in cities where we cannot
supply our own daily wants) perish miserably if they were
not helped to a living by others. Enamanuel Swedenborg
makes real charity to consist in this work of supplying
the needs of oxu- fellow-creatures by the discharge of our

214

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

daily duty. The great mass of the men and women who
earn their hving, whether by working with the head or
the hands, may feel the joy of a sense of helping their
. fellow-men ; the fact that they are paid for their work is
proof that they are doing something that somebody wants
done, that is, something that may be presumed to be use-
ful. Of course, there is a very sad exception. People who
keep saloons or gambhng houses, or other places where vice
IS encouraged and indulged, are paid for their work and
are supplying what some people want; but so far from
bemg useful it is ruinous; it destroys instead of helping.
Now, in all our attempts to help other people we must
remember that this distinction exists : we may do for
them what they want us to do, and yet it may be the veryV
most cruel thing that could be done for them. We see \
it often in the case of parents and children. The parents 1
give the children all they want, and instead of being
helped they are really destroyed by it. They grow up lazy /
selfish, shiftless, unfit for life. We see it often between 1
sisters and brothers; the sisters will work and slave, and /
let theu- brothers live on them; and the sisters are unsel-
fish and noble and industrious, and the brothers are selfish
and mean and dissipated. It may seem kmd, but can any-
thmg be more cruel than to destroy the character, the soul
of another person ? What is a little ease or comfort or
pleasure worth, compared to nobility of character ? And
yet, as I have said, parents who think they love their
children, sisters who think they love their brothers, will,
to give them a Uttle passing happiness, do them this great
wrong.

=lBf,

THE CHARITY ORGANIZATION SOCIETY 215

Now, is not this the very wrong that relief does?
To give people a Uttle temporary physical help, and to
please ourselves, we are willing to do an immense moral
harm to the people we think we want to help, and also
a great economic harm to the whole community, for relief-
giving does without doubt encourage idleness and make
idlers, Now, to be an idler is a very bad thing — bad
for the man himself, whether he be rich or poor, because,
as I have said, he loses energy, intelligence, and persever-
ance, and finally the power of work, and becomes, by the
disuse of these faculties, a distinctly lower creature than he
was before, or than he might have been had they been de-
veloped by exercise ; and bad for the community, also, for
if the workers of a community have to support many per-
sons in idleness, they have to work harder and to fare worse
themselves than they otherwise would.

Mazzini says somewhere : " The human soul, not the
body, should be the starting-point of all our labors, since
the body without the soul is but a carcass, and the soul,
wherever it is found free and holy, is sure to mould for
itself such a body as its wants and vocation require."
Then is not teaching 'a charity wide and broad enough to
employ every one with a head and a heart who is not
already busy in some other part of the work of the world ?
To teach some one something— that is a charity in which
there is no danger ; it is a charity where there can be no
overlapping ; it is a charity of which there cannot be too
much, and the good results of which will never end. No
matter who it is, no matter what you teach, whether it be
sewing to a Httle girl, cooking to a big girl, honesty and

"Ml"':
|J?",

216

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

purity to a youth, neatness and thrift to a woman, in-
dustry and self-control to a man, temperance, morality,
or religion, you have done a service, and a service which
will never end.

To give material aid is nothing ; food, clothes, fuel, rent
— all these pertain to the body and are perishable ; even
if they do no harm, they certainly do little good. You
give one month ; the next month you must give again ;
and finally there is no result to show except usually the
need of more fuel, more food, more rent.

But once teach sometliing of value, and you have started
an unending succession of benefits ; you have learned in
teaching ; those you teach will teach again ; and so on,
in ever widening circles of good. Mr. Emerson says:
"If a man give me aught, he has done me a low benefit;
if he enable me to do aught of myself, he has done me a high
benefit." Then teach, teach, teach. Teach some one
to do something of himself, to return to the community at
least as much as he receives from the commimity.

I cannot speak more strongly than I feel on this subject
of the evils of relief, for I believe that among the many
causes of poverty one of the most potent is careless relief-
giving, whether by what are called charitable societies,
by private individuals, or from public funds. I believe
that no society should exist for the purpose of giving reUef ;
I beUeve that no money should be collected and kept on
hand for that purpose ; but that societies should be formed
to help, and that when material aid proves to be needed
in any special case, special requests should be made
for it. Being convinced that all material aid is bad, even

THE CHARITY ORGANIZATION SOCIETY 217

when it must be given, I think that the giving of it ought
to be made as difficult as possible ; and I also think that if
there were no reUef funds to stand as a constant tempta-
tion to poor people, and if the giving of relief were nobody's
business, and a very special effort had to be made whenever
it was found to be required, many kmd people would be
surprised and delighted to find how very seldom any
reUef at all was needed.

To sum up : the principles which I have tried to make
clear in the foregoing pages are : first, that we must help
people ; second, that in order to help them we must find
out what the matter is ; third, that in trying to help we
must beware of doing harm ; fourth, that we must take
thought and trouble to help them ; fifth, that no help is
real which does not develop the character and make the
person helped more able to take care of himself; and,
finally, that the distinction to be kept in mind is that
between the body and the soul. If we help the body only,
our help is worth nothing ; like the body itself, it perishes
daily and has to be daily renewed. If we help the soul,
if we teach something, our help is eternal, like the soul,
and there is no end to the good we have done.

The Uses and Dangers of Investigation in Public
AND Private Charities'

The uses of investigation in the work of charity are
obvious. The first is so obvious that it seems almost need-

• Read before the New York Medical League at its meeting at the
Academy of Medicine, January 20, 1899. PubUshed in the Medical
News, February 4 of that year.

218

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

THE CHARITY ORGANIZATION SOCIETY 219

less to mention it, especially to an audience of medical
men. It would be as reasonable to ask what is the use
of a diagnosivS, as what is the use of an investigation.
The use is to find out what is the matter, because if we do
not know, we cannot do any good at all. There is always
a cause for the distress of those who come asking for help,
and we cannot really help them, unless we know what the
cause is and at least try to remove it. And yet there are
many people who are benevolent and who want to help,
but who go on blindly without getting any thorough
knowledge of the actual condition of those who come to
them. To talce the commonest and perhaps the most
natural form of this error as an example — many benevo-
lent people know only the women of the families they
are trying to help. They want to elevate their physical
and moral condition, but how can they elevate them
if they are only brought in contact with one half of each
family, leaving out of account the person whose duty it is
to do for his wife and children what they are undertakmg
to do for them ? How do they know that the husband
of the woman they are supporting is not at work ? How
do they know that he is not spending all he can earn, and
all he ought to devote to his family, at the comer grog
shop ? How do they really know anything of the family,
if they ignore the existence of the head of it, of the man
responsible before God and man for its well-being?

The second use of investigation is that it prevents the
growth of great moral evils, for its absence tends to the
speedy demoralization of decent people. What I mean
will be perfectly clear to you if you will consider what

a terrible temptation is presented to unhappy people in
distress, if they can go roimd from church to church,
from person to person, repeating a story of misery and
distress, obtaining from each twenty-five cents, fifty cents,
or a dollar, and sure that not one of them will ever make
any real inquiry into the facts, sure that none of them will
ever know that the others are giving also. Let me give an
illustration. A decent but improvident man dies and
is buried by his club, or his friends, or by charity, and
the newly made widow is left with a number of young
children dependent upon her for support and care. She
must act the part of both father and mother, and her state
is pitiful indeed. She has no relations, and she turns to
the members of her church. She touches the sympathy
of those she applies to, but no one feels any sense of re-
sponsibility, no one feels obliged to make an investigation,
no one recognizes the great danger with which the woman
and her children are confronted, the danger of becoming de-
graded and corrupted into beggars and hars, and so every
one does just enough to quiet his own sense of pity, gives
a dollar, or five, or ten according to the more or less touch-
ing nature of the woman's story,— and then dismisses it from
his mind. The poor woman, truly in distress, finds that
the recital of her sufferings brings in a sum of money which
ten days of hard work would not earn, and most natiu-ally
she is content, when the proceeds of her first appeal are
spent, to make another. Why should she not ? It would
be stupid to seek for washing or scrubbing at a dollar and a
haif a day, when she can get five or ten dollars in an hour by
telling the truth to two or three kind-hearted people. She

Sil

■M

220

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

finds, however, that as the truth becomes less sad, as her
loss affects her less and the urgency of her appeal is dimin-
ished, the proceeds are diminished also ; therefore she does
not confine herself to the truth. She colors and exagger-
ates ; she takes one or two of her children with her to help
her emphasize the story ; she teaches them to cheat and to
lie, and she finds it pays ; and thus she is tempted into a hfe
of deceit, and her children follow in her path ; and it is the
neglect and carelessness of benevolent people who will not
take the trouble to find out the real condition of the family,
and to make and carry out a plan by which they can be
rendered self-supporting, that bring them to this horrible
condition.

But investigation is of use not only in preventing the
demoralization of decent people, but in the detection of
those who have become expert deceivers, and this is
important because it too has a bearing on pubUc morals.
It would certainly not be worth while to take any trouble
to save the sums which rich people waste on ill-considered
alms ; but it is worth while to take a great deal of trouble
to save the poor from the temptations which beset them
when they see the rewards reaped by successful knavery.
It would not be worth while to pursue impostors and
punish frauds, were the only advantage gained the saving
of money to extravagant and selfish people ; but it is
worth while to prove that lying and cheating are not an
easier and pleasanter way to get a liveUhood than working.
Let me sum up, then, the uses of investigation I have
named. First : Investigation is the only means of learn-
ing how really to help those in distress. Second: It

•"I t.

THE CHARITY ORGANIZATION SOCIETY 221

prevents the demoralization of decent people by remov-
ing the temptations to beggary. Third : By the discovery
of fraud, investigation makes a life of deceit less attractive.
But to offset these uses, I must now turn to the dangers
of investigation, for it is a dangerous tool, which may
wound cruelly if used without thought and care. . • ■
[Here Mrs. Lowell referred to the painful experiences of
the winter of 1893-1894 in terms similar to those used in the
preceding paper, and continued.] . . .. Everything that is
said against investigation by its critics is true, and no one
feels the truth of it more strongly than we who believe in its
necessity. We know that it is a necessary evil, and we try
to make it as little evil as we can, and we justify it, as I have
said, only because it is the preUminary to the real work of
helping those in distress by careful, conscientious, patient,
painstaking, personal work, just as the torture of a sick
man by the physician's examination can be justified only for
the same reason, that he has to know what the matter is
before he can take one step in trying to cure the man.

The necessary invasion of the privacy of the lives of
other men and women is one of the great evils of in-
vestigation; it is a sort of outrage upon the dignity
of a human soul, and ought not to be undertaken if the
object of the investigation Ls not a nobler one than the
mere feeding of the body, for the soul. should not be
sacrificed to the body. "What wiU it profit a man, if he
gain the whole world, and lose his own soul ?"
■ In all such work the best rule is to " do unto others as ye
would they should do unto you," and to try to realize what
would be the effect on one's self of the contemplated action,

222

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

THE CHARITY ORGANIZATION SOCIETY

22?

and also to remember that, the object being to help, one
must do as little harm as possible in the process of helping.

The thorough investigation and study of the character
and needs of persons who ask for help, and the attempt to
educate and develop them, even by means which may not
be very pleasant to them, is sometimes called the new
charity ; but it seems to me it is only obedience to the old
teaching I have already quoted. For, after all, would
we not each one of us prefer to be dealt with, were we in
the place of an applicant for relief, in such a maimer as
would elevate us morally and physically? Would any
one of us deliberately choose such treatment from another
as would undermine our moral strength and power, even
though it should save us from suffering ?

Does not God deal with \is in what we choose to call
the new way ? Are we not driven by necessity to exert
ourselves ? Do we not suffer the results of our own acts ?
Can we by any means escape from the consequences of our
sins and mistakes? And is not the common way of
rehef-giving and what we call chaiity so far as possible
an interference with God's education of his people ? We
relieve men and women of the necessity of working, we
reward them for idleness, we encourage them in vice, we
take their children from them when they are young and
troublesome and care for them in institutions, and when
they are old enough to labor, we give them back to those
who claim a parent's rights, although they never dis-
charged a parent's duties. We tempt our poor weak
brothers and sisters to give up the struggle which has been
appointed to make them strong and brave. We accept

every invention they use to work upon our feelings; we
lead them to Ue to us aiid become cheats.

Emergency Relief Funds'
To the Editor of Charities:

Will you give space to the accompanying statement
in re-ard to the suffering caused by the severe cold and
storms of February, and by the efforts to relieve it?

We take the liberty of addressing your readers upon
this subject, because we have aU of us had opportunities
of knowing a good deal about the facts, and we believe
that the efforts to relieve the distress wiU result m creating
much more distress; and although it is too late now to
avoid the evils we deprecate, we hope that a repetition
of the conduct leading to them may be prevented, when
it is understood that the consequences are cruel to those
whom It was intended to help. Our prayer to the chari-
tably disposed is that, whether in times of supposed emer-
gency, or from day to day, they will, in the words of Miss
Octavia Hill, of London, not rest content with benevolent
feelings, but assure themselves that their actions are

beneficent as well. ,, , • v „„„,

The special lesson to be gathered from the lavish gener-
osity with which money has been poured out to meet the
present emergency is that sympathy ought to be con-
tinuous, and that the money which can be spared so readily
should be given year by year to the hundreds of societies
which are always working to prevent, as well as to relieve,
the suffering of the poorer partof the population o the city.
Money is always necessary, not only for rehef , but for
the education of the rising generation, to develop then-
character and their powers, so that they ^vlll not have to
1 Published in Charities of February 25, 1899.

224

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

turn to strangers for help, even in much more serious
emergencies than that of the past week.

But far more than money, men and women are necessary
who will give time and thought to the constant daily needs,
material and spiritual, of that part of the population upon
whom the burden of life rests very heavily, because they
have not the strength and ability to carry it.

That the very extraordinary weather we have had
should have caused much suffering of various kinds was
inevitable. All men whose busmess required them to
face the severe cold, policemen, motormen, cab drivers,
firemen, etc., must have suffered intensely, and in many
cases their health may have been permanently injured
by exposure. No sympathy for them and no effort to
mitigate their sufferings could have been misplaced or
mistaken, or would have been likely to injure them.
That men, women and children who did not have to leave
their houses suffered, too, must also be true, but so long
as they kept under shelter and were provided with some
food and fuel, tlieir distress was not, as a rule, extreme.
Among the things to be di-eaded for the poorest people
among us, whose clothing was necessarily not a sufficient
protection against the cold and snow and wet, was lest
they should be tempted out of the houses and expose them-
selves to the inclement weather.

Until last Monday this was avoided. The visitors and
agents of the charitable societies bravely faced the cold
themselves to carry help to the people whom they feared
might be in need ; but they found no exceptional distress.
Indeed, it is usually found that people in the tenement
houses are not allowed by their neighbors to suffer, for
those who have food and fuel share it with those who
have none, especially when such emergencies arise as we
have just experienced ; and many of the landlords and

-1

"'}

■^

THE CHARITY ORGANIZATION SOCIETY 225

small shopkeepers are also most charitable. Until Mon-
day, then, this natural sympathy and neighborly kindness,
supplemented by the usual efforts of churches and chari-
table societies, sufl&ced to meet whatever special need there
was. The heavy snowstorm following upon the severe
cold, however, appealed forcibly to the sympathy and
imagination of persons not themselves acquainted with the
unending charity of poor people for each other, and larjie
sums of money were deposited here and there to furnish
relief, and the fact was widely advertised.

The natural consequences have followed. Poor people,
especially women and children, though ill-prepared to face
either the snow or the rain, were attracted by the news-
paper accounts of large sums to be spent in charity,
and have for the past four days been tramping through
the snow, the rain and the slush, and standing or sitting
for hours in the places where they have been told they
would get orders for food and fuel. The consequence
must be great suffering, and probably illness and death
in not a few instances. Of course it is natural to argue
that those who did not need relief very badly would not
go to seek it through such difficulties ; but we are sure that
if they did need it, they would have got it, either from their
neighbors or from others who knew them and their needs,
had they been left at home to receive it from what may
be called their natural sources of help. Take, for instance,
two of the individual cases which we have observed.
On Monday morning in the snowstorm a woman walked
from Fifty-ninth Street to Twenty-second Street to ask
for help, spending from two to three hours in the journey,
because, as she said, she had seen in the paper that they
were giving relief there. She knew the Charity Organiza-
tion Society office at Sixty-thurd Street, and would un-
doubtedly have gone there for help, and have received it

226

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

there, had she not unfortunately seen this statement in
the paper. On Wednesday an old woman, who, with her
daughter and grandchildren, has been for years under the
care of the Charity Organization Society committee, the
office of which is in Broome Street, and who constantly
comes to the Society when they need anything, walked from
Water Street to Twenty-sixth Street to get a coal ticket.
The agent of the society, calling on her Thursday, found
the family with the coal ticket, but without coal or food,
and in five minutes provided them with both, as she would
have done the day before had the woman come, as she
usually does, to the office, instead of walking three miles
in a vain search for help. When asked why she had not
come, she answered : "You have done so much for us I
did not like to, and I saw tliis in the paper."

Our contention is that it is cruel to tempt poor people
by offers of help to leave their homes to seek it and that
what is needed, beyond what their own relations, friends
and neighbors can supply, should be taken to them quietly,
and even secretly, if possible, by those who Icnow them
well. That these people who are now seeking rehef all\
over the city have not been without food and fuel, as has \
been claimed, is proved by the fact that they are able to go
on these long journeys through the slush and to stand
for hom-s waiting in line with the hope of getting a little
coal ; for if they had been frozen and starved for a week,
they would not have strength to bear the ordeal to which
the charity of the benevolent is now subjecting them.

As to the statement that there were niunbers of persons
homeless in the city during the storm, the mere fact that
there were none found frozen, except men who were kept
outdoors as watchmen, shows that the statement was with-
out foimdation. That men flock to any free shelter opened
is no proof of actual homelessness, for there are from

•■■ :'

5^-

1?-

THE CHARITY ORGANIZATION SOCIETY 227

10,000 to 15,000 men sleeping nightly in cheap lodging-
houses in this city, and a few thousands of these can be
drawn at any time into a free shelter, especially if food
is provided also.

It is to be remembered, also, that during and after
a snowstorm, these men are better able than at any other
time to pay for their lodgings, owing to the work supphed
by the snow itself, and that the opening of new free shelters
is especially unnecessary at such times.

We protest against the undeserved shame brought upon
our city by the false impression given to the world that
it is full of starving, homeless people.

We do not say that there was no additional suffering
owing to the storm, nor that all the suffering there was
would have been relieved ; but we do say that the forming
of emergency funds and the advertising of them have
increased it rather than diminished it.

Finally, we must repeat that the true way to make sure
that people will not suffer when an emergency arises is to
strengthen the societies which are constantly busied in
trying to help them, by providing these societies with
plenty of money and with plenty of workers who will learn
to know the individuals, and so be able to succor them
effectively whenever they need help, whether the emer-
gency is one which strikes only the single family, or one
which reaches the whole population of the city.

Josephine Shaw Lowell,
3d Dist. C.O.S. Com.

TiTT.T.TATJ D. Wald,

Nurses' Settlement.
Elizabeth S. Williams,

College Settlement.
February 18, 1899.

CHAPTER X

Improved Cake for the Insane

At the first meeting of the State Board of Charities
which Mrs. Lowell attended, held June 8, 1876, Com-
missioner Theodore Roosevelt having called attention
to inadequate accommodations for the insane women in
the asylums of New York City, the subject was by reso-
lution referred to the New York members of the Board,
with request to call the attention of the proper authorities
to the conditions found. This received the prompt con-
sideration of the Commissioner.?, who, under date of
October 20, 1877, m a communication to the Mayor of
New York in regard to the official charities of the city,
protested against the insufficiency of the estimate of the
Department of Public Charities and Correction for the
year 1878. This communication, evidently written by
Mrs. Lowell, calls the Mayor's attention in turn to the
condition of the city's hospitals, asylums, and other
charitable institutions, and asserts that they — the State
Conmiissioners — "had frequently pressed upon the at-
tention of the (City) Commissioners the dangerously over-
crowded condition of the Lunatic Asylum on Blackwell's
Island, and had anticipated from them a request to the
Board of Estimate and Apportionment for an appropria-
tion to buy a farm upon which inexpensive buildings for

228

•I

IMPROVED CARE FOR THE INSANE 229

the chronic insane could be erected, but of this no mention
is made in their estimate."

Two months later, December 24, 1877, Mrs. Lowell
and Mr. Donnelly addressed another letter to the Board
of Estimate and Apportionment, in which they made "one
more appeal" for the full amount of the appropriation
asked by the Commissioners of Public Charities and Cor-
rection, for the city asylums for the insane on Ward's
and Blackwell's Islands and even a larger appropriation
for salaries than the Commissioners themselves requested.
Attention was called to the crowded condition of the wards,
the insufficient number of physicians and attendants, and
the suffering incident thereto, both for attendants and

patients.

This communication was followed by another, also
addressed to the Board of Estimate and Apportionment
by Commissioners Roosevelt and Lowell, under date
January 14, 1878. After furnishing information in sup-
port of their recommendation, they again urged the Board
to ask for a law authorizing the City of New York to
buy land for the purpose of establishing an insane asylum
outside of the city. In the minutes of the State Board
of Charities, many entries show Mrs. Lowell's continued
activity for the welfare of the insane throughout the
State as well as of those in the island asylums maintained
by the City of New York.

It is refreshing to introduce here a letter from Mrs.
Lowell's pen, addressed to WiUiam Pryor Letchworth,
at that time the President of the State Board of Char-
ities :

230

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

Deah Sie :

120 East 30th Street,
June 7th, 1880.

and U„ ™l°L^^SeTe:.^r:',l\-'-.

ae attention oTtL aittT/ ^ ** ' "'^'^ '° *"

the Asvlum W °L' n ''°'"""J^°« ?> «>» grounds of
have expected K Dr tlTn^'u "' "'•^''^' ' *-»
the fact that aU i ^fl";"^ .LT'™''™ °'

means of emDlovin,r fh« ^""^'^ -^"ord the very best

pectedhimtTvaStlt ^f ' ^^'^ ^^'^"^^ ^^^'« ex-
hour's labrof anrk ' d?h r' '^'u"'^^ *' ^^^^'^ «^«^>' ^-^^
until thesis th 'l^^^^^^^^^^ ^^ P^^-*^>

mained ten years in a ro^Zml ^ '"f*"*^''" '■^-
tion to a number of palSs ^f m^ "'^^"^ °^^"P^-
regret, and I have no doubt t'hlt "' I "' "^""^^ ^^
work might after Z.Tf '"'"'" °*^"'' ^^"^^^^^ o^
them to do «o^«^derat>on, be also found for

tent^t'of^L^^rstis. '^^^^^^^'^ — ^'^ *° ^^« ^t-
Respectfully yours,

J. S. Lowell, Comniis.sioner
Rumors of abuses in the management of the asylums

a Senate Committee of Investigation, of which sltL

IMPROVED CARE FOR THE INSANE

231

Woodin was Chairman. This Committee made a tour
of inspection of the asylums maintained by the City of
New York on Blackwell's and Ward's Islands, and on
December 3, held a public hearing at which Mrs. Lowell
spoke. She recommended that the power of appoint-
ment and removal of subordinates should be given to the
superintendents, condemned political interference with
management, recommended increased salaries, and called
attention to the overcrowding of the institutions, the in-
adequacy of the island sites, and the need for more hospital
accommodation elsewhere. At the close of her address
the Chairman remarked that she had made some of the
most valuable suggestions the Committee had received.

At a meeting of the State Board, held January \5, 1881,
Mrs. Lowell presented a "Report upon the Condition
and Needs of the Insane of New York City," which was
accepted and ordered transmitted to the Legislature with
the annual report of the Board. Extracts from this report
are included in this chapter.

About this time Mrs. Lowell effected a most important
and far-reaching reform, in the early care and observation
of the alleged insane. Bellevue Hospital had long re-
ceived persons who, from intemperance or a sudden out-
break of insanity, had become disturbers of their homes or
the pubUc peace. In these emergencies patients were
committed indiscriminately to what were known as the
"Cells," a series of dark, ill-ventilated rooms in the base-
ment, where they often remained for several days, poorly
fed and unable to sleep, owing to the disturbance created
by the insane and drunkards suffering from delirium

232

JOSEPPIINE SHAW LOWELL

tremens. Mrs. Lowell appealed to the Commissioners
of Charity to erect a small pavilion on the groxinds, to
which patients suspected of insanity should be committed,
where they would be under the immediate observation of
members of the medical staff. The Commissioners finally
consented to erect such a building, provided the necessary
appropriation of $10,000 was secured. A committee was
formed, consisting of Dr. Stephen Smith of the State
Board of Charities, Dr. James R. Wood of the Medical
Board of Bellevue Hospital, and Bishop Henry C. Potter
of the State Charities Aid Association, to attend the meet-
ing of the Board of Estimate and Apportionment and
present the matter. The appropriation was made, the
pavilion built, and a well-organized service created, con-
sisting of a special physician from the medical staff of the
hospital and nurses from the Training School. Commis-
sioners in Lunacy daily visited the institution, examined
each patient, and discharged to the street those found not
to be insane, and to the asylum for the insane those found
to be insane. The number of persons conunitted as insane
to this pavilion, but who were found, on careful observa-
tion by expert physicians, to be not insane, has been in-
credible. The success of this innovation has had much
to do with the establishment of observation wards and
psychopathic buildings in connection with hospitals and
asylums for the insane.

Some idea of the painstaking performance by Mrs.
Lowell of her official duties may be gathered from the
following paragraph from a letter of hers written that year
to her sister-in-law :

IMPROVED CARE FOR THE INSANE 233

West New Brighton,

February 6, 1881.

Dear Annie : . j 4.„

I am all in a whirl of business, present and to
come ■ Last week I finished off our report on New York
C^y Charities, which, although it does not look like^^
has kept me busy for six months, and it went to the
L^sllreon Thursday. ThenI hadto takeup a c.y o
abuse of a patient at the Lunatic Asylum, and on Wed
nesdiy (mercury at zero) I and a lady stenographer went

::f iLckwe^U's ^^-taT tShl^^^^^^^^^^

make them see that such things will not be overiooked^
Hm also W about the Women's Reformatory Bill and
pe'^ions in favor of it; and altogether, as usual, I should
Ske be fifty people, and could lead fifty very pleasant
ut s ! Did I teU you that Father had organised a Rich-
A r.nntv Societv for Prevention of Cruelty to Chil-
rn'r^L'ot of Mother's industrial school w^k
and will be very useful. The school goes on beautifully,
tuel or twenty children to dinner daily, and all learn-
ing to be clean and decent and helpful.

Mrs. Ix>well's vigilance in regard to legislation for the
care of the insane was shown in the following letter ad-
dressed to the President of the State Board:

120 East 30th Street,

March 14th, 1881.
My dear Mr. Letchworth :

There is a French pamphlet for you here. May I keep
it to read before forwarding it?
I do not know whether you have recognized the danger

234

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

that there is in a bill introduced by Senator Bixby and
Mr. Browning granting to the Commissioners of Charities
and Correction of New York City permission to transfer
insane patients to State and county lunatic asylums.

The danger Ues in the words I have underlined, and
county (the rest is all right), for although the bill qualified
this authority by saying that the county asylums must
be duly licensed by the State Board of Charities, what
I fear is that an agreement might be entered into by the
Commissioners of Charities and Correction with some
asylums now taking 500 New York patients at $2.50 each
week — putting up cheap buildings and then keeping
the patients in poorhouse style, and we might find it diffi-
cult to prevent it.

Please explain the matter to Senators and Assemblymen,
as at first sight the bill is all right. It will be necessary
to act at once — the bill has passed both Houses and only
needs to ha^'e some slight Assembly amendment concurred
in by the Senate. I spoke to Senator Bixby about it.

Truly yours,

J. S. Lowell.

June 17, 1881, was a red letter day for the State Board
of Charities, for on that date Governor Cornell appointed
Dr. Stephen Smith of New York City, Commissioner from
the First Judicial District, and he was thus introduced
to a public ser\'ice with which he has been prominently
identified nearly ever since, now for a period of almost
thirty years. After a brief first term on the State Board,
Dr. Smith was appointed State Commissioner in Lunacy,
May 21, 1882, and resigned his seat on the Board to accept
that position.

IMPROVED CARE FOR THE INSANE

235

Being familiar with the origin of his office in the State
Board of Charities, and recognizmg the intimate relation
of his duties to those of the Board, Dr. Smith, reversing
the pohcy of his predecessor, proposed to its President
that, although he was required by law to make his annual
report to the Legislature, he would report the results of the
current work of his office to the Board at its regular meet-
ings, if the members approved. Accordingly, by resolution,
the Commissioner was invited to attend the meetings of the
Board and to participate in the discussion of subjects
relating to the insane. Mrs. Lowell took an active part
in securing this cooperation of the two branches of a com-
mon service, and while she remained on the Board, gave
unfaUing support to the Commissioner in his efforts to
improve the care of the insane.

At a meeting of the State Board October U, 1881,
Mrs. Lowell and Dr. Smith were appointed a committee
to report upon the condition of the asylums for the insane
in New York County, and to suggest such measures for
reform as in then- opinion would improve the service.
Mrs. Lowell, on behalf of this committee, presented at
a special meeting March 16, 1882 a report which was
printed in full in the Board's minutes. The report urges
that the Board prepare a bill :

"Providing that New York County, together with Kings,
Monroe and Genesee Counties, which all now retam their
acute insane, should be required, as are the other counties
in the State, to place their acute insane m State hospitals.
This plan has the advantage of placing all the counties
of the State on the same footing; it would simply be

236

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

the consistent carrying out of the poUcy deliberately
adopted by the State, that it is for the public good that
the acute insane should be cared for in State institu-
tions. . . .

"This plan is undoubtedly directly in line of the past
policy of the State Board of Charities, and there are no
arguments to be made against it which do not equally
tell against the whole scheme of State care for the acute
insane. ... It is acknowledged by all experts that
the care of recent cases of insanity to be efficient must be
costly, and in order to protect the insane from the false
economy of county authorities, State hospitals for the
insane were built in the State at great expense, and are now
ready to receive all the recent cases which occur. Mean-
while, the two most powerful of the counties have been
enabled to retain their acute insane, not because they have
made adequate provision for them, but because they did
not choose to pay for their care the amount required of the
smaller counties.

"Your Committee recommend that the Board adopt
the last of the three plans submitted, and appoint a
Committee to draft a bill to be presented at the next
meeting of the Board."

This report was accepted by the Board, and on motion
of Commissiomer Carpenter, it was :

"Resolved, That this Board deems it desirable that the
proper authorities of New York take immediate measures
to remove the acute insane from institutions of that county
to the State asylums above mentioned, and that the Com-
missioners from New York be requested to bring this
subject to the attention of the proper authorities of that
city and coimty."

IMPROVED CARE FOR THE INSANE 237

At the January meeting of the Board in 1882, President
Letchworth appointed as the Standing Committee on
the Insane, Commissioners Smith, Craig, and Lowell. In
May, the resignation of Dr. Smith created a vacancy in
the Board, which to my surprise I was appointed to fill.
Some unknown friend had suggested my name to Governor
Cornell, whom at that time I had never met, and thus
began a service which still occupies much of my time
and thought, and which associated me with Mrs. Lowell
in her work as a Commissioner of the State Board. Im-
mediately upon my appointment, I was much pleased by
the receipt of the following letter, which illustrates the
writer's unfailmg courtesy and promptness :

120 East 30th Street,
May 31, 1882.
Deak Sib ;

I see that the Governor has nominated you as a member
of our Board, and I hope the nomination will be confirmed.
I shall be very glad to give you any information in my
power in regard to the duties of the office, and meanwhile
I enclose the Constitution, etc., of the Charity Organiza-
tion Society, of which you are an ex-officio member, and
in which I hope you may take an interest.
Truly yours,

Josephine Shaw Lowell.

My first attendance at a Board meeting was on July 11,
1882, when by resolution, I was assigned to the vacancies
in the standing committees, occasioned by the resignation
of Dr. Smith. I thus found myself in the anomalous
position of Chairman of the Comimittee on the Insane,

238

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

never yet having been within the walls of an asylum.
Mrs. Lowell wished nae to familiarize myself at once, by
personal inspection, with the condition of the city asylums
on the islands, and when my first visits to them were
made in her company, I received useful object lessons of
what official inspections should be. Nothing escaped Mrs.
Iiowell's watchful eye, and it was immediately evident
that she was hold in great r&spect by the asylum officials.
Nothing disturbed her serenity or was allowed to hasten
or to retard the orderly course of her inspections. On
my first visit in her company to the insane asylum for
men on Ward's Island, in the course of our rounds we
came to a ward filled to overcrowding with a class of
senile dements, many of them suffering from paresis in
its advanced stages. I had never until then been in so
repulsive a place. The sights were no worse than the
odors, and I sought fresh air at an open window. Mean-
while, Mrs. Lowell, quite unmoved, stood with the Super-
intendent in the middle of the ward, pencil in hand,
making notes of the conditions revealed to her practised
eye. The first impression of her perfect courage remained,
and was strengthened by my later experience of the con-
duct of her work.

Mrs. Lowell continued to call attention to the over-
crowding in the asylums of New York City, and in October,
1882, the State Board of Charities adopted a resolution
she offered directing the New York Commissioners to
present the facts to the Board of Estimate and Apportion-
ment. Meanwhile, she and Dr. Smith endeavored to find
a suitable site on Long Island for a farm colony for the

■1

IMPROVED CARE FOR THE INSANE 239

able-bodied insane, with the intention, at that time, of
having it conducted as a branch of the insane asylum for
men on Ward's Island.

At the close of the year 1882, the New York Commis-
sionei-s, with the approval of the Board, held several
conferences with the City Commissioners of Public
Charities and Correction, endeavoring, but without success,
to secure their active support of the application for the
farm, and in December twice appeared before the Board
of Estimate and Apportionment, urging an appropriation
for this purpose of .twenty-five thousand dollars. Mrs.
Lowell at the State Board meeting of January 11, 1883,
presented a report on "The Insane and Lunatic Asylums
of New York City," which was adopted and ordered
transmitted to the Legislature.

In April, 1883, I was, at my request, relieved from
further service on the Committee on the Insane, to take
up reformatory work, which more particularly interested
me. Mrs. Lowell also retired from the Committee in July
of that year. We both continued, however, as State
Commissioners residing in the city, to urge the improve-
ment of its asylums, and to exert pressure for the estab-
lishment of the farm colony for the insane.

It was not easy to discourage Mrs. Lowell ; she had
learned to wait perseveringly. In December, 1883, the fol-
lowing resolution which she offered was adopted by the
State Board :

"Resolved, That the New York Commissioners be re-
quested to go before the Board of Estimate and Apportion-
ment of the City of New York and draw then: attention

240

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

to the fact that three thousand acres of land in Suffolk
County, suitable for a farm for the clironic insane of the
city, are now for sale at fifty thousand dollars, and to
recommend that an examination of the land be made with
a view of purchasing it for the purposes above named."

The State Commissioner in Lunacy was requ&sted to
join in this application. The minutes of the State Board
for the years 1884-1886 show Mrs. Lowell's persistence in
calling attention to the needs of the insane in the State,
and especially to the need for increased accommodation for
the insane of New York City, and for the establishment of
another State asylum for clironic cases. During this
period tlie Board of Estimate made an appropriation of
twenty-five thousand dollars, for the purchase of more
land for the insane.

Mr. Letchworth in 1880 made an extensive European
tour devoted to the study of the care and treatment of
the feeble-minded and insane on the Continent and in
England, as the result of which he subsequently published
an important work which has since been regarded as
authoritative. He was favorably impressed with the
colony plan of treatment given at Alt Scherbitz, near
Leipzig in Saxony, and at his own expense had plans and
drawings of the colony made in the hope of procuring
their adoption by asylums in the United States. These
plans Mr. Letchworth generously placed at the disposition
of the Commissioners of Public Charities and CoiTection
of New York City through Mrs. Lowell in March of 1886.

In July, 1887, Mrs. Lowell informed the Board that
the New York Commissioners had recently appeared

)

IMPROVED CARE FOR THE INSANE 241

before the Board of Estimate and Apportionment, and
requested the transfer of sixty thousand dollars for the
erection of buildings, and the preparation of the Long
Island Farm for inmates, and that ten thousand- dollars
was available. At the October meeting of that year, Hon.
Henry H. Porter, Commissioner of Public Charities and
Correction of the City of New York, with Dr. A. E. Mac-
Donald, General Superintendent of the city asylums for the
insane, appeared before the State Board and presented a
general plan for the erection of asylum buildings, for the
quiet and orderly chronic insane of the city, upon the land
recently acquired by it near Central Islip, Long Island,
which after discussion was approved by the Board. At
the next meeting, a special committee was appointed to
confer with the Mayor of New York City, and in their
discretion, to act with him to secure better relief in the
care of the insane.

The conference with the Mayor was attended on Decem-
ber 22, 1887, by Commissioners Craig, Lowell, and Stewart.
The Mayor expressed his appreciation of the mvestiga-
tions and reports the State Board had made, and an-
nounced that in consequence, the Board of Estimate and
Apportionment had voted to the Department of Public
Charities and Correction all the appropriations it had asked
for, including the sum for the farm colony for the insane at
Central Islip. In October, 1888, pursuant to a resolution
adopted by the State Board, at its njeeting that month,
Commissioners Milhau and Lowell had a conference with
the Commissioners of Public Charities and Correction, and
also appeared before the Board of Estimate and Apportion-

"'J

242

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

ment. They presented resolutions adopted by the State
Board, advocating the erection on the farm at Central Islip
of two or three more colonies for men, and increased accom-
modation for women at Hart's Island, and this they re-
ported to the Board at the November meeting. Twelve
years had elapsed since Mr. Roosevelt and Mrs. Lowell
began to urge \ipon the authorities of New York City the
necessity of a farm colony for the chronic insane, when
in May, 1889, the doors of the Central Islip Asylum were
opened for the reception of patients.

Meanwhile, the abuses, inadequacy, and lack of system
of county care had become so apparent to thoughtful
persons interested in the care of the insane, that under the
wise and energetic leadership of Miss Louisa Lee Schuyler,
the State assumed in 1889 the guardianship of all the in-
digent insane, by what is now commonly called the
State Care Act. By this statute the State Commission in
Lunacy was established, to consist of three persons, one a
physician, one a lawyer and the other a citizen, and the
office of State Commissioner of Lunacy was abolished.
This law became effective with the approval of the Gover-
nor May 14, and his appointees. Dr. Carlos F. MacDonald,
Goodwin Brown, and Henry A. Reeves organized tmder
the chairmanship of Dr. MacDonald, on June 5. Dr.
Stephen Smith, who served as State Commissioner of
Lunacy until May 9, 1888, being then superseded by
Dr. Samuel Wesley Smith, was reappointed to the State
Board of Charities in 1893, and elected Vice-President of
the Board in 1903, a position which, although now in
his eighty-eighth year, he still fills with energy and dis-
tinguished abiUty.

■^

■l''3

IMPROVED CARE FOR THE INSANE 243

The State Commissioners in Lunacy had under super-
vision April 1, 1910, nearly thirty thousand indigent in-
sane, maintained in fifteen State hospitals, of which tAVO
are for the criminal insane. The State Hospital at Central
Islip, Long Island, in the establishment of which Mrs.
Lowell was so influential, then cared for in comfort on a
farm site of one thousand acres, beautified and made fer-
tile by their labor, more than four thousand men, and has
proved an inestimable blessing to the poor of the City of
New York.

The system of State care for the insane of New York,
now in operation nearly eleven years, has proved thor-
oughly successful. It is probably true that nowhere else
in the world are so many patients so uniformly well
maintained and scientifically treated, as in the State of
New York today. During the years of Mrs. Lowell's
official work, while county and municipal care were the
rule, and State care the exception, and while there was
much doubt in the public mind as to the merits of the dif-
ferent systems, she early came to the conclusion that
State care was the best, and was the active and consistent
advocate of the uniform system which now happily pre-
vails, and her services in this cause have far exceeded any
mention of them here made. Her heart must have re-
joiced at the final victory of the friends of State care.

^■■■M

CHAPTER XI

Work for Dependent Children

An important reform in the care of the dependent
children in the State was secured by the enactment of
what is now often referred to as the Children's Law. In
1868, the year following the establishment of the State
Board of Charities, an examination of the county and city
poorhouses, as these almshouses were then called, made
by members of the Board showed that they then housed
2261 children under sixteen years of age. The Board
at once pubhcly took the position that the almshouses
were unfit places in which to rear chUdren, and that these
institutions "should be maintained exclusively as retreats
or infirmaries for sick, aged or helpless indigents." The
influence of the Board, supported by private charitable
organizations, and reenforced by pubhc opinion, had by
October 1, 1873, caused the reduction of the number of
children in the almshouses to 1015.

William Pryor Letchworth, of Portage, then Vice-
President of the State Board, visited the almshouses at
the request of the Board during the year 1874 and ex-
amined the children still retained in them. Assisted by
the late Dr. Charles S. Hoyt, then Secretary of the Board,
Mr. Letchworth led a movement to have all the children
promptly removed from these institutions. For several
years much of his time and thought were devoted to this

244

WOEK FOR DEPENDENT CHILDREN

245

task, and while he no doubt had the sympathy of the State
Board, nevertheless he did the work. At first he appeared
before many Boards of Supervisors and advocated the
voluntary removal of the children. Afterward, when
the plan of keeping the children in ahnshouses was
abandoned by many of the counties, Mr. Letchworth
conceived the idea of a law forbidding the commitment
of children to the almshouses of the State. The Chil-
dren's Law framed by him with the assistance of Dr.
Hoyt, was enacted in 1875. This Act prohibited, from
and after January 1, 1876, the commitment of children
over three and under sixteen years of age to almshouses,
and directed the removal to family care, orphan asylums,
or other appropriate institutions, of all children between
the ages named whom the almshouses then sheltered.

This reform accomplished, Mr. Letchworth, desiring to
ascertain the condition of the other institutions in the
State of which children were inmates, made in 1875 a
comprehensive and painstaking series of visits to them.
His "Report on Orphan Asylums, Reformatories and
other Institutions of the State having the Care and Cus-
tody of Children," dated January 11, 1876, was published
in the Ninth Annual Report of the State Board, covering
the year 1875. This useful and momunental public
paper, the first of its character ever presented, com-
prised over five hundred printed pages and exhibited
a complete survey of the conditions prevailing in the 123
children's homes reported upon, which at that time
sheltered 17,791 inmates. The author was immediately
recognized as the leading authority in the State of New

240

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

York OD questions relating to the care of dependent
children.

An examination of the minutes of the State Board
during the thirteen years of Mrs. Lowell's membership
discloses many entries showing lier continual interest in
the welfare of dependent children. At a meeting held
March 8, 1877, "on the statement of a case by Mrs.
Lowell, the Board expressed the opinion that the loca-
tion of orphan asylums on the grounds of the county
poorhouses and under the charge of poorhouse officials
is not in conformity with the act of 1875 'For better pro-
tection of pauper and destitute children.'"

On February 6, 1878, Mrs. Lowell presented and read
a "Report on the Condition of the Dependent Children of
"Westchester County, recently removed from the House of
the Good Shepherd by the Superintendent of the Poor."
This report w£is probably presented in manuscript, not
printed, and afterwards lost. At a special meeting of the
Board, May 12, 1880, on motion of Mr. Letchworth, Mrs.
Lowell was assigned to membership on a special commit-
tee of three, appointed in comphance with the request of
the Directors of the New York Juvenile Asylum, to
examine the affairs and management of that institution.
Mrs. Lowell, in behalf of this committee, submitted and
read a report at the Board meeting September 15, in that
year, which was accepted and a copy ordered sent to the
President of the Board of Directors of the Asylum.

On motion of Mrs. Lowell, the Board, on January 13,
1881, resolved: "That in the opmion of this Board, the
establishment of homes under county care for dependent

\ 1

WORK FOR DEPENDENT CHILDREN 247

children is opposed to the spu-it and reason of Chapter
173, Laws of 1875, the Childi-en's Law and Chapter 404,
Laws of 1878." The second statute cited modified the
original Children's Law by changing the age limits from
three to sixteen years, to two to sixteen years and ex-
tended its provisions so that it became unlawful to commit
such chUdren to jails as vagrants, truants, or disorderly
persons. The violation of the law was made a misde-
meanor, and the second section made it possible to se-
cure the transfer of children not properly cared for by
institutions or families.

The following letter addressed to the Assistant Secretary
of the State Board, shows Mrs. LoweU's early solicitude
at the increasing number of dependent children under in-
stitutional care.

Manchester-by-the-Sea, July 21, 1885.
My dear Mr. Fanning :

Can you have a table made for me, sho^sang the exact
number of dependent children supported by public and
private funds in New York City in 1874 (if the Children's
Law went into effect Jan. 1st, '75) and in 1884 ?

The number, for instance, on Randall's Island and
in each of the then existing private institutions in 1874,
and the same (giving all the new institutions) in 1884,
with the cost in each and the proportion of public money
appropriated to each. Of course what I want to show is
the increase in the number of children and in the cost
to the city during the past ten years. It seems to me
that what we must insist on is that chUdren supported
by pubUc funds shaU belong to the State, the parents to

248

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

have no claim on them. If parents do not want to
give up their children they must support them or put
them on private charity to maintain.

Shortly afterwards the same concern was shown in a
letter addressed to the President of the State Board.

West New Brighton, December 1, 1885.
My dear Mr. Letchworth :

I have just received youi' letter and hasten to answer it,
because I do not want you to suppose, as you seem to'
that I do not approve of the Children's Law and do
approve of mixing innocent children with boys already
experienced in vice. I heartily agree with you in your
views on both these points, but I did not believe the way
to prevent the latter evil in the House of Refuge was to
make that institution a perfectly acceptable place to
which to commit innocent children. I think the Houses
of Refuge ought to remain the reformatories to which
bad boys shall be conunitted, and that homeless and truant
b03's should be sent to entirely other and distinct institu-
tions, when it is necessary that they should be sent to
institutions at all. I would join you in approving the
submitting of a biU to the Legislature to accomphsh this.
As to the Childi-en's Law, of course I agree that it was
of immense value in getting the children out of the poor-
houses, but I think that the great increase of dependent
children that has followed its enforcement is a great evil
and that we must find some remedy for it. I am writing a
report which I shall present at the meeting on the 15th
recommending the approval of a bill for the creation of a
new officer for New York City, who shall have the entire
charge of all the institutions on Randall's Island which
contain children, and who shall also have power to commit

)

WORK FOR DEPENDENT CHILDREN 249

children to private institutions and discharge them from
them. In this way the advantages gained by the Brooklyn
Law will be attained in New York without the great
di-awback of putting the dependent children back into the
hands of the Commissioners of Public Charities and

Corrections.

With an officer whose duty it should be to investigate
the status of parents bringing children for commitment,
and a preliminary stay on Randall's Island in quaran-
tine, of all children before their final admission to private
institutions, many, if not all of the troubles we now sufTer
from would be remedied.

Of course I would have the city property on Randall's
Island entirely devoted to the children, and no inmate or
employee of the department of Public Charities allowed on

it.
I should be very glad to know before the meeting

what you think of this sketch.

The minutes of a meeting of the State Board, held
December 15-17, 1885, record the presentation and read-
ing, by Mrs. Lowell, of a "Report on the Orphan Asylum
Societies of the City of New York," which was accepted
and ordered transmitted to the Legislature with the
Annual Report of the Board.

Pursuant to provisions of the Membership Corporation
Law, the approval of the State Board of Charities to
certificates of incorporation of private charitable institu-
tions for the care of orphan, pauper, or destitute children
has since 1883 been a condition precedent to the fifing of
the certificate. This is one of the most useful functions
of the Board, and has prevented many unnecessary or

250

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

ill-considered incorporations. It is the practice of the
Boaid to act upon such applications after reference to
and written report from a Commissioner or committee.
At a meeting of the Board held July 11, 1889, Mrs.
Lowell presented the following preliminary report upon
an intended application of this character, which was con-
sidered of such value by the Board that it was inserted in
full in the minutes of that meeting :

To THE State Boabd of Charities :

A few weeks since, Monsignor Donelly, one of the
vicars-general of New York, requested me to interest
myself in the plans of some Italian Sisters of the Order
of St. Francis of Sales, who had come to this city for the
purpose of opening an asylum for Italian children.

I met the Superior of tlie Order, who intends shortly
to return to Italy, and two of the sisters, at St. Michael's
rectory, on June 15, and learned that they had been
here about two months, and desired to establish an asy-
lum (for girls at first, later for boys also) to receive orphan,
half-orphan and deserted children of Italians; that they
had hired a home (No. 43 East Fifty-ninth Street), and
intended also to teach a day school in Roosevelt Street.
They said they desired to be incoi-porated, in order to
be enabled to receive committed children and public
money for their support. I explained to them and to the
vicar-general, that I thought it necessary to be very careful
in acting in this matter; that it would be a dangerous
precedent to grant a charter to foreigners coming here for
the purpose of opening an asylum for foreign children, to be
supported by money raised by taxation. I said that it
seemed to me to be necessary to secure responsible resi-
dents of New York City as incorporators, and to have very

WORK FOR DEPENDENT CHILDREN 251

strict limits as to age, length of residence in the United
States and in New York State and City, abiUty of parents
to pay, numbers to be supported, length of time for which
supported, and probably as to other points, m order to
avoid the estabhshment of such an asylum acting as a
temptation to poor Itahans to immigrate. I told them
that, at present, there was a strong inclination on the part
of Italians to place their children in institutions ("al
Collegio," as they called it), and that I heard in two
different institutions of the practice on the part of Italians,
able to maintain their children, of paying brokers of their
own nation to secure admission for them.

I called at the house of the Sisters on June 18th and went
over it. Finding that they already had four children as
inmates, and were ignorant of the necessity of any Ucense,
I advised their applying to the Board of Health for per-
mission to receive children. I was received with much
kindness, and the superior seemed to appreciate the force

of all I had said.

I make this report at present, in order to suggest that
when the application is received, it be very closely scruti-
nized, as it will serve as a precedent and model for others
to be framed in the future. I would also suggest that
it is weU, when foreign children are supported m this
country by pubUc funds, that they should be brought up
as Americans, and not as foreigners.

Respectfully submitted,

Josephine Shaw Lowell.
New York, July 6, 1889.

Her second comprehensive "Report upon the Care of
Dependent Children in the City of New York and Else-
where" was presented at a meeting of the State Board

252

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

"ecfrt"/'' ''''' '""^^^^ -^ -d-d trans-
mitted to the Legislature. A dieest of fl,; 1

i^inc^ded .„ «,3 chapter. XhiT?: l^^'^ljr,:

aat appearance at a meeting „f the State Board of^Ia^

child en wlh '''^"' """•"' '" «■» "-"f"- "I

ch Idrcn »ai however, continned ; this is illnstrated by the

Crag, of R„ch«,ter, who in April, ,889, succeeded Mr
letehworth as President of the State Board.

Bi.VS,"Jt'SeX' Mr t 'T ? '""^ °' ^--"'^
Judicia^; C„») L^alttt?!"'' "'""^ "" ""

pauper children ) ^"V"^^''' ^^ °"*door relief of al

to have cha ge of tS f^^^^^^^^ *° ^^ ^ -«* Pe-on
putting any such chndfh t " ""^^'"^"'^^ ^^^^ds the

its motherinto an n V> ^ ''' T "^^'^ dependent upon
all autSy w thr ^'°f ""^ ^^d, taking away

Of court von v T^^^ "^'^^^'^ ^^ tJ^e ^^tter.
Put^^^nroTSrerLo ".1 T^^"^ °' the wholesale

WORK FOR DEPENDENT CHILDREN

253

120 East 30th St., New York, July 8th, 1891.
My dear Mr. Letchworth :

I have yours of July 4th, and write you again because
it seenas to me, as you say, that very little information
of value can be obtained, unless each particular child in
each institution is reported on separately, and I want to
beg you to insist upon having the schedules made out in
that way.

If the United States census can be taken by individuals,
there is no reason why the ceasus of otir institutions
could not be taken in the same way, and I should think
it would be much better to defer the inquiry, if necessary,
until you can obtain a special appropriation for extra
clerical force, rather than to collect imperfect statistics.

120 East 30th St., July 4th, 1893.

My dear Mr. Fanning :

I received yours of June 19th at Bath with my paper,
and I was rather disappointed to find that you did not
think I had laid stress on the duty of parents to care
for their own children, for I thought that was the
special point I made. However, it cannot be too much
insisted upon, and I quoted your letter the next day
in the debate. It is a fact that the preaching of duties .
is what is needed now. If everybody did what duty I
demands to their family and fellow-citizens, charity would
not be needed. Selfishness and the shrinking from
hardship of every kind, softness of character, is what is
doing most of the harm now. People seem to think that
physical suffering is the worst thing that can happen
to anyone, and mushy sympathy is responsible for a great
deal of demoralization. I was sorry you were not at the

'tM

254

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

Convention, but was glad to see Mr. Letchworth and
Dr. Hoyt.

Rock Harbor, Westport, N. Y.,

June 28, 1894.
My dear Mr. Letchworth :

I have been asked my opinion as to appropriations from
public funds to sectarian institutions by a member of the
Constitutional Convention, and I have replied that I
recommend :

1st : That appropriations from public funds be allowed,
never to exceed, however, $1 per week per capita.

2nd : That these appropriations be made to all institu-
tions, sectarian and others, which reach a certain standard
of excellence.

3rd : That their condition be ascertained by annual
inspection.

4th : That the amount appropriated be diminished by
one-half for every child in excess of 300 in any given insti-
tution.

Of course this leaves many points unsettled, but it
seems to me to cover what is fundamental.

It would be a misfortune to have sectarian institutions
discriminated against, and our present position is certainly
a misfortune.

If you think there is any radical error in the above, so
far as they go, please let me know, for I do not want to do
harm by my advice. The State Board ought to have
adopted some principles to guide the Constitutional
Convention ; it is a shame to have so much knowledge
and devotion as there is in the Board ignored and wasted
at this important juncture.

WORK FOR DEPENDENT CHILDREN 255

120 East 30th Street, New York,
January 7th, 1895.
My dear Mr. Stewart :

I have just given your address to Dr. Moreau Morris, of
the Board of Health, who has really done a great deal
to improve the children's institutions in this city, and I
think you could not find a better inspector.

As to the rules, — how would one do requiring that
children supported by public money (unless in a Reforma-
tory) must go to the public school after they reach six
years? Going out of the institution and mixing with
other children does more to counteract the institution
influence than any other one thing.

The value of play and outdoor recreation for the health
and normal development of all children, but especially
for those of the tenements of our great cities, was early
recognized by Mrs. Lowell, and she was among the first
through whose efforts a playground under private manage-
ment was opened for children in New York City. In the
spring of 1890, she secured control of a plot of vacant land
on West Fiftieth Street, between Eleventh and Twelfth
Avenues, and had it suitably fenced and protected at a
gate by a man who saw that no older boys or giris were ad-
mitted. This playgroimd, known as the "Sand Park, " was
open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. from June to September for two
years, and was in charge of a directress and two assistants,
of whom one was a kindergartener and the other a regular
teacher; Boys were admitted in the mormng and girls
in the afternoon ; sand was provided and pails and shovels
given to the younger children, who were placed under the

250

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

■^

care of the older boys and girls ; turning bars and swings
were also set up for them. Industrial training, principally
in woodwork, was given the boys, and the girls were in-
structed in sewing. All the children were taught games and
songs used in kindergarten work. Mrs. Lowell not only
established this park, but raised the money needed to carry
on the work described, regularly spent part of two days
a week there, and visited it almost daily.

More of Mrs. Lowell's work for children was done
through the agency of the Outdoor Recreation League,
of which organization she was treasurer. In 1898 the
following enterprises of the League were mentioned in a
circular : a sumnner camp for working boys in Pelham Bay
Park ; a playgiound for children at Ninety-fourth Street
and Amsterdam Avenue ; cooperation with the Board of
Education in visiting achool playgrounds ; open-air gym-
nasiums at Hester Street Park and in a lot at Fifty-second
Street and Twelfth Avenue; increasing the number of play-
grounds. The movement for parks and playgrounds for
children is now widespread, and has resulted in the for-
mation of the national, and many state associations.

From conversations had with Mrs. Lowell on the sub-
ject of recreation piers, before any of them had been built
and opened to the public, I know that she was also one of
the first, if not the first, to urge the city authorities
to build and set apart second stories to some of the piers
on each of the river fronts for the recreation of the people.
These piere are now an inestimable blessing to many
thousands, especially to the dwellers in the crowded tene-
ments as refuges from the torrid heat of summer.

WORK FOR DEPENDENT CHILDREN 257

A Paper Read before the New York Association
OP Teachers, 1880'

Mr. President and Members of the New York State
Association of Teachers:

I very gladly accepted the invitation to write a paper
to be read before you, because I cannot count it other
than a privilege to be allowed to speak to men and women
holding positions of such responsibiUty and trust.

It is not an uncommon fault to overrate one's own im-
pori;ance and the weight of one's own influence and power,
but it is a fault which is impossible to a school teacher,
for I do not believe that the most exalted opinion of the
dignity and responsibility of the profession could place
it higher than it should stand. Remembering that you
have in yoiu: hands the task of moulding the future of
more than six mUlion men and women, that the character
of the people of the State of New York is to take its im-
press from your minds, can any task be more noble or
more fearful than the one you have undertaken? Your
work is not, Uke that of the minister and preacher, the
ahnost hopeless task of counteracting on one day of the
week all that selfishness teaches on the other six ; you are
at work day after day, with fine upon Une, precept upon
precept, graduaUy shaping the minds of your pupils.
Yours is not the difficult labor of the philanthropist, to
reform the characters of adults, hardened by years of bad
habits ; it is your work to form the character while it is yet

' Published in pampMet form by PiUsbury. 680 Sixth Avenue. New
York City, in 1886.

258

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

plastic, to turn the delicate young mind this way or that.
If you are noble and high-minded, if you love the truth
above all things, if you take the right views of life, you will
train up noble and true men and women, and your pupils
will be a blessing to themselves and others. If you are
false and base, if you value the things that are temporal
more than the things that are eternal, your pupils will be
mean and worldly, will be dishonest and degraded, and
you may one day feel that it were better for you that a
millstone had been hanged about your neck and you had
been cast into the sea rather than to have made one of
those little ones to offend.

BeUeving as I do that "you are given this great influence
for good or evil, and believing too, that there are some
radically wrong views which have become generally ac-
cepted by you, and which are, unliappily, also partly
because of your holding them, very deeply rooted among
the American people generally, I cannot help, as I have
said, being very grateful for the opportunity given me to
point out to you some of these errors and tell you some
facts which may startle you and lead you to consider more
deeply the whole question of what is the object of sending
a child to school and what should be the result of his ten
or twelve years of schooling.

I have said that I do not think any teacher could think
any more highly of his office than it deserves ; but by that
I mean of his office as it should be, not as it too often is.
My ideal of a teacher's duty is to fit the boys and girls
entrusted to his care to be useful citizens, to make them
men and women who shall be able to take care of them-

WORK FOR DEPENDENT CHILDREN 259

selves and others, who shall do their duty to God and their
neighbor. Compared to this, the object which seems too
often to be set before the teacher, is too insignificant ahnost
to be mentioned in the same breath ; the aim seems to be
to teach his pupils to shine on exhibition day, to learn to
read and spell gUbly and write a composition which may
be published in the county paper. In fact, while educa-
tion should mean the training of the body, mind and soul,
we Americans too often forget both body and soul and
devote ourselves to a miserable one-sided development
of the mind. Whether the error began with the teachers
and spread to parents and children, or whether the teachers
share it only because they are part of the people, I do not
know, but I do know that it exists and that it is not an
uncommon thing for devoted, hard-working parents to
believe that they are doing their best for their much be-
loved children by keeping them at school or college, while
in fact they are training their minds at the expense not
only of their physical strength, but of their abihty to earn
an honest Uving and of every noble and generous feeling
of their natures, and this mistake is often fostered by
teachers; they will encourage men and women whose
strength is daily failing under the strain of life, to give
their son or daughter an "education," while if there were
one spark of right feeUng or nobility in the souls of those
chUdren, they would scorn to take an advantage for them-
selves at such a cost to their parents.

With aU our education and our pubUc school system
and our immense expenditures for the young, we find that
year by year, in tins country, insanity and pauperism and

.sa

260

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

crime are increasing out of proportion to the increase of
the population, and it behooves us to ask not only whether
our schools are doing all they should and could to prevent
so fearful a state of things, but also whether there may
not be some causes in the schools themselves which may
help on these evils. We have accustomed ourselves to
believe that what we have called an education was the
safeguard against poverty and vice, but unfortunately
our limited kind of education does not prove so ; we must
adopt the real education physical, mental and moral, if
we really desire to stem the current of insanity, pauperism
and crime which is attaining such alarming strength in
our country.

Under the head of physical education I include the
training of the body itself and all its members, and would
not only have the pupils of our schools compelled to keep
themselves in health while in school, but they should be
taught the laws by which they could, through their whole
Uves, maintain their bodies in good working order, and
they should, moreover, be given the power and ability to
earn a Hving and support themselves and their children.
This sounds like a formidable innovation, perhaps, but in
reality it would not prove so. As to bodily health during
school years, it would be easy to so conduct our schools
that they should not overtax the strength of the pupils
or teachers ; and that should be my first reform. Of the
three morning hours, one should be devoted to exercise,
gymnastics or drilling, and there should be two hours'
recess before the afternoon session, and no studyuig before
breakfast or by lampUght out of school. All the conamon

''^.

WORK FOR DEPENDENT CHILDREN • 261

laws of health regarding food, cleanUness, fresh air and
exercise should be taught and enforced in every school,
and should never be broken for the sake of forcing bright
scholars to greater attainment or punishing backward
scholars for laziness or dulness. I was much struck
latelv with some statements regarding the causes of in-
sanity, made in the annual report of the Medical Superin-
tendent of the Insane Asylum, at Toronto, Ontario, which
apply unhappily to the United States, as well as to the
neighboring province, and therefore I quote it :

"There is a serious source of mental and physical de-
terioration, which, in a secondary way, seriously affects
the adult population as well as the youth of our land;
it is the senseless mental overstrain to which the school
cMldren are subjected. . . . An examination of the hst of
studies required of children and youths up to the age of
twenty-one and beyond it in our schools and universities,
shows that no young and growing brain can undertake
the work laid out for it without great and permanent
injury to this delicate and complex organ. Children are
put in the worst ventilated houses which can be found in
the country, and these often are Uterally crammed with
them. In this foul air they study for hours at a tune.
Evening brings no relaxation for them, for a task needing
several hours' study must be done before bedtime or early
in the morning; and this becomes a dreary unmvitmg
round. They successfully or vamly endeavor, accordmg
to their strength, to overcome these daUy burdens and
obstacles to health, by a constant effort which produces
mental tension. The result is, many never recover from
the struggle during the remamder of a lengthy hfe. Night
or day, except a few hours of sleep, from the age of seven

262

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

up to manhood or womanhood, the susceptible and tender
brain is on the rack, and this strain is at a time when only
moderate exercise is healthy to this impressionable organ.
The brain must, hke the rest of the body, in its early days,
gather tone, fibre and capacity for the great struggle of
life. The young are not permitted to do hard manual labor
because of the tenderness of the body, until maturity is
almost reached, but the most important organ of our
physical system is urged onwards to the utmost extent
of its powers from babyhood upwards. It needs no
prophet to see that this hothouse growth in a foul at-
mosphere, and a uniform system of forced training, with
long hours of study, means nervousness, lassitude, peri-
odic headaches, a lax prostrated physical and mental
system. A tendency to, and an invasion of, insanity may
end the chapter of blunders, especially if a hereditary
predisposition exists. Such are the recuperative powers
of the body that it will, in a majority of cases, come off
victorious against a legion of such foes, yet an alarming
section of the rising generation thus educated carry into
after life, in some form of nervous or brain disorder, the
effects of the prevailing ignorance and persistent efforts
to produce a precocious race by a short cut, and this in
spite of ruined constitutions."

As I have said, under the head of physical education
I would include such a training of the body as would
enable the large proportion of pupils graduating from
school who cannot earn a living by head work, to earn it
by hand work, and would create and foster a spirit among
teachers and pupils which should recognize that to follow
the exariiple of Jesus Christ and learn and practise a trade
is not unworthy of any boy. I do not advocate the teaching

WORK FOR DEPENDENT CHILDREN 263

of trades in our schools, but the teaching of the use of tools,
which would give such control of the hands and body as
would make it easy to learn whatever trade a boy might
choose after leaving school. To introduce such a plan of
industrial training in our pubUc schools would not be
difficult or expensive ; one competent master could teach
three classes a day of twelve boys each, or fifteen classes
a week. Such industrial training has been strongly ad-
vocated in Boston, and will shortly, it is hoped, be intro-
duced there.

The argument which I advance in support of this
proposition to introduce industrial training into our public
schools, is the only one which I acknowledge to be of aay
weight in favor of a public school system of any kind ;
and that is, that it is for the advantage of the state to
expend its money in this way. The state owes no one an
education, no one has a claim on the state for an educa-
tion, but in self-defence, the state has adopted the policy
of educating its future citizens, in order to ensure its own
safety and prosperity. Such being the case, if it can be
proved that an industrial training for its citizens is as
important or more important to the state than the mental
training which has until now generally been considered
sufficient, it requires no further argument to show that
such training should be made a part of our educational

system.

The statistics of our prisons and those of other states
prove beyond a question that the fact of being able to
read and WTite does not deter from crime or ensure the
performance of pubUc and private duties, while on the

264

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

contrary, they seem to prove that an ability to earn one's
living and the habit of steady industry are great safe-
guards against evil practices. . . .

It is unnecessary, however, to dwell longer upon the
aspect of the educational question which deals with that
small proportion of the graduates of our schools who be-
come criminals. We may confidently hope that the day
will never come when the great majority will not surely
be honest, earnest, and hard-working ; and I am sure that
the influence of school teachers will be all-powerful in
this direction. The teachers themselves must beheve,
in order to instil the beUef into the minds of their pupils,
that good steady work is worthy and noble, and they must
teach this to gu-ls as well as boys ; and that the girls may
share with the boys the advantage of industrial learning,
I should give to every girl educated in a public school —
and could I have my way, every girl in the State should
have her first years of schooUng in a public school —
such teaching as would prepare her to be a good house-
wife and mother. Sewing and cooking should be taught
in every school.

We shall, I think, be a much wiser and happier people
when our young men and women learn in our pubUc schools
the arts which will help them to bring up and support their
families comfortably and thriftily.

I may pass over the subject of mental or book education,
simply saying that, in my view, it should be made more
simple and more thorough ; that fewer subjects should be
taught, and those should be better taught than at present.
The great aim of the public school teacher, at least, should

WORK FOR DEPENDENT CHILDREN 265-

be to give such a training as should serve as a foundation
for any superstructure that could be put upon it.

I do not believe that it is the province of the State to lift
any of its children to great heights of learning. The
education given, and given to all, should be such as
to open the door to learning to those who wish to enter,
and to elevate and strengthen the general intelligence.

Instead of spending the people's money upon higher
education for a few, I believe it should be spent upon
broader education for all, including in this broader educa-
tion, as I have said, physical, mental and moral training.
This last, the most important, is also the most difficult
and the most dependent on the individual teacher. Al-
most the whole duty of the teacher under this head seems
to me to be comprised in giving to the pupils a right view
of life, and by this phrase I mean a great deal. I mean that
the chUdren shall be taught what things are of real and
lasting value and worthy of a struggle with adverse cir-
cumstances, and what are unsatisfying and useless and
not worth a second thought ; that they shaU learn to set
truth, moral and inteUectual truth, above aU things, and
to know that to see truly is to see what God has made
and intended us to see, and that self-interest and cowardice
can never see truly.

Moral training is of infinite importance for the individ-
ual, for the state and for the nation ; and the following
words of Sir Henry Maudsley, a distinguished English
authority on insanity, may well cause parents and teachers
to tremble at the thought of the responsibility laid upon
them:

266

JOSEPfflNE SHAW LOWELL

"The aim of a good education should be to develop
the power and habit of what the events of Hfe will not
fail to rudely enforce, renunciation and self-control, and
to lead to the continued transference of thoughts and
feeUngs into external action of a beneficent kind. By
the habitual encouragement of self-feeling, and by an ego-
tistic development in all the relations of life, a character
may, by imperceptible degrees, be so framed that insanity
is the natural and consummate evolution of it, while every
step taken in such deterioration will so far predispose to
insanity under adverse circumstances of Hfe."

A school is no place for theological discussion or the
teaching of sectarianism, but fortunately all parents will
unite in wishing that their children shall be taught to love
God, and to know their responsibiUty to him and their
duty to their fellow-men.

I cannot better close mypaper than by quoting thewords
of a teacher ^ speakmg to teachers upon waste of labor
in the work of education:

"But last of all there is a waste that brings loss and
sorrow to the world ; this is neglect of moral and religious
instruction in connection with intellectual training. Who
are the men who are causing humanity to blush by their
dishonesty and corruption, poisoning the world at the same
time that they are cheating and astonishing it? Why,
men who are educated, but who despise the slow methdds
of honest gain and reject the old-fashioned morality of the
Bible. There must be a searching for the foundation;
and that instruction or that education which does not make
prominent justice as weU as benevolence ; law as well as
Hberty ; honesty as weU as thrift, and purity of life as

' President of Williams College.

WORK FOR DEPENDENT CHILDREN 267

well as enjoyment ; should be stamped by every true edu-
cator as a waste and a curse, for so it will prove in the end.
We understand the importance of our work, the value of
mental and moral culture, we see the inviting fields that
call the student to labor, and the waiting world that needs
his time and the strength of his best cultured powers.
Let us see to it that no old notions, no routine of duty,
no shrinking from work or responsibility, shall spoil our
harvest, so that at last we shall look back on a waste of
energy and time. Let us work while the day lasts, with
our might. Let us see that all our work is of the best
kind. Let us train our students for the study, for the
family, for the state, for the world. If we send them forth
with the ability to labor, with a love of truth and justice,
and with a spirit of self -sacrifice, our work will be a bless-
ing to them and to the world."

Chiij)ren 1

It is a truism to say that the most important work to
be done among the poor is for the children, and I am
almost inclined to declare that nothing else is of any im-
portance at all, as compared with it, for every other
branch of charitable work produces but small results and
for only short periods of time, while what is done for the
children may make the difference for each child between
a whole long life of virtue or of vice, and may make the
difference for the community between a large or a small
number of paupers for hundreds of years.

It is kind and it is pleasant and it is a duty to relieve
physical suffering ; and yet more or less of physical suffer-

•An address delivered on November 18, 1898, in Harlem, before
volunteer workers of tlie Charity Organization Society.

268

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

ing is not a matter of vital importance. The patient,
if left alone, will usually either get well or die before very
long. It is a duty to help the aged ; and yet, whatever
the suffering may be, it cannot last very many years,
and it leaves no bad results when it is over. If one can
reclaim the man or woman who is leading a vicious hfe,
it is a blessed work ; and yet how hard it is, and how often
it proves fruitless !

It is far otherwise with what is done for children. They
may be easily influenced, and the influence acquired over
them may be powerful and may be felt even for generations.
There is thus every reason for a concentration of effort
upon the children, and as I have said, in comparison with
this work it seems as if no other were of any importance.
But smce this work for children is so important, since
the material to be moulded is so ductile for a few years,
and yet carries the impress it has received through life
and on to future generations, it becomes of tremendous
moment to do the right thing for them, to do the best
thing for them, and not to injure them under the mistaken
view that we are guiding them rightly.

I am going to speak today only of what should be done
for children abnormally situated, and of course I want it
to be fuUy understood that I recognize that the training
and education of the children of the great mass of the
people is to be left to their parents, to the public schools,
and to such other agencies as the community may devise
to forward their full and well-rounded development in
body, mind and soul.
What then can be done by private benevolent societies

WORK FOR DEPENDENT CHILDREN 269

and by private benevolent individuals for children whose
parents are unable to bring them up properly ? What can
be done wliich shall be beneficent as well as benevolent ?
One very natural answer will occur to a great many people
— that these children should be taken away from their
parents and put with persons who can bring them up
properly ; and the fact that there are in the old City of
New York today eighteen thousand children who have
been taken away from their parents and placed with others
to be brought up shows how generally this solution of the
difficulty is considered the best, and how easy it is supposed
to be to find those who can bring children up better than
' it is possible for their parents to do.

But unhappily the problem is by no means so simple
as it appears when first considered, and it is not so easy
to decide upon the comparative value of a home and a
strange bringing up. To begin with, there is a great variety
both in the degree and in the kind of incapacity on the part
of the parents. They may only be incapable physically,
they may be ill or weak, or the father may be dead and
the mother left alone to take the place of both father and
mother, and yet they may love their children dearly and
be eminently fit to bring them up worthily. Surely in
such cases, it cannot be right to tear the children away ?
They may be foolish, weak and over-indulgent, they may
be wicked and cruel, they may degrade and corrupt their
children; and while there is no question that children
should be saved from parents who will maim them physically
or morally, there is a decided question as to whether it is
good for them to be taken away from foolish and weak

270

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

parents, for there is every degree of fooUshness and
weakness, and it is difficult to decide when the evU of
the foohshness and weakness outweighs the good of the
unconscious discipUne of faniily life and of family affection.
On the other hand, also, it is necessary to consider what
the alternative is. To what influences and training are
the children to be subjected? Just as there is a gi-eat
variety in the character of incompetent parents, so there
Is a great variety in the methods by which children
may be educated when taken away from their parents.
Children may be put in an institution where there are
many hundreds of inmates, where they must live by rule,
and in crowds, without personal affection, without natiu-al
outlet of any kind, where their health, their feelings, and
their minds and souls must be stultified, because the life
is absolutely unnatural. They may also be put in an in-
stitution where there are only a few children and where,
so far as is possible, every effort is made to teach them the
ways of family life, from which they go out to the public
school and mix with children hving in their own homes,
and are thus stimulated mentally and morally, and escape
some of the very bad results of institution hfe. They may
also not be put in an institution at all, but be boarded out
in an everyday decent family, where they will be subjected
to all the natural influences, pleasant and unpleasant, of
common family life, and so become fitted to take their
part in such hfe in the future. This unconscious educa-
tion in the little daily duties of life is what no institution
can give, and therefore, if children must be taken from
their own homes, the best substitute is another home,

WORK FOR DEPENDENT CHILDREN

271

unless indeed they are abnormal children and need
special training or discipline.

But I have only touched on this question of home vs.
outside training to call attention to the fact that even
though children may be poorly placed with their own
parents, it is a very serious question whether they should
be removed, and also that it is very important to choose 1
wisely the substitute for their homes, if it is necessary to]
separate them. In deciding the question of removal,
it is also necessary to consider not only the direct effect
on the child itself, but also upon the parents and upon
other children and other parents, and therefore, as I have
said, the problem in each case is not simple, but very
complicated. But I shall not speak further of the children
who have to be taken away from their parents, but
rather of the comparatively large class who ought not to
be taken away and who yet cannot be properly brought
up without outside help ; and I will hastily sketch some
of the kinds of help they need. Take first the families
where there is no moral deficiency, where the sickness
or death of the father has removed the natural bread-
winner and has made it necessary for the mother to sup-
port the family, in whole or in part, besides caring for
their daily well-being. Some women can do both, but
not the average woman whom we meet. They must be
helped, as Mrs. Tenney' said last week, and I feel sure
that in all such cases the help must be given upon the prin-
ciples adopted by the first benevolent society established

'Mrs. Sarah E. Tenney, for many years District Secretary in the
Northern or Williamsburgh District of the Brooklyn Bureau of Charities.

-272

JOSEPHINE SPIAW LOWELL

by women in New York one hundred and ten years ago,
the Society for the Relief of Poor Widows with Small
■Children. By that society a regular monthly pension is
given, and the family is placed under the care of a special!
member of the society, and the help is often continued
from the time of the death of the father until all the chil-
dren are over ten years of age. Unhappily, however, the
society does not give the help throughout the whole year,
and therefore the principle of regular help is not carried
out by them ; nor do they usually give large enough pen-
sions, so that a family receiving aid from the society has
often to get aid from elsewhere also. I fear, too, that often
the visitors cannot give as much time and care to the
family as is needed. Still these are all failm-es to live up
to their own principles, and the principles are, as I have
said, those upon which help to such families should be
given. Regular help, friendly supervision, the help to be
as much as is needed to supplement the earnings of the
mother, and the supervision to be continued until the
children have been trained in some means of self-support —
these are the essentials, and it takes a great deal of money
for each family, at least ten dollars a month, and a fair
share of time and trouble ; but the results are worth it, and
it ought to be considered cruel and wicked to take children
away from a decent mother just for want of money to sup-
port them and friends to look after them. In these cases
the money and the friend are er|ually necessary, and the
work is very simple indeed, requiring only kindness and per-
severance. It is necessary to see that there is money
•enough, regularly supplied, so that the family does not

WORK FOR DEPENDENT CHILDREN 273

suffer; that the mother does not overwork herself, but
does work so far as she is able; that her work does not
prevent her giving the proper care to the children ; that
the latter go to school and to church regularly ; that when
old enough, they begin to learn some good trade ; that they
get work and keep at it ; and finally that, as their earnings
increase, the money given to the mother diminishes
gradually until the family is self-supporting.

This sort of help is not demoralizing nor pauperizing,
if properly watched, because it only places the family in
a natiu-al position. Women and children ought to be
supported, and there is no sense of degradation in receiv-
ing support. The woman has plenty to do in caring for
her family ; and when the duty of supporting them also
comes upon her, it is an unnatural strain, and results dis-
astrously unless she can be helped.

With families where there is plenty of earning power
and where the deficiencies are moral and not physical, the
case is very different ; here the friend is of paramount im-
portance and the giving of money is not only unnecessary,
but usually very hurtful, and the work is very hard indeed,
requiring devotion and consecration. If, however, such
work were undertaken by a number of people with con-
scientious persistent zeal, it would go far to make the next
generation very much better than the present one. If
for ever}' family where the parents are weak, inefficient,
shiftless, improvident, lazy, foolish, in fact everything short
of downright vicious, a wise, kind, patient friend could be
found, who would undertake the task of seeing that the
children were trained so that they should grow up without

274

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

these faults and with the contrary \drtues, you can see
what a tremendous moral force it would be in the com-
munity. Of course to achieve such results requires the
charity which beareth all thmgs, endureth all things,
hopetli all things ; and equally, of course, the moral ob-
jects to be attained must be constantly kept in view, and
striven for. If people who want to do good would give
up some of the many varieties of charities upon which
they expend time and strength, and would each concen-
trate their force upon one family, they would accomplish
a great deal more than they can by their present scattering
manner of working.

Of course the care of a family, where the parents can
work and won't work, or where, though they work, they
squander what they earn, involves a constant attempt
to induce them to do their duty, a constant struggle,
I may say, to make the father support the family, and to
make the mother care for them properly, and, also ac-
companying this, an unfaltering devotion to the work of
developing the children individually, educating them for
life by personal influence, seeing that they go to school,
seeing that they go to church, seeing, when they are old
enough, that they learn to work, seeing that they get
work, seeing that they keep it, seeing, as a whole, as I
have said, that they grow up entirely different from
their parents.

Of course it is of paramount importance that, in such
work as this, reUgious influence should be brought to bear,
and therefore each person should choose a family to care
for of the same religious faith as her own, and this makes

WORK FOR DEPENDENT CHILDREN 275

such educating work peculiarly fitting for church mem-
bers.

The want of such work thu^y years ago we are seeing
now in the people applying for help to the Charity Organiza-
tion Society. We are coming across an appalling number
of young couples, quite unfit to bring up children, who
will grow up equally unfit for the duties and responsibilities
of life unless some one takes them in hand. I will give
you a few examples to show you the kind of people I

mean. . . .

[The examples are omitted.]

. Whether it would be possible to find friends who
could hope against hope in these particular cases and follow
the families round as they are dispossessed from one place
to another, and whether, if such could be found, they could
save these children, are questions which only experience
can answer. Naturally one longs to take those poor little
children away ; but is it right to leave the parents ab-
solutely free to Uve as they choose by reUeving them of the
children as fast as they are bom, and putting them in
institutions at a cost to the taxpayers of New York of one
hundred and four dollars a year for each child, and then
permitting the parents to take them home again and make
slaves of them as soon as they are of an age to earn ? Is not
such a course as likely as any other to drive the children
into early loveless marriages, like those of their parents,
just to escape the tyranny at home ? The whole problem
is one of human weakness and human vice. What is
needed is better education of every kmd.

I should personally be glad if we could have a law by

276

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

which, when parents had proved themselves entirely in-
competent to care properly for their children, the children
might be taken from them and given to other people to
bring up, and by which the parents themselves should be
subjected to a thorough course of education and not al-
lowed to continue to produce children whom others must
care for. I should like to have two large farms bought,
one for men and one for women, and on these farms I
should like to have such poor creatures as I have depressed
you by describing shut up for one, two, five, or ten years,
as might prove necessary, to train and fit them for normal
life, and when they were prepared for liberty, I would,
return their children to them, but not before.

I have not kept to my subject, but I hope you will for-
give me, and I hope you will feel with me, how great is our
responsibility to try to mould the children while we may,
and not let them grow up, as we have their parents, without
a helping hand to guide them.

Report upon the Care of Dependent Children in
THE City of New York and Elsewhere ^

To THE State Board of Charities:

In a report upon institutions for the care of destitute
children of the City of New York, presented to the Board
in January, 18S6, I made the following suggestions :

"First. Some means should be provided by which the
responsibihty for all admissions to all institutions de-
pending in whole or in part on the public funds for support

' This Report, dated December 10, 1889, of 75 printed pages, was
included in the 23d Annual Report of the State Board. Extracts only
are given.

WORK FOR DEPENDENT CHILDREN 277

should be placed where it can be adequately discharged ;
no pubUc money should be spent except for the good of the
community, that is, in cases where it is a necessity that
parents should be reUeved of the care of their children.

"Second. It should be made the duty of some city
ofi&cial to remove children from an institution when they
are likely to suffer in health or character by being longer
retained, and such official should also have the power to
guard the public treasury, by placing dependent children
in places where they may be self-supporting as soon as
they are old enough to work."

Since that date no change has been made in relation to
these matters. New York City supports an average
population of about fourteen thousand boys and girls,^atan
expense of one and one half million dollars annually, in
institutions controlled by private individuals. That is,
one of the most important of the duties of the city, that
of the care of its dependent children, has been delegated to
persons who are not personally designated by law to exercise
it, but have voluntarily undertaken it. Were the question
simply one of pubUc expenditure, this would show a strange
carelessness on the part of the people in regard to their own
interests ; but not only is the spending of hundreds of
thousands of dollars of the public money yearly left to the
discretion of a large number of practically unknown per-
sons, but the education and training of an increasing num-
ber (about fourteen thousand, as I have said, at any given

1 Owing to the changes of population in the institutions, the number
of individuals yearly coming under their care is much greater than
fourteen thousand, that being the average nimiber .supported at any
given time.

278

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

date) of the future men and women of New York is placed
in their hands, so that they may carry out all their own views
concerning them, and there is even no inquiry made as to
what these views may be. There is no official of New
York City who knows, or has the right to know, whether
thousands of children are being trained in idleness or
industry, in virtue or vice.

As to the selection of the children who are to be sup-
ported by the pubUc, in a certain number of the institutions
this also is left absolutely to the decision of private per-
sons, who have the right to receive as many as they wish,
with the right to demand, also, the public money for their
maintenance, which rights have been conferred upon them .
by the Legislature. The city authorities can control
neither children nor money. The admissions to certain
other institutions are made nominally by the magistrates
of the city, but these gentlemen have neither the time nor
the facilities for making a personal inquiry into the cir-
cumstances of each case, and a practice has grown up by
which the entire responsibility for the investigation as
to the facts is placed by them upon the officers of a private
society, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to
Children.

As to the length of time during which children shall be
retained as dependents upon the city, this is a matter
which is also practically left entirely to private persons.
The Consolidation Act of 1884, Chapter 438, Section 4,
reads as follows ;

"WTiile any child which shall have been placed in such
asylum, or other institution, as a pauper, in pursuance

WORK FOR DEPENDENT CHILDREN 279

of the second section of this act, shall remain therein at
the expense of the county or town to which such pauper
child is chargeable, the superintendents of the poor of
such county or the overseer of the poor of such town,
may, in their discretion, remove such child from such
asylum or other institution and place such child in
some other such institution, or make such other disposition
of such child as shall then be provided by law. The name
of no such child shall be changed while in such institution,
as in this section aforesaid. But no parent of such pauper
child, so in such asylum or other institution as in this
section aforesaid, shall be entitled to the custody thereof,
except in pursuance of a judgment or order of a court or
judicial officer of competent jurisdiction, adjudging or de-
termining that the interest of such child will be promoted
thereby, and that such parent is fit, competent and able
to duly maintain, support and educate such child."

The Commissioners of PubUc Charities and Correction
would, under this act, probably have the right to remove
children supported by the city from institutions to which
they have been committed, but practically such a course
would be quite out of the question, as the Commissioners
of Public Charities and Correction have too many other
duties to be able to give any time or thought to this
subject. As a fact, there is no one who is able to protect
the child or the pubUc. Even though the life in the insti-
tution may be unfitting him for future self-support,
even though there may be a good home available for him
among strangers; there is no one except the managers
of the institution in which he is, empowered to find such
a home and put him into it. The interests of the child

280

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

and of the city are left unreservedly in the hands of
persons who are, as a rule, all of them benevolent and
desirous of doing right, but many of whom have not the
knowledge which would enable them to judge what those
interests are, while some of them do not think it their
duty to inquire.

Ahnost all the institutions in which these children are
housed are far too large to allow of any mdividual love or
oversight being bestowed upon the mass of the inmates,
and they suffer from the many evils, physical, mental and
moral, which are known to affect chUdren congregated
in large masses. . . .

That any community should subject thousands of the
children upon whom its future virtue and prosperity are to
depend to influences which are almost sure to have such
results, is an anomaly, but this anomaly exists in the City
of New York, where there are fourteen child-caring insti-
tutions with more than three hundred inmates each, eleven
of which have more than five hundred, and two of these
latter more than one thousand each. The actual proof of
these evils and the effects of the artificial training upon the
character and success in after life of the children cannot be
very readily traced with us, because usually there is no
one to foUow them up after they leave the institutions,
and inquire into their failure or success.

The physical evils of the congregation of large masses of
children have been so marked as to attract the attention
of physicians and others, and as a consequence there has
been much improvement m this direction ; but it is pitiful
to see the drooping, spiritless look of a child whom one has

WORK FOR DEPENDENT CHILDREN 281

known outside of an institution, after a few months'
detention.

In regard to ophthalmia, which formerly worked such
havoc in several of the institutions of New York, per-
manently injuring hundreds of children, besides blmding
many, there has been a very marked improvement since
my last report to you, which is undoubtedly due to the
passage of Chapter 633, Laws of 1886, entitled "An Act
for the better preservation of the health of children in
institutions," a copy of which is appended. This law was
widely circulated among the officers of the institutions by
the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, and
has been enforced by the Board of Health of New York,
over such institutions as come under its authority. By
constant and efficient inspection, that Board has checked
ophthalmia to a remarkable degree, and the inspector has
also effected many other improvements in the institutions,
most beneficial to the health and general welfare of the
children. These reach directly, however, only children in
institutions within the city itself, and New York taxpayers
support many thousands of children outside its own lim-
its. .. .

The children from certain institutions attend the pub-
lic schools. . . . This, no doubt, does a great deal to
coxmteract the dulling influences of institution life, and
it is greatly to be desired that all the institutions in the
city should send their children to the public schools, in
order that they might associate with those differently
situated. In the other institutions supported by public
money, the children receive such schooling as the author!-

282

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

ties think best, and there are no examinations by any-
city officers. . . .

I would not be understood, however, as recommending

for New York City the method adopted in any of these

counties. The problem in New York is too serious to be

so disposed of and the difficulties are too great. There

must be a new department created to have charge of the

fourteen thousand children now dependent on the City of

New York, to see that they are cared for and educated in

the way best for the community and best for them ; to see

that the money of the taxpayers is expended for the care of

dependent children only when it is necessary so to expend

it, and to save the community from the disgrace of having

.one child in every one hundred of its population deserted

by its parents and relatives, and a pauper, dependent on

public support. . . .

Of the twenty-nine institutions receiving public money
for the support of New York children, I visited seventeen
in April and May. Seven of these have two buildings in
different localities, and I therefore present twenty-four
reports of inspections. I have not been able to inspect
the remaining twelve institutions tliis year, but I present
the statistics for all. . . .

Another point in regard to the future of our fourteen
thousand dependent children which causes anxiety is that
where industrial training is carried on, and the effort to
give them at least some means of earning a livelihood is
made, the teaching is such, both for boys and girls, as will
inevitably lead them to seek employment in the city.
The influx from the country to the city which goes on in
this, as in other countries, is a subject of regret to students

WORK FOR DEPENDENT CHILDREN 283

of social phenomena ; the need of agricultural laborers and
of women to help in housework is recognized and deplored,
not only by those who suffer directly from the want of
them, but by all thoughtful persons. Yet, here we have
theanomalyof fourteen thousand boys and girls, supported
and educated by the public, and scarcely an effort made to
fit them for country Uf e ; but, on the contrary, scarcely one
hundred boys of all the eight thousand, even where they
are brought up in the country on a farm, are given the
inestimable blessing of the good healthy body and mind,
and the safe future, which a thorough scientific training in
farm work would go far to assure to them.

Surely our communism is, of all the communisms ever
dreamed of by social reformers, the most foolish and un-
reasonable.

We take children from their parents and support them
at public expense, not to bring them up to be useful and
happy citizens, but to stint and cramp them, and to return
them at the end of five or six years to work for those who
would not work for them, to be the support of those who
ignored all duties and responsibiUties toward them when
they were helpless and dependent.

Is it not time that the interests of the pubUc, and the in-
terests of these fourteen thousand children, were intrusted
to the care of some responsible man, or men, in New York
City, to see to it, not only that one and one half million
dollars of the taxpayers' money is not worse than wasted
every year, but to study the whole question, to devise
means to save parents from the temptation to desert their
chUdren, and to save the children from a life of dependence,
not only now, but in the future?

CHAPTER XII

Special Investigations foe the State Boabd of

Chahities

One of the most important obUgations devolved upon
the State Board of Charities by statute is that of investi-
gatmg the affairs and management of any institution
society or association, subject to the general supervision
of the Board, when this seems necessary to protect the
public or mdividuals from wrong. Such an investigation
IS of comparatively rare occurrence, and is usually under-
taken by a special committee appointed by the Board as
best qualified to make the particular examination. The
history of two investigations is interesting to follow in
some detail, as a large share of the credit for the sub-
stantial results obtained is due to Mrs. Lowell

In 1872 Professor Theodore W. Dwight, Vice-President
of the Board, had made a report adverse to the worthi-
ness and management of the New York Juvenile Guardian
bociety, a private outdoor relief organization of New York
City; but notwithstanding this unfavorable report, the
society had not been deprived of its incorporation, and it
continued to collect money from the public. In 1877
when Mrs. Lowell had but recently been appointed a Com-
missioner, she was associated with Commissioners Theo-
dore Roosevelt and Henry L. Hoguet as the third member

284

SPECIAL INVESTIGATIONS

285

of a special committee of three to make an investigation
and report upon the affairs and management of this society.
The store of information respecting the private charities
operating in the city and general experience in philan-
thropic work which Mrs. Lowell brought with her, made
her a valuable help to her colleagues, both men of well-
known standing and abiUty, and her influence was con-
stantly felt and appreciated in their common work. Her
brother-in-law and intimate friend. General Francis C.
Barlow, acted as counsel to the committee, brought
into the controversy no doubt by her interest and influence
and aided by her suggestions and special knowledge.

A summary of the proceedings of this special committee
is given in the text of the Eleventh Annual Report of the
Board, transmitted to the Legislature January 17, 1878,
in the following words :

"In February last a committee of the Board, com-
posed of Commissioners Roosevelt, Hoguet, and Lowell,
was appointed to inquire into and examine the affairs of
the New York Juvenile Guardian Society, in the City of
New York, in the management of which great abuses
were believed to exist. The committee soon thereafter
visited and inspected the buildings of the society, and
examined . . . several of its officers and other persons.

"The officers of the society objected to the examination,
denied the right of the committee to subpoena witnesses, de-
manded that specific charges be made against the society,
and claimed the privilege of being present if the investiga-
tion was continued, and the right of appearing by counsel,
cross-examining the witnesses, and producing and examin-
ing witnesses on their own behalf.

286

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

The committee overruled these objections, continued
the mvestigation, and reported the testimony and facts
regardmg the matter to the Board, March 8, 1877. The
society thereupon brought an action against the com-
mittee, requesting the court by injunction to restrain the
committee from pubhshing their report. The matter
came up before Hon. Charles P. Daly, Chief Justice of the
Court of Common Pleas, June 15, 1877, ... and he de-
hvered an elaborate opinion upon the matter, fully sustain-
ing the position of the committee."

Chief Justice Daly's interpretation of the powers and
duties of the Board, in cases of special investigation, still
guides the committees of the Board charged with such
responsible inquiries ; and since his opinion was delivered,
the powers of the State Board of Charities in making
investigations have never been successfully questioned,
while all those it has undertaken have been satisfactorily
concluded.

The proceedings in the case were reported by the Board
to the Attorney-General, and while the investigation did
Jiot lead to the immediate annulment of the charter of
the New York Juvenile Guardian Society, it had far-reach-
ing results, as it was not only a strong link in a chain of
attacks against the society, but also firmly established
the Board's power of investigation.

Soon after the completion of the work of the special
committee, the sudden death of Theodore Roosevelt,^
its chairman, occurred, and at the first meeting held there'-
after,= the Board adopted a resolution of regret and appre-

■ February 7, 1878. 2 Mo^ch 14, 1878.

SPECIAL INVESTIGATIONS

287

ciation of his services, while a letter from Mrs. Lowell,
dated February 12, 1878, and addressed to Dr. Charles S.
Hoyt, Secretary of the State Board of Charities, expressed
her deep grief at the loss of her valued colleague.

"... I went yesterday to Mr. Roosevelt's funeral.
His death is an incalculable loss to this city, and indeed
to our work all over the State. He gave his whole time
almost to matters connected with the duties of the Board,
and his place cannot be filled.

"To me the loss is a personal one, — he was ready to ad-
vise and assist me always, and my efforts to improve the =
condition of things here will lose more than half their
efficacy. ..."

That Mrs. Lowell was determined to put an end to the
society condemned by the report of the special committee,
was manifest from the close attention she gave to all its
proceedings. The following letter shows this watchful-
ness :

April 29, 1878.

Deae Dr. Hoyt:

From what Mr. Devereaux writes me, there seems still
to be some danger of the passage of the bill amending the
charter of the Juvenile Guardian Society, which would be
a direct insult to the Board. Certainly you ought to be
able to prevent the passage of any such bill, even if Mr.
Fanning cannot. You were acquainted with the char-
acter of that society long before Mr. Fanning was con-
nected with the Board, and if there is the slightest danger
that the bill will go through, you should make an official
statement of the facts to the Legislature. I hope no such
thing will be necessary, but I am disappointed that the
matter is not yet settled.

288

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

"This matter," in the words of Mrs. Lowell, was not
settled for many years, and was the cause of much con-
troversy and violent refutations by the society. In
July, 1885, it published a small pamphlet entitled "Needed
Exposures of Base Insinuations and Brazen Falsehoods,"
in which it related with gusto the "thirteen defeats"
of its base accusers, namely, a city commission "falsely
claiming to be the State Board of Charities," and alluded
to Mrs. Lowell as publishing falsehoods and defamation
a,gainst it. It was not until 1894 that the committee of
the State Board of Charities, and especially Mrs. Lowell,
were vindicated in their attack on the New York Juvenile
Guardian Society, by a judgment given August 1 of that
year by the Supreme Court, annulling the corporate rights
of the society, and thus ending this long battle, in which
Mrs. Ijowell, acting in the interest of justice and honesty,
was one of the chief participants.

The second special investigation with which Mrs.
Lowell was connected was ordered by the Board at its
meeting, December 11, 1883, to inquire into the affairs and
management of the New York Infant Asylum, an impor-
tant semi-pubhc institution, incorporated in 1865 for the
care of foundlings, and other infant children under two
years of age. For several years prior to this action of the
Board, there had been discord and contention in the board
of managers, and an inquiry in 1879 by three New York
Commissioners of the State Board had brought to light
defects of importance. This led the Board to address a
communication to the board of managers, recommend-
ing reformed methods, but no action was taken ; the strife

SPECIAL INVESTIGATIONS

289

among the managers increased, and new and serious evils
of administration appeared.

Under these circumstances, on October 16, 1883, written
charges were presented to me as the Commissioner of the
First Judicial District, in which the institution is situated,
alleging grave mismanagement of the New York Infant
Asylum; the complaint was signed by two members of
the board of managers, Theodore Roosevelt,^ son of the
former Commissioner of the State Board, and as such well
informed respecting its work and powers, and Theodore
Kane Gibbs, a retired army officer, well known for his
philanthropic work in the city.

The principal cause of contention seems then to have
been the illegal election, "by a most unscrupulous device,"
of a large number of additional managers, who then "pro-
ceeded to deprive the medical members of the board of
a participation in the medical management of the asylum."
Then followed charges that undue and absolute authority
was conferred upon the president of the board of managers,
and that he had appointed to take charge of the country-
branch a physician "who has just been declared by a
Coroner's jury incompetent to perform the duties required
of a physician in charge of such an institution."

At the request of the New York Commissioners of the
State Board, supplementary charges were submitted in
detail, covering nine pages of closely written manuscript,
in the forcible English of Mr. Roosevelt, and bearing his
signature. It was alleged that the change of medical
control was followed by a rapid and marked increase in
' Then twenty-five years old, member of Assembly.

290

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

the death rate among the infants, due in part to the
spread of an epidemic of measles, which should have been
controlled ; and extracts from the verdicts of the Coroners'
juries, censuring the management of the Asylum, were
quoted. The financial management of the Asylum was
also complained of, and among other things the state-
ment made that the funds of the institution were kept with
a business firm of which the Treasurer was a member,
notwithstanding the fact that in 1879 the State Board
of Charities had requested the discontinuance of this
practice. In view of the number and the serious char-
acter of these charges, the State Board appointed a special
committee of investigation composed of Commissioners
Stewart, chairman, Lowell and Milhau, the latter being
an ex-surgeon-general of the regular army, whose medical
knowledge proved of great value.

Concerning such requests for investigation from in-
stitutions throughout the State, Mrs. Lowell wished the
Board's position to be well understood, as appears from
a letter written about that time :

120 East 30th St., October 12, 1883.
My dear Mr. Stewart :

Will you allow me, as an older member of the Board
than yourself, to make one or two suggestions in regard
to the investigation you are about to undertake, or rather
in regard to the general question of investigations of private
charities? I think it quite important that we should
always adopt, and keep to, the position that no society
has a right to demand an investigation, and that we never
undertake one for the purpose of clearing a society that

SPECIAL INVESTIGATIONS

291

has been attacked. That is their own office. We under-
take investigations when we consider them necessary to
protect helpless persons from injury or the pubhc from
fraud. That is what we have always asserted, and we even
went so far as to refuse to investigate, except in a very
superficial manner, charges made against so important

an institution as the . You will see that if we

were to place ourselves at the call of any society that was
attacked, we might spend all our time in defendmg the
good name of one or another.

It seems to me very desirable to explain this to the

persons composing the , showing them that it was

because the charge of fraud was serious, and not because
they demanded it, that the Board appointed a committee
to make the inquiry.

I send you an opinion of Judge Daly in relation to our
rights in case of investigations, which will probably be
useful to you. . . ■

This thoughtful letter illustrates the orderly and logical
working of the writer's mind, and her thorough apprecia-
tion of the position the State Board should maintain
toward the pubhc, and the charitable institutions ui the
State. Experienced in committee work, and familiar with
the broad principle underlying it, Mrs. Lowell was desirous
that precedents should be followed by her colleagues, and
the investigations kept %vithm proper bounds. Weekly
sessions of the committee were held for four months, at
my private office, the State Board not then having an
office in New York City. Mrs. Lowell was regular in her
attendance at the meetings, and took part in the examina-
tion of witnesses. Her intimate acquaintance with the
Asylum, and her long and varied experience in the man-

292

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

SPECIAL INVESTIGATIONS

293

agement of private charitable institutions, were very
helpful. Mr. Roosevelt gave testimony, and followed
the course of the investigation closely; and with the
able cooperation of Dr. Henry D. Nicoll, formerly of the
medical board, actively led the contest of the minority
members of the board, for a thorough reformation of the
affairs and management of the Asylum.

Coincidently with the examination by the State Board,
the publication of the charges of Mr. Roosevelt and Mr.
Gibbs in the New York Tribune began a newspaper con-
troversy of much acrimony, between the managers of the
Asylum and the two complainants, which gave publicity
to the matter, and awakened general interest. Mean-
while the special committee was carrying on the investiga-
tion, and finally presented its report, which was adopted
by the Board December 16, 1884. It appeared therein
that the charges were in general well founded, and it con-
cluded with these words: "Your Committee is of the
opinion that Messrs. Theodore Roosevelt and Theodore
Kane Gibbs, in calling the attention of the State Board
of Charities to the mismanagement of the New York
Infant Asylum, have performed a public duty."

It is pleasant, while noting Mrs. Lowell's activity as a
member of this investigating committee, to find her as-
sociated with one, who, like herself, so often showed his
fearlessness of public opinion and his courage when fighting
for justice and equity. Theodore Roosevelt must then
have realized, if never before, the importance of having
only high-minded, unselfish, and experienced men and
women on the boards of State charitable institutions;

and later when as Governor of the State of New York, it
became his duty to appoint managers of these institutions,
he secured the services of many such, unusuaUy well
qualified by training and inclination for their positions.

It should be said in conclusion, that the New York
Infant Asylum has, ever since the State Board's investiga-
tion, been under an harmonious administration, managers
and'officers all laboring together for the success of their
humane work.

CHAPTER XIII

Work to Improve the Condition of the Almshouses

It will be remembered that when Mrs. Lowell was a
young woman her sympathetic interest was given to the
inmates of the Richmond Comity Poorhouse, as it was
then called, not far from her father's home on Staten
Island, and that it was her report on "Adult Able-bodied
Paupers" which led to her appointment in 1876 by
Governor Tilden as the first woman commissioner on the
State Board of Charities. At that time the State Board
had not, as now, an organized Department of State and
Alien Poor with inspectors whose duty it is to keep the
county almshouses under systematic and thorough in-
spection. The commissioners of the Board were then
required to make reports upon the conditions in the ahns-
houses of their respective judicial districts, which usually
include several counties. Servmg without salary, and
some of them men of large affairs, they found it practically
impossible personally to make the frequent and careful
inspections necessary to insure the welfare of the inmates
of these numerous institutions.

The Legislature of 1873 recognized this condition, and
provided a measure of rehef by conferring upon the State
Board power to designate for the several counties visitors
"of all poorhouses and other institutions in said county
subject to the visitation of the said Board under the said

294

WORK TO IMPROVE THE ALMSHOUSES 295

act, in aid of and as a representative of the Board, except
such institutions as have a board of managers appointed
by the State." The records show Mrs. Lowell's im-
mediate and useful exercise of the power of selection and
nomination of visitors under the act. On December 5,
1876, the Board designated as visitors for New York
County, on Commissioner Lowell's nomination. Miss
Ellen M. Collins, Dr. W. Gill Wylie, Mr. Temple Prime, ,
and Mr. Henry E. Pellew.

Early appreciation by the Board of Mrs. Lowell's knowl-
edge of almshouses was shown by the adoption, Januarj'
12, 1877, of a resolution requesting all the county visiting
committees in the State to send their reports to her, and
asking her to forward duplicates or synopses of such reports
to the commissioner of the judicial district in which the
institution reported upon was located. Mrs. Lowell thus
became the State Board's clearing-house for all reports
on coimty charitable institutions, and she from time to
time reported to the Board upon the work of the visitors.
These continued to render efficient aid to the Board until
1896, when the employment of salaried inspectors rendered
the further designation of unpaid visitors not only un-
necessary, but inexpedient.

Both before and after the appointment of the county
visitors, Mrs. Lowell took an active personal interest in
these public institutions, and her official visits to them,
especially to that maintained by the City of New York
on Blackwell's Island, early convinced her that the
commingling in these institutions of the feeble-minded,
idiotic, and insane, and the morally depraved of both sexes.

296

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

was in large measure responsible for the great increase
in numbers of the defective, dependent, and delinquent
classes for the public to protect and maintain. In January,
1878, she submitted a report on pauperism based upon
a report previously made by the Secretary of the Board,
Dr. Hoyt, in which she pointed out that "the State should
in the interest of humanity, moraUty, and the common
good, provide separate institutions for their care ; that is,
custodial asylums for adult idiots and the feeble-minded
of each sex, and reformatories for depraved and vagrant
women." The Board accepted this report, and ordered
one thousand copies printed. During the following
month, Mrs. Lowell submitted a special report on the
Westchester County Poorhouse, showing carelessness of
the local authorities in the matter of records. The facts
ascertained by her were brought to the attention of the
County Supervisors throughout the State, with a request
for the immediate introduction by them of a system of
proper records of all inmates of almshouses. During the
same year her visits to the almshouses of Richmond, Rock-
land, and Herkimer counties were also reported.

Much of Mrs. Lowell's best work was that intended
to exclude from the almshouses all but the sick and aged
poor, for whom alone they are suitable homes. These
institutions then, as now, were the resort of tramps and
vagrants in large numbers ; and Mrs. Lowell also recom-
mended the establishment of State labor colonies, to which
they should be committed, as the only reasonable means
for the repression of trampery : a method which has since
been approved by many public officials and others en-

WORK TO IMPROVE THE ALMSHOUSES 297

gaged in relief work, and a reform certain of accomplish-
ment in the near future.

The following letters from the files of the Board, re-
lating to the Riclunond County Poorhouse, recall the
usual conditions in such institutions less than a generation
ago. Miss Sarah M. Carpenter, to whom one of the letters
was addressed, was appointed by Governor Cornell, in
1880, the second woman commissioner on the State Board,
and represented the second judicial district, which in-
cludes the county of Richmond. She was a faithful
official, and, having served with credit, retired in 1893.

AprH 21, 1882.
My deak Miss Carpenter:

I was yesterday at the poorhouse, and am more than
ever impressed with the necessity of removing some, at
least, of those inmates I wrote you of, if only they are

insane.

Fanny, who has the epileptic fits, had been so impudent
to the keeper that he had locked her up. She had three
or four fits just before, and of course the unpudence is
due to the same cause that makes the fits, but, as the
keeper says, when she insiUts him before the others, he has
to punish her to maintain discipline whether she is respon-
sible or not.

I was at the poorhouse only a little while, as I went
merely to carry some books to the little library, but I
talked to the matron about having lost her temper and
thrown the water at Margaret. ... She cried, and said
she was so tried by them, etc. The Superintendents had
heard all about it and have given the keeper the nght to
shut up the inmates on bread and water and then report

ij!

298

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

to the board each week. I suppose this is necessary, as
the matron says they do not care at all about being shut
up if only they get then- meals.

There was a man brought in some days before insane.
He was lying on the floor in the basement cell with wristlets
and belt on to be sent off Tuesday. That cell is a horrible
place to keep them.

I forgot if any action was taken on your report as to
the insane. Cannot you get Dr. Hoyt to come down
and see these cases and decide if they are msane ?

120 East 30th Stkeet, September 25, '82.
My deak Mk. Letchworth:

... I suddenly discovered yesterday afternoon that
the new Richmond County Poorhouse was to be an im-
portant matter, and meeting one of the supervisors, he
told me the plan was to be adopted this morning ! . . .
I begged him to defer it until the next meeting. ... He
said he would do what he could, and I said that I would
do my best to persuade you to be at that meeting.

He said their idea was to build two wings, with a con-
necting building, but when I suggested day-rooms, etc.,
he confessed they had never thought of anything of the
kind. They seem amenable to advice and I hope you
can be at the meeting.

West New Brighton, July 4, 1885.
Dr. C. S. Hoyt.
Dear Sir:

I have written to Miss Carpenter to-day, suggesting
that it would perhaps be useful if you and she could visit
the Richmond County Poorhouse on Wednesday, July 8th,
when the Board of Supervisors is to meet there (or a

WORK TO IMPROVE THE ALMSHOUSES 299

committee), in order to present to them the necessity of
putting up at least one new building and providing for a
better separation of the sexes and more room. I fear that
the Supervisors may vote to spend money on a separate
building for the insane, instead of remodelling the whole
poorhouse. The Grand Jury has recommended that the
county build an asylum. Last winter the poorhouse was
much overcrowded.

December 30, 1886.
My dear Mr. Letchworth :

Have you ever been able to do anything with our
Richmond County Superintendents of the Poor ? I have
never heard of it if you have.

I was at the Poorhouse last week and found five children
there ranging from three to thirteen years of age, besides
the babies and the older children who were sick. It is
trying to have men in office who care so little to obey
the laws. . . .

No wonder that almshouse discipline and good order
were difficult, if not impossible, with the mixed population
received under the operation of the Poor Laws of New York
State as they were at that time. The returns of the Super-
intendents of the Poor to the State Board for the year
ending November 1, 1881, shortly before Mrs. Lowell's let-
ters were written, gave the whole number of inmates of the
fifty-eight county almshouses, city almshouses excepted,
on that date as 6,174, of whom there were insane, 1,754;
idiots, 253 ; epileptics, 171 ; blind, 131 ; deaf mutes, 36 ; chil-
dren under two years old, 129 ; children between two and
sixteen years, 93. Richmond County Poorhouse was thus
not exceptional, and, because of Mrs. Lowell's watchful

300

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

care over it, probably one of the best. After the letters
quoted were written, it improved so much that before
she laid down her work she was able to visit it with sat-
isfaction, all the more genuine because of her long
acquaintance with bad conditions prevailing, and her suc-
cessful efforts to improve them.

In the chapters relating to the work for the Women's
Eeformatory and for a Custodial Asylum for Feeble-
Minded Women, further and more particular mention is
made of the great reforms which resulted in the establish-
ment by the State of these two institutions and of the
assumption by the State of the duty of making suitable
provision for both delmquent and feeble-minded women,
who until that time found their only asylum in the alms-
houses.

Massachusetts Paupers

Inspections of the county ahnshouses and other chari-
table institutions in New York State made by the ofBcers
of the State Board revealed the fact that they maintamed
a large number of paupers or vagrants who had no legal
or moral claim for support upon the taxpayers of New
York, but came from other states, many of them from
Massachusetts. The subject received the consideration
of the Board in 1877 and 1878, and a correspondence ensued
between it and the Board of Health, Lunacy and Charity
of the State of Massachusetts. The New York Board
expressed the opinion that this State should not be bur-
dened with certain classes of dependent persons sent from
Massachusetts.

WORK TO IMPROVE THE ALMSHOUSES 301

Definite action began when the New York Board, at a
meeting held May 14, 1879, requested Commissioner
Lowell "to inquire into the facts concerning the transfer
of paupers from Massachusetts to this State and report at
the next meeting of the Board." Mrs. Lowell promptly
took up the work thus confided to her, prepared a report
and addressed a communication to the Massachusetts
Board, both of which she mentioned in the following
letter to the President of the New York Board.

PoNKAPOG, Mass., August 22, 1879.
My dear Mr. Letchworth :

I have yours with note to Dr. Folsom,' which I have
forwarded. I agree with you that the Board should hear
and consider my report and appoint a committee to pre-
pare a plan of action before we can meet the Massachu-
setts Committee. I shall not write again to Dr. Folsom,
as I think the matter stands as it should now.

I am glad you thought well of my conmiunication to the
Massachusetts Board. I felt I was discharging a delicate
office, and was anxious to say exactly the right thing.

The report was presented and accepted by the Board
September 10, 1879, and resolutions offered by Mrs.
Lowell were adopted, expressing satisfaction at the appoint-
ment by the Massachusetts Board of a Committee of
Conference, and inviting a conference meeting in the
City of New York the following November. She also
at this meeting presented a paper to serve as a basis for
discussion, which was accepted and a copy ordered sent

» Secretary of the Massachusetts State Board of Health, Lunacy, and
Charity.

302

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

to each member, and President Letchworth was by resolu-
tion requested to prepare a paper embodying the views
of the Board.

The conference in the City of New York between
the two State Boards began on November 12, 1879,
and lasted two days. Thus within six months from the
reference to Mrs. Lowell of the subject of controversy,
during which period summer had intervened, she had
succeeded in bringing about a conference. It was quite
characteristic of her usual attitude that having by her
papers and personal efforts secured the conference, she
was almost a silent member ; evidently the discussion was
going as she washed, and so she reserved her ammunition.
In relation to what she thought about two instances of
individual hardship cited, she said :

"In this case the welfare of the pauper himself ought
to be considered. The claims of common humanity are
to be taken into consideration apart from the great in-
terest of the State. Massachusetts has, in these two cases
read for the information of the gentlemen, not only pur-
sued a selfish pohcy, but has been utterly negUgent of the
welfare of the individual. If it be true, as stated, she has
pushed these persons out of the limits of Massachusetts
with no regard whatever for their welfare. Both of these
cases were of decent respectable people. If Massachusetts
chose to support them it would be perfectly proper to do
so, but she had no right to send them to New York un-
der the circumstances. . . ."

At another time she said: "Is not the injury done
to New York measured by the advantage secured to
Massachusetts? From your own reports it appears that

WORK TO IMPROVE THE ALMSHOUSES 303

in eight or nine years past there were about 2,000 paupers
or lunatics removed from the state. Does not that serve
to prove that this is a class of people who, if they were
dependent in Massachusetts, would be likely to be depend-
ent in New York? Whether they went to Blackwell s
Island or to the poorhouse does not matter for the purposes
of this argument. We recognize that some laws need to
be changed, and the question is, which laws need changing
and who is going to change them. We want to get at the.
right principle as to what each state ought to do, and then
perhaps we can form some plan of action. . . ."

An abstract of the record of the proceedings, which on
the request of the New York Board was prepared by
]VIr. Letchworth, was printed in the anmial report for the
year 1880, and closed with the expression of the hope that
a more liberal and harmonious policy would be hence-
forward pursued by the Massachusetts Board, a wish
which has since been realized. A final and important
reference to the conference found in the records of the
New York Board appears in a "Special Report of the
Standing Committee on the Insane in the matter of the
Investigation of the New York City Asylum for the In-
sane," by Commissioners Craig, Ivlilhau and Foster,
dated August 12, 1887, written by Oscar Craig, of Roches-
ter, at that time President of the State Board.

"The effects of all deportations by foreign local authori-
ties, charitable societies, famiUes and individuals of alien
criminals,"lunatics and paupers upon the City of New
York, as the port of entry, are both direct and indirect,
and thus doubly disastrous. Those who stay become

304

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

charges upon the city ; those who go to other states may-
be assisted by the authorities of such states to return to
New York City, as was often done in former years. Such
breaches of interstate comity by Massachusetts resulted
in the conference between the Commissioners of Health,
Lunacy and Charity of that State and our State Board of
Charities, held in the city of New York, November 12,
1879.

"Among the points brought out by this conference are
the following :

" 1st. Massachusetts had deported by state authority,
exclusive of those sent out by its towns and cities, during
the period from 1870 to 1878, seven thousand and five
Paupers to the State, and mainly to the City of New
York.

"2d. Massachusetts held New York responsible for the
support of persons who have become dependent in that
State, but had no settlement in New York, and had
never been in New York, except as passengers in transit
for Massachusetts.

"It is difficult to say how far benefit has resulted from
that conference ; but if Massachusetts still continues
such deportations to any great extent, they are secret
and indirect, through other doorwaj-s into the State,
though the intended and ultimate destination of such as-
sisted foreign paupers may be the City of New York, as
the original port of entry." ^

The taxpayers of New York State and the large number
of paupers and vagrants, who in consequence of the
more liberal policy pursued by Massachusetts since the

' Twenty-first Annual Report of the State Board of Charities, for
the year 1887, pp. 252-253.

WORK TO IMPROVE THE ALMSHOUSES 305

conference of 1879 are now sent through New York State
to their homes or places of settlement, have good reason
for gratitude to Mrs. LoweU for the work she did for
Massachusetts paupers.

CHAPTER XIV

The Women's Reformatories at Albion and Bedford

Two years after its opening, the House of Refuge for
Women at Hudson sheltered nearly two hundred inmates,
and its work was a demonstrated success. Demands
for admission were received in such numbers as to indi-
cate that unless outside relief was speedily provided the
institution would perforce grow to a size not originally
contemplated, a condition which would prevent the
large measure of individual care necessary for the genuine
reformation of the inmates. Hence a demand sprang
up among the leaders in reformatory work for two similar
refuges, one to be located in the metropolitan and the
other in the western section of the State, each designed
to receive commitments from the neighboring counties.
By this means it was believed the pressure upon the in-
stitution at Hudson would be diminished, and all three
could be kept within the limits of the best reformatory
size.

Mrs. Lowell and Mrs. Abby Hopper Gibbons, who
had worked together in 1886 and subsequently for poUce
matrons in station houses, early recognized the need of
such other reformatories for women, and 1889 found
them each laboring for this end.

306

REFORMATORIES AT ALBION AND BEDFORD 307

In a letter addressed by Mrs. Gibbons to Anna Powell,
March 12, 1889, she wrote :

"I gathered my fragments, secured the necessary ma-
terial, sent to Hudson for a copy of the report of the
'Refuge for Women,' and decided to have a bill ready
by the day of our meeting, asking for a Reformatory for
Women of New York and Kings County. I added to
this some strong points showing the need. We took it
(the Hudson report) for our guide. I sent it to Hon.
Hamilton Fish to present."

The Legislature passed the bill, and this information
being communicated by Mrs. Gibbons to Mrs. Lowell
brought forth prompt congratulations in the following
letter :

New York, May 17, 1889.
My dear Mrs. Gibbons :

Thank you for your good news about the Reformatory
Bill. I was very glad that the trip to Albany did not
do you any harm, and sorry not to see you when I was at
your house this week.

I congratulate you on the great work accomplished this
winter, for it will be a great blessing to have that reforma-
tory.

But the end was not to be reached that year, for the
reason given in a letter written by Mrs. Gibbons to
Rachel H. Powell, June, 1889: "Please convey to thy
beloved parents the non-approval of our Women's Re-
formatory Bill. ... I hoped the bill would pass, but
why I should hope for any good thing from David B. Hill,

308

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

or expect it, I do not know." Like the first Hudson
Refonnatory bill, it was killed by executive veto.

Meanwhile Mrs. Lowell, as Commissioner of the State
Board of Charities, was helping on the movement for the
new institutions. She was acting Chairman of the Board's
Standing Committee on Reformatories, and presented
to the Board in 1889 a report in which she called attention
to the fact that the House of Refuge at Hudson was already
full:

"It is most desirable that a second reformatory for
women should be established in the western part of the
State to receive young women guilty of misdemeanors,
from the fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth judicial districts.
. . . Such an institution should be established at
once; it would relieve the State Industrial School at
Rochester of the older girls now committed there, and
who ought to be removed, besides receiving those now
sent to the House of Refuge at Hudson from the western
part of the State. For New York City and Kings County
such a reformatory is also needed. These locaUties cannot,
xmder the law, commit to the House of Refuge for Women
at Hudson; and though there is room in the House of
Refuge on Randall's Island for girls under sixteen years,
for those older there is no public institution but the work-
house in New York, and the jail and penitentiary in ffing's
County.

"The committee requests the Board to recommend to the
Legislature the establishment of both these new reforma-
tories." ^

Mrs. Lowell's accessible papers covering this period
contain nothing farther relating to the Bedford Reforma-

» Report of the State Board of Charities for 1889, p. 124.

REFORMATORIES AT ALBION AND BEDFORD 309

tory, and Mrs. Gibbons appears to have been henceforward
the leader in the movement which resulted in the establish-
ment of that uastitution.

Success, however, sooner attended the effort to secure
a women's reformatory for the western part of the State.
On this subject Hon. William Pryor Letchworth has sup-
plied the foUqwing letter, addressed to him as President of
the State Board of Charities by Mrs. Lowell :

120 East 30th Street, January 24, 1890.
My dear Mr. Letchworth :

As you know, the Board recommended in its report this
year the establishment of a new reformatory for women,
on the Hudson plan for the western part of the State, . . .
and the bill for that purpose is to be introduced this

week.

The proposed institution is to be exclusively for women
committed from the 6th, 7th, and 8th Judicial Distncts,
and I write to ask most earnestly that you will present the
matter very strongly to your Senators and Assemblymen.

The Board has reason to be proud of the success of the
experiment at Hudson, and there is no doubt that if that
institution is enlarged, or overcrowded without being
enlarged, as it will inevitably be, unless another one of
the same kind is provided for the western part of the
State, its usefulness will be almost destroyed. . . .

The bill referred to in the foregoing letter became law

without the approval of Governor Hill, April 30, 1890.^

It estabUshed as a new State institution the Western

House of Refuge for Women, soon afterwards located at

» Chapter 238, Laws of 1890.

.:!

-m.

310

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

Albion in Wayne County, near Rochester. This reforma-
tory, mainly conducted on the cottage plan, has rendered
valuable service, and at the close of 1909 sheltered 270
inmates.

Mrs. Gibbons, disappointed but not discouraged by the
veto of the bill for a reformatory for young women of the
metropolitan district, renewed her efforts for this institu-
tion, and for nearly three years indefatigably continued
them. "In February, 1892, when she was past ninety
years of age, she went once more to Albany with two other
members of the Women's Prison Association, and appeared
at a hearing before the Ways and Means Committee, to
advocate the measure. This had the effect to carry the
bill in the Assembly without a dissenting vote." ' After
passing the Senate, it was approved by Governor Flower
May 16, 1892. Mrs. Gibbons received valuable aid in
her campaign from Miss Louisa Lee Schuyler, Joseph H.
Choate, James C Carter, and John H. Finley. She lived
to see the purchase of the site at Bedford, where one
of the principal buildings has since been named in her
honor, and died in 1893.

Work upon the buildings proceeded slowly for want of
appropriations and other causes. The act which estab-
lished the reformatory provided that the construction
work should be upon plans and specifications approved by
a special commission composed of the Superintendent of
State Prisons, the Commissioners of the new Capitol, and
the Comptroller. This commission seldom met, and its

' "Life of Abby Hopper Gibbons,'! by Sarah M. Emerson, Vol. I,
p. 253.

REFORMATORIES AT ALBION AND BEDFORD 311

approval of plans and specifications was thus delayed, and
building operations prevented for a considerable period.
Mrs. Lowell no doubt did what she could to expedite it ;
the following letter addressed to Mr. Robert W. Heb-
berd, at that time Secretary of the State Board of Chari-
ties, of which she was no longer a member, is an evidence
of her interest :

120 East 30th Street, December 21, 1898.
My dear Mr. Hebberd :

I hope the Board is going to help this year in securing
the appropriation needed to open and operate the Bedford
Reformatory. We need the institution, and not for young
girls and children, but for the older and more hardened
offenders. The House of Refuge and the private rescue
homes should take care of the younger and more in-
pressionable, and let us keep the reformatories for the
less manageable. I hope the Board will not cause delay
by insisting on the buildings being altered, for we ought
to have the institution for use.

I wrote to Gov. Roosevelt, and think he will appreciate
the seriousness of the matters referred to. . . .

I sent Mr. Stewart what you wrote to me about him,
as I thought he deserved the gratification, and enclose you
his reply for the same reason.^ . . .

Nine years elapsed from the establishment of the re-
formatory at Bedford until its opening, for the first inmate
was not received until May 11, 1901. None of the New

1 My first intention to omit this personal allusion has been changed
because of a desire to show Mrs. Lowell's characteristic thoughtfulness
for the gratification of others.

312

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

York State institutions of a charitable or reformatory
character has had so tardy a beginning, but with the
opening began an uninterrupted career of useful and in-
telligent development. Mrs. Lowell became a member of
the board of managers in 1899, upon appointment by Gov-
ernor Roosevelt, and was most influential in planning for
the success of the work now carried on there.

Immediate and cordial support by the State was not
accorded the new institution, and the work was at first
prosecuted amid many discouragements. Shortly after it
was opened, and when it contained few inmates, the re-
formatory was visited by Governor Odell, who, from his
subsequent attitude, evidently then reached the conclusion
that it was not needed. On the recommendation of this
Governor, the office of Fiscal Supervisor of State Charities
was created by the Legislature in 1902, to assume the func-
tions of supervision exercised at that time over the financial
affairs of the State charitable and reformatory institutions
by the State Comptroller. The Governor appointed as the
first Fiscal Supervisor Mr. Harry H. Bender of Albany,
then Superintendent of Pubhc Buildings. This official
soon took the position that the reformatory at Bedford
was superfluous, and did not favor requests made from time
to time for the employment of additional officers thought
by the managers to be needed at the institution. A cor-
respondence ensued between him and Mrs. Lowell on this
subject, as appears from the following letter addressed to
Mr. Robert W. Hebberd :

KEFORMATORIES AT ALBION AND BEDFORD 313

120 East 30th Stkeet, November U, '02.
My dear Mr. Hebberd : , ■ u;„i,

i, reply to my -'f"-"^!. 0" TdlZ^r^ an'd the

::;.^toro„"/:ersr.rti„..he.o,o..

officers.

Wishing to be free so that she might more eSectiv* pr-

letter, also addressed to Mr. Hebberd :

120 East SOTh Steeet, November 22, '02.

'"' TSr"^ "^^ Bedford Board, teUing the
GovernorTdBL wsh to i-lve^e^^^^^
in responsibiUty for my action m condemnmg

Mr James Wood of Mount Kisco, near Bedford, was

such occasions as to merit insertion verbatim .
1 February, 1910.

314

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

"Governor Odell visited the institution at Bedford but
once during his governorship when we had but eighteen in-
mates, and he never seemed to reaUze that that number had
been mcreased but kept it in mind continually and thought
that the State was incurring heavy expense in caring for a
small number of inmates. State hospitals for the insane
were sorely pressed for room at that time to receive those
requiring their care ; the lease of the Flatbush Hospital by
the City of Brooklyn to the State was about to expire, and
it became necessary to provide accommodations for the in-
mates of that hospital. Governor Odell, considering that
the work at Bedford was not making adequate return to
the State for the amount expended there, proposed to close
the mstitution as a reformatory and convert it into a hos-
pital for the insane, it being all ready to receive the in-
mates of the Flatbush Hospital. For this purpose he had
a bill mtroduced into the Legislature which was referred
in the Senate to the Finance Committee, and in the Assem-
bly to the Committee on Ways and Means. As it involved
a change of law, it was also referred to the Judiciary Com-
mittee of the Senate. For the first time in many years, a
jomt session was held for these committees to hear the
advocates and opponents of the bill.

"Wishing to present the needs for the reformatory
properly, the management put themselves in touch with
the State Board of Charities, the W^omen's Prison As-
sociation of New York, the Supervisor of Catholic Chari-
ties, the United Hebrew Charities, the Hebrew Women's
Association, and other organizations. It was a matter of
great satisfaction to the management that every one of
the institutions and organizations thus approached sent
a representative to Albany for the hearing, except the
United Hebrew Charities, whose President sent a very
strong letter to the Committees.

REFORMATORIES AT ALBION AND BEDFORD 315

"At the hearing the Governor's representative in
advocacy of the bill was the Fiscal Supervisor, Mr. Bender.
The attendance of the members of the Committees at the
hearing was unusually large, and it was presided over
by the Chairman of the Finance Committee of the Senate,
George R. Malby. During this hearing, the Governor's
representative attacked the reformatory in every way
possible, using a great variety of detailed information
obtained through the inspectors of the Fiscal Supervisor's
Department. Among other things, it was charged that
the treatment of the inmates was inhumane, a special point
being made of the fact that on one occasion the fire hose
was turned upon one of the inmates. Mrs. Lowell sat
in the audience and immediately arose and addressed the
Chairman of the hearing and stated that this charge should
not be laid against the management of the institution
as a whole but only against herself individually, as she
was present on the occasion and herself directed the super-
intendent to use the hose as stated. The facts were, she
said, that the inmate was a desperate character who had
acknowledged the commission of three murders in the City
of New York, and had escaped pimishment therefor on
the claim of self-defence. She had been guilty of a number
of violent acts while at the reformatory, and in this case
had taken refuge in a room and had armed herself with
such appliances as she could lay her hands on and was
making desperate resistance to the officers. As a pro-
tection to the inmate from what appeared to be neces-
sarily severe treatment, which might do her personal
injury, and also for the protection of the officers, Mrs.
Lowell deemed it best that the hose should be used.

"This statement by Mrs. Lowell made a deep impres-
sion upon the members of the Legislative Committees, and
her magnificent bearing and courageous admission of all

316

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

responsibility had the effect to disconcert the Governor's
representative and doubtless had much to do with the
result of the hearing. The result of the hearing was that
no member of the Committees named voted to report the
bill. It was turned down by the unanimous vote of all
the Committees. The representatives of all the institu-
tions named were very emphatic in their testimony as to
the need of the institution and the value of its work."

When, as has been mentioned, appropriations for the
salaries of needed officers were withheld by the State, be-
cause of lack of sympathy with the work of the reforma-
tory, Mrs. Lowell made provision from time to time from
her own modest income for the most pressing needs. In
1902, she paid the salarj'' of a young woman experienced
in college settlement work, who devoted much of her time
to the girls isolated for bad conduct, and also the salary of
an instructor in amusements. The following year the
managers called attention in their report to the need of
a teacher of calisthenics and gymnastics, and again Mrs.
Lowell supplied the needed instructor, the State at that
time being unwiUing to provide for the salary. Practically
all the inmates were taught in the gymnastic classes, and
the results were soon found so valuable, both for health
and discipline, that this branch of reformatory work was
adopted by the State, not only at Bedford, but also at
the other reformatories at Hudson and Albion. A special
matron was employed, also at Mrs. Lowell's expense, to
take charge of the gardening and other outdoor work,
under the direction of this officer much of the planting
and weeding and gathering of crops being done by the
girls.

REFORMATORIES AT ALBION AND BEDFORD 317

In their report to the Legislature covering the year 1902,
the managers of the reformatory paid the f oUowing tribute
to Mrs. Lowell's services as a member of the Board :

"One change in the membership of the Board of Mana-
gers has occurred during the past year. Mrs. Charles
Russell Lowell, who had been a manager for nearly three
years, resigned in November, 1902. Mrs. Lowell has been
widely known for many years for her devotion to the work
of social reform in various aspects, and she was pre-
eminently suited for the office of a manager. Her interest
in the success of this institution did not end with the
faithful and efficient discharge of her official duties, but
she constantly supplemented the work carried on by he
State by providing at her own private expense for the
salaries of' special' teachers which the State authorities
had not seen fit to allow, and continues to do this up to
the present time. She has also contributed in various
ways to the encouragement and benefit of the mmates,
as will be more fully shown by the report of the superm-
tendent. The managers regarded her separation from
the board as a most serious loss to the institution.

In reply to a request to the superintendent of the in-
stitution for some details of Mrs. Lowell's worlc as a
manager, a letter was received from which the following
extracts are given :

Bedford, N.Y., November 1, 1905.

Mr DEAR Mr. Stewart : , ^ , tvt

It is difficult for us to express how keenly we feel Mrs.
Lowell's loss. As you knew, at the time of the opening
of the institution she was a member of our Board of Mana-
ged When the time approached, Mrs. Lowell was one

318

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

of the Board who was most anxious concerning the secur-
ing of a Superintendent and staff. She desired that the
educational and reformatory side be made especially strong
and was anxious to secure a Superintendent who was in
touch with modern educational methods, who was not in
institution ruts, and who had received academic training.
This led her to correspond with presidents of women's
and coeducational colleges and universities and with the
Association of Collegiate Alumnte.

Mrs. Lowell's personal visits to the institution from the
time of its opening were frequent. She not only advised
with the Superintendent, but made the acquaintance of
the inmates, especially those who were more refractory.
She was in the habit of spending the night at the in-
stitution, occupying a room in one of the cottages or in
the Reception House, in order that she might become
personally famiUar with the methods of discipline at night.
She gained the confidence and affection of individual
inmates and from time to time corresponded with a num-
ber of these. She also interested herself in their families.
In one instance, she bore the expense of the journey of a
young French woman whom we desired to return to her
mother in France, an expense which the authorities did
not deem necessary. The last letter received from her
after the beginning of her final illness was one concerning
the employment of the girls in the lowest grade. This was
accompanied by a letter to one of the inmates whom she
had befriended and who sent Mrs. Lowell a basket which
she had made. Although Mrs. Lowell was seriously ill at
the time, she personally wrote a note of thanks to the girl
saying how much she appreciated being thus remembered.

One of our cottages, the Lowell, was named in her
honor. In this she was particularly interested. She was
always anxious to have things done immediately. On

REFORMATORIES AT ALBION AND BEDFORD 319

one visit she was especially pleased with the painting and
de oration of the sitting and dming rooms of th.s cottag
which had been done by the inmates She wanted the
Torndors painted at once to make the work complete
when told that we must wait a month to ^^^^^'^ ^^'J^^
necessary materials, she immediately gave the money to
buvthem begging that the work be not interrupted. On
Mrl "s'reL^^^^ from the Board of Managers^
not only the managers and officers of the mstitution^ bu
the Trls as well, felt her loss keenly. Her merest did not
eas^with her retirement from the Boaxd As before
mentioned, she kept in touch with us until her death
and her gi^ts in money continued to be a very great W
In every^stance when the thing for which she paid had
proved^tself , we were able to make it permanent by con-
vincing the authorities that it had been of value.

oTthe Sunday following her death, memorial services

were held for her in the Chapel of the Reformatory

Very sincerely yours,

Katharine Bement Davis.

WORK FOR POLICE MATRONS

321

CHAPTER XV

Work for Police Matrons

The indignities to which it was alleged women were
subjected in the poMce stations and prisons of the City of
New York, in which at that time no matrons were em-
ployed, of such a nature that they cannot weU be men-
tioned here, induced Mrs. LoweU, in the spring of 1886, to
request Dr. Annie S. Daniel to make an investigation and
to report to her the findings. Dr. Daniel, who was then
attending physician to the Isaac T. Hopper Home of the
Women's Prison Association, was an associate of Mrs. Lowell
in the Working Women's Society, and had made some in-
vestigations for the Tenement House Commission, of which
Dr. FeUx Adler was chairman. Mrs. LoweU's famiharity
with Dr. Daniel's reports of these investigations, and her
knowledge of the great interest which she manifested in
the condition of women prisoners, led to the request for
her assistance m this new undertaking. Necessary per-
mission for this investigation was obtained by Mrs. Lowell
for three persons, and it was her intention to join in the in-
spections, but the pressure of other official work prevented.
Dr. Daniel informs me that Mrs. Weidemeyer, of the
Charity Organization Society, visited the Essex Market
prison with her, and that to all the other station houses
and prisons she went alone. The written report, made
by Dr. Daniel to Mrs. Lowell, substantiated the allega-
tions of abuses, and resulted in a conference of pubUc-

320

spirited women, which assembled on Mrs. Lowell's in-
vitation in the autumn of 1886, for the consideration of the
need of police matrons in station houses, and of other
social questions of municipal interest. At a session of this
conference, held in November and December of that year,
Mrs. Abby Hopper Gibbons, President of the Women's
Prison Association of the City of New York, asked for
the report for publication in the proceedings of the As-
sociation, there to be made the basis of public agitation
on its part for police matrons in station houses. To this
Dr. Daniel and Mrs. Lowell consented, and the move-
ment for this important reform was thus begun. Dr.
Daniel became the instrument in Mrs. Lowell's hands for
this beneficent pmpose. She has informed me that her
report was received too late for publication in 1886.
In sUghtly modified form, with the statistics brought down
to the year 1887, it found place in the proceedings of the
Women's Prison Association for that year.

Free lodgings in the station houses were then given
indiscriminately to homeless or vagrant men and women,
a practice which, Mrs. Lowell beheved, increased the evils
and abuses found in them. The charitable and cor-
rectional institutions of the city were then administered
by one Commission, and any one applying for a night's
lodging was given shelter wherever it was sought, so that
the same building served for correction and charity, and
the station houses, being numerous and accessible, were
resorted to, especially in bad weather, by the idle, the
vicious, and the unfortunate in large numbers, beside hous-
ing those arrested for crime.

322

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

Followng the conference of women, which was continued
m 1887, Mrs. Lowell acti\'ely engaged, with other benevo-
lent and pubhc-spirited women, in securing three reforms,
which aimed to prevent the recurrence of the disgraceful
conditions then found to exist in the station houses :

1. The division of the Department of Charities and
Correction into two departments.

2. The appointment of police matrons for all station
houses and prisons.

3. The establishment of a municipal lodging house,
or houses, for homeless men and women.

Practical and useful reforms, all three, and aU of them
long since accomphshed ; but the need of pohce matrons
seemed the most pressing, and received Mrs. Lowell's first
attention.

The Women's Prison As.sociation, formed in 1844, was
simultaneously at work under the able leadership of Mrs.
Gibbons,' to secure reformed adnunistration of the city
station houses and prisons, and it was largely due to this
Association that Chapter 420 of the Laws of 1888, enti-
tled "An Act to provide for Police Matrons in Cities"
was placed among the statutes of New York State, May
28 of that year.2 Under the provisions of this law, the

' "Life of Mrs. Gibbons," Vol. I, p. 25L

' Ibid. Vol. 11, p. 262. Letter from Mrs.' Josephine Shaw Lowell :
Mt dear Mrs. G.bbons : Cambridge, June 5th, 1888.

Thank you very much for your kind thought of me. The passage
woi«n ^^^%'' '"''^* '*'P ^^'''^'^ ''^ ^^^ «'™^S'« ^ ^^^ degraded
TyT: an^Dr' D™ '''^°°^ ^''^"^'^ ""^'* ^ "^ ^^^ ^^'^

Sincerely and gratefully yours,

J. S. Lowell.

WORK FOR POLICE MATRONS

323

Board of Commissioners of PoUce of the cities of New
York and Brooklyn was directed within three months
after the passage of the act, to designate one or more
station houses within their respective cities for the de-
tention and confinement of all women under arrest, upon
the appropriation of funds therefor; the Commissioners
were further directed to appomt for each station house
thus designated not more than two respectable women, to
be known as police matrons. When only one police
matron was attached to a station house, she must reside
there, or near by, and respond to any call therefrom at
any hour. The law further provided that the police
matron, subject to the officer in charge, should have the
immediate care and charge of all women held under arrest
at the station house to which she was attached ; also, that
women and men should be kept separate and apart in the
station houses.

Although the city prisons then had matrons, they were
sometimes incompetent, or their services did not cover all
the hours of the day. On this subject. Dr. Daniel men-
tions the following instance of Mrs. Lowell's method of
work: "Mrs. Lowell's abiUty to act promptly was de-
monstrated when conditions, proved to exist in one of the
city prisons, were told her. At the particular prison,
a matron was in attendance from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. ; the
remainder of the twenty-four hours this woman's prisoners
were entirely in the care of men keepers. Facts were dis-
closed, which could neither be talked of openly nor pub-
lished. Mrs. Lowell, hearing this shocking story, went at
once to the Commissioners' office and was told that

324

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

nothing could be done, owing to the lack of appropriations.
Within half an hour, she convinced the Commissioners
that women prisoners must be protected, and a w^ay was
opened by them to appoint an additional matron. From
that day to this, prisoners in that prison have had the
protection of a woman."

Notwithstanding the mandatory provisions of the act
of 1888, by which the Commissioners of Police of New
York and Brooklyn were directed to appoint police matrons
within three months from the passage of the act, those
officials disobeyed the law for more than two years, until
a pubUc scandal in a station house called forth the follow-
ing letter from Mrs. Lowell, at that time a Commissioner
of the State Board of Charities :

No. 120 East 30th Street, August 5, 1890.

To THE Board of Police of the City of New York :
Gentlemen :

When I and many other women made an appeal to
you some months since to appoint police matrons to have
charge of women detained in the station houses, we based
our argument on the ground that common decency de-
manded that drunken and degraded women should be
removed from the sight and hearing of the men and boys
who for various causes are held in the station houses.

We said that we deemed it a great wrong that such
women should be allowed to contaminate by their evil
conduct and language, men and boys, arrested perhaps
for some trivial offence, or perhaps entirely innocent.

We did not say that we thought the women in the station
houses unsafe while under the care of officers appointed

WORK FOR POLICE MATRONS

325

by you, for although we had heard such accusations,
personally, I could not, I confess, believe them.

Within two months, however, one of your officers has
pleaded guilty and been sentenced to imprisonment for
attempted assault on a girl of fifteen, whUe under the
protection of your Board in one of your station houses.
As your Board has had the power for the past two years
to keep all women in the station houses safe from such
wrongs, by placing them under the charge of matrons,
it does not seem unjust to say that you are responsible
for the fearful experience of this young girl, and also for
the ruin of the life of the man whom you placed in a posi-
tion, the temptation of which he could not resist. Of
him or his past I know nothing, but I see it stated that his
fellow-officers testified to his good character, by which
they presumably meant that he was a man whom they
should not have supposed capable of so vile and unmanly
a crune, and therefore it appears that it was actually the
circumstances which have changed him from a respected
officer to a convicted felon.

In the name of the women who, in the station houses,
are still exposed to this horrible danger, in the name of
your officers to whom temptation is presented by the exist-
ing system, I write to beg you to use at once your power
to designate certain station houses where all women shall
be detained and placed under the charge of matrons.

Respectfully,

Josephine Shaw Lowell.

This letter was published in full, in one or more of the
daily papers of New York City, with the statement that
it had been received by the Board of PoUce. But the
Board continued to neglect its duties in this particular,

■m

326

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

and the pressure upon it was continued by Mrs. Lowell
and her earnest associates, in a memorial addressed to the
Grand Jury of the City of New York, a draft of which,
found among her papers, is evidently in Mrs. Lowell's
language.

Beginning with the charge that the Board of Police
Commissioners of New York City had persistently neg-
lected to carry out the pro^'isions of the act to provide for
poUce matrons in cities, the memorial recites the provi-
sion of that law requiring the Board to designate one or
more station houses for the detention or confinement of
all women under arrest, and the passage on September 7,
1888, by the Board, of a resolution designating all the
station houses for the purpose mentioned, for lack of funds
to carry out the provisions of the law, and then charges,
that the adoption of this resolution was merely an eva.sion
of law, as shown (1) "By the fact that no funds were re-
quired to enable the Board of Police Commissioners to des-
ignate certain station houses for the detention of women,
which in itself would have been a great reform," and (2)
"By the fact that since the adoption of that resolution,
the Commissioners of Police have submitted to the Board
of Estimate and Apportionment the estimates for the ex-
penses of their Department for the years 18S9, 1890, and
1891, and have ncA'er included, although repeatedly re-
quested to do so, any estimate for funds to enable them
to carry out such provision of the law as did require an
appropriation, that is, those relating to the appointment
of poUce matrons."

Continuing, the memorialists offer to prove also, (1) the

WORK FOR POLICE MATRONS

327

impossibility of observing common decency in the sta-
tion houses of the city, in at least fourteen of which
the cells were so constructed, that women imprisoned
in them could not be kept out of hearing of men and boys
also confined there, while in four, the cells were so placed
that any women imprisoned would probably also be in
sight of other prisoners; (2) that at present women
prisoners were searched either by irresponsible women
or police officers ; (3) that being imder the care of men,
women were exposed to danger from which the city should
protect them; to sustain this charge, the conviction
of a police officer of the 22d Precinct referred to in Mrs.
Lowell's letter to the Board of Police was cited ; (4) that
the police officers themselves were unnecessarily exposed
to temptation as proved in the same case.

The memorial quotes the police statistics for 1889 in
further support of its contentions :

"In that year, 147,634 lodgings in station houses were
furnished to indigent persons, 69,111 to women, 78,523 to
men ; an average of 189 women and 215 men each night.
The women were under the sole charge of men. . . .
During the same year, there were 82,200 arrests, of which
19,926 were of women, an average of 54 each day, and
62,274 were of men, an average of 170 a day ; of the 82,200,
9,514 were of boys under twenty years and 991 of girls
under twenty years.

" It is not too much to say that to put these ten thousand
boys and girls, many of whom are innocent, into com-
panionship in the station houses for hours at a time with
the most degraded men and women of the city, within
hearing, often within sight of much that is wicked and

328

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

debasing, is a crime against humanity, and must be pro-
ductive of great moral injury to them. The confinement of
the women in special station houses and the appointment
of police matrons would in some measure protect these
children and mitigate the e%dls to which they are now
exposed."

The Grand Jury apparently took cognizance of this
strong appeal, for among Mrs. Lowell's papers is a printed
copy of an act amending the Police Matrons Law of 188S,
which provides, in Section 7, that the "Board of Estunate
and Apportionment in said City of New York is hereby
authorized and empowered to reopen the budget for the
year 1891 in order to include therein the estimates neces-
sary to carry out the provisions of this act in said city."

At this time, some of the leading New York papers
came to the support of the women's crusade for police
matrons. The Sun, under the caption "Women's Side
of It," published in its issue of January 4, 1891, a strong
and ably written two-column article, in which are described
the scenes of degradation and misery discovered by a
philanthropic woman, a member of the Women's Chris-
tian Temperance Union, in the station houses of Phila-
delphia three years before, and of her successful efforts
there for the appointment of police matrons, and adds
"In New York, such women as Mrs. Josephine Shaw
Lowell, Mrs. Mary T. Burt, Miss Grace Dodge, Mrs.
E. B. Grannis, and others equally well known, are inter-
esting themselves in this work. They have visited the
station houses and seen scenes of depravity and misery
which, if decency would permit being printed in detail,

WORK FOR POLICE MATRONS

^29

-n

would arouse the indignation of all humane people."
Further reference was made in this article to conditions
in the station houses of New York, and to the brutal
treatment recently experienced in one of them by a young
girl picked up insensible in the street. "All night she sat
with wild frightened eyes, Ustening to the oaths and ribald
jests of the women in the corridor. The next morning,
Mrs. Lowell saw her standing behind the bar and listening
to the charge against her. ... She was sent back to
the cell on false charges for another night, and then
allowed to go back to her husband and baby rumed in
reputation. . . . Mrs. Lowell investigated the case and
found the woman in every way thoroughly respectable and
above reproach."

Courage and perseverance triumphed, the budget for
1891 was reopened to make provision for the appointment
of police matrons, and the good women of New York had
won another notable victory for humanity, over official
ignorance and neglect. Since it was essential to the suc-
cess of the experunent that suitable women should be
appointed, Mrs. Lowell and her associates prepared the
examination papers, which, pursuant to the Civil Service
regulations, were to be filled out and submitted by the
apphcants, and drafted the rules to be observed by the
matrons appointed.

Miss Ellen Collins, who was associated with Mrs. Lowell
in this as in others of her philanthropic activities, recalls
that she and Mrs. Lowell were requested to attend the
first examination conducted under the Civil Service rules,
at which a number of capable women who had followed

■m

330

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

the movement with sympathy, presented themselves as
candidates. The questions were intended to bring out,
in strong rehef, the individual characters of the appUcants.
Memoranda made as the examination progressed were
compared and tabulated on its conclusion. Mrs. Lowell
and Miss Collins paid particular attention to the per-
sonality of the women, and endeavored to ascertain their
motives in applying for the appointments. Then- reports
were presented, and included in the records from which
the first appointments of poUce matrons in New York
City were made. Reference to this examination was
made in a letter from Mrs. LoweU to her sister-in-law :

120 East 30th Street, May 1, 1891.
Dear Annie :

Last week Ellen ColUns (a friend of ours ever since the
war, when we were together in the Sanitary Committee
work) and I, spent three days helping the Civil Service
Board examine 120 women applicants for Police Matron-
ship, of which there will probably be twelve appointed
at most. We talked to each one and asked her questions,
based on her written answers in an examination paper,
and you may imagine that we were pretty well exhausted!
There were 28 who were really first rate, about 30 who
were good, and the rest were "fau- to middling" only. It
was interesting and encouraging to see the way in which
the work of the Civil Service Board is carried on. All
Police oSiceis have to go through a severe examination,
and only those who pass the highest are sent to the Board
of Police, 75, if they want 50, and if the Board skips
anyone, they are obliged to give their reasons in writing.
The Secretary told us that the character of the appUcants

WORK FOR POLICE MATRONS

331

had risen 100 per cent since they first began, about six
years ago. The worthless ones find they cannot go through
and so they stay away.

The Sun continued to the poUce matrons the valu-
able support it gave to the movement for their appoint-
ment, and on November 1, 1891, pubUshed an article,
"What the Matron Does," describing an inspection made
of the Ehzabeth Street Station, by a representative of that
newspaper, accompanied by the matron on duty, in which
a favorable account was given of the improved care given
the women prisoners, and from which the following ex-
cerpts are made :

Mrs. Josephine Shaw Lowell's recent letter to the
Police Commissioners, complaining that the work required
of the Matrons recently appointed to several police sta-
tions, to look after women prisoners, was too severe, and
that their hours of duty were too long, has brought up the
question whether or not the new system is a failure. The
Matrons are on duty fourteen hours consecutively, and
this means twenty-eight rounds among the cells, and the
climbing of many flights of stairs each night. The rooms
assigned them, Mrs. Lowell says, are cold and cheerless
and too near the men's quarters. . . . The Commis-
sioners did not look with favor upon the Police Matron
project when it was first urged by charitable women ; . . .
however, they made the experiment, and now regard
Mrs. Lowell's complaint with Uttle sympathy. . . . The
Matron who led the way was bright-faced and cheerful.
She was very neat in a well fitting street dress. She seemed
to take some pride in her Uttle room, poor as it was. She
pulled out the drawer of the table and displayed stores of

332

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

cotton cloth torn to the size and shape of small towels,

and reels of coarse cotton thread with needles stuck in

them. "For the poor women," she said smiling. "Mrs.

Lowell keeps us supplied with this. Almost all the women

prisoners who come here are poor unfortunates, you know.

Most of them are drunk and their clothes — what they

have, poor things — are often torn and dreadfully ragged.

I sew up the rents enough to make them respectable

before they go out in the streets again, and then I give

each of them some of this thread and a needle or two,

so they do some patching themselves. These cloths are for

towels. Mrs. Lowell supplies us with thetn too." Then

the matron took down from a shelf a number of packages.

"Smell that," said she laughing. "Isn't that good?"

The package contained coffee. "And here is a supply of

sugar," she continued, "and here is tea and here are cans

of condensed milk. Oh, we have lots of good things here

for the poor women, and you've no idea how much good

it does them. Mrs. Lowell sends them all ; and just read

that little letter she sends us, telhng us to let her know

when we want more."

The friendly interest of Mrs. Lowell in the matrons
and their charges was continued by subsequent visits
to the station houses, for many years, and by interviews
and meetings at her own house ; and there as everywhere,
her strong and attractive personality was helpful to all she
met. A semi-official character was given these visits
by Mrs. Lowell's membership of the Women's Prison Re-
form Committee, and she preserved her card of admission
to the city prisons, bearing date March 25, 1904, signed
by W. McAdoo, Police Commissioner. Among her
papers on the subject of Police Matrons, is the following

WORK FOR POLICE MATRONS

333

brief statement, written in ink in her large, firm hand, to
which she had given additional and imusual emphasis, for
such a paper, by her signature :

The change in the station houses where the matrons
are, since their appointment is simply indescribable.
Now everything is quiet, orderly, almost pleasant. It used
to be horrible to find the drunken men and women pris-
oners in contiguous cells, perfectly audible to each other,
and under the charge of men.

There are fourteen ( ?) station houses in New York City
and eight (?) in Brooklyn, designated to receive women
prisoners, each with a matron constantly on duty. The
majority of the matrons have been in the service six or
seven years, and do very well. They have all been ap-
pointed after competitive examinations. There are no
female lodgers (or men either) now received in the station

houses.

August, 1898. J- S- I^owELL.

With which song of thanksgiving is closed the chapter
of Mrs. Lowell's work for Police Matrons.

THE CONSUMERS' LEAGUE

335

CHAPTER XVI .

The Consumers' League

The bad conditions under which many working women
and cash girls were earning their living in the City of
New York led them to hold a series of meetings in 1886
for the discussion of these evils, with the hope of finding a
way to end them. Mrs. Lowell and her friend, Miss L. S.
W. Perkins, hearing of this movement on the East Side
of the city, attended one of the first meetings, and because
of their interest and helpfulness, although not themselves
wage-earners, were welcomed at the succeeding discussions
to which no other outsiders were invited and no reporters
admitted.

Women of different trades and occupations told directly
and simply of their daily experiences, of many things in
their places of employment done in defiance of law, of the
dangers, moral and physical, amid which they worked,
and of their fears of loss of position, or threatened loss
of character, keeping them silent, even when to bad sur-
roundings was added personal insult. These stories were
heard with sympathy and with respect for the stalwart
and upright views expressed, and for the high standard
of honor and generosity which characterized both the
speakers and their fellow-workers assembled at these
meetings. The helplessness of these women to cope

334

■\

•:ff

•I

unorganized with the grave problems confronting them,
and without the force of well-informed public opinion
behind them, seissed upon Mrs. Lowell at this time and
engaged her lasting interest. Out of these meetings grew
the Working Women's Society, organized in 1886, of which
she was a friend and counsellor.

Being convinced that some of the existing evils might
be remedied by the appointment of women factory in-
spectors, to whom women might freely speak of things
they shrank from telling a man inspector, Mrs. Lowell was
active in securing the passage by the Legislature of New
York of the first law on any statute book giving working
women such protection. While the measure was under
consideration, letters were received by Mrs. Lowell and
others telling of unlawful working conditions ; pitiful tales
they were, of locked doors in tenement house factories
with workers on the sixth floor, with no fire-escapes, and
no water above the third floor, of narrow, unsafe stairs,
of unsanitary conditions, and of insult. Mrs. Lowell was
active and helpful, both with her time and her means,
especially in some of the early strikes for improved con-
ditions, and often presided at meetings, both public and
private. No complaints were disregarded, and for many
abuses remedies were found.

The work of the Society continued, and in the winter
of 1889-1890 it investigated the conditions under which
saleswomen and cash girls were working in the City of
New York, and in its report showed them to be unsatis-
factory in many of the large stores. Thereupon the So-
ciety interested clergymen and philanthropists in the sub-

336

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

ject, and under their auspices was held a large pubhc
meeting in May, 1890, at Chickering Hall, on the corner
of Fifth Avenue and Eighteenth Street, "to consider the
condition of working women in New York retail stores." A
report was made to the meeting by Miss Alice Woodbridge,
for the Society, embodying the results of the investigation
and presenting the following conclusions :

"First. We find the hours are often excessive, and em-
ployees are not paid for overtime. Second. We find they
often work under unwholesome sanitary conditions. Third.
We find numbers of children under age employed for ex-
cessive hours, and at work far beyond their strength.
Fourth. We find that long and faithful service does not
meet with consideration ; on the contrary, service for a
certain number of years is a reason for dismissal. It has
become the rule in some stores not to keep any one over
five years, fearing that the employees may think they
have a claim upon the firm, or in other words, that they
will expect to have their salaries raised. Fifth. The wages,
which are low, are often reduced by excessive fines. Sixth.
We find the law requiring seats for saleswomen generally
ignored ; in a few places one seat is provided at a counter
where fifteen girls are emploj'-ed, and in one store seats
are provided and saleswomen are fined if found sitting.
In all our inquiries in regard to sanitary conditions and
long hours of standing, and the effect upon the health,
the invariable reply is that after two years the strongest
suffer injury."

It was the sentiment of those present at this mass
meeting that the working girls themselves would be un-
able to secure needed reforms, for if they made complaint,

THE CONSUMERS' LEAGUE

337

others would be found to take their places, and that they
were, as a class, too young and unskilled to make the
formation of trades-unions among them either practicable
or useful. The remedy could be foimd by the organization
of shoppers or consumers. The meeting therefore adopted
the following resolution :

"Resolved, That a committee be appointed to assist
the Working Women's Society in making a Ust which
shall keep shoppers informed of such shops as deal justly
with their employees, and so bring public opinion and pub-
lic action to bear in favor of just employers, and also in
favor of such employers as desire to be just, but are pre-
vented by the stress of competition from following their
own sense of duty."

Authority was also given to the chairman of the mass
meeting to appoint a committee to sit with a committee of
the Workmg Women's Society to consider and take action
upon the subject. The joint committee decided to form
an association to be called " The Consumers' League of the
aty of New York," and spent much time in the work of
organization and in the formulation of principles. These
were fully set forth in a pamphlet of some thirty-one
pages written by Mrs. Lowell, entitled "Consumers'
Leagues," and published by the Christian Social Union,
February 15, 1898, in which she explained the situation
of the working girls, and the objects of the League.

"Employers may be divided into two classes: those
who employ directly and those who employ indirectly.
The direct employers, those who pay the wages and who

338

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

THE CONSUMERS' LEAGUE

339

seem to fix the conditions under which their employees
work, are often as helpless as the employees themselves to
change those conditions, because of the demands of the
indirect employers. These last are the consumers, that
is, the whole purchasing pubhc, and, little as they think
it, they have the power to secure just and humane con-
ditions of labor if they would only use it. In order to
induce them to use this power, it is necessary to show
them how, and as a first step they must be made to feel
their responsibiUty, must be made to realize that it is
for the supply of their wants that all business of the world
is carried on, and that their demands, however uncon-
sciously to themselves, are actually the cause of the evils
from which working-men, women and children sufTer.
The rage of the purchasing public for cheap goods is
the awful power which crushes the life out of the working
people, and it is strange that men and women who would
shrink with horror from buying stolen goods will congratu-
late themselves on buying cheap goods, one necessary
element of whose cheapness is that part of the working
time of other men and women, and even of children,
has practically been stolen.

"The great difficulty which has presented itself to
conscientious individuals who desire not to take part in
the oppression of their fellow-men by buying goods made
and sold under inhuman conditions has always been that
of learning what those conditions were. It was easy
enough for the abolitionists to give up the use of sugar
and cotton, because these were known to be slave-made,
but the conditions of so called free labor are more com-
plicated, and in order to learn where and how the goods
they desire to purchase -are made, it is necessary to have
concerted action, and from this necessity was developed
the idea of the Consumers' League. "

•

In the practical work of forming the League, Mrs
Lowell was active, and was elected its first Pres.dent^
Cooperating with her on the committee were, among
others Dr Mary Putnam Jacobi, Mrs. Helen Campbell,
and Mr! Fredenck Nathan, now President of the Leagu.
In a letter dat.d March 7, 1898, Mrs. Ix^well said . I
wonder if I wrote you about the ' Consumers' League, our
lop ociety 7 I am President of that and I never mean
to be and I mean to be out of it next January without

^"^ Early in 1891 the League was ready to begin operations^
Before Its formation, the Working Women's Society had
drL up a "Standard of a Fair House," founded upon
business methods of some of the best firms in New
York This, with some modifications, was adopted by
the League as the standard of cxceUence by wh.h ^
would test all shops before placing them on a Wh te
List " which was to contain the names of such retail mer-
tltile houses only a. m the opinion of the Go--^
Board of the League should be patronized by its membe s
and wa. to be published at stated intervals m he da^Y
papers At the time of the adoption of the standard,
thL were only eight of the large department stores m
ire City of New York apparently entitled under its rules
to a place on the white list.

Printed notices had been sent to all the firms m he
business directory of dry goods ^^ores. fajicy notions e^^^^^^
asking if they would permit their conditions to be inves
lated IB order that they might be placed on a white hst
anfl'rtised a. houses which treated their employees

340

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

k ndly, and approached nearest to the League's standard

a fair house. As satisfactory raphes to the circular

were -t received in sufficient nun^bers, Mrs. Lowell and

Pla n the objects of the League more fully, and to invite

t ons which they had found m operation in eight of the
leading dry goods firms, which in the opinion of the League
were reasonable and fair, and took the position that it
was only just that all competing firms should adopt the
same fair conditions for their employees

mentl^'l 'T" '"' '''' ^"^''^^^^ ^ - advertise-
ment m a jeadmg newspaper, and copies sent broadcast
those interested in working girls, asking their help m the
ellort of the League to raise the standard of conditions
list D-t^'u- "^ patronising only those on the white
Tl ,.^'®'"'''^^ ^'^^« encountered however, and it was
sometimes reported that certain firms did not wish to be
put on the white list. When this occurred, Mrs
Lowell IS quoted as having said: "We can't help that,'
we are sorry they don't approve of the League. But w^

Tnd ffl! rT" '"" ''^ "°^^^'^» S'^1^ themselves,
and If the firms have good conditions and are just, they
must go on the white list."

Mrs^ Nathan recalls a conversation that occurred on a

VI it^of investigation she and Mrs. Lowell were making

or the League to a dry goods firm. They ascertained that

week /m T ^"' '"'^ ^"^ ^°"- -"d a half a

dTd nott-T;.^"'" "'^' °"^ «^ ^^^ P-*-- ^f he
did not think that was very httle. He said : "It is a

THE CONSUMERS' LEAGUE

341

■i

question of economics. If we can hire girls at one dollar
and a half, why should we pay any more ? Plenty are
willing to come for that price." Mrs. Lowell then asked :
"Do you think that is a fair wage to pay for a week's
work? One dollar and fifty cents a week will scarcely
pay for their shoe leather." He replied: "Well, I tell
you, if I see they are very ragged or poor looking, or
need shoes, I give them a pair of shoes." To which Mrs.
Lowell rejoined: "Would it not be better to pay them
a fair wage and let them buy their own shoes, better for
their self-respect?" "We never confuse our charity and
our business," he replied. Mrs. Lowell closed the con-
versation with the remark : "It seems to me that you are
confusing them in a very peculiar way. I think it would
be a great deal better for you to pay a fair wage."

The Consumers' League of the City of New York, whose
beginnings have been here outUned, has grown in useful-
ness, and now receives a large measure of public support.
International recognition was accorded it by the award
of a Gold Medal at the Paris Exposition of 1900. To the
pioneer work of this little group of humane women must
be credited the formation of some sixty-four consumers'
leagues in other states and cities of the Union, and also
of the National Consumers' League, whose chief object
is the abolition of the sweat-shop with all its attendant
evils, such as child-labor, long hours of work, starvation
wages, unhygienic environment, and the menace to the
consumer of purchasing germ-infested garments.

The National Consumers' League gives the use of its
label to those manufacturers who agree in writing to have

-m

342

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

all their goods made on their premises, to employ no chil-
dren under sixteen, and to exact no night work. This
label is the best guarantee that the goods in question have
been made under clean and wholesome conditions.

The first consumers' league in England was organized
in 1890, coincidently with the similar movement in New
York in which Mrs. Lowell was a leader. France, Holland,
and Switzerland now have such leagues, and efforts are
being made to organize one in Germany. Mrs. Lowell
expressed her satisfaction with the work of the League
when in February, 1894, she wrote and published the
following paragraphs in her report as President of the
Governing Board :

"The part of the community which the Consumers'
League is intended to serve is a very important part.
Almost all people who take an interest in helping their
fellow-men have to deal with people who have failed in
life, with people who are sick or weak or wicked, people
who have not been equal to the struggle, but have fallen
by the way for one reason or another. But these work-
ing women have not failed ; they are bravely working and
bravely striving. They belong to the class, who by head
work and hand work, by intelligence or strength or skill,
are keeping the world alive, clothing, feeding, housing
themselves and everybody else. Of course we must not
fall into the error of thinking that the handworkers pro-
duce all the wealth of the world, but it is simply a truism
to say that the workers produce all the wealth, since those
who do not work produce nothing, and the working women
do at least their share in the work of the world.

THE CONSUMERS' LEAGUE

343

"Besides our gratitude, however, tor the services they
rende , they deserve our pity, because of the,r helpkss-
:l a^d thlpecuhar hardships to which they are e.posed^
They are helpless because they are women, and they are
S^ess also because they are young, and they are rnor.
over exposed to peculiar temptafons from the fact that,
when wages fall below the living point, the wages of s,n
are always ready for them. .

'There are said to be two hundred thousand workmg-
women in New York City, and if the Consumers League
can help to raise the standard of the cond.t.ons among
which those who work in retail shops are reqmred to labor^
it will have done something towards raismg the standard
for all."

The report of the Governing Board for 1895 also pre-
sumably written by Mrs. Lowell, presents clearly the
"Ins for the existence of the League, shows the progress
ofTwork, and contains a discussion of the relations of
IpWe. and employees too valuable to be omitted
here :

..It may be s.ked why, it the Consumers' League
believes in the organisation of wage-earners for sel.

of r tail clerks to do for themselves exactly what he
consumers- Ua^e undertakes to do for *;- *ou^* *
Consumers' League continue m existence? The answer
I to be found in the peculiar circumstances and condi-
tions of large numbers of the wagc^amers m this par
ttalr kind of employment, and aUo in the direct contact

344

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

sible. ^ ^""^^ necessary and pos-

exfate are three. ' Consumers' League

U3u2r:-ij:r,::i:i'j--^ -« eo„3e,ue„t,y

"Second Th '™'""° '^"■'■ited action.

^SesTllZl ^r '"'"'^' '"'""' '^™e between the

wSo:;r;rorehre:i or '''''"" ^"''"^ *^

».h,e the„ t! act rn" t^SrorhlT™' *"'' ™"^<'

de„»;r"'7^'"'' '"^''' "'"""'S'' " >"« highly skilled
depart ts. ,3 mostly unskilled, and therefore ther is
an ahnost unl.nuted supply of applicants for thei si
IT '^ ""^^ "^ ""' '-•" *^ -*«or. oCd

Co'IT,;.t:gu? "' '^°" '"' «■= -^'»- °' *e

£f:^:::i;:::t:r— -
:"rr^^'"^-°-'-»-ir;os:r

tionl'ut'ntZr- 'r ''^° "'^'' ■" " "°°'-^ *-

the StZ I uf "^ "■""''""S *e protection of

the State, which ha. been extended over women and girl

THE CONSUMERS' LEAGUE

345

working in factories. Because they were constantly in
the pubUc gaze, the conditions of their work could not
become so very bad as those possible in factories ; there-
fore the attention of philanthropists and labor leaders
was not attracted to them until the standard in regard
to factory workers had been so far improved by factory
laws and factory inspection that the long hours and fa-
tiguing work of saleswomen seemed bad by contrast,
and then attempts to improve their conditions were under-
taken and the struggle to give them the benefit of State
inspection and State protection has now been going on
in New York for four years. . . .

"The Governing Board has made special efforts to
increase the number of names on its White List during
the past year. It has appealed to firms which almost
reached the necessary standard, hoping that they might
be persuaded to do the few things which are absolutely
required in order to be placed on the List, and it has also
been more active in inspecting shops. One of the members
caused to be prepared a list of ' Retail Stores in New York
City where are employed twenty-five saleswomen or
over,' which shows that there are 73 houses in this class ;
of these, 56 have been inspected by Committees of the
Consumers' League, and there are only 19 of these larger
shops on the White List. To facilitate the work of the
Committee, a printed form has been drawn up, and it
is now required that reports be made on these forms.
In this way there is uniformity of information gathered
about each establishment, and general statements are
not accepted by the Board. The large establishments

346

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

of dressmakers and milliners have not as yet been visited
at all by the Committees of the Board.

"Special efforts have also been made to advertise the
"White List. Besides being advertised in the daily papers,
it was printed on postal cards, and 4000 were sent to
selected names taken from the Social Register in June.
In December it was printed, with the 'Standard of a
Fair House,' and the names of the Governing Board,
and 7000 copies were distributed in the daily newspapers
by dealers. At the same time it was placed, by permis-
sion of the managers of twenty of the largest hotels,
in the ladies' parlors, in a neat cover, marked with the
name of the League.

"The Board has again devoted special attention to the
question of overtime, and has made repeated efforts to
persuade all the largest houses to pay for all work required
of their female employees after 6 p.m., whether on Satur-
days throughout the year or at the holiday season.

"An interesting computation of the number of hours
of unpaid work given by the employees to their employers,
in the case of sixteen of the largest dry goods houses
in the city, has been made by a member of the Board.
She has multiplied the number of employees of each firm
by the number of days at the holiday season, diu-ing
which, according to their advertisements, their respective
shops would be open in the evening, and this again by
four (the number of hours from 6 to 10 p.m.), and the result
is very astonishing. It shows that in the aggregate these
sbcteen firms demanded and received at the holiday
season of 1S95 at least 600,200 hours of free labor — or

THE CONSUMERS' LEAGUE

347

60 020 working days of 10 hours each, which is 191 years
and some months. This is the Christma^s present made
by the employees to their employers. . . • Besides this,
many shops received also from each of their employees
a gift of four hours every Saturday evening throughout

the year.

"The large employers will say it is untrue to call this
work at the holiday season a gift to them, contending,
as they do, that the extra hours' work on Saturdays
throughout the year and for one or two weeks at the holi-
day time are 'nominated in the bond,' or are, at least,
considered in the wages paid ; but as many of these yomig
girls receive fifty cents a day or less for an ordinary day s
work from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. (with half an hour for lunch),
it seems but reasonable to contend in their name that the
wages could scarcely be lower, even were there no over-
work. If bricklayers, whose wages are fifty cents an
hour, call all work after 5 p.m. overtime, for which they
receive double pay, it is not inadmissible to call the hours
demanded of cash girls and saleswomen after 6 p.m. on
Saturdays and at the holiday season overtime, and ask
that they shall have for those hours at least the same pay
they receive for four hours of work by daylight, and enough
besides to pay for the extra supper they must buy when
kept after 6 p.m., since they cannot go home to eat it. . . .
"The Board would suggest to all owners of bmldmgs,
in which business is carried on, that they are morally
responsible for the manner in which it is conducted and
for the welfare of the men and women employed m them,
at least while they are not able to protect themselves.

348

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

THE CONSUMERS' LEAGUE

349

It is especially necessary that the interests of the employ-
ees of shops should be considered by private individuals,
because from the peculiar relation of the large shopkeepers
to the newspapers and the dependence of the latter upon
the former it is impossible to secure any public statement
of their case, the editors being unable to publish facts
that would injure the interests of their advertisers.

"The purchasing public is undoubtedly responsible
for the long hours of labor demanded of thousands of
women and girls in this city, and the Governing Board
appeals to shoppers in the closing words of an address
read by one of its members to a church society of ladies,
as follows :

" To sum up, what we ask you to do is this : Shop during
reasonable hours — when possible, early in the morning,
when saleswomen are fresh and not tired out and nervous.
Avoid making purchases of a Saturday afternoon, so that
eventually the shops may all give a half hohday. Make
your hohday purchases early in the season if possible.
Make constant inquiries as to proper provision of seats,
and request floor walkers to encourage saleswomen to
sit down when not waiting on customers. Report to
the League any information gleaned outside the shops
from working girls, whether favorable or unfavorable
to employers. Become members of the League and per-
suade your friends to join also. If at any time you may
feel irritated or annoyed by the apparent indifference or
carelessness of saleswomen, stop and consider what it
means to be on one's feet from ten to fourteen hours a
day, in a crowded space, shoved and pushed about, lift-

■^8

ing heavy boxes at times, waiting on impatient customers
and cusTomers who wish to be helped to know the. o.^
minds, keeping accounts of sales and stock, takmg ad^
dresses often given hurriedly and carelessly, and fined
in many instances if they are written down mcorrectly,
and all this for salaries ranging from $3 to $8 a week
and obliged to dress neatly and fairly well, and to pay out
of it for one's meals, lodging, washing, clothmg, and car-

^''' ' But while we make this appeal to the women who shop
to consider the feelings and comfort of those who sdl,
we must also appeal to saleswomen themselves to do
their duty to the public and to their emp oyers. Our
Efforts to secure for all the women and g.rls who work
In retail shops in this city the same conditions which exi
in the shops on the White List of the Consumers' Leagu
are hampered by the fact t^at the ser-ce is often beU^
in the shops which are not on the White List. The sales
women in the shop which of all others in New York gives
its employees the greatest number of pri^dleges have been
o notoriously rude in their treatment of the pubhcthat
ladies have given that reason for not patromzmg it, and
tt a very strong moral as well a. business argument
can be made in favor of fines and severity of d.ciphne^
If punctuality, fidelity, and conscientious ^-charg of
thel duties can be secured only by punishment, then
punishment should be resorted to until the -r^l dev^loP;
raent of the saleswomen is so improved that they will
respond to kindness. ,

-The Governing Board desires to call the attention of

350

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

members of the League to the paper by Dr. Mary Putnam
Jacob, read at the la«t annual meetmg of the Leagu^
wh.h was sent to all members m November. Its sub:
ect IS The Property Rights of Employees/ and it con-
tarns a statement of the relation of employees to employers,

which cannot be too often repeated, since it is the true
The Bo. 7\: 'T '"" '^'"^ " ''' ^''^'y --Snized.

ii^th'r^rptr "^^ - --- ^- --- -

tini t '^'Zr ^''"^'' ^"^"^'""^ "P<^^^*^«^« f«^ the crea-
tion of weal h and the production of exchangeable values
were originally carried on by slaves. What a man needed
or his own use he first contrived to make. Then, when
the chances of war threw prisoners into his hands, especiaUy
women, whose time and strength ceased to be ;hdr own
these could be utilized by the man who owned themani

UnderTh . f '' ^"^" ^^^^^^ ^^^ *^- labor.

Under this system there were but two factors in industry
the owners and the owned. Gradually this one pair of

teZ^rTT"""'''^ "'° '"° ^'^^^ P^'^' -hich are
a. essentia ly distinct from each other as both are from

«.e o„g,„al couple, the owner and the slave. These two

TntTr' r T *'' °"' '^"'' ^^^ --*- -d t^e ser-
vant , on the other hand, the employer and the employed.

These two couples are radically distinct from each other

thouirr '' "'''"" ^'' ^" ^^« ^--g« «™t

thel . "^r "°' ^'^^-q^^^^y confounded. Thus,
theother day Iheard aladyremark, aproposof themotor:
«ien engaged m the Brooklyn strike: 'It would be

THE CONSUMERS' LEAGUE

351

as absurd to allow the men to dictate what the manage-
ment shall do as for me to allow my servants to tell me
how to run my house.'

" This remark embodies the stubborn conviction still
naively entertained by thousands of people that the workers
in any industrial enterprise are and must always be the
servants of those who conduct this enterprise. This as-
sumption is naive and unhistorical ; ^but in it is contained
the gist of much that is fallacious in theory and singularly
harsh and unjust in practice. The fallacy is in placing a
household in the same category as an industrial enterprise.
The function of the industrial business is the creation of
wealth; the function of the household is the fulfilment
of personal satisfactions, the creation, if possible, of happi-
ness. The business makes money ; the household spends
it. Labor in a household is personal service ; work in a
business is industrial investment. Recompense for the
first is a fixed stipend calculated upon the income of the
person benefited and served ; recompense for the second
consists in a share in the profits which the work secures,
and is therefore not fixed, and should not be, but varies
with the success of the business. . . .

" It is not a sentimental, but an economic classification,
it is that of the census, which ranks in one class the pro-
fessions and the domestic servants ; physicians, lawyers,
clergymen, architects, soldiers, teachers, with manicures,
nurses, coachmen, gardeners, cooks. The common bond
of union between the different members of this class which
seems so heterogeneous is the fact that the work in each
case is directed toward the personal welfare of some in-

• ^■^

352

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

dividual who is relatively helpless and often unable to
test or estimate the intrinsic value of the service ; that is
to know whether it is well done or not, or, at all events'
how it should be done; and, further, that the pecuniary
reward of such work can rarely be much more than the
hving expenses of the workers, and cannot, unless invested
m strictly industrial enterprises, procure wealth. Hence,
as a substitute for wealth, the special rewards of personal
service are personal affection, appreciation of fidelity,
trust, social honor. ...

"Every detail of this situation is in contrast with
that of the industrial enterprise, .^most at the outset
of the growth of this, the element of personal contact dis-
appears, and at the maximum of expansion, in huge con-
glomerations of factory labor, personahties themselves
are swamped. The servant, whether domestic or pro-
fessional, contributes nothing to the income of the person
he serves and out of which he is paid. The employee is
constantly helping to create the fund which is partly re-
turned to him in wages. On this account he cannot prop-
erly be said to be employed by a master. He follows
a leader in carrying on an enterprise for their common,
definite, pecuniary benefit.

"The wage fund doctrine is, I need hardly say, a very
famous theory which has had and has extremely practical
and far-reaching consequences. In this theory, which is
now rapidly beginning to be discredited, industrial wages
are paid out of capital, just as domestic wages are paid
out of income. The capitalist does not purchase a labor
product, but the time of a laborer, which has often been
equivalent to the purchase of the laborer.

THE CONSUMERS' LEAGUE

353

" But there is another theory, and this seems to me the
true one, namely, that industrial wages are not paid from
the capital invested in the work, but from the product or
profits of the work. The payment of wages is only a form
more or less convenient for distributing a share of the
product to those who have helped in the production. On
the theory that the capitahst personally pays the wages
out of his own property, it is conceivable that he should
try to keep these wages as near the Umit of subsistence
as possible, and try to regulate them exclusively by the
faciUty of procuring laborers ; in common parlance, by the
demand of the labor market. The laborer's subsistence
is then, reckoned in the cost of production, and should be
regulated on the same principle as other items of cost;
that is to say, kept down as much as possible in the in-
terest of thrift and economy, and so as to leave the profits
as large as possible for the single owner or group of owners
of the concern. On the other theory, that all the workers
in a business are creating the wealth out of which their
subsistence is to be drawn, the whole principle of owner-
ship is shifted. While the possession of the inherited or
acquired capital and of the brain power which initiated
the business confers a primary ownership, a first hen on
the product, it does not justify the permanence of absolute
control, because it does not exclusively sufiice for the
maintenance of the business. This necessitates the co-
operation of many other people, often hundreds or even
thousands, each of whom, with his own hands and brains
and vital forces, has created a certain share of the product,
and is therefore to that extent its owner. The right of

2 a

354

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

private property means nothing else than the right to own
the product of one's own labor. Yet the right of private
property was once invoked as a justification for ownership
in the slave; and only within this generation has this
monstrous right been finally and forever banished from
recognition among civihzed nations. Today we may go
a step beyond the mental conquest of thirty years ago and
paraphrase the pungent words of Emerson :

'Pay the profits to the owner,

And fill up the bag to the brim.
Who is the owner ? Who works is the owner,
And always was. Pay him! '

'A man may be said to own a diamond absolutely. It is
a material entity, whose properties are fixed and depend
upon nothing external, not even on the activities, physical
or mental, of its o^mer. An industrial enterprise is quite
other than this. It is a complex spiritual organism, whose
constituent parts are the vital actions of human beings.
The relations to consider are primarily those of these
human beings to the business or to the product which is
the tangible proof of their different activities. The re-
lations of the larger group which obeys to the smaller
group, or individual, who directs, are of secondary im-
pori;ance. Yet these relations, or, as they are commonly
called, the relations of the employer to the employed, or
of the master to the hands, are usually put forward as not
only of prime, but even of exclusive importance.

" It is not necessary for our present purpose to do any-
thing further than enunciate this principle of partial
ownership in the product as the real recompense for all in-
dustrial labor. . . .

THE CONSUMERS' LEAGUE

355

" How the ownership may be recognized and expressed
is a second question. The first question to be settled
is the fact of the ownership, and at this moment I can
hardly do more than suggest this fact.

"It is possible that at a given moment the adoption of
the principle of diffused ownership among the employees
of an establishment might not increase the amount of
money they were ah-eady receiving. Nevertheless, it
would radically change their position. It would be im-
possible to stigmatize any claims of workers as impertinent.
They might be unreasonable; it might be necessary to
resist them for the sake of the coromon welfare. But with
the disappearance of the notion that the business was
absolutely owned by one man, and that every one else
was simply employed by him at his good will, would dis-
appear the other notion that every arrangement involving
the rights, the comforts, or even the pleasure of the
workers must be left absolutely to the control of a master.
We should hear no more of such phrases : 'I must manage
my own business m my own way.' 'I will not be dic-
tated to by my employees,' etc. The transformation I
have supposed apphed to business organizations is pre-
cisely what has already been effected on a large scale in
the political organization. Little more than two centuries
have elapsed since a king could declare and be believed,
'L'6tat, c'est moi.' No one questions today that the
state consists not of the king, but of the people. We
should try as fast as possible to bring about the regime
where every business and industrial organism will also be
seen to consist not of a single man, but of all the people,

356

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

men and women, in it, each of whom has the right to speak
the rmnimum right of a single vote, upon such topics as
tney have demonstrated a capacity to discuss "

During her presidency of the Consumers' League,
which, notwithstanding her intended early retirement,
contmued m.til 1896, the meetings of its Governing Board
were held at Mrs. Lowell's residence in New York, and
at the time of her death she was one of the Honorary Vice-
Presidents.

CHAPTER XVII

Work for the Emancipation of Labor

Mrs. Lowell left the State Board of Charities, not-
withstanding the earnest wishes of the members of the
Board and of her family and friends that she should re-
main a member, for reasons best told in two of her letters,
of which one was addressed to Mrs. Henry S. Russell,
daughter of John M. Forbes of Boston, a lifelong friend,
and the other to her sister-in-law, Mrs. Robert Gould
Shaw.

120 East 30th Street, April 7, 1889.
Dearest Mollie :

Of course your remarks about my plans for future work
interested me, and I was much pleased that you should
care.

But, to begin with, I never meant to have the matter
talked about. I have not resigned from the State Board
yet, and shall not, until the end of my term, a couple of
months hence, I believe. Then what I want to do is,
with others, to try to prevent strikes, by various means
already successfully tried elsewhere, and here ignored
by both employers and unions. I don't think that the
strong inteUigence of business men has made such a success
of their relations with their work people (either for them-

357

358

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

believe a;t sotS,f Z SoT" T""''*^^' ^-"^ '
cha„ge eha. feeU.,, ^T^. Ma"^:",?, ^1^-' ■, '»
and M. Hughe. d.d 30 ™oh i„ E^ Ja'd'^for^-.^L"

try to Lip them ?T"""'Vr'"^ '° «^« ^^^ I mus^

paupers t!foS. Read whTt m" P ''^ '^^'^° ^°-
our relations toward Vh ? ^"^"''^^ '^>^« ^bout

Reformer" '^' ^°'^"^S people in "Man the

Dearest Aknie : ^^^ ^^'^ ^^™ ^^-^ ^ay 19, '89.

but f SThT.V'"^ 'r'""' '° ^°"*i-« - the Boaxd
dot ffr torktVp:!^^^ '^rT ^"^^^*^^* --k to b
earne. m th^'e ty' 2^^^^^^^ thousand wage

of those working under dLadfulet^-r""'" 7^ ^''^^^
tion waees Thnf °^^^^"' conditions or for starva-

all they ought to hivi w!' J ,. """'^^^ P^«P^« ^^^d
y ougnt to have, we should not have the paupers

WORK FOR THE EMANCIPATION OF LABOR 359

and criminals. It is better to save them before they go
under, than to spend your Ufe fishing them out when
they're half drowned and taking care of them afterwards !
Exactly what I can do, I do not know, but I want the
time to try, and as my term is up now, I had to seize the
opportunity to leave the Board. There ! . . .

While still a member of the State Board, Mrs. Lowell
began to study questions commonly called those of labor
and capital, and letters addressed to her, which she pre-
served, showed that she obtained information at first
hand by active correspondence, in this country and abroad,
with writers on economic subjects, with master builders
and other large employers of labor, and with leaders of
organized labor. Hon. Abram S. Hewitt and Colonel
George E. Waring ' wrote freely to her, and evidently-
relied upon her judgment. Dr. Jane E. Robbins has
said that some of Mrs. Lowell's papers on industrial
conciliation which she sent to Colonel Waring during
a labor crisis at the beginning of his services as Com-
roissioner of Street Cleaning led him to form a permanent
Board of Conciliation which helped him to work out suc-
cessfully many of the problems of his department. Some
exceedingly interesting letters from Colonel Waring,
endorsed in Mrs. Lowell's own handwriting "Not for pub-
lication," were laid aside with regret.

The following strong and helpful letter of Mr. Hewitt's

' George E. Waring, Jr., 1833-1898. Colonel in Civil War. Sani-
tary Engineer. Commissioner of Street Cleaning, New York City,
1894-1896.

360

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

is not only interesting reading, but has supplied the title
for this chapter :

New York, June 5, 1885.
Dear Mrs. Lowell:

I am much obliged to you for your pleasant note of the
4th instant . The speech on the ' ' Emancipation of Labor ' '
has already had a wide circulation among the trades union
people. I do not know that any copy of it ever reached
Mr. Phillips, but if I have fifty copies to spare I will send
them to him in the course of a day or two. I have great
pleasure in sending to you two copies. of the "Century of
Mining" and a dozen copies of the "Emancipation of
Labor."

I do not think that this kind of work ever receives from
the parties most interested the recognition which it ought
to have ; certainly it ought never to be done in the hope
of receiving any such recognition. My experience is
that the demagogue who deliberately deceives the working-
men gets their support, while those who tell them the truth
and labor assiduously to discover it, are usually regarded as
enemies. In my own case the only candidate who has of
late years been run against me for Congress has been a
nominee of the labor organizations. Of course he never
got many votes, but it was evidence of the total ignorance
of these organizations on the subject which most concerned
them, and to which I had given the labor of my life.
Nevertheless the work must be patiently and conscien-
tiously done, and I see very clearly in the changes which
are going on throughout the world steady progress toward
the knowledge of sound principles and their appUcation
to the great business of life. Mankind is better than it
ever has been, and the fruits of industry are more justly
distributed than in any previous period of the world.

WORK FOR THE EMANCIPATION OF LABOR 361

This ought to encourage us to continue our work, for "it

is not in vain."

Yours smcereiy,

Abram S. Hewitt.

The New York Times of December 2, 1892, published
the following letter from Mrs. Lowell, and the extracts
to which it referred, and in an editorial observed, that
she was correct in thinking that they have a particular
interest at the present time :
To THE Editor of the New York Times:

I am very glad that you have called the attention of the
directors of the railroads to their responsibility for the
prevention of strikes among raikoad employees next year.
I desire to refer you and your readers to an article
published in Scrihrm's Ma^o.ine in 1889 by Charles
Franci-s Adams, then President of the Umon Pacific Rai -
way Company, under the title, "The Prevention of Rail-
road Strikes," and to ask you to pubhsh the inclosed
extracts from that article.

The only solution of the labor question for railroads
as well as for all other branches of industry, hes m the
recognition that there are two parties interested, and that
each party has aright to be heard on all questions which

concern both. . ,

The fact that it is an Adams who again speaks for
justice and the representative system cannot fai to be ot
interest to those who care to see the great qualities of a
great family transmitted from generation to generation.

Josephine Shaw Lowell.

The winter of 1893-1894 was one of extraordinary
severity in the City of New York. Industrial conditions

362

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

were then depressed and the unfortunate combination
caused much suffering and distress among working people.
Organized efforts for their reUef were promptly begun,
Mrs. Lowell, as usual, being one of the leaders. Several
papers from her pen, on the methods and satisfactory
results of this emergency relief work, were published at
the time and are noted in the index ; limitation of space
permits the admission of only one of them, "Poverty and
its ReUef, the Methods Possible in the City of New York,"
which is included in the chapter on the Charity Organiza-
tion Society.

Among Mrs. Lowell's associates in this work was Miss
Lillian D. Wald, who, in a memorial address, made the
following mention of her manner and methods in the
emergency :

"In the early summer of 1893 the lower East Side gave
evidence of the terrible winter which was to follow.
It was not easy to pass the summer and see actual want of
food among people, who in almost every instance appeared
to be wholly respectable ; to see the unemployed organize
almost spontaneously and storm an empty hall in their
desire to get in for the purpose of conferring about their
need, because they had no money to pay for a meeting
place ; to see the battle between the people who wished
to talk over their matters which they were not allowed
to do on the street, and the police who naturally wished
to guard property. AU New York seemed to be away
durmg the summer, and the little group at the College
Settlement, where I was then in residence, was anxious
and bewildered, as were the other people of the neigh-
borhood. With the autumn came public recognition of

WORK FOR THE EMANCIPATION OF LABOR 363

the hardships upon the working people, and the desire and
ability to help them personified in Mrs. Lowell.

"I must be pardoned for injecting a memory of my first
acquaintance and personal experience with her at that time.
She seemed to reaUze the condition of mind of young and
untried people in an experience so bitter as the season of
1893 to 1894 was to them. Inexperienced as I was, and un-
accustomed to thinking of troubles so grave and great, she
treated me like a comrade, and in the midst of the gigantic
work entailed upon her as administratrix of much of the
reUef for the unemployed, she found time to write many
notes asking my counsel, climbing the five flights of stau-s
to the tenement where I was at that time Uving, inviting
me to publish letters with her concerning the situation,
treating me as a comrade in the responsibility and the ser-
vice of the winter. I think because she was so simple about
it, one took it in the same way and talked freely without
self-consciousness, or perhaps it was her deeply thought-
out plan to encourage the beginner by dignifying her.

"The special work for the unemployed, called the East
Side Relief Work, was organized by Mrs. Lowell, and
was composed of representatives from churches, settle-
ments, philanthropic societies and individuals. Con-
sideration of the work to be done was started the latter
part of October, 1893. ... Of course there were able
and devoted men and women working with Mrs. Lowell,
but she was the animating spirit and all of those associated
with her at the time did, I am sure, carry a life-long mem-
ory of her patience, intelligence and ability. She modestly
said: 'I beUeve that through this relief as little moral
harm as was possible has come to those whose physical
needs have been supplied.' The payment for all of the
work was in money, Mrs. Lowell believing that it would
go back into the natural channels of trade in the poor

364

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

neighborhoods in which the people Uved, thus doing
double good. . . . Perhaps Mrs. Lowell's lasting in-
fluence over those fortunate enough to be with her was
due to the conviction that all of her social help was con-
sidered by her head as well as by her sympathy — both
equally alert to respond to every human call. ..."

Some of airs. Lowell's letters written to her sister-m-
law at this time of industrial distress refer to this emer-
gency, and show the sympathetic and humorous touch
which illumined even her most trying work.

120 East 30th Street, Nov. 26, 1893.
Dearest Annie :

You wUl be interested in the enclosed. It has absorbed
most of my time for the past two weeks. We have had
Committee meetings at the College Settlement about four
times a week, to make our plans, and now they are just
about being consummated and we hope to have both kinds
of work going by Wednesday. We shall hire an idle shop,
163 Attorney Street, up five flights in a rear building, and
the idle owner to act as foreman, and we shall put our poor
"Hebrew Jews" at work to clothe the poor Negroes of the
Sea Islands. We have engaged a good woman to be our
Supenntendent and look after the women and also the
peace and comfort of the men. Besides this, we have a
street sweeping Superintendent who has been for years
with the best private cleaner in this City and we expect
to make the streets "as clean as von pin." It is interest-
ing meeting the Committee people, for they are all good
workers, and give their lives to trying to help, so that they
know a good deal more than the usual well-to-do folks who
serve on Committees. Mr. Elsing and Mr. Devins have
the churches right down among the tenement houses, and

WORK FOR THE EMANCIPATION OF LABOR 365

the latter told me the other day that he was a poor boy in
this city, so he knows how to feel for them. Dr. Jane Rob-
bins has lived two years in a tenement house among the
Italians in Mulberry Street, and she says she loves them.
What we ought to have are settlements in every
street, to help civilize and lift the people. There is one
interesting man living down in Forsyth Street, Charles B.
Stover ^ — educated for a Lutheran minister, but deciding
not to take orders, he devotes himself to pubhc work.
He is a school trustee and gives lots of time to that, and,
besides, he keeps himself so busy that he does not go to bed
but two or three times a week I He sleeps in a chair the
other nights.

Dec. 17, 1893.
Dearest Annie :

My excuse for my silence is to be found in the enclosed
papers, for I have been spending the last three weeks in
trjring to get this plan into working order. It has been
a very interesting experience and I have learned a great
deal. We have had meetings of the Committees to get
the thing started, and now I am Chairman of the Com-
mittee that nms the shop and also a member of the Ex-
ecutive Committee that runs the whole thing, so I have
still to be down town three times a week nearly all day.
We have a shop meeting at 12, and then I go to a Charity
Eating House to take lunch, and to the Executive Com-
mittee at 2 : 30. Our shop is full of poor, thin Jews, who
have been months without work and many of whom can-
not speak English, and our street sweeping company is
composed of all nationalities. We had ninety men on
last week and we expect to have hundreds before the end.

1 Commissioner of Public Parks, in Mayor Gaynor's Administration
1910.

366

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

Dearest Annie : ^^^ ^^ ^^ ^''■' ^^^'''^' ^894.

whLT/''""^,^"^*' ''^''^' ^^'^S finished compmx).

Sfs "nd ti'.U '"" ""T- '^"^''' ^^''^^^ -d Boston
of Mfwet 'S^^^ ^"^'"^-^- — t of son.e
vpr,.. '*^^"^^^ P'ans. It IS very interesting to me and
very encouraging, as it is a record of real justice^ndt
telJigence tnumphing over selfish brutal pis on 1 1":
to see It published, as few people know anything of tS

e"x:ra:^j::s^ ^^ ^- - - --^"^^

Mr. Charles S. Fairchild has supplied the following in-
^atation from Mrs. Lowell to attend a meeting with the
object of arranging a settlement of the tailors' strike.

120 East 30th Street, New York, Sept. 3, 1894.
My DEAR Mr. Fairchild :

It may have escaped your notice that the garment
makers of New York qnrt -r^-,^! i . . sarment-

wa,r«e ^ 1 . Brooklyn are asking for higher

tTefarrrtftr '^""' '^' '^'^ ^^*^"^-^ ^ ^

That they should be forced to strike would be a great

misfortune, but a still greater misfortune to the city woufd

WORK FOR THE EMANCIPATION OF LABOR 367

be to have them continue to work at the present rates.
Good workmen have been earning six dollars a week
by fifteen hours work a day, which means that they are
overworked and that they and their families are underfed
and their health being undermined.

The situation is one which no power except the workers
themselves can improve; if three-fourths of the con-
tractors desired to advance wages they could not do it
so long as the workers accept the low wages, and charity
would only make matters worse by encouraging the people
to think that they could continue to work for wages in-
sufficient to sustain life decently. The outlook has been
very dark, because there seemed no remedy, as one could
not hope that the workers, after all the sufferings and
privations of the past year, would dare to take any risk.
They have, however, had the courage to do so, and now
the duty of all public spirited men and women is to
support them in their demands and to render a strike
unnecessary, or, at least, make it as short as possible.

It is stated in the Times of Sunday that in Brooklyn
the contractors have asked for a conference with the
workmen, while in New York, the Contractors' Protec-
tive Union is to hold a meeting on Tuesday evening,
at 200 East Broadway, to arrange plans to protect their
interests.

The gentlemen and ladies named in the enclosed list
are invited by Dr. Jane E. Robbins, Head-worker of the
College Settlement, and me to meet us at 95 Rivington
Street, at 6 p.m., on Tuesday, the 4th inst., where we can
talk over the situation and, afterwards, if so decided,
attend the meeting of the Contractors' Protective Union,
for the purpose of requesting them to confer with their
workmen and make a settlement without forcing a strike.

I hope very earnestly that you will be able to be present.

368

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

Deaeest Annie: Sept. 9, '94.

I don't seem to have much to tell that will be interesting,

though I have had a very interesting week. The poor

sweated tailors struck last Monday, aslcing for ten hours'

work a day and weekly pay, instead of fifteen hours'

and piece work, and everything went beautifully for the

sweaters and the wholesale manufacturers and the

newspapers were all agreed that the men were quite right

and that the change must be made. Now, holever, Se

men seem to have got puffed up by too much success, and

they are askmg unreasonable things and there is to be

of^Ihl!? '" '^r^^^'^'^ that it wa. the righteousness
of then- cause and not then- strength that won approval

n. ; r'.u'!? """""'"^ '°^^^' '^^^^ ^^"0"« people con-
nected with the trade and having a very good time but
now. there wiU be harder work. I wasl^^'t, becTu^e o
my mteres m the tailors, and because we had a meeting
at the College Settlement to help them and the papeJ
took It up and we thought it was all lovely, when behold '
the poor things do this !

Speaking after Mrs. Lowell's death of this strike, one of
her associates in this work. Dr. Jane E. Bobbins, said :

"I have known Mrs. LoweU since the winter of the un-
employed 1893-1894. Living through that winter ^s
know W "' f^'^'f''' «° that I had special chance to
know her great mind and her splendid heart. It was a
wonderful revelation of the possibihties of womanhood
^-.iTaT^'^t^ *^'^°'''' '*"^^ ^° the fall of 1894, I went

rTnt^r 'T'l '' T^" ^*^ ^° --"*-« ---t -
representing the l^ge clothing houses on lower Broadway.

The presidmg officer was markedly discourteous, but

WORK FOR TEE EMANCIPATION OF LABOR 369

Mrs. Lowell entirely ignored his rudeness and quietly pre-
sented the cause of the poor tailor. She never seemed
to have any time to think about herself. What she said
was so convincing that before we left the meeting the
executive committee had given us a message to take back
to the strikers. We were to tell them to stand together
firmly for a shorter work-day and for a living wage. I
learned to depend upon Mrs. Lowell's judgment in all
labor questions. In this particular strike I held back at
first, because I knew so little of the pros and cons of the
struggle; but she said wisely that all we really needed
to know was that the poor tailors were making a brave
fight, and that we must help them. She saw the reporters
of all the influential papers, and she inspired several fine
editorials. The tailors won their poor Uttle struggle for
better conditions."

Mrs. Lowell was always glad of an opportunity to
bring more comfort and pleasure into the lives of working
people. Not long before her death she addressed a letter
to the president of an important raining corporation, with
whom she was not acquainted, in which she said that in
passing through the miners' village she had noticed with
satisfaction the admirable homes erected by the company
for the miners' families, but was sorry to observe that so
few shade trees had been planted ; and suggested that not
only the greater comfort of the residents would be secured,
but also the general appearance of the village improved
by more liberal plantations, which have since been made.

An instance of Mrs. Lowell's championship of labor, and
of her readiness in debate, occurred at a session of the
Twenty-fifth National Conference of Charities and Correc-

370

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

tion, which convened in the City of New York under my
chairmanship in May, 1898, and was noticed in the New
York Sun of May 21, under the caption "SpMt on Prison
Labor." Hon. Carl Schurz had presented a paper on the
Spoils System, which, with the subject of which it treated,
was open to discussion in the Conference. Mr. Charlton
T. Lewis, President of the Prison Association, then called
the attention of the Conference to the evil effect of politics
in prisons, and emphasized the necessity of keeping pris-
oners, the wards of the State, at labor, and of wisely direct-
ing their work to make it both productive and educational.
He complained that the amendment to the constitution
of New York State relating to prison labor made it nec-
essary that these considerations should be disregarded and
left the laborers free only to make something to be used
in other charitable, reformatory, or penal institutions of
the State. And he continued :

"Why? Because there are half a dozen men who call
themselves par excellence labor men, the representatives
of labor in this State, and who prove it by doing no
work, but hve by hanging around legislatvu-es in order to
lobby measures through which shall enable them to report
something like success to the workingmen who have paid
them for this legislative service. These men went to the
party leaders, and said, 'Unless you accept this amend-
ment and put it into the constitution, your party will get
no votes from the labor unions in this State at the next
election.' Under that pressure, this provision was put
into the fundamental law of the State. Do I complain of
the knot of those who regard themselves as entitled to
speak for the laboring interest ? "

WORK FOR THE EMANCIPATION OP LABOR 371

The report of the meetings says : "Before Mr. Lewis had

inerepui ^^^^ j^^q t^e

taken his seat Mrs. I^jeU ^^^ ^^^^,^^^

audience after her speecu, wu. beain-

stairs and asktag for a chance to .eply. ^^-"J''^^^^

"™f 1 ttS"' Sfr ledl pWor.. 'that if
Mr clree?redmt.eakin| of the amendment in too
Mr. Choate erre ^ ^ speaking of it

favorable terms, Mr. ^^^"^ ' ^^^ jj j, t^^ best

in too eondenmato^y t«ms. I b*ve ^ ^^^^^^ ^ ^^^^

itStt thS^rr No^mber, 1894 when it was

db lb mig," „„, 1 QQA when it went mto enect, tne

adopted, -^ J«, 8%,^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^ ^ ^^^^^^^^.^^

tune was used by ^^^^ P"^°" ^ • ^o secure a repeal,

for the new arrangements, but m xryuig t „,.;cnn-

r;t.t:^°:^rrrtTr°fhr|

ers, as ivij. . defending themselves against

r„:ri:dn™:f ci;^- < ^^^ -or., j:;:
rtr^iaT"--=----'

°^*a°«rntS"!^^wJackson.thefoUowingpassage

„™^ "Jactaon waii in accord with hK generation
occurs. JacBson ".,,. ,i^„g j^i ions arc not
■ He had a clear perception that the to^^E ^^

I *' '". felt arg'e^^ttwd exUt only for the
knew and felt that 6"'™° ^^ strong only

»"The True Andrew Jackson, by oyrus io«"

372 JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

jlTr °'""'°'^ ""^ '""^^ ■« '° *« position Mr,
Lowel then took, she evidently by her words andTcttas
and also by the sentiments expressed in her paprr„'
abor .ueations, always held exactly to Jackso , „Sr
and no one can reasonably question her absolute srerit"'
Pap-=h to.n „ ^HE F,„BT P„BL,o Me^no o. the
WoKKiNo Women's Society'
As you have asked me to speak to you tontaht for
whrch mark of confidence I thank you very Zch ,/
not presumptuous to a^ume that you' thm T hi t.me'
tag to say which may help you somewhat m tleZt"
work upon which you have entered, which « Z ^T

rreiXfT '° '"" °-««-''o ir:

system" ""^' '"""^ •" *^ »'-<"'' '""or

gJtiot"o^' "''°, \'™ P™'""" »™"'™'= and sug-
gestions on some of the features of your declaration !f

Pr-ncples, contained in this preamble! aLttnpt „"
second prmciple you announce is :

SoZytuchstnltf"! ""T '= ^"^ °' - Central
to the'^cause o : gf^StlnT " ""^= "'^^"'^ "'™"=''
statistics and publrfCshaT bt =1^' ' t'^"'

formation and advice anr] \k ^e ready to furnish in-

increase agitation on Ihlfsubtcl'''' ^''" ^^^^'""^ ^^^

4"aJ;^s::v°"'^"*^ ^°"^-^- ^^^ -trai so.

I; c "^'"^ ^''^^"'^^ ^° ^"^'^i^h information

lettef to'pT/i.^gr' ^^"^-^ ^- ^««« ■• Miss Peridns presided ^^

WORK FOR THE EMANCIPATION OF LABOR 373

and advice and to continue and increase agitation. Let me
beg of you to make yourselves ready to do this work wisely.
These questions which you are taking up are not new ; thej'
have been discussed and written about even in their present
forms for more than one hundred years. There are many
wise books, and unhappily many foolish books too, already
written upon them, and in order to makeyoxirselves author-
ities upon them, you must study what has already been
said, and learn what has already been done about them.

It seems to me that the appointment of a Committee
on Reading to mark out a course of study for the mem-
bers of the Society, and to procure the books from Ubraries
and supply them to the members in turn, would be a very
wise step. You need to saturate yom- minds with the
subjects connected with the aims of your Society. You
cannot know too much of what has been said and of what
is being said by students of the labor problems. You
must make yourselves masters of the subject.

The first of the "Specific Objects of the Society" is
stated as follows :

"To found trade organizations in such trades where
they do not exist, and to encourage and assist existing
labor organizations, to the end of increasing wages and
shortening hours."

Now it seems to me a mistake to have given the increas-
ing of wages precedence over the shortening of hours. The
latter I believe to be the more important object, and it is
also the one upon which you can the more easily secure
public sympathy. I beUeve it to be the more important
because securing leisure affords the opportunity for im-

374

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

provement in intelligence and in character, and, as the
Jiatural consequence, improvenaent also in work and in
wages. It is a reasonable object, and can be proved to
be so to the public if the right steps are taken. There is
no question that, up to a certain point, more work can be
done in short than in long hours, and the shorter hours
are therefore, up to that point, as much for the benefit
of the employers and of the public, as of the hand workers.
What is that point ? That is for you to discover.

That, even in piece-work, as much can be done and
earned in ten hours as in eleven was proved in some large
woolen mills in New England, where the owners desired
to reduce the hours from eleven to ten, and the hands
objected, but were persuaded to try it, and found they
earned as much as before. Whether the same rule would
hold good as between ten hours and nine, I do not know,
but I believe that it probably would, as the natural result of
more leisure would be increased health, strength, energy,
mtelligence, and, I think, increased conscientiousness also.
Nothing could be better than the first part of your
second object :

"By using all the means in our power to enforce the
existing laws relating to the protection of women and
children in shops and factories; investigating and pro-
testing against all violations of said laws; also, whenever
possible, promoting legislation on this subject."

And a committee to be charged with the duty of spread-
ing the knowledge of the present laws, and teaching those
who need their protection how, and to whom, to make
complaints of their violation, would do great good.

WORK FOR THE EMANCIPATION OF LABOR 375

The framing of new laws is a still more important mat-
ter, but one not to be lightly entered upon, until you
have prepared yourselves by serious study to suggest and
support wise measures which will not produce more harm
than good, as is too often the case with many laws, the
objects of which are of the best.

In your fourth object, which reads :

"To investigate and protest against all cases that are
credibly brought to ovu* notice of cruel and tyrannical
treatment on the part of employers and their managers,
open robbery by withholding pay, or underhand theft in
imposing fines and docking wages on trivial grounds,
shameful indecency in the arrangement of shops, and
abusive or insulting language to the helpless and defence-
less women employees,"

we come to the most dangerous ground upon which you
will have to tread, full of snares and pitfalls for your
feet, and where you will surely be engulfed unless you
guard yourselves by the highest sense of duty. You will
have to do what it is very hard for anyone to do, —what,
unhappily, women almost never do. You must look at
both sides; you must be just. Justice is the highest
attribute of man, for to be just is to see and do the truth.
As I have said, women are seldom just, because they
allow personal feelings, whether of selfishness, friendship
or sympathy to blind them to the other side ; they even
pride themselves on saying, where their better feelings are
engaged, that there is no other side. Now this is the
weakness you must guard yourselves against. Knowing,
as you do, the wrongs and sufferings of one side, which are

376

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

often so great as almost to overpower all possibility of
seeing anything else, seeing, as you do, injustice which
fills you with horror and indignation, yet you must for
the sake of righting those wrongs, in the hope of de-
stroying that injustice, constrain yourselves to pause, to
consider what excuse there may be on the other side, and
you must hear and try patiently to study the difficulties
which beset the employer. You know, if you stop a
moment to remember, that he has difficulties, for he often
succumbs to them. I believe it is said that a great many
more than half the men who go into business fail, which
means that the difficulties are so great that half the
employers cannot conquer them. Remember, too, that
apart from all considerations of justice, it is bad policy
to increase too far the difficulties of employers. The
employers are now, and will be until we reach manufactur-
ing cooperation, far more important to the people they
employ, than they are to them, and you know that every
failure throws work people out of employment and causes
much distress. I believe in the right to strike ; but re-
member that a strike is like war ; it brings great misery
with it ; and remember that there are some places where
the work people by striking have driven the employers
away, and have left themselves with no means of living.
Remember that you must not place yourselves in the
position of enemies attacking, but of judges, hearing and
weighing evidence, and remember, above all, that your
sympathies are all, inevitably, on one side, and that, there-
fore, you must try to lean towards the other, if you would
even approach a just decision.

WORK FOR THE EMANCIPATION OF LABOR 377

And now I want to say something about what seems to
me the great possibilities of your Society. The sufferings
and the wrongs of working women have for years been
described and talked about, and have excited pity and
indignation, and yet no one has had the sUghtest power
to remedy them. The great machine, of which we are all
a part, has rolled on, crushing the happiness and life out
of hundreds of thousands of women ; and many other
women, who would gladly have given their lives to have
saved their sisters, have themselves helped to trample
them still lower in the dust. It is not, as I say, that they
are careless, but that they are ignorant; they do not
know what causes the injustice ; they do not know how
it is to be remedied ; they do not even know, in any dis-
tinct way, what the injustice is, what the sufferings are.
They are as helpless on their side as the working women
who have to suffer are on theirs.

Now you ca;n put an end to this ignorance and help-
lessness, you, who have joined yourselves together to
help working women, you, who are working women your-
selves and know the conditions amid which you work,
you, who ah-eady have the knowledge of facts, and are
going to bring your intelligence to bear upon these facts,
and study them, until you learn what they mean, why
they exist, and how they can be changed. You are going
to stand between your sisters on the one hand, and on the
other, between the toilers who are underpaid and over-
worked, and the women who are pining for want of work
and are supported in enforced idleness, and you are going
to open a pathway between the two.

378

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

And, now, how can you fit yourselves for this noble
part of interpreters between sets of people so far apart
that, without you, or some one in your place, it seems as if
they could never understand each other? As I have
already said, you must, first of all, be just, and then you
must set yourselves to discover the causes of the wrongs
which exist today in our social fabric, and the remedies
which may be apphed to them. But you must remember
that it is not individuals who are to blame, that they,
as well as you, that we all are parts of a system which has
grown up, which binds us aU, and for which no man, no
hundred men, no thousand men, are to blame, but which
sweeps all men and women along, unable to resist its
mighty current, and that the problem before us is to study,
all together, how to change the system, how to keep what
is good in it, and leave behind us what is bad.

If the present system is harder on some people than on
others, as it most certainly is, it is natural that those who
suffer from its weaknesses and maladjustments should
reaUze them strongly, and that those who do not suffer,
but who even profit by them, should scarcely reahze
them at all, and should be inclined, until they are taught
better, to think it a pretty good system after all, and to
dread changes.

It is your work to teach them better ; you must show
them the evils that exist, and, without claiming that they
are responsible for what they never made and cannot
unmake, point out to them what are the weaknesses
and maladjustments of the present system.
As an organization of women, it behooves you especially

WORK FOR THE EMANCIPATION OF LABOR 379

to maintain each one of you her own independence of
thought and character. Do not blindly follow any leader.
Discuss and consult and strive each one to cherish in her-
self a sense of her own personal responsibility for the acts
of the Society. In that way you will reap the advantage
of association ; you will strengthen and help each other,
and your joint action will have the force of all its com-
bined members. Whereas, if, without thought, you blindly
follow wherever one or two of the most impetuous among
you may lead, you will not only fail to attain your objects,
but your failure will bring renewed discredit on the efforts
both of women and labor organizations.

As women, also, you need to be especially on your guard
against scolding. However j ust the cause she may defend,
a scolding woman is a terror to all men; no one will
listen to her, no one will sympathize with her ; she only
injures her own cause. You must conciliate and not
antagonize. You must be dignified, generous, noble.
You must make yourselves respected by your wisdom,
your patience, your fairness, by the cheerful courage with
which you press on to attain your high objects, — and
that they are high, who can doubt? To help to raise
labor, what is it but to help to raise mankind?

You must be inspired by the highest patriotism, for it
is true, as an English author says, that

"The American RepubUc is founded on the sovereignty
of the people, and it will prosper or perish according as
the mental and moral status of the sovereign people is
high or low. The question whether labor in America will
in future sustain, improve upon or degrade from its once

380

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

high condition is one beside which every other national
problem, social, religious or political, is a matter of trifling
moment, for upon this depends the destiny of the greatest
state, and the life of the most beneficent government which
the world has ever seen."

But you must be inspired by a higher motive than
patriotism — by the love of your fellow-men — of all
your fellow-men, rich and poor. Do not love the poor and
hate the rich, but have as much patience with the rich as
you have with the poor. Feel the brotherhood of man,
and do not, in your thoughts, shut any one outside that
brotherhood. Emerson says :

"Hostility, bitterness to persons, and to the age, indi-
cate infirm sense, unacquaintance with men, who are really
at top selfish, and really at bottom fraternal, alike, iden-
tical," and Jesus says: "Thou shalt love thy neighbor
as thyself."

Industrial Peace '

What is extraordinary and abnormal and, consequently,
unusual, of course catches and holds the attention more
readily than a continuous and orderly development, al-
though the latter may be of vastly more intrinsic value
to mankind than the disturbances which startle and terrify
by their violence. It is therefore natural, but none the
less to be regretted, that public attention is constantly
attracted to all the painful and deplorable episodes of the
movement for the emancipation of the workingman,

' Published in The Charities Review for January, 1893. Reprinted
in pamphlet form.

WORK FOR THE EMANCIPATION OF LABOR 381

while the great forward march of the last twenty-five years
in England, and more lately in this country, the tre-
mendous triumphs of justice and right, the victories of
inteUigence and equity over ignorance and greed, are quite
unknown to the mass of employers, as well as to the public
generally, and their records buried in official reports, or
in books read only by workingmen and students.

The Labor Question is, after all, only another phase of
the Liberty Question, which has confronted the human race,
in one form or another, in all its contests since history be-
gan ; it is simply a question of justice as opposed to tyranny,
and the only solution, the acknowledgment of equal rights.
As Mr. Charles Francis Adams, with the old Adams spirit,
said in an article published in ScHbner's Magazine in 1889,
entitled "The Prevention of Raikoad Strikes " :

"It is, of course, impossible to dispose of these difficult
matters in town-meetmg. Nevertheless the town-meeting
must be at the base of any successful plan for disposing
of them. The end in view is to bring the employer,
who in this case is the company, represented by its pres-
ident and board of directors, and the employees into
direct and immediate contact through a representative
system. When thus brought into direct and immediate
contact, the parties must arrive at results through the
usual method, that is, by discussion and rational agree-
ment. . . . The movement follows the lines of action
with which the people of this country are most familiar.
The path indicated is that in which for centuries they have
been accustomed to tread. It has led them out of many
difficulties; why not out of this difficulty?"

Personal despotism has been driven out of all civilized

382

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

countries as a form of government, simply because the
people rendered despotism too uncomfortable for the des-
pot. Representative government has been forced upon
Europe, not adopted because the governing classes wished
to give up their prerogative ; and in like manner, rep-
resentative government in many important industrial
fields has been forced upon employers, although it is to be
said to their honor that in some cases, the employers have
welcomed it and have recognized its moral as well as its
material advantages.

There is little doubt also that the representative system
m the conduct of an industry requires higher moral and
intellectual qualities in all the parties represented than
are necessary in the realm of government, and this ex-
plains why its adoption in this new field is less rapid.
The very fact that it must be voluntarily adopted, even
though under the pressure of circumstances, and that its
maintenance is due to moral sanctions only, shows that
it can be established only by and among men of high moral
and intellectual development. It requires justice and
intelligence, that is, the will, and also the power, to see
the other side, and it requires good faith ; and these are
noble quaUties, and qualities which we like to think are
peculiarly American.

It is, therefore, not pleasing to learn that while the
representative system has for twenty-three years been a
signal success in some of the great English trades, and has
been steadily gaining ground in that country, with no
conspicuous failure anywhere, with us very many efforts
toward it have been tried and have proved abortive.

WORK FOR THE EMANCIPATION OF LABOR 383

and that we have no instance of a successful attempt that
is more than eight years old.

The defeat of justice which has disgraced much of our
labor history is due, it is fair to say, almost equally to
employers and employees ; whichever side has had the
power has unfortunately used it tyrannically. The ex-
ceptions to this rule are, however, all the more worthy
of honor ; and it is for the sake of acknowledging our debt
to the men who have done justly, and also of presenting
them as an example to their fellow-employers and fellow-
employees, that I wish to give at least a sketch of the
development of an equitable system in two important
trades in our own country.

During the sunomer of 1884, there was a two months'
strike of bricklayers in New York City which caused great
loss to both the bricklayers themselves and the builders,
and left many questions unsettled when it was ended.
Experience had taught both sides a lesson, however, and
in March, 1885, a conference was held between the Master
Builders' Association and the Committee of the General
Good of the Bricklayers' Unions to discuss the various
matters of mutual interest ; the results were so satis-
factory that a permanent representative body was created,
composed of an equal number of delegates from both sides,
duly elected each year. The official name of this body
is "The Joint Arbitration Committee of the Mason
Builders' Association and the Bricklayers' Unions," and
at its organization provision was made, in case of non-
agreement upon any point, for the selection of an umpire,
whose decision should be binding on both sides. There

384

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

could be no stronger proof of the justice and good sense
which have ruled in the dehberations of this self-con-
stituted body than the fact that, during the eight years
of its existence, it has never been necessary to appoint an
umpire, every question having been decided by the com-
mittee itself.

At first, weekly meetings were held, and at these meet-
ings the general interests of the trade were frequently
discussed. Then there was business only for a meeting
once a month, and latterly meetings are held still less
frequently, except in the spring, when the committee
meets often to discuss and agree upon the wages for the
year, and to draw up the mutual agreement between the
Association and the Unions. This agreement covers
the hours to be worked, the amount of pay for overtime,
the frequency of payments, and other matters of impor-
tance, besides the amount of wages. When the Joint Com-
mittee was first organized, the bricklayers' wages were
forty cents an hour, and nine hours was the working day
every day except Saturday. Now the wages are fifty
cents an hour, and the working day is eight hours. There
has not been a strike among the bricklayers since 1884.
Even during the past season, when, to speak mildly, every
other trade was at least very much unsettled, there was
no trouble between the bmlders and the bricklayers. All
difficulties are settled at the meetings of the delegates of
the Builders' Association and the Bricklayers' Unions,
being discussed until an agreement is reached.

Remembering what a strike means ; what misery and
want it entaUs upon those who take part in it ; what loss

WORK FOR THE EMANCIPATION OF LABOR 385

to the whole community ; what bitter feeling, what anger
and hatred, it arouses ; one cannot but feel a deep sense
of gratitude and an admiration for the men, employers
and employees, who have had the wisdom and self-control
to establish and maintain so reasonable, so Christian, a
method of settling the questions of mutual interest to them.

The second instance of a successful understanding be-
tween employers and employees which I shall describe
is that between the manufacturers and the various unions
of hat-makers of Danbury, Connecticut. For thirty-five
years before the year 1885 there had been almost a con-
stant warfare between the manufacturers and the work-
men ; but in the autumn of that year the Directors of the
National Associations of Fur-Hat Finishers and Makers
appointed a committee of five to confer with the manu-
facturers of fur hats in regard to the present state of trade,
and the way to improve it and the condition of those em-
ployed in it. This committee respectfully invited the
fur-hat manufacturers to unite in an organization to act
in concert with our associations in the adoption of such
measures as will tend to establish and maintain harmonious
relations between the manufacturers and their employees,
and promote the best interests of both parties.

The manufacturers responded to this invitation, and
a convention, at which sixty-three were present, was held
in New York, on October 25, 1885. Mr. Edmund Tweedy,
of Danbury, in an address to the Convention, spoke as
follows :

"I will venture to say that the situation in which we
find ourselves is without precedent in this or any other

386

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

country. For the workingmen in a trade to ask their
employers to organize themselves into an association is
a fact so surprising that we may well question its signif-
icance. The fact itself seems to me to place the sincerity
of the journeymen beyond all doubt ; for labor is naturally
distrustful of organized capital, and they cannot be un-
conscious of the power which such an organization will
give us ; and it also shows their confidence that the power
will not be unjustly used against them. They are entitled
to equal sincerity and confidence on our part.

"What, then, does this invitation mean ? It means, as
I understand it, that the journeymen believe it is for the
best interests of both parties that they and we should
Hve in peace and harmony together, and that by mutual
mterchange of views and by concert of action it is possible
to improve the condition of trade, remove many of its
difficulties, and make it more profitable to all parties.
They perceive that to attain these ends it is necessary that
there should be thorough organization of the employers
as well as of the workingmen, and they invite us to form
such an organization, and pledge themselves to cooperate
with us in all reasonable and proper efforts to accomplish
the desired objects. Their plan contemplates, as I am
advised, the admission of all those at present employed
at the trade into their association, the bringing of inde-
pendent shops under reasonable association rules, the
appointment of committees of conference, representing
both parties, to consider matters of interest to the trade,
and the adoption of joint measures which will give to the
joint organizations the practically absolute control of the
business. Of course, the primary object that the work-
man has in view is the increase of wages, but he is willing
that it should be accompanied by increase of profit to the
manufacturer. Are these objects desirable ? To me they

WORK FOR THE EMANCIPATION OF LABOR 387

appear eminently so. If by means of such organizations
the relations between employers and employed could be
adjusted upon an enduring and satisfactory basis, all
causes of strife and contention removed, the wages of the
workingmen and the profit of the manufacturer increased,
strikes and turnouts prevented, "shop calls" regulated,
differences settled by arbitration, stated times for fixing
prices for labor estabUshed, reasonable regulations for the
employment of apprentices provided, the health and com-
fort of the workmen looked after, and other matters of like
character discussed and regulated, who would say that
such results would not be worth any sacrifice that they
might cost? . . ■

"Our action here today will have consequences of great
moment to the trade, which may be felt for years to come,
and may, perhaps, reach far beyond the limits of our own
trade, and have an important influence on the relation of
capital and labor in other industries. It behooves us to
act with deliberation and judgment, casting aside all
prejudices, and remembering that the benefits of organiza-
tion can only come through the surrender, on the part of
each, of some amount of individual freedom."

Owing to the opposition of manufacturers in New
Jersey, the organization of a national association was
prevented and the Danbury members of the Convention
organized a local association. Any person or persons en-
gaged in the manufacture of fur hats in the town of Dan-
bury were eligible to membership.

This local association has continued in harmonious re-
lation with the several unions of the trade for nearly seven
years, and the following account of the manner in which
their mutual interests are dealt with is dated November
12, 1892 :

388

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

"Any differences which have arisen other than those
relating to wages have been adjusted by the conference
committees of the associations interested, each association
having a standing committee of five members elected
annually. There is no permanent joint board. ... In
case any charge is to be considered against either associa-
tion or any of its members for violation of existing agree-
ments, this charge is formally made in writing and de-
livered to the president of the association against which,
or the members of which, the charge is alleged, so that
full opportunity may be given for its dehberate considera-
tion. Any party accused has full opportunity to be heard
before the conference.

"When it is proposed by either party to amend existing
agreements, a copy of the proposed amendments is pre-
pared and served in the same way. If the matters to be
decided are beyond the powers of the conference com-
mittees, they report the same to their respective associa-
tions, with their recommendations in relation thereto,
and receive instructions from their associations for their
guidance in future conferences upon the same subject
matter. It rarely happens of late that it becomes neces-
sary to take an appeal to the associations, as the plan has
been so long in operation that all matters liable to lead
to any serious differences have been definitely adjusted.

"All differences in regard to wages axe settled by arbi-
tration committees appointed by the presidents of the
associations interested, which committees are appointed
in each case of disagreement. If the joint arbitration
committee cannot agree, that representing each associa-
tion selects a disinterested arbitrator, and these two select
a third, and the decision of this board is final.

"This system has now been in operation in Danbury
for nearly seven years, and I believe that both manufac-

WORK FOR THE EMANCIPATION OF LABOR 389

turers and journeymen have found it to be productive of
great good in preventing serious disturbances, m maintain-
ing harmonious relations between employer and employed,
and in placing the rights and interests of both upon a safe
and secure footing ; and I think all are convinced that x
is one of the most successful attempts ever made to adjust
the labor question on the lines of reason and eqmty.

There are other instances where the same spirit ha^ been
exemplified, but these two are sufficient to show what can

be done.

Before closing, however, I wish to say that in thus
dwelling upon the blessings which have been brought about
by peaceful methods of settling differences between em-
ployers and employees, I must not be understood as con-
demning the methods of force when these are really
necessarjr, as, unhappily, they sometimes are, on account
of the want of intelhgence, education, and principle on one
side or the other. A strike or a lockout may be absolutely
unavoidable, but the very fact that it is so shows a low
state of intellectual and moral development on the part
either of the employers or employees concerned, or, per-
haps, on the part of both. If both sides are just, if both
sides are wise, there can be no question that peaceable
methods can and will be adopted, and there can be no
doubt that they %vill succeed.

It is a most remarkable fact that, while this great and
beneficent movement, which seeks and finds industrial
peace in various ways, has been going on with accel-
erated speed and success in England and m this coun-
try for the Ufetime of a generation, very httle is

388

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

"Any differences which have arisen other than those
relating to wages have been adjusted by the conference
committees of the associations interested, each association
having a standing committee of five members elected
annually. There is no permanent joint board. ... In
case any charge is to be considered against either associa-
tion or any of its members for violation of existing agree-
ments, this charge is formally made in writing and de-
Uvered to the president of the association against which,
or the members of which, the charge is alleged, so that
full opportunity may be given for its deUberate considera-
tion. Any party accused has full opportunity to be heard
before the conference.

"When it is proposed by either party to amend existing
agreements, a copy of the proposed amendments is pre-
pared and served in the same way. If the matters to be
decided are beyond the powers of the conference com-
mittees, they report the same to their respective associa-
tions, with their recommendations in relation thereto,
and receive instructions from their associations for their
guidance in future conferences upon the same subject
matter. It rarely happens of late that it becomes neces-
sary to take an appeal to the associations, as the plan has
been so long in operation that all matters Uable to lead
to any serious differences have been definitely adjusted.

"All differences in regard to wages are settled by arbi-
tration committees appointed by the presidents of the
associations interested, which committees are appointed
in each case of disagreement. If the joint arbitration
committee cannot agree, that representing each associa-
tion selects a disinterested arbitrator, and these two select
a third, and the decision of this board is final.

"This system has now been in operation in Danbury
for nearly seven years, and I believe that both manufac-

WORK FOR THE EMANCIPATION OF LABOR 389

turers and journeymen have found it to be productive of
great good in preventing serious disturbances, m maintain-
ing harmonious relations between employer and employed,
and in placing the rights and interests of both upon a safe
and secure footing ; and I think all are convinced that it
is one of the most successful attempts ever made to adjust
the labor question on the lines of reason and eqmty.

There are other instances where the same spirit has been
exemplified, but these two are sufficient to show what can

be done. , ^ w-u

Before closing, however, I wish to say that in thus
dwelling upon the blessings which have been brought about
by peaceful methods of settling differences between em-
ployers and employees, I must not be understood as con-
demning the methods of force when these are really
necessarj^ as, unhappily, they sometimes are, on account
of the want of intelUgence, education, and pnnciple on one
side or the other. A strike or a lockout may be absolutely
unavoidable, but the very fact that it is so shows a low
state of intellectual and moral development on the part
either of the employers or employees concerned, or, per-
haps, on the part of both. If both sides are just, if both
sides are wise, there can be no question that peaceable
methods can and will be adopted, and there can be no
doubt that they will succeed.

It is a most remarkable fact that, while this great and
beneficent movement, which seeks and finds industrial
peace in various ways, has been going on with accel-
erated speed and success in England and in this coun-
try for the lifetime of a generation, very Uttle is

390

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

known about it outside the circles of individuals whose
interests it directly affects. Even the very men whose
business success and daily peace of mind would be assured
by joining it are ignorant of it, and as to the general public
and the newspapers, one might imagine from their tone
in speaking of the Labor Problem that it had never been
solved and was iasoluble, whereas, here, in the practice
of justice on both sides, the solution has been already
found.

"Workingmen's Rights in Property Created by Them ^

The strength of thought and expression in the following letter is
a justification for its reproduotion. The novelty of the view taken by-
Mrs. Lowell, the fact that it is so pronounced and vigorously stated by
a woman, deserves that the production should have some permanent
shape, in order that it may be rescued from the oblivion of a daily
paper, to which it was first contributed. Mrs. Lowell's long and
most effective ) work ia relation to charity in and about New York,
makes it all the more interesting that she should employ her leisure
in trying to think out one of the most serious problems of the time, and
endeavor to throw light upon the mute appeal of the workingman in
the sullen stubbornness, or the blind fury of a strike.

— Brastcs Wiman.

To THE Editor of the New York Tribune.

Sir : — The underlying conception of their own rights
and wrongs which inspired the recent action of the men at
Homestead, and which is also the animating principle
of members of labor organizations who strike but yet
refuse to allow others to do the work which they will not
do, although it has often been stated more or less clearly,
is certainly not understood by the generality of thinking
persons.

' Published in pamphlet form in 1893 by the Farrington Company
of New York.

•

(

•

■i

WORK FOR THE EMANCIPATION OF LABOR 391

Members of labor organizations, who are often intelli-
gent men and men who have studied both the history and
prfnc^les of the labor question, regard themseAves as
contending for liberty against tyramiical power, and as the
nherTtors of the spirit of all the men in the past who have
defended their own rights and the rights of oth-s a^a^-t
oppressors. Ridiculous as this view appears to those who
regard them simply as violent l^-^reakei-s and thieves
it is well for persons who desire to be fair-minded and o
do u'tice to Lir fellow-men, to look a little -ore closely
into their claims and to compare their -nd-^ ^f ^^^J
of others who in times past were regarded by those
whom tTey Listed in exactly the same light, although now
it is the custom to call them heroes. „„„^nwn

To go no further back than the men who began our own
Revolution; in Massachusetts, Samuel Adams wa^ out-
kwed and a price set on his head by the authorities he
dXd. and the'men who threw overboard the tea from ^^^
ships in Boston Harbor allowed no consideration for f
sacredness of private property to restram them - ^^.^_
they thought a patriotic duty, but they wfj^jn^ quq.
regarded as thieves by the unhappy merchants w ^u.

^'Thl'lTnt-Massachusetts were fighting against the
existing order of things ; they were rebels and revol^tion-
i^s • they intended, most of them unconsciously at first,
to substitute for the form of government they were resist-
^g a new one, and one which has since then bee-cknowl-

edged by a large part of the «-;l^==«\^tthat rime^o
and ideal form of government, although at that tune jo
the bulk of mankind it seemed to be the craziest sub
version not only of what was natural and safe, but of

"" Now r trade union men of today are also contending

392

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

for a new order of things, not in the political, but in the
industrial world ; they are also rebels and revolutionists,
whom the existing industrial authorities will, of course,
seek to overcome, but who are justified in using force in
defence of what they consider their rights, on the same
grounds that have justified all rebels from the beginning
of history. Legally they are wrong; morally they are
right ; intellectually they may be right or wrong. The
fact that they hold a theory of their rights and of the
rights of private property in general quite different from
that held by their employers and by most thinking and
unthinking men and women, does not prove, judging from
analogy, that their view is necessarily wrong.

The theory to which I refer, and which, whether put
into words or not, is firmly fixed in the minds of all trade
unionists, is that the man who by his labor for a series of
years helps to build up a great business, be it factory,
mine or raih-oad, thereby acquires a distinct right of
^perty in that business, while the general view is that
in trying^ the man who helps to build up the business by
endeavor towho has a property right in it. While always
l^li'Jvledging the right of an employer to discharge a
workman for just cause, the trade unionist has his own
view of what constitutes a just cause, and does not include
under that head the exercise of the legal right to belong
to political, religious or trade associations, nor does he
acknowledge that taking part in a strike is a just cause
of discharge, or that by reason of such action (belonging
to a trade union or taking part in a strike) a workman
loses his property right in the business he has helped to
build up by his labor. This view is the ground upon
which workingmen, locked out as at Homestead, or even
on strike, refuse, so long as they can, to allow other
men to come in and take possession of what they call,

WORK FOR THE EMANCIPATION OF LABOR 393

to the scornful amusement of their employers, their

places.

This is evidently a new conception of the rights of pri-
vate property, and no especial means by which it might
be put into practice have as yet, so far as I know, been
pointed out, even by the men who defend the principle
itself with their lives, as did the men locked out at Home-
stead. The fact that the wages of only three hundred out
of the three thousand men employed in the Homestead
mills were to be affected by the proposed reduction proves
that the resistance on the part of the whole body was one
of principle, and presents a spectacle of industrial public
spirit which could not have been found, probably, in any
trade less weU organized ; that is, in any trade the mem-
bers of which were not educated to a recognition of the
fact that men who will not defend the rights of then-
fellows will soon lose their own.

The suggestion that the laws relating to private property
may in the future be materially changed will be new to
many persons who have not studied carefully the prm-
ciples underlying those laws ; to such the following quo-
tation from a letter written in 1870 by the distinguished
thinker, Chauncey Wright, will be very instructive :

"The rapacity of wealth is, of course, the taproot of
aU these evils, the source of the hostility which threatens
social institutions. We have got to amend the great
Roman invention, the laws of property. • • • Looked at
rationally and from a utilitarian point of view, the right
of private ownership — the protection of the individual
in the possession, accumulation, consumption, productive
administration and posthumous disposal of his surplus
gain — is founded simply and solely in the motives they
afford to his making such gains, and adding them, as he
really does, in spite of his seeming private appropriation

394

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

WORK FOR THE EMANCIPATION OF LABOR 395

of them, to the store of public wealth. . . . But so
far as the laws of property are inherently, or through
changed circumstances have come to be, productive, not
of increased gains, but of a large and permanent class of
unproductive consumers, so far they are legaUzed robbery,
and must be abrogated or amended if justice is ever to be
effected by legislation, through whatever poUtical powers.
"It is perhaps unfortunate that the problem will have
to be solved through democratic agencies and the un-
avoidable ascendency of the will of the masses in poUtical
matters. But, after all, it is a real question which is the
more untoward instrument for the really just and wise
philanthropist to work with, the ignorant and prejudiced
masses, whose benefit is sought, or the equally prejudiced
aristocracies, blinded by self -interest, whose unjust privi-
leges must be curtailed. . . . Democracies and aristocra-
cies are both bUnd, and if led by men of their own sort,
must inevitably carry the state with them to destruction.
But do not let us dwell despondingly on the powers and
tendencies of the instruments we have to deal with. . . ."

Josephine Shaw Lowell.
Geneva, Switzerland,

July 15, 1892.

Industrial Conciliation »

Whenever a strike or lockout is of sufficient importance
to attract public attention, after it has continued for a
few^^days, there begins to be talk of arbitration on the
part of the press and of the workingmen who are engaged
in the contest.

If arbitration is resorted to, the questions in dispute are

' For Live Question Bureau, January, 1896.

? -

.V "

referred to one or more arbitrators, who hear both sides
and decide between them. This is of course a judicial
process, except that the submission of the question on
both sides is purely voluntary, as neither can force the
other into court, and the obligation to abide by the deci-
sion is moral only, so that there is nothing legally binding
in it.

Usually strikes and lockouts are settled in a less formal
way by the intervention of persons inspked either by
private or public interest, who act as go-betweens and run
from one side to the other, gaining a Mttle concession first
here and then there, smoothing away one difficulty after
another, and finally arranging matters with as little loss
of dignity as possible to the contending parties.

But between civiUzed bodies of men whose services are
vitally important to each other, who make their hving
by the help of each other, it is a disgrace that there should
be these constantly recurring contentions.

They arise only from the selfishness and tjrranny of
men, unrestrained by nobler qualities, and selfishness and
tyranny are equally hateful and mischievous, whether ex-
hibited by employers or employed. Unfortunately which-
ever side has had the power has usually exercised it in so
arrogant a manner and with such unrelenting harshness
as to goad the other side to resistance, resulting often in a
state of open warfare which has continued until either one
side or the other is quite conquered, when the old series
of acts is begun again, to end in the same way, or until
both sides are exhausted.

The fact needs to be emphasized that the same qualities

396

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

have been exhibited by both sides, that human nature,
when undiscipHned, is very much the same thmg in mas-
ters and in men, in employers and employed, and that
neither side has a right to cast stones, but both should
cry, "Mea culpa ! Mea culpa !" At some times and in
some places it is the labor organizations which are dicta-
torial, while the employers cringe and relinquish all their
rights to maintain peace, but more frequently the em-
ployers are arbitrary and tyrannical, asserting loudly
that they intend to manage their own business as they
choose and will not be interfered with by their workmen.

Here is the weak point. There will never be justice
between employers and employees, and consequently there
will never be a lasting peace, until the public and the
employers recognize the claim of the employees to a voice
in the settlements of questions relating to wages and to
hours and conditions of labor. All these questions are
of vital importance to the employees, and do, in fact,
more nearly concern them than they do the employers,
for in the case of the latter it is only their business success,
or their living, which is involved, while with the employees
their living, their health and indeed the happiness of their
whole hves are at stake. It can scarcely be expected that
American citizens who have been born and bred with the
instincts of freemen will submit tamely to a system which
places their welfare entirely in the hands of others.

This suggestion that the employees have a right to a
voice in what is called their employers' business will be
new to many, and will at first seem to be unreasonable,
but the more it is considered, the more just it will show

WORK FOR THE EMANCIPATION OF LABOR 397

itself to be, and it will finally be acknowledged to be true.
As Mr. William H. Sayward, Secretary of the National
Association of Builders, an association of employers, says,
in a lecture on the "Relation of Employer and Workman " :

"The labor question has two component parts, the
employing or profit-labor, and the performing or wage-
labor, and it is folly to attempt to deal with the question
at all unless both parties are united in the consideration.
Neither party to the joint interest can handle the ques-
tion alone."

The next question which presents itself is the practical
one, how can employees be thus taken into the councils
of their employers, and the answer made by Mr. Charles
Francis Adams, for many years State Railroad Commis-
sioner in Massachusetts, and for many years also President
of the Union Pacific Railroad, in an article entitled "The
Prevention of Railroad Strikes" is one which must cause a
responsive thrill in every American breast :

"... It will be impossible to estabhsh perfectly good
faith and the highest morale in the service of the railroad
companies, until the problem of giving this voice to em-
ployees and giving it effectively, is solved. It can be
solved in but one way: that is, by representation. To
solve it may mean industrial peace."

[Mrs. Lowell here repeated a quotation from Mr.
Adams' article which she used in an earlier paper entitled
"Industrial Peace."]

Mr. Adams' solution is, however, unhappily, so far as
American railroads are concerned, purely theoretic, and if

398

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

" m

there were not in other industrial fields proof that the
principle he advocates is correct, arguments might be
presented against it, which now, however, are invahd,
since experience has demonstrated that the representative
system is as useful in business as in government. For
the last twenty or thirty years in many large industries
in England, all questions of wages, hours and conditions
of work have been settled, without .strike or lockout, by
"Joint Boards," "Boards of Conciliation" or "Arbitra-
tion Boards," on which the associations of employers and
employees have been represented by delegates duly
chosen and empowered to legislate foi- their constituents,
and on these boards the employers and employees have
always had an equal representation. In our country,
also, and in Belgium, such boards are known and have
met with equal success, but the practice of justice with
us has been neither so long nor so widely extended as in
England, and strangely enough employers here, instead
of instinctively recognizing that this is the only solution
of the difficulties of the labor question, assume a tone
of arbitrary ownership and proclaim their right to issue
orders which must be obeyed.

From business men one might have expected more
practical conduct, since it is very evident that those
who adopt this position do not succeed in avoiding labor
conflicts and disturbances which cause them great loss and
trouble, while the employers who recognize the justice
of their employees' claim to a joint control in questions of
conamon interest do escape them.
In the cases where "Joint Boards" are formed, the pre-

'■^

■i M

WORK FOR THE EMANCIPATION OF LABOR 399

liminary step usually is the mutual recognition that both
sides are about equal in strength, that each can injure the
other seriously, but that neither can conquer the other.
The proof of this necessarily comes from the experience
of a long series of alternating strikes and lockouts, the
employees making unreasonable demands when trade is
good, the employers doing the same when trade is bad,
a system mutually predatory. Finally, it occiu-s to a
few men on one side or the other that the whole thing is
foolish, wasteful and wicked and xmworthy of intelligent
men who make their living by the help of each other.
Tentative overtures are made, the most reasonable and
fair-minded men on each side talk over the matter among
their fellows, a conference is proposed, and is held, and
with much difficulty at last a "Joint Committee," a
"Wages Board" or a "Board of Concihation" is formed,
with equal representation from both sides, to which is
delegated the power to settle all questions relating to
wages, and conditions of work.

This sounds simple enough, and to a disinterested ob-
server seems the only reasonable method of settling ques-
tions which are of the greatest importance to both em-
ployers and employed, which cannot be settled except by
mutual consent, either forced or voluntary, and which
must be settled if business is to go on at all.

And yet, the obstinacy and arrogance of men makes
this reasonable arrangement a very difficult one to accom-
plish and at first a very difficult one to carry out.

As I have said, the two sides must be about equal in
strength, or in other words, both must be well organized ;

400

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

WORK FOR THE EMANCIPATION OF LABOR 401

there must be a strong association of employers and
a strong trade imion or other labor organization, both
of which shall represent either the majority of the em-
ployers and workmen in the trade or else the most success-
ful and best paid. This is necessary because the "Joint
Committee" or "Wages Board" must be composed of
representatives who are authorized to bind their con-
stituents, otherwise their agreements would be empty
words.

Besides this, however, both representatives and the
organizations they represent must in the main be honest
men, honorable men, intelligent men, or the plan will
fail. The employers' association and the employees'
union must enter into the arrangement in good faith,
trusting their own representatives, trusting the repre-
sentatives of the other side, really wishing to have justice
done and not wishing for unfair advantages. With these
conditions success is sure.

The Rights of Capital and Labor and Industrial
Conciliation '

When the rights of Capital and Labor are spoken of,

capital does not, of course, mean money, for money can

have no rights, nor does labor mean work, for work can

have no rights ; capital really means men who have money

which they wish to employ in productive industry, and

labor means men who have strength and skill which they

wish to employ, in productive industry. Since, then, it

' Digest of a pamphlet published by the Church Social Union, Boston,
June 15, 1897.

is the rights of men which are to be considered, it will be
simpler and tend to a better understanding of the subject
to ignore the confusing formula, capital and labor, and
talk about the men who own the capital and labor and
who wish to find a market for them, and thus reach the
consideration of their rights.

As regards the men themselves, there is one fundamental
conception which is essential to all rational and just think-
ing about them and their relations, and that is the
recognition that they are economically equals imder our
present social conditions; the man with the money
which he desires to employ productively is helpless to ac-
complish his purpose unless he can find men to work;
the man with strength and skill which he desires to employ
productively is equally helpless, unless he can find men
to pay him for his work. You will note that I said the
men are economically equals under our present social
conditions, because in a state of natmre the man with
the strength and skill would be able to dispense with
money, while the man with the money would never be able
to dispense with strength and skill, his own or those of
some one else. I am also ignoring the men who combine
capital and labor in their own persons, who possess at
once money, brains, strength and skill, for those can be
classed for our purpose either with one side or the other,
and there is no necessity to compUcate the question by
considering them separately. . . .

Although the need of capital and labor, or money and
strength, for each other is mutual and in the long run
equal, the supply of capital has always been limited, and
2d

402

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

WOEK FOR THE EMANCIPATION OF LABOR 403

the supply of labor has usually been excessive, which in
itself would have given capital the power to dictate terms.
In addition to this, however, capital was usually in the
hands of men of intelligence and of men who, by means of
their capital, could live while they bargained, and labor
was in the hands of ignorant men, with no property but
their strength, who must therefore suffer unless they could
dispose of it daily, and must die if they failed entirely to
dispose of it, which gave to capital a despotic power over
individual laborers, even though as a whole labor was
always more essential to capital than capital to labor.

But with the development of the trade union, the sit-
uation had gradually changed, to a great degree, in all
the trades where that new force has had a direct influence,
and to some degree in all the rest ; and the theoretical
economic equaUty of the men who possess capital and
of those who possess labor has become to some extent an
actual equality ; for now, in those trades which have been
long "organized," labor, as well as capital, is in the hands
of intelligent men, who have accumulated means upon
which to subsist while they bargain, and thus the two
contracting parties can meet on equal terms and settle
their business relations as other buyers and sellers settle
them, by a consideration of the actual situation and a
reasonable discussion and give and take between men of
equal intelligence, knowledge and resource.

Thus we are brought to the question of their rights, or
what they may reasonably and rightly demand of each
other when they thus meet to settle matters between
them. If my position is correct, then they are in exactly

)' ■.;!

the same position as other buyers and sellers, and they
have the right to demand of each other nothing beyond
honest and courteous dealing. They are equals, and they
go into the market and bargain with each other, and each
has the right to take or leave what the other has to sell,
according as the bargain suits him or does not suit him.
It is absurd to talk as if it were morally wrong to ask high
wages or morally wrong to offer low wages. Within the
limits of honesty and fair dealing, it is merely a matter
of business. I say within the hnaits of honesty and fair
dealing, because, of course, if the bargainers are not equal,
if for some reason, one side has the power to fix the terms,
and uses that power unjustly, either to exact ruinously
high wages, or to insist that men shall work at wages upon
which they and their famiUes cannot live, then it is not a
question of business, but of morals. It is dishonest,
exactly as other unjust and forced bargains are dishonest ;
and it may also be cruel, as for instance, where promises
of work are broken and wages intermittent. . . .

After their bargain has been fairly adjusted, the owners
of capital and labor become employers and employed, and
then a new set of rights comes into existence, and these
are the rights which most people have in mind when they
talk of the rights of capital and labor, and it is the
attempt to settle these rights which causes a large propor-
tion of the labor difficulties that so distress us.

And now I am going to take the liberty of turning the
whole question around, and instead of trying to define
the rights of employers and employed, I am going to try
to define their duties. It will amount to the same thing

i :^''M

404

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

in the end, of course, for no one can have a right to any-
thing which is not somebody's duty to supply. Perhaps
it may be his own duty to supply it, but there is no right
without a corresponding duty on somebody's part.

I think all the duties of employers and employees as
such may be classed under three heads. Their antagonis-
tic duties, those which may bring them into antagonism
with each other; theu: common duties, those they owe
in common to the commimity ; and their mutual duties,
those they owe to each other. . . .

First, then, the antagonistic duties of employers and em-
ployed are those which each owes to the men of his own class,
so to speak, the duties the employer owes to his fellow-
employers and the workman to his fellow-craftsmen.

An employer should not follow his own immediate in-
terests selfishly and blindly, destrojdng others engaged in
the same business as himself ; he should not make such
agreements with his employees as will redound to his own
advantage and ruin his competitors. There is a limit be-
yond which competition even will not drive an honest
and conscientious man, and that limit measures his duty
to his fellow-employers. In the same manner, a work-
man has duties towards his fellow-workmen, and, to his
credit be it said, he feels these duties far more strongly
than the employer usually feels the corresponding duty.
It is the duty of a workman to consider the effect of his
action upon the welfare of his fellows; he should not
accept wages and conditions of work which, even though
they be good for him at the moment, will tend to injure
other workmen. . • . .

WORK FOR THE EMANCIPATION OF LABOR 405

The duties which employers and employees have in
common are of course those they owe to the public for
whom they work together and from whom they draw
the return for their joint labor. They owe to them an
honest product, work worth what they ask for it, fair
measure and full time. . . .

The mutual duties, or rights, of employers and em-
ployees relate, of course, to the giving of a fair day's
wage for a fair day's work, and the giving of a fair day's
work for a fair day's wage, and they include from each
to each honesty, justice and courtesy. But even assuming
these quaUties to exist on both sides, the difficulty Hes
in deciding what is a fair day's work, and what is a
fair day's wage. . . .

The technical name for the representative system of
trade government is "Industrial Conciliation," and the
distinguishing features of the system are:

1. Its recognition that the two sides have an equal
right to a voice in the decision of all questions of common
interest ; and

2. The permanent character of the machinery employed.

In every case of industrial conciliation employers and
employees have an equal number of representatives, and
the representatives have equal powers.

In all cases of industrial conciliation there is estab-
lished a permanent board or committee, called a "Board
of Conciliation," or "Joint Board," or a "Wages Board."

The most successful instance of a board of concihation
in this country is that formed in 1885 between the Mason
Builders' Association, representing fifty firms of employers

406

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

WORK FOR THE EMANCIPATION OF LABOR 407

in New York City, and the Bricklayers' Unions, which
have a membership of about four thousand. The Asso-
ciation of Builders chooses each year eight representatives
to serve on the Joint Board, and the Bricklayers' Union
choose the same number and the sixteen men settle by
discussion and agreement every question which arises be-
tween any employer and employee in their respective or-
ganizations.

This Joint Board holds monthly meetings, if necessary,
during the year, but its most important work is the drawing
up of the yearly agreement, which is done in the spring.

A comparison of the first agreement, made in 1885, with
the last one, made in 1896, is sufficient to show the de-
velopment of the Board since its inauguration, and also
the gains made by the bricklayers in shorter hours and
higher pay, while the fact that there has been no strike
or lockout between the members of the Builders' Associa-
tion and the Bricklayers' since the Board was established
shows as plainly the gains of the employers and of the
community at large. . . .

When this Joint Board was first constituted, it was agreed
that should it be impossible on any occasion for the mem-
bers to come to an agreement, an umpire should be chosen
whose decision should be binding on both sides. The fact
that, during the twelve years in which this Board has met
and has discussed questions of great importance to all its
members personally and to the thousands of men repre-
sented by them, it has never yet been necessary to apj5oint
an umpire, speaks strongly in favor both of the intelligence
and justice of the men chosen to act as members. . . .

During the ten years that have elapsed since the first
agreement was signed, many changes have been made,
questions of a very grave character have been presented
for action, and although it sometimes appeared as if a very
determined effort was being made to bring about a dis-
ruption of the good feeling that existed between the two
bodies, yet in the end both parties would give way a little,
and finally the question would be settled amicably —
and that was done without once calling in an umpire.
This fact alone shows that men banded together for a
common cause can do justice, one to the other.

The history of the Bricklayers for the past ten years
could be that of every organized trade in our community.
A still more successful board is that of the North of
England Iron and Steel Conciliation Board, which has had
an existence of thirty years and settles all questions of
wages, etc., for the whole trade. It is thoroughly repre-
sentative in character : one employer and one delegate
elected by the workingmen from each firm in union with
the Board constitute its membership. The Board meets
twice a year, but it has a Standing Committee which meets
once a month or oftener, and has power to settle all
questions, except a general rise or fall of wages, or the
selection of an arbitrator to fix such rise or fall. These
matters the Board itself must act on. There are two
secretaries, one chosen by the employers and one by the
workingmen of the Board.

Mr. E. Trow, secretary of the workingmen, in a speech
of March, 1894, explains the reason and maimer of its
establishment, and describes the way it has worked.

>£S

408

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

Mr. Trow said that in 1866 he had had experience of a
twenty-two weeks' lockout. In 1866 the men were starved
into submission, and in 1867 and 1868 the employers took
advantage of their weakness and forced down the wages
to compensate them for the cessation. ... In 1868 the
men met to consider the advisabiUty of forming a "Board
of Arbitration and Conciliation." They succeeded in estab-
lishing that Board, and from the year 1869 up to the pres-
ent there had not been more than half a dozen meetings
either of the Board or Committee which he had not atten-
ded. They found at first that they had many grievances
withwhichtheir employers were not thoroughly conversant.
When they first met there was jealousy and suspicion on
both sides. But the employers afterwards found that the
representatives of the workmen were not unreasonable
men, and the workmen's representative found that when
face to face the employers were amenable to reason. It
was a positive fact that before that time they thought
the employers were not amenable to reason, and looked
upon them as enemies and tyrants. They were cautious
at first, but the employers and workmen met around the
board on an equality. The workmen's representative
had the same voting power as the employers', the same
speaking power ; and from that day to this not a single
man had been taken advantage of for daring to differ
publicly from this employer.

[The remaining pages of the pamphlet are devoted to
a description of methods of conciliation inaugurated in
1869 by Brewster & Co., carriage builders, of Broome
Street, New York City, and carried out for three years.]

WORK FOR THE EMANCIPATION OF LABOR 409

The Living Wage ^

Any manufacturing business which is to continue in
existence must receive as the price of its product a sum
which in the long run, year in and year out, will provide
for the following payments :

1. A living wage for those who do the mechanical
part of the work ; because if they do not receive a hving
wage they will cease to work, either because they will die,
or because they will seek a living wage elsewhere.

2. The usual rate of interest on the capital invested in
the daily output ; because otherwise it wiU be withdrawn
and will be placed where it will receive the usual rate.
Of course this is not an absolute necessity for the capital
invested in the plant, because that is fixed and cannot be
taken out.

3. A due return to the managers of the business that is
sufficient to repay them for their time and trouble, or
they will give it up and imdertake some better paying
enterprise.

Thus every business must strive, in order to exist, to
keep up the price of its product. Meanwhile, there is
a constant attack by the purchasers, or consumers, to
lower the price, and the competition between manufacturers
for business, and between work people for work, leads
them, in the absence of combinations among themselves,
to seek business and work by underbidding each other ;
and thus prices, profits, interest and wages all tend to
fall, to the disadvantage of manufacturers, stockholders
and working people and to the advantage of consumers,
» Delivered at Cooper Union, June 1, 1898.

410

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

who aro after all only the manufacturers, the stockholders,
and the working people themselves appearing in another
character, that is, as buyers of each other's products.

Th(; world of business presents thus the curious spectacle
of the very same people contending as producer to keep
up prices, wages, etc., and as consumers contending to
keep them down. There is one great difference, however,
l)ctwc;en the two characters thus assumed by the same
individuals. .-Vs producers they work in comparatively
small groups, and can agree together upon a certain policy
by which they can attain their object, while as consumers
they nnist in the very nature of things be disorganized ;
and they constitute indeed only a great machine which
sometimes does horrible mischief without intending to,
and indeed against its will, if it can be said to have a will,
certainly against the will of its individual members.
The way this machine works is this. Everyone by neces-
sity purchases what he needs at the lowest price he can
find. The retail dealers seeking business lower prices to
meet this demand of the buyers ; the wholesale dealers
are forced, in consequence and for the same reason, to
lower their prices ; in order to do this, they must lower
the cost of production. They have three ways of accom-
plishing this. (1) They can give up part of their own
receipts. (2) They can diminish the interest on their
capital. (3) They can cut down wages. Of course they
may also be able to improve their methods, and so diminish
the cost of production without any of these other steps ;
and this they often do ; but I am now concerned only with
the cases where such improvements are not made.

WORK FOR THE EMANCIPATION OF LABOR 411

Now, if the working people have made a combination
among themselves, if they have a strong labor organi-
zation, they can withstand the attack on their wages, and
either force the manufacturers to put the loss on the other
two partners in the business, or else they can so strengthen
the hands of all the manufacturers in the trade timt these
can resist the tendency to lower prices, and so enable the
retail dealers to resist the demand of the public, and force
the consumers to pay a price which will give not only
a living wage, but also the usual return to capital and
a fair payment for the management of the business. This
was apparently what the coal miners accomplished in the
last great coal strike in England. The coal owners pro-
posed to lower wages, using as an argument that they
could not pay the usual wages because they had made
contracts for coal at certain low prices. The reply of the
strikers was that they must have a living wage and that
the coal owners must not make contracts which rendered
it impossible for them to pay a living wage, for otherwise
they, the miners, would not mine the coal at all. After a
contest of several months, during which the English people
supported the strikers in this position, the latter carried
the day, and the principle that workers are entitled to a
living wage, and that business must be so conducted as
to give it to them, was established in England.

Their success was due primarily, of course, to their
strong trade union, and there is no other means, except
a trust among manufacturers, which can prevent a con-
stant lowering of prices and wages from the pressure of
competition among work people themselves underbidding

412

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

each other, and among manufacturers underbidding each
other.

Having got so far in my attempt to show how, and how
only, a living wage can be secured, it seems pertinent to
stop to inquire what a hving wage is.

A living wage is the sum per day which any given
group of working people has agreed upon, whether the
agreement be expressly made or not, as the sum they must
have to secure what they have learned to consider the
necessaries of life, and it varies according to the stan-
dard of living of each group of working people. What
is a living wage to many is a dying wage to others.

The great object to be striven for, both for a nation as
a whole, and for the individual working men and women,
is that this standard of hving should be constantly rising,
in order that the condition of the people may rise con-
stantly. It will be a good thing for the American nation
when a piano and a bicycle are regarded as necessaries
of life by everybody, provided that the truth is also
recognized that the neces.saries of life are to be earned
by honest hard work, and not by gambling and cheating,
whether on a large scale on Wall Street, or on a small
scale on Hester vStreet.

One of the great dangers which threaten this country
from the influx of uneducated foreigners is that the stan-
dard of living should be lowered among us, and the only
means we have to counteract this danger, if we receive
them into the country, is to raise their standard by educa-
tion, to develop them in all directions, until they will not
work for wages that make a decent life impossible, until

WORK FOR THE EMANCIPATION OF LABOR 413

they will not live in filthy, dark rooms, until they will not
let their children go to work when they ought to be at
school, until they will demand conditions suitable for self-
respecting American men and women.

Education is the one means by which the standard of
living can be raised, education of every kind — by the
public schools, by the churches, by labor organizations,
by such institutions as this great and beneficent one in
which we stand, founded by the large-hearted Peter Cooper
in order that the young men and women of New York
might have the advantages of which he himself felt the
lack, when, a poor boy, he sought to educate himself.
This very series of meetings is due in part to his public
spirit, for the hall is given to the People's Institute in order
to carry out Peter Cooper's direction that instruction
should be given in the Cooper Union on social and political
science, meaning thereby not merely the science of
political economy, but the science and philo.sophy of a just
and equitable form of government, based upon the great
fundamental law that nations and nun should do init.o
others as they would be done by.

We must depend, then, on education to induce the
coming generations to raise their standard of living, and
thus to make their living wage high enough to enable
them really to live, that is, so that their bodies, their
minds, and their souls may reach the highest development ;
and we must depend on labor organizations, and organiza-
tions of manufacturers to resist the constant pressure of
the purchasing public to lower prices to a point which
makes this living wage an impossibility.

414

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

When labor organizations and organizations of em-
ployers act together in joint boards of conciliation, they
are, of course, far more effective for this purpose than when
the two bodies act alone, and often in opposition to each
other. We have in New York City a very good example
of the good results of one of these joint boards, that of
the bricklayers and mason builders, in many directions,
among others, in keeping up wages to a very respectable
point as wages go — fifty cents an hour. I heard one of
the Mason Builders' Association say last year : "Supply
and demand have nothing to do with the wages of the
bricklayers who work for our members; if there were
two thousand bricklayers looking for work in New York
and I wanted ten only, I should have to pay the wages
fixed upon in our yearly agreement." It is interesting to
note that on May 5 of this year the fifteenth annual agree-
ment was signed, and that there has been neither strike
nor lockout between the eight bricklayers' unions of New
York and the Mason Builders' Association since 1884.

One more point, and I have done. It is greatly to be
desired for every reason, moral and material, that the
efficiency of labor should be increased ; and while it is true
that high wages are one means of making labor more
efficient, it is also true, and exactly as important, that
efficient labor makes high wages possible, while it also de-
velops and fosters the moral qualities without which high
wages will be of but very Uttle use. If labor organizations
demand for their members, as they should, a fair day's
wage, they should also guarantee from their members
a fair day's work.

WORK FOR THE EMANCIPATION OF LABOR 415

Professor Thorold Rogers, in his great book on "Work
and Wages,"— that splendid plea for an adequate Uving
wage,— says in closing his Chapter XIV (and I will close
also with this quotation) :

"The joint action of working men is only in its infancy
yet. As association becomes wider and more coalescent,
many steps which have not yet been taken will become
natural and easy; as, for instance, the maintenance of
a standard of honor and efficiency in work, and the protec-
tion of the pubUc against the roguery of producers, of
which at present workmen are the silent witnesses, but
should not be the willmg accomplices. I know nothing
which would exalt the reputation and justify the action
of trade combinations more than the establishment of a
rule that members of such vmions should denounce and
expose dishonest and scambUng work, and protect those
of their order who may suffer ill usage for having re-
ported and checked such nefarious practices.

"As yet the rules of trade unions are principally con-
fined to the process of bettering the whole class. Here-
after they will or should extend toward purifying the class
and making it a potent instrument for the moral and
material advancement of all. Other professions exclude,
either formally or informally, misbehaving, disreputable
or incompetent persons from their ranks. It cannot be
doubted that in time to come artisans and laborers will
elaborate the necessary regulations, by which they will
increase the usefulness, elevate the reputation and culti-
vate the moral tone of those who ply the craft whose in-
terests they seek to serve, and whose character they ought
scrupulously to maintain."

CHAPTER XVIII

The Woman's Mtjnicipal League of the Citt op

New York

Early in September, 1894, an organized movement was
begun to overthrow the municipal control of the City of
New York, long exercised by Tammany Hall, and shown
by the recent exposures of the Lexow Committee ' to be both
corrupt and criminal. In this movement the Rev. Charles
H. Parkhurst was a prominent leader, and the organiza-
tion took the form of a non-partisan Committee of
Seventy, pledged to a campaign for the honest, economi-
cal, and businesslike administration of municipal affairs
without regard to national or State politics. William L.
Strong 2 was selected as the candidate for Mayor, and
numerous reform clubs and other auxiliaries sprang into
being to lend theu- aid. Among these was the Woman's
Municipal League, which was organized early in October
by Mrs. Lowell, in response to the appeal of Dr. Park-
hurst. The evidence brought out by the Lexow Com-

' Hon. Clarence Lexow. Senator from the Sixteenth District, offered
a resolution. January 29, 1894, for the appointment of a committee
to investigate the Police Department of New York City of which
committee he became Chairman.

.,.^^1' ^'^""^ ^^^ ^^^^^'^ ^*y°^' November 6, 1894, receiving
154 094 votes against 108,907 ca.st for Hugh J. Grant, the Tammany
candidate. ^

416

THE WOMAN'S MUNICIPAL LEAGUE

417

mittee had made plain not only the protection of immo-
rality by the police, but also a systematized traffic in vice,
in which women were the helpless victims. In their behalf,
the help of the women of the community was therefore
invoked. The general plan of action was to hold meetings
of women both uptown and downtown, to be addressed
by women; and the League also arranged for a mass
meeting of men and women at Cooper Union, which was
addressed by prominent citizens, including Dr. Parkhurst,
Henry George, Seth Low, and Charles S. Fairchild.

After the victory of the municipal reform movement of
1894, the League became inactive and practically dis-
banded, but it was revived in 1897 to aid the Citizens'
Union in its contest of that year for a non-partisan city
government, and has since maintained its organization.^
The constitution adopted in March, 1898, declares as the
object of the League : "To secure active support for such
movements and candidates as may give promise of the best
government for the city, without regard to party lines."

During the administration of Mayor Van Wyck, vice
again became so notorious in the city that Mrs. Lowell re-
entered the field at the head of the League in the interest
of reform. In this municipal campaign, which resulted
in the election of Seth Low as Mayor,^ effective use was
made, by sending a copy to every voter, of a pamphlet
by Bishop Potter, entitled "Facts for Fathers and
Mothers," in which he showed how the lack of police
protection and the venality of the police courts were in-

' In 1910, under the presidency of Mrs. Edward Ringwood Hewitt.
' Mayor Low was elected in 1901 on a fusion ticket.

418

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

juring the home. Mrs. Lowell's active work as Secretary
of the League was terminated because of impaired health
in 1902. The League pubhshes a monthly Bulletin in
which prominent mention is made that it was "Founded
1897 by Mrs. Charles Russell Lowell" ; it has its head-
quarters at 46 East Twenty-ninth Street. The present
purpose of its members is to devote the energies of the
League between elections to developing among women an
increasing interest in the government of the city. It is the
belief of the League that what is needed to secure good
government is a comprehension by the people of its direct
bearing upon their own health, happiness, and moral wel-
fare, and also of the impossibility of securing good govern-
ment unless the business of the city is put into the hands
of experts. If the work of the city departments can be
presented in such a way as to make its complexity and
difficulty understood by the people, they cannot fail in
the course of time to demand that this work shall be con-
fided to persons fitted by character and education to per-
form it, and that it shall not be given out as spoils at the
expense of the interests of the public.

The plans for this work of education have not yet been
perfected, but in general they are to take advantage of
existing associations of various kinds, which already hold
meetings for social and educational purposes, and to offer
to present at such meetings matters connected with the
government of the city, as, for example, by illustrated
lectures on the various city departments, talks upon civil
service reform, or upon such other kindred subjects as may
seem appropriate to the special audience addressed.

THE WOMAN'S MUNICIPAL LEAGUE 419

Mrs. Lowell contributed a history of the League to
Municipal Affairs for September, 1898, and her helpful
pen brought aid, through the League, to the cause of
municipal reform in the campaign of 1903 in the two able
letters which follow.

To THE Editor of the Woman's Municipal League
Bulletin : ^

I congratulate you sincerely on your exposure of the
fallacy that Tammany cannot be beaten twice in suc-
cession. The statistics given by you in your September
issue prove that New York has shown itself in the last
three mayoralty elections to be an anti-Tammany city,
and this fact should be repeated over and over again
from now until November 3, in order that all the time-
servers who desire above all things to be on the winning
side may fully understand that in voting the Tammany
ticket they are putting themselves on the side of a hopeless
minority.

I congratulate the League also upon its intention to
appeal to the indifferent to register, and above all, to vote
after having registered. Such appeals will affect many.
Individual women, however, can do more by reminding
the men with whom they have influence of the great issues
at stake in the coming election, and begging them to do
their duty as citizens of no mean city. We have now,
as Mr. Jerome has truly said, an administration of city
affairs far better than any that New York has ever known,
and, as he might have added with equal truth, far better
than that of almost any other city in the country ; and it
behooves gill good citizens to give the Mayor who has done
us this grfeat service the opportunity to continue, to im-

• From the Woman's Municipal League Bulletin, October, 1903.

420

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

prove, and to perfect his work, which is but just
begun.

For the sake especially of the hundreds of thousands of
helpless people hying in our crowded tenement districts,
those who have votes should feel it a sacred duty to con-
tinue the present administration in power. To the well-
to-do it is of little personal moment what sort of city
government we have. A man with money can make him-
self quite comfortable under any kind of administration,
provided he has no care for the good name of his city, and
no sympathy for his suffering fellow-citizens.

If the water supply gives out or becomes polluted, the
well-to-do can buy plenty of pure water; if the streets
they live on are filthy, they can hire men to clean them •
a bad pohce force never troubles the rich ; then- food is not
adulterated; they need no Health Department to save
them from disease; theh- houses are not invaded by
prostitutes ; they can get fresh air and sunhght without
the help of the Tenement House Department ; the Fire De-
partment is not their only protection against being burned
m their beds ; their children are educated whatever may
be the condition of the public schools ; if a pestilence o'f
typhus fever or cholera threatens the city, they with their
families can leave it.

Far otherwise is it with the mass of tenement house
dwellers. They are dependent for everything that makes
life bearable, for everything that makes life possible, upon
upnght, intelligent and devoted city officials.

Let women realize this, and let them appeal to the voters
to register and to vote for the sake of these helpless people
who hve so near to us, but yet whose hves are so cruelly
different from ours.

„ , , Josephine Shaw Lowell.

September 10, 1903.

THE WOMAN'S MUNICIPAL LEAGUE

421

To THE Editor of the Woman's Municipal League
Bulletin : ^

Last week a young girl came into the office of the
Woman's Municipal League, and asked to see one of the
ladies there alone. She had evidently been pretty once,
but now, in her shabby-gay clothes, she had lost most
of her beauty, with her youth and her health. She had
come to beg the Woman's League to reprint the pamphlet
entitled "Facts for Fathers and Mothers." She was told
that it was not regarded as wise to reprint this pamphlet.
She then told her story.

She had dearly loved the man she married, but a few
days after the wedding he had placed her in a disorderly
house. She was kept there five months, and she was never
allowed to go out. Once she got where she could call a
poUceman, but he passed along without paying any atten-
tion to her. Finally, she grew so ill that they let her go.
Her health shattered, she had tried to earn money, but had
failed everywhere except on the street. "I have come,"
she said, "to save other girls. If Tammany gets back,
there will be a lot more of us out there." She was asked
if she would not give her name so that the officers of the
Woman's Municipal League might try to help her. "I
have no name, and you'll never see me again. There's
nothing you can do for me," she said, and with that she
left. To-night she is out on the street.

It may or may not be wise to reprint the pamphlet,
"Facts for Fathers and Mothers," but must we not face
the question of whether we, by our indifference, are not
risking the return of this awful collusion between the pohce
and ^^ce ? One can help by giving his time and strength,
or by sending money to R. Fulton Cutting, the Citizens'

* From the Woman's Munidpal League BiMetin, November, 1903.

422

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

Union, 18 East Sixteenth Street. Will not the man or
woman who reads this letter follow this poor woman's
lead, and help to save the other girls ?

Josephine Shaw Lowell.
New York, October 17, 1903.

What can Young Men do for the City'
Looking back through history, up to a very late time,
cities are by far the most important political divisions ';
indeed, one hears very little of nations until after the Middle'
Ages. It was in the cities of the world that all the in-
telligence and power were collected, and it was the cities
that controlled the world. How many great and wonder-
ful cities have grown up, fought, conquered, flourished
and been destroyed within only four thousand years.
Babylon with her marvellous walls and hanging gardens
is now only a name. Thebes was built and destroyed
before the beginningof history, and the story of her mag-
nificence is so marvellous that it was supposed to be a myth
until the mighty remains of her hundred gates, her colossal
temples and statues, buried for thousands of years by the
sands of the Egyptian desert, have in our own century
proved the truth of the old traditions of her glory.

Memphis took the place of Thebes, and stretched for
eight miles on each bank of the Nile. Her ruins are now
almost lost, but in the twelfth century were described as
still, after four thousand years of decay, holding "works
so wonderful as the most eloquent could not describe."
Sparta, forever associated with the great name of
' Dated March 28, 1898.

THE WOMAN'S MUNICIPAL LEAGUE 423

Leonidas and his three hundred, who held the pass of
Thermopylae against the hosts of Persia, and though
defeated saved the whole of Greece, is now lost.

How many cities have been great which now are small ]
Athens with her wonders of art, her statues, her temples,
all more beautiful than any that man has since created,
with her tragedians, and her philosophers, to whom the
world of letters still turns for inspiration — that marvel of
the world, that little city which in one hundred and
fifty years produced more great men, men great in every
direction, than any other country in a like period, has
since shrunk into insignificance.

Jerusalem, with her magnificent temple, Jerusalem,
the scene of the event which has had more influence on
human history than any other since history began, what

is she now ?

Rome, the Mistress of the World, through her great
martial force and her power of organization, with such
a genius of government that Roman Law is the foundation
of the Law under which the civilized world still lives,
what influence has the present Rome ?

Alexandria, built by Alexander the Great, for hundreds
of years leading the world in learning, with her great
schools and her Library, one of the seven wonders of the
world, three times destroyed by ignorant barbarians,
three times again filled with the treasures of the literature
of Greece and Rome, do we even hear the name of
Alexandria now ?

Constantinople, built by that wonderful man Constan-
tine the Great to be the capital of the earth, from

424

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

which he governed the world and the church, righting
ancient wrongs, dispensing justice to the poor, and even to
men cast into prison as criminals; issuing a decree
permitting complaints to be made against his officers, and
promising redress if they were found to have inflicted
wrongs ; diminishing taxes with one hand and encouraging
science and the arts and religion with the other; what
is Constantinople now but the seat of the worst despotism
that disgraces the world ?

But, although the glory and the power of these cities
and of many lesser cities have passed, yet to them man-
kind owes its civilization.

In the beginning men roamed over vast tracts of lands
as nomads, following their flocks and herds from pasture
to pasture ; then a few weaker families, needing protec-
tion against more powerful clans, settled in one spot, and
they built walls around their rude huts to prevent the
inroads of the wandering tribes. Then arose in the cities
division of labor and the refinements of social intercourse ;
laws were required to decide between the conflicting inter-
ests of many people living so close together; and then
patriotism, the love of the city, was developed from the
sense of the advantages enjoyed, and of the exertions
required to preserve them. And so came civilization and
political government, the very names of which explain their
origin. Civilization, from d-vis, Latin for a citizen, means
the dhj-fying of a people. Political, from polis, Greek
for city, means only city-fied government. By the way,
civil and polite, polished and urbane, all words describing
pleasing manners and meaning only city-fied, show how

THE WOMAN'S MUNICIPAL LEAGUE 425

the city people developed beyond the heathen of the ^
country, the dwellers on the heaths, in all that makes
men agreeable and pleasant, as well as in the arts of

civilization.

But mankind owes more than civilization itself to
cities ; it owes to them the principles of civil and religious
liberty, the great birthright of mankind from which it has
so long been shut out, but for which cities have for many
hundreds of years contended.

In antiquity, even, the rise of cities was the most im-
portant source of republicanism, especially in Greece and
Italy, and in the turmoils and contests for the city govern-
ment' were developed the great qualities which made the
cities so powerful. Athens and Sparta and Rome were
great because their citizens were great, and their citizens
were great because they were citizens and not slaves.

In the Middle Ages, the cities of Italy and of Germany
were so many fierce republics, fighting with each other,
fighting against popes, emperors, kings and princes, inde-
pendent, self-governing, developing citizens whose names
and works are still the wonder and admiration of man-
kind.

In Germany the cities strengthened themselves to resist
the assaults of the feudal lords, and finally made common
cause; and in 1239 Hamburg, Lubeck and Brunswick
formed the Hansa or League, called in English the
Hanseatic League, to protect themselves from pillage, to
extend their commerce, to prevent injustice, and to main-
tain their rights; and at one time there were eighty-five
cities in the League; and from them, and from other

426

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

less well-known leagues, wealth, industry, knowledge, and
equal laws spread through the nations of Europe.

In Italy, meanwhile, the great republican cities, Milan,
Genoa, Florence, Perugia, Pisa, Lucca, and others, also
held their own against popes and princes who longed to
conquer them; they were fierce, fighting cities; they
struggled with each other as well as with theii- would-be
oppressors, and they produced wild fighting men, and great
painters, and marvellous architects, and intellectual giants,
and mighty preachers, and saints, all in rich profusion,
men who created pictures, statues, cathedrals, which still
draw thousands of pilgrims to Italy yearly to gaze in awe
and wondering admiration at these treasures of peaceful and
beautiful art produced in the midst of turbulent times.

But with the development of luxury and self-indulgence
in the cities, the citizens became unwilling to exert them-
selves to defend their liberties. Single families grew
rich, and with their money they corrupted the people,
and gradually, both in the German and in the Itahan
cities, the republican form of government vanished ; the
rich families in Italy and the provinces of Germany, with
the consent of the people, destroyed their liberty, and
with their hberty they lost their greatness. The excite-
ment of the public life and the greatness of the public
interests had developed men's minds and characters,
but when they were governed from outside, when public
affairs were no longer their business, they shrank in body
and in soul, and Napoleon Bonaparte found them an
easy prey when he built up modern Europe and gave the
finishing blow to the free cities of the Middle Ages.

THE WOMAN'S MUNICIPAL LEAGUE 427

But though the age of the ancient free cities and of the
free cities of the Middle Ages has passed, we in this
modem time and in this modern world are entering upon
a new age of mighty cities, cities mighty in numbers and
in wealth, and which will be mighty in spirit and in
power, if their citizens are worthy. The fierce, fighting
little cities are no longer the champions of freedom;
civilization and civility are no longer to be found only
within walled towns ; but our cities are of tremendous
importance, nevertheless, because of the great masses of
people congregated within them. In the United States it
will be very soon true, if it is not so now, that half
the population is living in cities, and the condition and
life of these cities is therefore of vital importance from
two points of view. First, because the welfare of so
many hundreds of thousands of people is involved ; and
second, because if the majority of the people of the country
are residents of cities, then the cities will control the nation,
and the nation will be what the cities are. Thus both
local patriotism and national patriotism must be aroused
by an appeal in behalf of the welfare of our great city,
just entering on its new life.

Few people realize how helpless the inhabitants of a
city are to secure their own well-being except by placing the
management of public business in the hands of competent
and honest men. In the country a family can control its
own life and secure its own comfort. It makes but little
difference to a country family whether the public affairs are
well or ill-managed. No matter how stupid or cornipt
may be the supervisors of a county, the individual residents

428

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

can lead healthy and happy lives, and usually the only evil
that will touch them at all nearly, will be a slight increase
m their taxes. They can have fresh water, fresh air and
good food, and every year they have a chance to change
the men who are cheating them if they choose. But it is
not so m the city ; the comfort, the health, the life, and
to a great extent, even the character of the people of a
city, depend upon the kind of men who have control of the
public affairs.

Consider how vital to city people is a supply of pure
water, and how helpless they are to get it for themselves
An insufficient supply of water means constant discomfort
and trouble ; bad water means disease and death. Thou-
sands of people die every year in Philadelphia and in
other cities of the United States from typhoid fever
because they have bad water to drink, and they have bad
water to drink because their city officers are corrupt and
Ignorant, and do not care and do not know how to get a
supply of good water. Think of the awful suffering from
disease and death, the loss of wages, the widows and
children left helpless, that come to the people of those
cities because they place the care of their pubhc affairs in
the hands of men who may be good Republicans or good
Democrats, but who are not good men and good engineers
Consider again the helplessness of city people to protect
their health against the evils that come from dirt of all
kinds, dirty streets and foul houses, and from bad food •
suffenng, disease and death in its most fearful forms'
small-pox, typhus fever, cholera, yeUow fever, the plague'
These are the things that afHict cities that have ignorant

THE WOMAN'S MUNICIPAL LEAGUE

429

and corrupt men at the head of their affairs, and these are
the things which are entirely banished from cities whose
business is managed by men of intelligence and honest
devotion to the public good.

Passing over many other matters which affect the comfort
and happiness of the residents of a city, but which the
individuals cannot themselves control from day to day,
let us for a few moments consider the tremendous influence
the schools have upon the welfare of a city. If the schools
are of the right kind, and teach the children what they
ought to know, and if there are enough schools so that all
children can have the advantages they offer, then the
citizens will be noble, upright, intelligent men and women,
taking care of themselves and their children, doing their
duty, good, prosperous and happy. If, on the other
hand, the schools are bad, or if there are not enough
schools, then the city will have many poor, miserable,
incompetent, inefficient citizens, and there will be much
unhappiness and wickedness. Yet how helpless are the
people of the city to influence the schools, except by
choosing disinterested, honest, honorable, intelligent men
to manage them.

If, then, as is the undoubted truth, the health, happiness
and moral welfare of the people of a city depend upon the
kind of men to whom is entrusted the control of the city
government, how mighty is the responsibility of the voters
of a city for the use of the power put into their hands on
Election Day ! Oh young men ! Upon you and your
fellows depends the future of this great city and the wel-
fare of her three million people, more than two million

430

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

of them women and children whose very helplessness
should be their strongest appeal to you to protect them
and to give them the health and happiness that they
cannot have if you do not do your duty as good citizens.
But even more imperative than the duty we owe to our
fellow-citizens in this great city is the duty we owe to our
country and to the world. Even more inspiring than the
cry of the three million people of New York for protection
IS the cry of mankind that we shall not allow their hopes
for a larger and nobler Ufe to be blighted.

All through history there has been but one great cause
in human affairs,— the cause of liberty. In a thousand
contests mankind has struggled for more liberty ; under
a thousand names the fight has been waged. There have
always been two parties in history, the party that stands
for freedom and the party that stands for despotism.

The object of human government is to secure liberty,
for the end of government is the improvement of the
race, and the race cannot grow without the Uberty which
gives to individuals the free use of their faculties. There-
fore liberty is the condition of human progress, and liberty
IS the worthy cause for which all the great sacrifices of
history have been made.

This country sprang from the love of hberty combined
with the ability to organize hberty into institutions.
America was the protest against the spirit of despotism.
Democracy is the putting into government the principle of
the brotherhood of man. "All men are bom free and
equal" are the words upon which the government of
America is founded. When these words were written in

THE WOMAN'S MUNICIPAL LEAGUE 431

July, 1776, they were a new declaration in politics. Reli-
gious liberty had been asserted and was making progress,
but political liberty for all men was a revolutionary
thought. Americans declared it and they fought and died
to establish it. They carried on their revolution through
seven years to defend their right to liberty, and they
conquered, and established the United States government.

Our country led the whole world in this declaration,
and it opened the new path to the hopeless races of Eu-
rope. The down-trodden and sufi"ering people of the old
country took hope from our words and from our deeds.
This was our first great service to liberty ; but eighty
years later we again spent hves and treasure for liberty,
this time for the liberty, not of ourselves, but of a cruelly
tortured race, crushed to the earth by our own people.
The sin of slavery had darkened all our land and threatened
to destroy our nation, and we fought and conquered a sec-
ond time, and stood before the world as real behevers in
liberty for all men, for black men as well as for white
men.

This country, then, has been the hope of all nations ;
the lovers of Uberty have looked to this country from all
over the world for inspiration in their struggle ; they have
appealed to our success to confound the advocates of
despotism.

But, alas ! we, we, the people of the City of New York,
have failed the lovers of liberty. Our city, with its in-
competent and corrupt government, instead of standing
as an example to the peoples of Europe, instead of
inspiring the men who are seeking to establish the forms

432

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

of popular government in the old countries, has become a
shameful warning, and when in other countries men desire
to prevent the spread of democratic government, when
they desire to preserve old forms, they point to us and
say: "Beware! or our city will become a second New
York!"

And not only does our neglect of our duties to our
fellow-citizens thus dishearten the lovers of hberty all
over the world. There is danger, as our cities, this city
and other cities, come to control the country more and
more that, having surrendered our civic liberties, we shall
surrender our national liberties, and the United States
of America will sink back and lose its proud position as
leader in the progress of the world and as the vanguard of
hberty.

Do you ask me what I mean by losing our liberties?
I mean putting the government of our city and of our
country into the hands of selfish and self-seeking men at the
direction of party bosses, whether they be of one party or
the other. Men must either be free men or they must be
slaves. To be free men they must have their own opinions
and must follow them ; they must not go to the primary
and go to the polls and vote as some one else has told them
to. They must vote according to their own consciences,
according to what they think is right, right for the city ;
only if they do this are they free men ; only if they do this
will they have a free government ; only if they do this
will the country continue to be a free country. If men
vote because they are paid to vote, or because they want an
office, or because their employer tells them to vote as he

THE WOMAN'S MUNICIPAL LEAGUE

433

f 'l

does, or because their friend asks them to vote as he does, —
then they are slaves, and though the government continues
to be democratic in name, it is actually a despotic govern-
ment.

If we hope to preserve our nation, it must be bj- re-
awakening the spirit of liberty in our people ; and that
spirit must be exercised in our local affairs, because they
are the affairs with which we have to do from day to day,
and the affairs which influence us most and which we can
most influence.

And what are these affairs, and how can we influence
them ? Let us consider some of them. Take first that
which concerns the health and comfort of every man,
woman and child in the city every day — the cleaning of
the streets. If you are good citizens, citizens who
love our city and care for her welfare, you should watch
that the men whom the city pays to clean the streets,
and to carry away the garbage, do the work they are paid
to do, and do it well. It is good for them, as well as good
for us, that they should be self-respecting, honest work-
men, and it will help them to be so if they are watched, and
encouraged when they do well, and remonstrated with
when they do badly. If you are good citizens you should
watch the course of the judges and see that the poor and
friendless, who cannot protect and defend themselves, are
not oppressed, and that justice is done. You should
know how the prisoners are treated in the prisons, and
how the men and women arrested and awaiting trial are
treated in the station houses.

If you are good citizens, you should know how the poor
2r

434

JOSEPHINE SHAW IX)WELL

people in the institutions of the city, in.the almshouses,
the hospitals and the asylums, are cared for, and know
whether they have enough food and kind care and tender
nursing.

If you are good citizens, you should care about the
public schools and know whether they are good and whether
there are enough of them, or whether there are children in
the city who are being deprived of the teaching which
will make the difference to them between success and
failure in life.

If you are good citizens, you should care to have the
laws enforced, and you should learn what the laws are, so
that you may help to enforce them. The voters elect the
members of the Legislature who make the laws, and the
voters ought to know what their representatives are
doing, and support them if they do right and condemn
them if they do wrong.

If you are good citizens, you should join in the move-
ments to get playgrounds and parks and public baths and
pubhc Ubraries, and all the things that are needed to make
the lives of the people of the city happy and healthy and
noble and good, and you should demand of the men elected
to office that they provide the city with all these things.
Above all, if you would be good citizens, you must use
your own intelligence, your own judgment, your own
conscience, in regard to all these vital matters. Every
American voter owes it to his country to educate himself
to understand pubUc affairs, and the more he studies
them, the more intelligent he will grow, and, as I have
said, it is these local affairs which are the most important

■. :3

THE WOMAN'S MUNICIPAL LEAGUE 435

to us, for those are the affairs that are nearest at hand
and which influence us most and for which all citizens,
and especially all voters, are responsible.

What young men can do for the city and for the country
may be summed up then in the exhortation to be good
citizens. And finally, let me repeat, a good citizen must
study the needs of the city conscientiously, decide what
men and what measures are for the best interest of the
city, and support those with courage and independence be-
fore election and at the polls. A good citizen must feel
the responsibility that rests upon every voter in a demo-
cratic country to do his part in governing from day to day,
and as a freeman he must scorn all dictation from others
as to his course, and above all he must remember that
upon his good citizenship depends the future of this great
country. To the hands of the young men of this city
is confided the welfare of her three million inhabitants,
and the destinies of the United States of America. Be
true to these great trusts, and you will deserve the love and
gratitude of your fellow-men.

Relation of Women to Good Government*

The fact that women cannot vote, and have therefore
no direct influence in the selection of those who control
the government, has given rise to the false beUef that they
can exert no influence upon pubhc questions, and to the
still more false belief that the character of the government
is of Uttle importance to them. The moment any thought

' Digest of address delivered at the Young Women's Christian Asso-
ciation, February 6, 1899.

436

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

THE WOMAN'S MUNICIPAL LEAGUE 437

is given to the subject, however, it is impossible not to
see that good government is really more important to
women than it is to men, for the same reason that it is
more important to poor men than to rich men, because
they have less power to protect themselves from the ef-
fects of bad government.

I will show you that this is true by illustrations taken
from our own condition.

We in New York hve under three different governments
— the National or United States Government, of which
President McKinley is now the head, the State Govern-
ment, of which Colonel Roosevelt is the head, and the
City Government, of which Mayor Van Wyck is the head.
Each one of these governments has different duties, and
takes care of a different part of our lives, but there is not
a woman or a child in this city who is not influenced,
whose life is not made harder or easier, by the things done
by these three governments of ours.

The National Government, among other functions,
decides whether the country is to be at war or at peace
with other nations ; it decides upon the tariff to be im-
posed on goods we want to buy from other countries ; it
decides how large our armies and navies are to be in time
of peace, and it decides many other matters which affect
the wages of everj^ man, woman and child in the country
who works for a living, and whether it makes decisions
which are wise and right, or decisions which are foohsh
and wrong, is therefore something which is vitally impor-
tant to all the people of the country, whether they can
vote or not.

Think how intimately all these things influence our
lives. When the nation is at war many women and chil-
dren are deprived of those who should support and care
for them. There are many widows and orphans made.
The people have to bear heavy taxes and pay for the
support of the government, money which otherwise would
support themselves in comfort, and this forces women
and children into the labor market.

High tariffs on foreign goods deprive the people of the
chance of having many things which would conduce to
their comfort and welfare ; large armies and large navies
in time of peace cost so much that the people suffer from
the weight of taxation just as if there were a constant
condition of war, and starvation and misery result, as
in Italy and Spain today ; and it is the weak women and
children who suffer most, for they have to bear what is
put upon them, and cannot get away, as the men often
can.

Our second kind of government, our State Government,
has also a great deal to do with our well-being or our want
of it. It has different functions from our National
Government, and they are not so tremendously important
as those, but they are important enough, and here again
they affect women and children more vitally than they
affect men , and poor men more vitally than rich men . The
State Government has a great deal to do with education ;
it has a great deal to do with all the sick and defective
people of the State, with the insane, with the blind, the
deaf, the idiotic, with all the institutions where poor chil-
dren are cared for ; it has to do with fire insurance and with

1. i

438

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

banks, with all the prisons, and with many other matters
that concern the welfare of the people. The State Govern-
ment ought to watch over aU these poor and unhappy
people and see that they are not abused and injured, but
are kindly caied for and taught and reformed and helped
and cured ; and as women and children are more tender and
suffer more from ill treatment and neglect than men, it
is more important to them to have a good State Govern-
ment. The State makes all the laws — the factory laws,
the health laws, among others. Consider how closely
these laws touch the lives of women and their children.
In states where there are no such laws, women and little
children work sixteen and eighteen hours a day; their
lives are crushed and destroyed. They get no time to
eat or to sleep, they get no time to study or to grow. It
is the government, good or bad, upon which their fate
depends. And even after the good laws are made, if there
is not a good government which conscientiously carries
out the good laws, they can of course accomplish nothing.
Remember how long the law requiring that women and
girls in shops should have seats and be allowed to use
them was on the statute book before it was of any use to
them. For thirteen years there was hardly a shop-keeper
in this city who even pretended to obey the law, because
there were no officers to enforce it.

Then as regards the third Wnd of government under
which we Uve, our City Government, it is of the utmost
unportance to the welfare and happiness of aU the people,
and especially of the people who are not rich, and of course
to the women, as part of the people.

THE WOMAN'S MUNICIPAL LEAGUE 439

[Mrs. Lowell then continued her address with a de-
scription of the comparatively independent conditions of
family life in the country, an argument which she used
effectively in one of her papers on the Reform of the Civil
Service, to emphasize the gi-eater importance of good
government for cities. Municipal control over the water
supply, the food supply, public health and the cleanliness
of the city streets she again maintains can be so exer-
cised as to be a blessing or a curse to the inhabitants.
Stress also is laid upon the duty of the city authorities
to provide adequate fire protection, and the best possible
public schools. It is important to all dwellers in cities to
have good government, "or in other words Civil Service
Reform." Several of the following pages of this unpub-
lished address are devoted to a closely reasoned state-
ment of the necessity of Civil Service Reform in the United
States, and the great advantage.s to be derived from it,
and it then continues :]

To return now from this rather long digression, I think
you will all agree that, even if I have not proved that
good government is more important to women than to
men, at least I have shown that it is all-important to
both if they live in a city. I have also shown you that
good government depends upon having intelligent and
honest men and women to do the public work. My next
effort will be to show how women may help to secure the
appointment of such men and women to public office.

I think that there can be no doubt that if women could
vote they would have more power, and could help more
directly than they can now, especially in secm-ing the
enforcement of the laws which most concern themselves.

440

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

Take for instance the law of 1881, of which I have already
spoken, which requires that employers shall provide suit-
able seats for their female employees, and shall permit
the use of them. Although this law had been on the
statute book for thirteen years, in many of the largest
shops in this city, where hundreds of girls and young
women were employed, the law was a dead letter, and these
tired young creatures stood, at certain seasons of the year,
from eight in the morning until ten at night, with only
short intermissions. It is hard to believe that, were
these women voters, their needs, and the law enacted to
protect them, would not be more regarded.

Agam, I do not expect, and I do not desire, legisla-
tion fixing any minimum rate of wages for women ; but is
it unreasonable to hope that with the added dignity and
sense of personal importance and the increased public
spirit which the suffrage would create in women, there
would come also the capacity for self-protection by
organization ? The only possible means by which in the
last resort wages can be raised is by union among the
wage-earners, by labor organization. Tlie fierce competi-
tion among retail dealers caused by the great consuming
public in its quest for cheapness forces them, willingly or
unwillingly, to press hai-dly on the wholesale dealers,
who m their turn are forced to drive the workers to kilUng
work at starvation wages; and the only power that can
strike back, and stop the horrible pressure that crushes
out life, is a strong trade union at the bottom. This, it
seems, women cannot now have, for lack of self-confidence,
and for lack of the sense of class obligation, of class pubUc

THE WOMAN'S MUNICIPAL LEAGUE 441

spirit which would lead them to stand by each other and
to consider the interests of their fellow-workers as well as
their own. This tendency to think only of their own
needs and to forget the needs of other women is un-
doubtedly a strong influence in keeping women's wages
down. "Were women trained in class public spirit, in an
vmselfish regard for the common interests of their fellows,
they would reflect upon the effect of their own actions upon
the latter, and we should not hear of an educated young
woman who wants to add a little to her income taking
a clerk's place, but refusing to accept more than half a
clerk's salary because she does not need more. She
would think of the women who do need more and whom
her selfish unselfishness is helping to starve. If women
thought more of the needs of other women, we should
not hear of their taking neckties to embroider at one
dollar and a half a gross "and find their own silk," to
get pin money. They would think of the widows and
children who have to sit from four in the morning until
ten at night to make a living out of the same embroidery.
I believe that the qualities, needed to help women win
good wages for themselves and for each other, courage,
self-confidence, public spirit, would be fostered by the
suffrage, and that is one reason why I want women to have
the suffrage.

I also believe that the vote would be an actual protection
to women who are personally at the mercy of brutal men.
There are not a few men who have no regard for women at
all, who look upon them only as things to be injured, in-
sulted, maltreated and abused at the will of men. The law

444

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

perceive the extraordinary lapses from truth on the part
of lawyers and doctors, yet themselves stray very far from
what non-business men think square dealing. Politicians
are at least as fjir as the other professions from following
the strict line of honesty, and as for corporation conscience,
it seems the most perverted of all, for it has a morbid
sensitiveness in one direction, that of the stockholders,
and an amazing callousness in all other directions. How-
ever, I only refer to these facts concerning the profes-
sional conscience as a proof that the consciences of men
are greatly influenced by the circumstances under which
they must earn their livings, and to show that it is en-
tirely natural that women, not having been subject to the
strain of such circumstances, should have a normal con-
science, and consequently a clearer moral sense than men.

This clearer moral sense has, however, not been as useful
in raising the standards of the human race as it ought to
have been because of the very reason which has created it,
because women have been shut out from the general life
of the world.

Now, however, that they are coming forward into the
struggle of life, that they are taking part in pubUc work
and in movements for the public good, they should prize
this power which their sheltered Uvea have given them,
and feel to the full the responsibility which its possession
imposes upon them. The danger is lest they should cast
it away as one of the trammels which have hampered them
in the past ; but if they do, they will commit a great sin,
for it should be an inestimable blessing to them and to the
world, and they should realize that it is a sacred trust. It

THE WOMAN'S MUNICIPAL LEAGUE 445

is another instance of the contrast between evolution and
effort. Through the past ages since the human race ex-
isted, the priceless faculty has been evolving in women,
unconsciously to themselves ; but now that they have come
to a higher intellectual development and recognize the
quality in themselves, unless they consciously preserve
and use it, applying it as a test to every plan of action
presented for their acceptance, they will lose it.

In reform movements, as in other undertakings, the great
service which women can render is the maintenance of
uncompromising ideals.

They can do this now more easily than men, because they
stDl have the more acute moral sense and see the ideal
more clearly, and because they are still in a measure re-
moved from the necessity of accommodating the ideal to
the details of the actual. In other words, women may have
the privilege if they will, of pointing to the higher aim to
which all action should be directed, and of ignoring the
means by which the aim is to be reached. But they will
not long continue to hold these advantages unless they
consciously and conscientiously exercise them. The
temptation to give up the ideal wiU assail them also as
they are more and more drawn into the strife, and to give
up the ideal means to give up working with the eternal
laws of Right, and to work against them, to give up
working with God and to struggle against Him.

"i ';;3

■a" a

TRAMPS

447

CHAPTER XIX

September 30, 1896.

Tramps

Commander Booth Tucker,

Salvation Army.
Sir:

In asking you to appoint a time when we could explain
to you our views and plans in regard to the best way of
deaUng with homeless men in New York City, we did not
say why we regarded ourselves as having any particular
claim to be heard on the subject, so that you will now
excuae us if we introduce ourselves more at length.

We are members of a body which, since its organization
two years ago, has devoted especial attention to the best
way of diminishing vagrancy in this city, and, as individuals,
we have each studied the whole subject in its wider aspects
for a much longer period.

New York City, among its other peculiarities, has been
peculiar in never making any decent public provision for
the care of homeless men until within the past year, when a
beginning, to be described later, was made.

In place of any such provision, there grew up the most
pernicious system ever known in any civilized commu-
nity, the police lodgings, whereby men and women were
received for the night in the precinct station houses,
without examination of any kind, kept practically without

' Written by Mrs. Lowell for the committee.
446

■? =1

* m

supervision, given no bath, no bed, no food, and turned
out each morning, to return at night to the same or some
other station house, and continue this life for years.
No one has ever been found to defend this practice ;
during the past twenty years at least it has received fre-
quent and strong condemnation from many quarters ; but
it was not until March 15 of this year, that the last
lodging room was officially closed.

The essential evils of the poUce lodgings system were

three :

1. Danger of physical contagion.

2. Certainty of moral degradation.

3. Encouragement of vagrancy.

A proper system should avoid all three, and substitute
for them the corresponding advantages :

1. Cleanliness and safety from disease.

2. Moral improvement.

3. Gradual diminution of vagrancy.

It has been during the past two years the object of the
Committee to which we belong to introduce such a system

in this city.

In 1895 we issued a small pamphlet, "How to Help
Homeless People," a copy of which we leave with you ; and
in consequence of our efforts, the Department of Chanties
and Correction undertook to receive homeless men at East
Twenty-sixth Street and lodge them over night, with the
intention, as we hoped, of disposing of them the following
morning in accordance with their own statement, sending
men not resident sixty days in this city to the care of the
State Board of Charities as State paupers, and sending
self-confessed city vagrants to the institution provided
by the city for the care of homeless men — the Workhouse.

The intention was never carried out, however, and
gradually, during the a^mmer of 1895 there grew up on

448

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

the East Twenty-sixth Street dock a lodging room which
was almost as bad as the police lodgings and to which hun-
dreds of men came night after night to lodge as a matter
of course. There was practically no more examination
than at the precinct station houses ; there was not much
more supervision ; and, as in the latter, here also vagrancy
was directly encouraged, the dock lodging house of the
Commissioners of Public Charities and Correction being
only another evil added to the pohce lodging rooms.

In consequence of this condition, the Committee on
Vagrancy, of which we are members, applied to the Board
of Estimate and Apportionment on December 26, 1895,
in support of the request of Commissioner Faure of the
new Board of Charity Commissioners, for an appropriation
to provide a proper system of caring for homeless men by
that department. Stress was laid on the fact that the
principal thing required was inquiry into the actual con-
dition of each individual who apphed for lodgings as home-
less, in order to discriminate in disposing of him, so that
men with homes in other cities should be returned to them
by the State Board of Charities under the State Pauper
Law; that actual city vagrants should be committed
to the Workhouse ; and that young beginners in the de-
grading life of vagrancy might be referred to private
charity and some hope of salvation be offered them, the
object in all cases being to stop the homelessness.

Inquiry being the first step, money to pay inquiry
officers was needed, and properly qualified officers. The
money asked for ($10,000) was appropriated, on the un-
derstanding that this provision by the Department of
Charities for the proper care of homeless men was to take
the place of the Pohce Lodging Houses, and on March 11,
1896, the City Lodging House was opened and, as we have
said, on March 15, the Pohce Lodging Houses were closed

TRAMPS

449

.and one stain removed from the name of our city. The
City Lodging House was kept open for nearly tliree
months, and the result was very encouraging, despite the
imperfections incident to an entirely new imdertaking.

We were not at all satisfied either with the amount or
thoroughness of the inquiries made, and yet even the
imperfect work done more than confirmed our previous
opinion as to its value. The statistics collected were very
striking, showing among other things that out of a total of
9,386 lodgers, 3,622 had been in the city less than sixty
days and 968 more less than one year, while 4,678 were
under 30 years of age, and in good health. From these
figures our conclusions are that what is needed for our city
is a temporary lodging house maintained by the Depart-
ment of Charities, where men accidentally homeless may
be received and kept so long as is necessary to determine
as to the appropriate disposition of each one, but that there
is no need to supply any permanent resort for homeless
men in the city, since we beheve that such a place would
serve only to encourage men in a hfe of vagrancy, than
which nothing, in our opinion, could be more cruel.

And it is upon this ground that we are disturbed by
what we understand to be your plan to estabhsh cheap
or free lodging houses, and we have asked for this meet-
ing iri order to beg that you will not put it into operation.
Unfortunately there are in the city already 104 cheap
lodging houses for men, with 15,368 beds, the cost per
bed per night running from 7 cents to 35 cents. These are
acknowledged by all persons, we believe, to be an unmiti-
gated evil, and although we know that such lodging houses
as you would control would have many features not to be
found in the existing houses, yet we are firmly convinced
that even your lodging houses would, in the end, serve to
increase vagrancy.

450

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

The number of vagrants in any city or country is not at
any time fixed, but fluctuates with conditions and temp-
tations, and every additional provision, good, bad, or in-
different, made to shelter homeless men, will serve to draw
men, who have homes, but who for any reason do not like
them, from their homes into a homeless state. Instead of
substituting your lodging houses for the existing lodging
houses, you will only add them to them just as the lodg-
ing at East Twenty-sixth Street was in 1895 added to
the police lodgings, and the number of homeless men will
correspondingly increase.

Instead then of creating a few thousand more vagrants
for the purpose of trying to raise them morally afterwards,
will you not bring the great power of the Salvation Army
to bear on the vagrants who now Uve in our New York
lodging houses? Hire rooms or buildings next to lodg-
ing houses now in operation and fit them up with every
appliance for moral and spiritual care, and attract the
lodgers of actual lodging houses into meetings, for instruc-
tion, for pleasant social evenings, for religious teaching ;
but do not tempt from the country the innocent, honest
lads who are longing to try their luck in the great city and
who, when they hear that the Salvation Army has cheap
lodgings, will think it right to come and live in them, for,
if you do, the souls of those who go to destruction ih this
city will far outnumber any that you can save, and you
will do them and all of us a great injury, which all the
good you have done cannot outweigh. We shall, of course,
continue our efforts to secure for the city such a system
for the care of homeless men as we believe to be needed,
including a temporary shelter in the city and a Farm
School for vagrants to take the place of the Workhouse,
as soon as it can be estabhshed and we hope that we shall
have your help in this. As to shelters for homeless women,

TRAMPS

451

we can only quote from our published report of last Spring,
when we said :

"To turn now to the more difl&cult problem of homeless
women — the committee beUeves that the added de-
gradation which must almost inevitably chng to that
unhappy creature, a homeless woman, even beyond that
of a homeless man, and the fact that she is a constant
danger and injury to all around her, makes it still more
cruel to provide shelters for such than for men. There
is less excuse for them also, because, unless a woman is
a confirmed drunkard, she can usually find some home
whereat least her board will be gladly given for her services ;
and if she is a confirmed drunkard, she had far better,
for every reason, be placed in the care of an institution
than encouraged to remain at large.

"The effort should be to force all homeless women
either into the workhouse, the almshouse, or into per-
manent homes, where they can be watched over and pro-
tected from themselves and others, and from which they
can be sent to situations in famiUes. Such places (like
the 'Hopper Home,' 'House of the Good Shepherd,'
'Magdalen Benevolent Society' and others) are a blessing,
but not homes which allow their inmates the Uberty to
come and go at will.

"In the September 1895 number of the London
Charity Organization Review, is an article on 'Cheap
Shelters,' from which the following extracts are very
suggestive :

'The good intention in starting "Women's Shelters"
is to help the poorest and lowest, and, by providing
decent lodging free, or for the smallest payment,
to clear the streets of women who, though homeless,
will not go to the workhouse. So far are these shelters,
in fact, from accomphshing this, that the actual result

■^a

452

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

TRAMPS

453

is precisely the reverse of that intended, and instead
of clearing the streets, a women's shelter has the effect
of considerably increasing the number of bad women
who haunt them.

'To put the matter plainly, women's shelters give dis-
tinct encouragement to immorality by making a Ufe of
sin more easy to women and girls, through the casual
shelter afforded them. Women of bad character ad-
mitted for the night are turned out next morning to spend
the day and evening in the streets or as they can, and are
again admitted at night. This enables them to carry
on their shameful trade freely, making use of the shelters
when it suits their convenience.

'Nor is this all. Besides the faciUties to women of
the neighborhood, others of the lowest class are attracted
from a distance, thus increasing the special evil a shelter
is designed to remedy.

'The question of the harm done by women's shelters
is altogether too large a one to be discussed on the narrow
basis of benefit to a percentage of those admitted. The
harm done outside can never be precisely reckoned up :
but it is of a nature so calamitous and enduring in its effects
that the worst injury from dirt or small-pox is as nothing
in comparison.'

"There are, of course, and must be, some casual cases
of homelessness of women and children, and the practical
way to manage these is not to encourage the cruelty which
turns helpless creatures into the street, by providing per-
manent places for them, but to treat each such case on its
own merits, and with strangers, to send or much better to
take them to the Joint Application Bureau at the Charities
Building, 105 East Twenty-second Street, which is open
from 9 A.M. to midnight every day, excepting Sunday,
and from 6 p.m. to midnight on Sunday, where each case

ii'ii

■I -ftS

will be carefully considered and provided for in some

way.

(Signed) Josephine Shaw Lowell,

Charlotte Lindley Cotjper,

John A. McKim,

R. R. McBURNEY,

Wm. H. Tolman,

Jno. Lloyd Thomas,

Jacob A. Riis,

Homer Folks.

The Influence op Cheap Lodging Houses on City

Pauperism ^

There are two ways of looking at the problems pre-
sented by city vagrancy and homelessness. They are
exactly opposite in every respect, and result, naturally,
in exactly opposite conduct.

The first, which is held by a large company of most in-
telUgent and philanthropic men and women all over the
world, is that the present condition of things is susceptible
only of mitigation, never of radical change. They appear
to think that because vagrancy and homelessness have in
every civilized community always been one of the worst
of evils, therefore they must continue, and that all the
community can do is to make their evil less evil ; for even
they, I think, do not contend that vagrancy and homeless-
ness can be changed into benefits either to the unhappy
victims or to the community.

^ Written for the Baltimore, Maryland, Charity Organization Society,
February, 1897.

454

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

The course of action they advocate is that decent pro-
vision shall be made for homeless and vagrant men and
women, that they shall be recognized as a necessary
part of the body politic, and that both private charity and
the municipal authorities shall buUd for them cheap or
free lodging houses, where they may hve clean, healthy,
decent, and even comparatively comfortable lives, in order
that they may themselves not be miserable and also that
the community may be protected from the contagion of
moral and physical disease which they spread about them,
when they are neglected and ignored.

There is, of course, much to be said in support of this
view and this course of conduct; but the other party dis-
sents from it in toto and thinks the providing of cheap and
free lodging houses as places of permanent, or anything
approaching permanent, residence is a great economic
mistake, and that though it is undoubtedly benevolent,
it is not beneficent, but on the contrary does harm and is
cruel.

Those who hold this view, among whom I desire to be
counted, beUeve that vagrancy and homelessness need not
be permanent evils, and that they ought not to be allowed
to be permanent evils; that they can be cured, and that
they ought to be cured.

We think that the life in a cheap lodging house, under
whatever management it may be, is a life not fit for a man
to lead ; and further that a hfe without duties, without ties,
without afifection, without home influences is a Hfe which
is demoraUzing, whether it is led in a luxurious clubhouse
on Fifth Avenue, or in a miserable ten cent lodging house

TRAMPS

455

on the Bowery; and that therefore people who are trying
to do good to their fellow-men should establish neither
lodging clubs nor lodging houses, although both will
unfortunately be established by people who are seeking
pleasure and gain.

Pray do not misunderstand me. The lodging houses we
object to are such as make men contented with this miser-
able isolated life; which make a man physically com-
fortable without raising his moral and mental standards ;
which provide lodgings and food, and allow the lodgers
entire liberty to procure the money to pay for them in any
way they can ; which allow men to settle down for years,
accepting these lodging houses as substitutes for homes.
A home which takes entire charge of its inmates, which
teaches them and raises their standard and makes them
hate the life they are leading; which keeps them only
so long as is necessary to train them for self-support;
which pushes them on and up continually, is not what I

refer to.

The trouble is that the usual free or cheap lodging
house, instead of raising the moral and intellectual stan-
dard of its inmates, descends to then- standard, except
physically, accepts their view that the homeless life
is a natural and necessary one, and by making it more
bearable, tends to confirm them in their love for it. The
cheapening of the means of living, although a blessing to
persons whose standards are high enough to make them
desire and strive for something better than a bare existence,
is a curse to many who are satisfied with merely living, if
they can accompUsh that without any exertion. This

456

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

living without exertion and with liberty to indulge the
lowest propensities makes up for many deprivations, and
it is this that makes cheap lodging houses so attractive
and so fatal. The only way to counteract the temptations
presented by this life is not to present facilities for carrying
it on, but on the contrary to force, to drive, to spur all
those who are inclined to it into a better way.

There are in this city already 105 cheap lodging houses,
with beds for sixteen thousand men, the cost per bed
per night running from 7 cents to 35 cents, and these
are acknowledged by all persons, we beheve, to be an
unmitigated evil ; and yet the first of these was established
by the advice of a City Missionary, who thought that to
provide one or two such houses would be a great blessing
to homeless men. He certainly never looked forward to
providing for sixteen thousand men in such places.

The former Chief of Police, Superintendent Byrnes, said
of them : "It is undeniable, that the lodging houses have
a powerful tendency to produce, foster and increase crime.
In nine cases out of ten the stranger who drifts into a lodg-
ing house turns out a thief or a burglar, if indeed he does
not, sooner or later, become a murderer. Thousands of
instances of this kind occur every year."

I am aware that one principal object of cheap lodging
houses established by municipaUties or by private charity
is to supersede the common lodging houses, or force them
to improve by the competition ; but I contend that the
object cannot be attained by this means and that the
improvement of common lodging houses must be accom-
plished by law and by strict inspection.

TRAMPS

457

This, then, is our first charge against cheap lodging
houses : that they do not really help, but on the contrary,
that they keep down those who frequent them. But we
believe that they have also to answer for a worse sin, and
that every new lodging house, under whatever manage-
ment, increases the number of vagrant and homeless
persons.

It is because young people think there are so many
chances of getting on in the great city that they now
flock into it, and everything which makes them think it
still easier to find food and shelter without much trouble
but adds to their number.

You may well ask me what measures we, who believe
that vagrancy and homelessness can be cured, do ad-
vocate? How do we propose to cut off the streams?

First we believe in treating each one of these unhappy
men and women, so far as it is possible, as an individual,
finding out about them and using the knowledge gained
to do what is best for him or her. Speaking broadly,
there are three classes of persons styled homeless in any
great city.

To begin at the end, there are those who choose to be
homeless. For them to be shut up away from the over-
powering temptations which destroy them would be a
mercy. They should be arrested as vagrants and kept
in what General Booth has called "An Asylum for Moral
Lunatics," and failing such a refuge, in the workhouse for
the longest terms allowed by law.

In the second class are the honest seekers for work who
come to the city, ignorantly thinking to find the means

458

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

TRAMPS

459

of self-support here, and fail entirely, being forced to seek
charitable aid within a few days of their arrival. They
will in an incredibly short time become demoralized if they
are encouraged to hope ; and they should be snatched up
and sent home as soon as possible ; at any rate, it is
cruel to do anything to keep them in a life which leads to
the lowest depths.

The third class is of young fellows who either do not know
how to earn their living, or do not care to do it, who are
ignorant, or else lazy, or only without any settled habit
of work. Whether they have homes or not, they certainly
should never be allowed to live permanently in free or
cheap lodging houses if it can be helped. If charity has
to support them, it should be in some place where they
would be under control and where they should be taught
to work steadily every day and all day long.

One of the great evils of cheap lodging houses, whether
commercial or charitable, is that a man who gets good
wages can earn by one or two days' work enough to pay his
way for a week, and a man who works two days each week
and idles four is not a desirable person, whether regarded
as an individual or as a member of the community. There-
fore the benevolent should not provide houses where men
may live in this way, but should, by all means, provide
places where they shall be obliged to work hard and reg-
ularly. Farm schools are the best places and are in-
tended to receive and educate the young men who claim
to be homeless in this city. Of the 9,386 lodgers who in
two months last year were received in the City Lodging
House, 4,678 were under thirty and were strong men.

Surely it is only cruel to encourage such men to lead an idle,
worthless Ufe and to become confirmed vagrants.

The Committee on Vagrancy of the Conference of
Charities, which holds the views I have been trying to
explain, advocates the maintenance by the city of a
lodging house to be used as a distributing centre for the
three classes I have described, and of a farm school where
those who cannot be otherwise provided for shall be
trained.

MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS

461

CHAPTER XX
Miscellaneous Papers
Imprisonment op Witnesses
Mr dear Mr. Fairchilb : '
I have an uncomfortable feeling that I wrote to you

Zle^Jf: r ' ".'^t^' ^°" ^°"^^ ^-^ ^« th« chapter
Tl^TVuil^^"' ""^'^ y°^ ^^'^ instrumental in having
St" te kndt ?"' *'' -P-onment of witnesses in Ms
btate, and that you were unable to do so

This does not deter me, however, from asking again if
you can help me to find the law in question, for I have Lt
heard of a most flagrant case, that of a xxirwegian saUor
whose pocket was picked by a companion, an^whohTs

«s'^^ "'",' "/ ^''^^yy-' f"" of criminals and
vagrants, for thirty days, and unless something can be
done abou him, he is to stay there another month I
he should turn anarchist, or nihilist, and murder every-

get ouH w 1;^''. 'u' ''^ ""^ ^^^^^"--^ -hen he IJes
get out. It would not be a surprising result !

Sincerely yours,
November 2nd, 1891. "^' ^^ ^^^•

■ Letter to Hon. Charles S. Pairehild.
460

r'M

The Elmira Reformatory ^

To THE Editor of the Evening Post.

Sir:

May I say a few words more about the Elmira Re-
formatory inquiry ? I wish to call attention to one of the
worst results of this whole deplorable business, that is,
the discredit which will fall upon the system upon which
the State reformatory was established, and upon which
it was successfully conducted during the first years of its
existence.

Mr. Brockway's principle that moral means are the most
efficacious in reforming criminals is sound, but Mr. Brock-
way himself has dealt it the most fatal blow by abandon-
ing it for 30 per cent of the population of the reformatory,
and the danger is that this will be accepted as proof that
the principle itself is false. As a fact, however, what has
been proved is that Mr. Brockway was right when he said
the reformatory should not contain more than five hundred
inmates, and his own failure is due to the fact that, despite
the protest of the State Board of Charities, made yearly
since 1886, the managers have, nevertheless, allowed the
institution to be extended until it now contains fourteen
hundred inmates, and this number, Mr. Brockway says
in his testimony, cannot be managed by one man with-
out recourse to the old brutal methods which the re-
formatory was established to supersede.

Mr. Brockway is himself the most pitiable victim of this
misuse of the reformatory, for it has made him false to the
very principle to which he has devoted his life.

Josephine Shaw Lowell.

New York, September 26, 1894.

1 Published in New York Evening Post, September 27, 1894.

462 JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

Inspection of Private Charities ^

The recent decision of the Court of Appeals in the case
of the State Board of Charities vs. the New York
Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children is not
of extreme importance so far as regards the nominal ques-
tion involved, for, whether the State Board of Charities
inspects or does not inspect the building of the society,
the welfare of only a comparatively small number of per-
sons will be affected in a small degree, if at all. There are
two other aspects of the decision, however, which seem
to me to be of very great importance to the people of the
State of New York, and these have received so far too
little attention from the public press.

The State Board of Charities was established in 1867
by Chapter 951, and was required by that law to visit "all
the chaiitable and correctional institutions of the State,
excepting prisons, receiving State aid." By Chapter 571,
Laws of 1873, the powers of the Board were enlarged, and
the Board or any of its commissioners was thereby au-
thorized, whenever they deemed it expedient, "to visit and
inspect any charitable, eleemosynary, correctional or
reformatory institution in the State, excepting prisons,
whether receiving State aid or maintained by municipaUties
or otherwise."

After the passage of this law the Board exercised this
power whenever in its opinion any institution in the State
which had the care of dependent persons, whether men,
women or children, was suspected of not giving proper

' Published ia Charities of January 27, 1900.

MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS

463

care to those dependent persons. During the twenty-five
years from 1873 to 1898 the only important society, if I
remember rightly, which protested against the right of the
State Board to inspect was the New York Hospital, and
this upon the ground that the charter granted by King
George III to that society protected it from inspection
by a board created only by the State of New York. But
the present decision now, after twenty-seven years, plainly
declares that the State Board of Charities has the power
to inspect only institutions which receive pubhc money
for use or distribution as charity, and thus all institutions
which do not receive public money are withdrawn from
its supervision, and the dependent inmates are left with-
out the protection which the State has afforded them for
more than a quarter of a century.

This aspect of the decision which affects the welfare of
thousands of dependent and helpless men, women and
children is certainly important enough to attract public
attention, were there no other. There is another aspect
of this decision, however, which is still more grave, for it
tends to undermine respect for the opinion of the majority
of the judges of the Court of Appeals, and that certainly
would be a pubhc calamity. As stated above, the law of
1867, estabUshing the State Board of Charities, did pro-
vide that it should inspect only institutions receiving
State aid ; but the law of 1873 swept away that restriction,
giving it power, in its discretion, to inspect others, and
Article VIII of the Constitution of 1894, with the laws of
1895 (Chapter 771) and of 1896 (Chapter 546) made it the
duty of the Board to inspect all charitable institutions,

464

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

for they provided that the State Board of Charities "shall
visit and inspect all institutions, societies and associations,
whether State, county, municipal, incorporated, or not
incorporated, private or otherwise, which are of a chari-
table, eleemosynary, reformatory, or correctional char-
acter or design."

Now, m the face of this expUcit statement of the con-
stitution and the laws that the State Board of Charities
shall visit and inspect all institutions coming under the
above description. Judge O'Brien states, and Judges Parker,
Gray and Bartlett concur, that

"The powers of the board over charitable institutions
originated in the abuses supposed to exist in the appro-
priation and expenditure of public money for charitable
purposes. . . . The charity with which the State is con-
cerned . . . consists in the distribution of relief or public
aid, the fruit of taxation levied aUke upon the willing and
the unwilling. The right of visitation and regulation ap-
plies only to those institutions, public or private, through
which the State fulfils this function. They alone are
within the reason of the law, and, consequently, within
its scope and operation. One of the most familiar rules
of statutory construction is that general words must be
limited to the particular purpose or end which the law-
makers had in view. They must be understood and ap-
plied in the special sense in which they are used by legis-
lators. What may be called governmental charity, or
charity based upon pubhc taxation and administered by
a system of statute law, is a very different thing from the
charity that moved the good Samaritan and prompted the
widow's mite. The pKjwer of visitation and regulation
appUes to those institutions administering charity of the

MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS

465

former kind, in whole or in part, but not to those volun-
tarily engaged in some good work of the latter character.
They are left by the State to manage their own affairs m
their own way, or, at all events, are not within the juris-
diction of the State Board of Charities. That jurisdiction
can then be defined by the application of a very just
and simple test. If the particular institution, whether
public or private, receives public money for use or dis-
tribution as charity, and not for some other reason and
some other purpose, that institution is subject to visitation
by the Board, but this system of State supervision does
not extend to the efforts of private benevolence. That
may flow in various channels not subject to State regula-
tion, since the government is in no way concerned with
it."

Now, the opinion is quite correct, so far as the first
sentence refers to the law of 1867 (Chapter 951) estabhsh-
ing the State Board of Charities ; by that law the Board
was empowered to visit and inspect only institutions re-
ceiving State 'aid ; but what explanation is there of the
fact that the decision is based on this law, which was in
force only five years, and practicaUy ignores its amend-
ment twenty-seven years ago, by the law of 1873 (Chapter
571), empowermg the Board and its commissioners to visit
aU institutions receiving State aid, or maintamed by
municipalities or otherwise, and further ignores the
Constitution of 1894 and the laws of 1895 (Chapter 771)
and of 1896 (Chapter 546), making it the duty of the Board
to visit all institutions, enumerating even those "not in-
corporated," which certainly never received any State
aid ? It is no light matter that the confidence of the

466

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

public in the intelligence of the majority of the judges of
its highest court should be put to such a test.

Josephine Shaw Lowell.
New York, January 22, 1900.

Moral Deterioration Following War

I cannot speak on this subject without making a dis-
tinction between different kinds of wars.

A war which requires personal sacrifice, a war which
makes a whole people place patriotism and public duty
above private comfort and ease, which forces men and
women out of self-indulgent devotion to material wealth
— such a war does not as a whole cause moral deterioration,
but on the contrary moral development in a nation.

Such a war was the Civil War in this country forty years
ago, and yet even that war, fought for noble pm-poses,
and lifting the nation in some ways to a much higher
moral plane than it had ever reached before, even that
war was the cause of moral deterioration in many individ-
uals, and dishonesty and recklessness were without any
doubt fostered by it among the people at large.

But if that is unhappily true of a war in which the motives
were to preserve the life of the nation and to free from
slavery four million men and women, what, can be said of
a war in which the nation makes no sacrifice, does not
even feel the weight of added taxation, goes about its
own selfish business and its own selfish pleasures exactly
as if not in any sense responsible for the war ? Not only
can no moral good come from such a war, but great moral
evil must ensue.

MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS

467

To our disgrace, it is in such a war that the people of the
United States are now engaged in the Philippine Islands ;
and I shall not ask you and the promoters of this meeting
to excuse me for devoting the rest of my time to a con-
sideration of this concrete instance of the "Moral Deteri-
oration following War," because I believe it could not be
more profitably spent.

The history of the introduction of the United States to
the Phihppine Islands is a disgraceful one.

In April, 1898, Admiral Dewey was ordered to prepare
to take Manila from the Spaniards, and our Consul at Hong
Kong arranged with him that a young Fihpino named
Emiho Aguinaldo, who had been at the head for one or
two years of a revolutionary party in the PhiUppines fight-
ing against Spain, but who at that time was resident in
Hong Kong, should meet him for the purpose of securing
Aguinaldo's help, and that of his former co-revolutionists
against Spain. A friendly agreement was entered into by
Admiral Dewey and Aguinaldo, whereby the latter was
encouraged and aided in every way to raise and equip a
Filipino army, and he soon had from fifteen to thirty
thousand men assembled, who invested Manila on the land
side, while the Navy of the United States besieged it from
the harbor. A revolutionary government was proclaimed
by Aguinaldo, who declared himself Dictator, but who also
sent out orders all over the Philippine Archipelago to
hold elections, the result of which was that a legislative
body was soon assembled at Malolos, thirty miles from
Manila ; and Aguinaldo was by this body elected President
of the Filipino RepubUc, a Fihpino flag was raised and

468

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS

469

saluted by Dewey's vessels, and the Filipinos were filled with
enthusiasm and with gratitude towards the United States.
In December, 1898, however, the President of the United
States proclaimed sovereignty over the PhiUppine Archi-
pelago. This naturally aroused the anger of the Filipinos,
who had been treasuring for six months or more the hope
that the United States intended to help and protect their
young republic against the attacks of other nations, and
the feeling became more and more bitter, and finally cul-
minated in a fight between the outposts of the two armies
on February 4, 1899; and from that time the United
States devoted itself to the task of crushing out what was
called the insurrection of the Filipinos.

That is, the United States having obtained a foothold
in a foreign country by professing friendship for the in-
habitants, calls those inhabitants rebels because the people
resist the invasion and try to defend their country. We
direct our army to crush out all resistance. The Filipino
people prefer death to subjugation, saying, as did
Patrick Henry, the American patriot, "Give me liberty or
give me death." Our unhappy army set to do such an
un-American, such a wicked task, tries to obey orders, be-
comes gradually more and more cruel. I cannot do better
than quote the account of President Schurman, who was
himself a United States Commissioner there, of the
gradual moral deterioration of our Army in the Philippines
and its causes.

[Then Mrs. Lowell quotes at considerable length from an
article pubUshed in The Independent under the title

-1

"The Philippines Again," presumably by President
Schurman, and continues : ]

It is incredible that the American people should have
been so ignorant and so careless in regard to the great
wrong which has been done in their name ; but now at
last we are awakening, we are beginning to realize the
facts. The opposition in Congress, with the help of such
liberty-loving Repubhcans (all honor to them !) as Senator
Hoar of Massachusetts, Senator Wellington of Maryland,
Mr. Littlefield of Maine, and Mr. McCall of Massachusetts
are speaking again the words that seem natural to the
men of our country. Now at last the question must be
brought before the country at the next Congressional
election ; and during the intervening six months every man
and every woman who cares not only for the liberty of the
Filipinos, but for the liberty of the United States of
America, should, in season and out of season, press this
vital matter upon the indifferent, until they must in self-
defence think of it, and make up their minds about it.
I said that the liberties of the United States are at stake
equally with the Uberties of the Filipino people, for it is
inevitable that should we willingly become the tjTants
of these helpless millions, should we turn our backs so
completely upon the principles which have made this
country a world power, moulding and influencing the
character of all the governments of the world during the
past hundred and twenty-five years, as to make it possible
for us to do such a thing, our moral deterioration would
be so rapid, our conscience must become so hardened in the

470

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

process, and our love of liberty so absolutely dead, that
we should become fit subjects for a tyrauny ourselves.
' There is no other nation upon whom so dire moral injury
could be inflicted, for there is no other which has so pre-
cious a heritage to lose. No other nation has ever laid
down the principle that aU men are equal, or that
governments derive their just powers from the governed,
or that taxation without representation is tyranny'
To Ignore these principles and deny them by their acts
would not therefore scar the conscience of Englishmen
Frenchmen or Germans, but it is impossible for us to do
such things and preserve the moral quahties of which in
past years we have been most proud.

We should do well to remember the words of Abraham
Lincoln m 1850, the man who as President twelve vears
later freed four million slaves. In answer to an invita-
tion to attend a celebration in honor of Jefferson, the
author of the Declaration of Independence, the man who
first said "All men are created equal," Mr. Lincoln
wrote: "This is a world of compensations, and he who
would be no slave must consent to have no slave. Those
who deny freedom to others deserve it not for them-
selves, and under a just God cannot long retain it
All honor to Jefferson ; to the man who, in the concrete
pressure of a struggle for national independence by a
smgle people, had the coolness, forecast and capacity to
mtroduce into a merely revolutionary document an
abstract truth, appUcable to all men and all times, and so
to embahn it there that today, and in all coming days, it
shall be a rebuke and a stumbling block to the very har-
bingers of reappearing tjTanny and oppression."

^1
m

MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS 471

Booker T. Washington *

There is probably not an intelligent man or woman in
the United States who does not know the name of Booker
T. Washington ; but comparatively few of us know how
great Mr. Washington really is, or how great is the service
he is rendering to both blacks and whites. For the inter-
ests of the two races are inextricably bound together.
The ten millions of colored people are as truly and vitally
a part of the nation as are any other ten million Americans ;
if they suffer, it is the nation that suffers; if they are
degraded, it is the nation that is degraded.

The only sure cure for the evils that come through the
brutal and degraded members of the negro race is their
moral development, just as the only cure for the evils that
come through the brutal and degraded members of every
other race is that they shall be elevated morally. There-
fore Mr. Washington is one of the greatest living bene-
factors of our whole people, since his life is devoted to the
moral elevation of thousands who are struggling against
tremendous odds to grow into higher and nobler men and
women, who in their turn will pass on to others the light
they have received.

Last spring in Virginia we heard an interesting account
of the inevitable results of no education and of education
among the colored people of that state. In one of the
counties in the neighborhood of Richmond, the resident
physician said he should soon move, as he feared for the

1 August 20, 1903.
ington.

Evidently an address to introduce Mr. Wash-

472

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

safety of his family, the negroes were so lawless and
vicious, — much deteriorated, he thought, since the aboli-
tion of slavery.

Replying to this Dr. Frissell, principal of Hampton,
said that such were doubtless the facts in that particular
county, for there had been but few schools in it, and very
poor ones, but that he could show the doctor many coun-
ties where exactly the opposite was true ; where the negroes
had much improved since the aboUtion of slavery, and
were decent law-abiding men and women, and good
citizens, and naturally so, for in those counties they had
had good schools, and, what was far more important, good
industrial and agricultural training for the people.

And this reminds me that we owe gratitude to Mr.
Washington not only for his invaluable service to the cause
of education in general, for he shares with General Arm-
strong, who taught and inspired him, and whose shining
example he is following, the credit of being among the first
educators in this country to make industrial training an
essential part of education.

It is an interesting fact that we owe the practical
demonstration of the value of industrial education, which is
coming more and more to be considered as an indispensable
part of the training of every child, to the efforts of these
two great men to guide the bewildered freedmen up from
slavery, and to fit them to be worthy citizens of the
Republic.

But I will keep you no longer. Mr. Washington has
planned and created and controlled a great educational
institution at Tuskegee in Alabama; but besides this

MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS

473

stupendous labor he is obliged also to perform the more
trying task of finding the money wherewith to maintain
and extend it. In both these fields of work his wife is his
worthy helpmate.

Model Tenements for Widows with Small Children

To the Editor of Charities :'

I have often wondered that no one thought of building
Mills Hotels for widows with small children.

The hves of these women are peculiarly hard, in that
they must perform the part of both father and mother,
must support their children as well as care for them.

A building provided with day nursery, kindergarten,
restaurant and laundry, where widows could have their
children with them at night, and leave them safe in the
care of good nurses and teachers while they were out at
work, would be an incalculable blessing. The women
could probably pay at least enough to cover all expenses,
while similar buildings for widowers with young children
would no doubt be a good investment.

Josephine Shaw Lowell.

To the Editor of Charities : ^

The disapproval of my plan for helping widows in the
care of their children expressed by your correspondent
X. Y. Z. is doubtless due to my mistake in speaking of
the proposed buildings as "Mills Hotels" instead of "Model
Tenements," for I do not contemplate that the meals
should be taken in common, or that anything approaching
an institution should be established.

On the contrary, my idea is that each widow should hu-e
from one to three rooms for herself and her children, which

Charities, May 3, 1902.

2 Charities, May 24, 1902.

474

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

should be as truly their own home as the rooms in any ordi-
nary tenement house, but that she should have the follow-
ing advantages : (1) That, when she goes out to work she
should be able to place her children in a day nursery or
kindergarten in the house, instead of being obliged to carry
them to one four or five blocks away. (2) That, before go-
ing and on returning from work, and on Sundays, she should
be able to buy the family meals from the common kitchen,
instead of having to cook them. (3) That she should also
be able to have her washing done at the common laundry,
instead of taxing her own small strength to do it.

A widow in such a Model Tenement would thus be with
her children when she is not obhged to be absent earning
their support, and she would have the necessary assistance
in her home duties, which no working woman can ade-
quately perform without entirely overtaxing her strength.
The strain put upon widows who support their children is
more than human beings should be required to bear.

Josephine Shaw Lowell.

CHAPTER XXI
Work for Civil Service Reform

On Thanksgiving Day, 1856, George William Curtis/
who had the year before dehghted American readers with
his "Prue and I," and was then in his thirty-third year,
married Anna Shaw and went to live with the Shaws at
their residence on Staten Island. At that time, Effie, as
Josephine was called by her [family and intimate friends,
was thirteen. The influence of Curtis' personaUty upon
the expanding mind of his Uttle sister-in-law was far-reach-
ing. Sensitive, intelligent, energetic, and patriotic by
nature, she must have been stimulated in her mental
growth by intimate association with one of the most
cultivated and useful public men of his generation.
Too much stress cannot be laid, in estimating the causes
which produced the wonderful woman Mrs. Lowell after-
wards became, upon the influence of her brother-in-law;
she must literally have sat at his feet. In the diary

>For many of the facts relating to George William Curtis I am
indebted to Ma life by Edward Gary, published in 1894 in the series
of "American Men of Letters.",

475

476

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

which she kept in 1861 and 1862, she mentions that George
read his paper aloud, and that it was "splendid."

Mr. Curtis went as a supporter of the candidacy for the
presidential nomination of Governor Seward to the
Repubhcan National Convention of 1860 which nomi-
nated Lincoln. Wiien the Civil War broke out, he de-
voted his time and thought to the cause of the Union in
the press, and in 1863, when the war was half fought, be-
came editor of Harper's Weekly, and continued in control
of the editorial policy of that influential paper until his
death in 1892. During all the years of his direction of
that journal, he resided near the Shaws on Staten Island.
How much pleasure and instruction Mrs. Lowell, who
married the same year Mr. Curtis' long editorship began,
and retained her residence with her father's family, must
have derived from hearing the policies of Harper's famil-
iarly discussed at the fireside at that critical period of
our history ! No wonder that in later years it was easy
for her to write to the press on public questions and to
feel at home in the company of newspaper men, many of
whom she numbered among her friends.

Mr. Cary, in his life of Curtis, already mentioned, gives
two quotations from his letters which make touching
wartime mention of relatives and friends referred to in
Josephine Shaw's diary.

20 April, 1861.
Anna and the baby are perfectly well. Her brother
Rob and my brother Sam marched yesterday with their
regiment, the 7th, both the Winthrops, Philip Schuyler,
and the flower of the youth of the city.

•■i->T;;'v-'-!

GEORGE WILLlxUI CURTIS

WORK FOR CIVIL SERVICE REFORM 477

April, 1865.
Here upon the mantel are the portraits of the three
boys who went out of this room, my brother, Theodore
Winthrop and Robbie Shaw. They are all dead, the
brave darlings, and now I put the head of the dear Chief
among them. I feel that every drop of my blood, and
thought of my mind, and affection of my heart, is conse-
crated to secure the work made holy, and forever impera-
tive, by so untold a sacrifice. May God keep us all as
true as they were ! ,

The war over, other questions than those of uaiion or
disunion, freedom or slavery, now forever settled, began
to engross the attention of the people. Among these
was civil service reform, in advocating which Mr. Curtis
with voice and pen became a leader. He attacked the
evils of the apoUs system, and organized a crusade which
assumed national importance for the establishment in
our public service of as high a standard as was already
attained in England. Under the provisions of a clause
of the Sundry Civil Appropriation Act of March 3, 1871,
President Grant was authorized to appoint a commission
to inquire what rules and regulations for admission to
the public service which the President could enforce under
existing laws would best promote its efficiency. The
President nominated Mr. Curtis to membership in this
commission of seven, on March 4, 1871. He accepted
the nomination, and was at once made Chairman. "Mr.
Curtis' real object in undertaking this work," says Mr.
Gary, "was the abolition of the spoils system, abuses
under which he had already been studying for several
years."

d78

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

In the first report of this comniission, submitted Decem-
ber 18, 1871, Mr. Curtis said : "In obedience to this sys-
tem, the whole machinery of the government is pulled to
pieces every four years," and that the object of the com-
mission was "to drive poUticsout of the civil service and
to drive patronage out of politics." The commission sub-
mitted, and the President approved, the rules for com-
petitive examinations, and completed its work with
their promulgation April 16, 1872. ^

Mr. Curtis was a born reformer, and his abilities as a
leader were always recognized. When the New York Civil
Service Reform Association was organized in 1880, he was
elected President, a position which he held until his death,
and in 1881, he was, by conunon consent, chosen the first
President of the National Civil Service Reform League.
So engrossed did he become in the promotion of this reform,
and his other public educational work, that during the
administration of President Hayes he twice declined the
coveted honor of representing his country at the Court
of St. James. "I have been told," said Mr. E. S. Nadal,
in an article on "Our Representatives in London," ^ "that
he declined solely because he did not wish to relinquish the
work he was doing at home." His interest in the reform
of the civil service was sustained without interruption
until his death in 1892 at his Staten Island home.

Not long after the assassination of President Garfield
by a disappointed spoils seeker, enraged because of a
question of party patronage, a bill for the reform of the
civil service, which had been introduced by Senator

' Century Magazine, July, 1909.

WORK FOR CIVIL SERVICE REFORM 479

George H. Pendleton of Ohio, was passed by Congress,
and signed by President Arthur, January 16, 1883. All
appointments to the national civil service were made
subject to the provisions of this bill, which became opera-
tive July 16, 1883. Curtis and his allied reformers had
won a notable victory.

Among Mrs. Lowell's papers there are a few letters
which relate to the subject of civil service reform. The
following extract from one dated January 7, 1883, addressed
to her sister-in law, Mrs. Robert Gould Shaw, refers to the
first election of President Cleveland, a friend of the re-
form :

Deab Annie :

Two months today since we lost Papa, and two months
since the wonderful election which would have so delighted
him, if he could only have known of it. He was intensely
interested in the reform movement, and one of the last
things he said on Monday was that he wanted to see the
Post, " to find out what the probabihties of the election
were." You know how it went — a perfect revolution, and
the result has been most wonderful. The Civil Service
Reform bill which George and his Association prepared and
have been working for for a year, and which was sneered
at and laughed at last winter, has now been passed by the
very same Congress by great majorities in both Houses !
It is a wonderful triumph, and Father would have been
perfectly dehghted with it. Poor Garfield's death has
had a wonderful effect in opening people's eyes — if he
had lived, we never should have got on so fast.

Other work occupied Mrs. Lowell's busy days, and it
was not until 1894 that she gave active attention to this

480

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

WORK FOR CIVIL SERVICE REFORM 481

subject. In that year, Carl Schurz, who succeeded
Mr. Curtis as President of the Civil Service Reform Asso-
ciation of New York State, called on Mrs. Lowell and in-
duced her to form a Women's Auxiliary to the Association.
The meeting for organization was held on Mrs. Lowell's
call in May, 1895, at the residence of Bishop Henry C.
Potter, 10 Washington Square. Mrs. William H. Schieffe-
lin, President of the Auxiliary, says that Mrs. Lowell re-
fused an election as President, giving the reason that peo-
ple were tired of seeing her name in print. She consented,
however, to serve as Vice President, and was also Chairman
of the Executive Committee. Mrs. Lowell's pen was busily
engaged for the Auxiliary in its formative period; she
framed the constitution, and in 1900 she suggested the
plan of holding annual competitions for prizes for essays
on civil service reform subjects, restricted to the women
members of the clubs in the State Federations, or in the
general Federation in states having no State Federations.
The papers for the first three annual competitions — those
of 1901, 1902, and 1903 — were prepared by Mrs. Lowell,
and the essays were sent to her. The judges of the first
competition were Charles J. Bonaparte of Baltimore, Lu-
cius B. Swift of Indianapolis, and Mrs. Lowell. The
winner of the first prize on this occasion, one hundred
dollars in cash, was Marion Couthouy Smith, of the
Women's Club of Orange, New Jersey.

The second competition, which was open to women at
large, was judged in 1902 by George McAneny, Mrs.
Lowell, and Miss A. J. Perkins. The winner, Annie
Jackson Evans, belonged to the New York Branch of

the Association of Collegiate Alumnje. Pupils of the
New York and Brooklyn public high schools contended
for the prizes offered in the third competition held in 1903,
in which the winner was Joseph H. Kohan, student in the
Commercial High School of Brooklyn, who shortly after-
wards won a scholarship in Harvard University. The
prize essays are published in pamphlet form by the Auxili-
ary, and the annual competitions are still held.

A seal for the Women's Auxiliary was designed by Miss
Frances Grimes, a pupil of Saint Gaudens, according to
suggestions made by Mrs. Lowell, who also chose the
motto, "The best shall serve the State." This seal
reduced in size, is used on the paper of the Women's
Auxiliary, and medals of gold, silver, and bronze have
been struck to be given as prizes for essays on topics of
government administration. It appears at the head of
this chapter.

The cause of civil service reform was also advanced by
Mrs. Lowell through her membership in the New York
State Federation of Women's Clubs. In 1900, at her
suggestion, a committee of five was appointed to study
the subject and report ways in which individual clubs
might further the reform. This was afterwards consti-
tuted a standing committee of the Federation under Mrs.
Lowell's chairmanship. She wrote the reports of this
committee for the years 1903 and 1904, and herself pre-
sented and read the first of these at the annual meeting
held in Utica. Both these reports were published in
pamphlet form. The close of 1904 found Mrs. Lowell still
at work for this cause in the Federation.
2i

482

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

So much for details ; but Mrs. Lowell's larger work was
the preparation of a series of papers under different titles
on the evils of the spoils system, and the urgent need of
the general adoption of civil service regulations in this
country, which she read at mass meetings, or other public
gatherings, both in New York and other states. A list of
all known to me is given in the index ; some of the more
important are, in whole or in part, included in this chapter.
All were written within the decade 1896-1905. In the
selection of the papers here published, I have had the
benefit of the advice of Hon. George McAneny,* for many
years a leader in the reform.

Of the paper entitled "The Reform of the Civil Service
and the Spoils System," Mr. McAneny writes : "The first
in the series, which bears the date of December 30, 1896,
and which, I believe, was given as the concluding number
in a course of papers on Civil Service Reform at the Berke-
ley Lyceum, I regard as one of the best presentations of
the theory of the reform that has ever been given anywhere.
The other lecturers in that Lyceum course, I remember,
were Theodore Roosevelt, Charles J. Bonaparte, Richard
Henry Dana, John R. Proctor, then United States Civil
Service Commissioner, Herbert Welsh, and myself."

The last paper Mrs. Lowell ever wrote was her report as
Chairman of the Committee on Civil Service Reform, of
the New York State Federation of Women's Clubs, finished
shortly before her death, and presented in her behalf
two weeks after she had passed away, by Miss Miriam

' President of the Borough of Manhattan of the City of New York,
1910.

WORK FOR CIVIL SERVICE REFORM 483

Mason Greeley, at the Eleventh Annual Meeting held
October 30-November 3, 1905. So dear wa^ the cause
of the reform to Mrs. Lowell, that as she lay on her death-
bed, she wrote in pencil on a pad the names of women she
hoped might be persuaded to join the Women's Auxiliary.
This list was found afterward, and because of it nearly
all whose names it bore joined the Auxiliary.

The Refobm of the Civil Service and the Spoils

System >

^ The Civil Service is defined in the dictionary to mean
"the body of persons in the pay of the State, as distin-
guished from the naval and miUtary services."

The reform of the Civil Service, then, is a very com-
prehensive reform, smce it must include the reform of
the whole machinery of the United States Government
besides that of all the State Governments, and the hun-
dreds of City and County Governments of the country, in
which are employed approximately six hundred thousand
persons, as follows :

In the United States Government, two hundred thou-
sand. In the State, City and County Governments, about
four hundred thousand.

That the Civil Service Reform Association recognized
that they were aiming at a fundamental reform is proved
by the language of the second article of their Constitution,
in which it is stated that "The object of the Association

' A paper read to the Women's Auxiliary of the Civil Service Reform
Association and the League for PoUtical Education, December 30 1896
and published in pamphlet form.

484

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

WORK FOR CIVIL SERVICE REFORM 485

shall be to establish a system of appointment, promotion,
and removal in the Civil Service, founded on the principle
that pubhc office is a public trust, admission to which
should depend upon proven fitness, and the Association
will advocate all other appropriate measures for securing
integrity, inteUigence, efficiency, good order, and due
discipline in the Civil Service."

But why, an innocent person might naturally ask, should
it have been necessary in 1S77, nearly one hundred years
after the United States Government had been founded by
some of the best and greatest men the world ever saw, —
why should it have been necessary for a few private citizens
to form an association to secure integrity, inteUigence,
efficiency, good order, and due discipline in the Civil
Service of this country, when these qualities would seem
to be a matter of course, or at least would seem to be the
first business of the men elected to the control of the
Federal, State, and City Governments ; for how could any
of the ends for which these governments were established
and carried on be attained, without integrity, intelligence,
efficiency, good order, and due discipline? Or again,
why should the Civil Service need to be reformed any more
than the Naval and Military Service?

To answer the last question first. The Naval and
Military' Services were protected from the deterioration
which befell the Civil Service by the fact thatasevere train-
ing was required at the West Point and AnnapoUs Acad-
emies before an appointment could be received ; and con-
sequently we never had in our army or navy the condition
described by Macaulay as existing in the English Navy

under Charles II. He says that at that time high naval
commands were distributed "among landsmen who, even
on land, could not safely have been put in any important
trust. Any lad of noble birth, any dissolute courtier for
whom one of the King's mistresses might speak a word,
might hope that a ship of the line, and with it the honor
of the country, and the lives of hundreds of brave men,
would be conamitted to his care. It mattered not that
he had never in his life taken a voyage, that he could
not keep his feet in a breeze, that he did not know the dif-
ference between latitude and longitude." And Macaulay
adds: "The same interest which had placed him in a
post for which he was unfit, maintained him there."

The answer to the first question is a much longer one.
The same corrupt condition which Macaulay describes
as existing in the Navy existed also in the Civil Service in
England at that time, and for many years later, and it was
by no means a new evil in that country or elsewhere ; on
the contrary, it was one of the very oldest. The use of
the public offices for the benefit, not of the people, but
of the Emperor, King, Duke, or tor the benefit of whoever
had the power to use them to strengthen himself and
his party, was the common way in which tyranny ex-
hibited itself, or rather it was the very essence of tyranny.
" L'etat, c'est moi," meant indeed that there were no public
offices at all, but that they all were the private property
of the King, and that the people, although they had to pay
taxes to support the officers appointed at the King's
pleasure, had no authority or right in regard to them.

The foxmders of otir RepubUc knew this ; they knew

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486

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

WORK FOR CIVIL SERVICE REFORM 487

that all the nations of history had suffered from oppression,

from extortion, and from manifold other evils resulting

from the abuse of the appointing power by their rulers,

but they provided no safeguards against this abuse because

unfortunately, they ascribed it, not to human nature, weak

when exposed to the temptations of power, but to the

monarchical and aristocratic form of government, and

they believed that a government that was democratic even

to so limited an extent as the one they established would

be protected against these especial evils by its very form.

Madison said in Congress, during General Washington's

administration, that any president who should remove a

competent officer for political reasons would be impeached.

The Fathers of the Repubhc were sure that the people

would guard their own interests when they had the power

to do so. They overlooked the fact that private interests

in contest with public interests are apt to conquer, because

they are supported by concentrated and individual effort,

while the efforts opposed to them are apt to be scattered

and far less intense.

For this reason they failed in the Constitution to protect
the new government from the old evils ; and the old evils
crept in and assumed even exactly the old shapes so well
known in history.

For the spoils system -so well known, alas, to us also,
is only the old tyranny, with the party put in place of the
King.

Spoilsmen repeat Louis XIV's assertion, but instead
of saying "L'etat, c'est moi," they say, "To the victors
belong the spoils." In each case the people, who pay the

taxes, are ignored, and the offices are used for the benefit,
not of the people, but of individuals and factions. In the
old times and in the old countries the individuals benefited
used to be the King and his favorites, while in these new
times and in this new countrj', it is the party in power
and its favorites who are benefited, and therefore, the evU
is far greater ; for whereas the corruption used to be con-
fined to a small nimiber of men closely connected with the
King, with us it has eaten into the character of the people
itself. There wei'e, comparatively, only a few persons in
a monarchy who felt the fatal effects of the bribery of
pubUc office, for it was only a few who had any chance
of being rewarded for unworthy political work by an ap-
pointment, but here, in both parties, the men who will
serve the party without conscience may all hope at least
for the reward, and the moral evil is proportionately more
hideous.

Of the many evils which follow the adoption of the spoils
system I will enumerate only a few. It demoralizes the
whole mass of the people by teaching them that honest
work and conscientious devotion to duty are not the road
to success in the United States; it degrades the public
oflScers themselves, who, whether honest and conscientious
or not, have to depend on the personal and poUtical favor
of this or that person to retain their offices; it causes
inefficiency and extravagance in the service, because of
the changes of officers consequent upon the "clean sweep"
which follows a change of administration ; it brings dis-
grace and loss to the nation abroad by reason of the ap-
pointment of men as consuls, and even as foreign ministers,

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488

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

not because they are fitted to fill the honorable places into
which they are forced, but because they have proved them-
selves adroit political managers and wire-pullers, or, in
other words, have proved themselves unfit to fill any
public place ; and it creates a fearful danger to the liber-
ties of the people at home because of the encroachments
made possible by the action of venal legislative bodies
bribed to betray the people by corrupt combinations
of capital, the election of such men to our legislative
bodies being made possible by the use of offices as party
rewards.

At first, so far as regarded the Federal service, the
founders of the Republic seemed justified in their hopes.
For more than a generation the government of the United
States was probably the purest that had ever been known ;
only fit men were appointed to office, and no one was
removed for political or personal reasons, but during all
that time the poison of the spoils system, nurtured by
Aaron Burr and Tammany Hall, was at work in this
unhappy State, which has been politically corrupt almost
from the moment of its birth ; and finally the fatal virus
spread to the nation itself. That the beginnings of danger
were recognized is amply proved by the warning voices
that were raised, long before the evils themselves had
assumed any very great proportions.

From many I select only two. In 1832 Van Buren's
nomination as Minister to England was opposed by Web-
ster, Calhoun and Clay, because of his attempts to per-
suade the President to adopt the " New York system of
party removals."

•>•■

WORK FOR CIVIL SERVICE REFORM 489

"It is a detestable system," cried Henry Clay, "drawn
from the worst periods of the Roman Repubhc, and if it
were to be perpetuated, if the offices, honors, and
dignities of the people were to be put up to a scramble,
and to be decided by the results of every Presidential
election, our govermnent and institutions, becoming
intolerable, would finally end in a despotism as inexorable
as that of Constantinople."

In 1840 Horace Bushnell said :

"Only conceive such a lure held out to this great peo-
ple, and all the little offices of the Government thus set
up for the price of victory, without regard to merit or
anything but party service, and you have a spectacle of
baseness and rapacity such as was never seen before. No
preaching of the Gospel in our land, no parental disci-
pline, no schools, not all the machinery of virtue together,
can long be a match for the corrupting power of our po-
litical strifes, actuated by such a law as this. It would
make us a nation of apostates at the foot of Sinai. . . •"

What is the remedy? The disease is plain. How can
it be cured? First by the reform of the whole Civil
Service ; by the destruction of the great bribery fund,
consisting of the salaries of the six hundred thousand
offices, amounting to at least three hundred milUon dollars,
which, for three generations, has been used to corrupt our
people ; the removal from the domain of poUtics of these
six hundred thousand offices, from heads of departments
in the United States Government to the woman who cleans
the station house in a country village ; the honest and
energetic enforcement of the principle that a pubUc
officer is appointed to do public work, and that, so long

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.ill!

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i' ■ '5 i

490

JOSEPHmE SHAW LOWELL

as he does that work well, the public will keep him in his
place ; that is, by the substitution of the "Merit System"
for the "Spoils System."

This is being slowly carried out by the passage and en-
forcement of United States and State laws, requiring that
appointments to subordinate executive offices shall be
made from persons whose fitness has been ascertained by
competitive examinations open to all applicants properly
qualified. But it sometimes seems as if this Civil Service
Reform, this simple device of guarding the entrance to
the public service by examinations, were a very inefficient
and a very inadequate weapon for accomplishing the great
reforms which must be accomphshed if the honor of our
country, if the morality of our country and of our in-
dividual citizens are to be saved.

But as the evil came about through the misuse of the
petty offices as a means of bribing men to support this or
that candidate or party, so the beginning of the rooting
out of the evil must be in rescuing the petty offices from
this misuse. We must then turn to the Civil Service
laws, whether Federal or State, to make the beginning
of reform ; and the way in wliich these laws are carried
into practice is the following :

A central body, called the Federal, or the State, or the
City Civil Service Commission, as the case may be, has
the direction and control of the applications and examina-
tions of candidates for positions in the Civil Service, or in
that part of it which has been classified, as the term is,
that is, which has been brought under the law ; but this
body has nothing whatever to do with appointments.

WORK FOR CIVIL SERVICE REFORM 491

It receives the applications of those desiring to enter an
examination, and requires that these applications shall be
accompanied by the written reconmiendation of three or
four reputable persons who know the applicant ; and if
these are satisfactoiy, he or she is summoned to take part
in the competitive examination of candidates for the posi-
tion sought. This examination is in writing, and is care-
fully prepared to show the general attainments of the com-
petitors, and in each case also to show his or her especial
fitness for the particular position in question. The names
of candidates are not known to the examiners who mark
the papers; and from these marks an eligible list is
made up, the candidates' names appearing upon it in the
order of their standing. The Conmiission also makes
private inquiries of the references concerning the appUcant
and whatever further character investigation seems to
be necessary, and if anything transpires during this
character investigation to show that the appUcant is in-
eligible for the position he seeks, he is not put on the list.
When the head of any department wants to fill a vacancy
or vacancies, he sends to the Civil Service Commission
for names, stating how many vacancies there are ; the rule
as to the number of names to be sent in for each vacancy
differs in the diflferent services, but in this city there are
two extra names sent in ; that is, three for one vacancy,
four for two, five for three, etc., to allow the appointing
officer some latitude of selection.

The men appointed under the Civil Service law are re-
ceived on probation only for six months, as it is recognized
that a man might pass a good examination and yet not

492

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

be practically a good officer. No one, therefore, is finally
appointed, until he has proved his fitness by a six months'
trial.

You will see that this system is a very good one, if
honestly carried out, and that the separation of the ex-
amining from the appointing power tends to secure honesty,
for in order that dishonest appointments shall be made it
is necessary that there be collusion between the examin-
ing department and the other departments of the govern-
ment. Nevertheless, during several years of Tammany
rule in this city, notwithstanding the fact that we had
a Civil Service Commission with some reputable men as
commissioners ; notwithstanding the fact that competitive
examinations were held and that nominally the Civil Ser-
vice law was carried out, and appointments were made
from the names appearing on the eligible lists furnished
to the heads of departments by the Civil Service Com-
mission ; yet the whole system was rotten and the heads
of departments "got the men they wanted," and every-
body knew it.

No system is good if dishonestly applied; and unless
competitive examinations are open to all and are fairly
held, and unless the men who pass the highest receive
the appointments, the whole system is, of course, a
sham, and adds hj^ocrisy to the other evils of the spoils
system.

What we want then, is, first, a real reform of the Civil
Service, an honest system, honestly carried out. We
want ovu- Civil Service, National, State, and Municipal, to
be filled by men who have been tested by competitive

WORK FOR CIVIL SERVICE REFORM 493

examinations and by a probationary period of service,
and from whose appointments all question of personal or
party favor has been absolutely eliminated.

But this is not enough. The evil originated with politi-
cal corruption, but it has not stopped there ; in the nature
of tilings it could not. A nation which for three genera-
tions has acquiesced in a system of dishonest appoint-
ments to public office, in dishonest work of public officers,
in dishonest removals fi-om public office, could not remain
honest in other relations ; the poison has worked into the
very thoughts and into the very life of our people. We are
a dishonest nation. We do not do honest work anywhere.
You will find, if you look around you, that, even in private
corporations, influence is beheved to be more potent
than good work to ensure promotion and advancement of
salary. I was asked only last week to write in behalf of
a hard-working employee to the directors of the corpora-
tion in which he had been employed for ten or fifteen
years to ask for an increase of salary, and I was told that
only influence could secure it.

No, we cannot expect any thorough reform in this coun-
try until the present generation has died off, and another
has grown up under an honest systen of public work, a
generation which believes in honesty because it sees it,
which this generation never has.

Our Street Cleaning Commissioner is giving us daily a
lesson in honest work, and the fact that the men who
are now cleaning our streets and making Eleventh Avenue
and First Avenue and the tenement house streets, which
used to hold festering heaps of rotten refuse all winter

494

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

long, cleaner than Fifth Avenue and Broadway,— that
these street-sweepers are the very same men, most of
them, who used to stand round our filthy streets leaning,
on their brooms, shows what can be effected by a change of
system.

In the old times those men were not appointed to work
at street cleaning, but at dirty politics, and they knew it,
and every man and boy in the city knew it, and the fact
that they received their wages from the public funds for
street cleaning affected no one. Of course they did the
work they were appointed to do, not the work they were
paid to do. But now they know they are retained ta
clean the streets, and that if they do not clean the streets
they will go, and therefore they do the work for which the
public pays them ; and again, every man and boy in the
city know.s this, and, as I say, the difference in the moral
effect is immense.

And now, how can women help in destroying the evils of
which we have been hearing, and how can we help to
bring in an honest, fair enforcement of our national and
state civil service laws, and thereby regenerate our
people? The duty which lies nearest to our hands just
now is the salvation of our own city. And there are two
sides to the duty. One is to save the city from the bad
government that threatens it, and the other to help to
secure a good government for it.

To save the city from bad government is simply t»
keep out of power the men, whether Tammany's men or
Piatt's men, who want the oflSces for selfish purposes..
If we consider how Tammany Hall gained its power,.

WORK FOR CIVIL SERVICE REFORM 495

and why it wanted its power, this will show us also how
that power can be entirelj' destroyed.

Tammany Hall is a corporation which wants to hold the
control of the New York City Government, not to serve
the people of the city, not to give the city clean streets,
pure water, efficient protection for life and property,
smooth pavements, beautiful parks, or any other thing
that it is necessary for the people to have, but because the
yearly expenditure of the city for these and other purposes
is more than forty million dollars. If Tammany Plall
and the Republicans who have exactly the same desire can
be prevented from getting possession of this forty million
dollars a year to spend in strengthening themselves, they
will, they must, cease in time to be dangerous, for they
have no other way of keeping a following except the actual
possession of the offices, or the hope that they will soon
regain them. They are not like a political party which
has principles and objects, to attract men to its standard ;
to succeed is their only object, and if they fail often
enough, they must break asunder and scatter.

What, then, can each of us do to help to keep them out ?

First, we must want to keep them out.

Second, we must have faith that the right must,
triumph.

Third, we must speak the truth about them.

But, as I have said, besides sa\ing the city from a bad
government, oiu* duty is to try to secure for it a good
government. The people need all sorts of things, ma-
terial, moral and spiritual, but they need a good system
of government as the first condition towards obtaining

496

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

these things. We need such governments as many
foreign cities have, where the best men are put at the
head of each department and kept there. We want no
two years' terms nor four years' terras to upset and de-
morahze the business of the great city at regular intervals.
We want common sense, common honesty and high civic
patriotism in our city government, and we want, on the
part of the people, the recognition that it is their duty to
demand these qualities from those they put in power. . . .

Civil Service Reform and Public Charity'

I beheve that of all the pubhc ojffiicers elected in our
State, the Superintendents of the Poor are the least tram-
melled by poUtical pledges, and the least controlled by
political considerations in their actions. The people of
the counties cannot help recognizing that a man to whom
is entrusted the welfare of hundreds of pecuUarly helpless
fellow-creatures should have at least a certain fitness for
his position, and they therefore as a rule choose men who,
although in the dominant party, are not party slaves, and
sometimes they even go so far as to entirely disregard
party in the choice of the man most fit. But unhappily it
is not common to disregard party considerations, even in
the election of Superintendents of the Poor.

The people of the State of New York have so long
been accustomed to the ownership of the public officers
by whichever political party happens to be in power, or
even to their ownership by a particular member of the

' Digest of paper sent June 29, 1897, to Convention of Superin- '
tendents of the Poor of New York State.

WORK FOR CIVIL SERVICE REFORM 497

successful party, that they have lost all sense of the actual
wrong and dishonesty of such a condition of things, and
also of the absurdity.

That the public officers, appointed to the public
work, and paid by the public money, should not be the
servants of the pubhc, but should be the slaves of a
small number of persons, and sometimes of one person,
who can force them for their own ends to neglect
the pubhc work, seems natural enough in Russia,
where the people are themselves almost slaves, but it is
most unnatural in the State of New York, where the people
think that they are free and that they govern them-
selves.

Civil Service Reform is the rescuing of the public
ofiicers from this unnatural control, placing them at the
service of the people at large, and requiring them on pain
of instant dismissal to do the work for which they are
paid. . . .

Our State charitable institutions have, for many years
at least, been kept out of politics. We have never de-
scended as a state to the depth of mean dishonesty
which has been reached in too many of the other states of
the Union, of sacrificing the insane, the idiotic, the deaf and
dumb, and the bhnd, who are wards of the State, to the
demands of party politicians. . . . Our State Board
of Charities, also, has been always free from political
influence, and here again we have been far more fortu-
nate than many of our sister states. But we all know
that this cannot be said of most of our county and city
charities, nor of our jails and prisons. . . .
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498

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

Civil Service Reformers ask that political opinions
of local officers, whether elected or appointed, shall be
ignored, and that they shall be chosen only because they
are fitted to discharge the duties of the places they seek.
And certainly nothing can be more reasonable, especially
as regards Poor Law officers ; for what can politics have to
do with the proper care of paupers, whether in or out of
institutions? . . . There is no peculiarly protectionist
method of caring for dependent children, no especially
free-trade way of giving outdoor relief, no gold or silver
plan for treating the evils of vagrancy, and therefore it is
wrong to admit the consideration of these great questions
when officers are to be elected whose special and only
duty it is to attend to these and other local matters, be-
cause it will inevitably lead the voters to disregard the
qualifications which are needed in these important posi-
tions. . . .

There should be two objects, and only two, in the
mind of every officer connected with the administration of
public relief.

First : To diminish the burden laid upon the pubhc, by
such wise economy as will result in preventing any increase
in the number of persons to be supported by the commu-
nity, either in or out of institutions— that is, to prevent
pauperism.

Second : To deal with each individual man, woman and
child who is brought under his care so that their physical,
mental and moral condition shall be improved, in order that
if possible they may be lifted out of the dependency in
which they are — that is, to cure pauperism.

WORK FOR CIVIL SERVICE REFORM 499

These two objects cannot be attained except by
officers who possess a certain degree of intelligence and
public spirit to begin with, and who are ready to study
the history of the administration of public relief, and to
learn from the experience of others, and their own experi-
ence ; and it makes no difference whether they are Repub-
hcans, Democrats, Populists, or Prohibitionists. . . .

The only questions considered should be as to the charac-
ter, intelligence and knowledge of the candidates, and in
the case of Superintendents and Overseers of the Poor,
they should be asked also what they intend to do with the
dependent children, the tramps, the people in the alms-
houses and the applicants for outdoor relief.

There are methods of dealing with all these people
which will double and treble and quadruple their numbers,
or in other words, which will entice four times as many
persons as need be into the degradation of pauperism,
and keep them in misery, and crush the hard-working tax-
payers by the burden of their support ; and there are other
methods which will free these unhappy victims from the
bonds of dependence, and make them independent and
happy, while at the same time the public is also relieved
of their support. ... Any community which allows
part of its people to be tempted into the ranks of pauperism
and the rest to be burdened by unnecessary taxes for the
support of pauperism has itself to blame, because it does
not choose to apply the principles of Civil Service Reform
to the administration of its public charities and leave poli-
tics out of consideration in matters with which politics
have not the slightest concern.

500 JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

The Ethics of Civil Sekvice Reform »

There are three different ways in which the ethics or
moral aspect of Civil Service Reform must be considered.
First, as regards the community, the city, the state, or
the nation, as the case may be, in its character of
employer ; second, as regards the community as composed
of possible office holders, and third, as regards the indi-
vidual office holder. . . .

The reason we in the United States require only to re-
form our civil service and not also our military and naval
services, as was necessary in England, is that we started the
two latter in the beginning upon the plan which was right ;
and in fact the object of Civil Service Reform is to apply
in the civil service the very same plan which has worked
so admirably in the Army and the Navy.

That plan is simply to select good material from which
to make officers of the Army and Navy, to train them
especially for the work the pubhc wishes them to do, to
treat them honorably while they are in the service, and to
expect them to behave honorably, and to give them every
motive for honorable conduct, and to see that they do not
starve when too old for further public work. This system
has given us the men who have brought glory to the name
of the United States duringour late war ; and if we had the
same system in the ci^il service, we should have exactly
the same kind of men in the civil offices, and we should be as
proud of them as we now are of our Army and Navy heroes.

■ Summary of address delivered in 1898, at the Broadway Taber-
nacle, and believed to be unpublished.

WORK FOR CIVIL SERVICE REFORM 501

Now as regards the ethical aspect of the question.
There is no doubt that it would be good policy if we could
get such men into all the civil offices of the United States,
and of the states, counties and cities. Is it equally
clear that it is dishonest and wrong not to have them ?
It seems to me still more clear. The public offices
belong actually to the people as a whole, because they
pay the taxes from which are paid the salaries of these
public officers, and it is due to the people that the
work of these officers should be well done, and that
the money which they pay should not be wasted.
When the work is badly done and when the money
of the people is wasted, the people are defrauded. . . .
But it is an acknowledged fact, known to us all, that,
as a rule, our public work is not so well done as pri-
vate work ; that, with the rarest exceptions, we do not
succeed in filling our offices with our best men ; and that,
unhappily, we often do get very inefficient men and some-
times very dishonest men into some of them. . . .

Politics has a great deal to do with the choice of the in-
dividual to fill an office. When a man is wanted, say for
clerk in a public office, instead of finding the best man
who can be persuaded to take the place, it is given to some
one who has been out of work for a long time, some one
who has been active as a politician, some one whom no
private employer would take ; and thus the public work
is badly done and the public money is wasted. . . . This
man rehes more on his political influence to keep him in
office than on his efficiency and industry ; his place is
insecure, and he enjoys it while he has it, and works for

502

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

his boss, on whom Ms welfare depends, and not for the
people who pay his salary. Finally, if his boss gets into
trouble, he is thrown out of employment and is left to
starve or not, as happens. The system is a very cruel one
to the individual office holder, besides being a wasteful one
for the pubhc.

Civil Service Reform, so far as it is related to the com-
munity as an employer, to the nation, to the state, to the
county and to the city, consists in securing for the pubUc
a body of well trained and efficient men and women to
do the public work; in rewarding them for their honesty
and efficiency by promoting them to better offices with
higher salaries ; in making them secure in their places as
long as they do their work well, and dismissing them when-
ever they do it badly ; and in providing for them when they
have spent their hves in the pubhc service. That is, Civil
Service Reform consists in getting the public work done
as honestly and as efficiently as it is possible to do it, and
in giving the people a good return for the money they pay ;
and this constitutes its ethical aspect so far as the pubhc
as employer is concerned. ...

As to the ethical aspect of Civil Service Reform as
regards the people at large considered as possible office
holders, it involves questions of equal rights, of fair play,
or, in other words, of democracy. Offices in old times, in
all countries, were the personal property of the king.
They are so now in countries which have a despotic form
of government. The king gave away the offices to his
favorites, who sold them to strangers, and the only view
of office was that it was a privilege given to those who had

WORK FOR CIVIL SERVICE REFORM 503

influence, which enabled them to get power and money out
of the people. It never entered anybody's head that
a pubhc officer was a servant of the people and required
to do work for the people. . . . Now this old despotic view
of pubhc office, as the property of the person in power, be
he czar, emperor or king, is, curiously enough, the view
taken by a very large section of the people of this repubUc,
the only difference being that, instead of thinking that the
offices belong to one permanent despot, they are supposed
to belong to the particular party which is in power, and
often to the particular boss of that party. . . .

Now Civil Service Reform means exactly the opposite
of this view, and where it is hone,stly enforced, no one party
or person has any control whatever over the great bulk
of the public offices. A real reform of the civil service
means that every man and woman in the country has a
right to serve the public if he or she is qualified to do so,
and that the right is conceded and acted upon. Every per-
son who chooses to apply for an office is given a perfectly
fair chance with every one else to prove that he has the
qualities and capacity and character needed in that office.
He does not have to go to a particular district leader or
to a particular boss and ask, as a personal favor, to be
appointed to an office, but he goes to the Ci\al Service
Commission, makes his application, is notified when he
can be examined, takes his examination, and if he is the best
qualified, is appointed and enters on his term of probation,
sure that if he does his work well, and is industrious and
honest, he will in six months, receive his appointment,
and that nothing but dishonesty or incompetence can

1 1|

504

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

prevent his remaining in the pubhc service and receiving
promotion. . . . Thus as concerns the community as a body
of possible office holders, the moral side of Civil Service
Reform consists in substituting a democratic system for
a despotic system, a fair and just system for one con-
trolled by personal and partisan favoritism.

As regards the individual office holder, the ethical aspects
of Civil Service Reform are almost more important, if that
is possible, than in the two aspects I have considered.
Picture to yourselves the position of the office holder under
the two systems. Let us imagine a young man seek-
ing a subordinate position in the civil service under
the spoils system, a young clerk, with a wife and child
to support. He is competent, but has found it hard to get
employment, and is in extremity. A friend tells him that
he knows the boss and wiU give him a note of introduction.
In a general way he disapproves of the boss and of the ways
of the boss, but he has no very strong principles, and
he does need work. So he takes the note and goes to the
house of the boss ; his friend has a pull and he is ad-
mitted to an interview, is graciously promised a place
and receives a note to the head of a department, calls
with the note on the Commissioner, has a talk, is promised
an appointment, is told also that he is expected
to join the district organization of the party to which
the boss and Commissioner belong and to subscribe
to the various chowders and balls that are given by the
organization, and to work and vote with the boss and
Commissioner. He accepts the place with the conditions
attached. At first he tries to do his work honestly for the

WORK FOR CIVIL SERVICE REFORM 505

public ; he is sneered at by his colleagues in office as a fool
who wastes his pains. . . . Then there comes to his knowl-
edge something actually dishonest done by his superior in
office, and he is asked to do his share in furthering it.
He is shocked ; he would like to be honest, but he is
weak ; he knows of no other employment if he resigns ;
he knows that he has no one to appeal to, that every man
in the public service above and below him depends, as he
does, for a livelihood, on the boss, that the boss reaps
part of the product of this dishonesty ; he becomes a thief,
not for himself, but for others. Finally his friend fails to
please the boss, or the claims of some one else must be
attended to, and one morning he receives a note from his
superior requesting his resignation, and he is turned out,
hopeless, helpless, dishonest, degraded in his own sight,
without faith in himself, in his country, or his God. This,
you and I know, has been the history of many a victim of
the spoils system in this country during the past hun-
dred years, and this must be the history of many more until
the real reform of the civil service has been adopted.

[Describing in detail the competitive examination for
the appointment by which the candidate is certified to
the appointing power and enters on his six months' pro-
bation, Mrs. Lowell concluded as follows : ]

We will assume that this successful candidate is our
capable young man : he begins his duties in an office with
other young men who have passed the same examinations ;
each clerk knows that every other clerk is there, as he is,
because of proved capacity and recognized good character ;

506

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

each clerk respects himself and respects his colleagues.
Every one knows that, as he obtained his position by
his own good qualities, so he will be retained for the
same qualities; all depends upon himself; there is no
favoritism, no pull, no boss to fear or fawn upon. So these
young men are happy in their work and proud of the
service of the city ; they know they are doing good work,
and every good quality is fostered, every evil quality
repressed. After six months' probation, our young man
receives his permanent appointment, and in due time he,
with the other energetic young clerks, competes for a higher
place, gains it in honest competition ; and so, as the years
pass, he goes from place to place, receiving the approval
of his own conscience and of his superior officers, respected,
honorable, happy, a noble civil servant of the noble city
he loves.

Spain and Civil Service Reform ^

The dying of a nation is a tragic sight. The dying of
Spain, the discoverer and once the owner of the greater
part of the western hemisphere, her death throes upon the
vcrj' spot where Columbus landed and w'here he Ues buried,
is a tragedy which this nation could not watch unmoved,
even were it not the instrument used to give the death
blow. But Spain presents not merely a tragic spectacle
to the people of the United States, it furmshes also a lesson
and a warning.

This country is called upon to end the long agony ; but
Spain has been wounded unto death by her own sons. She
» Letter to Evening Post, May, 1898.

WORK FOR CIVIL SERVICE REFORM 507

is a dying nation because of internal corruption and dis-
honesty, and the description of the causes of her ruin has
an ominously familiar sound to American ears. We have
in Spain the spectacle of a nation which conducts its govern-
ment upon the principles which control Tarmnany Hall
and the RepubUcan and Democratic machines. Not only
its ci^il service, but its Army and its Navy, have for genera-
tions been treated as "Spoils," and the result is before us.
We know well what incompetency, what weak inefficiency,
are the necessary outcome of such principles, and it is not
to be wondered at that Spain has failed in every direction.

[In support of her contention that the humiliation of
Spain in her war of 1898 against this country was inevitable
because of her four hundred years of government by the
spoils system, Mrs. Lowell made apt use of quotations
on this very subject from addresses dehvered, a few days
before her letter was written, by Don Carlos in Brussels,
by Charles Bonaparte at a Civil Service Reform meet-
ing in New York, by Carl Schurz at the same meeting,
and by James Russell Lowell, her husband's uncle, in
letters written in 1879 from Madrid and later from London.
Said Mr. Bonaparte: "The corruption of her pubhc
service, civil and military, has cost Spain a world."
Said Mr. Schurz : "The battle that has just been won at
Manila was a battle between a ' Civil Service Reform' navy
and a 'Spoils' navy. I hope that, whatever may result
from this war, undesirable as it is, it will at least convey
this lesson to the American people." Writing from Lon-
don, Mr. Lowell said : "Spain shows us to what a civil

508

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

service precisely like our own will bring a countrj'' that
ought to be powerful and prosperous. It was not the
Inquisition, nor the expulsion of the Jews and Moriscos,
but simply the boss system, that has landed Spain where
she is."

After quoting also from an article by John Foreman,
"Europe's New InvaUd," from the National Review,
September, 1897, in which the evil effects of the spoils
system in Spain and her colonies were pointed out, Mrs.
Lowell concluded her letter, which was widely reprinted
and commented upon, as follows : ]

WORK FOR CIVIL SERVICE REFORM 509

can people reap the glory. There is no question that, had
the American people so willed it, they could have had just
such men to fill their civil service and their diplomatic

service.

The question now is, will the people take to heart the
lesson and join England in her advance to civilization,
humanity, and honor or will they follow Spain? Shall
we have all our pubUc work, naval, military, civil, and
diplomatic, done by our Deweys, our Hobsons, and our
Merritts, or by the henchmen of our Hannas, Quays, and
Hills?

As I have said, the djing of Spain is a tragedy, but to
the people of the United States it is more than a tragedy.
The lesson is writ large that all may see. The destruc-
tion of two fleets because of incompetency and dishonesty,
because of moral rottenness producing physical ruin,
is a demonstration which none can fail to understand.
But we have also the corollary, far more welcome and
more glorious. The American people see in their own
Navy the result of a careful selection of men for a special
service, the result of the long and arduous training of these
men for the work they have to do, and the result of the
assurance given them by their country that the service they
enter on in their youth and to which they devote their
manhood is an honorable service. In the United States
Army we find the same results from the same system.
The people have heard but little of either Army or Navy
for a generation ; and yet now, when they are needed, heroic
men stand forth ready to do heroic deeds, and the Ameri-

A Hard Lesson in Refoem '

To THE EdITOB of THE TRIBUNE.

Sir:

In the Tribune of October 10 were printed on the same
page three statements in regard to physicians in pubUc
employment, which, read in connection with each other
contain a lesson of vital import to the people of the United

States.

The first quotation, from the Journal of Kansas <^ity,
states that the Medical Superintendent of the State Insane
Asylum at Topeka has resigned, and accompanied his
resignation by a letter to the Governor of Kansas giving
the reasons for his action. This letter tells an astound-
ing story of alleged cruelty, inhumanity, and debauchery
at that institution, and the writer placed the responsi-
bility for these conditions upon the Governor when he

said- "You will probably recall that President J

installed his father-in-law, Dr. W , a doctor without

• Abatract of letter to New York Tribune, dated October 15, 1898.

510

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

a diploma, in the position of assistant physician and
that when it was shown that he was not a fit and proper
person for the service, he was not discharged, but was
transferred to the Asylum at Osawatomie. ... It is a well-
known fact that Dr. W was a street fakir, a dealer in

patent medicines, and an all-round professional quack.
In the opinion of yourself and the Board, he seems to pos-
sess the qualifications necessary to entitle him to care for
the insane of Kansas."

[The second statement Mrs. Lowell quotes in this letter
is from a report of Colonel L. M. Maus, cMef surgeon of
the Seventh Corps of the United States Army, in regard
to the regimental surgeons under his command, who
wrote : "A number of them had not been required to
pass examinations at all. None of them had any knowl-
edge at all of administrative duties such as were required
successfully to run division hospitals. ... I feel quite sure
that the medical service has suffered more on the score
of inexperience on the part of regimental surgeons than
for any other reason. These men were unable to appre-
ciate the great value of sanitation."

The third statement quoted was an extract from the
annual report of the Surgeon-General of the Navy, William
K. Van Reypen, showing the care exercised to secure good
material for the Medical Corps. "In the last fiscal year
829 applications for information concerning the appoint-
ments of assistant surgeons in the Navy were received,
and 248 permits were issued to doctors to appear for ex-
amination. Of the above number 65 candidates appeared
before the Examining Boards, of whom 17 were rejected
physically, 19 rejected professionally, 12 withdrawn for
further examination, and 17 were found physically and
professionally qualified for admission as assistant surgeons
in the Medical Corps of the Navy."

WORK FOR CIVIL SERVICE REFORM 511

Mrs. Lowell's letter continues : ]

It seems almost unnecessary to point the moral. We
have in these extracts an explanation of the causes of the
deep disgrace that has often stained our public service, of
the sorrow which is now wringing the heart of the nation,
and of the glory which has turned the eyes of all the
civilized world upon the United States with admiration.

The Navy has done great service to the nation since
May 1, but' the greatest of all . . . is the lesson the Navy
has given the nation of the value of efficient, conscientious
training. . . . What we really need is to follow throughout
our whole system, in our federal civil service, in our
volunteer army and in our state and city governments,
the example of our Navy, to select our pubhc officers care-
fully and to train them thoroughly.

The lesson has been a severe one, but it would seem as
if at last the people of the United States must have
learned it. For thirty years a small handful of patriots
have been warning them of the wickedness and folly of
the spoils system — for thirty years the prophets of
Civil Service Reform have shown how political and per-
sonal influence in appointments to public office eat out, in
time, the character and capacity of a nation.

But the people did not heed. Their ears were dull of
hearing. The people did not seem to care when it was
only paupers who died of official neglect, when it was only
helpless idiot children who had the scurvy, when it was only
physicians to take charge of public insane asylums who
were appointed mthout examination.

But now, now that from Maine to Alabama, from
Virginia to California, there is not a state where hearts
are not bleeding for the lives of husbands, sons, and
brothers lost and blasted by official ignorance and neglect ;
now, when the blighting touch of poUtical and personal

512

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

influence in appointments to public office has fallen upon
the flower of our youth, surely now, at last, the people
of the United States will have ears to hear.

The voters of the State of New York are especially
fortunate above those of the rest of the country ; at this
moment they have the opportunity of electing as Gov-
ernor, Theodore Roosevelt, a man identified with the re-
form of the civil service, so far as it has yet been adopted,
and conversant with the Navy methods as few other men in
the country can be, and whose character and past history
as a public officer are a guarantee that the principles upon
which these methods are founded will, if he is elected, be
the principles which will control the State government.

Civil Service . Reform '

Your Committee on Civil Service Reform has continued
to give especial attention to the investigation of the opera-
tion of the reform law in the public institutions of New
York State. The visits we have made have been not only
interesting and instructive in the view they have given
of actual administrative methods, but suggestive of im-
portant lines of new work that may be profitably taken up.

We find striking confirmation of the correctness of the
theory of the merit system. There is, however, in some
important institutions a certain impatience, on the part
of the superintendents or other executive officers, of what
they call the restrictions placed upon them by the re-
quirements and prohibitions of the law, or its subsidiary
rules. This impatience, and the accompanying criticism,

' Report of Committee on Civil Service Reform, presented at the
Eleventh Annual Meeting of the New York State Federation of
Women's Clubs held October 30 to November 3, 1905, at Binghamton,
N. Y. This report represents the last public work of the chairman,
Mbb.Charles Russell LowELL,whose death occurred two weeks earlier.

WORK FOR CIVIL SERVICE REFORM 513

spoken or tacit, seemed to your Committee to indicate
a misapprehension of the nature and intent of the law.
But this attitude, which, if not openly hostile, is quite
surely not friendly, is, nevertheless, a matter for serious
consideration in any study of the working or results of the
law. It is in itself a factor that must modify results.

Objection to the law on the part of administrative officers
is traceable, usually, to either one of two causes, the in-
ability of the officer to use his subordinate service for po-
litical purposes or his honest belief that the rules establish
too many technical restraints of a sort that hinder his
work rather than help it. We believe that the institutional
heads referred to belong to the latter class. It is not un-
natural that some among these should hold the view that
their own judgment of the fitness of candidates for sub-
ordinate appointments should be the basis of selection
rather than the impersonal judgment of Boards of Ex-
aminers. Theoretically, there is much to support that
view, but we are convinced that those who do hold it, fail
to take into account two fundamentally important prac-
tical facts : first, that without the protection of the com-
petitive system no public institution can be safe from the
baleful intrusion of petty partisan politics, — a far greater
embarrassment to the freedom of action of appointing
officers than any code of rules could ever be ; and, second,
that the methods of selection under the civil service rules
are not yet perfected, that the examination system may
be greatly improved through the cooperation of the very
officers who so often complain of it, and that the tests of
examination and probation, scientifically developed, have
been shown byabundant experience to make the best sifting
process as yet devised for any large body of employees.

That these facts are not unrecognized was strikingly
shown by one of the later experiences of your Committee,

514

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

in visiting a State institution having the care of a large
number of transgressors and degenerates. There we
found the superintendent frankly grateful for the pro-
tection the law afforded him. Nowhere is intelUgent and
sympathetic cooperation on the part of all officers and
employees required more urgently than here. The work of
the institution is difficult and complex, for it aims alike at
the physical, mental, and moral improvement of its wards.
In other words, no State institution would so quickly feel
hampering restrictions upon its work, if such existed.
Yet this superintendent declares that the freedom from
importunity and dictation in the matter of appointment,
and the resultant relief from any sense of obligation or
responsibility not immediately concerned with the work of
the institution, are an immense aid to the success the in-
stitution is achieving. If, now and then, the pri\alege of
direct appointment of a particular person to a particulai'
position may seem desirable, and the methods prescribed
by the law cumbrous in comparison, the superintendent
finds that the advantage, in the long run, far outweighs
the benefit in the occasional instance, and that the process
of sifting, under the probation rule, is in itself invaluable.
In our experience as visitors no institution seemed to us
so effectively administered as this. The general idea
upon which its work is based is at once scientific and
sympathetic, and the details of its development are ad-
mirably planned and carried out.

In these contrasted cases, representing as they do clear
differences of opinion on the point which it is especially
our interest to study, the intelligence and zeal of the chief
officials may be said to be equally admirable. In the case
we have just noted, however, the superintendent is of the
younger generation, to whom the civil service law is not
a new thing, to be regarded distrustfully because it sub-

WORK FOR CmL SER^^CE REFORM 515 .

V t i\.c. nlfl order but a condition met at the
verts much of the old order ^ ^^^^^^^^

outset of a career, an^l ^^cepted oeca ^^^^

has proved it an axd f'^^^'^'l^^^^Tw.^^^^ ex-
differences in age and ^^^^^;^^^Z:^,%, ^e be-

r;Sa>"t-.''1tt theo. . Y whi.h we
Its pracuoai uc f further observations.

Lns, previous «™-f/"f .^'J^uhe b«t a^aLle

516

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

the movement. The committees of various local bodies
in the National Federation, in cooperation especially with
the Women's Auxiliaries of the Civil Ser\ice Reform
Associations of New York, Massachusetts, and Maryland,
have done a great deal of useful work in this direction.
Many thousands of pamphlets have been placed in the
hands of high-grade school children. Prizes have been
given for essays submitted in competition, and speakers
have been secured for public meetings. We suggest to in-
dividual members of clubs that, through the reading room
of public libraries and the classes in history and civil
government of the Christian Association, the interest of
many other young people might be enlisted. We have
found librarians and the officers of such associations very
friendly to suggestions we have made. We believe that
actual visits, not only to institutions or departments
where the merit rules are in force, but to the offices of the
Civil Service Commissions, where the machinery of ex-
amination may be seen, will prove of advantage to all
students of the system.

No great political reform wrought in America repre-
sents the triumph of pubhc opinion as does this. Its
extension must depend on the same force, and there are
branches of high importance, in both State and nation, to
which it does not yet apply. We should help by every
moans within our power, and particularly through educa-
tion, to create a public opinion so much stronger that the
principle will be established in every place in which it
does not now prevail.

CHAPTER XXII

Memorials

The general feeling of loss occasioned by the death of
Mrs Lowell was expressed not only in the public press,
but also at memorial meetings. Under the auspices of
the Charity Organization Society of the City of New
York the most important of these meetings was held m
the assembly hall of the United Charities Building, on
the evening of November 13, 1905.

Before the appointed hour, the hall was crowded with
representative people, and many others could not obtam
entrance. Robert W. de Forest, President of the Chanty
Organization Society, presided and deUvered the opemng
address, while among the speakers who followed him were
Joseph H. Choate, Felix Adler, Jacob A. Riis.and SethLow.
Their addresses, together with many other eulogies of Mrs.
Lowell, not only in prose, but also in poetry, are included
in a memorial volume published m 1906 by the Chanty
Organization Society. Considerations of space permit
the inclusion only of some extracts from this volume, and
in chronological order other memorial notices which it

omits. „

Robert W. de Forest

We have met tonight in memory of a noble woman —
a woman whom we all honor for what she did and whom we

517

518

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

MEMORIALS

519

all love for what she was. I know of no one of the present
generation in our city and State who has been a more
potent force for social uplift than Josephine Shaw Lowell.
I know of no one who has been so beloved and whose
memory will be so tenderly cherished by all kinds and con-
ditions of men. Whatever inequalities there be among
those who are assembled here — whether of station or
learning or opportunity - we are here on an equal plane
of friendship for her ; man to man, and woman to woman.

[Mr. de Forest here mentioned Mrs. Lowell's work for
the Charity Organization Society, and many other so-
cieties or movements of a humanitarian character, more
particularly referred to elsewhere in this volume, and
continued : ]

Mrs. Lowell was every inch a woman. Unlike most
women who have sought to be, or who have been, actors in
pubhc affairs, she never for one instant yielded a particle
of her woman's charm or of her woman's tenderness. With
the strength and courage of a man, she never hesitated to
strike, and strike hai-d, when duty called to strike, but
her woman's gentle touch bound up the wounds, and the
blow left no sting behind.

Wliat must it have been to her hero husband to have
had the love of such a woman, even for a few short
months ! . . .

In her dealings with others, Mrs. Lowell was absolutely
smcere. She spoke out all she thought. She held back
nothing of the truth as she saw it. No consideration of
policy ever weighed with her. She would have thought

policy inconsistent with truthfulness. Herein was one
of the greatest charms of intercourse with her. Herein,
perhaps, was her greatest source of strength. . . .

Had Jv'Irs. Lowell lived in mediieval times, she would
long since have been canonized as a saint. Had she lived
at a still earlier period in our Christian era, she would have
been among the martyrs. But living as she did in our
times, she suffered more than forty years ago the cruelest
martyrdom that could ever befall a wife and sister ; and
whether because of that martyrdom, or rather, as I tliink,
in spite of it, because she was herself, she has for all these
succeeding years emanated that intense sympathy for all
humankind, and particularly for all humankind that
needs and suffers, which ancient art, for want of better
vehicle, has pictured with the halo.

Felix Adler

We meet together tonight as those who have suffered
a common bereavement. I believe that if it had been
deemed wise to select the Cooper Institute for this meeting,
the Cooper Institute would have been filled to overflowing.
The first citizens of the State and the laboring people would
there have united in paying homage to the memory of
Mrs. Lowell.

It seems almost incredible that she has gone from us.
But a few months ago she took counsel with us, and was
actively interested in all reform movements. We had no
warning of the peril. Of a sudden she has disappeared
from our mortal view, and coming together here tonight
it is the first opportunity that many of us have to exchange

520

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

may be permitted to LsTl h t ' ™™"- " '

about W that I had TC\m:„"^ XhTcr ^

';rja:i*^t:r"r-''^-"-'-=

Ueala that exist Lit ZT T ,""" "''° "™ '" "• "■«

City is .0 ,a, dt^te r: l^^f r " ^"^' '"^
that the very object of ,v ^ " ^"^"^ '<> ™

- the ca«f a^dl *f.,rT'"' ''.•'"' '"= *'" »»'
earthly „aib a.d ,^t t tu T'''^'^ '™"' »"
«.e cty by a P^ane'nt .:: ^I oir^rar't
by havmg a care that the value of her life AaH „ f K,
for us, by making sure that (h. ° , ' '"' '"'

*aUbee„oted.^ou:*''drvira,"Z:"''''"'=™'''

s.e"r::tLTh:r:::rr'°"'-''™-

do sometWng for oursdv^l , , \ ' "" ""^ ">"= "

at thismomenf and 2 ""''' P'"'^^^* ^^^ "«

her spirxturS ' " '"^"^'^ *^^ Hnean^ents of

^^^Wima.H. Baldwin. 1863-1905; railroad president and philan-

MEMORIALS

521

Of the living we have but inadequate portraits. We
see them at different times, in different relations, in differ-
ent aspects ; but perhaps we never have the mental quiet
and occasion to combine these portraits, to combine them
as the artist would, and to fashion a portrait true to the
character. The advantage and purpose of a memorial
meeting is that we should add this portrait to our mental
picture gallery. Each of us on the platform will en-
deavor to contribute something to the fashioning of that
portrait ; and then we shall take it with us and keep it in
holy memory and consider it in quiet moments, and think
of her as she was to us.

I have always had a reverential feeling toward Mrs. Low-
ell. It seemed to me that I never approached her without
hearing the words : "Take off the shoes from thy feet, for
the ground thou approachest is holy ground." Whether
it was the unconscious idealizing influence of that sorrow of
which she never spoke, or whether it was something else, her
charm, her sweet dignity, her simplicity, the sense of close
human relations with the poorest and humblest himian
beings, and at the same time a sense of elevation above the
strongest and most capable of those who approached her,
— whatever may have been the secret of the influence, it
was, above all, the personality which counted. And if I am
to express in a few words what in particular seemed to me
the peculiar nature of her life, apart from this indefinable
and unanalyzable sense of a lofty personaUty, so near as
to be near the lowUest and so high and strong as to be
above the strongest and most competent, I should say it
was in her case the effect of the harmony of opposites.

L '

• -

522

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

She was an idealist of the purest kind. And yet she was
always the most practical of realists. The partial list which
Mr. de Forest has read to us is evidence of that practical
realism, that strong common sense and sagacity which
distinguished her in every movement in which she took
part. She was a harmonizer of the ideal and the realistic.
She was a harmonizer of opposites. She was an intense
enthusiast for certain causes. Above all, she dwelt with
motherly sympathy, with the motherhood that embraces
all mankind; she dwelt upon the sufferings and the
miseries of the world. But more than by the sufferings
and the miseries of the world was she touched by the
wrongs. It was injustice in any form that called out her
keenest feeling. It was this that made her for so long a
time, with one other, the only support of the movement
in this country for justice to the Filipino people. And
yet, despite her capacity for righteous indignation, she
was never one-sided. I could not say at this moment,
truthfully, that she was on the side of the Filipinos, that
she took the side of the Filipinos ; nor could I say truth-
fully that she took the side of the laboring people, for the
reason that she also felt so genuinely and intensely how
cruel the oppressor is to himself. If ever any one loved
the wrongdoer, it was Mrs. Lowell when she protested
against his wrongdoing.

Longfellow has shown us in one of his poems how
Florence Nightingale visited the beds of the sick at Scutari,
a,nd how they loved her for coming to them, and how they
thought of her as the Lady of the Lamp. I think of Mrs.
Lowell also as the Lady of the Lamp. Mr. de Forest said

MEMORIALS

523

that many envied the poor for the ray she cast into their ^
life ; may I add that no one had need to be poor to have
the blessed touch of that ray.

Among many others, I am here tonight to express grati-
tude for the ray she cast into my Ufe, the ray of a true,
spiritual presence, of fine American womanhood, and of
noble humanity. She was the Lady of the Lamp for many
of us. She carried aloft the lamp of hope and of pity
and of a beautiful faith in us all, in all humanity.

Father Huntington *

Memory goes back at once to what Mrs. Lowell
was to a large body of young women in this city in the
feather workers' strike; and when I speak that word,
I speak a word that rings of contention, of opposing in-
terests, and perhaps of violent antagonism ; a word that is
likely to be felt as a hostile word by some people who are
here. And yet I must say, quite frankly, that I never have
been able to understand how the moral side of a strike —
perhaps its moral greatness — can be so ignored by gen-
erous men and women.

Consider what it means. However mistaken men and
women may be, however foolish their effort, is there not
something magnificent in seeing those who have work
and are supporting their famUies giving up their chance
of earning a living, surrendering their positions, and
beggaring themselves, in the hope of securing for those
who are less fortunate, those who have no employment —
> Rev. James O. S. Huntington, Protestant Episcopal Order of the
Holy Cross.

''if

524

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

or those who are poorly paid -more poorly paid than
themselves - of securing for them fairer treatment and
juster pay ?

... Mrs. Lowell did see this, and she acted accordingly
She was as quick as any one to see the futility of many
of the efforts of working people and the ignorance that
exists among them; but she saw deeper than that, and
felt mtense sympathy with that which was noble and true
in the hard struggle.

So she came forward in this strike of the feather workers
as naturally and simply as she took her pai-t with the work-
ing people in the events that I remember distinctly so
many years ago. She did not offer patronage ; that word
IS mconsistent with our memory of her. She did not come
playmg the part of Lady Bountiful, that half-pathetic
half-romantic figure. She came in her own natural way'
She did not attempt to lay aside the advantages of the
position that belonged to her ; she did not try to transport
herself mto their conditions; there was nothing unreal or
unnatural m her or her work. She came to the work with
her clear intellect and her generous heart; and how she
did put strength into those who were working imder almost
desperate odds ; how she lifted up the cause ; how she saw
the amusing and the humorous side of affairs; how she
would point it out, while feeling at the same time the
pathos and the tragedy; and how with the buoyancy of
her hfe she carried all along with her.

MEMORIALS

Joseph H. Choate

525

If you should ask me to sum up in one word the life and
character of Mrs. Lowell, I should call it "Consecration."
Other women, who have done and suffered much less than
she did, have been canonized; but she was consecrated
to a glorious and tender memory, consecrated to duty, con-
secrated to charity in its largest and noblest sense — the
effort to do all in her power for the relief and help of her
fellow men and women. . . .

I think it is very largely to her father and her husband
that we should look for a certain inspiration that guided
her subsequent steps. You know that very often our own
dead exercise a much more potent and effective influence
upon our lives and conduct than any living associates.
Time cannot loosen their hold upon our hearts and minds.
In one sense they never have come back ; they never do
come back ; but in another and a very actual sense, they
are always coming back to us ; ^specially in hours of stress
and peril they are always with us, and we gain more sup-
port from them sometunes than from any Uving compan-
ions. We oft.en hear their voices with absolute distinct-
ness. You put your ear to the telephone, and you hear
the voice of a loved friend in Boston, or Chicago, or St.
Louis, with perfect distinctness, the quality, the tone, and
the expression. You can tell by the sound in addition to
the words they speak whether they are joyful or sorrow-
ful, whether they are well or ill. And so through the long-
distance telephone of time we hear the voices of our de-
parted with equal distinctness. They startle us with
their familiar reality.

526

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

MEMORIALS

527

ill

In dreams, if they are dreams, we see their actual forms,,
just as they moved before us in hfe, and in moments of
peril and sorrow and danger, we are consciotis sometimes
of their attendant footsteps, and really feel the support
of their loving arms.

When you come to know more of Mrs. Lowell's early
days, you learn the wonderful advantages which crowned
her life, and how trial and suffering made her what she was.
[Mr. Choate then made interesting and touching references
to Mr. Shaw and Colonel Lowell, and continued :] With
such an inheritance from the father, and an alhance with
such a man, can anybody doubt that the inspiration she so
derived from them set her in motion at least on the great
and splendid career of which you have all heard so much
tonight, and that it sustained her heart and courage
through it all ? . . .

I hope this memorial meeting, expressive of our admira-
tion of this most valuable woman, will not end in empty
breath. It seems to me, as Professor Adler has intimated,
that there should be some permanent memorial for this
woman who has done so much for us. . .

Jacob A. Riis

Perhaps one excellent way of making future generations
remember Mrs. LoweU would be to call one of the small
parks now coming into existence all over the city after
her. There is a distinct need of attaching the influence of
such a name to one of the parks on the East Side.

I have been trying to think back to the time when I
_ first knew Mrs. LoweU, but I cannot remember. I came in

course of time to pay almost daily visits to her house. In
those days she lived in East Thirtieth Street, quite near to
the ferry which brought me over to New York when I
came in from Long Island, and I fell into the habit, espe-
cially when anything troubled me, of ringing her doorbell
when I passed the house. She was never "out," always
ready to sit down and listen and give advice and opmion.
It was then I learned what a patient, sweet, wise and
lovable woman she was.

Mr. Stewart spoke of her courage. Yes, she was coura-
geous. I think the only thing in the world she was afraid
of -we were not -was of not following her own con-
viction and conscience to the end.

You have spoken about her cheerfulness. She was cheer-
ful and hopeful because she believed in God, and could
wait. That was often the friendly contention between us.
She could wait. I was young then and impetuous, impa-
tient She believed in her fellow-man and could wait,
because she saw the image of God in him, and was sure
that given the chance, it would work out. She was
patient because life and her faith had taught her wisdom ;
and she had that God-given sense of humor that gets us
over so many rough spots. I recall an occasion when we
had gone to Mayor Grant to see him about the police
station houses. We had nagged and nagged the Mayor
until he was tired of it, and when we told him for the
fiftieth time, I suppose, that in Boston they had municipal
lodging houses, he cried out in impatience: "Boston,
Boston ! I am sick of the name of Boston." I suppose
he did not know what "Boston" meant to her; I turned

528

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

to her in some apprehension to see how she took it but
she was leaning back in her chair and laughing heartily.

Speaking of her patience, I remember another occasion
when we had gone to Albany to argue for something
that we had up before an assembly committee. I was
speakmg. I wa.s filled up with arguments which she had
given me on the way up, and not those which I had thought
out for myself, and was trying to keep my mind on them
when one of the assemblymen interrupted me: "Pro-
fessor," he said, "you people come here year after year
arguing for these things ; let me ask you, what do you get
for It?" For the moment I was nonplussed. "What
do you mean?" I asked.

"I mean," he said, "this," holding out one hand, "what
do you get, do you understand ? " I could have throttled
the man. He was the only one I ever knew to distru.st or
question Mrs. Lowell's motives. But when I glanced at
her, I saw her sitting with that patient, far-away look in
her face. Those things meant nothing to her. She was
there m a cause. It was God's cause, and it was bound to
prevail. The rest didn't matter.

[Referring to Mrs. Lowell's early work with Theodore

Roosevelt, President of the United States at the time of her

death, Mr. Riis said : ] . . . Long before she died, she

knew what Theodore Roosevelt stood for in the nation's

lie. I thmk I was the last of you all to see her. She sent

tor me to come out to Greenwich where she was, a very few

weeks before she died, and I came quickly. . . She

spoke of Roosevelt, and she sent the last message of

love and cheer. When I gave it to him he said : "She had

MEMORIALS

529

a sweet, unworldly character ; and never man or woman
ever strove for loftier ideals." . . .

Seth Low

I remember to have heard Colonel Higginson, of Boston,
speak of IVIrs. Lowell's husband as one of a group of young
men whom he had known at Harvard, "who threw away
their lives like a fiower" for our country. I have seldom
heard a phrase that moved me more. It seems to present
the picture of a gallant group of young men, full of the
hope and the enthusiasm and the fancy of youth, each
asking no greater privilege than to lay them all at the feet
of his country, as a lover gives a bud to the lady of his love.
It was not given to Mrs. Lowell to throw away her life
like a flower ; but for forty-one long years, to use her own
words, her character grew in this community; she had
always an inspiring and uplifting influence, and shed abroad
a delightful fragrance as she moved along our streets.

... I like Mr. Choate's suggestion for a permanent
memorial of her ; and I hope that this meeting will ask that
a committee be appointed by the chairman to arrange for a
suitable memorial to Mrs. LoweU at the hands of the people
of this great city.

I suppose Mrs. Lowell may have felt that her name stood
for something among the poor people of this city. I do
not know whether she could realize how much it meant,
not to them only, but to all of her fellow-citizens. Profes-
sor Adler spoke of her as a Lady with a Lamp. She was,
indeed, the Lady of the Lamp ; and she went before us
always carrying that shining light. She does not need
2m

530

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

any memorial at our hands ; but for our own sakes we want
to prove and establish before the world that we not only-
saw in her the light of her character, but that from the
flame of her spirit we also have lit a light in our own
breasts.

William R. Stewart"

[Mr. Stewart, complying with a request which had been
made him, spoke of Mrs. Lowell's work as a Commissioner
of the State Board of Charities, in which he was associated
with her from 1882 to 1889. The memorial volume pub-
lished by the Charity Organization Society of the City of
New York in 1906 gave place to the address in full.
Mr. Stewart concluded as follows : ]

Among Mrs. Lowell's characteristics which impressed
me most strongly were her promptness, constant cheerful-
ness, dauntless courage, and tireless industry in her work.
She was always sincere and direct, and no one could doubt
for a moment the position she took on any subject. These
qualities and her total absence of self -consciousness account
in large measvu^e for the wonderful success of her work.

The world will miss Mrs. Lowell, for good men and good
women are needed on every hand to carry on its work.
This State will miss her ; this city will miss her ; but we
who knew her best will miss her most of all.

The memorial volume also contained the following
articles :

"Mrs. Lowell's Services to the State," by Edward T.
Devine ;

MEMORIALS ^^^

«Mrs. Lowell and the Unemployed," by John Bancroft
""^TJ^. Wl and the Consumers' League," by Maud
"" <'^: Lowell and the New York Charity Organization

'ISLst included the following editorial paragraphs
JTcZues for October 14, 1905, after the announce-
ment of Mrs. Lowell's death :

^, •. • r,^ nf the New York Charity Organ-
We of Chanties and ot tne rsew iu

.aUon S^iety have indeed *e right^to s^e m a. -
mession of personal bereavement. Mrs. Lowcu w
S of the Charity Organization Society and or the
twenty-three years since, as a Comrmssioner of the State
ZTof ChLes. she caUed the Society mto exrstence
The hal been its most faithful, untiring, and effio.en
t ste more than any other person -although It
Tn^er L^.Td she an/her associates were always
d'e^ned thai it should never be, a one-man sooety -

nheTas'lred''— usly on its Central CouncU and
Hs E etf^e Committee, and has also worked aU-a^ on

days before her death Ae h ^^^^^

expressmg regret that she could ^

r:ttrii.^:cr;rmournthe,ossofon^

:re place cannot be fflled, whose services wdl never be
forgotten, whose work wiU remam.

532

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

The Independent for October 20, 1905, published the
following :

In the death of Josephine Shaw Lowell last week the
United States loses one of its noblest and greatest women
For forty years there has been nobody in New York whose
charitable and social reform effort has resulted in greater
and more lasting achievement than hers. Her monument
IS built in the Charity Organization Society which she
founded twenty-three years ago, in the constitution
and statutes of New York, in the successful fight for Civil
Service Reform, in her impress on the labor movement, on
the college settlements, and in fact on every good endeavor
for CIVIC reform. Her beloved young husband, Charles
Russell Lowell, was killed in the Civil War at Cedar Creek •
her patriot brother, Robert Gould Shaw, perished at Fort
Wagner, at the head of his Negro regiment, and was buried
with them. No wonder, with the example of two such
sacnfices to treasure in her memory, Mrs. Lowell became
what she was. Her work will remain.

The Outlook for October 21, 1905, contained the follow-
ing editorial : ^

The City of New York is poorer by reason of the death
of Mrs. Josephine Shaw Lowell at her home in this city
on Thm-sday of last week, for it has rarely numbered among
Its citizens a finer character or been the witness of a more
high-mmded and fruitful life. Connected by blood and
marriage with some of the finest men of her time, - the
' Not included in the memorial volume.

MEMORIALS

533

Lowells, George William Curtis, Francis C. Barlow,
— the daughter of a man of unusual quaUties of mind
and character, and the sister of Colonel Robert G.
Shaw, Mrs. Lowell embodied in herself the best traditions
and the highest aims of American life. After the terrible
tragedy which the Civil War brought upon her in the
death of her husband, her brother, and her brother-in-law,
all graduates of Harvard College and young men of singular
mental and moral distinction, Mrs. Lowell consecrated her-
self, in the truest sense of the word, to philanthropic work.
Free entirely from the passion of publicity which has in-
fected many women as well as many men of the time, she
put her hand at the start to some of the most perplexing
problems in the administration of the charities of the
State. For thirteen years she served as Charities Commis-
sioner. Twenty-three years ago she founded the Charity
Organization Society, one of the most useful organizations
in the whole range of charitable philanthropic work in this
city ; and almost up to the time of her death she was an
active worker in its behalf. Her interest in the Prison
Association bore fruit in the separation of the sexes in
prisons. She was one of the founders of the Woman's
Municipal League, and no movement looking to the higher
life of the city failed to secure her interest and sjmapathy,
and in many cases her active support.

Her calm courage, self-forgetfulness, practical sagacity,
and high-mindedness gave her great influence with the
men and women with whom she was brought into contact,
and it is safe to say that no woman of her time has received
higher regard in this city, nor has any been more useful.

534

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

than this quiet, unassuming woman f i

--1 opportumt.es were opiTjt T " *'' ^^^^^«*

with rare self-forgetfulness Z7 ^^^^ ^''''^^'

- P-iie a..rs .thout ^^^ hef :or C.^- ,

A Woman of Sorrows

Josephine Shaw Lowell

n ceaseless labor, swift, unhuP^W,/"*
She sped upon her Wreless ministries "^^
Clmbrng the staire of poverty «nT'

Se W to build in every human heart '

s.x:-r::v:r;:r---

J- ove through human seKshness.
■inat now seemed dreamintrnffi, u •

o^:^:srot;T^°'-"=^

MEMORIALS

535

Drooped, saddened by the pain of humankind,
Though resolute to help where help might be,
And with undying faith illuminate.

She was our woman of sorrows, whose pure heart
Was pierced by many woes. And yet long since
Her soul of sympathy entered the peace
And calm eternal of the eternal mind.
Inheritor of noble Uves, she held
Even to the end, a spirit of cheerfulness
And knowledge keen of the deep joy of being
By pain all unsubdued. Sister and saint,
Who to life's darkened passage-ways brought light ;
Who taught the dignity of human service ;
Who made the city noble by her life ;
And sanctified the very stones her feet
Pressed in their sacred journeys.

Most high God !
This city of mammon, this wide, seething pit
Of avarice and lust, hath known thy saints,
And yet shall know. For faith than sin is mightier,
And by this faith we live, — that in thy time,
In thine own time, the good shall crush the ill ;
The brute within the human shall die down ;
And love and justice reign, where hate prevents —
That love which in pure hearts reveals thine own
And lights the world to righteousness and truth.

Richard Watson Gilder.
December 3, 1905.
From Charities and The Commons, January 6, 1906.

^^ JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

A City's Saint

■'"''Phine Shaw Lowell
■A woman li^edaad now a woman dies"

--*.a..vo.oe.::i:x:'dt;

Some saints have lived who on ,1,

'^"lied with the balm „f\ , ™'''°«-""«'i feld
^d not nntil the eye To w"'"' '^ "" ''•»*;

Some woman with her ^ 7^ "'""' « '™P -

B^t^n that sorrow's self-forgetfulness

"Sing these e.v,cmghts to highest n«,n

-^"-.o/atr^szr""'^^^'"-*-

S'-esiii.e a beacon where the city stands.

MEMORIALS 537

This shall outlive its mortar and its stone,

This shall be told where cities rise and fall ;
A woman working in its way alone
With loving hands built bastions round its wall.

Joseph Dana Miller.
From The Outlook, January, 1906.

Josephine Shaw Lowell and the Peace Movement '■

A stanza in the beautiful poem in memory of Mrs.
Josephine Shaw Lowell, by Joseph Dana Miller, re-
printed in a recent number of Charities and The Commons,
prompts me to a word of tribute to Mrs. Lowell in con-
nection with a most important aspect of her service, which
in the numerous and impressive testimonies to her great
and varied ministry which you have published, has not,
I think, found recognition. It was the side of her zeal
and consecration which I personally came into closest
touch with ; it was a remarkable work ; and the mere fact
that it should not have been emphasized at all, if even
mentioned, by the multitudes of fellow-workers expressing
their gratitude for her wonderful life, is a striking witness
to the opulence and comprehensiveness of that life's
service.

" And she to whom War's tragedy of pain

Had brought its tears — whose husband, brother,
friend
Passed in the cannonading to the slain —
Walked with her lonely sorrow to the end."

» From Charities and The Commons, February 17, 1906.

li .

ii! I

538

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

Mr. Conway has well said, in those last solemn pages
of his autobiography, that the commanding cause of our
time is the war against war, as the commanding cause half
a century ago was the war against slavery — the war in
which Charles Russell Lowell laid down his life. I have
known no woman in America who personally felt this more
profoundly than Mrs. Lowell. The present war system
of nations was to her a monstrous and horrible thing — the
grossest and most devastating manifestation of what is
most unjust, wasteful, wicked, irrational, un-Christian,
and inhuman among men.

No service or sacrifice against it was for her too great.
When it was fixed that the International Peace Congress
m 1904 should be held m Boston, she at once became a
member of the American committee ; and that committee
made her a member of its executive committee. In this
executive committee of twelve were two New York mem-
bers besides herself, both men of great ability and devotion
to the peace cause ; yet both of these would be most for-
ward to endorse any declaration that Mrs. Lowell did more
than all others in New York together, save only Andrew
Carnegie by his generous financial assistance, to make
the Boston Congress and the great meetings which fol-
lowed in New York the impressive demonstrations which
they were. I would go farther — and as chairman of that
executive conmiittee my gratitude to all its members is,
hke that of its secretary, Dr. Tnieblood, heartfelt and -
strong — and say that the actual personal cooperation '-;
given us by Mrs. Lowell was greater than that of all the .,'
other members of the committee together. It was a -J

MEMORIALS

539

service so conspicuous and rare that its record should not

^The personal work which Mrs. Lowell did in New York
in the way of solicitation for contributions to the congress
fund was extraordinary. 1 find, looking at the record, that
something over a hundred checks came to us from New
York. More than three-quarters of these came through
Mrs. Lowell's effort -seven contributions among them,
I find of $100 each, as many more of $50, and many more
almost equal. This was the result of personal conference
or personal correspondence - a correspondence contmued
throughout the long summer, much of it mortgagmg her
time at Ashfield in the vacation so greatly needed and

so richly earned.

To the Boston Congress itself, which would have been
such an inspiration to her, she did not come, because every
moment of the week was given by her to planmng and
providing for the great Cooper Union meeting and the
other meetings in New York the following week, for which
the great body of foreign delegates went from Boston.
Oscar S Straus was the force behind the reception by the
Board of Trade at the Hotel Astor ; Miss Grace Dodge was
the force behind the meeting at the Teachers College ;
and others contributed nobly to the splendid result.
But Mrs. Lowell was in and behind everythmg, givmg
direction and unity to all. She kept the wires very hot
between New York and Boston that week; and one
morning, I remember, an energetic school teacher appeared
at my office straight from Mrs. Lowell's desk to make
absolutely sure that the Bishop of Hereford did not fail

540

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

to be present at the principal New York meeting. I think
she stayed in Boston abnost until the Bishop was actually
on the train ; and I felt each time she came to me that Mrs.
Lowell's eyes, so keen for every detail, were looking at me
through hers.

There are none of us charged with the peace work here
in Boston who will not always feel her eyes upon us, en-
couraging, pleading, and commanding. I trust that the
same thought of her untiring service, her consecration, and
her presence may be a perpetual inspiration to the new
peace society just being organized in New York. Its
organization would have been to her a joy — that greatest
of joys to her, a new opportunity and instrument for ser-
vice. Those in New York who loved her can show their
gratitude in no way which would have given her greater
satisfaction than by supporting as she would have done
this hopeful movement in their city for the warfare against
war.

Edwin B. Mead.

Boston, Mass.

Josephine Shaw Lowell
In Memoriam

As now and then a star breaks through the gloom
With glow so strong, so tender, and serene,
Dispelling, one by one, the brooding clouds —
Till midnight shades melt in the glow of morn —
So, now and then a soul serene and strong
Shines downward through the clouds of human pain,
And through the dark of human need and wrong,

MEMORIALS ^^

Till, 'neath its patient toil and radiant calm --
Evil shrinks back abashed, and good is crowned.

A star like this is for no land or clime ;

Each cloud alike its radiance must share

Md when its light IS lost, the whole earth mourns.

A soul like hers to the wide world belongs,

t light, though sometimes hid awhile or quenched.

Flames ever at the heart of hmnan woes;

And, kept aUve by those who knew and loved,

Becomes consuming fire to every wrong

That holds humanity in suffering s thrall.

Shme on, Star ! m life's oftK^louded heaven !
Bum on, Soul of flame ! in life's sore needs.
P^oe e'en our sadness.. ^^^ ^^^ ^^^^r^! ^Jf
To those who glad would follow where ^t leads.
Who fain would change their love and ^ef to ^^^^^^^^^

Mary Lowe Dickinson.

From the New Ycrrk Evening Post, April 14, 1906.

The Sebvice-tkee
To Josephine Shaw Lowell

There's an old Icelandic rune,
Chanted to a mournful tune,
Of the service-tree, that grows
O'er the sepulchres of those
Who for others' sins have died, —
Others' hatred, greed, or pride, —

IVI

i|lL

542 JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

Living monuments that stand,
Planted of no human hand.

So from her fresh-flowered grave —
Hers who all her being gave
Other lives to beautify,
Other ways to purify, —
There shall spring a spirit-tree,
In her loving memory.
Till its top shall reach the skies.
Telling of her sacrifice.

John Finley.

From the Century Magazine, May, 1906.

The memorial volume also contains, resolutions of
regret at Mrs. Lowell's death, adopted by the Sixth
New York State Conference of Charities and Correction,
November 16, 1905. Resolutions were also adopted by
the "Woman's Auxiliary of the New York Civil Service
Reform Association, November 7, 1905; by the New
York State Federation of Women's Clubs, and by the
Woman's Municipal League of New York.

The New York State Board of Charities at its meeting
January 10, 1906, unanimously adopted a minute express-
ing regret at the death of their former colleague, Mrs.
Lowell. The State Charities Aid Association took appro-
priate action at the annual meeting, December 6, 1906.
The Women's Auxiliary of the Massachusetts Civil Ser-
vice Reform Association adopted resolutions of regret, and

MEMORIALS

543

the Federation Bulletin of January, 1906, published an
obituary and memorial notices.

The Woman's Municipal League, in conjunction with
the Consumers' League and the Woman's Auxiliary of
the New York Civil Service Reform Association, organiza-
tions, as we have seen, founded and led by Mrs. Lowell,
held a meeting in her memory at New York, on April 12,
1906, under the chairmanship of Miss Margaret L.
Chanler, President of the Woman's Municipal League.

The MmUhly BulUtin of that League for May following
took the form of a memorial number to Mrs. Lowell, and
the following extracts are made from tributes then paid
to her :

Miss Louisa Lee Schuyler
It gives me much pleasure, as an old friend of Mrs.
Lowell, a friend from girlhood, although several years
her senior, to join with you in this tribute of affectionate
respect to her memory. . . •

Had she not chosen to give her life to the service of
others, to the poor and friendless, she would doubtless
have made her mark in literature, for that life of aspiration,
earnestness, and industry was destined to leave its impress
on the world in some form. One thing she could never
have been, and this too was open to her, a society
woman, caring for fashionable society alone. Not that
her social position, always recognized as of the best,
did not help her in her work, for it did ; but she looked upon
it and upon her other possessions, as of the things to be
used for others, if she ever thought of them at all. . . .

-iii :|

544

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

Those who knew Mrs. Lowell well knew that the ex-
periences of those years of the war were the abiding in-
fluences in her life, not of despair or bitterness, but of
sweetness and strength. One could not be with her — I
never could — without feehng, through her silence, the
ever-present background of the war ; without a sense of
reverence for that supreme sacrifice for country, so nobly
accepted ; without seeing the halo upon her brow. . . .

Miss Kate Bond

Mrs. Lowell was in earnest in whatever cause she under-
took, and because she was in earnest, men and women
believed in her and listened to her plans and followed her
leadership. She considered carefully the methods she
adopted ; she never wearied in her aims, and the citizens
of this city took time to consider the practical suggestions
made by this wise and self-sacrificing wom^ for the public
good. . . . Behold the membership and influence of the
Woman's Municipal League as it is today ! It was Mrs.
Lowell, our strong adherent to the right, who conceived
the idea of uniting women to consider the city's needs !
She never faltered in her interest or in her determination
to promote an honest city government, in so far as her
individual power and influence could efi'ect it. Day and
night, with but few to hold up her hands, in the early days
of this League, Mrs. Lowell toiled to create interest among
women and men in our city affairs. I have seen her when
the early autumn came, previous to the city elections,
while most of her associates were still out of town, day
after day, preparing documents for distribution and writing

MEMORIALS

545

notes to absent acquaintances, soliciting the use of draw-
ing-rooms in which meetings might be held to discuss the
city's political issues. Great as was the cause to be main-
tained, she held no detail as too small to receive her
attention. . . .

Miss Grace H. Dodge

Miss Dodge spoke extemporaneously of Mrs. Lowell
and her relationship to the peace movement, and especially
emphasized her beautiful service in the fall of 1904, when
the great National Peace Conference was held in Boston
and extra meetings in New York City. She also
further described the spirit of peace and love and gentle-
ness which always pervaded Mrs. LoweU's personaUty
and her home surroundings, and said how much this
peaceful atmosphere had done to rest and help the many
tired workers and friends who came in to consult her.

Mrs. William H. Schieffelin*
In the death of Mrs. Lowell, the Woman's AuxiUary
of the Civil Service Reform Association has lost its most

loyal and distinguished member In studying the

story of Mrs. LoweU's life, from the time when her young
husband and her brother were killed in the Civil War -
when she consecrated her life to the cause of humamty -
we are thriUed at the revelation of the purity and nobihty
of her character. Mrs. LoweU's absolute abnegation of
self, her unique unworldliness, her tender sympathy for

. Minute presented by Mrs. Scbiefielin and adopted by the Woman s
Auxiliary of the New York Civil Service Reform Association.

546

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

MEMORIALS

547

the neglected and suffering, her passionate desire to help
those longing and struggling for Uberty and independence,
her burning indignation against all that was unworthy
and untrue, her patriotism and civic pride, her cheerful-
ness, helpfulness, and especially her humility, show a
nature of surpassing purity and strength, a pattern not
to women alone, but to all Americans. We who have
been associated with Mrs. LoweU know that her place i
cannot be filled, for we have lost the inspiration of our
leader and our dear friend.

Tributes paid in words, however eloquent, do not alone ,
record the memory of Mrs. Lowell and her work. It was '
the privilege of a loving daughter to commemorate the ,
sacrificial Uves of both her parents in providing the first ':,
of these other memorials. Charles Russell LoweU ac- •'
quired in 1859 a tract of land containing two hundred and
one acres, situated about four miles from the city of Dixon,
Illinois. The purchase is supposed to have been made |
partly for investment and partly because of the beauty of \
the property. On his death, in 1864, Mrs. Lowell inherited ;
this land from her husband, and for more than forty years, ■'
refusing either to sell or to lease, she held it in his memory, ;
carefully preserving the natural beauties he had loved so ,• ,
well. Miss Lowell in turn inherited it from her mother,-' ^
soon after whose death in 1905, she carried out her wishes.^
by conveying it to the city of Dixon for a pubUc park./
There could be no more appropriate memorial. For
many years a dweller in the most crowded city in the
world, Mrs. Lowell had always deplored the lack of breathr

..■* <J

ing spaces for the people and of playgrounds for children,
and she herseK had led, or actively supported, several
movements in New York intended to supply present needs,
and also to make ample provision of new parks in the sub-
urbs for the future growth of the metropohs. With the
deed of the property, Miss Lowell presented a valuable
report which she had obtained from Olmsted Brothers,
eminent landscape architects of Boston, in which they
described the land included in the gift, and made recom-
mendations for its development and for the manner of its
future use. The Legislature of IlUnois promptly passed
a law enabling the acceptance of the land for park purposes
by the city, which on May 8, 1907, appointed a board of
five commissioners for the control and improvement of
"Lowell Park."

A second memorial to Mrs. Lowell is a fountain at Rad-
cliffe College, Cambridge, Massachusetts, erected by Ma-
jor Henry L. Higginson and Mrs. Higginson of Boston.
The fountain, an old Venetian basin of red granite, was
dedicated June, 1906, on which occasion a eulogy of Mrs.
LoWWl was delivered to the students by Major Higginson.

In the early years of the Charity Organization Society,
Mrs. Lowell was often associated with Mr. Robert W.
Hebberd, one of the executive officers, who, after nearly
ten years' subsequent service as Secretary of the State
Board of Charities, in 1906 became Commissioner of
Public Charities of the City of New York, by the ap-
pointment of Mayor McClellan. Mr. Hebberd had the
gratification of honoring the memory of his fellow-worker,
by giving her name to a new hospital steamboat of his

548

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

department. Built at West New Brighton, Staten
Island, within sight of Mrs. Lowell's old home. The Lowell
was launched. May 25, 1908, with appropriate ceremonies,
witnessed by many of her friends, and went into com-
mission September 1, of that year. Assigned, primarily,
to the duty of carrying patients from the East Twenty-
sixth Street pier of the Department to the hospitals and
other institutions on the islands in the East River, this
steamboat, which has capacity for two hundred passengers,
and is provided with several private cabins for the very ill,
carries on her daily trips a physician, a matron, and a nurse,
to minister to those in need of special care. A bronze me-
morial tablet sxxitably inscribed has been placed by Mr.
Hebberd in the saloon. Long may The Lowell ply
the waters of the metropolis on her errands of mercy,
and so continually recall the devoted labors of the noble
woman whose name she bears, for the relief of the sick
and unfortunate of the great city.

It will be remembered that several of the speakers at
the Memorial Meeting to Mrs. Lowell, held in the United
Charities Building, suggested that some suitable civic
monument should perpetuate her name and her services
to the City of New York. Shortly afterward a com-
mittee, under the chairmanship of Seth Low, was organized
to carry out this recommendation. After carefully con-
sidering a number of plans, the committee decided that
the memorial should take the form of a fountain,^ to be
erected in Bryant Park, near the New York City Public
Library. The fountain of Stony Creek granite consists
* Designed by Charles A. Piatt, Architect.

MEMORIALS

549

of a large bowl of classic design, from which the water
flows into a basin of twenty-seven feet in diameter. The
subscribers to the fund for the erection of the fountain
numbered nearly three hundred.

At the New York State Training School for Girls,
formerly the House of Refuge for Women, at Hudson, an
institution which in consideration of Mrs. Lowell's
founder's interest might appropriately in future bear her
name, and also at the State Reformatory for Women at
Bedford there are Lowell Cottages. These State institu-
tions, the Asylum at Newark, and the record of her Hfe
work are her most enduring memorials.

CHRONOLOGICAL BIBLIOGRAPHY OF MRS. LOWELL'S
WRITINGS

1861-1862
1877, Feb. 28.

Sept. 4.

Sept. 7.

Oct. 20.

Dec. 24.

1878, Jan. 14.

McL5.

Mch. 14.

Nov. 12.

A young girl's wartime diary, July 23, 1861-November
9, 1862.

Lowell, J. S., Theodore Roosevelt, and Henry Hoguet.
Report relating to the New York Juvenile Guardian
Society of the City of New York. Eleventh Annual
Report, S. B. C.,^ 1878, pp. 99-102.

Report on Assembly Bill No. 79, 1877, to S. B. C.
Mrs. Lowell for majority, Samuel F. Miller for
minority in re : Reformatory treatment of vagrants,
Pamphlet. 4 p.

Extracts from a report on pauperism presented by
Dr. C. S. Hoyt, Secretary of S. B. C, in regard to
vagrant, feeble-minded, and idiotic inmates of the
almshouses of the State.

Roosevelt, Theodore, J. S. Lowell, Edward C Don-
nelly. Communication to the Mayor of New York in
regard to the OflScial Charities of the City. Eleventh
Annual Report, S. B. C, 1878, pp. 207-225.

Lowell, J. S., Edward C. Donnelly. Communica-
tion to the Board of Estimate and Apportionment
of the City of New York. Ibid., pp. 229-230.

Roosevelt, Theodore, J. S. Lowell. Communication
to the Board of Estimate and Apportionment of the
City of New York. Ibid., pp. 231-234.

Report of a majority of the Committee on Vagrancy,
Mrs. Lowell, Chairman. Minutes, S. B. C, 1878-
1885, pp. 16-17.

Report of Committee appointed to confer with the
Trustees of the Idiot Asylum. Minutes, S. B. C,
1878-1885, p. 15.

Report of the Committee to which was referred the

•New York State Board of Charities.

551

552

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

CHRONOLOGICAL BIBLIOGRAPHY

553

Senate Bill No. 322, 1878, proposing the hiring of
buildings as workhouses for women. Minutes,
S. B. C, 1878-1885, pp. 63-66.

1879, Jan. Lowell, J. S., Edward C. Donnelly. Report relating

to the pubhc charities of New York City. Twelfth
Annual Report, S. B. C, pp. 237-256. Also in
pamphlet form.
May 28. One means of preventing pauperism, in re: The social
harm caused by vagrant and degraded women.
Proceedings of the Sixth Annual Conference of
Charities and Correction, Chicago, June, 1879,
pp. 189-200. Pamphlet form, 14 p.
Commissioners Lowell, Ropes and Foster. Report of
the Committee on a Reformatory for Women,
Twelfth Annual Report, S. B. C, 1879, pp. 289-292.

1880, Jan. 13. Reformatories for women. Thirteenth Annual Report,

S. B. C, 1880, pp. 173-180. Also in pamphlet form.
Mch. 29. Pubhc aid for private charitable institutions caring

for dependent children. New York World, 2 col.
Paper read before the Members of the New York State

Association of Teachers, " Relation of education

to insanity, crime, and pauperism." New York,

1886. Pamphlet, 18 p.
Public Charities of New York City;. Thirteenth

Annual Report, S. B. C, pp. 137-169. Also in

pamphlet form, 32 p.

1881, Jan. 6. Report upon the condition and needs of the insane of

New York City ; Fourteenth Annual Report, S. B. C,

1881, pp. 177-193.

July. Considerations upon a better system of public charities
and correction for cities. Proceedings of the
Eighth National Conference of Charities and Cor-
rection, Boston, July 25-30, 1881, pp. 168-185.
Also in pamphlet form, 18 p.

Oct. IL Report in relation to out-door relief societies in New
York City. Fifteenth Annual Report, S. B. C,

1882, pp. 321-331.

Some facts concerning the jails, penitentiaries, and
poorbouses of the State of New York.
Dec. 6. Report on the State Institutions for the Deaf and
Dumb, and the Asylum for Idiots. Fifteenth An-
nual Report, S. B. C, 1882, pp. 117-151. Also in
pamphlet form, 35 p.

1882, Jan. 10. Report on the Public Charities of New York City.

Ibid., pp. 289-317.

Mch. 16. Lowell, J. S., Stephen Smith, M. D. Report of
committee to consider the needs of the insane of
New York City, and to suggest a plan for their care.
Minutes, S. B. C, 1878-1885, pp. 304-306.

Dec. 19. Lowell, J. S., John C Devereux. Report of the Stand-
ing Committee on Idiots. Sixteenth Annual Report,
S. B. C, 1883, pp. 131-135.

1883, Jan. 10. Report of the Standmg Committee on the Deaf and

Dumb. Ibid., pp. 139-148.

Apr. 11. Resolution opposed to the passage of Assembly Bill
No. 654, entitled "An Act to make Provision in Aid
of and for the Support of CerUin Poor in the City
of New York." Minutes, S. B. C, 1878-1885, p. 391.

Oct. 10. Report on the organization and work of the Charity
Organization Society of the City of New York.
Seventeenth Annual Report, S. B. C. 1884, pp. 135-
139.
Duties of friendly visitors. Charity Organization So-
ciety papers. No. 11. 4 p.
Report on the insane and lunatic asylums of New York
City. Sixteenth Annual Report, S. B. C, 1883,
pp. 151-163.

1884, Apr. 19. Stewart, W. R., J. S. Lowell, J. J. Milhau. Report of

the Special Committee of the S. B. C. upon the man-
agement of the New York Infant Asylum. Ordered
printed by Board, Dec. 16, 1884. Pamphlet, 22 p.
PubUc Relief and Private Charity. G. P. Putnam's
Sons, New York and London. Ill p. "Questions
of the Day," No. XIII.

554

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

Devereux, John C, J. S. Lowell. Report of the Stand-
ing Committee on the Deaf and Dumb. Seven-
teenth Annual Report, S. B. C, 1884,' pp. 325-326.

Commissioners Lowell, Ropes, Ripley. Report of the
Standing Committee on Outdoor Relief. Ibid.,
pp. 141-161.

1885, Mch. 16. The bitter cry of the poor in New York. Some of its

causes and some of its remedies; Christian Union,
Vol. XXXI, No. 13. 3 col.
Apr. 1. On the relation of employers and employed. A paper
read at the Women's Conference of the Philadelphia
Society for Organizing Charity, April 1, 1885.
Pamphlet published by the society. 8 p.

1886, Jan. 12. Report on the institutions for the care of destitute

children of the City of New York. Nineteenth

Annual Report, S. B. C, pp. 165-243.
Sept. Public outdoor relief; Intemalimal Record, No. 7,

p. 110.
Dec. 9. Stewart, William R., J. S. Lowell, Robert McCarthy.

Report of the Standing Committee on Reformatories.

Twentieth Annual Report, S. B. C, 1887, pp. 165-

214.
Dec. 15. Report on the Public Charities of New York City.

Ibid., pp. 217-279.

1887, Apr. 25. Extracts from a paper read at the Woman's Con-

ference, " New York City Department of Charities."
Pamphlet, 5 p.

July 12. The Work-house, New York City. Twenty-first
Annual Report, S. B. C, 1888, pp. 335-346. *

Aug. How to adapt charity organization methods to small i
conmnmities. Proceedings of the Fourteenth Na-)-;!-
tional Conference of Charities and Correction, « |
Omaha, Neb., Aug. 25-31, 1887, pp. 135-143. ' '

Dec. 5. Charity Organization. An address delivered before *
the Women's Christian Conference of New YorkL-
City. T:

Dec. 9. Report on the Department of I^lblic Charities and"}i|l

CHRONOLOGICAL BIBLIOGRAPHY

555

1888, Feb. 8.
April

Nov. 20.

Dec. 8.

Dec. 12.

1889, Jan. 4.
Feb. 8.
July 6.

Deo. 10.

Correction of the City of New York. Twenty-first
Aimual Report, S. B. C, pp. 261-271. Also in
pamphlet form.
Report on the Work-house, New York City.
Paper read at first public meeting of the Working

Women's Society.
Paper read at third annual meeting of the Charity
Organization Society of Castleton. " Charity Or-
ganization Society purposes." Ms. Pamphlet, 3 p.

Milhau, John J., J. S. Lowell. Report in reference
to insane in New York City. Minutes, S. B. C,
188&-1890, p. 175.

Stewart, William R., J. S. Lowell. Report of the
Standing Committee on Reformatories. Twenty-
second Annual Report, S. B. C, 1888, pp. 315-368.

Report on the Randall's Island Schools for Defective
Children. Ibid., pp. 431-435. Also in pamphlet
form.

Report on the Work-house, New York City. Ibid.,
pp. 41&-428. Also in pamphlet form.

Report of the Standing Committee on Out-door Relief.
Twenty-third Annual Report, S. B. C, 1888, pp. 349-
371.

Sunday School Talks. Five papers " Our duties in
connection with charity and relief giving;" read
before the Sunday School of the Lenox Ave. Uni-
tarian Church, New York City. 34 pages.

Paper read before the League of Unitarian Women.
Ms.

Letter to feather manufacturers of New York. Ms.
3 p.

Report on proposed organization of an asylum for
destitute Italian children in the City of New York.
Minutes, S. B. C, 1886-1890, pp. 209-210.

Report upon the care of dependent children in the City
of New York and elsewhere. Twenty-third Annual
Report, S. B. C, pp. 175-249.

556

1890, May.

Aug. 5.

1891, Mch.

Nov.
1892, Jan.
July 15.
Dec. 2.

1893, Jan.
May.

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

LoweU, J. S., Robert McCarthy. Report on the Stand-
ing Committee on Reformatories. Ibid., pp. 123-
136. Also in pamphlet form.
Report of the Standing Committee on the Deaf and

Dumb. Ibid., pp. 139-163.
The Economic and Moral Effects of Public Outdoor
Relief, Proceedings of the Seventeenth National
Conference of Charities and Correction, Baltimore
May 14-21, 1890, pp. 81-91. Alao in pamphlet
form, 11 p.

Letter to Board of PoUce of New York City, re: PoUce

Matrons. ^ col.
Out-door Relief. Its effect upon the recipient.
Twenty-fourth Annual Report, S. B. C, 1890.
Also in pamphlet form. 8 p.
Book review. "In Darkest England and the Way
Out," by General Booth, 1890. Magazine of
Christian Literature, March, 1891, p. 440. 3 p.
Typewritten copy, 11 p. with emendations.
General Booth's book again. (Incomplete). Type-

wntten. 5 p.
Labor organization as affected by law. (Largely
quotation.) In first number of Charities Reinew,
November, 1891.
Need in New York City of Reformatory for Women.
In 5tate Charities Record, New York, January 1892
Vol. Ill, No. 3, pp. 26-27.
Workingmen's Rights in property created by them.
Letter to editor of New York Times. Also in pam-
phlet form, 6 p.
Raikoad Strikes. New York Times, Dec. 2, 1892, 2 col
The Darkest England Social Scheme. A. brief review '

of the first year's work. Typewritten. 10 p.
The Rights and Wrongs of Strikes.
Industrial Peace. Reprinted from CharUiea Retdew I
for January, 1893. Pamphlet. 7 p. J

A chapter of industrial history. Re: Lidustrial '

CHRONOLOGICAL BIBLIOGRAPHY

557

Conciliation. Mainly translated from the French.
Reprinted from Charities Review for May, 1893.
Pamphlet. 6 p.

June. Felix qui causam rerum cognovit. Charities Review,
June, 1893. 8 p.
1894, May. Five Months' Work for the Unemployed in New York
City. Typewritten. 27 p.
The Great Coal Strike of 1894. Typewritten.
8 p.

Sept. 26. The Elmira Reformatory. A Letter to the Evening
Post. 1 p.

Sept. The Unemployed in New York City, 1893-1894.
Read before the American Social Science As-
sociation, at Saratoga, September, 1894, and again
before the Council of the Charity Organization
Society of Buffalo, Oct. 3, 1894. Printed in

Oct. 9.

Buffalo Courier, Oct. 14, 1894. Ij col.

Oct. 20.

1895, Apr. 4
May.

Letter to Frances E. Willard advising how the
W. C. T. U. can best help the working people.
Typewritten. 5 p.

Lowell, J. S., Felix Adler, C. W. Hoadley. Com-
mittee of New York Council of Mediation and Con-
ciliation. To Clothing Manufacturers Association
Contractors Protective Union Brotherhood of
Tailors. Re: Arbitration. Typewritten. 2 p.

ReUef for the Unemployed.

An Example of Arbitration. Reprints from The Voice.
4 p.

Poverty and its relief. The methods possible in the
City of New York. Proceedings of the Twenty-
second National Conference of Charities and Cor-
rection, New Haven, Conn., May 24-30, 1895,
pp. 44-54.
June 20. Two much-needed county institutions. A paper read
at the Convention of County Superintendents of the
Poor, Ogdensburg, N. Y. Re: Farm colony for
vagrants. 9 p.

658

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

1896, Jan.

Sept. 30.
Dec. 30.

1895, Nov. 15. Industrial Peace. Fragment. 5 p.
Nov. 15. County visiting committees. 10 p.

Industrial Arbitration and Conciliation. Publications
of the Church Social Union, Series B, No. 8.
Boston. 19 p.

Charity. To the Sunday School children of the
Lenox Ave. Unitarian Church, New York City.
Typewritten. 6 p.

Industrial Conciliation.

Some American examples of industrial conciliation.
For "Live Questions Bureau." Typewritten, lip.

Lowell, J. S., and others. Homeless men and women.
A letter to Commander Booth Tucker, Salvation
Army. Typewritten. 9 p.

The Reform of the Civil Service and the Spoils Sys-
tem. Read before the Women's Auxiliary of the
C. S. R. A. and the League for Political Education.
Publication No. 2, League for Political Education.
16 p.

Charity Problems. 2 ool. reprint from the Chicago
Record. 7 p.

Relation of women to the movement for reform in
the Civil Service. National Civil Service Reform
League.

The true siim of Charity Organization Societies. The
Forum for June, 1896. Pamphlet. 7 p.

Argument on the Department of Public Charities, the
Department of Correction, and the payment of
public funds to private institutions. Reprint. 4 p.

The influence of cheap lodging houses on city pau-
perism. Partly in Evening Post. Typewritten, with
emendations in ink. 13 p.
May. Industrial Conciliation. For Brooklyn Ethical

Society, May, 1898. Typewritten. 12 p.

Address to Women's Municipal League.
June 29. Civil Service Reform and Public Charity. Proceed-
ings of the Twenty-seventh Annual Convention of-,

1897, Jan. 14.

Feb. 16.

CHRONOLOGICAL BIBLIOGRAPHY

559

County Superintendents of the Poor, of the State of
New York.
Civil Service Reform is the People's Cause.
On better city government in New York City at close
of Mayor Strong's administration. Typewritten.
4 p.
The Rights of Capital and Labor and Industrial Con-
ciliation. Publications of the Church Social Union,
No. 38, June 15, 1897. Boston. Pamphlet. 23 p.
"Your Committee thought that the offices of the
Council might be useful in bringing the AflBliated-
Trades and Mason Builders together." Re : Arbitrar
tion. 1 p., pencil notes.
1898, Aug. Benefit from Police Matrons in New York City Station
Houses. Ms. 2 p.
City Coal.
May. Civil Ser\'ice Reform. Proceedings of the Twenty-
fifth National Conference of Charities and Correc-
tion, New York, May 1.8-25, 1898, pp. 256-261.
Sept. Woman's Municipal League of the City of New York.
In Municipal Affairs, September, 1898.
The Ethics of Civil Service Reform. Address de-
livered in Broadway Tabernacle.
The Evils of Investigation and Relief. A paper read
before the training class in Practical Philanthropic
Work, June 21, 1898. Reprint from Charities for
July, 1898. Pamphlet. 4 p.
A hard lesson in reform. Letter to New York

Tribune.
Civil Service Reform, Part I. Typewritten. 10 p.
Civil Service Reform. Typewritten. 20 p.
Nov. 18. Children. Typewritten. 27 p.

Letter to Evening Post on Civil Service.

The Living Wage. Ms.

Out-door relief in coal. Report of Committee, Mrs.

Lowell, chairman.
Spain and Civil Service Reform. Letter to Evening Post.

560

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

CHRONOLOGICAL BIBLIOGRAPHY

561

Also in '?■

What can young men do for the city? Ms. <

1899, Feb. 4. The uses and dangers of investigation in public and ;'

private charities. Read before the New York ^1

Medical League at its meeting at the Academy of ':

Medicine, Jan. 20, 1899. In Pvblic and Private

Charities, Feb. 4, 1899, on p. 135. 4 col.

Medical News for Feb. 4, 1899.
Drunkenness and the evil of short sentences. A

review of the Boston report on the subject. 1 p.

Ms + 19 typewritten.
Relation of Women to good Government. Address '

to Y. W. C. A.
Lowell, J. S., L. D. Wald, E. S. Williams. Emergency •

Rehef Funds. A letter published in Charities, Feb. "

25, 1899. ■

Report of Committee on District Work. Charities, \

Sept. 25, 1899. '

Inspection of private charities. Charities, Jan. 27, 1900. ;-
Why day nurseries are needed. 2 p. ;

Committee reports on Civil Service Reform.
Letters to editor of Charities in regard to communal .-

dwellings for widows with children. '.

Report of Committee on Civil Service Reform, New 'i

York State Federation of Women's Clubs. >

1903, June. Letter to President Roosevelt in behalf of Executive ,,

Committee, Women's Auxiliary, Civil Service Re- *

form Association, requesting that women steam- '^j

ship inspectors be appointed from eligible list. K

Sept., Oct. Letters to Woman's Municipal L ague Bulletin. '■ '.f

Booker T. Washmgton. Ms. 2 p. 'Ij-

Nov. 10. Report of Committee on Civil Service Reform, Nev^k

York State Federation of Women's Clubs, Utica>V

N. Y. Pamphlet. 11 p. *,,

1904, Nov. 1. Report of Conunittee on Civil Service Reform, New!

York State Federation of Women's Clubs, Syracusey
N. Y. Pamphlet. 6 p. if

1905.

Feb. 6.

Feb. 18.

Sept. 15

1900,

Jan. 22,

1901.

1902,

May.

Report of Committee on Civil Service Reform, New
■York State Federation of Women's Clubs. Bing-
hamton, N. Y. (Last public work of the chairman,
Mrs. Lowell.) Clippings from "Federation Bul-
letin" of January, 1905. 4 col.

England of 1877, — America, 1904. 7 p.

TOPICAL INDEX

Almshouses

1877, Sept. 7. Extracts from a report on Pauperism presented by
Dr. C. S. Hoyt, Secretary of S. B. C, in regard to
vagrants, feeble-minded, and idiotic inmates of
the almshouses of the State.

Chamty Organization Society
>
1883, Oct. 10. Report on the organization and work of the Charity

Organization Society of the City of New York,

Seventeenth Annual Report, S. B. C, 1884, pp.

135-139.
Duties of friendly visitors. Charity Organization

Society papers. No. 11. 4 p.
1885, Mch. 16. The bitter cry of the poor in New York. Some of its

causes and some of its remedies ; Christian Union,

Vol. XXXI, No. 13. 3 col.

1887, Dec. 5. Charity Organization. An address delivered before

the Women's Christian Conference of New York
City. Newspaper. 4 col.
Aug. How to adapt charity organization methods to small
communities. Proceedings of the Fourteenth Na-
tional Conference of Charities and Correction,
Omaha, Neb., August 25-31, 1887, pp. 135-143.
Also Charity Organization Society of the City of
New York, publication No. 32, 8 p.

1888, April Paper read at third annual meeting of the Charity

Organization Society of Castleton. Re: Charity
Organization Society Purposes. Pamphlet, 3 p.
The true Aim of Charity Organization Societies. The
Forum, June, 1896. Pamphlet, 7 p.

562

1895.

TOPICAL INDEX 563

1899, Sept. 25. Report of Committee on District Work. Charities,
Sept. 25, 1899. 6 p.

Childhen

1886, Jan. 12. Report on the institutions for the care of destitute
children of the City of New York. Nineteenth
Annual Report, S. B. C, pp. 165-243.

1889, July 6. Report on proposed organization of an asylum for
destitute Italian children in the City of New York.
Minutes, S. B. C, 1886-1890, pp. 209-210.
Dec. 10. Report upon the care of dependent children in the City
of New York and elsewhere. Twenty-tlurd Annual
Report, S. B. C, 175-249.
Children. . Typewritten. 27 p.

Civil Service

1896, Dec. 30. The Reform of the Civil Service and the Spoils System.

Read before the Women's Auxiliary of the Civil
Service Reform Association and the League for
Political Education. Publication No. 2, League
for Political Education.
Relation of Women to the Movement for Reform in
the Civil Service. National Civil Service Reform
League.

1897, June 29. Civil Service Reform is the People's Cause.

Civil Service Reform and Public Charity. Pro-
ceedings of the Twenty-seventh Annual Convention
. of County Superintendents of the Poor of the

State of New York.

1898, May. Civil Service Reform. Proceedings of the Twenty-

fifth National Conference of Charities and Cor-
rections, New York, May 18-25, 1898, pp. 256-261.
Civil Service Reform, 10 p.
Aug. Benefit from Police Matrons in New York City Station
Houses. 2 p. Ms.

564

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

Oct. 15. A hard lesson in refonn. Letter to New York

Tribune. 3 p.
May. Spain and Civil Service Refonn. Letter to Evening
JPost.
1899. Jan. 1. Letter to Evening Post on Civil Service. Ma.

The Ethics of Civil Service Reform. Address deliv-
ered in Broadway Tabernacle.

1901. Committee report on Civil Service Reform.

1902. Report of the Conunittee on Civil Service Refonn,

New York State Federation of Women's Clubs.
Printed.

1903. June. Letter to President Roosevelt in behalf of Executive

Conmiittee, Women's AuxiUary, Civil Servive Re-
form Association, requesting that women steamship
inspectors be appointed from eligible list. Ms.,
small fragment.
Nov. 10. Committee report on Civil Service Reform, New
York State Federation of Women's Clubs, Utioa,
N. Y. Pamphlet. 11 p.

1904. Report of Committee on Civil Service Reform, New

York State Federation of Women's Clubs, Syracuse,
N. Y. Pamphlet. 6 p.

1905. Committee report on Civil Service Reform, New

York State Federation of Women's Clubs, Bingham-

ton, N. Y. (Last public work of the chairman, Mrs.

Lowell.) Federation BvUetin, January, 1905. 4 col.
Annual Report of the Women's Auxiliary to the Civil

Service Refonn Association.
Civil Service Reform. Typewritten. 4 p.
Civil Service Reform. Typewritten. 7 p. ,
Report of Civil Service Conmiittee. No date. Ms.

13 p.
Two Systems. Ledger article on Evening Post letter.
Report of Executive Conunittee of Women's Auxiliary

to Civil Service Reform Association. Addressed

to Original Charter Commission.

CoNsxmERs' Leagues
Consumers' leagues. 2 p.

TOPICAL INDEX

565

Defectives

1878, Mch. 14. Report of Committee appointed to confer with Board
of Trustees of the Idiot Asylum, Minutes, S. B. C,
1878-1885, p. 15.

1881, Dec. 6. Report on the State Institutions for the Deaf and

Dumb, and Asylum for Idiots. Fifteenth Annual
Report, S. B. C, 1882, pp. ^117-151. Also in
pamphlet form, 35 p.

1882, Dec. 19. Lowell, J. S., John C. Devereux. Report of the Stand-

ing Committee on Idiots. Sixteenth Annual Report,
S. B. C, 1883, pp. 131-135.

1883, Jan. 10. Report of the Standing Committee on the Deaf and

Dumb. Ibid., pp. 139-148.

1884, Devereux, John C, J. S. Lowell. Report of the

Standing Committee on the Deaf and Dumb.
Seventeenth Annual Report, S. B. C, 1884, pp.
325-326.

1888, Dec. 12. Report on the Randall's Island Schools for Defective

Children. Twenty-second Annual Report, S. B. C,

1888, pp. 431-435. Also in pamphlet form.

1889. Report of the Standing Committee on the Deaf and

Diunb. Twenty-third Annual Report, S. B. C,

1889, pp. 139-163.

Depabtment of Public Chakittes

1877, Oct. 20. Roosevelt, Theodore, J. S. Lowell, Edward C.Donnelly,
Communication to the Mayor of New York in re-
gard to the Official Charities of the city. Eleventh
Annual Report, S. B. C, 1878, pp. 207-225.

1879, Jan. Lowell, J. S., Edward C. Donnelly. Report relating

to the public charities of New York City. Twelfth
Annual Report, S. B. C, 1879, pp. 237-256. Also
in pamphlet form.

1880. PubUc Charities of New York City. Thirteenth

Annual Report, S. B. C, 1880, pp. 137-169. Also
in pamphlet form, 32 p.

566

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

TOPICAL INDEX

567

1881, July. Considerations upon a better system of public

charities and correction for cities. Proceedings
of the Eighth National Conference of Charities and
Correction, Boston, July 25-30, 1881, pp. 168-185.
Also in pamphlet form, 18 p.

1882, Jan. 10. Report on the Public Charities of New York City.

Fifteenth Annual Report, S. B. C, 1882, pp. 289-317.

1886, Dec. 15. Report on the Public Charities of New York City.

Twentieth Annual Report, S. B. C, 1887, pp. 217-
279.

1887, Apr. 25. Extracts from a paper read at the Woman's Conference.

Re: New York City Departments of Charities.
Pamphlet, 5 p.
Dec. 9. Report on the Department of Public Charities and
Correction of the City of New York. Twenty-first
Annual Report, S. B. C, 1888, pp. 261-271. Also
in pamphlet form.
1897, Jan. 14. Argument on the Department of Public Charities, the
Department of Correction, and the payment of
public funds to private institutions. Pamphlet. 4 p.
Suggestions regarding the Chapters on Charities and
Correction in the proposed Charter for Greater New
York. No date. Typewritten. 4 p.

Diary

1 1861-1862. A young girl's wartune diary; July 23, 1861-Novem-
ber 9, 1862.

Insane

1877, Deo. 24. Lowell, J. S., Edward C. Donnelly. Conmxunication

to the Board of Estimate and Apportionment of
the City of New York. Eleventh Annual Report,
S. B. C, 1878, pp. 229-230.

1878, Jan. 14. Roosevelt, Theodore, J. S. Lowell. Communication

to the Board of Estimate and Apportionment of
the City of New York. Ihid., pp. 231-234.

1881, Jan. 6. Report upon the condition and needs of the insane of

New York City. Fourteenth Annual Report,
S. B. C, 1881, pp. 177-193.

1882, Moh. 16. Lowell, J. S., Stephen Smith, M. D. Report of com-

mittee appointed to consider the needs of the insane
of New York City, and to suggest a plan for their
care. Minutes, S. B. C, 1878-1885, pp. 304-306.

1883, Report on the insane and lunatic asylums of New York

City. Sbrteenth Annual Report, S. B. C, 1883,
pp. 151-163.
1888, Nov. Milhau, John J., Lowell, J. S. Report in reference to
insane in New York City. Minutes, S. B. C,
1886-1890, p. 175.

Labor

1885, Apr. 1. On the relation of employers and employed. Read at
the Women's Conference of the Philadelphia Society
for Organizing Charity. Pamphlet. 8 p.

1888, Feb. 8. Paper read at first pubUc meeting of the Working

Women's Society. Ms.

1889, Feb. 8. Letter to feather manufacturers of New York. Re :

Union. Ms. 3 p.

1891, Nov. Labor organization as affected by law. (Largely

quotation.) Typewritten. 8 p.

1892, July 15. Workingmen's Rights in property created by them.

Pamphlet. Reproduced from letter to editor of
New York Times.
The rights and wrongs of strikes.
Nov. 8. Raikoad Strikes. New York Times, Dec. 2, 1892.
2 col.

1893, Jan. Industrial Peace. Reprinted from Charities Review,

January, 1893. Pamphlet, 7 p.
May. A chapter of industrial history, fie; Industrial Con-
ciliation. Mainly translated from the French.
Pamphlet. Reprinted from Charities Review, May,
1893. 6 p.

^i|

568

1894, Oct. 20.

Oct. 9.

1895, Apr. 4.

Nov. 15.
Nov. 15.

1896, Jan.

1897, May.
June 15.

1898.

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

Lowell, J. S., Feli.\ Adler, C. W. Hoadley. Com-
mittee of New York Council of Mediation and Con-
ciliation. To Clothing Manufacturers Association
Contractors Protective Union Brotherhood of
Tailors. Be: Arbitration. Typewritten. 2 p.

The Great Coal Strike of 1894. Typewritten. 8 p.

Letter to Frances E. Willard ad\'ising how the
W. C. T. U. can best help the working people.
Typewritten. 5 p.

An example of arbitration. 4 pages of reprints from
The Voice.

Industrial Peace. Fragment. 5 p.

Industrial Arbitration and Conciliation. Publications
of the Church Social Union, Series B, No. 8. Boston.
19 p.

Industrial Conciliation.

Some American examples of industrial conciliation.
For "Live Questions Bureau." Typewritten. 11 p.

Industrial Conciliation. For Brooklyn Ethical Society,
May, 1898. Typewritten. 14 p.

The Rights of Capital and Labor and Industrial Con-
ciliation. Publications of the Church Social Union,
No. 38. Boston. Pamphlet. 23 p.

" Your Committee thought that the offices of the Coun-
cil might be useful in bringing the Afl&liated Trades
and Mason Builders together." Re: Arbitration.
1 p., pencil notes.

The Living Wage. Ms.

Address to Industrial Union of Employers and Em-
ployed, in re : Conciliation. Revision of an article
published in Industrial Peace. Later than 1884. 5 p.

Regarding strike in mines, Sept. 12-Nov. 3, 1885. A
fragment. 1885 ( ?)

The Coal Strike. A letter to the New York Eoening
Post, June 25, 1893. i col.

The Coal Strike of 1893-4. A letter to the New
York Evening Post, Sept. 27, 1893. } col,

TOPICAL INDEX

569

Some American Examples of Industrial Conciliation.
Address to "The Industrial Union of Employers and
Employed." A fragment. Ms. 2 p.

Lowell, J. S., Felix Adler, and C. W. Hoadley. Effort
to estabUsh Board of Conciliation and Arbitration
in Clothing Trade of New York City. Typewritten
circular.

The rights of capital and labor. No date. Typewrit-
ten. 13 p.

Miscellaneous

1880, Mch. 29. Public aid for private charitable institutions caring for
dependent children. New York World.
Paper read before the Members of the New York State
Association of Teachers, in re: Relation of education
to insanity, crime, and pauperism. Pamphlet, New
York, 1886. 18 p.

1883, Apr. 11. Resolution opposed to the passage of Assembly Bill
No. 654, entitled "An Act to make Provision in
aid of and for the support of certain poor in the
City of New York." Minutes, S. B. C, 1878-1885,
p. 391.

1889, Jan. 4. Paper read before League of Unitarian Women. Ms.

1897. On better city government in New York City at close

of Mayor Strong's administration. Typewritten.
4 p.
Address to Women's Municipal League.

1898. What can young men do for the city ? Ms.

Sept. The Women's Municipal League of the City of
New York. Municipal Affairs, September, 1898.
pp. 465-466.

1899. Feb. 4. The uses and dangers of investigation in public and

private charities. Read before the New York
Medical League at its meeting at the Academy of
Medicine, Jan. 20, 1899. In "Public and Private
Charities," Feb. 4, 1899, on p. 135. 4 col. Also in
Medical News for Feb. 4, 1899.

570

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

TOPICAL INDEX

571

The Relation of Women to Good Government.
1900, Jan. 22. Inspection of private charities. In Charities, Vol. 4,
No. 9, for Jan. 27, 1900, on p. 4. 2 p.
Why day nurseries are needed. 2 p.

1902. May. Letters to editor of Charities, in regard to communal

dwellings for widows with children.

1903. Booker T. Washington. Ms. 2 p.

Letters to Woman's Municipal League Bvlletin, Octo-
ber and November, 1903.

1904. England of 1877, — America 1904. 7 p.
Business administration of a city. 3 p.
Introduction of Dr. Parkhurst and Mr. John Brooks

Leavitt at a Woman's Municipal League meeting.
No date. Typewritten. 4 p.
Small Towns : Civic activities. No date. Type-
written. 12 p.

OuTDooa Relief

1881, Oct. 11. Report in relation to Outdoor Relief Societies in New
York City. Fifteenth Annual Report, S. B. C,
1882, pp. 321-331.

1884. Commissioners Lowell, Ropes, Ripley. Report of the

Standing Committee on Outdoor Relief. Seven-
teenth Annual Report, S. B. C, 1884, pp. 141-161.
Public Relief and Private Charity. G. P. Putnam's
Sons, New York and London. Ill p. "Questions
of the Day," No. XIII.

1886, Sept. Public outdoor relief. In IntemeUwnai Record, No. 7,
p. 110.

1888. Report of the Standing Committee on Outdoor Relief.

Twenty-third Annual Report, S. B. C., 1888, pp.
349-371.

1890, May. The Economic and Moral Effects of -Public Outdoor
Relief. Proceedings of the Seventeenth National
Conference of Charities and Correction, Baltimore,
May 14-21, 1890, pp. 81-91. Also pamphlet. 11 p.

Outdoor Relief. Its effect upon the Recipient.
Twenty-fourth Annual Report, S. B. C, 1890.
Also in pamphlet form. 8 p.

1891, Book review. "In .Darkest England and the Way

Out," by General Booth, 1890. In Magazine of
Christian Literature, March, 1891, p. 440. 3 p.
Also typewritten. 11 p. with emendations.
General Booth's book again. (Incomplete.) "Type-
written. 5 p.

1892, The Darkest England Social Scheme. A brief review

of the first year's work. Typewritten. 10 p.

1893, June. Felix qui causam rerum cognovit. From Charities

Review, June 1893. 8 p.

1894, May. Five Month's Work for the Unemployed in New York

City. Charities Review, May, 1894.

Relief for the unemployed. Typewritten.

The Unemployed in New York City, 1893-1894.
Read before the American Social Science Associa-
tion, at Saratoga, September, 1894, and again before
the Council of the Charity Organization Society of
Buffalo, Oct. 3, 1894. Printed in Buffalo Courier,
Oct. 14, 1894. IJ col.

1895, May. Poverty and its Relief. The methods possible in the

City of New York. Proceedings of the Twenty-
second National Conference of Charities and Cor-
rection, New Haven, Conn., May 24-30, 1895,
pp. 44-54.

1896, Jan. Charity Problems. Reprint from the Chicago Record "

7 p.

1898. Out^ioor Relief in Coal. Report of Committee, Mrs.

LoweU, chairman.
City Coal.
June 21. The Evils of Investigation and Relief. A paper read
before the training class in Practical Philanthropic
Work. Pamphlet. Reprint from Charities for
July, 1898. 4 p.

1899. LpweU, J. S., L. D. Wald, E. S. William. Emer-

572

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL

gency ReUef Funds. A letter published in C7ion<ie«,| |
Feb. 25, 1899. '- ^

Starving because of alms-giving. No date.

TOPICAL INDEX

573

i >'-~'

Police Matbons

'1
- 1'

1890, Aug. 5. Letter to Board of Police of New York Gity, Re:

1878, Nov. 12.

1879, May 28.

1880, Jan. 13.

1881.

1886, Dec. 9.

1887, July 12.

1888, Dec. 8.

Police Matrons. fS

Reformatohies , ,j,

■f
Report of the Committee to which was referred iM
Senate BiU No. 322, 1878, proposing the hiring\of-
buildings as workhouses for women. Minutes,
S. B. C, 1878-1885, pp. 63-66. .V

One means of preventing pauperism, in re : The social
harm caused by vagrant and degraded womeni
Proceedings of the Sixth National Conference of
Charities, Chicago, June, 1879, pp. 18^200".
Pamphlet form, 14 p.

Commissioners Lowell, Ropes, and Foster. Repor^of
the Committee on a Reformatory for Women,
Twelfth Annual Report, S. B. C, 1879, pp. 28.9-
292. ' /.

Reformatories for women. TMrteenth Annual Report
S. B. C, 1880, pp. 173-180. Also in pamphlet
form. ' ' •••

Some facts concerning the jails, penitentiaries an;d_
poor-houses of the state of New York. 4 p. ■' -- ■-

Stewart, William R., J. S. Lowell, Robert McCarthy.
Report of the Standing Committee on Reformatories.
Twentieth Annual Report, S. B. C, 1887, pp. 165-

214- "*. m

The Work-house, New York City. Twenty-first

Annual Report, S. B. C, 1888, pp. 335-346. ^ .;

Stewart, William R., J. S. LoweU. Report of 'the

Dec. 12.

1889.

1892, Jan.

1894.
1899.

Standing Committee on Reformatories. Twenty-
second Annual Report, S. B. C, 1888, pp. 315-368.

Report on the Work-house, New York City. Ibid.,
pp. 419-428. Also in pamphlet form.

Lowell, J. S., Robert McCarthy. Report of the
Standing Committee on Reformatories. Twenty-
third Annual Report, S. B. C, 1889, pp. 123-136.
Also in pamphlet form.

Need in New York City of reformatory for women.
Instate Charities Record, New York, January, 1892,
Vol. Ill, No. 3, pp. 26-27.

The Elmira Reformatory. Letter to the Evening Post.

Drunkenness and the evil of short sentences. A
review of the Boston report on the subject. 1 p.
Ms. -I- 18 typewritten.

Are labor colonies needed in the United States?
Not earlier than 1887. Typewritten, 14 p.

Spanish War Papers

Moral deterioration following war. Ms.
Our duties to the Fihpinos. (Incomplete.)

Special Istvestigations

Ms.

1877, Feb. 28. Lowell, J. S., Theodore Roosevelt, and Henry Hoguet ;
Report relating to the New York Juvenile Guardian
Society of the City of New York. Eleventh Annual
Report, S. B. C, 1878, pp. 9^102.

1884, Apr. 19. Stewart, W. R., J. S. LoweD, J. J. Milhau. Report
of the Special Committee of the State Board of
Charities upon the management of the New York
Infant Asylum. Ordered printed by Board, Dec.
16, 1884. Pamphlet. 22 p.

State Charities Aid Association
1895, Nov. 15. County visiting committees. 10 p.

:i y

■I

574

1888.

1895.

1877, Sept. 4.

1878, Meh. 5.

1895.

1896, Sept. 30.

1897, Feb. 16.

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL
Sunday School Talks

-1

Sunday Talks, in re: Our duties in connection with.;"*'-
charity and relief giving. Five Sundays. Deliv-'v.
ered before the Sunday School of the Lenox Ave.:''.'i
Unitarian Church. Typewritten. 34 p. ■ .^

Charity. To Sunday School Children of the Lenox ■•'{
Ave. Unitarian Church. Typewritten. 6 p. '' ; "

Vagrants

Report on Assembly Bill No. 79, 1877, to State Boardg-
of Charities. Mrs. Lowell for majority ; Samuel F.'*-
Miller for minority, in re: Reformatory treatment|
of vagrants. Pamphlet, p. 4. ^

Report of a majority of the Committee on Vagrancy.
Mrs. Lowell, Chairman. Minutes, S. B. C, 1878-^;
1885, pp. 16-17. 'i

Two much-needed county institutions. A paj)er
read at the Convention of County Superintendents
of the Poor, Ogdensburg, N. Y., June 20, 1895^
Re: Farm colony for vagrants. Typewritten. 9p.

Lowell, J. S., C. L. Couper, J. A. McKim, R.''^. ,
McBumey, W. H. Tolman, J. L. Thomas, Jacob Riis,
H. Folks. Homeless men and women. A letter'to
Commander Booth Tucker, Salvation Army. (Mra!
Lowell believed to be the author.) Typewrittraa,,

9 p. -:^

The Influence of cheap lodging houses on city pau;
perism. Partly in Evening Post. Tsrpewrittcn^^
with emendations in ink. 12 p. •;

.-I

INDEX

Adams, Charles Francis, mention of,
by Mrs. Lowell, 381, 397.

Adler, Dr. Feliic, 320; address of, at
memorial meeting in honor of Mrs.
Lowell, 519-523.

Adult Able-bodied Paupers, Mrs.
Lowell chairman of committee on,
72-73 ; report on, in almshouses, 73-
74.

Agassiz, Louis, 4.

Albion, House of Refuge at, mentioned,
101, 115; account of establishment
of, 309-310.

Almshouses, study of question of, by
Mrs. Lowell, 72-73; description of
evil conditions in, 79-80; investi-
gations of, 88 B. ; report on vagrant,
feeble-minded, and idiotic inmates
of, 89; the removal of children
from, 244-246; work to improve
condition of, 294 fF.

Andrew, Governor John A., 4, 41.

Andrew, Mrs., and President Lincoln,
23.

Association for Improving the Condi-
tion of the Poor, 140.

Baldwin, William H., 520. |

Bannard, Otto T., 135.

Barlow, Francis C, 49, 285.

Barlow, Mrs. Francis C., 6.

Barnard, President, 75.

Bedford, N.Y., reformatory for women
at, 101, 306-309 : act establishing the,
310 ; opening of, and demonstrated
need, 311-312; Mrs. Lowell's sup-
port of, against political influences,
312—317 ; as an enduring memorial
to Mrs. Lowell, 549.

Beecher. Henry Word, 4, 20.

Bellevuc Hospital, reform in regard to
so-called insane patients at, 231-
232.

Bellevue Training School for Nurses,
83.

Bellevue Visiting Committee, 51, 84-85.

Bender, Harry H., 312, 313, 316.

Berold, the horse, 41, 48.

Besant, Walter, reference to, 167.
Blackwell's Island, almshouse on, 295.
Blaokwell's Island lunatic asylum,

228, 229, 230-231, 233, 238.
Blaiue, James G., 64.
Blizzard of 1888, description of, 66.
Boards of conciliation, 369 ; discussion

of, 398-400, 405-408, 414.
Bond, Kate, tribute paid by, to Mrs.

Lowell, 544-545.
Booth, General, quoted, 179.
Brockway, Superintendent, and the

Elmira Reformatory, 461.
Brook Farm, 2.
Brown, Goodwin, 242.
Brown, John Crosby, 75.
Browsing, Robert, 4.
Bryant Park fountain in memory of

Mrs. Lowell, 548-549.
Bull, Ole, 4.
Bulletin, Woman's MunieiptU League,

founded by Mrs. Lowell, 418;

letters by Mrs. Lowell to, 419-422.
Bull Run. Mrs. Lowell's diary concern-
ing battle of, 10-14.
BuiUngham, Mr. and Mrs., 65.
Bumham, E. K.. 121.
Burt, Mary T., 328.
Byrnes, Superintendent, quoted on

evils of lodging houses, 466.

Campbell, Helen. 339.

" Capital and Labor, Rights of, and

Industrial Conciliation," pamphlet,

400-408.
" Care of Dependent Children in the

City of New York ond Elsewhere,

Report upon," 276-283.
Carlyle, Thomas, letter from, to Mis.

Lowell, 60-51.
Carpenter. Sarah M., 297.
Carter, James C, 126, 310. '
Gary, Edward, "Life of George Wil-
liam Curtis," by, 475 n. ; quoted,

476-477.
Gary, Richard, 32.
Central Islip, feum colony for tlie

insane at, 241-243.

- 'i\

'11

. , '.J

575

576

INDEX

Chapin, Rev. E. H., 20.

Charities, weekly publication of the
Charity Organization Society, 141 ;
artiolei) in, quoted, 207-217, 223-227.

Charities Directory of the City of New
York, 141.

Charity and Relief-giving, series of
papers on, by Mrs. Lowell, 150.

"Charity Organization Societies, The
True Aim of," paper by Mrs. Lowell,
196-207.

Charity Organization Society of the
City of New York, founding of, 122-
126 ; organization and work of the.
130 ff. ; oflSoes in the United Chari-
ties Building, and increasing work of,
140; Joint Application Bureau,
Registration and Investigation Bu-
reau, and other departments, 140-
141 ; purposes and aims pointed out
in paper by Mrs. LoweU, 180-184.

■ ' Charity Problems," paper on, by Mrs.
LoweU, 189-196.

Chicago, paper by Mrs. Lowell pre-
sented before National Conference
of Charities and Correction at, 96-
101.

Chicago convention of 1892, 69.

Child, Lydia Maria, 4, 17.

Children, work for dependent, 244 ff. :
playgrounds for, 255-256; papers
pertaining to, by Mrs. Lowell, 257-
283.

" Children's Law" of 1875, mentioned,
85; enactment of the, 244; modi-
fications of, 247, 248-249.

Choate, Joseph H., tribute paid to
memory of Francis G. Shaw by,
2-3 ; speech of, at meeting of State
Charities Aid Association, 75-77;
mentioned, 310: address by, at
memorial meeting to Mrs. Lowell,
525-526.

"Civil Service Reform, The Ethics of,"
address on, 600-606.

Civil Service Reform, work of George,
William Curtis in behalf of, 477-479 ;
Mrs. Lowell's activities in aid of,
480 S. ; prize essays in cormection
with, 480-481 ; papers by Mrs.
Lowell on the spoils system and,
482-516.

"Civil Service Reform and Public
Charity," paper on, 496-499.

Civil War diary. Mrs. Lowell's, 10-
37.

Clarke, Bishop, 23.

Cleveland, Grover, opinions of, 64, 67,
69; effect of election of, on Civil
Service Reform, 479.

Codroan, Nannie, 65.

CoUins, Ellen, 8, 13, 72, 127 ; appointed
a "Visitor" by State Board of
Charities, 49 : works with Mrs.
Lowell in connection with Freed-
men's Association, 49 ; appointed
county visitor of poorhouses, 295,
329-330: mentioned in connection
with first examination conducted
under Civil Service rules, 329-330.

Colony treatment, of the insane and
feeble-minded, 238-243 ; for paupers,
295-296.

Committee for the Prevention of
Tuberculosis, of the Charity Organ-
ization Society, 141.

Committee of Seventy, the, 416.

Consumers' League, the, 334 ff. ; Mrs.
LoweU as president of, 339, 356;
establishment of national and for-
eign leagues, 341-342.

Copeland, Morris, 26.

County Visiting Committees, Mrs.
LoweU's address on, 77-86.

Craig, Oscar, 252, 303.

Crowningshield. Lieutenant Caspar,
13, 27.

Curtis, George WiUiam, at Brook
Farm, 2 ; marriage of Atma Shaw to,
6; mentioned, 13, 15, 16, 25, 66;
services conducted by, at Sailors'
Snug Harbor. 68; Tavern Club
dinner described. 65 ; death of, 68 ;
importance of influence of, on Mis.
LoweU as a young girl, 475-476;
editor of Harper's Weekly, 476;
work in aid of Civil Service Reform,
477-478.

Cushman, Charlotte, 4.

Custer, General, on the death of
Colonel LoweU. 47.

Custodial asylums for women, 61, 89,
101, 306-317.

Daniel, Dr. Annie S., 320.

Davis. Katharine Bement, letter by,

on Mrs. LoweU's work in cormection

with Bedford reformatory, 317-319.
Decker, Alice M., quoted regarding

Mrs. LoweU, 138-139.
De Forest, Robert W., 141 ; eulogy on

Mrs. LoweU delivered by, 617-619.

INDEX

577

■

Delafield, Rufus, 13.

Denison, Edward, quoted, 178, 211.

Deportation of paupers from other

states to New York, 300-305.
Devereux, J. C, 120.
Devine, Edward T., quoted, 142.
Dexter, Arthur, 13-14.
Dickinson, Mary Lowe, poem by. in

memory of Mrs. Lowell, 540-541,
District committees of the Charity

Organization Society, 132, 183-184.
Dix, Dorothea Lynde, 60, 78.
Dixon, lU., tract presented to, for a

park. 546-547.
Dodge, Grace H., 83, 328; remarks

by, on Mrs. LoweU, 545.
Dodge family as charity workers, 129.
DonneUy, Commissioner, 88, 229.
Drummond, Henry, quotation from,

188-189.
Duties of Friendly Visitors, paper on,

by Mrs. LoweU, 142-150.
Dwight, Theodore W., 284.
Dwigbt, WUder, 34.

East Side Relief Work. 361 ff.
"Economic and Moral Effects of Public

Outdoor ReUef," paper on, 158-
174.
Education of children, a paper on,

257-267.
Elmira Reformatory, letter concerning

Mr. Brookway and the, 461.
."Emergency Relief Funds," article

on, 223-227.
Emerson, Edward W., "Life and

Letters of Charles RusseU LoweU,"

by, 39 n. ; quoted, 45, 46.
Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 4; quoted

apropos of rights of employees, 354.
"Emidoyeee, Property Rights of," Dr.

Jacobi's paper on, quoted, 350i-3S6.
England, consumers' league in, 342.
." Ethics of Civil Service Reform,"

address on, 600-506.
Europe, consumers' leagues in, 342.
European visits, Mrs. Ix)weU'8,,6, 50;

letters to Mrs. Shaw regarding

(1892), 67-68.
Evans, Annie Jackson, 480-481.
"Evils of Investigation and Relief,"

paper by Mrs. LoweU, 207-217.

"Facts for Fathers and Mothers,"
Biahop .Potter's pamphlet, 417-418,
421.

Fairohild, Charles S., 69, 126, 417; a

letter to, 366-367.
Fanning, Mr., letters to. 109, 112-114,

247, 253.
Farm colonies, for the insane, 238-239,

240-243 ; for paupers, 295. 296-297.
Feeble-minded women, first asylums

for. the results of Mrs. LoweU's

efforts, 61 ; account of establishment

of custodial asylums, 89. 101, 116-

121, 306-317.
Field, Benjamin H., 75.
Finley, John H.. 310; poem by, in

memory of Mrs. LoweU, 541-542.
IFlint, Dr. Austin, Jr., 76.
Florence, a letter from Mrs. LoweU in,

68.
Floyd, Mrs. NicoU, 366 n.
Forbes, Alice, 21.
Forbes, John M., 18 n., 19.
Forbes, WiUiam, 19.
Ford, Louise F., quoted regarding Mrs.

LoweU, 139-140.
Forum, article by Mrs. LoweU, 196-

207.
Foster. Commissioner, 88.
Fountains erected as memorials to Mrs.

LoweU, 547, 548.
Freeduien's Association, formation of,

and work of Mrs. LoweU for, 48-49.
Fremont, General, 18. 19, 20.
Friendly visitors, 132, 138; paper on

duties of, by Mrs. Lowell, 142-150.
Fry, Elizabeth, 60; work of, referred

to by Mrs: Lowell, 103.
FuUer, Margaret, 4.

Garrison. William. Lloyd, 4.

Gay, Sidney Howard, 16, 23.

George, Henry, 417.

Gibbons, Abby Hopper, 306, 307, 309,

321, 322 ; work of, in securing estab-

Ushment of reformatory for women

at Bedford, 310.
Gibbs, Theodore Kane, 289.
Gilder, Richard Watson, poem by, on

"Josephine Shaw LoweU," 534-535.
Grannis, Mrs. E. B.. 328.
Greeley, Miriam Mason. 482-483.
Greene. Colonel Wflliam. 13, 21.
Greenough, Annie, 21.
Grimes, Frances, seal designed by, 481.
Gurteen, Rev. S. H., 126.

Haggerty, Anna (Mrs. Robert Gould
Shaw), 37, 42.

mmm

I 1 ■»

578

INDEX

579

Hall, Dr. John, 127.
Hamilton, Alexander, Jr., 75.
Harpern Weekly. G. W. Curtiss

editorship of, 476.
Hart's Island, insane asylum on, 242.
Hebberd, Robert W., 311, 313; hos-
pital boat named after Mrs. LoweU,
by. 647-548.
Hewitt, Abram S., 126, 359; quoted,
164-155; letter from, to Mrs.
Lowell. 360-361.
Hewitt, Mrs. E. H., 417 n.
Higginson, Henry L., 65; presentation
of memorial fountain to RadcUffo
College by Mrs. Higginson and, 547.
HiU, David B.. 307.
Hill, Octavia, 61 ; references to, 150,

223
Hoguet. Henry L.. 284-285.
Holmes, Oliver WendeU, 13, 21, 25.
Hooper, Clover, 26.
Hooper, Dr. R. W., 24.
Hopper Home, The. 320, 451.
Hospital Book and Newspaper Society,

83.
Hospital steamboat named in honor of

Mrs. Lowell, 547-648.
Houses of Refuge, 101, 108-114, 306-

317.
House of the Good Shepherd, the,

451.
Howard, Rose, 66.
Howson, Dean, 50.
Hoyt, Dr. Charles S.. 244, 287.
Hudson, N. Y., reformatory for women
at, 101, 108-114; pronounced suc-
cess of, leading to establishment of
Albion and Bedford reformatories,
306.
Huntington, Rev. James O. S., tribute
paid to memory of Mrs. Lowell by,
523-524.
Huntington, Dr. William Reed, Mrs.
Lowell's funeral conducted by, 59.

Idiots, campaign for a State custodial
asylum for, 115-121. See Feeble-
minded women.

Imprisonment of witnesses, letter con-
cerning, 460,

Independent, memorial notice of Mrs.
Lowell in, 532.

Indiana, Reformatory Institution for
Women in, 103-104.

"Industrial Conciliation," paper on,
394-400.

' Industrial Peace," paper on. 380-390.
Infant Asylum, the New York, investi-
gation of, 288-293.
"Influence of Cheap Lodging Housea

on City Pauperism," paper on, 463-

459.
Insane, activity of Mrs. Lowell for the

welfare of the, 228-243.
Inspection of private charities, the,

462-466.
Invasion of privacy of other Uvea as an

evil of investigation. 221.
"Investigation and Relief, The Evils

of. " paper on, 207-217.
"Investigation in Public and Private

Charities, Uses and Dangers of,"

paper on, 217-223.
Investigations by Mrs. LoweU, of New

York Juvenile Asylum, 246 ; of New

York Juvenile Guardian Society,

284-286; of New York Infant

Asylum, 288-293.
Iselin, Henry, 135.

Jackson, .Andrew, 5 ; a reference to, by
Mrs. LoweU, 371.

Jacobi, Dr. Mary P., 136, 339; paper
by, on • Property Rights of Employ-
ees," quoted, 350-356.

James. Henry, St., 6 ; quoted, 35, 38.

James, Wilkie, 36.

Jay, John, 128.

Joint Application Bureau, the, 140.

Joint boards, discussion of, 398-400,
405-408, 414.

Juvenile Guardian Society, investiga-
tion of the, 284-286; corporate
rights of, annulled by judgment of
Supreme Court, 288.

Kellogg, Charles D., quoted regarding
Mrs. Lowell, 131, 137-138.

Kemble, Fanny, 4.

Kennedy, John S., United ChanUea
Building erected by, 140.

liingsley, Charles, 4, 50.

Kohan, Joseph H., priie Civil Service
Reform essayist, 481.

Labor, work in behalf of, by Mrs.

LoweU, 359-372.
Labor Bureau Association, 135.
Labor questions, papers by Mrs.

LoweU on, 372-415.
Labor Test Wood Yard, 136.
Lee, Henry, 66.

•1

Letohworth, W. P., 87, 120; letters to,
87, 95, 230, 233-234, 248-249, 253,
254, 298, 299, 301, 309; inspection
and study of European treatment of
feeble-minded and insane, 240;
work in behalf of dependent children,
244-246; "Report on Orphan Asy-
lunfs. Reformatories." etc., by, 245-
246.
I-ewis, Charlton T., debate with Mrs.

Lowell, 370-371.
Lexow Committee, the, 416.
Library of the Charity Organization

Society, 141.
Lincklaen, Mrs.. 09.
Lincoln, Abraham, 21-22, 26-27, 29,
33 ; anecdotes concerning, 23 ; Mr.
Shaw's meeting with and opinion of,
25 ; cited by Mrs. LoweU in discuss-
ing the Philippine question, 470.
livingston, Robert J., 76.
"Living Wage, The," paper on, 409-

416.
Lodging houses, evils of aheap, 446-

459.
LongfeUow, H. W., 4.
Low, Seth, 126, 417, 548 ; address of,

at memorial meeting, 529-530.
LoweU. Carlotta RusseU. 48, 546.
LoweU, Charles RusseU, 19 n. ; engage-
ment of, to Josephine Shaw, 38 ;
family and career of, 38-40; dis^
tinguished war services of, 40-41 ;
organizes Second Massachusetts
Cavalry, 41 ; letters by, on death of
Robert Gould Shaw, 44; marriage
to Miss Shaw, 45; further army
career and death, 46--47.
LoweU, James, kiUed at Glendale, 30,

40.
LoweU, James RusseU, 4, 65.
LoweU, Josephine Shaw, birth and
parentage, 1-5 ; first European visit
(1851), 6; chUdhood of, 6-8; work
in Woman's Central Relief Associa-
tion, 8-9 ; war-time diary of. 10-37 ;
engagement to Charles RusseU
LoweU, 38; marriage to Colonel
LoweU, 45; work of, in connection
with Freedmen's Association, 48-49 ;
visit to Europe in 1870, 60 ; letter to,
from Carlyle, 50-61 ; becomes inter-
ested in charitable work, 51 ; her
home at 130 East 30th St., New
York City, 61-62 ; appointment as
commissioner of New York State

Board of Charities, 52; effectivo
work of, 52-56; dress, personal
appearance, etc., 56-58.- church
connections, 68; her death, 59;
place of, among leaders in charitable
work. 61 ; letters to Mrs. R. G. Shaw
describing activities of, 62-71 ; work
in connection with the State Chari-
ties Aid Association, 72 ff. ; poor-
house reforms effected by, 72-83;
Joseph H. Choate's public reference
to work of, 76; address of. on
County Visiting Committees. 77-
85; activities as a member of the
State Board of CharitieB, 87 ff. ; ap-
pointed chairman of committee on
vagrants, etc., 88; Report on
pauperism in regard to vagrant,
feeble-minded, and idiotic inmates
of almshouses, 89; the papers on
"One Means of Preventing Pauper-
ism and Crime," and "Reformatories
for Women," 94-105; paper on
"Some Facts concerning the Jails,
Penitentiaries, and Poorhouses of
the State of New York," 106 ; efforts
of, result in establishment of Bouse
of Refuge at Hudson. 1Q8-H1 : con-
tinued interest of. in Hudson reform-
atory, 112-114; campaign for a
State custodial asylum for feeble-
minded women, 115 ff. ; work in
connection with the Custodial Asy-
lum at Newark, 118-121; the
Charity Organization of the City of
New York founded through efforts of,
122 ; " Report in Relation to Out-door
Relief Societies in New York City"
by, 123-126; letters of, in regard
to Charity Organization Society and
other sociological subjects, 127-130,
136-136; report on "The Organi-
zation and Work of the Charity
Organization Society," 131-134;
paper on "Duties of Friendly Visi-
tors." 142-150; Sunday School
addresses to chUdren, 150-168;
paper on "The Economic and Moral
Effects of Public Outdoor Relief,"
158-174 ; paper on "Poverty and its
ReUef : the Methods Possible in the
City of New York," 175-189 ; paper
on "Charity Problems," 189-196;
paper on "The True Aim of Charity
Organization Societies," 196-207;
paper on "The Evils of Investiga-

\'U'^

580

INDEX

LoweU Josephine Shaw — continued,
tion'and Kelief." 207-217 ; paper on
"Uses and Dangers of Investigation
in PubUc and Private Chanties,
217-223 ■ paper on "Emergency
Relief Funds," 223-227; ■'Report
upon the Condition and Needs ot the
Insane of New York City, 231;
reform effected by, regarding insane
at Bellevue Hospital, 231-232 ; de-
scription of, at Ward's Island insane
asylum, 238; work for dependent
chUdren, 244 ff. ; reports by, on
condition of dependent chUdren and
orphan asylum societies, 246, 249;
letter concerning proposed orphan
asylum of Italian Sisters of the Order
of St. Francis of Sales, 250-251;
interest in playgrounds for chUdren,
255-256; and in recreation piers,
256; paper read before New York
State Association of Teachers. 257-
267; paper entitled "ChUdren,
267-276; special investigations for
the Stiite Board of Charities, 284 ff. ;
the New York Juvenile Guardian
Society, 284-288; the New York
Infant Asylum, 288-293 ; reports on
pauperism, Westchester County
Poorhouse, etc., 296; investigation
of the aufwtion of Maaaochusetts
paupers, 300-305 : efforts for addi-
tional reformatories for women,
resulting in those at Albion and Bed-
ford, 308 ff. ; support of cause of re-
formatory at Bedford against adverse
inBuences. 312 ff. ; work in foundmg
the Consumers' League, 337 ff. ;
presidency of the League held by,
339, 356; work lor the emancipa-
tion of labor, 357 ff. ; relief work on
the East Side, 361-365 : paper read
at first public meeting of the Work-
ing Women's Society (Cooper Union,
1888), 372-380; paper on "Indus-
trial Peace," 380-390; paper on
" Workingroen's Rights in Property
created by Them, " 390-394 ; paper on
"Industrial Conciliation," 394-400;
paper on "The Rights of Capital
and Labor and Industrial ConcUia-
tion." 400-408; paper on "The
Living Wage," 409^15; work m
connection with the Woman's Muni-
cipal League of the City of Now
York, 416 ff. ; Woman's Municipal

League Bulletin founded by. 418;
letters to the Municipal League
Bulktin concerning municipal re-
form, 419-422 ; paper on "What can
Young Men do for the City." 422-
435; paper on "The Relation of
Women to Good Government,'_435-
445; letter to Commander Booth
Tucker concerning evils of cheap
lodging houses, 446-453 ; paper on
"The Influence of Cheap Lodging
Houses on City Pauperism," 453-
459 • letter concerning the imprison-
ment of witnesses, 460 ; letter on the
Ehnira Reformatory and Supenn-
tendent Brookway, 461 ; paper on
"The Inspection of Private Chan-
ties." 462-466; paper on "Mo™
Deterioration following War, 466-
470 ; remarks on Booker T. Wash-
ington, 471-473 ; proposed model
tenements for widows with small
children, 473-474; influence^ of
George WUUam Curtis on. 4/5-476.
interest in Civil Service Reform, 479 ;
forms a Woman's AuxUiary to ttie
CivU Service Reform Association,
480 • work for Civil Service Reform
and' papers and letters concermng.
481-516; memorial meetings and
notices in honor of memory of , 517-
549 ; tract of land presented to city
of Dixon, lU., by daughter of. 546-
547- fountain at Badcliffe College
as a memorial to, 547; hospital
steamboat named after, by R. VV.
Hebberd, 547-548; f°"°tff^'°
Bryant Park, in memory of, 548-549 ,
cottages named for. at Hudson and
Bedford. 649.
Lowell famUy, the, 38-39.
Lunatic asylums, efforts for improve-
ment of, 228-243.

MacDonald, Dr. A. E.. 230. 241.

MacDonald. Dr. Carlos F-. 242

Magdalen Benevolent Society, the, 451.

Massachusetts, reformatory prison for
women in, 104; investigation and
report on paupers sent to New York
from. 300-305.

Mead. Edwin, D., on "Josephine Shaw
LoweU and the Peace Movement,
537-540. ., T 11

Medical News, artido by Mrs. LoweU,
217-223.

INDEX

581

Memorial meetings, addres.'^s, and

notices, 517-549.
MifSin, Eugenia, 32.
MiUer, Joaquin, lines by, 67-58.
Miller, Joseph Dana, poem by, in

memory of Mrs. Lowell, 536-537.
Minturn, Mrs. Robert Bowne, 6, 65,

66.
Model tenements for widows with small

children, proposition looking toward,

473-174.
"Moral Deterioration foUo wing War,"

paper on. 466-470.
Morris, Dr. Moreau, 255.
Municipal lodging houses, 137. 446 ff.

Kadal. E. S., quoted concerning George
WiUiam Curtis, 478.

Naples, a letter from Mrs. LoweU, in,
67.

Nathan, Mrs. Frederick, 339, 340.

National Consumers' League, 341-342.

Negro regiments, organization of, 41-
42.

Newark, N. Y., Custodial Asylum at.
118-121. 549.

Newport, visits to, 6, 17-18.

Newton, Rev. Heber. 127.

New York City, relief-giving in, 176-
189.

New York Infant Asylum, investiga-
tion of the. 288-293.

New York Juvenile Asylum, 246.

New York Juvenile Guardian Society,
investigation of the affairs and man-
agement of the, 284-286.

New York State Training School for
Girls. 112. ,S«e Hudson reformatory.

Nightingale. Florence, 60.

Norton, Charles Eliot, 65.

Oakey, Daniel. 32.

O'Conner, Charles, 74^76.

OdeU, B. B., and the reformatory at

Bedford, 312, 314.
' ' One Means of Preventing Pauperism

and Crime," paper on, 94, 95;

quoted. 96-101.
Opdyke. George. 22.
Ophthalmia among chUdren, 281.
Orphan asylums, reformatories, etc.,

report on, by W. P. Letchworth,

245-246.
Outdoor Recreation League, the. 256.
Outdoor relief, paper by Mrs. Lowell

on, 168-174.

Ouilook, editorial
LoweU, 532-634.

from, on Mrs.

Parkhurst. Rev. Charles H., 416, 417,

Parkman. Samuel, 3.

Parkman. Francis, 4.

Paupers, improvement of condition

of, 294-300; from Massachusetts,

300-305.
Peirson, Mrs. Charles L., 36.
Peirson, S. S., address by, and tribute

to Mrs. LoweU, 119-121.
PeUew, Henry E., 124: appointed

county visitor of poorhouses, 296.
Penny Provident Fund, the, 137.
Perkins, L. S. W., 136, 334.
Philippine question, discussion of the,

466-470.
Phillips, WendeU, 4.
Pierce, James N., biography of C. R.

LoweU by, 39 n.
Playgrounds for ChUdren, 255-256.
Poems in memory of Mrs. LoweU, 534-

637, 540-542.
Police lodging houses. 448.
Police Matron Law. 66, 322-323.
PoUce matrons, the crying need for.

and work resulting in appointment

of. 320-333.
Poorhouses. study of, 72-73 ; descrip-
tion by Mrs. lyOweU of horrors of,

79-80 ; investigations of, 88 ff. ;

removal of children from, 244-246;

work to improve condition of, 294-

306. See Almshousee.
Porter. Henry H., 241.
Potter, Bishop Henry C, 232; pam-
phlet by, "Facts for Fathers and

Mothers," 417-418, 421.
Potter, Howard, 75.
"Poverty and its Relief: the Methods

Possible in the City of New York,"

paper on, 175-189.
PoweU, Rachel H., 307.
Prime, Temple, 295.
Private charities, inspection of, 462-466.
Prize competitions for essays on Civil

Service Reform subjects, 480-481.
"Property Rights of Employees," Dr.

Jacobi's paper on. 350-356.
Pruyn, John V. L., 87.
Putnam, Elizabeth C, quoted, 38.
Putnam, Mrs. George, 52.

Quincy, Samuel, mention of, in the
wartime diary, 32,

682

INDEX

Kadcliffe College, memorial fountain to
Mrs. Lowell at, 547.

Randall's Island Visiting Committee,
85.

Recreation piers, 256.

Reeves, Henry A., 242.

Roformatoriea for women, 88 ff., 101
306-319:

" Reformatories for Women, " paper on
94. 95 ; quoted, 102-105.

" Reform of the Civil Service, and the
Spoils System," paper on, 483-496.

Registration and Investigation Bureau
of the Charity Organization Society,
140-141.

Registration system of Charity Organ-
ization Society, 133, 134.

" Relation of Women to Good Govern-
ment," paper on, 435-445.

"Relief. The Evils of Investigation
and," paper by Mrs. Lowell, 207-

f^;217.

"Relief Funds, Emergency," article
on, 223-227.

Relief-giving, paper by Mrs. Lowell,
on economic and moral effects of,
158-174.

Relief of poverty in city of New York,
paper concerning. 176-189.

' ' Report in Relation to Outdoor Belief
Societies in New York City," 123-
125.

"Report on Orphan Asylums, Re-
formatories," etc., by W. P. Letch-
worth, 245-246-.

Rice, Mre. William B., 8, 136-137.

Richmond County Poorhouse, 72-73,
294, 298-299.

"Rights of Capital and Labor and In-
dustrial Conciliation," pamphlet,
400-408.

Riis, Jacob A., memorial address in
honor of Mrs. Lowell, 526-529.

Robbing, Dr. Jane E., 359, 365, 367;
quoted, 368-369.

Rogers, Thorold, quoted by Mrs.
Lowell, 415.

Roosevelt, James, 75.

Roosevelt, Theodore, member of the
State Board of Charities, 75 ; men-
tioned, 228, 229, 242, 284-286;
death of, 286-287.
Roosevelt, Theodore (later President),
account of a talk with. 64 ; an opin-
ion of. 70-71 ; and the investiga-
tion of the New York Infant Asy-

lum, 289-293: mentioned, 311, 312,

436, 482. 512, 628.
Roosevelt family as charity workers,

129.
Russell, Henry S., 13, 27.
Russell. Mra. Henry S.. 357.
Russell. Lucy, 65.

Sailors' Snug Harbor, Staten Island, 5,
58.

Saint Gaudens and the Shaw Monu-
ment, 44, 69, 70.

Salvation Army lodging bouses, letter
on, 446-453.

Sayward, William H., quoted. 397.

Sohieffelin. Mrs. W. H.. 480; minute
concerning Mrs. Lowell presented
by. to the Woman's Auxiliary. 545-
546.

School of Philanthropy, the. 141.

Schuyler. George L.. 75.

Schuyler, Louisa Lee, 11, 13, 36, 51, 72,
79, 128, 310; president of State
Charities Aid Association, 74 ; leads
agitation in behalf of proper care
of the insane, 242 ; tribute paid
to memory of Mrs. Lowell by, 543-
544.

Seventh Regiment N. Y. N. G.. 7-8.

Shaw, Anno, gister of Josephine Shaw
Lowell and wife of George William
Curtis. 6.

Shaw. Ellen, sister of Josephine Shaw
Lowell and wife of General F. C.
Barlow, 6.

Shaw. Francis George, father of Jo-
sephine Shaw Lowell, 1-2 ; tribute
paid to, by Joseph H. Choate, 3 ;
death of, 52.

Shaw, Joseph Coolidge, uncle of Jo-
sephine Shaw Lowell, 5.

Shaw, Mary Sturgis, 34.

Shaw, Robert Gould, grandfather of
Josephine Shaw Lowell. 1.

Shaw. Robert Gould, brother of Jo-
sephine Shaw Lowell, 6 ; description
of, at opening of war. 8 ; departure
of. for the war. 14 ; wartime reports
of. 21, 25. 26-27. 28. 37; army
career of. 41 ; made colonel of Fifty-
fourth Massachusetts Volunteer In-
fantry. 42 ; death of. at Fort Wagner,
43-44.

Shaw. Mrs. Robert Gould (Anna
Haggerty), 37, 42; letters of Mrs.
Lowell to, 62-71, 127-130, 135 ff.

Shaw, Major Samuel, of Revolutionary
times, 1, IS, 69.

^^Z'.^^-'^I^^^^ S*"^Kis, mother of
Josephine Shaw LoweU, 3-4

SlT^w r"°S''' '^'" °f Josephine
Shaw Lowell, and wife of R B
Minturu, 6, 37.
Shaw Monument, Boston, 8, 44, 69,

Smith, Marion Couthony, 480
Smith, Dr. Samuel Wesley, 242
Smith, Dr. Stephen, 232, 242- ap-
pomted State Commissioner ^
Lunacy, 234.
Society for Instruction in Firat Aid to

the Injured, 83.

"Some Facts concerning the JaUs,

Penitentianes, and Poorhouses of the

" <f„r; °' Ne'^.Yorfc." paper on. 106.

Spain and Civil Service Reform,"

<?n^n f ^"^iTHJ Post on, 506-509.

SpoUs system. See Civil Service Re-

lorm.

State Board of Charities. Mrs. LoweUs
r«° =f « commissioner of the. 62-

^Iw . * 7 -r ^'^^^ investigations
conducted for. 246. 284-293- ap-
proval of, necessary for certificates
of incorporation of private] ohari^
able institutions, 249-260- Mrs
357-369 "'"°""^°' '■««igmng from.'
State Care Act. the, for the insane.

State Charities Aid Association, forma-
tion of and Mrs. LoweU's work in
connection with. 72 ff
State Comnussion in Lunacy, estab-
lishment of, 242. "wu-
Staten Island residence of Shaw

family on, 5-7.
Station houses, change effected in, by
appomtment of police matrons, SSI-
Stevens, Gertrude Rice, 72 128
Stewart. -William R.. 65. 311: service
on the Standing Committee o^Z
Wne. 237-239; remarks at mem!
Mr:'.S'!%'sV°°°'°^'"-°'-°^
'weS"^---«°-^''-^^-

361. 366. 368, 369; papers touching
on matter of, 372-415 """'"B

583

strong, William L., 416.

I Sturgis. Harry. 13.
Sturgis family, the, 3.
Sumner. Charies. 4.
-Sun. articles in the, in connection with
police matron agitation, 328. 331-

Sunday School addresses by Mrs

Lowell. 150-168.
Suniei/, The. 141.
Syracuse, State Idiot Asylum at, 118.

Tailors' strikes, 366-369

''cS^'''^''^^^*"^-^^-^^--

Tethers paper read before New York

totate Association of. 267-267
Tenement House Committee of the

Ohanty Organization Society 141
Tenney, Sarah E.. 271.
Thackeray, W. M., 4.
Thomas, Theodore! 5!
Thoreau, Henry D., 4.
Tilden, Governor, appoints Mre.
i^weU commissioner of State Board
of Chanties, 52; mentioned, 75
rw^, letter by Mrs. Lowell in the,

Tolstoi, reference to, 167.

Tramps in poorbousea, 72-74. 89 296-

^J< .,.,0'^" '"'^ P*Pe™ dealing
with. 446-459.

^4"^' ^" '"'°'*'^ ^^ ^"- ^"'^"' ^0''-
'"^ue Aim of Charity Organization

oocieties. paper on the. 196-207
U-uberculosis. Committee for the Pre-
vention of. 141.

^«^63°°™''°''" ^°°*''' '^***'" *°'
Tweedy, Edmund, quoted, 385-^387.

United Charities Building 140

■■ l^s and Dangers of Investigation in

Public and Private Charities," paper

on. 217-223.

Vagrants, discussion of. 446-459 See

Tramps.
"Valley of Industry and Hill of Pros-

penty." allegory. 166-170.
Vanderpoel, Samuel Oakley, first presi-
dent of Charity Organization So-
,, "'"^ of «» City of New York, 126
Van Wyck, Mayor. 417. 436
Visiting Committee of BeUevue and
other Hospitals. 61.

584

INDEX

Visitors. FricncHv, 132, 138; paper on
duties of. 112-150.

Visitors of pffiirhdiiscs and other insti-
tutions. 2!U-20.>.

Wages hoard.s. .308-400. 405-40S. •114.
Wald, Lillian D., quotc<l on Mrs.

Lowell's methods of work, 362-364.
VValsor, Dr.. i;i).
Ward. Mrs. Georc. 69.
Ward's Island, luiiatie asylum on, 22S.

220. :;30-231. 23,S.
'WariuK. George E.. .Ir., correspondence

between Mrs Lowell and. 359.
Washington, Booker T.. remarks on.

471-173.
Weidemcycr. Mrs., 320.
Westchester County Poorhouse. report

on. 296.
West Roxbury. residence of the Shaw

family at. 2.
" What Can Young Men do for the

City? " paper on. 4'22-435.
White. Amy, 64-05.
White. William Howard, 17, 20, 04.
Wiviows with small children, model

tenements for. proposed. 473-474.
Wilbur, Dr. H. B.. 116. 11(1-120.
Willard. Dr.. 78.
Willard A.-^yhira. the, 78 n.
Wiiiilirop. Theodore, 4, 13, 2U, 476,

477.
Winthrop, William. 19.

Wister. Mr.?.. 0.5.

Woman's Central Association of Relief
for the Army and Navy, 8.

Woman's Municipal League of the
City of New York. 416 ff.

" Women, Relation of, to Good Govern-
ment.' paper on, 43.')-445.

Women, the matter of reformatories
for. 88 IT., 94, 9.5. 101. 306-319.

Women factory inspectors. 335.

Women's Au.\iliary to the Civil Service
Heform .\.ssociation. 480—481.

Women's Prison Association, 322.

Women's shelters. 461-452.

Wood, ,Iames, 313: nuoted, 314-310.

Wood. Dr. .lames R., 84, 232.

Woodbridge. Alice, report by, on condi-
tion.s of working wonien. 336.

Woodin, Senator. 230-'231.

Wood yards. 135. 137.

Working Girls' Clubs, 83.

" Workingmen's Rights in Property
created by Them." paper on, 390-
.394.

Working Women's Society, 335; for-
mation of the Consumers' League b.v.
337-339 ; paper on labor ((uestions
read before. 372-380.

Wylie. Dr. W. Gill, 295.

Y'oung men and what they can do for
the city. Mrs. Lowell's paper con-
cerning. 422-435.

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