The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1898-11-24
CHURCH FAILURE.
Miss Jane Adams Makes a Stir
ring Address.
Tells Chicago Methodist Minis
ters the Trouble.
REFORMS ARE NEEDED
Mentions Attractions Offered by
the Saloons.
The Economic Question Not
Given Enough Attention.

Chicago. Nov. 24.-diss Jane Adams
or Hull house addressed the Methodist
ministers meeting in the First Metho-
dist church yesterday afternoon and
some of the suggestions offered by the
apostle of the social settlement put the
preachers on their fighting mettle. Miss
Adams came at the urgent invitation
of the meeting and was requested to
spare no one and not only suggest but
criticise and this she did to the eminent
satisfaction of many. Her subject was
In What Respect Does the Church Fail
in Its Work Among the Masses?'
Miss Adams said that the people
social life and that the problem of liv-
ing, which was uppermOst in their
minds, was not touched upon sufficient
ly, so that the people were impressed
with the fact that the Protestant
preacher was interested in their strug
gle and was endeavoring to alleviate
the conditions under which they labor.
she suggested a change of methods on
the ground that the plans pursued by
people.
In speaking of the conditions that ex-
list at Hull house, Miss Adams said
the Protestant churches in the Nine
teenth ward have one mission church,
with membership of about so, although
the Sunday school has a much larger
attendance.
the presence of mind to change their
methods, but keep up the plans that
are successful in the suburbs and in
country towns. In the country town
the church is largely the social center.
In the city the church has to compete
with the numerous benefit societies and
fraternities, which ramify in all direc-
lions and have a large element of the
religious sentiment in their rituals.
Again, the theaters of the Nine
teenth ward are not so bad as they are
painted and not SO vicious in many in
stances as the plays put on at the thea
tiers in the heart of the city. They rely
for their effects and attractions usually
on the blowing up of a steamboat, of
a. raid of red Indians or some similar
situation They do not, as is so often
the case in the play on the downtown
stage, turn upon some case of domestic
trouble. The boys learn their morals
and get their ideals largely from the
theater and it is the means of their Sc
curing enjoyment.
II would not make the church q thea
ter, but you have got to teach morals
I believe if Christ came to the earth to
work again and He found church
steeple or the written sermon. or the
music and singing needed changing he
would not hesitate to change it, if by
so doing he could reach men.
1.-THE saloons are doubtless an evil,
and I'm not a friend of them, yet they
do supply a great deal of unimpeded,
men and women who work in our
churches so often make their friendship
unnatural and give it a professional air.
The people detect this readily and re-
sent it.
1.-The second cause is the church does
not take hold of the great question that
is pressing so hard on every poor per-
sons life. This is the economical Ques-
ton. There is a good deal of fervOr in
the meetings of the labor unions and
they struggle hard for their attainment
of the universal brotherhood.
1.-The pressing problem with the work
ing man is how to make the present
conditions a little less smarting, how to
provide for the bodies and not divide
the community into two classes; those
who work for the bodies and those who
work for their souls"