The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-01-22
BEFORE THE MEMS CLUB
BY DEAN HODGES OF
 CAMBRIDGE

l say
 England of 1s4s," and the "Pcoples
 Churtern-ChristianS Socialism To-day The speaker at the regular weekly
 church last evening was Dean Hodges of the Episcopal theological school of
 Cambridge, formerly pastor of Calvary
 church, Pittsburg. His subject was
 "The Christian Social Movement" In discussing the various phases of this
 great question he showed himself l thoroughly at home and proved one of the most versatile and interesting
 speakers of those that have addressed
 the club this winter.
 l He prefaced his remarks by de- scription of "The England of 184S." l He told of the little boys seven and eight years of age, working in the black
 ness of the coal mines and of the little
 girls laboring in the Nottinghamshire
 factories. The incredible part of it
 is' he said, that the people of easy circumstances watched the existence of
 all this misery without lifting a finger
 to better conditions. They felt that
 change was not far distant and that l things would come out all right bye and l bye.
 But the people knew that il was | useless 10 wait, and they began to look about to see if they could gain renle- dy through legislation. They drew up what is called The Peoples Charter, which asked for annual parlianents, for a vote by ballot, and for manly suffrage Tho bill itself was harmless. but in the pre- sentation of it a great deal of excite
 ment was generated. It all came about through a fellow who got up in the
 streets of London and declared that
 the charter should be presented at the
 head of procession. The suggestion
 met with approval and the crowd de-
 clared that they would present the char
 ter in proper fashion. Even the meet
 ing itself and the accompanying dec-
 laration was harmless in intent but as
 the news of it spread London and the
 whole of England began to get alarmed.
 In London special constables were ap-
 pointed and the militia drawn up to guard the streets in case of outbreak, and on the memorable day when the charter was finally presented thou sands of citizen soldiers were in arms prepared for a hostile demonstration on the part of the populace.
 "The charter was presented to par llament as was intended, but in a most inglorious manner. And parliament af- ter cursory inspection promptly voted it down. The whole affair had the air of tragedy about it, but 1t turned out farce. The march of the chartist hosts seemed formidable at the time, but in reality it was like the march of 'Coxey's army so-called, of our later day. It was lost to sight in short time and forgotten And with 1t the whole object of the demonstration and the principle underlying was for gotten by the people at large. But there were aNfew in England at the time who attached some significance to the movement. They had obtained a glimpse of the other side of the social question which set them to thinking The gentlemen to whom I refer met once week at the home of Frederick Dawson Morris, preacher in Lincoln's Inn. Morris, Kingsley and Hughes are the three men who stand for the social awakening of England. They joined themselves in body shortly after the failure of the charter movement and began movement of their own. They called themselves Christian socialists. The name aroused considerable oppo- sition, but they stood by 1t. The Christian socialist movement as a failed, but the idea lived.
 Christian socialism to-day has two ideas. It says we need better social | it says we need better so- cial spirit. Anyone who believes those | two things is Christian socialist"
 Continuing Dean Hodges spoke of the | energies of those who are truly bent upon doing good to their fel- | low men. They don't know what their | neighbors need; they merely know that | they need something and they go | along doing that which comes easiest | to do. The whole trouble is pretty well | explained in a well known story by | Stockton. It is philanthropy of the button hole sort, and this is not what l a needed.
 The speaker said he was personally
 
 started day nursery in a community where he presently found there were 10 babies.
 "If," he said, I were to start my ,olege life anew I should devote my ime to study of social problems The supreme thing that the people are for to-day is to know how to ap- ,ly the truths of philosophy to life It s positively true that there is a social 'roblem. Tn certain localities, it is ut- erly impossible for little children to TOW up right in the world. As has cen said, The children are damned in- tead of born And we who are priv eged know nothing of these social onditions. It should be that in every privileged family should now one unprivileged family. l be- eve in the associated charities with Il my heart, but there are some things mich the associated charities can't i O."