The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1902-12-01

about among messenger boys at night
studying their social condition.
Mr. Stokes Is on committees of the
Trade school, the Prison house. the
Church federation. and other similar or
ganizations. besides being one of the most
active workers of a committee that is In
vestigating the child labor problems as
well as a member of the Council of the
University Settlement. The voluntary
workers at the university settlement re-
ceive no pay, but live In the house in
modest comfortable quarters on the top
hoor Practically their whole time Is
given up to their various duties. and
some of them spend weeks at a time
without going outside the district where
the institution is situated In this way
they acquire knowledge of how "tp
other half lives" that residents of FIT
avenue would not get in lifetime.
When Mayor Low went into office =
selected as his private secretary james a.
Reynolds who had been head worker at
the university settlement on Eldridge
street because his experience there had
given him a knowledge Of the east side
population not to be found among other
aspirants for the position. Mr.. Reynolds
was succeeded as head worker by Robert
Hunter formerly Of Chicago, now the Of
fetal head Of the institution.
Mr.. Stokes did not wish to be inter-
viewed when seen last evening at the
Settlement, but an intimate friend made
the following statement of his reasons for
undertaking the work:
Mr.. Stokes is very much interested in
social problems and he takes a deep in
terest in questions concerning capital and
labor. He is a thorough democrat in his
spirit and feeling. and is opposed to social
distinctions which separate the classes
and tend TO make class uptown which
is entirely out of sympathy with the plain
people. He believes in the plain people
and feels that every effort which helps
them to develop themselves is something
to their advantage
He therefore feels that he can serve
society best by living in a house which
denies the existence of classes and whiL'
claims equal opportunities for everybody
He thoroughly understands the aims an
purposes as well as the actual work a.
complished by the University Settlement,
which Is now over sixteen years of age.
There are particular phases of the work
In which he is interested such as prison
reform and fuller development of the
public school system. BY this l mean
the Introduction of the social neighbor-
hood element into the school life, so that
the public schools may be something more
than mere places where a certain amount
of learning is imbibed and the building
then closed, shutting the children out In
the street
This is an idea that is developed in the
new model school up town founded by
James Speyer and which Mr.. Stokes hopes
to see extended. 1t is a new idea and 1
do not know that has ever been tried or
even proposed elsewhere, but it is pecd-
liarly fitted to New York. The Settlement
has secured the use OF school house on
King street in which this idea is being
worked out. Many people believe, and 1
think Mr.. Stokes among them, that the
teachers or at least a certain number of
them ought to live in the school houses
and that the buildings ought to be made
use of on afternoons, evenings, Sundays
and holidays, when they are now empty,
for the purpose of inducing the children of
the neighborhood to get into social re-
lations with each other and with their
teachers.