New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1905-03-19

Goes from Charity Organization
Society to Columbia Char.

chosen to fill the rev chair of social work at
Columbia University, just endowed in the sum
of 100000 by Jacob H. Schiff, has special
qualifications making him especially fit for
this new branch of instruction. say his friends
And if experience counts for anything DR.. De-
vine certainly possesses every qualification his
friends claim for him. for as the general secre-
tary of the Charity Organization Society he has
been prominently identified with almost every
movement for the betterment of social Condi-
tions in this city and throughout the State for
the last eight years. Nor have national matters
escaped his vigilance. Just at present he is in
terested in bringing about betterment of cOndi-
tions in the national capital along the lines sug
gested in President Roosevelts message to Con-
gress last December. While in Washington at
the Inauguration DR.. Devine personally investi-
gated the INSIDE alleys and tenement house
conditions prevailing in Washington, and he
was so impressed with what he saw that he
determined to send a representative of the
Charity Organization Society there with view
to making a thorough investigation When this
is done Dr. Devine proposes to exploit the mat
ter in the press of the country in the hope of
so arousing public sentiment to the need of
lettering conditions in the national capital that
Congress shall be forced to act.
This new action the part of DR.. DeVine is
typical of the man, say his friends. With him
II
AS the actual working head of the Charity
ORGANIZATION Society DIR. Devine has been
brought into touch with every phase of life in
New-York City and State. He has sat in the
councils of the society at which measures desir-
able as improvements to social conditions were
considered he has followed these measures
through the intricate maze of legislative COM
mittees in Albany fighting off warning interests
until with the Governors signature affixed they
became laws, and then on the lower East Side
of this city he has faced irate landlords of death
breeding tenements in the enforcement of each
newly made law.
Those who know DR.. Devine best say they be-
Heve him to be absolutely without fear. To
illustrate this they tell story of lecture DR..
Devine once gave before an audience the
East Side thought to be bitterly opposed to his
views. Some of his friends, hearing of the in
vitation he had received to deliver his lecture,
FASTENED to assure him he going into the
camp of his enemies if he accepted When the
formal invitation sent him the president of
the organization warned him that the club
members had a way of speaking freely. Again
three especial friends of DR.. Devine urged him
not to make the address. He insisted, however
When he entered the hall the man at the door
warned him against the free discussion the club
members were likely to indulge in. The presi-
dent again called his attention to it Before in
Producing him. Despite these warnings Dr. De-
vine persisted in his address, and at the very
outset took the bull by the horns by enumerat-
Ing the different warnings he had received con-
corning the reception to be accorded him
Whether it was the audacity of the speaker in
thus throwing down the gauntlet to his audi
ence or whether it was because there never had
been grounds for the fears of his friends no
serious trouble developed; only one disgruntIed
landlord taking exception to statements made
by the speaker.
Though DR.. Devine has been the head and front
of the work on the East Side he has never been
assaulted. Some of his subordnates have how
ever, had stormy times, one man in particular
being shot at by woman and attacked with a
Ratchet when trying to telephone for a police
officer
Personally, DR.. Devne says the most strenu-
GUS moments of his life have been spent in
Albany fighting in the interests of some meas
ure designed to benefit the poor The politi- |
clans who in Dr. Devine's measures in
Engagements upon their power did not hesitate
to accuse him of every kind of base motives
Because Hebrew applicants for aid were at the
request of Hebrew relief organizations, referred
to them by the society DR.. Devine represented a |
hue and cry raised that he opposed to |
the Jews In view of the fact that he is to fill !
a chair endowed by one of the leading Hebrew |
0f he oft TOr