The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-04-12
THE MERCY HOME TO
 BECOME INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL

BECOME INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL
 In the annual report of Mrs c. B. Spen- cer, president of the board of managers of the Mercy Home she recommends that the work for immoral women anu girls be discontinued and the Home III the future to be opened to respec.aole girls and women who will learn q lraoe or business whereby they may become self-supporting
 Mrs. Spencer's recommendation IS paseu upon the recent opening of the Rescue Home in Birmingham, where frlenaless and unfortunate women are 7eeelVeo anu given every opportunity fer retormar tion.
 When the Mercy Home was founded says Mrs. Sencer in her report, "our en- deavor to make it an asylum for all classes was well intentioned and at that time justiiable, but thirteen years nave brought many changes in the demahos made upon our growing city, and by the progress of what has been called 'eharit- able knowledge, and the tine seems to have come when a change in our policy is expedient.
 "The opening of a Rescue Home In the city relieves the Mercy Home or great responsibility.
 As woman's work for woman In quiet. confidential way. without publicity of any kind, the Mercy Home has wil- lingly and gladly done rescue work dur ing these years.
 Many lives have been redeemed, and many betrayed ones have gone from hs shelter to places of usefulness and trust None who have applied have been turned away, and to say that any have perisneo because there was no place for them te go is unjust, as it is untrue
 ..ro care for the dssolute and unfof- unate. as a class separate from all otn- CTS, is. however, unquestionably the bet ter plan, and I therefore reeommeho eiia' our work for immoral women ana sHis be discontinued.
 .This will leave us free to begin Tn a small way the work to which we iohs ago pledged ourselves-an lnduslriai home for girls-at present simply oy pro viding a home for respectable girls and women, who Will iehih VI" ~
 elsewhere) a trade or business whereby they may become self-supporting.
 eAs we undertake this work let us think much and often of it's possibilities of the great need of .r istrial educa- ton for the poor white girls of our state, and of it's value from a moral, economic and Christian standpoint
 "Young girls from the country are con stantly coming to the city-seeking, they know not what. They are utterly unpre- pared to support themselves, to With- stand the temptations that meet theni' or to cope with conditions of which they are absolutely ignorant The trend o1 thought today is toward industrial in- stitutions where this class may be helped It is the preventive work that marks the maturity of ''philanthropic eHort and I believe the thoughtful citizens oi this district will appreciate the excel' lence of our plan, and in the near future a suitable building for it's accomplish ment may be erected on the lot already secured"
 As pointed out by Mrs. Spencer, th' Mercy Home has been an asylum for al classes. Unfortunate women' waifs Iron the slums have found within its shelter ing portals kindly protection and lovini care. Nowhere throughout this grea city has there been a single home where in they could enter, and for years th' Mercy Home In it's rescue work has beer the only institution in Birmingham tha | fAr hn women for whom provision has now oeei made at the Rescue Home opened o' the Salvation Army.
 This home, now being so successful! conducted, relieves, so 1t Is believed th Mercy Home of great responslbillt' and opens the door of opportunity to large class of women and girls, too; II fact. an army of ignorant uneducate' | girls who drift to the city.
 The trend of thought Is toward indus trial education. The leading thinkers O | todays problems, the practical philan | thropists. the men and women who knoV what they are talking about, urge in dustrial education for the poor white that class in the central south tha needs to become inuividualized.
 The "illiterate classes" have been re ferred to so often that we are in dange of forgetting the individual. It is tn education of the individual girl that tn saving of the "iliterate classes" lies The poor white girls of Alabama, thos | from the rural sections. are absolutel, without opportunity for self develop ment and crowding the cities. there i every opportunity for self-destructior They are entirely ignorant-almost hope lessly so in some sad cases that migh be cited-and industrial training is tn only pathway to honest living for thi unedueated, undisciplined country girl without friends and alone in a grea 1 city.
 | It is this work to which the Mere l Home will, in accordance with Mrs Spencer's recommendation, direct it's flu ture energies. and as an industrial hom for girls. 1t will in this particular wor be the fruition of its earlier plans. Ther is need for both the Rescue Home an an industrial home, but the industris | home solves the problem much earlier. | -O
 | MRS. STEVENS'
 :, COOKING GLASSES.