Quakers and the Founding of the Philadelphia Society for Organizing Charitable Relief and Repressing Mendicancy Author(s):

Julia B. Rauch Reviewed work(s): Source: The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 98, No. 4 (Oct., 1974), pp. 438-455 Published by: The Historical Society of Pennsylvania Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20090899 . Accessed: 28/02/2013 03:33
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

The Historical Society of Pennsylvania is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded on Thu, 28 Feb 2013 03:33:06 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Quakers Philadelphia Charitable

and the Founding

of the

Society for Organizing and Repressing Relief ?Mendicancy

in an urban from that of industrialized their parents,

Victorians, tatively modern

living different

quali society were the first

the celebrated Although generation. they joyously in 1876, they faced problems and progress centennial still nation's a later: social dislocation, control of present century disturbingly corporate vironment in government, of the en power, corruption pollution of Indians, and the oppression and women. blacks, Then, as now, social problem, and the Gilded the poor were a major Age Two widely of a war on poverty. heralded and allied had its version reform movements,

and scientific charity organization philanthropy, to eliminate its roots; pro poverty proposed by attacking bravely as "radical," their proposals them believed ponents, describing to be in the vanguard of progress.1 selves moral of the poor advocated organizers uplift through Charity women volunteer visitors. intensive called counseling by friendly a cluster of was caused that poverty believed by pauperism, They negatively ance, and traits that personal thriftlessness. Consequently, defined increasing steadily of pauperism. and, as the to check its spread
is discussed

included they

idleness, intemper mass attributed indus the nineteenth century,

trial poverty, to the spread for pauperism they desired

1 Scientific

throughout

Scientific philanthropists

held the relief system partly

name by
in Robert

to blame

"charity

organization" implies, relief administra rationalizing

H. American Bremner, Philanthropy The Charity Organization Movement (New York, 1922).

philanthropy

see also Frank Dekker Watson, 89-104; i960), (Chicago, in the United States: A Study in American Philanthropy

438

This content downloaded on Thu, 28 Feb 2013 03:33:06 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

1974

QUAKERS

AND

CHARITABLE

RELIEF

439
in idleness funds were almsgiving

were supported poor," they argued, "unworthy at the same time that indiscriminate almsgiving by Not from "worthy diverted indiscriminate poor." only of aid and administrative but unnecessary duplication tion. The inflated expenditures. and dependable, relief In their

regular, adequate infirm. Agencies such as the aged and also support themselves, to provide that would services the the rehabilitative failed prevent to of able-bodied into pauperism them descent poor by enabling was of all appli become The self-sufficient. investigation remedy mainte for aid, imposition of strict eligibility requirements, of centralized the quick that would records identifica permit in the words tion of impostors, services coordinated and, planned, a friend." of the charity "Not but alms, slogan, organization that relief administration Scientific argued philanthropists required nance skill and expertise, basing and their that charity workers in social should science be trained rather and than supervised, sentiment. practice cants

expenses to give failed view, agencies to to those unable subsistence

to municipal relief as corruptly outdoor administered Opposed by as fostering machine the "socialistic" belief that and politicians than a privilege, scientific relief was a right rather philanthropists to rationalize the voluntary charitable desired and strengthen to government to make alternative it a viable welfare. system Partly of the during as a result the colonial of their 1601 Elizabethan period, agitation, law poor was relief, a heritage public outdoor to the New World transmitted in several localities, in

abolished

cluding Philadelphia

and New York City.

to the contemporary welfare organization legacies system Charity an expanded social work, and strength include modern professional of social and the commitment ened voluntary social service system to social as a base for policy science and welfare professionals on individual rather than social The movement's emphasis practice. or economic as a means of combating contributed poverty change to social work's That casework traditional emphasis. profession's on or economic rather than sociological reliance theory psychiatric as a basis from the charity for training and practice also stems of systematic reform The promise focus on individuals. organization of poor relief through efficient administration was not unlike con

This content downloaded on Thu, 28 Feb 2013 03:33:06 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

440

JULIA

B. RAUCH crisis through

October

to resolve efforts temporary tion of systems management The organization charity poverty rooted with that and the on the need

the welfare techniques.

the applica cause of

emphasis for character

on pauperism reformation

as the of

in early nineteenth-century of mercantilism decline economic

approaches poverty and the rise of laissez of the causes of

the poor was that emerged faire.2 At and

conceptions poverty of the poor by government, such as employment that had been characteristic of the earlier period were abandoned. a conservative was and organization backward-looking Charity a program movement to mass that advocated for needs ill-adapted in an urban, economic industrialized the During security society. the Progressive period, organization opposition charity delayed enactment aged; the of government for widowed mothers and pensions to the incorporation of services contributed advocacy for casework service in some the of

time, economic remedies,

mandatory

requirements to the Great Depression.3 enacted legislation security subsequent A variety of factors, the increase of mass industrial including in periodic social unrest manifested strikes and violence, poverty, the secularization to live of American socially useful after and society lives, contributed the Civil War. the leisured to the emergence of It emerged in early desire of

economic

women scientific

philanthropy the and Philadelphia, nation's leading charity Established February

Philadelphia

one of the became agency societies. organization 17, 1879, after a year of intensive organizing

activity,

the Philadelphia

Society for Organizing Charitable Relief

and Repressing was delphia, States. The Philadelphia's

of Phila Service (SOC),4 now Family Mendicancy in the United the third charity organization society the Germantown in first was Relief founded Society, one in 1873, followed in Ward Twenty-second by

Buffalo, New

York,
poor

in 1877. In Philadelphia,
relief of the decline of mercantilism and

the SOC gained

the rise of laissez Security and Social Security, Policy Action, iqoo faire in

Poor Law to Poverty Program: Economic Mencher, and the United States (Pittsburgh, Britain 1967), 49-153. 3 Clarke A. Seedtime Service American Social Chambers, of Reform: 1918-1933 (Ann Arbor, 1968), agency's 1967), 92-93, name 192; Roy 103, was Lubove, to The the Struggle "Philadelphia for 1935 (Cambridge, 4 In 1879 the Charity." 154-157 changed

2 The impact upon in Samuel is discussed

Social

Society

for Organizing

This content downloaded on Thu, 28 Feb 2013 03:33:06 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

1974

QUAKERS and financial

AND

CHARITABLE

RELIEF previously 1881, claiming

44I
denied

numerical the

9,000 city's voluntary the SOC was far and away the largest charity organiza contributors, ran a poor tion society in the United States.5 The Cincinnati agency with second and the Buffalo touted 2,000 members group, usually as spearheading by historians with Its contributors. 300 of social work Register tion of to have philanthropy, and large membership circulation. during Through the first scientific trailed relative behind wealth

support poor relief

of a magnitude In agencies.

enabled the SOC to publish the ^Monthly Register,

a national leadership societies. organization charity By to 92 American cities. spread 1900 By with in 125. In that units philanthropy, author social of Social and the mother the SOC exerted

the first journal

the ^Monthly

early prolifera had 1893 the movement it dominated American year, Mary of modern Richmond,

Diagnosis6 professional the SOC as Executive Rich Miss work, joined Secretary. mond's varied her nine years in Philadelphia achievements during her national and the SOC's reinforced gave stature, leadership societies. among organization charity were to the SOC, although there were only Quakers indispensable

1,601 Orthodox and 3,344 Hicksite Quakers inPhiladelphia

Less was than a tiny .006 per to cent of the population Friends' of a

in 1881.7
city once

dominated

by them, their impact upon Philadelphia

their numbers. meant that Philadelphia

philanthropy
based rich people charity

disproportionate charitable imperatives in benevolent to give,

E.

religiously was unusually

institutions. not only

ready
5 Charles

The Quaker their money,

provided community to but themselves,

Committee,"

of Charities in Cities : Report of the Standing "Organization Cadwalader, Charities and Correction Proceedings of the National Conference of (Boston, a member claimed of the SOC executive 1881), 109. The SOC membership by Cadwalader, was probably inflated by inclusion of all persons who had contributed to the committee, since 1878, and by a multiple more count of persons who contributed than one time. agency a membership research which this paper partially of 3,042 persons in reports obtained 1880. Although this number is less than the actual membership in that year due probably to inability to locate annual in 1880 the SOC membership reports for all ward associations,

The

to be underenumerated is believed Even so, the SOC was still the by only a few hundred. in the United States in that year. Most largest charity organization society reported only one or two hundred members. 6 E. Richmond, Social Diagnosis Mary (New York, 1917). 7 "The Philadelphia in the Industrial Philip Schuyler Quakers Benjamin, Age, 1865 Columbia 1920" (doctoral dissertation, University, 1967), 100, 102.

This content downloaded on Thu, 28 Feb 2013 03:33:06 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

442
work. Unlike relief to work

JULIA

B. RAUCH

October

which hired agencies paid workers, usually were the poor, Quaker charities among ministers, typically were run to a program which by volunteers; they sympathetic charitable volunteer advocated Friends' made involvements visiting. them aware of stresses on the relief system caused by the nineteenth in poverty increase when the SOC was founded, had which, century been exacerbated had the nation by the depression known. stress of the SOC. of 1873, the worst depression

Administrative to the founding from other active who were

on Quaker led directly poor relief agencies Concern with practical administrative

problems differentiated Quaker philanthropists

as social fessionals, Such men were

active

in the SOC

logical grounds administration.8 The SOC was Soup Houses about ways

science such oriented pro supporters, not affiliated with poor relief agencies. typically on ideo to scientific attracted partly philanthropy to direct with relief unrelated poor experience initiated some "gentlemen by who conferred charities" from connected with the

18, 1878, February the countless impositions of these eighteen practiced twenty-five with the city's Quaker of the SOC were initiators associated a mean dominated age in 1880 of 61.9, a median soup societies. With of 60.5 and a range of 39 to 89, these initiators were, on the average, a decade to the SOC, who contributor older than the average male "to protect their charities At them."9 least upon was five were ages are striking; years of seventy 50.3.10 Initiators' or younger. Their perspec age or older; only three were forty-nine were in the antebellum tives on charity were rooted period; they the relief system because under stress partly administering agencies
8 The tributors' existence tions of research which of SOC con included determination paper partially reports a variety A primary of voluntary organizations. finding was the the active SOC membership affilia within linked by organizational this from each other. Julia B. Rauch, in Philadelphia, 1878-80" "Unfriendly (doctoral Visitors dissertation, : The Emergence Mawr

and other

affiliations

with

of subgroups and differentiated Philanthropy

Scientific

Bryn

. . .," circular, Feb. of of gentlemen 18, 1878, Historical Society cited as SOC Papers). for Organizing (hereinafter Charity Papers Pennsylvania, Society 10Data to the SOC were obtained of contributors about from United the characteristics a meeting of the Census, of the Interior, Census Bureau Tenth States Department 1, 1880), (June of Pennsylvania, Social for Philadelphia, Schedules University Philadelphia photocopy, access to Theodore to the for granting is indebted author The Hershberg History Project. schedules.

College, 1974). 9 "Dear Sir: At

This content downloaded on Thu, 28 Feb 2013 03:33:06 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

1974

QUAKERS had not adapted who

AND

CHARITABLE

RELIEF of an the

443
industrialized societies was

as a whole society. Perhaps

to the requirements best symbolized

the man

soup

John M. Ogden,

a Quaker

born in Philadelphia

on January

19,
a

was of George Washington. the presidency 1791, during Ogden of a family that had come to Pennsylvania with William descendant Penn on the Welcome. The son of a coachmaker, he was apprenticed to a carpenter and became to

a respected architect and builder, helping in the the construction supervise 1830s of the Philadelphia a over that by 1878 was an antiquated, Almshouse, rotting, facility A Whig, in crowded and later a Republican, served snakepit. Ogden

the Pennsylvania
found the Spring

legislature
Garden Soup

in 1832-1833.
Society,

In 1853 he helped to
for decades School as its for

serving

president. His manifold

Dispensary, Feeble-Minded the House Children.

charitable affiliations included the Northern

of Refuge, and business His the Pennsylvania interests included the presi

dency of the Northern

Liberties

and Penn Township

Railroad

in the SOC, he served as chairman Company. "Greatly of the organizing commission. his age, he remained Despite actively with it until his death on October affiliated 29, 1882.11 interested" Like century Ogden, soup societies were Philadelphia of artisans, against in which of the early nineteenth products com home and bustling industry,

munities

inwhich rich and poor were jumbled haphazardly

the waterfront, opportunities control their which economic for artisans

together
was fate. then meant

in neighborhoods huddled life blood, the city's and to some that men could, societies during were among the early

degree, the first forms

nineteenth-century were a form of organized agencies. They the agrarian of destitution conception to circumstances rather than personal due Southwark eight Quakers Soup Society, at the met was South founded Third

of voluntary burgeoning

Soup to emerge charity of voluntary relief help based on neighborly as seasonal in nature and fault. to the first, In 1814, 1805.12 of Mordecai home The

prior Street

u of Quaker Biography," n.p., copies at Haverford "Dictionary typescript, College Library, and Friends Reference Quaker Collection, Library, London; Memorial of the Life and Labors to the Assembled Children of John M. Ogden, Read of the House of Refuge and Many Friends, November 1882). 17,1882 (Philadelphia, 12 Due to destruction of records by fire, the exact date of the founding of the Southwark a Classified is unknown. Manual the Poor With and Descriptive Soup Society for Visitors Among Directory to the Charitable and B?n?ficient Institutions of Philadelphia (Philadelphia, 1879), 88.

This content downloaded on Thu, 28 Feb 2013 03:33:06 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

444
Lewis to form and distressed

JULIA

B. RAUCH

October

for "relieving the poor of cheap and wholesome a volunteer the winter months." soup during planned They wholly of vocational for whom the leisurely managers, agency; rhythms were for a wide life still gave freedom range of activities, required to rotate the soup house when it was open.13 the duty of attending a period to of soup houses of time, the number Over increased as late as the 1870s.14 Numerical four founded twelve, including the Philadelphia Soup House the sale and distribution by expansion was

in the basic policy of unaccompanied by change of food. However, relief through distribution seasonal, temporary administrative including professionalization changes, rudimentary of staff, occurred. of the poor, and the numbers raised increase, which Population were con two factors of residential the emergence segregation some soup to administrative 1861, changes. tributing By society in which other than those their in neighborhoods lived managers same time, the poor were becoming were charities located.15 At the in specific areas. The Central concentrated increasingly were not was opened in 1861 because kitchens existing in the "old city."16 the needy who crowded together At relieve of relief thousands the same time that soup neighbors applicants Soup House to accessible

to ceased had managers society to them, known the number perhaps personally In the decade and recipients increased. immedi

ately prior to the Civil War,

earlier

the Philadelphia

Soup House

fed

of its rather than the hundreds characteristic of persons, an army of strangers, rather The poor had become years.17 their relief was a major of neighborhood than a handful families; of paid the employment One result was superin undertaking. tendents. In i860 the managers of the Moyamensing Soup Society

*j 9 (1857), were: Southwark of founding Soup of Philadelphia, 1814; Northern Soup House, Soup Society Society, prior to 1805; Philadelphia 1837; Spring Garden 1835; Western Soup Society, Soup 1817; Moyamensing Soup Society, Soup Society, 1853; Central 1861; Northwestern Society, Soup Society, 1853; Kensington 1875; Society, 1874; Richmond Soup Society, Soup Society, 1871; Northeastern Soup soup Soup House, societies in 1878 and Twentieth Ward Soup 15 Soup Philadelphia, 16 Friends Editorial, !7 Soup Philadelphia Society, the Poor, 86-88. for Visitors Among College Library, Quaker (1861), Haverford XXXIV (Jan. 19, 1861), 712-713. Intelligencer, and By-Laws, 16. Constitution House, Houses, Map 1878. Manual Collection.

13 Philadelphia 14 The twelve

Constitution

and By-Laws their dates

This content downloaded on Thu, 28 Feb 2013 03:33:06 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

1974

QUAKERS

AND

CHARITABLE

RELIEF

445

hired That

a visitor of applicants. "to inspect the character and wants" same year, the managers of the Southwark Soup Society hoped to obtain character refer of a superintendent that its employment ences and information the age, residence, and occupation regarding out un for aid would lessen and weed of applicants imposture conferred resulted charities. about in wasteful A map of each was kitchen of their lack of

poor.18 worthy In 1861 soup managers society coordination which, they believed, their of aid and upon imposition delimiting committee facilitate tions the

duplication prepared and a To dona

geographical responsibility to assure continued appointed

Parrish Edward fund-raising, for all eight societies.19 the Civil War, After each kitchen remained in the ward in which

harmony was named

action.

to collect

ciple for the poor living and West such as Germantown certain areas, ever, were without this form of relief and nonneighborhood sometimes also became seek food

in prin responsible it was located. How Philadelphia, poor would

sus of recipients the facelessness and made managers, that they were supporting of paupers and tramps, concerned picious economic In addition, willful idleness. soup societies, except during in the most dealt with poor concentrated crisis, usually pauperized
slum areas.

Philadelphia increased

of transients from existing Relief soup kitchens. After the important. 1873 depression, particularly, wTas flooded in search of work. transients This by

"unworthy" apparently In 1879 the managers of the "prejudice" Ward against Soup as to the proper methods of opinion and the diversity soup houses were of that kitchens of offering relief. They however, believed, were un value" "inestimable and "almost indispensable." They to them.20 to dissolve as had been suggested the agency, willing However offered immediate soup societies they were, inadequate as a whole was at a time when the poor relief system subsistence poor, soup the Twentieth societies slipped into disrepute. noted Society
18 1; South of the Board ofManagers (i860), Moyamensing Soup Society, Annual Report 1. wark Soup Society, Annual (i860), Report of the Board ofManagers 19 (1862), 3; Soup Houses, Map. Report Moyamensing Soup Society, Annual 20 Twentieth Ward (1879), 4. Soup Society, Annual Report of the Board ofManagers

Because

of

their

"indiscriminate

aid"

to

This content downloaded on Thu, 28 Feb 2013 03:33:06 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

446
unequal pleas to the demand for help. As increased depression, capital, income

JULIA

B. RAUCH

October

for relief; with occurred demand

were overwhelmed managers by other relief agencies the during was decreased income. coupled with

In 1874 the Spring Garden Soup Society was forced to go into its
all of spending of the Northwestern levels while a $1,000 the depression, the legacy.21 After at or below pre remained Soup Society its caseload The winter of 1876 increased. were more for expenditures critical than

depression 1877 was $1,000 would

particularly income. above fiscal

relieve

1879, the soup SOC agents "discouraged" The and administrative the establishment quired which for determining available. This practical the prism out of pauperism, beggars, tramps, for pressing response of the

that charity belief Managers' organization stress proved in the winter of 1878? correct; because caseload investigation dropped society's by re soup societies to procedures of priorities and adherence the limited receive would aid applicants was deflected however, problem, through on weeding in strident insistence resulting other "unworthy" of liberalization than poor. Rather the relief in system the Great Depression applicants.22 unworthy fiscal stress upon the

and and

expansion to economic crisis, as occurred during was as One aid defined soup 1930s, corrupting. morally a "most the kitchens called manager dangerous society charity," a thought as to the character of the appli relief "without granting cant or the consequences follow upon that may the giving." This the "most societies made and cor soup "oversight" demoralizing our Charitable of all In his view, the "frightful Agencies." rupting

of the Fourth, Fifth and a part of the Seventh Wards, pauperism" of our city," was due to that neighborhood's that "burning disgrace to blaming in down boiled conditions soup house. His argument to which former black for slaves slum, Philadelphia's ill-equipped on the dispensation life were flocking, of soup. It was not industrial a valuable for "many he felt, to refuse nourishment uncharitable, or sermon, in the denial of soup to the too" was preached lecture, VICIOUS. 23 Because
21 23

the administrative
Soup

stress

on

the soup

societies

was

inter

"Spring Garden 22 Northwestern "Twenty-five

Soup Years

23, 1874, 4. Society," advertisement, Press, Nov. of the Board ofManagers Society, Annual Report (1879), A Manager," I (Feb. 15, 1880), 2-3. Register, Monthly

3.

This content downloaded on Thu, 28 Feb 2013 03:33:06 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

1974

QUAKERS

AND

CHARITABLE

RELIEF

447

a framework of antipathy the poor, the SOC toward preted through to "protect their from initiators the countless charities desired to the relief system them" by extending upon practiced impositions as a whole their earlier efforts to tighten and requirements eligibility to coordinate work. To do so, the cooperation of non charitable was Quakers required. a result of the As the SOC initiators 18, 1878, meeting, February for March issued a call to a public scheduled 1, 1878. At gathering to draw up plans for a of a committee this meeting, the membership was in This committee announced. organization society charity cluded Roman and a Lutherans Episcopalians, Unitarians, Presbyterians, as a Catholic. It was not representative of the relief system from municipal welfare chari lacking delegates institutions,

whole, ties conducted

in less Put together and Jewish agencies. by women, was composed two weeks, than the membership largely of initiators on to initiators known and of persons shared membership through the boards

of charitable Friends dominated agencies. Consequently, C. Garrett this planning committee. W. and William Two, Phillip were Quakers the Germantown Relief affiliated with Justice, Society.

The Germantown
model for the SOC.

Relief

Society

(GRS)24 was

the immediate

life European and ex writings for Organizing such as Chari amples, Society table Relief in 1869, and and Repressing founded Mendicancy, to offer concrete were appli that European seemed methods proof to conditions with modification, in the United It was States. cable, also the Germantowners to create a centralized ture of the SOC, unique The stated purposes relief in cases and other Quakers agency, resulting to organization charity were to of the GRS who opposed proposals in the decentralized struc societies. render

to It brought that of the London

and prompt not otherwise of helpless judicious suffering provided the waste and prevent and misapplication for; to detect imposture to put an end to promiscuous to promote of charity; good begging; to collect charitable among Germantown's understanding societies; and ward. diffuse information Its principles those able helping
24 Hereinafter referred

in the the extent of destitution concerning to investigate each case to avoid carefully to help themselves, to give relief in kind rather were

to as the GRS.

This content downloaded on Thu, 28 Feb 2013 03:33:06 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

448
than in cash, and to receive Because

JULIA

B. RAUCH work of rather the Poor

October

to encourage the poor to obtain aid.25 gratuitous of Guardians the Germantown Board

than was

of municipal the GRS, after five years of independent authority, was to obtain to distribute tax able pressure, steady authority to Phillip in that ward.26 According relief outdoor C. supported a local and national for scientific Garrett, spokesman philanthropy, the Germantown were more experiment economical and demonstrated efficient than that voluntary charities administered aid. publicly

of receiving "the moral effect upon the people In his view, charity as a gift" was The GRS beneficial."27 into also entered "markedly relations the Society of St. Vincent with de Paul, the cooperative Germantown and the some From relief Dispensary, the Germantown Men's Employment Association Society hall, parishes. an office

in the Young

Christian Robert

Coulter, paid superintendent, investigated the initial disposition of cases. and decided upon it was administered who When visitors given, by friendly the poorest communication with lines of friendly classes "opened . . . of sickness them through dark passages and trial."28 cheering were not, however, to their clients. Visitors particularly sympathetic agency's applicants relief was One of and modes study of the character was a large and growing that there life of the poor confirmed number but "that of preying of human upon beings who fulfilled no purpose of society."29 members the worthier due to Despite unemployment that "real destitution" the GRS managers in found the depression, was "limited and easily manageable."30 Germantown visitor found that closer

The GRS
Justice many people

imposed strict eligibility

that GRS help" receiving

requirements. William W.
revealed that "a great and other professional

reported

investigations were "impostors

of the and Correction National 1883), 149-150. Conference (Louisville, of Charities 28 Charles Gordon in Charity: A Paper Read at the Sixth Annual Meeting Ames, Wisdom December Social Science Association, 7,1876 (Philadelphia, of the Philadelphia 1877), 13. 29 Relief "Summer Relief Committee," Germantown H. Kay, Society, Annual Lily Report 8. (1878), 30 in Charity, 13. Ames, Wisdom Proceedings

25 The Germantown (Philadelphia, 1874). Relief Society 26 Germantown Relief of the Board ofManagers Society, Annual Report 27 of Charity "The General Results C. Garrett, Organization," Phillip

(1878),

11.

This content downloaded on Thu, 28 Feb 2013 03:33:06 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

1974

QUAKERS

AND

CHARITABLE

RELIEF who of

449

GRS The those helped beggars." only wrote "Little another member is given," with caution."32 In 1878 the GRS aided

of but the firmness 424 persons, of the applicants. the refusal of aid to almost one-third Forty-four families were turned average per recipient away. The expenditure came to $2.13 out of that year with the GRS doling 165 pounds 16 tons of of flour, 2,524 pounds of cornmeal, sugar, 7,557 pounds

"deserved" help.31 the GRS, that "and families 95 representing was reflected in its superintendent

program coal, 572 bars of soap and a pair of shoes.33 Such a stringent was to lie idle through in "not much the summer encouragement the winter!"34 the hope of being cared for through a change in traditional later The GRS relief practices introduced incorporated agencies, 1877 the into the GRS the was SOC. As was then characteristic of relief in but open only during winter, initially all year. Less office than any remained open important to relieve summer was the poor during that the hope its desire an "effectual maintain check" upon beggary, could superintendent

for the GRS

and total relief to prevent

credited

itself with

an alleged reduction
In addition, the GRS instituted

in begging
in order summer

expenditures into dependency, relapse who had

in Germantown.

Persons supervision. visited and a record

winter were received aid the previous their income kept of their summer employment, to ensure that they spent wisely and their expenditures and saved the winter.35 against At the same time that the GRS claimed that it complained cessful, the city. Its managers that the needy streamed came to believe that was Garrett its program was suc in from other areas of of system both spoke for charity agency.37

necessary.36 charity organization at the March held to generate 1, 1878, meeting support to plan the new in Philadelphia and helped organization
31William W. in Philadelphia Justice, quoted SOC Papers. 32 in Charity, 13. Ames, Wisdom 33 Germantown Relief Society, Annual Report 34 in Charity, 13. Ames, Wisdom 35 Germantown Relief Society, Annual Report 36 3. Ibid., 37 For The Poor," "Searching Philadelphia Charities," Press, Mar. 2, 1878, 2. Times, Nov. 20, 1878,

a city-wide and Justice

in "Scrapbook,"

(1879), (1877), Inquirer,

10-11.

7. Mar. 2, 2; "Consolidated

1878,

This content downloaded on Thu, 28 Feb 2013 03:33:06 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

45o
They planning were instrumental met committee sometimes

JULIA

B. RAUCH

October

sessions, being until midnight.38 Feeling over the structure of a charity and purposes to which Conflict the degree centered around

in determining the SOC structure. The for a period of three months, its regularly held on consecutive often evenings, lasting ran high, for committee members differed organization society. the agency should be of scientific philanthropy so charity to carry organized to volun

Some felt that the principles centralized. were so new and of indiscriminate and old habits unique, that volunteers could not be entrusted engrained, strongly a centralized, out the work. desired They hierarchically and professionalized committed however, agency. Quakers,

in their orientation in neighbor and rooted teerism, more democratic to cooperation centralization hood and looked among life, opposed as a means of implementing volunteers The organization.39 charity to be successful, if the agency was of Quaker support, importance of the GRS and threats on the part of the managers that they would a decentralized not cooperate structure. in resulted The 1878, was final at behind St. plan was George's "no other societies at a public presented Hall. The committee ... as regards for charitable meeting report, and that held June delivered excellence benevolence 13, by of

D. Otis Kellogg,
its voluntary was misdirected If benevolence

an Episcopal

clergyman, noted that Philadelphia

the number but

relief," "concert because of action." acted without agencies to operate was it was and effectively, efficiently a plan of visitation to that the entire city be covered necessary by facilitate The the use of "more disciplinary committee methods." not administer of an agency formation that would relief proposed serve existing from its own funds but would charities investi by case all applicants for relief and by maintaining centralized gating records.

The agency's the proper relief of deserv purposes, primary cases and the suppression of fraud, deception, and street begging, ing were to those of the GRS.40 similar
38 of the SOC, Haverford the founding entry for Nov. 22, 1894, recalling Diary, College cited as Baily Mss.). (hereinafter Library, Quaker Joshua L. Baily Papers Collection, 39 D. Otis "Dr. Kellogg's in Franklin Kellogg, Reminiscences," Spencer Edmonds, History of St. Matthew's Church, Francisville, 1925), 124-125. Philadelphia, 1822-1924 (Philadelphia, 40 at in Philadelphia: of Charitable of the Committee Appointed Organization Relief Report theMeeting St. George's ist, 1878, Laid Before a Meeting of Citizens, March of Citizens, Heldin June 13th, 1878 (Philadelphia, Hall, 1878), 3, 5, 8-10.

This content downloaded on Thu, 28 Feb 2013 03:33:06 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

i974 The

QUAKERS

AND

CHARITABLE

RELIEF

45 I

to be conducted work was associations day-to-day by ward in each of the city's Each located subdivisions. political thirty-one was to have of friendly visitors, its own board of directors, and corps was to to hire a superintendent association Each membership. with maintain relief applicants, communicate records, investigate and exercise general agencies of the ward associations. workings" the agency was a central Heading gates sentatives from each ward association agencies, of selected other superintendence board composed over of "all the

two dele and

including

persons) (sixty-two the presidents and inspectors of

repre of the Board the County

of City Trusts, Board of Guardians of the Poor, Board of Health,

of the House managers was Prison. The mayor Not was of Correction ex-officio president. structure but it failed this organizational only unwieldy, to take into account to which the degree residential had segregation that ward was associations such concentrated, while associa Square, areas of the city for an agency

in Philadelphia. One result was developed were founded areas in which wealth in those as the wards elite Rittenhouse surrounding tions were either not viable or not founded to adopt where need was greatest.41 Failure that would create district offices centrally

in poor

administered, of Quaker because had the result of undoing prevented opposition, of city-wide the purpose coverage. It also made the SOC a major and was organizing undertaking one factor accounting for its large membership. At the June 13, to Organize of the "Commission the composition the 1878, meeting, Philadelphia for Organizing Charitable Relief and Repress Society was announced. It began immedi its work almost ing Mendicancy" not dissolving of the SOC on Feb until the official founding ately, were in existence.42 time several branches 17, 1879, by which ruary
41 or less than one-half of the city's thirty-one for 95.4 per cent accounted wards, Twelve, as elite by of the SOC membership. These wards the neighborhoods described encompassed a student See E. Digby The of Victorian Gentlemen: Baltzell, Philadelphia. Philadelphia Making 280-282. Class 197-201, 193-195, of a National (Chicago, 1971), 181-187, 264-265, Upper was The which association that located in the Eighth Ward largest single ward embraced wealthy Rittenhouse Square. 42Minute on Organizing entries for June 24, 1878, and Feb. Book, Commission Charity, on Organizing Com Executive 17, 1879, SOC Papers; Minute Book, Commission Charity, entries for June 24, 1878, and Feb. 17, 1879, ibid. mittee,

proposals funded and

This content downloaded on Thu, 28 Feb 2013 03:33:06 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

452

JULIA

B. RAUCH

October

to be representative of the city's relief system, designed Pointedly women welfare and municipal officials were not members, although to the degree the Commission did not dominate Quakers they had the initiating and planning dominated groups. However, they still an instrumental role. played to organize Not all Commissioners the new helped actively some were chosen to lend prestige to the rather than energy agency; a band of dedicated workers and zealous endeavor. However, emerged. executive It included committee Joshua and later L. Baily, chairman of the Commssion SOC Nelson president; Evans;

Phillip C. Garrett; Samuel Huston; William W. Justice; Benjamin

All of these men were Quakers. later SOC Treasurer. Shoemaker, to of their fellow Friends, who proved the support solicited They were One result was that Quakers be a responsive audience. repre on ward in the corps of friendly in a and visitors sented boards Of to their numbers in the general population. disproportionate was ascertained, affiliation for whom the directors religious 19.8 or and of visitors, per cent were Friends, 29.4 per cent. Quaker on charitable of the SOC also used their positions boards ganizers ratio with the SOC. Quaker-dominated agencies' cooperation were more such as the soup societies, agencies, likely, both formally to support the SOC than were non-Quaker charities and in practice, of because the reason to attached Quakers charity work. However, a palatable was to them scientific philanthropy why it was socially conservative. reform was because to Philadelphia's elite. One Friends had long belonged wealthy has found that of the 365 nineteenth-century Philadelphia authority the value in his to win

were available, for whom data about wealth sample, at more of these, ten were left estates valued than $500,000; twenty L. Baily. SOC president Another millionaires, including Joshua worth between left estates and $100,000 $5oo,ooo.43 sixty-one Quakers to their adherence to caution, prosperity of debt, of and avoidance thrift, diligence, principles honesty, their Discipline economic which were enforced and by behavior by reverse was that the poor were poor because of their The Meeting. to cultivate the economic virtues. This failure linkage of economic Friends attributed their
43 in the

Benjamin,

"Philadelphia

Quakers

Industrial

Age,"

162-164.

This content downloaded on Thu, 28 Feb 2013 03:33:06 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

i974 status

QUAKERS

AND

CHARITABLE

RELIEF

453

to personal morality such as poverty, questions, for example, blamed Baily, Baily a Quaker attended the was born family Friends' that had

that Friends economic viewed a rigid moralism. L. through Joshua on unemployment liquor. on June 27, 1828, a descendant of in Philadelphia schools to emigrated Pennsylvania until the age of sixteen when firm went bankrupt Baily's in 1684. He he entered

meant

the business. during dry goods to collect southern to his notes. However, War he Civil due inability some of his extensive real estate holdings paid his debts by selling A devout Orthodox business. re-entered and successfully Gurneyite At charities. served on the boards of several Quaker Quaker, Baily life by his active the age of twenty-two he began philanthropic of the for the Employment and Instruction the Society joining Poor, a poor the Miseries visit regularly An ardent Coffee House, City Hall saloons. He relief In 1851 he joined the Society agency. were members of Public whose Prisons and counsel of at prisoners.44 the Model founded prohibition, Baily near the new and Market Streets, 15th an alternative to to offer workers site, of the State Temperance Committee the Civil No doubt advocate located construction served to Alleviate required to

as chairman and his

of Pennsylvania.45 Given Baily's his linkage sonality

piety of economic

disaster

viewpoint of sin and that Many the

dynamics was not

affected

during bankruptcy to sin is puzzling. his economic analysis.

War, per his

However,

The idiosyncratic. to carried when poverty, was God's 1873 depression

conservatives believed religious forces social and economic impersonal premises be easily led them found among

equation nineteenth-century its logical conclusion, implied for societal sins. punishment this to be the case. Rejecting as a cause to search of the depression, agents of conspiratorial for human

theological could evil, who

44

their

the allegedly

of Quaker Albert Lang Baily, Sketch of Joshua "Dictionary "Biographical Biography"; From His Correspondance," Extracts With Baily (i 826-1916) typescript, Longstreth Baily Mss. 45 Prohibition of the Drink Traffic: An Address Delivered Joshua L. Baily, The Constitutional at Harrisburg, March in the Hall 26, 1885 by of Representatives of the House Pennsylvania, Committee Chairman Joshua L. Baily, (New York, of Pennsylvania of the State Temperance to the M. E. Conference, An Address 21, Chester, March Conflict, 1885); "The Impending 1884," Baily Mss.

This content downloaded on Thu, 28 Feb 2013 03:33:06 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

454
ranks of

JULIA

B. RAUCH

October

corrupt foreign agitators, politicians, speculators, greedy and even professional and tramps. beggars liquor manufacturers Concern about lack of faith, materialism, crime, intemperance, in business and politics slums, corruption Devout Christians conservative held of these the growth of Christians' because table. ated sinned time Consequently, early during evils. The failure charities the heightened.46 for themselves responsible for example, innocent suffered poor, to be chari to fulfill commandments on religious based prolifer impulses

by allowing that religious was that charitable indiscriminate work, almsgiving they believed of agencies, also sinful. The result was to reinforce like soup distrust were en masse. to be relief If Christians which offered societies, truly charitable, that eradicated it could pauperism only be through by uplifting personalized the poor. benevolence

also Christians had However, depression. to spread. at the same pauperism Consequently, to redouble their caused the devout imperatives

Philadelphia
Christian

Quakers

participated
eagerly on

in this search for a truly

charity, their perspectives tunately, the their moralism and work also Quakers was not

and many

the SOC. Unfor supported were limited charity by their class, were to which charitable practices they to recognize or because that were many had not been poor

accustomed. because Friends ceived the vocational

failed

available, and work skills to recognize failed

to existing to accept alternatives to live in workers enabled industrial practices on their charities, Quakers the stresses and comfort. Despite dignity that an urban, industrialized did not recognize society required on a whole social insurance and other economic programs security a rigid moralism, with than retail, basis. Imbued sale, rather they were that unready would have

barely the eight-hour and strike, Friends

given they for an industrial necessary society. re that many workers employed to workers' for demands subsistence wages. Opposed minimum and the right to organize wage scales, day,

harshly judged other groups. Although more liberal than the rabid Social Darwinists,
would have
David of 1873

who
by a

left

the

"unfit"

to die

altogether,
Attitudes dissertation,

and motivated
Towards University Social

46 Charles The Panic 65-73.

Cashdollar, as a Case

"American Study"

Church (doctoral

Catastrophe: of Pennsylvania,

1969),

This content downloaded on Thu, 28 Feb 2013 03:33:06 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

1974

QUAKERS

AND

CHARITABLE

RELIEF

455

to be charitable, in the active desire genuine Quakers Philadelphia a conservative, SOC ended up supporting pro backward-looking toward the poor. It was not until a gram, one which was repressive to the sweep of Progressivism, younger generation, responsive recognized causes of discovered the failure of moral reform to address social and economic re that the Philadelphia Quaker poverty of creative its heritage and innovative community social service. Julia B. Rauch

Philadelphia

This content downloaded on Thu, 28 Feb 2013 03:33:06 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions