Josiah Strong

“ War, manufactures, commerce, business, politics, education, have all been reduced to system. Nearly all the great factors of civilization, except religion, philanthropy and reform, have in some comprehensive way laid hold of the strength which comes from organization. The next great step to be taken, and for which a thousand interests wait, is the organization of churches into coöperative relations which will enable them to meet the higher needs of our civilization. ”

“ To prevent the indefinite multiplication of organizations.—The new interest in philanthropy and reform is creating a great number of unrelated societies, many of which overlap and develop friction, resulting in the waste of time, money and effort. What is much needed, in the interest of both economy and of effectiveness, is a common center where efforts to improve the community may be coordinated and adjusted to each other in some comprehensive plan—an organization which can survey the whole field and throw united effort into any one of many directions at the opportune moment. ”

“ The industrial revolution which has taken place in Western Europe and in North America is destined to encircle the globe. We have learned by costly experience many hard lessons which should be passed on free of cost to the younger industrial communities of the Old World.
The blessings which the industrial revolution confers are immeasurable. It solves the problem of production, and creates abundance sufficient for all; it elevates the standard of living ”

“ Together they have given to the world more knowledge and more wealth, within the memory of living men, than all other instrumentalities employed in all the countless ages of the past. They have created in the Occidental world a new type of civilization, with which have obtained radically different conditions of life—in one word, a new environment which vitally concerns all classes. ”

“ The Alliance shall stand in the name of Christ on the side of practical religion, good citizenship, the enforcement of law, the promotion of sobriety, the prevention of cruelty, the alleviation of suffering, the correction of injustice, the rescue of the unfortunate, the reformation of the depraved, and for such kindred ends as pertain to the true social mission of the church. ”

“ What if, in each particular, all the states could be brought up to the standard of the most advanced state: how would the nation leap forward in civilization? For instance, the experience of several states has demonstrated the value of juvenile courts and of industrial legislation for children. In the natural course of things it takes years for such reforms to reach the more backward states: whereas the Institute, with the necessary funds, could doubtless educate public opinion so as to secure the desired legislation in one-quarter of the time. ”

“ Without some such organization as is proposed the churches cannot accomplish their social redemptive work. Through such organization they can demonstrate the vitality of the Christian religion by manifesting its power to meet existing needs, thus molding the civilization of the new century. ”

“ They have radically changed the methods of agriculture, of manufacture, of commerce, of travel, and of business; and they are radically changing the methods of charity, of philanthropy, of religion, of reform, and of education. Indeed, it is difficult to name a single field of human activity which has not been profoundly influenced by one or both of these two revolutions. ”

“ The great forces of civilization, such as manufactures, commerce, education and politics, are becoming more and more perfectly organized. If, therefore, religion is to retain its position among them as one of the great determining forces of civilization, and much more, if it is to gain a decisive influence over them all, the churches also must avail themselves of the greatly increased effectiveness which is afforded by organization and cooperation. ”

“ The American Institute of Social Service is collecting a great mass of facts from Europe, as well as America, which embody experiences of many millions of people; and these facts scientifically interpreted throw light on many social problems, new and old, and afford practical guidance in the conduct of life, and in the establishment of right relations between man and man. Here then we see the fundamental principle and purpose of the Institute, viz.: to make the experience of all available for the instruction of each. ”

“ Many outside the churches are coming to believe that true Christianity consists in love to man, and are making philanthropy a substitute for religion instead of an expression of it. Already we hear of a "Labor Church" movement which lays the chief emphasis on the second great commandment of Christ. Should this movement become general, it would widen the chasm between the churches and workingmen. The best way for the churches to prevent the teaching of a half Christianity is to live a whole Christianity, exemplifying love to man while we preach love to God ”

“ The widespread hostility, if not open conflict, between organized capital and organized labor does violence to economic and social laws no less than to Christian principles. The Institute is striving to educate the public to see that such conflict is as needless and foolish as it is wrong, and cites instances to show that the Golden Rule is workable between masters and men.
Again, the reckless and increasing sacrifice of life and limb in American industry calls for such education of public opinion as will demand and enforce effective legislation touching accidents and their prevention. ”

“ Knowledge of the fact that the public is well acquainted with the law will often bring officials up to duty, and also prevent the violation of law. Furthermore, knowledge of the law serves to strengthen public opinion in regard to its enforcement. ”

“ Now, our decennial census during the nineteenth century established a base line a hundred years long—the first in all history—from which we may measure in the twentieth and in each succeeding century. ”

“ But while it is extremely important to have men well housed, well fed, well employed, and well governed, and while all of these are necessary to the salvation of society, yet all together they are insufficient. ”

“ Nature's method of adaptation is costly in time, in money, in suffering, and in life, because so far as man is concerned it is unconscious and therefore unintelligent. The American Institute aims to facilitate this process by making it conscious and intelligent. Do you ask how a work so new, so important and so difficult is to be accomplished? It would require some hours to acquaint you with the specific methods whose effectiveness has been demonstrated during the past five years. ”

“ Again the churches are coming to see that Christ is not only the Saviour of the individual, but also of society. If the new civilization of the twentieth century is to be more Christian than that of the nineteenth, it will be because the principles of Christ's teaching are more faithfully and effectively applied to it ”

“ The Institute desires to establish, as one of its dozen departments, a museum of security, where all such appliances may be collected and studied; and aims to secure in all of our forty-five states such legislation touching this general subject as will save thousands of lives and tens of thousands of limbs every year. An old Indian once said, "It costs too much to be a white man." Civilization always costs, but it "costs too much" just as far as it costs needless suffering and death. ”

“ If on the other hand men are to cooperate for the furtherance of "whatever concerns human welfare" both of soul and body, the management must be narrowed to those who substantially agree concerning men's spiritual as well as physical needs. That is, either the scope or the management must necessarily be limited.
It is asked: Why not choose the former alternative and confine activities to the few lines of work on which all good citizens can agree? Because the object of the movement is to broaden the activities of the churches to the full measure of their mission. ”

“ This calls attention to the fact that the Institute is not simply a great bureau of information where a thousand inquiries concerning social conditions may find answer. It seeks actively to diffuse light even when there is no consciousness that light is needed. It aims through many channels to educate public opinion, which is the generic social reform, including all others. There are many great evils incident to our present stage of industrial and social evolution on which no intelligent lover of his country and his kind can look with indifference. ”

“ A standing committee is appointed on each line of work which the Alliance decides to undertake; and the success of the organization will depend very largely on the wisdom with which the chairmen of these committees are selected and the faithfulness with which they serve. As conditions differ in different communities, no two Alliances may have exactly the same list of committees. Each organization is of course free to undertake as many or as few lines of work as it deems wise. ”

“ Only in recent years have men learned to gather facts, to sift them, and correctly to interpret them, thus creating science. We are only beginning to construct the science of living, which is living in intelligent obedience to all natural laws ”

“ To reach homes with elevating and transforming influences.—Most of the great evils of our times, whether physical, social, moral, or spiritual, can be effectively reached and overcome only in the home; and the homes of a community will not be effectively reached with Christian influence without the intelligent coöperation of the churches. ”

“ As President Roosevelt writes us, "The possibilities of the Institute are well-nigh boundless," and adds, "It is apparently proving to be the beginning of a world movement, and is being recognized by the best men of many different countries as a necessity in each and all of these countries in order to facilitate a readjustment of social relations to the new conditions created by the modern industrial revolution."
A Japanese who visited the Institute this summer in search of a solution of the new labor problems of Japan, remarked, "Civilization is common property." ”

“ One other consideration may be added to show that it would not be wise to narrow the scope to the promotion of men's physical welfare only, for the sake of leaving the management unlimited. Heretofore the evangelical churches in their efforts for the spiritual have failed adequately to recognize the physical. There is now a great awakening of interest in the latter; and human nature, being what it is, warrants the expectation that in due time there will be a tendency to the other extreme, and many will be liable to emphasize the physical to the neglect of the spiritual. ”

“ We are therefore bound by every obligation of humanity and religion to safeguard them with our experience, and thus forestall preventable evils, which if not thus prevented will prove to be far more disastrous in the Orient than they have been in the Occident. ”

“ Unless prevented by intelligent foresight, the evils which have thus far attended the industrial revolution will accompany it around the world and involve the hundreds of millions of these countries in sufferings as measureless as they will be needless. ”

“ This movement then aims at the christianizing of society in all its interests and activities, and at the salvation of the whole man, spiritual and physical, without which society cannot be saved. Anything less comprehensive would not grasp the situation and be equal to the existing emergency. Is it not, therefore, quite evident, that those who do not sympathize with these objects, and those who do not regard Christ as a Saviour either of the individual or of society cannot participate in the management of the organization? ”

“ Important as it is in social and political science to know precisely where we are, it is even more important to know the direction in which we are moving, for tendency is prophetic; and to establish a line of tendency we must fix more than one point ”

“ Social conditions.—This committee should investigate the religious and social conditions of the community and of the surrounding country. They may appropriately form neighborhood or Church Reading Circles, Home-culture Clubs and Maternal Associations. By enlistening the coöperation of a large number of judicious women and assigning to each a small district, the churches can come into friendly and helpful personal relations with all of the needy homes of the community, and bring to them blessings, sanitary, economic, domestic and spiritual. ”

“ It is a fundamental law of nature that every form of life, whether vegetable or animal, individual or institutional, must be adapted to its environment. If the latter radically changes, the former must readjust itself or perish. ”

“ Education and recreation.—This committee will seek to create an intelligent interest in the public schools, to take the schools out of politics, to see that buildings are sanitary and that they provide adequate accommodations, that school laws, like that requiring instruction as to the effects of alcohol and narcotics on the human body, are enforced, and that the schools enjoy the best facilities for attaining the highest efficiency. ”

“ It redistributes population, compacting masses in the city, creating the tenement house with its long list of evils, complicating the problems of sanitation, and raising the death rate. It assumes the role of Herod and slaughters the innocents, while the children who escape from the factory with their lives are commonly pinched and deformed in body and mind. It creates the popular discontent which inevitably springs from the multiplication and popularization of knowledge together with the multiplication and concentration of wealth. ”

“ To close the chasm between churches and workingmen.—This chasm is largely one of misunderstanding and indifference. Individual church members have done much in behalf of workingmen, but they have not done it in the name of the churches, and hence are not understood to represent the churches. Their vidual efforts may prove their individual interest, but do not convince workingmen that the churches, as such, are interested in their welfare. Nor does the establishment of mission chapels and Sunday schools, by the churches, prove their love. ”

“ The science of statistics, by which facts are so gathered as to embody truth, and so interpreted as to afford knowledge, is of recent origin. It is a singular fact that our young republic was the first government in the world to take a census at stated intervals. ”