Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 2.djvu/84

 70 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

colony cannot be made self-supporting with its weak, fitful, and unskilled labor, and the financial burden is too heavy for private charity. Many of the men who drift to these colonies cannot be prepared for competitive life and self direction. Men of the better class of mechanics avoid them, and employers do not like to select workmen from this kind of laborers. But for all this the colonies meet a certain want, and the experiment is of great value. Here again the Inner Mission has been the pioneer, and the state has learned duty from its enterprise.

The societies of the Inner Mission have not only led the state, but have also gone in advance of the church in this pecu- liar work. When the ecclesiastical machinery has broken down, in cities where multitudes were utterly neglected, these volun- tary associations have established city missions and preaching halls, and sought to win back the people to the religious life. In connection with these evangelistic efforts the nurses of the sick and the almoners of charity have been efficient adjutants.

COOPERATION WITH THE LABOR MOVEMENT.

It must be regarded as a distinct advance when morally earn- est and religious leaders pass beyond the tinkering task of patch- ing up isolated evils of the social system and seek to regenerate the system itself. This step cannot be taken without error and antagonism, and it must be confessed that the traditional train- ing of the clergy has not prepared them to understand the ques- tion or to be useful in the controversy. The higher task is more difficult. The Evangelical Workingmen's Unions represent the new attempt to ally the church with organized labor. These unions are not trades unions, but more like our benevolent orders. Their members meet for discus- sion of social questions, to hear lectures, to join in festivi- ties, and they promote savings schemes and plans of mutual benefit. Members of the Inner Mission have assisted in the formation of the people's banking associations 1 which have had

1 For an account of these credit associations, consult People's Banks, by H. W. WOLFF. See Gunton's Magazine, May 1896, p. 323.