Page:The Economic Journal Volume 1.djvu/808

 786 THE ECONOMIC JOURNAL lectual and moral life of the people for the total improvement of the- human lot.' It must be 'conscious;' and he thinks that'such organ- isations as those of Toynbee Hall and of the various churches and chapels are deficient through some lack of definiteness in their aims, and through want of a well-considered scheme of thorough social reform, deliberately planned, and resolutely pursued. It must also be an organisation ' of the people'; for the ' people' can understand their own needs and can help one another, can detect !mposture, and discover distress, better than rich can assist poor, or the so-called educated classes those who have little or no education. And it must aim at the 'total improvement of the human lot'; for in this way it becomes an extension of the idea of family life, and avoids the errors and mischievous consequences of associations which part one sex from another, or concentrate the thoughts and efforts of their members on narrow and narrowing proposals, whether they be religious or political or literary in character, or be designed to promote the peculiar interests. of some particular trade or business. This comprehensivehess of aim enables the scheme also to avail itself of the assistance of existing agencies, which General Booth's well-known scheme would supersede or ignore. But, while the proposal put forward by Dr. Stanton Colt is thus comprehensive, it starts with the limited area of a single neigh- bouthood, and would only extend the range of its endeavours by successive stages, gaining experience and gathering strength by the way. Sometimes, perhaps, it is true, Dr. Stanton Colt seems to be carried away by a natural enthusiasm, when, like all social reformers,. he tries to picture the ultimate influence, and to guage the final dimensions, of his plan for the regeneration of society; but, he proceeds, it must admitted, on a solid basis of encouraging experience. The first neighbourhood guild, he states, 'was started about five years ago ' in New York, ' in one of the poorest and most crowded quarters'; and at present it consists of six clubs and a kindergarten. ' Another guild has been started in Philadelphia and another in Brooklyn, both of which have taken root and are flourishing.' 'Two ye.ar.s a.nd a.half ago a simila stitution was started in London,' originating 'm a club consisting of eight working lads, meeting once a week in a private drawing-room. It now consists of five clubs, and contains 230 members of all ages.' This guild 'meets every evening at Leighton Hall, Leighton Crescent, Kentish Town,' and has 'organised. five clubs,' and through them ' founded a circulating library, Sunday afternoon free concerts, Sunday evening lectures, Saturday evening dances for members, a choral society, and fifteen to twenty classes in various branches of technical and literary education.' ' It has reached the limit which its present house-room can accommodate,' and it asks for 2000 a year for ten years, and Dr. Stanton Colt thinks that then ' Neighbouring guilds could be fully self-supporting, and could propagate- themselves without aid from the general public.' He gives detailed figures in support of this calculation, and supplies various hints for the-