person or a society in behalf of the promotion of peace and the brotherhood of man. With the exception of the last, the prizes are awarded at Stockholm upon the decisions of the Swedish Academies. The peace prize, however, is awarded at Christiana by a committee of the Norwegian parliament. The 1912 prize for literature was awarded to Herr Gerhart Hauptmann, the German novelist, poet, and dramatist, whose later literary efforts have been marked by a high degree of dramatic and poetic idealism. The 1911 prize in literature went to Maurice Maeterlinck, and the 1910 to Paul Heyse. Doctor Alexis Carrel, of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, was granted the 1912 prize in medicine. This is the first time that the medical prize has come to this country, it being awarded to Doctor Carrel for his researches during the past two years, which have demonstrated the possibility of continuing the growth and activities of living tissues and vital organs after they have been removed from the body. The first Nobel prize to come to this country was awarded to President Roosevelt, in 1906, for his efforts in behalf of peace between Russia and Japan. Professor A. A. Michelson, of the University of Chicago, was awarded the prize for physics the next year (1907).

CHAPTER VIII

SOCIAL PROBLEMS (Continued).

Morals and Religion.

AN ANCIENT EVIL.-Under this heading an editorial in the Outlook for May 18 discusses the form of vice which has, in the past, been regarded as an unfit subject for public consideration, and knowledge of which must absolutely be withheld from young people. "The tacit understanding among respectable people that certain forms of vice are to be kept from the knowledge of young women and to be ignored in public discussion is the last surviving trace of the ancient heresy of the inherent vileness of the body and its appetites. Children who are to feel the tempestuous force of passion are left in dense ignorance of its nature, and allowed to receive their first knowledge of the great and sacred functions of the body surreptitiously, and in forms which are vulgar if not corrupting. Girls are sent to great cities to earn their living in dense ignorance of the moral dangers which will surround them; left to walk along paths so perilous that a single false step may commit them to a life of shame. It is a terrible fact that the ranks of the unhappy women who sell, not their time or labor, but themselves, are augmented by the silence of unwise mothers, whose false modesty sends their daughters to the awful fate of the prostitute.

"The stupidity of giving boys and girls the most careful training of brain and taste and muscle, and ignoring instruction in the matter most vital to their health of body and of soul, would be inexplicable if one did not remember the false ideas of modesty in which so many people have been bred. To leave young people in ignorance of the forces and laws of the physical life is a crime on the part of parents. This knowledge ought always to be given by fathers and mothers; it is almost impossible to give it wisely through books, though a few books convey it without dan

gerous suggestion. A great step is being taken in the schools which teach sex hygiene, although even this step is being fought by the ignorance of good people. But this does not relieve fathers and mothers of one of their great responsibilities. A physician was once asked why a beautiful young woman had died. He answered promptly, 'Because her mother was too refined to be intelligent.'

"Not only has this great mystery of passion been profaned by ignorance, but it has been tacitly agreed to ignore the awful results of that ignorance augmented by the evil of lawless men and women. There has always been in every society a vast pool of vice; and respectable people, instead of trying to drain it, have walked around it with averted faces. The horror of it has been known only to a few because the great majority have shut their eyes. There exists in every society a group of women as completely cut off from all kindly human intercourse as if they were lepers, and as completely isolated as if they were behind prison bars. Here and there good women have made brave efforts to help isolated victims of this terrible evil, but society has come to accept the existence of this deathbreeding swamp as part of the order of things, and the women who sell themselves as too vile to be saved."

Miss Jane Addams maintains, in her book on the subject ("A New Conscience and an Ancient Evil"), that it is the business of the church to guard and cleanse the popular means of amusement, which are throwing so many young people under overwhelming temptation, and to provide for the expression of the natural desire for pleasure in boys and girls; to change the irreligious and unforgiving attitude of society toward the women of the streets; and to put an end to a policy of secrecy which is hypocritical and ineffective, and which makes good women the blind helpers of this terrible business by the barrier which they erect against the woman who has once yielded to temptation.

The innocence which makes girls victims before they understand what they are losing is one of the decisive facts which Miss Addams urges as an appeal for a new charity toward these unhappy women: "A new publicity in regard to the social evil," she says, "is the striking characteristic of the last decade. This publicity has disclosed that thou

sands of the so-called fallen women are piteously young, and that thousands of others lost their chastity when they were helpless, unthinking little girls, many of them violated by members of their own households in that crowding which life in a large tenement postulates."

Excessive fatigue in shops and factories, underfeeding, loneliness, the desire for companionship and pleasure which is strong in all normal young people, the unguarded dancing places, the miscellaneous excursions, the unwatched amusement parks, are among the open gates through which an army of girls pass without knowing whither they are going; and in blind ignorance they take that first step which lands them in the underworld whence escape is almost as difficult as from prisons of stone. The thought of the girls whose unguarded innocence makes it possible in a brief hour to blacken their natures and condemn them to a life of infamy, ought to shame good men and women out of their sham delicacy of feeling in dealing with this evil.

The Church as a Social Centre.

A significant trend of modern religious work was indicated during the discussion of "Present Day Problems" during a notable gathering of Sunday-school workers in Philadelphia in the early fall. The interest centred especially in the two topics: Shall the Sunday-school become an important factor in social service work by remaining open seven days of the week? and, Shall moving pictures be adopted as an adjunct of Sunday-school work? H. J. Heinz, president of the convention, touched the heart of the topic when he asked the question, "Would any business man think of running his plant one day out of seven? His business would not make much progress at that rate. No; he runs his plant on full time and gets the best results out of it. Let us conduct our Sunday-schools on business principles."

Marion Lawrence, one of the most efficient Sundayschool workers in the country, and who presided at this part of the conference, called upon Sunday-school superintendents in all parts of the convention church to stand and tell what their schools are doing for the community

on week days. A delegate from Pittsburg gave the following testimony: "I am from the Shady Avenue Presbyterian Church. Our Sunday-school is thrown open to the public every night in the week. On winter nights we have a big sign over the door, which reads, 'Come in and get warm. Coffee and sandwiches served. You must not pay.' We have clubs and a gymnasium for young people. The Sunday-school is a great social centre in our community." "I wouldn't be surprised if the churches take hold of those moving pictures and use them for their own work. We are coming to it," declared Mr. Lawrence. "Friends, there is no more important question before this convention than this one of bringing our young people to look upon the church as a social centre. We have allowed our young boys and girls to be taken by the world. The time has arrived for us to reclaim them by strengthening the social life of the church. Keep your Sunday-school rooms open on week evenings. Make a beginning by opening a reading-room, or a rest-room; but make a beginning. Make the church an attractive social centre and the boys and girls will become interested in church work. The boys will attract the girls, and vice versa."

In all parts of the church, Sunday-school superintendents arose and told of the program of week-night meetings their Sunday-schools are conducting. Some have literary societies, some gymnasiums, some rent vacant buildings and equip them as club-houses. Others open one or two of their Sunday-school rooms on week nights, under proper supervision, for the recreation of boys and juniors. And all these churches reported an increased enrollment of men and boys. More than one delegate, upon hearing these reports, determined to go home and inaugurate a new era of Sunday-school activity.