WALLERSTEIN, HELEN C. Case Worker Reads Some Novels, 211 WELLS, FREDERICK L., Pleasure and Behavior, b review, 191 What Shall We Read? (Smith), 68 What Social Workers Should Know About Their O Where Shall Children Be Brought Up? (Merrill), 224 Worker's Attitude as an Element in Social Case W (Wright), 103 WRIGHT, LUCY, Worker's Attitude as an Element Social Case Work, 103 YOUNG Felix (Swinnerton), book review, 211 The preliminary Announcement of The New York School of Social Work The Johns Hopkins University Courses in Social Economics COURSES OFFERED History and Development of Social Field work training under professional Psychiatric and General Medical Social College graduates eligible for M.A. course. For circulars address MISS THEO JACOBS THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY THE FAMILY. Published monthly, except August and September, by the American Association for Organ- A SIR CHARLES STEWART LOCH MARY E. RICHMOND S THE last half hour of an evening of good talk drew near, the master of the house took from the bookshelves a volume of verse and, explaining that this was their custom at that hour, began to read aloud. The poems were those of a former instructor at Eton who had done the unusual thing of writing good verse about his pupils. At one point in the reading, the daughter of the house exclaimed, "Why, father, that's the stanza you quoted in your speech when they gave you the portrait!" 1 The closing lines of the poem were these: 'Twere sweet to pause on this descent, I shall not tread thy battle-field, Be fairer, braver, more admired; To the guest who listened that night more than twenty years ago, no shoulders seemed less bent, no eyes less dimmed, than those 1 Friends of Mr. Loch had commemorated the twenty-fifth anniversary of his secretaryship of the London Charity Organization Society by presenting him with his portrait painted by Sargent. of the reader. A few days later a copy of this volume of poems, Ionica, by William Cory, came to her lodgings with the compliments of Mr. and Mrs. Loch. I. THE MAN Charles Stewart Loch was born September 4, 1849, in India, where his father was a judge. His school was Trinity College, Glenalmond, in beautiful Perthshire, which was the first public school established in Scotland upon the English model. From Glenalmond he went to Balliol College, Oxford, where he specialized in modern history. Soon after taking his degree there, Loch became clerk of the Royal College of Surgeons in London and a student of the law. Invited at this time to join the Islington district committee of the Charity Organization Society, his interest in the work of that Committee led him, in true Balliol fashion, to take up his residence in the district. A year later (1875) he became at the early age of 26-the Society's general secretary. The only thing that had made the committee on secretaryship hesitate to appoint him was his comparative youth, but they reflected that this was a defect he was likely to outgrow." What were the reasons that led a young man, whose studies preliminary to being called to the Bar had just been completed, to turn his back on a well-established profession and identify himself instead with a movement which had been in existence just long enough to arouse every sort of antagonism and prejudice? He answers the question in a passage written many years later: If I were asked why I joined the Society I should answer that through its work and growth I hoped that some day there would be formed a large association of persons drawn from all churches and all classes who, disagreeing in much, would find in charity a common purpose and a new unity. That, it seemed to me, was " worth anything." Such an organization, I thought, could do more than Parliament, or preaching, or books, or pamphleteering. These, indeed, without the other, seemed likely to effect but small results. But such an organization might bring to bear on the removal and prevention of evils a combined force that would far exceed in weight and influence any yet existing. It could make legislation effective, could see that it was enforced. Apart from all legislative interference and with the use of means and influences more far-reaching it could renew and discipline the life of the people by a nobler, more devoted, more scientific religious charity. It could turn to account all that newer knowledge would bring to the help of charity. It could eventually provide out of all classes and sects a great army of friendly and by degrees well-trained workers. It could help us to realize in society the religion of charity without the sectarianism of religion. It would open to many a new path for the exercise of personal influence-influence with the churches, the Guardians, the Friendly Societies, the residents of a district, and "the common people." Differing in much, many might unite in this. (Charity Organization Review, February, 1904.) Social conditions are so different in the two countries that it is difficult enough for Americans to understand the complexities of the social work situation in England in our own day, and more difficult for us to visualize the conditions that confronted an English C. O. S. secretary fifty years ago. Edward Denison had written somewhat earlier, You will find that all the men who really give themselves most trouble about the poor are the most alive to the terrible evils of the so-called charity which pours money into the haunts of misery and vice every winter. If we could but get one honest newspaper to write down promiscuous charity, and write up sweeping changes not so much in our Poor Law theory as in our Poor Law practice, something might be done. And in another place he put it even more strongly when he said of his work as almoner for a long-established relief society: Every shilling I give away does four-pence worth of good by helping to keep their miserable bodies alive, and eight-pence worth of harm by helping to destroy their miserable souls. 66 Denison believed in developing all possible substitutes for material relief. So did Charles Loch. But substitutes for relief 'could gain no foothold so long as relief itself . . . continued to be poured out, without plan or purpose or intercommunication, by agencies both religious and secular, both public and private." I must reserve for a second paper any discussion of the guiding principles that shaped Loch's thirty-eight years of active service with the London Society, and confine myself here more especially to those aspects that reveal the man himself. There is not a family social worker in America today-not a social case worker of any sort, in fact— who does not owe him a heavy debt, and for this reason if for no other, we should know what manner of man he was. It may be questioned, indeed, whether before his time anyone had brought to the serious consideration of the social problems of the poor his rare combination of a keen, inquiring mind with a strongly idealistic temper. II. VISIT TO AMERICA It was this combination of qualities that impressed all of us who met him for the first time during his only visit to America in 1896. "I never met a man," wrote one of his assistants, "with such a fondness for the raw material of his studies. He liked it best in the rough-hewn block, and was never quite so happy in contemplation of the finished argument." Add to this the fact that he was a medalist of the Royal Statistical Society. Then add great friendliness of manner and personal charm, combined with a refreshing frankness. again to these qualities the discovery that he was a lover of gardens, of the woods, of rare sculpture and good poetry, and still you will get only a faint idea of the man who at one and the same time inspired in us dissatisfaction with our own work and courage to redouble our efforts to make it better. Add The secretary of the Boston Associated Charities, Zilpha Smith, who had known Mr. Loch on the other side was, at the time |