visits from the "national secretary," and so grateful for every sign of interest in their welfare.

ress

ap

Though numbers and distances make an annual visit to each school an impossible task for one person, and though resulting fluctuations in progare discouraging, encouragement comes in many forms—in the peal of the twenty-three girls who have this year expressed to me their desire to enter the field of Christian service; in the voluntary Sunday song service held by the Association at Fisk University, when the old negro folk songs were sung with all the pathos, reverence and deep feeling that characterizes these unique and impressive plantation melodies; when, after a story hour with a seemingly indifferent audience at the Tullahassee Mission School I saw a gleam of intelligent interest and pleasure in the eyes of otherwise impassive African-Indian faces, and one girl stopped long

enough to say shyly, "They were right much good stories."

Then there are Associations like the one at Bishop College, where in three years the young women have raised funds to furnish comfortably and tastefully their own reception room, library, and guest room; to buy a piano, equipment for basket-ball, tennis, croquet and other games, and have raised besides a large sum for missions. Here they meet in groups study, and the Christ spirit is entering every Tuesday evening for Bible to a wonderful degree into their daily lives.

But the greatest encouragement of all comes from the knowledge of a growing world-wide realization of the

truth that the economic and ethical development of a nation is directly proportional to the economic and ethical development of the least of the races within its boundaries, "that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly."

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room

HEY were talking about the summer conferences. The was filled with secretaries-analyzing, comparing, planning. And of course the air was filled with the old phrases: "Inspirational meeting," "technical hours," "group councils," "platform work." They were too well-worn to touch the imagination of any there. Suddenly one, from the watch-tower of her spirit, gathered us up with her for one penetrating moment: "The conferences? I can see them as a great stream flowing through our land, bringing fresh water to girls and women everywhere, tributary to all the rest of our work, invigorating the farthest reaches of all else that we do-be

cause it is a river of the water of life."

*

It is late spring, and high up at its sources that stream is gathering power. Each year its channels lie waiting deeper than before, out to the remotest parts of the land, waiting for the downward sweep of the clear, sweet waters. Last summer over four thousand made pilgrimage to its banks, and each took away with her some of the living water to be given to some one else. This year they are gathering again, to go down to its banks. Who are they to be?

Some of the force of that current was deflected this spring, and many hundreds took the pilgrimage to a city

in the South. They called it a convention. Had they kept the figure they might perhaps have thought of it as the "rapids" of that stream!--but at any rate they came up from it, stirred and renewed. Are they not to be among the most active ones in seeing that many who have never yet "convened" or "conferred" shall betake themselves to one or the other of the eleven places where Young Women s Christian Association forces come together this summer for the serener, steadier ten days of comradeship and rest? In other ways and places the waters of the stream have been turned aside, almost for the first time, to refresh the industrial girls who seek them at Nepahwin, Altamont, and Makonikey, the camps which are beginning to be conducted by the field. committees. But these are very special "still waters," for the girls who want to take all of their vacation in the one quiet place, girls who are either too tired or too young as yet for the meat or drink of the other tenday gatherings. So it is to the main. stream after all that most shall turn this year. Many of the thousands who journeyed to it last summer will come back again-one can go just so long on the refreshment of that pilgrimage and then craves a renewal of what it gives. But there is a great company yet of those whose feet need to be turned riverward for the first time: the young teachers who have given of themselves all year and need to be revivified for their high calling; the "perfectly good girls with nothing to do," who will come back from the conference never to feel that self-accusation again; the college girls whom this and this alone will convince of the reasonableness and every-day joyousness of Christianity; the young professional and business women who are beginning to find themselves, and whose latent leadership only needs to come under the spell of that assured

leadership of the men and women at a summer conference to send them out to "help the King."

And again, there are "goodly fellowships" who should be joining the pilgrimage in every town and city and college where there is a Young Women's Christian Association-the groups of women upon whose shoulders the Association government rests, who have seen the river flow by and have failed to go down to the banks, thinking it enough to watch it from where they stand, forgetting or never knowing that only as the spirit thirsteth for the water of life, and is filled, can it minister to a thirsting community; women who need only to go down once to that stream to find that to dwell by it for a little time is to come up with hands better trained, with eyes more clear, and with hearts refilled with the indwelling of God's spirit, without which our work must be an empty farce.

Are you of any of these?

They were looking through the Association calendar for 1914. One of them pointed to the quotation for June 5th, the first day of the first 1914 conference: "There's sometimes a good nearby tree growin' right out of the bare rock. You lay your ear down an' you'll hear a little stream runnin'. Every such tree has got its own livin' spring-there's folks made to match 'em."

"It must have been an inspired accident that set that opposite that date," said the girl who had singled it out. "There's folks made to match 'em?' I've been thinking that of our own delegation ever since they came back from last summer's conference. They're 'growing right out,' but in every one, if you stop to think, it's as if there were a living spring.'

"Because they have been by the river of life," said the other one.

T

HERE was presented to the Biennial Convention a report from the Commission on the Training of Volunteer Workers, prepared by a group of volunteer workers themselves, which aroused much interest. Since the Convention many inquiries have been made as to the ways in which training may be received, and it is the purpose of this article to indicate a channel through which some training may be secured this summer. In this report attendance at summer conferences is listed as a means of training. This is apt to be ignored because it is not new, but, though the summer conference is an old and familiar institution, it is capable of meeting new needs should volunteer workers come in sufficient numbers to demand a larger share of the program.

In no line of work is the practical doing of the work from day to day considered sufficient. In every profession and business, from teaching to selling groceries, the successful ones are those who read their technical magazines and who attend summer schools or conventions wherever the opportunity is given for interchange of experience and for contact with expert leadership. In some other age some other way may be evolved, but for our present age the convention or conference is essential to the growth of the majority of workers, be they volunteer or employed. That this demands sacrifices does not make it less necessary. All valuable work demands heavy sacrifice.

How may the City Conference help the local city Association? By bringing together the leaders of city work for study under those whose authority as teachers is recognized, for conference together as to the best ways of accomplishing definite ends, and for a more intimate acquaintance through

those days of companionship away from the pressing duties of every day life in places where artificial barriers are let down as low as society ever permits them to be let down. If our city Associations are ever to approach our democratic, Christian ideal; if they are ever to be other than one body of women furnishing the money and prestige in the community and another body of women professionally trained doing most of the work, and another body of women and girls receiving the benefits of an institution, we must come together, plan together, pray together, work together in quite a new way. Thus may we hope to further the day when each Association shall be "a body of women holding a common ideal welded together to become an active force for community service."

Who are leaders of the Young Women's Christian Associations? Board and committee members and secretaries—yes, that is recognized by all-but many of our truest leaders are girls, and many more girls should be leaders.

Since the field committees of the East have established their three summer camps, the younger girls and those of less education have an ideal vacation opportunity, and the Eastern City Conference may now be made a place distinctively for the training of Association leaders, provided the term "leader" is understood to include all young women who have capacity for leadership in any club or group. Such leaders are found in our churches, in social life, in all professions, in every business and in the high schools. Board members and secretaries can do nothing without these young women, and Silver Bay, which has already proved a place of inspiration to the few, might give the vision to hundreds of such young women and send them

back to their Associations to COoperate more sympathetically and intelligently with the board and secretaries in this great work.

In the Middle West and Far West we have as yet no field camps, and the conference must for the present furnish a vacation place for many girls. But there may be very definite opportunity as well for training for Association work.

This summer to all of the conferences strong Christian leaders will bring their messages of truth for guidance and encouragement. In Christian work there is certainly nothing more basic than a knowledge of the Bible and of the extension of Christ's kingdom in the world. In the City Conference this summer the Bible work is of the highest order, carefully graded to different groups, the classes taught by well-known theological professors, pastors and secretaries who have had special Bible training. The Mission study includes normal work and deals with those phases of mission work of the most vital interest just now, such as the Mormon problem in our own country and the Christian task in Turkey and China. The teachers are especially qualified whether by actual experience on the mission field or by their work as professors of missions in colleges, or through close acquaintance with conditions. To Mission study has been added Community study on the family and social work, taught by qualified social workers, such as directors of associated charities or professors of sociology. To these courses can be added in time courses on the

history of the Association movement, should there be a demand for it. The technical councils for board members and secretaries are to be held together with a few separate meetings for discussion of their peculiar problems. This year the emphasis is laid on the Biennial Convention recommendations. tions. All the Commission findings will be reported and there will be opportunity for discussion on the advance work suggested. New experiments tried lately, such as the joint finance campaigns, will be reported by those who have participated in them. Such subjects as vocational training and adapting the Association to the community will be discussed by outside specialists, such as the head of the Women's Educational and Industrial Union in Boston at Silver Bay and the head of a church department of labor at Geneva. Special councils under national and field secretaries of expert training and experience will be held in the East for Association members, professional and business women and girls of leisure, and for high school girls. To those councils at Geneva are added councils for country and industrial girls. Neither money nor thought has been spared to bring together in these conferences all that will inspire and help Association workers of all kinds, and it now rests with the local Associations to send to the conferences delegations representing all kinds of workers who, receiving and enjoying most, can share with others what they gain. The conferences are yours, to be made what you wish them to be.

EMMA HAYS.

P

A Class

With a Mission

Grace E. Marrett

ITTSBURGH

Surveys come and go, but the Women in Industry remain, and no amount of mere investigation can ameliorate the conditions under which they labor. Neither can the condescending type of charity accomplish more than temporary relief. There seems, however, far greater promise in the sort of charity that recognizes that the least good for the few never works the greatest good for the rest, and that it is not the absolute rule that there must be a "life for a life." It is not only the socialists that recognize that a large part of the evil in the world comes from maladjustment and that the problem of relief is the problem of restoring a normal balance. Accordingly, a year ago, when the Pittsburgh Association undertook to investigate trade conditions in the city with a view to undertaking some form of vocational guidance, an attempt was made to find some profession or trade in which girls needed instruction and in which the output was not sufficient to meet the demand. The two calls that came to us most distinctly were for girls for domestic service and for girls and women to do any grade of sewing. In the latter phase of work the Association has assumed some of its responsibility and is trying to secure a more perfect balance between supply and demand, excess of women workers on one hand and excess of women's work on the other.

In the outset it was recognized that a class that should accomplish a real missionary work could not be self-supporting and that the gauge of success in our work must be the extent to which we were making inefficient girls efficient and not the balance of receipts and disbursements. Our Domestic Art Department is

more than self-supporting, so it was possible to begin upon its funds with the hope that before that was exhausted the real need for such work would be demonstrated, and it is a working principle with us that financial support is always available to meet a proven need. The regular sewing class rooms were constantly in use, so two small adjoining class rooms that had been used for evening academic work were converted into a "trade school," and the first of February, 1913, our class was opened. with only two students and the assurance of two more the following week. Within three weeks ten girls were enrolled, and since then, the number has not fallen below that mark, though there have been many changes in the personnel.

For this first spring we have charged no tuition beyond the membership in the Association, and have restricted the privilege to girls who have never had an earning capacity of more than six dollars a week, or who, living at home, will soon be under the economic necessity of earning a living and who are not qualified to earn more than six dollars a week. They receive sixteen hours of instruction a week, during four mornings. This selection of time brings them to us when they are at their best, and yet leaves time for them to do some outside piece-work if that is necessary. Two of the teachers in the Domestic Art Department divide the teaching time and the girls spend fifteen minutes of each morning in the gymnasium.

The interest of two committee members led to our having one donation of one hundred dollars, and another of twenty-five dollars, with which to begin our work. Since then there have been small contributions aggregating twenty-six dollars, and the proceeds of two entertainments netted us fifty-seven dollars. We bought at once two second-hand sewing machines that were in firstclass condition and cost only thirty