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Ethical Culture Ethics THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
ference, numbering about 300, which is largely responsible for the philanthropies of the society, including the District Nursing Section, the Sewing Society, the Visiting Guild for Crippled Children, the Society for the Study of Child Nature, the Young Women's Union, and the Women's Evening Club; and, finally, there is a Young Men's Union of over 200 members which owns and manages a country home where fresh-air work is conducted, and contributes largely to the Down-Town Ethical Society and the Hudson Guild. Of these two settlements, or neighborhood houses, on the lower East Side, and in the Chelsea district on the West Side, the first has organized well-graded classes for the ethical education of the immigrant population; the other is working for the democratic organization of the neighborhood for purposes of self-help and selfculture. Finally, the classes for adult instruction aim to meet the needs of adolescents, young married people, parents, and teachers. Normal instruction in the methods of teaching ethics is also a distinctive feature of this work.
The American societies are united in an American Ethical Union, which holds annual conferences. Up to the end of 1907 eleven such conventions had been held. The Union is responsible for a Summer School of Ethics, along the lines of that conducted for some years at Plymouth, Mass. It is also taking the initiative in the establishment of a National Moral Instruction League.
In 1892, the first German Society for Ethical Culture was founded in Berlin, the chief leaders being Prof. F. von Gizycki and Prof.3. Foreign Wilhelm Fbrater. Branches were Societies. later formed in other German cities, including Munich, Dresden, Danzig, Freiburg, and in 1904 the Vienna Ethical Society was formed. The movement also took root in Switzerland, societies being formed in Lausanne under Prof. Augusts Forel and others and in Zurich I under Prof. Frederick W. Forster. In France the movement took somewhat different form. In 1891 the Union pour L'Action Morale was started; later it became the Union pour la V&itk. Foremost among those who have been active in the development of the movement is Paul Desjardins. Under the leadership of Prof. Levi-Morenos the Cireolo per la Culture, Ethico Socials was established in Venice in 1893, and societies later sprung up elsewhere; but they have met such severe church opposition that the movement remains in abeyance. Societies have also been started in Lahore, India; Tokyo, Japan; Auckland, New Zealand, and Johannesburg, Transvaal. It is in England that ethical societies have multiplied most rapidly. Twenty-eight societies are included in the Union of Ethical Societies, .which has its headquarters at 19 Buckingham Street, Strand, London. Among these are many labor churches, which have a somewhat distinctive character. The Union has conducted a School of Ethics and a Central Ethical Library. It was instrumental in starting the Moral
184Instruction League, whose aim is to introduce systematic non-theological moral instruction into all schools. Among the affiliated societies which maintain an independent position are the Ethical Religion Society, conducted by Washington Sullivan at Steinway Hall, London, and the Leicester Secular Society, of which F. J. Could is the leader. In 1896 the first international congress was held at
i Zurich, when the International Ethical Union was founded. At the third congress held in Eisenach in 1906, the headquarters of the movement were transferred to Berlin, under the secretaryship of Gustav Spiller.
The aims of the Societies for Ethical Culture are variously expressed, but the one thought that is