War in the Social Order: the Great War
and the Liberalization of American Quakerism -- 7

1. Hugh Barbour and J. William Frost, The Quakers (Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1988), esp. Chs. 17-20; Carol and John Stoneburner, eds., The Influence of Quaker Women on American History: Biographical Studies (Lewiston, ME: Edwin Mellen, 1986); James M. McPherson, The Abolitionist Legacy: From Reconstruction to the NAACP (Princeton:Princeton U.P., 1975); Milton S. Katz, Ban the Bomb: a History of SANE, the Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy, 1957-1985 (Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1986); Douglas McAdam, Freedom Summer (New York: Oxford U.P., 1988), p. 174.

2.  Stanley Coben, A. Mitchell Palmer: Politician (New York: Columbia U.P., 1963); George H. Nash, The Life of Herbert Hoover: the Engineer 1877-1914 (New York: Norton, 1983); Roger Morris, Richard Milhous Nixon: The Rise of an American Politician (New York: Holt, 1990).

3. Howell J. Harris, Bloodless Victories:The Rise and Fall of the Open Shop in the Philadelphia Metal Trades, 1890-1940 (New York: Cambridge U.P., 2000).

4. The most prominent of these were Morris Evans Leeds, Bernard G. Waring and D. Robert Yarnall, for whom see William P. Vogel, Precision, People and Progress: A Business Philosophy at Work (Philadelphia, PA: Leeds and Northrup Co., 1949) and C. Elliott Barb, The Yarway Story: An Adventure in Serving (Philadelphia, PA: Yarnall-Waring Corporation, 1958). For the AFSC, see Rufus M. Jones, A Service of Love in Wartime: American Friends’ Relief Work in Europe, 1917-1919 (New York: Macmillan, 1920), Lester M. Jones, Quakers in Action: Recent Humanitarian and Reform Activities of American Quakers (New York: Macmillan, 1929), Mary Hoxie Jones, Swords Into Ploughshares: An Account of the American Friends Service Committee 1917-1937 (New York: Macmillan, 1937), and Clarence E. Pickett, For More Than Bread: An Autobiographical Account of Twenty Two Years’ Work With the American Friends Service Committee. (Boston, MA: Little, Brown & Co., 1953).   

5. Figures calculated from Barbour and Frost, The Quakers, pp. 234-5. For the history of Quaker divisions, see esp. Robert W. Doherty, The Hicksite Separation: A Sociological Analysis of Religious Schism in Early 19th Century America (New Brunswick: Rutgers U.P., 1967), H. Larry Ingle, Quakers in Conflict: The Hicksite Separation (Knoxville: U. of Tennessee Pr., 1986), and Thomas D. Hamm, The Transformation of American Quakerism: Orthodox Friends, 1800-1907 (Bloomington: Indiana U.P., 1988). For the quote, see Hamm, "The Legacy of Allen Jay," Quaker Life 27:1 (Jan-Feb. 1986): 13-15 at p. 15.

6. Philip S. Benjamin, The Philadelphia Quakers in the Industrial Age (Philadelphia: Temple U.P., 1976), p.159. There were about as many Quakers in the Philadelphia region alone as in all of Great Britain.

7. For contemporary developments in Britain, see esp. Elizabeth Isichei, Victorian Quakers (Oxford, England: Oxford U.P., 1970); quote from Francis Frith et al., A Reasonable Faith: Short Religious Essays for the Times (London: Macmillan, 1884).

8. The most recent and accessible discussion of the modernization of British Quakerism is Hope Hay Hewison, Hedge of Wild Almonds: South Africa, the ‘Pro-Boers’ and the Quaker Conscience (London: James Currey, 1989), esp. pp. 22-3, 43-8. See also J. Wilhelm Rowntree and Henry Bryan Binns, History of the Adult School Movement (London: Headley Bros., 1903) and Peter d’A. Jones, The Christian Socialist Revival 1877-1914: Religion, Class, and Social Conscience in Late-Victorian England (Princeton: Princeton U.P., 1968), pp. 367-89. For the best recent account of this postmillenial vision, see Paul T. Phillips, A Kingdom on Earth: Anglo-American Social Christianity, 1880-1940 (University Park: Penn State U.P., 1996).

9. See e.g. Edwin B. Bronner, "The Other Branch": London Yearly Meeting and the Hicksites 1827-1912 (London: Friends Historical Society, 1975).

10. For Jones, see his memoir The Trail of Life in the Middle Years (New York: Macmillan, 1934) and Elizabeth G. Vining, Friend of Life: the Biography of Rufus M. Jones (Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1958).

11. For the sectarian and clannish nature of Philadelphia Quakerism, see esp. Margaret Hope Bacon, Let This Life Speak: The Legacy of Henry Joel Cadbury (Philadelphia: Univ. of Pennsylvania Press, 1987), p. 3; E. Digby Baltzell, Philadelphia Gentlemen: The Making of a National Upper Class (Glencoe, IL: Free Press, 1958), esp. Chs. 10, 11; Logan Pearsall Smith, Unforgotten Years (London: Constable, 1938); Francis J. Stokes, Jr., Stokes Cope Emlen Evans Genealogy: Genealogical Charts of Four Closely Associated Germantown Families (Philadelphia: author, 1982), pp. 3 4.

12. Iolo A. Williams, The Firm of Cadbury 1831-1931 (London: Constable, 1931) and Charles Dellheim, "The Creation of a Company Culture: Cadburys, 1861-1931," American Historical Review 92 (1987): 13-44; Anne Vernon, A Quaker Business Man: The Life of Joseph Rowntree, 1836-1924 (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1958); Elfrida Vipont, Arnold Rowntree: A Life (London: Bannisdale Press, 1955); Asa Briggs, Social Thought and Social Action: A Study of the Work of Seebohm Rowntree 1871-1954 (London: Longmans, 1961); Gillian Wagner, The Chocolate Conscience (London: Chatto & Windus, 1987)–for the two remarkable families at the heart of Quaker "progressivism" in Britain.

13. Hewison, Hedge of Wild Almonds, esp. Ch. 8, and Jones, Christian Socialist Revival, pp. 367-89.

14. For leading women progressives who were brought up as Quakers, and in some cases returned to the religion of their ancestors after the religions of reform and even socialism had disappointed, see Stoneburner and Stoneburner, eds., The Influence of Quaker Women on American History.

15. Philip S. Benjamin, "Gentleman Reformers in the Quaker City, 1870-1912," Political Science Quarterly 85 (1970): 61-79.

16. Quoted in Vining, Friend of Life, p. 144; cf. Joshua Rowntree, Social Service: Its Place in the Society of Friends–the Swarthmore Lecture 1913 (London: Headley, 1913).

17. Vogel, Precision, People, and Progress and "Morris Evans Leeds 1869-1952," The Cooperator IX:11 (March 1952): 3, 15. For the key Orthodox educational institutions he and his closest associates attended, see Watson W. Dewees, compiler, A Brief History of Westtown Boarding School (Philadelphia: Sherman & Co., 1888) and Helen G. Hole, Westtown Through the Years (Westtown, PA: Westtown Alumni Association, 1942); Committee of the Haverford College Alumni Association, A History of Haverford College for the First Sixty Years of Its Existence (Philadelphia: Porter & Coates, 1892) and Isaac Sharpless, The Story of a Small College (Philadelphia: John C. Winston Co., 1918). Leeds’s papers are Accession No. 1127 in the Quaker Collections, Haverford College (hereafter QCHC)–see esp. his letters to his wife; his 1951 "Personnel Security Questionnaire," which lists his affiliations and associates; offprint, John Van Schaick, Jr., "Cruising Cross the Country, V: The Four Way Lodge," Universalist Leader (31 January 1925): 6-7 [an Orthodox Quaker retreat Leeds helped found in the New Jersey Pine Barrens]; and "Down the Fairway" and In the Rough with the Ozone Club from 1901 to 1927 (Philadelphia: privately printed, 1927)–his Orthodox Quaker golf club.

18. This was the heretically optimistic message of Simon Patten, professor at the Quaker-endowed Wharton School of Finance and Commerce at the University of Pennsylvania, and an intellectual leader for the city’s reformers–see Daniel M. Fox, The Discovery of Abundance: Simon N. Patten & the Transformation of Social Theory (Ithaca: Cornell U.P., 1967).

19. "The Attitude of Friends Toward Industrial Conditions," typescript c. 1909, Leeds Papers, Box 9.

20. ibid.; Holograph ms., pp. 3-6, in file "New Testament Study," Leeds Papers, Box 9, F. 4.

21. Leeds, "Attitude of Friends."

22. Ibid.

23. ibid.; for the influence of Abbé and Rowntree, see letter to Hadassah Leeds, 26 June 1923, in Leeds Papers, Box 5, and typescript ms., "Ernst Abbe and the Karl Zeiss Stiftung," n.d. (1912 latest date within document), p. 4, Box 9, F. 3.

24. Daniel Nelson, "‘A Newly Appreciated Art’: The Development of Personnel Work at Leeds and Northrup, 1915-1923," Business History Review 44 (1970): 520-35 and "The Company Union Movement, 1900-1937: A Reexamination," BHR 56 (1982): 335-57, are generally reliable, but neglect Leeds’s religious motivation, as does C. Canby Balderston, Executive Guidance of Industrial Relations: An Analysis of the Experience of 25 Companies (Philadelphia: Univ. of Pennsylvania Pr., 1935), pp.141-54; Vogel, Precision, People, and Progress, esp Ch. 3. Leeds’s friends Yarnall and Waring also inaugurated a profit sharing plan in 1915–Barb, Yarway Story, p. 52.

25. Leeds, "Attitude of Friends."

26. Leeds, "The Social Order: Why Should Friends Study It" (to Germantown Group Preceding Social Order Committee), n.d. but pre-1917, unpaginated 20 pp. typescript, Leeds Papers, Box 9.

27. John K. Nelson, The Peace Prophets: American Pacifist Thought, 1919-1941 (Chapel Hill: Univ. of N. Carolina Pr., 1967), pp. 22-3.

28. Benjamin, Philadelphia Quakers, p. 192; Margaret E. Hirst, The Quakers in Peace and War: An Account of Their Peace Principles and Practice (London: The Swarthmore Press, 1923), p. 450; Chatfield, For Peace and Justice, p. 8; cf. Jones, A Service of Love in War Time, p. 3, and C. Roland Marchand, The American Peace Movement and Social Reform, 1898-1918 (Princeton: Princeton U.P., 1972), pp. xiv, 18.

29. Martin Ceadel, Pacifism in Britain 1914-1945: The Defining of a Faith (Oxford: Clarendon Pr., 1980), pp. 3 [quote], 29; Jones, Quakers in Action, pp. 16, 163 esp.; cf. A. Neave Brayshaw, The Quakers: Their Story and Message (Harrogate: Robert Davis, for the 1905 Committee of Yorkshire Quarterly Meeting, 1921), p. 132; James Dudley, The Life of Edward Grubb 1854-1939: A Spiritual Pilgrimage (London: James Clarke & Co., 1946), p. 103.

30. Maj. John W. Geary to Col. M. Churchill, "Quaker Pacifist Activities in Philadelphia: Report," 16 Aug. 1918, File 99-35, Box 137, and attachments–"The Peace Committee of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of Friends," "Fellowship of Reconciliation," "Collegiate Anti-Militarism League," "Liberty Defense Union," all 1 Aug. 1918, and "National Civil Liberties Bureau," 12 Aug. 1918, with consolidated mailing lists for pacifist organizations and magazines; Maj. W.C. Smiley to General Churchill, "Subject: Radical Activities," 24 Apr. 1919, and Capt. J.S. Cottrell to Brig.-Gen. Churchill, same title, 16 May 1919, Files 10110-92-53 and 60, Box 2792 (Quaker schools). Scattergood’s acquaintances denounced him as "entirely too radical" and "almost insane," though intelligence operatives admitted that as long as he confined himself to his normal philanthropies "he does good work, but when he crosses over to pacifism or socialism or Christian Love, he begins to utter very dangerous sentiments." His problem was that "while well balanced in other ways," he was "a fanatic on the idea that Christian Love can end the war," and that his family had "always been rabid Pacifists and wealthy enough to indulge in their propensities in this line." See File 10175-292, Box 2891–quotes from Office of M.I. Service to Col. Churchill, "Subject: John C. Winston Co.," 12 Aug. 1918, Capt. John W. Geary to Lieut. Col. Churchill, 14 June 1918, File 9771-24, Box 2184, and Maj. John W. Geary to Brig. Gen. Churchill, 4 Nov. 1918, File 10175-292. All references to MID Corr., RG165, U.S. National Archives.

31. Isichei, Victorian Quakers, pp. 151-2; Edward Grubb, Does War Promote Industry? An Answer to ‘Can We Disarm?’ (London: Headley, 1899); John W. Graham, War from a Quaker Point of View (London: Headley, 1915); Anna L.B. Thomas and Elizabeth B. Emmott, William Charles Braithwaite: Memoir and Papers (London: Longmans, Green, 1931), p. 75; Jones, A Service of Love in Wartime, pp. 4-5

32. Benjamin, Philadelphia Quakers, pp. 203-6; Elbert Russell, The History of Quakerism (New York: Macmillan, 1942), pp. 510-15; Copy of Horace Lippincott to "Esteemed Friend," 7th. Feb. 1918 and "Some Particular Advices for Friends and A Statement of Loyalty for Others: Being the Views of Some Members of the Society of Friends Regarding Its Attitude toward the Present Crisis. Third Month, 1918," File 99-35, Box 137, MID Corr., RG165, NARS; Wilson to Lippincott, 24 Apr. 1918, in Arthur S. Link et al., eds., The Papers of Woodrow Wilson (Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 1966-), vol. 47, pp. 415-6; Maj. John W. Geary to Col. M. Churchill, "Subject: Quaker Pacifist Activities in Philadelphia," 19 Aug. 1918, Lieut. J.R. Winterbotham to Geary 30 Aug. 1918, Geary to Churchill 10 Sept. 1918, and Churchill to George Creel (chair, Committee on Public Information), 17 Sept. 1918–all in File 99-35, Box 137, MID Corr., RG165, NARS.

33. Chatfield, For Peace and Justice, p. 38.

34. Jones, A Service of Love, pp. 8-9 (quote), 49; A Statement by Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of Friends Third Month 29th, 1918, copy in File 99-35, Box 137, MID Corr., RG165, NARS; cf. Jones, Quakers In Action, Ch. 2.

35. Jones, Quakers In Action, pp. 21, 157; Russell, History of Quakerism, pp. 516-17; Woodrow Wilson to Newton D. Baker [Secretary of War], 16 August 1917; Baker to Wilson, 22 August 1917; Wilson to Jones, 28 August 1917, in Link et al., eds., Papers of Woodrow Wilson, vol. 43 p. 492, vol. 44 pp. 29, 75; Jones, Quakers in Action, pp. 16-17.

36. Bacon, Let This Life Speak, Ch.3; Jones, Swords Into Ploughshares, pp. 16-17; Jones, A Service of Love, pp. 12-15, 72, 62, 119-20; Jones, Quakers in Action, pp. 47-8;Jackson remarks in verbatim transcript, Memorial Meeting for Worship, 7th day, 9th. Month 16, 1967, in D. Robert Yarnall Papers (copy in author’s possession, supplied by D. Robert Yarnall, Jr.); Brown entry in Dictionary of Quaker Biography (typescript, QCHC).

37. Leeds & Northrup shipments increased from $149,000 in 1914 to $1,015,000 in 1919–"Estimate of Production Capacity," Executive Committee Minutes 25 July 1919, L & N Papers, Hagley Library; Yarway’s went from $91,000 to $428,000, 1914-1920. "Shipments 1908-1959," Yarnall Papers.

38. Benjamin, Philadelphia Quakers, pp. 202-3.

39. Lucy Fryer Morland, The New Social Outlook: The Swarthmore Lecture, 1918 (London: Headley Bros., 1918), p. 14; Edward Grubb, Social Aspects of the Quaker Faith (London: Headley Bros., 1899); Rowntree, Social Service; Mary O’Brien Harris (Clerk, Socialist Quaker Society) in Committee on War and the Social Order, Facing the Facts: Being the Report of the Conference of ‘The Society of Friends and the Social Order’ Held by Direction of the Yearly Meeting at Devonshire House, Bishopsgate, London, 19-22 October 1916 (London: Headley Bros., 1916), p. 103.

40. Committee on War and the Social Order, Social Thought in the Society of Friends (London: n.p., n.d.–c. 1922), esp. pp. 1-3; cf. Catherine Anne Cline, Recruits to Labor: the British Labour Party 1914-1919 (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse U. P., 1963); Committee on War and the Social Order, ‘Whence Come Wars?’ First Report (London: Headley Bros., 1916) and Facing the Facts.

41. "To the Yearly Meeting," March 1917 (month names used in footnote references, not in originals), in Social Order Committee (hereafter SOC) Minutes, SOC Records F4.18, QCHC.

42. Vining, Friend of Life, p. 79.

43. Extract from the Minutes of Yearly Meeting, 26/30 Mar. 1917; Charles A. Ellwood and Agnes Tierney to SOC, 24 Apr. 1917; SOC Minutes, 8 May 1917; Sharpless to Leeds, 20 April 1917–all in SOC Records, F4.18, QCHC.

44. Benjamin, Philadelphia Quakers, pp. 208-12; Minutes of the SOC, 13/14 Oct. 1917, in SOC Records, F4.18; SOC Report to the Yearly Meeting, Third-Month 1920, p. 2, in SOC Records, F4.13; Minutes of the SOC, 15 June 1922, p. 1, in SOC Records, F4.18, QCHC.

45. Occupational Census in SOC Minutes 10 Jan. 1921; SOC, Second Annual Report, 1919, p. 5, in SOC Records, F4.18, QCHC.

46. SOC Annual Conference (November 1926), p. 5; SOC Minutes, 13/14 Oct. 1917, p. 6, 11 Mar. 1918, p. 1, 9 Apr. 1918, p. 2, all in SOC Records, F4.18, QCHC.

47. Vogel, Precision, People and Progress, p. 40; John Fitch, "‘An Oasis That is Full of Promise’," American Association for Labor Legislation Review 17 (1927): 242-3 at p. 242.