Forging Cooperative Gender Relations Among Youths in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era

FORGING COOPERATIVE GENDER RELATIONS AMONG YOUTHS IN THE GILDED AGE AND PROGRESSIVE ERA:

THE CASE OF THE CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR MOVEMENT

EVE CARROLL-DWYER

A thesis submitted in fulfilment of

the requirements for the degree of

Doctor of Philosophy (History)

School of Humanities and Languages

University of New South Wales

2015

ORIGINALITY STATEMENT

‘I hereby declare that this submission is my own work and to the best of my knowledge it contains no materials previously published or written by another person, or substantial proportions of material which have been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma at UNSW or any other educational institution, except where due acknowledgement is made in the thesis. Any contribution made to the research by others, with whom I have worked at UNSW or elsewhere, is explicitly acknowledged in the thesis. I also declare that the intellectual content of this thesis is the product of my own work, except to the extent that assistance from others in the project's design and conception or in style, presentation and linguistic expression is acknowledged.’

Signed ……………………………………………......

Date ……………………………………………......

‘I hereby grant the University of New South Wales or its agents the right to archive and to make available my thesis or dissertation in whole or part in the University libraries in all forms of media, now or here after known, subject to the provisions of the Copyright Act 1968. I retain all proprietary rights, such as patent rights. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis or dissertation. I also authorise University Microfilms to use the 350 word abstract of my thesis in Dissertation Abstract International (this is applicable to doctoral theses only). I have either used no substantial portions of copyright material in my thesis or I have obtained permission to use copyright material; where permission has not been granted I have applied/will apply for a partial restriction of the digital copy of my thesis or dissertation.'

Signed ……………………………………………......

Date ……………………………………………......

AUTHENTICITY STATEMENT

‘I certify that the Library deposit digital copy is a direct equivalent of the final officially approved version of my thesis. No emendation of content has occurred and if there are any minor variations in formatting, they are the result of the conversion to digital format.’

Signed ……………………………………………......

Date ……………………………………………...... PLEASE TYPE THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES Thesis/Dissertation Sheet

Surname or Family name:

First name: Other name/s:

Abbreviation for degree as given in the University calendar:

School: Faculty:

Title:

Abstract 350 words maximum: (PLEASE TYPE)

Declaration relating to disposition of project thesis/dissertation

I hereby grant to the University of New South Wales or its agents the right to archive and to make available my thesis or dissertation in whole or in part in the University libraries in all forms of media, now or here after known, subject to the provisions of the Copyright Act 1968. I retain all property rights, such as patent rights. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis or dissertation.

I also authorise University Microfilms to use the 350 word abstract of my thesis in Dissertation Abstracts International (this is applicable to doctoral theses only).

…………………………………………………………… ……………………………………..……………… ……….……………………...…….… Signature Witness Date

The University recognises that there may be exceptional circumstances requiring restrictions on copying or conditions on use. Requests for restriction for a period of up to 2 years must be made in writing. Requests for a longer period of restriction may be considered in exceptional circumstances and require the approval of the Dean of Graduate Research.

FOR OFFICE USE ONLY Date of completion of requirements for Award:

THIS SHEET IS TO BE GLUED TO THE INSIDE FRONT COVER OF THE THESIS

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Table of Contents ...... iii Acknowledgements ...... v Introduction ...... 1 Christian Endeavor: A Brief Description ...... 4 Previous Scholarship ...... 5 The Sources ...... 7 Chapter Overview ...... 8 Chapter 1 The Foundation of Christian Endeavor ...... 11 Francis E Clark: Biography ...... 13 Harriet Clark ...... 17 Clark’s Christian Endeavor Plan: The Youth Problem and the CE Solution ...... 20 Harriet’s reaction to the Pledge: The Hangover of St. Paul ...... 24 The Cooperative Model ...... 28 Chapter 2 The Expansion of Christian Endeavor ...... 31 The United States ...... 33 CE Growth in the United States During its First Decade ...... 34

CE: World-Wide Christian Endeavor ...... 47 The Formation of the World Christian Endeavor Union (WCEU) ...... 48 Christian Endeavor in China ...... 53 Christian Endeavor in Turkey ...... 62 Chapter 3 The Struggle to Engender Cooperation ...... 69 Setting the Scene and Historiography ...... 72 Avoiding Radicalism: Placing CE within a Feminist Spectrum ...... 77 Cooperation and Equality of the Sexes: Novelty and Discomfort ...... 81 Chapter 4 Creating True Men and True Women ...... 97 Business and Careers ...... 97 Christian Endeavor: A Safe Space ...... 101 Courtship and Marriage ...... 108 Finding the Gender Balance ...... 112 Chapter 5 Boyhood and Junior Christian Endeavor ...... 119 The Crisis of Masculinity: Historiography ...... 119

iii

Christian Endeavor and the Boy ...... 126 The Knights of King Arthur ...... 129 Forbush’s and fellow Boyologists’ take on Christian Endeavor ...... 132 Calls for Adaptation ...... 141 Chapter 6 Resisting the Masculinist Push ...... 145 Muscular Methods: Resistance/Adaption/Acceptance ...... 158 Christian Endeavor and Social Gospel ...... 167 Adapting Social Gospel’s Masculinist Label ...... 179 Conclusion Modern Christian Endeavor ...... 185 Why study CE? ...... 186 My Research ...... 187 Suggested Areas for Future Study ...... 189 Bibliography ...... 191

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

When you start a PhD you hear all kinds of mystical tales about the ‘PhD journey’, you hear tales of woe alongside tales of triumph. I, however, envisioned it as a much more practical endeavor. Of course there was a curiosity of the mind, a hunger to learn and create new ideas. Yet, I tended to foresee it as an intellectual enterprise, and destination. Looking back, I now see that perhaps they were not all as crazy as I had assumed. It is a journey, a personal challenge that is both confronting and rewarding. It is a test, of much more than the mind. I am extraordinarily grateful that I got to embark upon this ‘journey’ of both intellectual and self-discovery. I also am grateful for the company and support I had along the way, perhaps that is the greatest lesson or gift I learnt from the process – the sheer generosity of people. I am not sure my words will sufficiently express my gratitude, but I shall try.

I am deeply grateful for the generous support and kindness that Scientia Professor Ian Tyrrell provided throughout my university education, particularly as my supervisor. He is responsible for sparking my original interest in US history back in 2005 when I was an undergraduate. His work and teaching inspired and shaped the direction of both my honors and postgraduate research. Ian’s steady encouragement and intellectual guidance was instrumental to my completion. He was a rock, and a star. Ian’s time and efforts are most sincerely appreciated. I am also grateful to Ian’s wife, Diane, whom bigheartedly took the time to provide me with cheerful support when I was stuck. She also kindly opened her home to me during my research trip to the UK. Thank you.

My co-supervisor Associate Professor Lisa Ford also generously provided her time and astute advice. She trained me in not only academic writing, but also formatting (a sadly previously neglected skill set of mine). Her intelligence and humor are much appreciated.

Other academics and staff at UNSW whom I would like to thank are Prof. Anne O’Brien, who offered valuable advice on my work as an acting supervisor. Prof. David Cahill for his guidance, good cheer and for providing me with opportunities to teach. My two postgraduate coordinators, Dr Geoff Nathan and Dr Stefania Bernini, for their helpful and supportive advice. Sally Pearson, who was always on hand to offer speedy and knowledgeable help in navigating the administrate system. In addition, I should like to thank all the staff at UNSW library’s Inter-Library loan office. They were an amazing help, hunting down and accessing secondary and rare primary sources for me throughout my research. Finally, I wish to thank the school of Languages and Humanities for allocating me

with travelling research funds and an APA scholarship. Without these funds my research would not have been possible.

I would like to thank those who helped me access the Christian Endeavor Archives. Rev. Tim Eldred, the current leader of Christian Endeavor, who graciously gave me free reign amongst the hundreds of boxes stored in the headquarters storeroom in Edmore, Michigan. He also acquired for me the help of one of his interns, Rachel White, who, prior to my arrival, attentively sorted through the boxes that had been rearranged during a prior relocation. Her hard work saved me many hours in what was already a time-precious enterprise. Rev. Andreas Rudolph and his wife Hanna were also a great help to me, opening up their home that also housed the World Christian Endeavor Archive. The Rudolph’s were very hospitable, sharing their food and life stories. These experiences helped me acquire a sense of the legacy of Christian Endeavor. Prior to these visit’s Christian Endeavor had been purely historical in my mind. Others who provided valuable support during my research trips were Elsa and Bill Kerr, who took me on a fascinating tour of Grand Rapids and drove me to the small town of Edmore. My cousin, Aiden Dalley and his wife, Tami, provided me with accommodation and hearty companionship during my stay in New York. Wonderful friends, Sharon Lau, Peter White and Siobhan White, also provided me with accommodation and jovial study breaks during my stay in London. Additionally, I must thank my mother, Elizabeth Carroll, who helped me sort through the thousands of documents in both Michigan and Fulda. Her tireless efforts are profoundly appreciated.

Over the course of my candidature I had the support of my fellow history postgraduates, I would like to thank Charmaine Robson and Eureka Heinrich for running the postgraduate seminars. I also appreciated the feedback and conviviality of students who joined, including: Janette Bailey, Isobelle Barrett Meyering, Carlin De Montfort, Uraiwan Keodara, Erik Nielsen and Lindsay Yeates. To my fellow library study space holders, thank you for making our space such a joy to come to; Gaby Dixon-Ritchie, Harriet Field, Louise Mayhew, Emmi Nevalainen, Nico Roenpagel, Helen Rystrand and Josh Yen. For helping with my final burst of edits, I would like to thank John Solomon and Nadia Polak. I would also like to thank Royhei Isshi and Johan Ydstrand for their help with translating Japanese and Swedish sources. My PhD gang – Anisha Gautnam, Scott McBride, Rosie Jones and Dr. Will Johncock. You served as my muse. Elise O’Toole, Sophie Ford, William Thompson, Claire Juanda, Sigrid Haworth, Liz Phillips, Hannah Firth, Dennis Olesen, Lars Voll Mathiassen, Tim Maloney and Ben Hayes – thank you for keeping me fed, sane and entertained. And John Solomon and Tristan Taylor: dear friends, you helped me more than you know.

Finally, and certainly not in the least, I would like to thank my parents, Larry Dwyer and Elizabeth Carroll. You have supported me in times, good and bad, your love and generosity sustains me. I could not have done this without you. With much love I thank you.

vii

viii

INTRODUCTION

The coming historian will characterize the nineteenth century as The Age of New Forces. He will make mention of steam and electricity, and of their wonderful application and adjustments in the industrial world. He will have something to say about dynamite and of the part it played in enforcing peace. But he will dwell with vastly greater emphasis on certain new forces and new adjustments of religious things; such as the Sunday-School, the Missionary Propaganda, the Temperance Reform, Women’s Work, and the Endeavor Movement, nor is the last the least. It stands for the transfusion of youthful blood; it means the mobilization of the Christian Army; it marks an awakening as distinct as the Crusades and immensely more momentous. Millions of young people training for service; what does that mean? The future will tell. But the Church can never more be what it used to be; rather, a labor guild, a hive of industry, a living organism of wheels within wheels, each in place, and the Spirit directing the whole.1

At the turn of the twentieth century, The Young People’s Society of Christian Endeavor (CE), or the ‘Endeavor Movement’, was the largest Protestant youth group in the world. Founded in 1881 by Rev. Francis E. Clark within his Congregational church in Portland, Maine, within a decade it grew rapidly from a small group of fifty-eight youth to one million members, divided across 21 080 societies worldwide. 2 CE continued its impressive growth with global membership climbing to four million by its twenty-fifth anniversary in 1906, and five million by 1914.3 While the vast majority (at least a third) of its membership was drawn from the United States, it spread across over 60 countries and characterized itself as a ‘World Wide Christian Endeavor’. Working under the banner ‘For Christ and the Church’, CE aimed to build the ‘church of the future’, training its young members in all methods of religious work while also fostering their religious knowledge and faith. With a mass membership under its sway, and an avid desire to engage with world politics and evangelism, Clark met with world leaders, including President Roosevelt and Taft of the United States, the Emperor of Japan, and Royalty such as King Haakon VII of Sweden, just to name a few.4 Despite CE’s momentous

1 Rev. David James Burrell, ‘Introductory letter’, in Francis E. Clark, World Wide Endeavor: the Story of the Young People’s Society of Christian Endeavor from the Beginning and in All Lands (Boston: United Society of Christian Endeavor, 1895), 11. 2 ‘Secretary Baers Report’ The New York Times, 11 July 1892. 3 ‘Christian Endeavour Sunday’, Sydney Morning Herald (NSW), 31 January, 1914. 4 For a detailed account of various people Clark met while travelling on behalf of Christian Endeavor see his autobiography, Francis E. Clark, Memories of Many Men in Many Lands (Boston: United Society of Christian Endeavor, 1922), 338, 310, 395. growth and cultural prominence, alongside its predicted historical legacy, by the end of the twentieth century it has been all but forgotten within both historiography and popular memory.

Christian Endeavor reached the peak of its cultural prominence during its 1894 Boston CE Convention which ran for a week and had 56, 425 delegates.5 After an initial burst of popular fervor, and a decade of stagnation, CE’s public profile and significance petered out by the 1920s. The gradual lull within the United States can be explained, in part, by the early twentieth century split amongst the American evangelicals between liberalism and fundamentalism. It can also be explained by the deflation of internationalist ideals, increased isolationism, and loss of faith that followed the wake of WWI. This thesis, however, places gender at the center of its analysis of the movement’s momentous growth, and drawn out atrophy.

CE embraced a cooperative gender ideal, opening its membership to both of the sexes. Most importantly, CE held equal expectations of its male and female membership, requiring that they all take a pledge and promise to be active and vocal during meetings and CE work. In 1881, the promotion of active female membership and leadership was challenging to many. This challenge was broadened by CE’s interdenominational framework, which allowed CE to bring cooperative gender ideals to a wide portion of the Protestant church.

Despite espousing feminist principles, CE’s leadership avoided aligning with the women’s movement, fearing that it would become subsumed within what, CE leaders feared, was a tumultuous and controversial cause. They also feared alienating CE’s potential, and present, membership base. CE’s avoidance of such alignments, alongside its cloak of conservatism, has meant that its influence has been overlooked or underestimated within historiography of gender and/or reform.6 Historians have also

5 Clark, Memories of Many Men in Many Lands, 137. 6 Jane Hunter does make passing reference to CE, Jane H. Hunter, ‘Women’s Mission in Historical Perspective: American Identity and Christian Internationalism’ in Competing Kingdoms: Women, Mission, Nation and the American Protestant Empire, 1812-1960, ed. Barbara Reeves-Ellington and Kathryn Kish Sklar (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2010), 27; Ian Tyrrell mentions CE in more detail, yet argues CE needs further attention, Ian Tyrrell, ‘Woman, Missions, and Empire: New Approaches to American Cultural Expansion’ in Reeves-Ellington (ed.), Competing Kingdoms, 49, 58, 60, 64; CE is examined in Ian Tyrrell, Reforming the World: The Creation of America’s Moral Empire (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2010), 8, 74-82, 96, 115; CE has also been mentioned within analysis of Muscular Christianity although, again in passing, see Clifford Putney, Muscular Christianity: Manhood and Sports in Protestant America 1880-1920 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2001), 63, 117-118, 120, 188, 204. 2

preferred to explore the single sex societies such as the WCTU and YMCA that provide a clearer, and perhaps more consistent, gender model within their organization.7 CE, however, serves to complicate our understanding of gender relations in the Gilded Age and Progressive era. As a dual gendered organization, CE had to convince its membership of its cooperative vision, and then had to prompt them to enact it within the organization and (ideally) in everyday life. CE promoted and performed its equitable vision, in effect filtering more radical ideals and placing them in a more readily digestible model for its mainstream Protestant body. In this respect, it proved a powerful tool to disseminate more radical ideals to a wider, and unconvinced or indifferent, portion of society within the United States. I argue that CE’s ambivalence underpinned it success, but also caused its ultimate downfall. It failed to keep up with the shifting gender landscape, including the challenge of more radical and more essentialist feminisms, and, even more so, the challenge of the muscular movements that took hold at the turn of the century.

While at CE’s foundation in 1881, cooperative gender models were on the cutting edge; by 1914 they were relatively mundane. CE did not provide an adequate option for either the New Woman or the Muscular Man. Its desire to tread the middle ground meant that it got left behind, lost in a cultural momentum that rendered it passé. Regardless of its route from trailblazer to upholder of the status quo, during its first forty years CE trained millions of young people in its dual gendered vision. It provides a window into how gender ideals were negotiated and disrupts the tendency to place either New Woman, or Muscular Christianity at the centre of late nineteenth-century US gender history. Christian Endeavor demonstrates a more nuanced process of gender relations – a story of the middle-ground and how it drove, adapted, and resisted, the challenges posed.

7 Nancy Boyd, Emissaries: The Overseas Work of the American YWCA 1895-1970 (New York: Woman’s Press, 1986); Nina Mjagkij, Margaret Ann Spratt (eds.), Men and Women Adrift: The YMCA and the YWCA in the City (New York: New York University Press, 1997); Ian Tyrrell, Woman’s World/Woman’s Empire: The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union in International Perspective, 1880-1930 (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1991); Anne Firor Scott, Natural Allies: Women’s Associations in American History (Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1991). 3

Christian Endeavor: A Brief Description

The Young People’s Society of Christian Endeavor will be explored in detail in the chapters that follow. It is beneficial from the outset, however, to provide a brief sketch of what CE did and how each group functioned within the wider organisation. Initially a CE group was formed within an individual Protestant evangelical church, although over time CE groups were attached to other organisations, including schools, mission stations, prisons and even ships. Each member signed a pledge promising to attend and to participate in weekly CE meetings, to attend a consecration meeting, and to take part in a committee of their choosing. This committee work served as a cornerstone to the movement, with Clark wanting to promote ‘active’ Christians and to train its membership to work for the Church, as opposed to simply being instructed what to do by an elder or frivolously passing the time. Committees varied depending on the interest of each society’s membership. The staples, however, included the ‘Lookout Committee’, which was responsible for recruiting potential members and ensuring that everyone took part. CE Implemented strict guidelines and expectations of membership, it was the responsibility of this committee to also remove members who did not attend meetings, failed to participate, or broke the rules of the CE pledge. While the Lookout committee was responsible for bringing people into the group, the ‘Prayer-Meeting Committee’ was responsible for developing the members’ spirituality once they joined, and organizing the running of consecration meeting. The ‘Business Committee’ was responsible for the financial operation of the society and maintaining records. The ‘Social Committee’ was responsible for creating wholesome activities where members could bond. Then there were reform committees such as ‘Missionary Committees’ or the ‘Temperance Committee’, responsible for raising awareness of their cause within the membership, as well as fundraising and lobbying for support.

Additional committees could also be formed if there was a support base, a popular addition being the ‘Sunshine Committee’ which would carry out random acts of kindness within the community, a ‘Flower Committee’ which would ensure the church was decorated with fresh floral arrangements, or a ‘Press Committee’ which would collect, and sometimes write, CE literature. The committee work was quite varied, in tone and scope, yet all CE societies served under a similar framework. Ensuring that members were busy and active, all members took part in a committee of their choosing, a weekly CE meeting where they were informed of the work of their fellow members 4

and a consecration meeting where they would join together and express their religious faith. of its membership being divided between various committee and all convening for the weekly meeting which would discuss CE work being carried out by their fellow members and a consecration meeting dedicated to expressions and growth of faith.

Clark originally created CE for adolescents, however, over time, as participants aged and did not want to leave, the membership expanded to include adults. Children also wanted to join and CE subsequently spanned all ages, dividing between Junior Endeavor (children), Intermediate Endeavor (adolescents), and Christian Endeavor (young, and occasionally elder, adults). Within a decade the predominant group of Christian Endeavor was aged eighteen to forty.

Each society had a bureaucratic structure, the leadership of which was elected by their fellow members. These roles included a President, Vice-President, Treasurer and a Secretary. This leadership model and organizational structure was then duplicated around the world, changing to accommodate different cultural needs or circumstances, yet ultimately recognizable in its methods and aims. CE promoted semi- professionalism in the sense that it built up organizational systems and structures and expected its membership to conform to them. It kept its membership busy to keep them together and to provide a sense of purpose. Its membership, however, were not experts, instead moving around undertaking various roles as time progressed.

The majority of the membership body was located within the United States, with large followings in the United Kingdom and Australia. However, CE also tapped into missionary circles and was present within a variety of locations such as China, Japan, Turkey, Persia, India, and South Africa. Its transnational growth, spurred on by the internationalist fervor of the 1890s, meant CE had an ethnically and culturally diverse membership body. This was a feature which CE embraced, actively promoting its global breadth and informing its members of cultures in ‘far off lands’. The focus of this thesis is primarily CE within the United States, but I also analyse its transnational transmission, particularly in China and Turkey.

Previous Scholarship

Most relevant historiography will be dealt with within the chapters. These include gender history, the history of manhood, religious history, in particular the social gospel, and transnationalism. Here I want to emphasise how remarkable it is that CE is so 5

understudied. It was an organization was momentous. Yet, there has been no dedicated historical monograph of the organization, and it has been treated only in passing within other literature on youth movements and reform. The main body of existing work is a PhD thesis by Christopher Coble titled Where have all the young people Gone? The Christian Endeavor Movement and the Training of Protestant Youth, 1881-1918.8 Coble’s used CE to analyse styles of piety among American Protestantism and to examine strategies used to attract and maintain youth participation within the Protestant Church. A second, very recent, PhD by Brian Hull is titled, Enduring Endeavor: How Francis E. Clark Utilized Written Communication, Global Travel, and Organization to Re- Shape the Global Protestant Church’s Ministry to Young People through the Christian Endeavor Society.9 Hull provides a biography of Francis Clark, describes the growth of Christian Endeavor and explores Clark’s use of travel literature. His thesis has a more practical aim in mind as he includes a final section on what the modern church could learn from Clark and follow his example in efforts to ‘win’ the youth of today.

Historiography of youth and reform groups has largely overlooked CE.10 The most attention CE has received is from Mark H. Senter in When God Shows Up: a History of Youth Ministry in America.11 Senter provides an outline of CE principles and a narrative of its growth and decline. He, along with most who have studied CE, use it as a model to reform youth ministry today. Senter explains that the decline of CE was due to the ambiguity of its purpose. He argues that it shifted away from developing piety and instead came to focus on developing church leadership. However, hosted churches failed to make the connection between the two. This resulted in CE becoming a simple ‘add-on’ to churches, just as the Sunday School had been before it, instead of a movement that would propel churches from the inside.12 I disagree with the notion that

8 Christopher Coble, ‘Where have all the young people Gone? The Christian Endeavor Movement and the Training of Protestant Youth, 1881-1918’, (Unpublished Phd diss., Harvard University, 2001). 9 Brian Hull, ‘Enduring Endeavor: How Frances E. Clark Utilized Written Communication, Global Travel, and Organization to Re-Shape the Global Protestant Churche’s Ministry to Young People through the Christian Endeavor Society’, (Unpublished Phd diss., Ashbury Theological Seminary, 2014). 10 Clifford Putney, Muscular Christianity; Ian Tyrrell, Reforming the World: The Creation of America’s Moral Empire; Gaines M Foster, Moral Reconstruction: Christian Lobbyists and the Federal Legislation of Morality 1865-1920 (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2002). 11 Mark H. Senter, When God Shows Up: a History of Protestant Ministry in America (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2010), 154-168. 12 Senter, When God Shows Up, 167. 6

CE shifted towards leadership, as I believe the focus on leadership was evident from its foundation. This issue, however, is not central, to my ultimate gendered analysis.

The Sources

Christian Endeavor has two archives, both of which I visited and have used for my research. The sources for the United States are primarily located at the headquarters of Christian Endeavor International (CEA) which is located in Edmore, Michigan. It houses over one hundred boxes of institutional records, photographs, pamphlets, publications, badges, flags, scrapbooks and Francis Clark’s desk. This archive also serves as the basis for Coble’s work. However, the headquarters had moved location since Coble undertook his research and the boxes were merged and disordered during the process. The finding aid had also been misplaced. An intern examined the boxes prior to my arrival, placing a post-it note on each box providing a brief outline of the contents along with a new number. To account for this blending of systems I have provided the original box numbers, typically starting with an ‘A’ alongside the new number signified by a #.

The second archive that I visited is located at the World Christian Endeavor Headquarters (CEI), in Fulda, Germany. It is located in the basement of the home of Andreas A. Rudolph, the current General Secretary of the World Christian Endeavour Union. For any future researchers, it is helpful to note that they hold a copy of the Michigan finding aid. This archive primarily houses international sources. Again there is a blend of numbering with original numbers beginning with ‘A’ and a second ‘packing number’ distinguished as ‘pnr’.

Further research was carried out at the Library of Congress, which houses a full collection of the US CE newspapers, the Golden Rule and the Christian Endeavor World. I also visited the New York Public Library, which held various convention reports, the British Library, which held international CE newspapers, such as the Floater, and the Oxford Bodleian Library, which held British CE Convention reports and assorted CE literature. It should be noted that Christian Endeavor/Christian Endeavour was spelt differently depending on if the respective nation used British or American English. This explains why there is an occasional variation of spelling within this thesis.

Chapter Overview

Chapter one explores the foundation of CE and gives a biography of its leader, Francis Clark, and his wife Harriet. It looks at why Clark created CE and the significance of the pledge that he asked its membership to sign. Most importantly it explores Harriet’s reaction to the notion of female participation and leadership, demonstrating how provocative the dual gendered ideal was to Clark’s family, and, by extension, his target audience, at the time.

Chapter two looks at how CE and its leadership dealt with its rapid growth, with its membership reaching one million within the first decade. Despite Clark’s original idea that CE would be a non-authoritarian, or relatively laissez-faire leadership, the reality was that CE’s rapid growth created a pressing need to develop and formalize a strong institutional framework to ensure the core movement did not become diluted or fragment. This chapter begins by exploring the process of institution building within the United States before turning to look at how the group expanded transnationally. CE’s transmission into China and Turkey is used as a case study to illustrate the complexities involved in transferring CE to foreign, and in these cases often hostile, environment. Although the membership numbers were not large in China and Turkey, they became symbolically important to CE, with members becoming ‘Christian Endeavor Martyrs’ in the Boxer Rebellion and Armenian Massacres. This chapter looks at how CE created a world-wide structure as well as how it used its global reach, to promote itself as a ‘world-wide endeavor’.

Chapter three returns to the initial decade within the United States and exposes the challenges CE faced in trying to enact its dual gender model. What proved to be the most difficult issue was not convincing the men that woman should take on an equal role, but convincing women to actively do so. One of the key problem’s CE faced was that many female members shied away from taking on an active and vocal role. The power of deeply ingrained social prescriptions of female propriety proved a complex obstacle to overcome. Additionally, male members were unsure of how to interact with female members in a semi-professional environment; courtship rituals did not seem appropriate yet neither did the absence of any chivalrous decorum. The difficulty of constructing an active and equal membership was both theological and cultural. Members needed guidance about why equal participation was important, how it should be enacted and they needed affirmation that it was appropriate and religiously 8

sanctioned. This Chapter begins by looking at gender historiography and exploring the challenge of trying to place CE within a feminist spectrum. It then turns to exploring the challenges CE faced, with a focus on overcoming the doctrine of St Paul and promoting women’s right, and need, to speak in church.

Chapter Four explores how CE dealt with building cooperative gender roles for the wider world in its formative 15 years. This chapter explores advice provided to CE members on proposed careers and employment, courtship and marriage as well as broader masculine and feminine ideals. Critics of CE dismissed the organization, derisively giving it the moniker of ‘Courting Endeavor’. CE was forced to maintain that its young male and female members could, and should, work together to do church work. CE’s advice is set against the backdrop of the looming threat of vice ridden urban cities and a quest for adventure that was supposedly leading youth astray. CE was acting as a driving force of social change, yet it was quite defensive of changes that were perceived to threaten its idealistic vision. The gendered implications of CE’s response to criticism suggests that a negotiation was underway within the organization: the push to promote strong women and supportive men was partnered with more traditional, or conservative, affirmations of essentialist gender constructions.

From the 1890s, however, CE faced a new challenge. After spending years trying to convince the public and its own membership of the validity of a cooperative youth model and of a woman’s ability to take on leadership roles, it now faced popular anxieties that its leadership was becoming feminised. Chapter five explores how the ‘crisis of masculinity’ impacted upon its cooperative vision of gender. With special focus on Junior Endeavor, CE looks at the criticisms that were directed at CE by boyologists who sought to specialise in matters surrounding boys and boyhood, and boys perceived unique needs. Boyologists saw CE’s inclusion of both sexes as a threat to the church, and to the boys who joined. This chapter examines various critiques of Junior CE’s methods along with the alternatives proposed. While historians have tended to depict the turn of the twentieth century Protestantism as dominated by muscular Christian movements, CE provides an important case study of how a dual gendered group both adapted and resisted rising masculinism. It also places CE as, at least in part, a cause of the sense of masculinist crisis as concern was raised about the millions of youth who were under its ‘feminising’ influence.

Chapter six turns to look at how adult CE responded to the challenge posed by the masculinist push and by the ‘New Woman’. The adult response to critique was more convoluted that of Junior Endeavor. The complexities of CE’s gendered stance will be explored by analysing how CE tweaked and appropriated the vision of a muscular Christian man. Additionally the challenges of New Womanhood will be examined, using CE’s relationship with the suffrage movement as a case study to demonstrate both its ambivalent approach as well as its membership’s largely conservative base. Finally, I argue that CE is best understood within the context of the Social Gospel movement. Considering that the Social Gospel movement has typically been understood as central to the masculinist push itself, placing CE at its centre serves to disrupt dominant interpretations of Social Gospel. Ultimately, over time, CE became more about resistance than engagement. It resisted the masculinist push just as much as it resisted the more ‘disruptive’ forms of feminism; it sought to bring about gendered change peacefully as an evolution of society in order to avoid its religious purpose being subsumed or spawning a sense of disunity amongst its increasingly diverse membership. However it was unable to provide a gender model that adequately responded to the gendered challenges. After a initial burst of vitality where it quickly become the largest youth group in the world it lost its vigor, unable to adapt to either the New Woman or adequately respond to the Muscular Man.

By taking CE seriously and by underlining both the challenge and the reach of its cooperative gender model, this thesis not only fills a glaring gap in the study of religious organisations in late nineteenth-century US history, it suggests that we need to rethink US gender history at the fin de siècle.

CHAPTER 1 THE FOUNDATION OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR

The first meeting of the Young People’s Society of Christian Endeavor took place on the 2nd of February 1881, in Portland, Maine. During this first meeting, the founding members of Christian Endeavor signed Clark’s pledge, committing themselves to the rigorous requirements of the society

Trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ for strength, I promise Him that I will try to do whatever He would like to have me do; that I will pray to Him and read the Bible every day, and that just so far as I know how, throughout my whole life, I will try to lead a Christian life. As an active member I also promise to attend every weekly prayer-meeting, and to take some part aside from singing, in every meeting, unless prevented by some reason which I can conscientiously give to my Master, Jesus Christ. If I am obliged to be absent from any monthly Consecration- meeting, I will if possible send an excuse for such absence to the society.

Signed.... Residence... Date...1

Over the follow decades millions of members would take this pledge, it served as the heart of the movement and provided a means for CE to differentiate itself from existing Sunday schools or church social groups. It was the movement’s foundation stone. The pledge itself underwent various incarnations, and the fact that minor details were heartily debated demonstrates the serious regard in which it was held. Despite occasional tweaking its content remained unchanged. 2 In 1891, as CE celebrated its ten year anniversary the organisation’s newspaper, the Golden Rule,

1 Francis Edward Clark, Reorganization (Boston: the United Society of Christian Endeavor, 1887), 5-6. 2 The organizational response to challenges against the pledge shall be explored within chapter two. There were numerous debates sparked by the pledge and the leadership sought to adapt. For an example of the minor, yet heavily debated, 1891 adaptations see the amendments outlined in ‘The Pledge Again’, Golden Rule, 30 July, 1891, 701; As time went by leadership became more flexible in their perception of the pledge. In 1906 while celebrating CE’s flexibility and adaptive transnational prowess it was stated that ‘there are several forms of the pledge suggested, or a society is at liberty to frame its own pledge in accordance with the general principles of Christian Endeavor.’ In time the ‘general principles’ were cemented and the pledge was perceived as less critical to CE’s success. See, Francis Edward Clark, Christian Endeavor in Principle and Practice: Together with the Revised Constitution (Boston: United Society of Christian Endeavor: 19??), 4; In 1906 it was acknowledged that although the pledge was not required, the vast majority chose to use it. It was argued that the trustees of Christian Endeavor were not ‘bigots’, and did not insist on their preferred method, but allowed experiments. Yet since CE was born its founders sought to establish a clear set of membership obligations that were definitely entered upon and insistently held. Amos R Wells, ‘The Romance of Christian Endeavor’, Congregationalist and Christian World, 3 February, 1906, 156.

11 published an article affirming that the pledge was essential to the Christian Endeavor Society.3

Figure 1. The figure shows the Christian Endeavor active member’s pledge. The image is taken from the Christian Endeavor Archive, Edmore, Michigan.4

The pledge signified much more than simple words, and the story of its construction illuminates the specific problem that CE was seeking to solve. It demonstrates how CE sought to provide a different answer to the problem of youth recruitment. It also embodied a covert challenge to existing gender roles and the remnants of the separate sphere ideology. CE posed a challenge to the existing gender hierarchy by including both male and female members and imposing the same expectations regardless of sex. Clark’s decision to build CE around this pledge, and the initial reaction of his wife Harriet to the pledge illustrate its wider significance.

This chapter will provide a biographical analysis of both Francis and Harriet Clark, the birth of Clark’s CE concept and Harriet’s reaction to it. Aside from providing a contextual background to the birth of CE, the biographical narrative explores the odd combination of radicalism and conservatism that pervaded CE’s design. This ambiguity set the scene for the fraught balance CE had to maintain between

3 ‘The Pledge Again’, Golden Rule, July 30, 1891,701. 4 Box #A12/44, Christian Endeavor Archive (CEA), Edmore, Michigan.

12 embracing equitable gender relations and the demands of its conservative base. Arguably CE served as a means to filter more radical ideas into conservative society. This is an argument that underpins the analysis in the chapters that follow.

CE was created for use within Clark’s own local church community. Its subsequent growth was not intended at the outset, yet Clark’s model was readily replicated, spreading quickly throughout North America, the British Empire, Europe and Asia. It utilized missionary networks as it was adopted throughout various mission stations as well as expatriate and colonial protestant communities. CE’s vast and rapid spread was venerated within institutional literature as a spontaneous, sudden burst. Its rampant success was presented as proof of God’s providential support. Clark’s idea was romanticized, often being depicted as a seed that went on to flourish into a vast tree, both organic and divine.5 The original CE idea was adapted throughout the following decades as it found itself in different social and political contexts, yet its beginnings or ‘seeds’ provided a firm base for what was to become the largest youth group in the world.

Francis E Clark: Biography

Francis E Clark had an extraordinarily eventful life; as founder and leader of a worldwide movement, he became a celebrity as he travelled the globe extensively, meeting with world leaders and common folk alike. Between 1880 and 1920 alone, Clark embarked on 5 well-publicized journeys around the world, 19 foreign trips as well as almost constant travelling within the United States itself.6 He became a prolific writer and public speaker and wielded wide influence on the basis of CE’s popular following. His audiences included individuals from many walks of life and nationalities. Clark was the first representative of a Christian organization to be greeted by the Emperor of Japan. He also had met with royalty such as King George of Greece and King Haakon VII of Norway as well as politicians such Senor Alcorta, the

5 Typically it would be mentioned in passing or descriptive prose, but here is an example of the metaphor at its most literal. The Christian Endeavor Tree: a Christian Endeavor Anniversary Service (Boston: United Society of Christian Endeavor, 1896). An additional example from a British source: James Mursell, Christian Endeavour Handbooks: No.1 The Society and its Functions (London: The Christian Endeavour Union of Great Britain and Ireland, 19??), 6. 6 Eugene Clark, A Son’s Portrait of Dr Francis E Clark (Boston: The Williston Press, 1930), 105.

13 President of Argentina and Manuel Amador, the President of Panama.7 His life began, however, in a much more modest fashion. In 1851 Francis E Clark was born Francis Eugene Symmes to Charles and Lydia Symmes in a small Canadian village called Aylmer, located ten miles from Ottawa. His biographies are keen to highlight that Clark had a long line of American ancestors and his lineage could be traced back to the time of the Mayflower.8 But Clark was of humble stock. His father, Charles, worked in the lumber industry and died from cholera when Francis was just three.9 His mother, Lydia, was left to care for Clark and his older brother, Charles.

Clark’s mother modelled the capabilities of the strong, independent and intelligent woman. After her husband died, Lydia provided for the family by turning their house, Cherry Cottage, into a school that admitted both day students and boarders. Lydia was fortunate to be educated in her youth by the prominent female educator and founder of Mount Holyoke, Mary Lyon. Lyon was a pioneer in female higher education and created numerous schools for girls and young women; most notable was Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, which later became Mount Holyoke College.10 A significant number of Mount Holyoke graduates went on to become teachers who furthered women’s education both within the United States and abroad. The other major occupation field for Mount Holyoke’s graduates was the mission field, with many former students becoming either missionaries or missionaries’ wives.11 Lyon implemented a strict curriculum that ensured that its female pupils were educated in the sciences and philosophy, which at the time were taught only to men. Clark was to later credit Lyons as a formative influence in his mother’s life and refers to her as his mother’s ‘beloved teacher’. Considering Clark’s later commitment to both mission work and women’s equal participation within Christian Endeavor, it seems that Mary Lyon’s influence passed though Lydia to Francis.12

7 Clark, Memories of Many Men in Many Lands (Boston: United Society of Christian Endeavor, 1922), 310, 333, 395, 427; ‘Dr. F. E Clark Dies: Founded Christian Endeavor Society’, Boston Post, December 28, 1930. Collected within Dartmouth University Francis Clark File. 8 Clark, A Son’s Portrait, 4 9 Ibid.,10. 10 For an interesting overview of the historical development of Mount Holyoke and its lasting influence upon woman’s education see; Charlotte King Shea, ‘Mount Holyoke College, 1875-1910: The Passing of an Old Order’, (PhD thesis, Cornell University, 1983). 11 Amanda Porterfield, Mary Lyon and the Mount Holyoke Missionaries (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997), 5-6. 12 Clark, A Son’s Portrait, 12.

14 Death was a prominent feature of Clark’s early childhood. Two of Clark’s elder siblings had died before he was born. Then, when Clark was seven years of age, his sixteen-year-old brother Charles died, tragically followed only a few months later by his grief stricken mother.13 Therefore by the age of seven Clark’s father, mother and all his siblings had died. Although Clark’s father had relatives who lived near the family home in Aylmer, Lydia had arranged prior to her passing that Francis was to be sent to live with her childless brother, the Rev Edward W. Clark (1820-1903) and his wife Harriet, in Massachusetts.14

Rev Edward Clark served as the Congregational pastor for Auburndale, a suburb that was growing on the rural outskirts of Boston.15 Two years after Francis moved to Auburndale, Edward left this position and instead started working neighbouring pulpits as well as serving as the elected chaplain for the Massachusetts Senate. During the Civil War he served as a minister for the Union troops in New Orleans before having to return home due to ill health; his poor physical condition was said to have originated from an earlier trip to Russia. Edward, it seems, was fond of travel. His home was said to be puritanical in discipline, with Sunday including three preaching services as well as a missionary or Sunday School concert in the evening.16

The family embraced Francis, or as his adoptive mother would call him in her letters ‘our little Frank’. Shortly after his arrival Francis was officially adopted by the couple and took on the surname Clark. In his biography of his father, Eugene Clark mentioned that Francis struggled with the fact that he gave up his father’s name and the hurt that it caused his father’s family. Nonetheless, Clark credits his adoptive family as providing him with a stable and loving home.

Growing up in a religious household near Boston, Clark was surrounded by abolitionists who aroused his concern for equality. Francis would sometimes join Rev Edward Clark while he listened to speakers such as Charles Sumner, Wendell Phillips, Rufus Choate, General McClellan, Henry Ward Beecher, and Stephen A. Douglas,

13 Lydia’s diary was printed for private circulation by Francis Clark. Lydia Fletcher and Clark Symmes, My Mothers Journal. Date Unknown. Available online, Internet Archive, https://archive.org/details/cu31924031696390, last accessed 28 February, 2015. 14 Clark, A Son’s Portrait, 14. 15 Clark, A Son’s Portrait, 21; ‘Rev Edward W. Clark’ The New York Times, March 22, 1903. 16 Clark, A Son’s Portrait, 21.

15 amongst others. Eugene writes that Beecher seemed to be the most impressive while Douglas was utterly condemned for appearing in public while smoking a cigar.17 This milieu clearly also influenced the values Clark sought to promote though Christian Endeavor.

Clark was educated at Kimball Union Academy, a boarding school in New Hampshire before he went on to follow in his adopted father’s footsteps at Dartmouth College, graduating 12th out of a class of 130.18 The Dartmouth Alumni Magazine published a chapter of Clark’s otherwise unpublished autobiography; within it Clark writes that there were ‘rough and tough men in the college classes of those days, men who drank and swore and whose virtue was not immaculate.’19 Yet despite this shortcoming he notes that as a whole many were earnest, sincere and genuinely religious, with at least half the class showing up to the voluntary prayer meetings (church attendance was mandatory).20 Sports were rudimentary – baseball was just beginning to take shape and tennis and basketball were unknown. Football was the sport of choice, however despite the rampant enthusiasm of the student body, Clark recalls that they were ‘never to hear the mysterious numbers called out’ and they did not know the difference between a quarterback and a halfback.21 He notes that by more modern standards the Dartmouth sports would seem crude and unscientific.22 Dartmouth at the time was not a college for the wealthy. It drew the majority of its students from New Hampshire farms, Massachusetts and an additional few from the West.23 Clark records that the facilities of the early 1870s were extremely crude with students having to draw their own water from an old-fashioned pump and carry their own coal and wood from their private stock in the cellar.

It was during his college years that Clark demonstrated his flair for writing and journalism, working on the college newspaper and serving as the editor for The Dartmouth during his senior year.24 From his early years Clark demonstrated a

17 Clark, A Son’s Portrait, 23. 18 Francis E Clark, ‘Dartmouth Days’, Dartmouth Alumni Magazine, 312, Francis Clarke’s Alumni File, Rauner Special Collections References Library. 19 Ibid., 308. 20 Ibid., 308. 21 Ibid., 312. 22 Ibid., 311. 23 Ibid., 309. 24 Ibid., 310.

16 passion not only for journalism, but also for travelling. He would travel with friends during his summer breaks and write about their adventures. He subsequently sold his articles to local newspapers and publishing houses, including his first book entitled, Our Vacations; Where to Go, How to Go, and How to Enjoy Them.25 In his diary, Clark wrote that more than anything, when he graduated, he wanted to be a journalist. 26 Yet, at the same time, he felt a religious calling. It should be acknowledged that his religious calling may not have been as strong as one might assume. Within his diary he also wrote ‘I’m not quite clear in my mind yet... and never have been, that I ought to go to the seminary at all.’27 Feeling torn, Clark had planned to take a year off after he graduated in order to spend time working as a journalist before going to seminary school. The year off never eventuated and instead Clark went straight from Dartmouth to Andover Seminary. While Eugene does not explicate why Clark’s plans changed within the biography, he does mention that Clark tried to convince his adoptive parents that the year off would be beneficial. Perhaps Clark failed to convince them. Regardless, Clark’s wanderlust, writing talent and religious devotion conspired to provide a solid platform for CE’s transnational promotion and Clark’s celebrity status.

Harriet Clark

Although Francis Clark served as the public leader of CE, his wife Harriet was his ‘helpmeet’. In many ways their partnership followed traditional gender demarcations with Harriet serving a supportive role. Yet, she was known and admired by CE members. Harriet served as President of Junior CE and published her own work. In addition to helping with Clark’s writing, she also joined her husband on his world travels and various associated networking activities and conventions. Francis and Harriet Clark were beloved by Christian Endeavor members; their relationship was epitomized as the ideal marital partnership. Fitting in with the frequent representation of Christian Endeavour as a family, Francis and Harriet were affectionately referred to within institutional literature as Father Endeavour Clark and Mother Endeavour Clark. The name Father Endeavor was actually created in jest

25 Francis Clark, Our Vacations: Where to go, How to go and How to enjoy them (Boston: Estes and Lauriat, 1874); Clark, ‘Dartmouth Days’, 309. 26 Cited in Clark, A Son’s Portrait, 50. 27 Ibid., 50.

17 by Rev. Charles Perry Mills, who founded the second CE society within his church in Newburyport, Massachusetts in October 1881.28 Mills created ‘Father Endeavor’ as a nickname for Clark based on his initials ‘F.E.’ The joke was missed by the membership who fondly took on the phrase, also embracing the term Mother Clark and still using the sobriquet a decade after Clark’s death.29

Clark met Harriet Abbott while studying at Andover Seminary. Harriet, like Francis, is celebrated within CE literature as descending from the Mayflower Pilgrims. In 1924, William Shaw wrote that Harriet had not only ‘the bluest of Pilgrim blood in her veins, but the purest of Pilgrim principles in her character.’ He described her extensive work over the preceding decades and depicting her as an ideal pastor’s wife and a perfect partner.30 Shaw wrote that, although she was so slender and looked as if a strong breeze would blow her away, ‘in that little body there was an indomitable will’.31 She was a lover of her home and children, with roots that struck deep in the family circle yet she was credited as cheerfully submitting to uprooting every year or two so she could join Francis on his many world tours. Trying to emphasize Harriet’s adventurous and devoted spirit, Shaw made the bold claim that she had probably travelled more miles by water than any other woman in America. She was said to have given a supreme demonstration of her love for her husband and her loyalty to CE as she confronted the perils of sea, land, robbers, pestilence and plague.32

Harriet’s childhood began in New Hampshire and she writes that she grew up ‘in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.’33 Her grandfather and great grandfather were ministers. Harriet’s father died when she was four leaving what she characterized as ‘a beautiful memory and little else.’34 She described her youth in New Hampshire as happy and carefree, yet not luxurious. Harriet’s mother, Sarah, managed to make ends meet by opening her house to boarders such as the local

28 Clark, Many Men in Many Lands, 83. 29 ‘Mother Clark is Dead at 94’ Boston Post, September 25, 1945, Francis Clarke’s Alumni File, The Rauner Special Collections References Library. 30 William Shaw, Evolution of an Endeavorer, (Boston: United Society of Christian Endeavor, 1924), 56. 31 Ibid., 56. 32 Ibid., 57. 33 Harriet Clark, The Little Girl that Once was I (Worcester: The Commonwealth Press, 1936),3. 34 Ibid., 8.

18 school teacher and minister. They received additional support of the community who helped by occasionally giving the family meat, fruit and vegetables.35

Despite the support of the wider community, raising seven children on a single income proved difficult, so, when Sarah’s uncle, ‘Squire Farrer’ wrote a letter inviting Sarah and her children to move into his large house in Andover, Sarah decided to accept the invitation. Sarah’s eldest daughter, Adelaide, was studying at Mount Holyoke due to the kindness of a friend and a scholarship, yet there were still six children living at home. Andover had better educational opportunities than those available in their village in New Hampshire and Sarah could take in boarders from Andover seminary, which would provide her with additional income.36 Therefore, Harriet’s family moved to Andover and it was there that Francis and Harriet met just over a decade later while she was working as a teacher at a local school.

Many of the women in Harriet’s family had been ministers’ wives and she had sworn that she would not follow in their footsteps. Luckily for Clark, he managed to persuade her otherwise and they married on the 3rd of October, 1876.37 They went on to have five children. The three boys were named Eugene Francis, Harold Symmes and Sydney Aylmer and the two girls were Maude Williston Chase and Faith Phillips.38 Faith died in infancy, however the rest of the children were healthy and took turns joining their father on his extended world adventures, or occasionally all met up at a pre-destined half way point. Harriet also joined Francis on some of his travels, most notably his world tour in 1894. Clark wrote a book dedicated to the tour and included a series of chapters written by Harriet that were collectively titled “Glimpses of life in far of lands as seen through a woman’s eyes”.39 Harriet is credited with helping Clark with many of his publications serving as an editor and typist.40 She was to become Clark’s partner for life, not just in marriage but also in supporting

35 Clark, The Little Girl, 9-10. 36 Ibid., 32. 37 Christian Endeavor Fact Sheet, 1979. Box A101/39, CEA, 38 The middle names of the children related to Clark’s life with Symmes being Francis’ surname at birth and Aylmer being his birthplace and where he spent time with his beloved mother. Williston was the name of the first Church where Francis was pastor and the place where Christian Endeavour was initiated, Phillips Church in Boston was the second Church that Francis served as a pastor. 39 Francis E Clark, Our Journey Around the World : an Illustrated Record of a Years' Travel of Forty Thousand Miles through India, China, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Egypt, Palestine, Greece, Turkey, Italy, France, Spain, ETC.(Hartford: A.D Worthington, 1895), 592-636. 40 Clark, The Little Girl, X.

19 Christian Endeavor. As President of Junior Christian Endeavor, she would go on to represent the youngest members of the movement and championed their cause. Francis Clark died in 1925, Harriet continued to go to CE conventions and served as a leading promoter for the society until 1942 due to old age. She passed away on September 24, 1945 at the age of 94.

Francis Clark was undoubtedly the founder and face of the movement within its initial decades, yet his relationship with Harriet and her role as both leader and supporter needs to be considered. The gender dynamic proves particularly insightful as the two grappled with the challenges that both CE’s vision, and its practical implementation imposed. When Clark told Harriet of his initial idea, and the pledge involved, her reaction was striking. Clark’s vision of demanding an active vocal participation for both genders proved radical when compared with Harriet’s ideas of gender propriety. The following section shall explore the reasons that Clark created CE, before exploring Harriet’s reaction to Clark’s comparatively radical ideas.

Clark’s Christian Endeavor Plan: The Youth Problem and the CE Solution

Why did Clark create CE? What need was he was trying to fulfil and what was the purpose of the Pledge? This section explores these questions and provides the background context to CE’s creation. Francis was ordained as a Congregational minster on the 16th of October 1876, only two weeks after he and Harriet were married. The newly married couple moved to Portland, Maine, where Francis had accepted the offer to serve as a Pastor at Williston Congregational Church. Writing in a book that celebrated fifty years of Christian Endeavor, Harriet recalled that:

We were both young people then; it seems to me now, looking backward, that we were very young – only twenty-five – untried and inexperienced, and of course making many mistakes; but we began with an earnest purpose to do what we could to build up the kingdom of God in that church and community, trusting in the Lord Jesus for help and guidance.41

Prior to the formation of CE, Harriet helped Clark with his church work, running what was called the ‘Mizpah Circle’. This served as a building point from which to develop the first society of Christian Endeavor. The Mizpah Circle began as a children’s mission band that pledged money to help the mission board as well as helping their

41 William Knight Chaplin and M Jennie Street, Fifty Years of Christian Endeavour: A Jubilee Record and Forecast (London: The British Christian Endeavour Union, 1932), 11.

20 own church. As Williston Church’s membership grew, so did its Mizpah Circle and the group of children ran initiatives to help raise funds to build their church, with Harriet noting that as time went by the children felt ‘it was really their church.’42

At the same time, there was wider concern amongst North Eastern Congregational and other Protestant leaders that the Church was failing to attract and retain members, particularly among young men and women.43 The issue was referred to as ‘The Youth Problem’ and ministers were concerned that the children were joining Sunday School, yet were losing interest as adolescents subsequently leaving church and then not returning as adult church members. Christopher Coble has written a PhD dissertation exploring ‘The Youth Problem’ and the central role that Christian Endeavor played in the creation of youth ministry, a distinctive area of religious ministry that would endure until to the current day. Coble demonstrates that in the late 1870s, ‘The Youth Problem’ represented a serious fear, not just for the souls of the children but also for the future of the church itself.44 The problem was this: without the ability to attract, train and incorporate young people, and further the ability to reinvigorate adult membership, who was going to carry the Church into the future?

In the late 1870s various meetings were initiated among Church leaders in order to discuss ‘The ‘Youth Problem’ and hopefully find a solution.45 Francis Clark attended one such meeting and afterwards was quoted within a religious newspaper called the Congregationalist as stating, ‘I do not dare to bring too many children into my church; not because I do not believe in their sincerity and piety and fitness of church membership, but because there is no provision for their growth and nurture after they are in the Church.’46 Therefore, even if his church was able to attract youth, Clark felt it did not have the necessary resources to maintain and support their spiritual growth. Reminiscing about this period of his life, Clark recalls that

The problem of bringing the young into church work weighed heavily upon the minds of the pastor [himself] and older members, for they felt that neither the Sunday school nor the church prayer meeting, nor the young people’s prayer meeting, though all well sustained and admirable

42 Chaplin, Fifty Years of Christian Endeavour, 11. 43 Christopher Coble, ‘Where have all the young people Gone? The Christian Endeavor Movement and the Training of Protestant Youth, 1881-1918’ (PhD dissertation, Harvard University, 2001), 16-18. 44 Ibid. vi. 45 Ibid.16-18. 46 ‘The Church and the Young’, Congregationalist 33, April 27, 1881,2.

21 in their way, were sufficient to hold and mold [sic] the Christian character of those young converts. There was a gap between conversion and church membership to be filled, and all those young souls were to be trained and set to work.47

Clark’s idea that there was more to Christianity than simply conversion is significant.48 For him, Christianity was an exercise in practical Christian living and as such it required ‘work’ that was directed towards strengthening the Church and bringing Christian faith and values to the wider community, whether that be through mission work, charity or reform.49 Later publications would record that Clark thought that the other options were less strenuous and less seriously Christian than the scheme that was ripening in his mind.50 To Clark, the alternatives had aimed simply at being pleasant and social opposed to having the spiritual focus as supreme at every point.51

It was with these issues in mind that he published an article about his methods within the Congregationalist, an article that inspired others to replicate his model and adopt his methods and unintentionally initiated the international growth of CE.52 The main desire was that young people should be put to work for the church, so that could make active contributions as opposed to simply being expected to turn up to be instructed or entertained. Here was the key purpose of the pledge; it served as a means to ensure that members participated in the group’s activities and ensured that members participated within the church itself. Clark envisioned the pledge as a mandatory feature of his society as he believed that the success of a society depended on the level of participation and the sense of responsibility among its members,

47 ‘Magical in its Growth’, New York Times, July 11, 1892. 48 Francis Clark’s theological understanding was influenced by the split that occurred in Andover Seminary between traditional interpretations of theology and the New Theology movement. The New Theology was more readily aligned with modern scientific developments and economic individualism. It also placed less emphasis on self-denial and instead encouraged individuals to actively go out and ‘do good’. George M Marsden, Understanding Fundamentalism and Evangelicalism (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1991), 24-26. 49 For a concise analysis of the shifts within Protestantism within America, including the influence of evangelists such as Dwight L Moody and the subsequent rise of Fundamentalism after the 1870s as well as the revivalism he sparked, see Ibid., 6-7. 50 Rev James Mursell quoted Clark who originally published the comment in a CE Manual. Francis E. Clark, The Christian Endeavor Manual: A Text-book on the History, Theory, Principles and Practice of the Society, with Complete Bibliography and Several Appendixes (Boston: United Society of Christian Endeavor, 1903), 12. 51 James Mursell, Christian Endeavour Handbooks: No.1 The Society and its Functions (London: The Christian Endeavour Union of Great Britain and Ireland, 19??), 5. 52 ‘The Church and the Young’, Congregationalist 33, April 27, 1881, 2. The organization’s regional and international growth shall be explored in detail within chapter two.

22 which he referred to as ‘the power of the promise’.53 Clark believed this would stop half-hearted participation and would ensure the healthy growth of a society, as well as the successful training of its members in practical Christian living.

Within a celebratory chronicle outlining CE’s history at its twenty-fifth anniversary Clark recalls that there were similar groups that existed prior to CE. These organisations were characterized as having good intentions but bad results.54 He made special reference to the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA), which had begun in the United Kingdom, but had found an active base within the United States in the decade prior to CE’s founding. In his comparative analysis of the YMCA Clark notes two questions that highlight what I will argue were two definitive goals of CE’s creation. These two questions serve as a core to this chapter’s analysis and are central to my interpretation of CE’s founding story and broader significance. They each highlight key elements to both Clark’s original idea within the pledge and Harriet’s reaction.

The first question related to putting members ‘to work’ within the church. Referring to the pre-existing YMCA, Clark asked; ‘if an organization outside of the church, though related to it in most friendly and sympathetic bonds, should undertake this most-needed work for their fellows who had no church affiliation, why should not the church itself do such a work for its own young people?’55 Clark notes that the YMCA was able to provide a space for youth to be active and Christian, yet, because it was non-denominational, its existence did not necessarily attract youth to a church. The interdenominational model of CE provided a novel and more apt solution as it reasserted the individual members’ ties to their particular denominations and churches but allowed for unity between CE groups across the evangelical Protestant spectrum. The YMCA failed to provide a solution to ‘The Youth Problem’ by failing to encourage the retention of adolescents for adult church membership.

The second question referred to the single sex membership of the YMCA. Clark asked, ‘If so much was to be done for the young men, why should not the young

53 Chaplin, Fifty Years of Christian Endeavour,19. 54 Clark, Christian Endeavor in All Lands, 26. 55 Ibid., 26.

23 women share in the privileges and duties?’56 The gendered component is relatively overlooked within institutional literature. The radical ideal of a feminist crusade to impose equality between the sexes was never overtly embraced within CE’s aims. However, you do not have to scratch far below the surface of CE principles and practices to find an ideological commitment to gender equality. Comments by Clark and others regarding gender relations and the belief in equality are heavily peppered throughout the organizations’ primary sources.57 The attempt to embrace an ideal of cooperative gender relations was arguably more difficult to enforce than trying the notion of the youth ‘being set to work’ for the church. The challenge to gender equality did not always come from sources that one would assume. In fact, a key stumbling block was the response of the women themselves. This problem shall be explored in more detail within chapter three. For the purpose of this chapter, which focuses on the group’s foundation, it is important to focus on the initial source of hesitation – Harriet Clark.

Harriet’s reaction to the Pledge: The Hangover of St. Paul

Harriet’s initial concern regarding woman’s participation drew from a much richer history of both the women’s rights movement as well as the role of women within the Church. The cooperative ideal – that men and women should work together as equals – was by no means invented by Francis Clark. Tracing the cooperative ideal, and its links with the feminist movement, is pivotal to understanding CE’s relevance within developments in the gender landscape and highlights the radical feminist associations that accompanied the historical development of the ideal. Harriet’s concerns also provide a window into the hesitation that CE faced amongst the generalist target population of Christian women. It is important to understand that CE did not target the feminist minded; it was aiming to reach the mainline protestant population which ranged from radically minded to highly conservative in regards to the questions surrounded gender roles.

When Harriet recalled that the first time she heard Francis’ concept for the society she was initially quite hesitant. Harriet wrote that while she was baking biscuits for a meeting of the Mizpah Circle, Francis was in his study ‘not writing his

56 Clark, Christian Endeavor in All Lands, 26. 57 See chapter three and four for detailed accounts of Clark’s writing on gender roles and gender relations.

24 sermon as usual, but earnestly thinking about his young people and how he could help them to a more earnest and useful Christian life.’58 Francis was worried that the children should have a chance to be ‘real helpers’ in the work of the church. He wanted the chance to help ‘train the church of the future’ and believed that in order to do so the Church needed to treat children and youths with respect instead of just providing them with instructions. As Harriet was baking her biscuits, Francis entered into the kitchen to share his idea and carried in his hand what was to become the first constitution of ‘The Young People’s Society of Christian Endeavor’. Harriet was fond of the name and the object of the society, which was ‘to promote an earnest Christian life among its members. To increase their mutual acquaintance, and to make them more useful in the service of God.’ She hesitated when she came to the words, ‘It is expected that all the members of the Society will be present at every meeting unless detained by some absolute necessity, and that each one will take part however slight in every meeting.’59 Harriet writes that it was at this point that she burnt the biscuits, taken over by concern for what she had just read.

Harriet’s concern centred on the gendered dynamic of equal participation. The Mizpah Circle involved both boys and girls, but it appears that the activities were divided, somewhat informally, between genders with the girls coming one week and sewing and doing ‘fancy work for a little sale’ and the boys another where they would make scrap-books and help ‘in many ways’.60 There were socials where both genders would gather, yet there was not the same requirement that ‘each one would take part’. Harriet questioned Francis, asking ‘And do you really mean that you would expect us all to speak in meeting, and speak every time?’. To which Francis replied ‘Yes… that is just what I am hoping they will all be willing to promise’. Harriet recalls that she went on to state:

Why, they would never promise that…. I could not promise that myself. Why, I have never taken part except in our small ladies’ prayer meeting, and I find that very hard. I just dread it every time. I simply couldn’t do it. I have never heard women take part in any such meeting. It isn’t done. I think Paul was right when he said, ‘Let your women keep silence in the churches.’ I don’t believe young people will promise that. If their minister’s wife cannot do it, how can you expect it of them? The rest I will promise, but this I can never do. I’m sorry, but I just can’t. You had better leave that out.61

58 Chaplin, Fifty Years of Christian Endeavour,11. 59 Ibid., 17. Author’s Emphasis. 60 Ibid., 12-13. 61 Ibid., 17, 18.

25 Having made her point and believing that her husband had accepted it, Harriet went on to bake another batch of biscuits. Clark, however, had not agreed but had instead decided to give his wife some time to process the idea.

The theological argument against women speaking in public, especially within the confines of a religious institution, came from St Paul’s gospel, the same scripture that Harriet used to rebuke her husband’s plan for requiring both girls and boys to participate equally. Women who spoke in public might be deemed indelicate, but the idea of women talking in church was sacrilege. In 1 Corinthians 14:34, the Gospel of St Paul states, ‘Let your women keep silence in the churches, for it is not permitted unto them to speak’. Another scripture that was used as a reason basis to deny woman the opportunity to speak in a mix gendered audience was 1 Timothy 2:12 which states ‘I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.’ 62 Although the interpretation of these scriptures was openly debated, especially since the 1830s when female abolitionists started to challenge for the right to speak in public and the church on behalf of their cause, it still aroused discomfort for those who held on to the traditional stance.

Clark’s demand that female members vocally participate, and potentially take on leadership roles within CE, was also provocative as it tapped into the parallel debate regarding female ordination. Female ordination was a contentious issue, and although the number of women who wanted to become minsters was not large, an increasingly vocal contingent of advocates forced male leaders to confront calls for women’s right to share in religious ministry/leadership. Over the preceding decades, friction had sparked from the fact that women within certain denominations such as Quakers were allowed to make public addresses within their church and various reform minded and articulate women were coming out of Quaker circles and challenging notions of acceptable feminine behaviour. The mainline Protestant Churches remained staunchly opposed to such developments.

However, in some denominations, women were ordained, creating internal frictions within the congregations and continual discussion as to the appropriate nature of women’s ordination. Clark’s own denomination, the Congregational Church,

62 Both these examples are given in Alice Stone Blackwell, Lucy Stone: Pioneer of Woman's rights (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 2001), 27.

26 ordained Antoinette Brown in 1851. 63 Universalists ordained their first female minster in 1863, Olympia Brown, who was another vocal women’s right advocate. The Methodists ordained Anna Howard Shaw in 1880 and Anna served as a speaker at the 1901 CE convention, which was held in Cincinnati. Many Protestant denominations, however, did not allow women to be ordained until well into the Twentieth century. CE was founded when the matter was in the midst of an ongoing and somewhat heated negotiation. It was a sensitive and loaded issue. The fact that CE members were asked to make a pledge instead of being able to opt-out, whether due to personal discomfort or theological disagreement, made the pledge that much more confronting.

In time, Harriet came to terms with the concept of the pledge. What (or who) eased her fears is not recorded. Harriet was not alone in her hesitation though. When Clark presented the idea of the society to the adolescents within his church a ‘deathly stillness’ is said to have fallen upon the meeting as members were overcome by concern about the ‘iron-clad’ pledge.’64 They were said to have not been accustomed to taking their religious duties so seriously and ‘nothing of the sort had ever been heard of in that church, or, to their knowledge, in any church, before.’65 It was Harriet who worked on helping to alleviate the fears that the girls felt, the same fears she had previously shared. She is said to have circulated the pledge amongst the girls in her Mizpah circle and sought to reassure them that it was not such a ‘dreadful’ promise to make as they at first supposed. She then told the girls that ‘any earnest young person could live up to the provisions of this constitution’ before promising herself to be an active member and admitting that she at first shrunk from the pledge as much as any of them.66 Harriet’s role as an ever-supportive wife and helper who was key to CE’s success is again evident within the popular narrative of CE’s origin.

Boys also worried that they could not live up to the pledge. CE literature celebrated the role of one ‘young’ man, a Sunday School teacher called Mr Pennell who came forward to sign the pledge and the rest of the boys soon followed.67

63 Blackwell is best known by her marital name Antoinette Brown Blackwell. 64 Clark, Christian Endeavor in All Lands, 39. Fiction novels about CE also sprung up in the wake of its success, one novel followed this theme of the ‘ironclad pledge.’ Jessie Hunter Brown, The Ironclad Pledge (Cincinnati, Standard Publishing Company, 1894). 65 Clark, Christian Endeavor in All Lands, 39. 66 Ibid., 41. 67 Ibid., 40.

27 Sources suggest that despite the characterization of Mr Pennell as a ‘young’ man, in reality he was closer to 40, meaning at the time he was a good decade older than both Francis and Harriet.68 Whether the eager spirits of the youth, or the leadership of the adults, inspired them, 57 new members signed up and the first meeting of the Young People’s Society of Christian Endeavour was held on Friday, the 2nd of February 1881.

The Cooperative Model

Clark’s adoption of a dual gendered membership that required equal and vocal participation was provocative. Members were converted to its cause of active participation, but those active within the woman’s movement also recognized the gendered ramifications of Clark’s cooperative vision. The most popular suffrage periodical, the Woman’s Journal, even reported on the connection as it celebrated CE’s cooperative agenda. While reporting on CE’s 1895 Boston Convention, the journal wrote:

‘Cooperation’ is the watchword of the hour; and cooperation is the motto of Christian Endeavor! Cooperation of minds and hearts, of creeds and denominations, of thought and action; above all, cooperation of women and men.... Hereafter no conspicuous and permanent social or political success can be achieved without the cooperation of women and men.69

This demonstrates that cooperation of the genders in CE was notable, even 14 years after CE’s founding. Viewed from the feminist perspective, CE formed part of a larger push to embrace cooperation between the sexes, especially in the wake of the fragmentation of the suffrage movement after the Civil War. After the Civil War, the suffrage movement split between what was to become the National Woman’s Suffrage Association (NWSA) and the American Woman’s Suffrage Association (AWSA). The NWSA, led by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B Anthony, argued that woman must be the ones to champion their cause. In contrast, the AWSA, led by Lucy Stone and her husband Henry Browne Blackwell, believed that a less antagonistic cooperative approach between the sexes was ideal. Stone was the owner of the Woman’s Journal, and Blackwell wrote the quoted article. The celebration of cooperation is therefore loaded. It fits within the cooperative vision of the (comparatively) conservative side of the woman’s cause.

68 New York Convention Report, 1892, 30, Box A74/78. CEA. 69 ‘Editorial Notes’, Woman’s Journal, 20 July, 1895.

28 CE’s cooperative gender ideology also fit well with the agenda of the more radical members of the WCTU; notably the writing and speeches of temperance and woman’s suffrage leader Frances Willard. Proving immensely popular at the conventions, one newspaper reported that at the 1888 CE Convention Willard received a ‘ten minute storm of applause’ before she went on to speak about the temperance movement along with the social advancement of women. Willard enthused that,

The day had past when the weaker sex was supposed to be the least intellectual. Woman was regaining her position which she ought never to have lost – namely: that of a friend and counsellor of man, not simply his handmaiden and servant. In work like this of your society woman’s, noble efforts shine pre-eminently and the reward will be correspondingly grand and effective.70

A keen promoter of both the feminist cause and the cooperative ideal, Willard wrote many accounts of her vision of ideal gender relations. Embracing the cooperative vision Willard believed that ‘If there is a spectacle more odious and distasteful than a man who hates women, it is a woman who hates men.’71

The challenge to find an empowering form of womanhood that did not transgress into man-hating and unfeminine guises proved a delicate negotiation. Female reform leaders, such as Frances Willard, who espoused domestic feminist ideals comfortably align with CE’s audience and vision. Arguably CE was able to blend the more conservative and radical values and provide a middle ground where members were safe to attempt to embrace the visions of gender equality without the tarnish of radicalism. The strange blend of conservatism and radicalism is perhaps best embodied within Clark himself – the ambiguities within his gendered arguments are interesting. Although he seemed like an overt champion of the woman’s cause within his cooperative vision, at other times he shied away from making any outright commitment; more precisely, he would champion their ideology but not champion the movement itself. This could potentially have been due to a desire, on Clark’s part, to avoid alienating his conservative followers. This also more likely demonstrated the inner nuances of Clark’s own gender ideals and the period of transition in which he was working. These contradictions shall be further explored within chapter 3, but

70 ‘Society of Christian Endeavor: What Was Done in the Convention at Yesterday’s Session’, Chicago Daily Tribune, 8 July, 1888. 71 Frances E. Willard, Glimpses of Fifty Years: an Autobiography of an American Woman (New York: Source Book Press, 1970), 597.

29 also need to be emphasized within the context of CE’s foundational model and the unique challenge it, and its pledge, posed.

This chapter has explored the foundation of CE through a biographical account of its leader, Francis E Clark, and his wife Harriet, as well as the parallel story of the creation of Christian Endeavor. The story of their life, marriage and joint work within CE provides a window into the societal needs that CE sought to fulfil and the challenges it both faced and posed. Clark’s CE model was originally created with the aim of helping to solve ‘The Youth Problem’; that is, simply attracting and keeping youth within the Congregational church in the North East of the United States. His solution posed two novel interventions, each of which fulfilled broader needs of the period. First, it provided a body of church members that were actively ‘set to work’ for the church. This activity was safeguarded through the implementation of a pledge. Second, CE held the same expectation of active membership for all members, regardless of sex. This created an avenue for church members to challenge gender norms and therefore potentially expose other conservative churchgoers to more radical ideals of gender equality. The provocative character of Clark’s pledge is illustrated through Harriet’s reaction and initial discomfort with the dual gendered model. Ultimately, CE was taking part in a much broader battle, both practical and symbolic, in its choice to implement the cooperative vision and to include both genders. The fact that millions of members embraced the movement provides a space to explore its ramifications.

30 CHAPTER 2 THE EXPANSION OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR

The Young People’s Society of Christian Endeavor was created primarily for the youth in Clark’s Congregational Church in Portland, Maine. Its rampant growth, both in terms of the size of its membership as well as its geographic spread, was not part of Clark’s original plan. Although Clark did publish articles explaining CE methods in the hope that other churches could utilize them, he did not envision that CE would become a global movement. Indeed, the construction of a ‘World-Wide Christian Endeavor’ was an impressive feat – CE’s advocates keenly asserted that it was a movement without parallel in religious history.1 This chapter will explore how CE reacted to and, to a very limited extent, guided its local and transnational growth. I will first explore the organizational history of CE within the United States and the challenges its growth posed to its original non-authoritarian vision. Second, I will examine two case studies of CE’s growth in both China and Turkey – to investigate how overseas branches adapted the organizational structure of the central body to local circumstances.

I have already discussed the problems with the CE archive within the introduction, but it is in this chapter that its incompleteness is most apparent. The following analysis is based on a very uneven body of sources. While there is a multitude of sources for CE within the United States, they are often dense, disorganized and scattered. For this reason, I have relied heavily on the institutional literature, as opposed to sources produced by individual churches or CE societies. In comparison, the international sources are patchy. Where CE spread into mission fields the sources are quite biased and for the most part lack the ‘native’ perspective of the target populations. Further complications arise from the indigenous voice undergoing a series of translations into multiple languages. Simple misinterpretations are apparent, an issue that will be discussed briefly below. Acknowledging these limitations, this chapter will critically utilise the available

1 Rev. Fred A Rees, Souvenir Publication for the Coming of Age of the Movement and the Twelfth British National Convention Held in Manchester, May 17-21, 1902 (London: British Christian Endeavor Union: 1902), 15. 31

sources to explore CE’s growth both locally and transnationally. It will uncover how the group expanded across different cultural contexts, as well as the inherent tensions between its desire to be flexible and to provide a prescriptive model that outlined the requirements and duties of members. Ultimately CE’s incredible growth first locally, then transnationally, shaped CE’s members began to perceive and define the organisation as a worldwide movement. Yet, despite its initial successes, CE’s growth eventually stalled. The reasons for this phenomenon will be studied in later chapters.

Figure 1: This image shows CE’s world reach and global aspirations in its depiction of the Young Peoples’ Society of Christian Endeavor literally encircling the globe and winning the world for Christ. Scrapbook imagery, Box A12/48, CEA. A similar image can be found in Rev. J.H Bomberger, Cardinal Points of Christian Endeavor (Boston: United Society of Christian Endeavor, 1897), cover page. (pamphlet), Box A-46, CEA.

Figure 2: From Clementine Paddleford, ‘Sun Never Sets on Christian Endeavor’, Christian Herald, (1934), BoxA101 #39, CEA. This image demonstrates the longevity of the ideal of a CE world. The article that goes with listed the various countries where CE was active.

The United States

Christian Endeavor, in some respects, was a victim of its own success. Despite Clark’s original idea of a non-authoritarian, or relatively laissez-faire leadership, the reality was that CE’s rapid growth created a pressing need to formalize and to develop a strong institutional framework to ensure the core movement did not become diluted in the process. CE’s growth was indeed outstanding. Within a decade of its creation, CE’s membership reached one million, the vast majority being located within the United States. The two tables below demonstrate CE’s expansion within the United States. The first table demonstrates the growth of CE’s membership body in terms of individual numbers over the initial decade, the foundational period of CE. The second table demonstrates the geographic spread of CE within the United States as of 1895. It includes the diversification of Junior, Intermediate, Mothers and Senior Societies, which sprang up to deal with CE’s increasingly diverse membership body.2 It should be highlighted that while CE initially focused on adolescent membership, in time it became largely a society for young adults and Junior Endeavor was developed to cover its younger base.

2 While there were no uniform age requirements, ‘The Young People’s Society’ typically covered members from the ages of 17 to 40 (ideally young adulthood). Junior Societies were any age prior to ‘Young People’s Societies’, however Intermediate Societies were also created as an option to cover the in-between ages of 12-16. Mothers Societies often worked in conjunction with a Junior Society. Senior Societies were created to stop older members from staying eternally in what was meant to be a ‘young persons’ society. Within an ‘advanced textbook of Christian Endeavor’ Rev. W.F McCauley explained that the membership of CE had ‘aged’ somewhat with many members becoming mature in years and although there was no desire to break up CE into a series of communities it did rather provide a method of ‘sufficient elasticity to meet the needs and changing circumstances of growth’. See William F. McCauley, Next Steps: An Advance Text-Book in Christian Endeavor (Boston: United Society of Christian Endeavor, 1897), 96-7. 33

CE Growth in the United States During its First Decade

Year Societies Members 1881 2 68 1882 7 481 1883 56 2870 1884 156 10,964 1885 253 30,606 1886 850 140,000 1887 2314 310,000 1888 4879 485,080 1889 7672 656,000 1891 (on record July 1) 16,274 1,008,9803

3 The statistics for 1890 are missing from the original source. ‘Our Growth’, Golden Rule, 30 July, 1891, 10. 34

Figure 3: The number of CE societies divided by nationality as listed in the 1895 convention report.4

4 Official Report of the International Christian Endeavor Convention, Volume 11-14 (Boston: United Society of Christian Endeavor, 1895), 369. 35

Clark’s original idea was strict in its concept of an active membership which would pledge to participate in meetings and be set to work for the church. By training youth for adult church membership, CE sought to build the church (body) of the future and worked under the motto ‘For Christ and the Church’. Clark, however, also embraced a non-authoritarian vision, which was likely drawn from his Congregationalist roots. He by no means set out with a desire to serve as a leader of an organization; instead he envisioned that leadership would be shared amongst CE members with healthy guidance of their local church and minister. The reality was that CE’s enormous success necessitated a solid institutional grounding. As of 1885 there were 253 CE societies recorded, the vast majority located within New England.5 Local Unions were created with the aim of providing a space for fellow CE groups to band together, both socially and in their CE work. As CE spread into multiple states then State Unions were developed under the same premise.6 Yet as the group continued its rapid growth, enquiries flooded into the CE headquarters from all over the United States as well as abroad. The volume of correspondence overwhelmed the few men who had volunteered to take it on.7 There was a need to provide cohesion to the movement and the solution was found in the creation of the United Society of Christian Endeavor (USCE). The USCE was created in order to provide a central source for information to steer the movement, to help provide a sense of connection between members, as well as to stop the movement from diluting or fragmenting as it rapidly expanded.

Founded in 1885, the USCE defined itself as being ‘simply the missionary agent of all the societies’ with the purpose of spreading knowledge of Christian Endeavor principles throughout the world.8 As the Local and State Unions had already been formed, the United Society served as a means to link them all together and to create and disseminate information from a single official source. The USCE was seeking to provide consistency and structure to the movement, by making the

5 Clark, Christian Endeavor in all Lands, 104. 6 For additional discussion of the role of country and local unions see McCauley, Next Steps, 115-26. 7 Rev. S. Winchester Adriance, Biography of Francis Edward Clark, File.3., The Rauner Special Collections References Library. (RSC) 8 Francis Edward Clark, The United Society of Christian Endeavor: State Unions Local Unions (Boston: United Society of Christian Endeavor, 1887), 1. 36

CE philosophy, methods and history available to interested parties. Trying to provide an element of flexibility for CE societies to adapt to their own needs and interests, while also providing some uniformity and systemization of CE method and purpose, was a delicate balance.9

The first leader of the USCE was Francis Clark’s former college roommate, Rev. S. Winchester Adriance, who worked under the title of General Secretary. His leadership, however, was short lived.10 Apparently Adriance’s church protested so strongly against his leaving them that he resigned from the USCE after only a few months.11 Clark was also hesitant to take on a full time role with CE: he had moved from Portland to South Boston to work at Philips Church in 1883 and was quite happy there.12 Yet the demands of Christian Endeavor were becoming more insistent and his diary suggests that he was slowly coming around to the belief that he would need to take up CE as his life’s work.13

In 1887 Clark resigned from Phillips Church to take on the full time role as President of Christian Endeavor, working with the USCE. He took on this position on the condition that the trustees accepted the following six principles:

First: the society was not to be independent of the church but an integral part to it. Second: it was to be undenominational.

Third: the purely religious features must be paramount. Fourth: it must sympathize with all true moral reforms, with wise philanthropic measures and with missions at home and abroad. Fifth: it must be managed economically, with no large number of paid agents or Christian Endeavor missionaries. Sixth: the officers must have the sympathetic support of the state and local unions.14

9 For a discussion of CE work and the need for a systemization of methods see; McCauley, Next Steps, 16-17, 19, 21, 65. 10 Francis Clark Alumni File. Class of 1873, August 1927, Dartmouth Alumni Magazine, RSC. 11William Shaw, Evolution of an Endeavorer, (Boston: United Society of Christian Endeavor, 1924), 61. 12 Clark, A Son’s Portrait, 91. 13 Ibid. 98-9. 14 Ibid., 101-2. 37

These principles served to guide and shape the development of CE in the decades that followed. Clark remained as President of USCE until his death in 1925. It should be highlighted that the use of the term undenominational was actually rare as CE routinely sought to promote itself as ‘inter’ (be that interdenominational, interracial, international). 15 The term inter was also used to distinguish itself from nondenominational, which signified working outside of the church opposed to within the denominations. Evidently with CE being the first youth group to embrace the interdenominational doctrine, the specific terminology was being negotiated during the initial decade. The 1891 Convention Report specified that CE was interdenominational opposed to undenominational – this was based on the fact that CE aimed to promote ‘Christian Federation’ and did not seek to establish any formal organic church union but instead promoted co-operation between the denominations.16 It sought to work within, not outside of, the Church. CE originated within the Congregational Church before others realized its principles could also adopted within their denominations. As of 1891 the top five denominations were Presbyterian (4019 societies), Congregationalists (3545), Baptist (2381), Methodists (2068, plus 30 additional Epworth Leagues of Christian Endeavor) and finally the Christian Disciples (801).17 Each society was loyal to its own church but said to present ‘a united front to the forces of sin’.

The USCE published a series of pamphlets to distribute to interested parties which outlined CE’s aims, scope and methods. These pamphlets varied in size from eight to sixteen pages and topics included: ‘The Model Constitution’, ‘The Society of Christian Endeavor: What it is and How it Works’, ‘Raise the Standard, The Element of Obligation’, ‘The Work of the Various Committees’, ‘Reorganization’, ‘The United Society, The State Union and The Local Union’, ‘History of the Christian Endeavor Movement’, ‘The Beginning of Society’ and ‘Modern Method of Christian Nature’.18

15 Clark, Christian Endeavor in Principle and Practice, 11, 13. Box #46, CEA. 16 Narrative of the Tenth International Christian Endeavor Convention held at Minneapolis Minn, USA, July 9 to 12, 1891. (Boston: United Society of Christian Endeavor, 1891), 21-22. 17 The Epworth League was created within the Methodist Church due to a disapproval of CE’s interdenominational practices. Its creation shall be briefly discussed later within this chapter. For the above source it is useful to understand that the Epworth League of Christian Endeavor existed prior to the eventual complete split between the two groups, the split can be explored in more detail within; Shaw, Evolution of an Endeavorer, 258-66. 18 Francis Edward Clark, The United Society of Christian Endeavor: State Unions Local Unions (Boston: United Society of Christian Endeavor, 1887), 4. 38

The informational pamphlets cost about two cents each to purchase. The more practical pamphlets cost less, with ‘Uniform Prayer-meeting Topics” costing a dollar per hundred copies, and the “Cards for Application,” “Active Membership Pledge” selling for about fifty cents for one hundred.19 In time, the publications would expand extensively, especially with the creation of a CE newspaper called the Golden Rule in 1886, which became the Christian Endeavor World in 1897. Demonstrating the USCE’s business minded approach, a bundle package was created; If a society raised funds and subscribed to The Golden Rule, the society would subsequently be able to have their printing done practically for free by accepting the literature premium. This meant that leaders would not have to go to local printers to provide material for their meetings, but could instead simply request certain material and have it sent via post along with their copy of the Golden Rule. The USCE also began publishing books and selling CE paraphernalia such as badges and ribbons.20 By 1906 the USCE (and its later incarnation, the International Society of Christian Endeavor) claimed to have provided books and pamphlets numbering in the many millions.21

The pledge remained a cornerstone within CE and the USCE included it within its guidance literature, covering its inner workings and purpose with great detail. However the flexibility of the organization was apparent in the fact that, even in the United States, reticent CE members developed alternative pledges, tweaking out components they were uncomfortable committing to. The main alternative was the creation of a new level of CE membership called an ‘Associate Member’. The Associate Members would undertake a pledge which was much more limited than the standard form, particularly in the fact that they did not have to make a ‘life long’ commitment to do what God would have them do. Associate CE membership was intended as a training ground for future full membership, it was not intended as place for tentative members to give themselves half-heartedly to CE (and God).22 This was just one way in which the organisation sought to adapt to the needs of

19 Clark, The United Society of Christian Endeavor: State Unions Local Unions, 4. 20 A wide variety of CE badges and ribbons are held in the Christian Endeavor Archive. , Box A12 #48, Box 35, CEA. 21 Clark, Christian Endeavor in All Lands,127. 22 Clark, Christian Endeavor in Principle and Practice, 11. Box #46, CEA. 39

various individual members and denominations while maintaining institutional cohesion.

Membership in the USCE was voluntary. A local CE society could join on behalf of its members. Clark acknowledged that although membership was voluntary, joining the USCE provided a means to help to spread CE work. Pushing his ideal of cooperation and rising above parochial concerns he argued that what was good for one church was good for them all, thus Clark assured that joining the USCE was the ‘Christian’ thing to do.23 There was also no expense involved, although it was ‘hoped’ that every society would give 10cents a year per member to help provide funds to run the organization. The USCE hoped to become self- sufficient in time. Its publications emphasised that no money would be made by the authors out of any of the publications. All profits would be retained within the society and only one ‘very modest’ salary would be provided, that of the secretary.24 For the first year, donations of various societies funded the salary of the secretary.25 However, by 1891 the USCE had indeed managed to become self-sufficient, relying solely on its publications and the sale of badges and CE paraphernalia as a means of income.26

The society’s financial independence was credited to William Shaw, who served as long-term treasurer of USCE, aside from taking a brief leave to run as the Governor of Massachusetts on the Prohibitionist ticket.27 Shaw was described in 1893 as a quiet man who kept himself out of sight, but who was a genius in the management of the business department.28 If any donations did come in, the USCE asked that they be redirected towards the respective denominations’ mission board. In the early 1890s, USCE proudly stated that, ‘while some young people’s societies are pleading for money for administration, this society does not divert one dollar

23 Clark, The United Society of Christian Endeavor, 1. 24 In 1906 the salary was $1,210. Ibid., 1. Clark, Christian Endeavor in all Lands, 107; Francis.Edward Clark, The United Society of Christian Endeavor: State Unions Local Unions (Boston: United Society of Christian Endeavor, 1887), 1. 25 Clark, Christian Endeavor in all Lands, 107. 26 Narrative of the Tenth International, 23. 27 Shaw, Evolution of an Endeavorer, 273-7. 28 The Independent, July 20,1893, 13. Copied into the 1893 Press Committee Scrapbook, 123, Box #110, CEA. 40

from denominational benevolence’.29 One reason for their reticence to take money stemmed from a continued desire to make sure that CE would not appear as a threat to the church, whether by taking away funding or members. CE asserted its continued support of the church and desire to work within its framework opposed to being in competition with it.30

Despite CE’s apparent distaste for collecting money from its membership, a letter written by Shaw in the CE archive suggests that he was not always adverse to raising funds from the CE membership. The undated letter was written to send out to all CE leaders within the United States, requesting that they get their membership to donate to the Quarter-Century CE memorial fund. This fund was created to allow CE to build an ‘International Headquarters’ which would serve to promote the ‘extension and strengthening’ of worldwide Christian Endeavor. The reality was that this project ended up taking over a decade to complete, with financial struggles and the interruption of World War. However, as of 1906, Shaw provided American members with information aimed to inspire a sense of guilt, and duty. He reported that 2500 societies had contributed about $32 000. This included a $220 contribution by Fijian Members (The South Sea Island Endeavorers) who expressed regret that the amount they had donated was so small. Shaw explained that the US members would quickly provide millions if they gave in the same proportion, but then challenged them,

No, I won’t ask you to give as generously as these Endeavorers who are only one generation out of heathenism, but I do hope that there is not an Endevoror in this country, and not one in your society that will not have at least one twenty-five cent share in our fund.31

This plea was followed by practical advice on how the society could set up a committee to raise the funds and asked for a personal reply by January 1, 1907. The foundation stone was finally laid in 1918. 32

29 The Independent, July 20,1893, 13. Copied into the 1893 Press Committee Scrapbook, 123, Box #110, CEA. 30 There are instances where funds were raised for leaders outside of salary, for example a retirement fund was established for Clark to care for himself and his wife, Harriet, upon his departure from CE in 1925. One hundred thousand dollars was raised from thousands of contributors, although this is reported within a biographical account of Clark within his college’s alumni file opposed to being advertised within CE literature. It is not clear if the donations were called from CE as an organization or individual requests. Adriance, Biography of Francis Edward Clark, File 3, RSC. 31 William Shaw, letter to unspecified leader of Christian Endeavor Society on behalf of the Quarter Century Memorial Fund, undated, Box#46 CEA. 41

The USCE claimed that it had no legislative power over local societies; its sole goals were to disseminate and collect information. It ultimately desired that CE leadership be kept as free and loose as possible. Aside from those who oversaw the day-to-day running of the organization and its publishing department, a group of trustees was appointed to oversee the CE vision. A 1893 newspaper article, diligently cut out and placed into a scrapbook by the society’s ‘press committee’ for circulation amongst members for posterity, described the trustees romantically. The article claimed that the function of the trustees was difficult to define. It certainly was not legislative and executive as ‘they kept their hands off the movement’ but would ‘bring down swiftly on anything that would hurt it.’33 Presenting trustees as a protective and selfless force, it chimed,

not a trace of self-seeking ever emerges. No financial problem ever needs to be discussed. But they spend hours in conference over problems that tax brain and heart. They are men from all parts of the country, of all shades of political and religious belief, of the most pronounced individuality, and yet up to the present time they have never taken any action that had not been absolutely unanimous.34

Indeed, it is very difficult to find any trace of disagreement amongst CE leadership. However, its records are resolutely (and manifestly) whitewashed and, in order to maintain its non-denominational public persona, the society kept aloof from denominational disputes. When, for example, the Methodists created their own Epworth league and the Baptists the Baptist Young People’s Union, CE sought to rise above the fray by acknowledging their sadness about the departure of Methodists and Baptists, but accepting the denominations’ decision. Years later Shaw would write that the full force of Christian fellowship was ‘retarded by narrow, sectarian spirit’ which prevailed in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, particularly among the official leaders.35 He explained that this manifested in the withdrawal of the Methodist Episcopal youth from Christian Endeavor in 1889 due to the

32 Shaw, Evolution of an Endeavorer, 237-9; Dedication World’s Christian Endeavor Building, (Souvenir Programme), July 31, 1918. Box #A101/39, CEA. 33 The Independent, July 20,1893, 13. Copied into the 1893 Press Committee Scrapbook, 123, Box #110, CEA. 34 Trustee members listed include, Dr. Burrell of the Collegiate Church New York; Dr. Barrows, President William Rainey Harper of the University of Chicago, Dr. Grase, Bishop Fallows and Dr. Henson of Chicago; President Gates of Amherst; Dr. Dickinson, Dr. Boynton, Dr. Hill and Mr. Brokaw, of Massachusetts ; Dr. Hamlin of Washington; Dr. Tyler, of Cleveland: Dr. Rhodes, of St. Louis; Dr. Macmillan, of Allegheny; Dr. Wayland Hoyt, of Minneapolis; Canon Richardson, of the Cathedral, London, Ont., and others. See Ibid. 35 Shaw, Evolution of an Endeavorer, 258. 42

formation of their own Epworth League. While initially groups could call themselves Epworth Leagues of Christian Endeavor, eventually they all were pressured by the Methodist church leadership to withdraw from CE completely. Shaw reflects that there was much bitterness directed at CE from certain denominations, and those pastors who supported interdenominational cooperation were criticised. In 1891 the Young People’s Baptist Union was formed, although it recognized CE within its denomination and allowed its churches to choose which group they would be a part of.36 This explicit discussion of events, published 35 years afterwards, is the only record we have of the opinion of a CE executive member. We do not know what was discussed in USCE executive meetings during the early years as the archives only hold the minutes from 1913 on.37

Tensions did arise, however, when CE’s ideals did not fall into line with those of individual churches. The tentative line between avoiding legislating conscience, and providing a point of view caused problems sometimes. A good example of this can be found in an 1893 publication on amusements, or more specifically, dances, card-games and the theatre. The pamphlet posed the questions, ‘What amusements are good for me? What ones may I employ safely to myself, and the safely as regards those whom I may influence? What advice shall I give to others upon this matter? How shall I persuade them to adopt the position that I advise?’38 The source waffled that ‘a great many wise and empathic answers have been given to this question, and still it is just as much of a question as ever, and simple emphasis has by no means proved universally efficient in securing assent to what has been emphasized.’39 Basically the pamphlet skipped around the fact that there was no universally agreeable answer. This however did not stop them from presenting the USCE’s opinion while acknowledging the awkward position they held when individual church leaders thought differently. The USCE wrote:

We cannot legislate for any society that adopts the principles of the Model Constitution; only the church in which and for which it exists can do that. But so far as the expression of our

36 Shaw, Evolution of an Endeavorer, 262. 37 Records that do remain focus on the later incarnations of the USCE, the International Society of Christian Endeavor. Minutes for these meetings ranging from 1913-1920 are located in Box #126, CEA. 38 The Amusement Question and its Practical Solution (Boston: United Society of Christian Endeavor, 1893), 3. 39 Ibid., 3. 43

opinion can have influence, we have exerted such influence as strongly as possible against the indulgence in these amusements by young Christians. The attitude of each local society must of necessity be determined by the prevailing sentiment of the church of which it is an organic part. If the pastor and leading officials believe in these amusements and practice them, it is hardly to be supposed that THE GOLDEN RULE can prevent the young people from imitating their elders, however much we might wish to do so.4041

This editorial highlights that, despite the fact that CE aimed to honour the independence of its churches, in practice the Church and CE may not always have been in unison. In the hope of countering bad influence they published various perspectives of religious leaders, including the likes of Dwight Moody and Joseph Cook, all of whom supported CE’s distaste for unwholesome amusements.42 Rev. Charles F Deems, pastor at the Church of Strangers in New York City, warned against ‘promiscuous’ dancing at balls, telling how he had never danced in his life but he assured the readers that regardless of this fact he had always managed to be a very cheerful Christian.43 Through the channel of Moody, Cook and Deems, CE managed to present its position clearly while trying to ensure it did not encroach on its fundamental principle of church autonomy. Despite these occasional tensions, the USCE provided a firm base to hold the CE movement, to provide literature to disseminate its methods and influence as well as collect records and statistics of the movement’s growth. It was in the business of influence.

Aside from its geographic growth, CE was also expanding its target audience in the early 1890s. Having gained a solid foundation within the Protestant churches, it now sought to diversify in order to meet the needs of those who did not fall within traditional church communities. Members pioneered these efforts. For example CE set up societies in schools, prisons, reformatory institutions, amongst police, railroad workers and commercial travellers to name a few.44 The idea of the world being in motion influenced the CE model as it sought to harness and guide both

40The Amusement Question and its Practical Solution (Boston: United Society of Christian Endeavor, 1893), 4. 41 The Constitution was implemented in 1881, then endorsed at the Fourth Annual Convention and again endorsed by the CE trustees with minor revisions in 1887. See: Model Constitution and By-Laws of the Young People’s Society of Christian Endeavor: Revised (Washington: The Endeavor Herald Company, 1898); Clark, The United Society of Christian Endeavor, 5-6. 42 The Amusement Question and its Practical Solution (Boston: United Society of Christian Endeavor, 1893), 8-9. 43 Ibid., 10. 44 The Independent, July 20,1893, 13. Copied into the 1893 Press Committee Scrapbook, 123, Box #110, CEA. 44

people and their energy. It was not only focused on sedentary members, but also tried to attract those who were travelling, whether for work (be that military or commerce) or leisure. Ad hoc groups could form on passenger liners and disband once the route had ended, or services such as reading rooms could be provided to provide those who were working in remote locations or travelling through on railroads as place to relax aside from the saloon. The idea of building momentum can be seen within depictions of CE conventions as a giant powerhouse that would fuel the good work for the following year to come the world around. CE was in many respects about building connections – putting all these individuals to work for God (and CE).45

An interesting example of CE’s desire to broaden its scope was its push to expand its land-based operations to include maritime activities. Floating Endeavor was established as a means to work with sailors, but it also worked amongst those who travelled or worked on boats.46 Floating Endeavor was founded in 1890, with 47 Floating Societies being created by 1896, with 28 located on ships and 19 on shore.47 The traditional CE pledge and constitution was adapted to incorporate a promise of total abstinence and non-profanity, both of which were apparently heartily endorsed by the men and officers who joined.48 This Floating Pledge also garnered support from both Clark and the United Society of Christian Endeavor. Yet difficulty arose when the idea of Floating Endeavor was transferred to Liverpool in the United Kingdom. Here the reformed pledge and constitution were a cause for alarm with the Liverpool CE Union refusing to agree to make their ‘floating endeavourers’ make such a pledge. Instead they underwent an intense eighteen hour deliberation and created their own new pledge to replace the American one. The

45 Hattie Sleeper Gardner, The Endeavorers of Maple Grove (Omaha, Neb: Megeath Stantion Co., 1893), 156; ‘Secretary Baer’s.. Report: Wonderful Increase of the Christian Endeavor Societies’, New York Times, July 11,1892. 46 Official Report of the International Christian Endeavor Convention Volume 11-14 (Boston: United Society of Christian Endeavor, 1895), 594. 47 Official Report of the Fifteenth International Christian Endeavor Convention held in Central Hall, Tent Willison, Tent Washington, Tent Endeavor and the Churches, Washington D.C, July 8-13, 1896 (Boston: United Society of Christian Endeavor, 1896), 203; During the 1895 CE Convention the worldwide statistics claimed that there were 127 Floating Societies in existence. Official Report of the International Christian Endeavor Convention Volume 11-14 (Boston: United Society of Christian Endeavor, 1895), 371. 48 Ibid., 594. 45

Liverpool pledge did not require a promise of abstinence and purity.49 The difficulty of transnational transmission shows how the flexibility of CE was in many respects a strength as it allowed it to alleviate more than denominational differences. Trying to take CE to such a broad spectrum of people and cultures required an element of self- determination for those who were adopting it on the ground. Indeed, Floating Endeavour suited a broad range of needs. It even helped fund the creation of a Seaman’s House in Nagasaki, Japan, in 1896 to provide housing for sailors and travellers when they were in port - a safe haven from potential immorality when a ship came into a port of call. In 1902 ten new rooms were added to provide for the extra flow of men that came through the port en-route to the Philippines, which was a newly acquired US territory in the wake of the Spanish American War.50 Despite CE’s transnational framing, national politics and movements impacted upon the movement, shaping its needs and responses.

One of the more creative CE branch efforts, one that did not appear to continue into the twentieth century or merge its work with Floating Endeavor, was the initiation of meetings at life-saving stations and lighthouses.51 It was argued that men working in these places were isolated and deprived of church ministry and privilege. CE members pushed to unite coastal workers around the world through the society to combat the detrimental impact of isolation and the subsequent lack of spiritual care. They were also said to be engaged in work that was too important for subordination to the convenience of any individual or society – instead it would be preferable to confer by letter or in person monthly, and to send care packages to support and comfort these men as they faced the daily hazards of life far from home.52

49 The reformed constitution removed the abstinence pledge and simply stated ‘The Liverpool Floating Society of Christian Endeavour is instituted to link together seamen of all ranks in Christian fellowship and service, to introduce to helpful Christian surroundings those who trade from port to port, and to maintain a correspondence between members (en voyage) and the Central Committee. Sailors promise for their mutual strength and encouragement that they will help one another in their Christian lives by united Bible study, prayer, and testimony whenever and wherever possible, and that they endeavour to bring their companions to the saviour. See Floating Endeavor’s history in, George Feltham, ‘Origin of the Floating Society of Christian Endeavourers’, Floater 1, No. 2 (1927): 6. 50 Shaw, Evolution of an Endeavorer, 406. 51 Official Report of the International Christian Endeavor Convention Volume 11-14 (Boston: United Society of Christian Endeavor, 1895), 386-8. 52 Official Report of the International Christian Endeavor Convention Volume 11-14 , 387. 46

The diversification of CE and its scope was explicated by the popular banner attesting that CE was ‘Interdenominational, International, Interracial’. During the 1893 convention during talks regarding the attempt to unite the coastal fringes around the world, delegates also insisted that CE was ‘intermarine’. This label did not take on, yet it demonstrates the desire to expand members’ understanding of CE’s points of reference.

CE: World-Wide Christian Endeavor

If representatives of the Christian Endeavor world could be got together into one room for conference, what a Babel (sic) of tongues there would be. A Babel of Tongues but not of hearts! There would be representatives from all the States of America, from Canada, West Indies, Great Britain, France, Germany, Switzerland, Russia, Scandinavia, Spain, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Arabia, Palestine, Egypt, Armenia, Persia, India, Ceylon, China, Japan, Malaga, Australia, New Zealand, the New Hebrides, Samoa, Hawaii, Liberia, South Africa and the Congo. Juniors, young people and adults would be present, each in their own garb, alike only in hearts.53

This quote from the 1902 British Convention portrays CE’s embrace of the internationalist ethos and construction of a transnational CE World. Christian Endeavor was idealised as transcending race and nation, able to unite members from around the globe. At the same 1902 Manchester Convention Francis Clark greeted the audience in multiple languages before explaining how he had travelled the world and although there were a variety of CE methods, all the Societies were true to ‘type’, standing for the same principles.54 In 1900, when Amos Wells, the editor of the Christian Endeavor World, wrote about what a Christian Endeavor Society was, he attested that the society was both ‘a local organization’ as well as ‘a worldwide movement’. He reminded members that it was in this ‘two fold service’ that they were welcomed.55 Wells explicated that one could not be a true Endeavorer unless they were completely loyal to their local church and shared in CE’s city and state union work – a principle that has been explored earlier within this chapter. Yet, now an additional layer had been added as members were told they must also make

53 Rees, Souvenir Publication for the Coming of Age of the Movement,16. 54 Ibid., 3. In 1898, the Secretary of CE, John Willis Baer claimed in his annual report that ‘as far as CE knew’, Russia was the only country in the World that did not have a Christian Endeavor Society. This does not seem realistic, but is an interesting representation of CE’s ‘World-Wide’ span. ‘Christian Endeavor: Secretary John Willis Baer’s Annual Report – At National Convention, Nashville, Yesterday’ Meriden Daily Republican, July 8, 1898. 55 Amos R. Wells, The Endeavor Greeting: A Manual of Information and Greeting for New Members (Boston: United Society of Christian Endeavor, 1900), 5. 47

some room in their knowledge and sympathy for their CE brothers and sisters in all parts of Asia, Africa, Europe and the ‘Islands of the Sea’. Through various imagery, depictions and information members were reminded of their fellow endeavorers, near and far. By the turn of the century, the internationalist mindset had infiltrated CE to its core. By the time of Clark’s death in 1927, President Coolidge stated that Clark had formed a union that ‘girdles the globe’ serving as an ‘active and lasting memorial to his earnest and unselfish work.’ Coolidge remarked that he had known Clark as a friend whose high character he had respected and whose opinion he had always been glad to have, before noting that there would be mourning in every part of the religious world over the passing of Dr. Clark.56

The Formation of the World Christian Endeavor Union (WCEU)

Although CE’s transnational transmission was rapid, it was not automatic and just as CE had to adapt to deal with its expansion within North America, it also had to adjust to its global expansion. By 1893 CE was starting to outgrow the USCE model. In 1892 the CE convention had been held in Montreal, Canada, the first time it had been hosted outside of the United States. This development was noted, not just within the United States but by its global membership. New Zealand celebrated the societies’ global reach and pointed to the first International Convention as proof that CE had ‘come to stay’ and had seemed to be divinely appointed.57 The Chinese convention report heralded in 1894 that ‘The movement gradually spread over the United States, Canada, England and Australasia, until now it has encircled the globe.’58 Confronted by an increasingly international membership, there was a push to build on the USCE and to create a World Christian Endeavor Union (WCEU). The WCEU was officially established in 1895 during the Fourteenth Annual CE Convention, held in Washington, D.C.

56 Adriance, Biography of Francis Edward Clark, File. 5, RSC. 57 ‘Christian Endeavour Societies’, Auckland Star, 27 September, 1893, 5; In fact New Zealand’s membership would face a decline between 1897-1901 which was blamed in part on the novelty wearing off. Rees, Souvenir Publication for the Coming of Age of the Movement, 77. 58 Report of the First Annual Meeting and Convention of the United Society of Christian Endeavor for China, Shanghai, June 23-25, 1894 (American Presbyterian Mission Press, 1894), 2. 48

Figure 4: These tables present the official statistics for CE’s Canadian, ‘Foreign’ and floating membership as of the 1895 convention.59

The idea for a WCEU came from an unlikely source: it was the President of the New South Wales Union, in Australia, Rev W.J.L Closs, who came up with the plan to create a World Christian Endeavor Union (WCEU).60 Announced with much fanfare at the 1895 Convention, the WCEU’s constitution stated that its object was to unite the Christian Endeavorers of the World in closer fellowship, thus promoting the interest of the Christian Endeavor movement and cementing the spiritual union of Christians around the world. Francis Clark was unanimously nominated as President with the decree ‘Dr. Clark for World’s President of the World’s Christian Endeavor Union, from the north pole to the south’. Affirming the movement’s global spread, it was enthusiastically reported that letters of support had been received from societies in India, China, Japan, Malaya, the United Kingdom, Canada and ‘all over’ the United States. The Anglo dominance of the society, however, was illustrated in the fact the four nations that were each appointed a chairman were Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

As the mastermind of the USW concept, Closs was nominated for the role of Secretary. His nomination was withdrawn at his own request, however, on the basis that Australia was ‘so far away’ which would make the practicalities of leadership too difficult. The North American/European centric nature of CE during the early

59 Within this source Canada was treated separately to the rest of the ‘foreign’ groups. Official Report of the International Christian Endeavor Convention Volume 11-14 (Boston: United Society of Christian Endeavor, 1895), 370-1. 60 ‘World’s Union: Christian Endeavorers Have Formed One’. Unknown newspaper, July 15, 1895. Box 31,pnr 34. In World Christian Endeavor Archive (CEF). Fulda, Germany.

years is indicative of the somewhat aspirational character of their vision of an inclusive world-wide union. Although concerted efforts were made to promote its global image, the reality was that the transnational vision faced pragmatic complications. CE was ‘world-wide’ and diligently sought to affirm this fact, but its representation and significance was dispersed unevenly. The centre/periphery struggle was one that CE would have to contend with as it sought to construct a transnational ‘World Wide Christian Endeavor’. How CE was transported and adapted into foreign contexts is interesting. It shows us how CE functioned within difficult, and what were at times dangerous conditions, and how it used this to promote as sense of unity and purpose amongst its membership.

Despite intensive efforts on the behalf of CE leaders to educate members about the society’s global activities and to build awareness about the various cultures it worked within, the reality is that there were limitations and mistranslations. For example, to mark CE’s twenty fifth anniversary Clark published a book called Christian Endeavor in All the Lands which outlined CE’s history and global spread. As part of the celebration of its international breadth, pledges in various languages and scripts were provided as images, alongside photographs of CE members from around the world. There were copies of the pledge in Tamil, Telugu and Japanese.61 When it came to printing the Japanese pledge, however, it was actually copied upside down.62 Evidently those who put the book together were not able to read Japanese script despite being the supposed experts of the movement’s global context.

Clark himself acknowledged the potential dangers inherent in mistranslations. When he gave a peace talk in Japan in 1910 where he lauded the blessing of peace and arbitration, and horror and idiocy of unjust war, the local Japanese newspapers translated him as stating ‘Even if Japan took up arms against the United States, our country would not resent it’. Clark instead claimed he had said ‘I thought the deep, underlying sentiment of friendship between the people of the

61 Clark, Christian Endeavor in All Lands, 55, 56, 60. 62 They also failed to mention that it was a special pledge for an all woman’s group which was common in Japan as CE groups were divided by gender. Amos R. Wells, Circumnavigating the Christian Endeavor Globe, Boston: United Society of Christian Endeavor, 1900), 14. Clark, Christian Endeavor in All Lands, 56; translated from Japanese by Ryohei Ishii. 51

two nations was so strong that it would be very difficult to force us into war with each other.’63

Although there were occasional mistakes or cultural misunderstandings, the relative uniformity of the movement is striking. This is particularly clear from the numerous pledge cards from all over the world which can be found within the Christian Endeavor Archive in Fulda. There were pledges from Madagascar, The Netherlands, Germany, ‘Bohemia’, Armenia, China and ‘West Africa’. Each appears to have been printed locally, with rice paper being used for the Chinese and a harder cardboard for the European. The West African version was printed on normal writing paper. There was also a Swedish ‘Associate Membership’ Pledge that demonstrates that the adaptations to CE’s original format also transferred transnationally. The Swedish version read:

I promise that as deputy/assistant member to always attend the organisation’s prayer- meetings, and declare myself willing to carry out what may be called upon me to aid the success of the organisation. 64

Publications also sprang up across the globe with various nations, states and regions creating their own Christian Endeavor newspapers. By 1906 there was The Christian Endeavour Times (Britain), Die Jugend-Hilfe (Germany), Acitvité Chrétienne (France), Esfuerzo Cristiano (Spain), India Christian Endeavourer, the Irish Endeavourer, the Church of England Christian Endeavorer, the Roll-Call (Australia), Endeavor (Japan) and the South African Endeavourer. 65 There was also the Europa Kristana Celado / European Christian Endeavour which wrote in both English and Esperanto and was based in Geneva.66 The British Floating Endeavor Union also published its own periodical under the name of The Floater. None of these had the wide circulation managed by either the Golden Rule or Christian Endeavor World, yet their production demonstrates the broad circulation of CE’s ideas and methods. Further, these

63 Francis E Clark, ‘The Peace Spirit in Japan',The Advocate of Peace 72, No. 3, March, 1910, 59. 64 Copies of pledges are located in Box A87 29 pnr 33, CEF. 65 These international CE periodicals are listed as sources for Clark’s publication on the world-wide spread of CE which was written to celebrate CE’s twenty-fifth anniversary. See: Clark, Christian Endeavor in All Lands, iv; Europa Kristana Celado, November – December 1908, Vol. 30. 1. 66 The earliest copy I have accessed of the European Christian Endeavour was dated from 1908, yet it was volume 30 which suggests it had been running for quite some time prior. Christian Endeavor in All Lands, iv; Europa Kristana Celado, November – December 1908, Vol. 30. 1. 52

publications show the transnational connections, and disrupt the US-centric focus which pervades the US archive. The ‘CE world’ was institutionalised within the United States, but this did not produce an entirely asymmetrical centre and periphery dynamic. Further study is required to truly uncover the complex transnational networks which were at play, but it is important to emphasize this element of CE relations outside of the US and the tendency of CE leaders to favour perceptions of their own centrality and importance.

This next section will explore in detail CE’s development within the mission lands of China and Turkey. The case studies move beyond the pledge and look at the challenges of transnational diffusion. Chinese sources are more numerous than the Turkish, however neither are particularly dense. The Turkish example is more difficult because it was potentially dangerous to keep records of CE activities and Clark even writes that many were destroyed to protect CE members during the Armenian Massacres. Despite the two very different political and cultural contexts, the stories of CE’s formation in these two locations share surprising similarities. One major difference between the two contexts is that CE was started in China in 1884, prior to the formation of the USCE. Turkey, however, began in 1888 after USCE protocols and material were already in place. The missionary context is significant as CE’s growth also straddled the peak era of American foreign missions, which saw the missionary population swell from 934 to more than 5000 by 1915.67 CE burst onto the transnational stage by tapping into these networks while also collaborating in their growth, support and expansion.

Christian Endeavor in China

Christian Endeavor was brought to China in 1885 by the young Congregationalist missionary from Connecticut, Rev George H. Hubbard.68 Hubbard was working for the American Board of Foreign Missions and was based in Foochow, Fukien Province, which remained a stronghold for missionary activity and CE for the

67 Amanda Porterfield, Mary Lyon and the Mount Holyoke Missionaries (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997), 21. 68 Clark, Christian Endeavor in All Lands, 418. 53

decades to come.69 CE’s transmission to China occurred concurrently with its spread to Hawaii and Ceylon where fellow missionaries also sought methods to convert and retain the youth in their mission field. Because these groups were created prior to the creation of the United Society of Christian Endeavor, the basis of their establishment overseas was somewhat experimental. CE’s formation in China was most likely adapted from Hubbard’s own experience or knowledge of the organization in the United States, although the basis for his implementation of the group is not explicated within sources.

At first glance, it seems that CE was very flexible about local autonomy and adaptation in missionary fields like China. Indeed, it appears that Christian Endeavor methods were not new in China. During the 1890 General Conference of the Protestant Missionaries of China it was noted that ‘in years prior’ a group had been spontaneously formed which ‘was almost exactly like the Christian Endeavor societies’, simply lacking the name or formality of organization.70 Therefore it should be acknowledged that CE’s methods were not necessarily revolutionary on the Chinese mission field. Regardless of how unique the methods were, the attempt to transplant CE within Chinese culture proves interesting, especially in the early years when members took an ad hoc approach to its transnational expansion. CE became more formalized after the creation of a “United Society” of China, which was formed after ‘Clarke’ (sic) visited during his 1892 world tour.71 The Chinese United Society was modelled on the US version and provided an organizational structure and a sense of unity along, as well as a means to disseminate CE information that was tailored to the Chinese market (both in terms of the missionary and local population).

When Hubbard first brought the group to China in 1885, however, CE required some cultural adaptation. The first means of adaptation was finding an appropriate name that would appeal to the local population. Hubbard struggled to

69 After developing its base in Foochow with the American Board of Foreign Missions, the British based Church Missionary Society took on an active role in promoting the CE cause and spread to Canton, Shanghai and later to North China. Clark, Christian Endeavor in All Lands, 418-9. 70 Hattie Noyes, ‘Girls’ Schools’ in Records of the General Conference of the Protestant Missionaries of China held at Shanghai, May 7-20 (Shanghai: American Presbyterian Mission Press, 1890), 219. 71 Report of the First Annual Meeting and Convention of the United Society of Christian Endeavor for China, Shanghai, June 23-25, 1894 (Shanghai: The American Presbyterian Mission Press, 1894), 4. 54

find a fitting translation and initially adopted the name of the ‘Drum and Rouse up Society’ – a name Clark later refers to as appropriate, yet cumbersome and rude.72 The translation to Cantonese was the even more ungainly, taking on the title ‘Urge on in the Service of Salvation’s Lord Society’. The English publications for China would subsequently call the organisation Christian Endeavor, but when addressing the 1901 Cincinnati CE convention, Hubbard who by then served as President for Christian Endeavor in China, greeted the international audience stating, ‘Mr. Chairman, Brothers and Sisters of the World-wide Christian Endeavor, or, as the Chinese might say of the nine continents and ten thousands countries, rouse up society, bing-bang’.73 Evidently translations were somewhat fluid, especially in a country such as China that had multiple languages.

Translation issues proved to be a pressing issue for CE abroad. The United Society of China dealt with the issue by creating a Publication Committee to prepare suitable literature in English, Mandarin and Cantonese. Published by the Presbyterian Mission Press in Shanghai, this material initially included the USCE- sanctioned Endeavor Constitution, the Active Members Pledge, the Associate Members Pledge, a ‘Large Card’ Pledge to place on a wall and Topic Cards.74 Missionaries were cordially invited to co-operate in the extension of the Endeavor Societies’ work and it was stressed that it would be ‘greatly to the advantage’ of such societies that they should identify with a ‘world-wide’ organization. 75 By 1902 there were extensive publications available to the mission market in local Chinese dialects. Publications also came with a page of translations for CE terms such as Active Member, Associate Member, Press Committee. President of a Society, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer, Roll Call, Pledge, World’s Christian Endeavor Union, Mr Clark/Mr Shaw, and Williston Church. CE leaders sought to familiarize foreign

72 Clark, In All Lands, 69, 354. 73 Official Report of the Twentieth International Christian Endeavor Convention Held in Music Hall, The Odeon and Many Churches of Cincinnati July 6-10, 1901 (Boston: United Society of Christian Endeavor, 1901), 8. 74 Report of the First Annual Meeting and Convention of the United Society of Christian Endeavor for China, Shanghai, June 23-25, 1894 (Shanghai: The American Presbyterian Mission Press, 1894), 4. For additional examples of USCE publications which were advertised to the Chinese mission and local market can be found within what appears to be a Christian Endeavor textbook found within the World Christian Endeavor archive in Fulda, Germany. The publication does not have a title or page numbers and is written in Chinese Script, 某處. 勉勵會寶友. 清國. Chinese Translation of Christian Endeavor in Principle and Practice, (Shanghai: Chinese Christian Endeavor Union, 1902). A36 pnr 19. CEF. 75Report of the First Annual Meeting and Convention - Shanghai, 5. 55

members with CE terms and personalities with the aim of building a affiliations with both CE procedures and personalities.

It is difficult to fully assess how locals interpreted CE, aside from the colourful depictions as represented from western-based sources. The often-repeated story of China’s first CE member, Mr. Ling, provides some insight into the fusion of western and Chinese ideas. During the 1894 Shanghai Convention Mr. Ling is quoted as stating that Christ had come into the world to drive Satan out, attesting that ‘as the Gospel has spread the devil has had to retreat’. What was most telling about his speech, however, was his argument that,

Now that he has nowhere to stay in Western countries he has come to China to live. In 1885 we started our first Christian Endeavor Society, the object which is to drive him out of China. And now we have gathered from all parts to discuss how best this may be done. If we succeed he cannot go back to the West, but must be driven into the Eastern sea, where he will meet the fate of the Gadarene swine who perished in the waters.76

The fact that Mr Ling mentions Gadarene swine, referring to the bible passage Mark 5:1-13, suggests that he was familiar with biblical teaching. Yet the concept of the devil having already left the Western countries proves significant, especially considering during the same period the western CE literature was full of complaints about the proliferation of corruption and evil within their lands.77 This suggests that he was not familiar with foreign CE literature, which makes sense given the language barriers. The translation of his speech was also heavily filtered, he spoke in the Fuhkien dialect, which was translated into English by Miss Ella J. Newtown, and then Newton’s translation was translated into Mandarin by Rev. G.F. Fitch. 78 It is therefore difficult to assess the authenticity of his original meaning. As an aside, the difficulties that surround accessing and interpreting local perspectives is made more complex by questions of cultural imperialism. The historian Ryan Dunch makes an important point concerning how the discourse of cultural imperialism, which originated in opposition to Western cultural hegemony, could ironically lead to a conclusion that is profoundly Eurocentric in its denial of the agency or autonomy of non-Western populations.79 Without knowing more of Mr Ling’s situation it is

76Report of the First Annual Meeting and Convention - Shanghai, 9. 77 See chapters 3 and 4 for the discussion of the devil and corruption within the United States. 78 Report of the First Annual Meeting and Convention of the United Society of Christian Endeavor for China, Shanghai, June 23-25, 1894 (Shanghai: The American Presbyterian Mission Press, 1894), 9. 79 Ryan Dunch, ‘Beyond Cultural Imperialism’, History and Theory, 41:3 (2002), 307. 56

difficult to assess his meaning, both in terms of translation and distaste for denying his agency and making simple assumptions of western brainwashing. However, it can be seen that he was fluent in a discourse of Christianity purifying the West and in turn serving as a means to purify China.

The exoticism of the Asian context was expressed in the text as adding breadth and colour to the CE movement, with their ‘flaming banners covered with curious, and to unaccustomed eyes cabalistic, characters; weird songs and chants.’80 Isolating China for special recognition, Clark argues that perhaps no country in the world had adapted CE better, before demonstrating a brief dalliance with racial theory as he insisted ‘it fits their racial characteristics’.81 The reason Clark provides for Chinese suitability was their training in industrial and civic guilds. This training meant that they were apparently able to grasp the idea of a CE society, with its compact organization and definite line of operations. Some reports suggest that the Chinese did take up CE with much enthusiasm. The Chinese Christian Endeavor Union wrote a history to commemorate forty years of CE work in China, noting that whole churches took on the CE cause instead of just the youth; there was an inclination that all newly converted were ‘young’ to the church.82 However, despite these reports, the reality is that numbers there were relatively small. In 1896, 40 societies were recorded in China, compared to 66 in Japan.83 A potential reason for the focus on China was that it was a missionary stronghold and therefore held more political sway in the scheme of world evangelism than places such as Madagascar or France.

The economic push of the west into China, alongside the hotly debated forces of cultural imperialism (which CE could arguably be part of) meant that China also had increased political significance when compared to other CE locations. In the minds of US visitors, China was ripe for modernisation, but was still resistant to change,

80 Clark, Christian Endeavor in All Lands, 416. 81 Ibid., 56. 82 ‘These forty years’: Fortieth Anniversary of Christian Endeavour in the Land of Sinim, 1885-1925 (China Christian Endeavor Union, 1925), 3. 83 Official Report of the 15th Christian Endeavor Convention, Washington DC 1896, (Boston: United Society of Christian Endeavor, 1896), 86. 57

Commerce has been knocking at her doors for nearly a thousand years, and has not aroused her from her lethargy… Foreign inventions of labor saving contrivances; railways and steamboats, electric lights and modern conveniences, have been presented to her in vain; and all have failed to shame her out of her stolid self-conceit. She has gone back to her wheelbarrow and her sedan-chair, her paper lantern and her clumsy junk, convinced that “we are the people and wisdom will die with us” and that the paltry inventions of “foreign devils” are not worth copying.84

In an article entitled ‘Empire of the Dead’, Clark argued that China was held back by superstition and inefficient methods. He chastised that, as a culture they showed too much regard for the dead and not enough regard for the living.85 He provided the example of how their roads were all curved and winding due to the superstitious belief that bad spirits could not turn corners.86 He derided the practice of the poor spending much of their money on rice paper items which they would burn, believing that the items would to be transported to their loved ones in the afterlife. These superstitious beliefs were suppressing China’s development; they were wasteful and inefficient. Clark argued that the only way to ‘awaken the unresponsive heart of China’, the only way to get them to move forward, was through Christ.87 CE was seen as part of a larger program of Christianity which could improve the Chinese condition and bring ‘civilization’.

The challenges and successes that foreign members faced were used as examples to promote the CE cause within the United States, serving as a means to show how the movement was transforming the world. They also served to build a sense of transnational unity and purpose within the organization. In a Stereopticon Lecture that provided English-speaking members with information and pictures about ‘Circumnavigating the Christian Endeavor Globe’, the speaker told cheery stories of the original Foochow CE members overcoming great obstacles, with the help of their fellow CE members. One young man had all the money from his workplace stolen by ‘heathen’ enemies and he and his CE friends had to pay it back to his employer. Another girl, called ‘Brave Virtue’ refused take part in an idolatrous wedding ceremony and insisted that once she was married (in the Christian tradition) she would be able to partake in four Christian Sabbaths a month. Her cross old mother-in-law failed to comply, however, refusing to provide money for

84 Clark, Journey Around The World, 260. 85 Francis Clark, ‘Empire of the Dead’ North American Review (1900): 376. 86 Ibid., 376-7. 87 Clark, Journey Around The World, 260. 58

her ferry fare. Brave Virtue’s CE friends came to her rescue and instead provided the money so she could attend church. This solidarity paid dividends as eventually Brave Virtue started a Christian School in her house that grew into its own church. The power of CE to resist ‘heathen’ culture, empower its members and provide a source for solidarity and Christian civilization was emphasized repeatedly through a variety of tales.

The most provocative, and darkest, example of CE as a form of resistance, however, was during the Boxer Rebellion of 1900 when whole CE groups were killed for their religious faith and membership of the society. These individuals were celebrated as the Christian Endeavor Martyrs. In an eerie fashion, Circumnavigating the Christian Endeavor Globe moved from depictions of smiling faces at a Foochow Convention to telling of how only a few weeks later many of the CE members who had attended the convention were slaughtered.88 In one Peking Society, 53 out of 65 members were killed while another society lost half of its 40 members. One Endeavor girl who was summoned to die was said to take out her best robe and her bible and simply said ‘I am ready’. The depiction ended with the emotive, and slightly unsettling, proclamation ‘Surely we may be proud of our Endeavor brothers and sisters in China’.89

Clark happened to be in China at the time of the Boxer Rebellion. He met with missionaries of the Presbyterian compound such as Horace Tracy Pitkin, Miss Morrill and Miss Gould, a few amongst the many CE members who were murdered in the uprising. Clark also had recently visited the missionaries and native Christians who were locked away for months during the siege.90 Despite the fact that the concept of martyrdom was invoked to provide a positive spin on the murder of CE members, and CE reports focused on the unified display of strength, the reality was that the movement needed substantial repair in the wake of the terrible violence. While this is overlooked within official CE literature, it is mentioned within missionary sources. The Chinese Recorder reported that it had been ‘scarcely possible under the difficult conditions of 1900 and (the) next year or two that there

88 Wells, Circumnavigating the Christian Endeavor Globe, 15-16. 89 Ibid., 16. 90 Clark, Christian Endeavor in All Lands, 419-20. 59

should be much extension of (the) Christian Endeavor organization.’91 It was noted that the missionaries were working under altered conditions.92 Despite this it was claimed that as of 1905, about 15 000 Christians were using CE prayer-meeting topic books although many were not officially recorded as CE members. Additionally, others had moved to work under the YMCA or had changed denominational names. This highlights the difficulty in truly ascertaining membership numbers and the extent to which CE and its methods had penetrated Chinese society. The fact that CE was publishing materials in the multiple thousands in Chinese suggests that there was a large audience for its literature, even if the membership statistics were not quite as impressive.

Notwithstanding the tense situation, or perhaps because of it, in 1902 CE took on a new leader for the Chinese CE Union, Rev. George W Hinman, who was the first leader to take on the role full time.93 Hinman moved the headquarters to Shanghai by securing a floor within the Presbyterian Press building. He also filled the positions on the CE board by only appointing people based in Shanghai to ensure that there was a local body to work with, assumedly to stop the inefficiency of working across vast distances.94 CE literature rarely mentions disputes, but the sudden and swift manner in which CE was reorganized suggests that there was a problem for which its new leadership was seeking a cure. It is unclear whether the problem was ineffective management and procedure, or simply that the Boxer rebellion deeply disrupted the movement. The move to Shanghai suggests the latter.

Hinman aspired to push CE into the interior of China; he travelled extensively and sought to circulate literature, especially amongst the Chinese population. The Christian Endeavor archives in Germany contain what appears to be Hinman’s Chinese reproduction of the USCE’s Christian Endeavor in Principle and Practice. The publication itself does not have a clear title, it simply lists the Christian Endeavor publication house in ‘Chinese’ script. Within the introduction, however, Hinman wrote ‘to extend the Christian Endeavor Society in this or any other land, two things are necessary – the testimony of those who know and value Christian Endeavor

91 Chinese Recorder and Missionary Herald 36, 1905, 318. 92 Ibid., 318. 93 Clark, Christian Endeavor in All Lands, 421. 94 Chinese Recorder and Missionary Herald 36, 1905, 319. 60

methods, and a book which may serve a practical guide to those who wish to try them.’95 Hinman asked that missionaries endorse the book and place copies it in the hands of the native pastors, catechists and teachers so that they may expand CE, before quoting Dr. Chamberlain of India in stating ‘Undoubtedly the Christian Endeavor Society will advance the evangelization of this land by a full generation.’96

Hinman’s attempt to get the local population involved in spreading the organization was pragmatic, especially when considering that much of the interior was difficult to reach with limited transport infrastructure.97 The key to the spread of CE within China remained the mission stations, yet the potential for individual propagation amongst the local inhabitants was present. Further, Hinman promoted the cohesive work of local unions, which provided mutual support for each other after the breakdown caused by the Boxer rebellion. As explained earlier, this was a period of recovery along with attempts at expansion. The CE transnational network, alongside mission and reform networks, was still in place as leaders shared methods, information and statistics. Hinman’s Chinese model was subsequently borrowed by the new General Secretary of the United Society in India, Rev. F.S. Hatch, who visited China and witnessed the benefits of Hinman’s model. Although the United States held the largest membership body and the headquarters of the USCE and WCEU – information and support did not flow in a simple direct manner from the centre to the peripheries. CE in China instead worked closely with the British mission boards as well as fellow mission fields, as can be seen in the initiatives of Rev. F.S. Hatch. The sharing of effective methods and strategies between different CE mission fields, demonstrated the deepening the transnational ties and cooperation.98

Despite a unique geopolitical situation at the turn of the century, Chinese CE bore many similarities to other groups around the world. The pledge remained central to CE in China. Archives contain copies of postcard sized rice paper copies of

95 Rev. D. MacGillvary translated the English text of Christian Endeavor in Principles and Practice into Chinese. This is outlined within the introduction. 96 Chinese Translation of Christian Endeavor in Principle and Practice, (Shanghai: Chinese Christian Endeavor Union, 1902), Introduction. This text does not have an official translatable title but the publishing house is 某處. 勉勵會寶友. 清國. A copy can be found in A87 29 pnr 33, CEF. 97 Chinese Recorder and Missionary Herald 36, 1905, 320. 98 Ibid., 320. 61

the pledge, much the same as the versions adopted by other nations except for their red colour, languages and the rice paper they were printed on.99 Committees ran on much the same basis with a few cultural adaptations such as the marriage committees that served as matchmaker between fellow Christians.100 Arguably this was a partial, but covert, purpose of CE within the United States as well – this idea of the role of courtship within CE will be explored more within chapter 4. While CE numbers in China numbers were never large, the Chinese mission field remained an integral part of CE’s worldwide expansion, its symbolism as a key mission field and its status as a developing nation meant that its important role in CE’s efforts to win ‘the world for Christ” was not simply measured by CE membership numbers.

Christian Endeavor in Turkey

CE was also transplanted to Turkey via the missionary networks, and Turkey grew to become the largest home of the American mission board (ABCFM) by 1910. Due to the intense persecution members faced within the Turkish mission field, however, many records were destroyed and the history of CE in Turkey is therefore difficult to trace. Some records have survived, alongside western accounts of CE’s Turkish activities. This section relies most heavily upon the account of CE’s establishment in Turkey which was written by its founder Rev. G.H Krikorian. This source, The Story of the Galatian Endeavorers and their Joint Missionary Activities, gives basic insights into the practical difficulties faced in creating a CE society within the political strife that pervaded the Ottoman Empire at the turn of the century.101 During this period Sultan Abdülhamid II ruled the Ottoman Empire. The empire was in the process of decline in the wake of the Russo-Ottoman War of 1877-8, as it slowly dissolved and lost its possessions until its eventual dissolution in 1922.102 At the end of the nineteenth century the Empire had a divided (elite) population who were locked in a

99 Other versions of the pledge tended to be on a harder paper, more like a thin cardboard and on beige or white paper. The only other thin-papered versions were the Armenian and ‘African’ (Zulu) pledges. Other copies located in the World Christian Endeavor Archive include, Swedish (an Associate Member’s pledge), Danish, Dutch, German, Czech (listed as Bohemian), and Malagasy. See Box A87 29 pnr 33, CEF. 100 Clark, Christian Endeavor in All Lands, 424. 101 George H. Krikorian, The story of the Galatian Endeavorers and Their Joint Missionary Activities, by Rev. G.H Krikorian, of Yozgat, Turkey. (Springfield: Loring & Axtell Printers, 1895), 102 Raymond Kevorkian, The Armenian Genocide: a Complete History (New York: I.B. Tauris, 2006), 9-10. 62

struggle between the desire to retain traditions and a desire to modernize. Traditionalists were led primarily by Islamic religious leaders who resisted western innovation and influence. On the other side was the Ottoman elite and state officials who had been educated in the modernist model and sought to enact a constitution and a comparatively egalitarian ideology. With political tensions brewing, and a large population ripe for mobilisation, there was suspicion regarding any associations, or any group organization, due to fear that it could foster rebellion. This was the backdrop for the formation of CE in Turkey.

The first Turksih CE society was formed in Yozgat in 1889, by the missionary George Krikorian. He had found himself working in a mission fifteen miles from Tavium, a unremarkable village inhabited by Turks, Armenians and Greeks. The mission at Yozgat was ‘broken up’ by internal divisions that had caused the young people to ‘scatter’.103 He recounts that he was trying to nurture the youth of his church but was unsure how to ‘furnish them a sphere broad enough for Christian activity.’104 After reading of Christian Endeavor in the CE newspaper, the Golden Rule, he was intrigued by the methods and subsequently gathered a group of youth and set to work trying to convince them to take part. Evidently CE’s Golden Rule proved a ready source for information, this process was repeated elsewhere in Western Turkey a decade later, with a visiting missionary reporting that they attended CE meetings that were based on what the leaders had read in the Christian Endeavor World, a later incarnation of the Golden Rule.105 At this first meeting, however, Krikorian told the gathered youth what was required of them - that they would need to join committees and be active members ‘without wavering’. The pledge and constitution were distributed for careful study throughout the week. Forty-four young men and about sixty young women joined the first society.106

103 Krikorian, The story of the Galatian Endeavorers, 6. 104 Ibid., 6. 105 It was also noted that it was impossible to conduct meetings in the same way in such a place. The Turkish and Armenian context was especially fraught, with many CE societies having to hide records and work in secret because such meetings were illegal in certain parts of the Ottoman Empire. Including both women and men, or boys and girls in the same meetings was also not possible and groups met in all female or all male settings. ‘Western Turkey Mission’ in The Missionary Herald: Containing the Proceedings of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions with a view of Other Benevolent Operations for the Year 1898 Vol. XCIV (Boston: Beacon Press, 1898), 402. 106 Krikorian, The story of the Galatian Endeavorers, 6. 63

Word of CE and its presence in Turkey spread with Krikorian being asked to present a report on his work with CE at a missionary conference held in Caesarea, Cappadocia. The Missionary Herald subsequently wrote about his creation of a CE society and other groups were formed.107 Within a few years seventeen societies were organized through his personal influence, some by mere correspondence. Ultimately, however, Krikorian claims that CE spread largely without his help and had a healthy spirit of self-propagation.108

Official ties to the USCE were established when Krikorian wrote to ‘Father Endeavor Clark’, telling of the newly formed Turkish societies. Krikorian appears to have embraced the figure of ‘father Clark’ and demonstrated a thorough understanding of both Clark’s role as well as the philosophy of the organization from an early stage, even prior to his communication with the USCE. The USCE replied to Krikorian’s letter and requested that he prepare a Christian Endeavor manual for the use of ministers and members in Turkey. Various obstacles, however, stood in his way.

The first obstacle was translating the CE name. Like his counterparts in China, Kirkorian needed to create a name that would suit the local audience and faced the difficulty of translating ‘Christian Endeavor’ into the native tongue. His choice was more political than its Chinese counterpart. Kirkorian wrote,

I found that not a single one of the terms so wisely chosen by Dr. Clark to constitute the name of the society could be used safely when translated into Turkish. The term “Endeavor” had a military ring in it, therefore could not be employed without suggesting the “Revolutionary Movement” regarding which the government keeps such a watchful eye to eliminate. Therefore, the word “Activity” was chosen in place of “Endeavor”.

This, however, was not the end to his dilemma. An imperial edict had prohibited all kinds of organizations in the Turkish Empire. This was not directed at religion but at any organizational meeting and as a consequence many literary societies, even business clubs were dissolved. Krikorian decided the name needed to be further tailored so not to cause friction. Accordingly, he replaced the term ‘Society’ with the term ‘Brotherhood’. This name was able to continue for three years until just prior to the publication of his CE manual. In order to have the manual published in Turkey he needed to put it before a publication committee for approval. To avoid any

107 Ibid., 6. 108 Ibid., 7. 64

tensions regarding the word ‘Christian’, he decided to rename the society “Young People’s Moral Activity”. Yet the struggle to find an appropriate translation continued, Krikorian writes that,

Finally, when the term “Young People” was carefully considered there gleamed a danger through the use of it that greatly alarmed me. The word chose was “Génj” which signified ages between fifteen and thirty. This was the best term for our purpose, but the use of it in connection with young men in our societies who would be over twenty – that being the solider’s age – would soon bring us into trouble with the government. Hence, the term “Jivan.” Which signifies below twenty, was chosen and in order to be more sure about it, I called it “Nev Jivan,” i.e. “the younger jivan.” So the whole name now was “Név- Jivånlånlåring Månévi Ikdåm Oükhüvétti” i.e. “The Younger People’s Brotherhood of Moral Activity.” 109

Despite the careful consideration the Turkish censors decided to suppress its publication, not on the basis of its religious qualities but because it would provide the population with a point by point guide on how they could organize societies.110 Krikorian skirted this ban by not publishing the manual as a book, but instead publishing the material, article by article, within weekly papers that were translated into Armenian, Turkish and Greek.111

In a similar fashion to their Chinese counterparts, Turkish CE members were represented as rallying behind their faith when faced with adverse conditions. A member from Krikorian’s Yozgat society went and founded another CE society in a remote village called Urnej which was located at the base of the White Mountains and was home to about 250 families.112 Urnej did not have an established church and once the founding member had to return to Yozgat it was expected that the group would simply fade out. Instead members of Urnej’s CE maintained their society in the face of mounting opposition from the locals. Members were threatened with expulsion from their homes if they persisted holding CE meetings. When Krikorian visited them while en-route to a trip to the United States113 they were said to have met him with ‘tears in their eyes’ and told him of their sufferings at the hands of their townsmen and parents, but they declared ‘Pastor, we won’t give

109 Krikorian, The Story of the Galatian Endeavorers, 7. 110 Ibid., 7. 111 Ibid., 7. 112 Ibid., 8. 113 The introduction to the story mentions that Krikorian went to the 1893 CE convention in Montreal, presumably this was the trip he was referring to. 65

up our meetings, whatever the consequences may be.’114 The CE society was so determined to continue their work that they built a two story house for their (as yet unplanned) future missionary to live in.

It is difficult to verify the details of the story, yet the representation of foreign members as being willing and able to overcome persecution was a consistent one. Given the Armenian Massacres of the 1894-96, in which it is estimated that nearly 200 000 Armenians were killed, and the future Armenian genocides it is difficult to overstate the genuine threats that members faced.115 In one of the numerous publications dedicated to the story of CE’s spread around the world, Clark attested that ‘No Endeavorers are braver than those of Armenia, as was proved in the dreadful massacres of a few years ago, and none deserve more heartily the sympathy and prayers of their fellows in all lands.’116 Elsewhere Clark recounted stories of the young Turkish CE martyrs, including a president of a younger society, described as a ‘lad of sixteen or seventeen’ whose ‘bright face and earnest words’ Clark remembered distinctly.117 The lad was arrested and told his life would be spared if he gave up his faith and turned back to Islamicism – but the ‘brave Endeavorer’ refused and ‘soon joined the ranks of the martyrs.118 It was celebrated that CE prospered despite the fact that in some parts of Turkey the name Christian Endeavor could not be used, constitutions could not be signed and records were destroyed in order to protect the membership’s safety. They were unable to sing songs such as “Hold the Fort” or “Onward Christian Soldiers” due to fear it would provoke state resistance.

Despite this fact Turkey’s CE was represented as prospering and it was held up as an example to the rest of the world’s membership. The reality was that CE numbers were not extraordinarily high in Turkey, there were 39 Societies as of

114 Krikorian, The Story of the Galatian Endeavorers, 8-9. 115 Kevorkian, The Armenian Genocide, 11. 116 Francis E Clark, Christian Endeavor in Six Continents and the Islands of the Sea: a review of the World-Wide Movement (Boston: The World Christian Endeavor Union, date unknown),13. Copy provided by Yale Divinity Library. 117 Clark, Christian Endeavor in All the Lands, 555. 118 Ibid., 555. 66

1895. 119 The group was primarily successful in Armenia where groups were Orthodox Christian opposed to Islamic, yet it became a key battleground within Protestant sentiments as a symbol for resistance against Islam and Empire. Timothy Marr argues that the Islamic Ottoman Empire posed a pressing problem for nineteenth-century Protestant America as they tried to come to terms with its existence and prominence.120 Marr writes that there was a tradition that dated back to the early republic of Protestants viewing the Ottomans as an ‘Empire of Sin’; the presence of this powerful political entity, which stood outside of America, was seen as an impediment to the recovery of the Holy Land and the fulfillment of the events of the end times.121 The threat was therefore both symbolic and pragmatic. The Islamic empire served as an active symbol which challenged the assumed superiority of Christian civilization. It also served as a pragmatic hindrance to the return of Christ, with theologians and ministers used scripture to back this perception. Therefore the conversion of the Turks took on a special tone and level of importance.

Within 25 years, CE grew rapidly from a single society linked to Clark’s congregational church in Portland, Maine to a world-wide organization which boasted four million members. This required an adaptation of CE’s organizational structure as it created the USCE and then the WCEU to provide a stable platform and uniformity of methods across what was an increasingly diverse membership base. CE was transplanted abroad through the process of local adaptation and missionary networks. The foundation of CE within foreign contexts was complex and required adaptation and negotiation of cultural norms. The Chinese and Turkish case studies demonstrate the struggles, and in the most extreme cases, the very genuine danger, that members faced on foreign soil. Issues of translation, building links with the USCE as well as local CE hierarchies all underpin the process of building and

119 Official Report of the International Christian Endeavor Convention Volume 11-14 (Boston: United Society of Christian Endeavor, 1895), 371. 120 Timothy Marr, The Cultural Roots of American Islamicism (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006), 91-93. 121 Marr, The Cultural Roots of American Islamicism, 83. 67

expanding an organization. CE utilized the stories of diversity alongside persecution and resistance to help build a sense of global solidarity. It asked that members understand themselves as part of a global movement and empathize with their CE brothers and sisters around the world.

CHAPTER 3 THE STRUGGLE TO ENGENDER COOPERATION

During its first 15 years, Christian Endeavour needed to position itself carefully in relation to the tumultuous context of nineteenth-century gender roles. Gender equality and associated issues were not at the forefront of Clark’s mind when he founded Christian Endeavor. He always maintained that the group’s foremost purpose was to be a religious society, and that this goal should not be subsumed by political distractions and partisan politics or alliances.1 Regardless of this desire, his decision to encourage both genders to attend the same meetings and to require that all members pledge to take an active and vocal role within the society meant that the group necessarily engaged with the big gender questions of the day such as appropriate gender roles and relations between the sexes. The society was publicly represented as standing for the co-operation of the sexes within Christian work.2 Yet, CE was not only asserting its values to the public, its leaders also needed to advocate for equal membership amongst members. Dual gender membership was not able to function unless members were willing to actively participate. This chapter explore the historiography of gender in the late nineteenth-century US and discuss the difficulty of placing CE on the feminist spectrum before turning to focus on the practical challenges CE faced in implementing its cooperative dual gendered model within the United States during its formative 15 years. The key task in this period was prompting women to take on an active and vocal role as demanded by the pledge. Ultimately, I argue, during CE’s first decade the main impediment to the cooperative gender model was not male disapproval of women taking on active roles, but women’s hesitancy to do so. This was due to both the theological hangover of the doctrine of St Paul as well as a broader lack of familiarity (from both sexes in CE’s relatively conservative membership) with engaging in a dual gendered ‘semi- professional’ context.

1 Francis Clark, A Last Letter for Endeavorers, 1916. James L. Hill ‘The Leaders of the Christian Endeavor Movement’, New England Magazine, July 1895, 589-590. 2 James L. Hill ‘The Leaders of the Christian Endeavor Movement’, 594. 69

As explored previously, CE embraced expansion, seeking to enlarge individual societies that had already been established as well as spreading geographically by creating new societies both within the United States and internationally. Within the United States, members were particularly drawn to expansion. The nation was itself in the midst of westward expansion, urbanisation and internal migration; it was a nation in flux.3 CE took a pro-active approach as it sought to expand and convert members. In a fictional novel, Chrissy’s Endeavor, based on the activities of a CE group, its expansive efforts are laid bare. The story follows Chrissy while she spends time visiting her family and subsequently becomes active in a local CE group. A member notes that Chrissy does not have a CE group in her home town and adds, ‘Besides, our aim is to spread ourselves …we expect you to become so much attached to us, that when you go home the first thing you will want to do will be to organize, just to keep us in remembrance. That is the way the thing works.’4

The organisation’s expansive push has been covered in the previous chapters. It is important to note that the group was not just converting members to its cause but was also training them in its methods and values. CE’s gendered philosophy reached a large number of individuals within the United States and over time a growing number abroad. Further, aside from simply disseminating the idea of cooperation the group also provided an active space for it to be enacted and consolidated.

Additionally, CE’s membership was not comprised of those at the forefront of the feminist vanguard. CE’s leadership and membership came from a diverse spectrum of denominations within the mainline Protestant community; they were drawn from both the liberal and conservative wings. Protestant society had served as a driving force within the birth of the woman’s movement and wider reforms within the United States, yet CE was pulling its membership from a much larger, and

3 For an exploration of the processes of geographic expansion and internal migration after 1850, see Patricia Kelly Hall & Steven Ruggles ‘“Restless in the Midst of Their Prosperity”: New evidence on the Internal Migration of Americans 1850-2000’ The Journal of American History, 91:3 (2004) 829- 846. 4 Although the comment is somewhat tongue in cheek, it does demonstrate the underlying desire to expand and the role people would play in transplanting the society elsewhere. Pansy, Chrissy’s Endeavor (Boston: D Lothrop Company, 1889) 23. 70

less belligerent, Protestant base. This is demonstrated in the simple fact that members struggled so much with the concept of the pledge, and with its implementation. Although it is important to leave room for individual idiosyncrasies and diversity in such a large membership body as CE, as a whole CE presented its membership as a group of people devoted and dedicated to their faith. CE was not appealing to, nor did it attract, the ‘fast’ crowd of the day.5 This meant that CE was trying to bring cooperative ideals to a portion of Protestant society that looked with suspicion and discomfort at the idea of both active female leadership and a membership base consisting of both sexes. Although there had been vocal demands for the increase of woman’s rights and a broadening of her role in US society over the previous 50 years, as of 1881, CE members’ hesitation about and unfamiliarity with dual gendered interaction demonstrate that women’s place was far from resolved. Progressive values may have become more popular, but the struggles that CE had in implementing them suggests that they had not permeated mainstream Protestant society.

CE literature promoted varied notions of Christian womanhood and manhood, which blended progressive radical ideas with traditional and conservative values. This re-packaging of progressive ideals in a conservative mould proved popular with its mainstream Protestant membership and it was key to the success of the cooperative vision. It managed to efficiently filter out many of aspects of the woman’s movement that caused disquiet or alarm. This process of filtration arguably allowed for the ideals to subsequently be implemented on a larger scale within a wider body of the population.

5 CE often sought to rebuke those who were part of the ‘fast’ crowed, presenting fastness as sexually and morally impure, unattractive, or more generally unladylike or ungentlemanly. Some ‘fast’ activities included flirting, being out late at night, inappropriate, flashy or frivolous dress, and loud exhibitionist behaviour. While such activities were not condoned, people who did happen to have a past history of such behaviour were still fair game for conversion. One example of the rebuke against such ‘fast’ behaviour is within a weekly column in the Golden Rule also published as a book entitled, The Mossback Correspondence. See Francis E Clark, The Mossback Correspondence: Together with Mr. Mossback’s views on Certain Practical Subjects, with a Short Account of his Visit to Utopia (Boston: D Lothrop Company, 1889) 32-35, 35-38, 47-48, 71-72, 102. Clark also quotes a leading business man as stating that he regretted the ‘abominable’ things he did as a fast young man. There was always hope for getting life back on track, yet ideally CE aimed to save the youths before they fell off path. Francis Clark, Danger Signals: The Enemies of Youth from the Business Man’s Standpoint (Boston: Lee & Shepard, 1885), 110. 71

The negotiation between progressive and conservative gender ideals was not simply a strategy on behalf of CE’s leaders to present an acceptable model; it demonstrates the construction of a middle-ground, a space in which leaders and membership alike could embrace modern gender relations yet filter out the aspects they found questionable. It demonstrates a desire to maintain traditional values while also seeking to promote modern equitable and progressive ideals. Additionally, it demonstrates the individual struggles of leaders and members to find a working model for equality within their own religious and personal value systems. The hangover from past ideals was all too evident as members sought to overcome indoctrinated religious teachings and social customs. Yet there were many aspects of modern ideals that members appear to have found alarming, and simultaneously they sought to reaffirm tradition while trying to escape its limitations. CE’s initial 15 years was not just a period of foundation, it was also a period of transition where the novelty of CE’s agenda and the associated uncertainty regarding working in a dual gendered environment were overcome. Additionally, the period provides a source of comparison with following decades, for example, the period after 1895 when the cooperative model had been established but was confronted by a new threat – the desire to masculinise the church and society at large. Processes of masculinisation will be explored in chapter 5 and 6.

This chapter begins by briefly exploring related historiography about how we assess gender equality and place CE on the gender spectrum. It ends by exploring the difficulties CE faced in implementing its cooperative model; it will demonstrate that the main barrier CE faced was not male opposition to female participation, but female hesitation of taking on active roles.

Setting the Scene and Historiography

CE was created at the beginning of the growth of the reformist fervour that would transform into the Progressive movement of 1890s and early 20th century. The arguments for woman’s rights shifted after the 1870s as a more conservative, traditional and essentialist ideology emerged. Between 1848 and the 1860s the demand for equality was typically based around the idea of natural rights that woman and men shared as human beings. The argument shifted after the 1870s and started to focus on the idea that men and woman were essentially different and it

was due to this difference that both sexes required political rights.6 Essentialist argument used the notion of woman’s moral superiority as a basis for woman’s equality, arguing that if woman were naturally more moral than men then they could yield a positive influence within the religion, politics and the workplace.

Steven Buechler argues that the spread of these more conservative ideas was due to the rise of a middle-class consciousness among reformers that he attributes to the inter-organizational pressures felt within the heavily interconnected reform networks. With reform groups no longer sitting on the fringe of religious society, Protestant reform platforms felt pressure to fall in line with more mainstream principles. Mainstream beliefs included the sanctity of the home and the special influence of women both within society and the home sphere. Buechler highlights the desire of women’s activists to avoid the antagonism that dominated the previous era and to promote ‘specific duties and obligations (of each of the sexes) and the importance of harmonious and complementary relations between them.’7 In this respect, the desire for CE to promote equality alongside essentialist and domestic ideals was actually in accord with wider woman’s rights platforms and seemed ideologically coherent to individuals at the time.

Domestic feminism is one term that historians have often used to label the more conservative forms of feminism that arose in the mid to late nineteenth century which did not seek to sideline, or avoid, women’s maternal and domestic role. Janet Zollinger Giele writes that men began criticising reform minded women for trying to move beyond women’s proper sphere. Women were blocked from taking on leadership roles and barred from; within mission and reform organizations, they could work for the organizations, but not take on leadership roles because it was believed that their proper place was within the home. Women responded by arguing that their abilities as homemakers ‘also needed in public life’; their influence was needed in both public and private life.8 Karen J Blair explores the

6 For a brief analysis of variations on the essentialist construction of womanhood with a focus on woman suffrage see, Alexander Keyssar, The Right to Vote: The Contested History of Democracy in the United States (New York: Basic Books, 2000), 188-189. 7 Steven M. Buechler, ‘ Elizabeth Boynton Harbert and the Woman Suffrage Movement, 1870-1896’, Signs 13, no. 1 (1897), 97. 8 Janet Zollinger Giele, Two Paths to Women’s Equality: Temperance, Suffrage, and the Origins of Modern Feminism (New York: Twayne Publishers, 1995), 38-39. 73

role of woman’s club within the United States in the nineteenth century in this context. She claims that the appeal of Domestic Feminism lay in its ‘its redefinition of the ideal of ladydom’ while also affirming its soundness.9 Woman did not need to become masculinised to engage in reform activities or to hold political views. By removing the brunt of the stigma, under domestic feminism women were free to take the ideology of the home with them into the public realm.10

These essentialist domestic arguments worked well in promoting a place, and a need, for women within reform movements. Historian Ian Tyrrell has demonstrated both the strength and limitations of the family ideology within woman’s role in the public sphere within his analysis of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (W.C.T.U).11 Exploring the matter from a transnational view, he argues that the ideology worked differently in various cultural contexts. In Australia ‘temperance men’ supported women’s entry into the temperance work and the W.C.T.U.. This partnership was framed within the context of companionship between wives and husbands, brothers and sisters, and fathers and daughters – but the extent of true equality was arguably stunted by the fact that a woman’s role in the home was not, truly speaking, an equal one.12 He argues that men within the colonies assumed an assured position as head of the home, which was reinforced by women’s inferior legal status. The reinforcement of women’s role as mothers and by pushing their domestic function into public life had the dual purpose of providing a space for women to engage in reform while also potentially replicating their submissive position to men.13 Tyrrell notes that the separate spinster culture that had developed within the United States and Great Britain provided some women with a special space to work outside of the family dynamic; spinster culture meant that they could rise above, or work somewhat outside, the paternal framework. But that space translated best into woman’s-only organizations rather than a dual

9 Karen J Blair, The Clubwoman as Feminist: True Womanhood Redefined 1868-1914 (New York: Holmes & Meier Publishers, 1980) 15. 10 Blair, The Clubwoman as Feminist, 4. 11 Ian Tyrrell, Woman’s World/Woman’s Empire: The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union in International Perspective, 1880-1930 (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1991). 12 Ian Tyrrell, Woman’s World/Woman’s Empire, 138-139. 13 Alternatively, familial roles did not always equate equality, with racial hierarchies developing and turning relationships from a ‘sisterhood’ to a maternal ‘motherhood’. See Ian Tyrrell, Woman’s World/Woman’s Empire. 139-144. 74

gendered organization like CE that embraced male and female partnership at its core. At the same time, CE’s pledge challenged the boundaries of women’s participation by requiring equal participation in meetings, while also potentially replicating/retaining them.

Historians have examined women’s clubs and mission societies, both of which are said to have provided a space and impetus for women to seek to engage with the public sphere. Joan Firor Scott argues that women’s experiences within female mission societies and religious organizations in the 1860s and 1870s, especially of male opposition to women having independence, stimulated the beginning of what, from a modern perspective, we would label as a feminist consciousness. 14 She also argues that the religious context allowed women to grapple with issues that would have been perceived as ‘alarmingly radical’ within a secular context. 15 The power of religion and female unity helped to raise consciousness of both women’s potential as well as the limitations imposed on women. Little scholarly attention has been paid, however, to the role of dual gendered organizations like CE. Further, while many women’s organisations are argued to have adopted domestic feminism, an exploration of the role of men in promoting this ideal is largely absent.16 When using the example of CE, it appears that male leaders pushed for women’s equality as much as the female leaders. Although the male leaders did not initially fashion themselves as the male feminist crusaders that other men did in organizations such as the dual gendered American

14 Anne Firor Scott, Natural Allies: Women’s Associations in American History (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1991), 85. 15 Scott, Natural Allies, 85. 16 Historiography of gender, and particularly manhood will be explored in more detail within chapter five. For the moment it is useful to note that work has been done which explores male support of woman’s rights. In particular, Chris Dixon has written about abolitionists and their relations within their family and marriages. Although he covers the antebellum period and is prior to the creation of CE, he does explore the tensions men faced, especially considering those men were covering such uncharted waters – guidance existed which prescribed ideal manly behaviour, but this did not include a consideration of woman’s position and their interest in the matter was considered atypical. The commitment of these men to woman’s equality both within the intimate relationships, the home sphere and the public sphere was remarkable yet also displayed the inconsistencies and pervasion of inequitable gender roles; gallantry, chivalry and paternalism all muddied the picture. These men were the precursors to Clark and others like him, who could embrace the ideals of woman’s equality yet still struggled with inconsistencies and had to navigate deeply set gender roles. See; Chris Dixon, Perfecting the Family: Antislavery Marriages in Nineteenth-Century America (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1997) 2-4, 55-57. 180-182. For a analysis of the legal history of the politics and a cultural implications of marriage as a legal institution see, Nancy F. Cott, Public Vows: A History of Marriage and the Nation (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2000) 75

Suffrage Association or the American Purity Alliance, men’s engagement with demands for equality within CE proves interesting. It serves to provide insight into how gender relations shifted in practice as well as what such shifts entailed.17 A dual gendered perspective adds to the inherent complexities.

There is also occasional lack of clarity within historiography as to whether individuals who espoused domestic feminist ideals were actually feminists. Alison Twells explores the conjunction by examining Missionary Domesticity and Global reform within the ‘Woman’s Sphere’ in England during the early nineteenth century.18 Her analysis raises a few key points, especially the tendency within scholarship to overlook a historical agent’s feminist demands due to their support or promotion of the idea that woman’s place was within the home or private sphere. Exploring what she terms as ‘Missionary Domesticity’ she wanted to highlight the fact that a woman’s understanding of herself as primarily ‘domestic’ did not necessarily equate to her seclusion from worldly commitments. On the contrary, she claims, women’s domestic lives were often shot through with ‘social’ and global concerns.19 Despite focusing on a slightly earlier period, Twells argument remains relevant in regards to the later historiography. There have, however, been more recent efforts to accept a more broad and complex view of feminism that encompasses its variations.20

17 See: The National Purity Congress, its papers, addresses, portraits. An illustrated record of the papers and addresses of the first National Purity Congress, held under the auspices of the American Purity Alliance ... Baltimore, October 14, 15 and 16, 1895 (New York: American Purity Alliance, 1896) 18 Alison Twells, ‘Missionary Domesticity, Global Reform and “Woman’s Sphere” in Early Nineteenth-Century England’ Gender & History, 18:2 (August 2006), 266-284. 19 Ibid., 267-268. 20 Prudence Flowers seeks to complicate our understanding of first-wave feminism by arguing that domestic feminism was not limited to fairs and temperance crusades. She argues that members of the WCTU held political ambitions and engaged in activities that posed a fundamental and widespread challenge to the ideals of true womanhood. Ultimately she suggests that the historical divisions between radical and conservative reform groups were not necessarily clear-cut. Prudence Flowers ‘White Ribboners and the Ideology of Separate Spheres, 1860s-1890s’ Australasian Journal of American Studies, 25:1 (2006), 14-31; Nancy Cott, Bonds of Womanhood: “Woman’s Sphere” in New England 1780-1935 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997), 125; Parsons explores the ambiguity of the feminist stance of temperance reformers during the late nineteenth century. She explains that while at times nineteenth-century temperance reformers seem to have opposed rather than participated in much of the women’s rights agenda, or when they did participate they seemed to participate for what, to twentieth century eyes, may seem like the wrong types of reasons, ultimately played a indispensable role in the collapse of patriarchal privilege. Yet there were a large group of women (and some men) who via their temperance work were active in supporting women’s empowerment through 76

From the 1980s, historians increasingly recognized the complicated terrain that feminism navigated and have increasingly taken notice of conservative counterparts. 21 The interrelations between radical, conservative and moderate ideals, however, leave room for exploration. It is difficult to place groups, and even individuals, within a neat box that divides conservatives and radicals. The diversity within reform circles makes any tight delineation extraordinarily difficult, and somewhat ahistorical. Clark’s navigation between conservative and radical ideals, and the society’s attempts to both expand woman’s sphere along with avoiding alienating its more conservative members demonstrate the complex processes that shifted gender relations on the ground. Arguably, CE sought its own space within the reform spectrum, a space that proved both safe and expansive.

Avoiding Radicalism: Placing CE within a Feminist Spectrum

Trying to place CE’s ideas on the feminist spectrum proves difficult, not least because it appears Clark was keen to avoid associating the group with more radical elements of the woman’s movement but also because, from a modern feminist standpoint, CE’s publications were littered with contradictions. Contradictions are often seen between an activist’s political stance in comparison to their personal action or words, yet these contradictions are evident within Clark’s own position – this will be explored with examples in chapter 4. One source Clark wrote could keenly assert woman’s right to equality and emancipation from restrictive constructions of womanhood but, conversely, the same source could state that the most righteous place for woman was the home. This diverted even from essentialist feminist constructions, which purported that it was woman’s special position as woman that made them especially equipped to heal the world and purify politics in a fashion that men were unable to. These complications are suggestive of a struggle

the condemnation of men’s failure to meet their patriarchal responsibilities. Parson’s resists from labelling these reformers as feminist, writing that it would be ‘pat’ to divide reformers into one of two camps. Her analysis also highlights the need to leave room for individual idiosyncrasies when studying a movement. This ambiguous space is where we often find ourselves working with when it came to CE members. See Elaine Frantz Parsons, Manhood Lost: Fallen Drunkards and Redeeming Women in the Nineteenth-Century United States (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 2003), 9, 17, 172. 21 William Leach, True Love and Perfect Union: the Feminist Reform of Sex and Society (New York: Basic Books, 1980); Blair, The Clubwoman as Feminist. 1-5; more recent explorations of woman’s engagement within reform and humanitarian movements, although not focusing on the feminist drive, can be seen in Julia P Irwin, Making the World Safe: The American Red Cross and a Nation’s Humanitarian Awakening (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013), 16-19. 77

both within individuals, as well as within the organization as a whole, to find a coherent working model for their desire for equality within the traditional family values that were so fundamental to Protestant value system(s). The negotiation of gender norms proved delicate and complicated.

Clark’s decision to avoid engaging with the woman’s movement was not accidental. The woman’s movement was so heavily entwined with the issues CE engaged that the movement’s striking absence from early feminist literature must have been intentional. Further, CE leadership was noted for its skilled ability to avoid alliances with issues that could cause friction or unwanted entanglements and associations.22 Clark was credited with being able to hold all his forces in ‘in order and harmony’ and as having ‘nothing of that rashness which strains his relations with the community by constantly precipitating the unexpected.‘23 Other CE leaders were also noted for their diplomatic sensibility; an 1895 article in the New England Magazine celebrated the skill with which the secretary of the United Society of Christian Endeavor, John Willis Baer, was able to surpass even presidents and ambassadors in avoiding entangling alliances.24 It was noted that despite the fact that suggestions would pile in upon him, Baer was able to quickly sift through them and ‘quietly dispose of the chaff.’25 In 1888 while planning the fourth annual CE convention, the trustees of CE refused to receive fraternal delegates from any organization whatsoever, because they had been ‘beset by political parties, temperance societies, benevolent organizations, denominational fraternities of all sorts, asking recognition and seeking to get their plans before the conventions.’26 In time, as CE consolidated its own identity, inter-organizational alliances would be embraced, with groups such as the Student Volunteer Movement or the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union speaking at various CE conventions and being promoted within CE literature. Yet, although never made explicit, CE’s measured approach was not disposed of. Despite the fact that CE was represented as an organic organisation, driven by the interests of its local members, at an institutional

22 Frank Otis Erb, ‘The Development of the Young People’s Movement’, The Biblical World Vol.8, No. 3 (Sept, 1916) 133. 23 Hill ‘The Leaders of the Christian Endeavor Movement’, 589. 24 Hill ‘The Leaders of the Christian Endeavor Movement’, 589, 590. 25 Ibid., 590. 26 Erb, “The Development of the Young People’s Movement”, 133. 78

level it was well orchestrated, its leaders carefully picking and choosing those with whom it would align. A strange equilibrium between an openness of association worked alongside a desire to present a polished image and employ selectivity in CE’s chosen institutional ties.

Despite embracing reforms that promoted women’s issues, such as the temperance or purity movements, CE subtly avoided alliance with more radical streams of feminism. Arguably the more radical streams did not seek an alliance with CE either. This was a period of diversity within the women’s movement, with the rise of radical ideas that challenged religious doctrines such as the 1895 publication of Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s Woman’s Bible, which argued against the notion of biblical authority. This was partnered with the concurrent rise of more religiously minded forms of domestic feminism.27 Arguably, avoiding entanglement in the woman’s cause reflected CE’s desire to promote harmony within the membership and to avoid topics that could polarize opinion. Clark and fellow leaders avoided affiliations that could subsume CE’s image and religious purpose in social or political controversy, but as will be explored in the following chapters, while this may have brought its cooperative ideology to a broader portion of the population, it also blunted CE’s lasting impact after the initial period of ‘empowerment’ as it failed to keep up with the expansion of women’s roles. CE started out as a potential trailblazer before losing its fire in the interest of maintaining broad-based organisational unity. Whether CE was part of the women’s movement is a separate question. The women’s movement was a multifaceted movement; its overall aim was to achieve moral, domestic and civil equality for women.28 Regardless of whether CE worked under its banner, it was a source for changing gendered interaction on the ground.

CE did share several core values with the women’s movement, however. Its powerful capacity to facilitate societal change initially came from the fact that it was able to successfully package equality in a way that appealed to a portion of the

27 Within the Woman’s Bible, Stanton rejected biblical authority and received a hostile reception, even from those who advocated for gender equality within religion. For further discussion see Mark Chaves, Ordaining Women (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1997) 93-98. 28 Janet Zollinger Giele, Two Paths to Women’s Equality: Temperance, Suffrage, and the Origins of Modern Feminism (New York: Twayne Publishers, 1995) 61-62. 79

population who were not particularly active in the women’s rights campaign.29 But this is not clear-cut. Calling for equal participation in CE was not the same as seeking female equality in all spheres. Evidence of the conservative bent amongst CE membership is perhaps best demonstrated by the committee work which members embraced. The fundamental belief that CE should not seek to legislate on matters of individual conscience meant that members were free to create committees dedicated to any work or cause that they found of interest as long as it was in line with their Christian beliefs – this helps us gain insight into the interests of the membership.30 Despite suffrage being the dominant face of the women’s rights campaign, very few CE societies established suffrage committees. Reforms such as temperance and purity remained the staples. Whilst women’s rights were intrinsic to both the purity and temperance reform agenda their ideals were typically framed around more conservative values that appear to have been more in harmony with the membership’s worldview. Regardless of the desire to avoid women’s rights, an overhaul of the restrictive and limited constructions of womanhood and manhood was required in order for CE’s cooperative vision to prove effective. Although progressive gender constructs were well articulated, there was also concern that they could promote a ‘worldliness’ or ‘fastness’ that was undesirable in young Christians.31 Therefore, a filtration process was necessary so leaders and members alike could try to mould new gender ideals around their Protestant value system.

29 It is difficult to prove the negative, this conclusion comes from initial failed attempts to trace prominent woman’s rights activists within, or back to, CE. There are examples that suggest members sought more suitable organizations if they radicalized. Kate Richards O’Hare, a socialist was active within the WCTU and CE within her youth, yet she does not have traceable connections after she grows older, gets married and radicalises. Those who have written about her youth say she was inspired to join due to her Christian faith as well as her desire to help others, particularly in alleviating poverty. K. Basen, “Kate Richards O’hare: the “first lady” of American Socialism, 1901-1917”, Labor History, 21:2 (1980), 170.; Suzanne H. Schrems, “Who’s Rocking the Cradle?”: Women Pioneers of Oklahoma Politics from Socialism to the KKK, 1900-1930 (Norman, Oklahoma: Horse Creek Publications, 2004), 19. 30 Again this links back to CE’s Congregationalist foundation, with Congregationalism having each body of worshipers (church) as an independent and self-governing group that therefore allowed for variations and gradual alterations without any great schism. William R. Moody, D.L Moody (New York: Garland Publishing, 1988), 17. 31 See ‘An Open Letter from Mr. Mossback to Miss Pertie Pickles’ and ‘An Open Letter from Mr. Mossback to Miss Rapid’ in Francis E Clark, The Mossback Correspondence: Together with Mr. Mossback’s views on Certain Practical Subjects, with a Short Account of his Visit to Utopia (Boston: D Lothrop Company, 1889) 32-33, 33-34. Also see, Francis E. Clark, Looking out on life. A book for girls on practical subjects based on many letters from wise mothers (Boston: D. Lothrop company, 1892).54-55, 86, 96. 80

Cooperation and Equality of the Sexes: Novelty and Discomfort

After cementing its ideological commitment to imposing equal demands on all members of CE, regardless of sex, CE faced difficulty in putting ideology into practice. The novelty and associated discomfort members faced when interacting with the opposite sex is evident during the initial decade of CE. There were two concerns for the members. The first and most overt issue was the uncertainty that surrounded the doctrine St Paul, and Paul’s argument that women should keep silent in the churches. This begged the larger question of whether it was appropriate, or even religiously sanctioned, for women to speak within a religious and dual gendered setting. The background of the doctrine of St Paul was covered within chapter 1 and its treatment of Harriet’s concerns regarding the pledge – this remained a matter of contention for the first decade before the topic faded away. The second, and more subtle challenge, was the intrusion of traditional social behaviour and customs which often created a sense of discomfort when both genders tried to engage with each other in a professional and social manner. Interacting in such an environment was a new terrain for many members and it occasionally resulted in awkward and stilted interactions.

CE framed its embrace of cooperative gender relations as being in tune with the times. As Rev. James L Hill writes,

As the society stands for interdenominational comity and for the principles of good citizenship, so it stands for the co-operation of the sexes in Christian work. Our colleges everywhere are introducing coeducation. Conservative Harvard now has her Radcliffe. The Society of Endeavor is in harmony with this great movement of the age.32

CE’s claim to be in ‘harmony’ with the shift towards cooperative gender relations did not mean that it was always easy to create harmonious relations in practice.

CE constructed its own ‘space’ from which it could enact its vision in the hope that that vision would spread into the wider world. Concepts of space, and their relationship with gender are useful. A ready means of comparison is Jeanne

32 Hill ‘The Leaders of the Christian Endeavor Movement’, 594; Rev. James L Hill was a minister from Medford, Massachusetts who was active within the early years of CE. His wife, Mrs James L Hill was also active. See, ‘Active Young Christians : They will hold a big Convention next July. How Christian Endeavor Societies Started and Their Remarkable Growth’ New York Times, 13 March 1892; Lydia Hoyt Farmer, The National Exposition Souvenir: What America Owes to Women (Buffalo: C.W.Moulton, 1893) 339. 81

Halgren Kilde’s exploration of the construction of gendered space in Chautauqua, an adult education camp located in New York that was open to both men and women. Chautauqua was started in 1874 by a Methodist minister, but became a nondenominational religious retreat which attracted visitors from all over the United States. Visitors would stay for extended periods at the campsite, listening to the various lecture series on offer and socialising with fellow attendees. Kilde has provided an interesting analysis of the gendered space at Chautauqua, exploring how men reacted to their time at the camp – arguing that many men perceived the camp as a ‘feminized’ space.33 She notes that Rudyard Kipling visited and described the crowd as being comprised of ‘very many women and a few clergymen’; Kipling found the number of women he encountered, their boisterous behaviour, and their lack of knowledge of the world, annoying.34 He criticized the ‘unnatural’ influence of females at Chautauqua. Evidently, providing the ideology of cooperation was not always enough – the genders needed to find a way to actually work in harmony. Not all men or women were convinced or happy to cooperate.

Concepts of space, and gendered space (or as Kilde argues, the gendering of space), prove enlightening when trying to explore interactions between the sexes in CE.35 Kilde argues that scholars should examine the gendering of spaces, opposed to gendered space. She sought to ‘foreground the processes that determine how spaces become identified with multiple (not simply binary) gender categories’ and also, more importantly, toward ‘gendering in space’, which would focus on how spaces help define, maintain, and sometimes even subvert gender categories.36 She argues that the gendering of space is intrinsic to the construction of gender strongly influencing men and women’s behaviour, and power, within them’. 37 Such constructions prove difficult to apply in CE, where there was a desire to avoid a sense of disruption. Yet regardless of CE’s reluctance to embrace any overtly revolutionary feminist cause – the reality is that CE was very much in the habit of trying to shape and influence the behaviour of its members within its meeting space.

33 Jeanne Halgren Kilde, ‘The "Predominance of the Feminine" at Chautauqua: Rethinking the Gender- Space Relationship in Victorian America’ Signs, 24:2 (1999) 449-486. 34 Ibid., 450. 35 Ibid., 454. 36 Ibid., 454. 37 Kilde, ‘The "Predominance of the Feminine" at Chautauqua’, 452. 82

It favoured representing the shifts in gender relations as a natural development in the progress of civilization. However, the fact that CE played a role in providing a space to question prescribed forms of gendered behaviour, affirms its function as an actor in the construction of gender. The struggle of CE to avoid the taint of feminization, and feminized space, became even more pressing as muscular Christianity took hold, as will be explored within chapters 5 and 6. For the moment it is important to note that CE was constructing its own space during this period. The idea that it constructed a space that influenced members’ behaviour is useful for trying to assess its overall impact upon its membership. It can be difficult however to determine the impact of the society’s gender ideals on individual members or the longer term results of this.

There was uncertainty amongst CE members during the initial decade regarding how the cooperative vision should, or could, work in practice. Due to this uncertainty, leaders undertook a consistent and diligent process of affirming both the ideology and practicalities of working amongst a dual gendered membership and CE served as a training ground for the cooperative model.38 During the New York State’s Fourth Annual Convention, held in 1889, a panel was established to allow members to seek advice from CE leaders regarding how to best manage their respective societies. Many of the questions related to the organizational structure of the society, such as the role of a president, the role of the secretary, or practical questions such as how to stop people whispering during meetings.39 Other questions included, ‘we have members who repeatedly break their pledge, what would you do?’ The answer was to tell them that ‘Christ forgives very often, but even His mercy has a limit.’40 There were also quite pointed questions including one member who asked why there was no ‘coloured society’ represented at the convention. The

38 The notion of CE as a training ground for cooperative gender relations was first noted within Frank Otis Erbs PhD dissertation, which was also published in part within the periodical the Biblical World. Frank Otis Erb, ‘The Development of the Young People’s Movement’ (PhD Diss., University of Chicago, 1917) 51, 61. 39 Fourth Annual Conference of the Young People Society of Christian Endeavour for the State of New York, 1889, 50. 40 Ibid.,102. 83

response was ‘I hope you will give a royal answer by establishing a coloured society in your vicinity as soon as possible.’41

While there was no rule regarding segregation of societies and an embrace of an inclusive ‘interracial’ membership, there were often groups that were all of a certain race including African American societies or those comprised of immigrant communities such as Chinese CE societies.42 Dr W.T Johnson, pastor of the First Baptist Church, Richmond, Virginia, served as a representative on the board of trustees and spoke at CE conventions. 43 Reflecting on the history of CE, and including a glowing account of its interracial ideals, CE treasurer William Shaw noted that the African American leaders ‘never for one moment embarrassed the movement by insisting upon their personal right to social recognition where such an insistence would conflict with deep-seated prejudices and social customs, and would involve the movement in trouble and controversy’. 44 Writing of the first CE convention to be held in the South of the United States, in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1898, Shaw claimed the African American leaders suggested that they be entertained by ‘leading colored citizens instead of at the hotel headquarters of the United Society officers and trustees.’ This was because they ‘recognized the fact that in any Southern city such social recognition was impossible and that Christian Endeavor was not there to conflict with the personal social customs of the people.’ It was only when it came to the meetings within the convention, ‘which belonged to them as much as any nationality, were they willing to insist upon their undoubted right to equal treatment, had such insistence been necessary.’45 This highlights once again CE’s delicate balancing act between enforcing their vision and ideals while trying not to cause conflict or disruption. The negotiation of race was similar to their negotiation of gender.

At the New York States Fourth Annual Convention, 1889, additional questions also reflected the difficulty that some groups faced in implementing equal participation between the sexes. One question asked if woman should be president

41 Fourth Annual Conference of the Young People Society of Christian Endeavour for the State of New York, 1889, 102. 42 Ibid., 249-255. 43 Ibid., 253. 44 Ibid., 253-254. 45 Ibid., 254. 84

of CE societies, with the answer being ‘yes, societies support ladies.’46 Another question asked for advice on how to ‘induce’ woman to lead the prayer meetings.47 The solutions provided by the panel were telling and suggested that, from their minds, the association with the pulpit was the main cause for the women’s trepidation at leading prayer-meetings. As mentioned previously, although some Protestant denominations had allowed woman to be ordained in the mid nineteenth century, many did not allow female ordination until well in to the twentieth century. Debates raged through Protestant circles as to what role women should be able to take on within the church. Although CE was not seeking to ordain women, such decisions would be solely in the hands of the individual denomination to which each society belonged, the very point of pushing for women leading prayer meetings and the suggestion that they could have a ‘holy voice’ was potentially provocative.48 The interdenominational structure of CE meant that there was a diversity of opinion within its ranks. On this issue common sense suggests that groups who staunchly opposed female participation would be unlikely to create a CE society within their Church – indeed there is no evidence that the vocal role of women within the society was ever internally up for debate. 49 There is evidence, however, that a dual

46 Fourth Annual Conference of the Young People Society of Christian Endeavour for the State of New York, 1889, 50-51. 47 Ibid., 22. 48 For an analysis of the wider debate within protestant circles, both during the late nineteenth century as well as the brief links to the twentieth see, Mark Chaves, Ordaining Women: Culture and Conflict in Religious Organizations (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1997) 95-106. Of particular interest is the point that formal opposition to female clergy is only loosely coupled with actual practice. I.e.: Women served as leaders in fundamentalist congregations that formally opposed female ordination, whilst there was also a high level of resistance to female clergy even among the ‘liberal’ congregations who were seen to otherwise support woman’s ordination. Chaves, 106. 49 In terms for making room for internal differences of opinion regarding female role, there is the occasional discussion as to what a CE society can do if their church staunchly opposes women’s participation within public talks. Overall it appears that CE would prefer a CE society to be created instead of none at all, even if women did not take part in public meetings. This approach, however, was more typical in foreign, non-western, nations where the culture at large was adverse to the opposite sexes openly interacting in such public settings. One of the few examples of such an approach been taken within the United States is within one institutional guidebook which was written by the President of the Ohio Christian Endeavor Union. It was not published by the United Christian Endeavor Union which could explain the slight deviation from the standard approach. It states, ‘Should there be a desire to form a Christian Endeavor Society in a church which will not allow ladies to take part in public meetings, the project need not be abandoned on account of this prohibition. The fact that women are not permitted to participate is a reason for refraining that they can conscientiously give to God, and there are other lines of Christian Endeavor work in which they may engage. Christian Endeavor, even in such circumstances, would be at least as good as any other society that could be formed.’ W.F McCauley, How: a Handbook of Christian Endeavor Methods (Cincinnati: The Standard Publishing Co.,1893), 5. 85

gendered membership did occasionally deter potential members from joining the society. During the 8th National CE Convention, which was held in Philadelphia in 1889, Rev John Wilbur Chapman told delegates that he represented a denomination that looked with fear upon women speaking in a meeting. 50 Accordingly his parishioners refused to join CE meetings if he allowed women to speak. And for a time, he recalls, many of his parishioners did not come. Chapman claims that their apprehension was overcome because ‘there was something about a woman’s speech - the intonation of her voice, together with what she has to say – when she is consecrated to God, that carries force when man has failed.’51 This statement once again seeks to reaffirm the potential power of female members, yet also carves out a female sphere. What he did not mention, however, was the power of his persistence. Indeed, the panel at the convention recognized that the ‘misinterpretation’ of S,’s injunction upon the Corinthian ladies was ‘more ingrained in some churches than others’ and would take time ‘to get it out’.52 In time, persistence proved fruitful. Frank Otis Erb recounts that the exegesis by which the doctrine of St Paul was evaded was both curious and wonderful.53 CE was credited by one enthusiastic leader as being the ‘key that opened the door’ to allow for woman’s participation in meetings within the stricter denominations.54

The acknowledgement of the uncertainty surrounding women’s role within the church was significant, as was CE’s desire to change such opinions, albeit softly. Instead of making a point of enticing members to revolt against what they perceived as a misinterpretation, leaders sought to make the female members comfortable with leading prayer by attempting to remove negative associations. The panel at the 1889 New York State convention suggested that affected groups could help overcome the reservations of its members by avoiding placing speakers on a raised platform which was typically associated with a pulpit as well as constructing a less

50 Rev. J. Wilbur Chapman was a pastor at the First Reformed Church, Albany, NY. 51 Rev. J. Wilbur Chapman, ‘For what does the Christian Endeavor Movement Stand?”, in Minutes of the Eighth annual Christian Endeavor Convention held in First Regt. Armory Hall, Philadelphia, PA (Boston: The United Society Of Christian Endeavor, 1889) 103. 52 Fourth Annual Conference of the Young People Society of Christian Endeavour for the State of New York, 1889, 22. 53 Erb, ‘The Development of the Young People’s Movement’, The Biblical World 8:3 (1916), 137. 54 Lydia Hoyt Farmer, The National Exposition Souvenir: What America Owes to Women (Buffalo: C.W.Moulton, 1893), 339. 86

formal setting for the meetings. The advice aimed to make leading the prayer meetings less threatening for those women who would have otherwise been apprehensive to take part. It could have potentially served to make male members more comfortable with the female participants too.55 However, overcoming male discomfort never appeared to be an explicit concern; instead, discussion of the issue was typically framed around an emphasis of the need for women to rise to the challenge. In this respect the approach upheld the wider ideals of the women’s movement in promoting equitable relations but it did not antagonize or alienate those who were still uncertain about essentialized female equality. Ultimately the level of adjustment to the notion of women leading prayer tended to vary among different CE societies, yet the condition of equal participation at least served to challenge those who were holding on to the theological dogma of the past. This demonstrates one way that CE served to help shift restrictive gender roles on the ground.

Ongoing concern about the propriety of equal participation is evident in the fact that the doctrine of St Paul was a popular topic for discussion during early conventions and within guidance literature. There were lingering doubts amongst some of the female membership, which prompted various attempts to curb the underlying reasons for women’s failure to participate. A practical guide for running CE societies was published in 1890 and a section was dedicated to the topic of the prayer meeting.56 Within this section Rev. Wayland Hoyt dedicated a whole page to highlighting the misinterpretation of St Paul’s injunction upon women.57 Focusing on the theological soundness of a mixed gendered membership, Hoyt assured members’ that St Paul intended, not to keep women silent, but to stop parishioners,

55 Fourth Annual Conference of the Young People Society of Christian Endeavour for the State of New York, 1889, 51. 52-54. 56 The same topic was originally presented as a speech during the 1889 convention where it was reported to have been interrupted by constant applause. Minutes of the Eighth annual Christian Endeavor Convention held in First Regt. Armory Hall, Philadelphia, PA (Boston: The United Society Of Christian Endeavor, 1889) 9. 57 Rev Hoyt also writes within another section that the ‘equal grasp’ of CE on both woman and men is one of the reasons that he was deeply interested in the society. Rev. Wayland Hoyt, ‘The best way of training young Christians’ in Francis Clark, Ways and Means for the Young People’s Society of Christian Endeavor: A Book of Suggestions for the Prayer-meeting, the Committees, and all Lines of Christian work Adopted by Christian Endeavor Societies (Boston: D Lothrop Company, 1890) 35. 87

both male and female, from making a disturbance during Church services.58 Indeed, embracing the essentialist argument, another source argued that if woman were actually more talkative than men as the stereotype assumes, then women should not be held responsible for it - God must have intentionally made them that way.59 Seeking to reassure members, Rev. Hoyt presented CE as providing a ‘new’ style of prayer meeting which was ‘best’ because it replicated the old typical prayer meeting of the New Testament which, amongst other things, allowed women to speak. Demonstrating the unwavering stance that CE took regarding women’s equal participation Hoyt celebrated that CE,

does give to woman, and insists on giving to woman, and God grant it may forever and continually insist on giving to woman, holy speech. These miserable padlocks on the gracious lips of woman ought to be unlocked and broken off and flung away forever.’60

Hoyt, like many other CE leaders, did not shy away from representing CE as a source of women’s (spiritual) emancipation. The central place that such discussions took within literature demonstrates that there was a need for such reassurance. However, their efforts proved effective as the discussion of St Paul’s injunction, or at least a need to provide a rationale for woman’s public participation within CE, was no longer evident by the late nineteenth century.

The reason public speaking was such a central feature of CE, both in practice and purpose, was that Clark wanted young Christians to be able to publicly profess their devotion to Christ, regardless of sex. He explained the demand for verbal participation within the meeting as a form of training based on the assumption that ‘good, strong, voluntary expression(s) of religious truth in childhood’ would ‘prevent many of the sad wrecks of religious faith in manhood.’61 Although he admitted that not every young Christian would turn into an ‘embryonic orator’, Clark believed that to confess Christ did not require training in rhetoric or elocution but simply required the expression of love which he believed was natural and appropriate for

58 Clark, Ways and Means, 62-63. 59 Alice May Scudder, ‘Woman’s Work in Christian Endeavor’ in Francis Clark, Ways and Means, 317. 60 Clark, Ways and Means, 62-63. 61 Francis Clark, Young People’s Prayer-meetings in Theory and Practice (Chicago: Funk & Wagnalls, 1887), 23. This quote was copied within John R Clements (ed.),The Francis E Clark Year-book: a collection of living paragraphs from addresses, books and magazine articles by the founder of the Young People’s Society of Christian Endeavor (Boston: United Society of Christian Endeavor, 1904), 14 88

the young soul.62 Critics of CE methods, particularly the public speaking component, were concerned that such actions were unnatural and would create conceited or priggish young Christians.63 Ultimately, however, Clark believed that creating an articulate youth who could talk about their religious beliefs in adulthood, and who could ideally defend the faith and convert individuals to its cause, would serve the Church and the nation well. Finally, he hoped that the young would not turn back into the ‘ranks of the dumb and lifeless’ Christians, ‘who have mouths, but speak not.’64 The desire for an articulate and intelligent body of members was maintained throughout the decades and CE provided a rigorous training with this aim in mind.65 To fulfil this aim it was necessary for male and female members alike to take on an active and vocal role.

The importance Clark placed on having both sexes serving as active CE members is evident in his claim that unequal female participation was one of the greatest threats a group could face. He diagnosed two potential causes for the failure of female members to participate. The first was that they could be discouraged from taking part by fellow members. The second was that female members could chose not take because they held ‘some false ideas of modesty’ that resulted in them only being willing to repeat passages of scripture. For Clark, the repetition of verses was not considered to amount to the level of participation required of women or men. He

62 Clark, Young People’s Prayer-meetings in Theory and Practice, 17. 63 Clark, Young People’s Prayer-meetings in Theory and Practice, 63; Francis Clark, Memories of Many Men in Many Lands (Boston: United Society of Christian Endeavor, 1922) 85-86. For further discussion of the criticism CE faced, particularly in regards to the pledge, see Christopher Coble, ‘Where Have all the Young People Gone? The Christian Endeavor Movement and the Training of Protestant Youth, 1881-1918.’ (Diss., Harvard University, 2001). 111-112; Similar fears of CE methods were also mentioned when discussing the spread of CE to Great Britain. The English in particular were said to experience horror at the thought ‘of anything which seems to encourage precocity or priggishness’. Potential CE members were said to fear what they perceived as the ‘rushing pushing spirit of’ ”Young America”’. Therefore, it was noted that special care was required when seeking to bring CE to the British Isles. See ‘Address of Rev. C.A. Dickinson’ in Narrative of the Tenth Annual Conference of the Young People’s Society of Christian Endeavor held in the Exposition Building Minneapolis, Minnesota, 61-62. 64 Clark, Young People’s Prayer-meetings in Theory and Practice , 17. 65 Other leaders also promoted the centrality of creating intelligent Christians within CE’s purpose and aims. It was argued that CE should facilitate bible study that was ‘inductive, independent, logical, definite and comprehensive’ and it was asserted that CE’s future growth depended upon its intelligent and spiritual grasp of scriptural truth. See Dwight L Pratt, A Decade of Christian Endeavor 1881-1891 (New York: Fleming H Revell Company, 1891) xi, 6, 35, 159, 161-162, 164, 171. The desire for CE members to be intelligent and informed Christians is highlighted further in Francis Clark, Ways and Means, 211. 89

presented it as almost a form of cheating, of simply going through the motions. Clark was not alone in this concern. Sophie Bronson Titterington wrote a novel about a Christian Endeavor Society wherein her fictional President, Ruth Ellis, reported with concern that there was something lacking in her society. Ruth worried that her members were not inspired by the Holy Spirit as many ‘would content themselves with merely repeating a passage of Scripture, not for any preciousness in it to themselves, but for the sake of keeping their pledge, in form at least.’66 This led her to ask how much of all the activity of her group was actually Christian.67 Speech or actions, in themselves, were not enough to fulfil one’s obligations. For that purpose, conscious effort, intelligent thought, and faith and reflection were required. Other less common sources, however, which appear to be directed towards females, celebrated the fact that each member pledges himself or herself to participate, ‘in some way, (even) if only by the repetition of a verse of scripture’.68

Despite differences in how the concept of ‘participation’ was envisioned, Clark sought to assert that in the Young Peoples Society of Christian Endeavor there were ‘equal rights and equal responsibilities and equal privileges for all’.69 The duty was placed on fellow members to ensure that both males and females assumed an equal role within the society. They were reminded that a refusal to do so could result in a revocation of membership. The pledge was used as a means to inspire members to overcome their hesitation and rise above any feelings of discomfort. Private diary records suggest that the pledge was successful in this task for both male and females. In his autobiography, Anton T Boisen, who was a CE member during the early 1890s, recalls the stage fright he experienced at the prospect of giving speeches both in school as well as in CE meetings. Boisen wrote that he would ‘in great distress of mind’ read a ‘verse or scripture of some pious sentiment, as the

66 Sophie Bronson Titterington, A New Endeavor (New York: American Tract Society, 1891), 58. 67 Ibid., 59. 68 Farmer, The National Exposition Souvenir, 340. Official documents demonstrate that by 1900 the desire for a passionate or thoughtful participation opposed to simply singing songs was more typical. Amos R.Wells, The Endeavor Greeting: A Manual of Information and Suggestion for New Members (Boston: United Society of Christian Endeavor, 1900), 14-16. 69 Francis E. Clark, Reorganization (Boston: United Society of Christian Endeavor, 1887). 4. Authors emphasis. 90

pledge required.’70 Although much attention was given to helping women overcome their timid tendencies, efforts were also taken to remind women that men also suffered from shyness and timidity when speaking in public and that women were not alone in this experience.71

The significance of CE’s belief in equality between the genders within its work was not lost on the women who joined.72 For example, in 1893 Alice May Scudder served as a representative of Christian Endeavor at the Chicago World Fair’s ‘World’s Congress of Representative Women’. The Congress sought to discuss women’s position within society and its speakers included some of the most renowned women’s rights advocates and reformers of the day such as Lucy Stone and Julia Ward Howe. Scudder herself was an incredibly active participant within both CE as well as other organizations such as the club for women in business, Sorosis, which was based in New York City. Her husband, Rev John L Scudder, was a minister and it was as a young minister’s wife that she created one of the first CE societies within Minnesota.73 After they moved to New Jersey in 1886, she became the NJ CE Union’s vice president as well as a national leader for Junior Endeavor.74 She also wrote a column on topics concerning Junior Endeavor within the CE

70 Anton T Boisen, Out of the Depths: An Autobiographical Study of Mental Disorder and Religious Experience (New York: Harper & Brothers Publishes, 1960) 36,39. 71 Institutional literature presented timidity as being a general condition suffered by all members. For example, Rev Dwight L Pratt celebrated how CE members grew intellectually though their activity within the organization and that the ‘timid vanquished their timidity’ as their ‘testimony became intelligent, helpful, inspiring.’ Dwight L Pratt, A Decade of Christian Endeavor 1881-1891 (New York: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1891) ix. Also, Amos R.Wells, The Endeavor Greeting, 14-15, 36; Women were also told to cheer themselves with the thought that ‘men did not always speak to edification’, Alice May Scudder, ‘Woman’s Work in Christian Endeavor’ in Francis Clark, Ways and Means, 320. 72 Additional examples of woman discussing CE’s role at expanding woman’s position within the Church is provided in, Christopher Coble, ‘The Role of Young People’s Societies in the Training of Christian Womanhood (and Manhood), 1880-1910’, in Women and Twentieth-Century Protestantism, Margaret Lamberts Bendroth and Virginia Lieson Brereton, eds. (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2002), 80-83. 73 The date that Scudder created her CE society is not specified. It would have been sometime between 1882 and 1886, as these were the years that the Scudder’s resided within Minneapolis. They moved to New Jersey in 1886. “Mrs Alice May Scudder”, Golden Rule, January 7, 1892. 74 In 1896 Alice May Scudder also served as Secretary of the ‘house and home’ committee within the New York Business woman’s group, Sorosis. ‘Sorosis Elects Offices’ New York Times, 3 March, 1896. She was still active within the association in 1899. ‘Sorosis Social Day’ New York Daily Tribune, January 5th 1897. ‘Sorosis Applauds Treaty’ The New York Times, 7 February 7, 1899. 91

periodical, the Golden Rule.75 Scudder celebrated the lack of timidity amongst the original female members within CE, lauding their bravery for taking the pledge when, she believed, many others would not have done. Sharing in Clark’s faith in the ‘power’ of the pledge, Scudder claimed that it allowed timid female members to come out of their ‘shell’ and earnestly go forth actively pursuing Christian service.76

Presenting CE as an agency for change, Scudder reported to the Congress that ‘no organization intrusted [sic] to the church has done more for the development of women than the Christian Endeavor Society...it has been eagerly captured by those who love not the Pauline prohibition, and has proved one of woman’s strongest allies.’77 Seeking to affirm the positive influence CE had on women’s position within religious society, Scudder presented Christian Endeavor in a progressive light, arguing that it removed the conventionalities of the past, and now women could rise to, and share, the religious privileges of men as they actively pursued the society’s own form of ‘practical Christianity’.78 Emotively demonstrating the frustration that she believed women felt at being relegated to a subsidiary role within the religious community, Scudder wrote, ‘no longer must she sit in silence and hear, “thus far shalt thou go and no farther;” no longer need she find her highest church attainment in arranging tableaux and passing ice cream, but rather she is expected to exert positive spiritual influences.’ 79 Presenting CE as a potential emancipator for women within the church, Scudder celebrated the fact that thirty

75 ‘Address of Mrs Alice May Scudder’ in Narrative of the Tenth Annual Conference of the Young People’s Society of Christian Endeavor held in the Exposition Building Minneapolis, Minnesota (Boston: The United Society of Christian Endeavor, 1891), 138; The Golden Rule was originally founded by a Congregational minister, before being taken over by Christian Endeavor in 1886. In October 1890 it had 54 000 subscribers, in 1891 it had 66 000. Frank Otis Erb, ‘The Development of the Young People’s Movement’, The Biblical World 8:3 (1916),133. 76 Alice May Scudder, ‘Woman’s Work in the Society of Christian Endeavor’ in, Mary Wright Sewall. ed., The World’s Congress of Representative Women, Vol.2 (Chicago, Rand McNally, 1894), 840-843; The desire for woman to overcome their timid tendencies was a repeated within CE’s literature. CE’s first periodical, the Golden Rule, provided members with examples such as Eliza Daniel Stewart who was known as ‘Mother Stewart’ and was a driving force of the transatlantic Woman’s Temperance Campaign. Mother Stewart was said to have felt the call to Methodist Ministry earlier in her life but timidity kept her from speaking of it. Stewart believed that God had provided her with another calling later in life, in the form of the temperance crusade. ‘A Temperance Veteran’, Golden Rule, 7 November,1895. 77 Alice May Scudder, ‘Woman’s Work in the Society of Christian Endeavor’ in The World’s Congress of Representative Women, 840-843. 78 Ibid., 840. 79 Alice May Scudder, ‘Woman’s Work in the Society of Christian Endeavor’ in The World’s Congress of Representative Women, 840. 92

years ago ‘one might as well have expected to hear the dead speak as to hear a woman in a public assembly; but now our sisters sit in religious convention, and with cool nerves carry on the meetings with as much capability as members of Parliament.’80 Despite CE’s desire to promote the active participation of strong woman who were happy to take on leadership roles, the reality is that whilst some women such as Alice May Scudder embraced such a role, others were more hesitant or simply inexperienced.

The reality of women’s role within CE was not always presented so positively. Emily Wheeler, a female missionary who had spent the previous decade in Harpoot, Turkey, addressed the national 1889 Convention in Philadelphia and spoke on the topic of ‘St Paul’s advice to the Sisters’.81 Wheeler’s speech was yet another example of the attempts made to reassure membership that women could (and should) share an equal public role with men within CE. It did, however, provide insight into the potential complications involved. What was unique about Wheeler’s assessment was her blatant frustration with women’s failure to participate within public meetings. She attested that she was ‘sorry to confess it, for it does not seem quite right’ but even when taking part in an all female missionary circle, with no male brethren to arouse concern, women tended to shy away from taking a significant role.82 Wheeler complained that it was ‘exceedingly hard to get the female members to make a prayer, exceedingly hard to get anybody to give the group information and no new voices were heard’.83 She did not want to follow the typical route of levelling the blame for women’s lack of participation solely with their fear of speaking in front of men. Instead, she claimed, it was women’s pride that was the root cause for their failure to vocally participate. Wheeler believed that women feared that they would not speak or pray properly. Tugging on the evangelical

80 Alice May Scudder, ‘Woman’s Work in Christian Endeavor’ in Clark, Ways and Means, 319; Another source that touches on the issue of training woman to speak within public meetings is a colourful depiction of a woman’s suffrage meeting that falls into disarray due to their inability to follow order and rules. Frederick D Power, Thoughts of Thirty Years: From the Writings, Addresses and Sermons of Frederick D. Power, Pastor of the Vermont Avenue Christian Church, Washington D.C (Boston: United Society of Christian Endeavor, 1905), 101-108. 81 Emily Wheeler, ‘St Paul’s Advice to the Sisters’ in Minutes of the Eighth annual Christian Endeavor Convention held in First Regt. Armory Hall, Philadelphia, PA (Boston: The United Society Of Christian Endeavor, 1889), 82-85. 82 Ibid., 84. 83 Wheeler, ‘St Paul’s Advice to the Sisters’, 84. 93

impulse and members’ commitment to evangelism and conversion, Wheeler urged woman to stop only speaking about Christ in private. She demanded that if they really knew and loved Christ, then they must publicly speak about their faith. Failing to do so would be failing to share the message of Christ with those that surround them. Once again seeking to unlock the tight grip that the doctrine of St Paul had on some members, Wheeler demanded that women should look over all of St Pauls advice, not just a single verse and proceeded to provocatively ask why they chose to follow one line so strictly yet largely overlooked most of the other advice.

Wheeler shared with the audience her own experiences as a missionary in ‘Mohammaden’ Turkey. Turkey served as a major Protestant mission field, by 1910 more than one third of missionaries amongst the American Board were stationed there. 84 Wheeler evocatively contrasted women’s experience there with the comparatively privileged status of women within the United States. Providing insight into the basis for much of her frustration, she was clearly unsettled by the oppressive cultural norms that she witnessed in Turkey. She told delegates about how young women were wrapped in multiple scarves that blocked their eyes and mouth, and how upon marriage they were not allowed to speak to older relatives within their husband’s family. Further, she explained how she would not speak in front of a mixed audience in Turkey for anything due to fear of the scandal it would create.85 Wheeler spurned the American women’s failure to take upon more vocal and active roles at home, given the fact that they had the freedom to do so. Cultural comparisons with the United States and the uncivilized nature of foreign non- Christian societies served to highlight the need for an adjustment of the members’ perspectives.

On a practical level, it appears that self-segregation between the genders posed a potential problem within many CE societies. At the 1889 New York State Convention a male member asked for the advice of a ‘lady’, when asking how his society could avoid the ‘ladies and gentlemen’ sitting separately at their C.E.

84 Stina Katchadourian, ed., Great Need over the Water: The Letters of Theresa Huntington Ziegler, Missionary to Turkey, 1898-1905 (Ann Arbor: Gomidas Institute, 1999), 30. 85 Emily Wheeler, ‘St Paul’s Advice to the Sisters’, 83. 94

meetings? 86 Although the membership may have upheld its responsibility to participate equally, stilted interaction between the sexes evidently limited the overall vision of an interactive membership. Three members of the panel, both male and female, provided similar advice and suggested that the women should approach the men or alternatively place themselves in seats between two male members. Why all three seem to solve the dilemma by appealing to the women to take the assertive role of approaching the men is not clear. Perhaps it was to avoid associations with courtship and to allow the men to retain a sense of gentlemanly courtesy. Once again, such questions do not appear in later years, which suggests that the dilemma resolved itself as guidance and experience helped members adapt to the social change that was underway. They were able to overcome the tendency for the sexes to automatically segregate and subsequently were able to actively break down barriers that hindered friendship and cooperation.

CE was founded with the aim of building the Church of the future, a church that included active male and females. At the core of its model was its demand for equal participation of the sexes within its organization. Although it did not seek to work under a feminist, or women’s rights, banner, it enacted equitable ideas and provided a space for the breakdown of the separate spheres by making room for legitimate male and female partnership and activity under its auspices. This chapter has demonstrated the two key obstacles that CE faced when trying to implement this equitable vision. The influence of dominant interpretations of the doctrine of St Paul created discomfort amongst women who considered taking on a vocal role within the church and a mixed audience. To overcome this, consistent attempts were made to promote a reinterpretation of the doctrine and to reinforce, as well as celebrate, the appropriateness of women’s voices within the society. Sources suggest that most of the attention was placed on convincing hesitant women to take part as opposed to trying to convince their male counterparts of the legitimacy of female members doing so. The main barrier to female participation was women’s timidity to take on active and vocal roles. This was in part driven from the second obstacle, which was

86 Fourth Annual Conference of the Young People Society of Christian Endeavour for the State of New York, 1889, 51. 95

the simple unfamiliarity with working with the opposite sex. CE served as a training ground where young men and women could experience cooperative relations in a sanctified and mainstream environment. It removed the radical stigma associated with such ideas and helped lift barriers to women’s equal participation, resulting in these debates being relatively absent from institutional literature after the mid 1890s. Having looked at how gendered prescriptions worked on a practical level within CE, we now turn to how CE envisioned that its membership could work in the wider world.

CHAPTER 4 CREATING TRUE MEN AND TRUE WOMEN

The choice to construct CE as a dual gendered membership was not only informed by the issue of equality, it was also informed by beliefs about the positive influence of the two sexes upon each other. Clark believed that each gender served a fundamentally different purpose within society, yet should work together in partnership. Each sex was seen as having a particular role to play that served as a positive influence upon the other. As explored within the previous chapter, CE had to support and guide members as they sought to find ways for the sexes to work together on a practical level within CE meetings. Now we turn to explore how CE dealt with guiding its members within the wider world, as CE attempted to discursively construct and disseminate an idealised manhood and womanhood.

This chapter explores advice provided to CE members on proposed careers and employment, courtship and marriage as well as broader masculine and feminine ideals. This advice, taken again from CE’s initial 15 years, is all set against the backdrop of the looming threat of vice ridden urban cities and a quest for adventure that was supposedly leading youth astray. CE sought to provide a safe place for likeminded youths to socialize and buffer against the devilish temptations of the modern age. The gendered implications of this advice once again demonstrate that a negotiation was underway as the push to promote strong women and supportive men was partnered with more traditional, or conservative, affirmations of essentialist constructions. This chapter does not seek to propose neat delineations between each sex as it follows in the style of the primary sources themselves, integrating a broad range of topics and influences.

Business and Careers

The assumptions at the core of the separate sphere ideology, that a man’s place was within the public sphere of politics and business, and a woman’s place was within the home, is evident within Clark’s books. One of his first publications for CE was his book for boys entitled Our Business Boys: What Eighty Three Business Men Say, published in 1884. Clark believed that young men and boys tended not to listen to the advice of parents or ministers - he did, however, believe that they would listen to

97 successful businessmen whom he trusted and whom the boys admired.1 Clark’s assumption reflected a wider shift within the economy of the United States after the Civil War with a decline in self-employment and trades and a rise in urban white- collar employment.2 The reality was that the younger generation, by and large, had different employment opportunities than the generations that came before. Accordingly, he sent letters to successful businessmen in Portland asking ‘what principles they thought would make a boy successful in life, and what dangers he must look out for in these days.’3 Clark used the businessmen’s advice to teach the boys about what true success was and to point out potential vices and virtues. The concept was not completely original; it shared similarities with the large number of advice books available to young men at the time, as well as the question of what constituted success within religious circles.4

Our Business Boys served a dual purpose. It represented a desire to connect with boys and young men by gearing the advice towards the business careers that middle-class late nineteenth century boys were perceived to have aspired towards. In this regard, it resembled other CE sources such as the weekly column, the Mossback Correspondence, which was published in the Golden Rule, and which also provided advice to young men. The advice was tailored to the audience’s interests. There was concern about the state of business within the United States, it was seen as a source of greed and corruption. Therefore, Our Business Boys parallel purpose was not just to guide CE members on a pure business path, it also aimed to purify American business in the long term by populating it with CE men. The financial activities, or ‘business’, of the nation was, after-all, perceived to be entwined with the nation’s religious health and moral fibre. Trying to deal with the economic changes that resulted from the economic and industrial boom of the Gilded Age within the United States, Clark asked his readers,

1 Francis Clark, Our Business Boys: What Eighty Three Business Men Say (Boston: D. Lothrop and Company, 1884) 25. 2 Michael Kimmel, Manhood in America: A Cultural History (New York: The Free Press, 1996), 81- 83. 3 Clark, Our Business Boys, 10. 4 Wilbur Crafts, a purity reformer, published a book only one year earlier which was based on a very similar format, See, Wilbur Crafts, Successful men of to-day and what they say of success : based on facts and opinions gathered by letters and personal interviews from five hundred prominent men, and on many more published sketches (New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1893).

98 Are we getting to be a nation of sharpers and swindlers? Our defaulted state bonds, and repudiated debts, our Readjusters and Scalers in politics look like it. Is ‘American’ to become a synonym for sharp practice and financial crookedness? Young men, you have something to do with the answer to that question. If you and those whom you represent are not on your guard the sappers and miners of dishonesty will not only blow up the fortress of individual integrity, but the fortress of national honor as well.5

The need for honest Christian men within business served, not just to protect the soul of the individual, it also served to protect, and even to repair, the United States as a nation. The Pastor Dwight L Pratt attested that the man of business was called of God as truly as the preacher, arguing that as their mission was identical, the latter could not work without the co-operation of the former.6 There was more than one application of ministry, and CE was helping train young boys and girls in the practical application of their faith, providing them with guidance in this view of Christian service. Embracing millennialism, Pratt argued that this expansion of Christian service was central to the redemption of God’s agency in the world.7

The blending of economic and moral concerns was also evident as pamphlet writers and speakers at conventions argued that vice was actually harming the economy of the United States. They despaired that more money was being spent on alcohol than on education and the church. Vice was not just a threat to the morality of the nation, it was also affecting productivity and economic growth.8 The fusion of manhood, religion and business was to become even more prevalent over the coming decades. These concerns fed into the wider fear that immorality and greed were taking over commerce and business and efforts were subsequently directed toward trying to ensure that religious faith remained paramount within individual lives as well as in the nation at large.

Clark’s book, Our Business Boys, proved so popular that, after he moved to Boston, he published another book based on the same principle. Published in 1885 it was entitled Danger Signals: The Enemies of Youth from the Business Man’s Standpoint. Containing basically the same advice as the first, but with the addition of

5 Francis Clark, Danger Signals: The Enemies of Youth from the Business Man’s Standpoint (Boston: Lee & Shepard, 1885), 191-192. 6 Dwight L Pratt, A Decade of Christian Endeavor 1881-1891 (New York: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1891) 165. 7 Ibid., 165-166. 8 Clark, Danger Signals, 24-25; ‘Address of Rev. Isaac J Lansing’, in Narrative of the Tenth Annual Conference of the Young People’s Society of Christian Endeavor held in the Exposition Building Minneapolis, Minnesota (Boston: The United Society of Christian Endeavor, 1891), 74-83.

99 some comments for girls, this publication was expanded and tweaked to warn young men of the moral ‘dangers’ of adulthood. The book aimed to stop them ending up ‘morally ship-wreaked’ in what was presented as the turbulent path of youth. Clark’s concern was shared by the Rev B.B. Loomis who told CE members of the difficult task that ministers faced in leading the young as, ‘with such possibilities for success, and with such possibilities of peril as are wrapped up, for the young men and maidens of this eventful age of the world, no light responsibility rests on the heart of him who is set to guard and guide them.’9 Many a pastor, Loomis claimed, faced a heavy heart due to youths’ tendency to devote their time and energies towards low and unworthy pursuits of pleasure. Clark hoped to ‘guard and guide’ the young and reminded them that ‘true success’ was ‘the attainment of a worthy ideal without the least sacrifice of honor or manliness.’10 The world was a battle between good and evil, and Clark warned young men that Satan sought to tempt them towards the ‘fast’ life; he cautioned that the biggest vices of the day were alcohol, bad literature, bad theatre, gambling and impurity.

Careers were seen to be a good remedy for temptation. Boys were urged to find a speciality and to stick to it.11 The business leaders of the elder generation lamented that the youth of the 1880s were not interested in respectable pursuits such as getting a trade or working on the farm. One complained that young men preferred to work in the ‘soft places’, such as behind the counter of a shop as opposed to working with machinery.12 Such comments hinted at the concern amongst the older generation that modern youth were not as willing to put in the hard work of the previous generations. The young men were said to prefer to ‘daintily’ hold up silk cloth for a young lady instead of forging the chain of an anchor.13 The older men believed that class concerns, and potentially conceit, pervaded the young men’s mind as the older men decried that the young desired a salary instead of a labourer’s wage, and sought to convince CE readers that such distinctions were irrelevant. Nativist tendencies also came to the surface as one

9 Rev B.B Loomis, ‘Pastor’s Hour at the Philadelphia Convention in?’, in Minutes of the Eighth annual Christian Endeavor Convention held in First Regt. Armory Hall, Philadelphia, PA (Boston: The United Society Of Christian Endeavor, 1889), 153. 10 Clark, Our Business Boys, 38. 11 Ibid., 35. 12 Ibid., 20. 13 Ibid., 40.

100 quoted businessman bemoaned that, as the cry for skilled labour became louder by the year, more and more American born boys went into professions.14 Another lamented that the result of this trend was that when the present generation passed away, skilled labour would fall exclusively into the hands of foreigners.15

Despite the apparent suspicion of white-collar employment, the main desire of the books was to promote an honest work ethic and Christian values. Young men were warned that they were always being watched by their employers; they were told that these ‘shrewd, long-headed business men with the deep pockets are watching you, boys... when you think they care nothing of where you are or what you do, they have their eye on you all the time.’16 The ever-watching eye of God was joined by employers, both future and present. Even in a large city, it was claimed, a young man was not lost in the crowd.17 If he broke the Sabbath, drank alcohol or even entered a bar, his boss would notice. If he read trashy literature or entered a bawdy house his boss would notice. Indeed, if he behaved in any impure, ‘fast’ or disorderly manner it would hinder future employment and promotion. On the other hand, if a young man conducted his life in a Christian manner, attended church and was conscientious and industrious within the workplace, his boss would notice and be suitably impressed. Young men needed to be morally diligent not just for the sake of their souls but also for their future career prospects.

Christian Endeavor: A Safe Space

Both books demonstrated the underlying fear that ever-expanding cities harboured dark sources of temptation and that that corruption and greed were too frequently fused with big business and politics and fall into the they mugwump tradition.18 Although it was not explicated within the books themselves, efforts were

14 Clark, Our Business Boys, 40. 15 Ibid, 38. 16 Ibid, 44. 17 Clark, Danger Signals, 14. 18 The term ‘mugwump’ refers to a group of Republican party members who crossed political lines and supported the Democratic party candidate Grover Cleveland in the 1884 election. They switched allegiance on the basis that they disagreed with the financial corruption of the Republican candidate James G. Blaine. In a general sense it refers to a type of reformer who took on moralistic platforms with the term often being used derisively in conjunction with ‘goo goo’, or ‘goody goody’. See Geoffrey Biodgett ‘The Mugwump Reputation, 1870 to the Present’, Journal of American History, 66:4 (1980), 867-887; Kevin P Murphy provides an interesting analysis of the shift at the beginning of the twentieth century away from what the new generation perceived as an effeminate old school elite

101 made on behalf of CE leaders and membership alike to provide a safe haven from the urban abyss. Committee work was often dedicated to reform causes that sought to eradicate intemperance and impurity in its various guises. CE served as a place where people could meet fellow Christians – male and female - who shared Christian values and morals and would create a healthy environment and social network free of temptation.

Socialization proved to be a tool to attract youths to the protective environment of CE.19 Providing a guide for the Social Committee, Miss H. E. Colbourn wrote of the importance of recreation as ‘all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy’.20 Providing a space for ‘wholesome’ social enjoyment was not the only issue; there was the larger and more serious concern that, if CE did not make its socials attractive, then those who most needed ‘Christian influence’ would leave and go elsewhere. The inherent dangers of urbanization were also evident as Colbourn argued that ‘In the larger cities especially, when these young people leave us, we know not whither they are led nor in what wicked diversion they may ultimately participate.’21 Although the activity of the city was seen as a source of vice, it was also warned that there was potential monotony in the country-side and suggested that CE could also provide a solution for that dilemma as well. 22 Ultimately, attracting and keeping members interested was a task in which CE heartily invested.

The concept of peer pressure was not underestimated and the power of mutual influence was also underscored. Clark insisted that not one in five boys

tradition of the mugwump and towards embracing the virile manliness of men of working class political machines such as Tammany Hall. Murphy argues that the new generation recast themselves in the working-class machine mold to insulate themselves against chargers of effeminacy. Viewing CE’s original literature in this effeminate taint is useful for CE’s future struggle to stay relevant within the increasingly muscular gendered landscape. Male reformers resistance to feminization was, however, in its infancy at the time of Our Business Boys and Danger Signals. Kevin P Murphy, Political Manhood: Red Bloods, Mollycoddles and the Politics of Progress Era Reform (New York: Columbia University Press, 2008), 3-4, 11. 19 Within the 1889 novel, Chrissy’s Endeavor, it was noted that the social and entertainment component of the society was sometimes used to ‘reach’ people, and to ‘gradually draw’ them into the religious component, even if they originally had no other object for joining other than being entertained. Pansy, Chrissy’s Endeavor (Boston: D Lothrop Company, 1889), 16. 20 Miss H.E Colbourn, ‘Methods for Social Entertainment’ in Francis E Clark, Ways and Means for the Young People’s Society of Christian Endeavor: A book of suggestions for the prayer-meeting, the committees, and all lines of Christian work adopted by Christian Endeavor Societies (Boston: United Society of Christian Endeavor, 1890), 179. 21 Ibid,. 179. 22 E.W. Winslow, ‘Christian Endeavor Work in the Country’ in Ways and Means, ed. Francis E Clark (Boston: D.Lothrop Company, 1890) 312-315.

102 would attend the rum shop alone and it was when individuals were influenced by a group that they found themselves being led astray.23 Good or bad companions were seen to influence the track of an individual’s life, and bad companions were said to have come directly from the Devil.24 Therefore, CE sought to provide a safe space for youths to socialize with like-minded companions, and activities to keep them entertained, occupied and interested and on the Christian path.

Aside from simply creating its own CE culture, CE’s publications arguably also sought to shape popular culture by offering the public ‘pure’ literature and reading materials as an alternative to what a growing spectrum of Protestant society saw as an alarming array of obscene literature, art and leisure activities. Parallels can be drawn between CE and other religious reform groups of the period. For example, the historian Alison Parker argues that the WCTU underwent the same process. Parker notes that within their numerous periodicals, works of fiction, and various wider publications the WCTU sought to control the production of ‘people’s chosen literature’ in order to guarantee that its moral message would be secure.25 Clark also shared the WCTU’s concern that popular culture was a potential hazard for the moral health of the republic. One particular example was his claim that popular culture within the United States tended to present a glorifying portrait of outlaws, robbers and murderers as exemplified within the immensely popular Western adventure stories. Far from just being an entertaining flight of fancy for numerous young boys and adolescents, Clark attested that ‘The Devil’ was attacking the citadel of youths’ souls in their weakest parts, and, ‘by appearing to their imaginations and their love of excitement and adventure, he is seeking to undermine the very foundations of manhood and womanhood.’26 Concerned that boys and girls were unable to escape the inundation of advertising for cheap dime novels and trashy literature, Clark sought to warn his readers and their parents against this

23 Francis E Clark, ‘The Influence of Associates’ in William C King ed., Portraits and Principles of the World’s Great Men and Women with Practical Lessons on Successful Life by over Fifty Leading Thinkers, (Springfield, Mass: King Richardson Publishing, 1897), 87-90. 24 Ibid., 88. 25 Alison M. Parker, ‘‘Hearts Uplifted and Minds Refreshed’: The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union and the Production of Pure Culture in the United States 1880-1930’, Journal of Women’s History 11.2 (1999), 141-142. 26 Francis Clark, Danger Signals: The Enemies of Youth from the Business Man’s Standpoint (Boston: Lee & Shepard, 1885), 65.

103 ‘seductive form of evil’ and used scripture to advise them that they should avoid it at all costs.27

Not only did Clark claim that such literature provided a strained and unnatural picture of life, he also warned that it would in turn leave boys and girls unfit for real life as they would find it difficult to accept the monotonous duties required of them. The ‘humdrum’ nature of school would prove difficult on Monday after they spent all Sunday riding the plains with Missouri outlaws and Texas rangers. And how could they ‘confine themselves to the routine of the counter or the farm or the work-bench when their minds are dancing among the wild delights of a harem of houris?’28 The threat was not limited to such exotic stories. Clark warned against popular theatrical plays that also shared in the sensationalism of violence, such as the antics of Jesse James, which said to be of equal danger and consequence. Once again Clark declared that the Devil was at the root of such displays, and bemoaned that the great demoralizer of the time was the constant parade of evil.29 Youthful imagination needed to be restrained and provided with a well-guided and stable path to follow. By both censoring popular culture and providing an alternative, Clark and fellow dedicated Christians sought to protect the next generation from folly, vice and corruption. Further, they sought to protect the nation from unravelling and to reassert Christian values at the core of popular (Protestant) culture.

Within Danger Signals Clark reprinted a ‘true story’ or parable from the Congregationalist, which he believed would best illustrate the dire consequences of literary glorifications of evil. The story was about a well-educated young man who came from a loving, if somewhat overindulgent, wealthy family. After reading ‘a great many stories of adventure’ the young man sought to be free of the confines of home, believing that once he left home ‘adventure’ would be sure to follow. Yet the corrupting force of the trashy literature which he so readily consumed led the young

27 Clark, Danger Signals, 67. 28 Ibid., 67; The reference to a Harem of Houris’ employs a stereotype which was often used within nineteenth century orientalist discourses about Islamic beliefs and culture. The ‘Harem of Houris’ refers to the belief that Islamic male believers would go to heaven and be rewarded by having virgins waiting for them, the virginal houris; they were rewarded for their faith by achieving a harem in the afterlife; Joan DelPlato, Multiple Wives, Multiple Pleasures: Representing the Harem, 1800-1875 (Madison, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2002), 182-183. 29 Francis Clark, Danger Signals, 118-122.

104 man down a rocky path towards violence, drink, incarceration and early death. The severe contrast between the safe confines of the home and the danger of the outside world was heartily reinforced within the tale. Upon leaving home, the young man was imprisoned for his part in a violent fight and ended up dying in gaol, age 17, as a drunken tramp and outcast. It was claimed that before his death the young man asked that his story be used to ‘warn all young people… to let these foolish books alone.’ The young man warned these books are ‘very silly, but they do harm to many and they've ruined me. They take you one step on the bad road and the rest comes easy.’30 The quick and steady pace that evil was able to consume and derail a life was evident in the numerous stories and warnings contained within both CE’s literature as well within wider Protestant preaching and publications. This meant that those who read and adopted the worldview ought to be under no illusion as to the seductive and evil power of temptation that surrounded them, and the varied gateways that could lead individuals towards a dark path. Stories of individual and family destruction which resulted from vice and temptation were by no means isolated to CE. It was a tactic within many reforms, including purity and temperance, to both sway readers to their cause, as well as to warn against the vice which they were fighting against. Elaine Frantz Parsons has written about the construction of the drunkard narrative, which was employed by late nineteenth-century women as a means to curb or cease male drinking habits. By shifting public, and gendered, perceptions of alcohol the ‘drunkard narrative’ coerced men away from alcohol by portraying intemperance as being symbolic of a lack of manhood.31 According to this narrative, drink rendered men unable to fulfil their proper male role and duty as head of the household, protector and provider.32 Parsons demonstrates that much more was at play within these narratives than simple story telling or warnings – the story above draws a steady line between trashy literature, a sense for adventure, and alcohol. CE, alongside a healthy fear of these temptations, served as a means to band youths together, providing a means of protection, and enforcement. It aimed to establish CE as a ‘safe space’ amongst a dangerous vice ridden wider world.

30 Clark, Danger Signals, 98-100. 31 Elaine Frantz Parsons, Manhood Lost: Fallen Drunkards and Redeeming Women in the Nineteenth- Century United States (Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003), 3. 32 Parsons includes other methods employed by women as a means of curbing male intemperance such as legal action against saloon owners and political agitation. Ibid., 3-10.

105 Aside from a desire for adventure, CE literature warned that the traps of frivolity, selfishness and dishonesty could also serve to corrupt an individual’s future womanhood or manhood. Even children were not exempt from the risk. Distinct examples were given for each gender - a boy may cheat in marbles or steal biscuits from his mother’s pantry, both of which demonstrated a poor character. A girl, on the other hand, may flirt at Sunday school or be ‘too familiar’ with a man who was not her father or brother.33 These may not seem a huge cause for concern initially. However they sewed the seeds for future disgrace, be it economic dishonesty and corruption, or being dismissed from ‘respectable society’. Each event could be traced back to a seemingly smaller episode. The Junior CE leader, Alice May Scudder, argued along similar lines that an adult criminal would typically show warning signs of poor character during childhood, in what she termed as ‘doing crooked little things’. Scudder argued that nobody should be deceived, and insisted that people should be aware that ‘multitudes are going astray in childhood’.34 She credited the root of such demise to the fact that the individual was not given active Christian work during childhood. In this telling, Satan tempted children, not just adults. Boys and girls, adolescents and young adults, all needed to be vigilant and protect their virtues against the destructive forces of folly and vice.

It is difficult to assess how well CE members incorporated such strict rules into their daily lives. There is evidence that disapproval was initially directed towards the CE pledge as critics argued that the demands of the pledge were unattainable, and would therefore create hypocritical Christians.35 Regardless of this criticism, the extent of the warnings and the fear that was evident within broader evangelical circles suggest that trying to avoid vice and passions was something that dedicated individuals took seriously.

One autobiography that provides a frank assessment of a member’s experience with sexual temptation and ‘bad literature’ was that of Anton Boisen. Born in 1876 in Bloomington, Indiana, Boisen grew up in a strict Presbyterian household. During his second year of high school he was prompted by a revival led

33 Clark, Danger Signals, 175. 34 Alice May Scudder, ‘Address of Mrs Alice May Scudder’ in Narrative of the Tenth Annual Conference of the Young People’s Society of Christian Endeavor held in the Exposition Building Minneapolis, Minnesota (Boston: The United Society of Christian Endeavor, 1891), 138-139. 35 Christopher Coble, ‘Where Have all the Young People Gone? The Christian Endeavor Movement and the Training of Protestant Youth, 1881-1918.’ (Diss., Harvard University, 2001). 111-112.

106 by the evangelist, Wilbur Chapman, to officially join the church along with four of his friends. Despite the fact that Boisen would later claim that he felt no special religious experience at the time, he admits that he assented at once to joining the church as well as Christian Endeavor. Suffering from serious psychological illness throughout his later life, Boisen subsequently became interested in religious experience and mental health. His autobiography was published in the 1960s and demonstrates a self-questioning approach to his developing sexuality. He is candid in his assessment that, during adolescence, sex remained something ‘fascinating and terrifying’ that he was afraid to talk about, apparently not even discussing it with his friends.36 During college he found difficulty in the fact that his sexual interest could neither be controlled nor acknowledged due to his fear of condemnation and a strong sense that such ‘instinctual cravings’ were forbidden.37 Following the strict religious sanctions regarding impure literature laid down by Christian Endeavor, Boisen did not permit himself to read the ‘ordinary obscene stuff’ or to ‘look at the vulgar cards which the boys sometimes passed around’. Instead, Boisen wrote, he ‘deceived himself’ with the idea that he was seeking knowledge as he turned to parts of the Bible, Shakespeare, and encyclopedias. Temptation was heightened after he undertook his college major in foreign languages, accordingly pouring over unwholesome French novels. 38 The sexual transgressions of his imagination apparently took over and Boisen recalled that it left him feeling ‘stripped of self- respect and burdened with a heavy sense of failure and guilt’.39 Finally, after deep prayer, he sensed a spiritual intervention and managed to confess his troubles to his mother. Subsequently he felt impelled to admit his troubles to his religious leader and trusted psychology professor, Dr William Lowe Bryan, who told Boise ‘it would always be necessary to fight for control of the instincts’ and that Boise should ‘look to Christ for help, and to some good woman.’40 Boisen’s experience falls into line with the dire warnings that permeated CE literature regarding bad literature and purity. Indeed, literature could frame personal experiences and pathologise

36 Anton T Boisen, Out of the Depths: An Autobiographical Study of Mental Disorder and Religious Experience (New York: Harper & Brothers Publishes, 1960), 38. 37 Ibid., 43. 38 Ibid., 43-44. 39 Ibid., 46. 40 Dr William Low Bryan was one of the founding members of the American Psychological Association. Ibid., 47.

107 behaviour. Adolescents were told to master their instincts in order to ensure they kept on a pure path.

With the membership consisting of many adolescents and young adults, CE sought to engage with the topic of sexuality. Young men were warned that they were to blame for a girl’s moral downfall. Clark chastised those who went to the ‘low- theatre’ with the suggestion that they would hang their heads in shame if they saw their mothers or sisters dressed in a similar manner. Clark quoted what appears to be a letter from fellow youth leader, Dr Theodore Cuyler, that rebuked young men for paying money to go and see somebody else’s sister and daughter violate their womanly delicacy for their entertainment. Further, it was stated that if ‘the daughter of Heodoias dances to please you, then you are responsible for the dance, both in its influence on the dancer and on your own moral sense.’41 Such advice went hand in hand with various social purity movements that sought to eliminate the double standard in sexuality that placed blame at the foot of the fallen women. Girls and women, however, were not seen as entirely innocent. Girls were warned that it was far better to be seen as distant and decent than to be overly flirtatious or familiar.42 Both sexes were warned against indecency, and little room was given for shifting the blame to the opposite sex.

Courtship and Marriage

Courtship was an issue that CE was forced to confront due to both the age group it aspired to attract, and the decision to have a dual gendered membership. As discussed in Chapter three, there was some hesitation regarding the dual gendered membership of the organization. Initially, critics lampooned CE with the nickname of ‘Courting Endeavor’. They argued that CE was simply an excuse for young men and women to meet and flirt with each other.43 CE leadership was quick to assert the society’s serious religious purpose. It also suggested that groups should avoid any social activities that may arouse any sense of passion – debates were started about

41 Clark, Danger Signals, 109. 42 ‘Mrs Attentive’ was congratulated for putting a stop to flirtations and for possessing a kind and attentive eye that would put an end to detecting such dangerous temptations. ‘An open letter from Mr Mossback to Mrs Attentive’, The Mossback Correspondence, 96-98. 43 Francis E Clark, Memories of Many Men in Many Lands: an Autobiography (Boston: United Society of Christian Endeavor, 1922), 86, 177.

108 the propriety of activities such as dancing or roller-skating.44 Over time, CE’s popularity and growing visibility meant that it gained legitimacy and the organisation was not left as open to such criticisms. The mixing of genders within the organisation even began to be perceived as a potential positive aspect of the group. Francis Clark eventually stated that if the best Christian women were to meet the best Christian men and eventually marry, he could see no harm in that.

In reality, it appears that potential romance was a drawcard. Meetings were used by some as a way to spend time with those that they fancied. For example, Wilbert Meyers of Missouri makes little mention of Christian Endeavor within his diary – he was a Methodist and attended CE’s rival spinoff of the Epworth League.45 Then in 1892, he met the missionary Miss Emma Wheeler, a very dedicated Endeavorer. Suddenly, his diary records him going to CE meetings, and then walking Miss Emma home. Finally he managed to convince Emma to join him afterwards at a local restaurant, for ‘oysters and banana’.46 Strange food choices aside, CE meetings and associated religious activities supplied the core of their social life, as well as the core for their blossoming courtship. They went on to marry and to have a family, and Wilbert does not record going to CE meetings after their marriage. When reading Wilbert’s diary it becomes evident that Emma appeared to be much more engaged within CE leadership and activities than he did. He attentively recorded the times that she led the meetings, and when she left town to travel to the CE State Convention. He makes no mention, however, of his personal role in the organization aside from his social activities.

This links with the idea that women served as a means to ‘attract’ men to church – an idea that had both its detractors and supporters. Within the Mossback Correspondence, a criticism was levelled at men who hung around the church door or congregated on the steps simply in order to flirt with young women as they made

44 Fourth Annual Conference of the Young People Society of Christian Endeavour for the State of New York, 23. 45 The 1893 Diary of W. S. Myers of Miami, Saline, Mo, mentions Christian Endeavor within in entries from January 29th, February 3rd, February 24th, March 3rd, March 10th, March 17th, March 24th, March 31st, and April 7th.’ See: ‘Diary of W.S Meyers of Miami, Saline, Mo. 1893’ reprinted in: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~meredythspages/diary1893.htm Last accessed 22 November, 2014. 46 Entry from Friday October 7, 1892. In, ‘Diary of W.S Meyers of Miami, Saline, Mo. 1892’ http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~meredythspages/diary1892.htm’ Last accessed 22 November, 2014.

109 their exit.47 Although Mossback warned women to ensure that the man that they courted or married was a true Christian, he went so far as to claim that women actually held the most power for conversion, for if they refused to date unchristian men, then men would convert on masse.48 Writing on the topic of Woman’s Work within CE, Alice May Scudder suggested that woman were a good influence on men; women, ‘especially Christian women’ provide pure conversation and refining companionship opposed to the ‘often depraved’ state of men. She chimed ‘It is a great mystery how young men can substitute trivial amusements for woman’s society’ before concluding:

Some young men are too wise to do this (and) instead of spending all their spare time and money in club-rooms they seek organizations where they can enjoy the pleasures by the side of their sisters or some one else’s sisters. The Young People’s Society of Christian Endeavor is such an organization. Here a young man can have social enjoyments, literary pursuits, mental diversions, and varied amusements.49

Scudder then asked what a woman could do to play her part, before suggesting that she ‘be attractive’ and ‘not think that their work is done until every young man over whom they have any influence is brought into the religious meetings of their church and especially into the Society of Christian Endeavor’.50 The other suggestions were to ‘be talkative’ as woman’s voice needed to be heard in the prayer room, and the final suggestion was to ‘be spiritual’.51 The unique place that women had within CE, and their power to bring men into the church, provides an interesting component to the dual gendered model of the organization – the interaction within the opposite sex was not just happening outside of CE, it was happening within the organization and served as a place to bring broader gender ideals into action. Also, the desire to create Christian families was of the utmost importance. If Christian men were to marry Christian women, then it was believed

47 ‘An open letter to the young man at the church door’, The Mossback Correspondence, 96-98.

49 Alice May Scudder, ‘Woman’s Work in Christian Endeavor’ in Clark, Ways and Means, 318. 50 Ibid, 319. 51 Ibid, 320.

110 they would have Christian families; such was the supposed power of women’s influence.52

Courtship, ideally, would lead to an engagement and then marriage and a family. Choosing a partner was a question of pre-eminent importance. Accordingly, directing members’ attraction towards the right partner and helping them to avoid the wrong was a major topic within CE advice literature. By and large girls were seen as being romantically rather than sexually inclined and were warned against reading romantic novels that could establish unrealistic fantasies.53 It was believed that such fantasies would leave them open to making frivolous decisions based on passion instead of steady and pure love. After all, it was warned, an unhappy marriage was a form of imprisonment that a woman could be trapped in forever with no hope of release. Young women were warned off being attracted to ‘dudes’ who wore flashy clothing, and advised to make a wise decision on an attachment that might end in giving their heart and virginity away.54 Within the Mossback Correspondence, a popular column in the Golden Rule, young women were advised to ask these questions before they said yes to marriage,

Does the said young man have a shady reputation for honesty and straightforward dealing? Does he ever drink? Is his breath suspiciously redolent of cloves? Does he ever apologetically smother an oath in your presence? Has he a well-founded reputation of belonging to the ‘fast set?’ Does he rather pride himself on being a ‘hard boy?’ Does he laugh at the prayer meeting? Does he feel too big to go to Sunday school? Does he refuse to go to church, but come sneaking around at the close of the service for the sake of going home with you? If these questions must be truthfully answered in the affirmative, I hope that your answer to him will be spelled with two letters rather than three. I would rather be single all my life, with only a black cat to love me, than have such an apology of a man for a husband.

Your Friend, A Mossback.55

When it came to marriage, men, too, were warned to make a wise decision. Both sexes were warned that more misery is spelt by ‘i-n-c-o-m-p-a-t-a-b-i-l-i-t-y’ than by any other combination of letters.56

The decision of whom to marry was treated as one of the most, if not the most, important decisions an individual would make during their life. Being a single

52 Alice May Scudder, ‘Woman’s Work in Christian Endeavor’ in Clark, Ways and Means, 317-20. 53 Clark, Danger Signals, 161-163. 54 Clark, The Mossback Correspondence, 47-48, 155; Clark, Danger Signals, 179-180. 55 ‘An open letter to the young lady who will soon be asked in marriage’ in The Mossback Correspondence, 101-102. 56 ‘Fit to be Married?’, in The Mossback Correspondence, 172.

111 woman was preferable to an incompatible relationship.57 Men too were also warned against being entrapped in an unhappy union. CE advice also made room for self- reflection asking members to look at themselves and to ask that if they were fit to be a husband or wife, they needed to find a good marital candidate and be a good candidate in return.58

Significantly, Clark argued that there was a difference in how temptation came about for men and women. Falling in line with the separate spheres ideology, he believed that, for men, temptation was typically found within the streets and the market, and credited these as ‘temptations of an active life’.59 Greed, drinking, impurity were all potential entrapments of the public world, especially urban life. Conversely, he argued that woman’s temptations tended to come from the ‘very quietness and lack of stir’ within her life, a life which was apt to degenerate into ‘weak aimlessness’ and a passive drifting toward matrimony.60 The narrow confines of the home, both literally and figuratively, became a source of restrictive confinement. CE was one means to draw women out of the restrictive sphere and to take their place within the broader world, all while providing her with strength and protection.61

Finding the Gender Balance

The undercurrent of Clark’s analysis was the idea that a blending of the two paths was necessary – men needed the feminine influence to help guide them toward living a more pure and wholesome life. Alternatively, woman needed to expand their horizons and seek to fulfil their intellectual and spiritual potential outside of stereotypical frivolous female pursuits. A comparison was made between young men and women that demonstrated this point. Clark argued that when young men graduated from college they had something to strive for, as their life was just beginning. Women on the other hand were at a disadvantage, as they tended to wait

57 ‘An open letter to the young lady who will soon be asked in marriage’, in The Mossback Correspondence, 101-102. 58 ‘Fit to be Married?’ in The Mossback Correspondence, 172. 59 Francis E. Clark, Looking out on Life: A Book For Girls on Practical Subjects Based on Many Letters from Wise Mothers (Boston: D Lothrop Company, 1892), 59. 60 Ibid., 59. 61 Alice May Scudder highlighted how women were required in both the home circle and the social circle. Alice May Scudder ‘Woman’s Work in Christian Endeavor’ in Clark, Ways and Means, 319.

112 for a Prince Charming to come and carry them away.62 It was suggested that ‘we must revolutionize the whole notion that a young woman has nothing to do but to angle for and catch a husband’.63 It was warned that women who had no resources within themselves, no independence of character, and no other means of employment except fishing for a husband, most often wound up miserable and heart-broken.

Despite the embrace of New Womanhood ideals, the gendered CE advice fell into the trap of limited essentialist frameworks - while young men and boys were reading advice that shaped their perspective of businessmen, young woman and girls were provided with advice from mothers. Clark wrote his book for girls Looking out on Life: A Book for Girls on Practical Subjects Based on Many Letters from Wise Mothers and dedicated it to his ideal of a perfect woman – his mother – who died when Clark was seven years of age. The depth of love, devotion and admiration that Clark displayed for his mother, throughout his life arguably shaped his profound reverence for woman’s motherhood role. His mother, Lydia Symmes, was educated in her youth by the foremost woman’s educator, Mary Lyon. When Clark’s father Charles died, Lydia was left to care for two young children and she was able to use her education to create her own small school within their cottage. Lydia was intelligent, self-reliant and independent - all characteristics that Clark is so keen to insist that young woman should strive to develop. Using the metaphor of a vine, Clark claimed a ‘vast difference between a healthy vine and a parasitic creeper’.64 While a parasite feeds on the life of that against which it leans, it has no independent life, it bears no fruit, and it is always a weakness and a nuisance. A healthy vine on the other hand flourishes wherever it is planted, has its own roots in the group, and is able to nourish itself. Clark ‘insists’ that woman, like the vine, be self-reliant and independent.65

The tension between the call for individualism within girls and the call for self-sacrifice is intrinsic within the Clark’s advice. He did not use the names of the

62 Clark, Looking out on Life, 60. 63 Ibid, 32. 64 Ibid., 21. 65 This feeds into an earlier conception of feminism in which domesticity was not necessarily perceived as symptomatic of women’s oppression. See Christopher Dixon’s exploration of the ideas of Catherin Beecher and Lydia Childs in, Chris Dixon, Perfecting the Family: Antislavery Marriages in Nineteenth-Century America (Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press, 1997), 53.

113 ‘wise mothers’ that he quoted, although he did occasionally provide a brief description of their activities. He noted the advice of ‘a world renowned temperance leader’, not specifying the name, who wrote, ‘The point that most needs strengthening in a young woman’s character is a noble, cheery, helpful spirit of self- help. The individualism of Christ’s gospel needs development and application among our girls, and will enable them to save themselves and the republic.’66 Trying to build an ethos of individualism required careful manoeuvring in order to ensure that independence of mind did not fall into the spectrum of selfishness. The key was to establish a form of womanhood that was not helpless, as there ‘was nothing womanly and ladylike in helplessness’, but was instead essentially helpful and able to bring comfort and happiness to those around them.

Clark warned young women not to fall into the trap of seeking admiration through superficial means such as looking pretty. They were told to be careful that a superficial desire for admiration should not ‘absorb all attention’ and that personal vanity was developed at a cost to the development of women’s spiritual, intellectual and moral nature.67 It was argued that boys discovered at a young age that they needed to depend upon the ‘sterling qualities of heart and brain’ and not on good looks or flattery. Women, however, were said to frequently utilise attractiveness and cajolery as their ‘chief stock in trade’, causing them to neglect developing their heart and mind, which consequently fell below par. As with all temptations, the temptation of beauty and dress could lead women down very dark paths. Prostitution was seen as one potential outcome. It was claimed that some young women were so weakened by their desire for pretty things they went down a steady and slippery moral slope in their wish to gain money to fund their superficial wants. Such a simplistic view of prostitution was much easier to deal with than the issues of economic and social inequity that underlay the ‘oldest profession’. Nevertheless, such warnings were intended to highlight the need for young woman to be vigilant and on constant watch in order to protect their purity and moral resolve from evil temptations. Developing their own intellectual abilities and spiritual faith would help in this matter as it would serve to equip women with necessary life skills.

66 Clark, Looking out on Life, 22. 67 Ibid., 41,45.

114 Education and broadening of the mind was intrinsic to the creation of a self- reliant and independent woman. Narrow forms of womanhood were scorned as Clark decried,

I sometimes wonder as I see the two, the woman and the poodle, sitting together – I wonder which has the widest outlook upon life. Some women seem to think that a large, generous outlook upon life is almost unwomanly. They hardly know who the president of the United States is, or who is the governor of their own commonwealth ... An interest in politics is considered mannish and unnatural, while to read Shakespeare, or study political economy, or to be versed in science is thought to savor of the bluestocking.68

Treating such petty views of womanhood with disdain, Clark asserted to the young woman that ‘all knowledge is open to you’.69 Demonstrating a brief dalliance with the natural rights philosophy, he asked that woman ‘Remember that first of all you are a human being, and that you have all the rights of a human being; that you are a woman secondarily’.70

In order to protect women from being overwhelmed by temptation due to the confines of an inactive life within the home sphere, they were prompted to seek a career instead of a time-filler. Typical female pursuits such as making paper flowers or crocheting were seen as frivolous time-fillers. Women needed to be careful of being idle and should not confuse busyness with business.71 To escape the trap of idleness, women must not just be doing ‘something’, they must be doing ‘something worthy of a human being’. 72 The CE periodical, the Golden Rule, promoted a compilation that ‘showed the forward steps’ taken by women over the previous year, 1895. It acknowledged that over the year women had taken on positions such as a superintendent of weddings, the first undertaker of Chicago, an auctioneer in London, census enumerators, a stable foreman, a blacksmith and two sheriffs.73 It was believed that the list may prove suggestive to some of the female readers who were compelled to earn their living out in the world rather than in the home. The distinction between being compelled to work due to financial need, in contrast to personal choice, was never explicated. The clincher was that the list

68 Clark, Looking out on Life, 48-49. 69 Ibid, 48. 70 Ibid., 49. 71 It was stated that the ‘so-called accomplishments of the (female) sex are often the direct promoters of idleness.’ Ibid., 67. See also 65-66, 75. 72 Ibid, 68. 73 Work for Women’, Golden Rule, 7 November 1895, 114-115.

115 should prove ‘especially useful to the young men’ as it was declared that these women were credited as being creative and original;

They did not seek a place; they made one. They did not wait for the demand; they inspired it. The reason why many young men get on so poorly in life is because they are so willing to step in others’ footprints, so afraid to start out for themselves with fresh enthusiasm and novel plans.74

Yet, despite consistent affirmations of the multiple roles and employment options that women could follow, within his book Looking out on Life, Clark stated that he believed that most young women would find their calling in the ‘home mission’.75 Clark pre-empted that some of his readers would recoil when presented with such limited ideas of women’s role. He wrote that he trusted that they would not accuse him of narrowness of view or of hostility to woman’s highest rights when he said that, after all, women’s supreme place of influence was in the home.76 Clark’s views of gender roles were often ambiguous, at some points radical and others conservative. Yet this ambiguity is evident within the group at large as it navigated the treacherous gender terrain at the turn of the century.

A duality of perspectives is evident within the advice from mothers and the advice from Clark himself. Clark’s decision to include certain quotes from mothers suggests that he believed there was merit in the advice each quote provided. These quotes demonstrate the concerns that the progressive tendencies of US society were eliciting. One mother argued that the young woman of the 1890s may receive a higher education, however, she lacked practical training in the domestic skills that were necessary for her to run a good and efficient household. Disquiet also surrounded the fact that the women’s press called for girls to take care of themselves and be independent, which meant that young women who came from modest households were no longer ‘willing to stay in the home and economize and plan to make it attractive to father and brothers’.77 Nor, it was said, were they willing to train themselves to be ‘really efficient’ in domestic matters, preferring to instead spend part of their wage in hiring a servant. Alarmed at the swift changes within society, it was stressed that whilst it was unfortunate that too many women had allowed themselves to deteriorate ‘mentally and socially’ by getting married, the

74 Work for Women’, Golden Rule, 7 November 1895, 114-115. 75 Clark, Looking out on Life, 53. 76 Ibid, 155. 77 Ibid, 157.

116 ‘present tendency to educate girls away from the idea of marriage may be the pendulum swinging to the other extreme.’78 The tension between progressive ideas and traditional values was exposed. A confusing tension between the allure of independence and dependence arose.

Clark sought to resolve the tension by affirming that women’s highest place was in the home, although he believed they should have the freedom to work outside it if they chose. He advised women that although ‘you naturally live more within four walls than your brothers, do not let the four walls bound all your horizon’.79 This idea is explicated further as he states that ‘the influence of the home can never be confined within four walls ... (and it is) ... no more possible for the true queen of a home to keep altogether within her own four walls than it is for the sun to shine all to itself, without distributing its light and warmth to half a score of distant planets.’80 Woman’s sphere was not contained within the four walls of the home – it was her role to take the comfort and love that inhabited ‘home’ and to bring it to the outside world. CE was a ready means for her to carry this plan of both expanding her world and providing a space of influence.

In summary, although CE avoided becoming entangled in the woman’s rights movement, it was very much involved in trying to shape the gender roles of its membership and trying to find equitable models for both genders to work together, both within its meetings and within the broader world. CE was acting as a driving force of social change, yet it was quite defensive of changes that were perceived to be a threat of its idealistic vision. Regardless, CE had to forge a space for its values and vision to be enacted and it sought to mold its membership into active proponents and indeed embodiments of its ideal. Its dual gendered membership meant that it was originally tainted with the frivolous banner of ‘Courting Endeavor’, and it had to find a space to affirm that men and women could meet together and legitimately carry out serious minded endeavours, not flirtation. The reality was that CE did provide a space for women and men to meet, as well as carry out religious work. The dual gendered membership shaped CE’s engagement with the wider

78 Clark, Looking out on Life, 158. 79 Ibid., 47. 80 Ibid, 169-170.

117 world and the advice that it provided. It tailored its advice for a modern age, an age where young men were entering business and young women had the potential to seek out a career. Essentialist visions and a tentative embrace of radical ideals blunted CE’s feminist message, however. As CE reached its peak of influence in the mid-1890s, a new barrier to the cooperative vision was making headway in the form of Muscular Christianity. The next chapter turns to how CE dealt with this new threat as Muscular Christianity gained cultural prominence.

118 CHAPTER 5 BOYHOOD AND JUNIOR CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR

Christian Endeavor (CE) was successful in its attempts to create an interactive dual gendered evangelical youth movement within the United States. By the middle of the 1890s, it no longer had to dedicate effort towards trying to legitimatise an active role for woman within its organisation. Spurred on by domestic feminism and the New Woman, CE had amassed an active female membership. From the 1890s, however, CE faced a new challenge. After spending years trying to convince the public and its own membership of the validity of a cooperative youth model and of a woman’s ability to take on leadership roles, it now faced popular anxieties that its leadership was becoming feminised. Feeding into broader cultural shifts, CE directed new efforts towards attracting men, and asserting that its membership model was suitable for the turn of the century man. This chapter will focus on the gendered debates that surrounded those involved within the voluntary religious organizations, predominately Junior Christian Endeavor (Junior CE). Exploring the rise of the ‘science’ of ‘boyologists,’ those who focused their attention on boyhood and the supposed needs of boys, it will examine various critiques of Junior CE’s methods along with the alternatives proposed. While historians have tended to depict the turn of the twentieth century Protestantism as dominated by muscular Christian movements, CE provides an important case study of how a dual gendered group both adapted and resisted rising masculinism. Once again, CE demonstrates a middle ground, a dual gendered space where gender roles were negotiated. Further, CE can actually be placed at the centre of the muscular push because the popularity of its dual gendered model and feminised methods elicited masculinist concern and provided a point of social and organisational contention.

The Crisis of Masculinity: Historiography

From the 1890s there was a shift towards more muscular conceptions of manhood within the United States and numerous cultural influences combined to create this state of affairs. Historians have noted that the gender roles of the period were shaped by a 'crisis of

119

masculinity.'1 This gendered analysis was initiated with the publication of John Higham’s article, published in 1965 entitled ‘The Reorientation of American Culture in the 1890s.’ Higham argued that, from the 1890s, the United States experienced a period of cultural change that spurred the promotion of masculine forms of manhood. Focusing on changes in middle-class male constructions of manhood, Higham claimed that this shift was articulated via an increased interest in athletics, sport and rugged out-door activities. This period witnessed the growth of college football and baseball as both a form of recreation as well as spectator sport. Outside of college, boxing and prize fighting became popular. Men were said to be reacting against the ‘restraint and decorum’ of the Gilded Age and resisting the dullness of an urban-industrial culture. Men were increasingly urged to be ‘young, masculine and adventurous,’ and the literature suggests that many avidly sought to take up the call.2

Perhaps the most evocative depiction was Higham’s portrayal of the tendency to subordinate ‘mind to muscle,’ and a desire of men to associate themselves with the ruggedness of nature as opposed to the refinements of culture. Virile forms of manhood were staunchly advocated along with a desire to differentiate this from the effeminate sentimental manhood of the eras gone by. Christian Endeavor sat in a tenuous space. Surrounded by cultural and religious organizations that were trending towards more ‘muscular’ activities and forms of manhood, it continued to promote a softer manhood that was interpreted as effeminate and sentimental. It was firmly promoting mind over muscle.

Although Higham did not put forward the notion that the nation was facing a ‘crisis,’ instead using the concept of ‘reorientation,’ the historiography that followed aptly employed the notion of a nation facing a ‘crisis of masculinity.’3 Although the notion of ‘crisis,’ or more specifically the extent of the ‘crisis,’ has been a matter of recent debate, the scholarly literature analysing this muscular shift within US society demonstrates that the cultural shift was significant.4 Theodore Roosevelt has become a symbol for this very

1 Kristin L Hoganson, Fighting for American Manhood (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998), 34–35; James Gilbert, Men in the Middle: Searching for Masculinity in the 1950s (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005), 15–24. 2 John Higham, ‘The Reorientation of American Culture in the 1890s’, in John Weiss (ed.) The Origins of Modern Consciousness (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1965), 27. 3 Gilbert, Men in the Middle, 22–23. 4 One particularly useful overview of historiography is within James Gilbert’s Men in the Middle: Searching for Masculinity in the 1950s, where he dedicates a whole chapter to the concept of a Crisis of Masculinity. Gilbert conceptualises modern manhood as growing from the anxiety of the 1890s. Gilbert, Men in the Middle: 120

process, as he sought to propagate his vision of American men needing to lead a ‘strenuous life.’5 Growing up as an unfit, somewhat sickly asthmatic child, Kathleen Dalton wrote that by the time Roosevelt was 13 years old, his father grew tired of his son’s invalidism and told him that ‘sickness is always a shame, and often a sin.’6 He said, ‘Theodore, you have the mind but not the body, and without the help of the body the mind cannot go as far as it should.’ Wanting to impress his father, Roosevelt embraced a rigorous body-building program and entered the rough and tumble boisterous boy culture that he had previously avoided due to his fragility.7 Young Roosevelt sought to improve his masculine vigour by taking activities such as boxing lessons in order to ‘knock the sissy’ out of himself and embracing his fear of the wilderness.8 Although he suffered from asthma throughout his life, Roosevelt managed to hide behind a well-practised shield of manly vitality. Roosevelt lived in a family of moderate wealth and studied at Harvard before entering politics. During his early years in politics his opponents were quick to brand him 'a college bread sissy' and a 'dude,' because of the way he parted his hair, his dress, his grammatical use of English and his high pitched voice.9 In response, Roosevelt continued his reconstruction into a manly specimen through newspaper publications, which highlighted his experience as a rancher out West and the practical way that he approached reform. 10 According to Richard Hofstadter, Roosevelt’s transformation served to help bridge a gap between his cultured upbringing and the concerns of the 'average' people. He joined the military and served as the leader of the 'Rough Riders,' a cavalry regiment that received much press attention during the Spanish–American War; Roosevelt was often photographed out front leading the

Searching for Masculinity in the 1950s (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005), 21–28; for an overview of the debate surrounding the term ‘crisis’ see, Toby L Ditz, ‘The New Men’s History and the Peculiar Absence of Gendered Power: Some Remedies from Early American Gender History,’ Gender & History, 16:1 (April 2004): 5–7; Judith A Allen, ‘Men Interminably in Crisis? Historians on Masculinity, Sexual Boundaries and Manhood,’ Radical History Review 82 (Winter 2002): 191–207; Bruce Dorsey, ‘A Man’s World: Revisiting Histories of Men and Gender,’ Reviews in American History, 40:3 (2012): 452–458. 5 Richard Hofstadter briefly explores Roosevelt's story in Anti-Intellectualism in American Life. 6 Kathleen Dalton, Theodore Roosevelt: A Strenuous Life (New York: Vintage Books, 2002), 50. 7 Ibid., 50–51. 8 Ibid., 52–53. 9 Richard Hofstadter, Anti-Intellectualism in American Life (London: Jonathan Cape, 1962), 192–193. 10 Roosevelt's famous speech 'The Strenuous Life' provides a glimpse into the divide between those who hold reform ideals highly, and the notion of being able to implement such ideals on a practical level. 'We do not admire the man of timid peace. We admire the man who embodies victorious effort; the man who never wrongs his neighbor, who is prompt to help a friend, but who has those virile qualities necessary to win in the stern strife of actual life.' Hofstadter also explores the criticism of reform-minded men and the notion that they are all about ideas as opposed to understanding that such ideas need to be implemented on a practical level. Hofstadter, Anti-Intellectualism in American Life, 192. 121

charge. Returning as a war hero, he made speeches promoting virile, manly ways of life and was depicted as embodying these qualities. Roosevelt's most famous speech, The Strenuous Life, stated:

I wish to preach, not the doctrine of ignoble ease, but the doctrine of the strenuous life, the life of toil and effort, of labor and strife … We do not admire the man of timid peace. We admire the man who embodies victorious effort; the man who never wrongs his neighbor, who is prompt to help a friend, but who has those virile qualities necessary to win in the stern strife of actual life …

Demonstrating how Roosevelt envisioned this version of virile manhood as fitting with a complementary version of womanhood, he also stated that:

The man must be glad to do a man's work, to dare and endure and to labor; to keep himself, and to keep those dependent upon him. The woman must be the housewife, the helpmeet of the homemaker, the wise and fearless mother of many healthy children … When men fear work or fear righteous war, when women fear motherhood, they tremble on the brink of doom.11

Aside from promoting a gendered divide between the role of a man as breadwinner and protector and the woman as mother and housewife, Roosevelt most importantly embodied the Progressive ideal of the practical implementation of reform. He concluded, ‘Let us therefore boldly face the life of strife, resolute to do our duty well and manfully; resolute to uphold righteousness by deed and by word; resolute to be both honest and brave, to serve high ideals, yet to use practical methods.'12 Practical methods were key; sentimental oratory was not enough, citizens (men in particular) were urged to put their talk into action.

The shift towards muscular ideals has been attributed to various structural and cultural changes which were taking place within US society. Turner’s frontier thesis provided one explanation of this shift. As the frontier closed, male individuals could no longer seek their self-made fortune by moving across wilderness and carving out their own place in the world. The urban centres did not offer alleviation either. Financial difficulties mounted and the mid-1890s saw a period of severe economic depression; the notion that a man could succeed through sheer will and diligence proved fictitious. Men who were coming of age during this period faced difficulty in fulfilling the ‘self-made man’ ideal of their fathers, which fed into a sense of manly impotence and a need to find other social cues to demonstrate achieving a manhood ideal.

With the closure of the frontier, and with nearly half the population now living in urban centres, the ‘civilizing process’ heralded by the earlier generation also appeared to be

11 Theodore Roosevelt, The Strenuous life: Essays and Addresses (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1906), 4. 12 Roosevelt, The Strenuous Life, 22. 122

complete. However, concern was now raised that America had become ‘overcivilized.’13 This concept of ‘overcivilization’ depicted the modern man as effeminate and soft, and it was such depictions that served as an impetus for the new manhood ideals that developed.14

For the Protestant middle classes, who were CE’s main body of membership and leadership, shifts in employment also served to fuel this change.15 As bureaucratic organisations grew and took over the urban economy, middle-class men increasingly found employment in white collar jobs, which required mental as opposed to physical labour. Therefore, men needed to establish brute strength and physical prowess outside of the workplace. Concerns were raised that the urban population lacked the gumption and strength of the early American men who had to tame the wilderness or fight in heroic wars. This generation, growing up after the Civil War, knew little of the violence and bravery supposed to be required.16 Kristin L Hoganson argued that this fear explained popular support for the 1898 Spanish–American War: men in the United States saw war as a means to enact or prove their individual manhood.17 John Pettigrew wrote of the eagerness of American men to volunteer for the war: the army needed to raise 200 000 troops and it managed to easily do so, turning more away more than 50 percent of the applicants.18 He argued that it was not martial spirit alone that pushed these men to volunteer, although he

13 For explorations of the racial debate within ‘overcivilization’ see Bederman, Manliness and Civilization (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995), 196. 14 Clifford Putney, Muscular Christianity: Manhood and Sports in Protestant America, 1880–1920 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2001), 4; Gail Bederman, Manliness and Civilization: a Cultural History of Gender and Race in the United States, 1880–1917 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995), 77–79. 15 Christian Endeavor never overtly wrote about the class of its participants, although its attempts to bridge inter-class divides amongst its membership will be discussed within chapter 6, as will the rise of the attempt to draw support from ‘Workingmen’ after the turn of the century. The bulk of literature for the United States is littered with middle-class concerns and its tone, which sought to build empathy for the ‘other,’ be it the working class or immigrants. One example, in terms of advice for Juniors, was a booklet written by Harriet Clark as she aimed to inform ‘our young people’ of the conditions under which immigrants come to ‘our shores’ in her hope of developing ‘sympathetic interest’ and to gain support for home missions. The characters in the booklet were Bulgarian, Slovak, French, German, Irish and English which falls in line with the Ellis Island setting of the text. Harriet Clark, Our Immigrants at Ellis Island: an exercise prepared for the young people and descriptive of the reception, inspection, and experiences of our immigrants in the detention-room and railway offices (Boston: United Society of Christian Endeavor, 1912). 16 John Pettigrew argued that the Civil War memory cultivated an archetype of the American soldier and provided a legacy of toughness and virility that transcended the earlier divisions of North and South, Yankee and Rebel. The Spanish–American war provided a perfect occasion for exercising American fighting prowess and the nation’s manhood overall. John Pettigrew, Brutes in Suits: Male Sensibility in America 1890-1920 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007), 220. 17 Hoganson, Fighting for American Manhood, 15-16. 18 Pettigrew, Brutes in Suits, 218. 123

claimed that the 'joy of adventure' (a euphemism for 'looking for a fight’) should be understood as a primary motivator.19

The changes in women's role and influence within US society over the preceding decades also served as a key factor in the rise of muscular forms of manhood. Ann Douglas argued that the nineteenth century witnessed what she terms as a ‘feminization’ of American culture. As a result of women’s entrance into the public sphere and their perceived dominance of the religious culture, men acted out in resistance, seeking to reassert their masculine dominance. Additionally, Douglas argued that ministers and women were perceived to have co-opted Protestant religion, turning it into a feminine form of worship.20 No longer was Jesus seen as a strong man, now his feminine qualities were emphasised. Reactionary efforts were subsequently made to attract men back into the church by providing muscular forms of Christianity.

Linking in with this analysis, Clifford Putney has demonstrated how muscular Christianity started to gain popularity after the 1890s. Originally heralding from Great Britain during the 1850s, muscular Christian ideas transferred to the United States and were put forward by transcendentalist thinkers such as Thomas Wentworth Higginson. Higginson was an abolitionist and a woman’s rights advocate, and in 1863 published Out- door Papers, which discussed the need for men to exercise, especially considering the trend within America that 'all hand-work is constantly being transmuted into brain work.'21 Yet, he claimed, all of our natures needed bodily enjoyment and 'we need, in the very midst of civilization, something which gives a little zest of savage life; and athletic exercises furnish the means.'22 In relation to religious worship, Higginson complained that Protestant saints and ministers lacked physical prowess. He decried, 'What satirists upon religion are those parents who say of their pallid, puny, sedentary, lifeless, joyless little offspring, ‘He is born

19 Other factors Pettigrew noted as sending the United States to war was the globalisation of American corporate capitalism, the wilful power of political and economic elites, and humanitarian interest in helping Cubans free themselves from colonial rule. Ibid, 218. 20 Putney, Muscular Christianity, 25. Ann Douglas, Feminization of American Culture (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1977). 21 Higginson also demonstrated particular concern for the American born man, claiming that as machinery improved, all the coarser work was being transferred to recent German and Irish immigrants while the American was promoted to something more intellectual. He argued that while this was good for the intellect, the bodied suffered and needed some other physical activity to ‘restore the equilibrium.’ This links in with the idea that although physical labour jobs remained, the predominant male members of CE (white middle class) were in the midst of the shift away from employment that involved physical labour. Higginson, Out-door Papers (Boston: Lee and Shepard Publishers, 1886), 137. 22 Higginson, Out-door Papers, 138. 124

for a minister,’ while the ruddy, the brave, and the strong are as promptly assigned to a secular career!'23 Higginson called for a more vigorous form of religion, a combination of athletic and intellectual strength. Women were not sidelined in his vision of a physically strong 'body' of the church. Higginson called girls to lead equally active lives.24 Yet by the 1890s, such concepts had converged with the masculinist ethos, and a desire to construct homosocial environments free of feminine influence. Subsequently, muscular Christianity was institutionalised by movements such as the YMCA, which had flourished in the US since the 1870s, but grew in prominence to cement its place within American culture. There was also a surge of other, all-male, organisations such as the fraternal organisations, religious brotherhoods and men’s movements. 25

Michael Kimmel has provided a detailed account of various ways that men responded to women’s rights during the late nineteenth century; he argued that there were three different ideological responses, each providing its own set of discourses.26 These three categories prove particularly useful in understanding the variety of discourses that pervaded the period, as well as a source to further complicate such divides. Kimmel’s three categories are the anti-feminist backlash, the pro-feminist response and the masculinist response.

The anti-feminist backlash relied on natural law and religious theories to demand woman’s return to her separate private sphere. Alternatively, advocates of the pro-feminist response supported demands for women’s equality with a particular emphasis on suffrage as well as sexual autonomy. The masculinist response was somewhat of a grey area and involved a group that CE had to both resist and appease. Masculinism is defined by Kimmel as the resistance of feminisation. It involved an ‘effort to restore manly vigor and revitalize American men by promoting separate homosocial preserves where men (could) be without female interference.’27 His work depicted the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century as a period wherein much popular culture sought to resist what was perceived as

23 Higginson, Out-door Papers, 7. 24 Ibid, 201–204. 25 Mark C. Carnes, Secret Ritual and Manhood in Victorian America (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989), 1-6; Putney, Muscular Christianity, 7, 25–26; Michael Kimmel, Manhood in America: a Cultural History (New York: The Free Press, 1996), 125-128; Thomas Winter, Making Men, Making Class: the YMCA and Workingmen 1877-1920 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002), 4–6. 26 Michael Kimmel, History of Men (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2005), 73–74. 27 Kimmel adopts the present tense for his definition as he presents masculinism as a current condition instead of a purely historical one. Kimmel, History of Men, 21. 125

the feminisation of American culture. The rise of muscular Christianity should be understood in this light, yet tight distinctions are not always reflected in reality. CE exemplifies how a dual gendered organization navigated and mediated change: it was able to resist the push towards muscular styles, yet ultimately its members were also shaped by such cultural ideals. Masculinism infiltrated their perception, value systems, as well as devotional styles. CE proved to be a source for both resistance and adaptation.

Christian Endeavor and the Boy

The Progressive movement embraced scientific (as opposed to emotive or reactionary) reforms. Boyology was one such endeavour, combining masculinist anxieties with scientific approaches to social problems.. Kenneth Kidd wrote that ‘Boyology’ was a familiar term in the early twentieth century and was used to provide a philosophy for working with boys. It codified a ‘cluster of ideas about boyhood and the national character that also inspired church youth work, organized camping, and character building agencies such as the YMCA, Boys’ Brigade, Order of the Knights of King Arthur, Sons of Daniel Boone, Order of the American Boys, Woodcraft Indians, Big Brothers, and Scouting.’28 Most of these associations were organised between 1900 and 1920. They demonstrate a resistance to the spread of the dual gendered societies, such as CE, which grew in the final decades of the nineteenth century.

In 1901, William B Forbush wrote The Boy Problem, a book that sought ‘to discuss the boy as dealt with in his social relations in the institutions of the community and the Church.’29 Forbush was a clergyman who also held a PhD and a Litt.D. His text proved formative and popular; renowned psychologist G Stanley Hall called it ‘hardly less than epoch-making’.30 The Boy Problem was reprinted in eight different editions between 1901 and 1912.31 The work linked with Forbush’s earlier effort in 1895 to create a fellowship of

28 Kenneth B Kidd, Making American Boys: Boyology and the Feral Tale (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2004), 67; The YMCA predated CE, although its cultural significance was solidified during this later period as it was the most visible representation for forms of muscular Christianity with its focus on sports such as basketball and the gymnasium. As a means to compare CE to the muscular movements, this chapter will focus on the lesser known group The Knights of King Arthur, which was founded in 1894. For information on YMCA and Muscular Christianity see, Clifford Putney, Muscular Christianity, 122. 29 William B Forbush, The Boy Problem: a Study in Social Pedagogy (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1902), 5. 30 Carl Kelsey ‘Reviewed Work: The Boy Problem: A Study in Social Pedagogy’ in Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 19 (1902): 130–131. 31 Kidd, Making American Boys: Boyology and the Feral Tale, 69. 126

boy workers under the name ‘The Men of To-morrow.’ Forbush wrote that this group was dedicated to the single purpose of studying boys and their needs, and aimed to serve as a bureau of information on the issue.32 Publishing a journal under the title of Work with Boys, the bureau sought to provide information on a diverse array of interconnected matters such as home life, social life, religious life, as well as how to help boys who lived in poverty or on the street. A variety of individuals published within the journal, the majority being reform- minded and religious, with most being YMCA or boys club leaders, ministers, academics and settlement house workers.33 Forbush published extensively both within Work with Boys, and separately. He called his analysis of boys and boyhood social pedagogy.34

Forbush wrote The Boy Problem with the aim of trying to ensure that within the church there was not only boyhood, but also manhood.35 He sought to promote methods with which the church could win, hold and nurture boys. While in many respects his goal was the same as Francis Clark’s in his creation of CE, the gender philosophy that drove each construction was essentially different.36 Forbush was resisting the changes that had been implemented over the previous decades and heralded the emergence of the muscular methods. He presented many of Clark’s methods as unnatural for developing faith and manhood. Linking with the wider sense of a ‘crisis of masculinity,’ Forbush targeted the effeminate style of worship that CE and other organizations promoted. He believed CE was a major culprit in the spread of effeminate forms of manhood – this placed CE as a perpetrator of the sense of crisis.

Using the psychological literature of the day, Forbush argued that adolescence was a period of ferment (ages 12–16), crisis (ages 16–18) and reconstruction (ages 18–24), each

32 The Men of To-morrow ran various conferences and printed monographs. In 1901 they began publishing under the ‘General Alliance of Workers with Boys’ with a journal titled Work with Boys: A Magazine of Methods. 33 See William B Forbush (Ed.), Work with Boys: A Magazine of Methods 1, January (1902). 34 Forbush, The Boy Problem, 5. 35 Forbush, The Boy Problem, 167. 36 It is interesting to note that Forbush, like Clark, also used travel within his writings as a means to build religious faith in youth. Fictive travel was used as a tool to teach about the boyhood and manhood of Jesus. The lesson plans also included specific homework questions that required bible reading to discover what life was like for Jesus; this was seen to complement the fictive travel. In general, the questions were directed at both of the sexes, yet there was an undeniable gender dynamic. In one instance there was a specific question for girls which asked them to read bible passages in order to learn about the housework undertaken by Mary; this was contrasted by another question which asked what game and sports were played by young men. William B Forbush, The Travel Lessons on the Life of Jesus (New York: Underwood and Underwood, 1908), 77. 127

period associated with its own wave of religious interest.37 Forbush did not delineate between the groups in his subsequent analysis but attested that for the boy, adolescence was a sensuous and sentimental period that preceded the rational and deliberative state of manhood.38 Forbush described the process as ‘coming out from the little, dependent, irresponsible, animal self into the larger, independent, responsible, outreaching and unpreaching moral life of manhood.’39 The age between 12 to 16 was a particularly confusing period where a boy would become endowed with the ‘passions and independence of manhood’ while still a ‘child in foresight and judgement.’40 Forbush quoted the renowned psychologist, G Stanley Hall, that this age was a ‘period of temporary insanity’.41 E I Swift was quoted as stating that it was normal for all healthy boys to enter a period of semi- criminality, as ‘the boy rushes into crazy plans and harmful deeds’.42 Forbush and other ‘boyologists,’ sought to find ways to guide boys along this turbulent path towards manhood.

The boy needed to be guided during this period; it was a critical period of his development into manhood. Yet the boy needed to be treated as a boy. Attention was therefore directed towards specifying the needs of a boy and what he required in order to help him on his path to manhood. G Stanley Hall provided an introduction to The Boy Problem and highlighted the intellectual shift that was underway as he asserted:

There is a light about to break forth from genetic psychology and pedagogy that will show things in new relations and will convict some of our best ways and means in the past of error and bring a wealth of new suggestions. The Church, the Sunday-school, teachers, and those who labor for the neglected classes are now coming to see that they must study and understand better those for whom they work; and that everything must be adjusted to their nature and needs.43

37 Forbush, The Boy Problem, 22. 38 Ibid., 23. 39 The emphasis on ‘unpreaching’ has significance regarding Forbush’s view of ideal manhood – CE valued preaching, he did not. Ibid., 22. 40 Ibid, 23. 41 Ibid, 23. 42 Within Forbush's magazine, Work with Boys, an article outlines the criminal tendencies of adolescent boys and discusses petty theft using the example of a boy stealing a watermelon. Such theft is normalised as the boy explains to the Judge and jury that 'us fellers' stole a watermelon to celebrate his birthday, and that he 'bet there ain't a man in this court room that ain't stole melons when he was a boy.' The jury smiled and the Judge looked startled yet agreed, he too had stolen a watermelon. The story was used to demonstrate the difficulties faced by boys in the city who did not have a grandmother’s garden to raid for such items and, somewhat innocently, got caught up in crime for taking these items from the sources where they were available. Aside from highlighting the concern regarding the impact of urbanisation upon the family unit, it was argued that it was normal for boys to expel their energies and if they were not provided with active activities such as sport, they would find themselves caught up in crime; Joseph Lee ‘Crime or Sport,’ How to Help Boys, 2:2 (April 1902). 43 G Stanley Hall, ‘Introduction,’ in William B Forbush, The Boy Problem: a Study in Social Pedagogy (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1902), 3. 128

Both Forbush and Hall adopted a strict biological essentialism in how they viewed gender. Boys and girls were biologically and developmentally different, and therefore, had different needs. The ‘Boy Problem’ referred to the ineffective, even damaging, approach that current youth groups were taking. Christian Endeavor bore the brunt of the criticism, with a particular focus on its dual gendered membership and feminised approach.44 The Boy Problem is a neat depiction of the masculinist idea that Kimmel argues was prevalent during the period.45

The Knights of King Arthur

To provide insight into Forbush’s gender ideal, it is useful to explore the boys organization that he founded in 1893, the Knights of King Arthur. Like CE, the Knights of King Arthur has remained understudied by historians.46 Writing in 1912, Forbush claimed it was the largest boys’ fraternity in the world, and was mostly found within churches.47 The membership numbers, however, have not appeared within the available sources, although there are claims that Baden Powell’s much more prolific Boy Scout movement was modelled in part on Forbush’s Knights.48 In turn, Forbush sought to distinguish his group from the Scouts, arguing that ‘the ideal product of the Scouts is the scout, the agile frontiersman; the ideal product of the Kings is the knight, the Christian gentleman.’49 The Knights of King Arthur was described as an order of Christian knighthood for boys and based upon the romantic, hero-loving play, constructive and imaginative instincts which were said to ripen at about 14 years of age. Its purpose was to ‘bring back to the world, and especially to its youth, the

44 Forbush, The Boy Problem, 82–94; William B Forbush, Church Work with Boys (Boston: The Pilgrim Press, 1910), 70–71. 45 Kidd, Making American Boys: Boyology and the Feral Tale, 67. 46 Alan Lupack has explored the Knights within his analysis of Arthurian youth groups within America and demonstrates that there was a wider trend towards chivalric idealism both within popular culture and literature. He argued a process was underway in the late nineteenth century where Americans were translating idyllic notions of knighthood into an American setting, one based upon literary as opposed to historical examples. Lupack suggested Forbush’s clubs were important as they democratized the Arthurian legends by making them accessible to anyone willing to live a morally noble life. Alan Lupack ‘Visions of Courageous Achievement: Arthurian Youth Groups in America’ in Medievalism in North America, ed. Kathleen Verduin (Rochester, NY: D.S. Brewer, 1994), 50–51, 55. 47 Forbush, The Coming Generation (New York: D Appleton and Company, 1912), 352. 48 Jeanne Fox-Friedman ‘The Chivalric Order for Children: Arthur’s Return in Late Nineteenth-and Early Twentieth-century America’ in King Arthur’s Modern Return, Debra N Mancoff, ed., (New York: Garland Publication, 1998), 149. 49 William B Forbush and Dascomb Forbush, The Knights of King Arthur: How to Begin and What to Do (Oberlin, Ohio: The Knights of King Arthur, 1915), 20-21. Citied in Medievalism in North America, ed. Verduin, 53. 129

spirit of chivalry, courtesy, deference to womanhood, recognition of the noblesse oblige, and Christian daring.’50 Fuelled by a sense of fantasy, each group would make a ‘conclave’ and meet in what was termed a ‘castle.’ Members would take on a name inspired by a heroic ancient knight or modern man ‘of noble life’ and would dress as a page, esquire or knight, depending on which level they had reached upon the graded system. Each grade aimed to teach individual lessons that were seen as important to boyhood and would involve elaborate rituals inspired by the Arthurian legends as well as the turn of the century fraternal orders.

Forbush was attracted to the fraternal lodge system and its supposed masculine appeal. He argued that there were more men in the lodges than in the church, and while less than 25% of the church consisted of male members, over 92% of the membership of lodges were men.51 Although Forbush stated that he was not a member of a secret fraternity, he did not deny that the Knights was based upon the fraternal lodge model. He sought to take the positive components: dramatic imagination, chivalry and masculine ideals while leaving out the negative aspects, such as their triviality, secretiveness and what Forbush thought was selfishness. He also highlighted the fact that the Knights worked within the Church instead of outside of it, a principle that mirrored Clark’s vision of CE.

Keeping with the overall aim of such voluntary Protestant societies, the purpose of the Knights was to seek to improve and uplift the moral state of society. Forbush provided a colourful, somewhat flowery, depiction of thousands of boys taking on a knightly name as his own and trying to be the ‘finest thing on earth – a Gentle Man.’52 He proposed that if thousands more were to join the quest there would be a ‘chivalrous kingdom of knightly- hearted men in the Great Republic and many wrongs will be righted by the hands of lads who wear a tiny white cross above their hearts.’53 He spoke of his vision of an American prince arming himself for the battle of life with a body that was supple, quick and strong, a will that was masterful but controlled and a soul that was reverent and watchful. Women were not completely absent from this vision, as he depicted the image (and provided a

50 Forbush, The Boy Problem, 97. 51 William B Forbush & Dascomb Forbush, The Knights of King Arthur: How to Begin and What to Do. (1915) http://d.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/text/forbush-knights-of-king-arthur-how-to-begin-and-what-to-do, accessed 15 December, 2014. 52 William B Forbush, The Boys’ Round Table: A Manual of Boys’ Clubs Explaining the Order of the Knights of King Arthur (Albany, NY: The Knights of King Arthur, 1907), 6. 53 Forbush, The Boys’ Round Table, 6. 130

sketch) of the sweet-minded mother buckling on the boy-knights’ greaves while his sister watches and provides a silent prayer.54 With these images he sought to call young American boys to join his organization. As of 1907, it was suggested that over 900 conclaves had been created, with many more in existence but remaining unregistered.55

For Forbush, girls interfered with this progression towards manhood. He argued that boys do not like to be organised with girls, ‘a society that does nothing but play games and give parties is really not big enough for the bigness of a rapidly developing young man.’56 It was, however, stated that ‘a normal group of boys like to meet an attractive group of girls occasionally.’57 It was suggested that each conclave should host a ladies’ night, not more than once every 3 months, and this would prove to be a place where knights could practice their chivalrous courtesy.

The divergence from CE’s gendered dynamic is clear, especially when one looks at the Knights’ official approach to girls. The Queens of Avalon was founded by Forbush in 1902 as a sister organization to the Knights of King Arthur. Forbush stated that girls were supposed to represent the ‘charming’ thought of a revival of the Queens of the Celtic Paradise. These Queens embodied the noble conception of womanhood as the healer and companion of the bravest, most noble of mankind.58 The group was founded largely as a means to help construct or promote women who could be complementary to the knights.59 It was argued that there was an opportunity in the Queens for the ‘natural inculcation of ideals of purity and womanliness, together with the exercise of the house-wifely and artistic virtues which were appropriated by the noble ladies of those legendary times.’60 The graded system saw girls move up the rank from a pilgrim, to a lady, to become a Queen. Girls also took on imaginary names, and ‘Eleanor of England’ reported that her membership in the

54 Forbush, The Boys’ Round Table, 2, 6. 55 Forbush was attempting to make an international order and hoped that creating a conclave could serve to ‘break the heathen and uphold the Christ, to the great Republic we vow our allegiance, its flag our banner, its chief our chieftain,’ Forbush, Ibid., 42-43. 56 Forbush & Forbush, The Knights of King Arthur: How to Begin and What to Do. 57 Ibid. 58 Forbush, The Coming Generation, 345. 59 See Laurie A.Finke & Susan Aronstein ‘The Queens of Avalon: William Forbush’s Arthurian Antidote,’ Arthuriana 22:3 (2012). 60 Forbush, The Coming Generation, 345. 131

Queens of Avalon had shown her what true womanhood really was, as well as more about the spiritual side of life.61

Like CE, and the Knights, the Queens was envisioned as a means to provide a safe and separate place for youth to develop the qualities needed for faith and good character in adulthood. Forbush saw the Queens as a means to remedy the influence of hazardous cultural trends. This was poignant enough an issue that the first sentence of the 1925 handbook was dedicated to the point that the Queens served as a distinct ‘antidote’ to flapperism. Although the organization was created prior to the rise of the flapper, it was ‘so sensible, joyous, and good-humored that it is acceptable to even the most thoughtless lass who, usually innocently, affects boyish mannerisms or adopts a misunderstood and dangerous license of behavior.’62

Forbush’s and fellow Boyologists’ take on Christian Endeavor

The publication of The Boy Problem coincided with the growth of Junior CE, which in February of 1898 claimed to have 11 920 societies in the United States and 13 228 globally, with a total membership of 396 840. It was said to be growing at a rate of 25 societies per week.63 While CE had originally been tailored for adolescents, its popularity meant that as members aged they wanted to continue their involvement within the organization. This was partnered with younger members wanting to join. For societies that were large enough, it was suggested that they divide into three sections; Junior Christian Endeavor for those under 12, Intermediate Endeavor for those 12 to 17, and Christian Endeavor for those 18 and above. Age divisions constituted a guide, as opposed to a requirement, and in practice societies were able to tailor the age divide according to their own situation. The same structure was adopted in the Junior CE as the senior; Junior CE had a pledge, committee work, prayer meetings, business meetings and socials. The focus of Forbush’s work was on boys under the age of 16, and he was keen to highlight the danger in CE’s use of adult CE methods for boys and girls 10 to 16.64 He overlooked the fact that while the overarching structures of CE were the same, the activities and committee work itself were fashioned to cater for the age group of the membership. Nonetheless, the perceived ‘special’ nature of

61 William B Forbush, Queens of Avalon, http://d.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/text/forbush-queens-of-avalon, accessed 28 November, 2014. 62 Forbush, Queens of Avalon. 63 ‘Secretary’s Corner,’ Junior Endeavor World, February 1898, 7. 64 Forbush, The Boy Problem, 83. 132

boys was an important point that had a larger significance in that it challenged the dual gendered approach.

Forbush’s criticism of CE highlights a broader difficulty faced by a dual gendered organisation at the turn of the century. He used physiological studies in his attempt to prove that CE’s approach was unnatural. In particular, he reported the results of a study which analysed groups of boys’ and girls’ socialisation habits and the ‘societies’ that they created from their own initiative.65 Forbush noted that three things were ‘definitely discovered’ regarding these societies. First was that physical activity in the form of play, construction, wandering and athletics was of supreme interest. He noted that 85.5% of the groups dedicated themselves to this purpose. Second, Forbush put particular emphasis on the fact that ‘leagues for religious expression were almost entirely absent,’ which suggested that CE’s religious focus limited both its appeal and effectiveness. And third, boys and girls almost never organized together.66 Evidently CE was missing the mark on all three points. As the largest youth group of the period, and with millions under its care, Forbush was quick to point out CE’s errors and some potential remedies. Although CE was the focal point for his critique of dual gendered organizations, he noted that the denominational bodies that had imitated its methods, such as the Epworth League and the Young People’s Baptist Union, shared its problems.

The future President of the Chicago Theological Seminary, Rev. Ozora S Davis, shared the belief that CE’s dual gendered membership was not suitable, or attractive, for boys. Davis claimed that when he asked the CE boys in his church who would like to separate into all boys and all girls meetings, not one boy wanted to stay with the girls. This was despite the fact that by splitting into sex-segregated groups, they would subsequently have to sacrifice half their meetings.67 Boys, apparently, did not desire to stay in CE if they had to mix with girls or carry out girl-centric activities. William McCormick added to this analysis of CE’s methods within his book, Fishers of Boys, where he suggested that Christian Endeavor was too ‘girlish and kiddish’ for the adolescent boy over 13. Summarising his

65 Forbush, The Boy Problem, 83. 66 Ibid, 83. 67 Rev Ozora S Davis, ‘The Endeavor Movement and the Boy,’ Work with Boys: A Magazine of Methods, 2:1 (1902): 61. 133

points, he highlighted his perception that this left a gap between youth and adulthood which CE was originally created to fulfil.68

Forbush demonstrated concern over the impact that interaction with girls would have on the boys in making them more sexually oriented. He asserted that emphasis upon the physical side of life through the gymnasium, the choir and the camp was a wise way of fending off the ‘silly age’ to as late a period as possible. Further, he claimed that the responsibility of the church in ‘guiding and guarding and keeping sweet the first friendships of boys and girls can scarcely be overestimated.’ 69 In previous years, apprehension regarding the dual gendered membership was often directed at protecting the purity of girls, but in Forbush’s writing he desired to protect the purity of the boys. By keeping the boy separate, his ‘boyhood’ state could be prolonged. 70 Boys could be feminised or sexualised through their association with girls.

It was not just simple interaction with girls that posed a threat to boyhood, it was also the feminine activities undertaken by CE. A major concern of Forbush’s was CE’s emphasis on public speaking, which he argued went against the natural state of the boy. The importance that CE had placed on public speaking during its formative years, and the importance it continued to place, conflicted with the new muscular trends within Protestantism. Forbush noted that he knew of a ‘bright boy’ who was asked to join an Endeavor Society but replied, ‘No they talk too much with their mouths.’71 Forbush believed that it was more important ‘to brood’ than to utter a public prayer that was unnatural and parrot like.72 Such demand for speaking means the boy is obliged to ‘subsume under his head all the positive, manly, heroic activities of his practical life.’73 Ultimately, he summed up his point in suggesting that if a boy wants to talk in a meeting at this age, there is generally something the matter with him. Other writers agreed with this analysis.74 In one

68 William McCormick, Fishers of Boys (New York: Hodder and Stoughton, 1915), 97–98. 69 Forbush, The Coming Generation, 346. 70 Ibid., 353. 71 Forbush, The Boy Problem, 85. This quote is also printed in Rev Ozora S Davis, ‘The Endeavor Movement and the Boy,’ Work with Boys: A Magazine of Methods, 2:1 (1902), 60. 72 Forbush, The Boy Problem, 84. 73 Forbush, The Boy Problem, 84. A similar sentiment is evident in Rev Ozora S Davis, ‘The Endeavor Movement and the Boy,’ Work with Boys: A Magazine of Methods, 2:1 (1901), 60. 74 A general overlap of ideas can be explained by the fact that both Forbush and McCormick served as editors on the journal Work with boys: a journal of social and religious pedagogy. Forbush served as editor between 1904–1909 and McCormick between 1913–1919. 134

of the more colourful depictions, William McCormick wrote in The Boy and His Clubs that the CE meeting was:

a poor sort of a place to develop the moral energy of the typical boy. The modern boy does not think in terms of Pauline theology and is not addicted to pious platitude. If he utters a bookish prayer or exhorts in the language of the Psalms there is something wrong with the boy. He is a dangerous character.75

Forbush suggested the remedy of having a youth group that was ‘active with their hands rather than with their tongues.’76 The thought of millions of young boys sitting around talking about their feelings each week elicited concern. The fact that the boys happened to be doing it with girls just heightened his sense of alarm.

When Harriet Clark published Junior Endeavor in Theory and Practice in 1903, it was clear that her view of a Christian boy differed from that of Forbush. Harriet had taken on the role as President of Junior Christian Endeavor, which published its own periodical, the Junior Christian Endeavor World (Junior CE World), along with institutional literature. She noted that the prayer-meeting committee was one where boys could be especially useful and mentioned that in some societies this committee was made up entirely of boys. She claimed that a boy should be taught that he will be expected to be able to lead a church prayer meeting when he grew older, and that it served as part of the training required to assist him to become a helpful member of his church in the future.77 It was somewhat strange for a CE publication to have such a pointed remark directed at a single gender in regards to public speaking. Possibly it was intended as a response to Forbush’s criticisms. Harriet made the comment that, ‘If the members are really Christian boys, as of course they should be before they become active members, they will be ready and willing to help in all these ways.’78 Harriet, however, did suggest that the requirements were tailored with the age group of members in mind, as she mentioned that the young may find it difficult to find something to say. As a remedy, she suggested that contributions in meetings should be planned in advance; an example being that one member might give a helpful thought from

75 William McCormick, The Boy and his Clubs (New York: Fleming H Revell Company, 1912), 27. 76 Forbush, The Boy Problem, 91. 77 Harriet Clark, Junior Christian Endeavor in Theory and Practice (Boston: United Society of Christian Endeavor, 1903 ), 111; Each Junior Christian Endeavor World would publish letters from various Juniors. The idea that Junior Endeavor helped to train members for adult Endeavor work is evident within this Junior’s letter from Norman E.S, from Oxford, Maryland, which states, ‘Our superintendent wants us all to learn to do the work of the different committees and attend to the business of the society, so that when we are old enough to enter the Young People’s society we will be ready for work.’ The reply from Secretary John Willis Baer stated, ‘I am glad you have in mind graduating into the older society. Your Junior training will make you an efficient member of the senior society.’ ‘Secretary’s Corner,’ The Junior Endeavor World, March 1898, 8. 78 Clark, Junior Christian Endeavor in Theory and Practice, 114. 135

the sermon he heard while another might read out a letter from the Junior CE World.79 Despite efforts being made to shape activities in accordance with the age group, by and large, CE continued to place emphasis on the desirability for public speaking regardless of gender.

The perception that Junior CE was a feminised space was likely encouraged by the fact that it was mostly led by women. Efforts were made to attract male leaders, but as a volunteer organization it tended to attract a dedicated and passionate group of women. Perhaps this is not surprising considering the growth of homosocial organizations that sought to attract boys during the period, such as Forbush’s own Knights of King Arthur, the Boy Scouts as well as the YMCA.80 These groups appear to have been more attractive to men who volunteered their time.

The fact that women wrote the majority of Junior Endeavor literature confirmed this feminine bent, and it was reflected in the content. For example, Harriet suggested that during CE socials, leaders should allow any innocent games, but they should ensure they were not too boisterous.81 Another example was Harriet’s suggestion that the boys and girls enjoyed having occasional invitations to meetings in the leader’s home. She did not elaborate if these meetings should be divided by gender or not, yet she provided the example of an all-boy prayer meeting committee. Harriet wrote:

In such a quiet little meeting as this, with four or five boys alone, their superintendent ought to be able to get very near to their hearts, and to strengthen her own influence and the influence of the society upon them … if this earnest little prayer-meeting can be followed by a little supper, or by light refreshments of some kind, and then by a pleasant social time, it will leave a doubly pleasant impression on their minds.82

Considering scholarship has since argued that much of the masculinist backlash was inspired by the desire for men to escape the domestic or feminine influence, one can connect the female leaders’ desire to expand their home sphere and Forbush’s desire to ensure boys could escape. Kimmel depicted the burst of all-boy, or homosocial youth organizations as a form of ‘boys’ lib.’83 It served as a means to provide boys with an escape from women’s control and influence, a space where they could get in touch with their

79 Clark, Junior Christian Endeavor in Theory and Practice,114. 80 The Boy Scouts were founded in 1909. 81 Clark, Junior Christian Endeavor in Theory and Practice, 136. 82 Clark, Junior Christian Endeavor in Theory and Practice, 115. 83 Kimmel, Manhood in America, 168. 136

virility or physicality via playing outdoors in an uninhibited manner under the guidance of men.84 As Rotundo explained, in his analysis of boy culture, G Stanley Hall asserted that there was something wrong with the boy ‘whom the lady teacher and fond mother call a perfect gentleman.’85 Women’s vision of boyhood was presented as conflicting with the ideal as propagated by the ‘expert’ psychologist. Following these lines, Harriet’s plan to bring boys into the home sphere could have appeared as a form of feminine entrapment.

A brief analysis of Junior CE suggests that Forbush had a point. Other Junior CE leaders took a more active view of the organization than Harriet. Lillian Heath wrote a book called Good Times with the Juniors, and suggested a whole range of activities which could be used at a Junior CE social, yet remained relatively feminine in taste. Some examples included making cards, a play, and themed trivia.86 The vast majority of the games included ornately detailed advice for themed decorations, costumes and food. Single sex activities were integrated, such as a boy’s book club, where boys could dress up as their favourite characters.87 Costume suggestions included a play on certain titles or characters, such as ‘Saint Nicholas’ being a boy dressed up as Santa Claus, or ‘The Merry Adventures of Rob-in Hood’ being a boy named Robert who is dressed in his sister’s hood. For girls, the tract suggested a handkerchief gymnasium, where ‘fun and simple’ exercises were created with the aid of a handkerchief on the basis that not all girls had access to a gym.88 Aside from the handkerchief exercise, the suggestion closest to an athletic activity was the somewhat domesticated ‘Parlour Athletic Meet,’ which had a whole round of games in which both boys and girls could compete to win a prize.89 The recommended location of the event was, as the name suggests, in a parlour or dining room. The location perhaps derived from a practical rationale given the spatial restrictions of the urban landscapes, as well as the hindrance of the colder North American climate. Yet the space of the home once again highlights the boys’ entrance into the feminised sphere. The most vigorous of the activities was an arm

84 For an exploration of the use of homosocial organisations as a means for men to escape mothers or the feminine sphere, see Kimmel, The History of Men, 29–33; Rotundo, American Manhood (New York: Basic Books, 1993), 52, 67. 85 G Stanley Hall, ‘Feminization in Schools and Home: The Undue Influence of Women Teachers – The Need of Different Training for the Sexes,’ World’s Work 16 (1908): 10240. Cited in Anthony Rotundo, American Manhood, 256. 86 Lillian M Heath, Good Times with the Juniors (Boston: United Society of Christian Endeavor, 1904) 74–75, 81–93. 87 Ibid., 113. 88 Heath, Good Times with the Juniors, 97–98. 89 Ibid, 69. 137

wrestling competition and a game involving racing each other up and down the stairs; again, these activities were practical, as they were easily confined to the size of a parlour or home. Other games included throwing bean bags into a hole cut into a board, seeing who could hold their breath for the longest without laughing and eating an apple hung on a string with their hands behind their back. It was suggested that the prize should be attractive for both genders, adding that girls have a way of winning ‘if they have a good chance.’90 While on one level it could be interpreted as helping both genders to have a chance at winning, a masculinist interpretation would be that the inclusion of girls restricted the boys’ activity.91

The desire for active activities that appealed to boys was also evident within CE, as was the fear of feminised approaches. At the 1896 CE Convention, Mr C J Atkinson of Toronto told delegates to:

Avoid Sentimental gush, a long-faced demeanor, and the calling of Juniors ‘dear little children’. Teach a real, matter-of-fact religion that Juniors can practise (sic) in the school-room, running messages, riding a bicycle, or playing baseball. If we must have long faces, let them be long crossways. Treat your Juniors not as prudes and prims, but as healthy, fun-loving girls and boys. Boys? Yes, boys; and you can have boys from twelve to sixteen years of age in your society in as great numbers as the girls, if you recognize that they must have exercise sometimes or something will break, and that they must have fun sometimes or something will burst, and that they aspire above everything to be considered manly while in their teens.92

Junior CE was not immune from the belief that boys (and girls) found the sentimentalised approach unappealing, but they did not support the belief that the sexes required segregated activities, and instead sought to find ways to blend the two approaches.

The Junior CE World was also open to Forbush’s critique. As the majority of writers who published in the periodical were women, the magazine reflected their concerns. For example, one story was about two little boys called Benny and Bonny, who did not want to help with the household chores. They kicked up such a stink that their mother let them play instead, while she carried out all the work. Her sister came to visit and while the boys were ‘sprawled out’ hiding underneath the sofa, they overheard their aunt worrying that their mother looked worn out, and insisted that she needed to rest in order to ensure that she did

90 Heath, Good Times with the Juniors, 71. 91 These suggestions can be contrasted with the activities of boys-only muscular Christian organizations such as basketball at the YMCA, hiking and camping with the Scouts or games such as Cowboys and Indians in the case of the Knights of King Arthur. 92 Official report of the Fifteenth international Christian Endeavor Convention held in Central Hall, Tent Williston, Tent Washington, Tent Endeavor and the Churches, Washing, D.C, July 8-13, 1896 (Boston: United Society of Christian Endeavor, 1896), 190. 138

not get ill again. The boys remembered when their mother had been seriously ill a few years ago, and Benny stated, ‘supposed she was to get sick an die,’ with Bonny adding, ‘cause we let her do all the work and get so tired.’ The story concludes with the boys bursting from under the couch and jumping into their mother’s lap, sobbing, ‘please, please, mamma, we can’t stand it any longer; do forgive us, for we’ll never be happy any more till you let us do some work for you.’93 More than religious training was taking place within the pages of the Junior CE World: psychological manipulation was also evident.

The fear of women’s encroachment upon leadership roles can also be detected within Forbush’s writing. He noted that, while in the past a large group of officers within Endeavor societies were young men, now such posts were ‘to a startling degree’ held by young women.94 This falls in line with CE’s early push to get women to take on leadership roles within the organization, and it seems that they did this with special gusto within Junior CE. At the 1896 Christian Endeavor Convention, held in Washington DC, Miss Jennie T Mason of Indianapolis noted in her address that the feminine pronoun was typically used when talking of a model Junior superintendent.95 Mason argued that although it was probable that the leader was a female, it was not necessarily true. Mason explained the gender imbalance within Junior CE leadership as a result from the fact that ‘in this day and age’ women outnumbered the men within the churches 16 to 1. She emphasised that the organization hoped they could secure help from the young men who could provide ‘manly influence,’ as it was most needful to a Junior CE society. It was not just numbers that concerned Forbush, but women’s general leadership ability.96 Writing much of his criticism in the third person, Forbush stated that ‘the psychologist’ finds fault with the Junior CE plan because the leader is not only generally a woman, but a young, inexperienced and untrained woman.97 Concepts of training and expertise rise to the surface within his critiques. Further,

93 Minna C Denton, ‘That Dreadful Play-Day,’ The Junior Endeavor World, May 1898. 2–3. 94 Forbush, The Boy Problem, 87–88. 95 ‘Address of Miss Jennie T Mason, Indianpolis, Ind’ in Official report of the Fifteenth international Christian Endeavor Convention, 188. 96 Forbush does make room that women can potentially lead boys’ activities, as he celebrates the work of Miss A B Mackintire. Mackintire created a successful boys’ club called the Captains of Ten which was open to boys between the ages of 8–14 at Dr Alexander McKenzie’s church in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She was treated as somewhat of an anomaly by Forbush, who described her as a ‘trained sloyd worker’ with ‘remarkable ingenuity and patience.’ Hand-work was used as the basis for the group’s activities, although it also sought to instil an interest in missions which were taught ‘graphically’ at each of the monthly business meetings. Forbush makes the point that there is no Christian Endeavor group within McKenzie’s church, subtly hinting at the fact that it was unnecessary due to the success of the Captains of Ten group. Forbush, The Boy Problem, 96. 97 Ibid, 89. 139

he asserted that the ‘soul of an adolescent child is too fair and fine a thing to be handled by a willing but ignorant girl or brandied about by a committee.’98 Women, especially untrained women, could not grasp the needs of an adolescent boy; the boy needed physical activity, not sentimental talk and emotions.

Such arguments also demonstrate the importance placed on the idea of professional training. During the Progressive period, new professional fields were arising for reformers, such as social work, and this meant that the line between volunteer religious workers and professionals became increasingly delineated with ‘experts’ seeking to assert authority over the amateur. Gendered understandings of expertise also complicated the matter. In this period women began training as social workers and police, as a means to curb the social problems caused by delinquent girls of the day. Mary Odem has demonstrated how essentialist gender constructs actually served to create professions for women based on the fact that, just as men were perceived as best fitted to understand boys, women were perceived as best fitted to understand girls. 99 Understandings of ‘training’ were all ingrained in these broader social trends. However, despite Forbush’s distaste for trusting young ‘untrained women’ with the soul of the adolescent boy, he did not appear to require that young male leaders undertake training to carry out work with boys. The special qualities that Forbush prescribed for male workers appear to be innate qualities, as opposed to those one could learn. Therefore, his criticism of young ‘untrained women’ taking over the care of boys appears inconsistent. It was not so much the lack of training that was questionable, especially considering that so many leaders of Junior Endeavor happened to be teachers; it was the fact that leaders were women.

Matters were not helped by the fact that Forbush suggested that men in CE were feminised also. He called the male leaders the ‘saints’ of the Endeavor movement and stated that they were men of the devotional type.100 Forbush explained that they ‘push or publish’ the writings of preachers whom he labelled as being saints of the same devotional type. Forbush voiced his qualms that such ‘saints’ perceived the prayer meeting as the

98 Forbush, The Boy Problem, 90. 99 Mary Odem, Delinquent Daughters: Protecting and Policing Adolescent Female Sexuality in the United States 1885–1920 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina, 1995), 99–101, 122–125. 100 It should be noted that Forbush does treat Francis Clark with respect within his work, and notes the unselfish guidance that CE’s leadership has provided. The grit of the criticism is the style and methods CE adopts. Forbush, The Boy Problem, 86. 140

‘thermometer of the Christian.’101 Christian Endeavor’s campaign for the Quiet Hour, which sought to get all members to spend an hour a day in private prayer or reading the bible, came under particular ridicule.102 Forbush stated that while some may be able to fill an hour, many would fill 3 minutes and then have 57 minutes leftover to do something useful. Others, he claimed, found such lengthy prayer and writings tiresome. Those boys who did enjoy it were what he termed as the choleric type, before pointing out that women were overwhelmingly of the same temperament.

Although Forbush stated that he did not wish to reflect upon the manliness of the ‘devotional type,’ his statements make his judgement clear. Even the themes that CE sought to impose on the youth, such as ‘rest, peace, resignation and introspection,’ were characterised by Forbush as ‘essentially feminine themes.’103 Rev Davis also suggested the fact that CE’s pledge ‘exalts the feminine rather than the masculine traits,’ as it placed the greatest emphasis on the devotional and the reflective.104 Christian Endeavor was not just deemed inept at providing masculine role models for boys, it was deemed hazardous, as it flooded the youth group market with ‘choleric,’ sentimentalised ‘saints’ and feminised activities.

Calls for Adaptation

Rev. Ozora Davis wrote for Forbush’s magazine, Work with Boys, in early 1902. Demonstrating a shared perspective regarding the need for CE to adapt its model for boys,

101 Forbush makes special reference to the CE campaign that sought to get all members to participate in the ‘Quiet Hour’ – an hour dedicated each day to personal prayer. Forbush, The Boy Problem, 83. 102 The President of the Philadelphia Christian Endeavor Union published a guide on the philosophy behind the Quiet Hour as well as meditative suggestions. It sought to reconnect individuals to God, to meditate on a higher purpose as Christians had in medieval times. He warned that the modern Christian world was afraid of emotionalism, and dreaded a possible asceticism, yet the Quiet Hour was posed as a way of reconnecting to a God and to see Him as a constant wise friend. Clarence E Eberman, Deeper Yet: Meditations for the Quiet Hour (Boston: United Society of Christian Endeavor, 1899), 7–9; Also see, J Wilbur Chapman, The Secret of a Happy Day: Quiet Hour Meditations (Boston: United Society of Christian Endeavor, 1899); Harriet Clark, A Daily Message for Christian Endeavorers: a book for the Quiet Hour, for the Prayer meeting, and for the Birthday (Boston: United Society of Christian Endeavor, 1897). Chapman later led revivals that were mostly all male, these took place in 1909, see Margaret L Bendroth, Fundamentalists in the City (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), 127, 141. 103 Forbush, The Boy Problem, 90. 104 Rev Ozora S Davis, ‘The Endeavor Movement and the Boy,’ Work with Boys: A Magazine of Methods, Vol.2. Issue.1 (1901): 59; Davis was a Congregationalist minister, born in Vermont in 1866 and attended Dartmouth and Hartford Theological Seminary before doing his PhD at the University of Leipzig. He went on to become the president of Chicago Theological Seminary and served in that position until 1929. For biographical details, see ‘Chicago Theological Seminiary’s collection of Ozora Stearns Davis, 1896-1933,’ www.congregationallibrary.org/finding-aids/DavisOzora4974, accessed 19 January, 2015. 141

Davis wrote of his experience creating an all-boy society. Davis wrote that CE needed to provide a space for ‘action as well as verbal testimony.’ Claiming that public testimony was falling out of fashion within the churches in New England, except within the Salvation Army and city mission work, where it was still common, he moved on to focus on the ‘action’ component. Davis provided as an example that a CE superintendent could put boys into contact with the boys of an orphanage and thereby enlist their interest in something ‘definite’ to be done, working with the leader towards this ‘definite’ object.

An examination of the Junior CE World, however, shows that Junior CE was already absorbing this criticism and sought to promote definite activity within its ranks. In 1898, ‘Anna R.B.’ from Pennsylvania wrote to tell of her society’s activities: how members sent flowers to the sick, visited the hospitals, and were saving pennies to help a group of orphans who were going ‘out into the country’ this summer.105 Secretary John Willis Baer replied, ‘That’s the letter I like to read, come on junior boys and girls, send me more letters of this kind. Tell me what you are doing.’106 The letter that followed did, however, suggest that there was strong adult leadership driving the children’s activities. Bessie from New Jersey wrote, ‘As a result of our last social we have twenty dollars, which our superintendent wants us to send to give the gospel to the heathen.’107 Despite some young members writing with a sense of ownership regarding their activities under Junior CE auspices, others demonstrated strong adult guidance. Yet this highlights the difficulties faced in terms of trying to prompt younger members to engage with what could be considered more adult concerns. While the criticism was directed towards Junior CE’s activities, it is questionable that the proposed alternatives actually were more practical in terms of community engagement or reform work.

In his 1902 edition, Forbush noted that CE was the largest youth movement within the American Protestant Churches, and potentially had millions of boys under its care. Therefore, he suggested that some simple adaptations should take place so it may suit the young boy and allow him to ‘ripen’ into Christian Manhood. The key remedy that Forbush suggested was that CE should create a Boys’ Brigade, thus limiting the feminine influence, and that it should also focus on practical activities. In order to discover if this was viable, he

105 It is unclear if this was to help fund the orphans’ travels, or if it was a code for an orphan’s coming of age and having to find employment. 106 Secretary’s Corner, The Junior Endeavor World, March 1898. 8. 107 Ibid. 142

wrote a letter to Francis Clark asking if a society of boys, formed without special Christian Endeavor features, but preparatory to membership in an older society, could be classed as a Junior or Intermediate Endeavor Society. Forbush viewed Clark’s response as positive and quoted it as such:

It seems to me with the Juniors and Intermediates that there may be even larger flexibility than in the Senior society, especially when the pastor has them under his own supervision and is training them for usefulness in the church, which of course is the great object of Christian Endeavor. You say ‘without special Endeavor features,’ but special Endeavor features embrace the learning of Scripture, simple prayer services, catechetical methods, and all possible kinds of work appropriate for boys and girls. Many or all of these plans you would approve of, I am confident, and the children’s society along these lines would be, I should think, a good Junior society. We desire that there should be the upmost liberty consistent with keeping the Endeavor movement on a genuinely religious, and an outspokenly religious basis.108

Clark took his usual diplomatic stand and left the reader open to interpret his words as they wished. Although Forbush saw it as allowing for a practically minded all-boys society, Clark appeared to actually reinforce the very points that Forbush and others were resisting. Although Clark upheld the fundamental belief of maintaining ‘liberty’ or flexibility within CE methods, he did reiterate the fact that CE was appropriate for boys and girls, included scripture and prayer, and he maintained the desirability to keep it as an ‘outspokenly’ religious organization. By 1910, Forbush appears to have let go of his aspiration to get CE to adjust to his methods of working with boys. Despite being the oldest and largest of all the young people’s movements, he wrote that it had proved its worth ‘chiefly as a co- educational society.’109 He made his overall intent clear, however, within his disparaging remark that it was largely only the boys who liked girls that went to a Christian Endeavor society.110

It is interesting to note that at the same time that Forbush was letting go of his desire to transform CE’s gendered approach, CE published its first book devoted to boys clubs within church work. Clark provided the introduction, yet always used the inclusive term ‘boys and girls’ within it. The author, R P Anderson, highlighted that no attempt was being made to organise a national association of ‘Christian Endeavor Boys Clubs’; whether a society wished to create a separate boys club or not was a matter for the local leaders to decide. While boys clubs were not unknown within CE, they did not prove to be very

108 Forbush, The Boy Problem, 92–93. 109 Forbush, Church Work with Boys, 70. 110 Ibid, 71. Forbush repeated this concern that it was only boys who were fond of girls whom maintained membership in CE societies within The Coming Generation, 355. 143

widespread and, by and large, CE managed to resist pressure to fragment into single sex societies.

As the largest religious youth group in the United States, and the world in the late nineteenth century, CE is recognised as a powerful actor in the shaping of youth. This chapter has explored how, as the twentieth century drew near and muscular Christianity gained prominence within US Protestantism, Junior CE became tainted as a symbol of feminisation. CE, however, was not simply reacting to the context of a masculinity under ‘crisis,’ it was feeding into the fervour. Criticisms were directed at CE by ‘boyologists’ who sought to protect the ‘boy’ against CE’s feminine approach and eschewal of physical activity; they even saw CE’s methods as detrimental to future American manhood. The criticisms attacked the core of CE’s gendered approach, forcing CE leaders to reassert their commitment to their dual gendered philosophy and non-muscular methods. While CE did absorb some elements of the critiques, seeking to reaffirm its practical work and making room for the potential of single sex groups, ultimately the segregated approach never took off and CE’s practices remained largely unchanged. CE stood firm in the face of steady criticism. The next chapter turns to the impact of muscular Christianity upon the adult portion of Christian Endeavor. The dual gendered membership was less problematic in CE than it was in Junior CE, however, they still had to carve a place within the gender framework that was dominated by muscular Christian models.

144

CHAPTER 6 RESISTING THE MASCULINIST PUSH

From the 1890s, CE was confronted with a culture that was rapidly emphasising and absorbing muscular visions of manhood. CE’s attempts to tweak these muscular ideals into a more readily applicable or female-friendly model were diverse and unwavering. While both Junior Endeavor and Christian Endeavor shared the same historical influence of the muscular push, the reactions or outcomes were different given the respective difference in the age and subsequent social context of their membership. The adult context proves to be much more convoluted and difficult to pin down that its junior counterpart. This chapter will look at the adult context of CE and how it both adapted to, and resisted, masculinism during a period that has more typically been associated with the reassertion of masculinist values within Protestantism.

CE reached the peak of its influence and growth within the United States in 1895, the year that the Boston convention boasted 56 000 attendees. From the turn of the twentieth century, CE faced stagnation, then dwindling numbers and disinterest. The national conventions, which had been an annual fixture, became biennial after 1901. It was being lamented by 1901 that Cincinnati could lose the convention due to lowered numbers and interest. The challenges that CE faced during this period were numerous; the rise of muscular Christianity served as a major obstacle, as did the proliferation of the New Woman ideal.1 The overall impact of the shifts in gender relations, and CE’s ambivalent approach to them, was arguably a key factor in its ultimate wane from cultural prominence. CE effectively sat on the fence in terms of the women’s or men’s movements that dominated the period. While CE did not overtly

1 New Womanhood, or the ‘New Woman’ within the United States was the term used to depict women who were entering domains that had previously considered male, such as higher education and the professions. This allowed the women to be independent of male control; at times the term was used disparagingly as well as a source of pride. For a primary source of the time reflecting it in a positive light, and highlighting the need for further legislation to support woman’s empowerment see: Mary A. Livermore, ‘The New Womanhood’ The American Advocate of Peace and Arbitration, 53:5 (July 1891), p.124; For a historiographical description of the word in a positive term see Ruth Bordin, Alice Freeman Palmer: The Evolution of a New Woman (Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 1993), 2-4; For an analysis of the term used in a disparaging way, or symbolizing a masculinized female and transgression of separate spheres, see Melody Davis, ‘The New Woman in American Stereoviews, 1871- 1905’, in Elizabeth Otto & Vanessa Rocco (eds.), The New Woman International: Representations in Photography and Film from the 1870s through the 1960s (Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 2011), 21-31. 145 embrace masculinism or mainstream muscular Christian models, its relationship with them was complex. On the one hand, it originally sought to maintain the sentimentalised man that was increasingly tainted by a feminine aura. By the turn of the century, however, there was a gradual shift to the Social Gospel’s Christian businessman model, which Clark had laid the foundations for during the 1880s. There was no neat breaking point, so both models often worked alongside each other with individuals and representatives using the model most appropriate for their purpose or personal views.

The complexities of CE’s gendered stance will be first explored by analysing how CE tweaked and reappropriated the vision of a muscular Christian man. Second, the challenges of New Womanhood will be examined, using CE’s relationship with the suffrage movement as a case study to demonstrate both its ambivalent approach as well as its membership’s largely conservative base. Finally, I argue that CE is best understood within the context of the Social Gospel movement. Considering that the Social Gospel movement has typically been understood as central to the masculinist push itself, placing CE at its centre serves to disrupt this interpretation of Social Gospel. Further, it highlights inherent inconsistencies within CE’s own cooperative gender model.

Tailoring the Muscular Christian Model: The Pure-Hearted Man When Frances Willard was posed the question ‘what features of the Christian Endeavour Convention at Cleveland especially impressed you?’, she answered in the following suggestive fashion:

I think I was most of all rejoiced to see so many young men at the Convention, and to note their beautiful behaviour. As they walked the streets they seemed so manly, and carried themselves with so much strength. I did not see a cigar or cigarette disfiguring the lips of any. Their tones were quiet, and they had that sturdy figure but self-contained manner that characterizes the muscular Christian of this practical age. I did not see that young women were one whit more zealous or attractive than the young men; and this was one of the pleasantest experiences of my life.2

Willard’s view of muscular Christianity was different from the model which focused on being active in group sport or training in gymnasiums. It focused instead on a purity of manhood – one that was placed in contrast, or partnership, with the purity of

2 This quote was published within a South African Christian Endeavour periodical, and it was said to be based upon an interview which was published within an English paper. Therefore the spelling is British English opposed to American English. ‘Christian Endeavour Notes from Other Lands,’ Golden Chain, January 1895, 8. 146 womanhood. Yet it also ascribed a manly strength in this purity, an attractive manly strength.

Willard was a popular speaker at CE conventions and her speeches were published within CE periodicals. The quote above referred to the 1894 convention in Cleveland, with the article originally being published in Britain before being republished within a South African CE periodical. Ideas, and individuals, were constantly circulating through CE circles and publications.

Willard served as leader of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), which was the first mass organization among women which devoted itself to social reform with a focus on women’s causes. It was overtly political in its focus; working as a transnational organization, the WCTU tied the religious and the secular through far- reaching reform strategies. Willard adopted a ‘do everything’ policy, which meant that the Union embraced a broad range of social reforms.3 Clark implemented the same policy within CE, demonstrating the philosophical as well as institutional ties between the organizations. The historian, Ian Tyrrell, has shown that Willard’s ties with CE, and her frequent addresses at CE conventions, brought the work of both Willard and the WCTU to a much broader audience: an audience which included men. Her feminist beliefs, and those of her organization, were widely known and, accordingly, her commitment to New Woman ideals would have been apparent to those who heard or read her gendered analysis. Therefore, Willard’s writing on manhood and male-female relations, within CE, was heavily laden with a political subtext, and this needs to be taken into consideration when trying to assess her gendered point of view. The WCTU and CE used each other as a means to further their causes, tailoring their approaches accordingly.

In 1896 the United States’ CE periodical, The Golden Rule published an article specifically written for its pages by Willard entitled ‘A White Life for Two.’4 The themes were similar to those that Willard had been publicly promoting for well over a decade. 5 Based on an original paper written in 1890, the paper was adjusted,

3 Ian Tyrrell, Woman’s World/Woman’s Empire: The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union in International Perspective 1880-1930 (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina, 1991), 2-3. 4 Frances E. Willard, ‘A White Life for Two’, Golden Rule, November 7 1896. 116. 5 For similar examples of the shared theme in other Willard speeches see, Frances Willard ‘‘Social Purity: The Latest and Greatest Crusade’ April 22, 1886’ and ‘How to Win: A book for Girls, 1886: in Carolyn 147 presumably for the intended (mixed-sex) audience. Willard removed details such as the mention of suffrage and the argument that there was too much focus on the physical education of boys, when it was girls who needed it most.6 She maintained the focus on male and female attraction, stating that attraction was the strongest, and one of the most unnoticed, proofs of a beneficent creator. Willard went on to highlight the broader significance of marriage, and claimed that ‘faithfulness to the other, alone makes possible the true home, the pure church, the righteous nation, the great, kind brotherhood of man.’ Willard founded her analysis in both women’s rights philosophy and theological beliefs. She suggested that (American) society was just beginning to train those who were formed ‘for each other,’ on the basis of a two-fold headship, based on laws divine as well as natural. Presenting the modern day partnership of the sexes as an evolutionary process, she claimed such behaviour was in turn ‘rooting out all that remains of the medieval, Continental, and harem philosophies.’ Celebrating the partnership of the sexes in reform work, she heralded education and Christianity as the father and mother of such advances in gender relations.

Such views fit in neatly with CE’s commitment to equality between the sexes within its organization, as well as its desire to create a home life that embodied its cooperative vision at a marital and familial level. As argued in chapter 4, marriage and courtship were key features of CE; despite the fact that these customs were not necessarily its original or professed aim. The view of CE as a means to introduce young Christian men and women was affirmed by the renowned British journalist and reformer William T Stead (W T Stead). In 1900, Stead claimed that one of the chief benefits of the society was that it brought the sexes together, and gave the best of them a chance to get acquainted and form the lasting ties of companionship and love. Clark recalled that the early sneer that Christian Endeavor stood for ‘Courting Endeavor’ became, in Stead’s mind, one of its chief glories.7 Willard tapped into this concept of male and female mutuality and attraction; she sought to harness it to improve manhood. After all, lifting the standard of manhood would in turn improve the quality of women’s lives both within the family and the public sphere. The publication of such

De Swarte Gifford & Amy R Slagell (eds.) Let Something Good be Said: Speeches and Writings of Frances E Willard (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007), 91-100. 6 Frances E Willard, A White Life for Two (Chicago: Women’s Temperance Publishing Association, 1890) http://lincoln.lib.niu.edu/cgi-bin/philologic/getobject.pl?c.5485:1.lincoln Accessed January 20, 2014. 7 Francis E Clark, Many Men in Many Lands, 177. 148 writings was supporting the women’s rights platform, albeit in the guise of concern for male members; the dual purpose was clear, yet subtle enough to avoid arousing antagonism.

Illustrating her adept political mind, and feeding into the wider concern about a manhood in crisis, Willard argued that while the barbarous past wrought injustice for women, it had been even more harmful to men, as it made it too easy for men to do ‘wrong.’ While a woman knew that she must ‘walk the straight line of a true life, or men will look upon her with disdain,’ men, she claimed, had no such fear. Young men could sew their wild oats, drink beer, smoke and lead an impure life without reproach or fear of female rejection. Women’s dependence on men was presented as a major contributor to male impurity; Willard claimed that not one in one hundred had the talent or pluck to make herself independent of those like him, the unchristian macho man. This in turn gave him the freedom to do wrong. As demonstrated in chapter 4, CE pushed its female members to make better choices in their selection of male partners, suggesting that they pick good Christian men. Willard highlighted how the men in CE provided good ‘muscular’ Christian options. Willard sought to find a way for men and women to have gender roles that were mutually beneficial and supportive, and her reconceptualisation of a purified muscular male served her feminist vision. CE served as a means to implement the male and female ideal, with equally pure and cooperative men and women in both the public and private spheres. The desired aim was that the sexes would be mutually faithful, mutually attractive and mutually pure.

Concern about male purity was not limited to CE within the United States. At the 1903 UK convention, held at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, there were multiple addresses on the topic of developing a pure heart.8 Like Willard, Rev. W M Redfern highlighted the typically feminine nature of the concept of a pure heart. Redfern argued that some people believed such topics only held interest for children, angels, good women and ministers, and held very little interest for young men. He, however, disagreed. Instead, he insisted that there was no topic so ‘practical’ and so opportune as purity of heart. Denying that it made milk-sops, prigs or sentimentalists of young men, he argued that

8 The expansive and cyclical nature the concept of purity, is expressed in one of the talks where it was attested that, ‘pure hearts make pure homes – pure homes make possible pure cities – pure cities are the prelude to pure nations, while pure nations will consummate the magnificent spectacle of a pure world.’ E. Pritchford, Pepper Street, M.N.C Society, Chester ‘The Pure Home’, in, Report of Christian Endeavor Convention held at Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, (London: Andrew Melrose, 1903), 93-94. The concept of a pure heart is also discussed within three simultaneous talks, as outlined in pages 106-107, 116. 149 it made men strong, healthy and manly. 9 This move mirrored the subsequent boyologists social debate surrounding Junior methods and the supposed feminised nature of introspection. Practical actions were used as an antidote to the growing suspicion of CE’s feminising power. They served as a means to attempt to masculinise CE activity, to highlight its active characteristics, while also maintaining its pure- hearted aim, which could serve the vision of CE manhood alongside complementary partnership with female CE members or women within the family or society at large.

One key example of the attempt to implement practical methods was the promotion of active Christian citizenship. At the 1902 Christian Endeavour Convention in Manchester, UK, a session was dedicated to international brotherhood and Christian righteousness. A poem by the American Josiah Gilbert was used to provide an evocative portrait of the kind of man that CE sought to attract and deploy. Lines from the same poem were used in an address at the US convention of 1896, further evidence of the circulation of ideologies and an illustration of the shared CE vision across the Atlantic. It also demonstrated the mutual concern aroused from the perception of an unsettled political and social context.10 It asserted:

God, give us men; a time like this demands Strong minds, great hearts, true faith, and ready hands; Men whom the lust of office does not kill, Men whom the spoils of office cannot buy, Men who possess opinions and a will, Men who have honour, men who will not lie. For while the rabble with their thumb-worn creeds, Their loud profession and their little deeds, Mingle in selfish strife, lo! Freedom weeps, Wrong rules the land, and waiting Justice sleeps.11

Similar themes had proliferated throughout the various conventions within the United States, where CE members were asked to place particular emphasis on the ideal of Christian citizenship.12 The model Christian citizen was one who embraced active

9 Report of Christian Endeavor Convention held at Newcastle-Upon-Tyne (London, Andrew Melrose, 1903), 89. 10 The phrase ‘a lust for office that does not kill and the spoils of office cannot buy’ was used by Rev Franklin Hamilton, in Official Report of the Fifteenth International Christian Endeavor Convention (1896, Washington DC), 121. 11 Rev, E.R. Barrett, B.A, Bradford, ‘International Brotherhood and Civic Righteousness’ in Rev. W. Knight Chaplin (Ed.), Report for Christian Endeavor Convention held at Manchester Wiltshire, 1902 (London: Published by Andrew Melrose, 1902), 26. 12 A focus of the 14th Christian Endeavor Convention, held in Boston, was that of Christian Citizenship. The topic was further emphasized the following year at the 15th Convention held in Washington DC. See, 150 reform, engaged in politics and sought to avoid the temptation of selfishness and greed, both personally and politically. In 1898 Amos R Wells, editor of the Christian Endeavor World (CE World), published a formative guide called Citizens in Training: a Manual of Christian Citizenship. Wells proclaimed that CE was ‘training citizens of the future,’ a neat take on Clark’s original motto that CE was ‘training the church of the future.’13 Wells emphasised that CE’s work was to be strictly non-partisan, working purely outside of and above party lines. He advised that while Endeavorers may enter the contest as individuals, the Christian Endeavor Union (CE Union) and its Christian- citizenship committee should maintain absolute silence when party feeling entered into a matter. Where such action ‘would not jeopardize the higher aims for which Christian Endeavor exists, however, the Christian Endeavor Union may even inaugurate citizens’ movements’.14 CE Unions were called to draw the wisest citizens and, with their help, formulate a call to the decent men of all parties.

Tensions arose between a form of citizenship that was open to both sexes and one that was predicated on being male. During the 1895 Boston Christian Endeavor convention, Mayor Edwin U Curtis spoke to the delegates about good citizenship. He addressed them ‘not as an organization, but as individual men and women’ and claimed that each of them had a part in the building of society, before going on and discussing citizenship in thoroughly male terms. Curtis rallied support by declaring that the forces of light had remained too passive, as they feared soiling their hands in political work. Meanwhile, he claimed that the organised forces of darkness were unscrupulous and defiant.15 Following the often repeated line, Curtis called for action, not passivity. Indifference, he claimed, was the bane of the great cities of the United States and the responsibility for good government rested upon the individual citizen, or most importantly, the male voter.16

With citizenship being so entangled with suffrage, it proved difficult to discuss the matter without drifting into male-centric territory. The following speaker, Lieutenant-Governor Wolcott, emphasised in an optimistic fashion that 1895 ‘shall be

Official Report of the International Christian Endeavor Convention Volume 11-14, 556, 590, 740, 748, 752. 13 Amos R Wells, Citizens in Training: a Manual of Christian Citizenship (Boston: United Society of Christian Endeavor, 1898) 8. 14 Ibid., 36. 15 Official Report of the 15th International Christian Endeavor Convention Volume 11-14, 748. 16 Ibid., 748. 151 known hereafter for giving the first stimulus and impulse to a great reform movement that shall improve our government all over the land.’17 Wolcott asked that the men let their muscles be ‘strung up tense and firm with manly and courageous determination.’ Drawing on the mythological power of the heroes of the Revolutionary War, he asked that the generation look back to the heritage of the ‘young men who gave their lives, and the young women who poured out their prayers that, under God, this nation founded by our fathers should continue to be the United States of America.’ Although it should be highlighted that CE saw prayer as a form of action, the perpetuation of the idea that men fight and women pray revealed the perseverance of gendered distinctions which proved difficult to modify. The active and passive gender divide was routinely perpetuated despite the desire for inclusion and was further fuelled by the wider sense of a crisis of masculinity.

Once again, using the muscular ethos in a non-athletic example, it was argued that the citizens of the United States had lost their civic muscle; CE members were told that ‘this is the summons of every citizen of moral muscle and spiritual backbone to awake, to arise from his sleep of civic indifference.’18 Although the male pronoun was often used, the same address asserted that God had made woman to be man’s equal and that ‘with our sisters we will strike hands [so] that this country shall chase out her devils.’ The desire to not sideline woman’s role was partnered with conflicting assumptions about gender roles. Without an overt feminist stance, the gender vision became diluted or tempered. It, however, did foster an attempt for a non-athletic vision of a muscular man (one that was more open to active partnership with women).

CE and Woman Suffrage

Whilst its members might have agreed on woman’s theoretical equality within its organization, stretching that to ideas such as woman suffrage, for example, was a source for potential friction. Suffrage proves to be a useful case study in how CE sought to deal with differences of opinion within its membership, while trying to ensure it was not dragged into a battle that would detract from its ‘higher’ cause. It is not surprising that tensions were evident within CE’s gendered model, as these tensions reflected the broader transformation of gender roles within wider society.

17 Official Report of the 15th International Christian Endeavor Convention Volume 11-14, 750. 18 Official Report of the Fifteenth International Christian Endeavor Convention (1896, Washington DC), 122. 152 The political and mental structures that CE was required to work within were fundamentally based on gender binaries that reformers such as Willard were trying to break down. It was a complicated and delicate process, which was exacerbated by CE’s desire to avoid sparking tension or agitation amongst its membership, as might result from close association with a divisive movement. It should be highlighted that CE wholeheartedly embraced the temperance movement without any hesitation of its religious cause being subsumed: temperance proved to be the staple reform of CE until prohibition was achieved nationally in the US in 1920. In 1898 when Wells (who was a suffrage supporter) wrote a guide on running CE Christian citizenship meetings, he chimed, ‘You will want, of course, to treat the temperance question’ before including the additional suggestions of ‘civil service reform, Sabbath observance, the divorce reform, ballot reforms, the initiative and the referendum, reforms in municipal government, progress made against speculation and gambling, suffrage reforms, the introduction of the curfew, [and] the suppression of lynch law.’19 Temperance was the stalwart CE reform cause and suffrage was treated very differently.

As early as 1895, the New Hampshire CE Union had announced that its state platform would include the promotion of woman suffrage.20 New Hampshire, however, was in the minority. Given how wholeheartedly CE embraced groups such as the WCTU that were vocal in its support for the suffrage cause, it is surprising how tentative they often were when dealing with the topic.21 When Illinois achieved woman suffrage in June 1913, by October the local CE Unions had organised 6 weeks worth of lectures spread throughout three parts of the city, in order to inform female members of the election laws of Illinois. It was reported that the meetings had made room for 15 000 woman in total. The desire to ‘train’ members to be ‘intelligent citizens’ was applied in California as early as 1896, despite the fact that California did not achieve woman suffrage until 1911. Presenting at a rally held at the First Presbyterian Church in San Francisco, the speaker, Giles H Grey of the National Municipal League, explained that if the laws were changed to allow for woman

19 Wells, Citizens in Training, 59. 20 ‘Christian Endeavor: Tenth Convention Meets in Concord in 1895, Resolutions Declare for Defence of Public Schools, Woman’s Suffrage and Commend Dr Pankhurst in New York’ Nashua Daily News, 10 November, 1894. 21 The WCTU used the argument of expediency, alongside natural rights arguments, as a basis for supporting suffrage believing that if woman had the vote their concerns and platforms would have a better chance of being implemented at a governmental level. Tyrrell, Woman’s World/Woman’s Empire, 222- 223. 153 suffrage, the obligation on both male and female voters would be the same. Grey enthused that the woman citizen would accordingly be required to acquaint herself with public questions and be prepared to vote upon them ‘independently and intelligently.’22

The tendency to discuss the potential for woman suffrage, yet not take an explicit stand, was familiar; more common, however, was an avoidance of the topic. In 1915 Chicago hosted the international CE convention. The Chicago Daily Tribune reported that CE had ‘dodged’ the issue, reporting under the bolded title ‘Christian Endeavorers Avoid Action on Woman’s Suffrage.’23 It recounted that this omission occurred despite discussing topics such as the saloon, international peace, strikes and lockouts, Sabbath observance and the use of the Bible in public schools. The article charged that leaders even commended women’s activities and their enlarged legislative recognition, but they kept an unbroken silence when it came to advocating the ballot.24 The Chairmen of the Resolution Committee, Dr Ira Landrith of Nashville, Tennessee, explained the omission of an outspoken endorsement was due to the fact that many in the South were not yet converted.

The cautious nature of CE’s official organizational stand is clear within a resolution made during the 1915 convention regarding a woman’s position within both CE and society at large. It asserted that:

Whatever tends to thwart womanhood’s high calling should be withheld by the right minded lover of his kind. Christian Endeavor, which has never drawn lines of division in service, whether on account of sex or nationality or race, will do nothing now to stem, but will instead do what it may to swell the rising tide of public sentiment in favour of giving to trained and worthy women everywhere, aided by righteous manhood, the opportunity, against all woes of childhood and home, to defend their young and their firesides and to promote the moral, mental and physical uplift of society.25

The message was ultimately ambiguous in the face of a divisive issue.26 An additional example of avoidance of the suffrage matter was in 1910 when a New Jersey society

22 Politics outlined for Endeavorers, San Francisco Call, 6 June, 1896. 13. 23 W.B Norton, ‘Christian Endeavorers Avoid Action on Woman’s Suffrage’, Chicago Daily Tribune, 13 July, 1915, 15. 24 Ibid., 15. 25 Ibid., 15. 26 The avoidance of controversial issues, along with the desire for inclusiveness, can also be found in the International Council of Woman (ICW) which claimed to represent 4-5 million women in 1907. Leila J Rupp writes of how in 1899 the ICW’s desire to include both pro-suffrage and anti-suffrage arguments at their congress resulted in suffragists organizing their own separate international organization. Both avoidance and inclusiveness still caused contention and could be a difficult path to tread. See, Leila J. 154 invited a well-known advocate for woman suffrage, Minnie Reynolds, to talk at the CE convention on the matter of women’s work and child labour. She was invited on the provision that she would not discuss the suffrage issue during her talk.27 In either instance, if suffrage was universal or limited, CE desired to ‘train’ and help ‘make worthy’ both its female and male members, so they could enter into politics with a pure and Christian frame of reference.

This is not to say that CE was completely silent on the matter of woman suffrage. Perhaps the best evidence for its conservative base is within the few arguments put forward for the suffrage cause. Amos Wells published an article within the CE World in 190128 which sought the perspective of 25 ministers who worked within the four Western states which had achieved woman suffrage.29 Drawing at random from subscribers from various denominations, he asked respondents if equal suffrage was working well, fairly well, or badly within their respective state. The response was ‘almost unanimously favourable,’ with 21 claiming it was working well, three fairly well, and only one respondent reporting that it was working badly. The discussion revolved around the key anti-suffrage arguments of the day, and sought to calm the fears of those who might be swayed by such opinions. These included the potential that discord could arise within the home due to disagreements over political party allegiance or, alternatively, women might simply vote on the same ticket as that of their husband. Reassurances were made that, despite woman suffrage, the harmony of the home remained intact and the woman’s vote was independently minded. Women also remained womanly; they did not become masculine due to attaining the franchise.30 Finally, it was recounted that one of the most important gains of woman suffrage was the increased political intelligence of the women in each state. It was reported with confidence that women took their responsibility seriously and studied hard. Accordingly, they were said to be much more self-reliant than previously, and

Rupp, ‘Constructing Internationalism: The Case of Transnational Women’s Organizations, 1888-1945’, American Historical Review 99 (Dec, 1994): 1574. 27 ‘Suffrage Barred, Mrs. Minnie Reynolds Will Speak at Convention of Christian Endeavor’ Spokane Daily Chronicle, 22 June, 1910. 28 Amos Wells, ‘A Double Jury on Woman Suffrage’, Christian Endeavor World, 3 October, 1901, 5-6. 29 The four states were Utah, Colorado, Wyoming and Idaho. 30 In another example of this common argument, albeit in a more sarcastic tone, it was argued within the closing address of the National-American Suffrage Convention of 1895 that, ‘There is something else for women to do than to sit at home and fan themselves ‘cherishing their femininity.’ ... Womanliness will never be sacrificed in following the path of duty and service.’ Susan B Anthony & Ida Husted Harper (eds.), The History of Woman Suffrage, Vol. IV. (Indianapolis, The Hollenbeck Press, 1902), 242. 155 better fitted for all their duties. Woman suffrage was represented as an overwhelmingly positive endeavour. The concerns were not new or particularly hard hitting, but were suggestive of a potentially apprehensive audience who were not fluent with, or convinced about, the pro-suffrage argument.

It should be noted that Wells’ support did not go unnoticed by those at the heart of the suffrage movement. The prolific woman suffrage advocate, Susan B Anthony, quoted from Wells’ publication in the CE World during the 1902 hearing before the Select Committee of Congress on Woman Suffrage.31 Anthony used Wells’ work as an example of the broad base of support for the suffrage cause. Arguably, the relatively conservative reputation of CE could prove useful for the suffrage cause, which in this case co-opted the image for its own practical benefit. The foremost male suffragist, Henry Brown Blackwell, husband of the women’s rights leader Lucy Stone, also took notice of Christian Endeavor. He wrote about the 1895 CE convention held in Boston, celebrating that one of the principle reasons for the marvellous success of ‘Christian Endeavor’ was that its women enjoyed absolute equal rights within the organization; women voted and were voted for, and were eligible for any and all offices. Suggesting the body of membership was not yet converted at large to the suffrage cause, he mused, ‘if only these aspiring young men and women could realize that the next great step in social progress must be the enfranchisement of women!’32 The potentials, yet limitations, were summed up nicely within Blackwell’s commentary.33 Much of the cross-fertilisation between CE and the suffrage cause, however, was through their mutual ties with the temperance cause. For example, at the twenty-first WCTU Convention in 1894, the list of guests present included the CE secretary John Willis Baer, Susan B Anthony and the editor of the Woman’s Journal (and Henry Brown Blackwell’s daughter), Alice Stone Blackwell.34

31 Woman Suffrage Hearing before the Select Committee on Woman Suffrage, United States Senate of the Joint Resolution Proposing an Amendment to the Constitution of the United States Extending the Right of Suffrage to Woman (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1902), 38. 32 H.B.B, ‘Christian Endeavor’ Woman’s Column, 13 July, 1895. 33 In 1891, Frances E Willard also celebrated that CE placed the sexes side by side during a speech at The National Council of Woman first triennial meeting. See: ‘Address of Frances E. Willard, President of the Woman’s National Council of the United States, at Its First Triennial Meeting, Albaugh’s Opera House, Washington D.C, February 22-25, 1891. http://memory.loc.gov/cgi- bin/query/r?ammem/naw:@field%28DOCID+@lit%28rbnawsan4556div4%29%29:, accessed 19 February, 2015. 34 ‘Christian Temperance Women’ San Francisco Call, 12 November 1894. 156 In regards to suffrage, it appears that that the CE membership was the main obstacle opposed to the leadership per se. The future president of CE, Daniel Poling, was the most vocal CE leader in his support for woman suffrage. While serving as CE’s citizenship superintendent, Poling published a treatise in 1914 entitled Mothers of Men, which sought to convert men to the cause. Again offering insight into the body of membership, and the American public at large, he mused that the womanhood of the twentieth century was divided into three groups: suffragists, anti-suffragists and the numerically greatest group, the indifferent.35 For either group to succeed it was necessary to win the support of the indifferent. This was his professed aim. Adopting the idea of the evolution of liberty, Poling insisted that, like all great reforms, there was initially a period of protest, yet as mental and spiritual attitudes evolved, a constructive program took shape. The breakdown of the walls of indifference was close at hand, he argued, and triumph was subsequently not far away.36 Once again the concept of evolution served to prop up the argument for the progress of women’s rights.37 The notion of change did not require violent disruption; progress could evolve smoothly and play out in a calm manner.

The argument that Poling put forward for woman suffrage was once again targeted towards those who held conservative ideals on woman’s role within society and was founded on a domestic feminist model. Even the title, Mothers of Men, is suggestive of the central placement of ‘men,’ and the desire to preserve women as ‘mothers,’ or womanly, within his argument.38 His own mother, a voting citizen of Oregon, was used as the prime example for his pro-suffrage argument. Despite her right to vote, his mother was ‘as tender as ever, as true and brave and pure and wise as ever.’39 Ultimately, to prove his point he told of how his mother had tucked her adult son in one night, fearing he may get cold, just as she would have in his youth. It was then he realised that his ‘Mother, voting citizen of Oregon, had not changed.’40 It was

35 Poling, Mothers of Men, 10. 36 Ibid., 11. 37 Poling is mentioned within the prolific, History of Woman Suffrage, as speaking at a Maine Suffrage convention in the lead up to the states 1917 referendum. His connection with CE, however is not mentioned so it is not clear if he spoke as an individual or as a representative of the society. Ida Husted Harper (ed.), The History of Woman Suffrage, Vol VI (New York: National Woman Suffrage Association, 1922), 242. 38 Poling, Mothers of Men, 44. 39 Ibid.,42. 40 Ibid., 42. Author’s emphasis. 157 this factor that was his ultimate source of assurance to those yet to be convinced, because, if he believed that suffrage would defeminise women and cause them to lose their tender touch, soft note, sympathy and mother heart, then ‘no power’ would have moved him to urge ‘votes for women.’41 It is interesting to note that Poling’s wife, Lillian, would go on to become the president for the American Mothers Committee, which bestowed the National Mother of the Year award. In 1959 she published a book entitled Mothers of Men: A Twenty-five Year History of American Mothers of the Year 1935–1959.42

Suffrage provides one example of the complexity in trying to find a cohesive gender framework to implement within CE. Although there was a fundamental belief in cooperation and equality between the sexes within the organization, visions varied as to how this should be enacted and how far such a vision would extend. The suffrage cause was never embraced in the manner that temperance, purity, mission work, peace and good citizenship (albeit limited) were. Discussion of good citizenship neatly skipped over the torrent that lay under its banner.

Muscular Methods: Resistance/Adaption/Acceptance

One CE response to the challenges of feminisation was to marry the organization to the new man: subtly changing both in the process. As the active manly Christian Endeavorer ideal was propagated throughout various conventions and publications, there were also efforts to contend with the parallel push toward athletic muscular Christianity. Some publications were sceptical about movements that pushed a heightened sense of the muscular, while others tweaked it to better suit the CE model. Rev. William Futhey Gibbons wrote an article for The Golden Rule, entitled “The Athletic Christian,” in which he claimed that there had always been a question as to whether the old-fashioned muscular Christianity had not been more muscular than Christian.43 Gibbons criticised the idea that bodily exercise should be substituted for spiritual development. Not all athletic Christians played football, or held high jump

41 Daniel Poling originally served as field secretary for the Ohio Christian Endeavor Union, before serving as Superintendent for Temperance and Good Citizenship from January 1914. According to the ISCE business minutes he was paid $200 a month for his role as Superintendent. Poling took over as President of CE upon the death of Francis Clark in 1927. Box #126, ISCE Minutes 1913-1932, 25. CEA. 42 Lillian D Poling, Mothers of Men: A Twenty-five Year History of American Mothers of the Year 1935- 1959 (Bridgeport, Conn: K.H Volk, 1959). 43 Rev. William Futhey Gibbons, ‘The Athletic Christian’, Golden Rule, December 12, 1895. 264. 158 records; some even spent their lives on crutches and had no ‘heart’ action, in the sense of physical activity, to speak of. It was the development of character and the willingness to do hard work, not in the gymnasium but by doing actual work for the results that it accomplished, be it within employment or within reform. The strength was not for show, but for use. Again, the desire of practical application of faith is evident. Ultimately, Gibbons claimed that the athletic Christian’s strength was equivalent to the strength of 10 men because, once more, his heart was pure. He chastised any who thought Christianity was a ‘soft’ or ‘flabby’ thing. Instead he affirmed the masculine nature by asserting that ‘If he would be God’s athlete, he must be strengthened, tested, hardened, developed, until he comes to be a “perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.”’ 44 This is arguably illustrative of the desire within CE to assert a belief in civilisation over brawn: a resistance against the muscular push that was gaining credence and encroaching.

Although CE did not push for the gymnasium and bodily exercises, or similar programs such as those of the YMCA, the muscular tradition arguably was not always completely autonomous; the ideal influenced CE methods, even if in building resistance, as well as operating in close proximity and amongst the same membership body. For example, Rev. J L Scudder, the husband of prominent Junior CE leader Alice May Scudder, received much attention in respect to his efforts to attract youth to his church through the use of physical and leisure activities. As early as 1894, Rev. Scudder argued that society was in a transitional phase with the age of force and threatening behaviour forever passing out of the religious world.45 Bullying and guilt would not bring people to church, Rev. Scudder affirmed. Further, Scudder believed that labour and capital were moving further away from each other, leading to the creation of two classes of churches: the poor man’s church and the rich man’s church. Working amongst one of the poorest districts of Jersey City, Rev. Scudder was faced

44 The article prior to the Gibbons was an article dedicated to the spiritual power of Mrs. Evangeline Booth, the ‘mother’ of the Salvation Army. Her power was seen to be derived not from intellect or social status, but from being filled by the power of the Holy Ghost, which was insisted as always being the highest power. ‘She Saved My Boys’, Golden Rule, December 12, 1895. 264. 45 Preliminary Conference held at the Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church , New York City, March 27, 1894. 15. For additional analysis on the concept of society evolving from savagery to a more advanced civilization, with a particular focus on race, see Gail Bederman, ‘”Civilization”, the Decline of Middle- Class Manliness, and Ida B.Well’s Antilyncing Campaign (1890-94)’ Radical History Review 52:5-30 (1992): 9. 159 with the challenge of attracting members.46 Although he was always evangelistic, he claimed he was learning to become a revivalist. With the aim of spurring a revival amongst those already within his church, Scudder sought to make a Sunday night meeting feel like a concert in the hope that entertainment would attract people and lead to conversion. Rev. Scudder’s key method was to make the church the centre of social life, and he focused his attention on activities for boys.47 He put a gymnasium, a bowling alley and billiard tables in the premises. This method gave rise to suspicion in the early 1890s. When two members of the WCTU asked his advice on whether they should start a prayer meeting, Rev. Scudder said, ‘No, Sisters,’ instead suggesting that they start an amusement hall and charge half of what the saloon did. He wrote that the women walked away thinking he was ‘with the devil.’48 A few years later, however, Frances Willard wrote Rev. Scudder a letter stating that she had studied his work and believed in it, and stated that there were plans for the WCTU to even start implementing his methods.

Rev. Scudder’s methods proved highly successful, particularly amongst boys in Jersey City, where his church expanded rapidly and gained wealthy supporters. In 1903, reports of his activities were circulated as far as Australia, this time with a particular focus on Scudder’s weekly personal boxing lessons for boys.49 He claimed he did not believe in fighting for the sake of fighting, but every boy needed to know how to defend himself in order to keep out of trouble. A friend claimed that Scudder was not the:

ideal of a fighting person, but those who know says [sic] he can ‘scrap’ when the occasion demands it, just as well as he can preach. He is a thorough believer in a muscular Christianity. The ‘soft answer that turneth away wrath’ is all right, but it isn’t a circumstance to an upper-cut, a ‘hook; on the jaw, or a ‘jolt’ in the ear, when it comes to a case of fight or take a beating.’ That’s the way we look at it here in Jersey City, and on several occasions Mr. Scudder himself has been obliged to cast aside the cloak of meekness, together with gloves and other things that tend to hamper action, and put persistent footpads out of business. These experiences have served to convince him that religion and muscle were never intended to be divorced.

Further indicators of the muscular trend within his church were that, as of 1903, the boxing lessons were becoming more popular than the cadet corps, which was

46 Rev John. L Scudder led the First Congregational Church of New Jersey. 47 Rev. John. L Scudder was keen to promote the idea that social activities and religion were complimentary. 48 The Open of Institutional Church League: Preliminary Conference held at the Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church, New York City, March 27, 1894 (Boston: The Everett Press Company, 1894), 21. 49 The article is quoted as originally appearing in the New York Tribune. ‘Training Boys to Box’, Examiner (Launceston, TAS, Australia) 14 January, 1903. 160 suggestively named the ‘Roosevelt Cadets.’ The multitude of methods demonstrates how an individual church could apply a variety of approaches. The organisations themselves were frequently interconnected, borrowing approved methods, or refuting those they disapproved of. While the WCTU may have been converted to adopting purified amusement halls, it would have been less inclined to adopt a cadet corps or militaristic drills, which were seen to promote war-like activity and go against its commitment to peace and arbitration.50 CE, too, sought to adopt methods, for children and adults alike, that fell into line with its overall ideology. With temperance being a major cause, all of its conventions and functions were alcohol-free and, as explored in chapter 4, debate raged about appropriate activities for CE social functions. The comparison of Scudder’s embrace of the glove, and his vision of ‘action’ can be set in stark contrast to CE’s vision: two very different visions of ‘manly’ (or future manhood) were at stake.

For CE, the promotion of peace through arbitration could be traced as early as the 1896 CE convention held in Washington DC. Speaking at the convention, Rev. Franklin Hamilton asserted that the “arbitrament” of arms would in time give way to arbitration and that the human heart would, over time, respond less to a patriotism of the sword. Hamilton asked that CE members answer the call for an exalted Christian patriotism with the aim of drowning out the abundance of jingoistic, barbaric and unintelligent forms of patriotism that pervaded society.51 The US was not alone in this decree, as British delegates also announced their support for international arbitration; called for in the name of Christianity, civilization and progress, as well as the international brotherhood of Christian Endeavor.52 Subsequently, at the turn of the century CE initiated a ‘War against War’ campaign, lobbying for arbitration to be discussed at the proposed International Court of Arbitration to be established at The Hague.53 The fact that this was occurring simultaneously to, and in response to, the

50 See, Ian Tyrrell, Woman’s World/Woman’s Empire, 175; Sharon A Cook, Through Sunshine and Shadow: The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, Evangelism and Reform in Ontario, 1874-1930 (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press,1995), 108-109. 51 Official Report of the Fifteenth International Christian Endeavor Convention held in Central Hall, Tent Williston, Tent Washington, Tent Endeavor and the Churches, Washington, D.C. July 8-13, 1896 (United Society of Christian Endeavor: Boston, 1896), 121. 52 ‘Address of Rev. W.H Towers, Manchester, England’ in the Official Report of the Fifteenth International Christian Endeavor Convention, 63. 53 Francis E. Clark, ‘Christian Endeavor War Against War’ Advocate of Peace (1899), 89-90. 161 popular Spanish–American War, as well as the Boer War, made the issue all that more contentious.

CE was aware that its methods, which embraced prayer and introspection, were interpreted as feminine due to their perceived inactivity. The framing of its methods in active and practical tones was one way that it sought to promote its cause. In 1901, CE secretary John Willis Baer, reported that members had acted upon the call for a ‘War against War’. They had sought to arouse public sentiment via extensive discussions and petitions calling for an International Tribunal of Arbitration. During the 1899 international Christian Endeavor convention held in Detroit, the Hon. Frederick W Holis sent a cable directly from The Hague announcing that the official diplomatic committee had proposed the establishment of a permanent International Court of Arbitration. Claiming that the CE convention was the first to hear of the news within the United States, Baer sought to remind members not only what they had done, but also what they could do. Baer presented CE as an increasing force for peace and highlighted the practical outcomes for CE’s agitation.54 CE heartily reinforced the practical efforts, and outcomes, of its work. Regardless, the taint of feminisation in this instance was confounded by the fact that arbitration/pacifism, and its associated anti- imperialism, were perceived as female driven, or effeminate, reforms. In this instance, CE was placed in a precarious position as arbitrationists’ ideals were increasingly set in opposition to the growing jingoist spirit which saw war and militarism as central to national honour and the assertion of American manhood.55 CE was at odds with what was a popular war, and indeed fighting itself was an activity which was viewed positively, and seen as necessary, by a large portion of the population. CE’s reform may have been ‘active,’ and it may have been the work of a ‘true Christian,’ but it was also ripe for the criticism of effeminacy.56

54 John Willis Baer, ‘Christian Endeavor’s War Against War’ Advocate of Peace (1901), 39-40 55 Kristin L. Hoganson, Fighting for American Manhood: How Gender Politics Provoked the Spanish- American and Philippine-American Wars (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1998), 16. 56 Prior to 1914 there was no independent feminist peace movement within the United States, although women’s groups such as the WCTU did embrace peace as part of their reform agenda. Regardless of the fact that both of the sexes were represented in its work, peace itself was treated as an issue that was of particular interest to women, in part because it fit so neatly with woman’s supposed natural desire for harmonious relations which was set in contrast to man’s supposed desire for military action. For an outline of woman’s involvement within the movement see: Harriet Hyman Alonso, Peace as a Women’s Issue: a History of the U.S Movement for World Peace and Women’s Rights (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1993), 20, 47-54; For a contemporary historical outline of women’s involvement in the movement see The Advocate of Peace. It claimed that women’s participation in the peace movement had 162 CE maintained its platform for peace when in 1911 President Taft addressed the twenty-fifth international CE convention, held at Atlantic City.57 Speaking in a period prior to the rupture of World War I, the discussion of arbitration was less contentious in 1911 than it was with the backdrop of the Spanish–American War in 1898. There was a large support base within various denominations for arbitration.58 Taft’s address coincided with his attempts to create an Anglo–American Arbitration Treaty. Such use of CE by presidents as a means to promote their cause, both locally and internationally, should not be underestimated. News of Taft’s address at the Atlantic City CE convention was reported as far away as the remote mining town of Broken Hill in New South Wales, Australia, alongside Taft’s hope that other European nations would join the cause.59 But the influence went both ways. When Clark introduced Taft, he sought not to present Taft to the audience, but to present the Endeavorers to the President; depicting them as symbolic of CE’s wide reach and the broad scope of its work.60 Clark insisted that he would rather go down in history as William the Peacemaker than as William the Conqueror and in response, Taft’s address promoted mediation and arbitration agreements as a means to avoid war. While admitting to the positive noble qualities that could be exhibited through war, such as heroism, Taft argued that the benefits of militarism were far outweighed by the negatives, which included ambition, lust for power, cruelty, rapacity and corruption.61 CE became a ready wider symbol which the president could utilise as a form of soft diplomacy in the cause for peace, a movement that came in and out of public favour as the political climate changed.

been equal throughout the preceeding few decades had been equal to male, but by the time of writing female members probably outnumbered men. It was highlighted women’s ‘somewhat late’ arrival due to the movement was not due to lack of interest but due to her delayed emergence into public activities as a whole. It provides notable key members both within the United States and internationally, it also provides details on the National WCTU creating a department of ‘Peace and Arbitration’ at the 1887 WCTU convention, held in Nashville. ‘Women in the Peace Movement’ Advocate of Peace, 72:2 (1910), pp.26- 28. 57 ‘The Avoidance of War: From President Taft’s Address at the Twenty-fifth International Convention of the Christian Endeavor Societies held at Atlantic City July 6-12, 1911’, Advocate of Peace (1911), 178- 179. 58 ‘The Anglo-American Arbitration Treaty. Opinions, Resolutions, Etc.’ Advocate of Peace (1911), 105- 107. 59 ‘Anglo-American Arbitration Treaty’ Barrier Miner, 10 July, 1911. 60 The Story of the Oceanic Convention: The Official Report of the Twenty-Fifth International Christian Endeavor Convention (United Society of Christian Endeavor: Boston, 1911) 37. 61 ‘The Avoidance of War: From President Taft’s Address at the Twenty-fifth International Convention of the Christian Endeavor Societies held at Atlantic City July 6-12, 1911’, Advocate of Peace, Vol. 73, No. 8 (August 1911), 178-179. 163 The methods that an organisation implemented, although innocent in themselves, were frequently loaded with meaning. Those that could be perceived as militaristic, or even muscular, could be seen to conflict with the core ideals of an organisation. Although CE did not seek to establish a set rule against a society affiliate adopting militaristic methods, the fact that militaristic methods such as army cadet groups were so rarely apparent in CE affiliates was significant in itself, particularly when taken in the context of CE’s wider platforms. The absence of the trappings of militarism also highlights the significance of the consistent promotion of the pure- hearted man within CE; this was a form of manhood which did not rely on physical strength or martial display, but still could embody a manly strength via Christian citizenship and pure faith.

Complications do arise, however, when interpreting CE’s gender constructs simply as a representation of ‘civilization’ over ‘brawn’ or force. A distinction needs to be made between organizational ideals and how these were played out among its membership. In practice, CE’s outlook was more complex. For example, Rev. Scudder’s variety of methods provides insight into another aspect of the inter-organizational nature of the Christian reform movements of the period.62 Despite the muscular methods that Rev. Scudder was noted for adopting, his church also had a Christian Endeavor society and a Junior Endeavor society. One could assume that those boys who boxed and took part in the spectacularly muscular activities may have also been CE members. As an organization, CE resisted adopting muscular approaches, aside from some sporadic inclusions.63 It did not survive in a vacuum, however. At the same time that Rev. Scudder’s wife, Alice May Scudder, was promoting the emancipatory powers CE posed for women at the Chicago World Fair, her husband was perfecting muscular Christian methods and applying them within the same body of church members. Hence, any neat distinction between methods is complicated by their parallel existence: they were not necessarily seen as contradictory during the period.

62 CE was aware of the idea of ‘kindred causes’ as Amos Wells put it, arguing that pride must not blind ‘us’ to the other noble causes of the religious world. Within institutional guidelines in 1892 it was suggested that possible convention topics were a discussion of CE’s relationship with other organizations such as the YMCA and W.C.T.U, yet he also sought to make room to highlight the different ‘fields’ of work. Amos R Wells, Programmes and Hints for Christian Endeavor Conventions and Local Union Meetings (Boston: United Society of Christian Endeavor, 1892) 21. 63 William G Anderson, A Manual of Physical Training for Boys and Girls: for use by Public-school Teachers, Parents, and the Superintendents of Junior Societies in Churches (Boston: United Society of Christian Endeavor, 1914) 164 Their parallel existence did, however, suggest that alternative models were undergoing a dual process of engagement and resistance. Gender roles could be placed at the core of each model, yet the dual gendered approach cried out for a better explanation or placement within the gendered cultural landscape that was often divided between masculinism, feminism(s) or indifference.

The most striking, and clear indicator, of an ideological shift within CE and its staunch commitment to gender equality was its decision to allow separate men’s meetings and women’s meetings within its conventions. Initiated at the 1896 Washington CE convention, this model was then replicated at all subsequent conventions and was said to be installed by popular demand. Apparently there was a desire for one meeting within the weekly convention to be divided by gender, ideally focusing on specific issues that concerned the respective sex. It is not clear if this was driven from pressure from female or male members specifically. Indeed, the topics discussed at the first men’s meeting were not extraordinarily masculine in orientation; in fact, many of the quotes were credited to women and the talks were relatively inclusive of women’s example and place within religion.64 For example, Mr C N Hunt, the president of the Minnesota Christian Endeavor Union, was a lawyer who had ‘abandoned his profession to work for Christ.’ Speaking during the men’s meeting, he stated, ‘I heard a woman say from this platform the other day just what I wanted to say, and I am glad to say it, taking it from a woman’s lips.’65 It was actually the women’s meeting which appeared more pointed in tone, arguing that never before had women had so much influence on the human race and suggesting that civilisation could be judged upon the position that women occupied. Miss Belle Kearney, WCTU leader and suffragist (who had met with the likes of the more radical Susan B Anthony, spending time at her home during the 1893 World Fair),66 proudly asserted in 1896 that ‘this has been essentially a woman’s century. Thank God, the next century will be all humanity’s.’67 But over time the women’s meetings appeared to become less focused on agitating for change.

64 Official Report of the Fifteenth International Christian Endeavor Convention, 270-279. 65 Official Report of the Fifteenth International Christian Endeavor Convention, 270. 66 Belle Kearny, A Slaveholders Daughter (New York: The Abbey Press, 1900) 194-195. 67 Official Report of the Fifteenth International Christian Endeavor Convention, 283. 165 A shift is evident as only nine years later the editor(s) of the 1905 convention report wrote that the women’s meeting had seemed at first to be held so that the ‘women might have somewhere to go while the real meetings of the convention, for men and for boys and girls, were in session.’68 They then went on and celebrated that it had, in time, proved a means for Christian women to find ‘great help and inspiration’ as they strengthened one another’s faith and tacitly convened together to uphold the standards that they loved. Finally, the report concluded with the statement that the women’s meeting:

made one grateful for all of the Christian womanhood that is allied with our blessed cause, and devoutly thankful that in this day of the New Woman, with the hundreds of open doors before her, which lead to pleasure, to wealth and to fame, there were, assembled in one place, thousands of women (many of them young and talented) who love nothing better than to worship God in the beauty of holiness.69

The expansion of options that the New Woman posed, and the threat of those options being more attractive (albeit frivolous), was made clear. CE was confronted by an expanding world for women and was increasingly struggling to keep pace. Arguably, a more independent-minded woman could increasingly find other directions or groups to direct her efforts towards, leaving, by and large, a more conservative base within CE. This shift was partnered with a more masculine tone within the men’s meetings as they embraced issues such as workingmen’s reform, as shall be covered in more detail within the next section.

There was, however, resistance to the idea of single sex meetings at CE conventions. The renowned British reformer W T Stead refused to talk at CE’s men’s meetings on the basis that it was not a mixed-sex meeting, a feature that he believed was key to the Christian Endeavor cause of promoting cooperative gender relations transnationally. Stead, however, did take part in other men’s movements. He ended up drowning on the Titanic as he made his way across the Atlantic to serve as a speaker at the New York meeting of the Men and Religion Forward (M&RF) movement in 1912.70 His proposed attendance suggested he was not against men meeting alone, but that he saw the dual gendered approach of CE as fundamental, and important, to its cause. Although CE maintained its commitment to its cooperative membership overall, the

68 The Story of the Baltimore Convention: Twenty Second International Convention of Christian Endeavor (Boston: United Society of Christian Endeavor, 1905), 93. Author’s emphasis. 69 Ibid., 94. 70 W T. Stead, ‘The Men and Religion Forward Movement’ Review of Reviews, April, 1912. Reprinted in Frederick Whyte, The Life of W. T. Stead Vol.II (London: Jonathan Cape, 1925), 312-313. 166 simple example of the shift in the women’s meetings and men’s meetings demonstrates that it was seeking to adjust to a call for some separation, and that the separation did in some instances reify gender distinctions in the way that Clark had always feared. Yet the fact that the separation was also seen as a means to provide a space for female empowerment suggests that there was a sense that men may have encroached on a woman’s power base, with her only finding her ‘real’ cause once she was able to work separately.

Christian Endeavor and Social Gospel

CE demonstrates how complicated the process of trying to work with a mixed-sex membership could be. Leadership had worked on empowering women to embrace more active roles within their organization during the 1880s, yet became a victim of its own success as, by the 1890s, CE faced the taint of feminisation. Although, as outlined above, muscular models did not prove consistent with CE’s overall aims, operative style or philosophy, another alternative did provide a workable framework. CE’s operative style is arguably best understood in the context of the Social Gospel movement.

The leading scholars on the Social Gospel, Ronald C. White Jr. and C. Howard Hopkins, have explicated the difficulty in both defining and containing the movement.71 Paul H Boase wrote that the Social Gospel ranged along a continuum from the politically right wing to radical; while the solutions they put forward varied, they all aligned in the desire to find a Christian ‘solution’ for social and economic problems of the day.72 Heavily influenced by Christian socialist ideologies in a positive manner, contrasted with a largely negative response to the more threatening atheist socialist ideals, the Social Gospel also foreshadowed, and then gained momentum with, the growth of the Progressive movement at the turn of the century.73 Its advocates

71 Ronald C. White Jr. and C. Howard Hopkins, The Social Gospel: Religion and Reform in Changing America (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1976), xii. Paul T. Phillips also explores the wide range of ways that scholars have sought to define and categorize the Social Gospel, demonstrating the transnational and transatlantic ties of the movement which has more commonly been viewed as an American. See Paul T. Phillips, A Kingdom on Earth: Anglo-American Social Christianity 1880-1940 (University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1996), xviii-xxii. 72 Paul H. Boase, The Rhetoric of Christian Socialism (New York: Random House, 1969), 20-21. 73 It also led to the creation of the Federal council of churches in 1908, which Francis Clark was a member of; Ibid., 36. 167 believed that religion could be used to purify politics, to improve economic and social conditions, and heal the nation, if not the world at large.

According to historian Janet Forsythe Fishburn, the Social Gospel movement developed in a two-stage process. The first was represented by the likes of Congregational ministers such as Lyman Abbott, Josiah Strong and Washington Gladden. Between 1880 and 1900, they responded to the key social and intellectual issues of the time and viewed themselves as part of a general ‘social movement’: Fishburn characterises them as social activists and theorists. Abbott and Strong were two Social Gospellers who engaged with CE. The individual ties with the organization were publically demonstrated when they were both named honorary lifelong Christian Endeavorers at the 1887 convention.74 At the 1892 CE convention, held in New York, Lyman Abbott spoke and promoted the ideal of systematic work for Christ. He credited CE as one of the means by which the church was changing its thoughts from dogma to deed. An early advocate of the ideal of a practical Christianity, he also sought to find ways to explore Christianity and Socialism, trying to find a balance between the two: blending God into a godless socialism.75

Comparatively, the early decades of the twentieth century provide the context for the second stage of the Social Gospel movement. Fishburn depicted the likes of Walter Rauschenbusch and Francis Greenwood Peabody as building on the first stage, but this time leaders self-identified as being part of the Social Gospel movement and took a more intellectual approach.76 This shift was explained, in part, as a reaction to the more insistent inquiry by radical socialists and their own academic approach. In essence, there was a desire to provide a theologically sound answer to the same social problems that were being examined by the secular scientific Progressive approach as well as the radical socialists.

74 Abbott published a key Social Gospel periodical, The Outlook, which gave space to Christian Endeavor itself, as well as its leaders ideas in regards to both methods and principles. The Outlook also supported Roosevelt taking a moderate progressive opinion.

75 ‘Over in Brooklyn’, New York Times, 11 July , 1892. 76 Even those who may not have actively worked in partnership in CE could still influence the organization. For example George W. Coleman, the publisher of the Christian Endeavor World, was so inspired by the writing of Walter Rauschenbusch that he provided a copy of his book Christianity and the Social Crisis for all of the workers at the magazine. He also bought forty copies for his friends. These ideas inevitably flowed through the editors and onto the CE page and in turn influenced the hundreds of thousands, or even millions of readers. Arthur S Meyers, Democracy in the Making: The Open Forum Lecture Movement (Lanham, Md: University Press of America, 2012), 26. 168 The relationship between Social Gospel and more politically radical socialist ideals was evident from the mid-1890s, although the fluidity of socialist beliefs should be highlighted. Jacob H. Dorn emphasised that ‘Socialism,’ like ‘Christianity,’ was susceptible to having more than one meaning and leaders tended to slide from one meaning to the other.77 Dorn argued that, in its loosest usage, it could simply refer to social cooperation and the opposite of ‘individualism.’ Alternatively, it could extend to referring to an organised political party and complete overhaul of the economic market. Importantly, when being invoked in its more radically politicised form, Socialism posed a hefty threat to the evangelical vision due to its atheist principles, which were the antitheses of the Protestant Christian’s desires. In this respect, socialism’s ideals were both embraced and staunchly resisted. The need to provide a viable model with Christianity at the centre was driven from fear of, as well as commitment to, the underlying principles of social equity and cooperation.

The 1890s saw an increasing fear of unmanaged capital and the laissez-faire economy. This fear was evident during the 1896 CE convention, where it was stated that the ‘power and prominence of wealth’ was one of the greatest of the national perils.78 However, there was also suspicion directed towards the influx of foreign immigrants, particularly from southern Europe, who were perceived to carry radical ideas with them and spread anarchism. At the same 1896 convention, it was argued that ‘pauperism, with her demonic daughter socialism,’ also posed a great threat to the American nation, ‘fermenting strikers and riots that partake of Civil War’.79 Rev. R S MacArthur asserted that they should not allow the anarchists to come to the United States, but that when ‘a man (does come) here with a red flag of anarchy in one hand and a dynamite bomb in the other, by every instinct of patriotism, and by every element of divine grace, we’ll quarantine that man for the rest of his natural life!’80

The level of suspicion and fear was heightened when President McKinley was assassinated by anarchist Leon Czolgosz, while attending the 1901 Pan–American World Fair. The fusion of anarchist, atheist and socialist ideas were elaborated within the CE World, alongside the distrust of foreign immigrants. After an article titled

77 Jacob H. Dorn ‘The Social Gospel and Socialism: A Comparison of the Thought of Francis Greenwood Peabody, Washington Gladden and Walter Rauschenbusch’ Church History 62:1 (1993) 83. 78 Official Report of the Fifteenth International Christian Endeavor Convention, 108. 79 Official Report of the Fifteenth International Christian Endeavor Convention, 122. 80 Ibid., 146. 169 ‘Getting into this Country’ wrongly accused Czolgosz of being of ‘alien birth,’ Rev. Edwin Hobbs wrote a letter arguing:

That the correction should be made that Czolgosz, like the other president-murderers, is a native- born American citizen. Possibly some of our moralizing about the dangers of immigration would be spared if we could open our self-satisfied eyes to a fact, visible to all the world besides, that most of our lawlessness is a home-bred product, and we are not in the least indebted to the foreigner for it.81

The letter that followed Hobbs shared in the critique of the CE World’s reporting on McKinley. It accused the newspaper of publishing an article that used the term socialist as if it was the same as anarchist, before questioning if it was an intentional mistake. It charged that socialism was not only different, but the reverse of, anarchism. Socialism wanted to build up the government, urging the community of effort and interest. Anarchy, on the other hand, wanted every man to go by himself. The philosophy of socialism, it was argued, was in strict accord with the teaching of Jesus Christ and a Christian paper ought not to confound a thing so good with a thing so bad. Instead, the paper should promote socialism. In this telling, socialism was a protector of freedom, not a threat to it.82

The following week an article was published by cartoon artist Frank Beard, which sought to inform readers how to intelligently dissect the cartoon art form. It provided a topical example spurred on by the fact that ‘the whole community was currently thinking on the subject of anarchy’, and insisted that the illustration was ‘an attempt to comprehend the whole subject in such a way that all may understand at a glance the cause, the effect, and the end of anarchy.’83

81 Edwin Hobbs, ‘Not a Foreigner’ in Christian Endeavor World, 20 October, 1901. 82 William Canfield Lee, ‘Socialism Vs. Anarchy’ in Christian Endeavor World, 20 October, 1901. 83 Frank Beard, ‘The Use and Abuse of Cartoons’ in Christian Endeavor World, 24 October, 1901. 170

Figure One: The cartoonist, Frank Beard, wrote an article to teach readers of the CE World how to interpret cartoons. Beard provided the above cartoon as an example. The cartoon exemplifies the underlying fear amongst CE membership, and wider protestant society, of both atheism and its supposed relationship with anarchy. Frank Beard, ‘The Use and Abuse of Cartoons’ in Christian Endeavor World, October 24, 1901.

While it should be highlighted that the CE World never made room for positive representations of anarchism within its pages, the varied perception of socialism, foreign immigrants and their perceived relationship with anarchism, and the growth of atheism, demonstrates the conflicting views of its membership. Additionally, the fear of radicalism, especially perceived as driven by non-Protestant foreigners, was tied to the fear of greedy capitalists. Christian values, or the ‘Golden Rule’, was seen as a way to restore balance. The Social Gospel provided a resolution as it embraced the same concerns as the socialists, but provided Christian solutions.84 It served as a means to mediate between the assumed polarities of socialism and robber barons.

84 For further analysis of the relationship between socialism, Christian Socialism and Social Gospel see: White and Hopkins, The Social Gospel, 4, 26- 35, 168-178. 171 A key cultural factor that helped propel wider commitment towards a cooperative ethos was the economic depression that followed the 1893 panic. It was this same panic that has been credited as turning Czolgosz towards anarchism, after he lost his job as a result of participating in labour strikes and a subsequent blacklisting from employment.85 While the middle class had expanded during the nineteenth century, believing in the power of virtuous, self-made men to succeed, suddenly they found themselves confronted by a weak job market and limited opportunities.86 The suffering of the middle class led to a degree of solidarity with the poor, alongside more established paternalistic tendencies. The historian David P Thelen demonstrated how this impacted upon the philanthropic and reform efforts of the women’s clubs within Wisconsin, an example that can be expanded to explain a shift at a national level as well, arguably spurring a new civic consciousness. Thelen explained that prior to the mid-1890s, literary, suffragette, temperance and religious organisations had viewed the poor through nativist and elitist lenses, reinforcing social divisions. Yet the huge spike in poverty and middle-class hardship after 1893, combined with recognition that their philanthropic organisations had failed to improve conditions, produced new methods and altered assumptions about class.87

Related attempts to bridge gaps between classes and to expand CE’s membership were exemplified by prominent Social Gospeller Charles Stelzle, who served as a guest speaker at the men’s meeting held during the 1905 Baltimore convention.88 Purporting to have attempted to convince rationally rather than inspire emotions, he argued that the church needed workingmen, and workingmen needed the church. Stelzle informed the audience the number of labour union leaders that were members of the church, and sought to alleviate concern amongst the middle class that the workingman was against the church (and presumably, against them).89

85 Richard Bach Jensen, The Battle Against Anarchist Terrorism, 1878-1934 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014), 240-242; Eric Rauchway, Murdering McKinley: the Making of Theodore Roosevelt's America (New York: Hill & Wang, 2003), 162-163. 86 Gail Bederman, ‘‘Civilization,’ the Decline of Middle-Class Manliness, and Ida B. Well’s Antilynching Campaign (1890-94)’ Radical History Review 52:5-30 (1992): 9. 87 David P. Thelen, The New Citizenship: Origins of Progressivism in Wisconsin 1885-1900 (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1971), 86-89. 88 For more information on Stelzle and his relationship to both workingmen and the Labour Unions see: Susan Curtis, A Consuming Faith: The Social Gospel and Modern American Culture (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2001), 254-265. 89 The Story of the Baltimore Convention: Twenty Second International Convention of Christian Endeavor (Boston: United Society of Christian Endeavor, 1905) 90. 172 Thousands of free tickets had been given out to ‘the workingman’ and the ‘unconverted.’90 While CE understandably never sought to disclose what class the majority of its members were drawn from, the main body of CE membership appears to have been middle class. It makes sense that the convention body tended to be middle class: they were more likely to have the means to pay for travel and associated costs of attendance. Yet the tone of the talks, and the assumption of the workingman as an ‘other’ group that they sought to acquire also betrays the stronghold the middle class had on CE membership. There was a desire, and need, to expand the membership outside of this base.

The delicate balance between paternalism and empathy is evident within CE literature. Given the context of Thelen’s argument that there was more class interaction after 1893, perhaps it is understandable that earlier literature tended to promote awareness of the issues of the labouring class as opposed to promoting their cause. A new focus on labour issues is in evidence after 1893. For example, Hattie Gardner wrote a novel called The Endeavorers of Maple Grove, which was published in 1893 in Omaha, Nebraska.91 This promoted CE beliefs such as not bringing politics into religion, but bringing religion into politics. It celebrated mission work and reforms such as prohibition. It also argued that CE members should be set to work, as opposed to just engaging in prayer.

A core feature of Gardner’s story emphasised class distinctions. Ruth, the main character, was looking forward to going to the CE convention. Her father worked as a general superintendent for the railway, and could afford to pay for her transport, expenses and even fund a new wardrobe for the event.92 Another CE member, Emma, found herself in entirely different circumstances. She had to work as a seamstress to care for herself as well as her mother, who lived in another city. As a diligent, yet shy, member of the group, the main characters paid her little thought when preparing for the convention. This was until Mont Weston, a young true Christian man, noticed how Emma’s eyes lit up at any discussion of the convention and then persuaded the rest of the members that Emma should serve as one of their CE society’s two representatives. Serving as a representative meant that Emma’s travel expenses would be funded.

90 The Story of the Baltimore Convention ,91. 91 Hattie Sleeper Gardner, The Endeavorers of Maple Grove (Omaha: Megeath Stationary Co., 1893). 92 Ibid., 138. 173 Upon hearing that she had been selected as the society’s representative, however, Emma cried to Ruth that she could not go. She was booked to make a dress, and could not afford to disappoint her new influential client due to the fear of losing future work. Further, she could not afford a wardrobe of her own to wear to the event. Such comments provide insight into the nature, or spectacles, that the conventions posed in reality. In the novel, Ruth felt deep compassion for Emma’s plight and subsequently set to work to find a solution, partially spurred on by guilt that while Emma worked, Ruth felt that she dawdled the days away.93

The solution Ruth came up with provided a means for the author to offer readers insight into the inequity suffered by those women who were ‘compelled’ to work.94 First Ruth decided to give up her own chance to attend the convention, instead using the funds to furnish Emma with a new wardrobe. This was presented as kindness towards a Christian sister as opposed to charity: charity being something Emma proudly stated that she had never taken.95 Furthermore, Ruth decided that she would cover for Emma and work as a seamstress, working under her mother’s maiden name of Rivers. This provided a space for the author to critique the demeaning way that the working class were treated, even by those who attended church. When it became evident to the employer that Ruth was not a worker, but in fact the daughter of an important man, there was a distinct change in the employer’s behaviour. Ruth was quite infuriated with the situation and chastised the woman by asserting, ‘Ruth Rivers was my mamma’s name, and the courtesy which you think sufficient to show Emma Barger and Ruth Rivers will do very well for Ruth Malcolm, whom I do not consider one whit better than either of them.’96 The employer subsequently learnt her lesson, made repentance for how her foolish pride had led her astray, and decreed that in the future no one who served her should have cause to complain. However, despite the fact that the book was seeking to prompt empathy for the situation and circumstance of the working class, its paternalistic nature is evident, as is its intended aim towards a middle-class audience. Regardless, it is evident of the attempt at building intra-class solidarity and sympathy despite a social gulf.

93 Gardner, The Endeavorers of Maple Grove, 140. 94 Ibid., 137. 95 Ibid., 140. 96 Ibid., 152. 174 It should be highlighted that CE was arguably part of the construction of the Social Gospel movement, both incubating and enacting its values and methods. It was not simply a case of CE replicating a model developed outside of the organization; instead CE should be firmly placed within the development of the movement. For example, during the 1895 Boston convention it was claimed that the Christian Church had passed through successive phases of activity, such as ecclesiastical, theological, evangelistic, and missionary.97 It was declared that the Christian Church was entering a new era: the ‘social.’ Significance was attributed to the fact that Christian Endeavor rose at the same time as this shift, with its young men and women being depicted as ‘flinging’ themselves into the social movements of the period with ‘divine abandon.’ CE was placed as both being in line with broader ‘world wide’ shifts as well as providing an impetus for the Social Gospel movement to be consolidated through CE’s vast membership body.98

Traditionally CE has been treated as separate to the Social Gospel movement. For example, Gaines M Foster placed CE as part of the growth of the Christian Lobby. Social Gospel, he argued, was best understood as an independent reform movement focused on the structural and economic flaws in American society. 99 Christian lobbyists, on the other hand, focused on passing legislation to curtail individual morality. Therefore, the push towards pursuit of Sabbath observance, purity, temperance and other reforms were best understood in terms of individual moral concerns as opposed to economic. Yet, I argue it was much more fluid than that analysis allows. Individual, national and broader economic concerns were heavily entwined with reform movements, and present within CE. The influence of the Social Gospel movement, and indeed the influence of CE on the Social Gospel movement, deserves consideration.

CE’s strong ties with Social Gospel is demonstrated by Charles Sheldon and his best-selling 1897 novel In His Steps. The novel suggested individuals base their actions around the question of ‘What would Jesus Do?’ It went on to become one of the most

97 ‘Address of President G. A. Gates’, Official Report of the International Christian Endeavor Convention - Volume 11-14, 766. 98 William Shaw wrote in his autobiography that he always believed in the social-service program, but as the expression of personal salvation, not a substitute for it. Shaw, Evolution of an Endeavorer, 133. 99 Gaines M Foster, Moral Reconstruction: Christian Lobbyists and the Federal Legislation of Morality, 1865-1920 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2007), 75. 175 popular novels of the early twentieth century, reissued by various publishing houses in the United States, Canada and Great Britain, and promoted Social Gospel to a more mainstream audience.100 Christian Endeavor heavily promoted Sheldon and his works, and CE was actually featured within the book itself. CE was represented as a nucleus for developing and consolidating true Christian faith. The novel begins with the local Rev. Henry Maxwell asking his congregation to not do anything for a whole year without asking themselves first, ‘what would Jesus do?’ It is at this point that multiple short stories are given of the various experiences of the congregation. CE was featured in many. One of its characters was Fred Morris, the president of the local CE society. Employed as a reporter, Fred was requested to work on a Sunday to ensure a story made it to the Monday edition. Not wishing to break the Sabbath, Fred said he could not partake in the story and was fired as a result, sparking him to ponder the question, and seek out the advice of a minister. The local minister provided a steady reassurance that Fred had done the right thing, and then went on to find him employment at another newspaper where the editor conveniently stated, ‘I want reporters who won’t work Sundays. What’s more, I’m making plans for a special kind of reporting that I believe you can develop because you’re in sympathy with what Jesus would do.’101 Evidently doing the faithful thing was difficult and involved personal sacrifice and risk, but there was an ultimate reward (and not just in the afterlife). At the conclusion of the novel, we find Rev. Maxwell dying and just moments before Jesus appears to beckon him to heaven, Maxwell has a vision of CE societies all over the world carrying at their ‘mighty convention’ a banner inscribed with ‘what would Jesus do?’102 It was in the faces of the young men and women that Rev. Maxwell was said to have seen the future of joy, suffering and self-denial. CE was presented as part of the purification of the world and the bringing of the millennium.

Fred’s story was also used within In His Steps as a means to explore not only the duty of a Christian to follow their individual beliefs, but also to demonstrate how Christian business owners needed to adapt their methods, moving away from the simple premise of ‘will it pay[?]’103 The uneasy relationship between business and

100 Paul T. Phillips, A Kingdom on Earth: Anglo-American Social Christianity, 1880-1940 (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1996), 130. 101 Charles M Sheldon, In His Steps (Chicago: Advance Publishing co, 1897), 88. 102 Ibid., 281. 103 Sheldon, In His Steps, 89. 176 religion, and the changing conceptualisation of their desired relationship, was evident within the 1896 CE convention. Although the desire to purify business and incorporate the ‘Golden Rule’ into labour relations was a key issue at the time, so too was the question of the role of business within the churches. Set with the backdrop of the rise of corporations and a desire for effectiveness, CE and other reform and religious organisations were faced with the need to raise funds and manage in what were increasingly complex circumstances. Adopting the social trend of the period, alongside adapting to the needs of the organisation, business methods were implemented as a means to run more efficiently. With ‘business’ being viewed with suspicion, there were those that argued that business and religion should be kept quite separate, highlighting the concern that business principles would be the ruin of the Christian Church.104 Greed and lack of piety could poison the religious purpose. Indeed, in 1892 Amos Wells wrote about the CE business meetings and admitted that there was a fear that seeking money could in turn neutralise the good of a prayer meeting.105 A negotiation of principles was underway, and it was a delicate balance. Alternatively, the view that would largely win out in the years that followed was the idea that business and religion should not be separated, but that business should instead be directed towards serving the Lord. 106 During the 1891 CE convention held in Minneapolis, Rev. Isaac J Lansing told CE members that they should invest in the church with financial donations on the basis of the rich dividends (albeit, not financial) its work provided. Using men of business as an example to follow, Rev. Lansing stated that there was a challenge which came from the ‘marvellous generosity’ of men who had made the Twin Cities. These men invested their money in:

all sorts of promising enterprises – a million dollars for a factory, a million dollars for a great warehouse, a hundred million dollars for a railroad. Everywhere these men thus show their faith in the great enterprises they have undertaken. And when I see them doing thus and think of the wealth of the church of God, I feel as though we were challenged by the business faith of men to show how much faith we have in the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.107

104 Sermon by Rev. M.S Baldwin, Official Report of the Fifteenth International Christian Endeavor Convention, 326. 105 Amos Wells, Programs and Hints: for Christian Endeavor Conventions and Meetings (Boston: United Society of Christian Endeavor, 1892), 29. 106Address of Rev. H.K. Carroll, Official Report of the Fifteenth International Christian Endeavor Convention, 115. 107 ‘Address of Rev. Isaac J. Lansing’ in, Narrative of the Tenth Annual Conference of the Young People’s Societies of Christian Endeavor held in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, July 9, 10, 11, 12, 1891 (Boston: United Society of Christian Endeavor, 1891), 75. 177 By the early twentieth century, CE general secretary William Shaw was reported to assert that ‘the greatest business in the world is not the Steel Trust, nor the Standard Oil, but the church and its Kingdom task. If you are investing your lives in what men call religious work, remember that; and if in what men call business, relate your business to the movements whose capital is character, and whose dividends pass current in the spiritual, the only real, realm.’108 This was associated with a shift towards speaking of religion using business terms, as opposed to sentimental terms.

The idea that CE was not engaged with economic questions is also flawed. As evident from the story, The Endeavorers of Maple Grove, issues surrounding labour and class distinctions were explored within the narrative. Yet while the issues were engaged with on a more practical level than philosophical, CE leaders such as Shaw did engage quite openly with labour reform, where he embraced the ideal of arbitration as opposed to agitation. Shaw, the once treasurer, and now general secretary of CE, published various articles promoting his belief that capital should share profits with labour. His beliefs were likely influenced by his own experiences growing up in a working-class household. Shaw’s parents immigrated to the United States from Yorkshire, England, in the 1840s, and he grew up in a wholesome but strict household. Shaw recalled of his childhood that with ‘no servants in the family and no girls,’ all the boys were brought up to do the simple chores.109 His father, George, was a wool spinner, who upon arrival in the United States worked his way up to become a factory foreman.110 George told his son stories of his earlier experiences working in Yorkshire, and the difficulties faced by workers when technology shifted from old hand looms operated in the home to the power machines, and the subsequent growth of factories. The workingmen feared the introduction of machinery would mean the loss of their livelihood and would break into the factories at night to smash the machinery. Shaw recounted that ‘one of the darkest pages of English history is the story of the factory life in the early part of the nineteenth century, and the way the employers resisted every effort to humanize industry and prevent the exploiting of women and children.’111 Writing on the rights of labour, Shaw argued that profit sharing was not a

108 Shaw, Evolution of an Endeavorer, 68. 109 Ibid., 22. 110 Ibid., 18. 111 Shaw, Evolution of an Endeavorer, 19. 178 matter of charity, but a right.112 He argued against any paternalistic or autocratic approaches, as he believed that people needed not so much to be ‘lifted’ but to have the opportunity to rise. Agency was seen as a key factor in the struggle for the working class to achieve independence. It was not about cooperation between capital and labour, but about compressing the two so that they were no longer separate. Shaw published on this theme in numerous periodicals between 1901 and 1922. By 1919, the socialist context was made explicit, as Shaw, largely repeating the same argument he made a decade prior,113 made reference to the ‘Bolsheviki across the seas’ and the IWW at home, who argued that there was no place for private capital in an industrial democracy.114 Shaw posed the question as to whether there was any way out of the present industrial situation other than revolution, before suggesting that arbitration was the solution. He insisted that the answer was not to pull down capital, but to lift labour up by providing them with equal representation.115 CE was not adverse to engaging with economic questions, although it did not embrace any brash or violent behaviour or desire to create a sense of discord. It adopted a similar approach as with its other reforms of embracing an ethos that was driven by Christian ethics and a desire for mediation.

Adapting Social Gospel’s Masculinist Label

CE has not been traditionally understood as part of the Social Gospel movement. Perhaps the main reason for this is that in recent years the Social Gospel movement has been interpreted as perpetuating the masculinist push. Fishburn argued that the Social Gospel was a theology ‘written by men for men.’116 Further, she claimed that the movement served to counter the feminisation of religion, as it directed male moral energy into cooperative movements that in turn revealed the social power of the church and placed it at the very centre of American society.117 The conclusion was that, by providing men with an active space in religion, the Social

112 William Shaw, the Continent, New York, November 24 1910. Reprinted in: Shaw, Evolution of an Endeavorer, 301-304. 113 The same argument was put forward, that Labour and Capital should not cooperate but consolidate. Shaw, Ibid., 307. 114 Ibid., 304. 115 Ibid., 308. 116 Janet Forsythe Fishburn, The Fatherhood of God and the Victorian Family: The Social Gospel in America (Fortress Press: Philadelphia, 1981), 32. 117 Fishburn, The Fatherhood of God, 32. 179 Gospel movement was seeking to displace women. Gail Bederman extended this thesis within her article on the Men and Religion Forward movement (M&RF). Bederman placed Social Gospel alongside the M&RF movement, which she argued was the largest revival in the United States, attracting over 1.5 million men; and the only revival that excluded women. The movement toured 76 major cities throughout the United States. Presented as the peak of the masculinist turn, the movement sought to retain male leadership of Christian culture as it worked under the banner of ‘More Men for Religion, More Religion for Men.’118 It desired to avoid the perceived sentimentality and effeminacy of religion, instead providing a businesslike approach, employing a bureaucratic structure and an emphasis on scientific approaches and efficiency.119 Bederman’s argument was that in order to create a truly masculinised religion, Protestantism needed to be put in congruence with the world of twentieth-century business and politics.120

Unlike Fishburn, Bederman did not imply that the Social Gospel was fundamentally masculinist; instead she argued that in the short term the Social Gospellers appropriated the M&RF movement in order to spread their theological message, however, in the long run it was the advocates of masculinisation that appropriated the Social Gospel to the services of defeminising the Church.121 Yet the consistent representation of Social Gospel as masculine is questionable. The main body of work that counters this argument is gathered in Gender and the Social Gospel, which sought to show that women were not a passive audience for men and argued that women’s contributions had been ignored.122 It did highlight, however, how groups such as the WCTU at times complemented the movement, while at other times found itself in conflict with the male leaders. It, therefore, places many of the women both within and outside the movement, depending on the context. Christian Endeavor does not appear within its analysis.123 Arguably, the tendency to overlook CE’s participation

118 Gail Bederman, ‘‘The Women Have had Charge of the Church Work Long Enough’: The Men and Religion Forward Movement of 1911-1912 and the Masculinization of Middle-Class Protestantism’ American Quarterly, 42:3 (1989), 432-465. 119 Ibid., 441-444. 120 Ibid., 446. 121 Ibid., 448. 122 Wendy J. Deichmann Edwards & Carolyn De Swarthe Gifford (eds.) Gender and the Social Gospel (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2003), Forward, 1- 4. 123 Allan F. Davis also places settlement house workers of both genders within under the ‘Social Gospel’ label, albeit loosely. Davis sets out to examine the ideas and actions of those who worked in the 180 within the movement is, once again, due to its dual gendered membership. CE does not fit neatly into the masculinist or feminist paradigm.

CE’s role within the M&RF movement again demonstrates its tentative line, while also complicating a simple masculinist interpretation. William Shaw wrote that CE, as an organization, did not participate within the movement because of its dual gendered membership. 124 The parallel nature of methods reappears. Just as CE avoided militaristic models, while the same church body was undertaking boxing lessons, it seems that CE men did not avoid the M&RF movement, despite not being affiliated with it as an organization. Shaw himself spoke as a guest speaker during the nationwide M&RF tour. He proudly wrote of how many of the leaders were men trained in CE, including the most prominent leader, Fred B Smith.125 Shaw also recounted that many of the men in the audience were also CE members. If these men were actively engaging within organisations that excluded women, it potentially limits the extent of their commitment to dual gendered membership/leadership. Or, even more so, it questions any simple masculinist interpretation of the men’s movements that came out in the early nineteenth-century blend of muscular Christianity and Progressive methods.

CE had a complicated relationship with the M&RF movement. Fred B Smith served as the speaker at the men’s meeting during the 1911 CE convention. Smith was introduced as the leader of the M&RF movement, which was set to begin its tour of the United States.126 Therefore, while the M&RF movement was not actively promoted in CE, it was not hushed or disregarded as a masculinist movement. Demonstrating the mutual awareness of organizations, Smith discussed his work in the YMCA and his

settlement house movement, opposed to any specific institution or organization. He does not set out to explicitly examine Social Gospel but he includes both genders within his analysis. Davis writes of those who worked within the settlement house movement, the men to be masculine and the women feminine, and both avoided sentimentality and ‘goody-goody’ labels. These reformers appear more free-thinking, or liberal, than the mass body of membership within CE, mingling with the poets, anarchists, labor leaders and social workers who lived in the Lower East Side of New York City. The shift over time in the workers’ approach proves telling. He quoted Jane Addams as stating in the early 1890s that the reformers would come to the settlement saying ‘We must do something about the social disorder,’ while after the turn of the century they said ‘We want to investigate something.’. This is suggestive of the shift towards the Progressive scientific approach within Social Gospel, and religious and reform work in general. Allan F. Davis, Spearheads for Reform: The Social Settlements and the Progressive Movement, 1890-1914 (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1984) 1, 27-33. (third edition) 124 Shaw, Evolution of an Endeavorer, 175. 125 Ibid., 142, 175-176. 126 The 1911 CE convention took place during July, while the Men and Religion Forward Movement was due to begin on the 18th of September. 181 extensive travels, which allowed him to testify to the ‘world-power’ of CE. The report described Smith as a ‘virile personality’ and the CE men who listened were depicted as ‘fine, stalwart, clear-eyed, keen-faced’ and eager.127 This was a blatant contrast to the highly gendered language and assumptions of the writing on the women at the convention who were depicted as wearing cool white dresses and showing earnest Christian faces, thus providing an ‘inspiring sight.’

Aside from the cross-promotion, more difficulties arose from the shared methods that were employed by CE and the M&RF movement. M&RF has been given credit for combining the Progressive approach of ‘scientific’ knowledge, undertaking a masculine revival by embracing business methods and reinvigorating the church by avoiding the feminised taint of sentimental church work. 128 It embarked on advertising campaigns, created committees of ‘experts’ to ensure efficient and sufficiently masculine kinds of ‘Church work.’ Yet CE demonstrated similar business methods. The business methods were not, in and of themselves, masculinist; it was the exclusion of women that was masculinist, and in turn gave credence to the movement’s historiographical manly aura. In fact, CE initiated its own ‘Campaign for Efficiency’ at the same 1911 CE convention that Smith served as a guest speaker. This took place two months prior to the commencement of the M&RF tour.129 The campaign model was continued at the following CE convention, with a Campaign for Millions implemented during the 1913 convention, and the somewhat paradoxically named Campaign for Efficiency and Millions in 1915. Historian Christopher Coble argued that the campaigns provided a means to standardise CE’s efforts at a national level, yet he believed that they also signalled a fear for the long-term survival of the society.130 The idea that CE was losing its hold within Protestant culture during this period is plausible, but the shift also appears in line with religious and cultural trends. Regardless, the push for standardisation and efficiency was not necessarily new; these

127 The Story of the Oceanic Convention: The Official Report of the Twenty-Fifth International Christian Endeavor Convention (Boston: United Society of Christian Endeavor, 1911), 62. 128 Gail Bederman, ‘‘The Women Have had Charge of the Church Work Long Enough’, 441. 129 The Vice President of the United Society, Dr. Grose, spoke during the opening session of ‘three great words of Christian Endeavor: Conscience, Comity and Efficiency.’ Grose attested that Christian Endeavor means ‘Conscience Energized, Comity Expressed and Co-operative Efficiency.’ The Story of the Oceanic Convention, 17; For further detailed accounts on the various campaigns and their associated promotional literature see Shaw, Evolution of an Endeavorer, 373-378. 130 Christopher Coble, ‘Where have all the Young People Gone’ (Diss.), 297. 182 ideas had been circulated as early as the 1890s.131 The adoption of explicit campaign- based models was a trend that should not simply be interpreted as a means for masculinisation, although the result may well have been a marginalisation of the ‘sentimental’ work that women continued within CE and elsewhere.

It was in 1911 that CE also created a training program where participants could attain a ‘degree’ as Christian Endeavor Experts. By 1924, more than 75 000 text books had been sold and 36 000 members had been enrolled.132 The degrees were open to all members, male and female, although it is not clarified what the gender divide between students was. Evidently there was popular interest in attaining specialised training within organizational methods and procedures. What does prove interesting is that, aside from the feminine stronghold within Junior Christian Endeavor, and the dominance of women at the conventions, the face of the bureaucratic CE was largely male.133

This chapter has examined the adult context of CE and how it both adapted to, and resisted, masculinism during a period that has more typically been associated with the reassertion of masculinist values within Protestantism. This was partnered with the challenges of the 1893 economic panic, which changed the cultural landscape. The 1893 panic set the scene for a shift towards economic concerns becoming of more concern for the Protestant mainstream and provided fuel for the crisis of masculinity that was gaining steam. CE responded by reappropriating the vision of a muscular man, promoting a pure-hearted version that could link both its desire to work cooperatively with women while upholding a masculine vision of active citizenship. CE pushed its members to engage in politics and reform. The fact that women were included in this vision did prove challenging, as CE struggled to fully embrace the more

131 For an example of earlier incarnations of methods and efficiency see: W.F McCauley, How: A Handbook of Christian Endeavor Methods (Cincinnati, Ohio: the Standard Publishing Co., 1893) 132 Shaw, Evolution of an Endeavorer, 160. 133 Shaw discusses various individuals who have been involved within CE, and mentions the great work of many women, such as Minnie Bradford who served as cashier and ran the finances for the Golden Rule Company, Sadie O Starratt who was in charge of the Statistical Department, as well as others involved in editing and publishing the Christian Endeavor World. They were discussed with respect and gratitude, but it is hard to miss the fact that there are two pages dedicated to CE women compared to two whole chapters discussing CE men. That said, 23 of the 48 associates of Shaw photographed in 1901 were women. Obviously women did play a part in the running of Christian Endeavor, although they do not appear as visibly as many of the male staples. Ibid., 78-84, 85-128. 183 radical components of the women’s movement, as illustrated by the case study of its engagement with woman suffrage. While initially the New Woman ideal was something that women started to assimilate to, CE was unable to find a way of balancing the male and female component. Finally, CE is best understood within the context of the Social Gospel movement. Clark set the foundation during the early years, and the movement led the way for the business models and campaigns that have most often been treated as a later incarnation of masculinism.

CE proves difficult to place on the feminist spectrum, at once leading the way as well as avoiding being engulfed by more radical iterations of woman’s place. This difficulty has meant that it has been overlooked within gendered analyses that have instead relied on single-sex organisations to see how gender relations were negotiated during the turn of the twentieth century. Despite its waning cultural prominence, CE provided a window into the attempt to find a working model for male and female cooperation and friendship - it was seeking to train the youth of the United States and the wider world, and it was very much in the business of shaping future womanhood and manhood. Its ambivalence was ultimately a strength as much as a weakness. Its strength came from the fact that CE could promote more equitable ideals to an indifferent or unconvinced audience. Its weakness was that its tentative embrace meant that it became, over time, largely irrelevant in pushing the woman’s cause. Instead it sought to support equality, as opposed to fighting for it. Ultimately, over time, CE became more about resistance than engagement. It resisted the masculinist push just as much as it resisted the more ‘disruptive’ forms of feminism; it sought to bring about gendered change peacefully as an evolution of society in order to avoid its religious purpose being subsumed or spawning a sense of disunity amongst its increasingly diverse membership. The desire to be neither feminist nor masculinist left CE in a tenuous space; it neither alienated nor provoked, instead having to staunchly defend its middle ground with mixed results. Resisting, adapting, yet not evolving: as it waited for its membership to catch up, it got left behind.

184 CONCLUSION MODERN CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR

Christian Endeavor is still active today. Its principles and pledge remain the same, however, its geographic spread is quite different than it was one hundred years ago. As membership and cultural visibility stagnated within the United States from the early twentieth century, CE’s growth in its foreign offshoots was sustained and consolidated. It is difficult to properly assess CE’s modern membership numbers; its fondness for compiling data and transnational business structures waned during the intervening century. Numbers that do exist are also complicated by the fact that nations such as Korea include all Presbyterian church members between the ages of 20 and 50 years as CE members. This means that their numbers alone reach one million.1 China and Turkey no longer serve as centres for CE activity, although CE is still present in Syria and Lebanon through its ties with the Armenian Evangelical Church.2 There were reports of activity within Iraq until 1980. As of 2010, India claims 120 000 members and Burma claims 110 000.3 Japan’s membership, by comparison, is small and made up of mostly senior societies.4 CE world leadership has also adapted to this geographic shift; from 2002-10, the President for the World Christian Endeavor Union was Rev. Faataape Lavata’I, from Tau in American Samoa.5 From the 1970s to the 1990s the Presidency of the World CE Union was often in the hands of German ministers.6 Over the twentieth century, global connections have broken down. National unions predominantly work independently. Attempts have recently been made within the United States to reinvigorate CE, working under the new name of Christian Endeavor International, its leader Timothy Eldred is trying to unite disparate CE leaders from across the world. The World Christian Endeavor Union, based in Germany, has also participated in this process of reconnection and, in 2008 initiated its own attempt to reconnect CE throughout Europe.

1 A Brief History of Christian Endeavor (Unspecified: World Christian Endeavor Union, 2010), 26. 2 Ibid,. 30. 3 Ibid,. 25. 4 Ibid,. 25. 5 Ibid,. 23. 6 Ibid,. 35. 185 It appears that CE still struggles to keep up with liberalising. Its fate in Australia makes this clear. In the 1890s, Australia had the largest CE membership per capita of the population in the world. Since the 1990s, most of the CE state unions closed down and the national union disbanded. In 2008, the State of New South Wales Australia had a ‘few’ remaining CE groups and two Junior CE societies. Since then it has closed.7 Recently there have been efforts to rebuild within Australia and reconnect to unite Christian Endeavor around the world. Again, CE literature promotes the notion that CE is a global movement and promotes its global legacy. The current Vice President of the Australian National Union, who had also served as President from 1964-67, is Rev. Fred Nile, a well-known religious conservative who is a target for public hostility and caricature due to his vocal opposition to homosexuality.8 The tension between a more liberal evangelism and the more conservative still confounds, and potentially deters membership growth in Australia. Yet CE remains in essence and forms much the same as the organization that Clark founded in 1881. The worldwide network may have frayed, it may have lost its identity as a global movement, and not managed to achieve the central place within popular culture enjoyed by the Scouts of YMCA, nor has it regained the cultural prominence that it had once embodied. Yet CE has survived.

Why study CE?

Initially I began this study as an attempt to build upon my honours research examining men who supported the suffrage movement within the United States. Focusing on the American Woman’s Suffrage Association, I was interested in exploring how men who embraced a commitment to cooperative gender relations understood themselves as ‘men’ – their conception of manhood. Dual gendered organizations and their promotion of woman’s rights intrigued me – promoting woman’s rights within an all women’s group was one thing, but how did this translate when both sexes embraced the cause? Ultimately, I argued that, despite the best intentions of male suffrage leaders, such as Thomas Wentworth Higginson, there was a limit to how fully these

7 A Brief History of Christian Endeavor, 20. 8 Nile had recently been active in the CE movement attending the 25th World CE convention held in 2006, in Budapest, Hungry. This is listed in the ‘about Fred’ section of on his parliamentary webpage, alongside his other CE work. Nile serves as a representative for the Christian Democratic Party. See; ‘About Rev Hon Fred Nile MLC, https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/prod/PARLMENT/members.nsf/0/c85947f5a79ad5554a25672e0002 e1c9/$FILE/Biography.pdf, accessed 1 March, 2015. 186 men could embrace feminist forms of womanhood, simply because their understanding of themselves as men relied on female subordination. Even those men at the forefront of woman’s rights were struggling to find gender models that could engender equality. When it came to undertaking a PhD, CE was suggested as a potential subject. Frankly, it did not grab me straight away; the primary sources lacked the fire or spark that I had enjoyed while studying the suffrage movement. Parallels, however, started to emerge. I started to notice that similar ideas of equality were being put forward, yet often hidden behind a softer veneer that obscured their punch. Then the more radical nature of CE’s pledge started to shine through. At the same time, I begun to perceive the enormity of the CE movement and the power that it held. Numbers alone suggested its importance. While searching for further sources, I was shocked to find how immense CE’s public profile was during the late nineteenth century. It was a group I had never heard of, yet it seemed to be everywhere. Considering its relative invisibility within historiography I decided it was an important group, and an important issue that begged for further attention. How did CE as a dual gendered organization embrace the cooperative gender vision – what was its story?

My Research

I originally set out to tell a story of CE’s employment of radical ideas, its repackaging of radical ideals of gender equality and subsequent implementation of them into ‘conservative’ society.

Yet my research did not uncover a neat, or clear, story. I was confronted by contradictions. It was difficulty to reconcile CE with the feminist movement. It became evident that CE’s ambivalence was both its strength, and its weakness. It was at once embracing liberal ideals, and obstructing them. It proved difficult to pin down. My thesis became an exploration of this tension. Chapter one explored CE’s birth and sudden burst, along with the role of the pledge in cementing its cooperative gender vision, framing its growth and duplication. Chapter two looked at CE’s growth as an institution, its creation of an organizational hierarchy and its transnational transmission. The role of a ‘world wide Christian Endeavor’ was both a practical result of its success as well as a symbolic tool utilised to build a sense of global connections and momentum. Chapter three returns to the United States and examines CE’s struggle during its first decade to implement a cooperative model of gender relations. The difficulty did not arise from men’s discomfort, or dislike, of women taking on active 187 and vocal roles, which I had suspected. Instead the difficulty arose from women’s hesitation regarding involvement. The difficulties were confounded by the memberships’ inexperience at engaging with the opposite sex in a semi-professional manner. Courtship rituals or over-familiarity were not appropriate, and new forms of gendered interaction were required.

Having established how CE members were expected to interact within meetings, Chapter four examined how CE advised its members to act and engage with the broader world. CE’s guidance literature provided advice on all aspects of life, from religious faith to careers, hobbies, courtship, marriage, and socialization. The advice reveals the inherent contradictions at the core of CE’s gender philosophy. Clark and fellow leaders promoted New Womanhood ideals, yet their essentialist gender constructions blunted the feminist message. Chapter five turned to look at how CE responded to the challenge posed by the rise of muscular Christian movements. Historiography has depicted the period from the 1890s as experiencing a ‘crisis of masculinity’. Focusing on Junior CE, I looked at the criticism levelled at CE by ‘boyologists’. Concerns were raised about CE’s supposed feminized methods, alongside its dual gender model. By adopting and maintaining its cooperative gender model, CE provided a source of resistance against the trend towards returning to homosocial organization, and affirmed their support that both women could lead boys without causing detrimental impact on the youth or society at large. Chapter six concludes by exploring how the adult portion of CE adapted to more radical feminisms and the rise of muscular Christianity. It did so in a variety of ways including reappropriating muscular Christian models, promoting its ideal of a true-hearted man. I argued that the best framework from which to understand CE’s work is through the lens of the Social Gospel. Placing CE under the Social Gospel label, however, disrupts our understanding of the Social Gospel movement. It poses a challenge to historiography which has commonly interpreted the Social Gospel as a masculinist movement.

My research has provided a window into an overlooked and understudied organization. The fact that it was the largest youth group of in the United States, and the world, during the Gilded Age and Progressive Era is, in itself, a basis for remedying this neglect. Yet CE also proves to be valuable as a base from which to explore how gender relations were negotiated on the ground – its influence arguably underestimated due to its often-mundane and confused approach. This thesis explores 188 how a group that did not act from within the feminist movement could impart radical change simply by maintaining its support for cooperative gender relations. The challenges it faced, its successes and failures, all provide a context to better understand this transformative period in American gender history. Its members were being trained not just for work within CE, they were being instructed in how they should engage with the world, and with each other.

Suggested Areas for Future Study

One promising prospect for future research is a more detailed exploration of Christian Endeavors transnational spread. I have foregrounded gender relations in the USA here because that topic brought me to CE in the first place. A wide variety of sources from various nations do, however, exist. Australia and Great Britain in particular have a rich array of sources. Other nations are a little more inconsistent in scope, but they are diverse and provide transnational networks ready to be traced and dissected. In particular I would like to explore the repercussions of CE’s dual gendered approach within comparative cultural contexts. Additionally, more work should be done on how various national CE unions dealt with war, in particular World War, and to what extent global politics and CEs core commitment to pacifism disrupted their sense of worldwide unity. The tension between national and transnational, or the cohesion, awaits analysis.

Another crucial area for further research is the role of fundamentalism in the organization’s growth and in its downturn. Aside from the challenge of war and gender, how did CE respond to Darwinism and evolutionary theory? How did it seek to bridge a gap between the fundamentalist and liberal Protestant streams, or did it seek to once again avoid antagonism and rise above the fray? Was it ever forced to confront this issue?

Other interesting issues also came up within my course of research that I was unable to include. For example, CE’s engagement with spiritualism, with leaders such as Mother Wearing, from the United Kingdom, and W.T Stead, both very public in their belief that they could communicate with the dead. Clark acknowledged these beliefs, yet he (and CE) did not advocate them. Other leaders also displayed eccentric spiritual experiences, with Opal Whiteley, a once renowned child genius, and Junior Endeavor Superintendent from Washington State who attracted children to CE through her love of nature and lectures on the environment. Employing mysticism in her depiction of 189 nature, and God, she published a book The Fairyland Around Us in 1918.9 I focused instead on CE’s core ideas, the mainstream within CE, in my attempt to explore the heart of the movement. Yet CE’s eccentricity and diversity deserve attention as well. It was not only a cookie-cutter organisation; room needs to be made for individual idiosyncrasies of both members and leadership alike. Clark’s fundamental belief that each member, male or female, should be able to act in accordance with their own unique ‘god given’ personality and skills had lasting implications as can be seen by the colourful array of characters that passed through its gates.

This thesis began with a quote by Rev. David James Burrell who predicted that CE would be part of ‘a mobilization of the Christian Army’ marking an awakening as ‘distinct as the Crusades and immensely more momentous’. CE may have failed to deliver on this promise, yet the belief in its potential to serve as a transformative power was very real. For a brief period at the turn of the twentieth century a Christian Endeavor Army created their own ‘Christian Endeavor World’, containing and spurring on active Christian workers who were dedicated to ‘Christ and the Church’. CE contained the hopes and fears of the young, and the elder generations, as they sought to consolidate and expand the movement, purifying and protecting the United States and the world from evil and a lack of faith. While CE did not transform the world in the grand scope it may have envisioned, it did create a space for young men and women to work together in partnership in a way that did change the world.

9 Opal Stanley Whiteley, The Fairyland Around Us (Los Angeles, CA: Opal Stanley Whiteley, 1918); additional publications are her controversial childhood diary which has been criticised as being fraudulent with claims it was written in adulthood. See, The Diary of Opal Whiteley, http://intersect.uoregon.edu/opal/, accessed 3 February, 2015. 190 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Archives and Collections

Christian Endeavor Archive (CEA), Edmore, Michigan.

The Rauner Special Collections References Library (RSC) Francis E. Clark File Dartmouth College.

World Christian Endeavor Union Archive (CEF), Fulda, Germany.

Newspapers

Advocate of Peace

American Advocate of Peace and Arbitration

Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science

Auckland Star

Barrier Miner

Biblical World

Chicago Daily Tribune

Chinese Recorder and Missionary Herald

Christian Endeavor World

Congregationalist

Dartmouth Alumni Magazine

Europa Kristana Celado

Floater

Golden Chain

Golden Rule

Junior Endeavor World

Nashua Daily News

191 New England Magazine

New York Times

North American Review

Spokane Daily Chronicle

The Outlook

Woman’s Journal

Work with Boys: A Magazine of Methods

Primary Sources

Anderson, William G. A Manual of Physical Training for Boys and Girls: for use by Public- school Teachers, Parents, and the Superintendents of Junior Societies in Churches. Boston: United Society of Christian Endeavor, 1914.

Blackwell, Alice Stone. Lucy Stone: Pioneer of Woman's Rights. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 2001.

Boisen, Anton T. Out of the Depths: An Autobiographical Study of Mental Disorder and Religious Experience. New York: Harper & Brothers Publishes.

Chaplin, William Knight and Street, Jennie. Fifty Years of Christian Endeavour: A Jubilee Record and Forecast. London: The British Christian Endeavour Union, 1932.

Chapman, J Wilbur. The Secret of a Happy Day: Quiet Hour Meditations. Boston: United Society of Christian Endeavor, 1899.

Clark, Eugene. A Son’s Portrait of Dr Francis E Clark. Boston: The Williston Press, 1930.

Clark, Francis. Memories of Many Men in Many Lands: an Autobiography. Boston: United Society of Christian Endeavor, 1922.

Clark, Francis. Christian Endeavor in Principle and Practice: Together with the Revised Constitution. Boston: United Society of Christian Endeavor: 19??.

Clark, Francis. Christian Endeavor in Six Continents and the Islands of the Sea: a Review of the World-Wide Movement. Boston: The World Christian Endeavor Union, date unknown.

Clark, Francis. Danger Signals: The Enemies of Youth from the Business Man’s Standpoint. Boston: Lee & Shepard, 1885.

192 Clark, Francis. Looking out on Life: A Book for Girls on Practical Subjects based on Many Letters from Wise Mothers. Boston: D. Lothrop Company, 1892.

Clark, Francis. Our Business Boys: What Eighty Three Business Men Say. Boston: D. Lothrop and Company, 1884.

Clark, Francis. Our Journey Around the World : an Illustrated Record of a Years' Travel of Forty Thousand Miles through India, China, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Egypt, Palestine, Greece, Turkey, Italy, France, Spain, ETC. Hartford: A.D Worthington, 1895.

Clark, Francis. Our Vacations: Where to go, How to go and How to Enjoy Them. Boston: Estes and Lauriat, 1874.

Clark, Francis. Reorganization. Boston: United Society of Christian Endeavor, 1887.

Clark, Francis. The Mossback Correspondence: Together with Mr. Mossback’s views on Certain Practical Subjects, with a Short Account of his Visit to Utopia. Boston: D Lothrop Company, 1889.

Clark, Francis. The United Society of Christian Endeavor: State Unions Local Unions. Boston: United Society of Christian Endeavor, 1887.

Clark, Francis. Ways and Means for the Young People’s Society of Christian Endeavor: A book of suggestions for the prayer-meeting, the committees, and all lines of Christian work adopted by Christian Endeavor Societies. Boston: United Society of Christian Endeavor, 1890.

Clark, Francis. World Wide Endeavor: the Story of the Young People’s Society of Christian Endeavor from the Beginning and in All Lands. Boston: United Society of Christian Endeavor, 1895.

Clark, Francis. Young People’s Prayer-meetings in Theory and Practice. Chicago: Funk & Wagnalls, 1887.

Clark, Harriet, Our Immigrants at Ellis Island: an exercise prepared for the young people and descriptive of the reception, inspection, and experiences of our immigrants in the detention-room and railway offices. Boston: United Society of Christian Endeavor, 1912.

Clark, Harriet. A Daily Message for Christian Endeavorers: a book for the Quiet Hour, for the Prayer meeting, and for the Birthday. Boston: United Society of Christian Endeavor, 1897.

Clark, Harriet. The Little Girl that Once was I. Worcester: The Commonwealth Press, 1936.

Crafts, Wibur Successful Men of to-day and what they say of success : based on facts and opinions gathered by letters and personal interviews from five hundred prominent men, and on many more published sketches. New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1893.

Diary of W.S. Meyers of Miami, Saline Mo.’ http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~meredythspages/index.htm

193 Eberman, Clarence E. Deeper Yet: Meditations for the Quiet Hour. Boston: United Society of Christian Endeavor, 1899.

Erb, Frank Otis. “The Development of the Young People’s Movement”. PhD Diss., University of Chicago, 1917.

Farmer, Lydia Hoyt. The National Exposition Souvenir: What America Owes to Women. Buffalo: C.W.Moulton, 1893.

Forbush, William B. and Forbush, Dascomb. The Knights of King Arthur: How to Begin and What to Do. (1915) http://d.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/text/forbush-knights-of- king-arthur-how-to-begin-and-what-to-do

Forbush, William B. Church Work with Boys. Boston: The Pilgrim Press, 1910.

Forbush, William B. Queens of Avalon, http://d.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/text/forbush- queens-of-avalon

Forbush, William B. The Boy Problem: a Study in Social Pedagogy. Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1902.

Forbush, William B. The Boys’ Round Table: A Manual of Boys’ Clubs Explaining the Order of the Knights of King Arthur. Albany, NY: The Knights of King Arthur, 1907.

Forbush, William B. The Travel Lessons on the Life of Jesus. New York: Underwood and Underwood, 1908.

Gardner, Hattie Sleeper. The Endeavorers of Maple Grove. Omaha, Neb: Megeath Stantion Co., 1893.

Heath, Lillian M. Good Times with the Juniors. Boston: United Society of Christian Endeavor, 1904.

Higginson, Thomas Wentworth. Out-door Papers. Boston: Lee and Shepard Publishers, 1886.

Kearny, Belle. A Slaveholders Daughter. New York: The Abbey Press, 1900.

King, William C. Portraits and Principles of the World’s Great Men and Women with Practical Lessons on Successful Life by over Fifty Leading Thinkers. Springfield, Mass: King Richardson Publishing, 1897.

Krikorian, George H. The Story of the Galatian Endeavorers and Their Joint Missionary Activities, by Rev. G.H Krikorian, of Yozgat, Turkey. Springfield: Loring & Axtell Printers, 1895.

McCauley, William F. How: a Handbook of Christian Endeavor Methods. Cincinnati: The Standard Publishing Co., 1893.

McCauley, William F. Next Steps: An Advance Text-Book in Christian Endeavor. Boston: United Society of Christian Endeavor, 1897.

194 McCormick, William. Fishers of Boys. New York: Hodder and Stoughton, 1915.

McCormick, William. The Boy and his Clubs. New York: Fleming H Revell Company, 1912.

Minutes of the Eighth annual Christian Endeavor Convention held in First Regt. Armory Hall, Philadelphia, PA. Boston: The United Society Of Christian Endeavor, 1889.

Model Constitution and By-Laws of the Young People’s Society of Christian Endeavor: Revised. Washington: The Endeavor Herald Company, 1898.

Mursell, James. Christian Endeavour Handbooks: No.1 The Society and its Functions. London: The Christian Endeavour Union of Great Britain and Ireland, 19??.

Narrative of the Tenth Annual Conference of the Young People’s Society of Christian Endeavor held in the Exposition Building Minneapolis, Minnesota (Boston: The United Society of Christian Endeavor, 1891), 138;

Official report of the Fifteenth international Christian Endeavor Convention held in Central Hall, Tent Williston, Tent Washington, Tent Endeavor and the Churches, Washing, D.C, July 8-13, 1896. Boston: United Society of Christian Endeavor, 1896).

Official Report of the International Christian Endeavor Convention, Volume 11-14. Boston: United Society of Christian Endeavor, 1896.

Official Report of the Twentieth International Christian Endeavor Convention Held in Music Hall, The Odeon and Many Churches of Cincinnati July 6-10, 1901. Boston: United Society of Christian Endeavor, 1901.

Pansy, Chrissy’s Endeavor. Boston: D Lothrop Company, 1889.

Poling, Lillian D. Mothers of Men: A Twenty-five Year History of American Mothers of the Year 1935-1959. Bridgeport, CT: K.H Volk, 1959.

Pratt, Dwight L. A Decade of Christian Endeavor 1881-1891. New York: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1891.

Records of the General Conference of the Protestant Missionaries of China held at Shanghai, May 7-20. Shanghai: American Presbyterian Mission Press, 1890.

Rees, Fred A. Souvenir Publication for the Coming of Age of the Movement and the Twelfth British National Convention Held in Manchester, May 17-21, 1902. London: British Christian Endeavor Union: 1902.

Report for Christian Endeavor Convention held at Manchester Wiltshire, 1902. London: Published by Andrew Melrose, 1902.

Report of Christian Endeavor Convention held at Newcastle-Upon-Tyne. London, Andrew Melrose, 1903.

Report of the First Annual Meeting and Convention of the United Society of Christian Endeavor for China, Shanghai, June 23-25, 1894. American Presbyterian Mission Press, 1894. 195 Roosevelt, Theodore. The Strenuous life: Essays and Addresses. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1906.

Sewall, Mary Wright. The World’s Congress of Representative Women, Vol.2. Chicago, Rand McNally, 1894.

Shaw, William. Evolution of an Endeavorer. Boston: United Society of Christian Endeavor, 1924.

The Amusement Question and its Practical Solution. Boston: United Society of Christian Endeavor, 1893.

The Christian Endeavor Tree: a Christian Endeavor Anniversary Service. Boston: United Society of Christian Endeavor, 1896.

The Missionary Herald: Containing the Proceedings of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions with a view of Other Benevolent Operations for the Year 1898 Vol. XCIV. Boston: Beacon Press, 1898.

The Story of the Baltimore Convention: Twenty Second International Convention of Christian Endeavor. Boston: United Society of Christian Endeavor, 1905.

The Story of the Oceanic Convention: The Official Report of the Twenty-Fifth International Christian Endeavor Convention. United Society of Christian Endeavor: Boston, 1911.

These Forty Years’: Fortieth Anniversary of Christian Endeavour in the Land of Sinim, 1885- 1925. China Christian Endeavor Union, 1925.

Titterington, Sophie Bronson. A New Endeavor. New York: American Tract Society, 1891.

Wells, Amos R. Citizens in Training: a Manual of Christian Citizenship. Boston: United Society of Christian Endeavor, 1898.

Wells, Amos R. Programs and Hints: for Christian Endeavor Conventions and Meetings. Boston: United Society of Christian Endeavor, 1892.

Wells, Amos R. The Endeavor Greeting: A Manual of Information and Suggestion for New Members. Boston: United Society of Christian Endeavor, 1900.

Wells, Amos, R. Circumnavigating the Christian Endeavor Globe, Boston: United Society of Chrisitan Endeavor, 1900.

Willard, Frances E. Glimpses of Fifty Years: an Autobiography of an American Woman. New York: Source Book Press, 1970.

196 Secondary Sources

Alonso, Harreit Hyman. Peace as a Women’s Issue: a History of the U.S Movement for World Peace and Women’s Rights. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1993.

Basen, Neil K. “Kate Richards O’hare: the “first lady” of American Socialism, 1901-1917”, Labor History, 21:2 (1980): 165-199.

Bederman, Gail. ‘‘The Women Have had Charge of the Church Work Long Enough’: The Men and Religion Forward Movement of 1911-1912 and the Masculinization of Middle-Class Protestantism’ American Quarterly 42:3 (1989): 432-465.

Bederman, Gail. Manliness and Civilization: a Cultural History of Gender and Race in the United States, 1880–1917. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995.

Bendroth, Margaret L. Fundamentalists in the City. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.

Bendroth, Margaret L., and Brereton, Virginia L. Women and Twentieth-Century Protestantism. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2002.

Blair, Karen J. The Clubwoman as Feminist: True Womanhood Redefined 1868-1914. New York: Holmes & Meier Publishers, 1980.

Boase, Paul. H. The Rhetoric of Christian Socialism. New York: Random House, 1969.

Bordin, Ruth. Alice Freeman Palmer: The Evolution of a New Woman. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 1993.

Boyd. Nancy. Emissaries: The Overseas Work of the American YWCA 1895-1970. New York: Woman’s Press, 1986.

Carnes, Mark C. Secret Ritual and Manhood in Victorian America. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989.

Chaves, Mark. Ordaining Women: Culture and Conflict in Religious Organizations. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1997.

Coble, Christopher. ‘Where have all the young people Gone? The Christian Endeavor Movement and the Training of Protestant Youth, 1881-1918’. PhD dissertation, Harvard University, 2001.

Cott, Nancy F. Public Vows: A History of Marriage and the Nation. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2000.

Cott, Nancy, Bonds of Womanhood: “Woman’s Sphere” in New England 1780-1935. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997.

Curtis, Susan. A Consuming Faith: The Social Gospel and Modern American Culture. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2001.

Dalton, Kathleen. Theodore Roosevelt: A Strenuous Life. New York: Vintage Books, 2002.

197 Davis, Allan F. Spearheads for Reform: The Social Settlements and the Progressive Movement, 1890-1914. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1984.

De Swarte Gifford, Carolyn, and Slagell, Amy R. Let Something Good be Said: Speeches and Writings of Frances E Willard. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007.

Del Plato, Joan. Multiple Wives, Multiple Pleasures: Representing the Harem, 1800-1875. Madison, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2002.

Dixon, Chris. Perfecting the Family: Antislavery Marriages in Nineteenth-Century America. Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press, 1997.

Dorn, Jacob H. ‘The Social Gospel and Socialism: A Comparison of the Thought of Francis Greenwood Peabody, Washington Gladden and Walter Rauschenbusch’ Church History 62:1 (1993): 82-100.

Dunch, Ryan. ‘Beyond Cultural Imperialism’ History and Theory, 41:3 (2002): 301-325.

Dunch, Ryan. Fuzhou Protestants and the Making of a Modern China 1857-1927. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2001.

Erb, Frank Otis. “The Development of the Young People’s Movement”. PhD Diss., University of Chicago, 1917.

Firor Scott, Anne. Natural Allies: Women’s Associations in American History. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1991.

Fishburn, Janet Forsythe. The Fatherhood of God and the Victorian Family: The Social Gospel in America. Fortress Press: Philadelphia, 1981.

Flowers, Prudence. ‘White Ribboners and the Ideology of Separate Spheres, 1860s-1890s’ Australasian Journal of American Studies, 25:1 (2006): 14-31.

Foster, Gaines M. Moral Reconstruction: Christian Lobbyists and the Federal Legislation of Morality, 1865-1920. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2007.

Friend, Craig Thompson. Southern Masculinity: Perspectives on Manhood in South since Reconstruction. Athens, GA: The University of Georgia Press, 2009.

Gilbert, James. Men in the Middle: Searching for Masculinity in the 1950s. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005.

Hall, Patricia Kelly, and Ruggles Steve, ‘“Restless in the Midst of Their Prosperity”: New evidence on the Internal Migration of Americans 1850-2000’ The Journal of American History, 91:3 (2004): 829-846.

Hofstadter, Richard. Anti-Intellectualism in American Life. London: Jonathan Cape, 1962.

Hoganson, Kristin L. Fighting for American Manhood: How Gender Politics Provoked the Spanish-American and Philippine-American Wars. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998.

198 Hunter, Jane. ‘Women’s Mission in Historical Perspective: American Identity and Christian Internationalism’. In Competing Kingdoms: Women, Mission, Nation and the American Protestant Empire, 1812-1960. 19-42. Barbara Reeves-Ellington and Kathryn Kish Sklar (eds). Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2010.

Hull, Brian. ‘Enduring Endeavor: How Francis E. Clark Utilized Written Communication, Global Travel and Organization to Re-Shape the Global Protestant Church’s Ministry to Young People through the Christian Endeavor Society’. Phd dissertation. Asbury Theological Seminary, 2014.

Irwin, Julia P. Making the World Safe: The American Red Cross and a Nation’s Humanitarian Awakening. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013.

Jensen, Richard Bach. The Battle Against Anarchist Terrorism, 1878-1934. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014.

Katchadourian, Stina. Great Need over the Water: The Letters of Theresa Huntington Ziegler, Missionary to Turkey, 1898-1905. Ann Arbor: Gomidas Institute, 1999.

Kevorkian, Raymond. The Armenian Genocide: a Complete History. New York: I.B. Tauris, 2006.

Keyssar, Alexander. The Right to Vote: The Contested History of Democracy in the United States. New York: Basic Books, 2000.

Kidd, Kenneth. Making American Boys: Boyology and the Feral Tale. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2004.

Kilde, Jeanne Halgren. ‘The "Predominance of the Feminine" at Chautauqua: Rethinking the Gender-Space Relationship in Victorian America’ Signs, 24:2 (1999): 449-486.

Kimmel, Michael. History of Men. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2005.

Kimmel, Michael. Manhood in America: a Cultural History. New York: The Free Press, 1996.

Leach, William, True Love and Perfect Union: the Feminist Reform of Sex and Society. New York: Basic Books, 1980.

Marr, Timothy, The Cultural Roots of American Islamicism. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006.

Marsden, George M. Understanding Fundamentalism and Evangelism. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm B. Eerdmans, 1991.

Marsden, George M. Fundamentalism and American Culture. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006.

Meyers, Arthur S. Democracy in the Making: The Open Forum Lecture Movement. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2012.

Mjagkij, Nina, and Margaret Ann Spratt (eds.) Men and Women Adrift: The YMCA and the YWCA in the City New York: New York University Press, 1997. 199 Moody, William R., D.L Moody. New York: Garland Publishing, 1988.

Murphy, Kevin P. Political Manhood: Red Bloods, Mollycoddles and the Politics of Progress Era Reform. New York: Columbia University Press, 2008.

Odem, Mary. Delinquent Daughters: Protecting and Policing Adolescent Female Sexuality in the United States 1885–1920. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina, 1995.

Otto, Elizabeth, and Rocco, Vanessa Rocco. The New Woman International: Representations in Photography and Film from the 1870s through the 1960s. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 2011.

Parker, Alison M. ‘Hearts Uplifted and Minds Refreshed’: The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union and the Production of Pure Culture in the United States 1880- 1930, Journal of Women’s History 11.2. 1999. 135-158.

Parsons, Elaine Frantz. Manhood Lost: Fallen Drunkards and Redeeming Women in the Nineteenth-Century United States. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 2003.

Pettigrew, John. Brutes in Suits: Male Sensibility in America 1890-1920. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007.

Phillips, Paul T. A Kingdom on Earth: Anglo-American Social Christianity, 1880-1940. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1996.

Porterfield, Amanda. Mary Lyon and the Mount Holyoke Missionaries. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.

Putney, Clifford Muscular Christianity: Manhood and Sports in Protestant America 1880- 1920. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2001.

Rauchway, Eric. Murdering McKinley: the Making of Theodore Roosevelt's America. New York: Hill & Wang, 2003.

Reeves-Ellington, Barbara, and Kathryn Kish Sklar (eds). Competing Kingdoms: Women, Mission, Nation and the American Protestant Empire, 1812-1960. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2010.

Rosenberg, Emily. Ed. A World Connecting 1870-1945. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2012.

Rotundo, E. Anthony. American Manhood: Transformations in Masculinity from the Revolution to the Modern Era. New York: Basic Books, 1993.

Rupp, Leila J. ‘Constructing Internationalism: The Case of Transnational Women’s Organizations, 1888-1945’, American Historical Review 99 (1994): 1571-1600.

Schrems, Suzanne H. “Who’s Rocking the Cradle?”: Women Pioneers of Oklahoma Politics from Socialism to the KKK, 1900-1930. Norman, Oklahoma: Horse Creek Publications, 2004.

Scott, Anne Firor. Natural Allies: Women’s Associations in American History. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1991. 200 Senter, Mark H. When God Shows Up: a History of Protestant Ministry in America. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2010.

Thelen, David P. The New Citizenship: Origins of Progressivism in Wisconsin 1885-1900. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1971.

Twells, Alison. ‘Missionary Domesticity, Global Reform and “Woman’s Sphere” in Early Nineteenth-Century England’ Gender & History, 18:2 (August 2006), 266-284.

Tyrrell, Ian. ‘Woman, Missions, and Empire: New Approaches to American Cultural Expansion’. In Competing Kingdoms: Women, Mission, Nation and the American Protestant Empire, 1812-1960. 43-68. Barbara Reeves-Ellington and Kathryn Kish Sklar (eds). Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2010.

Tyrrell, Ian. Reforming the World: The Creation of America’s Moral Empire. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2010.

Tyrrell, Ian. Woman’s World/Woman’s Empire: The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union in International Perspective, 1880-1930. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1991.

Verduin, Kathleen. Medievalism in North America. Rochester, NY: D.S. Brewer, 1994.

Weiss, John. The Origins of Modern Consciousness. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1965.

White Jr, Ronald C. and Hopkins, C. Howard. The Social Gospel: Religion and Reform in Changing America. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1976.

Wiebe, Robert H. The Search for Order 1877-1920. New York: Hill and Wang, 1967.

Winter, Thomas. Making Men, Making Class: the YMCA and Workingmen 1877-1920. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002.

Zollinger Giele, Janet. Two Paths to Women’s Equality: Temperance, Suffrage, and the Origins of Modern Feminism. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1995.

201