Ethical Addresses - Series Three - 1897

The Third Series of Ethical Addresses (1897), now included in the Bibliography for Ethical Culture, provides more diversity in topics than previous issues.  Again, we have contributions from Felix Adler, William M. Salter, W. L. Sheldon, and M. M. Mangasarian.  In addition, we have an apparent lay leader from the New York Society (Alfred R. Wolff) and two women lay leaders from St. Louis (Lydia Avery Coonley) and Chicago (Mary J. Wilmarth).  I have added the new authors to the List of Authors (at the end of the Bibliography).  Can anyone provide more information about Wolff, Coonley, and Wilmarth?

My interest in the content as history of thought in Ethical Culture was piqued by entries on women's roles, with Sheldon trying to hold the line and Coonley and Wilmarth pushing it forward.  I also found the emphasis on international issues (Salter on Venezuela and Mangasarian on Armenia) reflective of a more practical application of ethics on a broader scale.  Adler's platform--"The Monroe Doctrine and the War Spirit in the United States"--is, I believe, an important statement about Ethical Culture's emphasis on the culture of peace as well as its dependence on democracy as an aspirational ideal.  Sheldon's platform on literature ("The Good and Bad Side of Novel Reading") is a precursor of several more of his platforms using literature as a basis for discussing ethics.  The interest in this particular article comes from his condemnation of some literary greats and at least one innovator as well as, for me, for his insistence on reality over fantasy.  His seems to be an approach to literature as lessons for life rather than an appreciation of the chance to find new horizons (and, perhaps, new perspectives on life's lessons).

Adler's report on "The Recent Congress of American and European Ethical Societies at Zurich" holds many interesting nuggets of information about the (then) still new Ethical Culture Movement in Europe.  (The ECM was already celebrating its twentieth anniversary in the US, an event also recorded in this volume.)  This particular report was delivered as a platform to the New York Society (October 18, 1896), so it is less formal than later reports but very reflective of Adler's own vision and interpretation.  From the beginning references to watch-towers to the ending questions of purpose and intention, Adler description is both lyrical and packed with information about these early days of the Movement.  He found three important outcomes of the Congress:  the formation of an international organization to bind the European and American Ethical Societies together (called the International Ethical Union, with Wilhelm Foerster as the International Secretary); the decision to establish a training college for Ethical Culture Leaders in Switzerland; to move beyond the essential ideas of Ethical Culture to Ethical action, or "practical philanthropy."  Adler gave strong endorsement to the "corner-stone of the Ethical Movement" in this Program (called a Manifesto by the delegates to the Congress) from the Congress:

The prime aim of the Ethical Societies is to be of advantage to their own members. The better moral life is not a gift which we are merely to confer upon others; it is rather a difficult prize which we are to try with unwearying and unceasing effort to secure for ourselves. The means which are to serve to this end are: first, the close contact into which our associations bring us with others having the same purpose in view; second, the moral education and instruction of the young in the ethical principles, which in their foundations are independent of all dogmatic presupposition; third, guidance for adults in the task of moral self-education. (p. 144)

The cornerstone is not, of course, the whole building, but the Program/Manifesto goes further to speak of involvement in the "the great social questions of the day," efforts to "obtain a more humane existence," "resistance to wrong and oppression" (to be considered "a sacred duty"), and other principles.  Noteworthy among them:  

We demand for woman opportunity for the fullest development of her mental and moral personality, and realizing that her personality is of equal worth with that of man, we pledge ourselves, as far as we are able, to secure the recognition of this equality in every department of life. (p. 146)

Is there a copy of that Manifesto somewhere in our Archives?  Is it included in its entirety in this platform address?  We know that Adler did not sign the later Humanist Manifesto I, but his endorsement of this one seems noteworthy. 

The Third Series did not present any new bibliographic challenges to me, but it did raise the question of copyright.  There will be many copyright questions associated with the entries of the Bibliography as we go forward, but the question of who owns the copyright to the Bibliography itself has been asked.  The answer is easy enough.  I do.  All rights reserved.  For now.  I may eventually change those rights to a Creative Commons license, but I am also considering shifting the copyright over to the American Ethical Union.  Given that this is a work in progress, I would like members of the Ethical Culture Movement to have access to the work as it progresses for their use in study, contemplation, Ethical action, and so on as the work continues.  As I (and others) document our shared heritage, we can decide together how best to protect this work from unwanted change or commercial exploitation.  Your thoughts are welcome.