Ethical Addresses and Ethical Record -- Series 17

Stanton Coit, c. 1906.

Series 17 of Ethical Addresses and Ethical Record, published in 1910, brings both changes and reprints, new and old.  For the "new," the editors seem to have created a separate section for the items that would, in the past, have been published in The Ethical Record.  The new section is called "Record Supplement" and includes reports, reading lists, and sample ceremonies for Ethical Societies.  

The reprints include the opening item--an excerpt from Stanton Coit's book, National Idealism and a State Church, A Constructive Essay in Religion--meant to familiarize American members of Ethical Culture in anticipation of Coit's impending visit to the US.  Looking for Coit's book, I found a review in the International Journal of Ethics.  

Another book excerpt is reprinted from William M. Salter's Ethical Religion:  "Why Unitarianism Does Not Satisfy Us" (105-126).  In a later number, this statement was offered as an attempt to soothe ruffled feelings in the Unitarian community:

By an unfortunate oversight, a footnote was omitted from the first page of Mr. Salter's "Why Unitarianism Does Not Satisfy Us," which formed the December issue of Ethical Addresses, stating that it was a reprint from Mr. Salter's volume entitled "Ethical Religion." As a consequence several communications from Unitarian ministers were received, protesting against the republication of a criticism which, even if it had been warranted twenty years ago, was no longer justifiable. We are anxious that no injustice should be done, and are, therefore, glad of the opportunity to print the following article from the pen of the Rev. Minot Simons, of the Church of the Unity in Cleveland: . . . (p. 178).

Oddly, I had some difficulty locating an address in the contents of Ethical Religion that matches Salter's title. A keyword search of the volume did not produce a single instance of the word "Unitarianism," apparently giving us yet another mystery, a reference to a missing address.  As it turns out, Ethical Religion was published in Boston in 1889 and in London in 1905.  The Boston edition included the controversial reprint (pp. 266-286) as well as another address ("Good Friday from a Modern Standpoint," pp. 227-243) that the London edition omits.  I was looking at the wrong edition!

Indeed, it took some searching online before I figured out the edition problem, but, happily, that search led me to some additional secondary sources that provide both commentary and context for the intersection of Salter, Unitarianism, and Ethical Culture.

• Baker, Ray Stannard[?].  "The Spiritual Unrest: The Faith of the Unchurched," 1909, Sept.  Ray Stannard Baker Papers, Library of Congress, Manuscript Division.  https://lccn.loc.gov/mm78011593.
• Kittelstrom, Amy.  The Religion of Democracy:  Seven Liberals and the American Moral Tradition.  New York:  Penguin, 2015.
• Weisenberger, Francis P.  Ordeal of Faith:  The Crisis of Church-Going America, 1865-1900.  New York:  Philosophical Library, 1959.

The latter is available online through the Internet Library and can be checked out by the hour.

A final reprint, "The Catholicity of the Ethical Movement," by Charles Callaway, comes from a more recent issue of The Ethical World (London), and seems also to draw a rebuttal.  Callaway argues that Ethical Culture should focus on growth rather than social justice (203-206).  A later number of EA&ER includes a statement from the Ethical Societies in England to the effect that they should instead be deeply involved in the issues of the day and lists a broad range of stands to be taken (votes for women, but no marriage/children for "imbeciles") (252-256).  

The Seventeenth Series includes a number of addresses and articles that continue to define, so to speak,  Ethical Culture.

• Felix Adler offers another description of an Ethical Society as well as "A New Type of Religious Leader";
• Percival Chubb addresses the First Congress of the National Federation of Religious Liberals and asserts "The Spirit of Ethical Fellowship"; and
• Alfred W. Martin lists the "Cardinal Points on Which Ethical Societies Are Agreed."

In addition, Adler delivered an address about his year as Roosevelt Exchange Professor in Berlin (a mission of peace), Chubb discussed the ethics of Thomas Carlyle and Matthew Arnold, and Nathaniel Schmidt looked at Dante's ethics.   On a practical note, John Lovejoy Elliott spoke of housing conditions in New York and argued for a concrete solution.

For anyone interested in the history of thought in Ethical Culture--or even the history of its various unions and alliances--this volume seems like a good waypoint in the research.

Errors and Omissions: Science vs Silence

Typesetter: John A Prior Health Sciences Library Mural

As I continue to try to track down additional publications listed or promoted in various issues of Ethical Addresses and Ethical Record, I have discovered on apparent typo in the lists. A recurring publication in the list of pamphlets written by Felix Adler is entitled "The Moral Value of Science." I can find no evidence of a platform with this title in EA&ER. Moreover, when I search online for that title, a different platform always appears: "The Moral Value of Silence." Unless a physical copy of the platform on science can be discovered in the various archives, it looks like a error was made in typesetting the original list. It also looks like the trays of type for that list were reused in several issues of EA&ER, without correction, perpetuating the error over time.

"The Moral Value of Silence" was published in the Ninth Series (1902) and discussed in an earlier post on this blog.  It was originally a platform delivered to the New York Society for Ethical Culture on February 6, 1898.  It was also first published in the International Journal of Ethics in April 1898.  This article is (at the moment) free on JSTOR.

Happy turkeys, y'all!  

We'll be taking the day off next Thursday.  

Blogging will resume the following week on November 30.  

Enjoy the holiday.

Ethical Addresses and Ethical Record - Sixteenth Series

 

Alfred R. Wolff was an early proponent of wind energy

The Sixteenth Series of Ethical Addresses and Ethical Record was published in 1909.  It is marked by the republication of a couple of important addresses, a memorial service, summaries more and less brief of national and international meetings, statements from four major Societies about their aims and ideals (St. Louis, Chicago, Brooklyn, and Philadelphia), as well as a number recent platforms presented at various Ethical Culture Societies in the 1908-1909 season.

The image above is a tribute to Alfred R. Wolff, heating and cooling engineer, who was an advocate of wind energy (The Windmill as Prime Mover) and a friend of Ethical Culture.  His death in 1909 was commemorated with Memorial Addresses from Percival Chubb and John Lovejoy Elliott, both published in this volume along (pp. 178 - 187) with a telegraphed message from Felix Adler, then out of the country.

Anna Garlin Spencer provides a fulsome description of the first Summer School of Ethics, held in June and July, 1908, at and in conjunction with the University of Wisconsin in Madison (pp. 52 - 60).  Her description is supplemented with a complete program listing (pp. 255 -259).  There are online references to another Summer School held in 1910, but more searching is needed to see how this program fared over time.  A longer but anonymous report on the first International Congress on Moral Education (held September 25-29, 1909) is also provided (pp. 77-92).  Six such congresses were held in Europe between 1908 and 1934.  

An unsigned statement asserts that "The Right of Political Asylum [is] Threatened" (pp. 113-114) to explain the need to reprint two older platform addresses which referred to the US treaty with Russia (1893).  Felix Adler (pp. 115 - 135) and William M. Salter (pp. 136 - 159) had at that time protested the treaty, indicating that it would eventually place the US in the position of denying sanctuary to individuals fleeing unjust prosecution.  The statement applauds the "prophetic protests" of Adler and Salter, justifying the need to make them available again to contemporary readers.

More contemporary platforms by current and past clergy leaders provide the bulk of the volume:  Adler spoke on gambling and spiritual progress (not in the same lecture), Chubb on faith and then on Easter.  Despite his retirement from Chicago, a second address from Salter, discussed "Ethics in the Light of Darwin's Theory."  A posthumous list of things to believe, authored by Walter L. Sheldon, provides inspiring quotes from his pen.  (I rather like this one:  "Believe in the value of other men's experience and thereby save half your life from being a failure by endeavoring to show that you know more than everybody else." [p. 279])  Leslie Willis Sprague talked about moral inspiration, what an Ethical Society is, and, as part of a series on Social Ideals, the Ethical reorganization thereof.  David Saville Muzzey combined two lectures into one--"The New Paganism and the New Piety" (pp. 189-218)--and presented a paean to Milton as an apostle of Liberty (pp. 93-112).  The latter, a combination of history and poetry--the historian waxing poetic about the poet and his crucial role in the history of democracy--inspires me to set aside my disregard for Puritanism to see the deeper (nonreligious) issues that inspired Milton.

One additional note of interest (to me!) comes from Sprague's pen as he attempts to correct some "misapprehensions" about Ethical Culture (pp. 48 - 51).  His defense covers these mistakes:

1.  "[T]he Ethical Culture movement is merely a development of the Jewish religion";
2.  "Ethical Culture is irreligious, is opposed to the development of the religious life and to the expression of the religious aspirations of mankind";
3. "Ethical Culture is only an emasculation of older religious systems, especially Judasim (sic) and Christianity, the appropriation of their ethical principles without accepting the theological and sacerdotal elements which have accompanied these principles in the past";
4. "Ethical Culture is very readily and very naturally misunderstood by those who are concerned with the letter rather than with the spirit of the moral law"; and
5. "Ethical Culture is another sect."

It's worth a read, I think, even if one disagrees with Sprague.

Finally, this issue provides another change in the publisher.  Same address in Philadelphia, but now formally acknowledged as "American Ethical Union."

Ethical Books and Pamphlets

John Mitchell, President of UMWA, with "Breaker Boys"

Working with the Fifteenth Series of Ethical Addresses and Ethical Record had it challenges, one of which was to check the lists of Ethical books and pamphlets listed for sale on the covers of each monthly number.  I was looking to see which addresses already published in EA&ER were then also printed as pamphlets and sold "at the library table" for, literally, nickels and dimes.  This provided a "quality check" in two ways:

1. Any address listed as a pamphlet that did not appear in EA&ER might be something that I missed when documenting the series that I have looked at so far;
2. After doublechecking for that error, I can feel fairly certain that we are looking at pamphlets that were important for some reason--so it would be good to find and document them.

A case in point are four addresses by Felix Adler:

• "The Ethics of the Political Situation";
• "The Ethics of the Labor Struggle";
• "Evils Disclosed by the Coal Strike";
• "The Sabbath and the World's Fair."

All four of these seem to be related to current events, whether local, national, or international initially unclear.  

The coal strike seems to refer to the Pennsylvania coal strike in 1902.  The John Mitchell Papers, archived on microfilm at Cornell, show the second and third pamphlets preserved on Reel 54 (Items 1 and 2).  The guide to that reel indicates that both were also published in The Ethical Record, which had not at that time been merged with Ethical Addresses.  While we have located a complete set of the latter, the former has been a little more elusive.  There is also documentation of the second pamphlet, via Horace Friess, in Esther Lifschitz' Senior History thesis at Columbia (2010).  

With a little more searching, another citation about the coal strike appeared.  It is from the Theodore Roosevelt Papers in the Library of Congress Manuscript Collection (Evils disclosed by the coal strike. Theodore Roosevelt Papers. Library of Congress Manuscript Division. https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/Research/Digital-Library/Record?libID=o39591.)  Fortunately there's also the whole address, originally given on October 19, 1902, and published in The Ethical Record as a "Lecture Supplement."  The scan is dark, the interface is fiddly, but the address is both readable and accessible.

The fourth pamphlet is identified as a platform delivered on January 29, 1893, and is preserved in Box 19 of "Felix Adler papers, 1830-1933" archived at Columbia University.  The only other reference I've found to it is in a list of publications (perhaps the same list that I am using) copied into Stanton Coit's history of Ethical Culture in England.

The first pamphlet--"The Ethics of the Political Situation"--was the last I searched for, assuming it to be too vaguely titled to be findable.  Of course, it turned out to be easier to find than the others.  (Thanks, Google Books!)  It's also turning out to be an interesting read, referring to the 1884 election contest between Grover Cleveland and James G. Blaine (without naming either candidate).  That contest was full of ethical, moral, and legal breaches (and accusations of such breaches) and certainly worthy of an address on the ethics of the "situation" by Adler.  I found it interesting that the date of the address--October 19, 1884--was the 100th anniversary of the day of thanksgiving declared when the War of Independence was finally over.  Adler's words ring true today as he (and our nation's founders) called us to maintain high regard for the national honor and to raise our young with those "fundamental virtues whereon the true welfare of peoples and governments depends."  Adler, by the way, advocated for "none of the above" candidates, because of character.  Both candidates, he argued, failed to live up to the standards demanded by our national honor, so he advised his listeners:

At such a time, then, as this, I believe it right that we should look about among the candidates; and, if we find any one whose character is strong and whose record is stainless, that we should cast our votes for him, no matter on what party platform he may stand. For, in this contest, party platforms are not at issue, and character is all in all . 

Happily, none of these four pamphlets were "missed addresses" in my earlier documentation of our Ethical literature, but looking for more information to document them has certainly been worth the effort.  That they were important enough to warrant separate publication is revealed as we discover them in archives related to the political actors of the period.  Hopefully we can find better ways to incorporate them into our own understanding of the role that Adler and others played in our nation's history.

Ethical Addresses and Ethical Record - Series 15

Volume 15 of Ethical Addresses and Ethical Record (1908) is a rich resource, not only for the material published in it, but for the large number of pages devoted to listing other publications of the Ethical Culture Movement.  Oddly enough, I seem to have stumbled across two different scans of this volume.  One, downloaded more than a year ago and safely on my hard drive is a bit of a mess with several blurred pages; it was scanned at the New York Public Library.  The second, resides online in the Internet Library and seems to have only clear and error-free scans; it was scanned at the University of Toronto Robarts Library.  What is missing in the second are all the pages, presumably from the covers of the separate issues, which list available publications.  Despite the frustration of the blurred pages, I am finding the promotional pages for more pamphlets, books, and journals a useful extra resource for identifying the literature of Ethical Culture.  What luck to have found both copies!

Walter L. Sheldon, founder and Leader of the Ethical Culture Society of St. Louis, died on June 5, 1907.  Memorial services were held at several Societies and locations.  Memorial Addresses included in this volume of EA&ER were provided by Felix Adler, M. Anesaki (from the Tokyo Ethical Society), Fanny M. Bacon, W. A. Brandenburger, George R. Dodson, John Lovejoy Elliott, Robert Moore, Samuel Sale, William M. Salter, William Taussig, and S. Burns Weston.  At Sheldon's request, the St. Louis memorial service did not include eulogies and speeches; instead, previous memorial services conducted by Sheldon for others provided appropriate passages in Sheldon's own words.  Those passages and selections from his favorite readings are included in this volume.  

Altogether, Sheldon's memorial presents a thorny set of bibliographic problems--whether to list every single tribute and address as a separate item (serving also as an index to contributors) or whether to group the speeches together as printed in EA&ER.  The list of Contents suggests the former, but the order and manner of printing suggests the latter.  I have opted for the latter, attempting to be true to the events of the time, but recognize that future research seeking the works of specific authors may not be served by this approach.  

The inclusion of selected addresses from the 1907 AEU Assembly provides a window into the continued focus on defining the religious nature of Ethical Culture:

"The Character of the Ethical Movement," Edwin R. A. Seligman (NYSEC and AEU President);

"The Need of a Religion of Morality," William M. Salter;

"The Inspiration of the Ethical Movement," Nathaniel Schmidt;

"The Value of Ethical Organization," Charles Zueblin.

William M. Salter contributed a number of lectures, including his last at the Ethical Society of Chicago (December 22, 1907).  "The Good Fight--With a Closing Word" (pp. 115-134) is filled with martial imagery which likened his service to the Chicago Society as fighting the good fight.  Salter vowed that he had few regrets and left his audience with a final call for courage in continuing the fight in his absence.  Salter continued his own career for the next few years as a special lecturer in philosophy at the University of Chicago. 

Charles Zueblin's "Religion and the Church" is one of a series of six lectures that he gave at the Philadelphia Ethical Society.  While only one was published in this volume of  EA&ER, all six were collected and published as The Religion of a Democrat (New York:  B. W. Heubsch, 1908).  Additional contributions are provided from Anna Garlin Spencer, David Saville Muzzey, and Henry Moskowitz.  The volume is rounded out with a collection of songs (lyrics only) and responsive readings.

Given the earlier kerfuffle with the two scans, I have paid closer attention to the title pages (and library stamps) of this volume.  I missed the shift in publisher between the Eleventh and Twelfth Series!  S. Burns Weston served as the publisher for the first eleven volumes of the series.  With the twelfth volume, the name of the publisher is changed to "Ethical Addresses," albeit with the same location in Philadelphia as before.  I will correct the Bibliography ASAP and do apologize for the error.

Other Ethical Culture Bibliographies

 

AEU Lending Library Catalog

The project to document the entire series of Ethical Addresses and Ethical Record will continue (soon), but it is worth pausing to look at progress in other areas.  One area reflects my good fortune to receive documents that include previous work on documenting Ethical Culture writings.  A case in point is shown above.

The Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture is moving to a new location and clearing out its previous location.  The volunteers working to organize their archives passed along two existing bibliographies to me for preservation and documentation in the Bibliography of Ethical Culture.

The first is the 2002 Catalog of the AEU's Religious Education Library.  This catalog is one long list of resources for Ethical Education from pre-school to adult, labeled as to topic and sub-topic and origin in Ethical Culture or otherwise.  The resources originating in Ethical Culture are comparatively few, but the entire catalog is 59 pages of resources that a Society could (then) borrow--or buy.  

Of course there are questions:

• Are there more catalogs?  Please let me know if you have any.
• How long did this lending library function?  Please share your recollections, if your Society used this resource.
• Where are the resources intended for "opportunities for examination and trial of curricula and other materials for up to six weeks not for long-term use or for relieving Societies/Fellowships of purchasing their own curriculum materials and books" now?  One would expect that they are archived . . . somewhere.  

In the meantime, this catalog will be documented as a product of Ethical Culture.  Since I have a new toy (Canon IRIScan Pro 6), I have scanned it as a PDF file.  Unfortunately, the file is 49 megabytes, so finding a home for this beast will be the next chore.  It is, however, now digitally preserved.  Thanks, BSEC!

A second bibliography is more challenging in its organization and more delicate in it physical format.  The Library Committee of the New York Society for Ethical Culture compiled "A List of Books and Pamphlets by American and British Leaders of the Societies for Ethical Culture" at the request of the National Women's Conference (now National Ethical Service) in 1950.  The list is typewritten and appears to be reproduced in mimeograph format (printed on one-side).  The list is densely formatted, 8 pages long.  Interestingly, the entries are all coded for location:

*          In the Leader's Study. (For reference only).

**        In the Elliott room.  (For circulation).

***      In both Elliott room and Leader's study.

No asterisk - Not in the New York Society's collection.

This can be compared with an inventory recently compiled by NYSEC member, Elinore Kaplan.  Few pamphlets are included in the list, but the bibliography mentions "a large collection" available by special permission.   (I live in hope!)

I will add this list as a resource to the Bibliography and scan it.  "Mining" it for the relevant content will be tricky.  Many works had been translated into other languages, but the list can be a bit short on the publication information we'd normally include.  Scanning will also be tricky, given the fragility of the document.  

Are there other bibliographies and lists out there?  Hidden in filing cabinets or storage boxes?  Feel free to let me know in the comments.