Quakers in Action (review)

BOOK REVIEWS55 Edward Harvey, Esq., came from Ireland to America to introduce among Friends the gray beaver hats worn by many Friends of England and Ireland , and manufactured by his uncles in Dublin. He came to Philadelphia in 1804 and promptly fell in love with Margaret Boyle. The result was a beautiful Quaker wedding at Lower Merion Meeting House. The Journal was written by Margaret Boyle Harvey during a long, stormy voyage to Ireland in 1809. The vicissitudes of sea travel in that day are interestingly described—also the life of affluent Friends in Ireland, where the Harveys lived for about three years before returning to Pennsylvania. The editor, (Mrs.) Dora Harvey Develin, of Bala, Pennsylvania, granddaughter of the author, has added valuable genealogical notes and illustrations , including a picture of " Lilac Grove," the old Harvey homestead at Merion, Pennsylvania, built in 1700. Jones, Lester M. Quakers in Action. New York: The Macmillan Company . 1929. Pp. 226. $2.00. This is a painstaking thesis by Lester M. Jones, Ph.D., professor of Sociology in DePauw University. That Dr. Jones has been able to secure an Introduction for his volume by Dr. Rufus M. Jones, Professor of Philosophy in Haverford College, will mean to all Quakers that the book is well worth reading. The writer has interviewed a goodly number of working members of the Society of Friends upon the social activities of the Society in the decade since the entrance of our country into the Great War, and he also quotes from a respectable list of books on the subject of his study. To a Quaker this work will be an interesting summary of things known as they were done, and of the state of acute spiritual and mental distress through which the Society passed, between its traditional objection to murder, organized or otherwise, and the extreme sympathy for France and Belgium which, in common with all Americans, the Quakers felt. To a reader not a Friend and unaware of these phases of feeling as they came, this book will be a comparatively new note of explanation, a record of achievement and a forecast of the future of a people so quiet, self contained and unassuming that they make little impression on the world at large and are often thought of, if at all, as those queer folks called Quakers, —somehow connected with Shakers, or Mennonites, or what you have. Dr. Jones modestly disclaims doing more than bringing down to date the story told by Dr. Rufus M. Jones in his heart-warming book, " A Service of Love in War Time," with a summary of events preceding 1920 " for the sake of completeness of the work." The first three chapters treat of " Traditional Background," " Religious Dynamics " and " Pre-War Unpreparedness." Under the heading " Organization and Purpose of the American Friends Service Committee," Dr. Jones quotes the latter in 1917 as being " two-fold : (a) to assist the English Friends in relief work in devastated France and (b) to give members oí 56 BULLETIN OF FRIENDS' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION the Society of Friends ... an opportunity to be of service," and comments on the greater importance of the latter purpose. Nine chapters are concerned with war relief in various countries of Europe, the terrible need for it, and its effects on the inhabitants. Six chapters deal with the " New Impetus to Humanitarian Activities at Home," Social Order, Relief of Miners, Inter-racial Activities, etc., and the " effects of these upon American Quakers." In the chapter on Inter-racial Activities Dr. Jones has failed to cover the field fully, his sources of information not having been sufficiently wide. In some places in his book statistics make dry reading. Again one feels a quickening pulse at the tale of awful devastation, and an admiration at the indomitable effort and selfless service, which carried the message of Christ's love to despairing humanity. Charts and photographs illustrate the text acceptably, the style is clear and simple, the forecast of the future for the Society is interesting and, taken by and large, the book is a sympathetic and very readable addition to the historiography of Friends and their doings. Anne Biddle Stirling Philadelphia, Pa. Jones, Rufus M...