52 ROBERT A. WOODS 



receive a suitable training, and through which a higher and 

 better type of man can be secured. Those of us who are in- 

 terested in these city gymnasiums beheve that before many 

 years go by we shall be able from definite statistics to prove 

 that there has been a raised standard of pubhc health, of pub- 

 Uc morals, and of the productive capacity of the mass of 

 the people in the city as the result of the opportunities 

 which the gymnasiums furnish. If that proves true, it is 

 going to be possible to put before the thinking taxpayer a 

 result which will show the value in dollars and cents of this 

 type of pubhc investment. 



Then too, educational philanthropy concerns itself with 

 what can not be spoken of more accurately than to call it 

 social education. A great many people think that settlement 

 work concerns itself largely with gaieties. It does. Many 

 boys and girls in settlement clubs are more interested in dan- 

 cing and in amateur dramatics than in anything else. But 

 we find that interests of this sort may be made the means for 

 securing the most important educational results. Often 3^ou 

 can secure points in character when you speak of deportment 

 which you never could secure in any direct way. Very often 

 you can accompHsh in your dancing class certain ends which 

 you could not accompHsh in your Sunday school class, in the 

 way of permanent growth in character. I have many times 

 seen boys that had never really made any achievement in 

 their Hves before, who undertook to present a Uttle play, and 

 who, perhaps, got tired before their parts were learned, and 

 almost had to be galvanized into carrying rehearsals through 

 and presenting the little play at the end; but having given the 

 play in the face and eyes of their friends and neighbors, those 

 boys came to have that wonderful sense of having brought 

 something to pass, and the finished result gave them a self 

 respect and a confidence which they never otherwise would 

 have had. Achievement has registered a distinct upward step 

 in the hves of those boys. 



In these simple ways educational philanthropy attempts 

 to take the social fife of crowded neighborhoods, to begin with 

 it where it is, and to direct it along helpful channels. We are 

 beginning, I think, in all our great cities to see the absolute 



