q2o 



REV JEW OF REVIEWS. 



iVorember 1 lOi.'!. 



of Browning Hall was laid out as a 

 garden ; an aged knife-grinder followed 

 suit by making his back yard into a 

 garden, and in a few years arose a gar- 

 dening movement and an annual flower 

 show, at which as many as 250 gardens 

 have been offered for inspection ; and 

 the example set has been followed in 

 New York and other towns. The suffer- 

 ings of the aged poor — most numerous 

 in Southwark of all Poor Law Unions 

 — made the Settlement keen to hear of 

 the first Old Age Pensions Act passed 

 in the British Emnire ; and what was 

 told of the New Zealand measure in 

 Browning Hall led to a series of confer- 

 ences on the subject between Mr. Charles 

 Booth and the pick of British labour in 

 the chief industrial centres of Great 

 Britain, with the result that Browning 

 Hall became the headquarters of the 

 Old Age Pensions movement, and, as 

 such, was largely responsible for the 

 enactment of pensions now received by 

 a million aged, the Settlement receiving 

 the thanks of the Government, as well 

 as of Unionist and Labour leaders, for 

 its share in this great work. A postal - 

 order for 20s. sent to the Settlement, to 

 enable two boys to get each a fort- 

 night's holiday in the country, led in the 

 most unexpected way to the gift of a 

 home of rest for the aged of Walworth, 

 which, in turn, has expanded into a beau- 

 tiful village for 130 aged, called the 

 Browning Bethany Homes, at Whyte- 

 leafe, Surre\', now valued at more tnan 

 ^10,000. These homes, again, offer an 

 object-lesson to the nation how to pro- 

 vide for the aged and make them happy 

 at a cost of 8s. id. per head per week, 

 as against 13s. 2|d. in London work- 

 houses. Walworth was found to be the 

 most densel)' peopled division in Lon- 

 don, and, to suggest measures of relief, 

 the Browning Hall Conferences on 

 Housing and Locomotion were held, 

 under the presidency of Mr. Charles 

 Booth, with the Royal Commission on 

 London Traffic, and the London Traffic 

 Branch of the Board of Trade, as the 

 first fruits, and the demand, repeatedly 

 endorsed by the metropolitan electors, 

 for a London Traffic Board as a ripe 



result. To help the unemployed, always 

 numerous in Walworth, the Settlement 

 began by setting them to work on paint- 

 ing its premises, and, after years of in- 

 creasing agitation, went on to make the 

 appeal to Queen Alexandra, which led 

 to Her Majesty graciously initiating the 

 Queen's Fund for the Unemployed, the 

 first provision, on a national scale, of 

 work for the workless. The endeavour 

 to get its neighbours out for a week into 

 fresh scenes and fairer surroundings 

 gave birth to the Travel Club, which not 

 merely took Walworth workers at the 

 lowest possible prices to France, Bel- 

 gium, Holland and Germany, but also 

 grew to be a social link of goodwill be- 

 tween the workers at home and abroad. 

 This, acrain, led to the Settlement organ- 

 ising the peace pilgrimages of the 

 Labour members to Germany in 1909 

 and 191 2, which, at moments of acute 

 tension in the mutual relations of the 

 two peoples, exerted a most welcome in- 

 fluence for friendship. 



In the narrative before us all these 

 things are held to be but steps leading 

 up to what is taken to be the chief work 

 of the Settlement ; the furtherance of 

 the Labour movement in religion. The 

 Settlement began by trying to evange- 

 lise the workers of Walworth, an effort 

 which in the last years has developed 

 into the Labour W^eek, a series of ap- 

 peals for personal religion by the lead- 

 ing members of the British Labour 

 Party to the workers of the world. For 

 the published reports of these Labour 

 Weeks have gone round the civilised 

 world, and have been translated into 

 other languages. 



Throughout these pages we see the 

 Christian religion everywhere at work, 

 like salt and leaven, in every variety of 

 public and private life. The narrative 

 is filled with undisguised wonder at the 

 far-reaching and totally unexpected 

 developments which sprang from so 

 humble a beginning. In these things 

 it sees confirmation, bordering on the 

 miraculous, o-f the Mandate which 

 created it and of the Guidance which 

 directed it. 



