Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 65, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 March 1910 — HAD AN AUDIENCE OF 18. [ARTICLE]

HAD AN AUDIENCE OF 18.

Philadelphia Preacher Concluded t* Save Stonacha First. “There are churches in various parts of the land whose pastors are breakAhg away from conventional ideas and I parish traditions and are doing work which may be the pioneering of a great new movement to come later,” says Hampton’s. “Many of these isolated cases are full of interest, as witness the Instance of Dr. Edward M. Frank, rector of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the Advent in Philadelphia. “The neighborhood of the Churth of the Advent was at one time fashionable, but the march of trade and the growth of the city changed it from a residence to a factory and tenement district. But for the fact that the church had an endowment from the estate of a long dead parishioner of wealth its doors would have been closed years ago. W’hen, in March, 1908, Dr. Frank became rector, he preached 1118 first sermon to an audience of eighteen. With the view of increasing his congregation Dr. Frank made a thorough canvass of the neighborhood, only to -find that his parish was composed of people who were struggling with a problem far more serious than his. For their problem was how to live decently on incomes wholly Inadequate for the purpose. **lt had been the intention of the young rector to conduct church work along lines that seemed adapted to the needs of the community, and at once it appeared to his practical mind that the most immediate need of the community was groceries, coal and other plain necessities at low prices. In December, 1908, the rector opened a cooperative store, in which groceries, coal and articles of clothing were sold at practically cost prices. Membership in the co-operative venture means a fee of only 25 cents, and to-day more than S2OO worth of groceries is delivered each week to members. “In May, 1909, Dr. Frank announced from the pulpit his Jntention of opening in the basement of the church a lunchroom, where girls working in near-by factories could buy a comfortable noonday meal for 5 cents. The first nodn three girls, wearing rather scared expressions, knocked at the basement door. The food offered them was good and the portions generous, and when the second noonday whistles shrieked the girls returned, bringing a group of friends. To-day the basement is thronged every noon hour. “Not content with helping his people to save money, Dr. Frank sought meahsTo help them~esm it. Simultaneously with the opening of the noonday lunchroom this original clergyman established in his parish a model factory for the manufacture of men’s clothing. A part of the product of the factory is reserved for sale to working people at low prices. The rest is sold to department stores at regular market rates.”