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PREFACE

THE wiseacres in the field of books are fond of saying
that there is a great deal in the choice of a title.
Doubtless they are right, and possibly some of
them, if they happen to read this book, will be dis-
posed to say that the unity of its theme would be
more apparent had it been called "Studies in Amer-
ican Idealism." Those words, indeed, would have
defined it, but somewhat more vaguely than the
title that has been adopted. "Causes and Their
Champions," as a descriptive phrase, may possess
the advantage that it suggests with some definite-
ness the double purpose of this book: to deal in
turn with a series of causes movements, reforms,
call them what
directly affecting con-
temporary life in America; and to present each one
of them in special relation to the life and work of
the man or woman the champion most clearly
identified with its furtherance. The cause of anti-
slavery, with Garrison as champion, is omitted
only as a res adjudicata.

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Here, then, against a background of reform in various directions a series of biographical studies is offered. History and biography are mingled, after no set formula, but in the hope that each will add something to the vitality and value of the other. To bring the treatment of each topic within

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the reasonable compass of a single chapter much selection and elimination have been required. The sources to which these methods have been applied may be scanned by the curious and the ambitious in the lists at the further end of the volume. If after considering the whole matter a reader wishes to inscribe on the title-page the subtitle, "Studies in American Idealism," there will be no protest from the author.

He does not deceive himself with the belief that "come-outers" and their idealistic pursuits are held in any special favor at the present moment. There is indeed a popular opinion to the effect that if the reformers of the past century had let things alone we should have been better off in many ways. But this is merely an "if of history." The counter-if of a civilization without causes or champions would provide the speculative with quite as much food for thought.

It is impossible to enumerate the many persons whose counsel at one point and another has been sought and gratefully followed in the preparation of this volume. It is equally impossible to omit a special word of gratitude for constant helpfulness from the Librarian and staff of that blessed focus of teeming shelves and quiet alcoves, the Boston Athenæum. M. A. DEW. H.

BOSTON
May, 1926

PHILLIPS BROOKS

ILLUSTRATIONS

Frontispiece

6

CLARA BARTON, 1867.

TITLE-PAGE OF THE BOOK WHICH BROUGHT
THE RED CROSS INTO BEING

THE JOHNSTOWN FLOOD

STATUE OF PHILLIPS BROOKS BY BELA PRATT
AT NORTH ANDOVER, MASSACHUSETTS.

VOICES AGAINST INTEMPERANCE FROM THE
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY NEW ENGLAND
PULPIT

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A TEMPERANCE BROADSIDE SIGNED BY THREE
PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES, 1834 .
JOHN B. GOUGH AND FATHER MATHEW
STATUE OF FRANCES E. WILLARD BY HELEN
FARNSWORTH MEARS IN STATUARY HALL,
NATIONAL CAPITOL, WASHINGTON

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JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER, JO DAVIDSON, SCULP-
TOR, AND HIS WORK, JUNE 1924
JOHN D. ROCKefeller, FatheR AND SON

MR. AND MRS. JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER ARRIV-
ING IN CLEVELAND ON THE TWENTIETH
CENTURY LIMITED

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SAMUEL GOMPERS, FROM An Autobiography of
Seventy Years of Life and Labor.

A FEMINIST TITLE-PAGE, 1804 - AN ADVANCE
ON THE FIRST BRITANNICA

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