Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 64056-h.htm or 64056-h.zip: (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/64056/64056-h/64056-h.htm) or (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/64056/64056-h.zip) Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive. See https://archive.org/details/perilpreservatio00riisrich Transcriber’s Note: Text that was in italics is enclosed by underscores (_italics_). THE PERIL AND THE PRESERVATION OF THE HOME Being the William L. Bull Lectures for the Year 1903 by JACOB A. RIIS Author of “The Making of an American,” “The Battle with the Slum,” etc. [Illustration: Publisher’s Logo] Philadelphia George W. Jacobs & Co. Publishers Copyright, 1903, by George W. Jacobs & Company, Published May, 1903 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Letter Establishing the Lectureship For many years, it has been my earnest desire to found a Lectureship on Christian Sociology, meaning thereby the application of Christian principles to the social, industrial, and economic problems of the time, in my alma mater, the Philadelphia Divinity School. My object in founding this Lectureship is to secure the free, frank, and full consideration of these subjects with special reference to the Christian aspects of the questions involved, which have heretofore, in my opinion, been too much neglected in such discussion. It would seem that the time is now ripe and the moment an auspicious one for the establishment of this Lectureship, at least tentatively. I therefore make the following offer to continue for at least a period of three years, with the hope that these lectures may excite such an interest, particularly among the undergraduates of the Divinity School, that I shall be justified, with the approval of the authorities of the Divinity School, in placing the Lectureship on a more permanent foundation. I herewith pledge myself to contribute the sum of six hundred dollars annually, for a period of three years, to the payment of a lecturer on Christian Sociology, whose duty it shall be to deliver a course of not less than four lectures to the students of the Divinity School, either at the school or elsewhere, as may be deemed most advisable, on the application of Christian principles to the social, industrial, and economic problems and needs of the times; the said lecturer to be appointed annually by a committee of five members: the Bishop of the Diocese of Pennsylvania; the Dean of the Divinity School; a member of the Board of Overseers; and two of the Associate Alumni, one of whom shall be chosen by the Alumni Association, and the other to be myself. Furthermore, if it shall be deemed desirable that the lectures shall be published, I pledge myself to the additional payment of from one to two hundred dollars for such purpose.