Philadelphia Yearly Meeting Records: Social Order Committee and its predecessors (1917-1969)

A Social Order Committee was established by Arch Street in 1917 to "consider the part which the Religious Society of Friends should take in the present day application of efforts to promote the Kingdom of God on Earth, particularly as it relates to social, political, and industrial conditions." Early members included Bernard G. Waring, Agnes L. Tierney, and Thomas K. Brown; Edward W. Evans was the first General Secretary. At the beginning it was divided into a number of sections, inclluding farmers, educators, and industries. The Farmers’ Group considered the problems of farm laborers and other issues, but was not able to become very active. Two additional groups were soon created: Business Problems and Women’s Problems. The former had a number of related concerns, including the Christian duty of employers toward employees. The latter considered problems of domestic employment.

The Hicksite Committee on Philanthropic Labor (Hicksite) was reorganized for greater flexibility and decentralization in 1919. It changed its name to the Social Service Committee in 1936. The Section On Economic Order held meetings jointly with the Social Order Committee of Arch Street whenever possible; a separate committee on Economic Problems to this end was authorized by Representative Meeting in 1937. The Hicksite Committee on Economic Problems changed its name to Social Order at Yearly Meeting in 1948. The two Social Order Committees of the Philadelphia Yearly Meetings became a Joint Committee in 1949 after many years of cooperation. The Social Order Committee was absorbed by the Meeting for Social Concerns in 1969-70.

J. Howard Branson (1894-1984) served in WWI European relief work for the AFSC. He was appointed Secretary of the Social Order Committee in 1928, a position he filled 1/3 time with his job in Philadelphia’s Bureau of Municipal Research until he resigned both to work for Abbott’s Dairies ten years later.

Wilmer J. Young and Arthur J. Bertholf filled in on an interim basis until, in 1939, David S. Richie (1908-2005) was appointed Secretary of both the Committee on Economic Problems of Race Street and of the Social Order Committee of Arch Street. Richie founded the weekend workcamp program the following year.