968,929

Last week the members of the Y. M. C. A. (968,929 in active participation) spent some little time ruminating about certain things which had occurred the week before at Washington. There the Association had held its International Convention (Canada and America). There officers were elected, speeches made, budgets read, changes made in policy. Chiefly, the thought of the 968,929 focused upon three men:

Charles Phelps Taft II,* 28, presided at the meeting with that deft assured despatch which characterized his undergraduate activities at Yale. In him the 11,000 delegates present found an earnest layman lawyer from Cincinnati, well fitted to guide in debate the laymen who control the destinies of a great Christian society. It was decided, without hair splitting or theological wrangling, that henceforth non-church members may vote in the councils of the Y. M. C. A. Previously all voting members had to belong to an evangelical church.

Fred W. Ramsey of Cleveland came before the meeting in the guise of a onetime financier who resigned the presidency of three large metal working plants in order that he might devote himself to altruistic service, and become: President of the Cleveland Y. M. C. A., President of the Welfare Foundation, and Chairman of the Cleveland Community Chest Campaign. Well pleased with him, the delegates re-elected Mr. Ramsey President and Speaker of the National Council of the Y. M. C. A. amid a tremendous demonstration.

John R. Mott, famed holder of many an honorary degree, extensive traveler, tireless international social worker, presented $4,232,467.01 worth of budgetary reports, as General Secretary of the National Council. Once he declined to be U. S. Minister to China; his acceptance of other responsibilities has been without reserve. Sonorously he entoned a list of 30 countries in which a major portion of the association's funds were spent last year.

*Son of Chief Justice William Howard Taft. The sons of his paternal grandfather Alphonso Taft were: By his first wife, Charles Phelps Taft (lawyer, some-time editor and congressman) ; by his second wife: William Howard Taft, Horace Dutton Taft (Headmaster of the famous Taft School at Watertown, Conn.), and Henry Waters Taft (Manhattan lawyer).