Dean Sumner

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DEAN SUMNER

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DEAN SUMNER
FEW men in all the Middle West are more in the public eye than The Very Reverend Walter Taylor Sumner, D.D., Dean of the (Episcopal) Cathedral SS. Peter and Paul, Chicago, Superintendent of the City Missions of Chicago, in charge of the religious work of the Episcopal Church in twenty-one of the penal and charitable institutions.



His Fight Against Vice
Dean Sumner's great fight against vice in Chicago for several years extending down to the recent crusade, also his stand for reforms in the marriage laws, have brought him particularly into prominence.  The magazines and the newspapers have commented most extensively on his work, the metropolitan press in particular.  Many of America's greatest men have also spoken of him and what he is doing in most enthusiastic terms.



Dr. Gunsaulus' Commendation
Dr. Frank W. Gunsaulus, often referred to as the World's greatest preacher, in the Chicago Record-Herald not long ago had this to say:

Many months ago a commission was appointed in Chicago; It was called the Vice Commission—Its head was the most valiant Dean Sumner—easily our most outstanding man of sagacity and heroism in treating the social evil problems in Chicago.

From Prof. W. A. Bryan, College of Hawaii, in the Pacific Commercial Advertiser, Honolulu.

As the step taken in Chicago by Dean Sumner to protect the integrity of the race by demanding health certificates is along the line I have repeatedly urged, I hope the progressive Clergy of Honolulu may be stimulated by his example.



Carries Light Into the Dark Places

The Chicago Tribune had this to say:
Into the darkest places of the West Side district Dean Sumner of the Cathedral carried a little of the light of the Star of Bethlehem into the resorts in his annual tour of calls.  In three hours he made seventy-five speeches to 450 women who hear little of genuine good cheer or experience human sympathy.  'I have come to wish you a Merry Christmas and to bring you a Xmas Card.  Hang it upon your bureau or mirror, and if you are ever sick or in trouble or are in sorrow read the address and come to us.  You will always find a friend.'  As this speech was made, the tears plowed furrows through the rouge and powder on the painted cheeks.  Even the policemen who accompanied the Dean pulled their hats down to hide the gleam of moisture in their eyes, and one girl burst out sobbing as if her heart would break.



The Friend of Every Derelict

The Chicago Record-Herald speaks of Dean Sumner thus:
Young, strong, perspicacious, filled with the spirit of understanding humanity, Dean Sumner has become the friend of every derelict who is a denizen of the most forlorn district of the entire city.  He has accomplished the acquisition of this desirable standing by being not a mentor nor a prosecutor but by being their friend.



Again the same paper comments as follows:
Standing boldly forth against the seething sea of evil in the bad lands of Chicago's West Side is an ecclesiastical Rock of Gibraltar.  It never closes its doors on its unhappy neighbors, never deaf to any call of sickness or sorrow or poverty.  It is in charge of Dean Sumner, young, earnest, sanely sympathetic, thoroughly practical with fresh enthusiasm.



Few Eclipse His Record
Dean Sumner is a member of so many bodies and organizations civic, social and religious that only philanthropists who give all their time to social effort such as Jane Addams, Mary McDowell and Prof. Graham Taylor, eclipse his record in this regard.


Here is an Editorial from the Chicago Tribune:
Chicago can contemplate philosophically an exodus of capitalists, who, having made fortunes here, think they can get more enjoyment out of them in New York.  It would be quite a different matter to lose a man who has done the good work Dean Sumner has in this community—sanely, temperately, and therefore most effectually.



MEMORANDA
The twenty-one penal and charitable institutions in which Dean Sumner has charge of the religious work of the Episcopal church include the County Jail, the County Hospital, the Poor House, the Insane Hospital, the Bridewell, Home for Incurables, Refuge for Girls, Home for the Friendless, etc., assisted by three Clergy and three Deaconesses and the Sisters of S. Mary.

Dean Sumner is also a Member Chicago Board of Education and Chairman of School Management Committee, the Social Center, the Teaching of Sex Hygiene, Vocational Schools and other Committees.

Chairman of the Chicago Municipal Vice Commission appointed and financed by the Mayor and City Council.

First Vice-President and Executive Committee of Juvenile Protective Association.

Chairman General Advisory and West Side Advisory Committees of the United Charities.

Instructor, Western Theological Seminary.

Committee on Charities and Corrections of City Club.

Director and Treasurer of Wendell Phillips Social Settlement for colored persons.

Secretary, Church Association in the Interests of Labor.

Trustee Church Home for Aged Persons.

Chairman, Diocesan Social Service Commission.

Chairman, Tribune Lodging House for Unemployed Men.

Joint Committee on Payment of Prisoners.

Joint Committee on Loan Sharks.

Association of Commerce, Committee on City Housing Plan, Ways and Means Committee and Subscription Investigating Committee.

Advisory Committee, Citizens Health Association.

State Representative, International Prison Congress.

Joint Committee on Child Labor.

Advisory Committee, Chicago Children's Benefit League.

Advisory Council, Boy Scouts of America.

Auxiliary Board of Reference, Central Howard Association for Discharged Prisoners.

Board of Directors, Forward Movement Home for Boys.

Advisory Committee, Illinois Industrial Home for Girls.

President, Men's Institute of Chicago.

Advisory Board and Chaplain, Three Arts Club of Chicago.

Etc., etc. Some 48 in all.

Dean Sumner is a graduate of Dartmouth College, Class of '98; Western Theological Seminary, Class of 1904; and received the degree of D. D. at Northwestern University.





The Dean Who Became a Drainman
(From The Metropolitan Magazine)
Chicago which wept gloriously over The Servant in the House regards Dean Sumner as almost its official Robert.  Westward from the river flowed a tide of vice; it spread up and down and sidewise.  The Cathedral organ boomed defiance to the muck.  But there was need of a drainman.  God and Dartmouth College and the Western Seminary raised one up.  In 1904 Walter T. Sumner, a little man with a big head, knelt before the altar and took oath to do the best he could.  Only two years after becoming a Priest he became a Dean.  He changed in a few months from a studious Priest to an embodiment of cold wrath.  He put on his hat and went out to see about the drains.
Dean Sumner became a familiar figure in the levee.  Said bartender Jerry: Cheese it, here comes the little father.  The name stuck to him.  The unequal contest between one good man and ten thousand bad ones went on for about three years.  Concerning the result—that is a matter of history.  He is like a George Kennan who has lived in prisons or a Walter Wyckoff who has worked with the workers.  He is a man of faith.  He does not believe that anything was ever created too black to be touched or too sacred to be deliberated about.



The Man of the Moment
(Editorial from The Medical Times, New York)
Men interested in great problems which have to do with the improvement of mankind are multiplying.  One young man stands out clearly in perspective as having accomplished something real, something decidedly worth while.  Recognizing that matrimony as at present permitted allows defectives to bring their own kind into the world and then fill our prisons, insane and epileptic hospitals and pauper asylums, he has stepped into the breach and proclaimed in clarion tones that henceforth no one shall be married in his Church unless mentally and phsically sound and presents a certificate from a reputable physician that they have no incurable or communicable disease.  Such a step demands courage, and the chief actor in this serious drama is therefore of decided interest.  The consecration of this young clergyman to the work of making better the poor and the unenlightened is unusual.  His name will always be associated with Eugenics in this country for his determination to regulate marriage in his own pari
sh has given the science an impetus that all good men will endeavor to assist.



Other Press Comments From Nebraska, Missouri, Illinois and Ohio

Omaha Herald, Omaha, Neb.
Miss Julia C. Lathrop the head of the National Children's Bureau and Dean Walter T. Sumner, exceptionally prominent in many sociological and philanthropic movements in Chicago, more than delighted their audiences by their addresses.


Omaha Bee, Omaha, Neb.
An unqualified, merciless denunciation of Child Labor, the causes leading to it and suggestions for legislation to eliminate it, was made by Dean Sumner of Chicago in the opening address of the Conference of the Nebraska State Society of Charities and Corrections.


Kansas City, (Mo.) Times.
The members of the City Club heard Dean Walter T. Sumner in a powerfully frank and direct address.  His talk was practical, and again and again he was interrupted by prolonged applause.


Toledo, O., Blade.
Dean Sumner tested the seating capacity of Trinity Church last evening in speaking to an audience of men in the interest of the Men and Religion Movement.


Joliet (Ill.) News.
In a masterful, thorough manner, Dean Sumner of Chicago, one of the most prominent social workers in the big city, discussed municipal affairs.  It was one of the best talks ever given in Joliet.  It was so good and so full of fine points we continue a portion of it in today's edition.