It is an instance not of Bok taking the
initiative--that had already been taken--but of throwing the whole
force of the magazine with those working in the field to help. It is
the American woman who is primarily responsible for the safe and sane
Fourth, so far as it already exists in this country to-day, and it is
the American woman who can make it universal.
Bok's interest and knowledge in civic matters had now peculiarly
prepared him for a personal adventure into community work. Merion,
where he lived, was one of the most beautiful of the many suburbs that
surround the Quaker City; but, like hundreds of similar communities,
there had been developed in it no civic interest. Some of the most
successful business men of Philadelphia lived in Merion; they had
beautiful estates, which they maintained without regard to expense, but
also without regard to the community as a whole. They were busy men;
they came home tired after a day in the city; they considered
themselves good citizens if they kept their own places sightly, but the
idea of devoting their evenings to the problems of their community had
never occurred to them before the evening when two of Bok's neighbors
called to ask his help in forming a civic association.
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