April, 1912—Property purchased on Dorchester Street West, near Dufferin Square.
August 12, 1912—Summer camp with one tent at St. Rose, Quebec.
February 13, 1913—New building opened by H.R.H. Duke of Connaught in a handsomely remodeled bottling factory at 179 Dorchester Street West.
THE IVERLEY SETTLEMENT
The Iverley Settlement followed in September, 1911, through the instrumentality of Mrs. Ivan Wotherspoon and her friends, the organizing committee meeting on June 4th preceding.
A house was taken on September 13th with the approval of Judge Archer and Mr. Eugene Lafleur, K.C., who from the first have evinced their entire sympathy with the work, and active preparations were made for its development. From the moment the Iverley was ready, children and their parents flocked in, thus showing the value even of the settlement idea as a powerful modern force for social betterment. Other settlements of a more parochial or church affiliation have since adopted the movement.
The settlement idea has been productive of imitation or a readjustment of other forms of charitable endeavours so long employed in connection with the many churches, religious and other institutions of the city.
SOCIAL STUDY
The social movements just recorded also have succeeded in bringing social students together. Cooperation between the English and French associations began about 1910 to be more frequent in social enterprises. Intercommunication by lectures and round table conferences, the interchange of literature and intercourse with expert sociologists from England, the United States and the continent, have had a very broadening effect on our sociological life. A school of social study and publication started up in the French educational circles about 1912 under the title of L’école Sociale Populaire, the English Catholics having previously, about 1911, started a Social Study Guild. In connection with the leading social organizations, a Social Study Club was also founded about 1912 for discussion among experts of problems of sociology. All these forces having influence in high civic circles, Montreal received at this period a stimulus in social reform which has been distinctly a phase of our present civic life.
XIV