Organizing Ne-w York                               9

more than that it gives us a remarkably clear view of the dynamics
of social reform in the Progressive Era. The impulse for many con¬
crete reforms came from de Forest and his associates on the Charity
Society's Executive Committee fully as much as from Veiller, De-
vine, and other social workers. The members of the Executive
 

\^eiller (Standing at center) with a group

gathered on October 26, 1948, to celebrate

the 90th birthda\' of John .M. Glenn (lower

left), first executive head of the Russell

Sa^e Foundation.
 

Committee defined their responsibilities broadly. They were so
profoundly convinced that their programs were right that they
never considered them "political." As Veiller wrote a dozen years
later, de Forest "strongly .. . instructed" him "not to register \^•ith
the Secretary of State's office" as a lobbyist even though he spent
several weeks in Albany each year, pressing the Charity Society's
position on legislation. Yet Veiller was in many ways the Execu¬
tive Committee's paid legislative agent.