rd to the coming Fourth. It was
a deep-rooted custom to eradicate, and powerful influences, in the form
of thousands of small storekeepers, were at work upon local officials
to pay no heed to the agitation. Gradually public opinion changed.
The newspapers joined in the cry; women's organizations insisted upon
action from local municipal bodies.

Finally, the civic spirit in Cleveland, Ohio, forced the passage of a
city ordinance prohibiting the sale or use of fireworks on the Fourth.
The following year when Cleveland reported no casualties as compared to
an ugly list for the previous Fourth, a distinct impression was made
upon other cities. Gradually, other municipalities took action, and
year by year the list of Fourth of July casualties grew perceptibly
shorter. New York City was now induced to join the list of prohibitive
cities, by a personal appeal made to its mayor by Bok, and on the
succeeding Fourth of July the city authorities, on behalf of the people
of New York City, conferred a gold medal upon Edward Bok for his
services in connection with the birth of the new Fourth in that city.

There still remains much to be done in cities as yet unawakened; but a
comparison of the list of casualties of 1920 with that of 1905 proves
the growth in enlightened public sentiment in fifteen years to have
been steadily increasing. 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 comm