Margaret Williams, rscj summarizes this period as one of confirmation. She writes:
"Confirmation" is a more vibrant word than "Consolidation"; it implies testing, then placing a seal of authenticity. . . .The years from 1895 to 1914. . . .were charged with dynamism [for the Society]. Standing firm on the foundation laid, changing nothing, they aimed with Saint Paul, "to grow in all ways."
The times were disturbing after the preceding complacency. Small wars broke out in the Antilles, in South Africa, in the Near East and in the North Pacific where Asia had entered the international scene. Then came the first world war, while the Hague Peace Conference strove for other ways of righting the world's wrongs. Science was drawing the earth closer together: the global age was beginning.
. . . .Freemasonry, with Communism looking over its shoulder confronted the Church, while the Church confronted Modernism within herself. Evolution was challenging Revelation.
In the Society all the traditional structures remained, but when these felt the shock of a literal displacement during the expulsions from France a current of new vitality passed through them. Society statistics remained almost constant, in contrast to the spectacular increases in the preceding period. . . .3
During this time the Society became recognized for its strong tradition and its commitment to and excellence in education particularly under the leadership of Janet Stuart, rscj, (1857-1914). In the United States, it was an era of a "big boom" in business as well as the growth of the first Federations of Labor. Houses were opened in Menlo Park, California and Seattle, Washington while houses in Chicago and New York moved because of changes in urban population.
3. Williams, M. (1978). The Society of the Sacred Heart: History of a Spirit--1800-1975. London, Darton, Longman & Todd, pp. 141-142 .
