The American Missionary

THE

American Missionary.

American Missionary Association.

For notice of Annual Meeting see last page of cover.

The present number of the Missionary is eight pages larger than usual. We devote it chiefly to a broadside on Georgia’s Teachers’ Chain-Gang Bill. The importance of the subject warrants it. Valuable matter is crowded out in consequence.

We have again reached the last month of our fiscal year. What our friends do this month will determine whether the year closes with a debt. The receipts for July, which we publish in this number, are not pleasant to look at. As compared with the July receipts last year, they are nearly seventeen thousand dollars less, and the total receipts for the year from churches and individuals, as compared with the total receipts at the same time the preceding year, are nearly twenty thousand dollars less. Dr. Dana’s Fourth of July appeal, and Miss Auld’s appeal to the ladies last year, will in part account for the falling off. The excessively warm weather during July, greatly reducing the congregations, has doubtless had an influence. But whatever the cause, our receipts are behind to an extent that threatens injury to our work, and this month is the last we have in which to ward off the double evil—debt and curtailment of work. What we do must be done quickly.

We invite our friends to serious thoughtfulness preceding action. They know better what to do than we can advise. We earnestly plead for the co-operating help of every one of them.

(1) We solicit a personal contribution from all who are able to give, and the influence of word and pen from all who can induce others to make a contribution. Please bring our needs to the attention of the prayer-meeting, the missionary concert and the Sabbath congregation.

(2) We request all churches that have made us no contribution during the year, (and there are some who have made us no contribution for several[244] years), to be sure and give us a contribution this month. You see the work of the American Missionary Association is to be benefited or injured all through next year by what the churches do this month.

Friends, what answer will you make to this statement of facts we lay before you? You know that enemies of our work in the South are proposing the chain-gang for our teachers. They are not satisfied with ostracizing them from society, they propose to punish them as criminals because they preach the gospel to the poor and befriend the oppressed. Will you allow the work to suffer in the day when it is assailed? Must we retrench, cut down, withdraw, at such a time as this? We cannot believe that our friends will sanction it. Let there be this month such a rally to the defense and maintenance of our God-appointed mission as was never known in all our history. Let everybody have a chance to give, and let everybody give, be it much or little.

A poor colored woman, living near one of our chartered institutions, and taking a deep interest in the education of its students, has recently given her little home, paid for by savings from small wages, to this institution for the benefit of its students. This is larger than some of the first ministerial gifts to Harvard University, and is a good omen and prophecy.

The name of California is so much associated with the idea of gold that it is easy to imagine that it is a wealthy State. And it is wealthy. How easy to think the next thought; being wealthy it ought to do more for mission work within its borders. That, however, does not prove that it will or that it can be reasonably expected to do more. If only the wealth was in the hands of Christian people—ah, yes, if only. Please find Rev. Mr. Pond’s article on another page and read it. His facts are unquestioned and his meditations will bear meditation.

Mr. Yan Phou Lee, the young Chinese gentleman who was graduated by Yale College in its last class, delivered an address on the occasion of his graduation that elicited the hearty applause of those who heard it, and the widespread favorable comment of the press, secular and religious. Our readers will find this address on another page. Mr. Lee shows himself thoroughly competent to discuss the Chinese question. His words should have a wide reading. Mr. Lee expects to attend our Annual Meeting, at Portland, and we shall hope to hear from him again.

The Christian Mirror, Portland, Me., Rev. I. P. Warren, D.D., editor, had in one of its issues not long since a rousing editorial on the approaching meeting of the A. M. A. in Portland. It predicts a meeting “of much[245] interest both because of the work itself and the eminence of many of the persons whom it will bring hither,” and closes with the earnest advice, “Let all the friends of humanity lay their plans to attend.”

The Savannah News, speaking of the Glenn Bill, has the following to say:

“Perhaps it may teach a lesson to the over-zealous individuals in the North who use their money in efforts to bring about social equality in the South through the schools.”

We regret to have such sentiments promulgated. They are utterly misrepresentative. The bugbear of “social equality” so distorts the vision of our Southern friends that they seem incapable of seeing things as they are. “Over-zealous individuals in the North” have helped Georgia through their missionary schools in a way that has given inspiration and progress to education, religion, morality and industry all over the State, especially among colored people. They deserve thanks, not misrepresentative sneers.

THINGS TO BE REMEMBERED—NO 4.

The Duty: To preach the Gospel to every creature, in the shortest possible time, is the duty laid upon the church by the last command of her King. The part of the work assigned to us is to be determined by our surroundings, and especially by our opportunities to reach the unsaved races of men. We are bound to put in our labor where it will go farthest and move greatest masses of men towards God. If we find that the “dark lands” can best be reached through their children on these shores, then must we seek and save the children for the sake of their kindred.

Take now the map of the world and turn to Asia; the merest glance shows that our nearest point to that greatest of the World’s divisions is the California coast. On that coast the old civilization and the new stand face to face. There, too, meet the old Paganism and the newer Christianity, and there, emphatically, will be the battle-ground between the past and the present, the false and the true. As Christian men we mean to regenerate the Asiatic continent, and in particular the Mongolian race. If our Bibles left us in doubt our geographies would show that the Pacific coast was the spot on which to initiate a Christian movement for the capture of China. And anyone can see that Paganism and Christianity are now in contact on that coast, and one or the other will soon be master. If only for the honor of our faith, we must accept the contest and abide the issue. The capture of the thousands of her children in this land means the capture of the Empire of China. The stake is too immense to be treated with indifference. The prize to be won involves mighty races and is offered to us alone. To secure it is to cover ourselves with glory; to decline it is to cover ourselves with guilt and shame.

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If with united heart and hand we bent ourselves to the task, how easily we might absorb the Chinese into the life of the nation and into the faith of the churches. And then, when they all went back—as they all intend to do—they would bear with them the new thoughts and the new life to become the regenerating leaven for their continent. If we give them the Gospel, accompanied by the renewing energy of the Holy Ghost, they will return in the power of the Highest to save their people.

And, now, look to Africa—barbarous, wretched, and apparently hopeless. But, lo, within our own borders are seven millions of her sons and daughters, born into our civilization, already feeling the quickening forces of our learning and our faith. Who touches the African race as we do, or who can so influence the African mind and heart? Here are the African souls that are best fitted to regenerate the African race. These young Christian scholars are a hundred years in advance of anything we can find in Africa. And are they not the men to be organized into a mission to save their fatherland? We are related to Africa as no other nation on the globe is; touch more of its people and control more of the African heart and mind. This is our special opportunity and puts us under obligation to move upon the African race with all the forces of light and truth at our command.

The whole matter is in a nutshell and may be summed up thus: We have the power to preach the Gospel to every Chinaman, every Indian, and every Negro in the land, and having the power, we are in duty bound to use it.

Did we do this, our simplest duty, these people in turn would have the power to preach the Gospel to all the millions of their own countrymen. Nothing can be plainer. Then why do we hesitate to muster the forces and put these races in training for Christ and the salvation of their own lands? The opportunity to do this work brings with it the obligation to do it. But when it is added to this that we alone can do it in the way suggested, and in the only way that seems to make its near and easy achievement possible, there is no excuse for a moment’s delay. If we have men and money enough to go after these races in foreign lands, we certainly cannot lack means to provide for them here. To us alone is given this privilege of preaching this Gospel to the world at our own doors. And while the best statesmanship of the country is tasked to show how we may deal with these races for our highest good, the church of God is set to the task of showing how we may deal with them so as to secure the speediest regeneration of the yet unsaved continents.

The American Missionary Association believes that this result will be soonest realized by at once bringing these children of theirs under the full light and power of the Gospel. And it believes that the interest of this land and of those lands will be best promoted by throwing among those populations a Christian force so large that not one shall fail to hear[247] of Christ. To reach one in twenty or thirty is to trifle with the whole problem. Nothing short of reaching every soul, or making it possible for every soul to be reached with the power of the Gospel, will be adequate.

The way is all open; we can see clear through to the end. The question is pressed upon us and we must answer distinctly whether we will accept this opportunity to save China and Africa, or whether we will decline the offer and withhold the bread of life.

C. L. WOODWORTH.

THE GLENN BILL IN THE GEORGIA LEGISLATURE.

This infamous bill was passed by the lower house of the Georgia Legislature by a vote of 128 (all white) to 2 (colored), the only colored men in the house. The only speech made in favor of the bill was by Glenn, its author. The two colored men were the only ones to speak against it.

TEXT OF THE BILL.

A bill to be entitled, An Act to regulate the manner of conducting educational institutions in this State and to protect the rights of colored and white people and to provide penalties for the violation of the provisions of this act and for other purposes.

Sec. 1.—Be it enacted that from and after the passage of this act no school, college or educational institution in this State conducted for the education and training of colored people shall matriculate or receive as a pupil any white person, nor shall any school, college or educational institution conducted for the training of white receive or matriculate any colored person as pupil, nor shall any school, college or educational institution receive or matriculate both white and colored persons.

Sec. 2.—Be it further enacted that any teacher or manager or controller of either of such institutions violating the provisions of this act shall be punished as prescribed in section 4,310 of the Code. If such institution be a chartered one, then not only the teachers thereof but the president, secretary and members of the board of trustees, or other persons filling corresponding offices, who shall knowingly permit the same to be violated, shall be subject to indictment and punishment as aforesaid.

Sec. 3.—Be it enacted that all laws and parts of laws in conflict with, this act be, and the same are, hereby repealed.

Section 4,310 of the Code is as follows:—

Accessories after the fact, except where it is otherwise ordered in this Code, shall be punished by a fine not to exceed $1,000, imprisonment not to exceed six months, to work in a chain-gang on the public works not to exceed twelve months, and any one or more of these punishments may be ordered in the discretion of the judge.

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WHY THE BILL WAS INTRODUCED.

A correspondent of the New York Tribune, states the case as follows:

“The bill is aimed against Atlanta University. But the University is not the cause of it. It is merely the occasion. The cause is the wicked anti-Christian caste-spirit among the white people of the State. To understand the situation a few facts need to be stated:

“In 1867 the American Missionary Association secured a charter for the Atlanta University, and founded that institution for the education of colored youth. But the well-known principles of the Association, admitting no distinctions on the ground of color, forbade the closing of its doors to any worthy student who might apply for admission. The money to start that school, buy the grounds, erect the buildings, furnish them, and make improvements, was all contributed by benevolent people at the North. Into the grounds and buildings as they stand to-day there have been put something over $150,000—every cent of it contributed by friends in the North. In addition to this, Northern contributors have given toward the running expenses of the institution on an average since 1867 about $10,000 a year. That is to say, Christian people at the North have given the State of Georgia to help educate her children in this one institution something over $350,000! But the money is by far the smallest part of the contribution. The culture, piety, noble character and consecration of the teachers, graduates of Northern colleges and normal schools, have made the Atlanta University a model school to imitate and a constant inspiration to the development of the educational interest of the State. There have been, however, for several years past, a few white pupils in the school. These were the children of the professors and in one instance a child of a missionary of the American Missionary Association. The reasons for the presence of these white pupils were three: (1) The principles on which the institution was founded; (2) The fact that there was no school in Atlanta where the children could receive as thorough training and discipline, and (3) The sentiment of the people against “nigger teachers” was such that to send the children to the white schools would have been to subject them to ostracism and insult. If it were not for the first two reasons, the last would not count for much. Ostracism and insult are the condemnation of those who inflict; the honor of those who suffer.

“But the answer is not yet complete. In the distribution of a national grant of public lands for education in the several States made by Congress in 1862, under the lead of Senator Morrill, of Vermont, Georgia received 270,000 scrip, the interest on which amounts to something over $16,000 a year. And what did the State of Georgia do with it? Appropriated it to its white State University at Athens. With nearly one-half of its population colored, it took the Nation’s gift for the benefit of the whole State and put it where the colored people could have no share in it whatever. Somebody discovered that this was clearly a misappropriation of funds,[249] and that if the United States Congress should learn of it there would probably be ‘music in the air’ of a kind Georgia would not like to hear, and so the State Legislature ‘generously’ voted that it would appropriate $8,000 a year for the education of colored youth in the State! And this money, the gift of the United States to Georgia, was always spoken of as a State appropriation and quoted as an evidence of the wonderful interest the State takes in negro education. But what would $8,000 a year accomplish for the training of teachers to supply the wants of the 725,000 colored people in Georgia? How far would it go in the purchase of grounds, erection and equipment of buildings and the salaries of teachers? It is simply laughable to ask the question. But here was an institution at hand, grounds, buildings, equipments, teachers, everything in operation. Having been placed by the American Missionary Association in the hands of its own Board of Trustees and being undenominational and unsectarian in all respects, why not appropriate the money to this school? The State Legislature appointed a committee to look into the matter. The committee visited the school, were profoundly impressed with its excellence, and unanimously reported in favor of having the appropriation go to the school. Every year since then the appropriation of that $8,000 has gone to the University. Every year since then the reports of the State Examiners have been highly eulogistic. They have admitted, often with astonishment, the splendid educational work done there. The admission was forced that this was, on the whole, the best school in the State. The contrast between the discipline and training in it, and that found in the white State University, was too great not to be noticed.

“But this year the Examiners discovered that there were a few white children, the children of the professors, and the child of the missionary already referred to, in the school, and they have become righteously indignant over their presence. The money, say they, was given exclusively for the education of colored pupils, and behold, some white pupils are receiving benefit from it! Besides it is co-education of the races, and that the State of Georgia will not tolerate! It will introduce ‘Social Equality’ and ‘Miscegenation,’ and ‘Miscegenation of Ideas!’ And these are the reasons why this bill has been brought forward. Strange that they were not discovered before, for they have all been in existence ever since the appropriation was first made, and they were known to be existing by every State committee that has visited the school.”

The Reasons are only Pretenses.

A correspondent in the Advance handles these reasons as follows:

“1. As to ‘misappropriation.’ The last Legislative committee noticed, with feigned horror, that there were among the students in the Atlanta University three or four of the children of the professors, who recited in Geometry, Greek, Latin, etc., in the same classes with colored pupils. But while the Atlanta University receives $8,000 a year from the State, it[250] receives $19,000 a year from Northern sources. When a mal-administrator wishes to save his mal-administration from coming under legal courts, it is an interesting spectacle to see him pose, on the point of honor, crying out, ‘Misappropriation!’ to the men who not only administer every dollar to the purpose for which it was given, but add to every dollar two dollars more, kindly given them by benevolent friends for that purpose! Misappropriation, indeed!

“2. ‘Social Equality.’ There is no such thing, as the Southerners define it, outside their own imaginations. It is the biggest bugbear that ever frightened respectable minds. If it be a fact that God has made of one blood all mankind, and that Jesus Christ is our common Elder Brother, and we all are, or may be, the children of God, then this caste-mania, which dominates the Southern mind so like an unclean spirit, is something as idiotic as it is unchristian.

“3. ‘Miscegenation.’ It is time, we admit, that Georgia wake up to this evil. She ought to have wakened to it more than a hundred years ago. Atlanta University is not the offender. Had the principles of that school always been regnant in Georgia, there never would have been the evil. Georgians themselves are the sinners. Their witnesses walk before them and are seen every day. A hundred thousand light-colored negroes in Georgia proclaim a hundred thousand white transgressions. It is high time Georgia awoke on the subject of miscegenation. A colored transgressor is quickly strung up to a tree. Why not hang the white transgressor? A few hundred ‘white’ hangings would wonderfully clear up the moral atmosphere down there and get things in good shape for a thorough-going, anti-miscegenation law. Now that Georgia forces herself under the gaze of the civilized world through this action of her Legislature, the decent opinion of mankind calls on them to put a stop to this wickedness within her borders. Make every colored woman who gives birth to a light-colored child disclose the father, and then hang him. Enforce this law as faithfully against the offender of one color as the offender of the other. It is always well to shoot in the direction of the game.

“4. ‘Miscegenation of Ideas.’ The sagacious patriots of the Georgia Legislature speak of ‘miscegenation of ideas’ as something particularly horrible; something almost as bad as the other kind. What they mean by this they do not explain; should they attempt to explain it, all the world outside the white South would laugh them to scorn. They will themselves live to grow ashamed of it. It is too stupid to awaken any mirth, too ridiculous for sober answer, too essentially mean in the spirit and motive of it for anything but contempt and pity. That such a measure as this chain-gang law for Christian teachers could be received with such favor in a State like Georgia, is one of the most dismal signs of the time, or rather signs of the place, that has come to light during the past[251] ten years. But it will fail; yet the curse and stigma of it will long remain to plague those in that State who have any moral sensibility left.

“At the bottom of this miserable and cruel caste-prejudice is jealousy—jealousy of the rising colored man.”

THE CHAIN-GANG.

It is a singular coincidence that this very Legislature, whose lower house has passed this bill to punish Christian teachers for allowing their own children to recite with colored children in the class-room by putting them into the chain-gang, is by a committee investigating the State penitentiary system, pronounced by competent prison reformers to be “perhaps the vilest on earth.” There are some good people in Georgia who want to see the barbarous system exposed and abolished. On the other hand, the supporters of the system are numerous and influential. The Georgia papers do not have much to say about this subject, and probably for the same reason that Russia don’t want the civilized world to know about what is going on in Siberia. The people are afraid to have their deeds of darkness brought to the light, but they are not all silent.

An Atlanta correspondent of the New York World, writing under date of July 22d, describes the system as follows:

“The convicts of Georgia, numbering about sixteen hundred, the negroes largely predominating over the whites, are confined in no regular penitentiary. They are worked under State direction and control, but are divided into three companies, known as “Penitentiary Company No. 1,” etc. These companies take all the convicts under a twenty years’ lease, the good, bad and indifferent. The Lease Act originally prescribed certain work that these convicts should do, the intention being to so regulate their employment as to prevent them from being brought into competition with free labor. Now, however, there is no class of work that the convicts are not called upon to do. They work on railroads and in coal mines; they cut pine timber for the saw mills; they are employed about the mills in those places where skilled workmen are generally employed; they make brick; they operate iron furnaces; they constitute the labor in various manufactories; they work upon plantations, and in every possible way they compete in every industry with free labor.

“The lessees of the convicts change from time to time, men selling their interest in the lease just as they would dispose of their property in anything else. The lessees to-day are not wholly and entirely the same lessees as operated the system at the beginning. Senator Joseph E. Brown is one of the few original lessees who still holds his interests. The changes have been many and various, and so are the stories of outrages. Several years ago children began to make their appearance in the penitentiary, not because of any due process of law, but because of shocking immoralities on the part of lessees and their subordinates. In one camp[252] where the principal lessee was a man named Alexander, since dead, these scandals mostly originated. It was a difficult thing to substantiate the charges, and the Legislature never made any investigation. There were no white women in the penitentiary in Georgia at the time, and perhaps the affair alluded to was not so shocking to public opinion as it would otherwise have been.

“To-day there is only one white woman in the penitentiary in this State. She is confined at the camp of the Chattahoochee Brick Company, Penitentiary Company No. 3, about six miles from this city. This poor woman, weak in intellect, untutored and unfamiliar with the wickedness of the camps, has to be locked up and kept in close confinement day and night, to prevent her being ruined. Since the Legislature has shown a disposition to look into these matters, the lessees of the camp at the brickyard have given the strictest orders about this woman. Her door is constantly locked and the key kept by the good wife of the principal boss, who allows no man to cross her threshold, ‘Great heavens!’ ejaculated a member of the House, when this circumstance was told him, ‘what sort of a system must this be when such measures have to be devised?’”

“The lessees at various camps have been from time to time charged with cruelty to their prisoners. A common charge has been working them on Sunday; so it is common to hear of whipping them to death for refusing to work on Sunday, or when they have been worn out with fatigue. The charge of favoritism is so well established and so generally admitted that it has ceased to be urged.

“The ‘Old Town Camp’ has a very bad reputation. Here most of the serious charges have been laid, and here it was proved that whipping-bosses positively whipped men to death.

“Another camp prolific of charges is that of State Senator Smith in Oglethorpe County. He has been accused of working convicts on Sunday, of shooting them down in cold blood, and an affair of honor is now pending between Smith and Principal Physician Westmoreland, of the penitentiary. Westmoreland accuses Smith of gross inhumanity to the poor creatures under his charge, and dares him, or rather invites him, to meet him on the field of honor for the various false accusations and scandal that Smith has made against him.”

Another Account.

Here is a part of the account which a reporter of the Augusta Chronicle gives of a convict camp, in Richmond County, which he has recently visited on a tour of investigation for his paper.

“Leaving the hospital the reporter went into a barn 80 by 20, divided into two compartments, and they divided by a 10 foot alley. The barn would not be given as a resting-place to a beast that is prized by its owner, as the rain or sun could easily gain admission through the top, and the openings in the sides so affected the house that it gave no protection from[253] the weather. On looking into this place it was horrible to realize that a commonwealth like the State of Georgia would allow the offenders against her laws to be kept in so dirty and filthy a place as that in which the eighty convicts at the camp of the A. and K. Railroad are placed. Along the narrow aisles in the barn smouldering fires were burning, and on the beds sat the prisoners. All of the convicts were seen. They begged that their names would not be used, for they would be lashed if it were known that they told of the treatment. They state that Captain Starns uses the lash freely. Several testify that, overcome with the heat, they stopped to rest and were taken out and whipped. Attention was called to the cruel whipping of Chuck Cooper, a mulatto about twenty-five years old, who was quartered in the hospital. The reporter, without being noticed, repaired to the hospital, and, being assured that the guards were not near at hand, Chuck Cooper disrobed himself and showed huge scars left from the lash, the skin being badly lacerated. Returning to the barn the reporter inquired of Mr. Smith the cause of the filthy beds on which the convicts slept. They were caked in dirt and as black and as filthy as could be imagined. Mr. Smith, the guard, admitted that the blankets and bedding had not been washed for several months, although Mr. Shubrick had notified Captain Starns, and he had promised two months ago to have new straw put in the beds and have them washed. ‘It is seven months,’ Smith said, ‘since we left the brick-yard, and the bedding has not been touched since.’”

And this is the kind of place to which the Georgia Legislature is ready to send the trustees and teachers of Atlanta University!

WHAT THE PRESS HAS TO SAY.

The press North and South has been roused by the introduction of this bill as we have never known it to be before by the action of any State Legislature. In the North it is practically unanimous in condemnation, and for the most part in denunciation. Republican, Democratic and Independent papers are, in this instance, found united. They differ somewhat about the constitutional right of a State to pass such a bill, but they all unite in pronouncing the punishment attached to the Glenn Bill as “disgraceful,” “outrageous,” “infamous,” “wicked.” In the South the colored papers are all against the bill; the white papers, outside of Georgia, somewhat divided, but in the main, so far as we can learn, for the bill. In Georgia the white papers are for it. Were the editorials on this subject by the press of the United States compiled and published they would fill several large volumes. We quote from as many as our space allows:

THE NEW YORK TRIBUNE.

THE NEW YORK TIMES.

THE NEW YORK HERALD.

THE NEW YORK EVENING POST.

THE NEW YORK WORLD.

HARPER’S WEEKLY.

THE JERSEY CITY EVENING JOURNAL.

THE SPRINGFIELD REPUBLICAN.

THE BOSTON EVENING TRAVELLER.

THE PHILADELPHIA PRESS.

THE CHICAGO INTER-OCEAN.

THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE.

THE CHICAGO CONSERVATOR; (COLORED.)

THE CONGREGATIONALIST.

THE CHICAGO ADVANCE.

THE CHRISTIAN UNION.

THE NEW YORK OBSERVER.

THE CENTRAL CHRISTIAN ADVOCATE.

THE NEW YORK CHRISTIAN INTELLIGENCER.

THE ST. LOUIS EVANGELIST.

THE NEW YORK INDEPENDENT.

EXTRACTS FROM THE SOUTHERN PRESS.

THE AUGUSTA (GA.) CHRONICLE.

THE SAVANNAH (GA.) MORNING NEWS.

THE MACON (GA.) TELEGRAPH.

THE ATLANTA (GA.) CONSTITUTION.

THE NASHVILLE CUMBERLAND PRESBYTERIAN.

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GEORGIA’S NEED OF TEACHERS.

B. M. Zettler, Supt. of Public Schools, Macon, Ga., expresses himself in favor of the Blair Bill, in the following, which we take from the Atlanta Constitution. It should be remembered that the colored teachers to whom Mr. Zettler refers come largely from the A. M. A. schools, and especially from the Atlanta University:

“For fifteen years Georgia has been struggling with her public school system, and owing to lack of means but little progress has been made towards efficiency and thoroughness. Outside of our principal cities and towns the people are literally without school-houses, and the State ought to spend not less than a hundred thousand dollars annually for five years in providing suitable school-houses. But with a school fund not sufficient to keep the schools open three months in the year it is utterly useless to talk about appropriating a dime for such a purpose.

“Then, too, we need at least a dozen well-equipped normal or training schools for teachers in different sections of the State, or, perhaps, which would suit our immediate needs better, fifty summer institutes to introduce modern methods of teaching, and prepare persons to teach in the schools. It is a fact, sir, to-day in Georgia, that most of the white public schools of our rural districts are taught (?) by broken-down preachers, doctors and lawyers, men who not only know little about teaching, but who are ‘worn out’ and are physically unequal to the work of teaching. And just here let me call your attention to the difference in the white and the colored schools in this respect. The latter are, almost without exception, in the hands of young men and women as teachers, and these bring to their work the enthusiasm and freshness of youth. Scores of them come, too, from the training schools, not only instructed in modern methods, but overflowing with zeal in the cause of popular education. They become, in every sense of the word, ‘missionaries of education’ to their people, and when their State association convenes in annual session they come up by the hundred to report results and compare ideas, not forgetting to send words of greeting to the score or two of white teachers assembled in the same capacity. Is the contrast a pleasant one for the white people of our State? I think not.

“But I need not go beyond the borders of our own county to prove that we need the aid offered by the Blair Bill. Right here in Bibb we ought to spend ten thousand dollars a year for five years in building and equipping school-houses. We need, right now, thirty additional school-houses in the country districts, and at least two more in the city, and with the addition to our school fund of the eight to twelve thousand dollars a year for eight years that would fall to our share under the provisions of the Blair Bill, as it passed the Senate, we could afford to spend at least five thousand dollars a year of our county appropriation in these greatly needed school buildings.”

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LE MOYNE INSTITUTE.

I know some readers of The American Missionary, as they follow the work of the various institutions from year to year in the accounts sent from the field, wonder how each year in succession can possibly be reported “the very best in the history of the school,” and ask rather dubiously if at such a rate perfection is not near. It is a fact, however, in the history of all our well-established schools, barring accidents of unusual nature that could not be foreseen or controlled, that each year does show gratifying advancement in many respects. Beginning eighteen to twenty or more years ago with nothing but our hands and plenty of exceedingly raw material to work upon, it would be strange if room were not found for improvement and growth, and while thankful for what has been gained we see abundance of room for yet further advancement. When this ceases to be the general report from the South it may be taken as a sign that our presence is no longer needed there. Le Moyne School can again, as often heretofore, report “the best year in its whole history.” We have had trials and cares and annoyances, but most of them have, we trust, but strengthened our work and given assurance of future triumphs.

Our total enrollment during this year has been larger than ever before. The average attendance has been much better, more students remaining in school steadily through the year, and we are certain that we see a steady growth in stability of mind and character among our young people. A truer conception of what life is and the best preparation possible to meet its requirements, we try to keep constantly in mind as the aim and end of all our work.

The complete equipment of our Manual Training Department and its complete destruction by fire in April, marks both a triumph and a trial to us, and its reconstruction and re-equipment before the middle of May, in every respect more complete and thorough than before, makes it easy for us to forget the loss and doubly to rejoice over the doubly won success.

This department adds greatly to the strength of our work and influence. We feel its reaction for good in every class and exercise of the school.

The closing exercises of the year were of unusual interest. The annual sermon was preached by Prof. Austin, a recent graduate of Fisk University. His sermon, plain and full of applications to life and personal conduct, showed, with his general bearing, that his own training had not been in vain, and as coming from one of their own number who had gained his education and his success by his own effort, it was received with perhaps better effect than might have been an abler sermon by one out of their sphere of life.

The Children’s Exhibition and that of the Junior Classes of the Normal Department were well attended, and of course a source of great enjoyment[267] and delight to the pupils and their friends, while the proceeds of admission have given us a handsome sum to be expended in new books for our growing and most useful library, containing now over 1,600 volumes, gathered during the past twelve years by such efforts. The exercises of graduation were attended by a great throng of people, numbering from two to three thousand, filling to overflowing the largest church in the city, the African M. E.

Five students were graduated from the full Normal course, with the usual accompaniments of flowers and enthusiasm on the part of admiring friends. It would be difficult to state the meaning of such occasions to these people. I leave it to be imagined. The address this year was given by Judge Greer of the city, a most able and estimable man. He spoke of the advancement of the child over the parent, showing the vast progress made in the world in the past century, and hoping for yet better things for generations of youth coming on and yet to come.

The Alumni meeting brought together nearly thirty of the graduates of the school, most of the classes being represented. Only the graduates, the faculty and a few invited guests enjoy this the last and best exercise of the year.

The addresses then given, some impromptu and some after careful preparation, brought in themselves, and with the company of self-respecting young people present, ample reward for the years of toil and sacrifice that have led to such results.

A. J. STEELE.

THE CHINESE.

CALIFORNIA AS A MISSIONARY FIELD.

In the deeply interesting paper of Secretary Barrows, presented at the last Anniversary of the A. H. M. S., the expectation is expressed that California, and several other States, “will soon take upon themselves the whole burden of their own support and, not only so, will assist the mother society.” I venture to make this expectation my text for this month’s article in the Missionary, because it represents a view of California very prevalent among our Eastern friends, and to one who looks at us through the newspapers and from a distance of from 2,000 to 4,000 miles, apparently well founded. It is not impertinent, I think, for me to remark upon this expectation; I even feel it necessary that I should do so; because it suggests inevitably the query whether California—if the responsibility were thrown upon her—could not at once take care of all needed missionary work among the Chinese.

I think I may safely claim that but one of my brethren is better acquainted with the condition of our churches in California than I am, and to him I have submitted the statement I am about to make. I refer to our[268] veteran Home Missionary Superintendent, Rev. Dr. Warren. His reply is in these words: “Have read your note carefully twice; every word is true.”

There is great and rapidly increasing wealth in California; wealth, if it were held consecrate to Christ, far more than sufficient to sustain all needed religious institutions; but it is safe to say that forty-nine fiftieths (and I wrote at first, not without careful thought, ninety-nine one-hundredths,) of it is in hands of men who will not consider appeals for missionary contributions and evince no interest in any church work. There are also some strong churches in California, in connection with all the leading denominations, and we, Congregationalists, have perhaps our share of them. These churches have wealthy men in their congregations, and a few of these men are professors of religion. But what I wish noted is that all such churches, so far as our own denomination is concerned, could be counted on the fingers of one hand. I name them: The First and Plymouth of San Francisco, the First in Oakland, and the First in Los Angeles.

Of course, when we speak of churches as strong or weak, we speak relatively. I have in mind what might be called the New England standard, and I say that only these four among all our churches would, if set down in Massachusetts or Connecticut, be accounted strong. The churches in Berkeley and in Sacramento would rank next to these, though in both of them the home work involves a constant struggle. There are certain other points, as Ferndale, Lockeford, Woodland, South San Juan, and especially Grass Valley, where single individuals of considerable wealth are connected more or less closely with our churches, but when I have spoken of these I have exhausted the list of those who could give largely, however well disposed.

We have (say) 120 Congregational churches in the State, with (say) 8,000 members. (The last statistics, now nearly a year old, give 114 churches and 7,308 members.) More than three-eighths of this aggregate membership are to be found in five churches, leaving to the remaining 115 churches an average membership of about 40. Among these remaining churches are 15 that have an aggregate membership now of about 2,500; so that we have 100 churches with an average membership not exceeding 25. These churches are scattered over a territory nearly three times as large as all New England. A line drawn diagonally across California in either direction would reach from the northeastern point of Maine to the centre of North Carolina! It is a State of boundless possibilities, inviting and now welcoming a tremendous immigration. Opportunities abound. The demands for Christian work, in order to improve these opportunities, are imperious and almost oppressive. What might be possible if California Christians were all ideal Christians, I do not know; but taking Christian people as they average the country over, taking churches as we[269] find them in this world and at this particular stage in the development of Christianity, it is chimerical to suppose that for a long time to come the Home Missionary work that ought to be done in connection with our denomination in California will be sustained by contributions made upon the ground. Still more chimerical it would be to expect that this missionary work among the Chinese, to which we are summoned by every instinct of our faith and by a special call of Providence, but which here is called to encounter special prejudices and pull a laboring oar unceasingly against both wind and tide, could be maintained without assistance from abroad. The fact is that but for the generous assistance of the American Missionary Association there would not be enough left of our Chinese mission to stir any interest or induce any giving at all in California. It is because the Association started us, and because it, and it alone, enables us to give to the work such extent as it has, and develop it into such present usefulness and gather about it such promise of larger good; it is thus, and thus only, that we have gained our vantage-ground for successful appeal. As it is, the amount contributed in California for this cause must be to every one acquainted with all the facts a grateful surprise. It reached last year a total of $2,654.05. I trust the amount will be no smaller this year. But should the Association stand aside, it would in another year be reduced almost to nothing. When effort becomes hopeless, enthusiasm dies.

GRADUATING ADDRESS OF YAN PHOU LEE, AT YALE COLLEGE.

THE OTHER SIDE OF THE CHINESE QUESTION.

The torrents of hatred and abuse which have periodically swept over the Chinese industrial class in America had their sources in the early California days. They grew gradually in strength, and, uniting in one mighty stream, at last broke the barriers with which justice, humanity and the Constitution of the Republic had until then restrained their fury.

The catastrophe was too terrible, and has made too deep an impression to be easily forgotten. Even if Americans are disposed to forget, the Chinese will not fail to keep the sad record of faith unkept, of persecution permitted by an enlightened people, of rights violated without redress in a land where all are equal before the law.

Sad it is that in a Christian community only a feeble voice here and there has been raised against this public wrong; while the enemies of the Chinese laborer may be counted by the million. Yet these men, having everything their own way, are still dissatisfied and cannot rest secure until all the Chinese laborers have been driven out or killed off with the connivance of a perverted public opinion. Is it not high time for good men to —— themselves and say to the enemy of industry and order, “Halt! thus[270] far shalt thou go, and no farther”? For be assured that after the Chinese have all departed, those men who are determined to get high wages for doing nothing will turn against other peaceful sons of toil; and who would venture to say that there will be absolute safety for the native American? Mob-rule knows no respect for persons; the Chinese were attacked first simply because they were the weakest. I do not deny that the anti-Chinese agitation has some show of reason. But its strength rests on three erroneous assumptions, by proving the groundlessness of which the whole superstructure of fallacy and falsehood can be made to totter.

First, it is assumed that the work to be done and the fund for labor’s remuneration are fixed quantities, and that if the Chinese are employed so much will be taken from other laborers. It is sufficient to reply that no economist holds that view.

Secondly, it is assumed that the Pekin authorities are anxious to get rid of its redundant population. Nothing can be more absurd. They have been always, and are still, averse to the emigration of their subjects; so much so that they yielded only to the inducements and concessions offered by this Government, which are embodied in the Burlingame Treaty. Another proof is the readiness with which they consented to the limitation of Chinese immigration when the Angell Treaty was negotiated.

Thirdly, it is assumed that China’s four hundred millions are only waiting for an opening to “inundate” this country. This is soberly asserted and has the effect of the Gorgon-head; for who is not stunned at the bare mention of this appalling and impending disaster? It would be terrible if it were possible—if it could be true.

But there is no cause for apprehension. The immigration of my compatriots has been exclusively from Canton and the region around it within a radius of a hundred miles. The population of this district is estimated at 5,000,000. Not a single immigrant has hailed from any other part of the Empire. The Mongolization of America, therefore, is an event as far off as the Millennium. For after twenty-five years of unrestricted immigration, your patriotic agitators could muster up only 200,000 Chinese laborers in all the States and Territories. Now place this figure side by side with the 3,000,000 of immigrant princes from the “English Poland,” which has never had more than 8,000,000 inhabitants at any one time, and you will be struck with the contrast.

What reason can we give why so few comparatively come from China? The Chinese are by nature and from habit gregarious, but not migratory. They dislike to cut adrift from the ties of kindred, the associations of home, the traditions of fatherland. The belief that their welfare in the future life depends on the proper burial of their remains in home-soil, followed by sorrowing children and tearful widow, curbs their desire to go abroad, even with the hope of bettering their condition. But as only the poorest are tempted to lead a life of adventure, and as the good Emperor[271] does not pay their passage money, the number that can leave their native land is very small. Thus you will find that Chinese immigrants are usually poor on landing, for they bring no votes in their pockets which can immediately be turned into money, and so they must rely upon their countrymen who have preceded them for assistance. This is afforded by the Six Companies, who accordingly have a lien on their prospective wages. From this practice of advancing money arises the terrible accusation that Chinese labor is contract labor—is slave labor. We know with what reluctance they first made their way to this country. Oftentimes they had to be drugged and kidnapped. It was thought necessary, for labor in those days was in great demand; the Western country was wild; its resources wanted development. Laborers were welcome irrespective of race or nationality.

But the times soon changed; California had grown rich and flourishing; the Pacific Railroad had been built; wages had fallen; the Chinese became superfluous, and the corals which constructed the reef must go or die. From being an economic question, the expulsion of the Chinese laborers was made a political question. Disinterested demagogues easily won mob-favor by advocating the cause of the sand-lot, and the Chinese workmen were sacrificed to the Moloch of political ambition. The matter was carried to the National Council, and you would suppose that Congress at least would be just and dispassionate, but it, too, was borne along the waves of prejudice.

In every such conflict might is right; the weakest goes to the wall. Two parties were bidding for the Pacific vote—that of great moral principles as well as that of no principles. The Chinese came in like cloth between the blades of the scissors, like Mr. Pickwick between the infuriated rival editors of Eatanswill. When 80,000 offices were at stake, and the hoodlums of California had to be petted, it was not hard to make the Chinese out to be undesirable immigrants and to hoodwink the public with charges against them which are false, or which may be preferred against all immigrants.

Sand-lotters were scandalized by the alleged immoral practices of the Asiatics; were in trembling and fear lest their Christianity should suffer by contact with Chinese paganism. I believe the cesspool once complained of the influx of muddy water. Californians prohibited the Chinese from becoming citizens and then accused them of failure to become naturalized. People in general were staggered at the imminent danger of the Mongolization of America and at the same time found fault with the Chinese for not making the United States their home. “Consistency, thou art a jewel.”

Those who make America a catspaw to secure home-rule chestnuts proved most conclusively the non-assimilability of the Chinese race—said they came simply to make money which eventually found its way to the[272] old country. I admit both points: I admit that they do not come to America for the good of their fatherland and mother church, and that they do come to make money. So do Americans in China. They are wicked enough to send money home to support wife and children, but they give an equivalent in work. Gold and silver are things you can most conveniently spare; but if you must keep them at home, why then make a law forbidding their export.

I also admit that the Chinese laborer does not assimilate with your enlightened Hibernian citizens. Thank God for that! If he did, he would not be compelled to do menial work through fear of starvation. If he did he might have become a saloon statesman by this time, or even a much-envied “boodler.” If he did, he might be even now luxuriating in Sing Sing at the public expense.

But why pursue this theme further? The bill was passed which excludes both skilled as well as unskilled Chinese laborers, though the Court of Pekin diplomatically understood that the restriction was to affect common workmen alone. Natives of China are forbidden to become citizens of this Republic, which takes to its bosom the off-scouring, the garbage, and the dynamite of Europe. Never had there been seen such pandering to the worst passion of an insignificant faction!

Were it not for the tragic events which trod on the heels of the Chinese Immigration Bill, one might be inclined to laugh at the absurdities in the bill itself. If the law is faithfully executed (and to be worth anything it must be), all Americans born in China are disfranchised, and all Chinese natives of British colonies, like Hong Kong and India, have free access to this country. But who could laugh in the midst of indignant tears? By passing a discriminating law against an already persecuted class, the Central Government yielded to the demands of the mob, and to that extent countenanced its violence and lawlessness. The Anti-Chinese Act is a cause of all the outrages and massacres that have been since committed in Rock Springs and Denver, in Portland, San Francisco and other parts, which, if they had been perpetrated in China against Americans, would have resounded from Bedloe’s Island (whereon stands the Statue of Liberty) to the Golden Gate. But the criminals in these cases were not punished, and even the pitiful indemnity was voted down until Congress could not withhold it from very shame.

I have stated facts which are well known. It is not necessary to exaggerate. I now ask you Christian people of America whether you have not failed in your duties as lovers of justice and fatherland, in not enforcing your opinions in public and in private, as well in church as in State. I ask those who gallantly sided with the strong against the weak, whether they do not think they have done enough for glory and personal ambition?

If there is an avenging Deity, (and we believe there is), ought you not[273] to beware of the retribution which is sure to overtake a nation that permits the cold-blooded murder of innocent strangers within its gates to go unpunished?

RECEIPTS FOR JULY, 1887.