III. Boards and Permanent

Committees.

NOTE-The full text, figures, etc., of the Reports of the Boards will be found in the volume containing the Reports, to which persons desiring detailed information are referred.

Office: PRESBYTERIAN BUILDING, 156 Fifth Avenue, New York.

ABSTRACT OF THE ONE HUNDRED TWELFTH ANNUAL REPORT.

The Board of Home Missions presents its One Hundred Twelfth Annual Report to the General Assembly. It has been a year of stress in the administration of the work, occasioned by many and unusual problems.

I. GENERAL STATEMENTS.

NECROLOGY. It has also been a year of unusual mortality on the field. Fourteen missionaries have ceased from earthly labors and entered on the freer, richer service of the Kingdom above. Their names are starred in the memory of the Church.*

*See list, p. 131,

On March 25, that veteran of a civil war and of many religious battles, the Rev. Robert N. Adams, D.D., of Minneapolis, Minn., passed suddenly through the gateway of sleep to the heavenly awakening. The Board has been sorely bereaved also in the death, on August 7, of Mr. Robert C. Ogden, who for nearly sixteen years served the Board with unfailing fidelity.

FINANCES. The financial results of the year give no ground for rejoicing. The Board reports a deficit, on the year's work, of $97,628.75. To meet this deficit, a draft on legacy funds that were free for current use has been necessary. The reasons for the shortage are the business conditions of the country, the withholding of home mission funds for State or local work, and the attacks on the progressive policies of the Board.

Notwithstanding the financial pressure, the regular work of the Board has gone on with undiminished volume.

CORRESPONDING MEMBERS, SELF-SUPPORTING SYNODS.-As directed by the General Assembly, corresponding members from the self-supporting Synods attended one meeting of the Board at the Board's expense. At their request, a preliminary conference was held, these sessions and the regular meeting of the Board covering two days, March 11 and 12. Officers and members of the Board joined in the conference, except at one session. At this one, when the representatives of the Synods were alone, they adopted the following resolu

tions:

I. WHEREAS, The representatives of the self-supporting Synods recognize the great value of the pioneering work of the Board of Publication and Sabbath School Work, which has laid the basis for the major part of the home mission work; and

WHEREAS, The delegates from the Synods, in their analysis of conditions, feel the necessity of a closer relationship between the distinctly missionary part of the Sunday-school work and the regular home mission activities;

Resolved, That this conference approve the measure of cooperation already attained in many of the Synods and urge the combination of these two similar agencies to the fullest extent possible.

II. Resolved, That a committee of five, representing the Synods of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Minnesota and Wisconsin, be appointed to secure needful data, and meet in Chicago during or immediately following the Assembly in May, 1914, and formulate a plan to be submitted to the various synodical committees, at the fall meeting, 1914, relative to greater efficiency.

III. Resolved, (1) That the standardized form of statistical report of Presbyterian churches employing a foreign language employed by the Home Board's Department of Immigration, and as adopted with certain additions by the Home Missions Council, be commended to the synodical organizations; and that the Synods cooperate with the department in maintaining a central place of record and report for Presbyterian churches employing a foreign language, as well as a register of Presbyterian pastors employing a foreign language.

(2) That, having learned of the Bohemian-Slavic Conference to be held in Chicago, May 21 to 23, this conference desires to record its hearty sympathy with and interest in the gathering in Chicago and its desire to share in the pleasure and benefit of a day devoted to a consideration of our Presbyterian work among the Slavic peoples in this country. Also, that we record our hearty interest in a fitting celebration of the John Huss anniversary in 1915.

(3) That it is the sense of this conference that our Presbyterian work among the Magyars of this country would be encouraged by a conference to be held this Synods and Presbyteries concerned and the Boards of the Church interested. IV: Resolved, That it be the sense of the conference of self-supporting Synods, held in New York, March 11 and 12, 1914, that

(1) pastors be encouraged by every Synod in each of its Presbyteries, and the speedy provision of a suitable

manse on each field.

(2) The resident pastor, on a sufficient salary, is undoubtedly the best shepherding of a church, and should be realized at the earliest possible moment. V. The corresponding members of the Board from the self-supporting Synods, recognizing the importance of educating the children and young people of the Presbyterian Church in Christian giving, would respectfully urge all the

synodical and presbyterial committees in these Synods to ask every Sabbathschool to make one annual offering to the Board of Home Missions, on the Sabbath nearest Washington's Birthday, and that the Home Board be requested to cooperate with the synodical authorities in the presentation of this appeal.

HOME MISSIONS COUNCIL.-As during the past six years, the Presbyterian Home Board has cooperated heartily in the programme and activities of the Home Missions Council. Thirty-four denominational Boards are now cooperating, and their officers take an active part in the Council's proceedings. Measures looking to closer and more economical cooperation on the home mission field in every branch have been pressed, to the gratification of all.

The movement for cooperative activity among the denominations in the West has received marked impetus through a series of institutes in January and February in six western States-at Huron, South Dakota; Jamestown, North Dakota; Helena, Montana; Portland, Oregon; Salt Lake, Utah; Denver, Colorado. Each institute covered two days. In each of the States touched, either a federated movement among the Churches was initiated or an existing organization was strengthened. Special attention was given to the peculiar conditions in Utah, and plans were laid which it is hoped will bring the evangelical forces together in a common programme, while recognizing the autonomy and responsibility of each denomination in its own work.

The immigration committee of the Council has instituted some wise and far-reaching plans, including a thorough investigation of religious conditions of immigrant groups throughout the country.

THE JOINT EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.-The Home Board, in common with all the other Boards of the Church, has coöperated in the Presbyterian United Movement, under the direction of the Joint Executive Committee. This Committee has maintained four representatives during the year, one of whom is supplied from the force of the Home Board. He is the Rev. Moses Breeze, D.D., whose territory lies in the far West. He spent the fall and winter in North and South Dakota and in Colorado, following a hurried itinerary also to the Pacific coast. From every Presbytery he has served, the most hearty and gratifying commendation of his work has reached the Board.

MISSIONARY EDUCATION.-The number and type of the mission study classes enrolled in the Presbyterian Department of Missionary Education is perhaps a fair index of the general trend of interest in missionary education in the churches. Last year the department reported 2,975 mission study classes. This year there are enrolled 3,173 classes. Last year 899 of the classes were studying home mission text-books. This year 1,581 of the total number of classes enrolled have been studying home missions. Of this number 889 have been classes in women's home missionary societies. A very large proportion of the home mission classes have been using immigration text-books.

The correspondence of the department has been large and an attempt has been made to understand the various needs of the local workers and to provide appropriate helps.

As previously, the department has coöperated in the summer conferences under the auspices of the Missionary Education Movement and the Young People's Department of the Board of Publication and Sabbath School Work. Missionary courses have been arranged, missionary leaders secured and representatives of the department have been in attendance at the following conferences: Silver Bay, New York; Lake Geneva, Wisconsin; Pocono, Pennsylvania; Winona, Indiana; Hollister, Missouri; Storm Lake, Iowa.

STUDENT WORK AND ENLISTMENT.-The continual demand for seminary graduates in the West and in other frontier work, the need of our country churches for a ministry resident in the country, and the growing importance of religious work in immigrant and industrial centres call for a new emphasis on the work of getting recruits. Beginning with October 1, the Board has made this new emphasis, sending Mr. Ralph A. Felton, a worker of its force, to Presbyterian seminaries to look after this enlistment. Interest in home missions has been aroused by the organization of home mission committees, by talks on various aspects of the subject, by exhibits of charts showing the needs of the field, and by the distribution of literature pertaining to the work of the Board.

II. BUREAU OF SOCIAL SERVICE.

The work of this bureau was seriously crippled last fall, when the superintendent, the Rev. Charles Stelzle, felt obliged to resign in order that he might take up a broader social ministry. The Board accepted his resignation with sincere regret and with best wishes for his success in his new undertaking.

Since October, general surveys and exhibits have been handled by Mr. G. B. St. John, one of the force in the Bureau of Social Service. Several important pieces of work have been done.

Two important social surveys have been conducted-in New Brunswick and Morristown, New Jersey. In each case a most careful and painstaking study was made, based on a house-to-house canvass, and a great exhibit was held, where the findings of the survey were depicted in graphic form. Thousands visited each exhibit. In both cities large mass meetings were held, where the findings were given and recommendations made.

Three surveys are at present in process-two in Cleveland, Ohio, and one in Chicago. All of these are community studies of fields, each surrounding a Presbyterian church, and are made for a definite and immediate purpose.

RESEARCH AND STATISTICS.-The research and statistical work of the Board is largely technical and serves all the offices and departments of the Board. By taking from them certain kinds of tasks which seem to be mere drudgery, systematizing and applying to them our labor-saving devices, a greater efficiency is promoted, resulting in a saving of time, energy and money. This work is in charge of the Rev. Arthur R. Burnet, for several years one of the force of the Bureau of Social Service.

An example of research work was the investigation of the economic status of the liquor trade in New Jersey. A comparison was made of the brewing industry with certain other industries, to show that, whereas the former represents a large investment of capital, the same money would hire more men, pay more wages and produce a greater value in output if invested in other industries.

This office handles all the multigraph work of the Board. This includes the printing not only of letters, but of letter-heads, record forms, questionnaires, etc. From January 1 to March 31, the machines turned out over 200,000 impressions, representing about 60 individual jobs.

men in this work.

III. LUMBER CAMPS.

During the year just closed, the Board of Home Missions has supported 20 Foremost among these has been the Rev. Frank E. Higgins, who for five years has been the Board's messenger to the men of the Prolonged illness during the last months has hindered him from the work which camps. had

inspiring as a leader. As nearly as can be estimated, we are reaching in camps over 20,000 men with the Gospel, but when we remember there are as many as that in Minnesota logging camps alone, we realize how little we are doing.

The primary work of all the missionaries is to preach the Gospel, and, after nineteen years spent among the men of the woods, Mr. Higgins is more than ever convinced this is the one message for the missionary to carry and the one the men are looking for.

IV. CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE.

The most important fact in the year for the Department of Church and Country Life has been the action of the Assembly at Atlanta, in May, directing the has been undertaken in the course of the year. The effort has been to complete so far as possible the work in hand by May, 1914.

The fact that Presbyteries desire special work in the field of rural organization is shown by the requests which come from many parts of the Church for service of this sort. The department has been asked to establish demonstration centre" churches, by Buffalo Presbytery and the Synods of New York,

year, to await more explicit action of the General Assembly relative to country life work.

The final aim of the department in all its activities is to secure that spiritual life which is the supreme strength of any Church.

V. IMMIGRATION.

The work of the Home Board among the recent immigrant populations is under the direction of the Rev. William P. Shriver.

A million two hundred thousand immigrant aliens entered this country in the last fiscal year (ending June 30, 1913), a record exceeded only once in the entire history of the immigration movement. The steady development of the Home Board's work among the recent immigrant populations is indicated by the increase of its disbursements in six years, from $25,000 to $89,000, in the year ending March 31, 1914. This does not include the Board's work among the Germans of the West and Spanish-speaking people in the States, totaling $39,485.

The work of this department is effected directly on the field and only upon the request of Presbyteries and Synods. The Board has coöperated with 23 Presbyteries in inaugurating or developing work in 67 different immigrant and industrial communities; 109 missionary pastors, visitors and lay workers were engaged, an increase of 30 over the previous year. Ten languages, in addition to English, were regularly employed: German, Bohemian, Slovak, Polish, Russian, Ruthenian, Italian, Hungarian, Armenian, and Arabic among the Syrians. In some centres, a neighborhood work embraced as many as fifteen

races.

CITY CENTRES.-The immigration question is discovered in its acuteness in the city centres of our industrial zone. Over one-third of the population of Boston, Cleveland and Chicago is foreign-born, while that of New York exceeds 40 per cent. In the past year, the Board extended its coöperation to not less than 22 important cities-New York, Brooklyn, Buffalo, Baltimore, Indianapolis, Cleveland, Milwaukee, St. Louis, South Omaha and San Francisco, among others. The immigrant communities of these city centres test the efficiency of Presbyterian home mission administration, and demand a new social consciousness and unified purpose on the part of the churches. In the last year, in the Presbyteries of Brooklyn and Baltimore, exhaustive studies were made of the resources of all the churches and the needs of the city, under the designation of a Church Efficiency Service.

IMMIGRANT RURAL COMMUNITIES.-It is a matter of congratulation that the recent immigrants in steadily increasing numbers are "returning to the land." The Home Board is heartily back of the work of the two new Bohemian Presbyteries. In the Presbytery of the Central West, extending over five Western States, the Board assists in maintaining work in nine centres. This Presbytery enrolls 18 organized churches with a membership of 1,403. In the Presbytery of the Southwest, where the larger Bohemian communities have been preempted by an independent evangelical body, our Presbyterian work is more or less of a pioneering character, 6 missionaries being under the commission of the Board, with 7 organized churches and a ministry to 13 communities.

SELF-ADMINISTERING SYNODS.-In the past year, difficult problems have been jointly worked on with the Synods of New York, Baltimore, Indiana, Wisconsin, and, with the close of the year, conferences have been held with the superintendents of Illinois and Ohio, and a preliminary investigation made of immigration conditions in the recently organized Synod of New England. In Indiana, persistent interest has been given to the work at Gary, which has suffered the handicap of a changing leadership. The department thus serves as a medium through which a wide and diversified experience wrought out by the Synods may be made of value to the whole Church.

ORE AND COAL CAMPS.-Two fields of finest possibilities for unique services were entered the past year in the coal mining camps of southern Colorado (Pueblo Presbytery) and the Mesaba iron range of Minnesota in Duluth