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.

[246]

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.

[248]

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.

[265]

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.”

[266]

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.