3,816,956 1,183,574 1,051,248 511,200 745,833 2,222,281 779,696 407,746 223,521 446,138

240,491 11,628,684

13,853 €527,564

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 AND TENTH ANNUAL REPORT.

The Board of Home Missions herewith respectfully presents to the General Assembly its One Hundred and Tenth Annual Report. The Board records with sorrow the death of one of its oldest members, at the very beginning of the new fiscal year. On April 7, General A. Noel Blakeman was suddenly called to his reward. He served the Board for fourteen years, was a member of various committees, and always faithful to the cause he had so deeply at heart.

We have to record also the names of the following ministers who died during the year 1911-1912;

Faithful in labors, they have entered upon labor's final and glorious reward. The review of the year presents reasons for gratitude, and inspiration for service. The report of the Treasurer indicates very much the largest receipts that have ever come to this Board in a single year, the gross receipts for current work being $1,491,182.85. This includes the receipts of the Woman's Board. In addition, we have received $360,000.00 further payment from the Kennedy Estate. Receipts from legacies, aside from the Kennedy fund, have been unprecedently large. The receipts from live sources-churches, societies and individuals however, show a slight decline consequent upon the strong pull which immigration has made, in many centres, in the self-supporting synods, for local support.

The expansion of the work has kept full pace with the increase of receipts. The calls from missionary presbyteries for both old work and new have been exceptionally large. The old work has demanded more than ever before, partly because there have been hard times over wider sections of the country, impoverishing churches, than have ever been known in this administration, and partly because of the increased cost of living and the inevitable necessity, therefore, for some increase in the salaries of missionaries. To this demand the Board of Home Missions is most happy to respond.

A year ago we made provision by which the Board would cooperate with churches in securing for the missionaries a minimum salary of eight hundred dollars. This in most cases has been reached and is still found to be inadequate. In many parts of the country it is impossible to secure a fair living for a family on that sum. The Board has, therefore, taken another advance step. It proposes now to make nine hundred dollars the minimum for the missionary's salary. This will be done, however, only on two conditions: First, that the congregation that is being served shall cooperate with the Board in this advance; and, secondly, that the missionary shall become an installed pastor: this, in order to secure that great essential for permanent progress in the more permanent relation of the missionary to the people.

Within nine years, four new and very important departments have been formed. All of them began in small ways, but under the most insistent demands. All of them have now grown to be very considerable factors in the development of the broadening and deepening work of home missions. Intensive missionary farming now covers the country in its imperative demands.

The Church and Labor Department, organized nine years ago, has, by the order of the last General Assembly, been enlarged into a Bureau of Social Service, which is to include not only the relations of working men to the Church, but a consideration of all moral and social problems. It is just at the beginning of this enlarged service.

The Immigration Department, at first a branch of the Church and Labor Department, sprang to such importance that about one and a half years ago it was created a separate arm of the mission work. The immigration problem has grown to such stature as to challenge the attention of statesmen and of all denominations. The Board of Home Missions is striving to do its part to meet the challenge.

The Indian work has increased from small beginnings, a few years ago, to this present time, when it is related to twenty-seven presbyteries and finds its field of operations in fifty-seven tribes and parts of tribes.

The Church and Country Life Department finds its fruitful field in the awakening interest in rural regions, which, too long neglected, have become sources of moral peril to the nation. This department has not only made surveys in many parts of the country to ascertain conditions, but is devising

follow-up work by which those conditions shall be met in the interest of a wide reconstruction of country life.

THE DISTRICT OF THE SOUTH AND SOUTHWEST.-For this section the Field Secretary, the Rev. B. P. Fullerton, D.D., LL.D., presents the following statement:

In this district there are 700,000 square miles, not including that part of Georgia, Louisiana and North Carolina embraced in it. There are 20,000,000 people within the boundaries of these Synods, the increase in population from 1900 to 1910 being 3,000,000. Here are practically all the negroes in the United States, whose evangelization is an ever-present problem which becomes more and more complex as immigration into this territory increases.

In the State of Texas especially the Mexican problem is becoming acute. Because of the unsettled political condition in the Republic of Mexico, the people of that disturbed country are crossing the line in increasingly great numbers. They are practically unevangelized. While they are members of the Roman Church, they are not loyal even to that Church. In the Presbyteries of El Paso and Austin especially their numbers have become such as to excite at once our interest and solicitude. So far, very little has been done by any Protestant Church for them, and the appeal which their condition makes to us is pathetic.

The immigration problem is not a serious one in the district, although in Texas there are not less than a hundred thousand Bohemians. They are buying farms and becoming most expert farmers, and, if given the Gospel of Jesus Christ, will become good and useful citizens. At the last meeting of the Synod of Texas, a Bohemian presbytery was erected, with nine ministers and fifteen centres for Christian work. At least fifty thousand of these Bohemians are now approachable by the Protestant Church. Having abandoned their fealty to the Roman Church, they are now known among themselves as "Free Thinkers," which term by no means describes to them what it does when used by us. In northern Alabama, where the iron and steel mills and coal deposits are, Italians, Poles and other foreigners are coming in and are being employed in increasing numbers, and their condition makes a strong appeal to our Protestant Churches.

The rapid development of the South, on account of the immigration from the North, makes this a strategic opportunity for the Church. If we mean to build up the cause of Christianity without a large outlay of men and means, it must be done in connection with this rapid development. During the past year commercial conditions in the district have been adverse. In the western and northern part of Texas and a large part of Oklahoma, this past year, we have had the third year of the most damaging drought the country has seen in many decades.

The relation between our Church and the other Churches is growing more cordial. This is especially true between us and the Presbyterian Church in the U. S., or what is known as the Southern Presbyterian Church.

DISTRICT OF THE NORTHWEST. For this section the Rev. Robert N. Adams, D.D., had held the position of Field Secretary since the creation of that office, in 1907. After many years of service for his Church, as well as for his country, he felt compelled to present his resignation to the Board of Home Missions. In accepting it, Dr. Adams was made Field Secretary emeritus, and with cooperation and counsel has aided his successor, the Rev. William H. Kearns, D.D. For the year's work in the District of the Northwest, Dr. Kearns presents the following statement:

We have nearly 850 organized churches in this district. In many of these the membership is small, due mainly to the fact that in the newer parts of the district there is a constant change in the population.

Recognizing the importance of thorough organization in both Presbytery and Synod, some progress has been made in securing committees which will assume responsibility for more careful supervision. In three of the Synods there are now compact synodical organizations. The committees are charged with responsibility for the work of the entire State, with the review of the presbyterial estimates, and with the duty of making recommendations to the Board. In this way we hope for greater unity and more effective work.

There is a growing sentiment in favor of federation, which, if the movement

is sanely directed, will tend to correct former mistakes. In North and South Dakota there has been more or less friction between the denominations, but there are now federation councils in each State, and their aim will be to bring about a better spirit of coöperation. Under the direction of representatives of the Home Missions Council, a conference of home mission workers was held in each State, and while the main object was to study the needs, yet the question of overlapping was not ignored, and much good will result.

In this district 21 pastor-evangelists have been at work, under the direction of the Home Mission committees of the Presbyteries. Seven of these are combination men, serving under commission of both the Home Mission and Sabbathschool Boards. In three cases, one man has served two Presbyteries. These men seek out destitute communities, and open preaching stations, which frequently develop into churches, supply the small vacant churches and get them ready for settled ministers, introduce modern financial methods, hold evangelistic meetings, and so forth.

Conferences on modern methods of church finance have been held. Many churches have adopted better plans. The single and duplex budget systems are being successfully operated in many places. In some Presbyteries members of the Home Mission committee have visited the small churches, explained the method, and secured "every-member" canvasses for both local support and benevolences. Had conditions been at all favorable, large increase in gifts would have been the result. As it is, we have barely held our own. drought of the past two years has been very severe, especially in the Dakotas and western Nebraska.

The

ROCKY MOUNTAIN DISTRICT.-For this section the Field Secretary, the Rev. Robert M. Donaldson, D.D., presents the following statement:

This district is unchanged in area, but proposes some changes in organization. A new Presbytery is projected in Arizona and one in Wyoming, looking toward the erection of a Synod in each of these States. Up to this time, Arizona has been part of the Synod of New Mexico, and Wyoming part of the Synod of Colorado. In each case expense and distances are prohibitive, interfering with full meetings and with a comprehensive study of the entire field. Marked differences in local conditions add to the complexity of administration, when the affairs of two large States are considered by one body. The erection of these two new Synods will greatly increase the efficiency of service in these respective States.

In addition to pastors and missionaries, the field force comprises eight pastorevangelists and four synodical evangelists or superintendents. Two additional pastor-evangelists are to be supplied. One now bears joint commission from the Boards of Home Missions and Sabbath-School Work. In only one instance does the territory of a pastor-evangelist cover any part of that assigned to a synodical representative. Hence there is practically no duplication of Presbyterian field workers in the Rocky Mountain District, except where missionaries of the Sabbath-School Board are at work.

The year has been one of church building, especially in communities not heretofore provided with houses of worship. In two of the smaller Presbyteries, eight sanctuaries and one manse have been completed during the year. More attention has been given to equipment and enlargement than to extended organization. Special emphasis has been placed upon reorganization of financial systems, both in mission and self-supporting churches, thereby bringing them into conformity with the Assembly's budget system. In every case where it has been undertaken seriously, it has proved beneficial to the local organization, as well as to the general work of the church.

PACIFIC COAST DISTRICT.-For this section the Field Secretary, the Rev. William Sylvester Holt, D.D., presents the following statement:

This district covers one-third the entire area of the United States on this Continent. There are 3,616,484 square miles in the United States. There are 1,025,154 square miles in the Pacific Coast District. When the population is considered, the Pacific Coast District is of less importance, having less than one-twentieth of the population of the country-according to the census for 1910, a total of 4,338,535.

Of the nineteen cities in the United States which contain more than a quarter