ORGANIZED IN 1832 The General Missionary Organization of American Baptists for the Evangelization of North America $750,000 NEEDED ANNUALLY GENERAL SUPERINTENDENTS Trans-Mississippi Division-Mo., Neb., Kans., Okla., Ind. Ter., Col., N. Mex., Wyo., Utah and Arizona-N. B. Rairden, D.D., 413 N. Y. Life Building, Omaha, Neb. Pacific Coast Division-Wash., Idaho, Ore., Nev., The Germans-Rev. G. A. Schulte, 313a Charles Street, DISTRICT SECRETARIES New England-Me., N. H., Vt., Mass., R. I., Conn.- New York-N. Y. and Northern N. J.-Samuel Lake Mich. and Ohio-E. H. E. Jameson, D.D., Pacific Coast-Ore., Wash., Idaho, Nev., Monti, MANAGERS FIRST CLASS, Expiring in 1906 W. C. P. RHOADES, D.D.. W. A. GRIPPIN J. G. AFFLECK. REV. C. D. CASE, Ph.D.. Brooklyn, N.Y. . Bridgeport, Conn. Yonkers, N. Y. .E. Orange, N. J. ...Newark, N. J. .Brooklyn, N. Y. SECOND CLASS, Expiring in 1907 L. H. BLACKMAN. D. L. WILCOX.. E. J. BROCKETT. C. R. HETFIELD. REV. ALVAH E. KNAPP. C. B. CANFIELD... GARDNER COLBY. New York. .E. Orange, N. J. New York. .Orange, N. J. THIRD CLASS, Expiring in 1908 R. P. JOHNSTON, D.D.. EZRA H. STEVENS. I. W. MACLAY.. REV. E. T. TOMLINSON, Ph.D.. REV. W. W. PRATT. REV. F. M. GOODCHILD.. New York. Albany, N. Y. Yonkers, N. Y. Elizabeth, N. J. . Philadelphia, Pa. New York. GENERAL MISSIONARIES Wisconsin-Rev. D. W. Hulburt, Wauwatosa. Minnesota-Rev. E. R. Pope, Minneapolis. North Dakota-Rev. Myron Cooley, Fargo. South Dakota-T. M. Shanafelt, D.D., Huron. Nebraska-Rev. C. W. Brinstad, Omaha. Kansas-E. B. Meredith, D.D., Ottawa. Indian Territory-J. C. Stalcup, Esq., So. McAlester. Oklahoma-C. W. Brewer, Esq., Norman. Montana and South Idaho-Rev. L. G. Clark, Helena, Mont. Wyoming and Utah-Rev. Bruce Kinney, Salt Lake City, Utah. Colorado-Rev. W. B. Pope, Pueblo. New Mexico and Arizona-Rev. G. H. Brewer, W. Washington-Rev. L. W. Terry, Tacoma. Oregon-Rev. Leonard W. Riley, McMinnville, Eastern Cuba-H. R. Moseley, D.D., Santiago. GENERAL MISSIONARIES (Colored) AND EDUCATIONAL SECRETARIES HOME MISSION MONTHLY VOL. XXVII DECEMBER 1905 No. 12 CONTENTMENT ET US LEARN TO BE DAVID SWING TE Editorial The Downfall of Autocracy HE historian of the future will have it to say that the chief event that marked the early years of the twentieth century was the downfall of absolutism in the last stronghold left it. As America has its Fourth of July, and France its Twenty-first of July, so Russia will have its Thirty-first of October. The Japanese-Russian war pales in importance in comparison with the casting off of the yoke of irresponsible and tyrannical government by the people of Russia. For it was not the Czar who granted a constitution and rights of representation and suffrage of his own free will. These rights were forced from a frightened and imperiled autocrat by the mighty uprising of his people. Only his hasty action, under the influence of Count Witte, saved Russia from a Red Revolution as sweeping as that which devastated France. As it is, revolution has not been altogether escaped, and it is too early to tell what the outcome will be of the radical socialistic and anarchistic element. Whatever comes, however, it seems impossible that the out-of-date form of government which the Russians put up with until last October should be reestablished. The bureaucracy would. would doubtless go to any lengths to stir up sedition and rioting, in order to convince the Czar that he had made a mistake and must again assume his former authority and put down all opposition by military force. It is charged that the terrible massacres of the Jews at Odessa, which have surpassed the former awful experiences of these hapless people in the Czar's domains, were instigated by the leaders who oppose Count Witte's plans. Whether this be true or not, the old or der has passed. The reaping of the whirlwind is what every student of Russian history has believed to be inevitable. Centuries of oppression and repression and almost inconceivable corruption and cruelty on the part of the ruling powers. furnished conditions which made retribution inevitable. A free Russia will mean much to the world. It will take long to readjust things and bring unity and sound govern ment and stable out of such diverse elements; but it can be done. Then will come separation of Church and State, as it must come in every popular govern-` ment the world over. That will mean the inevitable progress of Protestantism. Russia will stop sending her people to this country to find civil and religious liberty. A free Russia will prove a new world power of vast significance, to be welcomed, not dreaded. Surely, history is making rapidly in our day, and the hand of God is plainly to be seen in this new and amazing chapter. 66 Merry Christmas" THE familiar greeting. Is it so familiar as to have lost something of its significance? You sound the depths of Christmas in the idea, Christ-come. The coming of Christ changed the world. The change has gone on through the centuries. But that coming was intended to change it vastly more yet-so totally, indeed, that men still stagger at the conception when it is placed before them as the "vision splendid" of a realized Christianity. Christ has come but to a part of His own, and in part only to that part. His teachings are accepted, but only in part. They are too far above man's selfishness and greed and ambition as yet. The so-called Christian world would stand aghast if the principles of Jesus were by miracle suddenly to be put into control and operation everywhere. Even the Christian church would find a pretty thorough house-cleaning going on. But what a new world this would begin to be. Universal brotherhood. Love dominant and triumphant. That would mean "Merry Christmas" in true sense to the poor and downtrodden and homeless and hungry; but not less to the unhappy rich, the miserable luxurious. Wars, factions, classes, false distinctions, hatred, corruption, crime-these would disappear if Christ were really come in. every heart and become to each the life of life. The Negro in Northern Cities only the wages of menials, we have the working mother and the broken homes that mean degradation and peril. When, again, the Negro father is not held by the courts to the same accountability as the white bread-winner, there follows wife desertion, illegitimacy and kindred ills; when the "basket habit," or petty thieving, is winked at, larger thieving is bred; when the Negro voter is bandied and bought by ward bosses, his integrity is ruined when ability to pay the rent is all that is asked by landlords, moral degradation results. Here is a paragraph worthy of careful reading: "There is much in these articles to give countenance to Mr. Booker Washington's expressed belief that the masses of colored people are not yet fitted to survive and prosper in the great northern cities to which so many of them are WE referred last month to a special crowding. There are also, however, number of Charities which dealt with some phases of Negro life. The writers had possessed themselves of knowledge at first hand. Some of them were social settlement workers, some secretaries of societies engaged in philanthropic work, all experts in sociology. Most of the articles consider the Negro in the cities of the North, counting Baltimore in the list. Booker Washington tells why Negro business men should go South, instead of trying to fight an unequal struggle in the North. Questions of death rate, illiteracy, and of housing, are also considered. We shall avail ourselves here of some of the conclusions reached. Next to the matter of where to live, features of the studies that stand out clearly, says Charities, may be grouped about two words, "opportunity" and "responsibility." When the Negro is excluded from industrial opportunities, as in Chicago, the strike-breaker appears; when kept from decent streets and obliged to live beside the worst of his own race and of all races, we have the breeding of Negro criminals; when earning many indications of the beginnings of progress. Professor Boas, answering as an anthropologist, the questions as to how far the undesirable traits found in our Negro population are due to social surroundings, and how far to racial traits, insists that there is nothing to prove that licentiousness, shiftless laziness, or lack of initiative are fundamental characteristics of the Negro. On the contrary, Professor Boas finds that in his aboriginal home the Negro shows the traits of a healthy primitive people with a considerable degree of personal initiative, a talent for organization, an imaginative power, technical skill and thrift. The scientific presumption is that the Negro has the inherent capacity for progress, for civilization." This is one of the crucial points raised by the opponents of Negro education. Upon this and all other points at issue, the results of the careful investigation made by men and women interested in ascertaining the truth, and acting from the highest motives, are emphatically favorable to the colored people, and should greatly encourage their leaders. |