The Indianapolis journal., 1896-11-20
Y. M. C. A. CONVENTION
TWENTY-SEVENTH ANNUAL SESSION
OF THE STATE ASSOCIATION.
Address by Foreign Secretary l.. ID.
Wishard-State Secretary Tracy
Makes His Annual Report.

met in this city this morning at 10 o'clock
and will be in session four days. Among
the prominent men of the association who
will be here are w. S. Roney. of Terre
Haute; o. NJ. Gregg, of this city; John f.
Wallick, of Indianapolis, the State treas
urer: l.. III. Wales, of Indianapolis: S. Nj.
Coulter, of South Bend; q. l.. Reeves, of
Columbus: c. III. Newton, of Fort Wayne;
James Burwick. Professor c. A. Waldo, of
Purdue University; L. o. Wishard, foreign
secretary of international committee, of
New York city; Henry III. Wikel, of Indian
apolis; j.. S. McPheeters, of ST. Louis; {.
j. Buchanan of Indianapolis: Hugh Jane
son, of New Albany, and DIR. Joseph Swain,
OF Bloomington.
The formal opening services consisted
mainly of prayers and songs. This after
noon the Women's Auxiliary served lunch.
and the regular business of the association
was taken uD. AT the sessions OF to-day
l.. ID. Wishard foreign secretary of the in
ternational committee, made an address Oh
''WilE the Association of Indiana Obey or
Disobey the Last Command of Jesus?" and
also on 1.-The Relation of the Association
to the Worlds Evangelization." The after
noon service opened at 2:l5 by Mr.. Shook
leading i'm several songs. o. NJ. Gregg then
stated that owing to the absence OF Mr.
Roney, president, Mr.. Jamison would take
temporary charge. The following commit
tee on nominations was announced by Mr..
Gregg: Messrs. Clark, Whitehead and La
gus The committee reported the follow
ing: For president George Wishard, OF In
dianapols; vice president, Rev. G. w.
Switzer, of West Lafayette; secretary, I'll.
A Prushing, South Bend first assistant
secretary, l.. A. Knapp. of Elkhart; second
assistant, +. q. Kenny, Of Franklin Col
lege; treasurer, j. f. Wallick. of lndianap-
oils. These were all elected The commit
tee OH credentials is composed of Il. n. Ew-
Ing A. d. Paul, r. S. Self; business COM
mittee, Theodore Gatchell, d. ID. Hams, j..
Lewis; finance committee. Messrs. Water,
White, Wallick, Hanson and Beebe.
Then followed the report of +. l.. Tracy,
State secretary. 1t showed that the Craw-
fordsville association had 260 members; Ev-
ansville. 42O; Fort Wayne, $50; Indianapolis,
1857: Marion 800: New Albany. 242: Roches-
ter. 52; South Bend. $40: Terre Haute, 3s4 (;
Brightwood. 235; Columbus, Ill: Fort
Wayne Railroad 400, and Logansport. Pa.
Wayne Logansport, Brightwood. Columbus
and Anderson. College associations are at
Valparaiso. North Manchester, Lafayette,
Charlottesville, Indianapolis, lrvington,
Richmond Terre Haute (two), GreencaStle,
Bloomington, Marion. Mitchell. Hanover
and Moores Hill. The total membership In
the State of all branches is 6,9ol; active
me embers, 1854; committeeman. LOIS; cur
rent expenses, $50 069; volumes in the libra
ry, 6366, valued at $3Sl5; value or furniture,
$24 325: value of buildings and real estate,
1923 600; debt now funded for S26,0'O- In the
several colleges in the State there are 61i2
persons. of whom ,392 are church members
State associations the daily average attend
ance has been 1888; numbers or men
meetings 1.326. with an average attendance
of JOS. There were 1,290 Bibie classes con-
Quoted with an average attendance or Z59.
From the annual report Of the state ex-
ecutive committee the following Is taken
Total number of associations in State. 81,
being an increase of one, that or Hocnester,
college associations. 16; city and railroad.
10. While the State executive committee rs
chiefly responsible for all the State work,
its success depends largely on its agents.
and especially on the State secretary, Il:
+. Stacy. of Indianapolis. graduate OF
Iowa College. who was engaged in July.
1882 as assistant State secretary. and on
the retirement OK State Secretary Hum
phrey. was chosen 10 fill that vacancy; V.
w. Helm, of Terre Haute. assistant state
secretary has proven himself to be the
right person for the position.
are too small and a State association build
ing Is recommended. During the year
rearly 5000 letters and cards and l2o tele.
grams were required, and 2oOOO pieces OF
printed and duplicate matter. including To-
600 copies of folders concerning the state
work and 1.500 copies of the annual State
report were sent out. Nearly $4,000 have
been raised to pay off the mortgaged debt
and making provisions for part of the
current expenses Tor two years at Evans
Vile and the final completion or the cam
paign at New Orleans The total mem
bership is 6961, as compared with 6.i6o "a
year ago, over half of these being active
members Committeeman have been in
creased from $50 TO 1036; current expenses,
from $49. .493 to $50. .061: total value of real
estate. 1922. 900: total Indebtedness not pro-
40 n-n han nor nf
the total value of the asSociations S property
in the State. and seven of the eleven build
ings are now practically out of debt.
The efficiency of the college work has
been more than doubled during the past
four years. At the beginning of the pres
ent college year Mr.. Helm was in the field
in charge of the college work and has Wis
tied all the associations once. IL. T.. Cole
man, of Marion. has organized an associa-
tion at the Central Academy at Plainfeld.
and the association at Hartwell College is
still in existence. A request for an or
ganization at Oakland City College has
been received A year ago so.eoo was set
apart for the expenses of the ensuing year.
but the State committee cut this down to
5000. The total amount raised during the
the history Of the Statae. The current eX-
pense bill is paid. portion of the $500 re-
mains of the inherited debt. and enough
unpaid subscriptions considered good: to
pay the rest. o. l.. Foss. formerly Indian
apolis physical director, now dead, during
his last hour expressed certain wishes con-
CernlnR his estate, one DclnS tlldI SlUU ne
given to the State work, and this amount
has been placed in the endowment fund.
The plan Of a business mems dinner was
carried out at the Denison Hotel. at In
dianapolis. on April 2S. where thirty-three
Indiana cities and towns were represented,
with 160 men. Among these were twenty
railroad officials and almost half the COL
lege presidents of the State. The executive
committee recommends that $500 should
be raised for the coming years work: sys-
tematic cooperation of all the associations
i'm carrying out thoroughly the State day
plan adopted at the WinOna conference;
more systematic observance of the week
of prayer for young men and the day of
prayer for colleges.
After William Stacy's report L. ID.
Wishard made comparison between twenty
years ago and nov; Twenty years ago
young men being fitted for the work-noth-
ing greater than Sunday school work. Mr..
r. w. Ober of Chicago, managing editor
of Men. thinks there has been great
changes in Y. NJ G. a. railroad work: much
good work has been done and, contrast of
the past with the present shows great i'm
provement The railroad branches have
greatly increased in membership and in
the interest taken in the past nine years
The night session opened with a song
service, scripture reading by Rev. Leech
and prayer by Rev. Creighton. both of this
city. In the absence of General Wallace
the address of welcome was delivered by
w. T. Wilmington. In part he said: ION
behalf of our association. pastors
churches and citizens we bid you welcome to
our city of schools. churches, true women
and strong men. the home or Maurice
Lew Wallace and of Henry S. Lane. Nine
years ago the State con, ention assembled
in this city. and your coming gave us this
association O. NJ. Gregg was selected as
president, and With the help given him our
association is INDEBTED Tor is present stand.
ing. We are largely indebted for our horn.