The Newtown bee., 1897-05-21
Local Affairs.
THE LAND BEYOND THE MISSISSIPPI.

AN INFANT NO LONGER, BUT A GIANT
 THAT NOW AND THEN MAKES THE
 EAST FEEL ITS POwER.--THE INTER-
 EsTING ADDRESSES OF REV CHARLES
 W. SHELTON.
 This is the second time within three years that Rev Charles w. Shelton, Field Secretary of the Congregational Home Missionary Society, has favored a NewtOwn audience with a visit. 1t is matter for earnest congratulatiOn that to offer, does not confine himself to the large churches, which in the very nature of things, are the large givers, but often turns from the beaten paths to give the smaller places a close and stimulating touch with the world that thrObs and moves. MT Shelton, expressing it mildly, is a good speaker. There is nothing artificial about what he says his subject is his life, in it he breathes his vital air. He has only one aim in his addresses, to make his hearers feel that home missionary work demands their sympathy and must enlist their support. He accomplishes his aim.
 A large audience greeted MT Shelton at the morning service in the CoDgre- gational church, last Sunday, and they listened to him with keen attention from his first word to his last. We can- not give B report of what he said (every word weighed pound) we can only catch thought here and there. Prof Fiske and other historians have clearly stated that nations life is the out growth of it's religious faith. Our his- tory is stamped with the impress of what our missions ries have believed. Marcus Whitman believed in saving the great Northwest to the American nation. In his far western home he heard that by the terms of the treaty either England or the United States could have this territory for the taking of it, and he also heard that our govern ment cared nothing about it. Daniel Webster said: "If it required the lifting of my land or the investment of dollar to save the whole Northwest, 1 would not make the movement or advise the investment" Entreated by his friends not to attempt it, his Indian guides leaving him, his horses falling under him, in the dead of winter Whitman made the great journey from Oregon to our national capital, and, by putting the value of the great Northwest clearly before Congress, saved this peerless territory to the Union. The home mis- sionary church made itself felt during the Civil War. Of the male members of these churches one in every four en- listed in the Union ranks, and many of the churches were closed because all the men had gone to the front.
 There are huge problems confronting our nation, and with some of these problems the Congregational Home Missionary Society is graphing hard to- day. One of these is the problem of education. Wendell Phillips said that the rock which lay in the channel of our onward progress as nation and rock of ignorance. The schools and colleges of the Home Missionary So- ciety all through the new Western States show how one agency for good is meeting this problem. There is the problem of immigration. Senator Ed munds, just before his retirement from office, said that this was the greatest problem of the last administration and the greatest problem of the present administration, how to do and what to do with the mass of humanity entering at every portal of our nation; 2,00O ina migrants day every day for 20 years I have landed on our shores. Our gain IT l population in 20 years has been 24,OOO, GOO. Of this number 5000, 900 have come from foreign lands, and lO,0OO,0Ot are the children of foreign born parent age, making 1s,oOO,Ooo increase in 2t years which is, to sll intents and pnr DO es, foreign in thought and training Ten years ago the Home Missionary Society had not one in its pay who va