The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-10-24
MIS- SI0NARY MEETING.
Negroes in Session Yesterday at
New London.

New London Conn. Oct. 23.-Rev.
Washington Gladden. of Ohio was to-
day reelected president of the Ameri-
can Missionary Association. Among the
speakers at the closing session were
Mary e. Westgate of Blowing Rock.
N. c.; Ella Sheppard of Nashville,
Tenn; Helen H. Proctor of Atlanta.
An address was made by Rev. H. H.
Proctor of Atlanta in connection with
a report on Southern church work. by
Rev. w. NJ. Noyes of Massachusetts,.
LAS a race" said Proctor. I'VE form
one-tenth of the nation and one-third
of the South. We shall contribute at
least that proportion toward tearing
down or building UP. There are 7,000,0 900
in the South. and of these at least A.
100000 are outside of any church--as
many as were set free a generation
ago. One half the black race Is I'M
churched and one-half Of the existing
churches are totally incompetent to
meet the religious needs OF their menu
are yet unprepared mentally and spir-
itually to properly minister to the peo-
pie.
mo other denomination has built as
many schools amongst us as the Con-
gregation a,1ists and no other leading
denomina ton has so few churches. The
success of your school work makes the
expansion of your church work imper-
alive.
There is real breach between the
old church and the new negro. Unless
it be filed we shall reap a crop of
black inf1dels. The best way to fill
that breach is to multiply Congrega-
tional churches in the South. The
young negro to-day Is doing an i'm
mense amount of thinking. He Is
thinking on questions of religion. Tn
less the church can answer the deep
questions he Is bordering and pro-
pounding he will turn away from it,
In his annual address to-day, Presi-
dent GLADDEN. said:
What a tremendous problem still Is
this problem of the negro race at the
South. There have been times when it
seemed to us that we we're getting il
pretty well out Of our hands, but no
such posi- bility is now in sight. 1t was
never a more serious question than 1t
is to-day.
"The men who are seeking to Coop
crate with the Southern people In pro-
noting the general cause of education
at the South have undertaken a most
patriotic service. Their efforts are not
directed towards the education of the
negro, it is the promotion OF education
in the whole country irrespective of
race sex or creed to which they have
pledged themselves. 1t is not merely
an educa tional crusade Of the North
in the South; Southern men are in the
front Of it: the North is rising In re-
spouse to the call of the South, with
the purpose of using its larger re-
sources where they are needed most.
Education prosecuted along these
lines must result in more intelligent
and hndlier public sentiment toward
the negro, and In a better estimate of
his rights and capabilities.
'"This powerful movement toward the
spread of education in the South must
also create tremendous demand for
well trained teachers, and the burden
thus thrown upon our colleges and
secondary schools will be greatly in
creased Those measures by which in
most Of the Southern states the negro
has been practically disfranchised rep
resent an omnous but not permanent
tendency. The disfranchsement of ig-
norance or of moral worthlessness is
not to be deprecated. but the drawing
of the line of political privilege between
the ignorant white man and the ig-
norant bla ok man is a wrong that can
not endure. 1t can only be justified
by the deliberate purpose to reduce the
race to a subject condition. The
Southern people are essentially a chiv-
alrous people and they can't build their
citizenship on any measure of injustice
to the weak. They must prevail be-
cause this is Christian age and a
Christian nation, and he who counts
the poor and needy among his friends
has come TO reign and will reign until
he has put all his enemies under his
feet