Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-06-03
AMERICAN MISSIONARIES IN
THE GREAT CHINESE EMPIRE
Puy Men Women Dog-Par Played by the Various
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If China. or any part of the celestial
empire. should again rise against the hated
foreigner the first to feel the effects OF the
outbreak would be the missionary. DIT.
George e. Morrison, that veteran observer
of Chinese affairs. has just completed a
tour of the treaty ports, and in his sum-
ming up of the anti-foreign sentiment 1t Is
plain to be seen that, despite various reas7
surfing statements, he is not fully satisfied
the danger of turbulence is so far removed
as others less acquainted with Chinese
ways would have the world at large be-
lieve AS has been pointed out by dis
sector of Dr. Morrison's statement, 1t is not
reassuring for one thing, to be told that
1.-The position of foreigners in China is no
more insecure than it has been for fifty
years.
According to the latest available stats
tics. China has 21S5 Protestant and 914 Ro-
man Catholic missionaries now laborlnS
through its length and breadth, in every
province and dependency. These figures
are exclusive of the children of Protestant
missionaries many of whom actively en-
gage in the work at an early age, and OF
the various communities of the four orders
of brothers and thirteen orders OF sisters,
auxiliaries to the priests. The Catholics
support 1856 schools, 800 charities, and
reckon their converts at three-quarters of a
million.
OF the Protestant missionaries, thirty
three American societies maintain l,oso.
This is just few less than one-sixteentn
of the worlds total number OF Protestant
foreign missionaries. All of the societles,
except two that are set down as American
have their homes in this country lncluo-
ing British, continental and international
societies. sixty-eight are engaged In Chinese
work. Thus 1t is clear that the major part
of the burden of Protestant mission work
in the empire devolves upon the shoulders
of our missionary bands.
China of all the missionary lands beyond
the geographical sphere of the United
States, is the only one in which our mis-
sionarles assume the bigger part of the bur
den. True, we have more societies by Two
active in India than in China and our COM
bined missionary plant there is much larger
than the one in China, and the work 1t does
greater. Nevertheless. the th1rty-four BTU,
ish societies in Hindustan maintain several
hundred more missionaries, several score
more schools. hospitals and dispensarles,
and attend to the religious and physical
wants of several hundred thousand more
people Ninety-three organizations, all told,
are in India.
In China over one-half the patients treate-
ed at the various missionary hospitals and
dspensaries place themselves in the hands
of skilled American men and women. Near
L.
One half of the 10000 Chinese children and
young men and women in the day schools
and higher institutions of learning-coileges,
a university and theological seminaries-are
instructed by American teachers Only 500
less than one-half of the 112,00o native
Protestant communicates owe allegiance TO
American churches and chapels.
Our missionaries look after about 100000
British societies. Our physicians number
1877, the British SO, our hospitals and dis
pensaries, o. the British IA less. We main
tain OO3 schools of various kinds, the Brit
ish 759. Our missionaries, including the
physicians total 235 more than the British
force. They reside in 264 different places,
known as mission stations. Attached TO
these stations are 924 out-stationS, in direct
charge of native workers and under con-
slant supervision of the missionaries. The
native workers number nearly three thou
sand Besides the 53.000-odd communicates
of our churches and chapels, about thirty
thousand Chinese, technically known as ad-
herents to distinguish them from commu-
nicants. also come daily under the influence
of our little missionary army.
There Is one American missionary to every
375,OOe of China proper's vast population
and 12J6 square miles of its vast area.
For the Chinese empire the figures are, one
missionary to every 100000 inhabitants and
415O square miles of territory. In such a
comparison the entire empire should be con-
sidered since our missionaries are in two
of the dependencies. and all of the empire
is held to be a proper missionary field.
Thus there is an American missionary for
every one of the 1.037 Clevelands which
the population of China would make nu-
merically; a missionary for an area only
seven hundred square miles less than the
area of the Nutmeg state. Placing the en-
tire number of missionaries Catholic and
Protestant, at 1900 roughly. there is a
missionary for every LEGO square miles OF
territory "a Rhode Island in extenD and
every 100000 of population "a Scranton
almost, in heads.
The statements concerning American mis-
sionaries are exclusive of the American