The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-10-13

ords-.the year ending in Juno, 1907, brought nearly million and a half is in good part responsible for awak- ening of the churches of North Amer lea to a serious consideration of their part in the national assimilation of the immigrant. The theme is now to the fore in various religious gatherings, and in all the church papers. It has been made a special subject of study with new text books. by tens of thou sands of members of young peoples societies, and Sunday Schools and mis- sionary organizations. This fall all the Rally Day" services held in at least one great denomination, the Pres- byterian, were directed to devote their collections to the one object of home missionary work among the immi- grants. A number of important recent publications, including Prof. Edward A. Steiner's ''On the Trail of the Im- migrant" John R Commons Races and Immigrants in America" and DE, H. B. Crosses "The Incoming Millions" have been designed chiefly for circu- lation among church people.
 Another tangible evidence of the widespread increase of interest in the immigrant Is the growth of mission churches for foreign speaking persons. and the great increase of colporteurs to distribute literature among such. At present this is the most accented feature of the home mission work now being carried on by the great denomi- nations. The carefully organized agencies of these denominational boards are at work systematically stir ring up interest in this theme. If the newcomer is not given a neighborly welcome, and assisted to become a law abiding American, the fault will not be with the officials of the churches.
 Undoubtedly it is true that to some extent the churches are being scared into this extraordinary activity. They see visions of the crowdlng out of the Christian institutions, such as Sunday, even as scores of individual churches have been crowded out of the down town sections of the great cities by the tide of alien population. The question is being put in some quarters not as What shall We do with the immigrant" but as What will the immigrant do with us?" The tendency to concentrate in the great cities (more than so per cent of the non English speaking immigrants settle in IS per cent of the territory Of the United States), and the increase of crime by aliens, are subjects which press themselves upon the attention of the serious minded.
 The thousands Of study classes In the churches of America which are now considering this question, are one of the important influences beneath the surface of national life which yet pow erfully affect destiny. Because the Christian sentiment. which still dom mates the country when 1t is exerted, is concerned over the moral better ment of the immigrants, there Is bound to be a steady lifting up of all the standards affecting them.
 Y. M. c. A. Experts at Work. Among the men and women who per sonify Christianity's welcome to the strangers at Ellis Island, and the other principal ports of entry into America, may be found representatives of the Y. M. c. A. This is a new departure for the association. It Is only the be- ginning of a work from which a great deal will be heard later. Now these