The Nashville globe. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1906-193?, 1912-04-19

j. Plnn0ck Would De made the ScnOOl Ueacn-
er or lay preacher or catechiser and would
live in the preachers rooms at Pedro Mi
guel, and that he (the young white MANI
would have the oversight of both, Rev.
Pinnock preaching alternately in his absence
while he was preaching at the other two
churches; that the Empire Church would
be looked after by Mr.. Whit, of Colon, who
would in the same way alternate from
Colon and possibly one other station and
Empire, and that a colored man would be
appointed to assist him; that there would
be no more colored preachers regularly or
dained on the Isthmus Of course, we
laughed heartily at this, and did not hide
the fact from the brethren that such pro-
position had been made to our Board, or
was expected to be made to our Board, and
that the matter had been left in the hands
of the Secretary to make such arrange
ments that the Secretary of the Home Mis-
sion Board of the Southern Baptist Con-
vention thought best for the good of the
work. We then got free and full express
sion from the brethren, all of which we
desire not to quote in public print. We
told the brethren to talk freely with us
tell us everything. We then asked Rev.
and Mrs. Thourbourne to invite Mrs. Car
rington, of Colon, to take an evenings
of amusement, and leave the Secretary and
officers to themselves, which they readily
accepted, and we had free, heart to heart
talk with the brethren of the three churches
and found out many things that are not
lawful to utter. However, we found that
both Rev. and Mrs. Thourbourne stood high
with the members of the church, and with
the public in general We found out that
the day we attempted to turn over the
property to a white pastor, we would lose
our membership and our hold upon the
people. We assured the brethren that we
had no intention of turning over this work
to any body until we had given them an
opportunity to express their wishes We
went over the whole ground, and showed
them that there was the most friendly and
fraternal relation between ourselves and
the Southern Baptists, and that they had
greatly helped us in our missionary work,
and that we knew each member of the
Home Mission Board of the Southern Bap-
fist Convention was deeply interested in all
of our work, that they would by no means
take advantage of us knowingly, and that
if anything was going wrong among the
workers or employees of the Southern Bap-
fist Convention on the Zone, we conscien-
tiously believed that it was all hidden from
DR.. Gray, the secretary, and from the men,
bers of the Board. We said to them that
when the lawsuit was over, whether we won
or lost, we would return home and have
full and free conference with DR.. Gray and
the members of the Board and with our
Board, and that we felt like assuring them
that no man would be left in the Zone who
was not desirable character with the
brethren and sisters of the Zone; that while
the property was decided to and in the pos
session of the National Baptist Home Mis-
sion Board, yet this property was for their
benefit, and that we were praying for the
day when they would become self-support-
ing and self-controlling, and as fast as they
could become self-supporting, we would
turn over the property to board of church
officers This pleased the brethren great
ly. We said to them further that we felt
sure that in case such an arrangement was
made to have all the work done under one
Board it would be done according to the
wishes of the people; that if they desired
colored Baptist ministers, and would make
application direct to either of the Boards,
this would be done. We assured them that
the Baptists of the South believe that Ne
groes can best preach the gospel to Ne
groes, and that they believe in helping Ne
groes to help themselves.
The brethren then asked now IL was CnaC
Rev. Thourbourne could not act as an as
sistant and associate chaplain of the United
States government just as the white
preachers had done, so that he might have
time to visit the hospitals and other asy-
lums. l told them that we had made no
application as yet to the government, but
if there was no change made in the work,
it was highly probable that such an appli-
cation would be made and that one or more
assistants would be sent to assist Rev. Thor
bourne, and allow him to take the place Of
superintendent of the work, travelling
over all parts of the Zone each week or
remaining in the preachers home at Pana-
ma City, the headquarters. We then as
sured the brethren that our Board was
very very poor. That the average wages
among our men and women in the States
would not be equal to the wages on the
Zone, all things being taken into considera-
L;ov +bo+ o,,,. missionary Tn0nnxy had tn be