Franklin's paper the statesman., 1912-09-21

Harrisburg.-Acco to the latest
report of the bureau of industrial sta
tistics for the state of Pennsylvania,
the number Of Afro-A Americans owning
property In Philadelphia, Pittsburgh
and 105 cities and towns in the state is
as follows: Philadelphia, 1,OSO, with an
assessed valuation of $2,SO1,275. The
market value of these holdings is put
at $3,735, 900
In Pittsburgh the number of Afro
American property owners is 643, with
an assessed and market valuation of
S1.437,060 and S2,153 $50 respectively.
In eightyseven towns and cities the
number of property owners is 1912
and the assessed and market value of
their property is S1,351. .217 and $2,316,-
S65. In the remaining eighteen towns
the record shows 57S owners of prop
erty, with total assessed and market
valuation of S1.2l4,5OO. The grand to-
tai is as follows: Number of property
owners, 3,3T3: valuation, S9.420. 1875.
A great deal of the property of Ne
groes is in churches. Among the vari
Gus influences which the church mas
| had has beeu the encoura cement of CO.
operative buying of church properties.
Many Negroes learned for the first
time what II deed meant or a builders
contract or II mortgage, etc, from his
participation in church buying and
l 10
ported in 1906 that Negroes owned
about SJS.0OOOO0 worth of church
property in the United States
OF this fully SJO.O0O.OOO worth was
unencum bered AS will be seen. Penn
sylvania Negroes own more than their
share, which is due largely to the fact
that in this state Negro churches took
| root very early and have always been
encouraged as one of the influential
factors for the better development OF
the race.
There are about 100 Baptist churches
in the state of Pennsylvania. b,ss only
seventy-three of them reported their
value. which was put at S7S5. go. I'm
average Of about $3.50 each These.
of course. were the best properties,
includes about fifty which are more or
less temporary and own but little
property.
If the average of these 100 Baptist
churches is 81 900. that would give an
additional S1UO.GOU of church property
and II total of SSsl.2:;O. the value of
the sropert" of Negr" Raptists There
are 1876 African Methodist churches In
the state. of which 1876 are of the At
rican Methodist Episcopal denonina
ton and sixty African Methodist
Episcopal Zion denomination.
or the former 1O6 reported at the
last conference session property
valuation of $1067,213. Allowing a
valuation of S100 each for the thirty
six not reported, we have 136 proper
ties of the African Methodist Episco-
pal church in the state of Pennsyl-
vania valued at S1O97.213. OF the
latter. forty-six reported property
valued at $j53.S24. an average of about
$4,000 each. If the average value
of the remaining fourteen African
Methodist Episcopal Zion churches Is
81 600 the total valuation would be
about $567 .S24
There were fourteen Presbyterian
churches whose value is estimated at
$190,0oo and eight Episcopal churches
valued at about 100000. There are
number of Negro congrega tions Of the
Methodist Episcopal church. the chief
ones being in Philadelphia and Pitts
burgh. They own about S25OOOO
worth Of property.
Other churches are the A. q. NJ. p.
the Church of God, Congregational G.
NJ f. church. and several independent
churches who own property valued at
about 100000. This would pcake the
total amount of church property owned
by Negroes approximately. as follows:
Baptists. 1885, ,23O: A. NJ. E.. 1.O67 213:
A. NJ. e. Zion. S5GT.S24; Methodist
(north). S2J0,0G0; Presbyterian, $780,.
900: Episcopaian. 100000: other de-
nominations. 100000. Total value Of
church property, S3.1GO.2G7.
BY the above 1t is seen that in the
cities Of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh
the assessed value of property. ex-
elusive of churches. is S4.23S .335; that
in cighty-seven other cities and towns
the assessed value of 1912 properties
is $1.351 .2l1. making n total of $5.-
5S9.552. having market value of $S.-
205. .6S5.
To this market value must be added
the estimated holdings OF Negroes in
eighteen other cities and towns with
market value Of S1.2145QO and $3.-
100. .2GO. the value of church property.
making total Of S12.5SO.45J as the
value holdings of Negroes In this state.
If we consider the difficulty of OBJ
tanning data. and scan carefully the
list Of places reported. we must con-
clude that this estimate Is possible ~
per cent under the real holdings OF
Negroes In the state. II Is estimated
that they own property. the most CON