The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-04-12
1.-THE SECULAR PRESS INVALUABLE TO MISSIONS
SAYS MRS. LUKE JOHNSON, SUPERINTENDENT OF
PUBLICITY OF WOMANS MISSIONARY COUNCIL


HAS much headway been made In this
direction / asked.
Our efforts in this line have been
strenuous, but so far not great deal has
been accomplished Only one conference,
| the Central Texas, is even approaching
| its possibilities in the use of the secular
press, issuing matter as 1t does to 1888 pa
] pers weekly. The total number of papers
| being used by all the conferences Is 54o,
but we are not persuaded that all of these
are doing a real inspirational or educa-
tive work as yet" said Mrs. Johnson.
1.-THE work of the past year IN the
press bureau has been heavy all along
the line" Mrs. Johnson continued. "The
| intents and purposes of the work are
not fully understood and the time mas
not been sufficient to make II luhuer-
stood In fact scarcely any of us refog-
nize what a great and powerful avenue
of service We may have both through
the church and the secular press. Ihe
committee on the home base IN tne
foreign mission conference of North
America in January, 1912, said: NO
board apparently has recognized the
fun value there would be in an adequate
service of publicity, and the policy OF
the most aggressive boards rails tar
short of what is needed, II the pest re-
suits ara to be secured
! u. v
same report said: Missionary facts are
the most vital facts and interesting
| facts in the world All we need is some
one to gather the facts and get them
into readable shape TO get any amount
| of space for the exploitation OF MISSION
airy news. Even a missionary magazine
would. not be as effective as the secular
press as 1t may be utilized, If we nave
lpersons of the proper capacity to do
the work. We ought to have the strong
lest editorial news collectors sending
out the news regularly. All 1t would
/ take would be proper business organi-
zation to do 1t and help to create an
atmosphere SO we could double our
missionary output in the next hve
+, years.
such is the opinion of these great
Headers of missionary enterprise
"The efficiency of the press then is
recognized in missionary work, sug-
gested
"The question of publicity for mis-
sionary facts is an all absorbing one In
many boards. The Laymen's Movement
deals with it constantly and is using
| this opportunity for exploitation to
great advantage was the reply. we
have been playing with the question
for some years in our Woman's work,
doing perhaps the best we could under
the circumstances. But the time has
now arrived when we must take ad-
vantage of IL vigorously If We are 10
accomplish through it anything that is
worth while"
| 1T seems to me that with the church
Ipress and the secular press no niche in
| all the civilized world could complain
of ignorance as to missionary work,
| [ observed
| That is just the thing we are en-
deavoring to do said Mrs. Johnson. I'm
-.
| ell in its last session, an effort has
been made to secure the selection of
one woman to edit the woman's page
| in each of the church papers. In re-
! sponse to this effort, department In
charge of one editor has been opened
| in the Baltimore and Richomnd Advo-
cate, the st. Louis Advocate and the
! New Orleans Advocate, these papers
having had no department before. The
Wesleyan Advocate, the Sentral Method
| ist the North Carolina Advocate, the
| in the Baltimore and Richmond Adco-
cate, the Laymen's Herald and the
! Western Methodist are now operating
with the one woman editor instead OF
many, as heretofore. The Florida Ad
vocate, the Midland Methodist and the
Texas Advocate have had one editor
| for some years. The Pacific Methodist,
| the Baltimore Methodist and the South
| ern Christian Advocate (South Carolina)
are the only papers which have not
adopted this policy of the council. The
| work in all these papers has been reg
ular and for the most part very good,
and some have been exceptionally good.
We are hoping. however, that with a
| little more time, we may be able to
make these pages of far more educative
value than at present.
| A recent investigation reveals that
our conference organs have subscrip-
ton list of 126,550. According to the es
innate made by these editors of these
papers have reading public of $50, 500.
The specific objection of the press
Cor publicity" said Mrs. Johnson in
conclusion, lis to reach our constituency
and the public with news and facts
touching our own and other missionary
activities. Our plan for the accom-
plshment of this purpose is through
tile bulletin. the auxiliary, the church
press and the secular press