Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1914-07-19
Indians

from Lima to Mollendo. with Bisho7
Homer &. Stuntz. who has the general
supervision of the Methodist EPISCOPAL
missions OF South America with his head
quarters AT RGenos Aires. He tells me
iaat there az. six North American Prot
rStant missionary BOARDS on this cont.
nen; These are the Methodist Episcopal
Southern Baptist. Protestant Fpiscora
anadisr Baptist. Methodist Episcopal
church South and the Presbyterian The
church having the largest force ~ mis-
sionaries is the Methodist Episcopal an.
next To i; IS the Presbyterian Includ
.ng the missionaries from Europe, there
are altogether abou; 90 Protestant mis-
SONAR, rnea and women. with more
than loo missionary stations and sub
stations. They have altogether 1900
communicates and adherents which IS
not very much n the population OF So
row has. They have Ia2 day schools
end foriy-two high schools with ahou;
1.d0a pupils. Among the institutions
doing .ntssion work is the Salvation
Army. which has something Axe - oo)
adhererts
Said Bishop Stuntz:
In the beginning about all We could
do was to carry on the schools. We
found that the people wanted to learn
English. ard me Rev. William Taylor
opened cha n % schools all along the
west coast. from fiGa.aqui.. IN Ecuador
to Conception, : C1'le. At one time we
had sixteen scnoc,s and all OF these were
supported by Tie buttons received. OF
late the governments have been more
interested In education and the schools
have been cut down to ten.
In Bolivia the interest OF the govern
ment in the educational work OF the
Methodist Church is so great that it has
recently made an annual grant % $4,000
for supporting two Of our boarding ane
day schools. and II expects 10 add some
thing toward the support OF girls
a frnf 1ira o ho IN,
Paz the American Institute with three
or four hundred students. This is the
largest school OF i;s kind In the republic
The new girls school will be at Cocha-
bamba. a town OF 5000 people on the
eastern slope of the Andes about 1<n
miles from La Paz.''
1 asked Bishop Stuntz about the mis-
sion work in Peru. He replied.
The outlook Is Encouraging The
Peruvian congress has just passed a lav
by a vote OF 66 to 1 granting liberty Of
worship throughout the republic This
the people have not had until now. al
though missions have been established
In certain localities.
Now the missionaries can go wher-
ever they please. and there will be plenty
OF opportunity to do work among the
Indians. as well among the other
classes of the people. This is regarded
as a great step toward freedom OF wor-
ship Ecuador secured religious liberty
six years ago The Argentine Republic
granted il nearly thirty years ago. ana
Uruguay still earlier. Brazil has not
only granted religious liberty. but IL nae
no established union OF ehaich anu
state.
But has all this heen the work Of the
missionaries?
Yes, to a large extent. Dr. Thomas
r. Wood. seconded by Dr. Trumouil o.
Valparaiso. has worked for the hbera'.z-
ing movement I'm all Of the countries ana
it is largely due to his efforts that e
ligious liberty has been secured. II mist
be remembered. however, tlat mans ~
the South American men do not h.lieve
in any religion They put themselves
down in the census as atheists or aF-
nostics. Indeed. it is safe to sdy that
there are at least 15.0n.ooo o. the South
American people who are without a'' re-
ligious faith at all.
Are Protestant missiona ries well ono n
South American"
Not by the people as a whole although
they are welcomed by some OF the Cow
ernments. Still. this is cha ngine. list
winter the Protestant Sunday Srhcc, So
cietv of Buenos Aires held de 1,,Iistra-
ton. There were 900 sunday sch' oil
scholars and teachers present and among
the guests were the leading member; Of
the Argentine congress. the edi- rs OF tbs
daily newspapers and the members u the
diplomatic corps. The woll erfvl work
that this branch is doing for the moral
welfare Of the Argentine peopi" came rs
a revelation to many of the citizens.
What do YOU think of 5outh Amerita
along ethical lines? Is there not an m
tellectuai and moral awake ains mo-" in
progress"
Yes You can see evidences of IL IN
the interest of all the governments III ut
cation. They are appropr!athg more TO-.
the schools and their plans for the next
five years include increases of more than
100 per cent Another proof is the ;:r"ae.r
number of young men who are gov 70
Europe and the United States foi higher
education. We have nov ov." ''' STU
dents from Latin Amor "a ~ cornell ni-
versity alone and there are cther> IN
many other colleges. Mos of these younk
men are studying engineering If one Kind
OF other
FRANK - CARPENTER.