Iowa state bystander. [volume] (Des Moines, Iowa) 1894-1916, 1914-08-28
AFR0:AMER|CkN CULL|NCS

Fifty years OF neglect have engen.
dered conditions which the newborn
zeal of southern whites, armed with
all the wisdom which modern social
science can furnish, will be hard put
TO to combat. And alas! the south
had first to forge her own weapons,
nay, even to build the forge. In all
the south there was no training school
for social workers, few social experts,
few libraries Of social science. The
single library Of Columbia university
contains more valuable books than are
owned by all the colleges of the south
put together.
So the first thing was to train lead
ers, all the way from district nurses
to sanitary engineers. The new south
is daring, 1t not only contemplated a
school for social workers whose fac.
ulty of white experts should teach in
negro department as we'll as in
classes of their own people, but 1t
dreamed of rallying seven religious de.
nominations to the support OF the
training school. The dream has come
true. The American Interchurch Col.
lege for Religious and Social Work.
ers opens its doors on the 14th of
January. The negro department,
opened on the f1ftieth anniversary of
the proclamation of emancipation, has
been in operation almost a year. The
school has astutely sat itself down in
the shadow OF Vanderbilt university
and Peabody college Draining school
for normal teachers) in order to es'
tablish cooperative triad, no one
of the colleges duplicating the ad'
vantages of the other two, students of
one passing freely to lectures in the
others. Since the negro department
Is situated at little distance (and al
20 because negro students in the south
do not go to a white college,, profess
sors and social experts from the north
will repeat their addresses at Nash
Vile Institute for Negro Christian.
Workers.
Economy is achieved by this happy
arrangement. Each Of the seven co.
operating denominations will eventu.
ally have its own training-school on
the campus, building and owning their
own halls and giving at their own ex'
pense all instruction In denomina'
ticnal doctrine, polity and methods
while the Interchurch college pro-
vides q faculty to give all courses
which can be- taken in common by all
the students. This amounts to about
four-f1fths of the whole curriculum.
The social service library, already
opened, will be at the command OF
all, and chapel, gymnasium and ad'
ministration building for common USE
No such audacfous system Of church
cooperation has yet been launched IN
America, nor do l know its parallel
anywhere. 1t is estimated that the
maintenance of seven distinct denom1'
national schools with seven distinct
faculties would require an annual out
lay of $1O5,O Yet the seven, to-
gether with the training schools main
tanned by the Y. M. C. A. and Y. w.
C. A. can be handled comparatively Tor
$4,000 a year. The savit-g is actual
too. for the demand for social work
ers of every sort is so strong through
out the south that the denominations
would be compelled to build indepen'
IDENTIFY had it not been for the inter.
church college. The south is full
OF the raw material for social WORK.
college men and women who want
only expert training to make the finest
kind Of instruments. The south needs
not imported northern experts Dut
home-bred workers who know their
ground.-Mary Bronson Hartt In
Washington I'd. CO. Star.
In these days of great acnleVe-
ments it is possible to reach helgnts
before. unknown by short cuts. Inc
Japanese have assimilated western
civilization in about half century
from the time, in 1853. when Commo-
dore Perry of the United States navy
first entered the harbor. of Tokyo, the
capital Of Japan, and forced the Jap
anese to give up their policy OF isola-
ton and nonintercourse with foreign
nations. There is no question tnat
the colored people have assimilated
American civilization in 300 years OF
contact and are today the equals OF
tho other varieties which make up
cosmopolitan America. -.
The difference between the literacy
Of the white and colored peoples Is
not SO great as the census would seem
to indicate. The dense mass OF ignor-
ance Is in the South, and the diner
eHce between the literacy OF the
southern colored man and the south
ern white man is very small. In Chi
cago, owing to the large foreign popu.
htion and the fact that all native
citizens have had equal advantages,
there Is probably less illiteracy among
the colored people than among the
whites. :
Russia has 81, 612 miles Of navigable
inland waterways; Germany, 11,2s3;
France, 1852: England, 1905; Hol-
land, $3.50; Sweden, 3,1S7, and Bel
gfum, lao.
The value OF gold produced In the
Gold Coast and Ashanti during 1912,
was $3,O45, 1866. the largest production
on record. {;
III There are 1897 British gas conpa-
MES In ENGLAND and Wsles. $50 In
Scotland, no In Ireland, ISL in Austria
la and "a In other British possessions.
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