The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1916-12-15
Federated Church Delegates
Heard the Reports
WEALTH OF THE NEGROES
Own Farms and Homes Valued
At Billion Dollars; Work
In Cities
ASSOCIATED Press Dispatch1
From THURSDAYS Daily,

st. Louis, Mo-, December PRO
gress of the American negro and
in the report of the Home Missions
Council presented today to the Fed
eral Council of Churches of Christ in
America. There was no mistaking
the decided progress which is at last
being made in the history of the
American Indians" says the report.
1--WE long have heard of a vanishing
race, of paganism and superstition
among the native American tribes
But now new story is rapidly un-
folding, of a protected race more than
holding its own in population, of the
rapidly disappearing remnants of
heather practices, of a generation of
educated Christian men, of racial
leadership and vision, of alert, en-
terprising Indian citizens and church
members.
Spirit of Cooperation
THE spirit of comfy and Coop
Grafton in the Indian work has been
notably increased. In fact the mis-
sion work for the native American
race has been in a remarkable way
the means of drawing the divided
Protestant organizations into mutual
understanding
1.-The boards of the Home Mission
Council have practically agreed to
respect the possession of Indian mis-
sion fields without overlapping, and
to refer disputes to the council or it's
Indian committee. The neglected
and partially evangelical tribes of
Indians have been divided up for the
attention of the denominations best
prepared to supply the need in each
case"
Fifty years ago, only ten per cent
of the negro population in the south
could read. Today seventy in every
hundred can read and write. They
have erected and control 200 private
institutions of learning.
Negroes Own Homes.
"a half million negroes own homes
and farms valued at a billion dol
lars; 1000 patents have been enter
ed in the patent office by colored
people; 10000 negroes are engaged
as architects, electricians, photo
graphers, druggists, physicians,
owners of department stores, mines,
cotton mills, dry goods stores and
wholesale houses. They publish 400
newspapers. Wisely the colored man
has turned from the crowded cities
to the open country in the south.
Forty per cent of all agricultural la
borers in the south are negroes.
There are evidences that cannot be
tabulated of growing interest "a
mong the educational leaders both
north and south, but especially in
the south, in providing the negro
with better and stronger training"
Regarding the work of churches
in cities, the report says:
Work of Churches in Cities.
Zone sermon a week to a selected
audience of few hundred people is
likely to be very satisfactory to this
chosen company, while it is totally
inexcusable extravaganza OF the
Lords money. Releasing us from
unnecessary UNCONVENTIONAL compe-
tition may permit us to cash in many
millions of dollars of unearned in
crement on our real estate, with the
consequence that vast funds will be
released and ample energies liberia
ted by which every section or every
city can have an adequate admin
stration representative of the types
of our faith properly needed and
reasonably proportional to the mag
nitude of the task.
"The Home Missions Council has
faith that we can contribute substan-
italy to the welfare of our common
religious work by making scientific
study of a large list of the various
types of distinctly successful city
churches. Having once made such
a study, it is proposed that the ma
terial thus gathered shall be digested
so as to yield body of knowledge
as to the underlying and effective
reasons, and then to yield body of
practice which may constitute some
thing of the art of conducting such
organizations"
Not the Time for Peace.
The present is not opportune for
definite overtures looking to peace
in Europe, the federal council was
told today in the quadrennial report
of Rev. Charles S. Mcfarland, of
New York, general secretary. Rev.
DR.. mcfarland told of his trip to
the religious leaders of Europe. The
report said in part: "a mistaken
movement for peace at this time
might work incalcuable harm and
delay.
"The general attitude in Germany
has undergone a marked change
from the manifest spirit of bitterness
at the beginning of the war to their
present attitude of Christian recon-
Citation, which they declare to be
without reference to the political
differences they still maintain. be-
lieve they might easily be ready for
an adjustment on the assumtion of
the situation before the war, in other
words, on even terms. The allies,
however, especially France, are not
ready for this.
Conditions In France.
France is invaded territory; the
high spirit of her people is thorough
ly aroused. Her immediate mood
would impose preliminary conditions
which preclude even the idea of con-
ference. This, however, would be
entitled to some discount were me
issue clearly joined, and especially
were she persuaded to place con-
fidence in the ethics of her foe. This
uant of confidence of course is de-