New Britain herald., 1919-10-14
PILGRIM MEMORIAL
 CAMP PAIGNERS MEET
Pennington Valley Association Is
 Working Hard

Connccticut's drive for the Pilgrim
 Memorial fund came to a section Of
 Hartford county on Monday evening
 when pastors and leading church
 mem bers from the Pennington Val
 ley Association of Congro gational
 churches were entertained at a de-
 lightful dinner in the house of the . Farmmg gtOn Country club. Some SeV-
 enty-tiVe people participated, mostly
 from the Congregational churches of Avon, Bristol, Burlington, Canton . Center, Collinsville, East Hartland, Pennington, Granby, Plainville, Sims ! bury, Tcrryville, Unionville, West
 Avon and West Hartland In addi : tion there were the managers of the campaign and the members of the , team which is working under Direc- 1 tor Beard.
 Rev. William s. Beard. formerly the ! pastor of the Congreg egational church , at Willimantic, who is directing the ! Connecticut campaign, is at present | secretary of prom otiOn of the Con- 1 | gregational Home Missionary society," | l Taking charge of the speaking, Which l l was held at the tables after the din- l 1 ner was over, he introduced Rev. l 1 Herman F. Swartz of New York, eX- | l ecutive secretary of the national com 1 missiOn Dr. SWartz ably presented | the purpose of the endeaNOr in which | | the Congrega tionalists of America are l now engaged, namely, the raising of l a national fund of 5000, ,000 to com memorate the three hundredth anni- | versary of the landing of the Pill 1 grims. The condition, he said, which faced l the thoughtful leaders of the churc h .aI,~ <J h. t,oe1r Of ably raising such a memorial, was such as to prevent them from hastily adopting any conventional plan. Even l a superficial view showed that it is 1 a time of crisis with the churches 1 which rest on the Pilgrim foundation. l They are losing ground in leadership. l Not a few of their pulpits are vacant. l It has to be confessed that the i standard of the men in those which
 are occupied is not, by average and 1 comparatively what 1t used to be. l More than that, young men are not ] coming to take the place of the old. 1 The shortage is serious already, and
 grows worse. And the reason for this
 is not difficult to find, for it is in the | low average of the salaries paid, an l average whose inadeQuacy glares in 1 the light of present economic con- l ditiOns. At a time when unanSWer- | able statistics show the minimum liv- | ing income for a family of five to be l from $1,500 to S1,700 a year, minis 1 ters with families of that and more 1 are in the Congregational churches | the country over receiving an average
 salary of S1,200. Less than 17 per cent of these ministers receive as much as $1,50O, and tWo-thirds of
 them get $1.00O or less. The result is apparent and inevitable Being in 1 the noblest vocation open to man l will not change the economic laws 1 any more than it will change the l physical laws, and will not enable
 man to live without money. These 1 vacancies in the profession are forced. 1 It was this in part which made it ! plain that the best way of honor- i ing the Pilgrim fathers would be to l establish a foundation on which might 1 again be reared the high prestige of 1 their ministry, which should express 1 i in terms of character and leadership 1 this ages appreciation of what they made possible in America. These are 1 ] some of the reasons why the Pilgrim | 1 fund is asked as a memorial, why it | l makes an unansWerable appeal to all | l who have any regard for the things | | for which New England stands. ( Dean Beard closed the speaking l with more detailed presentation of | the plan in Connecticut, expressing | satisfaction with the way the drive 1 has gone so far, and confidence that l Pennington valley will keep up the record. He then introduced the
 members of his team and the others who will speak on the fund in the churches of the association on Sun l
 day, October 19.
 Among those who participated in the dinner were:
 Rev. Herman F. Swartz, DID,, and Rev. William $. Beard of New York, Rev. Charles s. Murkland, D.D., of
 Hartford, Rev. Oliver Hart Bronson of Hartford Rev. Claude A. Butter field of Springfield, Rev. Orville T.
 Fletcher of Warehouse Point, Rev Elwell o. Mead of West Cornwall
 Rev. Howard A. Morton of Middle |
 town, Rev William o. Bercl1man of
 Stafford Springs, Rev. Henry J. Xiii
 bourn of Boston. Rev. Thomas H.
 Street of Ashland Mass, Rev. Edward
 P. Aver and secretary, Miss Lucy
 Payne, of Mansfield Center, Rev.
 Frank J. Goodwin, DID,, of Litch-
 field, Rev. Eugene B. Smith of South
 Birmingham, Mass. Rev. w. F. Jones
 of Nanticolle, Pa, Everett G. Hill of
 Hartford.
 Rev. Ernest l.. Wisn1cr Judge Ep-
 aphroditus Peck, MT. and Mrs. w. $.
 InGraham, MT and Mrs. C. r. Barnes,
 John T. Chidsey, Stephen NJ. Welles
 MT. and Mrs. Edson x. Peck, Mr. and
 Mrs. C.. T. Trcadway, Miss M, J. At
 wood. Morton c Broadway of Bris-
 tol, Rev. Quincy Blakely, Mrs. Her
 bert Knox Smith, Robert Porter Keep,
 D. Newton Barney, George G. Will
 Hams of Pennington, Rev. Edwin C.