Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1919-09-10

private agencies and through til
headquarters OF the great America
| missionary societies. IN the cours
LOT time the Interchurch World Move
ment expects to, have on file ma
OF every county In the United State
which will show every railroad, trol
ley line, road, village, hamlet, church
lodge, school. and where every isola,
ed farm house stands In relation {
some church or other religious cen
tier.
1 The Interchurch World Movemen
Is a cooperative effort Of the mission
larry boards church extension socie
ties, and similar benevolent agencie
OF all the evangelical churches to worl
Iout unified Christian program.
IS not movement for organic churcl
union. On the contrary. II expect
each denominational society to pre-
serve it's own identity and work witt
its own machinery. The idea II Il
make : systematic and complete stud!
OF everything that is to be done AMI
to have all the Constituent bodieI
get together and agree upon which
part Of the work each Is to undertake
The movement originated last fal
with certain members Of the Foreign
missionary Board OF the Presbyterian
church, South. Acting upon sug-
gestion from these men, 1876 repre-
sentatives Of various missionary So
cieties OF many denominations met. in
New York City in December. This
conference decided that something
Of the kind could be. done and appoint
ed committee Of 20 leaders In var
ious churches to work out q plan.
The committee Of 20 worked out q
system Of cooperation It thought
would be satisfactory. To consider
it, general conference was called
at Cleveland, Ohio, in May. This
conference was attended by 500 dele
gates representing 200 different re-
ligious agencies. It amplif1ed and
approved the plan and. from that
movement, the Interchurch World
Movement was an accomplished fact.
The general committee includes such.
well known leaders % Stephen Bak-
or, Fred B. Smith, James L. Spears,
Warren 8. Stone, r. p. Haggard. Ray
mond Robins, and John Willis Blair.
8. Earl Taylor, executive secretary Of
the Methodist Centenary organisation,
is general secretary. John r. Mott.
international head Of the Y. M. G. "A.
is chairman Of the executive commit
tee. 81
Realizing that no adequate program
Of cooperation could be worked out
until all the facts were known, the
already has begun its sur
veys. The foreign survey was put
under the general care Of Ralph A.
Ward, authority on China The home
survey was put in charge Of r. e.
Diffendorfer, who did similar work
for the Methodist centenary.
sThe home surveys may be divided
roughly into two parts, rural surveys.
city surveys. The rural surveys are
under the direction Of Dr. Edmund
S. Drummer, Of the Moravian church
a leader in rural matters, and Her
mann N. Morse OF the Presbyterian
Board OF Home Missions. City sur
veys are under the direction of w. r.
Schriver, Henry P. Schaufffler, Will
liam H. Patterson, and Walter Laid
law. In addition there are surveys
of special problems, such as the inn
migrant question, the foreign lang
uage colony, work among negroes,
work among isolated people, such as
those of the mountain countries, etc.
For convenience, the United States
has been divided into ten geographical
groups, each with regional director.
For each state council consisting OF
one clergyman and one layman from
each denomination, and representa-
tives OF all the other interests In
volyed is formed. This council sits.
in an advisory capacity for the coun-
ty councils. The county body is
really the basic unit of the whole orr
ganization.
After the county councils have
completed their work and forwarded
the results to the state council, that
body will make up complete report
and analysis for the entire state;
This in turn will be forwarded to
the National organization for final
analysis, after which, 1t will be pos
sible to get at the salient points OF
information for any locality in the
United States that may be desired
and, at the same time, to study the
general phenomena OF particular
groups and environments.
The Interchurch World Movement
is the first organization to undertake
such task on such a large scale.
GEO. H. VONTUNGELN,
Iowa State Supervisor, Interchurch
World Movement and Professor OF
Rural Sociology, Iowa State Col
lege. Ames, Iowa.