Norwich bulletin., 1921-06-27
NORTHERN BAPTIST CONTENTION
 MAKES ANNUAL REPORT

MAKES ANNUAL REPORT
 Unsettled foreign policies of goverA- ments during the last year as never be- fore have affected missionary enterprises, declares the i0Tth annual report of the American Baptist Foreign Mission soci- oty presented at the Northern Baptist convention now in session at Des Moines. Political disturbances and famine in China, an almost unparalleled financial crisis In Japan. the inauguration of "one of the greatest experiments in democracy ever undertaken" following an amazing national awakening in India, and Moham- medan aggression In Africa, have been factors placing many of the society's missionaries in a delicate position, says the report.
 It adds that financial handicaps have been encountered in the industrial de- pression here and In the fuctuaton of money exchange rates in the Far East fcod, clothing and other essentials for the missionaries Jumping In the cost as 10 the value of silver dropped. Housing has siso been a problem.
 During the year. says the report, John D Rockefeller made three gifts to the society totalllng $200000O This sum was grouped with previous gifts from MT. Rockefeller in the last two years Into permanent trust fund known as "The John T. Rockefeller Fund" the in- come of which will be used for general purposes
 George B. Huntington, the treasurer reports that s2670o0 has been spent during the year for relief in China and Europe.
 "Indias awakening, such as no one had dared to imagine before the wal" foreshadows an eventful future. Now, says the report, will the activities of Christian missionary bodies determine whether the India of the future is to be materialistic or Christian. Tn the tur- moil arising from passive resistance strikes" ''non-co-operation" and boy cotts urged by extremists opposing Brit sh rule. the appointment to high posts of several notable Indians, the revision of the financial administration in the empire and the selection of Lord Read ing as viceroy. are seen as favorable signs for a peaceful transition.
 However, the report says, danger is seen in the illiteracy of India. As a whole but one man in ten and one woman in a hundred out of India's 32,000, poo people can read their own language and but 2.000,000 can read English. Only 0.0p0, 1t is estimated, learn to read and write each year. Among the 3S760 00O Christians in India one man in four and one woman in ten can read and write It would be impossible to find teachers 1t is declared to meet neds for 500, ,0OC villages have not even a primary scaool and yet each village averages 50 childrer of school age. An international com mission with American representatives is studying the solution of this problem
 The year of 1921 marks "cvis,s O the ages the Hon. Ernest L. Tustin president of the Northern Baptist con convention, and well-known lawyer 0 Philadelphia, declared in his openin. address at the convention.
 He laid emphasis upon the "grea. ex travagances in living" the "dcplorabl lowering of morals in our social life, the moral degenration and letdown il the habits of our young people" tn morals in our local politics perhaps low CT than ever before" and the mon church-going and non-religious peopl. whose knowledge of the sacrements chiefly confined to those of marriag and of death" as evidence of such
 crisis There is. he declared "a clea , land for the Sniication of all forces c , Christianity to consider the great ques , tions confronting the political. bushes and religious world"
 'Countless thousands of our peopl are running beyond their means, an
 
 saving of our forefathers." MT. Tusti said. There has come into the mint 5 of the many a desire for equality assumption seems to be-get money; g 5 condition. In business lines, the whoi : it honestly if possible; but get none l In our politics the morale is lower pe ? haps today than ever before. In near every city our country the word of u boss is supreme"
 As an evidence of the lowering of 0, ] -ocial morals. MT. Tustin cites the "te rible indictment" of young women, COT r tained in the advice recently given l , ANlf- denomination, whkch chaGge a them not to swear, to give up drinkin quit gambling refrain from immode
 dress, and stop joy riding. He sa
 that there was an "equal moral degel
 eration and let-down in the habits
 our young men,"
 The cure, he said, can come only "i
 united effort of all Protestantism" IT
 marked decrease in church membershi
 he said. while fraternal and worldly 0
 ganizations are increasing in membe i- ship, is due to the fact that "the gre lack of followers of Christianity of | u present day is that we do not posse
 the fervor. the heart-throbs, which cha s acterized the Christianity of a centu I ago. We allow worldly affairs to crov q out our devotion and loyalty to our T
 ligious life"
 A- Better Sunday school and Bib
 schools would conteract the moral Ie
 down among the young people today, l.
 clared. He urged the Northern Baptis ,- to sustain and develop the 22 collee
 and 43 schools of the denomination, a d co earnestly strive for the religious ed
 cation of all our people from the crac d to the grave. He also urged the pract
 of tithing upon the denomination.
 Let us try humbly. prayfully, a
 sincerely with the opening of this e
 vention to inaugurate a tremendc
 forward movement for another Pen l. cost,'' he said in closing.