The times-news. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1927-current, 1934-01-19
NEWSPAPERS OPINION
THE UNREMEMBERED MAN

The changes have been rung on 1.-The forgotten
man." When President Roosevelt used that terra
at the start of his administration it became the
text of fulSOme discussions.
Who is the forgotten man? The question has
been asked thousand times and answered in as
many ways. 1t has been difficult to select him dis
criminatingy, because there are so many forgot
ten men among the American masses that to put
the finger on one and exclude all others is to be
prejudiced and unfair.
Whoever this forgotten man" may be. there is
one who is even more to be considered and pitied
because he is the aforementioned man. The only
reason he could not qualify the typical forgot
ten American is because he has not. in the first
place, ever been remembered
He is the station preacher, home missionary, il
you please-at any rate the minister of the Gospel
who has been sent by his denomination to strug-
Cling field in which the members of his congrega-
ton are so few and so feeble and financially dis
abled that they are not in position to carry him
and he is, therefore, dependent upon the charities
of his own church budget.
And as usual rule, these budgets, insofar as
this particular type of servant is concerned, would
seem to be manipulated on the theory that it il
the business of ravens to feed mnistering servants
of this class.
Generally this aforementioned man, strange
though it may appear is to be found in the rural
side out among a sparsely settled people, many of
whom are tenant classes poor, disinterested in the
major institutions of society unconcerned with
schools and churches within particular commun-
ity because he is tenant-a transient Bedoun
on the march, here today and yonder tomorrow
and therefore. nothing particularly to tie him to
he Socisl or Christian oocncipS within
| DR.. Homer Mcmillan, of the Home Mission Board
of the Presbyterian Church of the South, sends
forth the bulletin that "in no industry or profess
sion is unemployment and restitution so acute as
| it is among our rural Home Mission workers"
The average salary of these public servants is
reported to be from $500 to 5000 a year-a figure
that the government declares to be wages of starva-
ton even for ordinary workers. And these men
are educated cultured, refined trained servants
of the church, with all ordinary needs which con-
! front any other class of people, with families,
many of them with obgations-all trying to live
and their children on an income that even the
hard-boiled federal government will not approve
for the commonest and most unskilled of labor.
This is tragedy with which the Presbyterian
church is not alone confronted Every great Chris
tian denomination has the same scandal to face
|
ly to do their work and hold their heads up be-
cometh men of their calling and standing an
nual income reduced to levels of absurdity.
They deserve better deal than this-they de-
serve it if not for sentimental urges, certainly be-
cause of the vital influence and far-reachng i'm
portance of the character of their work
! These are touching life at its most maleab}e
ponts-the spiritual counsellors of hosts of young
people who have been caught in the swirl of the
social, economic and moral changes of this genera
ton and who, above all others, need the steady
hand and the wise leadership of men of God.
! The very tone of life in the countryside is gen.
orally determined by the leadership of the minister
( of the Gospel in such an area, and all over the
South these men struggling valiantly and chiy-
alrousy, with the ardor and the spirit of crusad-
ers to maintain the fight, away out of view of the
applauding spectators and where the struggle is
the grimmest all the more because it is obscurest.
Charlotte Observer.