THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
a
one-half the total membership of the world brotherhood, two-thirds of the employed officers, and threefourths of the property in buildings. When, in 1889, missionaries from all the Christian nations in the foreign mission field desired the establishment of associations on their fields, they sought and obtained from the International Committee American secretaries to plant associations of the American type. There are 8,472 associations in ten countries of America, twenty-two countries of Europe, nine of Asia, and five of Africa and Oceania, with 934,934 members, 1,697 employed general secretaries, and 1,325 buildings worth $68,699,150.
The affiliated associations of North America have organized, through their international committee, thirty-eight state and provincial conventions. Hach of these appoints an executive committee on the plan of the international committee, and a so-called “County work” is promoting through county organizations a systematic and helpful work in rural
districts. The state and provincial 4. General committees now employ 127 visiting Organiza- secretaries, whose efforts are essential tion. in the development of their work. The yearly expenditure of the international committee is $301,037 on its home field in North America and $225,919 on its foreign field. The state and provincial committees expend annually over $389,802, and 1,297 associations reported their annual current expenses as $9,351,113, while 1,794 associations reported an aggregate membership of 536,037; 713 reported the ownership of buildings and other real estate valued at $61,854,110; and 3,351 persons were employed as general secretaries or as agents of the local associations and of the international and state committees. The chief aim of the general secretary is to enlist and train volunteer workers, using his tact to discover the post of duty for which each member is specially fitted to serve on the various working committees, and over 72,938 members were, in 1911, enrolled as volunteers on such committees. Appropriate methods have been wrought out to meet with timely aid the stranger, the unemployed, the destitute, the sick, and the intemperate. The social, literary, and physical department appliances have been made more effective for good, and the various religious meetings have been largely increased in number and usefulness.
The international committee has over 100 employed secretaries on its home field in North America and the Philippines, some of these being occupied with the work of supervision at the office, and others with work on the field. Twelve secretaries supervise the railroad asociations organized at 235 railroad-
terminal points with 90,000 members,
5. Sub- supported by the railroad companies,
divisions of which contribute $400,000 annually,
Activity. and by the members, who give $600,000
yearly. Twelve secretaries labor among college students, and 669 student associations have been organized with a membership of 58,696 students, of whom 25,000 are members of Bible classes. An outgrowth of this American student work is the World’s Student Christian Federation, organized in 1895, and now having a membership of 150,000
students in 2,200 universities or colleges in thirtyone countries. The student general secretary of the international committee is also the federation’s general secretary. Another outgrowth is ‘“ the Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions,” beginning in 1887, which has enrolled many thousand students as volunteers for the foreign-mission field. Of these over 4,700 have already been sent out as foreign missionaries by the foreign-mission boards of the various churches, the average number sent out being 250. Twenty-five secretaries supervise and extend association work among soldiers and sailors at United States military posts and naval stations in America, the Philippines, and China, and $2,000,000 have already been invested in the buildings which accommodate the work at some of these posts and stations. Five colored secretaries supervise and extend the work of 132 colored associations with 12,000 members. Three secretaries supervise and extend the physical, educational, and religious work of the associations, and twelve are at work among employees in the Panama Canal Zone. In their physical department the associations own and administer 648 gymnasia with 172 athletic fields, manned by 284,842 gymnasium and athletic members under the training of 418 expert physical directors, assisted by a corps of 8,920 gymnasium-class leaders. The educational department of the association contains 61,904 pupils, paying $527,346 in tuition fees. In the religious work the Bible-class attendance in 1,360 associations numbers 101,546 members, and the aggregate annual attendance of the religious meetings in 1,500 associations numbers 6,400,000. Seventeen secretaries give attention to the work in small towns and country neighborhoods among miners, mill operatives, and various industrial classes, and among boys, and they are also specially occupied with the problems of city, state, and provincial organizations, and of the training, transfer, and locating of employed officers, who number 2,954, including physical, educational, religious, social, membership, employment, boys, railroad, and industrial secretaries. Thirteen secretaries, including the general secretary and his two associates, administer the work as a whole, caring for the office and publication and business departments. Training-schools for secretaries, physical directors, and other employed officers have been established in Springfield, Mass., and in Chicago.
The International Committee upon its foreign field—in China, Japan, Korea, India, Ceylon, Syria, and South America, where 365 associations have already been organized—employs 105 secretaries and expends on this field $225,919. The World’s Committee, with headquarters at Geneva, Switzerland, has given its principal attention to the associations of continental Europe. It employs eight secretaries with an annual expenditure of $15,000, cooperating with the national committees of Europe in supervision and extension of association work, and keeping in correspondence and communication with other members of the world’s brotherhood. The strongest association groups in Europe are those of Great Britain and Germany; the former with 1,241 associations, 146,871 members, and 119
6. Work Outside America.