The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1925, Page 92

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92

THE LUTHERAN PIONEER. :

The revival of business prosperity in 1922
prought on a new exodus from the Southland.
Thousands of Negroes who had remained in the
North during the depression wrote to their friends

Future Captains of Industry.

and relatives, urging them to come North, and in
many instances sent them money for the journey.

The 1920 census showed that more than
1,000,000 Northern Negroes, or 73 per cent., live
in ten industrial centers including the following

sections: Indianapolis, 47,500; Detroit-Toledo,
55,900; Cleveland-Youngstown, 58,800; JXansas
City, 65,400; Pittsburgh, 88,300; Columbus-Cin-
cinnati, 89,600; St. Louis, 102,600; Chicago,
131,600; Philadelphia, 248,300; New York,
251,300.

Industrial Progress of the Negro.

From this we may get a fair conception of the
progress the Negro has made industrially.

Let us here quote the authority of a Southern
white man, Mr. Jacobs, president of Oglethorpe
University, Atlanta, Ga., who says: “The Negro’s
rise in the scale of occupations has given him a
greater purchasing power and a higher standard of
living. To his credit it should be said that, for the
most part, he sincerely tries to live up to his oppor-
tunities in the North. He is usually a law-abiding
citizen, buys his own home when possible, and gives
his children the best schooling his income will
permit.”-

And when we call to mind that the 1900 census
showed that 89.7 per cent. of the entire Negro
_ population resided in the fourteen Southern States,
leaving only 10.3 per cent. to be scattered over the
whole remainder of the United States, while to-day
%3 per cent. live in the ten industrial centers, we

shall not be surprised to learn that the total ac-
cumulated wealth of the American Negro amounts
to $1,700,000,000, which is a fair indication of the
progress he has made.

With this improved economic condition there
comes for us Christians a corresponding increase
of responsibility. For the past fifty years we have
almost wholly confined our mission efforts among
the Negroes to the South. Since the large migra-
tion northward there has arisen for us the necessity
to accept the opportunities the increased Negro
populations in the North offer. <A start has been
made in Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington, D. C.,
St. Louis, Cincinnati, and New York. In each of
these great cities we have but one congregation,
whereas, in view of the thousands of unchurched
Negroes living there, we should have at least two
in these great centers. ‘This will be possible only
after we have fully realized that as Christians and
as Lutherans we must give more and pray more
for the cause of our Colored Missions.

Philadelphia, Pa. W. G. ScHWEHN.

Items of Missionary Interest.
By the Eprror. .

Immanuel Lutheran College. — At the clos-
ing exercises held May 10 and 13 Rev. C. R. March,
of Salisbury, N. C., and Superintendent George A.
Schmidt, of Selma, Ala., were the speakers. Wm.
Eddleman, Augustus Roberts, and Arthur Cham-
bers are the three theological graduates. — Presi-
dent J. P. Smith, who has been chosen Superinten-

Our Theological Students at Immanuel Lutheran
College.

The three theological candidates (sitting, from left to right)
are: Wm. Eddleman, Augustus Roberts, and Arthur Chambers,