The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1926, Page 103

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THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.

103

the self-sacrificing labors of David Zeisberger,
Christian Post and David Brainerd, Marcus Whit-
man, Craemer and Baierlein, down to the present
day, form a most inspiring portion of missionary
history. Limitations of space forbid an extended
account of the progress of Indian missions at
this time.
Forces Now ar Work.

The Synodical Conference is working in two
fields among the Indians. The Missouri Synod has
been working since 1899 among the Stockbridge
Indians — the descendants of the Indians who were
once cared for by Jonathan Edwards — in Shawano
County, Wis., while the Wisconsin Synod is carry-
ing on a very successful and quite extensive work
among the Apaches of Arizona. The Norwegian
Lutherans are working in Wisconsin and the Danish
Lutherans in Oklahoma. Other denominations at
work among the red men of our country are the
Baptists, Congregationalists, Methodists, Moravians,
Presbyterians, Episcopalians, and the Reformed. It
is supposed that the Protestants have about 45,000
and the Roman Catholics about 60,000 Indian ad-

herents. There are 642 Indian churches, Protestant
and Catholic, and twenty-five mission-schools, with
an enrolment of 2,000. ‘The annual expense to carry
on all this work does not exceed $300,000.

PRESENT NEEDS.

Many tribes or remnants of tribes are still un-
touched by Christianity. These tribes are still
strongholds of heathenism where the medicine-men
exercise control. In these tribes the physical, men-
tal, and spiritual needs of the people loudly call for
relief. Of these pagan Indians there are at least
50,000. Think of it! Fifty thousand persons in
Christian America to whom no herald of the Gospel
has yet come and who have not heard of Christ and
His redemption !

The sad plight of these thousands should appeal
to us with peculiar force. They are heathen in our
own land, at our very doors; this fact should impel
us to speedy and effective efforts to rescue them out
of darkness. Let us strengthen the forces we now
have at work and enlarge the missionary provisions
so far made as rapidly as possible. F. J. L.

AN orthern Problem.

For the past ten years, ever since the fall of
1916, there has been a remarkable exodus of Negroes
from the South. Far over a million colored people

ee << _—___—__—_——_———_—_—_—_ _ ers

have left Dixie to come to the promised land of the
North for higher wages and for freedom from race
prejudice. They have gone to Chicago, Detroit,
Philadelphia, and other industrial centers by the
thousands. This unprecedented change of residence
on the part of the Negro has caused unexpected
problems to arise in the South and in the North.
The South had to find some way to check the
wholesale emigration, while the North had to find
some way of taking care of the new arrivals.

In our Northern cities new labor and housing
conditions faced the Negro. In his old home he
had been a farmer in most instances. His hours .
had not been regular, and his credit was good,
within reasonable limits, at the local store. Up
North he found an eight-hour working-day, and at
the end of the week an envelope was handed him
which contained more money than he had ever
handled at one time before, possibly more than he
had handled down South in a whole year. But he
had one thing in Dixie which he did not have up
North, a house of his own. It matters not that the
former home had been only a hut, that he had to
“tote” his water from a near-by spring, and that
it was innocent of modern conveniences. It was
a home, and it was surrounded by plenty of good
fresh air. On the other hand, his new living quar-
ters were crowded, one room often being shared by
a half dozen or more persons. Of course, there
might be running water in the room and gas, but
the rent was high, very high, often so high that
after the payment of the rent there was little left
in the weekly pay envelope for other things.

That health conditions were bad under these
circumstances can readily be realzed. The death-
rate rose extraordinarily high. nfant mortality
was particularly great. But thegNegro had come
North to stay, and so he bore his burden without
much complaint. ;

But what had before been a theory in the North
now became a fact which directly presented prob-
lems that loudly called for solution. ‘The new-
comer found upon his arrival in the North that he
was not as welcome as he had thought he would be. .
Because he was unskilled, the labor unions had no
word of encouragement for him; because he was
somewhat noisy and untidy, many people objected
to him as a neighbor. Tven the churches were not
hospitable to him. In “wet” days the bar-keeper
held out a warm welcome to him, for he knew no
color line; and so, too, the real estate agent beamed
upon him, since the Negro was a tenant after his