26 GIFT OF GIFT JAN 26 1921 ORIENTAL MISSION WORK On the Pacific Coast of the United States of America CONTENTS Report on Oriental Mission Work, Rev. George W. Hinman, D.D. Review of Plans and Policies of Co-operation in Oriental Work on the Pacific Coast By Dr. H. B. Johnson 12 Successes and Failures in the Evangelization of Orientals, By Dr. E. A. Sturge 17 Educational Work in the Chinese Community of San Francisco, Rev. Charles R. Shepherd 21 Social and Philanthropic Work Among Orientals Sarah Ellis. 29 Chinese Slavery. Is it Fact, or Fiction? By Miss Donaldina Cameron 38 Policing tfie Chinese in San Francisco Capt. Duncan Matheson 41 Rep'ort of 'trie "Findings Committee 42 ORIENTAL MISSION WORK On the Pacific Coast of the United States of America Addresses and Findings of Conferences in Los Angeles and San Francisco, California October 13, 14, 15, 1920 FOREWORD. THE articles in this pamphlet partake of the mingled nature of surveys, reports and addresses given at a Conference on Oriental Missions held in Los Angeles and San Francisco, California, October 13, 14 and 15, 1920. The conference convened through the initiative of the Home Missions Council and the Council of Women for Home Missions and in co-operation with the Standing Committee of American Workers Among Orientals, a name since changed to the Oriental Missions Council. Today the tides of race consciousness are running high and the feeling of each separate race is tense. The relation of America to the Christian significance of this consciousness is primal. Christianity, its teachings and applications, are of largest importance in inter-racial understanding and the pro- motion of the spirit of justice and goodwill. These addresses furnish to mission agencies and the Christian church facts and forces dealing with vital issues relating not alone to the Japanese, but to the Chinese, the Koreans and other Oriental folks. They portray what the Christian church is doing and should do in the field of right thinking and genuine service among the Orientals of the Pacific Coast and indirectly of the whole country. Published by Home Missions Council and Council of Women for Home Missions 156 Fifth Avenue, New York 444169 ''Report on Oriental Mission Work REV. GEORGE W. HINMAN, D.D., Superintendent of Oriental Missions, American Missionary Society. Ladies and Gentlemen, Members of the Conference : It does not seem best to take time in this paper to present general statistics of Oriental population in the United States, nor of its distribution, nor to discuss the present status of Oriental immigration, the political and economic conditions under which Orientals live, nor the special problems of relation with the white population which are now causing so much and such heated discussion. There are available several elabo- rate studies of the Orientals in America, and the new census figures when issued will give much more accurate statistics of number and distribution than are now available or could be estimated. Such information would be essential to any new denominational or co-operative program of Oriental missions. But for the present I shall attempt only a report of existing Oriental mission work, its extent, its character, some of its achievements and some conditions that have hindered its greater success, also some neglected regions and some neglected oppor- tunities. Mission work has been carried on for Chinese in the United States since 1852, for Japanese since 1877, for Koreans about twenty years, and for East Indians (Hindus) intermittently during the last seven years. More than one missionary has given continuous service to Chinese missions in the United States for fifty years, as Dr. Gibson of the Methodist Church, whose jubilee of service has just been celebrated, and Dr. Pond of the Congregationalists who has worked even longer. Missions or churches for Orientals are maintained at present by sixteen Protestant denominations, operating either through a general home mission board, woman's home mission board (sometimes through both), in one case (Presbyterians, through general and woman's foreign mission boards), and through local or district denominational organizations. The denomina- tions reporting Oriental mission work are : Baptist, Brethren, Christian, Congregational, Cumberland Presbyterian, Episcopal, Friends, Free Methodist, Methodist Episcopal, Methodist Episcopal, South, (Presbyterian in the U. S. A.), Nazarene, Reformed in America, Reformed in the United States, Seventh Day Adventists, and United Brethren. Work is also done by the Y. M. C. A., the Y. W. C. A. and the Salvation Army. Catholics maintain some work, and there are many Buddhist churches, a few Taoist and Shinto temples, and two Sikh temples. Most of the Oriental mission work aided or directed by general missionary organizations is west of the Rocky Moun- tains, in Colorado, Utah, Washington, Oregon and California. 2 In this region there are, however, many sections with large Oriental population which have only rare and brief visits from Christian workers. The great bulk of the Oriental population of the United States is within this Pacific Coast and Intermountain area. There are a considerable number of mission enterprises for groups of Chinese in cities east of the Mississippi. These are generally financed and otherwise aided by local American churches or city missionary societies or interdenominational groups. A few Christian institutions for Japanese have also been established in that section of the United States, mostly in student centers, largely .maintained and directed by the Japanese themselves. The character of mission work for Chinese has traditionally been determined by their need for instruction in English, and by sympathy for their enforced isolation from American life. Night schools and social service work have been the common channel through which the spirit of American Christianity has been expressed. Some splendid results have been attained in the stimulation and development of individuals. The tremendous contribution of Chinese missions in the United States to the evangelization and development of China has never been appre- ciated except by the few who have had personal contact with the products of our humble night schools and have been able to maintain continuous touch with their pupils. Mission work for Chinese in the United States has not suc- ceeded, as might have been hoped, in the Americanization of the Chinese population through religious contacts nor in the organization among them of a self-dependent religious life. This is especially true in Chinese missions east of the Mississippi where the work has lacked expert missionary supervision. The effort in later years on the Pacific Coast to emphasize a normal development of Christian organization and community life among the Chinese has been seriously handicapped by a con- servative clinging to earlier traditional methods. The Japanese work has from the first placed larger responsi- bility upon Japanese themselves, with very gratifying results in initiative and responsible support of permanent religious organ- izations. Not so much has been done in elementary English teaching, but night schools have met a real demand in many cases and have served to draw many to the churches. Preach- ing has always been emphasized, and large audiences respond when distinguished and able speakers occupy the pulpits. Many Japanese make admirable Sunday School teachers, needing only training in the best methods. The Japanese churches have been distinguished for evangelistic zeal and the pioneering spirit. Most of them provide the pastor with an auto, and sometimes two or three machines are used to collect the children for Sun- day School and kindergarten. There have also been many mission institutions which served as homes and social and religious centers for Japanese high school and college students. Many of the Chinese missions have also provided for a Chris- tian home for young men workers or students and sometimes for families. The increasing immigration of Chinese and Japanese women has considerably modified the missionary problem. For many years the immigration was almost exclusively men. Chinese and Japanese need homes and normal family life as much as Americans if they are to be Christianized and Americanized. From a Christian standpoint the coming of the Chinese and Japanese women was a great new opportunity and a guarantee of the stability and permanence of our Christian work, even though it was found that Chinese women were often more conservative than their husbands. Social work in the homes, and the establishment of church work on the basis of the family have been emphasized with good results. The American- born children, with full rights as American citizens, provided a new phase of missionary work. Mission Kindergartens have grown to meet the need, and all the opportunities of public schools have been freely provided for these American-born Orientals. Special schools to teach them the language of their parents have seemed essential if the children are to maintain helpful contact with the older generation and with the country from which their parents came. These have been established by the missions or by the Chinese and Japanese associations. The older children of Oriental parents, educated in our public schools and universities, largely Americanized, but admitted to only a small share in American life, provide another distinct missionary problem, toward which the Oriental churches in their social life and the Y. M. C. A. and the Y. W. C. A. are attempting a solution. The work of the large denominations which have a number of missions for Orientals and have conducted them for many years under special superintendents shows encouraging growth of established church organizations, with well-trained and effi- cient Oriental pastors and teachers, men and women. A large part of the present success of the work of these denominations arises from expert direction and the initiative and consecration of Orientals. The latter should be an increasingly important factor. The direct work of Americans in night schools and churches should not be required as much as in the past. Those Oriental missions which lack expert supervision and trained Oriental workers, guided and stimulated by close relation with other Oriental workers in the same denominational group, are likely to be at a still greater disadvantage in the future. They will have to continue dependent on American financial support and American workers instead of developing towards the recog- nized goal of missionary effort, an Oriental church functioning in all respects like an American church of the same denomi- nation. The recognized need of fellowship among Chinese and Japa- nese pastors and teachers for the sake of their own development and the extension of Christian work in Oriental communities has led to much union work, undertaken by Oriental workers themselves. Evangelistic campaigns, community betterment cam- paigns and interdenominational newspaper enterprises have been undertaken energetically by Oriental Christian leaders. A notable inadequacy of mission work for Orientals in America has been in the development or supply of trained Oriental workers. In the early days of Chinese missions many Christian workers were secured for temporary or permanent service from among the pupils of the night schools. First employed as interpreters, they grew in consecration and practical efficiency till some of them became competent pastors and were ordained. As Chinese Christians grew in spiritual experience the demand for fully equipped ministers was more urgent. Few educated Cantonese Christians in the United States were willing to spend time in thorough preparation for the ministry, and it was recognized that training in an American theological school might not after all give them special fitness for evangelis- tic work among their own people. So efforts have been made to secure trained ministers from the home districts of the Chinese in America, men who have had practical experience as well as careful training and have shown marked evangelistic zeal. The results have usually been very satisfactory, though the difficulty and expense of bringing them to America and the terrible lack of trained workers in the Canton missions pre- vents bringing more. There has been less difficulty in providing for the Japanese churches. These churches have from the first demanded a trained minister, but fortunately the schools of Japan have provided a large number of Christian workers, anxious to come to America, for wider study and experience, and more intent on ideals than on money-making. Few of the Oriental missions for Chinese or Japanese have made the mistake of attempting to develop an Oriental church with an American pastor. On the other hand, it might be noted in passing that both Chinese, Japanese and even Hindu Christian evangelists have done effective evangelistic work recently with American congregations, though this can hardly be regarded as a normal form of Christian mission work. There are forty-three Christian institutions for Chinese in Northern California. Most of these are in the San Francisco Bay Region. Three are children's homes, one is a Y. M. C. A. and one a Y. W. C. A. Several do only night school work, but twenty-five of them have regular religious services and the rudiments of a church group. There are ten missions in Southern California, four of them in Los Angeles, all well established with church work. Portland, Oregon, has four mis- sions, Seattle one and a Chinese Y. M. C. A. There is one other in Washington, one in Montana and one in Arizona. Eighty-eight missions or Sunday Schools for Chinese in the country east of the Mississippi have been reported, fourteen in Chicago, thirteen in Boston, ten in Brooklyn, eight in New York, four in Philadelphia and three each in Baltimore and Washing- ton. They are scattered from Detroit to New Orleans, but a very considerable number are in New England where there is a Chinese Sunday School Workers' Union. There is also a Chinese Christian Union of Greater New York. This very extensive missionary effort for Chinese throughout the eastern part of the United States, involving a large expenditure of money and a still larger contribution of voluntary service, suffers from the lack of a missionary policy and trained American leadership. This is freely admitted and deplored by the indi- viduals and organizations which are carrying it on. Mission work for Koreans is carried on quite adequately by the Presbyterians and Southern Methodists at fifteen points in California. There are three or four trained Korean pastors who cover a circuit. A very large proportion of the comparatively small number of Koreans in the United States have been under Christian influence in their own country. At the present the only work for the few East Indians in the United States is carried on by the Baptists in Southern California. An Indian Christian is employed. There are two other centers where work for these people, mostly adherents of the Sikh religion, should be undertaken. Japanese Christian work has been established at forty places in Northern California, thirty-two places in Southern California. One church has been organized in Oregon. There are five churches and two homes for girls and women in Seattle, and three other missionary enterprises in the rest of the state. Two centers of church work have been opened in Utah and two in Colorado. East of the Mississippi there are two religious centers and dormitories for Japanese in Chicago and four in New York. Some work has been undertaken in Boston by the Y. M. C A. It does not seem practicable to attempt a report of total membership in the Oriental churches, Sunday Schools and other schools in the United States. The actual number at present in active membership is less than the number enrolled and would seem small compared with the total population. The church lists include large numbers who have returned to China and Japan and are exerting a profound influence in spreading Christianity there. The missionary work carried on in their home villages in Canton provinces by many if not all the denominational groups of Chinese Christians is one of the most significant results of mission work for Chinese in the United States. Every religious organization in that part of Canton province from which Chinese have come to America testifies to the very considerable share of its moral and financial support which comes from returned emigrants or those still in the United States. In the Oriental communities here, as well, the influence and leadership of Chinese and Japanese Christians is far above the proportion of their members. Chinese and Japanese Christians are editors and teachers, secretaries of farmers' and business men's associations, leaders and speakers in campaigns that involve the general interest of their countrymen. Nevertheless there are still large communities of Chinese and Japanese very slightly influenced by Christian missionary work. Tens of thousands of Orientals in the United States are too far away from any established mission work to be at all influenced, and tens of thousands more, particularly among the Chinese, have become so hardened, as a result of American indifference and contempt, that they can no longer be touched by a much belated Gospel message. Many of the unevangelized Orientals could be reached by traveling evangelists, and much has been done particularly among 4he Japanese, but the possibilities of such work have so far been hardly conceived. The amount of co-operation from non-Christian Japanese which can be secured for a campaign of addresses, and the number of Japanese Asso- ciation halls freely open to a Christian speaker should stimulate missionary boards to provide more men adapted to such work. Recent experience proves that the fanning communities which have been so largely overlooked in the program of Oriental missions offer by far the most encouraging fields for new enter- prises. Japanese Buddhists with a keener sense of religious strategy than is shown by most mission boards, put their largest finest plants in centers of a large agricultural population, like Sacramento and Fresno. When the full census reports are available showing Chinese and Japanese populations by counties in the Pacific Coast states a chart could be prepared indicating the congestion of Oriental mission work in a few places and the large neglected areas. It is sufficient now to say that Western Washington and the Yakima Valley, the Hood River Valley in Oregon, Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado and Western Nebraska are very inade- quately provided with missionary work for Japanese, and that in the same territory there are also many considerable com- munities of Chinese without any religious effort made for them. In this region the few Japanese pastors and some Americans have done splendid work as traveling evangelists, but very much more of such work is needed. A list is available of twelve Japanese communities in Washington whose only religious opportunity is the infrequent visit of an American missionary, and a similar list of mining and railroad towns with large Japanese groups in Wyoming. Any of the Year-Books published by the Japanese newspapers could be used as check lists for the large number of untouched communities. New work for Orientals is, however, being undertaken even by responsible mission boards without adequate and comprehen- sive missionary surveys, with little knowledge of approved methods in mission work and with little consideraton of racial problems whose solution must be involved in any successful mis- sionary work. Two organizations which have recently com- menced work for Orientals in San Francisco and Los Angeles have justified their entry into a crowded field by the necessity of caring for those affiliated with their work in Japan who have come to America. But we must not hastily assume that disregard of relations with already established work, and the ignoring of recognized principles in missionary operation are primarily, the result of sectarian spirit. It is generally under- stood by most workers in Oriental missions that our denomina- tional differences do not mean much to the Oriental. The effort of each church to establish its own Oriental work indicates a zeal and a missionary ambition which is most creditable. It should, however, be directed more efficiently if the proportion- ately large sums invested in Oriental missions by so many separate agencies are to produce adequate results. One of the most encouraging facts of Oriental missions is the very generous response of both Chinese and Japanese to interdenominational Christian enterprises originated and con- trolled by themselves, such as the Y. M. C. A., the Y. W. C. A., the Chinese Christian Union of San Francisco, the Japanese Dendo Dan, Christian hospitals and other societies for mutual benefit. The rapid development of such enterprises, maintained largely if not wholly by the work and gifts of Orientals, compels one to ponder on the fact that liberal appropriations from an American missionary society are not the necessary conditions and guarantees of success. Promoters of Oriental missions have often made the mistake of attempting to hasten growth with money. Eagerness to get results tempts to the free use of money, when obtainable, on plant equipment and salaries of workers. But Christian character and initiative among Orientals do not seem to show corresponding increase. One is often surprised at the response from the Christian constituency which comes apparently without any relation to the question of financial help from a missionary board. Mention should be made of the Christian publications, local, denominational and interdenominational, which form such an important part of the evangelizing agencies and helps to Chris- tian growth in both the Chinese and Japanese missions. Japa- nese especially have recognized the value of Christian periodi- cals, and Japanese pastors have devoted much time and splendid ability to editing and publishing church papers. Many small sheets have given news and Christian teaching to the Japanese of a single community, and there seems to have been a con- siderable waste of effort and missing of opportunity because the energy and devotion of the various pastors could not be mobilized for one united Christian paper. The Chinese gave up their union Christian magazine, the "Light Bearer" several years ago, for lack of financial support, and the effort to make the Japanese paper, the "New Heaven and Earth" an effective missionary agency of all the churches has been seriously hindered for the same reason. When Chinese and Japanese Christians are ready to give so generously of thought and time to the making and distributing of Christian newspapers, it seems stragetic for mission boards to adequately finance such enter- prises. The recent great extension of Roman Catholic missions for Orientals compels us to consider carefully how we may increase the efficiency of our Protestant work. The expenditure of large additional sums for a growing number of small separate de- nominational units will be utterly wasted in the face of the united and determined attack upon our w r ork which is now being planned by the Catholic church. It ought seriously to be con- sidered whether the mere increase of resources or material equipment of our separate missionary undertakings will enable us even to hold our own against this powerful and ruthless competitor in its present plans for Oriental mission work in San Francisco. New co-operative methods, new confidence in the leadership of Christian Orientals, and a new social approach to the Christian problem of Orientals in the United States, may count for more than enlarged appropriations to separate de- nominational enterprises. Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle are the most notable instances of congested Oriental populations, and for that reason afford the most striking exhibitions of the inadequacy of com- petitive missionary methods and the most inviting fields for experiments in missionary co-operation. Sacramento and Fresno in California have also Oriental populations, and several separate and inadequate units of missionary work for Chinese and Japanese. In most other cities and towns where there is a considerable Oriental population, in the neglected country districts, and in the inter-mountain region of Idaho, Utah, Wyoming and Colorado, the inadequacy of Christian effort for Orientals is due not to competition, but to the insistence of each mission board on centralizing its efforts in one or all of the three large coast cities. Neglected fields are an inevitable result when every mission board must have a big work in San Francisco. Probably 65% of all mission board appropriations for Chinese mission work is spent in the San Francisco Bay region, though only about one-fourth of the Chinese population of California resides there. Los Angeles has a much smaller Chinese population, with four Chinese missions, three denominational and one independent, each of them in utterly inadequate quarters, and almost within sight of one another. Two other denominations had missions in the same neighborhood until recently and a third denomination closed its mission for Chinese near there only a few years ago. One denomination owns three valuable pieces of property for its Chinese mission work, but for various reasons rents rooms close to the other missions. The Japanese missions in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle are more widely scattered, but in the two latter cities are all within a few blocks of one another. Recently two new missionary enterprises have pushed into the immediate neighbor- hood of established work in Los Angeles, producing conditions 9 almost as bad as in the Chinese work. In Sacramento also the three Chinese missions and four Japanese missions are within a few blocks of each other. The utter inadequacy of the plants of the Chinese and Japa- nese missions, except in a very few cases, outside of San Francisco, still further emphasizes the strategic weakness of these small separate units. As a community force they do not and cannot exert the influence that one well-equipped building as a center of united religious activity and social service could provide. Perhaps one of the most disheartening aspects of a survey of Chinese missions is their failure to materially affect the general community life of the segregated Chinese groups. Gambling, importation of slave girls, smuggling and sale of opium, tong wars, social vice, do not seem to be much hindered by the activities of our Christian missions. In many towns and cities Chinese gambling houses are conducted almost openly with little or no protest from the Oriental or the American Christian community. Something has been done in the way of community service, however; Chinese and Japanese of the various denominations have gotten together in organizations to bury their dead, to protect their members from extortion by non-Christians, to secure legal assistance, for union picnics, and in a few instances for hospitals, kindergartens and children's homes. The Japanese have undertaken campaigns to develop and guide public senti- ment and the Chinese Christians have taken active part in movements for national reform in China. Japanese Christians have aided materially in urging patience and understanding of American conditions among the masses of their countrymen who were smarting under their disabilities ; and Christian leaders have helped in Americanization campaigns among the Japanese. But there has been too little effort on the part of our church workers unitedly to fight local community evils, to offer recrea- tional facilities in place of gambling and vice, to develop local public spirit, to provide adequate hospital, library, gymnasium, public lecture and entertainment opportunities for the Oriental communities. The most lamentable failure in our contacts with Oriental communities in the United States has been our civic and religious indifference to the conditions of their community life. We may well question whether the economic and political handicaps under which Orientals labor have not predisposed us against expecting from them and them from undertaking the normal development of organized Christian community life such as is expected in the case of other immigrants. One may say in general of Oriental mission work that, like Topsy, it "just growed." It has often lacked co-operation and co-ordination of teachers and discipline of pupils; it has lacked definiteness of aim; it has lacked social vision, failing to sense the social implications of the gospel; it often failed to develop 10 an inter-racial spirit, able to understand differences in racial psychology, yet give them their subordinate place, and emphasize the common human qualities which make all races not nominally but actually one. The Christian purpose and the Christian aim has been strong and undiscouraged through the whole history of Oriental missions of so many denominations, but there has been much zeal without knowledge. And yet they have achieved notable results. Aside from all the splendid individual characters, of Chinese, Japanese and Koreans developed through the inspiring contact with devoted American teachers, aside from the great and vital Christian community of Oriental Christians which has grown up in the United States as a result of their work, aside from the incalcu- lable influence of Oriental mission w'ork in this country upon the progress of Christianity in Asia, and upon international relations, it should be remembered that Oriental missions in the United States have captured the imagination of American Christians in a very unusual way, have established a method for later Chris- tian work among other foreigners and for the recent general Americanization movement, and have done more than we realize to make Christians in the United States understand, believe in and accept the consequences of foreign missions. The pressure of the Oriental problem in the United States is now compelling Christian people, who have in a tentative and experimental way supported missions for Orientals on this side and on the other side of the Pacific, to choose whether they will trust this solution for all inter-racial and international diffi- culties, whether they will regard Christian missions to aliens here or elsewhere as a casual kindness or as a real program for uniting the world in a brotherhood of service. Many mission- aries in China and Japan, as individuals, and now a specially organized interdenominational committee of missionaries in Japan are recognizing the heavy handicap on their work across the Pacific unless Christians in the United States whole-heartedly accept the logical consequences of preaching the gospel to Chinese and Japanese, and adequately apply this method of reconciliation between races, which, otherwise, will come into inevitable conflict. The time has doubtless come in the history of Oriental mis- sions when we ought no longer to be satisfied with their hap- hazard development even though we fully appraise their accom- plishments. The work can no longer grow by unrelated accre- tion; it must grow by organization if it is to function efficiently. The American churches have faced this necessity, and without losing denominational identity have developed within the last twenty years a very considerable amount of unifying machinery, such as the Home Missions Council, which has called this conference. The Oriental mission work requires a unifying principle and method which without diminishing in any Ameri- can church its sense of interest and responsibility, shall gradually organize the whole into many-sided efficiency. 11 REVIEW OF PLANS AND POLICIES OF CO- OPERATION IN ORIENTAL WORK ON THE PACIFIC COAST. BY DR. H. B. JOHNSON. Supt. of Pacific Japanese Missions, Methodist Episcopal Church. The committee which assigned this topic evidently designed it to be historical. It certainly is very inclusive. Generally speaking, much more interest has been shown and much more progress made in co-operation in Japanese Mission Work on the Coast than in Chinese Work. Chinese. In the cities for the most part, in contrast with the Japanese, the Chinese live quite apart from the Anglo-Saxons in so-called China Towns. None of the communities are larger than an ordinary country town, yet Chinese missions of various kinds are numerous. Los Angeles, with a very small Chinese com- munity, has five missions; Portland with 1,800 has four or five; Oakland with about 2,000 has seven, and San Francisco with 7,000 has twelve. Many of the smaller communities are almost entirely neglected except as they are provided for by local churches. Hence, there would seem to be an urgent need for co-opera- tion both in the interest of economy and of efficiency. This is true of religious work and of educational and social features as well. Religious work is almost impossible where there is no knowledge of the language. Thus there is necessity and urgency of re-organizing or abandoning some of the existing missions which are not adequately provided with workers, in the interest of the development of the spiritual life of whole com- munities. As to the educational and social features, here again efficiency can be greatly increased by combining in larger groups. The special difficulty in adjustment grows out of the many independent missions which are not directly related to de- nominations or denominational boards. For the most part, there has been a fine spirit of co-operation among those ministering to the Chinese, manifested in workers' meetings for prayer and consultation, and in interdenominational revival meetings held during the past few years which have been very successful. While comparatively little seems to have been done by way of more complete co-operation, plans are now developing looking toward a re-organization of the educa- tional work of several of the missions, with a view of preventing overlapping so far as possible and of developing higher efficiency. Korean. At the time of the earthquake and fire in 1906, the Methodist Episcopal Church was conducting missions for Koreans in San Francisco and in Los Angeles and ministering to a few scattered Korean communities. The greatest embarrassment 12 was in a lack of efficient workers. On this account, an agree- ment was entered into between Doctor C. F. Reid of the M. E. Church, South, who had been a missionary in Korea, and the present writer with the sanction of both mission boards, by which the Methodist Episcopal Church withdrew from Korean w r ork in San Francisco and Northern California, and the M. E. Church, South, from Japanese work in San Francisco. About the same time, the Presbyterian Church, North, de- veloped some missionary work for Koreans in Southern Cali- fornia, and later the M. E. Church, South, extended its work to Sacramento and other parts of Central and Northern Cali- fornia. There seems to be a natural division of the field and no overlapping, the Presbyterians looking after the Koreans in Southern California and the M. . Church, South, in the northern half of the state. East Indians. For a time, Doctor A. Wesley Mell, coast secretary of the American Bible Society and a former missionary in India, gave considerable attention to the immigrants from India in Cali- fornia. This was in co-operation with the Standing Committee of Workers among Orientals of which more will be said later. For a time, a missionary was employed to work among this scattered people, and later the committee employed Brother Carlson, a native Methodist preacher secured from India. On account of the anti-British campaign, carried on in this country by certain Hindus, he was under suspicion of the East Indian residents here and was obliged to discontinue the work. With the exception of some Baptist work in Southern California, all that has been done for this needy people so far has been inter- denominationally in this co-operative way. Japanese. The Methodist Episcopal Church was the first to begin work for the Japanese in this country, the work being started in the Chinese mission on Washington Street. The Japanese work of this church is much more extensive than that of any other, it having missions in California, Oregon, Washington, Colorado and Nebraska. The Presbyterian Church. North, was next. Doctor E. A. Sturge has been in continuous service from 1886 to the present time. The Congregational Japanese missions largely grew out of the Chinese missions of that church, under the direction of Doctor W. C. Pond. They are now super- intended by Doctor G. W. Hinman, secretary of the American Missionary Association. The Baptist work has been largely confined to Seattle and Tacoma, though more recently they have opened work at San Pedro in this state. The principal mission of the M. E. Church, South, is at Alameda, California, which field the other denominations have entirely left to them. They also have missions at Oakland, Walnut Grove and else- where, the only duplication being at Oakland. Doctor and Mrs. 13 William Acton are joint superintendents of this work, includ- ing that among the Koreans. The Christian Church has mis- sions at Los Angeles, Berkeley and San Bernardino. The first named is well equipped and provides for institutional work. The Friends have labored principally at Whittier in Southern Cali- fornia, though their evangelists have covered needy fields in various parts of Southern California. The Protestant Episcopal Church has several missions, generally quite closely related to their American churches. The Reformed Church in the United States a few years ago entered San Francisco and has quite recently established mission work in Los Angeles. Later the Nazarene Church, the Free Methodist Church and the Salvation Army entered the field. The Nazarene Church has quite recently been succeeded by the Free Methodist Church in Berkeley. Several independent churches have been formed, some of which have been adopted by the various denominations, as the Presbyterian Church, in Long Beach and the Christian in Berkeley. There is an independent or Union Church at Pasadena which is quite closely related to the Congregational Church. The latest independent church to be established is at Calexico, in the Imperial Valley, which is conceded to be the territory of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Cordial relations are being maintained, and some adjustment may later be made. As to co-operation, there have been two quite distinct move- ments. The mission superintendents and certain others are organized as a standing committee of workers among Orientals. This organization is working under a constitution approved by the Home Missions Council and is the representative of that Council in its Oriental work. It was born out of necessity and resulted largely from negotiations looking toward closer co- operation in Japanese work. At a meeting held September 26, 1906, in Berkeley, Doctor Sturge presented a proposed consti- tution for an interdenominational Home Missionary Society and after rather extended discussion the late Doctor Reid moved that as missionary workers we organize the Pacific Coast Association of Mission Workers to meet quarterly for the pur- pose of promoting the best interests of the work among Orientals. This was carried. The present organization is the outgrowth. It is not confined to Japanese workers, but to Christian workers among all Orientals though it grew out of proposed plans for federation in Japanese work. The principal benefits have been in the development of fellowship through regular meetings, the division of the field, in part, and so far as possible in the prevention of overlapping. The powers of the committee are largely advisory. Quoting a departmental secretary in a published article in June of the present year, "At the recent meeting of the Board of Home Missions and Church Extension of the Methodist Episcopal Church, that Board took definite action favoring co-operation with other denominations in adjusting missionary relationships. The responsibility for determining whether missionary aid shall or shall not be granted 14 in a given case rests with the Bishop and the District Super- intendent in charge." So far as the present writer knows, no other denomination has yielded its authority in this matter, though there is a strong desire on the part of all concerned for the most complete co-operation. The other movement referred to is by the Japanese them- selves. Many proposals have been made and not a few con- stitutions printed for approval or adoption. The earliest was for a Japanese Christian League in America with headquarters in San Francisco. Its objects were very worthy but its con- stitution of twelve rather elaborate articles broke down by over- weight. In May, 1906, following the earthquake and fire in San Francisco and in view of the need of reconstruction, plans were proposed for a Union Japanese Church in America. The mission superintendents, as well as the pastors gave a good deal of time to discussing it, continuing on into September. The failure was due to the plans being too elaborate and far-reaching, and to their being too congregational in polity. However, the cause of co-operation was furthered by the discussion. In 1911 the Dendo Dan was formed. This means an inter- denominational Board of Missions. Quoting the constitution, "The object shall be to propagate the gospel; to elevate moral standards, and to promote the public welfare of the Japanese on the Pacific Coast." This Board did an unusually fine piece of work for several years, especially after uniting with the Southern California Church Alliance in 1913. It published the Shin Tenchi which had a wide circulation, even outside of Christian circles. The budget for 1913, including salaries of the secretary and two evangelists, and travelling and office expenses, was four thousand dollars, not including a small debt. This society had a unifying influence upon the Japanese churches and did an extensive and successful work among the scattered Japanese. It failed in depending too largely upon non-Christian Japanese for financial support, and in regarding the mission superintendents as advisers rather than co-workers. The Southern Branch of the Dendo Dan, with headquarters in Los Angeles, still continues without paid officers. During the existence of the Dendo Dan, an attempt was made to organize "The Federation of the Japanese Churches in America." Again a constitution was printed. Quoting this document, "The purpose of the federation shall be to promote the unity of Japanese churches in America, both in spirit and work; to devise measures for the carrying on of enterprises of common interest; to encourage and assist local churches in their endeavors for the edification of their members and the dis- semination of the gospel of Christ among the Japanese." This organization never came into actual being. The proposed con- stitution did not seem to be generally satisfactory. The proposi- tion to have the headquarters in San Francisco had its in- fluence. 15 Other attempts have been made but without success. In April last, a federation was formed in San Francisco and officers elected, but for various reasons little progress has been made. Growing out of some Union Evangelistic Meetings during the past year in Seattle, a federation was formed in that city. I am not informed as to particulars, but assume that it is a simple organization looking toward co-operative work. In January, 1913, negotiations were carried on between Dr. Hinman, representing the American Missionary Association, and Dr. Mark Matthews, Pastor of the Presbyterian Church in Seattle, looking toward a Federated Japanese Church. Other denominations were also invited to co-operate. The plan was for "The Japanese Members of the Separate Churches to come together in a Federated Church, which shall conduct its worship, care for its members, and prosecute local Evangelistic efforts as one united body of Christians." The plan was not carried out. At the present time the Presbyterians and Congregationalists are co-operating in three federated churches at San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Salt Lake City. The one at San Francisco seems to be more particularly under Presbyterian leadership and the one at Los Angeles under Congregational influence. One thing that was strongly desired does not seem to have been realized, namely the securing of outstanding pastors to headup these organizations. If this cannot be done, it is a question whether this form of organization is best. It results in a loss of workers without a corresponding gain. If the Union is for efficiency rather than economy there are some advantages. The difficulty with a church of this type is that it is likely to become self-centered and to lose vital touch with larger denominational interests. The Congregational and Methodist Episcopal Churches are co-operating in a federated Japanese church at Riverside. Both have property which is being used. The plans provide that the denominational apportionments for benevolences should be raised, and so far this has been done. After three successful years, the Methodists have recently passed this work to the Congregationalists, the work to be continued under joint sup- port and joint supervision. In all these cases, the Sunday Schools have doubtless been greatly benefitted through this co-operation. Experience does not show that Union Churches are a success. Federated Churches are in their experimental stage. Where possible, the field should be divided, and the denominations to which assignments are made should be trusted to carry on and develop the work for the Kingdom. If there has been failure in the past, it is largely due to too much discussion and too minute plans. This is an age of co-operation, and a way must be found for practical co-operation in mission work in order that benevolent funds may be conserved and the entire field reached in the most effective way. 16 In closing I cannot speak too highly of the fine co-operation of the Y. W. C. A. and the Y. M. C. A. Through the field and immigration departments, the Y. W. C. A. has been most help- ful in looking after Japanese women. Both of these organiza- tions have Japanese Departments in San Francisco and their influence is felt throughout the state. These interdenominational organizations can be very helpful in co-operative work. SUCCESSES AND FAILURES IN THE EVANGELIZA- TION OF ORIENTALS. BY DR. E. A. STURGE. Supt. of Presbyterian Japanese Work on the Pacific Coast. A brief outline of efforts made for the evangelization of Orientals in the United States, and especially on the Pacific Coast, has been requested by the committee appointed to pre- pare for this Interdenominational Missionary Conference. The object of this paper is to show the degree of success or failure that has attended the work of giving the gospel to the Chinese, Japanese, and other Orientals, who have come to this country; and, if possible, to point out the causes that have helped in the attainment of the desired end, as well as those that have militated against it, in order that definite conclusions may be arrived at, and measures adopted, that will make for greater efficiency in the future. Influenced by the stones of the wealth of California, the Chinese were the first Orientals to come to this land, and, as soon as there were a sufficient number of these strangers from the other side of the Pacific in any American community, efforts more or less successful were made to Christianize them. We must not forget that it was material things that attracted these Orientals to our shores, and this may be the reason why they have not proved the best of soil in which to sow the gospel seed. The Japanese, on the other hand, especially those who came to America in the early years, were seeking truth rather than money, and it was a comparatively easy matter to lead them to Christ, but a rather difficult thing to hold them there. In our field, we have found the soil to be like that depicted by the Master. The Koreans show the best results from the least labor. The Japanese may be compared to the stony soil hearers. Quick results reward the efforts of the spirituaV farmer, but the fruit is of a less enduring kind than we are likely to find in the Chinese, who furnish excellent soil, though the growth of the grain is apt to be choked by the weeds of materialism. Not much effort has been made to evangelize the Hindoos in this land, as their hearts seem as hard as the great State Highway. The same methods cannot be employed in dealing with the peoples from different nations. To the materialistic Chinese, the school makes the strongest appeal. So, from the 17 beginning sixty-six years ago, the Chinese have been drawn into the churches by means of the mission schools. The study of English as a means to greater material blessings has been the object of most of the pupils attending the mission night schools. Now and then a student became interested in higher things, and little groups of those so interested formed the nucleii of the Chinese churches ; but, from the start, the Chinese churches have formed around the school, as a pearl may have for its heart a grain of sand. In the Japanese work on this Coast which goes back only about thirty-five years the evan- gelistic and not the educational idea has been uppermost. Only in a few instances have the Japanese churches grown out of schools. The Presbyterians never asked their Board for a cent to be expended in the education of the Japanese of San Francisco. The Japanese Presbyterian Church was organized in 1885 from a little group of students, who, with the help of a dictionary, but without a teacher, found Christ through the study of an old Bible that had come into their hands. The first Christian leader of the Methodist Japanese in this country was a sailor named Miyama, who was converted while sitting on the front steps of the First Presbyterian Church, then located in Stockton Street, where our Chinese Presbyterian Church now stands. This man became an evangelist to his people on this Coast and then in Hawaii. He is still preaching the gospel in Kamakura, Japan. It is true that most of the Japanese missions in the early days had schools for the study of English, and some of them have them yet; but in all cases the church has been the center, and the school was simply one of the channels of usefulness and was usually under the pastor's super- vision as a part of the church work. In the Japanese church schools of San Francisco, each de- nomination has its special line of work, and there is no duplica- tion. The Reformed Church has a very good kindergarten, the Methodist Church conducts a school for advanced students, the Federated Presbyterian and Congregational Churches have only a sewing school for women, to whom conversational English is taught by the Y. W. C. A. two afternoons each week. All the churches have their separate Sunday Schools, though three of them united recently in a Vacation Bible School. As the result of thirty-five years of work for the Japanese of San Francisco, we have a Japanese Quarter, which morally will compare very favorably with any other section of the city. There is no open drinking or gambling, no prostitution, no graft. A policeman can rarely be seen in that section. The stores are closed on Sundays. The most influential Japanese daily paper is owned and edited by a Christian. Nearly all of the officers in the Japanese Association of America are Christians. Christian senti- ment is so strong in the community that a Japanese Club, in which gambling was to be allowed, was forced to abandon its project. The Buddhist Temple is a social center, in many respects remarkably like a Christian church. There are four 18 Protestant churches, with a Salvation Army and a fine Roman Catholic Mission. There is also an efficient interdenominational Y. M. C. A. and a Y. W. C. A. There is greater co-operation among the Japanese Christians than can be found among the American followers of Christ. Until recently, "The Dendo Dan," an interdenominational Japanese Mission Board, receiving some assistance from the various denominational boards, did an ideal evangelistic work, reaching through evangelists and a monthly paper the Japanese scattered all over the state. It is greatly to be regretted that this organization, through an internal quarrel, went to pieces. We cannot say that the seven thousand Japanese of San Francisco are over-churched. Though the six or seven hundred professing Christians belonging to the four Protestant churches might easily be ministered to by one pastor, we can hardly believe that the results in the community would be as good as they are now under present methods. Though only about five per cent, of the Japanese in the United States are professed Christians, their influence is out of all proportion to their number. When we glance at Chinatown of San Francisco, or at the Chinese quarter of any California city, we find that the gospel has failed to make any very marked impression upon these Orientals. We find the highbinder societies or tongs, and graft in its worst form, for which the Chinese are hardly to blame, with human slavery, opium smoking, gambling, and other forms of evil. Sixty-six years of Christian work have failed to make the Chinese community safe and decent. This is doubtless largely due to the unresponsive natures of these Asiatics, who have been hardened by the treatment they have received in this supposedly Christian country. There seems to be a great lack of native Chinese Christian leadership. While every Japanese church has a pastor, who has had a thorough theological train- ing, including the study of Greek and Hebrew, the pastors of the Chinese churches have not had these advantages and do not seem to be so well fitted as are the Japanese for their high office. The Chinese, though they get together for union evan- gelistic services, are not organized to work together for the salvation of the community in which they live. They seem to be thinking too much of the salvation of the people in the province from which they came, and not enough of the salvation of the people in their own neighborhood. The Chinese send large sums of money to China, to be used in evangelistic work, while they give comparatively little toward the evangelization of their people right here in their midst. The Japanese Christians, on the other hand, spend all their money here and send nothing to help the cause of evangelization in Japan. The Japanese churches in this land are about 80% self-supporting. Would it not be better to encourage the Chinese to send less money abroad and to use more at home for the betterment of moral conditions in their own neighborhoods? While the Japanese on 19 this Coast have contributed but little in the way of money to the work on the other side of the Pacific, they have sent back many trained workers. The Presbyterian Church of San Fran- cisco has furnished twenty-five of these, the Congregational Church about twenty, the Episcopal Church ten, and other churches have done equally well. Christian leadership seems more important than money. The Chinese missions in San Francisco are much better equipped for service than are those for the Japanese, and we can hardly say that there are too many denominations at work for the evangelization of the Chinese of San Francisco, so long as the desired results have not been attained. We should ever welcome the Roman Catholics, who are the latest to enter the field, if they can do that which we have been unable to accom- plish. All the missions for the Orientals have come about in a natural way. Those for the Japanese all over the country have sprung up, much as plants do, from seeds scattered by the parent plant. Little companies of believers have come together in some instances to establish union churches, but usually asking aid from some denomination, and so growing into denomina- tional churches. The Chinese missions usually grow out of some night school started by some kind-hearted Christian, who realized that there is here a great opportunity for world evangelization by giving the gospel to the Orientals God has brought to our door. Conclusions: For the Japanese, still greater co-operation on the part of all denominations should be encouraged. The League of Churches of Northern California, organized to take the place of the defunct "Dendo Dan" should be subsidized by the various denominational boards, in order that there may be a paid secretary and evangelist, to reach the scattered Japa- nese, otherwise the organization will be useless. A similar organization should be formed in order that the scattered groups of Chinese may be reached. It does not seem wise to make Methodists, Baptists, or Presbyterians out of the few Chinese lost sheep, and the only rational method is to seek to Christianize them through a co-operative interdenominational organization. It might be well to request the Board of Education of San Francisco to establish efficient kindergartens, both in the Chinese and Japanese quarters, for in this way alone can we hope to counteract the Roman Catholic schools. As there are no new Chinese supposed to be entering this country and as all children born in this country should be encouraged to attend the Ameri- can public schools, it might be well for all denominations to intrust the whole business of secular education to the American Government and bend all their energies toward soul-winning and the building of Christian character. 20 EDUCATIONAL WORK IN THE CHINESE COM- MUNITY OF SAN FRANCISCO, CALIF. REV. CHARLES R. SHEPHERD, General Superintendent Chinese Work, American Baptist Home Mission Society. A Report concerning the educational work being carried on by the Protestant Denominations in the Chinese Community of San Francisco, California. As the superscription indicates this report deals with San Francisco only. It seemed to the writer that, in the brief time and space at his disposal, it would not be wise to attempt to discuss the educational work being carried on among the Chinese on the entire Pacific Coast. San Francisco is the strategic point. It is here that we have the largest Chinese community. It is here that the largest number of Christian organizations are at work ; and here that each one of them is spending the most money. If we ever work out a solution for San Francisco, the plan arrived at can be applied at all other points to the extent to which similar conditions exist. Furthermore this report is to be purely a cold statement of facts. Because of the limited time, there cannot be given any history of the work, any story of the faithful, untiring self- sacrificing efforts of the many earnest Christian men and women who have labored and still do labor here; nor of the results that have been accomplished; though all these things would make the most fascinating and inspiring story, and do furnish us cause for constant and profound gratitude to God. In one word recognizing these things, assuming that they are known to all of us who are present, and acknowledging that in them we have undeniable evidence of the Father's blessing upon all the efforts that have been and are being put forth, imperfect though they may be, this report will proceed to set forth, in as clear statements as possible, a description of the actual conditions as they exist today. There are three phases of our Educational Work among the Chinese, namely Day Schools, Night Schools and Chinese Language Schools. They will be discussed in this order. /. Day Schools. There are in the Chinese Community of San Francisco five Protestant Denominational Day Schools. We shall speak of these as Schools A, B, C, D, and E; with- out any reference to the denomination controlling them. School A. In school A we find about one hundred children ranging in age from three to fifteen years. About fifty of these are in one room, 20 by 25. In one end of the room are seventeen kindergartners. At the other end of the room is a table at which are seated five little folks 21 doing Second Grade work. In the remaining, say about three- fifths of the room are kindergarten tables and chairs at which are seated thirty-two children constituting what is known as a Primer Class. Every available foot of space is occupied. Chairs and tables have to be stacked up twice a day for the kinder- garten play. There is only one teacher in this room, a Chinese woman over fifty years of age who has had some kindergarten training. The remainder of the children in this school, about fifty in number, are in another room 20 by 25. In this room there is one teacher attempting to carry on work of the first five grades, which means that she has from twelve to fifteen classes a day. The grading in this room is as follows: 1st grade 17, 2nd grade 7, 3rd grade 8, 5th grade 4. School B. In school B there are about 140 pupils ranging in age from three to twenty-three. Forty of these are in the kindergarten which meets in a room which is cheerful, well lighted and well ventilated, but is only 24 by 24. This room is in the care of an American trained kinder- gartner who has a young untrained Chinese assistant. There is a lack of modern equipment. The remainder of the pupils in this school are in three rooms which we shall speak of as x, y, z. In room "x" there are thirty-five children with one teacher doing work in the first and second grades. This teacher has twenty classes a day. In room "y" there are eighteen pupils with one teacher doing work in the first four grades. Those doing first and second grade work in this room are older than those doing the same grade of work in room "x", but are backward by reason of the fact that they were for the most part born in China. The grades in this room run as follows 1st 10, 2nd 2, 3rd 2, 4th 5. This teacher has fifteen classes a day. Room "z" is known as the "Opportunity Room." There are in this room 40 boys and young men from 13 to 30 years of age. They are practically all recent arrivals, speak little or no English and have only a very limited Chinese education. They are doing work in the first four grades and are in this room because they are too old to be with the children in the grades to which they belong. School C. School C has about one hundred children ranging in age from three to sixteen. The kindergarten has 65 children meeting in a cheerful, well- lighted and well-ventilated room. This room is, however, like all the other kindergarten rooms, too small for the number of children it is made to accommodate, being only 20 by 20. The teacher in this room is an American woman past forty years of age who is only self trained. 22 The remainder of the children in this school are in one well- appointed room as follows, 1st grade 10, 2nd grade 11, 3rd grade 15. This teacher has nine classes a day. Has had some college work but no teacher training. She teaches in this school all day and again for two hours in the night school. School D. School D is the smallest and youngest of the schools. It is also the most poorly manned, though plans are on foot for improvements. There are fifty-one pupils ranging from three to twelve years of age. Thirty-five of these are in the kindergarten which meets in a room which can scarcely be said to be a kindergarten room in a single sense. Ten first grade and six second grade pupils are in another very small room. The teacher in this school is a graduate of a missionary train- ing school. School E. School E is called a kindergarten but has twelve pupils doing first grade work, and thirty-eight kindergartners. This school is well provided with space but only fairly equipped otherwise and very poorly manned, having only one untrained American woman over forty years of age and a volunteer helper. Thus we see that in this Chinese Community we have five schools all attempting to do approximately the same kind of work, but doing it inefficiently by reason of the fact that they are all operating under conditions similar to those existing in small country schools. There is a total of over 430 pupils and eleven teachers. The pupils are distributed as follows. *First Grade a 78 b 41 Second Grade a 19 b 16 Third Grade 25 Fourth Grade 4 Fifth Grade 4 Kindergarten 207 Special 40 Table Showing Distribution of Day-School Pupils. Grade. A B C D E Total First a 32 30 6 5 7 78 First b 17 10 4 5 5 41 Second a 5 5 6 3 .. 26 Second b 7 2 4 3 .. 16 Third 8 2 15 .. .. 25 Fourth 4 4 Fifth 4 4 Kindergarten 17 40 65 35 50 207 Grand Total 434 * The a and b in this case does not indicate a difference in grade of work but of age. 23 //. Night Schools. There are in the Chinese community nine denominational night schools (exclusive of Seventh Day Adventists and Salva- tion Army). The traditional purpose of these schools is the evangelization of the young men of the community by the indirect method of giving them instruction in English, which they desire, and at the same time seeking to impart the Christian message by means of the short religious exercises with which all sessions close. The work which is being done in these nine schools at present is very inefficient. With the exception of the two schools which are using the class method in part or in whole, the old old individual method is still in vogue. Each boy comes to school when he gets ready, takes his seat anywhere he pleases in the room, opens his book also when he gets ready and sits there, either endeavoring to read his lesson or gazing around until his turn comes to read with the teacher. His actual lesson, if such it can be called, lasts about ten or fifteen minutes. A very great variety of text-books are in use the pupil again following his own sweet will in very many cases. It is quite a common thing to find big husky boys and young men, who have been working hard all day, conscientiously struggling to master such classics as the Little Red Hen, Titty Mouse and Tatty Mouse, and Chicken Little. It seems to the writer that after spluttering over such expressions as Goosey Loosey, Ducky Lucky, Turkey Lurkey and Foxey Loxy these Chinese young men must have some queer ideas of the English language. These schools are under the direction of American women who are earnest Christians and devoted to their work. Some of them know a little about teaching, some know nothing about it. They are there for three hours, five nights a week, and are paid anywhere from $15 to $30 a month. In most of the schools there is a Chinese assistant of some sort who can interpret when necessary and help in the religious exercises. Referring to these schools by number instead of name, the enrollment and attendance is as follows : No. 1 35 average attendance 23 No. 2 31 " " 22 No. 3 34 " " 25 No. 4 40 " " 25 No. 5 38 " " 20 No. 6 35 " " 22 No. 7 14 " " 8 No. 8 49 " " 25 No. 9 25 " " 15 Total 301 " " 185 24 These night schools are considered by each one of the churches with which they are connected to be one of the most fruitful sources of additions. Owing to the fact that with two exceptions these schools do not employ the class method it is 'difficult to make any exact statement indicating the manner in which these three hundred pupils should be classified by grades, but investigation reveals the fact that although they are not actually in classes they can be classified roughly as follows. Schools. 123456789 Total Grade A 17 9 18 18 16 15 6 20 10 129 Grade B 6 4 10 10 15 15 4 10 5 79 Grade C 5 18 3 5 5 3 2 5 5 51 Grade D 7.. 3 5 2 2 2 5 5 31 Grade E.. 2 9 11 Total 35 31 34 40 38 35 14 49 23 301 ///. Chinese Schools. There are in this same community six denominational Chinese schools. These schools in which children are taught to read and write Chinese and to make some study of Chinese literature, history and traditions. Time will not be taken in this report to set forth arguments in justification of these schools, except to say that the writer is of the opinion that under existing conditions they are thoroughly justifiable, and could furnish excellent reasons for holding such an opinion, if called upon to do so. The attendance and grading in these schools is about as follows : Baptist 38 pupils in 5 grades Congregational 34 " "8 Cumberland (Presbyterian). 47 " " 5 Episcopal 60 " "8 Methodist 56 " "6 Presbyterian 49 "5 These schools are all about on a par with the exception of one which is quite superior to the rest. Each school has but one teacher who is, of course, a Chinese. They meet from three o'clock to five o'clock in the afternoon. Thus we see that in this branch of the work we have six rooms each with one teacher endeavoring to instruct from thirty to sixty pupils covering work in from five to six grades, or classes. A table setting forth this condition would be about as shown herewith : 25 School. Grades. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Total Baptist g 7 10 s 8 38 Congregational .... Cumberland (Presb.) Episcopal 8 10 1? 12 13 1S 4 6 10 4 6 6 3 7 7 1 5 S 1 *3 1 2 34 47 60 Methodist 18 4 is 6 7 56 Presbyterian 1S 10 8 s ? 40 Total 275 To give a closing summary, there are in this Chinese com- munity, within a territory three blocks by two blocks, twenty schools or parts of schools, conducted at different times of the day in 9 buildings employing 33 teachers, reaching about seven hundred different pupils, administered by nine Christian de- nominational organizations and maintained at a cost of about $13,000 a year. None of these schools are anything like as efficient as they ought to be, while most of them are deplorably inefficient. To any who study the facts set forth in this report, or who visit our schools for the purpose of investiga- tion it must be perfectly patent that radical changes ought to be made, and that without delay. A SUGGESTION* It would seem to the writer that, in the light of the facts set forth in the foregoing report, there are three possible courses open to the Protestant denominations now operating in the Chinese community of San Francisco. First: Give up educational work altogether, leaving the state to care for such work. Second: Let each denomination increase the number of and raise the standard of its teachers, and improve its equipment sufficiently to provide for itself a thoroughly modern and up-to- date school. Third: Let the denominations unite in creating a thoroughly modern and up-to-date system of education that will insure greater efficiency, avoid useless duplication, cover a larger and more useful field of instruction, serve a larger constituency and touch more vitally the life of the community. The first of these would seem to need no discussion. To give up our educational work now would mean the turning of our more than seven hundred children and young men over to the Roman Catholics, since the public school is full to over- flowing. The second course is one that must commend itself to all who * This suggestion furnishes a way whereby the Protestant Denominations now conducting Educational Work in the Chinese Community of San Francisco, Calif., might re-organize their work in such a manner as to secure greater efficiency, avoid useless duplication, cover a larger and more useful field of instruction, serve a larger constituency and touch more vitally the life of the community, thus rendering greater service to the Kingdom of God, the Chinese and the United States of America. 26 look upon the schools as recruiting stations for the churches, who seek through their schools to make Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, etc., who can behold without blushing the prodigal waste involved in duplication and are willing to pay the price in dollars and cents. To all who regard our schools as agencies for service to the Chinese community, as a means of uplifting the Chinese popul- lation and of interpreting to them and leading them to embrace the fundamental principles of Christianity without necessarily placing upon them the denominational stamp, who feel that having undertaken to educate the Chinese we owe it to them to give them the very best possible, who long to see our schools conducted with greater efficiency, who abhor wasteful duplica- tion ; and, last but not least, who are familiar with the ideas and desires of the Chinese themselves in these matters, the third course must commend itself, that is the united effort of the various denominations in creating and maintaining a thoroughly modern and up : to-date system of education. Such a course would involve an undertaking that would be difficult but by no means impossible or impractical. It would encounter some obstacles but not such as would be insurmounta- ble. It would necessitate the utmost charity, broadmindedness and brotherly love on the part of the representatives of the various denominations involved, but would not necessitate any surrender of principle, sacrifice of conviction or compromise in matters of vital importance. The writer does not pretend to have thought out any patent scheme or complete and final plan whereby such a course might be followed successfully, but having made a conscientious effort to think out some plan whereby something of the sort might be accomplished, he begs permission to submit a statement setting forth in rough general outline a plan which seems to him to contain the general principles necessary for the successful carrying out of a Union System of Education. First: The National Boards of the Protestant denominations which are engaged in educational work of any sort in this Chinese community should agree to the bringing together of all their schools into a Union Organization to be known by some such name as The Consolidated Christian Schools for Chinese of San Francisco, California. Second: The Administration of this system should be carried on by a Board of Managers composed of representatives of all denominations involved. To this Board of Managers would be entrusted the actual administration of the work on the field, but in all matters of policy the final authority would remain with the National Boards. There should of course be drawn up a constitution regulating the activities of this Board of Managers. This system should not involve a division of labor among the various denominations assigning to each one a definite branch of the work, as such a system would have certain obviously objec- 27 tionable features. It would, rather, make every branch of the work thoroughly representative. Each denomination would be asked to provide a certain number of teachers (or equivalent in money), and certain amount of money for running expenses. Third: The Organization should include most if not all of the following departments. /. Kindergarten Department. It might be found advisable to conduct the work of this department in two buildings at dif- ferent points in the community for the convenience of the little folks. II. Primary Department. Into this department would be brought together all the 1st and 2nd grade pupils from all the schools. This would include about 160 children. These could be housed in one of the larger buildings, divided into four classes, giving each teacher about forty children all doing the same grade of work; or there could be five classes with fewer children in each class. In either event it would be a great im- provement on the present situation in which each teacher has from thirty to fifty children doing work covering from two to four grades. ///. Intermediate Department. Into this department would be brought all the children doing work in the third, fourth, fifth and perhaps sixth grades. This would include from forty to fifty children. They could be housed in one of the smaller buildings and cared for by two teachers. For the present we should not attempt to carry the children beyond the sixth grade unless conditions should arise which would make it seem better to go on through. Allowing two teachers for each kindergarten it would require about the same number of teachers as we have at present, but it would give us an efficient system instead of five confused schools as we have at present. It would enable each teacher to do her best work which is not possible under the existing con- ditions. IV. Department of English (Night School). This would be handled in very much the same way as the day school depart- ment, bringing together the three hundred pupils into two or perhaps three adjacent buildings, properly grading them, abolish- ing the individual method of instruction and organizing about ten classes. This would require only ten teachers instead of fifteen or sixteen as we have at present, thus making it possible to engage capable teachers. V. Elementary Business School. Giving instruction in Arith- metic, Salesmanship, Typewriting, and any other subjects cal- culated to help young men who work during the day to prepare themselves for something better than waiting table and wash- ing dishes. VI. Department of Citizenship (or some such name). Ameri- can History, American Geography, Civics, Social life and cus- 28 toms, embracing Sex Relations (very important), Home Life, Community Life, Etiquette. VII. School of Health. Hygeine, First Aid, Home Nursing, Mothercraft, Athletics. VIII. Department of Religion and Social Service (For pas- tors, Sunday School teachers and other workers}. Teacher training, Comparative study of Christianity and the Religions of China, History, Literature, Teachings, Studies in the life of Christ, Applied Christianity (Social Service), Courses of lec- tures and addresses in the Chinese language by returned mis- sionaries. Lectures and addresses by men of national reputation, through an interpreter. IX. Elementary Chinese School. In which would be brought together all the children from the various Chinese schools, properly graded and housed as in the case of the Day and Night Schools. In Conclusion the writer would repeat that he is very con- scious of the fact that this suggested plan is incomplete and far from perfect but it is submitted with the conviction that it leads in the right direction and contains at least some principles which might form a working basis, for a system of education which would help the Christian forces engaged in this work to secure greater efficiency, avoid useless duplication, cover a larger and more useful field of instruction and touch more vitally the life of the community, thus rendering greater service to the kingdom of God, the Chinese and the United States of America. SOCIAL AND PHILANTHROPIC WORK AMONG ORIENTALS. SARAH ELLIS. Immigration and Foreign Community Sec. Pacific Coast Field Committee, Y. W. C. A. Social Service as defined by the Social Service Commission of the Federation of the Women's Board of Foreign Missions in a survey of work in China made by Miss Earnestine Freed- .man is "Associated effort of those wishing to bring about justice and happiness for their fellow-members of society, and to make possible the individual's fullest development by estab- lishing a Christian Social Order." As we study the Oriental communities of our cities we find certain conditions common to all. The Japanese are forced to live in a stated section a few blocks square. The Chinese are virtually limited to their particular few city blocks. The Koreans and Hindus are no exception. Thus we have the popularly so called China Towns and little Tokyos in the ready to tumble down sections of our cities. This segregation was perhaps at first self-imposed for social reasons or con- 29 venience in securing food to which they are accustomed. These boundaries are very well defined in the minds of landlords and real estate agents and a new building in one of these neighbor- hoods would create no little excitement. This segregation is one of the greatest hindrances to assimilation we could possibly impose upon any foreign groups. Edward Steiner was not so far afield when he said, "The American people as a whole clamor with a kind of savage hunger for the assimilation of the immigrant; but the question into what he is to be assimi- lated has not agitated them to any marked degree." Housing. On August 13, 1920, a group of workers, representing the different Protestant denominations, the Young Women's Chris- tian Association and Salvation Army, having work among Chinese in San Francisco, was called to the Chinese Y. W. C. A. for conference on needs and conditions in the Chinese com- munity. All agreed that the housing problem was one of the most acute. One Chinese worker stated that it was not un- common for a whole family to have to live in one room which must serve as living-room, dining-room, bed-room, kitchen and laundry and that even for this exorbitant rent is charged. The Salvation Army representative exposed many of the unsanitary conditions in houses rented to Chinese families, dark and poorly ventilated rooms, basement or alley rooms devoid of ordinary decency, where no one should live housing whole families and possibly a lodger or two. It is little wonder that tuberculosis and other diseases are prevalent or that moral standards are not all they should be. Why do the Chinese put up with these conditions, do you ask? I once heard a Chinese pastor say, "We may appear to the American people as though we were contented with the bad housing and that we did not care to live elsewhere or have things different. We have appealed to the landlords for repairs and more sanitary provision for our homes but they only laugh and raise the rent. We enjoy beauty. We would be glad to live in the better parts of the city but we are barred. We are condemned to live as we do." The superintendent of one of the leading denominations work- ing among the Chinese people said, "If one-half the people in Chinatown desired to get into better houses they couldn't do it for houses could not be found," where they would be allowed to rent. We must not follow the error so often made by newspaper reporters and tourists who go through the slums of the Chinese quarters and have pointed out to them and explained in insinuating detail the places of vice, the gambling den and the opium parlors and interpret the whole Chinese race from this superficial knowledge; lawyers and city police in close contact with crime give even a worse view of Chinese character. This distorted and vicious image thus presented is not at all the Chinese man whom the banks and mercantile houses, express companies, insurance agents and business men know, nor the 30 one familiar to church workers and teachers ; but he was con- venient for the politician, agreeable for public agitation and therefore he has become the traditional bogie for public use. It is essential to our estimate of the true value of the Chinese in America to know the Chinese of good reputation as he has been living here for the past fifty years who has come and gone without being known or appreciated. This same average, re- spectable, dignified, industrious, lawabiding and reticent one has ever been subjected to the same indignities of landlords. Hotels and apartment houses have been cut up into small and still smaller rooms for the profit of the landlords. Much of the property in our cities rented to foreigners is let with the stipu- lation that the tenant must make all repairs. This is specially true of the houses just reaching the tumble down stage. It would not be amiss if we knew the laws of our cities and state as they effect landlords and tenants, and see whether they are such as to bring about right housing if enforced. If they are not adequate could we do anything about it ? Are we co-operat- ing with agencies who should be keen and up to date on this question, such as the State Commission of Immigration and Housing and the State Board of Health? Are we doing what we should in educational propaganda to bring about a more sanitary condition in our Oriental communities? Do the people perish while we sit snugly and smile complacently at our superior American standards of living? What concerted plan or co-operative effort has been made to see that the sight- seeing parties taken nightly through the foreign sections of San Francisco get an idea of the honest struggle for ideals of real human beings and not simply a memory of the glamor of the stores on Grant Avenue with their strange and extravagant wares, or the places of bad reputation of which no self-respect- ing inhabitant of that community is proud? What has been said of the segregation and housing of the Chinese can be said of the Japanese and Koreans. The same exploitation by landlords, the same difficulty in renting houses in the better communities by those whose ideals, standards of living and position would make them unoffending members of any community. We find the same congestion and overcrowd- ing in hotels and rooming houses. The same lack of ventilation and sunlight. The same unwholesome basement sleeping rooms. The same cheap plumbing systems. In the follow up calling from my work on Angel Island I have often wondered that the Oriental women could adapt themselves to American house- keeping as well as they do. Coming as they do from homes where the chopsticks are used instead of tfce array of silver to be cared for and so necessary to our American table. Homes in which heavy furniture is unknown, where individual trays placed on the matted floors serve as tables and chairs. The pictures, books, scrolls and heirlooms arranged in a storeroom, to be brought out on occasions or to be shown to guests, in which case the daily handling and dusting is not necessary as in 31 our houses so well supplied with bookshelves, hanging pictures, furniture and rugs. The best houses in Japan are unpainted, therefore how should a Japanese housewife know the care of the painted woodwork, or why should she be sensitive if the paint on the outside grows shabby. Many of these housekeepers in this new environment have never seen the inside of an American home and I have often wondered that they keep house as well as they do. It is not so much dirt as disorder, not so much filth as chaos, not so much the lack of furnishings as the lack of knowing how to arrange furniture effectively. It need not be surprising if coming from a country of open drains and sewers she gets all tangled up in our complicated sewerage system. The housing conditions among the Hindus present quite another aspect. Here we have single men to consider and few families. It is not a city problem so much as a rural one. For fuller state- ments regarding standards of living and housing of Chinese, I would refer you to Mary Roberts Coolidge Chinese Immigra- tion; Dr. Gulick Japan and America and Studies in Sociology of June, 1920, edited by Professor Bogardus, University of Southern California, also "California and the Orientals/' by the State Board of Control, 1920. It is too often found that municipal responsibilities are sadly neglected in the Chinese and Japanese section of the city, perchance because the Oriental does not file complaints as readily as others. Vacant lots are allowed to be used as dump grounds for all kinds of refuse; garbage collectors are careless and irregular and street sweepers are neglected. The segregation of the Chinese school children is very much retarding the Americanization of the Chinese and that this school is not kept up to the standard in equipment and teach- ing staff is generally known. The Oriental children have almost no space for outdoor recreation or play. There are no equipped playgrounds and in the public parks they are not welcome. Industrial Conditions. I shall not speak of the industrial pursuits where they do not touch the home or the employing of women or children. If we have imagined that only in New York is there a "sweat shop" system we have but to study into conditions in China- town to find that we have "sweat shops" nearer home. In an industrial survey made for the Pacific Coast Field Committee of the Y. W. C. A. by Miss Marjory White, Special Industrial Investigator, National War Work Council of the Y. W. C. A., we have the following: "The problem includes in its circles consumers, operators of retail mercantile stores, white and Chinese middlemen and Chinese women and children. Several years ago, some of the smaller retail stores saw whereby they could procure the making and finishing of overalls, the plainer aprons, flannel shirts and nightgowns, pongee waists and cheaper 32 grade of wash waists, and a few other articles, at a much cheaper cost than in their own stores or manufacturing quarters. This plan was to be worked out in Chinatown by the use of Chinese women and child labor. Accordingly two middlemen, for the retail stores were employed who arranged orders, the place of making or finishing garments, the local shipments, hours of work, prices to be paid, etc. From a few retail stores, the system has grown to individual dealers, who are laying plans for one-room shops throughout Chinatown where the women can work in larger groups away from their homes. Today one finds Chinese women working in these one-room shops, which are utterly devoid of any modern equipment (save the machin- ery), or in their own homes into which the machinery has been installed because they could not be persuaded to go away from the home for work. No thought of ventilation, proper lighting, sanitation or personal comfort has been considered. Some of these shops and underground rooms are most unhealthy places in which to work. In such surroundings the Chinese women sew on braids, sew the cut out shapes into garments, finish sewed garments or sew on buttons. The wages are paid on a piece-work basis, because in this way production is cheaper to the retail merchant and perhaps the greater reason that the Chinese woman, because of home duties and peculiar habits of living, cannot be held regularly to regular industrial standards of hours. This system has also other evils besides sweat shop wages and unsanitary conditions in places of employment. When work is taken into the home, children are often forced to add to the family income by working long hours and because a man cannot be touched by any existing law if in his own residence he chooses to break child labor laws. There can be little done to prevent such conditions except by constructive educational agitation along this line and securing better laws. Miss White gave four cases to substantiate what she had said of industrial conditions, two of these I shall quote : 1. Fourteen machines making aprons, flannel nightgowns and children's dresses. Wages $1.25 for sewing seams in one dozen nightgowns, output, two dozen per day. One girl twelve years old, sat in chair sewing on buttons, some of two holes and some of four holes. She worked three hours from three to six o'clock sewing on one hundred buttons earning twenty cents. 2. Sixteen machines installed in a basement home, under- ground. Overalls were being made under artificial light at all times. Mother works as well as two daughters after school hours. Friends of the family (the father being middleman) work in this place. Place was damp, dark, miserable. The family lives back of the work shop in rooms that have to be artificially lighted throughout the day. One of the most offensive home industries among Chinese is that of shrimp packing. Here women and children sit for 33 long hours shelling shrimps which are distributed in huge baskets in the homes where the work is to be done and steps and stairway are strewn with what spilled over. Very small wages are paid and to one unaccustomed to the odor of shrimps, the contamination of the home is beyond words to express. But picking is also a common home industry in Chinese homes, in which the women and even small children are employed. Just at this season, children are put in the care of someone else or allowed to play on the street while the Chinese mother goes to pick out nut kernels. Her home duties are neglected and her position as mother ignored for the sake of a paltry bit of silver. The industries effecting the Japanese home are few. There is an increase in the number of homes where piece sewing is done or garments are embroidered or finished. Many Japanese women are working in American families for part or all day, returning home at night. In some places Japanese women work in canneries or at fruit picking. The chief problem here is the care of the children and overtaxing the strength of the mother, for this work in addition to her home duties makes her day an extremely strenuous one. In many cases the Japanese home consists of a store or shop in the front and living rooms at the back. It is often the wife and mother who cares for the store and home while the husband is occupied with business away from home. There is a move on the part of some of the leading Japanese to do away with the dual function of the home as it is a custom brought from Japan and is un-American. One of the great menaces to moral standards in Oriental communities is gambling. A study was made of gambling houses by a committee appointed from the Standing Committee of American workers among Orientals resulting in a report given at its meeting of May, 1920. In Locke, Walnut Grove, Courtland and Isleton, gambling houses are wide open. Sunday is the great day and American ranchmen and their wives are the best week-end participants in these Chinese gambling houses. San Francisco is officially closed but secretly open while in Sacramento, Oakland, Stockton and Los Angeles gambling houses are officially closed but openly open. In Stockton a new building is being erected by Chinese and the boast is that it is police proof. A great many Japanese men for the most part those without family responsibility are good supporters of the Chinese gambling houses and as participants are no less offending than those who keep places for such participation. The Japanese Salvation Army is carrying on an active campaign against gambling. Senator Grant of the Law Enforcement League says that one of the greatest difficulties in the way of closing gambling dens is that they are in private residences. He suggests that the only way to cope with the situation is to get a Gambling Abate- ment Act passed to close buildings where gambling is carried on. 34 Of the Chinese agencies operating in Chinese communities, one of the most effective is the Chinese Six Companies. This agency is back of everything that is for betterment of conditions among Chinese and where there is need of interpretation be- tween American and Chinese men or business houses this organization is ready to help adjust affairs. They are a bene- volent organization exercising extensive advisory but not co- ercive powers. In the Japanese communities the Japanese Association of America with its local branches is the effective organization of that nationality. The object of this organization as stated in their constitution is to build up the character of Japanese residing in the United States, to protect their rights and privi- leges, to promote their welfare ; and bring about a closer friend- ship between the peoples of Japan and peoples of the United States of America. Economic Opportunity. Two years ago a conference of Oriental and American Christians was held in San Francisco at which were present Chinese, Japanese and Korean Christian workers. In a list of ideals to which we should work was one of which they all spoke with deepest concern. It was that Orientals be given equal economic opportunity with American people. They spoke of the limited number of openings in business and professional lines and the slight incentive to young men and women to fit themselves for positions which they were not privileged to enter. It was with feeling that a group of Chinese girls told of the lack of employers to take them seriously when they really desired positions in real business life. There are two types of business women among the Chinese, one the "dolled-up" and painted girl who passes after dinner mints or fills water glasses in hotels or restaurants or who walks about in department stores or beauty parlors for aesthetic effect rather than real service. The second type is those who have honest desire for real business life. Is it any wonder that the latter group resents the offer of a position such as that filled by the "dolled" up girl? When the story appeared in the August number of The Ladies Home Journal where a girl of the "butterfly" type pass- ing after dinner mints in a San Francisco cafe was taken as representing the life and ideals of the American born Chinese girl in San Francisco, could we blame the more serious minded, trained girl who would deplore so superficial an outlook on life for feeling that Chinese womanhood was thus being exploited? Social Opportunities. What of the social opportunities afforded our Oriental people ? As I have talked with various American workers among the Chinese and Japanese and many of the Japanese and Chinese themselves all are agreed that the development to the social life in these respective communities is one of the crying needs. 35 What provision is made for "get together" events where the Orientals and Americans can come to know each other? On questioning whether American Christians responded if invited to meet a group of Oriental Christians, the common response is that the Americans are the slowest to realize our responsibilities and privileges along this line. The social program for the young people in the Oriental groups has not been taken up as thoughtfully as it should be. Supervised recreation and chaperoned social parties are more needed if that were possible among the Chinese and Japanese youths and maidens, than among our American young people. The absence of the movie in Chinatown does not signify that the young people do not desire recreation and entertainment. Too often the churches find their grip on their young people slackening because of a failure to satisfy the social and play spirit of youth and not providing a program to give outlet for their pep and vim, with a leader who understands boys and girls and is trained for such activities. Of the philanthropic work to be done among Japanese or Chinese, little need be said. There is little poverty such as is met in Japan or China and in the rare cases where relief is needed, sickness or old age has been the cause. In the churches only on rare occasion, is there a call for special offerings for relief among the members. These people are so loyal to each other that if there is need for help, those from the same province, clan or family aid before such need is apparent to the community. Sick relief is sometimes needed but often all that is necessary is that arrangements be made for proper treatment or entrance into a hospital. There are both Chinese and Japanese physicians to whom their people go, yet many Japanese especially seek the services of American doctors in case of illness. Some attempt has been made to start a free clinic in Chinatown but closed before its success had been proved. There is evidently a need for such and by proper co-operation with all agencies and making a community concern of it would no doubt in time prove its value. Among the needs in almost every Oriental community are the same outstanding ones that we should insist upon having met for the American sections of our cities. Playgrounds well equipped where there can be supervised play for children, boys and girls clubs with challenging purpose. Vocational and indus- trial training and guidance. Branches of the Public Library with a librarian who gives thought and study to the kind of reading material needed by her particular group are some of the most striking needs. Repeated calls have come for day nurseries by Japanese in San Francisco and Los Angeles. This need has also been spoken of for the Chinese children in San Francisco. There is no end of service which might be effectively done; in community social events, lecture courses and discussion 36 forums if taken hold of as a community affair with all agencies co-operating and the biggest personel to carry it out. A com- munity social center was a suggestion made by a Chinese girl in Los Angeles. The Protestant churches and missions under the seven or eight denominational boards, the Young Women's Christian Association, the Salvation Army, the Young Men's Christian Association and the Catholic church each has a program for both the Chinese and Japanese communities in both San Francisco and all but Y. M. C. A. in Los Angeles, each with varied activities, institutions and buildings, each duplicating to a greater or less extent the activities of the others at great expenditure of funds and employing a large staff of workers. The Methodist Episcopal Church has its Japanese Women's Home in San Francisco and another in Los Angeles as well as a Chinese Home where a splendid and heroic rescue and pre- ventive work is carried on under the superintendency of Miss Donaldina Cameron. The Young Men's Christian Association has its boarding department and neighborhood center for Japanese boys in San Francisco and some extension work in Los Angeles. The Chinese Y. M. C. A. also serves the Chinese community in a similar way. The Y. W. C. A. has for Japanese girls and women in con- nection with the International Institute of the local Young Women's Christian Association in San Francisco and Los Angeles, a boarding department, a home visitor speaking the language and a neighborhood center with its four-fold program of activities. In San Francisco there is a Chinese center with its service for the Chinese girls and women also reaching out to the homes through a Chinese-speaking worker, and with the same relation to the local Y. W. C. A. as in case of the Japanese Work. The Union Japanese Church in San Francisco has its Social Annex, a building separate from the church building where the occasional social events of the church are held and where guests from Japan and elsewhere are entertained temporarily. Each church is naturally a center for the gathering of groups for social recreation and entertainment. Two Chinese churches have a room set aside as a Young Men's Social Room. Social service work is carried on to some extent by all the churches among their particular membership and friends. Individual cases are given medical care and more or less home visiting is done by each organization. The dormitory is a feature of many of the missions. The kindergartens, day schools and night school classes are all in an individual way contributing to the educa- tion along lines of health, sanitation and civic life. It is not for this paper to name all that is being accomplished but it might appear that in the multiplicity of things demanding attention some pieces of work are not touched and others are done less effectively than if there was closer co-operation and a specializa- 37 tion in program worked out whereby the whole task can be effectively accomplished. It might seem that it goes without saying that if we are to usher in the right social order it is essential that the leaders and workers be men and women of vision and as thoroughly prepared and possessing as great scientific training in social problems as educators and those in the medical profession have had in their fields. It is as much a science to diagnose and prescribe remedies or to educate for construction development in the community and family as a physician must employ in diagnosing and prescribing for his patients in case of sickness. In the Conference on Women's Problems in China to which I turned for the definition of social service, one recommendation was that every evangelistic worker should be trained in sociology and economics and have practical experience in social work. In speaking of this Miss Freedman said: "Our great hope is to prevent the divorce between religion and philanthropy which was brought about in America through the slowness of the churches to interest themselves in social service. We wish to tie preaching and practice so closely together that Christianity will be linked up in the minds of the Orientals with definite helpfulness in individual and community welfare." CHINESE SLAVERY. Is it Fact, or Fiction? BY MlSS DONALDINA CAMERON, Supt. Presbyterian Mission Home. For more than half a century American Journal and news- paper writers have smacked their lips over the deliciously romantic flavor of the term "Chinese Slavery," and have pigeon- holed it for occasional use with other choice western vernacular, including "Chinese Highbinder," "Hatchetman," "Opium Den," and "Fantan." Thousands have read these terms, have thrilled, perhaps, at the mysterious "human interest" stories into which they were woven, then passed along the well-worn way of smug satisfaction, assuring themselves it was only fiction. Had not a battle been fought, a great victory won, slavery forever abolished from America ? It is absolutely unconstitutional ! No, Chinese slavery must be an extraneous thing from without, a regrettable thing, if it really exists, and the if makes the whole thing easily forgettable. That all men here this hour and women also may know unforgettably that Chinese slavery is a fact, and what it is, and how deeply tragic it is in actual fact, I beg your indulgence for five minutes, that I may place on the screen before you a living picture more eloquent than any words, more moving than all my appeals. As you shall look upon the faces of seven young women, all rescued slave girls, think of them, if you please, as they landed 38 first in this country young, helpless girls of tender years, un- familiar with our language and our laws, unaware that they had any personal rights, think of them, if it be possible so far to stretch your imagination, as your own daughters then pic- ture, if you will, the pile of American gold $30,000.00, given in barter for these young lives, the price of seven precious souls sold here in California under our blue sky, above the blood-bought ground we love to call "free American soil." Think, please, as you look and listen. (Enter six rescued Chinese slave girls dressed in native costume who sing in their own language "Out of my Bondage, Sorrow and Night, Jesus I Come.") Sold for thirty thousand pieces of silver! Do you acquiesce by your indifference, your apathy, your tolerance of such evils? Is it American? Is it Christian to sit at ease while such practices go forward year by year unhindered? If I could throw upon the walls of this room some of the many pictures depicting the sorrows of such girls as these you have just seen, which are forever graven upon the walls of my heart pictures of bitterest wrong and cruel oppression, you would rise to a man and say, "It shall not continue to be thus." Just what does this slavery imply, and how does it exist in a country which has once and for all abolished slavery? It came from China with the first gold seekers from that far country. Other evils came from other lands than China; but they were evils peculiar to the white man, and there was a Vigilante Committee, and the white man made it his business to deal summarily with the lawless of his own kind; but since the Chinaman did his work well, and did not molest his American neighbors, it was much less trouble to pass by on the other side, and let him settle his own disputes and carry on his heathen practices unmolested. So slavery took deep root, along with other evils opium, gambling, plural marriage, and worst of all, the organization of secret societies known from these early days as "Highbinder Tongs." We cannot consider the problem of slavery among the Chinese apart from this other, deep-rooted evil, of which it is a vital part. These Tongs, made up of the lawless element, are organized for the sole purpose of gambling, traffic in slaves and opium, and blackmail. They disregard all laws but those of their own making, and there is absolutely no protection against their ruthless assaults, as no man or woman dares testify against them, well knowing that any opposition to their demands or wicked practices may cost many lives. These murderous Tongs exist in no other country but the United States, and only in very small numbers beyond the Pacific Coast; but here they are a constantly increasing menace. No one can approximate the membership, as all records are guarded with greatest secrecy. 39 Every slave girl is owned, guarded, and absolutely controlled by one or more members of a Tong; if she makes any attempt to escape, or to assert her personal rights, or if she wishes to marry, she is immediately menaced by the fear of death unless she can raise several thousand dollars with which to purchase immunity. Any man or woman who is discovered to have rendered assistance must also pay the forfeit, or die. Twenty-seven lives were the toll exacted a few years ago in revenge for the escape of one slave girl, and not one conviction for murder that I know of. A newspaper man, of international reputation, who spent much time for years studying Chinese life on the Pacific Coast well expressed the situation when he said : "Fear is the cement that holds together the Chinese com- munity." It is a deadly fear, which prevents even the very best of our Christian Chinese from coming out openly in opposition to the many debasing evils of Chinatown, or from co-operating with American missionaries in the rescue work and conviction of those who perpetrate deeds of cruelty and violence. Nor are Chinese alone responsible for these deplorable con- ditions. They have their American allies who are also their paid hirelings. Every Highbinder society has its own group of attorneys men who have learned well all the tricks of legal jugglery, and who combine shrewd American wit with that of their wily Oriental clients to outwit justice, to frustrate laws framed for the protection of the innocent and safe-guarding of the helpless. Countless men, whose hands are dyed in the blood of their countrymen escape justice every year, while numberless innocent and helpless young girls are dragged into the lowest form of slavery through the united efforts of Chinese High- binders and American attorneys. Respectable Chinese deplore deeply these conditions, but under the existing state of affairs they are helpless. It rests with Christian Americans to consider earnestly and prayerfully this really serious situation, and unitedly take action to eliminate utterly from our Chinese communities in the United States these two great evils which are steadily undermining the work of all our mission churches and schools, and weakening year by year the moral fibre of the youth of Chinatown. Only to those of us who are engaged in the rescue work, and who know from personal daily contact with the life of the under- world of Chinatown, are these really tragic facts revealed. We know, alas, too many things which we wish mightily we did not know; but since these things are facts, not fiction, since we know that, while we continue to build churches and lay plans for larger mission schools, hold conferences and raise money in almost fabulous sums for missions at home and abroad there are appalling conditions crying for redress upon our very thresholds, shall we not pause and consider whether there are not better methods, more thorough means at hand, by which 40 we may, with the help of God, uproot these thorns and briars, and cultivate a fairer harvest for our Divine Master? The Rescue Homes of the Methodist and Presbyterian Boards have wrought well these fifty years. We thank God for hundreds of Chinese children and young girls rescued from slavery and saved from sin. We glory in the almost miraculous evidences of God's wonder-working power in many of those lives, transformations in body and spirit which thrill our hearts and are daily evidence of the truth, "With man it is impossible, but with God all things are possible." POLICING THE CHINESE IN SAN FRANCISCO. CAPT. DUNCAN MATHESON. Detective Police Force of San Francisco. Capt. Matheson spoke to the Conference and the substance of his address was taken down: Two years and nine months have been spent in Chinatown and this period represents some very stormy times. The Chinese are a peculiar people; as individuals are very sociable and honest to a fault. Among the Chinese there are two parties commonly known as tongs; one is the social tong, and the other the fighting tong. These tongs do not exist in China and are only found in the United States. The fighting tongs and the social tongs are very different in their aims and purposes. The social tongs exist only for helpfulness ; the fighting tongs of which Capt. Matheson named some ten or twelve each have some peculiar interest such as gambling or sex immorality. Tongs can declare war when they want to, declare a truce when they wish, and peace can be signed at will. In a war declared between two tongs four men had been shot within seven minutes after the declaration and the war continued for several months. If a tong steals a prostitute from another tong and the money is not at once forthcoming, a war is sure to be declared. The Chinese are afraid to witness in a case against any tong. If anyone should do so his life would be in great danger, but all the tongs are afraid of the testimonies of white people. Not all the Chinese population belong to the tongs; only about eight or ten per cent, are members. Capt. Matheson hopes that an alien law can be passed whereby anyone engaging in tong disturbance can be deported. The Chinese cannot stamp it out themselves. Facts and figures should be carefully compiled and presented at Washington and such laws agitated as will stamp out these tongs. The slave girl is owned as an investment; she cannot land in America except as the wife or daughter of a Chinese man; so arrangements are made in the tong applying for her admission for a husband. The cost required to land a slave girl, including attorney's fees and any costs attached by the immigration author- ities, determines the value of said slave girl. The ingenious get- 41 aways provided in the room where girls are kept in case she is about to be traced by police officials are unbelievable. Dis- appearing doors, traps in the floor and screens in the walls are some of these get-aways. The slave girls in Chinatown nine years ago numbered 61, of whom 25 were Japanese and 36 Chinese women; all slave girls are landed by subterfuge. The landing of a slave girl is not the only expense, for disease is prevalent among them. A diseased woman is isolated and must be cared for at the expense of the tong to whom she belongs, or return to China. The officials have a variety of ways through which slave girls are discovered ; by accident, by annonymous letters and by secret information. Another evil of the Chinese community is that of opium eating. Earlier when opium was easier to get there was great effort to stamp it out by arrests and fines, but now that laws forbid the importing of opium the opium eating is done much more secretly. The use of opiates is indulged in in three ways : smoking, whose participants are called "hop-heads," the hypo- dermic needle, whose participants are called "hypos," and the snuffing of cocaine gives the name "snow-birds." The effect of opiates on the Chinese who is accustomed to the use of opium is very different from that on the white person less accustomed to its use. The smuggling of opium comes for the most part over the border from Canada or Mexico and is concealed in every conceivable way. The price of the opium is determined by the cost of getting it into the country. Gambling is very common and often a source of very great disturbance. The Chinese are natural gamblers and the different ways of gambling and subjects over which to gamble are infinite in number. REPORT OF THE FINDINGS COMMITTEE. The report of the Findings Committee was presented and adopted as follows : Oriental Situation in California. As a result of a careful inspection of mission work in Cali- fornia for Chinese, Koreans and Japanese, particularly in Los Angeles and San Francisco, we are strongly impressed with the result of Christian work in Americanization and assimilation. While not arguing for a wider open door of immigration, we cannot discover that a limited number of these people constitutes a menace. On the other hand, the proposition to take from their children born in this country the privilege of citizenship we regard as unAmerican and unChristian, and calculated to prejudice those American-born children against our people and our institutions. We recommend to our various National Mission Boards and the Home Missions Council that they urge President Wilson and Secretary of State Colby to press for an honorable and speedy settlement of such features of this complex question as are purely international. 42 Directory of Orientals. We urge the Home Missions Council to issue a directory of the Oriental work to take the place of the recent directory issued by the Dendo Dan, with the addition of a brief summary of work conducted by the various boards. On Permanent Organization.. In view of the extensive work being done by the churches and other Christian organizations among Orientals on the Pacific Coast and the need of a united advisory committee, we recom- mend : I. That the present "Standing Committee of American Workers among Orientals on the Pacific Coast" be continued ; II. That a shorter name be chosen for the Committee; III. That the personnel of the Committee be carefully revised, such changes being made as may be found necessary. On Overlapping. A survey of the Protestant Christian work among Orientals now being done in California by Americans reveals : 1. Churches or Missions for Orientals are maintained by fourteen denominations, operating through National Home Missions Boards or Foreign Mission Boards, or through local or district organizations, as follows : Bap- tist, Brethren (Dunkards), Christian (Disciples of Christ), Congregational, Friends, Methodist Episcopal, Methodist Episcopal South, Free Methodist, Nazarene, Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A. (North), Cumber- land Presbyterian, Protestant Episcopal, Reformed Church in the U. S. and Seventh Day Adventists ; work is also maintained by the Y. M. C. A., the Y. W. C. A., the Salvation Army, the American Bible Society and the Women's Christian Temperance Union. 2. There are 43 Christian institutes for Chinese in North- ern California, mostly in the San Francisco Bay region, and ten in Southern California, comprising churches, schools, homes and various other forms of religious and social work. 3. Work for Japanese is maintained at 40 places in North- ern California and at 32 places in Southern California. 4. Work for Koreans is maintained at 15 places in Cali- fornia, the Methodist Episcopal Church South being responsible for the work in general in the northern part of the state, and the Presbyterian Church being responsi- ble for the work in general in the southern part of the state. 5. There are enough agencies now at work to care for the entire Oriental population, but the work should be 43 strengthened. Additional agencies should be discouraged from entering occupied fields. 6. In certain localities there is duplication of effort. Con- cerning those places we recommend as follows : (a) That the Methodist Episcopal and Protestant Epis- copal Churches be requested to adequately care for the Japanese in that general section of Los Angeles where their missions are now located. (b) That the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) be encouraged to adequately develop the work at present being conducted by it among the Japanese in Los Angeles. (c) That in Los Angeles the agencies now at work among the Japanese in the Plaza section be re- quested to combine as far as possible along all lines of work, and that they join in securing a building, or buildings, equipment and a staff of competent workers. (d) That we commend the Baptist Church for under- taking work for Japanese at Moneta and San Pedro in Los Angeles where no other organizations are at work, and encourage it to adequately care for those fields; That the Baptist plan to establish work only in the unoccupied fields be recommended to other organizations as a worthy example to follow. (e) That in view of the fact that among a Chinese popu- lation of not more than 2,000 in Los Angeles there are five small missions located very close together in the Plaza section, and all of them poorly housed ; the organizations and agencies conducting the work there be urged to make an effort to combine these missions as far as possible, and that they unite in securing a building, or buildings, equipment and staff of competent workers. (f) That among a population of about 7,000 Japanese in San Francisco, while the four churches are none too many, they might have been more strategically separated as to location; but, in view of their ex- tensive properties and the cordial relations existing among them, we recommend only that they en- deavor to make full use of their buildings. (g) We do not feel that the Free Methodist Church was justified in undertaking work for Japanese recently in Berkeley, and we recommend that it be requested to consider combining with the Methodist Church there, or to transfer its efforts to other needy fields. (h) That since 65% of the money appropriated for Chinese work in California is spent in the San 44 Francisco Bay region, where only one-fourth of the Chinese of the state live, while there are groups of Chinese for whom little or nothing is being done, we recommend that a careful and continued study of the situation be made, looking toward less dup- lication of effort. Especially do we deprecate the large amount of money expended in denominational buildings within a small area in San Francisco. Particularly do we recommend that the Cumberland Presbyterian Church be requested to reconsider its purpose to erect a new church building in the same area, and to seek some way of caring for its work in buildings now in existence, preferably in co- operation with other churches. (i) That the Presbyterian and Methodist Churches, which maintain homes for Chinese girls, be urged to so adjust their plans as to work in co-operation in this particular, with a view to conducting the rescue work apart from the work for other girls. (j) That the several organizations maintaining missions among the 2,000 Chinese in Oakland be urged to combine their work as far as possible, and that they join in securing a building, or buildings, equip- ment and a staff of competent workers. (k) That the "Standing Committee" be requested to consider the need of homes for the care of Oriental boys up to about twelve years of age. (1) That we commend the successful attempts at con- ducting federated work for the Japanese in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Pasadena, Santa Ana, Riverside and Mexicali by the Congregationalists, Methodists and Presbyterians, and recommend the plan for other points. Neglected Mission Fields. We would recommend to the agencies at work among the Orientals in co-operation with Oriental organizations now exist- ing, or to be established, that attention be called to the need for concerted action for evangelization of the scattered groups, or minor groups too small for a church; that an evangelist or evangelists, should be secured as early as possible for this task, leaving the financing of it to be undertaken mutually by the co- operating agencies. As a result of a careful interdenominational survey, we recog- nize the following fields as needs and their occupancy as urgent : Among the Japanese. 1. Western Washington: small towns, open country and lumber towns. 2. Yakima Valley, Washington. 45 3. Idaho Falls and Pocatello, Idaho. 4. Country districts, including mining and smelter camps in Utah. 5. Towns and mining camps along the Union Pacific R. R. in Wyoming. 6. Northern part of Orange County, California. 7. Small towns between Pasadena and San Bernardino, Cal- ifornia. 8. Hood River Valley, Oregon. Among the Chinese. 1. Sacramento River towns: Locke, Walnut Grove, Isle- ton, etc. 2. Reno, Salt Lake, Ogden, Boise, Spokane. 3. Country Districts of San Joaquin Valley. 4. Mexicali and Country Districts of Lower California. Motion carried to refer this to the Standing Committee. Young Men's and Young Women's Christian Associations. That we very heartily commend the work being done among Orientals by the Y. M. C. A. and the Y. W. C. A. and urge those organizations to develop the work to an extent adequate to the challenge of the present opportunity, and that there be con- tinued mutual co-operation between the Associations and the churches. I. We would call the attention of the Y. M. C. A., either nationally or locally to the need of a central organization in large cities where there are large numbers of Chinese and Japa- nese, and branch associations in many surrounding localities now uncared for. II. The Chinese Y. W. C. A. in San Francisco came into existence at the urgent request of the Committee of Mission Workers and Superintendents in San Francisco, and also because of repeated wishes of the Chinese themselves, to do the social, recreational and other work not being done by the missions which because of lack of experienced leaders and equipment they were not so well able to do. There is now a very definite need for larger quarters and adequate housing for young women entering schools and business, for whom the city and the community provides no suitable housing. Therefore, we recommend : 1. That this vital need be brought to the attention of the Foreign-born Department of the local, field and national Young Women's Christian Association, that steps may be taken to supply the adequate equipment and financial sup- port necessary. 2. That the Foreign Community Department of the Pacific Coast Field Committee of the Young Women's Christian Association be asked to take into consideration groups of Chinese young women in other cities where there 46 should be closer co-operation with the Chinese Missions in the interests of the social and recreational needs of the girls and young women. Affiliation. We earnestly urge all organizations which are now doing work among Orientals on the Pacific Coast to affiliate themselves with the Home Missions Council, and thereby with this local organization. Educational Work in Chinese Community in San Francisco, We recommend that the attention of our Boards be called to the very serious overlapping of the present school system, the unsystematic status of the educational program and the in- efficient methods now used. We believe that much better results can be obtained by combining the grades and specializing in different places under an educational director, and to that end we would recommend that the local superintendents be requested to secure a committee, of which one at least shall be a local Christian school man to study the situation and present a program which shall attain larger results and place renewed and special emphasis on religious education and the development of spiritual life. We would commend to the Standing Committee the survey and conclusions presented to this Conference by Supt. Charles R. Shepherd. Literature. Convinced of the especial value of periodical Christian litera- ture as an evangelizing agency among Oriental peoples in the United States, we recommend to all mission boards and organi- zations concerned in Oriental mission work generous financial assistance in the publication of a new Christian newspaper for the Chinese, and of a union Christian paper for the Japanese, under the direction of the union evangelistic organizations of Chinese and Japanese which are now or may be organized, in pursuance of a recommendation previously made, plans for which should be submitted to the Boards. Recommendation was carried and by motion referred to the Standing Committee. Vice Conditions in the Chinese Community. The startling and explicit statements presented to this Con- ference concerning vice conditions in the San Francisco Chinese communities, involving not only the gambling, smuggling and slave traffic in girls for immoral purposes, carried on by the small percentage of Chinese in the fighting tongs, and also the infamous partnership in such enterprises of a considerable num- ber of Americans, demand continuous and intensive study of the problem of social control and betterment of the Chinese com- munities, where the persistence of these conditions in the face of fifty years of Christian work constitutes one of the most 47 serious limitations to the success of this work. Therefore, we recommend that a special committee be appointed to report to the Home Missions Council in January. The following committee was appointed to investigate vice conditions in the Chinese communities of San Francisco and make recommendations to the Home Missions Council in January : Miss Donaldina Cameron, Mr. Duncan Matheson, Rev. U. G. Murphy, Dr. A. W. Mell, Senator Edward Grant, and Mr. H. E. Monroe in advisory capacity. Minutes. We recommend that the papers that were read yesterday, all most interesting and some invaluable, be spread upon the minutes, and that the Home Missions Council be requested to edit and publish them. We recommend that a report of the essential actions taken in this meeting, together with all of the recommendations, be mimeographed and furnished to each member of this Conference. We recommend that a vote of thanks be extended to the Women's Occidental Board of Foreign Missions for the hospi- tality shown, for the use of this room, and the splendid repast spread for us yesterday. REV. GEORGE L. CADY, D.D., Chairman, MRS. KATHERINE S. WESTFALL, MRS. EFFIE L. CUNNINGHAM, REV. ERNEST F. HALL, D.D., REV. HERBERT B. JOHNSON, D.D. Committee on Findings. 48 - if - B 1C9 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY