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CO• Items of Missionary Interest.

(By the Editor.)

The Latest Statistics of Our Colored Missions. An interesting feature of the February number of the PIONEER for years has been Director Drewes' statistical report. He has again compiled this report for the past year and we are pleased to bring it in this number. A comparison with the report that appeared last year, will show a fine growth in every part of the field and marked improvements in practically all the congregations. The number of baptized members in our colored congregations increased by 333 persons in 1925, · and has reached 4,709. 'fhe communicant membership has increased from 2,475 to 2,684, an increase of 209 persons.

We have 11 more mission-schools now than we had- last year at this time, the present number being 48, in which 3,256 pupils are being instructed in the common branches of secular knowledge, but aboYe all things in the Word of God. The combined enrolment of Immanuel Lutheran College and Alabama Luther College is 143. The Sunday-schools have a total enrolment of 3,510. The past year witnessed the baptism of more persons in our missions than did any p1·evious year, and the number confirmed also exceeded that of all other years. The number baptized last ye;r was 419, while 377 were confirmed. · 'l'he attendance at the Lord's Table exceeded that of the year before by 1,861 and reached a total of 7,446.

Our colored members contributed a total of $31,648.47 in 1925, which was $3,073.44 more than in 1924. The average contribution per comm~cant member was $11.77.

Besides the more than 7,000 persons who are under the direct teaching of our mission-workers in church and school, there is a host of Negroes which is indirectly influenced by the ,vork which we are doing. We believe it no exaggeration to say that at least 20,000 to 25,000 persons are blessed by our Negro Missions.

Evansville, Ind'. - We know that our Colored Missions have a number of loyal friends and sup:. porters in Evansville, Ind. One of these left a fine Christmas gift for our Alabama missions tied to th~ door-knob of his pasto~'s study a few weeks before Christmas in the shape of a $50 bill safely tucked away in an envelope with directions to forward same to Superintendent Geo. A. Schmidt, at Selma, Ala. Pastor Schmidt asks us to express his hearty thanks to the kind unknown donor

through the columns of the PIONEER, a task · that we gladly perform in this instance and shall be only too happy to perform in the .future should kind friends of our Colored Missions give us an opportunity to do so. Pastor Peay's Tour. - Pastor Peay is filling thirty lecture engagements in Central Illinois. He is speaking in the interest of the Girls' Dormitory at Greensboro, N. C., which has been so needed for years. From letters written by pastors where Pastor Peay has spoken, it is plain that he is meeting with fine success. Pastor Peay may go to Kansas from Illinois. L. L. L. Endowment Fund. - As friends of missions wc are also interested in the Endowment Fund of $3,000,000 which the Missouri Synod is trying hard at this time to complete, since mission-workers are also taken care of by this fund when incapacitated for further work. The article which this number brings, written by Pastor Kroencke, has such a touchi~g appeal that we are unable to see how any one of our readers will be able to withstand it. We feel that all who rend Pastor

Kroencke's pleading words will find themselves compelled to do what Pastor Kramer's invalid member did, as he reports in the short article bearing the title, ·ccA Surprise," which also appears in this number. When other denominations are making such strenuous and successful efforts to take care of their old and incapacitated workers and their families, we· of the Church of the pure Gospel should not permit ourselves to be put to shame.

Surely, our pastors and teachers deser,•e it at our . hands that we take care of them in their old age or in sickness, since the instances are but few among us that their salaries have been such as to make • it possible for them to lay by much for a rainy day.

parison with 1·csults attained, the cost o.f carrying on colored mission work has been most expensive in North Carolina and least expensive by far in Alabama, while the work among the Negroes in ~orthcrn cities has cost less than one hal:f o.f what it cost in Loui inna. O.f course, the light expense of the work in Northern cities is in part to be attributed to the fact that we have had very little building expenses till now; in fact, only two stations have their own buildings, Springfield and Cincinnati, and of these the Cincinnati building is a present from the white congregations of the city. Mission Plants. in the Colored Field. - In Louisiana, all the statio~s except .Alexandria have their church and school. - In the Northern cities, only Springfield and Cincinnati have their own building. - In the Carolinas only Winston-Salem is without a clnuch and school. High Point, N. C., .i~ in need of a school, and Spartanburg, S. C., wants an additional· schoolroom. - In the Alabama field, the following stations are without plants of their own: Pine Hill,· Ingoniar, Mobile, Atmore, Pensacola, and Rockwest. Rosebud, our oldest station in .Alabama, stands in great need of a new church and school. Mobile, Ala. - Pastor Schink writes: "Our colored work is progressing in· 'great style' in Mobile. Our school has an enrolment of eighty-three children, and our services are well attended." America's Debt to Missionaries. - The first plow that cut the soil of our American prairie was held by a missionary, and this same missionary planted the first wheat in our country. Missionaries were the first to cultivate sugar-cane' in the South, and they were the first to bring the orange .to California. Missionaries planted the first fig-trees in this· country, and they brought the first olives here. It was

Colored :Missions in the Larger Cities. - Of missionaries that first called attention to the poscourse, our readers know that we have a number sibiliti~s of the cotton'"plant, and they first disof prosperous colored missions in cities like Chi- covered the salt-wells of New York and the coppercago, St. Louis, and New O;rleans. It is the opinion mines of Michigan. of friends of our ·colored Missions that this work Roman. Catholic Foreign Missions. - In Japan should be greatly extended in the near future. Our and Korea there are 162,000 Roman Catholic comwork P~adelphia and Chicago shoul~ be p~shed, municants who are served by 282 pi:iests; in Chiua and cities like Buff~lo, Cleveland, Det:01t, Milwau- ' there are 1,820,000 Catholics who are served by kee should be occupied as soon as poSS1ble. 2,380 priests; the 1,035,000 Catholics of ludo-

The Relative Cost of Our Colored :Missions. - China are served by 1,081 foreign priests; in India Contrary to what might be expected, the work of 2,800 Roman priests have a native Catholic memcarrying on our colored mission work in N ortherri bership of 2,400,000 to care for;· in Africa the cities has been less when results are considered than total Catholic membership is 750,000, who are in has been the work in some rural dil!tricts. I.n com- the spiritual care of 1,903 priests; finally, in