THE CHINESE.
—Not one in five hundred of the women of Shantung can read.
—There are twenty self-supporting Protestant churches in China, and nearly 400 which are partially so.
—A Chinaman in a town called New-Bendigo, in Australia, where there is a large Chinese colony, was asked recently what practical good had been accomplished by the missionaries. He answered as follows: Before, no one understood God’s Word. Good many work Sunday all same as week day. Now, no work done on Sunday at New-Bendigo by my countrymen. Perhaps chop little wood for house, or wash him clothes; but no go work. No matter poor, every one no work on Sunday. Before, all worship idols. Now, many come to church; he no worship idols. When Lee Wah begin to read, good many had idols in house; thirty more. Myself had one. Now, only ten houses and stores in New-Bendigo with idols in them. Before, at old township, good many Chinese steal fowls, everything. Now, no more steal; every one work; go get job. Before, every night, Chinaman learn to practice fight. I tell him too stupid fellow. You learn God’s Word you no want to fight. Now, no more learn to fight. Learn God’s Word. Before people no care for God’s Word; he no know or care. Now, good many people like read God’s Word. Before, too much time, nothing to do. Now, many say I learn to read God’s Word. Now, no more waste time. I like to read. Before, good many make fun God’s Word; laugh. Papers were put upon outside of store, make laugh at Christian. Papers were put up on door of baptized men’s house. Now, heathen men no more make fun; strong man’s hands tied up. Himself like it now. Very quiet now.
REFLEX INFLUENCE OF A. M. A.
FROM ADDRESS BY REV. S. L. BLAKE, D.D.
The direct increase to the wealth of the country, in diminishing the number of mere consumers, and increasing the number of actual producers and property-holders, puts the business world largely in debt to this society.
A few figures will help your understanding of the case. In twenty-one years this society has spent $5,543,636.03—a yearly average of $263,772.19. In seventeen years, from 1863 to 1880, from not owning a single dollar’s worth of property of any sort available for taxation, these people have come to hold property taxed for $100,000,000, as appears from Southern tax-bills, which show no respect of color—an average rate of increase from nothing, of $5,882,352.94 a year. This is a yearly increase greater than the whole amount spent by this society. That is, this society has spent $1, and these people, from absolute pauperism, have come into possession of over $21 of taxable property. These facts answer the question whether the colored man can take care of himself, and show that the labors of this society have a cash value which can easily be computed.
There is still another phase of the cash value of the labors of this society, as related to the productive wealth of the country. Here this society touches and increases our material prosperity. I refer to a more equable distribution of ownership in the soil. Surely no one can deny that to change five or six millions of people from paupers to property-holders, produces a very material effect upon the prosperity of the State.
I believe that it is a settled canon of political economy that a nation’s wealth is in its soil. Where there are but few land-owners, and the tillers of the soil are tenants, wealth must be in the hands of the few, and comparative if not absolute poverty in the hands of the many. To this state of things belong social classes, as widely separated from each other as continents. It goes without saying that landed monopoly and general prosperity of the people do not go together. I am no advocate of communism; but I take the ground, and I believe it can be held, that the same amount of property, somewhat evenly distributed among the people of a country, adds more to its actual productive wealth and material prosperity, than the same amount of money would do, held in the hands of a few, who constitute an aristocracy of wealth and of blood. Of course, in every state, some men must be vastly more wealthy than others. But a comfortable competence in one’s hands makes him entirely independent of his more wealthy neighbor.
It is among the proofs of the increasing material prosperity of this country, that the average size of farms has decreased from 199 acres in 1860 to 134 acres in 1880; and that the amount of capital invested in farms exceeds the money invested in railroads, and in manufacturing, including supplies, by over $2,000,000,000. Gradually this vast preponderance of wealth is being more equably distributed among the people. The plantation system, previous to the war, gives way to the small farm, tilled and owned in many cases by the former slaves. Take a single case. Liberty County, Georgia, in 1860, was mostly taken up by large plantations. There were but 48 farms, “of from three acres to one hundred acres each.” In 1880 the county was almost entirely owned by colored people, and there were 1,500 farms. This is an illustration of the yielding of landed monopoly and aristocracy to popular ownership in the soil, and to a more general and evenly diffused prosperity. The average size of farms in fifteen slave States has been reduced from over 368 acres in 1860 to a trifle over 149 acres in 1880, over 50 per cent. If you precipitate upon the population of a country 1,000,000 citizens, who may become land-holders, you have struck a heavy blow at landed monopoly, and taken a long stride toward increase of material prosperity.
Let me give you two or three further facts. In 1878 the freedmen of Prince Edward County, Virginia, owned 2,305 acres of land, an increase in eight years of 1,847 acres. In the county of Rockbridge, Virginia, two thousand blacks were assessed for $50,000 worth of real estate. In 1876 the colored people of Georgia owned land valued at $1,234,104, and other property to swell the total to $6,134,829. In the single State of Georgia these people, from not owning a dollar, have come to possess property greater in value than the entire sum spent by this Association in 21 years. Who says that this alabaster box of ointment has been wasted?
Material prosperity indicates a certain degree of intelligence. The ignorant are not the wealthy nations of the globe. The work of this Association in bringing these people up to a degree of intelligence somewhat commensurate with their opportunities, and in lifting them to a level of citizenship co-ordinate with the welfare and prosperity of the State, has directly aided in this increase of the material forces of the nation’s welfare. For if the actual amount of property were not increased, yet the prospective wealth of the nation must be by converting 6,000,000 illiterate paupers into educated, independent property-holders.
I find this in the last issue of the American Missionary, which supports my position with high authority: “It has been estimated at Washington that the annual profit to the country by the conversion of illiterate into educated labor cannot be less than $400,000,000.” This work has been done by this Association.
Money given to the endowment of its institutions at the South would yield a hundred fold in half a generation.
WHITE TOP MOUNTAIN, VIRGINIA.