REPORT OF THE SECRETARY.
The information from the field, to which you have listened, explains to you the necessity for the organization of a Bureau of Woman's Work. It was organized in April, 1883, for the purpose, as was then stated:
1. To give information to the ladies in the churches of the variety of work sustained by the Association and to assist in devising plans of help.
2. To promote correspondence with churches, Sabbath-schools, missionary societies or individuals who will undertake work of a special character, such as the support of missionaries, aiding of students, supplying clothing, furnishing goods, and meeting other wants on mission ground.
3. To send to the churches, conferences or associations desiring it, experienced and intelligent lady missionaries to address them, giving fuller details of our methods of work.
It was believed that the growing interest on the part of the ladies of our churches, and their evident disposition to aid more effectively in the elevation of women, particularly the women of the South, called for such a department. Already the ladies of one State had organized the "Woman's Aid to the A. M. A.," that they might have their definite line of work in the support of lady missionaries, and inquiry had been made by many how best to assist in this work.
It was recognized that in no other way could a general interest be awakened and maintained so well as by giving direct information from the field, and the twenty years' experience of the Association in the South, during which time more than 3,000 different ladies had been employed as missionaries and teachers, the knowledge gained of the peculiarities of the field and best methods of reaching the people, and the thorough organization of the different departments of labor in home, school, and church, prepared us to bring before the ladies the information necessary, and to offer most excellent opportunities for special work for women. The ready response to this movement confirms the wisdom of the step, and we trust that ere long the Bureau will open new avenues of usefulness to the ladies of the churches, and give enlargement and efficiency to the work in the field.
Immediately following the organization of the Bureau, Miss Rose Kinney, of Oberlin, O., for many years engaged in the Southern work, and recently located in one of the dark corners of the field, McIntosh, Ga., was detailed for service in the North. She spent about six weeks in Ohio, Michigan, Illinois and Iowa, addressing ladies' meetings at the General Associations, and with good results. In June the Secretary of the Bureau was present at the State Conferences of Vermont and Maine, and gave information of the work in the field, resulting in the appointment of a State Committee of ladies in Vermont, to secure funds for the support of a missionary. Early in September Miss Anna M. Cahill, for nine years connected with Fisk University, Nashville, Tenn., was detailed for special service, and has recently attended a series of meetings in Michigan and Illinois.
It is our purpose thus to bring the work before the ladies whenever and wherever opportunity is given, through different teachers and missionaries whom we may be able to spare temporarily from the field.
Within the year just closed, Sept. 30, the Association has had special aid from ladies North in the support of seven missionaries, as follows:
In this connection we would mention also that a lady missionary, Miss Clary, at Beaufort, S. C., was sustained to the amount of $300 by the Sunday-school of the Central Congregational Church, Brooklyn.
Supplies in the furnishing of Mission Homes and dormitories have been recently furnished, and there is very marked increase of aid in the furnishing of clothing, both new and second-hand, for the benefit of students who are struggling in the greatest poverty to obtain an education.
While, therefore, but a few months have elapsed since the organization of the Bureau of Woman's Work, its advantage is already manifest.
Since the field of missionary operations in our own country is large and diversified, and three leading societies exist, each having its distinct and important work,—viz.: The New West Education Commission, the American Home Missionary Society, and the American Missionary Association—no effort has been made by the American Missionary Association to organize local societies auxiliary to itself; but that a society should exist in every church, able to co-operate directly with this Association in its great work for the Chinese, the Indians, the negroes and the needy whites of the South, seems apparent.
To this end we urge upon the ladies, organization, as helpful to systematic giving, and to facilitate such movement we present a form of constitution for a co-operative society, that may be open to the call from all parts of our country. This we greatly prefer as avoiding complication and preserving fellowship and unity in the home work. Such is the pressure of claims upon us, however, through the needs of our field, that except as such opportunity is afforded for aid to the Am. Miss. Assoc., we feel that we may be constrained to ask for organization auxiliary to the A. M. A. exclusively—for the women and children of 6,000,000 of colored people of the South alone presents a field for missionary work in the elevation of women, which we must not ignore, from the responsibility of which we cannot escape.
We are just now entering upon a new year of work. Of the 175 ladies appointed to the various departments of missionary labor, twelve are engaged for special home visitation among the people. You can see at a glance that this number is insufficient for that line of duty. Although our teachers are missionaries, and accomplish much through the schools and various agencies set at work for the elevation of the people, yet we ought to have at least one experienced and efficient woman at every mission station, whose entire time should be given to special work in the homes of the people. Not only do we desire this, but the most urgent appeals are sent us from the field for help of this kind, not instead of that which we are doing in school and church, but supplementary to it, as necessary in securing the results we seek. Already fifteen applications are before us for lady missionaries to work in the homes, and we wait only for the women of the North to furnish us the necessary funds. As fast as we receive pledges of support the missionaries will be sent out.
May the heart of every Christian woman be quickened to new impulse for the development of womanhood in those in our own land, so degraded and helpless!