In addition two special recommendations are made, with view to control immigration and lessen the hardships of the debarred: (1) To enlighten aliens as to the provisions of our laws, so that they may not in ignorance sever their home ties and sacrifice their small possessions in an ineffectual attempt to enter the United States. To this end the laws and regulations should be translated into the various tongues and distributed widely. This might not prevail as against the influence and promises of transportation agents, but it would relieve this country of responsibility for needless distress and suffering. (2) An international conference of immigration experts.
APPENDIX C
Work of Leading Denominations for the Foreign Population
The following facts and figures, received from the leading Home Mission Boards, give some idea of the work which is now being done for the evangelization of the foreign peoples in the United States. We should be glad if the reports were more complete. They do not represent all of the work that is being done, because a considerable part of this work is carried on by the local churches in all of the denominations, and this work is seldom reported and does not enter into the statistics of the Home Mission Boards.
It is hoped that each Board will provide a supplementary chapter, setting forth in detail its work among the foreign population—a work abounding in incident and hopefulness. There is no more encouraging home mission work, and wherever earnest effort has been made, the response has been most gratifying. Write to your Home Mission Board for full information. Where a special chapter is not furnished for a supplemental study, the Boards will send the information and literature that will enable the leader of the study class to show what is being done, with a detail impossible in the general treatment of the subject.
It is significant, in this connection, that all the Boards are calling especial attention to the needs of this work among the foreign peoples and urging large advance in plans for evangelization.
MISSION WORK OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN 1906 AMONG THE FOREIGN POPULATION
| Nationality | No. of charges receiving missionary aid | Members and probationers in charge receiving missionary aid | |
| Welsh | 4 | 185 | |
| Swedish | 135 | 12,076 | |
| Norwegian and Danish | 85 | 4,236 | |
| German | 265 | 19,184 | |
| French | 8 | 350 | |
| Chinese | 11 | 298 | |
| Japanese | 30 | 1,666 | |
| Bohemian and Hungarian | 11 | 1,666 | |
| Italian | 18 | 1,014 | |
| Portuguese | 3 | 86 | |
| Finnish | 9 | 93 | |
| Foreign Populations | 3 | — | |
| — | ——— | ||
| Total | 582 | 39,557 | |
Including the charges not now receiving missionary aid, the total number of missions, or charges, among the foreign peoples was 971, not including Spanish work, and the total membership, including probationers, was 92,082 in 1906. The work is extended all over the country.