A CLASS OF NATIVE STUDENTS GRADUATES FROM THE
AMERICAN COLLEGE FOR GIRLS, CONSTANTINOPLE
In 1856 Crosby H. Wheeler was sent out as a missionary and in 1857 he was assigned to Harpoot in Eastern Turkey. He had received a thoroughly practical training in business and as a pastor in Maine before going out. While profoundly earnest in his purpose to Christianize the people of Turkey, he had little sentiment in his makeup and was eminently practical in all he undertook. He soon discovered that the churches in Turkey were regarded by the people as belonging to the missionaries, since the missionaries paid all the bills. Many who attended felt it to be a favor they were conferring upon the missionaries. A church in the city of Arabkir, some two days’ journey northwest of Harpoot, was in need of a stove. Dr. Wheeler ordered one from America, paid the bill, even for transportation to Arabkir. One of the deacons of the church received the stove and set it up, and then sent a bill for his services to Dr. Wheeler. This turned the tide. Dr. Wheeler from that time became the champion of self-support for native churches, as a fundamental principle of self-government and self-propagation.
The people, for the most part, did not welcome the change. They were Orientals, and could not see why the American Christians should not have the privilege of supporting their pastors and meeting all the cost of their churches if they so desired. Dr. Wheeler, by pen and voice, advocated the policy with great energy and force. The wisdom of it was recognized by the officers of the Board. It gained general approval from most of the missionaries in Turkey, but many of them hardly dared to apply it vigorously in their own immediate community. It required no little courage to adopt and put through so unpopular a measure. The principle was a right one and could not but prevail. The wiser Armenians and Greeks saw that only in this way could they secure for themselves liberty and independence of action befitting their ability. While their desire for money inclined them to cling to the old custom, their love of freedom forced them towards self-support.
The same principle was applied to the missionary schools. At first they also were free, but in the Orient no real value attaches to that which costs nothing. Schools that are free can be attended or not as the pupil sees fit. Books given away are easily lost or destroyed and are never valued. To command respect for the schools and insure regularity of attendance it became necessary to charge the pupils tuition. A pupil for whom tuition had been paid could be depended upon to be present when not seriously sick. Books and slates when purchased were cared for and used. Dr. Wheeler once spent several hours in persuading a man to purchase a two cent slate for his boy in school. The contest was for the principle, not the two cents. It is needless to say that Dr. Wheeler carried his point.
This principle is now a well established policy throughout the Turkish missions. Native churches, as soon as they become financially able, assume the entire expense for themselves. No missionary is the pastor of a native church. The weaker churches pay what they can, the missionaries supplementing with the understanding that the mission’s aid shall diminish as their financial strength increases.
Many Protestant schools in Turkey to-day receive no aid from mission funds. The people assume that an education has a real value for which they are willing to pay. Some of the colleges receive in tuition fees as much as three-fourths of the cost of conducting the institution. With others differently situated the proportion is less but all get no small part of their income from the students. Probably the higher educational institutions in Turkey secure as large if not a larger part of their running expenses from the pupils than do similar institutions in any other country in the world.
The same principle applies also to literature and to medical treatment. The people pay liberally for all the products of the press, whether it be in the form of periodicals or books and tracts. Missionary physicians early learned that they could accomplish more good by charging fees for service and for medicine in all cases where the patient is able to pay. The patient who receives medicine free when he has money to pay for it is apt to defy all directions, or even not take it at all unless he likes it. Medicine that has been paid for is pretty sure to be taken. Some of the hospitals in Turkey, apart from the salary of the missionary physician in charge, are practically self-supporting, the fees of the patients and the sums paid for medicine being sufficient to meet the cost of attendants, supplies, and the care of the hospital.
The deserving poor, however, are not turned away. In schools methods of self-help are provided for students who have no funds with which to pay tuition, so that their self-respect and independence are not destroyed. In the same way provision is made for books. In cases of sickness, no one who is worthy is ever refused treatment by the missionary physician because he has no money to pay.
This principle of self-support has become a fixed part of the work in Turkey. The people are now thoroughly committed to it. They recognize that the mission is not there to transplant institutions from abroad, but to sow seed from which institutions may grow in the soil of Turkey, watered by Turkish showers, warmed by the Turkish sun, cultivated and cared for by Turkish hands. Much greater progress would have been made in self-support had it not been for many overwhelming disasters which have swept over the empire at intervals since missionary work began there. First it was devastating wars with Greece, with Egypt, and with Russia. Then came famine and massacre, the latter paralyzing trade, killing the wage-earners, and driving many of the most enterprising from the country. Had the Greeks and Armenians in Turkey been free from these terrible disasters for the last generation, it is safe to say every missionary church, school, hospital, and press would be to-day entirely independent of financial aid from this country. There would probably be need of missionaries for some time to come, and money from this country might still be called for to open new sections of the country, as, for instance, in Koordistan, and Albania, and Arabia, but in the old fields ample financial support would easily be supplied by the people themselves. In 1907 in spite of their poverty and distress the people connected with the American Board missions alone paid for their own churches, schools, and missionary medical attendance over $128,000,—a sum far in excess of what was paid by the Board to support the same work. We may confidently expect that if a new imperial policy should be put into operation and Turkey afford safety to life and property and liberty of conscience and judgment to all her subjects, there would be a marked advance in the support of all Christian and educational work in the country, and a rapid enlargement of all such institutions.