No denominational schools surpass those of this group in educational standards or administrative efficiency. It is probable that no church board has equaled this association in the thoroughness of its self-examination. The following quotation from the 1914 report outlines several policies to which every church board should give serious consideration:
In the realm of educational policy we record a most important change of tendency, which it is better to state positively, as a movement toward concentration in order to greater efficiency. This has involved the discontinuance or radical limitation of five of our smaller schools, including some of long history and rich service. * * * The time had come when the socialized Christian conscience demanded such improved methods in missionary service as it requires—often by law—of educators, landlords, employers of labor and congregations of men anywhere. It has cost $1,000 for instance, literally to stop rat holes in mission buildings, and thus to save New Orleans and Porto Rico from danger from bubonic plague. We had to do better what we did at all, and our resources were insufficient. We simply had to close institutions. * * *
While these peremptory conditions have closed some of the schools nearest to the masses of the people, we are glad to record as the chief technical gain of the year, that the colleges have been made more available and useful to the masses. Their curricula have been broadened, and the conditions of entrance made more democratic and in harmony with those of the great middle western State universities. This is immediately manifest in the increased number of high-school pupils, and will affect the colleges tomorrow.
As to educational plant, last year’s survey touched upon the demand of the socialized conscience for better housing conditions in missionary institutions. Our response is in the fact that no year has ever spent so much for sanitation, that more fire escapes have been erected, and more bathtubs installed than any previous year. * * * As a class, they are more nearly fire-proof, they have more steel in their structure, more scientifically determined allowance of light and air, and more beauty than any previous group. * * * If the Lord’s work is attempted at all it shall be done under somewhat decent conditions. Nor do we feel that it is a substitution of the physical for the spiritual. To live up to plumbing is itself a training of character, health is a prerequisite of thought, and beauty an inalienable right of the spirit.
A summary of the schools is given below:
| AMERICAN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION. | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| States | Number of Schools | Counted Attendance | Teachers | Income for Current Expenses | Value of Property | ||
| Total | White | Negr. | |||||
| Total | 29 | 6,992 | 383 | 212 | 171 | $235,764 | $1,733,589 |
| Alabama | 6 | 1,714 | 89 | 57 | 32 | 63,553 | 546,769 |
| Florida | 1 | 225 | 12 | 12 | 3,343 | 49,300 | |
| Georgia | 6 | 1,459 | 68 | 32 | 36 | 33,583 | 133,900 |
| Kentucky | 1 | 170 | 10 | 7 | 3 | 5,559 | 39,000 |
| Louisiana | 1 | 578 | 30 | 17 | 13 | 20,885 | 150,000 |
| Mississippi | 4 | 843 | 47 | 38 | 9 | 32,489 | 172,400 |
| North Carolina | 5 | 826 | 52 | 16 | 36 | 30,000 | 394,920 |
| South Carolina | 2 | 484 | 21 | 17 | 4 | 13,626 | 53,900 |
| Tennessee | 1 | 285 | 21 | 14 | 7 | 12,537 | 54,000 |
| Texas | 1 | 223 | 20 | 14 | 6 | 12,792 | 103,500 |
| Virginia | 1 | 115 | 13 | 13 | 788 | 35,900 | |
The total income for the current expenses of these institutions is $235,461, of which $129,429 is from the association. This includes the income from the Daniel Hand Fund, which is administered by the association. On the basis of income 5 of the schools are under $2,500, 7 have incomes between $2,500 and $5,000, 13 between $5,000 and $15,000, 3 between $15,000 and $30,000, and one has an income of over $30,000. The total property is valued at $1,733,589, of which about one and a third million is in plant and a third of a million in endowment. With the Daniel Hand Fund of almost two million dollars, the property of the American Missionary Association for work among Negroes aggregates over three and a half millions. According to property, four schools have a valuation under $10,000, ten schools have valuations between $10,000 and $25,000, nine schools between $25,000 and $50,000, five schools between $50,000 and $250,000, and two have a valuation over $250,000.
The attendance on these schools was 6,922, of whom 5,448 were elementary, 1,380 secondary, and 94 collegiate. All the schools have elementary classes, all but three have secondary, and four offer instruction in college subjects. The number of teachers is 383, of whom 212 are white and 171, or 45 per cent. colored; 92 are men and 291, or 76 per cent. are women; and 270, or 70 per cent., are academic teachers.
GIRLS’ DORMITORY, TOUGALOO COLLEGE, TOUGALOO, MISS.
One of the most picturesque institutions in America, being located in a magnificent grove. It was founded by the American Missionary Association in 1869. There are thirty-one teachers and five hundred students. The property is valued at $150,000.