3. Vice. It is admitted that ignorance and poverty beget vice. According to recent statistics, gathered from the whole country, it is shown that the illiterate classes commit more than ten times their pro rata of crime. The missionary must stay the progress of vice, drying up its sources as best he may, and uncapping the fountains of life. To do this he must impart knowledge and preach the gospel.
If, in consequence of the ignorance and poverty of the people South, there is vice and crime unparalleled in the annals of our country; if these things combined constitute a poverty unknown elsewhere in the land when estimated by its extent, then those who seek the poorest will not neglect the millions in the Southern States.
It is our work, as an Association, to do what we can to render these people the help needful. Will not the friends of Christ help us "remember the poor?"
Christian Educators in Council is the title of a pamphlet of 266 pages, giving full report of sixty addresses by American educators at Ocean Grove last August, arranged topically as follows: I. Education and Man's Improvement. II. Illiteracy in the United Slates. III. National Aid to Common Schools. IV. The Negro in America. V. Illiteracy, Wealth, Pauperism, and Crime. VI. The American Indian Problem. VII. The American Mormon Problem. VIII. Education in the South since the War. IX. Christ in American Education. Tables: Illiterate and Educational Status, United States, 1880. Rev. J. C. Hartzell, D.D., the editor and compiler, purposes to issue a second edition for general circulation. He may be addressed at the Methodist Book Concern, New York. We know of no one document of equal value, on the subjects discussed. The price is one dollar.
SOUTHERN MANUFACTURES.
An account of the Southern manufacturing and mining enterprises for January and February is given in the Manufacturers' Record, and illustrates the growing thrift of these industries in the South. Kentucky shows the largest aggregate, which foots up $6,851,000. Alabama is second with 5,210,000; Virginia, 3,830,000; Texas, 3,593,000; Georgia, 2,074,000; Maryland, 2,015,000; North Carolina, 1,227,000; West Virginia, 916,000; South Carolina, 904,000; Tennessee, 846,000, and the other States a little less than 500,000 each. The cotton mills begun since January will cost over $325,000, and will add more than a hundred thousand spindles to the number now in the South. The Eagle and Phœnix Mills, Columbus, Ga., intend to erect a new structure at the cost of $1,000,000. At Rome, Ga., and at Birmingham, Ala., new cotton mills to cost $100,000 each are about to be erected. Confidence, which can only spring from intelligence and Christianity, is the one thing needful in order to secure the capital wanted for the development of the vast manufacturing interests of the southern portion of our country.
The Early Dawn is the title of a paper published at Good Hope Station, Sherbro Island, under the management of Rev. Mr. Gomer, the colored Superintendent of the Mendi and Shengay Missions, now in charge of the United Brethren in Christ. The Early Dawn is welcomed.