Christian democracy for America

Front matter

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Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

Foreword 11

I. Democracy's Foundations 15

Foreword

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Two men stood in the Colosseum at Eome.

* ' Think of the men who have stood here ! ' ' said one.

" Think of the men who will! 9 ' said the other.

That is the Christian outlook in all ages. It fronts the dawn. Its word of command is ' ' Eyes Front ! ' '

The one hundredth anniversary of the beginning of Methodist Missions in 1819 is not being celebrated by a history of the past but by a program for a future. The Centenary World Program of Methodism is an expression of the only answer which the Christian Church can make to a world at war — a vigorous and world-wide extension of the kingdom of God.

Two volumes dealing with the place of Christianity in the world situation are published as part of the observance of the Centenary of Methodist Missions.

The present volume considers the place of the Church through its home missions, in strengthening the forces of Christian democracy in our own land. A companion volume, The Christian Crusade for World Democracy, deals with the relation of Christian missions to world democracy.

The books are designed for use in Mission Study classes in Epworth Leagues, young people's societies, church groups, and Sunday schools, as well as for general reading.

The authors of Christian Democracy for America desire to acknowledge the helpful suggestions made by the superintendents of the several departments of the Board of Home Missions and Church Extension of the Methodist Episcopal Church. They wish also to give credit to Miss Edith M. Williamson, for the research work done and her careful work upon many of the maps used, to Rev. Crawford Trotter for writing the immigrant chapter as it appeared in the summer edition, to the Rev. Paul Barton, for work done on the preliminary draft of the chapter on The Challenge of the

Christ, to Dr. I. Garland Penn, corresponding secretary of the Freedmen's Aid Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church, for material and suggestions for the chapter on ' ' The Negro and the Church, ' ' and to Mr. Carl F. Price for his careful reading of the manuscript and helpful criticism.

America will be what we make it. May the words of Katherine Lee Bates be our song as we labor to make it a land of Christian democracy.

"0 beautiful for spacious skies,

Above the fruited plain.

America ! America !

God shed his grace on thee, And crown thy good with brotherhood

From sea to shining sea!

"0 beautiful for pilgrim feet,

Whose stern, impassioned stress A thoroughfare for freedom beat

Across the wilderness!

America ! America !

God mend thine every flaw, Confirm thy soul in self control,

Thy liberty in law!

"O beautiful for heroes proved

In liberating strife, Who more than self their country loved,

And mercy more than life.

America ! America !

May God thy gold refine, Till all success be nobleness,

And every gain divine!

"O beautiful for patriot dream That sees beyond the years Thine alabaster cities gleam

Undimmed by human tears!

America ! America !

God shed his grace on thee, And crown thy good with brotherhood From sea to shining sea!"

I was listening to the most wonderful narrative I had ever heard. Or, no, I did not listen. The low-ceiled room, lined on every side with books, vanished. I sailed across uncharted seas with a band of men and women who were daring unknown dangers to be free. I saw them in their winning struggles with the wilderness and with the Indians. In the same cause of freedom I boarded a boat with them in the night, and watched them fling casks of tea into the dark waters about them. I rode with Paul Revere, and heard the shots of the minute men at Lexington and Concord. I heard the deathless words of Nathan Hale as he waited his doom. I cheered a dashing man named Arnold as he turned the tide of victory at Saratoga, and, with sinking heart, saw him turn traitor afterward. I suffered with Washington at Valley Forge and marched beside him on and on, until I stood before Yorktown, and saw freedom again win its victory. . . . He had magically swept open the door into an undiscovered land — my undiscovered land — where men dared all for freedom with a red-white-and-blue flag waving above them. — Arthur Goodrich, in The Sign of Freedom.

The hand of destiny has prepared us for this day. From the day when the Puritan fled from the thraldom of autocracy to find a new home in a new West, the hand of the Omnipotent has guided us. With the building of the home went the establishment of the church and the schoolhouse, to guide us in the free and open worship of our God and in the teaching of our youth the fundamental principles of democracy. A great continent developed before us. The rich coal deposits and vast forests of the North, the mighty steel industries and the numerous manufactories of the East, the great cotton fields of the South, and the full granaries of the West — all these were developed to make us the wealthiest nation in the world. At last the hour has come, in the world crisis, when resources shall weigh the scale for autocracy or democracy. — B. Lawrence Coughlin, in The Star of the West.

The only kind of Christianity that is going ultimately to succeed anywhere is the kind that works here in America, for sooner or later all the objections, philosophical, commercial, and otherwise, which are met in America must be faced elsewhere. What the world has been waiting for through the centuries is a sample Christian nation. America has the best chance of being that sample. Consequently, every movement which better expresses Christian ideals in American life makes easier the task of the missionary abroad. On the other hand, any custom that is unjust makes more difficult the task of our foreign workers. — Edward Laird Mills.

CHAPTER I DEMOCRACY'S FOUNDATIONS A Spokesman for World Democracy

America has become spokesman for world democracy. The experiment expressed in the Declaration of Independence has proved a dream worthy the acceptance of all people. From the national capital of the United States of America has gone forth the challenge which is to change the status of human relationships the world over. On the streets of Bombay and in the tea houses of China men are discussing the meaning of a democracy for which the world must be made safe at the cost of hundreds of thousands of lives. An ideal of human brotherhood, economic justice and social fair play is being interpreted by folks who gave it scant heed a few months ago. The minds of men are aflame with the the fires of a new day. And America, only a short time ago a handful of colonists with a new idea, but now a nation one hundred and four millions strong, is leading the way to a practical application of all that the term " democracy ' ' means.

And what does "democracy" mean! It is not a mere rhetorical catchword. Wrought out in the rough school of a nation's development, it is a part of the life of a people seeking the highest form of self-government, both as individuals and as a nation. For only as individuals prove the theory of personal self-government are they able successfully to apply its principles nationally to affairs which concern the larger group. In demonstrating ability for self-government one best learns what democracy means. But statements brought to utterance by the world war give a firm foundation for democracy's interpretation. President Wilson pleads for "fair dealing, justice, the freedom to live and be at ease against organized wrong, . . . the right of those who submit to authority to have a voice in their own governments, for the rights and liberties of small nations, for a universal dominion of right by such a concert of free peoples as shall bring peace and safety to all nations and make the world itself at last free.' '

Such a statement implies a background of national life capable of bringing to fruition the ideals which it embodies. It suggests a development which has forced into practice the theories upon which it is based. It calls up the struggle to clear the forests. It sees the prairie schooner lumbering along the rough and tiresome trail. Log cabins in the wilderness, the fight to maintain existence, the efforts to raise and educate a family under adverse conditions, all come to mind. Communities take the place of stockade forts. Commonwealths with citizens striving for the good of all multiply. And suddenly, out of the apparent lack of a national consciousness, men are seen marching to battle for the ideals of "my country.' ' In an hour of world chaos the nation has risen to declare by every form of sacrifice that it believes implicitly in all that it has taught and sung.

This manifestation of sacrificial devotion speaks eloquently for the foundations upon which our democracy rests. As a nation we have not reached perfection. There is still a long road to travel. We may even ask ourselves if our nation has become so righteous, so filled with the spirit of economic and social justice, so alive to the real content of the term "brotherhood,' ' so keen to worship God and do his will, that we are ready to give to the world a form of religion that will make possible the practical applications of all that democracy involves. But the fact that religion of a practical character enters into the most fundamental aspects of our thinking of democracy cheers the heart of the world to expect great things from us, for the foundations of our national life are rooted in faith in God.

A seeking to know God has been a part of the whole adventure of settling the United States. Along with the growth of the nation has gone the growth of the Christian Church. Many of the early pioneers carried with them not only the dream of new communities but also the purpose to make these communities Christian. The preacher went along with the pathfinder and homesteader. As railroads pushed their way over the mountains and across the plains the church sent out its home missionaries in order that the people might not forget God in their new environment. The same folks who toiled in the forest or in the field during the week gathered on Sunday to hear the message of the Christ. Only in those settlements where no minister was provided did the ardor for the kingdom of God disappear. And the people from such communities have had to take cognizance of the Christian idealism of those who held to the worship of God when it has come to the formulating of the larger policies of government.

What a tribute to the faith of our fathers is the work which has been done by the public schools ! They believed in an intelligent knowledge of God and provided for the training of the young so that they might have a faith that would endure. Here the story of the stars and stripes was woven into the lessons of the day. Patriotism was taught. The atmosphere of learning had in it a devotion which would last through life. It was all a part of the larger ministry of the church, because churchmen were always the first to recognize the need of education and most eager to help provide it. They felt it essential to the establishment of the right kind of homes. Around the open fire at night it was possible to give practical application to the principles of democracy learned in the log school during the day. The public school, the home and the church have worked as one in promulgating the principles which now are the rock-bed foundation of our national ideals.

Every denomination has contributed to the great adventure of settling the country and providing the settlers with high ideals of thought and life. The very hugeness of the task has demanded the best that every expression of religion could give. It is not the job of any one denomination. The very idea of democracy would exclude such a thought. And to-day, more than at any time in the history of the religious bodies of the United States, is there a tendency toward Christian unity of effort and practical cooperation. How this will hasten the day when Christian democracy will be the ruling practice of the land ! The nation is looking to the Church for greater leadership than has been furnished. In the story of what one denomination has done and is planning comes the challenge for all denominations to recognize the fact that to-day is the hour of the nation's need. Now may service be rendered that will count forever.

Methodism a Force for Democracy

In the task of Christianizing the democracy of America the Methodist Episcopal Church has had a worthy part. The circuit rider was an early arrival in the history of our country. From hamlet to hamlet he ministered as he found opportunity. Nor was he a recluse of the study. One of those to whom he preached, he was as concerned as were they over the material development of the country. When Jason Lee discovered the great possibilities for the United States in the Oregon Country he counted it as much a part of his ministry to plead with national leaders to acquire this valuable land as he did to present the doctrine of Christian brotherhood among those who were then living in the Willamette Valley.

The first Protestant sermon preached west of the Rocky Mountains was delivered in 1834 by Jason Lee near the present site of Blackfoot, Idaho. When the Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church was organized in 1819 there were only three white, Anglo-Saxon, permanent settlements in all the territory now comprised in the frontier States and South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Minnesota, Iowa, and Missouri. Saint Louis, on the

THE OLD FRONTIER AND THE NEW

Mississippi, was an outfitting point for the western fur trade and was more French than English. Van Couver, on the Columbia River, was under the control of the British Hudson Bay Company. Astoria, one hundred miles farther down the same stream, had been feebly touched with American influence by John Jacob Astor.

Yet it was this section of the country which decided the issues of the Presidential election of 1916, and which is destined to become more and more influential in political affairs. It is now the most purely and intensely American section of the country, and the intrepid and adventurous Methodist circuit rider had much to do with making it so. To these Knights of the Saddlebag is due in no small degree the deeply embedded ethical sense which now flowers out so beautifully in wholesome habits and beneficent statutes. Nine of the twelve frontier States now are "dry," while Nevada and Wyoming are to vote on prohibition in the fall of 1918. Most of these States also have woman suffrage and laws for workmen's compensation, regulation of public utilities, the abolition of child labor, the minimum wage, the limitation of hours of service for women, and the initiative, referendum, and recall. Christian democracy? The circuit rider could not have dreamed of the results which would thus come in part from his arduous labors and ministry.

A Tkibute to the Circuit Rider

In addressing the delegates to the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1908 President Theodore Roosevelt said: "The Methodist Church plays a great part in many lands ; and yet I think I can say that in none other has it played so great and peculiar a part as here in the United States. Its history is indissolubly interwoven with the history of our country for the six score years since the constitutional convention made us really a nation. Methodism in America entered on its period of rapid growth just about the time of Washington's first presidency. Its essential democracy, its fiery and restless energy of spirit, and the wide play that it gave to individual initiative all tended to make it peculiarly congenial to a hardy and virile folk, democratic to the core, prizing individual independence above all earthly possessions, and engaged in the rough and stern work of conquering a continent. Methodism spread even among the old communities and long-settled districts of the Atlantic tidewater; but its phenomenal growth was from these regions westward. The whole country is under debt of gratitude to the Methodist circuit riders, the Methodist pioneer preacher, whose movement westward kept pace with the movement of the frontier, who shared all the hardships in the life of the frontiersman, while at the same time ministering to that frontiersman's spiritual needs, and seeing that his pressing material cares and the hard and grinding poverty of his life did not wholly extinguish the divine fire within his soul."

The Modern Frontier

The rapidity of settlement of any country depends in part upon the amount of tillable land available. This accounts for the vast stretches of land passed over by early settlers pushing westward. The rush to the Pacific Coast wiped out the frontier in a technical sense. In reality it left a great frontier in between more settled sections of the country. Because of this the frontier still remains for the church. Twelve great States comprise the frontier as defined for the home mission work of the Methodist Episcopal Church. "While there are a few strong cities within this boundary, for the most part the land is but sparsely settled. By actual census the State of New York has a larger population than the combined States of Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, North Dakota, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. Five people to a square mile does not crowd anyone very roughly. The abundant resources of this frontier have been and will be utilized only as the increasing pressure of population forces development. Our geographies long since ceased to mark a portion of the map with the romantic term "frontier." But there will be frontier conditions and problems until the population becomes much more dense than it is to-day, and that time is a long and indefinite period in the future. During this interim the church must continue to make sure that the foundations of our democracy are cemented together by the teachings and principles of Jesus Christ.

Available Lands foe Settlement

New settlers are constantly crowding into the frontier section. The land to be obtained is plentiful. And as they come to build new homes and lay out new communities the Methodist Episcopal Church, in common with other denominations, must meet the developing religious needs. On account of the general impression that the frontier has passed away hundreds of towns and villages have been left without any Protestant church whatever. The seriousness for democracy of such a condition is seen when it is noted that the total number of homestead patents issued in frontier territory by land officers in these States for 1917 was 43,727, a number exceeded only in 1913-14. Over 100,000 original homestead entries were made in the same time. In one of these States four out of ten land offices registered at the rate of over 100 homesteads a week. In Montana alone over 3,000,000 acres were appropriated and still there are 11,000,000 acres to be disposed of in this way. The 60,000,- 000 acres given to the frontier States for educational purposes are also finding their way into the hands of intending settlers, either by rental or sale. In one instance, in 1917, $1,250,000 worth of such land was sold for an average price of $17.84 an acre. Some of it brought $40 an acre. All of this land was unirrigated.

The sale of railroad land is making available for settlement other opportunities for the adventurous homesteader. In these same States the government, in order to secure the building of the great transcontinental railroads, gave them over 60,000,000 acres of land along their right of way. The Canadian Pacific Eailroad sold in 1917 over 750,000 acres of the land which it secured in this way. The irrigated land sold for $46 an acre, the unirrigated for $16. Most of this land lies directly north of our frontier and is similar in natural characteristics to our own. There are also hundreds of thousands of acres of "logged-ofr* " lands in the Northwest, owned by lumber companies and at present held at discouraging prices. As the population pressure increases the high prices demanded will be paid. The fact that over a million acres of Indian lands were sold in 1917 indicates the rapidity with which people are occupying these present-day opportunities of the West.

The great private grants, given in the days of Spanish and Mexican domination in California and New Mexico, must also be taken into account. Nearly one half of the coast land of California for twenty-five miles inland was given in such grants. The Maxwell grant near Cimarron, in New Mexico, is 35 by 55 miles in extent and contains 1,714,- 764 acres. Only 5,000 acres of this land was farmed while the original owner was alive. The Beale Ranch of 170,000 acres in the San Joaquin Valley, in California, was divided for sale as late as 1912. These grants tend constantly to be broken up and sold in smaller lots.

Finally there are the numerous large private ranches, variously acquired, all over the frontier. A striking example of this sort of possession is the Miller and Lux ranches in California, which extend from San Diego to Oregon. It is said that the owners could drive their cattle or sheep from Mexico to Oregon without having to camp overnight on any land not owned by the firm. The acreage of these ranches runs into the millions and it has been conservatively valued at $30,000,000. Recent scientific studies and experiments, by which careful preparation of the soil in dry-farming areas produces crops with an annual rainfall as low as ten or twelve inches, lead to the assumption that most of this land is potentially agricultural.

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Irrigation

Irrigation is adding to the acreage available for cultivation. In a literal sense it is making the desert blossom and bear frnit. By a process of dams and canals or ditches, water is provided the thirsty land as the need requires. This makes possible the cultivation of land for years considered to be useless for agricultural purposes. In 1915 there was an irrigable area of 1,405,000 acres on irrigation projects owned by the United States. Eight hundred and fifty thousand acres were actually "cropped" or cultivated, while a million acres were actually irrigated. The accompanying map shows only the irrigation projects under the control of the United States Reclamation Service. Extensive use has been made also of the Carey Land Act, in which the States participate. Moreover, all along the water courses of the Rocky Mountains irrigation to the extent of the then available water resources was practiced for many years by private individuals before the national government became interested in it. The irrigated acreage of all sorts is now 15,000,000. This is ten times the area shown on the map; 40,000,000 additional acres could be irrigated if sufficient capital were expended in constructing dams, reservoirs, and ditches. The Triickee-Carson project in Nevada has 200,000 acres of irrigable land, only one sixth of which is actually irrigated and cultivated. It will be some years, therefore, before this project and others like it reach their full develop-, ment. The irrigation projects with the small-sized farm and intensive cultivation present opportunities for a complete and fine community life. Four or five thousand acres of cultivated land will sustain a good-sized town, where the farmers may live together and enjoy good social and educational advantages.

Characteristics of the Frontier

The newness of the frontier is what makes it an urgent challenge to the church. So far as its Anglo-Saxon and Protestant civilization is concerned it is mostly less than two generations old. This newness means that financial resources for the development of the country must come from outside. When the land is taken up by homesteaders it is but the beginning. Everyone is obliged to begin from the noton j

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UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT IRRIGATION PROJECTS IN FRONTIER TERRITORY ground up. Each settler must build a barn instead of inheriting one from his ancestors. Houses to live in, schoolhouses for the children, courthouses, public business buildings, churches, parsonages, roads, fences, bridges, culverts — everything must be provided at once. It is a staggering task, but it must be done. Public buildings may be built out of the proceeds of bond issues and the cost passed on to another generation. Mercantile houses, elevators, and banks may be built on credit. And the local church is at a great disadvantage unless the church at large can be drawn on for substantial assistance. This is the raison d'etre for home mission and church extension aid.

Modern methods of communication and transportation have caused increased rapidity in frontier development in recent years. The map is ever changing. The town of Richey, Montana, is an illustration. The secretary of the Chamber of Commerce writes that "lots were sold on August 18, 1916, and our town is only eighteen months old. We have a population of about 450, with forty business places divided among every possible enterprise. There are five grain elevators, two steam-heated hotels, three poolrooms, two garages, four hardware stores, four restaurants, three lawyers, three land officers, two banks with over $120,000 each, two drug stores, four general stores, two blacksmith shops, a bakery, a dentist, a bowling alley and shooting gallery, a brick moving-picture theater, five lumber yards, a confectionery, a shoe-repairing shop, a theater and dancehall combined, a two-room and concrete basement school with about fifty pupils and two teachers, two butcher shops, and one church with a very small attendance. ' '

It is the last item which sounds a challenge to Christian democracy. The very rapidity of modern frontier growth accentuates the need for promptness. And Methodism must be alert to hear the cry. Help for the adequate presentation of the message of the Christ must be given from outside the community. The church which renders largest service will be the church which is on hand with its ministry of inspiration and help when the community is just starting. Material development must have first call with people in new communities. But as soon as the first stress is over they are able and willing to support their own church enterprises. The church problem is therefore urgent. With the rapidity of material development due to railroad and telegraph facilities the urgency increases. Shall the church hold back? Has it not as adventurous a spirit as investors in Western stocks and bonds ? Adequate leadership to mold the life of the community in the ways of Christian democracy while still plastic is needed. Shall not some of the money sent East from the enterprise of the West be returned in the form of leadership of this character ?

The failure of the church to be prompt in its statesmanship decreases the power of the nation to lead the people of the earth in the finest ways of life and thinking. It also accounts for some of the church and national problems which will have to be met by succeeding generations. There is reason to believe that the failure of the evanglical church to enter Northern California in force and with adequate organization in the decade 1849-59, when social life was in flux, is responsible for the slow growth of Christian idealism there during the years since. And had home missionaries been sent in adequate force to the moving population of the Mississippi Valley in 1830, there would doubtless be no Mormon problem such as exists to-day.

Along with the newness and rapidity of development of the frontier goes the element of chance. The adventurous spirit still has an opportunity to try his luck. Uncertainty shadows every dream of success. In fruit sections there must be unceasing warfare waged against insects. The difficulties of marketing have to be overcome. Often irrigation engineers underestimate the cost of a project. This means that the settler must pay much more than he had anticipated. Ditches may break or the dams go out through faulty construction. The building of a proposed railroad may be delayed for years. Drought may come in dry-farming sections. Even in agricultural communities the settlers learn to take a chance. What a place for the church to build its foundations into the lives of men and women ! Inasmuch as

A TEN-YEAR STUDY OP METHODIST EPISCOPAL FRONTIER ENGLISH-SPEAKING WORK the world is the parish of the Methodist Episcopal Church, what matters it that here and there an enterprise is started and the people have to give np and move away! These folks are going to live somewhere. They will take the Kingdom with them.

A Challenge from the Mines

This element of chance and the worthwhileness of taking it is particularly true in mining communities, especially those where high-grade ores are found. There is a town in Utah which illustrates this. At one time it was fourth in size in the State. In 1900 it has a population of 2,351. In 1910 there were but 1,047. To-day the population numbers two, and they are hired watchmen. For a number of years the Board of Home Missions and Church Extension maintained a Methodist church there, and still owns the church property. Shall the word ' ' failure ' ' be painted on the church door and across the record of the men whose judgment fathered the enterprise 1 The field moved away. But the influence of the ministry of that church is to-day blessing other communities. And two of the laymen who once worked in this church are now district superintendents in other Western States a thousand miles away.