Panama, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentine, Uruguay, and Paraguay Combined Spend Less for Education than Does the State of Kansas.
By
B. B. BOLTON, M. D.
ONE noticeable effect of the war in Europe has been to bring the peoples of the two Americas to realize, in a new sense, their nearness to each other; and many business men and organizations are working to promote closer relations. Following a number of Pan-American conferences, there was held at Panama, in February, a ten days' congress on Christian work in Latin America. Here, representing more than fifty denominational organizations and twenty-one nations, the 481 delegates met, and laid plans for the social betterment and religious conquest of Latin America. Never before has such a comprehensive view of the field been taken, nor greater, broader plans for coöperative work laid down.
This move is indeed a timely one. These Latin peoples, cut off from Europe by the great war, look to the United States for help in solving financial, educational, social, and religious problems. The Edinburgh Missionary Conference made no provision for this territory. Just at this time, there is an open revolt, throughout the South American field, against the Christian religion as they know it. In lands once intensely religious, over seventy per cent of the men have left the church, and this number is rapidly increasing. Mexico presents a similar condition.
45,000 Victims of Typhus
Now the Christian people of the Americas, and especially of the United States, where we are stronger, must respond to this emergency call. Could we but realize the situation, we would not use the word "duty"—it is our opportunity, our privilege, to do this. Some of the conditions brought to our attention by the congress are:
In one city in Oaxaca, Mexico, one third of the 45,000 inhabitants died, during the last few months, of typhus fever, which is an entirely preventable disease. Cause: Unwashed clothes and bedding, and ignorance of simple principles of hygiene.
Of every hundred children born over a large portion of the Latin field, only eighteen live to reach the age of six years. Why?—Unsanitary homes, unwashed clothes and bodies, improper and insufficient food, and ignorance on the part of the parents.
In one city of 100,000 people, over sixty-two per cent of the children are illegitimate. Cause: Illiteracy, idleness, ignorance; not immoral, but unmoral. This city has but one Protestant church, and the seating capacity of that one is less than a hundred.
Panama, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay have an average of seventy-one per cent illiterates. Kansas, by spending $300,000 more for education than do all these countries combined, has cut down her illiteracy to two and one fourth per cent.
The territory occupied by these 80,000,000 people would support in perfect comfort over twenty times as many. It is not overpopulated territory. Why, then, do pestilence, infant mortality, poverty, starvation, immorality, and illiteracy exist in these lands?—Ignorance is the underlying cause. Nature has given them abundant resources, but they are trampling them under their feet while they starve and fight for what they do not know how to provide for themselves.
Food, clothing, or money given to such people, except when absolutely necessary as a matter of detail in conducting educational work among them, will oftentimes injure instead of helping. What they need most is to be helped to the place where they can help themselves.
Who Is to Blame?
THESE people are not to blame for their condition; but we, the enlightened, educated Christian people of the United States, are to blame if we do not help to relieve the situation. They are our nearest neighbors. Yet, for each million population, we have sent three times as many workers to India, four times as many to Japan, and six times as many to Korea, as we have to these Latin fields.
Education is the remedy for these intolerable conditions, and the opportunity to apply the remedy lies at our doors—within our very gates. In Los Angeles County, California, alone, there are 75,000 Spanish-speaking people, eighty-five per cent of whom are representative of the lands from which they have but recently come. In the other southern counties of the same state, they number about the same. These refugees surely have as much claim upon us as have those we are so freely helping in far-away northern Europe.
Must Go Hand in Hand
A BEGINNING has been made in helping these Spanish-speaking people within our borders. That which seems most urgent is taught them in special day schools, night schools, and in connection with dispensary work, as well as by settlement workers who visit the homes. With the resources at their disposal, these workers realize that only constructive work can be undertaken, and that while the two must go hand in hand, education is far more important than relief. This demands trained workers with a knowledge of the customs and language of the people.
Most of this is volunteer work; and the workers are so few that, urged by the great need, and encouraged by the gratitude and improved conditions resulting from their work, these unpaid workers are toiling far beyond their strength. Two settlement workers, after three months' work, have been obliged to stop because of failing health, and no one can be found to take their places.
Another volunteer worker, who needed a vacation, asked for an assistant, but received additional unoccupied territory instead. We wish we had room here to tell of the many interesting experiences which inspire these workers.
Wanted—100 Hand-Picked Workers
WHERE there is one worker now, there should be one hundred; but these cannot be found. Workers must be carefully selected, hand-picked, and must have a special training before they can do constructive work here in the home field or in other lands. This takes time and money, but experience has shown it to be absolutely necessary.
Will it pay?—It is paying where tried, and it is giving immediate and permanent results very gratifying to those interested in Christian missions and social uplift. It is making of these people self-sustaining producers where before they were a burden to the taxpayer and a menace to his property and home life. When we help them in this way, we are helping ourselves; and it thus becomes a business proposition which we cannot neglect without loss.
Can you realize the magnitude of this situation, the urgency of this great educational movement, and, while enjoying the social, educational, and religious advantages that have been given you, refuse to lend a hand to help these 80,000,000 Latin brothers at your very doors, and then ask, "Am I my brother's keeper?"
Do It Now
THIS is your opportunity. Workers must be supported. More workers must be educated. There are plenty of young people, many of them already possessed of a knowledge of the language, home life, and customs of these peoples, who are eager to enter this work as soon as you will help them to obtain the necessary training. Will you assist? Do it now.
"PURE air, sunlight, abstemiousness, rest, exercise, proper diet, the use of water, trust in divine power,—these are the true remedies. Every person should have a knowledge of nature's remedial agencies and how to apply them. It is essential both to understand the principles involved in the treatment of the sick, and to have a practical training that will enable one rightly to use this knowledge.
"The use of natural remedies requires an amount of care and effort that many are not willing to give. Nature's process of healing and upbuilding is gradual, and to the impatient it seems slow. The surrender of hurtful indulgences requires sacrifice. But in the end, it will be found that nature, untrammeled, does her work wisely and well. Those who persevere in obedience to her laws will reap the reward in health of body and health of mind."
"IT is wrong to waste our time, wrong to waste our thoughts. We lose every moment that we devote to self-seeking. If every moment were valued and rightly employed, we should have time for everything that we need to do for ourselves or for the world. In the expenditure of money, in the use of time, strength, opportunities, let every Christian look to God for guidance. 'If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.'"
