The Circulation of Our Foreign Literature
By O. A. Olsen
It is a well-known fact that we have an immense foreign population here in America. These people have come to our shores from all lands, and from all nations in the world. They are here in thousands, hundreds of thousands, and from some nations a number of millions. The coming of all these people is not an accident. We must see in it a divine providence, and a definite purpose. It is a remarkable fact that the tremendous influx of foreigners into this country has come about during the time of the proclamation of the great advent message to the world. It is therefore in time with other events preparatory to the coming of the Lord. The object of the advent movement is to warn the world of what is soon to come, and prepare a people to meet the Lord. This last message, the closing phase of the gospel to all the world, had its beginning here in America, and from here it is to go to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people. Its beginning was small, but its progress and growth have been marvelous. The work has already extended to all the leading nations and countries of the world. At the same time that missionaries were sent out from here to other nations and peoples, a great migration from all these nations set in toward America to such an extent that, within the past ten years and more, it has averaged about one million a year. Never before has there been anything to compare with it. At the present time the foreigners compose about one third of the entire population of the United States. The coming of these millions of foreigners to our shores, brings a great foreign mission field right to our very doors, and a most important field it is. Earnest efforts are being made to send the truth to these very nations and peoples in their home country. That is right, but what is being done to give the message to these millions whom Providence has brought to our very midst? They are found everywhere, in city and country, though more numerous in the city. The first great lack is that of laborers. Here we have hundreds of thousands of Poles in all our large cities, but not a single laborer among them. We have hundreds of thousands of Russians in New York and other cities East and West, with not a single worker. Some work is being done for the Russians in North Dakota, but nothing in the East. We have the Italians, the Bohemians, the Slavs, and all the other nationalities to the number of forty and more, all practically without workers. While we shall not ignore the small beginning in the Italian, Hungarian, Bohemian, and Slavonic, still it is so small that we can hardly mention it. This state of things must not continue. To this we answer that while we do not have the workers for these nationalities, we do have publications. Yes, we have publications in seventy different languages and dialects, presenting the gospel message for this time. This is indeed a wonderful achievement. But these books, pamphlets, tracts, and periodicals do not have feet and hands; they can not take themselves around and place themselves in the hands of the people who can read them. They are like the grain in the bin: somebody must take it and scatter it on the field or there will be no increase. Here is a work,—a work of the greatest importance,—to take these publications and bring them to those who can read them. These foreigners are found upon the farms in the country, in the stores and shops, among grocers, fruit dealers, and shopkeepers; you come in touch with them everywhere, for they are to be found everywhere. It is not necessary that you should understand the language in order to distribute this literature. Many of these foreigners do understand a little English, but whether they do or not, you will soon learn who are Italians, or Hungarians, or Poles, and so on. Here is a work that all our people can engage in. Now if our churches and individual members would take hold of this in real earnest, this distribution of literature would, to quite an extent, make up for the lack of laborers. We have proved the importance of the circulation of literature; we know that our literature on present truth is effective, that it enlightens the people, and brings them to a knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus. What can we say, what appeal can we make to our people in behalf of these millions of foreigners who are groping in the darkness of heathenism here in our very midst as verily as the people of Asia or Africa? We can not shirk this responsibility and be blameless in the day of the Lord. We appeal to our people to consider this. Our church missionary societies should see to it that the church librarians or missionary secretaries have on hand a supply of publications in the various languages of the people who live in their communities. We appeal to our conference presidents to see to it that their State offices have these publications on hand, so that when individuals or churches call for them they can be supplied. I have known instances where tracts in Italian, Bohemian, and other languages have been called for at the State society office, and they did not have any. That should not be. Our local conference officers should realize that these foreigners are as much a part of their constituency as are the English-speaking people. We have periodicals in Bohemian, Polish, Rumanian, Hungarian, Servian, Holland, Russian, Finnish, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Lettonian, Estonian, and other languages. Why should not our churches take clubs of these periodicals to circulate among such of these people as live in their midst? We invite correspondence from any and all who may be interested in this subject, and we shall be only too glad to render any assistance we can in the way of procuring for you publications, or clubs of papers for circulation. Our address is 3645 Ogden Ave., Chicago, Ill.
O. A. OLSEN.