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An Important Home Mission Field

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 16, 1913

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 90, No. 42.

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An Important Home Mission Field

By Ole Andres Olsen

The Foreigners in America — No. 1

An Important Home Mission Field

O. A. OLSEN
Secretary North American Foreign Department
“THROUGH foreign missions we are sending the gospel to the ends of the earth. As a home mission God is sending the ends of the earth to our shores and very doors.”—Howard B. Grose.
Our attention is frequently called to the study of the great mission fields of Europe, Asia, Africa, and South America, and they are vast indeed. It has also been noted how marvelously the providence of God has prepared the way for the gospel proclamation by opening the door of entrance into all the lands and countries of the world. All this is truly remarkable and a sure evidence that now is the time for the fulfilment of that prophetic vision wherein an angel was seen flying in mid-heaven with the everlasting gospel to preach to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people.
But this is not all there is to the wonderful providences taking place at this time. While our eyes are engrossed with the sights looming up in the distance, there is something equally wonderful in the providential movements that are taking place in our home land.
The coming of these millions of foreigners to our shores, people from every land and clime, of every nation and tongue, is not less a matter of wonder than that which our eyes behold in far-away parts of the earth, and this phenomenon is equally worthy of study. The same great providence that is so remarkably opening the doors for the gospel to be preached in foreign lands is equally the agent in bringing all these people of foreign birth and tongue to our shores, and that for the same great purpose that they may have the opportunity to hear the message that is now to light the whole earth with its glory. A neglect to recognize this opening for a great missionary effort can never find an adequate excuse.
While we all know that there are some foreigners in our country, there are but few who really appreciate the vastness of the numbers and the greatness of this foreign mission field right here in our home land. We therefore invite you to a careful and prayerful study of the facts concerning this foreign immigration to this country, which will be presented in the following quotations:—
“What does a million of immigrants a year mean? Possibly something of more significance to us if we put it this way: that at present one in every eighty persons in the entire United States has arrived from foreign shores within twelve months. Of this inpouring human tide one of the latest writers on immigration says in a striking passage:—
“Like a mighty stream, it finds its source in a hundred rivulets. The huts of the mountains and the hovels of the plains are the springs which feed; the fecundity of the races of the Old World the inexhaustible source. It is a march the like of which the world has never seen, and the moving columns are animated by but one idea—that of escaping from evils which have made existence intolerable, and of reaching the free air of countries where conditions are better shaped to the welfare of the masses of the people.
“It is a vast procession of varied humanity. In tongue it is polyglot; in dress all climes from pole to equator are indicated, and all religions and beliefs enlist their followers. There is no age limit, for young and old travel side by side. There is no sex limitation, for the women are as keen as, if not more so than, the men; and babes in arms are here in no mean numbers. The army carries its equipment on its back, but in no prescribed form. The allowance is meager, it is true, but the household gods of the family sprung from the same soil as a hundred previous generations may possibly be contained in shapeless bags or bundles. Forever moving; always in the same direction, this marching army comes out of the shadow, converges to natural points of distribution, masses along the international highways, and its vanguard disappears, absorbed where it finds a resting-place.’ . . .
“A million and more is the rate at which immigrants are now coming into the United States. It is not easy to grasp the significance of such numbers: yet we must try to do so if we are to realize the problem to be solved. To get this mass of varied humanity within the mind’s eye, let us divide and group it. First, recall some small city or town with which you are familiar, of about 10,000 inhabitants; say Portsmouth, N. H., where the treaty between Japan and Russia was agreed upon; or Saratoga Springs, N. Y.; or Vincennes, Ind.; or Ottawa, Ill.; or Sioux Falls, S. Dak.; or Lawrence, Kans. Settle one hundred towns of this size with immigrants, mostly of the peasant class, with their un-American languages, customs, religion, dress, and ideas, and you would locate merely those who came from Europe and Asia in the year ending June 30, 1905. Those who came from other parts of the world would make two and one-half towns more, or a city the size of Poughkeepsie, in New York, seat of Vassar College, or Burlington, in Iowa, of about 25,000 each.
“Gather these immigrants by nationality, and you would have in round numbers twenty-two Italian cities of 10,000 people, or masses together, a purely Italian city as large as Minneapolis with its 220,000. The various peoples of Austria—Hungary—Bohemians, Magyars, Jews, and Slavs—would fill twenty-seven and one-half towns, or a single city nearly as large as Detroit. The Jews, Poles, and other races fleeing from persecution in Russia, would people eighteen and one-half towns, or a city the size of Providence. For the remainder we should have four German cities of 10,000 people, six of Scandinavians, one of French, one of Greeks, one of Japanese, six and one-half of English, five of Irish, and nearly two Scotch and Welsh. Then we should have six towns of between 4,000 and 5,000 each, peopled respectively by Belgians, Dutch, Portuguese, Roumanians, Swiss, and European Turks; while Asian Turks would fill another town of 6,000. We should have a Servian, Bulgarian, and Montenegrin village of 2,000; a Spanish village of 2,600; a Chinese village of 2,100; and the other Asiatics would fill up a town of 5,000 with as motley an assortment as could be found under the sky. Nor are we done with the settling as yet, for the West Indian immigrants would make a city of 16,600, the SouthAmericans and Mexicans a place of 5,000, the Canadians a 2,000 village, and the Australians another; leaving a colony of stragglers and strays, the ends of creation, to the number of 2,000 more. Place yourself in any one of these hundred odd cities or villages thus peopled, without a single American inhabitant, with everything foreign, including religion; then realize that just such a foreign population as is represented by all these places has actually been put somewhere in this country within a twelvemonth, and the immigration problem may assume a new aspect and take on a new concern. . . .
“To put all the emphasis possible upon these facts, consider that the immigration of a single year exceeded by 26,000 the population of Connecticut, which has been settled and growing ever since early colonial days. It exceeded by 37,000 the combined population of Alaska, Arizona, Nevada, Idaho, Wyoming, and Utah. These immigrants would have repopulated whole commonwealths, but they would hardly be called commonwealths in that case. If such immigrant distribution could be made, how quickly would the imperative necessity of Americanization be realized. The Italians who came during the year would exceed the combined population of Alaska and Wyoming. The Hungarians and Slavs would replace the present population of New Hampshire, or of North Dakota, and equal that of Vermont and Wyoming together. The Russian Jews and Finlanders would replace the people of Arizona. The army of illiterates would repeople Delaware and Nevada. And the much larger army of the unskilled would exceed by 50,000 the population of Maine, that of Colorado by 80,000, and twice that of the District of Columbia. . . .
“Here are the totals which we have now reached. Of the 23,000,000 aliens who have come into America since the Revolution, the last census (1900) gave the number then living at 10,256,664. A census taken today would doubtless show about 14,000,000. Add the children of foreign parentage and it would bring the total up to between 35,000,000 and 40,000,000. Mr. Sargent estimates this total at forty-six per cent of our entire population. The immigration problem presents nothing less than the assimilation of this vast mass of humanity. No wonder thoughtful Americans stand aghast before it. At the same time, the only thing to fear is failure to understand the situation and meet it.”—“Aliens or Americans?” pages 17-28.
The facts presented in these quotations ought to arrest our attention, and aid us to see and appreciate the magnitude of this tremendous immigration. What a wonderful mission field is thus brought to our very doors! But it should be borne in mind that what is presented in this article is only for one year, and such has been the case for a number of years, and bids fair to continue at the same rate for years to come.