The Indian

One of the best of Conference at the eighteen conMohonk. ferences on Indian affairs was that

held at Mohonk last October.

The duties of the future include a revision of the lease system, which at present allows absentee landowners to fall into vice with the proverbial ease of those who have idle hands. Trustworthy records should be kept of marriages, births, and deaths, with reference to the transmission of lands. It is also high time to do away with agents and the relics of the reservations where they are no longer necessary. Last year 17 agencies were named by the commissioner that might be closed forever, and the Indians left to their own devices, but, in spite of his recommendations and the efforts of many disinterested people, none of these were done away with, and the Indians living upon them are still under tutelage. The platform is as follows, somewhat abridged:

The conference offers its hearty and unanimous approval of the statement of the Indian commissioner that it would be better for the Indian if he had been treated from the beginning as an individual subject to the laws of the land.

Further measures urgently needed are the

following: Rations should be issued only when succor is indispensable. When allotments are made in arid districts, an ample supply of water for irrigation and domestic requirements should be permanently provided. Carefully selected, well-trained farmers and field-matrons should be appointed to furnish industrial education in allotted lands. Marriage should be regulated and protected by law, with a system of registration securing property to legal heirs. The expensive machinery of the agency should be discontinued when Indians have become self-supporting citizens, and several should be discontinued at once. This conference believes that Indian legislation should be so shaped as to secure as soon as possible the abolition of the Indian bureau.

There is greater need than ever for Christianizing influences, and a new missionary spirit should be awakened in behalf of those just passing from the old superstitions. Intercollegiate In the twenty-three Y. M. C. A. years since the College Young Men's Christian Association was started as an intercollegiate movement, more than 3,000 young men have been led through its influence to enter the ministry. The American and Canadian Students' Association movement is represented in 624 societies in institutions of learning, and has between 33,000 and 34,000 members. Its mission study classes are attended by an average of about 4,210 men and women students weekly, and more than 1,500 student volunteers have engaged in foreign work. Its voluntary Bible classes number 12,000 students engaged in daily devotional study. Over 35,000 persons have been "converted" through its instrumentality.

Theological Three years ago
Students' the Inter-Sem-
Convention. inary Missionary
Alliance gave way

to the Seminary Department of the Young Men's Christian Association. The first triennial convention of the new organization was the largest convention of theological students ever held. The

meetings were in the Fourth United Presbyterian Church, Allegheny, Pa., November 1-4, and 47 seminaries in the United States and Canada were represented by 187 delegates.

Dr. Wilton Merle Smith on the first evening sent forth those ringing words of Emerson, "What you are speaks so loud I can not hear what you say," and they became a challenge to every man for a renewed and complete consecration. Similar addresses were delivered by Bishop Thoburn on The Constraining Love of Christ," by Chancellor McDowell on "The Best Man for the Most Destitute Fields," and by Robert E. Speer on "That Christ may have the Preeminence."

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A fitting climax to such a gathering was a special emphasis on foreign missions. Mr. J. Campbell White delivered the address, "The Claims of India." He was followed by Mr. Ewing on "The Claims of India Upon You." Africa was represented by Bishop Hartzell, and very intense was the soul-searching that went on in many hearts as that great, strong man stood there, his whole body shaken with suppressed emotion, pleading for men. "Many a night I've looked up into the clear sky and cried for Men! Men!! I find scientists seeking for bugs, men going into the heart of the country to plant coco plantations, but day after day and week after week, I scarcely see a missionary. O, for men!" The feeling was only intensified by the address that followed on "The Claims of China," by Rev. Harlan P. Beach.

Before the day was closed men went off by themselves for the greatest struggle they had known, and not a few returned to offer their lives for foreign service. The final address by Mr. Mott was well calculated to gather up and crystallize the various influences of the

Methodist Women and Missions.

convention, and to send forth the delegates with a world-wide vision. JOHN GOWDY. The Woman's Foreign Missionary Society of the M. E. Church is among the foremost for vigor of administration and amount of receipts. Its thirty-first anniversary was celebrated in Worcester, Massachusetts, October 24-28th. The last year's receipts reached $414,531, an increase of $54,192, and $118,720 were already pledged toward a $200,000 twentieth century thankoffering. The number of missionaries is 219, and 30 were sent out last year. The 4 publications reach an aggregate circulation of 80,877 copies.

Canadian Some years ago the Episcopalians Episcopal Church and Missions. of Canada began to cooperate with the Wyckliffe College missionary or ganization, and later became associated with the Church Missionary Society of England. Its 15 ordained representatives, besides wives and certain unordained men, are found in China, Japan, Palestine, South America, and among the Eskimo of the far North. There is besides a Board of Foreign and Domestic Missions which is not in sympathy with the C. M. S., though an effort is being made to bring the two into cooperation.

latitude. All the clergy of the diocese were present, with the exception of one. The Rev. I. O. Stringer had traveled over 200 miles from his station in the Arctic Ocean in a boat manned by Eskimos. The bishop had come in the Ella Ya nearly 800 miles from an opposite direction, picking up the Rev. and Mrs. Spendlove on the way; and the absentee, the Rev. T. J. Marsh, would have had to travel more than 1,000 miles. It was the intrusion of the French priests among his people that prevented his presence." Conditions of In my travels in Success in Brazil.

Brazil several things became clear to me. First, in order to do successful work among the Indians, we must, with the Gospel, teach these people a civilized way of living. This they can not learn from their Brazilian neighbors, and our mission should' therefore, if possible, include a few farmers and tradesmen. Second, the Indian missions must be kept far enough inland to be out of easy reach of the rumseller and Brazil

ian trader in general. This can only be effected by either going far from the river, or by asking the government for a reservation from which all undesirable people shall be excluded. Third, the mission stations should aim to become partly self-sustaining, producing their own staple foods, not only to reduce the cost but also to furnish employment and practical instruction to the natives. Fourth, there must be a central station from which the interior work can be intelligently directed, sustained, and aided. For this purpose no place on the Tocantius is better suited than Carolina. It is the only place which has regular mail communication, and is easier to reach, by way of Maranhao, than by river from Para.-Geo. R. Witte.

drawing to a close, land has been added to the British Empire at the average rate of 2 acres for every second of time. In the year 1800 the Empire was only 6 times as big as the United Kingdom, while in 1900 it is found to have become just 96 times as big. Roughly, the increase has been from 2,000,000 square miles to 12,000,000, and this growth of six times the area in 1800 has been going on all over the world.

Is England It is perhaps when Degenerating? a nation is least conscious of its weakness, and when men are glorying in the outward achievements of commerce and political status, that a rude awakening is given them by those who have a deeper insight into the affairs of mankind and the Divine government of God. Dr. Horton said recently that the apparent motto of England for some time past has been "fast living and deep drinking."

Dean Farrar made a similar indictment some time ago as regards England. Principal Fairbairn has shown that the great advancement of the empire has been achieved in