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such work should be administered by the presbytery or synod in which it is located, as far as this is feasible; that, owing to the peculiar nature of this work and the problems arising under it, it is especially desirable that synods and presbyteries engaged in it keep in close touch with one another and with a central agency having interest in, and expert knowledge of, the whole field. This may be best done through the Immigration Department of the Home Board. The Council therefore advises that those engaged in this work keep in touch with this department as tending to the unification and increased efficiency of the work as a whole, and in. all its parts.

[Like the recommendation above the

following was presented by the Advisory Council on Church Extension and, upon favorable report from the Home Mission Committee, was adopted by the Assembly for submission to the synods concerned and to the Board.]

To secure closer and more efficient advisory relations

ing that there should be a closer relation established between all the agencies of home mission work within the denomination. Not only does this age of cooperation suggest this, but changing social conditions and the incoming millions of foreign-born citizens demand it.

Believing that a plan of cooperation can be established between the Home Board and the self-supporting synods, without in the least disturbing present organization and independ

ence, the Advisory Council would respectfully suggest the following plan of federation to the Assembly, requesting that if it meets with the Assembly's approval it be sent down to the Home Board and the synods named for their consideration and action, it being understood that the Board's approval and that of twothirds of the synods concerned shall provide for the inauguration of the plan.

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1. That the selfsupporting synods be organized into groups, of which the following may be taken as a suggestive arrangement: The Eastern Group consisting of the Synods of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Baltimore and West Virginia.

Rev. Cornelius M. Steffens.

between home mission agencies, the Council asks the Assembly to adopt a plan, of which the following shall be the outstanding features, adjustment of details being left to the agencies concerned.

Proposed Plan for Federating the Self-Supporting Synods and the Board of Home Missions.

Preamble. Valuable as self-administration and support have been to synodical missions, resulting not alone in more careful supervision because of the nearness of the authority to the need, but also in a larger and more comprehensive giving, the conviction is grow

The Group of the Middle West: Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin.

The Western Group: Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri.

2. That each synod and its constituent presbyteries shall continue their present form of organization, except as changes may be deemed desirable by the synod or presbytery concerned.

3. That each synod shall appoint not more than two members, either ministerial or lay, to constitute, in company with similar representatives from other synods of the same

HOME MISSIONS

group, a Federation Council, meeting once or twice each year as the group may desire, representatives of the Home Board being corresponding members of each group.

4. That each of the synods shall appoint one representative as a corresponding member of the Home Board, who shall attend annually a meeting of the Board at the Board's expense, being also welcomed at any meeting of the Board.

5. That it shall be the duty of the Home Board to appoint one of its officers, or a representative, to assist the synods in matters of synodical finance, budgets, work among peoples of foreign speech, and so forth, at the request of the synod's home mission officials.

That each synod, if desiring, shall have the privilege of availing itself of the treasury facilities of the Home Board, providing that if such synod's account is overdrawn the board shall send a representative into that synod for the purpose of assisting it to get back to a position of self-support.

The Future of the Advisory Council. [The following reached the Assembly by way of the Advisory Council on Church Extension and the Home Mission Committee, and was adopted.]

The Council asks that the developments of the future be permitted to determine the continuance of the Council as now constituted, it being the conviction that if the plan proposed above shall be put into operation, it and other methods of bringing home mission agencies into harmonious and effective relationships will produce better results and at less cost then the present Advisory Council.

Labor and Capital.

Your committee had referred to it Overture 271, from the Presbytery of Southern Oregon, in reference to the relations between labor and capital, asking the Assembly to take steps looking to the organization of an Industrial Commission, which shall have representatives from different denominations; and we offer the following answer:

1. That we greatly deplore the contentions between labor and capital and are willing to lend our influence for their elimination.

2. That the Presbyterian Church as a whole is not devoted to the interests of one class as opposed to those of another.

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3. That the establishment of an Industrial Peace Commission by the Assembly does not seem practicable and wise in addition to the Department of Social Service already established.

Sectarian Garb in Government Indian Schools.

[The following, in support of action taken this spring by a great majority of the presbyteries of the Presbyterian Church, and by bodies representing the Protestant churches throughout the country, gained a specially hearty endorsement from the Assembly, being adopted by a rising vote.]

Replying to the Overture 358 from Presbytery of Minneapolis, 356 from the Presbytery of Spokane, and 269 from the Presbytery of Buffalo, with regard to the suspension by the President of the United States, of the Order of Robert G. Valentine, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, concerning the use of sectarian insignia and garb in government Indian schools and sectarian instruction, a representative of the Board of Home Missions, with others interested, has already appeared before the administration and made request for the revoking of the President's order, and that the President has this request now under consideration. We recommend that the General Assembly take advantage of this opportunity to declare its position on this important matter in the following action:

To express its judgment, that the Constitution of the United States, and the traditions of our national life, demand that there shall be no attempt at proselyting in any government institution, even in an indirect manner; that the use of ecclesiastical insignia and garb in government schools constitutes a subtle and powerful propaganda; that the fact that this has been permitted in time past, as it never should have been permitted, does not justify its continuance; that one Church should not seek nor desire special privileges which other Churches do not possess nor ask; and that complete obedience, on the part of everybody concerned, to the principle of freedom from all trace of sectarianism in government institutions, is the only just and fair basis on which government schools can be maintained; and that the Assembly respectfully request the President of the United States to see to it that the Order of Commissioner Valentine be revived and put into impartial operation immediately.

Jewish Evangelization.

Your committee had referred to it Overture 226 from the Presbytery of Los Angeles referring to the Jewish peoples; and we offer the following answer:

Resolved, that we answer the overture in the negative as efforts to evangelize the Jews have already been made as the Reports of the Board will show.

Resolved, that we approve of the continued efforts to find the best method of bringing the gospel to the Jewish people.

Preparing for the New Year.

The committee makes the following recommendations:

I. We have examined the Minutes of the Board of Home Missions and find them neatly and correctly kept. We recommend that they be approved.

2. We find that the term of service of the following members of the Board expires with this Assembly:

Ministers-Rev. D. Stuart Dodge, D.D., Rev. Lyman Whitney Allen, D.D., Rev. Wilson Phraner, D.D., Rev. Henry Sloane Coffin, D.D.

Laymen-Frank L. Babbott, Theodore W. Morris, William S. Bennet, LL.D.

We recommend them for re-election and also the election of Rev. John Lyon Caughey, D.D., in place of Rev. John Douglas Adam, D.D., resigned.

Class 1914.

Mr. Francis O. Phraner in place of Gen. A. Noel Blakeman, deceased.

Mr. H. K. Twitchell in place of Mr. C. B. Orcutt, deceased.

Class 1915.

President John H. Finley, LL.D., in place of Mr. Thos. H. Perrin, deceased.

[Mr. Phraner is an influential attorney with offices in New York and residence in New Jersey; Mr. Twitchell is vice-president of the Chemical National Bank of New York, resident in Brooklyn, and is president of the Brooklyn Presbyterian Social Union; Dr. Finley is president of the College of the City of New York, the "cap-stone" of the city's public school system.]

3. We recommend that the Assembly go on record as most heartily commending the faithfulness of the members of the Board of Home Missions and the unswerving and untiring devotion of its consecrated secretaries.

4. We recommend to the presbyteries and the churches a careful study of the budget for Home Missions, prepared by the Executive Commission; for national Home Missions, $476,698.32; for presbyterial and synodical Home Missions in the self-supporting synods, $491,909.63. We recommend the formal adoption of this budget for Home Missions and an earnest and systematic effort to provide for the full quota.

5. We recommend to the Indian Department of the board the advisability of establishing, wherever practicable, professorships in Indian schools where theological instruction may be offered to Indian men who may have a call to the gospel ministry.

6. We would recommend that the Sunday schools be urged to continue to devote the offerings on the Sunday before Thanksgiving to the work of the Woman's Board and on the Sunday nearest Washington's Birthday to the work of the Board of Home Missions, such offerings to be secured as part of the apportionment made in the budget.

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A PART OF THE HOME MISSION EXHIBIT AT THE ASSEMBLY.

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A PART OF THE HOME MISSION EXHIBIT AT THE ASSEMBLY.

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