MISSION INDUSTRIES 35 



church membership. "What looked like a purely ecclesias- 

 tical problem had an economic aspect that could not 

 be ignored. ^ 



I noticed that most of the large mission stations had 

 some kind of industrial work. Iron-working, carpentry, 

 shoe-making and tailoriifg were the favorite occupa- 

 tions. The great famines had left thousands of orphan 

 children to be cared for. America was keeping many of 

 these thousands alive by subscribing at the rate of fifteen 

 dollars per orphan per year to feed, clothe and train 

 these boys and girls. But fifteen dollars was not enough 

 to do this properly for a year. Although so little was 

 spent upon the children, the Missions expected a return 

 in the improvement of the children similar to what an 

 American child in the public school system would show. 

 Great dissatisfaction was expressed that the children 

 developed so slowly and when turned out of the or- 

 phanage were able to earn so little. How much could 

 American children have done under the same kind of 

 treatment? Investigation shows that education is an 

 investment which in general pays the largest cumulative 

 dividend on the largest investment. Not enough was in- 

 vested in the low-caste convert or in the famine orphan 

 to earn a satisfactory dividend. Some of the mission- 

 aries were actually afraid of doing humanitarian work 

 or of being interested in social service. The division 

 was made between **real mission work'' and educa- 

 tional and industrial work done by missionaries. The 

 immortal soul, they said, was bound for eternity and 

 must therefore receive the chief emphasis. The saving 

 of the soul was the chief end of the missionary effort, 

 and the less the missionary had to do with the body and 

 the material things which the body demanded in order 



