Читать книгу The American Missionary. Volume 48, No. 10, October, 1894 - Various - Страница 3

We wish to present to the friends of the American Missionary Association a full statement of its financial affairs, its debt, its retrenchments; its still greater debt and the still greater retrenchments that will be inevitable unless during the coming year its receipts can be greatly increased. It is not our aim to make a startling cry for transient relief, but for a steady increase of receipts to remove debt and insure the stability of the work.

At the close of our last fiscal year, September 30th, 1893, we reported a debt of $45,028.11. In that year we received aid from the Government for Indian work. During the eleven months of this year we have received no aid from the Government, but our receipts from other sources have increased over those of last year, and we have cut down our expenditures, so that if we had received the Government aid as last year our debt on the eleven months of the current year would be only $5,409.80, but with that loss the actual indebtedness of these eleven months is $23,937.10, which added to that of the last year makes the total debt August 31st $68,965.21. From present indications we can hardly hope for any material reduction of this amount during the current month, and hence the prospect is that this sum must be reported at our annual meeting.

A grave contingency confronts us as we enter (October 1st) on the new year. Our great work, which has lifted thousands of young men and women from ignorance and poverty into hopeful and useful lives, and which has brought cheer and help to multitudes of homes where poverty has reigned, must be carried forward; and our debt, which has hung as a weight upon this work, must be wiped out. A constantly increasing debt must be avoided at any cost. The next six or eight months (the harvest months for collections) must decide the question. If pastors of churches will lay the matter to heart and secure regular and increased collections, and if benevolent friends of these struggling races will bear them in remembrance by special contributions, an uplift of hope and help will be given where now they are threatened with discouragement in their great conflict with poverty, ignorance and race prejudice.