have already been made by
the A.M.A., and proved to be either absolutely failures or relatively an
uneconomic use of funds.

The saving to you who furnish the money is very great by this method of
systematic spending. Let me illustrate by a single example which occurred
only a few months ago. Two towns, only a few miles apart, were clamoring
for help in school work. We opened a school tentatively in one of these
places, as we had one missionary there already, and I visited the other
place. This is what I found: A teacher independent of any society, and
consequently knowing only a small part of the South, had opened a school.
She had labored very faithfully, but very unwisely, putting money and
years of hard work into a field which, from its very conditions, could
not be largely successful. She had a poor building for teachers' home, a
rough school-house with no desks, a narrow strip of land, and an
enrollment of about eighty pupils. She was anxious to have the A.M.A.
take the work. She informed me that in order to secure it, it would be
necessary to pay out from $2,500 to $3,000 in paying debts and putting
the buildings in shape for advantageous use. This was the case then: A
fairly good house, a rough school-house, a bit of land, and a school of
less than one hundred pupils, costing at least $2,500. At the other point
under discussion, there were five acres of land, five buildings, an
enrollment of about 250 pupils, and the whole property could be secured
for $600! $2,500 vs. $600.

These are not very exceptional cases. It is only fair to the generous
constituency of this Association to know that their funds are being thus
guarded, and that those who give through independent agencies may have
their funds squandered because they cannot hold those doing this
independent work to strict account as they do the Association, nor can
these independent missionaries know the whole field as the A.M.A. knows
it. Here are nearly 500 missionaries in constant correspondence with this
office, besides the field officers appointed especially to gather
information.

(c.) Again, this systematic method of disbursing funds secures a
methodical arrangement of field work. Take the mountain field as an
illustration of this. This field has been divided into two general
districts; one having for its base the L.N.R.R., the other lying along
the Cincinnati Southern Railroad. Each department has its general
missionary, who goes back and forth i