PAM. 
 
 MISC. 
 
 The Board of Foreign Missions 
 
 of the Presbyterian Church, U. S. A. 
 
 At Work 
 
 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK CITY 
 
 * 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 Page 
 
 Assembly Room. 5 
 
 Assistant Secretaries. 7 
 
 Board in Session. 4 
 
 Campaigns. 14 
 
 Candidate Department. 14 
 
 Central Committee Representative. 21 
 
 Educational Adviser. 19 
 
 Educational Department.18,19 
 
 Executive Council. 9 
 
 Filing Department. 9 
 
 Forwarding Departments. 16 
 
 Library. 15 
 
 Publicity Department. 14 
 
 Secretary for Specific Work. 21 
 
 Secretaries’ Offices.7, 8 
 
 Sunday-School Department. 17 
 
 Treasurer’s Office : . 10 
 
 The Mail. 11 
 
 Accounting Department. 11 
 
 Travel Department. 12 
 
 Telephone.». 11 
 
 Purchasing Department. 12 
 
 Shipping Department. 13 
 
 Woman’s Board of New York. 20 
 
 “Woman’s Work’’. 22 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 Many people in the United States of 
 America and in the “ Regions Beyond ” 
 are interested in the Board of Foreign 
 Missions of the Presbyterian Church in 
 the U. S. A. The aim of this leaflet is 
 to give all the friends of Foreign Missions 
 a bird’s-eye view of the workshop of the 
 Board. 
 
 “ 156 ” Fifth Avenue is a twelve 
 story stone building, standing on the 
 northwest corner of Fifth Avenue and 
 Twentieth Street, New York City. It 
 was erected in 1895 and at once became 
 the headquarters of the Foreign Board 
 which occupies the entire Eighth and a 
 part of the Ninth floors. 
 
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 ABSENT BOARD MEMBERS 
 
 ASSEMBLY ROOM-825 
 
 N the Assembly Room are held the regular meetings of 
 the Assembly’s Board, the first and third Mondays of each 
 month except July and August. In this room are held the 
 weekly meetings of the Woman’s Board of New York from 
 October to June, and here also are held the weekly meet¬ 
 ings of the Minister’s Association of the Presbyterian and Reformed 
 Churches of New York and vicinity. A noon-day prayer service is 
 held each day for fifteen minutes, attended by both the executive and 
 clerical force, by friends who happen in at the time of the meeting, 
 and by furloughed missionaries. At these daily meetings the prayer 
 calendars of the Home and Foreign Boards are used. Days like 
 Christmas and New Year’s are observed by special meetings. Here 
 also are held Farewell meetings to missionaries, and Memorial services 
 for those who have fallen on the firing line of the world. 
 
 Around the room are hung portraits of Board members who have 
 finished their earthly task, and of pioneer missionaries long since 
 gone to their reward. At either side of the speaker’s platform are 
 memorial tablets, one to the memory of five missionaries who were 
 killed at Paotingfu, China, during the Boxer outbreak of 1900, the 
 other to the memory of four missionaries who perished in an uprising 
 of the Chinese at Lienchou, in 1905. 
 
 Memory is rich with the recollection of the June Conferences 
 held with outgoing missionaries. From all parts of our land they 
 come, and for one week most interesting and instructive sessions are 
 held, where, from Secretaries and Treasurer, from members of the 
 Board, and from furloughed missionaries, they receive the Church’s 
 final words of admonition, counsel, encouragement and God-speed. 
 
 Once a month the Woman’s Board meeting takes on the charac¬ 
 ter of an inspirational service, for on this first Wednesday of the 
 month, missionaries at home address the large company of women 
 who receive the message from the front and take it to their churches 
 or presbyterial societies. 
 
 5 
 
THE EXECUTIVE COUNCIL 
 
 The Executive Council of the Board is composed of the four 
 Secretaries and the Treasurer. The meetings of the Council are held 
 on the Fridays before the regular sessions of the Board, and in these 
 meetings the docket for the Board meeting is prepared; this Docket 
 containing anywhere from 20 to 100 items of business. 
 
 No adequate idea of the work of the Secretaries and Treasurer 
 can be obtained simply by looking at their faces as they sit at their 
 desks. You must stop first at the 
 
 FILING DEPARTMENT—ROOM 811 
 
 Not much to see in this room except files, but if these inanimate 
 wooden receptacles could speak, they would tell you that safely 
 reposing in their depths is the entire correspondence of the four 
 Secretaries and the Treasurer of the Board, and of their Assistants. 
 The Department was installed in 1911 as an experiment but has grown 
 to be a necessity, and occupies the entire time of four clerks. 
 
 The letters as they are received daily are carefully read by the 
 Clerks in the Department and filed under four general heads—“Mis¬ 
 sion Letters,” “Subjects,” “General Correspondence,” and “Candi¬ 
 dates” (for missionary appointment). The record for a single year 
 is as follows: 
 
 Secretaries'’ Files : 
 
 Correspondence with missionaries, 
 on special subjects, 
 miscellaneous, 
 
 Letters 
 
 40,000 
 
 65,000 
 
 12,500 
 
 Treasurer’s Files : 
 
 Correspondence with missionaries, 
 
 on special subjects, . 
 “ miscellaneous, . . 
 
 117,500 
 
 6,250 
 
 15,000 
 
 2,500 
 
 23.750 
 
 The correspondence with 3,500 candidates and 86 appointees (one 
 year) is difficult to estimate and is not included in the above figures. 
 All correspondence is considered strictly confidential and is kept in 
 locked cabinets, accessible only to those who have a right to see it. 
 Much of the 141,250 pieces of correspondence is cross-referenced, and 
 all of it is indexed on cards. 
 
 6 
 
Secy. Robert E. Speer—Room 808 
 
 Each one of the Secretaries is responsible for the administrative 
 relationship and personal correspondence with certain of the Missions 
 under the care of the Board. 
 
 Mr. Speer conducts the correspondence with nine missions and 
 478 missionaries in Central China, Kiangan, Central and South Brazil, 
 Japan, East and West Persia, the Punjab and North India. 
 
 Dr. Brown corresponds with nine missions and 588 missionaries 
 in North China, Shantung, South China, North and South Siam, 
 Chosen, the Philippines, Colombia and Venezuela. 
 
 The Rev. George T. Scott is the assistant of both Mr. Speer and 
 Dr. Brown. 
 
 Secy. Arthur J. Brown, D.D.—Room 812 
 
Secy. A. W. Halsey, D.D.—Room 814 
 
 Dr. Halsey corresponds with 88 missionaries in Africa and Mex¬ 
 ico and among the Orientals in the United States. He also conducts 
 the correspondence relating specifically to what is known as the Home 
 Department of the Board, i.e., with pastors, synodical and presbyterial 
 chairmen, and individual donors, in connection with plans for inform¬ 
 ing and inspiring the home constituency. In connection with this 
 office are the Library, the Publicity Department, and the arrange¬ 
 ment of itineraries for the furloughed missionary. Dr. Halsey is as¬ 
 sisted by the Rev. William P. Schell. 
 
 Dr. White conducts the correspondence with the Syria, Hainan, 
 Hunan, Western India, Chile and Guatemala Missions, with 262 mis- 
 
 Secy. Stanley White, D.D.—Room 816 
 
 8 
 
sionaries. He is also the Recording Secretary of the Board which 
 means that in his department the Minutes of the Board are written, 
 and the folios cared for. The correspondence with those wishing 
 appointment as missionaries is also carried on here. Dr. White is 
 assisted by the Rev. Orville Reed, Ph.D. 
 
 Merely stating that a Secretary has charge of the administrative 
 relations and correspondence with a certain number of missionaries, 
 fails to take into account the many, many letters which must be writ¬ 
 ten to the Missions as a body, and the amount of time spent in passing 
 upon the almost innumerable questions regarding policies, methods, 
 expenditures and other matters which the Missions and missionaries 
 are constantly sending to New York, and which must be determined 
 before official letters can be written. 
 
 Nor does this statement reveal the days and weeks spent in 
 speaking in churches, colleges, seminaries, and conferences, far and 
 near, from the Atlantic to the Pacific Coasts, making it necessary for 
 the Secretary to leave his desk for long periods at a time. Nor is 
 there any record of the interviews in the office with returned mission¬ 
 aries, or those newly appointed, or about to be appointed, or visitors 
 from the large constituency represented by the Board. A large amount 
 of time too must be given to the various committees, denominational, 
 inter-denominational, and international, upon which the Officers of 
 the Board are expected to serve in this era when Foreign Missions 
 has come to have a prominent place in the world thought and 
 activities. 
 
 Upper Row—Russell Carter, Asst. Treas., Rev. Wm. P. Schell, Asst. Secy., B. Carter Millikin, 
 Educational Secy., Rev. Orville Reed, Ph.D., Asst. Secy. 
 
 Lower Row—Rev. Geo. H. Trull, S. S. Secy., T. H. P. Sailer, Ph.D., Educational Adviser, Rev. 
 Geo. T. Scott, Asst. Secy. 
 
 9 
 
Dwight H.'Day, Treas.—Room[806 
 
 The Treasurer is an Executive Officer of the Board and by virtue 
 of his office a member of the Executive Council. 
 
 With his Assistant, Mr. Russell Carter (Room 805), he conducts 
 the correspondence which properly belongs to his department, involv¬ 
 ing all matters in connection with the receipt and disbursement of 
 money, property titles, legacies and bequests, and income investments. 
 The simple acknowledgment of the money received is attended to in 
 the main office. 
 
 The Treasurer reports to the Board the state of the finances at 
 least twice a month. He acts as the Secretary of the Finance Com¬ 
 mittee which is composed of business men; the Chairman of the Com¬ 
 mittee being a lawyer who gives his services free in all legal matters 
 in which the Board needs expert advice. Full Minutes of the pro¬ 
 ceedings of this Committee are kept by the Treasurer, and in con¬ 
 nection with its members he has the custody of the securities, the 
 corporate seal of the Board and property belonging to the Board. 
 
 10 
 
Main Office, Treasury Department—Room 801 
 
 THE MAIL 
 
 All mail for the entire Foreign Board comes to the Treasurer’s 
 office, is sorted and at once delivered to the offices where it belongs. 
 Mail addressed simply to “The Board of Foreign Missions’’ is opened 
 in the Treasurer’s office. Such mail may belong to any one of 24 
 different departments or desks, and in many cases the letter contains 
 material for three or four departments. 
 
 The mail for the Treasurer’s office contains remittances from 
 Churches, Sunday-schools, individuals, or societies. It deals with 
 legacies, or annuities, or matters relating to the varied properties of 
 the Board at home or abroad. Much of it relates also to mission 
 accounts and exchange, and all matters financial. 
 
 This mail varies from 200 to 400 letters in an ordinary day, 
 to 1,000 or 1,500 a day toward the close of the fiscal year. In the last 
 six days of March, 1917, the entire clerical force in this department 
 worked until ten o’clock each night for a week, to care for the 
 remittances. A year’s mail totals 25,000 communications. 
 
 ACCOUNTING DEPARTMENT 
 
 In the Accounting Department, the passports of 50 Mission and 
 Station Treasurers on the foreign field are audited and adjusted; 
 this involving the entire time of two accountants, and dealing regu¬ 
 larly with some 21 different kinds of exchange. 
 
 TELEPHONE SERVICE 
 
 The clerk in charge has five trunk lines and 30 extensions under 
 her supervision, with an average of 500 calls a day between offices and 
 the outside service, both incoming and outgoing. 
 
 11 
 
TRAVEL DEPARTMENT—ROOM 804 
 
 The Travel Department is a miniature Tourist Bureau. Approxi¬ 
 mately 400 missionaries yearly, newly appointed and furloughed, have 
 all their travel arranged through this office. Information of all kinds 
 regarding transportation, time of trains, steamer sailings, routes, bag¬ 
 gage and expenses: in fact anything relating to a journey can be had 
 at any time. From July to November the correspondence is 
 voluminous. 
 
 Heretofore missionaries have journeyed to and lived in practically 
 all countries, with the exception of Russia and Turkey, without pass¬ 
 ports. During the past three years, however, passports have been 
 required in every country, and now our Government prohibits any 
 American citizen from leaving the United States without one. New 
 rules and regulations are constantly being made and with these the 
 Travel Bureau keeps itself familiar, so as to advise those who are 
 leaving for their fields, and are affected by these changes. 
 
 PURCHASING DEPARTMENT 
 
 In the purchasing department orders are received and filled from 
 any one of the nearly 1,400 missionaries of the Board. These do not 
 include orders sent by missions or individuals to the manufacturers 
 direct. Of this latter class of orders the Purchasing Department audits 
 and pays the bills. 
 
 In six months this department received 1,257 orders ranging in 
 value from eleven cents to $7,000, and from a piece of a machine needle 
 to be matched, to the purchase of an automobile. A complete outfit 
 for a woman missionary, from hat to shoes, was supplied from vague 
 directions as to sizes, and with the help of a snap-shot of the mission¬ 
 ary loaned to the purchasing clerk by one of the office force. “Razor 
 blades for my safety razor” was one order. Shoes, outing-shirts and 
 underwear were purchased from another order which read—“Please 
 send me six like the enclosed picture,” with no sizes being mentioned. 
 Specifications were received for a motor to attach to an underground 
 well-pump—“It should be able to work under very humid conditions 
 and should develop fairly high speed. We want one that will be able 
 to work without burning out, even though the water should fall 
 directly on the motor.” 
 
 No small item in this department is the help rendered to the new 
 missionary in the purchase of his outfit. 
 
 12 
 
SHIPPING DEPARTMENT —BASEMENT 
 
 After the purchasing is done, the Shipping Department takes 
 charge of the goods, and in the Basement the actual work of boxing, 
 crating and otherwise preparing articles of all kinds for the mission¬ 
 aries abroad, is carried on. 
 
 The picture shows a part of a shipment for the West Africa 
 Mission, consisting of some 200 boxes turned back to the Board by 
 one of the large export houses, as they could not in these war times 
 guarantee to send it. 
 
 In nine months more than 3,000 boxes and packages have gone 
 out containing all kinds of merchandise from sewing machine needles 
 to Ford cars, agricultural implements and heating plants. In many 
 cases, also, the shipping of goods is arranged with firms where the 
 goods are purchased. Over 800 boxes and crates have gone in a year 
 to Africa alone containing merchandise as follows: 
 
 Ten gross boys’ axes for industrial work, 30,000 blank books, 5,000 
 lbs. of paper pads, 50,000 school slates, 100,000 slate pencils for the 200 
 schools. 5,000 lbs. of paper for printing press, large quantities of type; 
 40,000 yards of khaki, denim and ticking for industrial plant. 50 gross 
 of safety pins, 75,000 fish hooks, 3,000 small cakes of soap and 800 
 cheap watches to be used in trade. Saw-mill machinery, all kinds of 
 hardware and nails, motorcycles with side-car attachments, bicycles 
 and extra supplies, rubber tires for autos. Gasoline, cylinder oil, 
 lubricating grease, turpentine and linseed oil, laundry soap (200 cases), 
 brooms, galvanized pails and wash-boards, window glass, tomb-stones, 
 hundreds of cases of provisions, sewing machines, books. 
 
 To China, Japan, Chosen, Philippine Islands, Siam and India, 
 shipments weighing hundreds of thousands of pounds have been for¬ 
 warded, including books, drugs, school supplies, organs, heating and 
 lighting plants, agricultural machinery of all kinds, as well as 5,000,000 
 milk bottle caps and rings for the Agricultural College at Allahabad, 
 India, sewing machines, ice-making, tile-making and concrete-mak¬ 
 ing machines. 
 
 13 
 
CANDIDATE DEPARTMENT—ROOM 810 
 
 In the matter of missionary candidates, the Department is in 
 constant correspondence with over three thousand students of 
 theology, medicine, agriculture, educators and evangelists. It is the 
 privilege of the Secretary to advise these young people, to encourage 
 or direct them in their future preparation for particular fields of serv¬ 
 ice. Each year the conservative requests from the mission fields for 
 recruits number from 250 to 300, but the Board can appoint only from 
 75 to 100 of the best equipped, of the applicants. 
 
 If the candidate files at “ 156 91 could speak, they would tell 
 many a thrilling story of heroic struggle on the part of these young 
 people—struggle with doubt, with financial difficulties, with family 
 opposition; and tell also of signal victories, until at length a devoted, 
 equipped, enthusiastic life is laid at the Master’s feet for foreign 
 service. 
 
 The Candidate Department is working at the fountain-head of 
 the entire missionary enterprise, for the character of the work done 
 in foreign lands, will be according to the character and equipment of 
 the missionaries sent forth. 
 
 PUBLICITY DEPARTMENT —ROOM 913 
 
 This Department sends out each month to the religious and 
 secular press, extracts from letters of missionaries, up-to-date news 
 dealing with political questions as they affect the mission work, and 
 missionary information to individuals, churches and societies and the 
 general public. Leaflets are also prepared in this department and 
 magazines edited. 
 
 CAMPAIGNS 
 
 Mr. Herbert K. Caskey, in Room 903, is representing the Board 
 in connection with the Home Department, in special Campaign work. 
 
 Mr. Caskey came to the Board in the Fall of 1916, from the Lay¬ 
 men’s Missionary Movement in Canada, where he had served for seven 
 years as Executive Secretary, with headquarters in Toronto. His 
 special duties at present are to care for the preliminary arrangements 
 for the Board’s special campaigns. During 1916-17 a number of cam¬ 
 paigns were held in the larger cities of the East in an effort to secure 
 funds for a large development of property on the Mission field. This 
 present year the campaigns have been devoted for the most part to the 
 War Emergency Fund, which has been made necessary by the in¬ 
 creased cost of exchange, higher rates of travel, etc. The officers of 
 the Board have participated in these campaigns and have been assisted 
 by over thirty different missionaries representing nearly all of the 
 fields in which the Board is carrying on missionary work. Several 
 friends of the Board residing in this country have also given their 
 services gratuitously to this most important work. 
 
 14 
 
THE LIBRARY—ROOM 815 
 
 More than 11,000 volumes are found on the shelves of the For¬ 
 eign Missions Library. These include Biographies of foreign mis¬ 
 sionaries, books on the aim and theory of mission work, the history of 
 missions, and on methods of work at home and on the field. There are 
 also files of reports and journals of the various missionary societies 
 throughout the world. Files of clippings and thousands of photo¬ 
 graphs are a part of the Library equipment, besides lantern slides, 
 curios, costumes and a variety of other helps for making the study 
 of Foreign Missions interesting and profitable. The Librarian is also 
 the custodian of the Biographical records of the missionaries. 
 
 BUREAU OF INFORMATION 
 
 The Library is also known as the Bureau of Information. Some 
 curious requests come to this department. For instance, in a letter: 
 “A friend of mine married a man by the name of Smith. I think they 
 went to China. Are they under your Board?” 
 
 Another letter—A missionary on the field for a year wrote to 
 the Librarian asking if she could find a counterpane which had been 
 lost. “It was a beauty, valued at $6.50 but purchased for $3.” 
 
 Still another letter—“I would like a sketch of the life of all min¬ 
 isters who bore, or now bear, the name of - (a prominent 
 
 missionary in service), as we have named our baby boy-and 
 
 think it would be interesting for him to have this information in later 
 life.” 
 
FORWARDING DEPARTMENTS —ROOMS 901 AND 902 
 
 LITERATURE 
 
 In Room 901 is the Forwarding Department of the Assembly’s 
 Board. From here all orders for books and leaflets, Annual Reports, 
 “All the World” and “Field Despatches,” are filled. Over 1,000,000 
 pieces of literature were required to fill the 12,952 orders received in 
 one year, and these orders did not include samples of literature sent 
 to pastors, Sunday-school superintendents, Synodical and Presbyterial 
 Chairmen of Foreign Missions Committees. 
 
 RELIEF FUNDS 
 
 In Room 902 is another Forwarding Department. In October, 
 1914, three Syrians entered the Board Rooms in New York City 
 and requested the Treasurer to remit some small sums of money to 
 their relatives and friends in Syria. The money could not be for¬ 
 warded in the usual ways. The request was simple and it was granted. 
 In a few weeks another request was made that permission be given 
 to advertise in the Syrian paper the fact that the Presbyterian Board 
 of Foreign Missions would receive money from Syrians and as far as 
 possible forward it to suffering Syrians in Syria. The Syrian is a 
 trader. He goes all over the world. The Syrian paper follows the 
 trader. 
 
 It was soon necessary for the Board to open a separate office to 
 receive these funds which in the three years amounted to $2,043,913. 
 
 It was a comparatively simple task to handle these funds in New 
 York, but one of untold difficulty and sacrifice for the Treasurer of 
 the Syria Mission, at Beirut, perhaps no more complex and intricate 
 a service in all the great World War. 
 
 One stands awed as he thinks of the suffering relieved, the joy 
 brought into thousands of homes, and of the lives made happy by the 
 act of sacrifice on the part of the missionary and his co-laborers. 
 
 A Syrian lawyer in Sioux Falls writes of his appreciation of the 
 service rendered by the Board in the following terms: “This is to 
 acknowledge receipt of your receipt of the forty-five dollars which is 
 to be forwarded to Abraham or Najeeb Karoun, Karam, Bookah 
 County, Syria, and to sincerely and exceedingly thank you with all 
 other members of the Board for their loyal devotion for the cause of 
 humanity. As a Syrian who was converted to the Presbyterian Church 
 with all members of our family in Syria since my infancy, hereby do 
 express my pride in my Church for what it has hitherto done and shall 
 in the future do in behalf of the forsaken, subjugated and oppressed.” 
 
 16 
 
SUNDAY-SCHOOL DEPARTMENT—ROOM 911 
 
 The Rev. George H. Trull is the Sunday-school Secretary of the 
 Assembly’s Board. 
 
 The Sunday-school Department is closely allied with the Educa¬ 
 tional Department. Its object is to provide adequate Foreign Mission 
 education for Presbyterian Sunday-schools and to promote training 
 and giving to foreign mission objects. The Secretary in charge 
 devotes his time to office correspondence with Sunday-schools, advis¬ 
 ing them regarding plans for missionary education suited to their 
 particular needs; the creation and promotion of suitable missionary 
 text-books and other literature for missionary instruction, as well as 
 literature dealing with plans and methods; field work, including con¬ 
 ferences with local Sunday-school workers, addresses to Sunday- 
 schools and churches, Institute work and Summer conferences. 
 
 The Sunday-school Department also issues the special programs 
 for Christmas and Easter for use by Sunday-schools. Thousands of 
 these are sent out on order annually, together with appropriate col¬ 
 lection devices, such as envelopes, coin cards and mite boxes. 
 
 Specific object work for Sunday-schools is also handled by this 
 department. Letters are being constantly sent out to inquirers advo¬ 
 cating the Station Plan which offers opportunity to contribute towards 
 the support of all the work of a particular station, provided the 
 pledge is for $10 or more annually. 
 
 Five little faithfuls with their dolls, given to them by a Sunday-school in Kansas 
 
 17 
 
THE EDUCATIONAL DEPARTMENT 
 
 Organized 1902 to promote in 
 the home churches the system¬ 
 atic study of foreign missions 
 
 
 men 
 
 OR 
 
 ISLAM 
 
 PAGANISM 
 
 ANO 
 
 GREED 
 
 rnmmmmm 
 
 
 igN/C 
 
 
 Some of the textbooks and accessories for Foreign Missionary Education 
 
 18 
 

 THE EDUCATIONAL DEPARTMENT 
 
 THE FOUR-FOLD SERVICE OF THE EDUCATIONAL 
 DEPARTMENT TO THE CHURCH 
 
 CURRICULUM AND STANDARDS 
 
 In cooperation with the Mission Boards of other denominations 
 and with our Woman’s Boards, the Educational Department pre¬ 
 pares and offers to the Church annually a carefully unified program of 
 missionary education and methods for its use. 
 
 LITERATURE 
 
 Textbooks for classes and discussion groups—more than fifty have 
 already been issued. 
 
 Helps and accessories, including maps, charts and special sug¬ 
 gestions for leaders. 
 
 Sermon Suggestions, and other materials exclusively for pastors. 
 
 Plays and Pageants. 
 
 In a single year more than 195,000 pieces of literature were sold 
 or distributed. 
 
 CORRESPONDENCE 
 
 The Secretary, Mr. B. Carter Millikin, besides placing before every 
 pastor each Fall an up-to-the-minute list of plans, courses and ma¬ 
 terials for Foreign Missionary Education, is in correspondence annu¬ 
 ally with between 1,000 and 2,000 pastors who write for aid in planning 
 and making effective missionary education in their churches. Thousands 
 of mission study class leaders and others planning to carry forward 
 mission study courses, series of programs, dramatic and other pres¬ 
 entations of missions, are advised and aided by correspondence and 
 by printed helps. 
 
 FIELD WORK 
 
 The Secretary spends nearly one-half of each year in field work. 
 This includes normal mission study classes to train leaders for mis¬ 
 sionary education in the local churches, summer conference leader¬ 
 ship, addresses on missionary education, and on Foreign Missions. 
 
 Call in person or by letter at Room 909, bringing with you the 
 problem of missionary education in your Church. The Educational 
 Secretary of the Board of Foreign Missions is eager to serve you. 
 
 EDUCATIONAL ADVISER 
 
 Dr. T. H. P. Sailer, Honorary Educational Adviser of the Board, 
 occupies Room 930. Dr. Sailer accepts no salary but freely gives his 
 time and effort to the work of missionary education. This effort com¬ 
 prises letters written to missionary candidates in all stages of prepara¬ 
 tion, from those looking forward to educational work, to those defi¬ 
 nitely appointed for such work. 
 
 There is also correspondence with missionaries on the field on 
 educational matters. Each quarter a circular letter, discussing at some 
 length a phase of education, is sent out to all the missionaries engaged 
 in this work. A number of other Foreign Boards have ordered copies 
 of these letters to send to their educational missionaries. 
 
 19 
 
THE WOMEN’S BOARD OF NEW YORK 
 
 In rooms 818 and 820 are the offices of the Women’s Board of 
 Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church, New York, one of the 
 six Women’s Boards of Foreign Missions, the other five Boards having 
 their headquarters in Philadelphia, Chicago, St. Louis, San Francisco 
 and Portland, Oregon; all six Boards being auxiliary to the Assem¬ 
 bly’s Board. The officers of this Board are all voluntary workers, the 
 only salaries paid are to the office assistants. 
 
 To this Board is committed the responsibility of interesting the 
 women, young people and children of the Church in the territory cov¬ 
 ered by this Board. Orders for literature are filled, missionary speak¬ 
 ers for presbyterial and local meetings are secured, letters and reports 
 from the missionaries under the care of this Board are duplicated and 
 sent out; and mite boxes and envelopes prepared and issued. The 
 Annual Report of the Board, “Presbyterian Young People” (a quar¬ 
 terly bulletin), “The Foreign Post” for children; and the “Westminster 
 Guild” Bulletin are also sent out from here. Boxes are packed for 
 hospitals, and dolls, work bags, etc., sent to missionaries to be used 
 as gifts in the mission schools. 
 
 In the Treasurer’s Department an account is kept of all money for 
 missionaries’ salaries, the amount given for Station work, general 
 funds, etc. The New York Board has on its list for support 186 mis¬ 
 sionaries and helps to carry on the work in 97 of the 167 stations of 
 the Assembly’s Board in foreign lands. 
 
 The receipts of the Board for the fiscal year, March 15, 1916, to 
 March 15, 1917, were $149,455.69, but the total funds cared for in the 
 office for the same period, amounted to $170,972.84. The disburse¬ 
 ments included $151,674.69 paid to Dwight H. Day, Treasurer of the 
 Assembly’s Board of Foreign Missions for the support of the mis¬ 
 sionaries under the care of the Board, for its share in the work of the 
 various stations, for the Special Fund for Latin-America and Siam, 
 gifts for special buildings and War Emergencies. 
 
 These receipts came to the Board Treasurer through the treasurers 
 of the thirty-seven Presbyterial Societies which are affiliated with the 
 New York Board and include all those in New York State, Kentucky, 
 and New England, together with the three Presbyterial Societies in 
 Northern New Jersey. The presidents of these thirty-seven Pres¬ 
 byterial Societies are ex-officio honorary vice-presidents of the Board 
 and they as well as the other Presbyterial officers are kept in close 
 touch with the plans and needs of the Board by frequent correspond¬ 
 ence and personal visits to the Rooms 818 and 820. 
 
 The New York Board and the other five Women’s Boards of 
 Foreign Missions are linked together by the Central Committee of 
 Presbyterian women for Foreign Missions composed of six members, 
 each representing one of these Boards. The object of this Committee 
 is to unify the work of the six Boards by the development of a general 
 policy through which they are practically a national organization. 
 
 20 
 
SECRETARY FOR SPECIFIC WORK-ROOM 917 
 
 Mrs. Halsey L. Wood is the Secretary for Specific Work. In 
 her department assignments are made of missionaries for support by 
 churches and individuals, as well as many assignments on the Station 
 Plan. This involves a large correspondence not only with the churches 
 and individuals, but also with the six Women’s Boards. A record 
 of all gifts for the support of the missionaries or towards the work 
 they are doing is kept here. 
 
 Thousands of Quarterly Station letters from the field are copied 
 and sent out from this office to the supporters at home. The Year 
 Book of Prayer for Missions is edited in this office. 
 
 The Secretary for Specific Work is also the General Secretary of 
 Central Committee of the six Women’s Boards, and acts as a link 
 between them and the Assembly’s Board. She is the Treasurer of 
 Central Committee, and in this capacity keeps the accounts and 
 renders an audited report to each of the Boards at the close of the 
 fiscal year. 
 
 CENTRAL COMMITTEE REPRESENTATIVE—ROOM 927 
 
 Miss Margaret E. Hodge, Executive Secretary of Central Com¬ 
 mittee represents the Committee in the Executive Council of the 
 Assembly’s Board, and meets with that body at their regular sessions 
 before each Board Meeting. 
 
 “ To thousands who use the Year 
 Book the great cause of missions 
 will be re-emphasized day by day, 
 and as the Far East and the Far 
 West meet in these pages so may 
 a new vision of a world won for the 
 Master come to those who pray.” 
 
 21 
 
“WOMAN’S WORK”—ROOM 905 
 
 The motorist, the golfer, the dealer in dry goods, in iron, in 
 drugs—each one has his special periodical which keeps him posted 
 about his own special interests. The Presbyterian woman also who 
 cares about Foreign Missions, has her journal. It is called 
 “WOMAN’S WORK” and is edited and sent out from Rooms 905 
 and 904. 
 
 It goes to its subscribers once a month and brings the latest news 
 of the country assigned to the month in articles, items, letters, pic¬ 
 ture and comment. It brings, too, a special message from the Head¬ 
 quarters of each Board, with items of news about its officers and work, 
 suggestions about the home work, how to plan programs for meet¬ 
 ings and carry on in systematic and efficient style the affairs of the 
 auxiliaries. On every page of the magazine is program material. 
 Indeed it is difficult to see how the use of “Woman’s Work” can be 
 omitted if an auxiliary means to keep up to date in mission matters 
 and methods. It is taken regularly by almost 30,000 Presbyterians. 
 It comes out from that humming hive of activities “156.” It is 
 edited by Mrs. Henry R. Elliot. It costs but five cents a copy or fifty 
 cents a year. 
 
 FEBRUARY 
 
 CHOSEN 
 
 
 WOMAN'S 
 
 WORK 
 
 A FOREIGN MISSIONS MAGAZINE 
 
 The House by the Side of the Road 
 
 On the Road with a Board’s 
 Traveling Salesman 
 
 f(T 
 
 PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE. 
 
 WOMAN’S BOARDS OF FOREIGN MISSIONS 
 
 OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, U. S. A. 
 
 1 
 
 156 FIFTH AVE..NEWYORK. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA .CIHCAtQ.NIMORK, SIUMS.SAN PRANUSC^imANILOKL 
 
 1918 
 
 iiiilisi 
 
READER 
 
 If the perusal of these pages 
 leads you to “ 156,” be assured 
 you will find a hearty welcome, 
 for our doors are open for your 
 entrance, and our workshop is at 
 your service. 
 
February 1918 
 
 Form 2586