1914] BOARD OF HOME MISSIONS 23

purpose. What has been done has borne fruit in changed lives
and transformed homes and communities, and it has laid the
foundation for better things, to be accomplished under new
conditions.
The work up to the present has been sporadic, with no com
prehensive plan, and as a consequence we find places where
school and preaching services had been held, and now, with
just as great a need for them, but a memory.
No more difficult problem presents itself to our Church to
day than that of reaching our Spanish-American population.
Of two distinct classes — the American-born of Spanish par
ents, and the immigrant from Old Mexico — they have strongly
this characteristic of the human race: they are not easily
reached save through their mother tongue. Interpreters may
suffice for business purposes, but not for the things of the
heart.
Five years ago, recognizing the needs of our five hundred
thousand Spanish-speaking population and the little being
done for them, the Presbytery of Pueblo overtured the General
Assembly to authorize the Board of Home Missions to erect a
department for the better conduct of work in their behalf. The
Assembly took favorable action, and the Board was glad to
obey, proceeding finally to the selection of the present superin
tendent, the Rev. Robert McLean, D.D., as was stated in our
Report a year ago.
The large area occupied by these people ; their large numbers
— now greatly increased because of the internal disturbances in
Mexico ; their racial characteristics ; their inheritance of super
stition instead of religion, and their foreign tongue, combine
to require careful study as the basis of well proportioned and
efficient service in their behalf.
Of the four leading denominations attempting work among
the Mexicans in our country, each of the three others — Baptist,
Congregational and Methodist Episcopal — has its own super
intendent. A "Permanent Interdenominational Council on
Evangelical Work Among Spanish-Speaking People in the
Southwest" has been organized and has held two annual ses
sions in El Paso, Texas. Careful papers, on topics of interest
to the whole Mexican work within the States, were presented
by the denominational superintendents and by other workers
on the Mexican field, at least four of whom were our own men.
The work done this year in connection with our Board is
within the Presbyteries of Brownwood and El Paso in Texas;
of Rio Grande and Santa Fe in New Mexico ; of Pueblo in Col
orado; of Southern Arizona and Phoenix in Arizona; of Los
Angeles and Riverside in California. It is bounded within the
limits of thirty thousand dollars — although half as much again