Mrs. Craig: I know you will be sorry, as I am, that Mrs. Reba B. Smith, of California, is detained and can not be here to-day to give her address. But we are also very glad that we have with us four members of the State Board of California (South), whom we have asked to bring you just, a word of greeting. Mrs. A. C. Smither, of Los Angeles, will be the first.

      The Southwest may be said to comprehend California, Utah, Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico; a great empire cut there west of the Rocky Mountains, with an area equal to that of all the Atlantic States. I speak particularly of Southern California, because I represent that part of the great Southwest. We are spending ten million dollars for our harbor at San Pedro. Los Angeles County alone is spending three million and a half for roads. Los Angeles is connected with the cities on the ocean and the cities on the plains and in the mountains and on the foothills by a system of electric lines running out through all parts of the country, like spokes to a wheel. I suppose there are fifty or more towns that are so consolidated. This means transportation and consolidation for the different parts of the country and is one of the great elements of success in a mission field.

      Mrs. A. C. Smither: One fact which makes the Southwest a great mission field is the fact of the diversity of the races there. Not only are thousands of our own race coming out there, but we find the many problems of the various peoples and the different races. We hear much about the iniquitous system of polygamy in heathen lands, but we do not need to go out of our own country; for right out there in Utah we have the polygamy question. Then we have the Spanish and Indian civilization in Arizona and New Mexico and California. [47] You know California was first settled by those romantic people, and we have the resemblance of that civilization in our mission work there still. Then we stand at the gateway to the Orient and we have Japanese and Chinese and Oriental civilization in our midst.

      Mrs. Craig: The new president of California (South), Mrs. McConnel, will bring you just a word.

      Mrs. McConnel: Our work is varied because we have some of the brightest and best--I would not say that because you have so many of the very cream left in all these States, but those who do come to the great West are so loyal and so true--and the work has advanced because those who were already there were of this description, and those who came from the great East, from the great central section, were also of the same type, and the ministers who come to us from the great East are loyal. They are just like our own Isaac Errett said in the beginning, when some one asked him what he thought of the organization of the Christian Woman's Board of Missions. He said, "It is a flame of the Lord's own kindling and nothing can extinguish it."

      Mrs. Craig: Mrs. Harper, California (South) corresponding secretary, will bring us just a word of the Japanese work on the coast.

      Mrs. Harper: We of the Pacific coast have to realize that in standing for the development of the West we must take into consideration the question of the Orientals who are there, especially the Japanese in Southern California, because they are a far greater number than the Chinese. It is not a question of whether we will take them; they are there a hundred thousand strong and we must do something for them. The haunts of vice and infamy are open to them on every side, and the greatest inducements are made to get them there. Only a few Christian homes, or places where they can learn of Christianity, are open to them, and it is pathetic to learn from them how much they value a clean Christian home. And after very careful investigation, we of California South, feel that the first thing we must do for these Japanese is to give them a good Christian home. This means, of course, a church and a home and other things that would naturally go with a Christian home. And so we have decided, and are endeavoring now to raise a fund of $30,000, to erect a building for such a purpose as that. We are not very large in the territory, with a membership of something over twenty thousand, but we have $12,000 pledged now and some of it already paid in.

      Another thing that is pathetic to us is the way in which the Japanese receive anything we do for them. We are now maintaining a Japanese home there in a rented building. They are taking all the responsibility, and yet, when we go to see them or to do anything for them, we are overwhelmed with their thanks for what we are doing for them. We have a Japanese church there, with a membership of thirty. We have a school there, carried on largely by themselves. We are aiding them as far as we can, but the greatest responsibility has been carried by them.

      Mrs. Craig: Mrs. Conley, another member of the California Board, will have just a word for you.

      Mrs. Conley: I would like to tell you something about the great Imperial Valley that has been made to blossom as the rose. The great Owens River, two hundred and fifty miles across the mountains, furnishes the water supply for Los Angeles. But I will not attempt to describe that. I want to tell you how we are not afraid to attempt great things for the Lord there. I have only been in Southern California seven years, so I have not lost the wonder at seeing how people do things. But there is just one thing I want to say to you, and that is this: When you come to us from the East--I want to make this appeal to you--we want you to know how much we need you, and when you come, we want you to come to do real service for the Lord. So many times it is said that when a person crosses the Rockies a spirit of irresponsibility takes hold of him, and he thinks, "I was a worker at home, now I will rest in California." You don't know what it means to be far from headquarters and need trained workers; and you don't know what it means when a trained worker comes to us. We want you to take up the work where you left it off at home. [48]

[CCR 47-48]