A CHURCH AND COMMUNITY SURVEY OF SALEM COUNTY NEW JERSEY MADE UNDER THE DIRECTION OF EDMUND deS. BRUNNER DIRECTOR, DEPARTMENT OF TOWN AND COUNTRY SURVEYS BR 555 .N55 33 1922 COMMITTEE ON SOCIAL AND RELIGIOUS SURVEYS NEW Xar^ YORK GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY BR 555 .N55 S3 1922 Brunner, Edmund de Schweinitz, 1889- A church and community A CHURCH AND COMMUNITY SURVEY OF SALEM COUNTY NEW JERSEY /<^ f* COT 1 1 ] %6/CAL MADE UNDER THE DIRECTION OF EDMUND deS. BRUNNER DIRECTOR, DEPARTMENT OF TOWN AND COUNTRY SURVEYS WITH ILLUSTRATIONS MAPS AND CHARTS COMMITTEE ON SOCIAL AND RELIGIOUS SURVEYS NEW >tBJr YORK GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY COPYRIGHT, 1922, BY GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA FOREWORD THIS pamphlet is one of a series which present the results of a Church Survey in the field of Town and Country, begun under the auspices of the Interchurch World Move- ment, and completed by the Committee on Social and Religious Surveys. From among the one thousand county surveys which the Interchurch had undertaken and in which considerable prog- ress had been made, a limited number were selected for com- pletion on an intensive plan, in the belief that these would throw light upon some of the more important problems of church and community life. The selection was made with great care. Certain fundamental factors were examined in all of the counties in which a survey had been undertaken, so that outstanding abnormalities might be avoided, or proper account taken of them. Agricultural, educational and religious officials were consulted. State and Fed- eral census reports studied. The counties selected are so dis- tributed over the United States as to afford fairly typical specimens of Town and Country Survey for all the great regions into which the country is divided. It must be recognized, however, that no county can be completely typical of any larger area in respect to every situation. These studies have been made from the point of view of the church recognizing, however, that economic and social conditions aiifect church life. The community has, therefore, been studied as well as the church. Communities have been located and defined, their economic background investigated, their population analyzed. Those factors which enter into the make-up of the social mind, such as social life, public opinion, leadership, means of communication, social affiliations and community spirit, have all been evaluated. Community activities, particularly those dealing with amusement and recreation, have been recognized and noted. The schools and their contribution to community life have been taken into account. And all has been from the point of view of the church. The study of the church has been made from the point of view of its history, its equipment, its financial system, its members and their occupations, its services and their type, the parish, organiza- iii FOREWORD tions such as the Sunday School, the Young People's Societies and their program. An intensive study has been made of the distinctly rural areas and of those centers of population which have less than five thousand inhabitants. In the cases of towns larger than this, an attempt has been made to measure the service of such towns to the sur- rounding countryside. Spiritual results in church work are not measurable by the foot rule of statistics. This survey does not deal, therefore, with the spiritual product of any church in the lives of individuals, but with community conditions and the mechanics of administration which are instruments for carrying on church activities and spiritual work. The reader must understand that figures have often been given in percentages as aids in comparison. He should be cautioned, however, against being misled by percentage figures where the num- ber of cases happens to be very small. The aim of the survey is distinctly practical. It is hoped that it will prove to be of value not only to the churches and communities of the county surveyed, and to church boards and societies operat- ing therein, but also to social and educational agencies which are interested in rural work generally. It is also believed that the situations discovered and the problems emerging in each of these surveys will be found to bear sufficient resemblance to those in other counties within the same region, as to render the policies and programs proposed of definite value beyond the boundaries of the areas that have been intensively studied. The results of these surveys will untimately be published in twelve volumes, three of which will treat individual counties illustrat- ing a survey method in a single rural geographical and political unit. The Salem County volume is one of the three. It will be followed by similar studies of a middle western and far western county. The remaining volumes will treat of outstanding problems in several well defined regions such as the South, the Range and the Northwest, on the basis of two or more representative counties in each of these regions. There will also be a final volume summarizing the total results of all these studies. ACKNOWLEDGMENT THE Director of the Town and Countrv^ Survey Department for the Interchurch World Movement was Edmund deS. Brunner. He was likewise the Director of this Department for the Committee on Social and Religious Surveys. The original survey of Salem County was conducted under the Rev. George W. Lawrence, State Survey Supervisor of the Inter- church World Movement. Associated with him was a county sur- vey team composed of the Rev. C. Rollin Smith, Pennsville, leader ; the Rev. Erie Oesterle, Ouinton; the Rev. Thomas A. Hicks, Allo- way, and the Rev. C. H. Thompson, Woodstown; all of these did active work in gathering the data on the blanks provided. Their work was done during the years 1919-20. The field workers of the Committee on Social and Religious Surveys for Salem County were Mr. B. Y. Landis, Miss H. O. Belknap, Miss M. L. Patton and Miss E. R. Hooker. During the spring of 1921, they verified the results of the survey-work pre- viously done and secured additional information, not included in the original study. Valuable help was given by the Home Missions Council, and the Council of Women for Home IMissions through their sub- Committee on Town and Country and also by a Committee appointed jointly by the Home Missions Council and the Federal Council for the purpose of cooperating with the Committee on Social and Religious Surveys in endeavoring to translate the results of the survey into action. The members of this Joint Committee on Utilizing Surveys are : Representing the Federal Council of the Churches Anna Clark C. N. Lathrop Roy B. Guild U. L. Mackey A. E. Holt A. E. Roberts F. Ernest Johnson Fred B. Smith Charles E. Schaeffer Representing the Home Missions Council and the Council of Women for Home Missions Alfred W. Anthony Rolvix Harlan Mrs. Fred S. Bennett R. A. Hutchison C. A. Brooks Florence E. Quinlan C. E. Burton W. P. Shriver A. E. Cory Paul L. Vogt David D. Forsyth Warren H. Wilson VI CONTENTS PART I : A GENERAL VIEW OF THE FIELD CHAPTER PAGE I Introducing Salem County, New Jersey ... 13 II Economic Characteristics 16 III The Making of a Community 22 IV Social Characteristics 28 PART II : RELIGIOUS LIFE AND INSTITUTIONS V The Situation in General 37 VI Equipment and Finance 43 VII The Minister 49 VIII Membership . 54 IX Organization and Program 63 X "The Par Standard" 68 XI Negro Church Life 70 XII Non-Protestant Churches 75 PART III: CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS Conclusions and Recomimendations 81 Appendix 91 vu ILLUSTRATIONS, MAPS AND CHARTS ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE School at Woodstown — "The Finest in South Jersey" 15 The Creamery, Sharptown 19 Community Hall, Norma 26 Playground of the Woodstown Public School ... 29 Group of Protestant Churches 44 "Moving Horse-Sheds Day," Pedricktown, Feb. 15, 1921 66 Pastor and Laymen Prepare the Lawn for a Playground 66 School for Colored Children, South Woodstown ... 71 Jewish Synagogues 76 MAPS I Salem County, N. J., White Churches and Com- munities 38-39 II Woodstown, N. J 40 III Auburn Community, N. J 61 IV Salem County, N. J., Colored Churches and Com- munities 72 CHARTS I Effect of System in Church Finance Upon per Capita Giving 45 II How the Church Dollar is Raised 46 III How THE Church Dollar is Expended .... 47 IV Twenty-Eight Protestant Churches Classified According to Residence of Ministers ... 51 V Salary Scale of the 24 Ministers 51 VI Number of Pastorates Over Ten-Year Period . . 52 VII Church Members in Population . .... 54 VIII Residence and Activity of Church Members . . 55 IX Relation of Size of Church Membership to Gain 57 X The Number of Churches Gaining and Losing in One-Year Period 5^ ix I A GENERAL VIEW OF THE FIELD A CHURCH AND COMMUNITY SURVEY OF SALEM COUNTY, NEW JERSEY Chapter I INTRODUCING SALEM COUNTY, NEW JERSEY SALEM County, within its very irregular outline, comprises a total area of 343 square miles. Its eastern boundary is the Delaware River where that stream widens into the Bay. The surface of the land is flat or gently rolling, the greatest eleva- tion being not more than fifty feet above sea-level. There is much uninhabited and unimproved land along the Delaware River on account of the tide marshes. Here the farmers have formed Meadow Companies for building dykes in order to protect their fields. There are no steep hillsides, boulders, or stony fields within the county. Generally speaking, the soil is fertile, easily worked, deep and lasting. Light loams and a heavier loam, with some clay in the soil or sub- soil, predominate. Banked meadows, suitable for pasture, are plenti- ful. With proper treatment, there are more than 20,000 acres of land in the county that could be reclaimed. The great markets of New York and Philadelphia are easily accessible to the county and to them it sends its produce. Salem County may be taken, therefore, as a fair specimen of the great belt of land in that area which supplies the leading cities of the Middle Atlantic seaboard with food. HISTORICAL The first Europeans to disturb tlie peace of the Lenni Lenape tribes on the eastern shore of the Delaware River, within the area now called Salem County, were a small number of Swedes who came in 1638, arriving at Church Landing, where St. George's, a Protestant Episcopal Church, now stands. Some Dutch also settled shortly afterward on this point of the Delaware River, and for a number of years both nationalities lived together in absolute harmony. Both w'ere of practically the same religious faith. St. George's was then 13 SURVEY OF SALEM COUNTY, N. J. a Lutheran Church. In 1640 there was a small infiltration of Puritan English from the New Haven Colony, and, shortly after, a small group of French Huguenots, and another of Finns, were added to the population. The Friends of Fen wick's Colony, who sought the shores of America even before Penn's schemes resulted in the settlement of Philadelphia, came in 1765. A German element was added to the population of the county early in the eighteenth century. From a very early date there have been negroes in Salem County. In fact, despite the opposition of the Friends, slavery persisted until 1829. Probably there is none of the original negro blood in the county at present. Tuberculosis has made heavy inroads ; and it is only migration from the South which has kept the negro population from losing in numbers. The negroes are farm owners and operators in the vicinity of Marshalltown, and also at Fenwick, Yorktown and Woodstown. They are not so prosperous as the wdiite farmers, but some allowance must be made for their lack of educational and other opportunities. The first Jewish settlers arrived in 1882. After 1895, they c?,me in fairly large numbers from Russia as part of a larger immigration which began about that year, through the influence of Jewish settlement societies in New York, and with the aid of the Baron de Hirsch Fund. The promoters of the original Hebrew colony, which is located near Norma, placed one or two very successful farmers in the Jewish community for demonstra- tion purposes. Here they made remarkable progress in wresting a living from poor land. Following the Civil War, there was an influx of Irish, who are to be found largely in the cities, while during the last few years a small number of Italians and Poles have taken up farms. Census Figures When its first census was taken in 1737, the population of the county was 5,888. In 1790 the first Federal census showed a popu- lation of 10,437. I^"* both instances the entire population was listed as rural. The following table gives the figures for the last three enumerations : 1920 Rural 17,562 Urban 19,010 The great increase shown in the figures of 1920 is due to the number of people attracted to the munition plants established in the Penns Grove region. At present, the rural population is 14 I9I0 1900 20,385 6,614 19.719 5,811 INTRODUCING SALEM COUNTY less than fifty per cent of the total. The 1920 census enumerations of foreign-born inhabitants are not yet available, and even when they are published, they will not show an urban and rural division. In 1910 there were 1,206 Russian Jews in the county. The German element stood second with 641. Negroes numbered 3,324. The rural population is remarkably stable. In a large majority of com- munities over eighty per cent of the population has been resident for more than fifteen years ; while in about one-half of the com- SCHOOL AT WOODSTOWN — THE FINEST IN SOUTH JERSEY munities, the percentage is ninety or more. In fact, within recent years, there has been very little "new blood" added to the rural population of the county. Government Salem County is governed by a Board of Freeholders composed of representatives from the various townships, with whom are asso- ciated the usual officers, such as County Treasurer, Assessor, Health Officer, and others. There are four incorporated towns in the county, but of these the city of Salem and Penns Grove have a population of over 5,000 and are not included, therefore, in this intensive survey. The other two incorporated towns are Elmer, with a population of 2,800, and Woodstown, with a population of 2,501. 15 T Chapter II ECONOMIC CHARACTERISTICS HE economic life of Salem County may be discussed around three general phases — agriculture, industry and transporta- tion. AGRICULTURE The chief agricultural products are garden vegetables, small fruits, tomatoes and potatoes, and in addition to these, there are staple crops, such as corn, wheat and hay. Dairying also is carried on in some sections of the county. The 1920 Federal census figures show 1,802 farms. This is a decrease of a little more than ten per cent, in twenty years. The County Agricultural Agent lists 1,505 farms, his classification being more rigid than that of the Govern- ment, as to what constitutes a "farm". Crops and Values In 1910 the average value of farm crops and animal products was $2,265 P^r farm. In 1920, exclusive of animals slaughtered, it was $5,061 per farm — an increase of nearly one hundred per cent. The 1920 crop figures, however, show a decrease in yield compared with those of 1920, averaging a little more than ten per cent. Principal Acres Quantity Yield Crops Year Harvested Harvested Per Acre Corn 1920 23,485 790.739 bu. 33-6 1910 24,940 939,775 " 37-7 Wheat 1920 10,401 165,007 " 15.9 1910 8.538 166,538 " 19.5 Hay 1920 32,351 67,149 tons 2.08 1910 26,486 41,067 " 1.55 Potatoes 1920 9,033 1,032,926 bu. 1 14.35 1910 10,111 1,303,088 " 128.87 In commenting on these figures, the County Agricultural Agent says : "These figures are the only ones we actually have regarding crop production in this county. However, I am very well satisfied that they are too small and that there has been no such decrease in yields. I would say that the yield of corn in this county is above thirty-three bushels, (the figure given by the 1920 census). From 16 ECONOMIC CHARACTERISTICS sixty-five to seventy would come nearer to the average production of corn in this county. Wheat, last year, averaged from twenty- seven to thirty-three bushels to the acre in this vicinity and undoubt- edly the average for a number of years would be around twenty-five bushels. Potatoes in 1920 averaged in this county around 210 bushels, and that is a pretty good average for this section. The census figures on hay are more nearly correct than any of them." In 19 10, sixty per cent of the farm-owners had mortgages on their property. The total mortgage-debt was $1,198,802, or forty- four and nine-tenths per cent of the total value of the land and buildings in the county. The 1920 figures are not yet available. Tenancy Between the years 1900 and 1910 there was a slight decrease in the number of tenant-farmers. In 1900, forty-four and four-tenths per cent of the 2,072 farms were operated by tenants, while in 1910, of the 2,046 farms, thirty-nine and nine-tenths per cent. During the last census period, the drop in tenantry continued markedly. Today, of the 1,802 farms, only a little more than one-third, or thirty-five and five-tenths per cent, are in the hands of tenants. The reason for this decrease is difficult to determine. Probably the high wages paid by the munition plants within the county during the war, of which the farmers took advantage during their slack season, may account for it in some measure. The share system of paying rent prevails throughout the county. The tenant-farmer's note is good at the banks; indeed, the banks make no discrimination between tenant and owner. The term of leasing is that which prevails generally in America — one year only. While the system is usually regarded as unprofitable and out of date, yet in Salem County tenants sometimes stay on the same farm all their lives. In some instances, grandsons of original owners are leasing the same farms to grand- sons of original tenants. Fartn Labor In any county having the type of agriculture that predominates in Salem, there is special need of labor at certain seasons of the year. To meet this need, various sources of supply are utilized. The odd-job men of the towns are often employed, and high school boys are used. Apart from these sources, city employment agencies furnish the bulk of help. Some farms have extra houses in order to accomodate the help that is necessary during the height of the season. On other farms, employees live in tents, sheds or even 17 SURVEY OF SALEM COUNTY, N. J. corn cribs. The help that comes from the city employment agencies is largely foreign-speaking, and is used more in the northern part of the county than elsewhere. The influx of several hundred for- eigners has had no appreciable effect on social life or morals. The farmers who were interviewed, spoke in high terms of the conduct of the help, but added that it was well known to be "unhealthy for anyone to stay around who did not behave". Negroes from the city of Salem are also used to a certain extent by farmers during the harvest season. At the time wdien the original survey was being undertaken the price of farm labor was high, soaring to six dollars a day with board and lodging. Since then, there has been a great decline, in some sections, as much as sixty per cent. The average for the county in 1921 is about forty dollars per month "and keep". Farmers' Exchange One of the most important factors in the agricultural situation in Salem County is the South Jersey Farmers' Exchange, with head- quarters in Woodstown. Originally the organization was coopera- tive in its nature, but in later years has taken on the nature of a pri- vate corporation. It has several branches both in Salem and in neighboring counties. The Exchange loads potatoes and ships fer- tilizer to any railroad station in South Jersey. Nine hundred farmers are shareholders in the organization, and transact .business with it. It is capitalized at $125,000 with a par value of $5.00 per share. In 1920, despite the drop in price of farm products, the Exchange was able to pay its usual dividends and add to its surplus which now amounts to nearly $150,000. In 1920, it handled more than 10,000 tons of fertilizer, feeds and seeds. It bought from the shareholders and sold for them 10,000 bushels of corn, twenty carloads of wheat, 1,000 carloads of potatoes, and 149 carloads of tomatoes during the last year. Farm Bureau No account of the agriculture of Salem County would be com- plete without a word concerning the agent of the Farm Bureau. The farmers were conservative and did not secure a county agent as early as some of their neighbors, but they have one now and are working well with him. The present agent is progressive and tire- less. His report for last year shows two dozen demonstrations of various kinds held, more than 5,000 people reached through meetings, 1,340 visits made to farmers, and 160 articles placed in the papers .of the county. These are but a few items from the records of the 18 ECONOMIC CHARACTERISTICS Farm Bureau office. The agent has secured hetter hreeding stock among the owners of Holstein cattle; he has helped in planting several new orchards, and in combating the potato scab. Farm demonstration work in the county has been put on a permanent basis. Large returns on his work can be shown in dollars and cents. There is hearty cooperation between the County Agent and the teachers of agriculture at Woodstown and Salem high schools. Short courses for farmers have been conducted at both places, and also at Harmersville. Last year, the county had seventy-five boys THE CREAMERY, SHARPTOWN enrolled in livestock clubs and fifty-nine girls in canning and garden clubs. The work is supervised by the County Board of Agriculture, the successor of the old Salem County Agricultural Society, founded in 1850, and devoted chiefly to the holding of fairs. It is a significant fact that in every communit\- in the county, the majority of those interviewed by the survey workers declared that there was cordial cooperation between farmers and business men of the hamlet and open country and those in the town centers. Yet full advantage has not been taken of this feeling of good-will. For example, most of the produce and perishable farm products used in Salem and Penns Grove reaches these cities through com- mission men from Philadelphia and Camden. Very little comes direct from the farmers of Salem County. Even hotels and restaurants use more store vegetables than they do produce bought direct from the farm. This method of shipping produce from the farms of the 19 SURVEY OF SALEM COUNTY, N. J. county to the tables of its towns by way of a sixty-mile detour through Philadelphia is most wasteful. It would appear that the good feeling between town and country might be so utilized as to bring about a more effective cooperation, thereby supplying the city with vegetables direct from the country. INDUSTRY The chief industry of the county is the canning of agricultural products such as tomatoes, garden vegetables and small fruits. There are eighteen canneries in the county, and with the exception of two, their operation is entirely seasonal. The total number of workers employed in these canneries is 2,261 ; the number working in individual canneries ranging from 60 to 554. In a number of communities, the chief work in these canneries is performed by the -farmers' wives, and that despite the fact that it must be done when the work on the farm is at its height. Glass-sand is found in certain sections of the county and there is a glass factory in the city of Salem. Quantities of building-sand and gravel furnish labor for a large number of people. Those engaged in non-agricultural pursuits are employed in stores, grist-mills, slaughter-houses, creameries, ice-cream factories, a shirt-waist factory and a cold-storage plant. A small number secure all, or part of their income, from fishing. There are six banks in Salem County. Four Building and Loan Associations have been organized, all of which have some farmers as borrowers. The total membership of the four associations in June, 1919, was 1,151, and the number of borrowers, 357. At that time the assets in loans on mortgages amounted to $528,093, and the total amount of new loans for the year preceding was $76,700. TRANSPORTATION Three branches of the Pennsylvania Railroad cross Salem County at various points. Connections between Salem and Philadelphia are good. Elmer, at the eastern end of the county, is on the line which runs from Bridgeton and Glassboro, making Camden or Atlantic City easily accessible. There is one trolley line running from Penns Grove to Salem, and the former is connected by ferry with Wilming- ton and by boat-line with Philadelphia. Salem, Alloway and Oldham Creeks furnish several miles of navigable waters for light-draught boats, but the effect of the tides together with the shallowness and the winding nature of these streams, make it impossible for water 20 ECONOMIC CHARACTERISTICS transportation to compete with the railroads in either freight or passenger traffic. The pubhc roads of Salem County are financed by township, county and state funds. There are, at least, 1,500 miles of road in the entire county, but 114 miles constitute the length of the com- bined state and county roads, leaving approximately 1,400 miles of township roads. For the most part these roads are good. The extensive use of automobiles and trucks for the transportation of produce to shipping-points has made good roads a necessity, while the level surface of the land makes it easy to maintain them. In those sections of the county where the soil is unproductive and where the population has decreased, the poorest roads are to be found. The labor of prisoners is utilized in the construction of roads. Oyster shells have been used with much success as material for road im- provement. In 1920, Salem County spent $200,000 on roads, $60,000 of which was for construction and the balance for repair. One-half of this amount was received from the State from the Motor and Vehicle Fund. 21 Chapter III THE MAKING OF A COMMUNITY A GREAT deal has been written in recent years about com- munity consciousness. Numerous efforts have also been made to define the word "community". In certain states legislatures have granted communities the right to incorporate for purposes which, in the past, were open only to incorporated towns or cities. We have seen the creation of fire districts, lighting dis- tricts, community welfare districts, and a number of others, deter- mined by lines of community consciousness and expressing com- munity needs or interests. All of this points to the possibility of the emergence of a new political unit in American life. Within the bounds of some one community the great majority of rural Americans live, move and have their being. Life is here reduced to its simplest terms. But it is life — life with its jealousies and friendships, its joys and sorrows. There is buying and selling, cooperation and competition, success and failure. The individuals of that cluster of homes which form a community find, in common with their immediate neighbors, their most absorbing tasks and interests within its borders. It is this community interest which creates the ties that bind individuals together in community life. Whether the interests be few or many, they make up the life of the community. This life may center around a school, a grange, a hardware or seed store, a church or a group of these or other social or economic institutions. Thus we have come to a definition of community life as "that aggregation of people the majority of whose local interests have a common center." It is possible to discover and to define the geographical boundaries of the varied interests which center in some one locality. This can be done by measuring the extent of the reach or pull of any given institution along every road which leads to it. In this way the boundaries of school, business, religion, social enterprises, and other recognized phases of life, may be discovered and mapped. The tendency has been to consider the community as a trade area centered in some town. In this survey it has not been found possible to follow this practice as the sole basis of community 22 THE MAKING OF A COMMUNITY classification inasmucli as the entire county under consideration lies, within the larger trade area of Philadelphia, and furthermore, he- cause within the county, communities are so close together that there is a great deal of overlapping from the standpoint of trade and business. The community boundaries, therefore, have been drawn in the light of social inlluences as determined by the location of schools, churches and recreational facilities. COMMUNITIES The special consideration given in this survey to social factors' has made it practically necessary to class as a community any village or town with its surrounding country which has developed something of a self-conscious feeling or which belongs in no definite sense to any nearby community. Thus delimited, there are fifteen rural communities in Salem County, not including the rural section of the city of Salem or the similar section belonging to Penns Grove. The names and populations of these communities are as follows: Coniniuni'.y Total Population 1. Alloway 600 2. Auburn 289 3. Canton 350 4. Centerton 250 5. Daretown 1,200 6. Elmer 2,800 7. Hancock's Bridge 363 8. Harmersville 250 9. iMonroeviile 210 10. Norma 6co 11. Pedricktown 1,039 12. Pennsville 650 13. Quinton 50^ 14. Sharptown 750 15. Woodstown -.50 ' Salem (rural) 3.09!^ Penns Grove (rural ) 744 Neutral Territory 1,368 Total 17,562 There are also some smaller centers of population neither so strong nor so large as communities, but which are locally recognized, by name at least, such as Yorktown, rapidly becoming a colored neighborhood, Aldine, Cohansey and Friesburg.. All these are very small settlements and their inhabitants go elsewhere for their social life and trade. They are so situated that their relation to the several large communities that surround them renders it impossible for them to develop a strong community consciousness. It is not feasible to set forth in detail the facts covered by the 23 SURVEY OF SALEM COUNTY, N. J. survey for each separate community. The table on pages 34-5 will give, however, in every instance, the factors which have entered into the life of the respective communities and with the exception of the schools, which exist in every community, will set forth just what institutions and agencies serve it. Varying in size as they do, these communities deserve the classification given to them, for although they have some things in common, as the table shows, other features are distinctive. Daretozvn Daretown may be selected as an example of a prosperous community in the potato-growing region. In cooperation with a large and effective home and school league, its school is rapidly be- coming a real center of community life. Nearly ninety per cent of the people live in the open country, but come to Daretown for trade and shipping. The church situation is probably as well taken care of here as anywhere in the county. Both churches have abandoned their original buildings and have moved into substantial edifices. Elmer This is the predominant community in the eastern section of the county. While many young people have left the community, the village itself seems to be holding its own. There are signs of a stirring community life. One evidence is a park project, in which village and open country are uniting with a reasonable degree of success. Lodges are active, and a community athletic association supports a baseball team and furnishes other amusements during the summer. The Grange is strong, as are the majority of the churches, one of which, the Methodist church at Union Grove, has a particularly progressive program including a Boy Scout troop, baseball and basketball teams and a literary society. Pedricktown Pedricktown may be taken as typical of the trucking communities of which it is the largest, having a population of 1,039. Trucking crops call for a considerable amount of seasonal labor and whole families of foreigners are imported when necessary. The community is a progressive one. Its social activities include a parent-teachers' association, a dairy organization, a branch of the County Farm Bureau and a Boy Scout troop. Lunches are provided for the school children who are unable to return to their homes during the noon hour. The Parent-Teachers' Association supplies the equipment for 24 THE MAKING OF A COMMUNITY this service and has also given the school a victrola and a library. The two churches are active and one of them is making some impression on the Italian population, a few Italian children attending its Sunday school. This is the only church in the county reporting any "New Americans" in its church services. Peniisville More than any other community m Salem County Pennsville has felt the effect of the war, since it lies near the numerous munition plants that sprang up along the Delaware River from Carney's Point to Penns Grove. Of the many foreigners who came into the community during the war there remain two hundred Greeks and forty Italians, many of whom are employed in the dye works near Pennsville, which belong to the Dupont Company and under normal conditions employ six hundred hands. Woodstoztm This is one of the largest and most progressive communities in the entire county. Many worthwhile county- wide projects have been initiated here. It has the finest schools in the county; indeed, its consolidated school is one of the best in New Jersey. It resulted from the combining of nine grade schools. The building is a splendid structure with splendid equipment, one which if erected today would cost $300,000. The school comprises twelve grades and a kinder- garten. Pupils who come from districts lying outside the corporate limits of Woodstown have their transportation paid. This arrange- ment includes even those who attend the kindergarten. The school has departments of agriculture and domestic science, a g}-mnasium and full equipment of playgrounds apparatus and a campus of seven acres. Here, too, is located the central office of the South Jersey Farmers' Exchange. The school, chamber of commerce and the churches have all helped to develop a spirit of cooperation which is maintained despite the fact that there are occasionally sharp differ- ences of opinion between groups of people in the village. There are four organized Protestant churches, all doing good work, and a very much alive Roman Catholic church. The smaller communities share, to a greater or lesser degree, the assets and life that have been described in the communities just considered. Each in its own way is peculiar to itself. Hanncrsfille^ is known for its large and progressive grange. .iHbuni is a relic of old days, a community that has retrograded economically since the railroad supplanted water routes as a means of transportation. 25 SURVEY OF SALEM COUNTY, N. J. Alloway is in the center of a belt of soil that is below the average for the county, and its social, economic and religious life shows the efifect of this handicap. Monroemllc is distinguished by having the largest parent-teachers' association of any community within the county. Many of tliese communities have a small industry, such as a cannery or a creamery. There are few communities in the county that do not have historic associations, many of them stretching back to Revolutionary times. There are many old and beautiful homes. The streets are usually shaded and the average community presents an attractive COMMUNITY HALL, NORMA and pleasing appearance. The people of the county live and work under conditions that are favorable to health and prosperity. How far they have progressed along social and religious lines may be judged from the data furnished in the chapters which follow. Negro and JczvisJi Settlement ■■ The communities in which the negroes have settled include Fenwick, South Woodstown and Marshalltown. The first two are close to Woodstown proper and the children attend the grade school in South Woodstown, which, in every way, is the equal of the consolidated school. The churches and lodges are the main centers of influence in the negro communities. Norma is the center of Jewish life in Salem County and is very progressive — especially agriculturally. In addition to the Jewish synagogue there. are two community halls in Norma. ,26 THE MAKING OF A COMMUNITY Cities The cities of the county are Salem and Penns Grove. The former is the county seat with a population of 10,523 of whom 7,435 reside in the city itself and 3,098 in the Salem rural community. As a county seat Salem naturally has interests touching the entire county and is dependent upon the county for much of its influence and prosperity. Within its rural community lies some of the finest farm land in the county. Southwest of the city is Elsinboro. Here there are popular beaches, and in summer its population is about 1,000. The people here can come to Salem for recreation and worship. There have been Sunday schools in this township, but at present these are closed. (The religious situation in Salem rural community is discussed in Part H of this survey.) Penns Grove and Carney's Point are both "war-made" towns. Originally a fishing and farming center with a long history and a small population, the war trans- formed this area into an industrial beehive, having a total population of between 60,000 and 70,000. Now, however, the census gives Penns Grove a little over 6,000 and the population of Carney's Point is approximately the same. Penns Grove is incorporated but Carney's Point is not. This industrial community has a much smaller tributary rural area than Salem. Unless the industrial situa- tion improves the town must decline. Indeed, Pedricktown appears to have supplanted it permanently as a shipping point for truck and other farm produce. 27 Chapter IV SOCIAL CHARACTERISTICS THE social assets revealed in the table given in connection with the last chapter, give an interesting, composite picture of life within the communities of Salem County. There are, of course, certain social assets and characteristics which are county wide. Among these must be classed first of all the educational and philanthropic. EDUCATION Schools Schools in Salem County were first established by the Friends and in the beginning were largely supported by them. At that time, they were nothing but small log buildings in which itinerant teachers taught those children whose parents agreed to pay for the service. Today, Salem county has some of the finest rural schools in the whole of New Jersey. The local public school system was placed under state control in 1816, and the first funds were appropriated for public schools in that year. In 1883, there were seventy-one elementary schools in the county. By the end of 1920, there were only fifty-one. The County Superin- tendent's map shows thirty-one points at which schools have been discontinued as a result of the movement for consolidation. However, some sections of the county are very slow to move in this direction. There is one township which has as many graded schools today as it had in 1883. While the "helping teacher" is a big factor in improving the rural schools, the entire county faces the problem of a rural teach- ing force which is very much underpaid. The study of agriculture has not yet found its way into the grade schools, even in the more progressive townships, but there are such courses in the high schools at Salem and Woodstown. The newer school buildings are com- modious and modern in architecture, construction and equipment. In New Jersey, pupils are transported comparatively long dis- tances to the high schools. Pupils in Salem County, besides enrolling at Penns Grove, Salem and Woodstown, go also to Bridgeton, Glassboro and Swedesboro ; the three latter places being outside of 28 SOCIAL CHARACTERISTICS the county. School statistics for town and country districts are not available separately, but the following figures will give some idea of the amount of investment and the work done in the schools of Salem County: The total expenditures for the year 1919-20 was $323,283.24. The average cost per pupil was $43.65. The teachers employed include twenty-five men and two hundred and fourteen women. Of these, thirty-two are college graduates, while eighty-eight are graduates of normal schools. At the end of 1920, the total valuation of school property, including land and buildings, was $644,590. This PLAYGROUND OF THE WOODSTOWN PUBLIC SCHOOL figure does not include the value of a new school then in course of construction at Daretown. Libraries There are libraries in all of the incorporated towns. There are also ten traveling libraries, controlled by the state commission, and located largely in rural communities. The commission reports that there were thirteen requests for traveling libraries during 1920 which it had not been able to fill for lack of funds. The "helping teacher'' who travels the county, assisting local teachers in various ways in Salem County, has two traveling libraries which she places in rural schools. Newspapers Philadelphia newspapers circulate largely throughout the county. There are, however, five local papers, two published in Salem, one each in Penns Grove, Woodstown and Elmer. These are weekly publications and naturally specialize in local news. Most of them, however, are ready to give space to matters of public concern. 29 SURVEY OF SALEM COUNTY, N. J. - WELFARE WORK There is no agency within the county that, in any adequate way, cares for the needs of those who are handicapped by economic pres- sure or retarded development. Individual churches and lodges extend their charity to their own membership, yet nothing of a united or constructive program exists. Salem has an efficient charity organization and maintains two public health nurses who devote their time largely to child-welfare. Unfortunately their work is limited almost entirely to the city. The Dupont Company carries on welfare work among its employees at Carney's Point and Penns Grove. The Salem Memorial Hospital erected in memory of its soldiers who fought in the World War, was built in 1919 by united efforts of both town and country. It renders commendable service to the county, but its restricted resources prevent its performing out-patient or social service work, such as is urgently needed. There are other facts having to do with the social characteristics of Salem County which center about activities which, in their scope, are limited to a community. The statistical facts chosen and the comments made upon them, are grouped under the following head- ings: Recreational Life, Social Organizations, Community Spirit, Leadership, and Community Cooperation. RECREATIONAL LIFE The play life of any people reveals much. In that life they are free from compulsion of either business or the influence of educa- tional standards. Salem County is prosperous enough to have any type of recreation it cares to pay for. The survey, however, shows that insufficient eft'ort has been made to meet the need for non- commercialized recreation, of a character to include all groups and both sexes in the community, and which is at the same time spon- taneous and democratic. The recreational situation in Salem County is indicated by the following table : Number of communities in County 15 " with dance halls 5 " moving pictures i " " pool rooms 12 " bowling alleys i " organized athletics 4 " band 3 " orchestra 2 other buildings for recreation 7 Despite this apparently poor showing, there are possibilities for a better recreational program. One of the towns has athletic asso- 30 SOCIAL CHARACTERISTICS ciations with both Sunday and day schools taking part. In three communities schools are being used for recreational activities, while another uses a town hall and still another both grange hall and school. One community has an amusement park and one town, in which Jews are the predominant element in the population, has two community halls. SOCIAL ORGANIZATIONS The social life of a community may be measured roughly by the types of social organization which it develops. This phase of com- munity life in Salem is set forth below :• Number of communities in County 15 " " with granges 4 " " one or more lodges 11 " " " other organizations 8 The thirty lodges in Salem County have a total membership of 2,017. The other organizations, found in eight of the fifteen com- munities, include four Parent-Teachers' Associations or Home School Leagues, three troops of Boy Scouts, three Women's Clubs together with a few organizations such as Literary Societies and a Ladies' Firemen's Auxiliary. The Women's Club in the city of Salem, which has 252 members, enrolls thirty who come from the surrounding country. There are four communities in the county now taking the lead in social life, and in which the schools are beginning to recognize a leadership that is theirs to assume. These are Woodstown, Norma, Elmer, and Daretown. If projected plans are realized, Pedricktown will be added to this list through the energy and vision of the churches there. None of these communities, however, has as yet taken any steps toward coordinating the activities of its organiza- tions into a council which would be the servant of all, and which, while allowing freedom of action to all that entered in, would yet prevent wasted effort. Salem has a good Y. M. C. A. building, and with more financial help, the association could easily do a significant piece of extension work in the outlying rural districts, especially in Mannington Township and in the direction of Hancock's Bridge. No steps in this direction have as yet been taken. A Chautauqua is held yearly in Salem and draws largely from the city and the surrounding- countryside. In one community only is the church mentioned as a community factor in supplying social and recreational life. This is not to say 31 SURVEY OF SALEAI COUNTY, N. J. that the churches are not attempting to supply a social and recrea- tional life, but it docs mean that the community leaders who were consulted mentioned it only once as a community factor. In four communities the public schools or high schools were cited as agencies in supplying recreational facilities. COMMUNITY SPIRIT Community spirit is a term difficult of exact definition. Neither its presence nor its absence during an extended period of time in any one community is capable of statistical determination. The term is used in this survey for the purpose of conveying a general idea of the existence of common aims, of good will, of unity of interests and of efforts to achieve desirable ends within the bound- aries of a given community. In a negative sense, therefore, it in- dicates the lack of cohesive elements in a community. The absence of such a spirit is due usually to the lack of an experience calculated to convince people of the oneness of their interests. Occasionally, it may be found that community spirit has been killed by some issue on which feeling ran high and left in its wake animosities that temporarily at least prevented progress. The more difficult problem is with the former type of community. The survey records eight communities as being conscious of community spirit and seven lacking in this important, if somewhat intangible, quality. The activities of the School, the Church, Parent-Teachers' Association, Farmers' Associations and the Chamber of Commerce are given credit locally for arousing and maintaining this conscious- ness of community weal. These opinions point to the kinds of or- ganizations and institutions which are making community spirit live. It is not these organizations, as such, which create spirit. It is the things they do. In one community, for instance, the scholars of the school under the leadership of the Parent-Teachers' Associa- tion raised nearl}' $2,000 in a single year for school equipment. Con- sider how this effort united the people ! Every home in which a child lived, who helped, increased its interest and stake in the school. Every entertainment meant not only so much money raised, but a greater contribution of service and an enlarged appreciation of the ability of the community to do something worth while. Other commendable manifestations of community spirit are found in the county. In one locality, it is the farmers and business men joining hands in building a park in the village; in another it is 33 SOCIAL CHARACTERISTICS the development of a good growing, efficient school or what another community is proud to call, rightly, "the finest school in South Jersey". A third connnunity is proud to report the manifestation of a "good spirit all around". The neatness of the appearance of an- other village is evidence that there is a community spirit which keeps it looking better than the average. LEADERSHIP In order to measure the possibilities of development in any com- munity it is necessary to know whether or not it possesses forward looking individuals who are generally recognized as leaders by the people. In too many places life is on a dead level and all Init stagnant because of a lack of leaders who can keep before the citizenship the vision of worth-while ideals, to be democratically realized by community efforts. In Salem County thirteen of the fifteen communities report leaders. The total given is twenty-six, farmers, ministers and edu- cators leading in the occupational classification. The interest of these leaders in community affairs is noted in the economic life of the county as well as in efforts toward maintaining better schools and effecting closer relationship between home and school. 33 Xlloway PotAton kni) IUir>- harrlown PoUton and I>aiO' Itmrr PoUlocs and Dairy MixmM-vlllr PoUloea and Dairy WiKHl«timii Polaloet mud Hairy llammrr.villr Dairy Atihiirn Tntrk and Grain ('anion Truck and r>rmtn ('rn(rrtoi) Tn^k and (inin Norma Truck and Crmio Pnlricklown Truik and (irain Prnnvvlllr Truck and Grmio (.tufaiutn Tnirk and Grain ShBTi>toim Truck and C.rain ltanaKk'% Itri.lcr Grain 'rfTDC* — ItftUftBi Sitabu Sumba la n. Il«al roanuaity or VOUo rcbM la Towa llaalrl la Oprn Rcaidcat Jew .10 Jew 50 CouBlrr Church SvOdcM RciUmI RvOdcM Pulor l^aai Taadwn CMhtn UUnn II RELIGIOUS LIFE AND INSTITUTIONS Chapter V THE SITUATION IN GENERAL "l^X TITH the background gained from the foregoing community l/V/ survey, the study of the church hfe of the county may now be taken up. Salem County is rich in historical tradition, rich in soil, rich in this world's goods. The ease with which it has prospered has made it conservative, even lethargic, but today, there are stirrings of new life, signs of increasing community energy and of a determination on the part of the people to think in terms of social and mutual well-being. The county has far to go in this direc- tion, but a very few leaders are pointing the way. This present social situation, together with the rich heritage of the past, need^ to be borne in mind as we discuss the religious situation within the county. The various groups of early settlers gave to the county the religious complexion it now has. The oldest church, St. George's, was founded in 1632, by Swedish Lutherans. It remained Lutheran until after the Revolution, when it went over to the Church of England, now Protestant Episcopal. The Episcopalians have been represented in the county since 1725, when a church was founded at Salem by a missionary. The work of the Friends dates from the landing of Fenwick's colony. Meeting-houses were erected in Salem, Woodstown and Pedricktown. The last-named was abandoned forty }ears ago. The one Lutheran Church, which dates from 1726. was estab- lished by one of the few colonies of Germans that settled in New- Jersey. Penns Grove was the seat of the first Baptist Church, founded about 1682 by Irish, who had emigrated with Sir Robert Carr. The Presbyteiians also began work in Penns Grove in 1741 and it is recorded that they sustained a vigorous part during the Revolution. Methodism, now the largest denomination in the county, dates from 1774 when the city of Salem was visited by an itinerant preacher who held meetings in the court-house. The group he gathered about him built the first Methodist church in 1784. Detailed figures concerning the religious life of the county began with the Federal religious census of 1890. These figures include 37 COMMUNITY AND PARISH MAT, SALEM COUNTY, N. J., I92O, (White churches and communities) (See next page for a larger scale map illustrating the method in greater detail) /^ ^^^^.^ r''^\^-^v. "■'>--? / ^""^"^--^ ^ C /_ 5 !)" ^ / ^^ y-s / // r> \ / / ^ '^^K/ Oy' \ W/ \ / / ^ aV^^//^ \ / / '^ / ^^^^^^^^^^ /%/ -^ ^^^x^ / *i \.. y\*>*a0* ' \^''°'°\ /r^4:4^i£u8'**°''" " / \/ / X yv^ /xX^l^^ ^nA«5TowM /x^i^ l^^^;:;5>^>^A i /7av3!P ^^:::V^ >£«*&.~/^x^^*^ 7*1^^^^v\ / "'"'^ \^^^4^''''-yy^ /x/^// ^X /X >v *v' / 'y^^& ^Ot^-^^^y^^v \ ^^-i Ky\y /^X> /^^\ \^,'v<;^^^ j^v ^ >f\,'- ) ' '^^V ^'''" VW^^^f^i //fe X/t \ ■".''■ /v^ S^^^^i^ciJ^" o! /-^ ?? -^c \ . ^^- "^ ''' 1 ^~~^ \ ^ •4 ^^ •■» \ "'"^^^— »< / A g: \ \<' ;^— .. /' \ -s,,,^^ lX ^ \ ■ c^ ^ C Y c> u N -^ o KEY AND SYMBOLS I — County Boundary • Ho ® V,l ®To mlet gr>6 Circuit Community Boundary fl^CJ 4 Postor> R»rdenc« without Churth-l»li.W Ne.ohbortiood Soundorn ^n -ov«r 5.000 4 Pasters Rejidsnce without Oiurch-Col«r«d Parish Beundflr-y O Ch jfch -Whit* ^rch -Colored ■ Abondon«d Church. Q InaclWe Church CD Sunday School w.lhouf Church -kVh.te foruh « thurih uonr«I.n, Lcn» rch-Wh(t« with PostorV Residence B Sundou School without Church -Colorod Crcu.t of Posfor fl Chu rch -Colored, w, th Pdjterj R*i(d«nct ' H Church u»ing S\ // / J^ X t U 4 / TV \ xIy Jyf 1 / >v \/\ xiii / J> C /^ ' X ^"""""'^•■^ ^ I '^ / / X. X y ^^s.^,^^^ 1 / 1 / / / > /^ / > /y^ 1 \ /y"^ X *^^ / <\^ / i^ n\ ^^ ' ^^-^ / v\ \ 1 t THIS ILLUSTRATES THE METHOD USED FOR PORTRAYING COMMUNITIES AND PARISHES ON THE COUNTY MAP PRECEDING. 40 THE SITUATION IN GENERAL the whole county and do not distinguish between town and country. By that time there were fifty-seven church organizations, fifty-six church buildings and 7,930 members out of a population of 25,151. Both denominations and the number of congregations were dis- tributed in about the same proportion as in 1920. The census of 1906 gives a total of 9,117 members of whom 741 were Catholics. During the next decade the Catholic membership nearly trebled, reaching 2,209, while the total church membership for the county rose to 11,835. This last religious census (that of 1916) was taken just about the time the industrial development due to the war was in its infancy. These figures, it should be understood, include white and colored denominations, Protestant, Jewish and Catholic. At present, in the town and country area of Salem County, there are forty-one active and organized Protestant churches ; thirty for wdiite people and eleven for the negroes, who also have one separate colored Sunday school. There are five active Jewish syna- gogues ; two Roman Catholic churches, six separate white Sunday schools ; three preaching points of white Protestant churches. The data immediately following deal with the white Protestant churches. Separate treatment is given later to negro and non-Protestant work. THE SURVEY OF WHITE PROTESTANT CHURCHES As previously stated, the present survey docs not include churches in towns which have a population of over 5,000. In the area which is covered by the survey, churches are classified on the basis of their location in the following population groups : I. Churches located in villages of from 250 to 2,500 inhabitants. Seventeen of the thirty white Protestant churches in Salem County are in this class. 2. Churches located in small hamlets having less than 250 people or in the open country. Of these there are thirteen. Six communities have only open country churches ; six have none of this variety ; two have both village arid open country and one has neither. This last community, however, has two separate Sunday schools. There is one abandoned church building and organization at Woodstown belonging to the orthodox Friends. Services are held merely to retain title to the building, regular worship having been abandoned because of the removal of members and the consequent loss of support. This church is shown on the survey map. A Methodist Protestant church was abandoned twenty years ago at Pedricktown, and an orthodox Friends' meeting at Pedricktown 41 SURVEY OF SALEM COUNTY, N. J. ' was given up forty years ago. As these two churches form no part of recent developments in the reHgious Hfe of the county, they are not shown on the map. The Denominations at Work These thirty churches, seventeen located in villages, and thirteen located in small hamlets or in the open country, are divided among the following denominations : Total Resident Number Membership Methodist Episcopal i6 2,062 Baptist 7 1,212 Presbyterian 3 366 Protestant Episcopal i 50 Lutheran i 220 Friends (Orthodox) i 21 Friends (Hicksite) i 273 Total 30 4,204 Periods of Church Development Prior to the year 1800, six churches were founded. Since that time, organization went forward steadily until 1879. The number of churches organized for each twenty -year period during the nine- teenth century was as follows : 1800-1819 4 1820-1839 6 1840-1859 5 1860-1879 4 Since then the twenty-year periods show a slower development. 1880-1899 I 1900-1919 3 The date of organization was not available for one church. Thus it is seen that the churches in Salem County are for the most part of substantial age. 42 Chapter VI EQUIPMENT AND FINANCE. THE thirty churches under consideration in this survey own their huildings. Seventeen are of frame, eleven of l)rick, two of stone. The total seating capacity is 10,585. The main auditoriums of the churches have a total seating capacity of 8.820 — an average of 294 — showing that the huildings are of a good size. The total available seating capacity for all the churches averages 352. which indicates that many of the churches have extra rooms, which can be used when necessary. In twenty-five cases, condition of the church building is reported as good, in three as fair, and in two as very good. Two of the churches own stereopticons but not one has a moving-picture machine. No church reports any additional social equipment. Eleven of the seventeen village churches and two of the thirteen open country churches are lighted by electricity. The remainder are lighted as follows : Eight by oil, six by gas and two by acetylene. For one church there is no report. The size of the church is indicative of the program of work which it is able to carry on, especially from the standpoint of religious education and community service. The size of the building is also an indication of the strength of the congregation. In Salem County Seven of the churches are of the usual one-room type; Fourteen have two rooms ;' One has three rooms ; Four have four rooms ; Three have five rooms; One has six rooms. Twenty-six churches have both horse-sheds and parking space for automobiles. Three churches have parking space for automobiles only. One church has horse-sheds only. The value of the church buildings in the county is shown in the following table which shows, incidentally, a much higher average value where located in the villages than where situated in the open country. Number Total Average Location Buildings Value Value Village 17 $171,500 $10,088 Open Country 13 90,000 6,925 30 $261,500 $ 8,717 43 SURVEY OF SALEM COUNTY, N. J, FRIENDSHIP METHODIST EPISCOPAL PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, DARETOWN CHURCH, NORTHERN PART OF ELMER HICKSITE FRIENDS MEETING HOUSE, WOODSTOWN METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, SHARPTOVVN There are fourteen parsonages connected with the seventeen village churches, and ten with the thirteen open country churches. Thus the proportion is about the same. The total value of the twenty-four parsonages is $72,000, an average value of $3,000. The average value of the village parsonages is $3-357, and that of the open country parsonages is $2,500. The condition of these twenty-four parsonages is as follows : twenty good, two fair, two poor. Four open country churches and three village churches own other buildings representing a total value of $13,900, an average value of $1,986. Two village churches and three open country 44 EQUIPMENT AND FINANXE churches have income-bearing property vahied at $6,830. Of this amount $3,000 is held by one church. Judging from these figures, Salem County prefers the settled, resident minister. The proportion of congregations with parsonages is approximately the same in town and country. Compared with usual conditions in rural America there is a low percentage of one- room buildings. The additional rooms in the other churches are not, however, extensively used for social and community purposes. Finance Salem Count}-, in this particular as in many others, ranks a little above the average. Only eight churches have no systematic method EFFECT OF SYSTEM IN CMURCM FINANCE UPON PER CAPITA GIVING IN OPEN COUNTRY CHURCHES Annual Amounf Contributed per Active Member Without *E.fficJent^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ *.. .^ Fin ancial Syst em ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ * ' With Efficient H^^^HHMMHHHH^^^^H $16.61 Financial System *A budqet for all money raised and an every member canvass. CHART I of handling their finances. Seventeen budget all the money they raise while five congregations use the budget system for local expenses. Six churches raise their income by means of single envelopes, seventeen by the duplex system. Seven churches do not use the envelope system with regulated payments, but depend on monthly, quarterly, annual, or even hit-or-miss payments by their members. The proportion of open country churches using the above im- proved methods of raising church income is about the same for village churches. Curiously enough, however, only fourteen of the twenty-three churches which use the envelope system employ the every member canvass. In this the country churches lead. It is noticeable that the country churches putting on an annual every member canvass in connection with their budget and envelope system, report a higher per capita contribution, and seem to be in better financial condition than those which are not so thorough. 45 SURVEY OF SALEM COUNTY, N. J. The average per capita contribution, per year, of the open country- churches with budget system and every member canvass is $i8.6i. The average per capita contribution, per year, of open country churches with budget system without every member canvass is $14.42. (See figure I. entitled "Effect of System in Church Finance Upon Per Capita Giving.") In the case of the village churches, the figures are practically the same, due apparently to the liberality of the contributors in two or three churches. There is not a church among the entire thirty active, HOW THE CHURCH DOLLAR IS RAISED VILLAGE CHURCHES COUNTRY CHURCHES CHART II organized congregations in the county now receiving home mission aid. Until last year, one church drew $500 a year from its denomina- tional funds, but this payment has been discontinued. Receipts. The total amount of money raised by the thirty churches for the year preceding the survey was $55,355-6i. Of this, $33,718.62 was raised by the seventeen village churches, an average of $1,989.45 per congregation, and $21,636.99 by the thirteen open country churches, an average, per congregation, of $1,684.38. A typical dollar is raised by the following methods : In Village Churches In Country Churches By subscription $ .82 By subscription " Collection 15 " Collection " Other jMethods 03 " Other Methods $ .67 • 15 .18 $1.00 $1.00 (See figure II. entitled "How the Church Dollar is Raised.") 46 EQUIPMENT AND FINANCE Expenditures The total amount of money disbursed for all purposes in the year preceding the survey was $55,204.61. This is an average of $1,980.09 for village churches and $1,657.15 for those in the open country. Of this total amount, almost half, or $25,089.56 went for salaries, $16,152 for missions and benevolences and $13,983.04 for contingent expenses, including repairs, buildings and other cur- rent expenses. The benevolence contributions are noteworthy. It is an exceptional rural church that gives away as much as one- HOW THE CHURCH DOLLAR IS EXPENDED VILLAGE CHURCHES COUNTRY CHURCHES CHART III quarter of its income, and, for the rural churches of a county to average better than twenty-nine per cent is indeed worthy of note. A typical dollar is spent for the following purposes : 111 Village Churches For Salary $ -49 " Missions and Benevolences .28 " All other purposes 23 In Open Country Churches For Salary $ .41 " Missions and Benevolences .31 " All odier purooses 28 $1.00 $1.00 (See figure III entitled "How the Church Dollar is Expended."). The following table shows the disbursement for the average active member : In Village Churches For Salary $ 7-i9 " Missions and Benevolences 4.08 Other expenses 3-14 In Open Country Churches For Salary $702 " Missions and Benevolences 5.53 Other expenses 4.96 Total $14-71 Total $17.51 47 SURVEY OF SALEM COUNTY, N. J. These figures demonstrate that the farmer and the farmers' church in Salem County are holding their own so far as finances are concerned. It is interesting to note that the per capita contribution of the negro churches is $10.50 higher than that of the white, open country churches, and $12.95 higher than that of the village churches. This shows that the white churches have by no means reached the possible limit of giving. 48 Chapter VII THE MINISTER TWENTY-FOUR pastors serve the thirty active and organized Protestant churches of Salem County. Two of these have other occupations — one being a student, the other a salesman. One church — the Alloway Baptist — was without a pastor at the time of the survey. It now has a resident minister. With respect to the residence of the pastor: the churches with pastoral service may be classified as follows (the two Friends' meet- ings are omitted from the classification.) Church with In Village In Open Country Total Pastor resident in parish 13 5 18 Pastor non-resident in parish 3 6 9 No Pastor i o i 17 II 28 (See figure IV entitled "Twenty-eight Protestant Churches Clas- sified According to Residence of Ministers.") From this table it will be seen that the village churches have a higher proportion of ministers resident in their parishes, and that the open country churches are handicapped somewhat by a greater proportion of absentee ministers. A classification made on the basis of communities shows that eight of the fifteen rural communities have a full-time resident minister. One pastor travels a distance of about ninety miles to hold ser- vices. Four pastors live outside the county and travel distances of less than ten miles to conduct services. The manifold experiences of recent decades have shown that, other things being equal, a resident minister is a great asset to a country church. In large measure the growth of a church is contin- gent on the amount of ministerial service which it receives. The situation in Salem County in this respect is as follows: 49 SURVEY OF SALEM COUNTY, N. J. Churches Churches with with Churches Resident Non-Resident with no Location Pastors Growing Pastors Growing Pastor Growing In Village 13 8 .3 i o [n Open Country. 526200 Total 18 10 o Of the eighteen churches with resident pastors ten are growing. Of the nine churches with non-resident pastors two are growing. The one church without a pastor is not growing. Of the twenty-four pastors serving the county nineteen have free parsonages. Salaries paid the ministers range from $1200 to $1500. This figure includes $250.00 for each pastor who has a free parsonage. The classification of the total yearly salaries of the ministers is seen from the table which follows : Number of Pastors Giving Number of Pastors Receiving Salary of Full Time to the Ministry with Other Occupations Less than $500 per year i $ 501-$ 750 o I $ 75i-$i,ooo 6 o $I,O0I-$I,250 2 o $1,251-$!, 500 8 ' $i.5oi-$i,7So 4 o $i,75i-$2,ooo I o $2,000 and over i o Total 22 2 (See figure V entitled "Salary Scale of the Twenty-four Min- isters.") In the following classification of ministers' salaries, $250.00 has been added as the cash value of each parsonage whenever pro- vided : — Maximum salary $2,100.00 Minimum salary 260.00 Average salary 1,113.18 Modal average 1,251.00 to 1,500.00 Eleven pastors have college and seminary training; four have training of college, seminary, Bible school or similar institution; nine report no special training for ministry. Those with college and seminary training receive an average salary of $1,335.45; those with only college or seminary training, $1,362.50; while the untrained pastors receive an average of $1,225.44. Five ministers of village and four of open country churches, have automobiles. Although used for promoting the work of th« congregation most churches supply neither car nor upkeep. 50 TWENTY EIGHT PROTESTANT CHURCHES CLASSIFIED ACCORDING TO RESIDENCE OF MINISTERS 18 -Churches with Resident Ministers Churches with Non -Resident Ministers !■ Church with no Minister (2 -Friends Churches omitted from this classificotion) SALARY SCALE OF THE 24 MINISTERS EOOO 1800 1600 1400 1200 1000 800 600 400 200 EACH VERTICAL LINE REPRESENTS THE SALARY OF ONE MINISTER The 2 lowest salaries are those of ministers with other occupations. Fiqures include ^250 per year as value of parsonage when provided. *III3 A\/CD A/^C AVLKAoL CHART V 51 SURVEY OF SALEM COUNTY, N. J. In spite of the prosperous condition of the county and the strength of the majority of the churches, Salem County pastors show the symptoms of unrest or dissatisfaction which in these days are evidenced elsewhere. Only seven churches out of thirty have been able to keep their pastors for a period of five years or more. Seven village, and eight open country churches have had their pastors for two years or less, and more than two-thirds of those NUMBER OF PASTORATES OVER TEN YEAR PERIOD 28 PROTESTANT CHURCHES Number of Pastorates 7 2 C ^ c . 2 4 6 2 1 . 2 1 H u EACH VERTICAL LINE REPRESENTS ONE CHUR CH CHART VI fifteen are in their first year with their present ministers. During the past decade four churches have had three pastors, two have had four, seven have had five, two have had six, three have had seven. Two churches were not able to report the actual number. In other words, almost one-half the churches in Salem County have had a new pastor every two years, or oftener. In this respect there is no apparent difference between the open country and the village churches. In the months that elapsed betw^een the completion of the field work and the publication of the survey, there were eight additional changes in the pastoral leadership of churches in the county. 52 THE MINISTER (See figure YI entitled "Number of Pastorates Over Ten-}ear Period.") The present minister or leading members of twenty-one of the churches reported the outlook for the future "fair," "good" or "bright." Six definitely acknowledged the future outlook as "poor" and three expressed no opinion. Among the problems of the churches, usually named by pastors, or in their absence by some leading member, the following received most frequent mention : lack of equipment ; scattered population ; lack of adequate financial support; migration of young people to the cities; lack of a resident minister. 53 Chapter VIII MEMBERSHIP THE total number of people on the roll of the churches in Salem County is 4,909. Of this number, 3,519 are active. (An active member, in this study, is one who attends church, occasionally at least, and contributes toward its support.) Of these, 2,289 sre members of seventeen village churches, an average of 135 per congregation ; and 1,230 are members of the thirteen open country churches, an average of 123 per congregation. There are 705 mem- CHURCH MEMBERS IN POPULATION Non-Members 71% Members 29% CHART VII bers not resident within the community in which their church is located. If the rural population of Penns Grove and Salem be excluded, the total resident membership is twenty-nine per cent of the total town and country population. There is a separate state- ment of church membership in these areas. (See figure VII en- titled "Church Members in Population.") An analysis of the church membership is given in the following table : Village Open Country Churches Churches Total Per Cent Total enrollment 3,073 1,836 4,909 100 Active 2,289 i>230 3-519 72 Non-resident 384 321 705 14.6 Other inactive 400 265 685 13.4 54 MEMBERSHIP (See figure VIII entitled ''Residence and Activity of Church Members.") An analysis of the resident church membership of twenty-seven churches of the thirty, shows the following age and sex groups : Men over 21 years comprise 31% of the resident meml)ership " under " " '" 9% " " " " Women over " " " 48% " " " " under " " " 12% " " " " Salem Rural Comimmity The process of determining community boundaries has already been explained. The population of the Salem rural community is 3,098. The number of people resident in farm-homes who are RESIDENCE & ACTIVITY OF CHURCH MEMBERS (30 PROTESTANT CHURCHES WITH ENROLLMENT OF 4909) Resident -C85.4% of Total Roll) 7Z% Active •* An inactive member is one who does noT attend church or contribute to its support. CHART Vni members of the Salem city churches is one hundred and eighty. Of these, sixty-one persons, from thirteen families belong to the Salem Roman Catholic Church. This result was not secured by house-to- house canvass, but rests upon the statements of the ministers in Salem as to their membership in this area. It is possible that some of these people belong to churches lying outside of the county, though this is not probable, seeing that the population has been quite stable. The Woodstown churches have a few members in this area, but it is not likely that the people here are connected with churches located in the adjacent communities, for if this were the case, the parish boundaries of these churches would indicate this fact. It appears, therefore, that there is a religiously neglected group of people, for whom the churches of Salem, together wath their nearest neighbors 55 SURVEY OF SALEM COUNTY, N. J. to the south, east and north are responsible. The extent of this responsibility, only a house to house canvass could determine ac- curately. The Penns Grove situation is more difficult to analyze. It has been in a state of flux ever since the signing of the Armistice. The Red Cross survey of Salem County shows that there were seven churches in the city whose membership was largely drawn from the outlying districts. With two exceptions, however, the pastors of Penns Grove churches claim very few rural members. The excep- tions are both large churches with a membership around the 400 mark. These report about ten per cent of their membership as coming from the outlying rural territory. Its rural community has a population of 744 and a church membership of approximately one hundred. In addition, some Pedricktown members live in this community. Making due allowance for both these groups it would seem that there are at least one hundred unchurched families in this section. Gain and Loss The size of the churches can be visualized better by means of the following table, which shows also for the various groups, the number of churches which are gaining: (Gain is for one-year period.) Churches with Net In Open ^ Total Active Membership of In Villages Growing Country Growing Churches Growing 25 or less I o 3 4 o 26- 50 2 o 3 I 5 I 51-100 4 I 3 I 7 ^ 101-150 4 3 2 I 6 4 151-over 6 4 2 I 8 5 Total 17 8 13 4 30 12 This result is only to be expected. In the case of a church, which has just been organized or which is now located in a new and developing neighborhood, it is unusual for growth to occur when the active membership drops to fifty. Indeed, in certain localities in Ohio where studies have been made, it has been shown that under these conditions such a church has but one chance in four of sur- viving. (See figure IX entitled "Relation of Size of Membership to Church Efficiency.") Viewed in percentages the above table can be translated as fol- lows: 56 MEMBERSHIP Per Cent Per Cent of Total Churches with Growing No. of Churches 25 or less members o 13-33 26-50 " 20% 16.66 Si-ioo " 297o 23.33 ior-150 " 62-2/3% 20 151 and over 66-1.2% 26.66 In short, forty per cent of the churches are gaining, sixty per cent are stationary or decHning. Only one church made a gain of RELATION OF SIZE OF CHURCH MEMBERSHIP TO GAIN OF 9 CHURCHES OF 21 CHURCHES with membership of less than 50 with membership of 50 or more 89% did^- — ^^1% gained 46% did ^ — ^^2%qained not qain /^ ^^^^ not qan did^--^^1% id ,^^'fc^2% 3 DURING PAST ONE YEAR PERIOD CHART IX more than ten per cent in its membership. The following table indicates the rate of growth and decline for the year. Churches Showing Village Open Country Total • Net loss 4 3 7 Even break 3 6 g Gain less than 5% 5 3 8 Gain from 5-10% 3 o 3 Gain of over 10% o i i No information 2 o 2 Total 17 13 30 (See figure X entitled "The Number of Churches Gaining and Losing in One- Year Period.") It should be admitted that conclusions reached on the basis of one-year figures only are open to some criticism. For instance, one of the strongest churches in the county showed a loss because of a rigid pruning of the roll coupled with an earnest effort to have non-residents unite with churches where they were living. Member- ship figures covering a ten-year period are available for twenty-three 57 SURVEY OF SALEM COUNTY, N. J. of the thirty churches. They show the total membership to have remained stationary for the first five years of the decade, but to have made a gain of seven and nine-tenths per cent for the latter five. (These twenty-three churches) Membership lo years ago 3,793 I,' 5 " " 3,794 today 4,089 It should be remembered that these are, for the most part, the stronger churches of the county. They have made a gain of seven THE NUMBER OF CHURCHE5 GAINING & LOSING IN ONE YEAR PERIOD 30 PROTESTANT CHURCHES 9 Churches Lost I I I II II I PHI II II II 1 9 Churches ^f^7iXy ^^^^^1^1^^^ 12 Churches Gained LESS THAN 5% 5-10% and nine-tenths in the last five years in the face of a slight decrease in the rural population. That smaller churches among these twenty- three have not shared in this growth is shown by the following table : Membership Growing Stationary Declining 50 or less 2 o 51 to 150 4 3 3 151 and over 7 o 4 The total gain for the past year, for the thirty churches, was 230. This was six per cent of the net active membership of all the churches. The total loss in members was 176. Thus there was a net gain of fifty-four members, or about one per cent of the former net active membership of the churches. The "protracted meeting" is a frequently used method of enlist- ing new members. Twelve village, and five open country churches held such meetings during the year prior to the survey. Seven only report converts, the total being ninety. These meetings lasted from one to six weeks. Forty- four other members were received by Salem County rural churches on confession of faith. The total 58 MEMBERSHIP evangelistic return' for the year, therefore, was one hundred and thirty-four or thirty-two less than the loss. We also note from the whole discussion of growth and decline, or gain and loss, that in the matter of growth, the open country and the hamlet church falls far behind the village church. This is evident from scanning the two tables on "growth and size" and that showing the rate of gain. There are surprising differences, especially in the open country churches having less than one hundred members, between the total membership and the resident membership. In nine of the eleven churches, the active resident membership is half, or less than half the total membership. In five of these nine cases, it is forty per cent or less. Members who have removed city-ward retain their membership, but such connection, at best, is but nominal and holds no hope of future gain. Thus, one-third of the churches in Salem County may be face to face with the question of survival within a few years. Eight out of seventeen village congregations showed some gain. Thus, forty-seven per cent of these congregations made a net gain. Four out of thirteen open country churches, or thirty and six- tenths per cent also made a net gain. Occupation of Members The employed membership of twenty-nine out of thirty churches shows a total of 1,554 engaged in some gainful occupation. Of this number, 897 are farmers, and 657 are business men. professional workers, mechanics, clerks, factory workers, and followers of all other occupations. More detailed classification of the 897 farmers is possible. Eighty-eight or nine and eight-tenths per cent are retired, seventy- four of the number belonging to the village churches, and fourteen to open country churches. Five hundred and twenty-six or fifty-eight and six-tenths per cent are operating farm-owners, and 349 attend the open country churches, while 177 attend the village churches. Again of the 897 farmers on the church rolls, 184, or twenty and five-tenths per cent, are operating tenant-farmers. Of these, one hundred and one attend the open country churches and eighty- three attend the village churches. The proportion of tenant-farmers in the county is thirty-five and five-tenths. The church does not reach the tenant as easily as the owner, even in Salem County. Ninety-nine, or eleven and one-tenth per cent of the farmers on the church rolls, consist of farm laborers. Of this class, village 59 SURVEY OF SALEM COUNTY, N. J. clntrches have fifty-two and open country churches forty-seven. Thus 710 heads of famihes in the churches are operating farmers, owners and tenants. There are 1,802 farms in the county, according to the Government census of 1920. According to the count of the county agricuhural agent, there are 1,505. Even ahowing for Jewish and Roman Cathohc farmers, these figures show a large field for intensive work on the part of the Protestant churches. In view of the membership figures of the two religious bodies just named, it is not unfair to assume that there are at least four hundred unchurched farm-homes within the county. Church Parishes The parish boundaries as shown on the map give the location of the main body of the members of every church. Usually, the parish is shown according to the cardinal points of the compass. In some cases, in order to attain greater accuracy, it has been found necessary to use more points than those which lie directly east, west, north or south. In these instances, direction, and the number of the roads leading to the church, were made the determining factors. A glance at the extent of the parishes of the church show that there is very little territory not included within the parish of some church. The section at the southern end of the county is fairly well reached by churches in Cumberland County. Most of this area belongs logically to communities centering in Cumberland County, or lies as neutral territory between them and several communities in Salem County. However this may be, a few communities are not adequately reached by the churches. (See map 3 for an illus- tration of this kind.) Sixteen of the churches have some foreign population within their parish boundaries. Only two of the churches are doing any- thing at all for these people ; and what work there is must be classed as negligible. For the most part the foreign-speaking people are scattered and hence hard to reach, except in the case of those who come every year to help in the trucking operations carried on in the northern part of the county. These have already been alluded to. A few of these people attend the Catholic churches at Salem, Woodstown or Swedesboro, but the majority seem to have no affiliation. The churches at Pedricktown could be used as a base for effective work among these people during the summer months, if an additional worker and some missionary aid were provided. The majority of these people do not attend any church on Sunday. The day is one of pleasure-seeking or idleness. Probably it has 60 auburn: mapped above, is an illustration of a settled community with A SMALL church PARISH — THE CHURCH RE.\CHING OUT ONLY TO ONE- THIRD OF THE COMMUNITY AREA. 61 SURVEY OF SALEM COUNTY, N. J. never occurred to them that they might attend the churches of their employers. At the same time, however, it is doubtful whether these churches have made the foreigners feel at home. A warm-hearted personal invitation might go a long way toward bringing them under the light and influence of the Gospel. The churches of Salem County should realize, in regard to the permanent foreign population, that the first families are often the forerunners of others, and that the best time to begin Christian Americanization is when the first of the new Americans come. 62 Chapter IX ORGANIZATION AND PROGRAM SUNDAY SCHOOLS E VERY one of the thirty churches dealt with in this survey- has a Sunday school. The total enrollment, average enroll- ment and attendance is shown in the following table : Total Enrollment Average Enrollment Average Attendance 2,098 1,191 92 76 56 Location School of Churches Reporting In Village 16 In Open Country.. 13 29 3,289 113 67 The total enrollment of these Sunday schools, 3.298, is sixty- seven per cent of the total church enrollment. In the village churches the proportion is slightly higher, and in the open country churches, the proportion is somewhat lower than the percentage for the entire county. The attendance in all the schools, on a typical Sunday, shows that in the village fifty-eight per cent of the total enrollment is present, wdiile in the open country the attendance is sixty-one per cent of the enrollment. Twelve village schools report a total of 400 members from farm-homes. Among other things, this fact shows how largely the village and open country are inter-related. The number of rooms used by the Sunday schools corresponds very closely with the number of rooms reported as available in the church plants. In other words, the Sunday school is usually given the run of the church ]}uilding for its purposes. It should be remembered that as already stated Salem County has a good record for missionary giving, but curiously enough the Sunday schools do not give the attention to this subject that the final results would lead one to exi)ect. Seven village schools have mission study, six monthly, the other occasionally. Five open country schools also report mission study, one quarterly, two monthly, the others at undetermined intervals. Sixty per cent of the Sunday schools do nothing along this line. Eleven village schools and ten open country schools, however, take regular missionary offerings. Four- teen schools observe Decision Day; eleven in villages, three in the 63 SURVEY OF SALEM COUNTY, N. J. open country. One reports the results as satisfactory and four others report from one to four decisions. Only two schools, both in villages, hold classes to prepare scholars for church membership. Six village schools and five open country schools sent a total of 112 of their scholars into the church membership last year. Apparently there is room for a more intensive cultivation of the evangelistic opportunity offered in the Sunday school. Eleven schools have a total of thirty of their members attend- ing college or some other educational institution above high school grade. Of these thirty, twenty-two are from the villages and eight from the open country. Three persons have gone out from the Sunday schools of Salem County into professional Christian service within the last ten years. All of these were from village Sunday schools. This record is below the average. The social life of the Sunday school is limited, in most cases, to the annual' picnic which is held by twenty-eight schools. Ten schools report other social affairs, for the school as a whole, such as suppers, parties and other gatherings, as well as social affairs for individual classes within the school organization. One Sunday school has an athletic organization. The chief remaining facts in regard to Sunday school organiza- tion in Salem County are presented in the following table : Number in Number in Schools with Village Open Country- Leadership training 3 i Organized classes 5 i Cradle roll 8 9 Home department 9 6 Teachers' training classes 4 i Sunday school papers regularly distributed 12 9 Libraries 9 2 Sunday schools open all year 17 12 Other Organi::.ations zvifhin the Churches The total number of other organizations within the churches for the entire county is as follows: For Number of Organizations Men 2 Women ^y Boys I Girls I Mixed organizations 27 Total 68 Of these organizations, those for women and young people are evenly distributed between village and open country churches. The 64 ORGANIZATION AND PROGRAM men's organizations are a club of fifty members and an ushers' union of forty-five. A Boy Scout troop and a group of "Standard Bearers" are the boys' and girls' organizations. Those for women are as follows: seventeen Ladies' Aids; seventeen Missionary or- ganizations ; two Mite Societies ; one Women's League. There are sixteen Young People's Societies, such as Epworth League, Y.P.S.C.E., etc.; and six miscellaneous. PROGRAM The churches of Salem County do not suffer from lack of regular church services. All of them have at least one service every Sunday and the majority have two. This is particularly true in the villages, while in the open country one service is the prevailing custom. Naturally, the village churches have more opportunity to hold union services than those in the open country. Eleven of the eighteen village churches unite with more frecjuency in such meetings. In four cases, this is particularly true during the summer months. Only one of the thirteen open country churches is able to join in a union service. In all, sixteen churches of the thirty in the country say, definitely, that they do not join in any union meetings. Coming to the consideration of the more general church pro- gram, we find a variety of activities. Eight churches attempt some form of special missionary service ; seventeen take part in local charitable work when needed ; six lend their aid to civic enterprises in their communities ; one is definitely furthering some agricultural work ; seven definitely supply some form of social or recreational afi^airs other than those of specific organizations within the church ; four carry on some educational work outside of the Sunday school ; four strive to do si)ccial work among young people, in addition to that undertaken by their regidar organizations. Sixteen churches celebrate festivals, holidays, anniversaries, etc. Five churches definitely cooperate, for certain purposes, with other than denominational bodies ; three, as congregations, cooperate with non-religious bodies in their communities or county. In eight churches, definite attempts are made to apply Gospel teachings to such activities as are mentioned above. All but seven can say that they undertake something along these lines. Four of the seven are in the open country, three are in villages. SEPARATE SUNDAY SCHOOLS There are six separate Sunday schools active in Salem County. All are located in the open country. One abandoned Sunday school 65 SURVEY OF SALEM COUNTY, N. J. BAPTIST CHURCH, PEDRICKTOWN — "MOVING THE HORSE-SHED's DAy" — PASTOR AND LAYMEN PREPARE THE LAWN FOR A PLAYGROUND is located at Compromise — between Salem and Woodstown. Serv- ices were held here in a school house. The name and location of these six active Sunday schools are as follows : I — Presbyterian — Whig Lane in Daretown community. I — Methodist Episcopal — Greenville in Elmer community. 2 — Baptist — Harmersville. i — Cross Roads. 2 — Union. 2 — Union Protestant, i — Penton in Salem community. 2 — Union Grove in Woodstown community. Only one of these Sunday schools — that at Penton — is held in a church building, the rest being conducted in public school buildings. The total membership of these six schools is 245, and their average attendance is 165, or sixty-seven per cent of the entire roll. All pupils come from farm homes. None of these organizations 66 ORGANIZATION AND PROGRAM makes any effort to increase the attendance by contests, rewards, etc. Four Sunday schools hold services throughout the year, and have annual picnics. Two schools hold festivals. No scholars are reported as having joined any church during the past year. The two Baptist Sunday schools are assisted by the pastor from Canton Baptist Church. The Penton school reports that there are about sixteen families, nearly all tenant-farmers, residing in the locality. The Methodist Episcopal school at Greenville, is attended by people of all denommations, isolated by distance from any other church. For open country people, these schools have a definite place in the church life of communities. The fact that three of them are visited by ministers shows that the motive behind their upkeep is to bring children far removed from any Sunday school attached to a church, under definite religious influence. PROTESTANT PREACHING POINTS Three denominaticws in Salem County have preaching points not organized as churches. The Lutheran pastor from Friesburg preaches at Elmer, while the Baptist pastor at Daretown serves two other points within this community, both of which have Sunday schools, each enrolling forty-seven and having an average attendance of twenty-four. Both are Union schools holding services eight and a half months of the year. Four scholars from each school joined the church last year. Church services are held once a month to accommodate members of the churches who live some distance from their respective churches. 67 Chapter X "THE PAR STANDARD" ONE of the developments growing out of the Interchurch World Movement was the adoption of the so-called "Par Standard for Country Churches." This standard was worked out, and approved by the Town and Country Committee of the Home Missions Council and was submitted to a large group of survey workers of the Interchurch World Movement representing every state in the Union. These persons had all done field survey work and were familiar with the various conditions existing in America. It should also be stated that in addition to survey experience these men had been country ministers, and knew intimately the problems of the rural parish. There was unanimous agreement among them that this "Par Standard" should be placed before the Country Churches of America, not as ideal beyond accomplishment, but as a goal, which a church might, in all reasonableness, expect to attain. Since that time, one denomination and the hom.e mission department of a strong division of another have adopted the "Par Standard," with slight adaptations, for their own purposes. It should be stated that no attempt has been made to give com- parative value to the points in this standard. So far as the table shows, a resident pastor on full time counts as much as horse sheds or parking space. Obviously this is a weakness in the standard, but it was drawn up, not for the purposes of comparative evaluation, but for the purposes of suggesting minimum achievements for an average strong country congregation. The points covered in this "Par Standard" for country churches are as follows : Up-to-date Parsonage Adequate Church Auditorium Space Social and Recreational Equipment Well Equipped Kitchen Organ or Piano Sunday school rooms Stereopticon or Moving Picture Machine. Sanitary toilets Horse sheds or pariking space Property in good repair and condition. 68 Adequate Physical Equipment Pastor Finance ]\Ieetings Parish Religious Education Program of Work "THE PAR STANDARD" Resident Pastor Full Time Pastor Service Every Sunday JNlinimum Salary of $r,200. Annual Church Pmdget adopted annually Every Member Canvass Benevolences Equal to 25% Current Expenses. 1 Cooperation with other churches in community I Systematic Evangelism. Church Serves all Racial and Occupational Groups. Sunday school held entire year Sunday school enrollment equal to Church Membership Attempt to Bring Pupils to Church Special Instruction for Church .Membership Teacher Training for Normal Class Provision for Leadership Training. Organized Activities for Age and Sex Groups Cooperation with Boards and Denominational Agencies Program Adopted Annually, 257© of Membership Partici- pating Church Reaching Entire Community. An analysis has been made of ten churches having the highest number of points answered affirmatively. It happens that nine out of these ten are village churches, and that a village church is tied with two open country churches for the tenth place. The ten village churches which have achieved the best standing arc listed as follows : One reports 21 points aflirmatively Two report 18 Three report 17 " One reports 16 " " Three report 15 " " 69 Chapter XI NEGRO CHURCH LIFE THE colored population is scattered throughout the country. There are, however, three settlements large enough to be called colored communities : Fenwick, south of Woodstown on the railroad from Woodstown to Salem, South Woodstown, which is very close to the Woodstown community, and Marshall- town, a settlement northeast of Salem consisting of a group of farms. Yorktown, while not yet an exclusively colored settlement, is rapidly becoming one. These communities are small and exclu- sively rural, though in the case of South Woodstown and Fenwick, some of the wage earners in the population go to Woodstown or Salem for employment in the industries. Their combined popula- tion is 529, of whom one hundred and ten are in the hamlet of South Woodstown and the rest are living in the open country. The negro population is not as stable as the white. It has to be constantly renewed from the South, and in the opinion of the best informed people of the county, has succeeded in holding its own during the last ten years only because of new influx from the South. Two of the communities report that forty per cent of their popula- tion has been resident for fifteen years or more. In the other community there was no well informed person to furnish the information. Marshalltown has a school of its own, and the school at South Woodstown is attended by the grade pupils of both that community and of Fenwick, which is about two miles to the south. The chil- dren walk this distance to the negro school, which is quite the equal in construction and equipment of the main building at Woodstown. Recreational facilities are altogether lacking, save for the occa- sional functions which are held at the school. This is due chiefly to the fact that the people of these communities are attracted to the nearby centers of Woodstown or Salem, and they have therefore had no incentive to build up any organizations of their own. There are three lodges in the communities. Two of these are for men and one is for women. At the time this survey was being made, the industrial situation 70 NEGRO CHURCH LIFE of Salem was beginning its readjustment. In 1920, the powder industries threw off their excess labor, and the colored workmen who had left their farms were going back to them. This resulted in not a little discontent. The high wages were gone, and in com- parison farm labor seemed neither profitable nor attractive. At present negroes are employed very largely as farm laborers on the larger farms of the county. At the county seat, the moving-picture theaters have separate galleries for the colored people. Here and there, among the farmers, there is a feeling that, owing to the change in the industrial situa- SCHOOL FOR COLORED CHLLDREN, SOUTH WOODSTOWN tion, negro farm labor is almost helpless from the point of view of bargaining power. Leaders in Salem County expressed concern over certain features in the racial situation which might quite prop- erly become the burden of an inter-racial committee. Such a com- mittee, formed at the present time along the lines of those that operate successfully in the South, would practically insure continued and increasing harmony and cooperation between the races. The colored 'churches of Salem County number eleven, located as follows : 2 at Fenwick 2 at Marshalltown 2 at Woodstown (i at North and r at South Woodstown) 1 at Quinton (Berry Chapel) 2 at Salem (O. C. — i at Claysvillc, i at Moores Corner) I at Penn's Neck (John Wesley Chapel) I in neutral territory near Yorktown. 71 SURVEY OF SALEM COUNTY, N. J. \ ~- D Cnu«e» „.. .«) ( s H^_/-, T.ir... 11 I.... "C. (, -) -1 \ ^ O '"""'- I ='•" -.1) ■ NEGRO COMMUNITY AND PARISH MAP, SALEM COUNTY, N. J., I92O. Of these eleven churches all except one are located in the open country. Denominationally they are divided as follows: African Union Methodist Protestant 3 African Methodist Episcopal 2 American Union Methodist Episcopal 2 Methodist Episcopal 3 Baptist I The older colored churches were organized in 1805, the others between 1870 and 1919. All the buildings are of wood, and eight of them are in good condition. The other two could be classed as fair. One was burned down shortly after this survey was taken. The value of the buildings is $21,750. Four churches have parsonages, with a total value of $2,400. These churches report the total value of their buildings as $3,895. Nine of the churches are one-room structures ; the other has two rooms. Their total seating capacity 72 NEGRO CHURCH LIFE is 1,605. Lighting is evenly divided between electricity and oil. None of the churches has stereopticons nor possesses any other equipment for social purposes. The total church strength is represented by 615 members of whom only 378 or sixty-one per cent are. resident and active. While no church shows a considerable gain, yet, as a whole, there is progress. Sixty new members were added last year, fifty-seven by confession of faith. The total loss was fifteen, leaving a net gain for the year of forty-five. Eighty-seven members are non-resident ; two hundred and thirty-five families are represented in this number of active members of whom seventy-five live in the villages and one hundred and sixteen in the open country. Complete financial records exist for only nine of the churches. Three use single weekly envelopes, two have a budget for local needs, and two budget their entire expenditures. Four churches hold an annual every member canvass ; four churches have small debts incurred for improvements to building, totalling $1,572. The total amount of money raised on the field, last year, by the nine churches that have records was $10,726.36; the expenditures were $10,457.36; of this amount $6,905 were spent for salaries, $1,937 ^or benevolences and missions and $2,615.36 for all other expenses. A typical dollar is disbursed as follows : For salary $ .56 " benevolence 18 " contingent expense 26 $1.00 The average amount spent per active member is as follows : For salary $iS-62 " benevolence 5-12 " all other purposes 6.92 $27.66 Of the total receipts, twenty-eight per cent was raised by sub- scription, sixty-seven per cent by collections and five per cent by miscellaneous methods. The average amount received per active member is raised in the following manner : By subscription $ °-03 " collection i8-93 " other means 142 $28.38 73 SURVEY OF SALEM COUNTY, N. J. It will be seen, therefore, that the active members of the colored congregations are liberal and enthusiastic in their support of their church organizations. The average amount of money contributed per member is higher for the negro than for the white churches. In the conventional ministries of religion, the negro churches serve their constituency well. Nine of the churches have at least one service a month. Seven held protracted meetings last year, and report a total of thirty-five converts. Six churches unite for midweek services and eight report union services on other occasions. The ten Sunday schools have a total membership of four hun- dred and fifty, of whom all are reported to come from farm-homes. The average attendance is 253. Eight of the schools are open throughout the year, eight make efforts to increase their attendance by the usual methods of rewards, parties and cards. Ten have an annual Sunday school picnic* No colored school reports any class to prepare scholars for church membership, but thirteen did join the church from three of the schools last year. Two churches report five scholars attending educational institutions beyond the high school grade. From these schools two have gone into some form of Christian work within the last ten years. There is real life in the program of some of these churches. There are twelve women's societies with a membership of 244. One boys' society and one for girls exists, and there are seven young people's organizations with a membership of one hundred and twenty. As is often the case among negroes, the stronger churches bulk largely in the life of the people. Five do charitable and benevo- lent work, two report civic, and one industrial activities. Two churches have social and recreational activities, two educational and cultural programs, five celebrate holidays. There are ten negro ministers in the county, of whom four devote their full time to one charge each, the remaining six having other charges. One of the ministers has another occupation besides preaching; the others give their full time to religious work. Their salaries grade as follows : Maximum salary $i,7S0 Minimum " 180 Average " 739-44 * A temporary Sunday school is held at Quinton of the colored IMethodist Episcopal denomination. The enrollment is twenty-five and the average at- tendance is twenty. This is really a mission school, run hy members of Berry Chapel, and supported by money raised from entertainments. The school is held throughout the year, and has an annual picnic and class socials from time to time. 74 Chapter XII NON-PROTESTANT CHURCHES THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH AT the time when the original survey was taken, the Roman CathoHc church at Ehner was inactive. Since than it has been successfully revived. Apart from the county-seat church at Salem city, the only other Catholic organization is St. Joseph's at Woodstown. This is a strong parish. The building is modern and free of debt. It allows its priest a good rectory and a Ford car. The property exceeds $25,000 in value. The equipment of the church is designed to minister to the farmer as well as the townsman. Out of a membership of 350, which number includes children, two-thirds of the members are from the homes of farmers. These members live as far as the northern border of the county and in other directions extend several miles each way from Woodstown. The attendance at the Sunday service is very high compared with the membership. As a village church, however, the priest faces the problem of having "too much of a Sunday job." He feels that it is difficult to reach his people through the week-days as they are not accustomed to come to Woodstown for week-day activities. The priest believes in advertising, and uses the mails largely. Situated as it is in a prosperous farming com- munity, St. Joseph's has no financial worries. Progress has been slow, though the membership has been gaining during the past ten years. This is largely due to the priest's liking for the work. He regards a country parish as being rich in oppor- tunity and presenting one of the best fields in which to work. JEWISH SYNAGOGUES There are five Jewish synagogues in Salem County, four located in the vicinity of Norma and one in the open country, one and one- half miles southeast of Monroeville.. All except one are without regular rabbis. The total value of the five buildings is $9,300. All buildings are of wood. 75 SURVEY OF SALEM COUNTY, N. J. NORMA JEWISH SYNAGOGUES The total receipts for last year were $1,256. The expenditures, which amounted to $1,250, were divided as follows: For salaries $ 300.00 benevolences 600.00 " interest 50.00 " repairs , 17500 other expenditures 125.00 $1,250.00 Of the total receipts $656 were raised by subscription, $450 by collection, and $150 by other means. Membership The total enrollment of the five organizations is one hundred and twenty-eight. Only six of these are non-resident. Eighteen members are non-active. Thus the net active membership is 104. 76 NON-PROTESTANT CHURCHES Services Four synagogues hold four services per month ; one holds eight. Union services are held on holidays. In this area there are about thirty Poles who are farmers and laborers. Among the Jewish organizations there is a Free Loan Association which takes collec- tions for the poor. There is also a Jewish Children's Club, which, however, was not very active at the time this survey was made. Money is sent to aid the Zionist movement and for support of workers in Jerusalem. The poor in the "Old Countries" are aided as is the Poor Man's Society in Philadelphia. The moving away of the young people is one of the chief prob- lems confronting the Jewish organizations. Another, and perhaps more serious problem is that of securing rabbis, since the field is small and the future somewhat uncertain. 77 Ill CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS THE survey of Salem County as presented in this pamphlet is open to its own interpretation on the part of all those who have to do with the county or who read these results. It is for the local people through their churches and social agencies, in cooperation with their state officers, to work out any policies and programs which they feel will meet the need. Those who had to do with the survey do not have the task of formulating the program. They simply here record their own conclusions and recommendations on the basis of the facts discovered. ASSETS To accept the traditional standards of church work and com- munity life, and, to proceed on such a basis to compare Salem County with other areas in rural America, leads to the conclusion that the situation within Salem is somewhat above the average. Roads are extensive and good. The soil is for the most part fertile and the county is agriculturally prosperous. Farm-tenantry is decreasing. There are leaders in most phases of community life. While this is more noticeable in some communities than in others, it is general throughout the county. Although this leadership needs to be enlarged and strengthened, through its influence the beginnings of a social spirit have become manifest. This may be seen in the enlarged program of the school, in the activity of the Farm Bureau and the Farmers' Exchange, in the work of the Child Welfare Week recently held and in similar activities. Back of it all is an historic background of nearly two hundred years of life and achievement — a background which cannot help but have a stabilizing influence. The churches of the county have substantial buildings, at least in many of the larger and more prosperous com- munities. Salem County believes in resident ministers for its churches. The average size of its congregations is large, half of them consisting of one hundred or more active members. The financial investment of the people of the count}- in religious activities is about the average for counties in the northeast and Middle Atlantic states, though it is not yet adequate for the work that needs 81 SURVEY OF SALEM COUNTY, N. J. to be done. The county believes in religious education, practically every church, white or colored, having its Sunday school. The women of the churches are organized and active. Salem is a county that has the ability to achieve that which it sets out to do. These assets are the foundation upon which can be built an imposing structure. Unlike many a rural county, the foundation in Salem has been "well and truly'' laid. NEGLECTED AREAS AND GROUPS When all this has been said, it must also be admitted that there are a number of problems awaiting action by the churches of the county. Among them is a ministry to neglected areas and groups. Salem Rural Community A comparison of the population figures for the Salem rural com- munity with those of church membership indicates a serious failure on the part of the church to reach these people. The figures show (page 55) that of 3,098 people living in the rural area contiguous to Salem there are only one hundred and eighty church members. Roughly speaking this means that at least 700 adults in this small but fertile area are untouched either by the churches of the city of Salem or by the country churches of Ouinton, Hancock's Bridge and the other nearby communities. An immediate house-to-house survey should be undertaken, cooperatively, by the churches of Salem and those that lie to the east of this untouched area, to determine how best to reach these people. Salem churches, according to parish boundaries, cover the whole area but they minister simply to their own members and to those who seek them out. Here, within easy reach of the county seat, is a neglected source of spiritual strength. Nearly three thousand people, today outside the organized churches, constitute the challenging opportunity of the congregations near to them. It is pertinent to remark that if any efforts are made toward reaching this group of people it will call for the assistance and sympathy of the members of the Salem churches, especially since such an effort would make new demands on the time of the religious leaders of the county seat. Similarly, there is a smaller unreached area contiguous to Penns Grove and Carney's Point. Farm Laborers The church rolls contain a very small number of farm laborers. These, of course, are largely transient and partly foreign. Good results might be obtained by inviting farm laborers to church services 82 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS and making them feel that Salem County has other things to give besides wages, and other things to receive besides labor. Children from the Less-favored Farms Some farmers whose holdings, judged from an agricultural standpoint, are in the poorer sections of the county, and who do not own automobiles, are often remote from a church and sometimes from a Sunday school. A number of neighborhood Sunday schools have been abandoned in the last decade due to the decreasing popula- tion and the removal of leaders. The churches should not allow these people to be forgotten. The more prosperous of their neighbors might arrange to take the children to Sunday school, or members of the church owning automobiles could, with great advantage to these people, take turns in operating "free church jitneys." Elsewhere the school 'bus has been effectively used to bring children to Sunday school. Every summer, Elsinboro Township is populated by those who come from the cities to spend the summer along the waters of Dela- ware Bay. Many of them come from the city of Salem, but an increasing number are from places outside of the county. There have been spasmodic attempts to hold Sunday-school services during the season, but these have failed through lack of interested local leadership. With the exception of some cottage prayer meetings, held by the pastor of one of the Salem churches, practically no reli- gious work has been done during the summer. It is claimed by some that transportation to and from Salem is so inadequate as greatly to discourage those who otherwise would be inclined to attend services there. Whether this is true or not, the fact remains that every summer quite a number of people are gathered in a compara- tively small township without any immediately available nearby religious service during the two or three months they reside in this locality. There are those who are interested in oft'ering the ministry of religion to the prisoners in the jail and road camp, but it is a service which those most interested in are the first to describe as inadequate. Here is an opportunity for regular cooperative ministry which should not be neglected. MISSIONARY INTEREST AND LIFE SERVICE The extent and depth of the missionary interest of the Salem County churches and Sunday schools is encouraging. The tables on page 47 show that the open country churches give nearly 83 SURVEY OF SALEM COUNTY, N. J. one-third of their income to benevolences. The village churches do nearly as well. Ideally, the least a prosperous church should do is to give as much to extend the work of the Kingdom of God as to sustain its own life. It is, however, only when churches are well organized and stable that they begin to contribute to the extension of the work of the Kingdom of God more than twenty-five per cent. Salem County reflects a good, average condition, in that it has reached this level. But it is surprising to discover how little it has done to sustain and perpetuate this missionary interest. Educationally and in many other ways, Salem County is not content with merely average achievement. If efi^orts were made to stimulate and increase giving, it is safe to say that the results would be most significant. Planted in such sympathetic soil, an annual, cooperative country- wide campaign of mission study classes in the churches, followed by missionary educational institutes addressed by speakers of note, would bring forth much fruit. The united power of the churches moving along these or similar lines would supplement the willingness of the people to give. Under such stimulation and cultivation, young people might be led to invest their lives definitely in Christian service on both home and foreign fields. It is disappointing to note that with willingness to give in money, there has been no corresponding willingness to invest life. During the last ten years, only three persons have gone out from the town and country Sunday schools of Salem County into definite Christian service. RELIGIOUS EDUCATION AND PREPARATION FOR CHURCH MEMBERSHIP Salem County believes in Sunday schools but surprisingly few have introduced the modern methods of religious education which are increasingly in vogue elsewhere. Ten schools are graded. Four- fifths of the schools have no organized classes, and five-sixths have no teacher training classes. During the past year, only eleven schools sent any of their scholars into church membership. This perhaps is the most serious fact from the point of view of the future. More careful attention should be given to the preparation of young people- for church membership. With the strong traditions of Salem County, it is especially unfortunate that this matter seems to be so largely neglected by the churches. One way of meeting the situation would be to form classes in preparation for church mem- bership in the Sunday schools, or to hold them for a period of weeks as an extra group meeting. In such classes the meaning of the 84. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS Gospel could be presented in such a way as to check the leak from the Sunday schools and carry over the 'teen-age scholars into full church membership and Christian service. The results attained by the churches that make careful preparation for church membership as compared v^ith those that do not, entirely justify this conclusion. EQUIPMENT No church today can fulfill its complete mission with a one-room building. In the pioneer days this was sufficient. A church today is a community center just as it was in the eighteenth century, but with far greater responsibilities because of the increased knowledge which the world has gained, and the increased complexity of modern life. Sand-tables, maps, stereopticons. pictures, class-rooms — all these and more enter into the equipment of the modern church. Compared with the prosperity of the county, Salem's churches are strangely lacking in this modern equipment. Except for two stereopticons, no special equipment at all is reported. Many of the buildings are, however, adaptable for a more modern program, having at their disposal more than one room. In planning constructive programs for the future, the churches of Salem County should take full advantage of the buildings which they have, and should add to their equipment, particularly to that type which will enable them the more successfully to impress young people in other ways than through the spoken word. The teaching of the Bible can be brought home today through the eye and the hand, as well as through the ear. RECREATION The question of equipment is closely related to that of recreation. Thus far in Salem County, the recreational program has been almost entirely a hit-or-miss affair. Less than one-third of Salem's com- munities have any organized recreational facilities other than those of a commercial nature. The success of the modest attempts toward an adequate recreational program which has attended efiforts made in a few places shows that there is a great opportunity and obligation lying upon the churches and schools in connection with this phase of life. Leisure-time activities are a great influence in determining character. The boy or girl who plays clean, and learns team work is ready tO' learn to live clean and to cooperate with others. Both church and school can accomplish much by a properly directed recreational program. In some communities, this is clearly the task of the church. In others, the church and school could cooperate. 85 SURVEY OF SALEM COUNTY, N. J. Interchurch socials, a county church athletic league promoting base- ball and basketball, educational films and moving-picture machines are enterprises typical of what might be done in a situation such as Salem's. Given a county Y.M.C.A. organization, its secretary could easily become the boys' work staff officer of all the churches in the county, training local church and school leaders in a program that would net large results. boys' and girls' work . A marked contrast exists between the efforts which the schools of Salem County are making to meet the needs of adolescent boys and the program of the churches for the same purpose. Scout troops are usually under the auspices of the school. If we except the Junior Societies of the Christian Endeavor, there is only one organ- ization for boys and one for girls in the county connected with the churches. The later 'teen-age boys and girls have, of course, their young people's societies, but the early adolescent period is almost entirely neglected. There should be strong and aggressive work in this connection. Churches elsewhere, in wdiich such work has been tried for a sufficient length of time to render it no longer an experiment, know that they bring their boys and girls to Christian manhood and womanhood far more easily and far more effectively, in terms of both faith and service, than they did before instituting such work. The attitude of the public schools of the county insures their cooperation with any church efforts, which might be projected. Church and school should be co-workers to the one end of building and educating Christian citizenship. INDIFFERENCE Indifference to the Church of Christ exists everywhere. Such indift'erence is always a challenge to Christians. It is not surprising, therefore, to find certain of the church leaders in Salem County declaring that the people are indifferent to the ministry of religion. The .total rural population of the county is 17,562. The total active church membership is 4,351. This includes the churches of all races and religions. The net active membership of the evangelical churches is 3,897. In other words, only twenty-four and seven- tenths per cent, of the population are members of evangelical churches. Of course, a certain proportion of the non-church mem- bers are children, but making due allowance for these, the Church has not received the loyalty of more than half of the adults within the county. A situation like this should lead to inquiry on the part of 86 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS the Church. It may be indifference, but how is it to be startled into interest ? It may mean that the program which satisfies church mem- bers has failed to grip those outside the organized congregations. Indifference there surely is. In the very nature of the case its exis- tence must be a challenge to those who hold in high regard not only the Church but also the well-being of their fellow-men. SELF-SATISFACTION A state of mind parallel to indifference is self-satisfaction, and, to a certain degree, Salem County is guilty of this. To be sure it has a right to be proud of its history and prosperity. The danger is that these things may cause the people and their leaders to be contented with things as they are. The way in which this feeling works out is apparent in a number of ways. For instance, Salem County did not employ a County Farm Bureau Agent until after all its neighbors had one. Even now it has neither a home demon- stration agent nor a rural nurse. The county is content to send many of its high school pupils to cities in other counties for their courses. Teachers reported that the recognition on the part of pupils of the prosperity of the county was one of the most difficult influences they are called upon to combat, since it tends toward a lack of incentive for \.'ork. CITY ISOLATION This is the reverse side of the oft-discussed problem of rural isolation. In regard to Salem, there is an unavoidable impression that the cities live too much to and for themselves. Except in the matter of schools, the cities share very few of their advantages with the farmers. Salem Y.M.C.A. has only twenty members from the neighboring rural community, and does no extension work anywhere in the county. The two public health nurses confine their attention to the city. The church situation along this line has already been discussed. The hospital receives patients from the countryside but does no out-patient work. A beginning in a better policy is the County Child Welfare Week held shortly after the last survey worker had left the county. Such undertakings, if made part of a definite policy and extended, would contribute largely to the physical and social well-being of the county. Possibly such extension work would call for financial support which does not now seem to be available. A better understanding between town and country would probably change this. The trend throughout America is largely in the direction of a recognition of the fact that any given community 87 SURVEY OF SALEM COUNTY, N. J. is made up of the town and its contiguous rural territory. The consciousness of inter-relation and mutual dependence, when strengthened and deepened, contributes greatly to progress along all lines of mutual interest. DECLINING CHURCH MEMBERSHIP The membership tables on page 57 show that the total member- ship of the churches within the county has increased. At the same time, practically all of this increase is absorbed by a dozen of the strongest churches. If the present rate of decrease in active mem- bership continues, one-third of the churches in Salem County will within the next few years have to face the question of their continu- ance or abandonment. The table on page 58 tells the story which the reader may interpret for himself. The figures given on the actual church schedules, which of course could not be printed in detail, strengthen the impression. The matter is one that calls for denominational oversight, and for the appraisal of respective situa- tions. Sixteen of Salem County's churches have less than one hun- dred active members ; only three of them show any gains, and these have been slight. Nine — practically one-third of the churches in the county — have less than fifty active members. There are but two ways of meeting this situation. One is to subsidize these churches with home mission aid. This would not, however, check the move- ment of population away from these neighborhoods. It would result simply in perpetuating weak organizations, which, in the nature of the case, could not sustain, competitively, an effective ministry. The other is through cooperation among the churches of the county, in the attempt to work out some plan that would enable the strong congregations to help the weak. If these weak churches were at last abandoned, such a plan would prepare, finally, for the adequate churching of these neighborhoods on the part of neighboring and strong congregations who could divide the territory by mutual agreement. In this way, the complete abandonment by the church of whole neighborhoods, such as has occurred within some parts of the colonial area can be avoided. OVERCHURCHING In general, Salem County is neither underchurched nor over- churched. This statement must be qualified, however, by drawing attention to the fact that there are two churches in each of four small communities, not one of which is more than able to support one strong organization. The situation in these communities is 88 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS pathetic. Church Hfe becomes little more than a mere effort to hold on to present membership and the hope of gaining one or two a year from — goodness knows where! In all but one of these com- munities, the population is decreasing, and the church people are discouraged over the situation. The plan of reciprocal exchange between denominations, evolved in Maine and tried out so success- fully in recent years by Baptist, Methodist and Congregational churches in Vermont, could well be attempted in these cases. In three of these instances of overchurching, the denominations con- cerned are the Alethodist and Baptist. The exception is a com- munity in which the Friends and the Methodists are operating. FREQUENCY OF MINISTERIAL CHANGE The churches of Salem County believe in a resident pastor. This fact has been noted before and it is the partial explanation of the strength of some of the churches. Of late years, however, pastoral changes have been so rapid as to destroy much of the good effect a settled pastorate has upon a congregation. One-half of the churches of the county have been changing ministers every two years, or less. (See page 52.) In the six months following the making of this survey, and prior to the publication of this pamphlet, there were seven additional changes. The frequency of these changes has, probably, several determining causes. The condition which has arisen may be the fault either of the ministers or the people. The responsibilities are not easy to determine and vary with the dift'erent fields. One fundamental cause is undoubtedly the economic. The average salary of the ministers of Salem County is only $1,113. The modal average runs between $1,250 and $1,500. This includes the value of parsonage-privileges where such exist. Even consider- ing the reduction in living costs, these figures are below government estimates of the minimum wage required to sustain an average family. Economic stringency, especially when borne in the midst of prosperity such as exists in Salem County, cannot but tend to undermine the morale of the ministry. The least that the church can do is to pay a living wage. The entire condition, economic as well as spiritual, calls for much heart-searching among church leaders and officers. They are responsible for the life of their churches, for they stay on, while ministers come and go. INVESTMENT IN RELIGION As already stated, when compared with those of other counties, the white Protestant churches of Salem County make a fair showing 89 SURVEY OF SALEM COUNTY, N. J. in per capita giving. When the weahh of the county is considered, however, the showing is not so good. The proof Hes within the county itself. The white people are, admittedly, in a stronger eco- nomic position than the negroes. Yet if the members of the white evangelical churches gave as much per capita as do their negro brethren, the income of their churches would be $35,000 higher than it is at present. This sum would put into effect all the suggestions growing out of this survey, would raise ministerial salaries in such a way as to eliminate much of the restlessness previously noted, provide much needed educational and social equipment and furnish greatly increased missionary offerings. COUNTY-WIDE RELIGIOUS COOPERATION The only county-wide agency for religious cooperation is the Sabbath School Association. There seems to be room for an organ- ization which would put the ministers of the entire county into closer touch with each other. Certain tasks, falling between the churches, are uncared for through lack of mutual understanding and coopera- tive planning. A county ministerial association or conference, a cotmty council of churches, or some such agency could very readily undertake a closer coordination of the religious forces of the county and the execution of any religious program upon which the churches of the county decided. In the judgment of the surveyors there is a definite need for such an organization. CONCLUSION Salem County is not content with a merely average achievement in the realms of education, agriculture or business. Its tradition is one of slow, steady progress. There is no reason why a county so prosperous, and promising, as Salem should be content with the average attainment on the part of the forces of religion. The time has come for a cooperative, all-along-the-line advance in the intensive cultivation of the opportunities that the churches have. Within this prosperous county, with its fine traditions and assets, the churches should equip themselves to meet the tasks that confront them, and thus enable Salem County to become one of the leaders in the full-orbed application of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to human life in the country. 90 APPENDIX On May 24, 1921, an all-day Church Development Conference was held at the Court House in Salem, at which the results of this survey were presented to delegates from the churches of the county. Representatives were present from every denomination doing work in the county, and from nearly every church. The social and official agencies were also representd. The responsible overhead denomi- national officials attended, as did ten members of the Joint Com- mittee on Utilizing Surveys. The conference convened under the chairmanship of Rev. William Tatlock of Woodstown. The chairman of the Findings Committee was Rev. C. H. Thompson, also of Woodstown. The chairman of the local Committee of Arrangements was Rev. Elliston J. Perot. After a thorough discussion, a report of the Findings Committee was adopted. The Report follows : Voted : That the Salem City Ministerial Association be requested to call a meeting, to be composed of the pastor and one lay delegate from each church in the county, for the organization of a county council of churches, this Council to be formed for the purpose of coordinating the work of the churches in all fields of mutual activity, and for the purpose of coordinating the work of the churches in all fields of mutual interest, and for the purpose of allowing opportunities for such joint activities as may prove useful to those churches which cooperate. Voted: That the matter of a religious census of Salem city's rural community be referred to the Salem City Ministerial Asso- ciation. Voted: That it is the sense of this meeting that the frequent changes in pastorates are detrimental to the life of the churches and that as a first step towards remedying the situation the churches of Salem County should strive to provide an adequate salary and par- sonage for every full-time resident pastor. 91 SURVEY OF SALEM COUNTY, N. J. Voted : That the larger churches of the county, or those churches which have sole responsibility for ministering to their community, be urged to secure stereopticon, moving-picture machines or other social equipment, and that they utilize the Sunday schools and Young People's Societies for aggressive work among adolescent boys and girls. Voted: That the county council, if formed, should appoint a strong committee on boys' and girls' work. Voted: That it is the sense of this meeting that the maintenance of regular service at the jail, the road camp, the hospital, etc., is a matter of importance, which should be brought to the attention of the county council, and that should have its strong support. Voted : That the churches be urged to utilize automobiles on Sunday wherever possible, for transporting distant members or constituents, and that church members assist in helping their churches reach their entire possible constituency. Voted: That the situation at Alloway and Canton be taken up with the representatives of the denominations concerned in con- junction with the local people. Voted : That after full understanding between denominations at work in Pedricktown there be special activity among the foreign- born farm laborers. 92 V Princeton Theological Seminar Libraries 1 1012 01235 3225 Date Due m 2 ^ ''* ^ PRINTED IN U. S. A.