RELIGIOUS FORCES AND OTHER ACTIVITIES IN THE HISTORY OF VINELAND. N.J, JOSEPH A. CONWELL. (Ex-Mayor) I AM A CITIZEN OF NO MEAN CITY" AN ADDRESS DELIVEREiD AT THE 50TH ANNI. VERSARY OF THE FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF VINELAND, N. J. PUBLISHED FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE NENA/ CHURCH BUILDING FUND BY THE SMITH PRINTING HOUSE VINELAND. N. J. THE FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF \ IXEEAXD REV. JOHN O. WELLS PASTOR FROM 1866 TO 1887 RELIGIOUS FORCES AND OTHER ACTIVITIES IN THE HISTORY OF VINELAND. N.J, JOSEPH A. CONWEUL (Ex-Mayor) I AM A CITIZEN OF NO MEAN CITY" AN ADDRESS DELIVERED AT THE 50TH ANNI- VERSARY OF THE FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF VINELAND. N. J. PUBLISHED FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE NEW CHURCH BUILDING FUND Ot-' ^^■'<^i^-tt.(ffP*-4(A<.4^ju<^ V CXJU^U t*.<^»'V^A<.^CA^ /r ^ Arttuttt^a ttt % Iftatnrg Inasmuch as Rev. Dr. D. H. King, our Pastor Emeritus, preached a historical sermon this morning and dwelt more particularly upon the intimate and spiritual history of our church, I feel that it is both appropriate and desirable that I, in what I shall say this evening, broaden the subject somewhat, and refer not only to the history of our own church, but to the various religious and other forces that have exerted an influence for good in our town during the past half- century. While the subject is too great to be fully dis- cussed in the time alloted me, it should be stated with special emphasis that the history of a live, active church is inevitably a part of the history of a commu- nity. The church gives inspiration, encouragement and genuine vital force to every worthy enterprise and every good cause. To undertake to give the history of a church and of religious forces in general in a com- munity like Vineland, where the churches and every- thing else grew up together out of a wilderness, and for fifty years have lived and labored and struggled to- gether and turned that wilderness into a land of beauty and fertile fields and extensive manufacturing interests, where intellectual culture and high moral principles are maintained, is a task calling for the utmost rever- —3— ence and respect. If we candidly accept the plain, cold facts regarding the founding of Vineland, we must admit that it offered many advantages not enjoy- ed by older and differently constructed towns. THE OPPORTUNITY OF A WILDERNESS When Mr. Charles K. Landis drove the now famous stake in the wilderness on the 8th of August, 1861, near where the West Jersey Railroad station now stands, he established not only a landmark, but a great historical starting point. This area was then a vast wilderness. It was such a wilderness that the conduct- or refused to stop the railroad train at the prospective city, and instead put Mr. Landis off near what is now Newfield, forcing him to walk five miles to drive his fancied city-centered stake. It was such a wilderness that Mr. Landis had to walk out to Sharp's corner on Main road to get his dinner. It was such a wilderness that the railroad officials refused to build a platform so people could get off the cars. It was such a wilder- ness that the government refused to recognize Vineland as a post office until Mr. Landis gave security for the expense incurred. Yet Mr. Landis, a young man of twenty-eight, had the faith and courage and grit to walk over this wilderness for weeks and months, and employ men to survey and lay out roads and avenues, and pull stumps and haul dirt. He advertised town lots and farms until he had not only spent all of his own re- sources, but had eventually gone in debt over three hundred thousand dollars to improve and beautify the prospective enterprise. The early struggles and experiences of the founder of Vineland, while to some may seem like the work of a dreamer, were the true unfoldment of a long-sighted, orderly, systematic plan. During the first winter Mr. Landis maintained his headquarters out at Sharp's farm —4— house on Main road. And let me quote his words as found among his private papers: "There were many days and weeks during that long and tempestuous winter when nobody came. To say that I never had moments of de- pression, when I looked out of my window upon the boundless stretch of wilderness, would be simply untrue. The southeast winds at night would howl around the corner of the house where I slept, sounding like wailing voices of ill omen and mockery. And as I listened to the dismal sound of the wind and thought of the possibility of no visitors, I would be struck almost by an icy chill. The greatest relief I found was in prayer." The founder of Vineland did not claim to be a religious man, nor was he so regarded. I refer to these prayers of Mr. Landis, because so far as known, they were the first religious worship and the beginning of the religious history of what the world now knows as "Beautiful Vineland." This brief outline faintly pictures the wilderness with its virgin soil and the man with his ambitions and motives. His determination was to build a model community free, if possible, from the objections he had seen elsewhere, and possessing those character- istics which experience had proved to best insure beautiful and healthful surroundings and the prosperit}^ happiness and general well-being of the people. With his life dedicated to this proposition, he, through the public press and other methods, and in the most wide- spread manner, invited the world to come and make Vineland a model community. And in all candor he placed before prospective settlers an unusual opportunity. Here was offered what we all more or less crave — the chance to begin afresh and, to a marked degree, live life over again. To those of the north was offered a milder climate. Those in the crowded cities here found fresh air and —5— plenty of room. To those in ill health or weary of monotony was a new hope. Here were good prospects for the ambitious and an equal opportunity to all. The proposition appealed to men and women of intellect, energy and character, and they came from every direction and were received with cor- dial welcome. No matter from whence it came, all blood was new blood on reaching the primitive soil and inspiring atmosphere of Vineland. EARLY GROWTH While at the end of the first year there were only about six settlers, yet at the end of 1862, the second year, about eighty persons attended Mr. Landis' first annual reception. His reception at the end of the third year was attended by over one thousand persons. The attendance at the end of the fourth year was two thousand, and about one thousand partook of supper. His reception at the end of the fifth year was attended by more than three thousand. Two brass bands fur- nished music and the occasion was an innovation to South Jersey. At this time the population of the tract was fifty-five hundred. In 1867, when Vineland was six years old, it was a community of about eight thousand population, containing churches of all the leading denominations, fourteen schoolhouses and twelve hundred pupils. The Presbyterian, Methodist and Episcopal churches were organized in '63. The Baptist, Unitarian and what was known as the "Friends of Progress" later, but when Vineland was six j^ears old they all had flourishing congregations, the audience of our own church averaging three hundred and fifty persons on Sunday. Not only had churches been organized at this time, but "The Historical and Antiquarian Society," "The Floral Society" the various social and secret Societies —6— had been organized and were existing much as they are to-da}^ Let us mention some of the things that took place when Vineland was only six years old. The Sabbath schools were organized and prosper- ous, and on the 4th of July of that year, paraded the streets of our tow^n. The procession w as about a half- mile in length and seven hundred children were in the parade. Thej^ picniced in the Vineland Park and Rev. J. O. Wells, the pastor of this church, was one of the orators of the occasion. This custom of Sunday Schools uniting in picnics and excursions continued for many years, and I have seen a special train take over nine hundred persons from Vineland to the sea- shore on a Union Sunday School excursion. Up until that year this church had used a melodion when it was exchanged for a cabinet organ. The Great World's Universal Exposition was held at Paris, France, and honorable mention was awarded by the Imperial Commission of that Exposition to Mr. Charles K. Landis for his great work in founding and promot- ing the success of Vineland, New Jersey, and he was placed upon record as one of the benefactors of the world. Professor Marcius Willson, in a public address during the year 1867, declared that Vineland made greater progress in those things which belong to ad- vanced civilization, during six short years, than all Cumberland County made in the first two hundred years of its existence. THE PIONEER SPIRIT The resources and initiative instinct of Vineland's pioneers were almost without limit. They had come from the four corners of the earth. Each man — and many women — was a distinct individual. While not one of them had been born here their loyalty and inter- est had all the intensity and enthusiasm of a second birth. When the town was less than two years old Mrs. A. M. Spaulding its first poet composed some verses in its praise four lines of which were taken as a slogan. "Brothers and sisters we become On touching Vineland sod Inmates of one expansive home Children of one true God." These lines were quoted in addresses, were often seen in the newspapers, occasionall}^ displayed upon banners at public meetings and became almost a local patriotic confession of faith. Among Vineland's early settlers were merchants, manufacturers, inventors, educators, physicians, re- formers, editors, financiers, authors — men of affairs — who had both failed and succeeded elsewhere and who had come here to secure a change, to gain health, to retire or to find congenial climate or to hustle for success amidst new surroundings. There were men and women of talent — musicians, singers, artists, actors or adepts in other professions — accustomed to public life and no matter what the occasion, whether a school meeting, political caucus, farmers club, literary or theatrical entertainment, it was more like the work of leaders and professionals than amateurs. The social atmosphere was fascinating and there was an abund- ance of real life. The ability to grasp opportunities was well illustrated in 1868 when it was learned that the members of the New Jersey Editorial Association were to pass through Vineland on their way to the annual convention at Cape May. They were invited to stop off at Vineland; ninety seven carriages met them at the depot; they were conveyed over our town and town- ship; Cosmopolitan Hall was turned into a banqueting room and they were sumptuously dined amidst a pro- fusion of flowers and 250 editors with their wives left our depot delighted, and the result was, that for days and weeks in the colums of almost ever}' newspaper in New Jersey, Philadelphia and New York could be found editorials referring to Vineland with unstinted praise. What a splendid example for modern Boards of Trade and Commercial Leagues! Although many of the early farmers were new at the business, many were the occasions which showed their apt ingenuity. One incident always seemed to me to be unusually clever. Mr. Landis for several years gave liberal cash prizes for the best specimens of farm products, a leading prize one year being fifty dollars in cash for the largest Dutchess pear. That Autumn Mr. A. J. Hamilton, of Oak Road and a charter member of this church, brought to town an immense overgrown Dutchess pear weighing twenty- two and one-half ounces. Mr. Landis was delighted, paid the prize money, placed the pear in a handsome glass case, exhibited it at our local fair, then at the New York State Fair in Madison Square Garden and at various County Fairs outside of our State. To pro- duce this pear, Mr. Hamilton selected the best tree in his orchard, stripped it of all pears except one, ferti- lized and mulched and watered the tree all summer, propped and stayed the limb against storms and sus- pended the pear in a woven sack to support its weight. When Mr. Rockefeller, Jr. intimated that successful human beings, like perfect American Beauty roses require that ninety-nine be sacrificed in order that the hundredth may reach its fullest perfection and beauty did not know that the idea was first demonstrated by a member of this church in a Vineland pear orchard. Had a visitor, during Vineland's early years, stroll- ed among the people, from Newfield to South Vineland he would have met a class of people as various and interesting as could have been found anywhere in the nation. Let us tonight in imagination, follow him on such a jaunt. At Newfield would be met a small well-clad gentle- man, George May Powell — preacher, traveler, public- ist, statesman, publisher of the international Sunday School maps; whose speech was the chief political doc- ument in the campaign of Lincoln, President of the first Congress of Forestry, first man to propose Y. M. C. A. buildings, a chief originator of The Hague Peace Court, President of the Peace Society, national temper- ance advocate, writer, orator and Christian statesman. Here also lived Mr. Job Ellis, teacher, linguist and pioneer in the study of vegetable hactei'ia, whose dis- coveries and writings are recognized the world over, his great work ''North American Pyrenomycetes/* printed in Vineland, costing him and his devoted wife twenty years of incessant research and labor. At North Vineland lived John L. Mason inventor of the "Mason Fruit Jar," which cost years of experi- ment, the waste of three hundred thousand dollars in two hundred lawsuits over the patent and what is too often true the final discouragement and poverty of the inventor, but the jar revolutionized the methods of pre- serving fruit and for forty years has been a household necessity in almost every civilized home. In Vineland, at that time, women took a more active part in business and public affairs than else- where The "Ladies' Store" owned by Misses Leavitt and Sherburne was for a generation the leading dry goods and variety business of South Jersey. Among our most prominent women was Mrs. Louise Cooper Bristol — tall, graceful, accomplished; teacher, orator, poet, essayist, a leader in modern thought and ideas; another. Miss Abby F. Leavitt, her hair short and groomed by a barber, but her head long and mind alert, — merchant, church official, Sunday School Superintendent, W. C. T. U. President, a champion of women and a leader of men; another, Mary E. Treat, —10— reclusive and quiet,— a writer of books on nature, insects and birds and known as well in Europe as in her own land. Never has woman been more devoted and helpful than during the making of Vineland. When Louis Bristol ran for Congress, Mrs Bristol plead for his elec- tion from the platform, her ability causing her to be asked to place General Butler in nomination for the presidency at the National Convention at Cincinatti when her eloquence won her national fame. During the years that J. B. Duffy published the Vineland Daily News, Mrs. Duffy, with marked ability, wrote its editorials and her other writings in book form re- ceived wide circulation. During the years of the pastorate of Rev. W. W. Meech at the South Vineland church Mrs. Meech, herself an ordained minister, was ever ready to occupy her husband's pulpit and her ser- mons were always both eloquent and practical. And in merchantile, and other enterprises it was often difficult to tell which was the leading spirit and head of the concern the husband or the wife. Truly can it be said of the Vineland woman "She hath done what she could." On our Streets, in those days, were occasionally seen women dressed in male attire and Dr. Mary Walker here found congenial friends to visit and her presence now and then added interest to our town. These women were ridiculed in private and in public press and Vineland to some extent shared the obliquy. But they were all educated, and sincere and loyal champions of a cause they loved and they did much to gain for woman that recognition as a political factor which justice demands shall be hers. If the male attire or "bloomers" infringed upon the rights of the sterner sex it can be said of each of them that what remained woman was a genuine lady and what turned man was always a gentleman. —11— On our Streets would be seen an unusual number of men who had fought under the flag from '61 to '65 and when peace returned married and settled here, and Vineland never had better or more loyal citizens than the soldier citizens who during the rebellion bared their lives that the flag might live. Along our streets would be seen more retired preachers than elsewhere. Vineland was known as the Mecca of the retired minister. These men, educat- ed, and interested, and gifted with tongue and pen, were always a genuine moral force in our community and all of them loyal examples of the perseverance of the saints. He would here meet three gentlemen all formerly teachers and college professors. One of them — Prof. D. O. Kellogg, author, orator, cyclopedist; handsome, eloquent and brilliant; another, Prof. N. B. Webster, chemist, scientist and cyclopedist who had stored in his mind fifty thousand dates as accurately as the records on the printed pages of history and yet was as con- genial and free from pomp as a child; the other Prof. Marcius Willson, handsome, well poised, faultlessly dressed, a gentleman and a scholar par excellent, the author of more school books than any other American, about thirty altogether bearing his name and the royal- ties paid him by Harper Brothers alone being over two hundred and twenty thousand dollars. On our streets almost every day was seen and heard that ubiquitous humorist, poet, jester and punster, John W. Hum whose laugh was hearty and loud and whose wit was quick and keen. Here on Saturday afternoons gathered the populace, men and women who had succeeded elsewhere as merchants, authors, editors, physicians, manufacturers and political reform- ers and they and their children bore the stamp of cultured energy. Among the children destined to be- —12— come men of influence were James H. Ingram now medical missionary to China and who is doing much by translating books to revolutionize medical practice in that great nation. Here were seen two farmer boys — Ernest Bagnall, inventor and manufacturer, of Cleve- land, Ohio, and his brother Alfred Bagnall, a manufac- turing promoter in Japan, whose home is the finest private residence built by an alien in the Japanese Empire; Edwin M. Ellis, who has organized hundreds of Sunday Schools in the far west; Henry W. Wilbur, editor, author, preacher, reformer and leader in the cause of peace, temperance and righteousness. Among the rising young men was Charles Keighley, ambitious, determined, tireless, laying the foundation of success for himself and making of our town a centre in the manufacture of footwear, which from the day he started has been Vineland's most constant and reliable support. At South Vineland were the Bidwells who turned the sand beds into veritable mines of wealth; the Wheeler family, reformers and temperance workers, among them Frederick Wheeler now a national leader in temperance work; the Gillam family, all of them brilliant of intellect and all destined to rise in the world; one of them, M. M. Gillam now the father of the modern method of graphic advertising so universal and which has revolutionized the methods of doing business. Among the school boys was D. Harry Chandler, bright, quick, energetic, who has since sought and found "Acres of Diamonds'' at home, realized in the growth and success of the shoe manu- facturing plant which has been a substantial feature of Vineland's industry and enterprise. Here lived William A. Daggett inventor of the well known folding clothes rack and of the closed baking pan, improved forms of which are now made and sold all over the world. —13— These are only samples of the thousands who flocked to Vineland during its early years, who became known as the "Vineland Pioneers," and of whom an early poet said: "Through hardship, weariness and tears, We wrought the task of pioneers, In '62 some seventy-five. Would represent our little hive, Now thousands throng on every hand, And yet there's room and work and land." The question arises: What should be expected from a colony of people, newly organized, composed of men and women of such exceptional character, in- tellect, initiative enterprise and devotion to the public interest? Let us mention a few things that these people gave to the world. VINELAND'S CONTRIBUTION TO TEMPERANCE Let us begin with the founder of Vineland. It was he who decided that Vineland should be a temperance community, free from the dram shop with its tempta- tions and allurements. He not only established temperance principles in this community, but did much to teach the world its advantages. His method was ''Local Option." It is true that there were efforts to secure local option many years before Vineland was started, but Mr. Landis gave the movement a new life. After Vineland had become established, Mr. Landis wrote an address on the subject of local option, bring- ing to his aid the experience in the town he had founded, and his observations in extensive travel and study of the subject. He delivered this address before the Legislature of New Jersey at Trenton, and at that time the subject was so dense to the people in general that he did not think it was wise to endeavor to get a general petition, but he went to the State Penitentiary —14— and got the inmates of that institution to signti a petition for the law, and when he deUvered his address, he held his manuscript in one hand, and a petition signed by the inmates of the New Jersey Penitentiary in the other, and upon his return home he had his address published and sent about two thousand of them broad- cast over the world. It was my privilege forty years afterward to stand in the same legislative hall and plead before the legislature to enact the same law, showing the vitality of the principle but the slow pace of reform legislation in New Jersey. This address, no doubt, did much to create an interest and to establish the justice of such a law to curtail the ravages of strong drink through the legalized saloon, and while various measures have been adopted from that time until now, to accomplish the purpose, it must be ad- mitted that local option has been one of the most effective measures to close the doors of the American saloon, and to-day more than one-half of the popula- tion and more than one-half of the territory of the United States are free from the saloon, and local option perhaps, more than any other measure so far advanced, has been the method that has brought about this great and blessed reform. It can be truthfully asserted that more citizens of our nation, including all classes of people, from the present occupant of the White House to the humblest voter, are committed to local option, than have been committed to any other temperance movement so far proposed. And the first systematic public address upon the subject was written on Landis avenue and two thousand printed copies were mailed from the Vineland post office. For many years perhaps more than any other town in the nation, Vineland was referred to and held up as a practical demonstration of what temperance will do in promoting the success and well being of a community. May it always deserve the reputation it has made. —15— THE FIRST NATIONAL CAMP MEETING In 1867, when Vineland was only six years old, the officials of the great Methodist church in America decided to hold what was termed a Camp Meeting of national magnitude and importance. In looking around for a location Vineland's reputation for morality and temperance principles naturally attracted their attention. The result was Vineland was chosen as the most desirable place for the first great "National Camp Meeting" to be held in America. Our citizens made great preparation for it and the welcome was cordial and sincere. Vineland Park was turned into a veritable city of canvass. Great, mammouth tents were erected capable of accommodating from one hundred to one thousand people. Wells were settled to furnish water and every convenience for a great gathering was made. Our local paper, The Vineland Weekly, decided to publish a daily edition and it was not only liberal but lavish in its attitude toward the management. During the time of the camp meeting it published fifty-four special columns. Every sermon was printed almost in full and no event in the history of the town ever received more enthusiastic consider- ation from the local populace than was given this first great National Camp Meeting. The attendance was tremendous. One hundred and thirty-five ministers, including the eminent Bishop Matthew Simpson, were in attendance. It was estimated that on one or two occasions the attendance numbered from twelve to fifteen thousand. One Sunday morning over six hundred vehicles passed along one road before twelve o'clock, all loaded with people bound for the Camp Meeting in Vineland Park. Rev. A. E. Ballard, who is at the present time President of Ocean Grove, was in charge. This meeting was a great success and all visitors went —16— home singing the praises of Vineland. What was the result? Its success led to the establishment in the following year of Ocean Grove as a permanent National Camp Meeting ground, incorporating features of government like Vineland, only perhaps more so. It was found that to make such an institution a success, permanent buildings must be erected, and the erection of permanent buildings suggested meetings of other sorts, and soon the added custom arose that when the camp meeting had closed its exercises, to devote some days or weeks to matters outside of religion. Music and art and intellectual, scientific and other subjects were taught and promoted. As an outgrowth of Ocean Grove other similar national Camp Meetings were established. Among the most famous were at Martha's Vineyard, Mass.; Lakeside, Ohio; Hartley, Neb. and Pacific Grove in California. The success of the special features of these camp meetings caused Bishop Vincent and others to consider the matter of establishing centers devoted to various special subjects, and in response to this idea, in 1874, Bishop Vincent and Lewis Miller, of Ohio, founded the "Chautauqua" in western New York and out of this beginning grew a great system of education along neglected lines, until the growth of the Chautauqua movement has reached almost every town and community in the United States. Two hundred and sixty thousand people have joined in its work and more than fifty thousand have graduated after a full four years term of study. The Catholic church and the Jewish church both have established Chautauqua centers. The Chautauqua idea inspired the founding of a system in which talent of all kinds— music, lectures and an almost endless variety of entertainment — was placed within reach of almost every platform and community. This system has revolutionized the Lyceum platform. The entire field devoted to this kind of work is organized in our nation —17— today. It fills a place between the school house and the church, and outside of the church and school it is now the greatest power in existence in developing wholsome thought and progressive sentiment in the United States. And if we trace its history, we find one of its chief beginnings and inspirations in the success of the first national Camp Meeting held in Vineland Park forty-six years ago. And when we recall the fact that for more than twenty years Vineland has annually maintained one of the most successful Courses of Star Entertain- ments in the nation, it shows that we have retained our appreciation of moral and intellectual culture and that Vineland in a signal and practical way has profited by the cultured zeal of its early pioneers. VINELAND THE FOUNDER OF GRAPE JUICE Another great movement to the credit of Vineland is the adoption of "Unfermented Wine" for sacramental purposes, and the promotion of Grape Juice as a com- mercial article. In the spring of 1869, when Vineland was only eight years old. Dr. T. B. Welch was elected Recording Steward of the Vineland Methodist Episcopal church. He protested against his election on the ground that he would not provide fermented wine for the communion service. He was told that "he was elected to the office and could furnish what he pleased." When grapes were ripe that fall, Dr. Welch, helped by his son. Dr. Charles E. Welch, squeezed grapes with his hands and made the first unfermented Grape Juice of modern times. It was made and sold under the name of "Unfermented Wine" for over twenty years, when the name was changed to "Grape Juice." It then appears that the Vineland First Methodist Church first used Unfermented Wine for communion purposes. —18— Dr. T. B. Welch, Dr. H. L. Tuller, Mr. Harrison Durgin and Captain Daniel Tracy were all pioneers in promot- ing its use and later Mr. Frank A. Breck, Mr Henry Raisch, Mr. John Maytrott, The Vineland Grape Juice Company and others have done much to introduce its use to the public. Dr. Welch, Harrison Durgin and Captain Tracy promoted its use for sacramental purposes, and Dr. Tuller advocated it as a medicinal and household article. While all of these men deserved great credit for the enterprise they displayed in its adoption by the public, to Dr. T. B. Welch and his son, Dr. Charles E. Welch, now known as The Welch Grape Juice Company, belong the special credit of in- troducing Grape Juice to the world for sacramental purposes and as an article of commerce. I am in- formed that from the small beginning in 1869 the Welch Grape Juice Company now annually press over fourteen thousand tons of grapes, making an output of over two million gallons of product. Many concerns now manufacture Grape Juice and its sale is enormous. At the present time practically all of the Protestant churches almost throughout the world use the unfer- mented Grape Juice instead of fermented wine. As a temperance movement its influence is beyond compu- tation. The Grape Juice business will always be associated with Vineland, as it was for years almost the source for the world's supply, the first gallon being bottled at Fourth and Plum Streets. Vineland Grape Juice is now known all over the world. For years Vineland supplied not only churches in every State in the union, but it was sent from our town to every mission center of the Methodist church throughout the world. Large quantities are sent to South America, NOTK— In a recent Report, George E. Anderson, Consul General at Hong- kong states that American Grape Juice is rapidly gaining foothold in China, that already about $50,000 worth is being annually distributed, that there is a climatic demand for nonalcoholic drinks; that Grape Juice is being found specially whole- some for women and children; that alcoholic drinks are being less and less used and that the market for Grape Juice is constantly increasing in the Empire. U. S. Consular Trade Reports, March 21, 1914 —19— Australia, to Europe, to China and Japan and to the Islands of the sea. Minister Wu, Ambassador from China to the United States, became acquainted with the virtues of Grape Juice while in America, and upon his return to China, he occasionally ordered it in quantities and it was sent direct from Vineland to his home in the Chinese Empire. From every viewpoint which it is possible to con- sider the subject, Grape Juice is one of the greatest factors in promoting temperance that has yet been devised. Nothing so takes the place and is so well calculated to become a substitute for alcoholic drinks as Grape Juice, and the time surely will come when it will be almost as much of a common household article as is milk to-day. Those who promoted its adoption are to be considered among the world's benefactors. For Vineland to become the originator and promotor of such an enterprise destined to so bless mankind the world over, is an honor worthy of the highest praise. VINELAND'S PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS Another achievement of Vineland is found in the establishment and history of its public institutions. Near our town are three public institutions with a population of over one thousand and all of them are models in construction and management. Twenty- five years ago the care and training of unfortunates, either of mind or body, was not only crude, but the whole subject was treated with almost universal in- difference. When in 1888 Rev. S. O. Garrison founded the New Jersey Training School for Feeble Minded Children, it became the nucleus of what was destined to become in the course of its development, the center of a new era in this line of benevolence. The Train- ing School in recent years has developed a system of study and of investigation that has attracted attention —20— not only in this country, but in foreign lands. There is much not only interesting, but closely related to the happiness and security of the human race associated with the study of the cause and prevention of mental deficiency. Those connected with our Training School have undertaken to systematically study and, if possible, to solve the great questions which arise in connection with this subject. Progress in research work by those connected with the Training School has already made of Vineland a world centre in the study of mental defects. They have so far succeeded that they have attracted the attention of students and specialists in this particular department throughout the nation. They have also instituted a course of study, carried on during the summer months, devoted to such subjects and methods as have a practical appli- cation in the education of children in general who are backward in the regular school studies. This field is an exceptionally interesting one and invites increasing consideration along lines that are eminently practical and vital. Already more than three hundred teachers have taken the prescribed course at the Training School and have gone out into various parts of the nation better equipped not only to teach, but no doubt impressed with the importance of the subject of mental conditions. This movement cannot fail to have a permanent basis and will develop in many ways, and as people are instructed and an intelligent sentiment is created regarding the desirability of im- proving the race, great good will result to mankind in general. The study of this subject has gone far enough to prove that the progressive thought of the world in the social, political, intellectual and medical fields will become interested and concerned, and the day is not far away when a more correct knowledge of the causes which lead to all defects of mind will prevail and the measures either of legal enactments or —21— education that can best prevent their occurrence will be utilized and the improvement of the race will then become a living issue and one of the duties of the patriot and of every lover of his fellowman. FRIENDSHIP AMONG RELIGIOUS BELIEFS In looking up the achievements of Vineland along religious and moral lines, I have been impressed with the part that the churches have taken and how friendly they have worked together in building up not only the cause of the Master, but in promoting everything that was for the good of the town and community. When the walls of our church were erected and the roof had been finished, boards were used in this room for seats, resting on nail-kegs, and the good Presbyterians of those days invited the Methodists to come in and wor- ship, and I have been informed that the Methodists helped buy the original seats in this church, and when our church has been undergoing repairs we have ac- cepted invitations to worship in other churches. While those who came here represented the widest differences of religious faith, yet they lived in com- parative harmony. In Vineland were all kinds of beliefs, orthodox and otherwise, and yet as we look back on its history we find that unfriendly controver- sies have largely faded away. Almost every belief exists here to-day and have houses of worship or independent places where they adhere to their own forms of ceremony. This is desirable. Divided into separate groups we no doubt live in greater harmony and accomplish more good than possible otherwise. Vineland has occasionally suffered from the ex- aggeration of those who did not understand the situation. The chief difference between Vineland and other places has been that here every man and woman —22— \^ > »: 2^ C -^ ^' _ n A a: n o r; JS