cr
129 236
THE FORSGN SfUDENT
IN AMERICA
A Study by the Commission on Survey of Foreign Students
in the United States of America, Under the Auspices
of the Friendly Relations Committees of the
Young Men's Christian Association and the
Young Women's Christian Association
W. REGINALD WHEELER,
HENRY H. KING, and ALEXANDER B. DAVIDSON
WITH A FOREWORD BY
ROBERT E SPEER
ASSOCIATION PRESS
NEW YORK: 347 MADISON ATONTO
192*
COMMISSION ON SURVEY OF FOBEIGN STUDENTS
IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
SAMUEL G. INMAN, Chairman
W. REGINALD WHEELER, Vice-Chairman
ELMEB YELTON, Executive Secretary
RUTH LEX PEARSON, Executive Secretary for Women's Section
ALEXANDER B. DAVIDSON, Recording Secretary
S. WnmEMOBE BOGQS HENBT H. KING
STEPHEN P. DUGGAN EDWABD H. LOCEWOOD
HAREY E. EDMONDS D. WILLABD LTON
D. J. FLEMING ARTHUR BRUCE Moss
KATT BOZD GEOBGE A. B. PARSON
RALPH W. GWINN ROBERT M. RUSSELL, JR.
C A HERSCHLEB BURTON ST. JOHN
CHARLES D. HUBBET CLARENCE P. SHEDD
WILLIAM BANCROFT TTTT.T. J. Ross STEVENSON
ROBERT L. KELLY
FOEEWOED
AMERICAN life and the Christian Church have never met a more seveie
and searching test than they are meeting to-day in the presence of these
foreign students in our schools. These young men and women from many
lands are testing the honesty of the political and social axioms which have
constituted our American tradition. They are proving the reality of our
profession of Christian brotherhood and equality. Almost all of them came
here full of confidence and hope. Many of them are going back disillu-
sioned, some bitter, some sorrowful Many of them received their first
shock at the port of entry as they came in. Some of them went on and met
with the verv evils which they had come to America to transcend. Some
found that the Christianity which they had acquired from American mis-
sionaries was not confirmed by the Christianity which they met in the land
which had sent the missionaries forth.
JSTot all have been disappointed Thousands of them have gone home
with strength and faith, having received that for which they came. They
were able to distinguish between good and evil and to understand the
struggle which was going on in our own national character. They met
with people who did embody in their own lives and in their attitude and
spirit toward others the American ideals of justice and equality and good-
will. And especially, ever since the days of Yung Wing and the students
whom he brought from China, have those foreign students returned with
what they came for and what America was meant to give them, who found
their way into American Christian home life and saw the real springs of
our national spirit.
For the failures among these students the blame is not all on one
side, but the larger responsibility is ours, and it is high time that the nation
and the Church realized what the situation is and comprehended the test
and the opportunity which it presents. For it is an opportunity. We
have never had a greater one. Not another year should be allowed to pass
without an adequate effort on the part of the nation and the Christian
Church to deal with it. We can, if we will, send back each year to their
many lands an army of ambassadors of good-will and helpful intercourse
of international confidence, of hope and peace. And the Church may find
in these thousands of students as many missionaries to carry Christianity
back to their own people. They will not carry back what they do not get,
and they will not get what we cannot or do not give.
EGBERT B. SPEEH,
Xovember 22, 1924.
COXTENTS
PAOC
FOREWORD v
INTRODUCTION ir
CHAPUR
I OUTLINE HISTORY OF STUDENT MIGRATIONS Henry H. King
1. Student Migrations in the Middle Ages 3
2. Foreign Students in Germany 7
3. Student Migrations to the United States 10
4. The Foreign Students of France 21
5. The Academic Stranger within the Gates in the United Kingdom 24
6. The Story of the Foreign Students in Switzerland 27
7. Chinese and Korean Students in Japan 29
8. Foreign Students in Other Lands 30
9. Statistical Recapitulation 38
II THE POLITICAL AND RELIGIOUS BACKGROUND OF STUDENTS COMING TO
AMERICA Edited by D. J, Fleming
1. Africa P. H. J. Leriigo 41
2. China T. T. Tsu 44
3. European Countries Miss Mat gatet Wrong 49
4. India Robett E. Hume 53
5. Japan At thur Jorgensen 61
6. Latin America 8. V. Inman 65
7. Near East 8. Ralph Harlow and Phihp K. Hittt 70
8. Philippine Islands Ei nesto J. Carballo 75
III THE CAREERS AND INFLUENCE OF RETURNED STUDENTS IN THEIR HOICK-
LANDS
1. Representative American Opinion . . .Edited "by Robert L. Kelly 82
2. Facts Brought Out by the Survey
Edited by Alexander B. Davidson 93
Africa #. JW. Nkomo 93
China W. Reginald Wheeler 97
Europe Henry H. King 102
India B. R. Barber 105
Japan Galen If. Fisher 115
Latin America , .Samuel G. Inman 118
Near East K. P. Damlamian 125
Philippine Islands Jesus Dmet os 127
IV THE FOREIGN STUDENT AND AMERICAN LIFE. ..... diaries D. Uuitcy
1. Social Relationships 135
2. Admission to the United States 135
3. Attitude of American People T . . . . 137
4. Impact of Foreign Students on American Life , . 141
5. The Foreign Students' Judgment of American Life in the
Light of Our Christian Profession 142
vii
viii CONTENTS
CHAPTBR PAQH
6. Our Failure to Measure Up to the Standard ................. 144
7. Unveiling Christ .................................. 144
V THE FOREIGN STUDENT AND THE AMERICAN COLLEGE ....... A. B. Parson
1. Aim of the Chapter ................................. 149
2. Intei eat in the Survey and Altitude of Institutions ........... 149
3. Human Elements Creating a Complex Background ............ 150
4. Curriculum Quentions ................................. 151
a. Policies of institutions in enrolling foieign students.
b. Entrance refinements
c. Standaids of scholarship.
d. Language diihculties.
5. Problems of Economy ....................... , ........... 155
a. Status of student.
b. Scholarships.
c. Opportunities foi self-help.
d. Survey of Filipino students.
6. Assimilation ot Foreign Students into Our Collegiate Life .... 162
a. Housing.
b. Social Life.
c. General friendliness.
7. Recreation and Health .................................. 107
8. Racial Antipathy in Our Institutions ....................... 1<J8
9. Judgments us to Prefeuible Length of ItaHidcuce in the United
States ....................................... ........ 170
10. Special Comment from .Preparatory Schools .................. 172
11. Conclusion .............................................. 173
VI SOCIAL AND UKLIGIOUS LJWC o* .KOBKUJN WOMBW STUDENTS
1. Difficulty of the Task ..................................... 177
a. Uacial and National Groups.
b. Common Points of View.
2. Elements that Hinder Foreign Women Students in Their
Growth and Development , . , , ......................... , , 179
a. Race Prejudice.
b. Lack of Marnetttnesa on the Pait of American Students.
c. Over-Emphasis on the Differences of Foreign Students.
d. Lack of Unity and Beauty in Our JBxprcHflion of Religion.
e. The Freedom of Women.
3. Elements that Help Foreign Women Students in Their Growth
and Development ........................ ...,...... 182
a. Freedom of Thought and the Opportunity to Develop One's
Personality,
b. The Opportunity to Become Acquainted with Social Work.
c. Spiritual Reinforcement.
VII TH ATXITTOE o* TUB FOBBIGKT STUDEIH? TOWABD CBBISTIANITT
Elmer Yelton
1. Data on Which the Chapter Is Based ........................ 189
2. General Attitude of Foreign Students Toward the Christian
Church in America ................................ . ..... 192
3. Attitude of Christian Students Toward Christianity .......... 193
4. Attitude of Non-Christian Students Toward Christianity ...... 196
5. Attitude of Chinese Students Toward Christianity and the
Church .............. , ....... . , , ..... . ....... , . B ...... 190
CONTENTS ix
( HAPTBB PAflW
6. Japanese Students 199
7 Indian Students 201
8. Latin American Students . 204
9. Filipino Students 205
10. Korean Students . . . . . 207
11. Russian Students 208
12. Students from Europe and from the British Empire 209
13. Students from the Near East 210
14. Attitude Toward Foreign Missionary Work 211
VIII ORGANIZED EFFORTS ON BEHALF OF FOREIGN STUDE.NTS
Edited ly John B. Hill
I Qeneial Summary of Oi ganizations at Woik in the Service of
Foreign Students in America and Other Lands. . H. H. King 215
2. (a) Committee on Friendly Relations among Foreign Students,
Y. M. C. A Edward //. Lockwood 228
(b) Committee for Friendly Relations with Foreign Students,
Y. W. C. A Katy Boyd George 230
3. Student Young Men's Chi i si i an Associations .. Elmer Yelton 231
4. City Young Men's Christian Associations... .Elmer Yelton 237
5. The Churches John B. Hill 238
6. (a) The Mission Boards of the Church John B. Hill 255
(b) Women's Board of Missions . .... Mrs, C. K. Roys 265
7. Cosmopolitan Clubs //. H. Pammel 208
8. International House U, B. Edmonds 272
9. The Institute of International Education . . .Stephen P. Duggan 276
10. Student Volunteer Movement Burton St. John 277
IX SOME CONSTRUCTIVE SUGGESTIONS 281
1 Suggestions by the Editors 281
II Suggestions from Representative Americans 293
APPENDIX
I Table Showing Countries of Origin 307
II Tables Showing Major Course of Study by Nationalities 308
III Table Showing Average Period of Residence in the United
States According to Racial Groups 312
IV Table Showing Attendance at Student Summer Confeienees... . 312
V Tables Showing Attitude of Returned Students Toward Chris-
tianity Before and After Residence Abroad 316
VI Table Indicating Prospective Vocations 320
VII Table Showing Foreign Students Distribution Throughout the
World 322
VIII Table Showing Student Appraisal of Missionary Work 322
IX Table Showing Number of Questionnaires Received 323
X Map of United States Showing Location of Colleges and Uni-
versities Paving 324
Key to Map 324
XI Table Showing Approximate Distribution of Foreign Students
in the Principal Educational Centers 327
XII Locations of Student Conference 329
INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY
INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY
THERE are more than eight thousand students from foreign countries
in the colleges and universities of the United States. Including foreign
students in secondary schools, the total is well over fourteen thousand.
These students are men and women of exceptional courage and intelligence
or they would not be here. They remain in our country for several years.
When they return to their homelands they have unusual opportunities for
influence and leadership. They are "a potential asset or liability to the
Christian cause and the movement for international understanding and
good-will." It is of the utmost importance, both for their nations and for
ours, that they return to their homes with an adequate comprehension and
appraisal of the life and spirit of America, and especially that they come
to understand the part that the spirit and teachings of Christ have had
in building up the institutions and the life of our republic.
Evidence has been accumulating that these leaders of the coming gen-
eration in their own lands, who should be ambassadors of good-will and
friendship between nations, have not been given adequate opportunities
during their residence in our country to know American life at its highest
and truest level. Earnest efforts have been put forth by the Churches, by
the Young Men's Christian Association and the Young Women's Christian
Association, by Cosmopolitan Clubs, and by other organizations to remedy
this situation. Perhaps no single agency has done more than the Com-
mittees on Friendly Relations Among Foreign Students, which were
organized in 1911 and 1914, respectively, by the foreign division of The
International Committee of Young Men's Christian Associations and the
National Board of the Young Women's Christian Associations. But all
these agencies are conscious of the insufficiency of their service in meet-
ing the great needs before them.
In the spring of 1922, the Friendly Relations Committees concluded
that if the foreign students in America were to be adequately served addi-
tional data were needed in regard to them. A Commission on Survey of
Foreign Students in the United States of America was organized March
23, 1922. This Commission was an expansion of the Friendly Relations
Committees through the addition of representatives from various mission
boards and from organizations interested in students from abroad. A
detailed survey was undertaken, the purpose of which was "to ascertain
and assemble complete information regarding foreign students in the
United States, and to define their needs and problems with a view to
xiii
xiv INTRODUCTION AND STJMMABY
formulating an adequate Christian program in their behalf." The present
volume is the outcome of that survey.
The data upon which this book is based have come from many sources.
Replies have been received in answer to questionnaires from 830 foreign
students in the United States; from seventy-two student Young Men's
Christian Association secretaries; from twenty city Young Men's Chris-
tian Associations; from one hundred local pastors; from 110 college ad-
ministrators ; from individuals and institutions in eight major geographical
and national areas abroad, reporting by name on the students who had
gone from those regions to study overseas. Many others especially inter-
ested in the problem have made their contributions. The material thus
gathered has been collated and edited by six committees, and is grouped
under definite headings in the nine chapters of this book.
Those who are responsible for the finished report make no claim as to
its complete inclusiveness. Detailed questionnaires have been received from
approximately ten per cent, of the full registration of foreign students
in American institutions of college grade. These students are distributed
among more than four hundred different colleges and universities. Thus
only about twenty-five per cent, of the college administrators who have to do
with foreign-student problems have replied to questionnaires. The tech-
nique, also, of those engaged in the survey has doubtless been faulty.
Nevertheless the Commission believes that it is justified in presenting
this first attempt of the kind to cover the subject in any adequate manner,
and the present book is made available to those interested, with the hope
that until some more adequate study shall appear, this pioneer effort will
be of service in calling the attention of Americans, and especially of
American Christians, to a great need and opportunity.
The first three chapters of the survey touch upon the general history
of student migrations, the backgrounds, political and religious, of the
students who come to America, and the influence and careers of students
who have returned to their homelands after study abroad. There follow
chapters dealing with the foreign students' contacts with American life
and with the American college, and a special chapter devoted to the con-
ditions which the approximately fifteen hundred women students face in
this country and their resultant reactions and attitudes. The attitude
of foreign students in general, and of the major racial and national groups
in particular, toward American life and especially toward American Chris-
tianity, are discussed in a following chapter, and the organized efforts on
behalf of these students are summarized in Chapter VIII. The final
chapter is devoted to constructive suggestions and recommendations arising
from the preceding chapters and received from various sources, both in this
country and abroad. The appendix includes detailed statistics and a map.
INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY xv
In the opening chapter on the History of Student Migrations, Mr.
King points out that in the nineties Germany occupied a preeminent
place among European nations in its attraction for foreign students. In
1899, 6,284 foreign students were registered in that country, while in
1900 there were but 1,770 foreign students recorded in France. The
World War brought about a great change. In France, in 1919, there
were 6,043 foreign students registered. Post-war figures for Germany are
lacking, but it is safe to say that while the tides of present-day world-
wide student migration to Germany set in at a relatively early date, at
the present time, so far as some lands are concerned, they have definitely
reached their height and begun to ebb. This change has been reflected
in the movement of American students to Germany. Among the distin-
guished American students to visit the universities of Germany a century
and more ago were Benjamin Franklin, and George Ticknor, called "the
originator of the university idea in America/* who first studied in Got-
tingen in 1819. In 1892 Americans led with twenty-two per cent, of the
foreign students in Germany; in 1919-20 the leading national groups
among the foreign students in Germany came from Eastern and South-
eastern Europe and from Mohammedan lands, with Americans in insig-
nificant numbers. Professor Gustave Lanson wrote in 1920: "There is
no doubt that France has definitely replaced Germany as the Mecca of
American students/* In 1922 there were between six and seven hundred
American students in academic residence in France. In the Far East
there has been a somewhat similar transformation in the currents of
student migration between China and Japan. In 1898, the first two
Chinese students were officially dispatched to Japan; in 1908, there
were more than ten thousand Chinese students in Japan. That year Dr.
Mott wrote : "The most striking fact in the student world in recent years
has been the migration of such large numbers of Chinese students to the
capital city of Japan." Since 1908, the tide has receded and there have
been various fluctuations, the present number of Chinese students in
Japan being estimated at two thousand.
Foreign students have been attracted towards America, beginning in
1784 with Francisco de Miranda, one of the "revolutionary trinity" of
Venezuela and Colombia. Miranda studied at Tale, as did Tung Wing,
who returned to China in 1859. Joseph Hardy Neesima, the founder of
Doshisha University, was in the United States in 1865-74. These men
were pioneers among the students who have come from South, East,
and West to America, which to-day has the largest enrollment of foreign
students of all countries in the world. In the official figures reported by
the Department of the Interior, Bureau of Education, in their pamphlet
2V i INTEODTTCTION AND SUMMARY
entitled "Residence of Students in Higher Institutions," published in
January, 1922, the total number of foreign students in colleges and uni-
versities is given as 8,357, The largest groups are from China, with
1,443; from Canada, with 1,294; from the Philippine Islands, with 857;
from South America, with 563. The grouping by continents is : Asiatics,
3,506; Latin Americans, 1,425; Europeans, 1,379. These totals, of course,
do not include the students in secondary and other schools of lower than
college grade.
The background, political and religious, of the foreign students who
come to America, is extraordinarily diverse. In Chapter II, edited by
Dr. D. J. Fleming, vivid and direct reports are made concerning eight
different racial and geographical areas. These reports are diverse but in
two respects they agree. First, they are alike in their emphasis upon
the difference in environment of the students in their home lauds and in
this country. "It is a long, long trail from the bamboo nzo in which
the African baby is born, to the great universities of the United States,
and it is not strange that very few students surmount the obstacles and
endure the vicissitudes which throng the pathway." "Politics have played
a larger part in student life in Europe than in America. . . . The student
has been the revolutionary, the champion of lost causes, the person willing
to give life itself for an ideal. . . . This political background makes it
difficult for the European student to understand and accept the irrespon*
sibihty of American students in political matters." "From no other
country do students come to the "United States for study with so diversi-
fied a background" as from India, "which embraces the largest variety
of languages, races, religions, and general social conditions" in the world.
In the second place, the reports quoted agree in the emphasis they place
upon the changing conditions abroad with the resultant opportunities
open to leaders of the coming generation. "The present intellectual move-
ment which is sweeping over the breadth and length of China" is a
"renaissance characterized by intellectual awakening, acquisition, of scien-
tific methods of research, revolt against established traditions and con-
ventions, and a great thirst for modern learning/* "The life and thought
of Japan to-day are in a seething ferment This is more marked than
at any time since the early seventies, when the Modern Era began. The
result is a spirit of inquiry and disillusionment which, especially among
students, verges on revolt." "We do not find in Latin America," to quote
from a passage by Garcia-0alder6n, of Peru, as cited by Mr. Inman,
either an "elegant skepticism, a Puritan religion, or even a mysticism like
the Spanish. Her Catholicism is a limited and official religion. We are
witnessing the decadence of traditional religion. . . . The robustness of
creative convictions which is the strength of the Biblical men of North
INTBODTJCTIOK- AMD SUMMABT xrii
America, the deep interest in human destiny, the stern sense of duty, the
realization of the seriousness of life, do not disturb Latin-American Cath-
olicism. ... In the Latin South, only a renovated and profound faith
can give to accumulated riches a national sentiment/'
Although the various writers who have contributed to this chapter are
concerned chiefly with the religious and political backgrounds of foreign
students coming to this country, they cannot refrain from pointing out
the responsibilities which rest upon Americans to receive them with
sympathy and to share with them their problems and perplexities. "With
a background that has been evolved out of the experience of centuries, and
impelled by the new aspirations and yearnings which have been awakened
in their hearts and minds by vast social changes, Oriental students are
flocking to European and American seats of learning to quench their
thirst for new knowledge. Whether they will achieve what they have
set out to do will depend upon the operation of two factors : an open mind
on the part of the. Oriental students, and an open door on the part of
the Western peoples; a willingness to learn the best on the one hand,
and a readiness to impart the best on the other." "Before the terrible
catastrophe which has practically swept our Student Movement [in the
Near East] into the grave, or into exile, there had been developed a strong
Student Movement there. Many students trained in this Movement are
now studying in this country. If in the future ... the way shall again
open for the spreading of the Gospel message, these young men and young
women will be in the forefront of the effort. Whatever is done to
strengthen and to help them in these days may be the very seed from which
a harvest shall yet spring up in that land where the blood of the martyrs
has flowed so freely since first the Church was founded in the shadow
of the Cross."
The influence and careers of students who have studied abroad and
have returned to their homelands is a subject of inevitable interest and
at times of controversy. With what attitude toward the countries where
they have studied, and in what frame of mind in regard to the problems
of their own lands will they return home? Has the net result of such
study abroad been beneficial or detrimental to the highest interests of their
own nations and of civilization? What contributions have they made to
the work of the Church? These and other questions inevitably arise as
one contemplates the great numbers of students who have left their native
lands for periods of voluntary exile of three, four, and five years, and then
returned to take up life and work anew.
Many of the impressions which these students receive of foreign coun-
tries are unfavorable. In answer to the question as to the effect on inter-
national friendship of study abroad by Spanish students, one individual
xviii INTBODUCTION" AND SUMMARY
writes: "Doubtful, as they find abroad more imperialism and hatred than
in Spain." An American writing of students from India in this country,
declares: "Indians are shocked by the sin they see here. From their
contact with missionaries and others in India, they get the idea that
America is clean and pure and holy. When they discover that this is not
so, a revulsion of feeling comes over them. Anti-social conditions noticed
are drunkenness, extreme poverty in a few cases, immorality due to
excessive freedom of sexes, crimes such as murders of blood-curdling
descriptions." "In the last three years, the attitude of students from
Latin America toward our institutions, our social life, and our people
in general has changed for the worse." Clearly there are dangers in
such residence abroad. A thoughtful Indian student writes of the danger
of estrangement from his own people ; the danger of becoming so "Ameri-
canized" as to be unfit for work among the common people of India;
the danger of becoming a fanatic on organization, "the organization craze"
being carried so far as "to become top-heavy; the danger of a belief that
all the methods of work in America would apply also to India."
Especially important is the effect of the years spent in America upon the
Christian faith and energies of foreign students. Here, again, many of
the results are not favorable. Of Japanese returned students one writes:
"Very few have entirely lost their Christian faith 3 but a considerable
number have lost the warmth and zeal that once characterized them."
An indication of the chilling effect of life in the United States upon
some of the students is given in the statement of a close Japanese observer :
"I can readily name twenty young Japanese who intended to become
ministers and entered American theological seminaries but later changed
their minds and entered education or business or official service. 5 * The
editor of the chapter concerned adds this qualifying statement: "Lest
this statement convey a false impression it should be added that a number
of these men had their eyes opened in America to the great opportunities
for genuinely Christian careers in social service and education." The
statement is sometimes made that more foreign students drop away from
the Christian Church after residence in this country than are added to the
ranks of the Church during residence here. The survey does not bear
out this contention. Detailed questions were asked in regard to individual
students in eight different areas of the world, the questionnaire to indicate
if there was a change in the Christian affiliations of such students before
and after residence in America. In general the two columns of answers,
before and after residence in this country, remain practically unchanged.
Those who were Christians before coming to the United States axe re-
corded as Christians after their return to their homelands; those who
were not Christians before entrance to our country returned to their
INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY xii
homelands as non-Christians. There is some gain rather than a loss.
Thus of 126 Chinese reported upon by name forty-two were Christians
before coming to this country and forty-eight were Christians after re-
turning to their own land. Of seventy-six students from the Near East
sixty were Christians before coining to this country and sixty Christians
after returning home.
The fact should be kept clear that these figures do not measure
accurately the warmth of the Christian spirit and activity of the various
students, but correspond rather to their own claims of being Christians
or non-Christians. But it can be affirmed in general that the results
of study abroad, despite some depressing instances, are more beneficial
than detrimental to the cause of international friendship and of the
Church. An Indian student spoke with fairness and with justice when
she wrote : "By the fruits we know the tree. The fruits of Hinduism are
caste division, poverty, polytheism, idolatry, the pride of the Brahmin,
the degradation of the outcastes. But in this country we learn that the
fruits of Christianity are liberty, social and educational progress, brother-
hood, honor for women, education, and social purity; and our influence
must be greater after living in such a land."
The roll of returned students and the record of their achievements in
their various countries makes in the main encouraging reading. The list
of students in the educational and diplomatic spheres in China, in educa-
tion in India and in Japan, cannot be ignored. Chapter III summarizes
the biographies of many such men. Of 146 students from Japan who
have studied in this country and have returned to Japan, most of them
since 1900, seventy per cent, are Christians, thirty-five per cent, are
teachers and researchers, twenty-two per cent, are in the ministry or in
active Christian service, and nineteen per cent, are in business or industry.
One writer in this chapter points out that the students under discussion
are those of a previous generation, and that it is unsafe to make general-
izations about them and apply these to the students of the present genera-
tion now studying in our schools and colleges, but the general conclusion
that there is more of advantage than of disadvantage in foreign students'
studying in America providing such students are chosen carefully and
are able to undertake post-graduate work would stand for both groups,
past and present.
The next four chapters of the survey are devoted to the study of
the problems and situations which these contemporary students are facing.
The fourth chapter deals with the students general relations to
American life. The first experiences in America are sometimes fraught
with hardship and injustice. "An Egyptian student from an influential
family, traveling second-class, detained twenty-three days at the immigrant
xx HfTEODTTCTIOH" AlfD STJMMABT
station pending investigation of his case, became ill and was much em-
bittered toward American institutions/' "Two Hindu students came to
the offices of the Friendly Relations Committee and reported they had
just paid a taxicab driver thirty dollars to bring them from the steamship
pier." But in fairness it should be said that the treatment given to
students entering this country by the immigrant officials and by others
in responsible positions is cordial and fair.
The effects of the Immigration Law of 1924 are discussed, and some
of the problems it raises are indicated.
There is much evidence as to the loneliness of foreign students after
they have taken up residence in our country and of the incalculable
results which have come from the thoughtfulness and hospitality of
Americans who have invited students into their own homes. "Some
students have been here five to six years without having received the
hospitality of a family circle." When students are asked what is the best
single privilege they can enjoy in America, aside from the attendance at a
college of their choice, the commonest reply is the privilege of being in
good homes. "Oh, if I could only drop in occasionally at some friend's
house and have a cup of tea, as we do in India, it would make all the
difference in the world/ 3 A Chinese student writes back to a missionary
friend in North China: "The people here, as a whole, have a strong
sentiment against Chinese, so it is rather hard for a young Chink to make
acquaintances in refined society. ... I don't feel at home at all. ...
The hearty welcome I get from church people makes me feel the more
that I am among strangers; they greet me so much more warmly than they
greet each other, it makes me feel that I am different I have written
the following prayer for myself: 'Almighty Gfod, our Heavenly Father,
Thou hast made the earth and the peoples thereon, white, yellow, red, or
black, at Thy will and they are all good in Thy sight. I beseech Thee
to comfort me when I feel like a stranger here ; help me to endure persecu-
tions and scorns; give me wisdom that I may understand that peoples
of whatever complexion are all Thy children and Thou art their Father
and Creator."*
Although the majority of foreign students who have studied in America
return with warm feelings of friendship and affection for this country,
there are some, especially non-Christians, who see clearly some of our
national failings. "The principal stumbling-blocks in the pathway of
Oriental non-Christian students" are "industrialism, imperialistic com-
mercial expansion, warlike temperament, racial haughtiness, misunder-
stood missionary policy/' "Is it conceivable that Western civilization
can at the same time develop great industrial corporations and write the
Twenty-third Psalm or the thirteenth chapter of I Corinthians?" Mr.
IffTBODTTCTIOff AND SUMMARY xxi
Hurrey speaks for thoughtful-minded students from every land in the
concluding paragraph of this chapter:
Most of the students from non-Christian lands admire the life and
teaching of Christ; they freely admit that our world would be a happier
place if all people followed Him. Often they are more eager than we
are to talk about Him and His philosophy; their challenge to us is: "We
would see Jesus." But they find His face veiled by man-made obstruc-
tions, theological controversy, sectarian strife, ecclesiastical organization,
ritualistic formalism. "It is not your Christ," they say, "that we reject,
but you, His followers. We want to know the universal Christ, unlimited
by geography, race, language, or sex; not alone the victorious Christ of
the triumphant entry, but Christ, the servant washing the disciples* feet,
the apparently defeated Christ, dying with criminals, the forgiving Christ,
the friendly Christ, the living Christ where can we find Him?"
Students from abroad are studying in more than four hundred Ameri-
can colleges and universities, the enrollment of foreign students varying
from one to a total of 950 in one institution. In general, according to
the reports received by the Commission, the colleges are favorable to the
registration of foreign students. "We feel they contribute a great deal to
the student body and open up lines of interest for our students in interna-
tional affairs." "We desire more of them."
As to the entrance requirements the bulk of conviction is against
extending leniency. In their standards of scholarship, foreign students
compare favorably, are on a par with, or are on the whole more serious
scholars than American students. All are handicapped somewhat by the
difficulty of the language with the occasional exceptions of "fluent students
whose spoken and written style puts our slangy and carelessly used English
to shame."
The problems of self-support are faced courageously by the great
majority of foreign students who are dependent upon their own resources.
A European student commenting on this fact and on the attitude of the
other students toward those who are working their way, writes: "To our
astonishment we found that a large proportion of the students, both boys
and girls, earned their living at the same time they were studying." . . .
Their "way of looking at work, of whatever sort it may be, and the
spirit among the students in relation to work is above praise." Unless
the new immigration law, which might be so construed as to keep out
of our country students of such spirit, is liberally interpreted by the
immigration authorities, manifest injustice will be done.
A detailed study of 575 Filipino students revealed the facts that 502,
or 87.3 per cent,, were wholly self-supporting; 9.8 per cent, were sup-
ported by others; and 2.9 per cent, were partially supported.
mi INTEODUCTrOS" AND STIMMABY
Of the colleges answering the questionnaires forty-three per cent, gave
some special financial aid to foreign students, in some cases restricted
to certain nationalities; seven per cent, accorded foreign students the
same treatment in scholarships as American students; fifty per cent, of
the colleges had no scholarships for students from abroad.
The comments of foreign students throw new light on the colleges and
undergraduates in this country. A European student contrasts as follows
the American and English educational objectives and curricula:
The student not only gets something different, but he expects some-
thing different. In England you go to the university to develop yourself,
while in America you go to the university to distingwsh yourself. There
you have a whole world of difference. In America a boy is always en-
deavoring to attain some outward sign of achievement, to make the college
paper, to make one of the clubs or fraternities, to make the football team.
The center of gravity is in the world of action far more than in the
world of thought.
You get the same tendency echoed in the academic sphere. I was
struck by the excellence, the vigor, and the competence with which affairs
relating to the world of action are handled. I found that every one could
use a typewriter and drive an automobile. I found that drives for money
were made on a vast scale and with a success undreamed of in England.
I found that the applied sciences, such as medicine and engineering and
agriculture, and the vocational studies, such as law, are at their best
taught (and learned) far better than anywhere in England. But when
it came to what one may call by contrast the world of thought, quite the
opposite was the case, rure science and the purely cultural subjects, such
as classics and literature and art, are absolutely inferior in most cases and
usually neglected. The situation in regard to them is either tragic or
comic. Accordingly, although one meets students who obviously show
promise of becoming great engineers, great doctors, captains of industry,
and so forth, one rarely if ever meets a student who seems destined to
become a Darwin, a Beethoven, a Shelley.
Another foreign student comments thus in regard to the social system
of many of our colleges:
This whole system of fraternities and sororities is one reason among
others for the remarkable uniformity of the American students; east,
west, south, and north, you meet with practically the same type. They
dress alike, they do the same things at the same times, they think and
speak in the same terms and have practically all the same interests. . . .
The standard seems to be uniformity. Every one who is different IB
"crazy/' perhaps a book-worm or the like, and only those students are
chosen to membership who are believed to be able to become good fra-
ternity brothers or sorority sisters, and that of course means that they
will have to measure up to what is considered to be good form. Under a
system like that you may be sure seldom to get a new member of a
.ct personality.
INTBODITCTIOtf AND SITMMABY xxiii
A certain percentage of students are not able to adapt themselves to
American ways and return to their homes with feelings of antagonism
rather than of affection for America and for Americans, hut with the
great majority of students the results are otherwise. "One of the stereo-
typed questions put to us during our six months' stay in this country
was 'How do you like America ?' In the beginning my answer was, 1 think
I like it, I can't yet tell definitely' ; then it became, 'I do like it, if s very
interesting 3 ; now it would be, 'I love it/" A Japanese girl, when asked
which country she liked better, America or Japan, answered with another
question: "Whom do you love more, your mother or your sweetheart?
How can I say? Japan is my mother; but America is my sweetheart/'
There will doubtless be general agreement with the conclusions which
Mr. Parson records at the close of this chapter:
A more numerous and a choicer and better prepared group of students
is coming year after year to the universities and colleges of the United
States of America. They now number nearly ten thousand; they take
their place as serious students, generally of high grade, not seeking favor
or privilege; not desiring pity or condescension, no matter what their race
or the troubled state of their lands; they show an appreciation of our land
and its language, while reserving to themselves a right to be sanely critical
where we fall short; they have achieved the highest honors in scholastic
attainment, in science, literature, medicine^ engineering; they accept
with becoming grace the slight aid we offer, as from brothers of one family;
they show their spirit in working for their education with head and hand;
they show remarkable powers of adjustment, yet preserving rare national
gifts and distinctive traits that we have come to value; they are generally
received without racial prejudice, and graciously excuse the lapses of
our own land, altogether too frequent; they show remarkable powers of
concentration in study, to the detriment of health and the neglect of pky,
in which phases of their life we would see them show more vigor without
succumbing to our overdeveloped love of sporting spectacles; they may
be, when they return to their own lands, apostles of international friendship
as, God grant, we may the better be for having known them.
A special chapter is devoted to foreign women students. Miss Katy
Boyd George out of her wide experience has drawn a clear and appealing
picture of these students and of the circumstances they face in this
country.
Perhaps the feature of American social life which comes with greatest
disillusioning force is the matter of race prejudice; the treatment meted
out to peoples of other colors than white. An East-Indian woman was
rejected at some twenty-odd boarding houses in one of our student centers
because of her color; another student of the same nationality when re-
fused a lodging place among a group of white women exclaimed: "I do
not mind living with colored girls; fortunately I have not the Christian's
xriv IHTBODUCTIOff AND SUMMARY
race prejudice." Eace prejudice toward students of other countries is
rarely found in active measures on college campuses. When it appears
there it takes the form of lack of intelligent interest and a tendency to
set the foreign student off in a class by herself. "I don't like America at
all, I am so homesick." "Some of the girls are kind to us, but very, very
few, and their kindness has pity in it. Most of them look at us with
curiosity and contempt." "Now I am quite used to the loneliness and I
like it better than being among foolish noises."
The lack of earnestness on the part of American students with refer-
ence to their studies is a cause of surprise to many students from abroad.
"I find no one here in my house who has a sympathy for studies. Some
one told me frankly, 'Oh, I hate them!' We talk about why we come
to college and one girl says, 'Oh, for anything but study/ I ask her,
'What for then do you come to college? and she replies, 'Because it is
stylish and father and mother wish it/ Surely it is good to say so frankly,
but how sorry I feel for the poor studies which are so hated."
Occasionally there is a girl who cannot stand up to the freedom
that comes to her here and who becomes decidedly unfitted for serious
social responsibility as the result of her years in America. Fortunately
she is rare. Usually the foreign student makes the transition with judg-
ment and poise.
With reference to religion, and especially to the religion of Christ, the
women students emphasize their crowded schedules and the difficulty they
sometimes have in securing enough time to devote themselves adequately to
religious activities and studies. But they also speak of being thrown
back on God in new ways because of being alone "Because I am alone
and my family is far from me, I trust God for everything/' Christian
friends have been the most help to them in their Christian life. Two
girls write with feeling in regard to the opportunities they had of attend-
ing Young People's Conferences: "It was a great privilege for me that
I could go to Conference . . . Still happy memories of
the past ten days are very clear and the songs I learned ever come out
of my mouth while I am doing work. I am keeping in my mind many
things which I am going to tell my people in Japan."
Another letter: "I am grateful that I could attend the
Conference. There is the beautiful place, the inspiring place for goodness
and love. I praise the great idea of those people who started inviting
the youth for the conferences there, where no one could fail to see the great-
ness and the love of the Maker of the world. It was very nice, interesting,
and instructive conference. Personally I had very valuable experience, and
hope to start similar things among our young people, by my return, to
Yugoslavia. I ain very glad that I made there new and nice friendships
HSTTEODTTCTIOlsr AND SUMMARY
XXV
with those American students that I was longing to meet, and to join
the international group, where we had our discussions and acquaintances.
Beside many inspirations that feed my love for your nation and your
country I had also wonderful rest at the conference. Therefore I am
afraid I am not able to express how much I am obliged to all for giving
me that chance/*
Miss George closes the chapter with this significant statement:
In closing, it is perhaps well to be reminded anew of the number
and significance of these women students from other countries. There
are some fifteen hundred of them from sixty-eight sections of the globe.
Besides such obvious nationalities as French, Eussian, Czech, British,
Filipino, Chinese, Japanese, Latin American, Indian, and the like, they
come from Bulgaria, Siam, South Sea Islands, Iceland, Greece, Honduras,
Korea, Java, Peru, Serbia, South Africa, Syria, Turkey, Sumatra, and so
on to the ends of the earth. They are significant because as home-makers
and professional women doctors, dentists, nurses, teachers they will
mould currents of thought in their own countries. If the impact of Amer-
ica on their thinking and living can be wholesome and releasing, none of us
can reckon the result in better social orders, in international good-will and
peace : for those ideals which the women of a nation set themselves to teach,
finally come to be written in the history of that country.
The attitude of foreign students in general, and of foreign women
students in particular, towards various aspects of American life and of
the American college, have been indicated in the chapters under review.
Chapter VII deals more especially with their attitude toward Christianity
as they have seen it expressed and in action in America. Mr. Telton
has had a mass of material to review and upon which to base his con-
clusions. The 830 individual questionnaires returned by the students
themselves are sources of special significance and value. Of the total
of 462 Oriental students, 311, or sixty-seven per cent., report themselves
as Christians. Of this total seventy-six per cent, became Christians in
their homelands, five per cent, (and these chiefly Japanese) in Hawaii,
and eighteen per cent, became Christians after reaching America. This
fact "is sufficient refutation of the statement sometimes made that there
is a marked loss, with no compensatory gains, in the number of Christians
among Oriental students who have studied in America/' Mr. Yelton
later points out, however: "It is hardly to be questioned that there is a
loss of faith and religious experience among Christians which approaches
the gain among non-Christians/' This loss Mr. Yelton ascribes to the
shock of American un-Christian life, disappointment in the Church and
its influence, and the apparent conflict of newly acquired ideas with the
xxvi INTRODUCTION AND SUMMAEY
teachings of the mission school. Eemoval of home restraints and sepa-
ration from Christian teachers and companions are other primary causes.
The direct judgments and opinions of the individual students con-
cerning the Christian Church and Christian people in America, as ex-
pressed in the returned questionnaires, are of interest and importance.
It is fair to say that the majority of the comments are favorable to the
Church although there is a distinct minority of critical opinion. Thus
of the 207 Chinese questionnaires, 111 are favorable in their comments
on the Church, 57 are critical, and 22 contain no comment. Favorable
opinions from the Chinese, Japanese, and Filipinos follow :
From the Chinese: "Christian workers are the nicest people to meet;
very kind to strangers. 5 * The Church is the "foundation of your social
order." The Church is "doing a great deal for the betterment of society
and of international friendship/' "The United States without Chris-
tianity would be entirely different in social structure; Christianity is its
moral foundation/' The Church is "high-spirited and full of hope/'
From the Japanese : "Christians are the pillars of society. The center
of gravity of this nation is the Church and Christians/' "It is one of the
most beautiful customs in the life of the nation/'
Firom the Filipinos: "Christianity is the foundation of American
civilization."
On the other side of the question, Mr. Yelton asserts with apparent
support for his statement: The fact cannot be ignored that there is
among foreign students in the United States a rising tide of criticism of
the whole Christian movement. This attitude is almost as pronounced
among Christians as among non-Christian students. Much of it is due
to inadequate knowledge of the policies and achievements of the Church
at home and abroad; but, when allowance is made for this, there remains
a serious situation.
Critical comment from the Chinese includes the following: "Many
Christians are sincere but are narrow and superficial/' "The Church is a
business organization, most efficient, but its religious powers are surely
degenerating/' "Social life is carried too far; young people go for a
good time but not to worship God." "The message of missionaries is not
practised in America." "The only really religious people are the old
people; the middle-aged go to manage church affairs and the young people
for social life." "Their orthodox teaching and unscientific spirit astonish
me/' "It is deplorable that the Churches are involved in petty arguments
against one another rather than devoted to energetic work/' "I nearly
accepted Christianity as I understood it when I was in China, but changed
my mind in the United States."
From the Japanese : Objection is raised to the "capitalistic control of
INTRODUCTION AISTD SUMMARY xxvii
the Church and its members and its businesslike effect." It is a "Church of
old folks" with the young people indifferent toward religion. The Church
has "strength of organization at the cost of vital power/* "Aristocratic,
capitalistic, impractical/' "Do not like rivalry among different denom-
inations."
From a Eussian student: "There are certain phases of American life
that can hardly be understood by a Eussian, at least during the first
years of his life m the United States. He is unable to reconcile the
apparent political and commercial dishonesty and moral laxity with what
he has seen and heard of American achievements in democratic govern-
ment, economic prosperity, and social and moral ideals. Notwithstanding
this he finds here an excellent opportunity to observe applied Chris-
tianity."
Much of this criticism is unquestionably sincere. Some of it comes
from intolerance and from lack of energy in appropriating what is offered
by the Church to students, both foreign and American. Many of the
students who have written such critical statements do not attend church
and have no opportunity of really knowing Christian people in this
country. A fraiik explanation of the source of some of the criticisms
quoted comes from a Chinese: "Why we do not go to church? Because
we have lost our Christianity now that we are away from home and away
from the influence of our Christian teachers at home. Because we are
too busy usually a sham because those who work on Sundays generally
have good times on Friday and Saturday evenings. Staying out late on
Saturday night is not favorable to going to church on Sunday. Because
of our intolerance, seeing only the evils in America and laying the blame
on the lack of influence of the Church." An interesting contrast of
American and Japanese Christians is contained in the statement of a
student from Japan: "In general, American Christians appear to be
more like Martha, while we Japanese Christians show some tendency of
Mary."
What appears to be a fair summary of the opinion of the majority of
students from abroad is indicated by a Chinese student's comment : "The
majority of Christian people in America are honest, sincere, unselfish,
open-minded, kind, and hospitable, and have high Christian ideals. The
churches are important centers but there are too many denominations and
divisions."
Within recent years there has been an increasing number of organi-
zations, both in our country and abroad, which have attempted to serve
foreign students. The first section under Chapter VIII is an outline of
the work of the more Important of these organizations, both in America
and in other lands. The Friendly Eelations Committees of the Young
xxviii DTTBODUCTIOW AND SUMMAET
Men's Christian Association and the Young Women's Christian Associa-
tion in this country, the World's Student Christian Federation, which
was founded in Sweden in 1895, and has done signal work in recent years
through its European Student Eelief Movement, the Corda Fratres,
founded in 1898 in Eome, and augmented later at The Hague Congress in
1909, by the Association of Cosmopolitan Clubs, the International Institute
of Education, the American Council of Education, "Comit6s de Patronage"
in France, and many other organizations have had records of energetic
achievement in the service of foreign students.
The second part of Chapter VIII deals with individual societies or
organizations m America that have addressed themselves directly to aiding
students from abroad. Included in this list are the Friendly Relations
Committees of the Young Men's Christian Associations, and the Young
Women's Christian Association already noted, Student Christian Associa-
tions, city Young Men's Christian Associations, the varied work of the
Church and of the Mission Boards of the Church, of local Friendly Bela-
tions Committees, of Cosmopolitan Clubs, and of Student Volunteer Move-
ments, and the activities of the International Institute of Education and of
the recently opened "International House" in New York City. Many of
these reports are based on detailed questionnaires and summarize what is
being done for foreign students in many cities and college centers. There is
much in these reports to be thankful for, and the solid way in which the
work has been begun by nearly all the societies and institutions described
gives promise for the future of progress to be made toward the ideal so elo-
quently voiced over the portals of "International House," "That brother-
hood shall prevail"
In making their contributions to the body of the main report, the
various writers have not been able to refrain from giving concrete sug-
gestions as to how the present situation might be improved and the
service of the organizations now at work be developed and strengthened.
The editors of the survey have selected the more important of these sug-
gestions and have grouped them in the last chapter under the heading
"Some Constructive Suggestions." This chapter includes advice and
counsel from the Far East, from the Near East, and from the South, from
those who have watched the students retiirning to their homelands and
have been moved to suggest ways in which they might be better served
while in America. There are suggestions from those who have studied the
relations between foreign students and American life in general, and the
American college in particular; and from those who feel a special re-
sponsibility for the organized work of 'the churches and Christian Asso-
ciations and individual institutions that have contacts with students
from abroad. The chapter ends with constructive suggestions from rep-
IFTBODUCTIOlSr AND SUMMABY xxix
resentative American leaders in education and in religion. To the direct
question, "How can foreign students be enlisted and made most useful in
the work of the Christian Church and in the cause of international friend-
ship, and where does the primary responsibility rest for this work among
them?" there are many answers, but there is unanimity of opinion that
the responsibility for work among foreign students rests upon the Chris-
tian people of America working through the Church and its agencies,
through Young Men's and Young Women's Christian Associations, and
through college faculties and student boards of advisors, with the par-
ticular help of the Friendly Belations Committees already organized.
Professor Latourette of Yale University writes: "Upon the foreign stu-
dent must be brought to bear the influence of the classroom, the home,
the Church, and the campus." Mr. Edward W. Bok suggests that "in-
stead of our intense anxiety to Americanize the foreign-born we might do
a little to Americanize the American/* since "we certainly cannot hope to
influence the foreign student until we strike the right chord ourselves . . .
with regard to our foreign policy." Dr. George M. Stratton, writing for
former President Barrows of the University of California, says: "The
entire university and the community outside the university is responsible.
But in a special way this responsibility must rest upon religious organi-
zations of the university and of the university town/' Dr. D. Willard
Lyon, Secretary of the Foreign Division of The International Committee
of Young Men's Christian Associations, writes: "The primary respon-
sibility for helping the foreign students in our North American colleges
rightly to understand and appreciate the basis of the Christian religion
and loyally to promote the application of Christian principles to inter-
national relationships rests, in my judgment, primarily with the Chris-
tian force resident in the educational institutions in which these foreign
young men are studying." Dr. Stephen J. Corey, of St. Louis, Vice-
President of the United Christian Missionary Society, expresses the
opinion of a great majority of those in touch with the situation when
he writes : "I would put first Christian homes. I can think of no greater
impact on the lives of these people from non-Christian homes. Chris-
tian people should consider this an opportunity for world service and
take these lonely young people in and accord them the courtesy and
influence of a Christian home/'
The whole situation is summed up dearly by Dr. John B. Mott and
Dr. Eobert B. Speer. The former writes:
To my mind the primary responsibility for reaching these foreign
students rests upon the various National Christian Student Movements.
In the case of the United States, this means the Student Young Men's
and Young Women's Christian Association Movements. My reason for
332 mraoDUCTioiT AND SUMMARY
this view is the fact that these organizations are interdenominational,
and thus represent all the Churches. They are also international as they
have contacts with virtually all the lands from which the foreign students
come. They have specialized on this problem, not only in America, but
in other parts of the world and have thus acquired a vast body of helpful
experience.
Dr. Speeds statement is as follows:
The responsibility for helping these men rests on two bodies, the
College and the Church. The influence of the College for good is only a
fraction of what it ought to be, and in too many cases it abdicates its
function of making full men out of these students. The Church did its
duty pretty well by some of the first students who came over, but later, for
a number of years, it neglected its task. Now it is being quickened to it
again. It ought, by means of Christian homes and local Christian min-
isters, the agencies of the Young Men's Christian Association and the
Young Women's Christian Association and various national instrumen-
talities, to lay out an adequate and efficacious plan to cope with this situ-
ation, presenting at once so clear a duty and so rich an opportunity.
In behalf of the Commission on Survey,
W. BEGINAUJ WHEELEIL
December, 1924.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
In addition to the members of the Commission the following persons
were co-opted for work on the various committees and rendered valuable
service in the gathering and summarizing of data:
J. E. K. AGGBEY
MABGABET BURTON
D. H. CABNAHAN, University of Illinois
ANNA MARIE CBOXJSE
GEOBGE M. DAY, College of the Pacific
OSOAB A. GAOITUA
H. E. EDMONDS
ALBA B. JOHNSON
H. K. KIBK-PATBIOK, Carnegie Institute
of Technology
H. KASHTWAGI
NORTON A. KENT, Boston University
MBS. H. W. LYMAN
WILLIAM D. MUBBAY
JULIAN 8. PABK
MBS. C. A. RAYMOND
JE D SOPEB, Northwestern University
PAUL VANOBDEN SHAW
ALEXIS R. WIBEN
JAMES B. WATSON
DAVID WHITE, Washington, D. C., Chief
Geologist, Dept, of Interior, U. S.
Geological Survey
JAMES R. WITHHOW, Ohio State Uni-
versity
EDWABD C. WOOD, Philadelphia
STEELING AWBTI-.T^ Denison University
JOHN A. ADDISON, Tulane University
H. W. BAYBBOOK, Oregon Agricultural
College
R. C. BEATY, Georgia School of Tech-
Grateful acknowledgment is made by the editors to the following
Student Association Secretaries:
LAURENCE J. Fox, Louisiana- State Uni-
versity
FRED C. FRIEDERIOH, Central Wesleyan
College
B. S. GRAHAM, University of Oklahoma
H. P. GBAVENGAARD, Wesleyan Univer-
sity (Connecticut)
FBED M. HANSEN, Iowa State College
S. Gk HARRIS, Lehigh University
NETLL HABT, Hendrix College
E. V. HARTUAN, Michigan Agricultural
College
C. D. HAYES, University of Illinois
CHARLES A. HOFFMAN, Iowa Wesleyan
College
JTTDSON B. HOLLOWAY, Washington and
Lee University
A. A. HOLTZ, Kansas State Agricultural
College
P. B. HOLTZBNDORXV, JR., Clemson Col-
W. C. BENNETT, Harvard University
TTirnfM-ATir D. BEBLEW, Wesleyan Univer-
sity (Connecticut)
FAY CAMPBELL, Yale University
C. W. CAKLTON, Syracuse University
CHABLES MOTJNTJOY, Montana State
College
H. Y. COMEB, University of North Caro-
lina
M. C. CUICMING, University of Kansas
ROLLIN V. DAVIS, Carnegie Institute of
Technology
PAUL N. DEBBING, Virginia Polytechnic
Institute
J. AXJFBED DILLON, University of Min-
nesota
ROBEBT HENRY DOLLIVEB, Morningside
College
R. C. DOUGHERTY, Qrinnell College
PHTTT.IP H. FARWELL, College of the
Pacific
R. DsH. FISHEB, New Hampshire Col-
B. R. FITZGEBALD, Iowa State Teachers
College
A. W. JONES, Springfield Y. M. C. A,
College
A. T. RGENA, Valparaiso University
J. T. KJESSLEB, Perm State College
H. L. KBIEQHBAUM, Indiana University
C. GK LAUGHLIN, Ohio Wesleyan Uni-
versity
C. L. MAXFTELD, University of Washing-
ton
W. A* MILNE, Ohio Northern University
zzzi
TTTTj
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
HUGH A. MORAN, Cornell University
F. E. MORGAN, Stanford University
J. W. McGiNNis, University of Southern
California
J. R. McKEE, Texas A. & M. College
C. DBWITT NORTON, Northwestern Uni-
versity
J. A PARK, Ohio State University
STAN R. PIER, University of Wyoming
A. L PORINTON, Bates College
STATEW HALL, Coe College
PAUL RICHTER, New York University
WALLACE M. Ross, Massachusetts In-
stitute of Technology
RALPH SGHRADER, Washburn College
FRED A SCHUMACHER, University of
Denver
S. M SHOEMAKER, Princeton University
BILL SHULER, Southwestern College
R H. SILVERTHORN, Purdue University
HAROLD M. SKIDMORE, Oberlin College
GERALD SMITH, University of Chicago
W. A. SMITH, University of Texas
A. W STEVENSON, University of Penn-
sylvania
M D STRANET, University of Pitts-
burgh
F. SULLIVAN, Oklahoma A. & M. Col-
LLOTD M. WALLICK, University of Mich-
igan
WALTER WATSON, University of Colo-
rado
AUGUST H. WESSELS, University of
Dubuque
JOHN WILLARD, Carleton College
H. W. WILLIAMS, Southern Methodist
University
F. E. WOLF, University of Wisconsin
Grateful acknowledgment is also made to the following college pastors
and pastors in college and university towns :
CHARLES B. ACKLET, New York City
E. F. ADAMS, Galveston, Texas
HAROLD N. AJKROWSMITH, Baltimore
E. W. BABCOOK, Troy, N. Y.
JAMES C. BAKER, Urbana, Illinois
SYLVESTER WOODBHIDGE BEACH, Prince-
ton, New Jersey
MURRAY B. BEATTIE, Golden, Colorado
0. W BEHRENS, East Lansing Michigan
EDWARD W. BLAKEMAN, Madison, Wis-
consin
J. H. BLOUGH, Ames, Iowa
CHARLES M. BOND, Athens, Ohio
EDGAR EWING BRANDON, Oxford, Ohio
W. H. BRIDGE, Grinnell, Iowa
BENJAMIN JAY BUSH, Lexington, Ken-
tucky
RICHARD B. CALLAHAIT, Pittsburgh
J. F. CARSON, Brooklyn, New York
HERRERT G. CODDINGTON, Syracuse, New
York
GEORGE L. COLLINS, Golden, Colorado
H. COWLEY-CARROLL, Hamilton, Ohio
EDWARD W. CROSS, Grinnell, Iowa
H. A. DALZELL, Chicago
Louis E. DANIELS, Oberlin, Ohio
H. W. DAVIS and EDWARD P. DENNETT,
Berkeley, California
B. W. DICKSON, Chicago.
N. C. FETTER, JR., Boston
RICHARD ORMB FLOTN, Atlanta, Georgia
GEORGE C. FRACXEB, Dubuque, Iowa
ROBERT FREEMAN, Pasadena, California
J. HARK FBEY, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
H. H. FROST, Minneapolis.
SAMUEL GARVIN, Colorado Springs.
JAMES EL GEORGE, Columbia, Missouri
CHARLES W. GILKEY, Chicago
H. C GLEISS, Detroit, Michigan
WILLIAM A. R. GOODWIN, Rochester,
New York
E T. GOUGH, Iowa City, Iowa
J STEELE Gow, Pittsburgh
HERBERT H. GOWEN, Seattle, Washington
W. W. HAMILTON, New Orleans
M D HARDIN, Ithaca, New York
C. W. HARRIS, Bloomington, Indiana
LEWIS B. HILLTS and W R. H, HODG-
KIN, Berkeley, California
JOHN HENRY HOPKINS, Chicago
H T. Hour, Granville, Ohio
WILLIAM HOUSTON, Columbus, Ohio
GEORGE F. HOWE, Burlington, Vermont
CHARLES F. HUBBARD, Seattle, Washing-
ton
J A. JAMES, Evanston, Illinois
J, F. JOHNSTONS, Hartford, Connecticut
ALPHA H. KENNA, West Lafayette, In-
diana
RAYMOND C. KNOX, New York
FREDERICK A. LETTOH, Amherst, Massa-
chusetts
ROBERT J. LOCKE, Champaign, Illinois
WARD W. LONG, Salem, Oregon
E. A. MOALPIN, JR., Madison, New
Jersey
W. A, McCoMB, Baton Rouge, Louisiana
W. G. MCDOWELL, JR., Auburn, Ala-
bama
WILLIAM M. MEMMJNGEB, Atlanta,
Georgia
PAUL MOHB, Berkeley, California
P. H. MURDICK, Columbus, Ohio
JOHN MTTCHEL PAGE, Urbana. UlinoU
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
TTTJfr*
GEOBGE L. PAINE, Cambridge Massachu-
setts
GEORGE H. PABKENSON, Manhattan, Kan-
sas
BOBEBT C. PETEBS, State College, Penn-
sylvania
LLEWELLYN* PHTT.T.TPS, Lewisburg, Vir-
ginia
C. J. POPE, Lincoln, Nebraska
PBENTIOE A. PTJGH, Nashville, Tennessee
C M. RECHABDS, Davidson, North Caro-
lina
GrEOBGB L. BiCHABDSON, Philadelphia
HENBY B. ROBINS, Rochester, New York
J. E. SABLES, Madison, Wisconsin
R. L. SEMANS, Chicago
AETHUB W. STALKER, ^rm Arbor, Mich-
igan
JOSHUA STANSFUXD, Chicago
GEOBGE CBAIG STEWABT, EVANSTON, Illi-
nois
C HOWABD TAYLOB, Bloomington, In-
diana
R K TUCKER, Baton Rouge, Louisiana
T F. WATKINS, Delaware, Ohio
JOHN F. WATTS, Northampton, Massa-
chusetts
M. M WOLF, Houston, Texas
CHABLES WOOD, Washington, D. 0.
WALTEB C. WHITAKEB, Knoxville, Tenn-
essee
RAY E. YOEK, Iowa City, Iowa
The following are persons resident in other lands whose collaboration
has made possible the presentation of many of the facts set forth in the
survey :
HANS NAGLE, Antung, Fengtien, China
J. W. NIPPS, Cheefoo
E. A. TUBNEB, Hangchow
H. L. HAAG, Harbin
HUGH W. HUBBABD, Paotingfu
EUGENE E. BABNETT, Shanghai
T. Z. Koo, Shanghai
K. F. LUM, Shanghai
0. B. MAGLLL, Shanghai
S. M. COWLES, Swatow
M. M. MEYERS, Tai Yuanfu
S. T. Liu, Tsinanfu, Shantung
W. P. WATKINS, Yunnanfu
T. DONALD SULLY, Agra, India
G. EVANS, Calcutta
M. T. KENNEDY, Calcutta
WILLIAM PATON, Calcutta
S K. BUDBA, Delhi
E. D. LUCAS, Lahore
D. W. DEVANESEN, Madras
ISAMU KAWAKAMI, Tokyo, Japan
ISAAC BABZA, Manila, Philippine Islands
E. S. TUBNEB, Manila
R. S MCCLENAHAN, Cairo, Egypt
C. E. LE PAEB TBENCH, Cairo
J. A. GLEN, Iraq
HUMPHREY BOWMAN, Jerusalem, Pales-
tine
DB. S. SHEHADEH, Jerusalem
PHILIP K. HITTI, Beirut, Syria.
EDWABD F. NIOKOLIY, Beirut
MARS-IT AT.T. D. Fox, Brummana
NASIM M. HULU, Sidon
CASS AETHUB REED, Smyrna
LESLIE W. LEAVITT, Tripoli
MABGABET DOOLITTLE, Tripoli
C. F. GATES, CONSTANTINOPLE, Turkey
DB. MABY MILLS PATRICK, Constanti-
nople
KEV. PAUL E. NILSON, Tarsus
DB JAB. KOBE, Prague, Czecho-Slovakza
HOBATIO S. KBANS, Paris, France
DB GEOBG KABTZEE, Berlin, Germany
NICOLA DE PIETEO, Florence, Italy
GOBHAM P. STEVENS, Borne
B. B. BJEEDEB, Belgrade
Jos CASTILLEJO, Madrid, Spain
EBIK FBOBEBG, Stockholm, Sweden
GUTT.LAUME FATIO, Geneva, Switzerland
FBANK S. BECK, La Paz, Bolivia
REV. W. H MOOBE, Juiz de Fora, Minas
Geraes, Brazil
SAMUEL R. GAMMON, Lavras
DB. W. A. WADDELL, Sio Paulo
TAGHNEB SANDOYAL, Cartage, Costa Rica
STA. ESTEB MEZEBVELLE, San Jos6
DB. J. A. UBTECHO, Managua, Nicaragua
J. C. FIELD, Lima, Peru
CHABLES R. HAMILTON, The Philippine
Islands
This book has been made possible through the generous gifts of the
following organizations and individuals :
THE AMEBIOAN BAPTIST HOME MISSIONABT SOCIETY
THE NATIONAL COUNCIL OF THE PBOTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHDBCH
THE Y. M. C. A. COMMITTEE ON FfeECNDLY BELAMONS AMONQ FOREIGN STUDENTS
THE Y. W. C. A. COMMITTEE ON FBTJENDLY BELATIONS AMONG FOREIGN ST
The Board of Foreign Missions of each of the following denominations:
xxxv
MJCXOBCODISX EKSCOP^JL CHTJBCB:
TBOE TVTTCTB:OI>IST EMSCOF-AZ. CHTJBOH, SOUTH
TBQE PBESBYTEBI^I* CHTUBOH: IN TECE U. S. -A
THIE REFOKM3ffii> CHTCTBCH: ITT AMITTRTCA
TTTK REFORMED Carcases: nsr TJ. S.
T'mc TJNTTED T.TTnp-FnrmATq- CL UHCBT UT
PBBSJJS; THJKTAKT CjauKOEC ox 1
Tlie following interested individuals :
OIVEB
MBS. Jooacnsr C^JEOtTrxssBS, Pasadena, Calif.
DB. CTTART.TBS 3Et. EnDiMLAJsr, Princeton, 1ST. J.
DB WTT.T.TAac B-AJsroBOFX TTTT.T^ Pou^hkeepsie, 27. IT.
Ms. IMoBTiitEB R. PBOOTOB, Proctor, Vt.
Mia. H!iyw^jEU> C. \Vooi>, Philadelpliia,
OUTLINE HISTORY 01 STUDENT
MIGRATIONS
THE FOREIGN STUDENT
IN AMERICA
CHAPTER I
OUTLINE HISTORY OF STUDENT MIGRATIONS
By HBKTET H. KING,
Secretary, The International Committee of Young Men's Christian
Associations
STUDENT MIGRATIONS IN THE MIDDLE AGES
THE importance of student migrations as a force in the academic
world is fitly symbolized by the fact that to them the -university as an
institution owes its origin. Evidence all points to the conclusion that the
earliest universitas originated with the foreign students of Bologna in
the last quarter of the twelfth century. 1 The motive which led in the
first instance to the organization of the university corporation was that
of mutual protection and assistance on the part of the foreign students.
It has been pointed out that probably the German students congregated
in Bologna were the first to feel the advisability of such corporate action.
For a long time the corporation which was consequently formed exerted
no influence over Bolognese students, who, unlike the foreigner, were
exempt from oath of allegiance to the rector, and to the last were not
members of the corporation. The professors also, as Bolognese citizens,
were not admitted to membership in the corporation.
The early Italian universities, then, were guilds of foreign students,
and their purpose, similar to that of the non-scholastic guild, is stated
as follows in the Statutes of the German Nation: "fraternal charity,
mutual association and amity, the consolation of the sick and support of
the needy, the conduct of funerals and the extirpation of rancor and
quarrels, the attendance and escort of our TDoctorandi* to and from the
place of examination, and the spiritual advantage of numbers/' In many
*For a more exhaustive discussion of the origin of the university and of the
whole subject of student migrations in the Middle Ages, see Bashdall, Hastings,
"The Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages."
3
4: THE POEEIGH" STUDENT IN AMEEICA
infltances the organization of a university took the form of several national
groups, combining in the maintenance of one rector and a united student
body, or of a rector for each nationality and a division of the university
on the basis of nationality.
Just as the university as an institution owes its origin to student
migrations, so also to a marked degree do individual universities owe
their existence to special student migrations, secessions, virtually, from
older universities. The first migrations of this character are said to have
originated with professors. Placentinus, for example, left Bologna to
establish schools at Mantua and afterwards at Montpellier, either in the
third or in the last quarter of the twelfth century. At the beginning of
the thirteenth century whole bodies of students, dissatisfied for one reason
or another with their treatment at Bologna, entered into negotiations with
other towns regarding transference thither of their "Studia Generalia."
A whole series of such migrations followed, one to Arezzo in 1215 in
consequence of a quarrel between the Lombards and the Tuscans, one to
Padua in 1222, migrations to Siena in 1321 and in 133S, and so forth.
The University of Yicenza owes its existence to a migration of scholars
in 1204 probably from Bologna. In 1228 there was a migration from
Padua to Vercelli. There is extant an interesting draft of the plans for
this new university, making provision for four rectors, one each for the
French, the Italians, the Provengals, and an unnamed group, thought
to have been the Germans. In 1338 there was a migration from Bologna
to Pisa, in consequence of an interdict laid on the former city by Benedict
XII. This restlessness and nomadic tendency of students grew so pro-
nounced, indeed, that at Bologna and elsewhere it became customary in
engaging the services of the doctors, to exact of them oaths that they
would not teach outside the city for a period of two years. Between
1227 and 1312 these oaths were administered by order of the town statutes
upon all doctors, intending to teach in a given city. In fact severe re-
pressive laws, sometimes exacting the death penalty, were directed against
all who might conspire to bring about student migrations from the various
university towns of Italy.
Portugal offers a striking illustration of the migratory habits of stu-
dents. The university founded by Papal Bull in Lisbon in 1290 was
transferred to Coimbra in 1308-9, returned to Lisbon in 1338-9, to
Ooimbra again in 1355, to Lisbon once more in 1377, and finally, in
1537, to Coimbra, where it has remained to this day.
In the early history of the University of Paris student migrations
and the presence of large numbers of foreign students * play an exceed-
'The presence of foreigners from relatively remote lands is indicated by the
following statement by a representative of the Sverige-Amerika StifteUe: "About
OUTLINE HISTORY OF STUDENT MIGRATIONS 5
ingly important part. Indeed the earliest extant Charter of Privileges
of that University was occasioned by a riot which occurred in 1200 A.D.,
when the servant of a nohle German student (a bishop-elect of Li6ge!)
was assaulted in a tavern. The nation-organization of the University
of Paris of the type outlined in the plans for the University of Padua,
to which attention has already been called came first into existence be-
tween 1219 and 1221. Between 1222 and 1249 a common rectorship was
instituted by the united nations. The organization embraced four national
groups, named from the nationalities predominant at the time of forma-
tion French, Normans^ Picards, English. According to this grouping
Picardy was thought of as including the Low Countries, England as in-
cluding the Germans and all the inhabitants of northern and eastern
Europe, and France as embracing all the more distant of the Latin races!
One of the most interesting medisaval student migrations of which there
is any record is the "Dispersion of 1229" from the University of Paris,
the outcome of a furious ''town and gown" quarrel. Unable to gain
satisfactory redress, the masters and scholars migrated to Oxford, Cam-
bridge, and the other "Studia Generalia" of France:, at Toulouse, at
Orleans, at Eheims, and especially at Angers, where the University per-
haps dates its existence as such from this dispersion. The return of most
of these masters and scholars to Paris was brought about in 1231 by a
series of Papal Bulls, providing for the punishment of the ecclesiastical
authority at Paris whose severity toward the students had occasioned
the dispersion, and what is even more important, establishing the great
Charter of Privileges that has been called the Magna Charta of the
university.
The origin of Oxford University is not explained in full by existing
documents, but there is said to be strong evidence that like the Universities
of Reggio, Vicenza, Vercelli, Padua, and Leipzig, it owes its inception
to an academic migration. Between 1165 and 1169 Henry II issued a
series of ordinances recalling English scholars from France. The occa-
the middle of the thirteenth century the Swedes went to the University of Paris.
Towards the end of the thirteenth century there existed at that university three
'foreign colleges/ only for the reception of Swedes. These colleges were: OolL
Upaahense at Rue Serpente et Ruelle des Deux Portes, which was founded through
a, Swedish donor, the dean of Upsala, Andreas And, who for the purpose gave two
houses in Paris to the university, which had belonged to the dean since 1285;
OolL Bo&rense was situated on the grounds of Sorhonne; and Coll. Lincopenae was
situated at the corner of Hue de Mont St. Hilaire and Hue des Cannes.
"The archbishop, Jakob of Upsala, allotted also about 1280, a sum to entertain
the Swedish students.
"At least twelve of the Swedish bishops during the Middle Ages have studied in
Paris, and four of the Swedish fellows got as far as to be presidents of the Uni-
versity.
"Towards 1350, the Swedes left Paris more and more and went to Prag, Erfurt,
Leipzig, Rostock, etc."
6 THE FOREIGN STUDENT IN AMEEICA
sion of this recall is thought to have been the quarrel between Becket and
Henry II, in connection with which the French king was hostile to
Henry II as the oppressor of Holy Church. The theory that this recall led
to the founding of Oxford "University is supported by the fact that though
there had been important schools at Oxford, there is no evidence of the
presence of more than one master at a time there before 1167. The theory
ascribes a causal relationship to the recall of the English scholars, whom
it supposes to have congregated at Oxford, and the elevation of that
town into a "Studium Generate/' which occurred about that time.
Cambridge, likewise, appears to have originated in a student migra-
tion from Oxford on the occasion of a quarrel there in the course of
which two or three imprisoned students were executed with the consent
of King John in the year 1209. Writing with what is thought to be
nothing in excess of the usual mediaeval exaggeration Matthew Paris states
that altogether three thousand scholars left Oxford at this time. Started
in consequence of this secession movement, Cambridge University was
undoubtedly strengthened greatly through becoming, together with Ox-
ford, a place of refuge for a part of the throngs of students who turned
their backs on Paris in 1229.
The academic history of Europe during the fourteenth, fifteenth, and
sixteenth centuries reveals with reference to student migrations a con-
tinuance of much the same conditions as we have found prevailing in the
latter part of the twelfth century and the whole of the thirteenth. The
wandering life adopted by students in the late Middle Ages is attributed
by Professor Paul Monroe in the chapter on "The Educational Renais-
sance" preceding his edition 8 of "The Autobiography of Thomas Platter/'
to "several phases of earlier mediaeval life, such as the habits of the
wandering priests, of the pilgrims both clerical and lay, of the crusaders,
and of the itinerant merchants and craftsmen." We have already noted
(p. 3) the similarity of the organizations of foreign students of the
mediaeval period to the non-scholastic guilds. The vagabond type of
existence of these wandering scholars, known as baccants, is well described
by Professor Monroe, and the Platter autobiography itself (written in
1572) throws a revealing light upon it.
From the facts brought forward in this section it is evident that
student migrations are not a thing of modern origin, that they were of
very general occurrence throughout Europe in the mediaeval period, and
that to them the university as an institution, and a great many individual
universities, owe their existence.
'Monroe, Paul, "Thomas Platter and The Educational Renaissance of the Six-
teenth Century," New York. D. Appleton and Company, 1904.
OUTLINE HISTORY OF STUDENT MIGRATIONS 7
FOREIGN STUDENTS IN GEBMANY
A most important chapter in any account of student migrations must
necessarily be that devoted to foreign students in the universities and
technological schools of Germany. An outstanding element in the early
prominence of Germany as the land par excellence for study abroad is
the fact that the German universities possessed to a marked degree the
elasticity of curriculum and freedom from irksome restraint so highly
prized by a student in a foreign land. To this circumstance is ascribed
Longfellow's preference for Gottingen over Oxford, which despite all
its elements of charm for a man of his tastes and temperament, offered
scarcely hospitable welcome before the foundation of the Rhodes scholar-
ships to students from the younger Anglo-Saxon lands. The first re-
corded American inspection of German university life was that made
by Benjamin Franklin, who in 1766 paid to Gottingen a visit of which
an interesting account has been preserved. 4 The first academic degree
awarded to an American student in a German university was that of M.D.
conferred upon Benjamin Smith Barton by the University of Gottingen
in the year 1799.
During the period 1781-1850 there were according to official records
over a hundred Americans enrolled in different German universities. The
mention of a few of those whose contributions to American scholarship are
outstanding would be perhaps rewarding.
Edward Everett and George Ticknor studied together in Gottingen.
The former returned bringing back and presenting to the Harvard library
more German books than all the rest of New England possessed. The
latter, after twenty months' academic residence in Germany, received in
1819 appointment as Professor of the French and Spanish Languages
and of Belles Lettres at Harvard University. Profoundly impressed with
the thoroughness and systematic administration of German education, he
proposed many reforms at Harvard, and though they were carried out
immediately only in his own department, he has the substantial honor
of having given the initial impulse to the reforms which were ultimately
to transform Harvard into a university in the broadest sense of the term.
He has been called "the originator of the university idea in America/' a
title which should save him from oblivion by reason of the overshadowing
fame of his great successor in the chair of the French and Spanish Lan-
guages and Belles Lettres at Harvard, another American student of the
German universities of the day, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
4 For more extensive data on this whole earlier period of American study in
Germany, see Hinsdale, B. A., "Notes on the History of foreign influence upon
education in the United States. German influence." Report of the United States
Commissioner of Education. 1897-1898. Volume I.
8 THE FOBEIGN STUDENT IN AMERICA
A far different type of American student in Germany was F. H. Hedge,
who at the tender age of twelve years went to Germany about the year
1818 in care of an older American student, George Bancroft. After five
years* study in Germany, this precocious youth returned to the United
States, where he became a pioneer of German poetry and metaphysics 5 and
according to Dr. W. T. Harris, was "the German fountain among the
so-called Transcendentalists."
A contribution in the field of pedagogy was made by another most
interesting pioneer of American study in Germany, Joseph Green Cogswell,
who in 1816 took up academic residence in Gottingen. This man was
well-nigh omnivorous as a student and insatiable as a seeker after in-
tellectual and scientific progress. He obtained practical instruction from
Professor Benecke in library-management; he visited Goethe at Jena
and became greatly attracted to him; he studied mineralogy; and in 1819
he took his Ph.D. in Gottingen. At that time he was a Member of the
Helvetic Society of Natural History and of the Academy of Munich. The
year 1821 found him again in his homeland, Professor of Mineralogy and
Chemistry at Harvard, and university librarian. In the latter capacity
he arranged the library on the same plan as that at Gottingen winning
thereby the emphatic approval of Professor George Ticknor. In 1823 he
founded near Northampton, Massachusetts, the famous Eound Hill
School. In this undertaking he was at first associated with George Ban-
croft, who in 1818 on advice given by Edward Everett, then Eliot Pro-
fessor of Greek Literature, to President Kirkland, another German uni-
versity product had been sent to Germany on scholarship from Harvard,
and had acted as chaperon to the youthful F. H. Hedge. During the
greater part, however, of the career of the school, which was operated until
1839, Cogswell was the sole guiding genius. In this enterprise, which in
the first eight years of its history enrolled 293 pupils from nineteen
states and four foreign countries, this pioneer in the realm of elementary
education applied many ideas imported from Germany and Switzerland,
but modified to suit a New-World environment. A characteristic feature
of his school was individual attention to each boy. After abandoning the
enterprise because of ill health and financial reverses, Dr. Cogswell de-
voted himself until 1863 to the organization and administration of the
Astor Library in New York City. His work in this connection is a notable
contribution, but the contribution by which he most deeply impressed
himself upon the life of his generation was the Eound Hill School.
Another outstanding exponent of the early days of American study in
Germany was J. Lothrop Motley, the historian, best known for his "His-
Nation, August 28, 1890.
OUTLINE HISTORY OF STUDENT MIGRATIONS 9
tory of the Rise of the Dutch Republic." He was a Korpsbru&er of Bis-
marck at Gottingen.
The growth in the enrollment of foreign students in German universi-
ties during the latter half of the nineteenth century is carefully analyzed
by the United States Commissioner of Education (Report of 1902). He
shows that as early as 1835-36 there were in attendance in German uni-
versities 475 foreign students, representing 4.02 per cent, of the entire
enrollment. By 1870-71 these numbers had increased to 735, comprising
6.1 per cent, and by 1901-02 they amounted to 7.55 per cent, of the
entire enrollment in the German universities.
In 1892, the report points out, America led with 415 of her nationals
(22 per cent, of the entire foreign-student enrollment) resident in German
universities, but in the year 1901-02, Russia was in the lead. In the
summer semester of 1899, a to take the foreign student enrollment in a
typical year, there were in all approximately 6,284 foreign students resi-
dent in Germany. The significance of this last figure becomes somewhat
apparent when we reflect that about the same time (1900) the number
of foreign students enrolled in the universities of Ifrance was only 1,770, T
and that even as late as 1904 figures compiled by the United States Com-
missioner of Education showed a total of only 2,673 foreign students in
the United States. 8
Figures compiled for the year 1912-13 9 show an attendance of 4,838
foreign students in the higher educational institutions of Germany. These
figures would be more than doubled if special, art, technological, jnrnrng,
forestry, and agricultural students were added. Of the number officially
reported 2,332, or nearly half, were Russians. Of the remaining 2,506
the two largest groups were from Austria-Hungary (839) and the Balkans.
There were 289 Americans, 184 "Asiatics," 313 Swiss, 143 English, and
various other nationalities in smaller numbers. Among the women stu-
dents in this list, Russians and Americans were most largely represented.
In addition to these, Britons, Austrians, Dutch, Swiss, Scandinavians, and
students from the Balkans were reported as ^coming in growing numbers/*
During the War foreign-student migrations to Germany were unques-
tionably disturbed very considerably. In a report 10 covering the period
October 1, 1919 September 30, 1920, we are told that "At the present
time the German educational authorities have received 5,400 applications
Report of the United States Commissioner of Education, 1898-1899, Volume 2.
'"Opportunities for Higher Education in France." New York. Institute of
International Education, 1920.
8 The figures in question were not complete, however, for no statistics regarding
foreign students in women's colleges were included.
Reports of Student Movements, 1912-1913. New York. World's Student Chris-
tian Federation, 1913.
10 Reports of Student Movements, 1919-1920, etc., p. 40.
10 THE FOREIGN STUDENT IN AMEEICA
from foreigners to be allowed to study in German Hochschulen. Pour
groups of foreigners are preeminent among these: (1) those from
Eastern and Southeastern Europe; (2) those from Mohammedan lands
of the Near East, Turkey, Egypt, and even India, (3) those from East
Asia; (4) Spaniards and South Americans. In Berlin there are now
more Egyptian students than in London." Detailed statistics regarding
post-war conditions of foreign study in Germany are not available. The
organ of the Union of Russian Student Emigration Organizations states
that there were in the spring of 1922 some 1,500 Russian students in
Germany. About one thousand Chinese students are reported to have been
resident in Germany in 1923. 11 It is stated in a recent number of the
Allgemeine Missions-Nachrichten that in the summer of 1933 there were
150 Indian students in the universities and high schools of Germany. It
is elsewhere stated that during the winter term 1920-21 there were 6,334
foreign students in Germany. 12 A more recent unpublished report (1922)
from the Foreign Secretary of the German Student Christian Alliance
makes the following significant comment on the number of foreign students
in Germany:
The ratio between Germans and foreigners in the universities has
hardly changed. According to official statistics about ten per cent, of the
students in Germany are foreigners. It is to be noted, however, that the
real number of German students has increased materially. The latter
now amount to something over one hundred thousand, according to which
the number of foreigners received in the Hochschulen would approximate
some ten thousand. Aside, however, from those who are in Germany for
only a short time, there are present a much greater number of foreign
students more or less permanently resident in Germany who, for one
reason or another whether on account of economic difficulties or because
of incomplete preparation have not matriculated.
Numerous Ferierikurse are offered in Germany for the benefit of the
foreign summer visitors to that land. In the summer of 1923, for example,
a two-weeks' course 18 for foreigners was held in Berlin, June 18-30.
This included 'lectures and practical classes in German Phonetics, Gram-
mar, Literature, Ballads, Art, etc."
STUDENT MIGRATIONS TO THE UNITED STATES
We have seen that the tides of the present-day world-wide student
migration to Germany set in at a relatively very early date, and that at
^The Federation News Bheet, London. World's Student Christian Federation,
December, 1923, IK 2.
2 Reports of Student Movement, 1920-21. New York. World's Student Christian
Federation, 1921. Report of the German Student Christian Alliance.
a Notes and News on International Educational Affcwr*. New York. Institute
of International Education, April 1, 1923.
OUTLINE HISTORY OF STUDENT MIGRATIONS 11
least so far as some lands are concerned, they have definitely reached
their height and begun to ebb. 1 * The beginnings of foreign student life
in the United States were also of an earlier period than is perhaps gener-
ally realized. In 1784, or fifteen years before the University of Gdttmgen
bestowed the first German degree to be conferred upon an American stu-
dent, Francisco de Miranda, later one of the outstanding leaders in the
liberation of the Latin-American lands, journeyed to the United States
and took up his studies at Yale. The beginning, both chronologically and
causally, of the Chinese student migration to the United States is repre-
sented by Dr. Yung Wing, the first Chinese to receive an education here.
He also studied at Yale. He returned to China in 1859. History has
preserved also the name and fame of one of the earliest Japanese youths
to come to our land in quest of an education. This pioneer was Joseph
Hardy Neesima, later the founder of Doshisha University, who in 1864-65
found his way to this country in an American sailing ship and by
the help of fnends studied at Phillips Andover Academy and later en-
tered Amherst College, after graduation from which institution he returned
to Japan in 1874.
Though of early origin, student migrations to the United States seem
not to have gained in volume so rapidly as did those to Germany.
Whether the explanation of this fact is to be found in the geographical
position of our country, in the conflicting claims of the culture of the
Old World and that of the New, or in conditions of quite another char-
acter, it is perhaps futile to inquire. SuiSce it to say that in its report
for 1904, the United States Bureau of Education gives statistics show-
ing 2,673 students of seventy-four foreign lands enrolled in the in-
stitutions of higher learning in the United States exclusive of colleges
for women only, unfortunately not embraced within the scope of the
statistics offered. Figures compiled by the United States Bureau of
Education also show the total number of foreign students in Germany
in 1904-05 to have been approximately 8,786 (3,097 regularly enrolled
in the Polyteclmica) ; and statistics offered by a French writer give the
total number of foreign students in France, January 15, 1904, as S,046. ltt
Of the 1904 total of 2,673 students from other lands resident in higher
institutions of learning in the United States, British North Americans
were numerically the leading group, numbering 614, Mexicans second
with 308, Cubans third with 236, Japanese fourth with 105, Chinese
fifth with 93. Over 150 students from various lands of South and
"See, however, under "Statistical Recapitulation," p. 1, regarding the new im-
petus being received in some parts of the world toward increased migrations to the
German Socteohulen.
u Houllevigue, I*, "Les 4tudiants Strangers dans noa universites." Revue de
Port*, May 15, 1917.
13 THE POEBIGN STUDENT IN AMERICA
Central America are represented in the list. Prom the Philippine Islands
there seem to have been 46.
Figures for 1911-12 ie show 4,856 foreigners enrolled as regular stu-
dents in the universities, colleges, and technological schools in the United
States. Summer students brought the total up to 5,227. The leading
country represented in point of numbers was Canada with 898, and second
the West Indies with 698, China sending 549, Japan 415, Mexico 298,
the United Kingdom 251, India and Ceylon 148, Germany 143, and
Russia and Finland 120. Brazil sent 76, Argentina 51, Peru 28, Colombia
28, Chile 19, and the other South American countries 72.
Statistics compiled from official sources 17 fix the number of foreign
students resident in the colleges and universities of the United States
for the academic year 1920-21 at 8,357. The number of students from
foreign countries included in this list was 6,901, from American pos-
sessions, 1,456. Prom American possessions the largest groups were
from the Philippine Islands, 857; from Porto Rico, 302; and from
Hawaii, 208. The largest groups from foreign lands to appear in these
official tables are those from China, 1,443; from Canada, 1,294; from
South America, 563 (the largest unit, 126, coming from Brazil) ; from
Japan, 525; from the West Indies, 396; from Russia, 291; from Mexico,
282; from India, 235; from Africa (including South Africa), 223; from
Prance, 160; from Great Britain, 149. Viewing the table from another
standpoint, one notes that it accounts for 1,425 Latin-American students
in academic residence in the U. S. A. during the year under review, 1,379
Europeans, and 2,506 Asiatics.
Por purposes of study of conditions of foreign student life in the
United States, more comprehensive statistics than those quoted thus far
are necessary. The numbers of foreign students enrolled in private pre-
paratory schools, business colleges, high schools, and other institutions
not included in the figures cited mount mto the thousands. Filipino
students here at the present time may be cited as an illustration. The
figures given above, compiled on the college and university basis, fix the
number for 1920-21 as 857. A "Directory of Filipino Students in the
United States/' issued by the Bureau of Insular Affairs of the War
Department under date of January 1, 1922, gives the names and addresses
of 1,156 Filipino men and women students engaged in study in the United
"Foreign Students in the United States. 17. S. Commerce Reports, August 28,
1912. See also Capen, Samuel Paul, "Opportunities for Foreign Students at Col-
leges and Universities in the United States." Chapter IV, "Number and Distribu-
tion of Foreign Students at American Universities." United States Bureau of
Education. Bulletin, 1915, No. 27, Whole No. 654. Washington. Gorernment
Printing Office, 1915.
"Zook, George F., Specialist in Higher Education, Bureau of Education, "The
Besidence of Students in Higher Institutions," Washington, D. C, Department of
the Interior, Bureau of Education. Government Printing Office, 1922.
OUTLINE HISTORY OF STUDENT MIGRATIONS 13
States at the time of publication. According to latest available statistics,
based upon the 1924 address list compiled by the Y. M. C. A. Committee
on Friendly Relations among Foreign Students, there are now 1,971
Filipino students resident in the United States.
Viewing the question of numbers from the standpoint of the Com-
mittee on Friendly Relations among Foreign Students, an agency which
in its solicitude for the needs of the foreigner studying in our land has
no occasion to distinguish between the high-school pupil and the uni-
versity graduate-student, we find estimates in the various annual editions
r of the World's Student Christian Federation's publication called "Re-
ports of Student Movements" which supplement helpfully the statistical
data from official sources. We find it estimated that the number of for-
eign students here in 1922-23 was 10,000, exclusive of foreign men.
students in high and preparatory schools. In addition to this number,
(the Committee on Friendly Relations of the Young Women's Christian
Association lays claim to 1,500 foreign women students resident in the
TT. S. A. in 1922-23.
* Very prominent among the various groups of foreign students in the
United States are the Latin Americans. 18 This prominence has been
due both to the numbers and to the eminence of individuals who have
obtained their education here. Since the days of Francisco de Miranda,
thousands of Latin Americans have followed in his footsteps. These
have included Fernando Bolivar, a nephew of the Liberator, former
^President Err&zuriz of Chile, Dr. Martinez Aguirre, a distinguished engi-
neer of Ecuador, former President Menocal of Cuba (Cornell '88), former
President Lefebre of Panamd, former Ambassador Bonillas of Mexico,
vlnstitutions which early attracted Latin-American students, particularly
from Mexico and Central America, were the Catholic schools in Cali-
fornia and also the College of the Christian Brothers, St. Louis, and
the Convents of the Sacred Heart there and in St. Charles, Missouri. 19
I A correspondent from Colombia says : "The movement to Europe and
U. S. A. comprising all classes of students, dates specially from the close
of the last revolution in about 1903. Peace opened up new prospects;
foreign capital, mostly English, built railways and river steamers; and
English began to displace French in the language curriculum. The teach-
ing of English has been directly responsible for the sending of many
Colombians to the U. S. A., where better prospects for business allure
them and keep many permanently in the U. S. A."
"See Hurrey, 0. D., "Builders of Pan-Americanism." The
Magazine, December, 1917.
-Report of the Bureau of Education, 1014, pp. 670-672,
14 THE FOREIGN STUDENT IN AMEEICA
Regarding Latin-American students coming to the United States Mr.
S. Q-. Inman writes :
In Peru the Government sent a student now and then to the United
States as far back as 1880, and in 1907 or 1908 eight students, most of
them because of personal merit, to prepare especially in normal school
work. In 1920, furthermore, the Government sent about twenty students,
all but five of whom were later recalled because of lack of funds. The
Government has no positions open for those whom it is recalling. Many
more, of course, have come on their own account than under the
Government.
In Costa Bica, the most advanced of the Central American Eepublics
in education, the history of student movements has been interesting.
Each movement seems to have been due to special offers of help or a
campaign of advertisement. Fifty years ago the German colony pro-
moted such a movement for the study of medicine in Germany. About
1900 a number of conferences were held by Frenchmen and a num-
ber of scholarships were offered in medicine and other sciences. A few
years later there was an offer from Chile of several scholarships given
by the government for teaching. About 1908 a large number went to
the United States, though not as a result of scholarship offers. Mr. Chase,
the American Consul at that time, was responsible for the movement.
Two years ago President Obregon of Mexico offered to Costa Eican stu-
dents several scholarships in different subjects.
As early as 1909 the government of Venezuela by executive decree
appropriated scholarship funds for study and research in foreign lands. 20
Increasing numbers of students have come on these scholarships to tech-
nological schools in the United States.
In 1921 the number of Latin-American students in this country was
estimated 21 at 5,000, of whom 3,000 were enrolled in colleges, univer-
sities, and technological schools, the remainder in preparatory schools
and other institutions of like rank. A study recently conducted by the
Institute of International Education 28 indicates quite conclusively that
the great majority of Latin Americans enrolled in the colleges and uni-
versities of the United States are engineering students. Liberal arts
seems to come second in the case of most of the countries, and medicine,
dentistry, and commerce are other favored subjects of study.
10 A similar governmental measure was the decree of May 20, 19 18, by which
the Brazilian Minister of Agriculture, Industry, and Commerce was authorized to
offer to the beat students of agricultural and industrial training in the country
prizes of trips abroad for study. These prizes included traveling expenses for
round trip and a monthly allowance for living expenses abroad for two years.
Large numbers of Brazilian students have come to the United States on these
scholarships. (Bulletin of the P<m~A.merwan Union. March. 1910. pp. 301-303.)
*H. L. Brainerd, "Latin-American Students, the Nation's Guests/' Bulletin of
the Pan-American Union, April, 1921, pp. 367-370.
11 See Notes and News on International Affairs, New York. Institute of Inter-
national Education, April 1, 1023, pp. 58-61.
OUTLINE HISTORY OP STUDENT MIGRATIONS 15
Another interesting and important ethnic group of foreign students
in the United States is that composed of Chinese young men and women
resident in our colleges, universities, and other educational institutions. 28
It has been pointed out that the first word in the Analects of Confucius,
written over twenty-three hundred years ago, means "learn"; and from
the fourth century B. C. until the present day learning has occupied
first place in the regard of the Chinese. During the early period of
its history, and in fact for many centuries, the learning of the Chinese
was in the main scholastic, and though practical, yet not concerned with
science. Contact with the outer world, however, shocked them into the
consciousness of the insufficiency of the native culture. The so-called
opium war of 1843, the treaties of Nanking and Peking, defeat by
Japan in 1895, the seizure of territory in 1897-98 by Germany, Bussia,
and England, the allied capture of Peking in 1900, and the defeat of
Russia by Japan in 1904 were the chief events which completed this
process. This background helps one to understand the migration of
Chinese students to the United States, the pioneer of which, as has been
already mentioned, was Dr. Yung Wing, of Tale, who returned to
China in 1859 and started a movement which bore fruit in 1872 in
the sending to America of thirty boys, selected and supported by the
Peking government. These thirty were followed by additional install-
ments of thirty each in each of the three succeeding years. These stu-
dents entered the preparatory schools and later the colleges and universities
of New England. A few years later, however, when most of them were
in college, some within a year of their degrees, a reactionary movement
in China against this westernization of picked Chinese youth led to
the cutting off of the stipend, and the recall of all these students, who
returned home almost in disgrace, so discriminated against upon every
hand that it was hardly possible for them to obtain employment vouch-
safing them a livelihood. At a later date, however, they were to be
heard from one as "the brains of the anti-opium crusade/' another as
President of the Board of Foreign Affairs of the Imperial Chinese Gov-
ernment; another as chief engineer of the Peking-Kalgan Railway, the
"For a more exhaustive study of this subject, see also Lockwood, W. W.,
"Chinese Students in America," The Independent, September 28, 1911; "American
Indemnity Scholarships in China/' The Outlook, March 25, 1911; 'The Education
of Young China," The Independent, July 10, 1916; "Chinese Boys in America, 1 '
The Outlook, August 29, 1917; "Chinese Students in the United States," United
States Commissioner of Education, Report, 1911; "Chinese Indemnity Students,'*
United States Commissioner of Education, Report, 1914; World's Student Christian
Federation, "Reports of Student Movements," section on Foreign Students, in the
various annual reports of the American Student Young Men's Christian Associa-
tions, and of the Student Young Women's Christian Associations of the United
States of America; Hurrey, Charles DuBois, "Student Migrations A Challenge to
Student Christian Movements," The Student World, July, 1916; and Brockman,
Fletcher &, "Chinese Students in America," The Student World, July, 1908.
16 TEE FOREIGN" STUDENT IN AMERICA
first to be constructed entirely -under Chinese survey and supervision;
and others in other positions of the very highest importance in the life
of the nation. But it was nearly forty years before the Chinese Govern-
ment sent any more students to the United States. The new move-
ment was prepared for in a measure by one of the viceroys, Chang Chi-
tung, who realized the value of foreign education, writing that it was
"China's only hope," and who was responsible for sending Chinese young
men to Japan for study. Through acceptance of the proposal made by
John Hay, when Secretary of State of the United States, to remit one-
half of the yearly payment of the Boxer Indemnity, a total amount of
nearly twelve million dollars gold, for the education of Chinese stu-
dents in the United States, it became possible in 1908 for the Chinese
Government to send Chinese students here for study. In 1914 the
Chinese Government began to include women among the students sent
by the Boxer Indemnity Fund. One has only to mention the names
of Wellington Koo, David Z. T. Yui, 0. T. Wang, Hawkling Yen, 24 and
Dr. Mary Stone to realize the importance to the present-day China of the
later migration of students to our land. Nor is this importance indicated
solely by the names of a few highly exceptional men and women. In
1917 Tsing Hua College, Peking, published a "Who's Who of Ameri-
can Returned Students/' This book contains 215 pages of biographical
records, two or three to a page, of American returned Chinese students,
and the importance of the positions filled by these students after their
return to China is the outstanding impression produced by the volume. 25
The statement is made that in 1895 there were eighty Chinese students
in the United States, in 1911 eight hundred, a gain of a thousand per
cent, in fifteen years. Of these eight hundred Chinese students, about
half were maintained by the different Provincial Governments of China,
or by the Boxer Indemity Fund. Carefully compiled statistics for the
year 1921-22 place the number of Chinese students then resident in this
country at 1,218, of whom sixty-five were women.
According to statistics recently compiled, 88 the largest numbers of
Chinese students in the United States are enrolled in liberal arts courses,
and the second largest in engineering. The subjects next in favor among
M Later secretary of the Advisory Committee on Traffic in Opium, The League of
Nations. See Monthly Swiunary of the League of Notion*, Vol. II, No. 4, April,
1922, p. 82.
11 As -an example of more recent Chinese students m America whose contribu-
tion, to the sum-total of human knowledge and well-being is significant, one may
cite Ta Chen, M.A., Sometime Fellow of Columbia University, whose study en-
titled "Chinese Migrations with Special Reference to Labor Conditions/' was pub-
lished in July, 1923, by the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, Wash-
ington, D. C.
* Notes and TSfewa on International Educational Affairs. New York. The Insti-
tute of International Education, 1923, p. 59.
OTTTLIHTE EISTOBY OP STUDENT MIGBATIONS 17
the Chinese seem to be commerce, agriculture, education, medicine, and
theology.
Apparently fourth in numerical importance among the national or
ethnic groups of foreign students resident in the United States at the
present time are those from the Philippine Islands. This migration
started soon after the American occupation of the Islands. A most
interesting study 27 of it has recently been made by Mr. L. T. Buiz ? of
Tale University, for a number of years secretary for Filipino students
of the Committee on Friendly Belations.
Mr. Euiz points out that the government early adopted the policy
of selecting a number of best qualified Filipino students between sixteen
and twenty years of age, and sending them to the United States for
a period of four or more years of study here at government expense.
As a result of the first examination held under this plan a hundred
students, representing different parts of the country, were selected and
sailed for the United States on October 13, 1903, which date thus marks
the beginning of what is known as the 'Tensionado Movement" Dur-
ing the year 1903 three more students were added to the original num-
ber; in 1904 forty-three more were sent over; and in 1905 thirty-nine;
but between that date and 1912 the largest number sent in any year
was eight. On the latter date, partly because of the establishment of the
University of the Philippines in 1911, the act providing for the mainte-
nandfe of Filipino students in the United States was amended to apply
only to graduate students. Because of this amendment the number
of pensionados here from 1912 to 1919 represented a very low figure,
ranging from two to five each year. The need of properly trained men
to fill positions requiring technical and scientific knowledge was, how-
ever, felt very keenly, and by action of the Philippine Legislature of
1918 the sum of $300,000 was set aside for the purpose of sending more
pensionados to the United States. Before the end of November, 1919,
114 of these government students had sailed for the United States, to
pursue their studies here under the supervision of the Philippine Edu-
cational Agent, Dr. W. W. Marquardt. With a few exceptions these later
pensionados were men and women who had been in government employ
for one to fourteen years, being selected for their interest in certain
special fields of study. A large number had already secured the degree
of Bachelor of Arts from colleges and universities in the Philippines;
""Filipino Students in the United States." See also Surrey, Charles DuBois,
"Student Migrations A Challenge to Student Christian Movements," The Student
World, July, 1916; "Filipino Students in the United States," United States Com-
missioner of Education, Report, 1911; and Bureau of Insular Affairs, War Depart-
ment, "Directory of Filipino Students in the United States," January 1, 1922.
Washington* Government Printing Office, 1922.
18 THE FOREIGN STUDENT IN AMEBICA
some were holders of the Master's degree. In 1919 there were 130
pensionados in the United States, 46 more being added to this number
in 1920, 3 in 1921 (a year of business depression in the Islands), 13 in
1922, and 34 in 1923. Toward the end of the academic year 1923-24
there were 71 pensionados in the United States. The government sup-
port of the full pensionado includes an allowance of $70 a month ($80,
if the student is resident in New York City) for subsistence, quarters,
laundry, etc., together with payment of necessary college expenses, in-
cluding tuition, fees, books, medical attention, and clothing.
The movement of private Filipino students to America, some of them
wealthy, but the majority self-supporting, began almost as early as
the American occupation itself. The self-supporting students represent
the largest group in America at the present time. Having found their
way to this country as cabin-boys on ships, as stowaways, as temporary
laborers in the employ of the Hawaiian Sugar Planters 9 Association, or
as enlisted men in the United States Navy, they proceed to earn their
livelihood by all the various means familiar to the self-supporting Ameri-
can student. Students who have been self-supporting while obtaining
their education in the United States enjoy a higher rating as to initial
salary under the Bureau of Education than do the pensionados.
Of the 1,156 Filipino students listed by the Bureau of Insular Affairs
as resident in the United States in 1922, 280 were taking engineering,
181 commerce, 149 medicine and allied courses, 98 law and allied courses,
50 agriculture, 43 education, 43 sciences, 192 were in high schools, and 120
were unclassified.
Writing in The Student WorU, April, 1917, Mr. Katsuji Kato, then
secretary for Japanese students of the Committee on Friendly Eela-
tions, stated that in the course of an existence of a little over a half-
centuiy, the Japanese student migration to America had reached a total
of over two thousand young men. An early impetus had been given
in 1866 when through the influence of the Reformed Church there were
several Japanese studying at Rutgers College and at Monson Academy,
in Massachusetts. Analyzing the figures for the year under review,
Mr. Kato noted that of the approximately one thousand Japanese stu-
dents in the United States, some seven hundred were enrolled in col-
leges and universities, the remainder in secondary schools. Among them
were fifty or more government students who but for the War would
have been studying in Europe. The majority of the Japanese study-
ing here at the time of the review had come dependent largely upon
opportunities for self-support. A directory of Japanese students in North
America in 1921-22 puts the number at 865, nineteen of them studying
in Canada.
OUTLINE HISTORY OP STUDENT MIGBATIONS 19
As in the case of the Chinese, the majority of the Japanese students
enrolled in the educational institutions of the U. S. A. would seem to
be pursuing Liberal Arts courses. Among the specialized subjects of
study, for which many of the liberal arts students are doubtless pre-
paring, theology holds first place, engineering second, and commerce third.
The following comments made by Mr. Galen M. Fisher in December,
1923, six years after the statements made by Mr. Kato, throw an interest-
ing light on the subject of Japanese students in the United States:
The number of Japanese who have studied in the United States dur-
ing the past fifty years is not accurately known, but there is little doubt
that it has exceeded five thousand men and women. N"o one who has
witnessed the part played by these students upon their return to Japan
can question that their influence has been powerfully felt in every range
of activity, predominantly in education, government service, business,
and Christian work. It is true that comparatively few of the men in
the highest places in civil office or army and navy service have been
educated in America, but when it comes to the universities, business
enterprises, and the churches, a list of the head men would undoubtedly
show that a larger number had gone to America for education and
observation than to any other country.
These students have come chiefly from the middle class. Their
fathers have been for the most part merchants, officials, educators, or
e'S. Among the students in Pacific Coast institutions, however, a
proportion have come from the homes of farmers. Frequently
students who have come from poor homes are of samurai lineage and
have the energy and ambition and proud traditions which account for
their triumph over all obstacles and their rise on their return to honored
posts in government or private enterprise.
In recent years the number of students sent abroad by the Imperial
Department of Education or by various Government colleges has increased
on account of the decline or inaccessibility of the Continental univer-
sities to which most of them had previously been sent. Out of a total
of eight hundred to one thousand Japanese students who are in the
United States at any one time, only a small proportion less than ten
per cent. are Government students. Of the remainder possibly one-
half derive the greater part of their support from their parents or
relatives; the other half must depend upon their own efforts entirely.
In 1920-21 there were according to previously cited records issued
by the United States Government 235 Indian students in academic resi-
dence here. The University of Illinois led the list with thirty-one and
the University of California followed with twenty-six. According to
Mr. B. R. Barber, to whom the writer is indebted for most of the in-
formation here presented regarding students from India at present in
the United States, there are probably a number not included in the fore-
going figures, so that one might safely say that there are in the United
States from two to three hundred Indian students.
20 THE FOREIGN STUDENT IN AMERICA
A majority of those coming to America are supported in the main
by their parents. Some who are more ambitious and less judicious feel
that if they can only put foot "in the land of the f ree" everything will
be all right, jobs will open up, the money will flow in, and "somehow"
they will be able to get an education. In some cases Indian Associations
or Provincial Governments send men abroad for special equipment and
of course stand ready to pay all expenses. But they are most careful
whom they select and the results are usually gratifying. Those who
undertake the venture without due consideration or advice, and with
insufficient means are the ones who suffer. Engineering, liberal arts, agri-
culture, and commerce are the subjects of study being pursued by the
largest numbers.
The migration to the United States of students from France 28 has
attained but recently sufficient importance to merit special mention here,
and its significance at the present time lies not in the numbers of stu-
dents concerned but in the fact that it is part of a most interesting
plan for an international interchange of students. During the War
the Association of American Colleges developed this "Program of Inter-
national Reciprocity; and largely through the efforts of the executive
secretary of that organization, working in cooperation with the Ameri-
can Council of Education, the United States Department of Education,
the French Minist&re de ^Instruction publique, and individual educational
institutions in France, more than sixty-five colleges in twenty-three dif-
ferent states offered to French women students scholarships covering
living expenses, board, tuition, and in some instances incidental and
traveling expenses. In all 230 such scholarships were awarded, and
the French Government appropriated seventy-five thousand francs for
traveling and personal expenses of the women students to whom scholar-
ships should be awarded. By November, 1918, 113 French women stu-
dents, preparing themselves to be teachers, had arrived on the basis
of this plan, and in September, 1919, their numbers were augmented
by the arrival of eighty-seven more carefully selected French women
students. Early in April, 1920, the Association of American Colleges
turned over to the American Council on Education the administration
of the Franco-American scholarship exchanges. During the five-month
period, July-December, 1918, this latter organization had offered twenty
scholarships to disabled French soldiers, and m the course of the entire
18 For further atudy of this question, see "Scholarships in American Colleges
for French Girls," Sohool and Society, July 6, 1918; "French Girls Here for Edu-
cation," Literary Digest, October 12, 1918; Bulletin, The Association of American
Colleges, Vol IV, No. 5, November, 1918, Vol. VI, No. 2, March, 1920; The Educa-
tional Record, published by the American Council on Education. Washington. D. C..
Vol. 4, October, 1920. ^^
OUTLTUE HISTORY OF STUDENT MIGRATIONS Bl
academic year, 1918-19, thirty-eight French soldiers came to this coun-
try for study. During the autumn of 1919 twenty young Frenchmen
were brought here for study, under the auspices of the Association of
American Colleges. According to M. Champenois of the Office National
des TTniversit6s et Bcoles Frangaises there were on fellowships or on
scholarships in the United States on April 27, 1922, forty-seven French
women students and eight men.
Students from France enroll in so many different courses that it
seems difficult to particularize with regard to their academic and voca-
tional preferences. The majority, however, appear to be enrolled in
liberal arts. 29
In the United States there are numerous agencies actively employed
either in behalf of foreign students generally or in the interest of one
or another of the numerous foreign groups. These agencies, both in
the United States and in foreign lands, constitute so important a theme
that a later chapter will have to be devoted exclusively to a considera-
tion of them.
THE FOEEIGN STUDENTS OP FEAJTOB
From the very beginnings of university life in the Middle Ages
France has been a center of student migrations from all adjacent lands
and from the British Isles. In modern times the French sphere of
influence in this regard has been vastly extended. One needs but slight
familiarity with the literature of Latin America, for example, or with
that of Russia before the Revolution, to realize something of the vitality
of the influence of present-day French culture upon the intellectual life
of great ethnic groups.
The increase in student migrations to France within the present
century has been most marked. 80 On January 15, 1904, there were
enrolled in the five university faculties of Law, Medicine, Sciences, Letters,
and Pharmacy, in Prance, 2,046 foreign students.
Statistics compiled at Dr. John R. Mottfs request for the academic
year 1909-10 give an interesting picture of the foreign-student popu-
lation of France that year. The total, including art and engineering
students, but apparently excluding normal-school students, amounted to
m Notes and New* on International Educational Affair*, New York. Tne
Institute of International Education, April 1, 1923, p. 59.
"See Houllevunie, L., "Les Etudiants Etrangers dan nos UmversiteV* La
Revue de Pans, May 15, 1917; "Annuaire Generate de la France et de 1'etranger,
1920-21," p. 301; 0. Bougie in La Revue de Paris, June 15, 1919, pp. 750-765;
"Opportunities for Higher Education in France/' New York, The Institute of
International Education, 1920; "French Universities and Our Scholar*/* The
Nation, July 19, 1917; ''Americans in French Universities," Literary Digent, May
1, 1920; Bulletin, Association of American Colleges, March, 1920.
22 THE FOREIGN STUDENT IN AMEEICA
5,680. Russia headed the list with 1,805 students (290 of them women
medical students), Germany taking second place with 416, Roumania
coming third, with 396, the Ottoman Empire fourth, with 240, the
United States fifth, with 239, the British Isles sixth, with 216, and
Austria-Hungary seventh, with 205. The Egyptian delegation numbered
181, and the Swiss, 143. The other countries represented, more than
twenty-five, all told, had in each instance delegations of less than a
hundred, most of them being under fifty, and some consisting of only
two or three.
By January 15, 1914, the total had been increased to 6,132. It is
interesting to note the chief ethnic elements in the foreign-student popu-
lation of France the year before the War. More than half of the
officially tabulated foreign students in France at that time were Rus-
sians, of whom there were in all 3,126. Attention should be called to
the fact that they formed at the same time the largest component part
of the foreign-student body in Germany, in Belgium, and in Switzerland.
The second largest group was that of the Roumanians, numbering 458.
Other prominent foreign student delegations were the Bulgarians with
291, the Greeks with 131, the Latin Americans with 117, the Serbians
with 103, students from the United States with 54, and the Portuguese
with 28. Of the total number of foreign students included in the official
statistics, 4,431 were men, 1,701 women.
In forming an estimate of the numbers of foreign students actually
engaged in study in France, one should bear always in mind the fact
that the official figures give only a partial view of the field. Thus the
pamphlet issued by the Institute of International Education in 1920
under the title "Opportunities for Higher Education in France" in pre-
senting the contrast between the foreign-student situation in 1900, when
there were 1,770 foreign students enrolled in the universities alone, and
that in 1914, when there were 5,560, comments that if there were
added to the latter number those pursuing courses in special schools,
art students, students enrolled in summer courses, etc., the total number
of foreign students in France immediately before the Wax would probably
be more correctly estimated as in excess of ten thousand.
It is interesting to note that the official statistics show the total uni-
versity enrollment of France in January, 1914, to have been 40,251, in
July, 1919, 28,889, though the figures of the foreign-student enrollment
for the same years show but little diminution from 6,132 to 6,043.
The number of foreign women students dwindled appreciably, however,
from 1,701 to 488. Another fact of importance is the growth in en-
rollment of American students, from 54 in 1914 to 2,772 in 1919, the
latter figure due in large measure no doubt to the well-known presence
OUTLINE HISTOBY OF STUDENT MIGRATIONS 23
in France on the latter date of large numbers of American college and
university men.
The number of foreign students matriculated in French universities
on July 81, 1921, was 6,477, an increase of 1,396 over the numbers
reported July 31, 1920 an increase, also, in may be noted, over the
numbers already cited for January 15, 1914, though comparison between
January and July statistics is somewhat misleading, for a considerable
number of foreign students arrive after January 15. lake the other
official statistics of foreign students in France, these figures for July 31,
1921, do not include students taking courses in French technological
institutions, or art or music students. It is stated that there were in
May, 1922, 595 Russian students resident in France.
According to the official report of the National Bureau of French
Universities bearing on the year 1920-21, there were 5,898 foreign
students in French Lyces and institutions of secondary education.
Monsieur Champenois of the Office National des Universit6s et Ecoles
Franchises, stated on April 27, 1922, that on a conservative estimate
there were engaged in study in France on that date between six hun-
dred and seven hundred American students. Like the official figures
regarding universities, the estimate did not include art students, tech-
nological students, or special students of any category. All figures re-
lating to higher education in France include only those regularly matricu-
lated at the French universities in the five faculties of Letters, Sciences,
Law, Pharmacy, and Medicine. This estimate, taken in conjunction with
the figures regarding American enrollment in German universities be-
fore the War, would seem to justify the remark of Professor Gustave
Lanson, as he is quoted in The literary Digest, May 1, 1920, that "There
is no doubt that France has definitely replaced Germany as the Mecca
of American students, but this is not wholly a result of the War, since
a change in the American outlook has been observable in Europe since
1900, and is due to temperamental considerations."
An interesting group of foreign students in France is that composed
of Chinese. For several years a certain number of Chinese students
have been always resident in France. In an article on "Chinese Stu-
dents in Europe" contributed by Mr. David Z. T. Tui to The Student
World, January, 1914, the number of the writer's countrymen studying
in Paris is estimated as in excess of a hundred. In the years immedi-
ately following the War, the numbers were vastly increased. A news-
item in The Student World, under date of July, 1920, S1 states that the
number of Chinese then studying in France was about one thousand. A
report received in this country in May, 1922, by Dr. T. T. Tsu of the
"Page 12,
24 THE FOREIGN STUDENT IN AMERICA
Committee on Friendly Relations among Foreign Students, gives on the
authority of the Chinese Students' Christian Association in France the
following important estimated statistics regarding Chinese students in
France:
On Government support 60
On private support 100
On partial Government support 300
Part-time students, part-time workers 1600
In the Chinese University at Lyon 1160
Girl students 50
Of these various groups, the students of the Chinese-French Univer-
sity at Lyon seem to be particularly interesting. The French Govern-
ment gave to China the use of an old fort situated on the top of a
hill at Lyon for housing the Chinese students, the upper floor of one
of the buildings being utilized for sleeping quarters for the men, and
the ground floor providing space for reading room, classrooms, and a
men's dining room. The thirteen girls in the school lived in another
building. These Chinese students were engaged in an intensive study
of French, the mastery of which is a necessary preliminary to admis-
sion to the Lyon University. The Chinese students in France are served
by a weekly bulletin, Journal Hebdomadaire de VY. M. 0. A. des EtiuKants
Chinois en France, published at 11 Rue Jean de Beauvais, Pans V.
The categories are such that there are great possibilities of duplica-
tion of figures, but one can assert from them with some assurance that
they indicate a total of over two thousand Chinese students in France.
Summer courses sa for foreign students are highly developed in France.
During the summer of 1923 such courses were offered by the following
universities: Besangon, Caen, Clermont-Ferrand, Dijon, Poitiers (at
Tours), Rennes, Strasbourg, Toulouse, Grenoble, Lille (at Boulogne-sur-
Mer), Nancy, and Paris.
THE ACADEMIC STBANCKER WITHIN THE GATES IN THE UNITED KINGDOM
Student migrations to the British Isles are of very early origin. There
is a record, for example, that in 1369 Edward III ordered the expulsion
of all foreign scholars from Oxford and Cambridge. In Scotland there
still remains a suggestion of the old nation-organization in the manner
of election of the Sectors of Aberdeen and Glasgow Universities. In
the Colonial period Americans attended the Inns of Court in London.
Five of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were included
"Note* and News on International Educational Affair*, New York. The Inati-
tute of International Education, April 1, 1923, Fourth Serieg, Bulletin No. 3.
OUTLINE HISTORY OF STUDENT MIGRATIONS 35
in these numbers. There is said to have been a considerable attendance
of Americans, also, at Trinity College, Dublin, and at the University
of Edinburgh. Attendance at the latter institution, particularly in the
Faculty of Medicine, has continued from Revolutionary days to the pres-
ent time.
The thought of student migrations to Great Britain doubtless sug-
gests first to all Anglo-Saxons throughout the world the Rhodes scholar-
ships, a system according to which provision is made in perpetuity for
the support at Oxford, for a term of three years each, of about 175 se-
lected scholars, from the British dominions and from the United States.
These date back to the death in 1902 of Cecil Rhodes, the founder of
them. The number of Rhodes scholars in residence in the year 1921-22
at Oxford was 190. 88
The English themselves, however, seem scarcely to think of these
Rhodes scholars as foreigners at all. Thus in its annual report to
the World's Student Christian Federation for the year 1912-13, the
Student Christian Movement of Great Britain and Ireland speaks of
more than two thousand foreign students, and submits the following
interesting table showing the different parts of the world from which
they have come:
India 1200 Japan 40
Egypt 500 Burma 40
China 300 Siam 30
South America 70
This list develops a total of 2,180 without the inclusion of a single Rhodes
scholar!
Comprehensive statistics of a detailed and accurate character bearing
on the foreign-student situation in the British Isles seem not to have
been prepared until the Universities Bureau of the British Empire pub-
lished its first list of Foreign Students in 1920-21.** This list is now
compiled and published annually and a careful analysis of it in the
1924 "Yearbook of the Universities" published for the Universities Bureau
of the British Empire 84a shows in academic residence in the United King-
dom a total of 4,171 foreign students, 1,135 from Africa, 778 from Amer-
ica, 1,441 from Asia, 536 from Europe, and 281 fromj the Pacific
"The Yearbook of the Universities of the Empire, 1922. Edited by W. B.
Dawson and published for the Universities Bureau of the British Empire. London,
G. Bell and Sons, Ltd., 1922, p. 190.
M "Students from the King's Dominions Overseas and from Foreign Countries in
the Universities and University Colleges of the United Kingdom." London. Uni-
versities Bureau of the British Empire, October, 1921.
*** Appendix .ySTT, "Students from Overseas in the Universities and University
Colleges of the United Kingdom."
26 THE FOBEIGN STUDENT IN AMEEICA
Islands. India, Burma, and Ceylon, as an ethnic group, head the list
with 1,090 students in the United Kingdom during the year under re-
view; South Africa and Rhodesia come next, with 744, the United
States of America being represented by 402, Egypt by 321, Australia by
176, then Canada and Newfoundland by 165, the West Indies and Ber-
muda by 127, China by 126, and New Zealand by 103. Other interest-
ing groups are those from Japan (82) and South America (71). Russia
held the lead among European lands with 91 of her nationals in academic
residence in the British Isles, France taking second place with 63,
Switzerland third with 44, Holland fourth with 40, Norway fifth with
27, then Poland and Roumania with 26 each, Greece with 25, Spain with
24, then following the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes with 22,
Sweden and Belgium with 18 each, and Italy with 16.
A recent report of the British Student Movement makes comment
that these students represent "nearly fifty different races/' and that in
the membership of the Student Movement House, 32 Russell Square,
London, there are "forty-four different races."
A development that has taken place in the British Universities within
the present century is the provision of Holiday Courses for the benefit
of foreign students. 85 Summer Extension Meetings were held at Oxford
and Cambridge in alternate years during the period 1904-14. Since
the War a similar system of summer lectures has been inaugurated. The
summer meeting of 1922 at the University of Cambridge extended from
July 29 to August 18. A vacation course in education open to both men
and women was held at Oxford in August, 1922. Special summer
courses were offered in London also. 86 In the summer of 1923 the
Delegacy for the Extension of Teaching beyond the Limits of the Uni-
versity held a summer session at Oxford July 27 to August 15. The
main subject of study was Universities, Mediaeval and Modern, and Their
Place in National Life. No school was held in Cambridge because of
the arrangement providing for the holding of summer meetings in alter-
nate years at the two universities. In Edinburgh summer courses were
given during the years 1905-13.
An interesting chapter in international academic relationships was
enacted during the War when upon the fall of Louvain Cambridge Uni-
versity formally asked the university officials of the stricken Belgian
town to bring over to Cambridge all available Belgian professors and
students and to resume at Cambridge the corporate existence and func-
* "Encyclopaedia and Dictionary of Education," VoL n. Edited by Professor
Forster Watson, M.A., DJatt. London, New York.
* Notes and News on International Educational Affair*. New York. The Institute
of International Education, April 10, ]922. Third Series. Bulletin No. 2: also
Fourth Series. Bulletin No. 3, April 1, 1923.
OUTLINE HISTORY OF STUDENT MIGRATIONS 27
tions of the University of Louvain. 87 Cambridge extended a similar
invitation to the University of Li6ge. Though it was found for technical
reasons impossible for either institution to transfer to English soil its
corporate existence, unofficial courses were conducted at Cambridge by
Belgian professors somewhat along the lines of those that had to be
abandoned in the homeland. The curricula were not complete in their
scope but they included a rather extensive organization of lectures in
engineering, the sciences, commerce, and art.
THE STORY or THE FOREIGN STUDENTS IN SWITZERLAND
Switzerland doubtless enjoys the distinction of having been the nation
to enroll among its students the largest proportion of foreigners to be
found in any modern land. According to figures for 1895-96 presented
by the United States Commissioner of Education in his report for that
year, there were among the 3,908 students of Switzerland 1,667 or 42.6
per cent, of foreign nationality. The lands most prominently repre-
sented at that time were Germany, with a delegation of 549, Russia,
with 399, Austria-Hungary with 143, and Bulgaria with 137. Next in
numerical importance came Boumania, with 86 of her nationals in the
Swiss student body, Italy with 68, America with 65, and France with 63.
The most marked characteristics of the history of foreign students
in Switzerland since 1896 are the increasing numerical importance of
Kussian students, certain effects of the War upon the whole foreign*
student situation of the land, and even more pronounced, the influence
upon it of after-war conditions.
By 1908, it is said, 88 one thousand of the five thousand students
enrolled in the German-speaking universities of Switzerland were Bus-
sian subjects. The same authority asserts that in 1910 seventy-five per
cent, of the students of French-speaking Switzerland were foreigners, and
of the enrollment of Geneva University, eighty-three per cent., represent-
ing thirty different nationalities.
Not only Russia, but the other Slavic lands as well, were prominently
represented in the student population of Switzerland by 1910. This
constituency according to Pierre de Benoit 89 amounted then to over
three thousand, some forty per cent, of the regular student body of the
country. In Geneva the Bussian students frequented one particular quarter
which had come to be known as "Little Russia."
The Beverend P. de Bougemont, former General Secretary of the
""Belgian Professors and Students at Cambridge," Nature, November 28, 1914,
p. 341.
"Henriod, H. L., "Principles. Methods, and Aims of Work for Foreign Stu-
dents/' The Student World, January, 1020.
-"The Russian Students in Switzerland," The Student World, April, 1010.
28 THE FOHEIGN STUDENT IS AMEEICA
Swiss Stndent Christian Movement, reports* that during the winter
term of 1913-14, among the 9,475 students in the Swiss Universities,
4,538 were foreigners, 993 of them women students. It is interesting
to compare the statistics of some of the leading ethnic groups of this
period with those of 1896. Now Eussians hold first place very strongly,
with a total enrollment of 2,194 (the great majority of them Jewish
students, denied the privileges of university education in their own land),
the Balkan group coming second, with 647 representatives (522 of them
Bulgarians), the Germans holding third place with 579, and the Austro-
Hungarians fourth, with 306. Special mention is made of the Islamic
group, numbering in that year between eighty and ninety.
Then came the War, resulting in a progressive and marked decrease
in the numbers of foreign students in Switzerland, 41 but great numbers
of foreign students were unable to return to their own lands and like-
wise unable to obtain funds or word of any sort from home, so that they
were forced to remain in Switzerland often in great mental as well
as physical distress, constituting for the welfare agencies of the land a
problem which we shall discuss more in detail in another chapter.
A special branch of the war-time foreign-student population of Switzer-
land was composed of interned German and Allied soldier-students, who
enrolled in considerable numbers in the Swiss Universities. In 1916-17
these students reached approximately the number of thirteen hundred.* 2
In 1918-19, according to report/ 8 the 9,700 students of Switzer-
land belonged to twenty-six different nationalities. The Swiss themselves
constituted that year seventy-two per cent, of that total; Bussians, Polish,
Austrians, Germans, Greeks, and Serbians were numerically the most
important foreigners.
Each successive annual report to the World's Student Christian Fed-
eration since that of 1918-19 calls attention to a decrease in the num-
ber of foreign students. The total number of Eussian students in Switzer-
land in the spring of 1922 was estimated at about two hundred. The
1920-21 Eeport adds a comment that it is now exceedingly hard for
the foreign student to find lucrative employment when so many of the
Swiss wage-earners are out of work. This remark casts a strange light
on the changes that have occurred since a few years ago, when a stu-
dent would, if unable to afford an education, forego the privilege, or sub-
* "The Work Among Foreign Students in Switzerland," The Student World,
July, 1814.
* Reports of Student Movements, 1914-1915. New York. The World's Student
Christian Federation, 1915.
41 Reports of Student Movements, 1916-1917. New York. The World's Student
Christian Federation, 1017.
* Reports of Student Movements, 1918-1919. New York. The World's Student
Christian Federation, 1919.
OTJTLIBTB HISTORY OF STUDENT MIGRATIONS 29
missively starve, or sleep in unspeakable quarters, as a means to making
insufficient funds carry him through but "work his way 5 ' never. Ac-
cording to the 1920-21 report of the World's Student Christian Fed-
eration/* the number of foreign students in Switzerland had been reduced
from 6,000 before the War to 1,200.
CHINESE AND KOBEAN STUDENTS IN JAPAN
A remark in the 1914-15 annual report of the Men's Student Chris-
tian Movement of Japan that in the membership of the Cosmopolitan
Club at Kyoto are included students from China, from Korea, from the
Philippines, and from India, in addition to those from Japan, reminds
the reader that even in Japan, with the formidable language-barriers
that it would seem to present, there is a far more extensive foreign-
student constituency than one would suppose.
The most remarkable student migration to Japan has been that of
Chinese students. Writing in The Student World, January, 1908, Dr.
John R. Mott describes as "the most striking fact in the student world
in recent years" the migration "of such large numbers of Chinese stu-
dents to the capital city of Japan." "It was only ten years ago/' he
continues, "that two young men went from Shanghai as the first officially
commissioned students of China to study in Japan." "As recently as
six years ago," he adds, "when I was delivering a lecture in the Im-
perial University in Tokyo, I observed a few Chinese students in the
audience, and on inquiring the number of Chinese students then in
Japan was told that it probably did not exceed a score. Two years
later the number had grown to five hundred; the next year it exceeded
two thousand. In the following year the Chinese students came over
to Japan at the rate of about five hundred each month so that by the
end of 1905 there were over eight thousand of them in Japan. In the
autumn of 1906 The Japan Mail stated that there were then fully thir-
teen thousand. Mr. Brockman, the national secretary of the Christian
Student Movement of China, who was in Japan at the time, said that
every steamer coming from China brought large numbers of these stu-
dents, and that on one vessel there were over a thousand. Last spring
. . . there were in Tokyo, according to the estimate of the Chinese
Ambassador, not less than fifteen thousand. Since then the number has
decreased, but according to the latest reports, it still exceeds ten thousand."
Since 1908 the number of Chinese students in Japan has fluctuated
to a considerable extent, but this national group is still the chief com-
ponent part of the foreign-student body in Japan, the total number of
M "Christ and the Student World. A Review of the World's Student Christian
federation, 1920-1921." London. World's Student Christian Federation, 1922.
30 THE FOREIGN STUDENT IN AMERICA
which is estimated at the present time by Mr. Soichi Saito, General
Secretary of the Y. M. C. A. National Committee of Japan, at two thou-
sand. The number of women in the Chinese student body resident in
Japan since 1908 has fluctuated from fifty to three hundred.
Other important bodies of foreign students resident in Japan are
the Koreans, the Formosans, the Fihpinos, and the East Indians. Thf
numbers of the Koreans between 1911 and the present date seem accord-
ing to the Report of the Japanese Student Christian Movement to have
varied from five hundred to seven or eight hundred. Now that an
Imperial University has been founded in Korea, it is probable that there
will be a marked decrease in the number of Korean students resident
in Japan. Filipinos are attracted to the Japanese Universities, primarily
for the study of medicine. The Chinese students pursue courses in
Political Economy and Law, and are in the main preparing themselve c
to become government officials on their return to China,
FOREIGN STUDENTS IN OTHER LANDS
Austria, has long been a prominent foreign-student center. In the
summer of 1895 4B there were in Austria 1,106 foreign students, constitut-
ing 6.14 per cent, of the total student population of 18,031. Among
these foreign students, Germans seemed to head the list with 239, closely
followed by the Russians with 336. The nationalities next in point of
numbers were Serbians, 115, Italians, 111, and Americans, 106. In
1907-08, the number of foreign students in Austria seems to have been
in excess of eighteen hundred, 1,118 of them from Kussia, 228 from
Germany, 67 from Eoumania, 48 from Bulgaria, 46 from America, 42
from Switzerland, and others in smaller groups, from numerous other
lands. Describing Vienna as a foreign-student center, Mr. Eobert P.
Wilder wrote in 1914 : 4e 'There are in Vienna about 15,000 students,
of whom 6,000 are foreigners. Practically every nationality of South-
eastern Europe is found in this university; also Italians, Greeks, and
Turks. Here the Orient and the Occident meet. Prom 2,000 to 3,000
are Jews; also all the women students are Jewesses/' The situation has
presumably been affected materially by the War, though recent statistics
are not available. The rate of exchange has had its effect on the student
migration to Austria. An Austrian German student writing from Graz
under date of October 20, 1922, states that "favored by the rate of
exchange and partly also in consequence of the poor academic condi-
tions in Bulgaria, very many Bulgarian students have been for years
48 Report of the United States Commissioner of Education, 1895-1896.
m Wilder, Robert P., "A Recent Tour in South-eastern Europe," The Student
Warty July, 1914.
OUTLINE HISTOET OF STUDENT MIGRATIONS 31
streaming into Vienna and Graz. Thus in the past year/ 5 he continues,
"there were from five to sk hundred Bulgarians in Graz alone." From
September 7 to 21, 1922, furthermore, an International Summer School 4T
was held in the University of Vienna, under the auspices of the Presi-
dent of the Austrian Republic, Dr. Haimsch. Six hundred students
took part. They were mainly from England, Italy, and Austria. The
object of the lectures was to give foreign students an accurate view of
important political, economic, and cultural questions o'f Central and East-
ern Europe. This course was offered again, September 11-28, 1923.
Austria itself has been limited to the German-speaking section only
of the much vaster, ethnically complex realm to which the name for-
merly applied, and conditions there to-day (with the exception of the
rate of exchange) would seem scarcely to invite important student migra-
tions such as the land formerly knew.
A despatch from Vienna to the Journal de Gen&ve under date of
December 31, 1921, presents the following statistics:
There were inscribed in the University of Vienna 11,520 students, of
whom 40 per cent, were foreigners. The largest number were Poles, then
followed: j f
Czechs 865 Hungarians 117
Yugoslavs 800 Russians 31
Roumanians 535 Egyptians . . 25
Bulgarians 405 Americans and Asiatics. ... 7
Ukrainians 331
3,116
The remainder of the 40 per cent., or 1,492, were Poles.
One interesting item with regard to foreign students resident in
Vienna is the assertion made in a recent number of the Russian Student
Emigration Association's organ that the Russian Student Cirde in Vienna
had 216 members in the spring of 1922. Hochschule und Ausland, in
its issue for November-December, 1922, makes a statement of which the
following is a translation:
In the past Summer Semester the number of regular students
[in the University of Vienna] reached 8,526, and of special students
(ausserordenfliche Hbrer), 1,332. These numbers amount to about the
same as those of attendance before the War. 48 Noteworthy is the large
number of foreigners in the University. Exact statistics for the past
Summer Semester are unavailable, but the numbers are presumably not
* Hochschule und Aueland, Leipzig, Volume I, NOB. 4-5, November-December,
1922, p. 170.
* The total number of students in the German-Austrian universities is reported
in Hoohschule md Ausland, April, 1923 (p. 355) as 15,753, 11,297 of them in
Vienna.
32 THE FOREIGN STUDENT IN AMERICA
substantially lower than those for the Summer Semester of 1919, when
they represented 21 per cent, of the entire enrollment The number
of foreigners was at its height in the Winter Semester, 1918-19, when
it reached 40 per cent, of the entire enrollment.
Belgium is another nation to which students from other countries
have turned. Li6ge seems to have been specially attractive to these for-
eigners. In 1913 * 9 the total number of students enrolled there was
2,793, of which number 1,448, or more than half, were foreigners. Of
these numbers 670 were from Russia, 282 from Poland, 94 from the
Balkan States, 85 from Spain and Portugal, 74 from Italy, 57 from
Turkey, 52 from Latin America, and 27 from China. According to the
same authority about half the women students of Belgium in 1914 were
foreigners, the great majority of them Russian or Polish. In Bel-
gium as in Austria, the decrease in the foreign-student population must
doubtless be ascribed in large measure to the War.
According to figures kindly supplied under date of October 7, 1922,
by the Ministry of Sciences and of Arts of the Belgian Government,
there were enrolled in the four universities 50 of Belgium in 1912-13,
2,332 foreign students, and in 1913-14, 2,505. Most interesting data
are furnished by the same authority as to foreign-student enrollment
in Belgium in the year 1921-22, reaching a total of 868. Fifty-four
nationalities are represented, the leading ones from a numerical stand-
point being Eoumania, with 141 of her nationals in academic residence
at Belgian universities, Russia with 115, Italy with 73, Serbia with 60,
the Grand Duchy of Luxemburg with 55, the Netherlands with 50,
France with 48, Poland with 40, and the United States with 36. Eleven
Latin-American lands are included in the list, and most of the countries
of Asia and the Near East. Secondary educational institutions in Bel-
gium, according to a communication of the Ministry of Arts and Sciences,
under date of February 5, 1923, show a total enrollment of 1,600 pupils
from other lands.
A most interesting "foreign-student" center is the Universite Inter-
nationale at Brussels. 51 "The Universit6 Internationale created by the
* "Students in Belgium," Tte Student World, April, 1914.
"Detailed information has also kindly been furnished by the universities of
Lilge and Gand, showing 441 foreign men students and 19 women from 31 different
lands in attendance at the former in 1921-22, and 162 from 25 countries at the
latter. By far the largest group at Lige, consisting of 105 members, was the
Roumanian (the Russians coming second with 97), and at Gand the Serbian,
numbering 56 (the Roumanians in the different faculties there totaling only 26,
and representing the second largest group).
*"I/Universite Internationale Documents relatifs & son constitution. Rapport,
Conference, Statut. Session inaugurate." Publication No. 1 de PUniversite 1 Inter-
nationale, Brussels, Palais Mondial, 1920, p. 146. See also, "Deuxieme Session de
Internationale. 5 ' La Vie Internationale, 1921, novembre, pp. 145-157,
OUTLINE HISTOBY OF STUDENT MIGRATIONS 33
International University Conference of September, 1920, has as its object
to unite in a movement of advanced education and universal culture the
universities and the international associations It aims to permit a cer-
tain number of students to complete their education by an introduction
to the international and comparative aspects of all the great questions.
To this end, it organizes each year, if possible, either at its seat or
in such other place as may be designated by common consent, a number
of courses and addresses. The sessions wiU be supplemented by a uni-
versity tour systematically organized by the different universities."
We are told that this international university is an autonomous
organism composed of universities, university professors, and student
corporations on the one hand, and of the great international associations
on the other, as follows: 15 universities, 346 professors representing 23
countries, and international associations of an unspecified number by
which 23 chairs were organized in 1921. During the 1921 session "sixty-
nine masters treated seventy-six subjects in 178 lessons and lectures."
An amusing account of one of the earlier negotiations connected with
the founding of the University Internationale appears on pages 54 and
55 of "Die Internationale Studentenbewegung nach dem Kriege," by
Dr. Julius Ernst Lips (Leipzig, 1921).
Bulgaria was reported 52 to be the host in the spring of 1922 of at
least two thousand Eussian students. A number of Russian professors
were said to be giving instruction there.
Prague has for a long time been a university center for Slav stu-
dents. 88 We read that in the membership of the Studentsky Domov
(Student Home) in that city there are seventeen nationalities, including
Czechs and Germans, Slovaks and Magyars, Russians and Ukrainians,
Yugoslavs and Bulgarians. Besides the Czech and German universities
in Prague, a special course of studies in Russian under forty-four leading
Russian professors has been recently inaugurated, as well as a Ukrainian
university section. In 1921 the Ukrainian Free University was trans-
ferred from Vienna to Prague. It has a total attendance of 1,000 (in-
cluding also non-Ukrainians) and is maintained by the Czeeho-Slovak
State, with an enrollment of 222. The "Higher Ukrainian Pedagogical
Institute/' opened in Prague in 1923, 54 is the third Ukrainian edu-
cational institution of collegiate rank to be established in the Czecho-
slovak Republic. Up to the end of 1919 Ukrainian students in Czecho-
183-196, and "University Internationale, Troisieme Session, August 20-September 3,
1922." Brussels. Palais Mondial.
M The Student, Organ of the Union of Russian Student-Emigration Organization,
Prague.
58 Kose, Dr. Jaroslav, "America and Czechoslovakia," Prague.
"Hoohwhule mid Awttond, July, 1923, pp. 467-468.
34 THE FOBEIGE" STUDENT IN AMEEIOA
Slovakia were supported by the Ukrainian Government, but later by
Ukrainian students in America and by the Methodist Mission. The
"Zentralverband" of the Czecho-Slovak "Studentenschaft" has provided
in its rooms lodgings for fifty Ukrainian students. Besides that, the
Ukrainians have obtained student homes for about 200 persons. There
are autonomous organizations of Ukrainian students in Brno (Briinn)
with 100 members, in the Mining Academy at Pfibram, with 52, and
at Melniki, with 50. 55 Within the walls of the Prague University there
took place on May 18, 1922, the inauguration of what is styled "the only
institution in Europe devoting itself to the interests of Russian juris-
prudence." M In this Eussian Faculty of Law over three hundred stu-
dents were reported already enrolled and the lectures were given by a
body of eminent Eussian jurists and professors. Among other institu-
tions in Prague " conducted by Eussians themselves is the Russian Insti-
tute, which has different sections for History and 'TEEumanics," Industrial
studies and Agriculture, and Economics. In the C Ruskf Dom" lectures are
given on Russia and Czecho-Slovakia, on sociology, political science, and
modern Eussian literature and art. There are also Commercial Courses,
a School of Bailway Technology, a Enssian Grammar School, Courses in
Cooperative Agriculture, an Agricultural Cooperative Institute, and a
projected system of courses to be arranged in the provinces for Russian
farmers working there. It is reported in the Organ of Union of Russian
Student-Emigrant Organizations M that there were in the spring of 1922,
1,750 Russian students in the universities of Czecho-Slovakia.
The annual report (1920-21) of the Student Christian Movements
in Czecho-Slovakia states that there were during the year under re-
view 3,589 foreign students in Czecho-Slovakia. Of these 1,526 were
Yugoslavs, 1,296 Magyars, 637 Russians and Ukrainians; others were
Poles and Eoumanians. The number of Eussian students has increased
since then by at least 1,000, probably more.
At least passing mention should be made of a new venture in inter-
nationalism launched at Helsingor the Elsinore of Hamlet in Den-
mark, known as the International People's College. 59 It is called a
"people's college" because though drawing students from all stations
of life, it follows the principles of the Grundvigian folk colleges. This
college opened on October 1, 1921, with twenty-four students, two Ameri-
can, one Austrian, nine Danish, three English, one Irish, one Scottish,
"Stephen Nyzankiwskyj, "Die ukrainische Studentenschaft der Gegenwaxt,"
HocTisohule tmd Ausland, January, 1923, pp. 217-218.
M The Prague Gazette, British-American Section, May 20, 1022.
" The Prague Ganette, British-American Section, February 17, 1923.
"The Student, Organ of the Union of Russian Student-Emigration Organiza-
tions, Prague.
See *Che International People's College" The Survey, May 6, 1022.
OUTLINE HISTORY OF STUDENT MIGRATIONS 36
five German, and two Czecho-Slovakian. The system of education adopted
is most interesting. After preliminary instruction in languages dur-
ing the earher terms of the year, division into classes is dispensed with
in the third term, and all students attend lectures given in English
or German. Strong Danish, British, and American committees super-
vise the work of the institution, and the lecturers are predominantly
Danish and English.
Egypt presents a foreign-student situation of a most interesting sort
in its El Azhar University, the academic Mecca of the Mohammedan
peoples. Here there were in 1914 eleven thousand students enrolled. 60
In 1909 the enrollment of this great institution 81 was 10,449, and in
1908 the numbers of non-Egyptians enrolled amounted to 661, of whom
469 were Turkish subjects, 154 North Africans, 13 Somali, 6 East
Indians, 12 Malays, and 40 Central Africans, mostly Haussa. Recent
statistics place the number of Eussian students now resident in Egypt
at over three hundred.
According to the Prague organ of the Union of Eussian Student-
Emigration Organizations Esthoma harbored in the spring of 1922, 250
Eussian students.
Italy has from the time of the Renaissance been a center of attrac-
tion to the cultured world. The birthplace, probably, of the university
as an institution, she constituted the chief enticement to English noble-
men of the Elizabethan time to make "the grand tour," and so sedate
a poet as Milton in his turn followed in this regard in the footsteps of
his cavalier predecessors. Other distinguished English names that may
be mentioned in further illustration of this tendency are Dean Colet,
Sir Thomas More, Reginald Cardinal Pole, and William Harvey, dis-
coverer of the circulation of the blood, who received his M.D. at Padua
in 1602, 62 At the present time students of art are prominent among
those attracted to Italy from other lands. Among these are consider-
able numbers of South Americans. In his report for 1914 the United
States Commissioner of Education mentions the fact that the Paraguayan
Government supported several students in the higher art institutions
of Italy from whom it exacted periodical reports of progress. Recently
the Italian educational authorities have taken steps to render their sys-
tem more accessible and more attractive to students of other lands. In
1917 at Siena a "summer course in the Italian language and litera-
"Zwemer, S. M., "Cairo as a Student Center," The Student World, October,
1918.
* Minerva, Jahrbuch der Gelehrten Welt, XX. Jahrgang, 1910-11.
* Wright, C. H., "The University"" of Padua: a Retrospect/* Contemporary
Review, Slay, 1922, pp. 596-602.
36 THE FOREIGN STUDENT IN AMEEICA
tare" was organized for foreigners of the Allied nations. 68 A new
doctorate in philosophy has also been established (on October 28, 1917),
eliminating certain requirements not applicable to foreign students. In
1921 the University of Naples offered special vacation courses for sum-
mer students. 64 A senes of courses for Americans was given in Borne
during the summer of 1922. It was organized by the Associazione Italo-
Americana, in collaboration with the academic authorities of the Eoyal
University of Eome, and under the patronage of the American Ambassa-
dor to Italy. 65 An impression of the volume of the foreign-student
population of Italy may be obtained from the fact that statistics of
foreign students enrolled in Italian universities during the five-year
period 1905-06 to 1910-11, fix the total at 1,143. The largest con-
tingent seems to have been from Austria, numbering 300, the second-
largest from Eussia, 299, the third from Argentina, 115, the succeed-
ing nations in point of numbers being Turkey, 62, Greece, 48, France,
44, Bulgaria, 32, Switzerland, 24, Eoumania, 21, Brazil, 18, Spain, 16,
United States, 15, and eighteen other lands, each represented by fewer
than 15 students.
Up-to-date statistics of the foreign-student population of Italy are
apparently unavailable. Writing under date of March 7, 1923, Signer
Giovanni Micol, General Secretary of the Federazione Italiana degli
Studenti per la Cultura Eehgiosa, states that in 1919-20 there were 304
foreign students in Italy: in Eome, 80, in Turin, 45, in Padua, 39, in
Pavia, 27, and in the other Italian universities smaller groups. The
faculty attended by the largest number of foreign students, 134, in the
year under review was that of Medicine and Surgery, the second in
popularity being that of Engineering, with 80 foreigners enrolled.
As many as 2,500 Eussian students were reported in the student-
emigration organ of Eussian students abroad as studying in Yugoslavia
in the spring of 1922.
Foreign students in the universities of the Netherlands have not
been as a rule very numerous. They come for the most part from South
Africa or from the Dutch East Indies. 60 The interesting fact is
brought out by David Z. T. Yui 67 that shortly before the outbreak of the
War there were approximately fifty Chinese students in Holland.
"Mackenzie, Kenneth, "Opportunities for Higher Education in Italy." New
York. Institute of International Education, 1021. Bulletin No. 2.
"Reports of Student Movements, 1920-21.
" Notes owwZ News on International Educational Affairs, New York. The In-
stitute of International Education, April 20, 1922. Third series. Bulletin No. 2.
Reports of Student Movements, 1911-1912. New York. The World's Student
Christian Federation, 1912.
D. Z. T., "Chinese Students in Europe," The Student World. January.
y
OUTLINE HISTOEY OP STUDENT MIGRATIONS 37
In Poland's foreign-student population 88 Ukrainians have played a
prominent part. The Ukrainian Emigrant Student Union was formed
in Warsaw in 1921 by interned Ukrainian students serving in the army.
It has branches in Cracow, in Volna, and in the internment camps. The
number of members, stated as 432 in January, 1923, is said to be con-
stantly decreasing in consequence of a migration in the direction of
Central and Western Europe. Mr. Henry-Louis Henriod, one of the
traveling secretaries of the World's Student Christian Federation, re-
ported under date of January 31, 1922, that "there are 700 Bussian
and 1,000 Ukrainian students in Poland."
Russia is a land whose nationals have long occupied a veiy promi-
nent place numerically in every foreign-student center of Western Europe.
It is stated that the present number of Bussian students resident in
foreign lands is greatly in excess of twelve thousand. 69 Other esti-
mates of the number of Bussians in academic residence abroad are ap-
parently much higher. For instance, in "Christ and the Student World/'
the 1920-21 Beview of the World's Student Christian Federation, there
is a reference (p. 35) to "the flooding of the refugee students chiefly
from Bussia, to the number of 20,000, over the whole of Central and
Western Europe, and even into Syria, Egypt, and America/* There
has been in the past, also, a limited number of foreign students in
Bussia. Some of these were from lands now independent, but then a
part of the Bussian Empire. Others came from the other Slavic coun-
tries, notably Bulgaria and Serbia. The majority of them were study-
ing for the priesthood. At the present time the Soviet Government is
reliably reported to be "not only . . . sending its missionaries to China/*
but also "taking large batches of Chinese students to Bussia where
they are trained to return to China as propagandists of Bolshevistic
ideas/' Some idea of the proportions of this migration may be gleaned
from the statement from the same source, that "a batch of 150 Chinese
students have just returned from a period of training in Bussia, and
. . . their places will be taken at once by a new group of 150 waiting
candidates."
Spain has been a land that has maintained a comparatively high
degree of national isolation. Her famous University of Salamanca has
behind it a noble history and venerable traditions, but it seems almost
as if the national isolation of Inquisition times had been perpetuated
so far as Spanish universities were concerned. Yet the twelfth summer
See Stephen Nyzankiwskyj, "Die ukraimsche Studentenschaft der Gegenwart,"
Hoohsohule und Avdand, January, 1023, p. 213 ff.
For detailed facts see the Russian monthly publication, The Student, Organ
of the Union of Russian Student Emigration Organizations, Prague II, Rate? inska
40, Czeoho-Slovakia.
38 THE FOREIGN STUDENT IN AMERICA
session for foreign students of the University of Madrid was held July 9
to August 4, 1923. TO
Turkey is a land whose foreign-student situation has long been an
interesting one. Robert College/ 1 founded in 1863, had in 1918-19 a
typical enrollment, totaling 521, of whom the chief ethnic groups were
the Greeks, 216, the Armenians, 180, the Turks, 55, Bulgarians, 19,
Hebrews, 18, and much smaller numbers of Syrians, Albanians, Arabs,
Circassians, Persians, Serbians, Maltese, and Russians. 72 The American
College for Girls, started by the Women's Board of Missions, of Boston,
in 1871, had during 1921-22 a total attendance of 420, of whom 121 were
Greeks, 121 Armenians, 43 Turks, 38. Russians, and 33 Hebrews. 78 In
November, 1921, there were in all two thousand Russian students in Con-
stantinople and vicinity. In December, 1921, a thousand left for Prague.
STATISTICAL RECAPITULATION
In the Appendix to this volume, p. 322, is a statistical table based
upon the facts set forth in the present chapter. It may be of interest
as giving an approximate impression of the foreign-student situation
throughout the world at this time. The countries which appear to
hold the leading positions statistically in the foreign-student field are
the United States, France, Germany, and Great Britain. It is reported
that considerations connected with the rate of exchange are giving a
new impetus in some parts of the world to the student migration to
Germany.
No claim to completeness is made with reference to the table of
foreign-student distribution. The methods by which the tabulation was
assembled will be apparent, however, to any one who has read atten-
tively the opening chapter of this book. Omission of numerous lands
is due to lack of definite statistical data regarding them. Only students
of college or university grade are included. In view of unavoidable
omissions and in view of the very restricted scope of some of the
statistical data presented, notably, for example, from Prance, Germany,
and the United States, it seems entirely safe to estimate the number
of foreign students in the world to-day as considerably in excess of fifty
thousand. Approximately a fifth of this great body is resident in the
United States.
n Notes and News on International Educational Affairs, New York. The Insti-
tute of International Education, April 1, 1923. Fourth series. Bulletin No. 3.
n The Orient, Bible House, Constantinople, March 8, 1922.
"Report of the President and Faculty of Robert College, 1917-19. New York,
1919.
n Bulletin, Constantinople Woman's College, Incorporated by the Commonwealth
of Massachusetts, Trustees of the American College for Girls at Constantinople in
Turkey. President's Report, 1921-22.
THE POLITICAL AND BELIGIOUS
BACKGROUND OF STUDENTS
COMING TO AMERICA
CHAPTER II
THE POLITICAL ANT> BELIGIOTJS BACKGROUND
OF STUDENTS COMING TO AMERICA
Edited by D. J. FLEMING, Ph.D.,
Professor of Missions, Union Theological Seminary
AFRICA
By Da. P. H. J. LKEBIGO,
Home Secretary of the American Baptist Foreign Mission Society
THE eyes of the African child open upon a simple picture of primi-
tive life. Graduating from his mother's arms, or more accurately from
her hip, he becomes conscious of the cooking pot, the straw mat, the
native drum, the muted impact of the heavy rain on the thatch at night,
and the dismal soughing of the wind through the bamboo thicket.
Crawling through the open door of the hut, a fat brown bundle of
laughter, his horizon widens to include the pig tethered by a leg to the
bamboo poles supporting the hut, the goat seeking discarded banana
flfrmfl about the path, and the row of huts similar to the one in which
he lives stretched along the roadway under the palm trees. Tfis re-
ligious experiences begin early for there is a curious carved semi-human
figure tied beneath the thatch over the door and he knows by instinct
that this is his father's fetish, which is not to be touched, and which
possesses a dread occult power.
It is a long, long trail from the bamboo nzo in which, the African
baby is born to the great universities of the United States, and it is
not strange that very few students surmount the obstacles and endure
the vicissitudes which throng the pathway. Perhaps this is a suffi-
cient reason why special kindness and consideration should be extended
by Christian people in America to the small number of African young
people who show initiative and determination enough to bring them, to
this country for higher training than can be secured in their own
land. We should remember the pit from which they were digged.
It must not be forgotten that the primitive African people possess
many admirable qualities which give assurance that the possibility exists
of high, moral and spiritual development. Dr. Henri Anet writes: tf l
41
42 THE FOREIGN STUDENT IN AMEEICA
have known Congo natives to judge the immorality and drunkenness
of certain whites in terms which denote that the black is the superior
being. The observations of certain natives indicate that they appreciate
our acts towards them with equal clear-sightedness and justice/' ("En
Eclaireur," p. 147.)
An insistent emphasis is placed also by Dr. Thomas Jesse Jones on
"the improvabikty of the African people." Certain of his observations
in this respect are worthy of special note:
The most unfortunate and unfair of all the misunderstandings is
to the effect that the African people do not give promise of development
sufficient to warrant efforts in their behalf. . . . Africans occupy posi-
tions of importance in every colony visited. There are physicians, law-
yers, and ministers who have completed the requirements of European
universities. . . . Their folk-lore, their handicrafts, their native music,
their forms of government, their linguistic powers, are all substantial
evidences of the capacity to respond to the wise approaches of civilization.
("Education in Africa/' pp. 5-6.)
Having said this, however, it would be neither wise nor kind to
close the eyes to the degraded moral and social conditions which pre-
vail well-nigh universally among those African peoples as yet untouched
by the Christian missionary enterprise, and which even when missionary
work has long been carried on, still give vigorous battle to the forces of
good.
Terrible evils surround the childhood and youth of the African. He
is brought up in a community dominated by the sorcerer. The ancient
animistic superstition which attributes the presence of evil spirits to
every object in nature provides a background of which the witch-doctor
takes full advantage. The inner life of the African is a life of spiritual
terror, mitigated and relieved by the expedients dictated by the tribal
magician and connected with the succession of foul fetishes to which
he pins his temporary faith.
The life of the African, is a painful struggle against fearful odds.
Nature itself deals him many a deadly blow. The pitiless glare of a
tropical sun, the pestilence that walks m darkness, the predatory beasts
of the forest, fire, flood, and famine combine to oppose him. Nature
offers him, too, many a rich gift, for Africa is a land of wonderful
wealth, but his moral and spiritual arrest has placed him among the
belated races, and he has the knowledge neither adequately to combat
the terrors of nature nor to take full advantage of her favorable overtures.
In certain parts of Africa the witch-doctor's power is still mani-
fested in the practice of witch-hunting and the poison ordeal. Cannibalism
is not unknown although it has been suppressed in the neighborhood
BACKGROUND OP STUDENTS COMING TO AMBEIOA 43
of European centers. The deadening effect of prevalent superstition
has given rise to curious perversions of moral judgment. Mr. Greber
cites the following case :
The leopard visits the village. A gunshot is heard proceeding from
the end of the village. The hunt follows. The next night the beast
eats the chiefs sheep. The chief makes claim upon the one who dis-
charged the gun for the price of the sheep. "If thou hadst not shot
thy gun, the leopard would have eaten thy chickens instead of my
sheep/' ("Au Gabon," p. 57.)
There is innocent pleasure in the life of the African youth. Much
of it, perhaps, for he has the gift of mirth, laughs easily, and finds
humor in simple occurrences. Dancing is in his blood. The child can
barely toddle when its admiring mother begins to clap her hands. A
group of African men dancing together on the deck of a river boat
is the very embodiment of pleasure and happiness. But there are darker
shades to the picture. The dance has become a system and is inter-
twined with the religious superstitions of the people. Moreover in its
worst development it is accompanied by a complete abandon. Passion
and excitement of the most sinister kind characterize it. A terrible
picture of the extreme to which the dance leads is painted in the crass
realism of Ben6 Maran's "Batouala."
But the student who makes such progress as ultimately to seek train-
ing in Europe or America rarely comes from a community untouched
by the missionary. Great changes have been wrought in the environ-
ment of such a child by the impact of the evangelical Christian faith.
The village from which he comes will be cleaner, the houses larger,
the streets better laid out, and the conditions more sanitary than else-
where. While he is still a little lad he will be led by his mother to
the combined bamboo church and schoolhouse. A Christian teacher will
induct him into the mysteries of letters, and he will begin to grapple
with "the study that causes trouble for the head," as arithmetic is
commonly called. There will be little lessons in hygiene, he will learn
better methods of gardening, and above all the stories of the Gospel will
begin their long combat with the lingering native superstitions in his
heart.
It is astonishing how readily African children learn. Their memories
are retentive to a high degree. Considerable numbers, therefore, pass
through the elementary school of the village and leave their homes to
go to the distant mission station for further training. It is from the
secondary schools that the leaders of the African peoples come. It is
not now an uncommon thing for the chief of the village to be a
44 THE FOBEIGN STUDENT IN AMEEICA
graduate or an ex-student of a mission school and the benefit he has
received is reflected in a community profoundly changed for fBe better.
CHINA
By Y. Y. Tsu,
Director of Religious Work, Peking Union Medical College
The approximately two thousand 1 Chinese students now studying in
American colleges, universities, and professional and other schools have
come from all parts of China and from all sections of the nation. A
census, if one should be taken, of their political and religious views, of
their ideals and aspirations, would show their close relation with the cur-
rents of thought and sentiment that prevail among the new intellectual
class in that country.
This new intellectual class is not to be identified with the so-called
literati or scholars who form one of the four strata into which Chinese
society has been traditionally divided. It is a new social alignment
within the nation, characterized by progressive thinking, the modern
viewpoint, liberal culture, and multiplied interests. It includes those who
are products of the old Chinese education with its strict disciplinary
pedagogy and ethical emphasis but who have been influenced by the
liberalizing tendencies of modern education. Among China's foremost
intellectual leaders are men of this type, who combine the sturdy qualities
of the old culture with the many-sided accomplishments of the new, such
as K'ang Yu Wei, the famous reformer of 1898, who sought to lead the
country into the path of progress before it was ready to follow, Liang
Chi Chiao, China's most noted modern writer, Chang Chien, scholar,
industrial leader, and municipal reformer. This new intellectual class
naturally embraces the college professors, school teachers, and others who
are responsible for the development of the new school system of China.
The new school system, though officially inaugurated in 1906 by im-
perial edict in the last days of the Manchu regime, had its beginnings
in the experiments made by early reformers long before and in the work
of missionary educators in the country. At the present time absorbing
interest in education is manifest everywhere and the people show almost
religious faith in the efficacy of modern education for the upbuilding of
1 This estimate is somewhat widely at variance with the figure for 1920-21, cited
on p. 12, as 1,443, or that for 1921-22, given on p. 16, as 1,218. It should be borne
in mind, however, that both these totals represent college and university students
only and the paragraph on p. 12 immediately following that in which the first of
these citations appears may doubtless be applied here, See also Appendix, Table
VI b, Footnote,
BACKGEOTJND OP STUDENTS COMING TO AMERICA 45
national and civic life. The students in the new schools form an important
part of the new intellectual class. Since the Student Movement of 1919
during the eventful days of the Versailles Conference, this body of students
has acquired a prestige and self-consciousness and exercised an influence
for weal or woe in the affairs of the nation unknown before in the long
history of China's national life.
Numerically this new intellectual class forms but a small portion
of China's vast population, but it has succeeded in breaking down barriers
of conservatism and introducing changes in the traditions and customs,
manners of living, and modes of thinking that have come down from
ages past, leavening and transforming the entire social fabric according
to a new pattern. The process of transformation, however, has just
begun and is far from being completed and so for the present there is
before us a highly fascinating though confusing spectacle of the inter-
mingling of elements old and new, radical and liberal, iconoclastic and
conservative, illuminated with the hope of a better social order to be
evolved from it.
POLITICAL VIEWS. In political thinking, Chinese students are first
patriots, then theorists. Foreign observers who witnessed the demonstra-
tions during the Student Movement of 1919, in which the students of
the country abandoned their books, put their hands to the country's
affairs, and made their contentions prevail by mere weight of united
strength and popular backing, declared that they had never seen a more
inspiring outburst of patriotism. In the thinking and writing of the
students the central theme is the salvation of their country. Everything
else hinges on it. It is the touchstone with which they test a social
reform, a new institution, or a new religion and determine whether it is
to be espoused or rejected. It is the common experience of missionaries
to find that the appeal which makes the most impression upon the audi-
ence is the patriotic one. Christianity is welcomed not so much for the
character of its founder or the loftiness of its ethics or the impressiveness
of its history though they all count in the final effect as for its prac-
tical efficacy in translating ideals into action, in imparting dynamic force
to moral principles, in producing an effective morality for the public life
of the nation. This is the acid test to which Christianity is subjected so
far as the Chinese patriot is concerned. The finer religious values, though
appreciated and not ignored, are overshadowed by the consuming demand
of the national salvation*
Through a combination of circumstances and of political education in
recent years, the idea of a republic has taken strong hold on the minds,
of the students. They cannot picture the government of their country
in any other form, however preferable it may be to the present one. They
46 THE FOREIGN STUDENT IN AMEEICA
are committed to the idea of the Chinese Republic and with the courage of
their conviction they look beyond the present difficulties which beset its
career and visualize a worthy future to be brought about through the
combined force of will and work. This is a peculiar characteristic in the
present mood of our intellectual class. They realize the dark outlook as
clearly as any outside observer, but instead of being overwhelmed with
regret their hearts derive strength from an innate optimism that means
dogged determination to see the thing through in one way or another. In
the words of Dr. C. T. Wang, "The nation has made its choice and will
not turn back."
This intense national consciousness is a recent phenomenon and the
product of a variety of causes, not the least of which is the policy of grab
and spoliation that has characterized the attitude of European govern-
ments in the last twenty-five years and the consequent series of humilia-
tions which China had to go through. The bitter lesson has been taken
to heart and in harmony with a classic saying, "A people corrupts itself
before others dare maltreat it/* the cause of the humiliation is being
sought within rather than without.
In place of regional loyalty, which has hitherto obtained, the growing
national consciousness is bringing the whole nation together in a unity
that is entirely new. The improved means of communication, such as
the railways and the telegraph lines, the postal system, and circulation
of newspapers are also helping to break down the physical and geographical
barriers that have divided the country into isolated regions. An evidence
of the strength of this new consciousness is the present popularity of the
"National Tongue," a simplified fora of the Mandarin dialect. Any one
who wishes to be considered educated wants to be able to use it and no
public speaker without it can gain a public hearing as readily as one
who uses it. The teaching of this new tongue in the schools is almost
universal. The impetus of the movement is such that in less than a gen-
eration the various local dialects will very probably be eliminated and
the new national tongue substituted. This, coupled with the movement
for the approximation of the written language to the spoken tongue, is
going to overcome one of the chief causes for the large percentage of
illiteracy which has existed in China and do away with the seeming
paradox that in a country where scholarship is much honored, mass illiter-
acy should be nevertheless great. For the existence of the dual system of a
distinct spoken and written language, a condition like that which existed
in Europe five hundred years ago, when Latin was the literary medium
while the nations spoke in their colloquials, has been the great handicap
to popular education and diffusion of learning.
RELIGIOUS VIEWS. The only orthodox standard by which to gauge
BACKGROUND OF STUDENTS COMING TO AMEEICA 47
the religious views of the intellectual class in China is Confucianism.
In Confucianism we distinguish several elements. First, there is the
acknowledgment that the universe is directed by intelligence. It is gov-
erned by natural laws. To this intelligence is given the name of 87iang-ti,
translated "God," or a more impersonal one, Tien, "Heaven.** It is a
moral power and it dispenses its rewards and punishments justly accord-
ing to human desert, but in a mechanical rather than in a personal way.
This theological view does not encourage personal relationship with the
deity, and so in Confucianism there is no record of consistent personal
prayer or private devotion such as distinguishes the Hebrew religious
scriptures.
Confucius' own position on religious matters has been gathered from his
scattered sayings, such as "Honor the gods, but leave them severely alone/*
"Sacrifice to the spirits as if they were there," "Having offended heaven,
it is vain to pray for forgiveness," "How can we know about death, when
we have not yet understood life?" These suggest the agnostic. "Heaven
has entrusted me with a mission: what can my enemies do to my life?"
seems to indicate a more religious attitude, a glimpse into the inner con-
sciousness of the speaker in time of distress.
Agnosticism is characteristic of the Confucianist scholar. This atti-
tude is well illustrated in the words of a prominent educator:
To us, T'ien or Shang-ti is a collective name and stands for all that
is mysterious and unexplained. The ancient people were surrounded by
mysteries and they had no means of understanding them and so invented
the belief in the existence of a mysterious being called T'ien or Shang-ti.
The idea has persisted to this day because it has been found a useful
means of social control. . . . There is in Nature the law of cause and
effect, which works positively, and so there is no necessity for postulating
a Personal Being in the universe dispensing rewards and punishments.
It is true that the teachings of Buddhism from India and the mysti-
cism of Taoism have tempered the agnostic position of Confucianism and
have greatly influenced Chinese literature and art, but it seems that in
general Chinese thought is more practical than speculative, more ethical
than religious.
MORAL TRAINING. If Confucianism is meager in religious enlighten-
ment, it ie profuse in moral teaching. According to Confucius, moral self*
culture is the essence of the good life, and the goal of this life is a well-
balanced character, an inner harmony, which is the counterpart of the
universal moral order around us. "To find the true central clue and
balance in our moral being" is the highest human endeavor. "When the
passions, such as joy, anger, grief, and pleasure, have not awakened
that is our true self or moral being. When these pMHOM awaken and
48 THE FOKEIGN STUDENT IN AMBEIOA
each and all attain due measure and degree that is the moral order."
The well-balanced character is described in Chinese literature as the 'Ideal
Man/' who disciplines himself mentally and morally, who exercises moder-
ation in all things, who is an exemplar of social propriety and culture,
and the public virtues of magnanimity, uprightness, and justice. This
ideal of manhood has greatly influenced Chinese thought.
The family is considered the best sphere of moral culture, and the
social relationships are carefully regulated in Chinese etiquette, with their
corresponding qualities emphasized in Chinese ethics. The virtue of filial
piety is inculcated as the corner-stone of public and private morality. As
a consequence, there is a solidarity in family life in China which is at
once beneficial and baneful in its effect upon society. It is beneficial
because it creates a sense of corporate responsibility in the members of
the family which accounts for much of Chinese philanthropy and civic
well-being. On the other hand, this sense of family responsibility may be
overdeveloped to the detriment of political morality, and produce evils like
nepotism.
A strong sense of personal honor is present in the make-up of Chinese
character and an appeal to reason and justice never fails to call forth
favorable response.
CONCLUSION. Reference should be made to the present intellectual
movement which is sweeping over the breadth and length of China, a
"Renaissance" characterized by intellectual awakening, acquisition of
scientific methods of research, revolt against established traditions and
conventions, and great thirst for modern learning. Its effect upon the
nation's mental life is not unlike that of sunshine upon plants and trees
in springtime: it fosters and quickens growth. The old mental life of
China may be likened to a quiet stream, flowing contentedly within its
narrow prescribed channels and meandering peacefully over the meadows,
keeping the grasses green and the flowers beautiful. The new mental life
of China is like a rushing mountain torrent, bursting open its embank-
ment, and inundating the fields, washing away old landmarks and leaving
new ones in its wake, in an effort to find a new level. Under the stimu-
lation of this movement, there has been a great output of literary works,
both original writings and translations of the productions of Western
writers, the encouragement of research by individuals and by societies,
an energetic campaign against mass illiteracy, and the popularization of
the conversational style of writing. To quote Dr. T. T. Lew, who has
closely studied the movement and identified himself with it:
It has revolutionized the thinking of the students. The movement has
worked upon the mental isolation of the people as previous movements
have acted upon the geographic isolation of the nation. . . . The Oriental
BACKGROUND OP STUDENTS COMING TO AMBEICA 49
horizon of the people, particularly of the students, is being expanded.
They see problems which did not exist for them before. They acquire
points of view which were beyond them in the past. They axe given
categories in which to think which were not at their disposal in days
gone by, and they are being drilled in new methods of using their think-
ing capacity. . . . What is most important of all, it is leading people on
to search for a new philosophy of life. The movement has again and
again brought people back to the fundamental question, cr What is life?"
and "What is the philosophy of life ?" . . . Thus far, the movement has
told people that the rational life, following the principles of science work-
ing for the social improvement of the whole with eyes wide open to the
problems of the present this constitutes the gist of the best philosophy
of life.
With a background that has been evolved out of the experience of
centuries, and impelled by the new aspirations and yearnings which have
been awakened in their hearts and minds by vast social changes, Oriental
students are flocking to European and American seats of learning to
quench their thirst for new knowledge. Whether they will achieve what
they have set out to do will depend upon the operation of two factors:
an open mind on the part of the Oriental students and an open door on
the part of the Western peoples; a willingness to learn the best on the
one hand, and a readiness to impart the best on the other.
EUHOPEAN COUNTRIES
By Miss MABGABET WBONG,
Secretary, World's Student Christian Federation
In considering the background of students from Europe who may be
studying in America one must not take for granted a homogeneity which
does not exist. Race, culture, politics, and religious outlook differ from
country to country, and generalizations about "Europeans" are dangerous
in so iar as they are untrue and likely to raise barriers of misunderstand-
ing. To deal adequately with the background of students from Europe
involves a study of each country. At the same time students, up to a
certain point, share a common experience in their university life and it
is possible to find certain general characteristics.
POLITICAL. It is true that every European country has a racial prob-
lem, in one form or another, to face. For instance the republics of
Latvia and Esthonia have within their boundaries Russians, who were
the governing class before the revolution, Baltic Germans, who owned
land and industry, and the people of the country who were the peasantry
and who are now the governors. Students of these different groups do
50 THE FOREIGN STUDENT IN AMBEIOA
not wish to be confused one with the other. Nor does a student from
one part of the Ukraine now under Polish government like to be identified
with the Poles. There are acute divisions between the people of Yugo-
slavia. All through Europe the Jewish question is acute; a Polish or
Austrian student, for instance, will often be offended at being introduced
to a Jew from his country as a fellow countryman. In this connection
experience has shown that in gatherings of foreign students where intro-
ductions have to be made it is well to announce the country from which
students come rather than their nationality for example introduce "Mr.
Brown of the United States of America," not "Mr. Brown, an American."
Ignorance of racial divisions creates barriers which may be broken down
in this country if sympathetically treated.
The average student from Europe is animated by strong national feel-
ing, be he a White Russian without a country or a Czech proud of a
flourishing new republic, or a Hungarian bitter over loss of territory and
defeat. Students representing majorities in the new republics are, for
the most part, full of hope and confidence in the future of their country
and patriotism is frequently an incentive to study in a university, for
they wish to fit themselves to enter the service of their country as civil
servants, as teachers, as professional people. Students from defeated
countries wish to rehabilitate them. This national feeling has a hopeful
and constructive side and also its ominous side. There is little love lost
between Hungarians and Czechs and Roumanians, for the Hungarian
is bitter, and it is natural that German students should feel acutely the
humiliation of their country. There is to be found, however, among
groups of students all over Europe a growing conviction that the younger
generation must look to the future and not to the past if a new order is
to be established. There is a growing questioning of war as a means to
any good end, and a hatred of it, beside which the attitude in America
seems academic and aloof. It is important to realize the strength of
national feeling and the elements of which it is made many of which
are contradictory. The supposition that the peoples of Europe are all
determined to fly at one another's throats builds barriers of misunder-
standing hard to break down.
Politics have played a larger part in student life in Europe than in
America. In many universities the majority of student societies have
political affiliations. Frequently, more especially in Latin nations, such
groups are formed solely to defend and propagate the ideas of political
parties and leaders. Often the intense antagonism between these political
societies representing as they do, on the one hand, the traditional mon-
archial theories of government, as opposed, on the other hand, to those
who believe just as zealously in republican ideas is among the more sig-
BACKGROUND OP STUDENTS COMING TO AMBEICA 51
mficant facts in university life. In some countries, notably Poland, students
have for generations been working to keep nationalism alive. The student
has been the revolutionary, the champion of lost causes, the person willing
to give kf e itself for an ideal. The student has been a propagandist feared
by governments which are unpopular with the people. He has been con-
tinuously the opposition; perhaps that is the r61e of the student. Bitter-
ness and love of intrigue are some of the unpleasmg qualities this con-
tinuous opposition has nourished. In certain students, on the other hand,
there is a fine sense of responsibility and a daring courage in upholding
ideals in the face of government opposition. This political background
makes it difficult for the European student to understand and accept the
irresponsibility of American students in political matters.
SOCIAL LIFE. The typical European student has led a far more in-
dividualistic life than the average American student. European universi-
ties do not, as a rule, provide hvmg accommodations or take cognizance
of the social life of students; in consequence students live in rooms in the
towns or in clubs created by themselves. The rules and regulations gov-
erning student social life in America may therefore be both puzzling and
irksome to certain European students. The pressure of public opinion and
insistence on uniformity is sometimes considered both foolish and harmful
by them and this accounts for a certain aloofness in the attitude of the
foreign student.
Material conditions of life in America are extremely luxurious as com-
pared with conditions in Europe. This difference, which was noticeable
before the War, is doubly evident now. The student from Europe may
come from semi-starvation to extreme luxury. Emphasis and proportion
are different and he finds it difficult to reconcile the spending of millions
in sport with the realities of life as he knows them abroad.
EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND. A student from Vienna said to me : "In
our universities students run after professors; here professors run after stu-
dents." The supervision, the credit-system, the standardization, the spoon
feeding are new. The European student has been accustomed to regard
the university more as the Mecca of the few than the next step for the
many. He has been accustomed to many hours' intense study. He finds
in America much that is elementary and complains of no time to think.
He is struck by the lack of reading and the absence of the intense passion
for knowledge and truth. He is more advanced and correspondingly
critical.
RELIGIOUS BAOKGBOUND. It is true, I believe, that the background of
the European university is skeptical. There is every shade of opinion, that
of the violent atheist, the agnostic, the conforming member of a church,
the devout Christian. In the latter group there is a wing expressing a
52 THE FOREIGN STUDENT IN AMEBICA
conservative position not unlike that of the "fundamentalists" in Am erica.
Within the devout Christian group is often quite a dose corporate life.
One finds, for example in France, Protestant groups of this kind. Many
students conform by going to church occasionally. This is true of Prot-
estants and Catholics, Boman and Greek, but many will say that religion
for them has little to do with daily life and that intellectually they cannot
accept much of the teaching of their communion. In Esthoma and Latvia,
for instance, where the majority of the population is Lutheran, many
students observe a certain outward conformity but nothing more. The
same impression is made by student circles in the Scandinavian countries.
Large numbers of students in Europe, particularly perhaps in Eoman
Catholic countries, call themselves agnostics and not a few proclaim them-
selves atheists and are bitterly against the exercise of ecclesiastical
authority.
It is well to remember that national feeling has something to do with
the attitude towards Christian communions. In Bussian Poland, for in-
stance, the Eoman Catholic Church has been connected with aspirations
toward a Polish national life; in Czechoslovakia the reverse is the case;
in German Austria, Boman Catholicism was the religion of the Government.
One sometimes encounters in European universities this seemingly para-
doxical situation : young men who claim to belong to some school of anti-
religious thought, reveal an almost holy passion for individual morality
and social justice. Many in these groups, if challenged with a worthy
objective, an opportunity for service based frankly upon the ideals of Jesus,
respond in an enthusiastic manner. The social crusader finds among these
some of his ablest and most loyal friends.
Forms of expression are often a real difficulty. The students who have
been accustomed to liturgical forms find hymns and extempore prayer trying,
and miss the dignity and beauty of expression to which they have been
accustomed. It is also difficult for students who are not Protestant to
accept the tacit assumption in certain circles that he who is not Protestant
is not Christian. These things make barriers.
Students from Europe demand intellectual and philosophical expositions
of Christianity. Experience of life and the encouragement of independent
thought have produced questions which will not be satisfied by superficial
answers. Then, too, it is necessary to remember that terms are very mis-
leading. For example, in the past year, I have been told that "Chris-
tianity" means: (a) being against the Jew; (b) the system by which the
rich oppress the poor; (c) going to church on Sunday and doing what one
likes for the rest of the week; (d) a fabric of wornout dogma which has
nothing to do with daily life.
Behind and through an intellectual explanation and a definition of
BACKGROUND OP STUDENTS COMING TO AMERICA 58
terms, students are demanding a new way of life which shall solve social,
material, international, and inter-racial relations. Indifference to Chris-
tianity means often that they see no hope there. Yet when students catch
a glimpse of the spirit of Christ expressed in life they are quick to recognize
it. Just in proportion as they see that spirit expressed in the life of
America in social,, industrial, racial, and international relations they will
respond. But sectarianism and dogma will not win. interest or response
from the great majority. The way is open where understanding, sympathy,
tolerance, a desire to have and seek as well as a desire to give is found on
the part of their hosts. A religious program will be adequate in so far as
it is the living spirit of Christ expressed in every department of life.
INDIA
By PROFESSOR R. E HUME, Ph.D.,
Charles Butler Professor of the History of Religion, Union Theological Seminary
The complexity of the situation is the outstanding single feature which
needs to be reported. The generalization may be made without the perad-
venture of an exception, that from no other country do students come to the
United States for study with so diversified a background as from that
country in southern Asia which embraces the largest variety of languages,
races, religions, and general social conditions.
The unity which India possesses is partly due to the accident of a
geographical isolation, to being confined completely by surrounding water
and almost impenetrable mountains. A certain governmental unity has,
indeed, been imposed upon India by foreign conquerors. Otherwise the
continent of Europe, with its more than two-score paramount Powers and
with only two important religions (viz. Christianity and Mohammedanism),
would come much nearer to presenting a unity of background than, does
that vast country of India, which in area is as large as Europe exclusive
of Eussia. As for linguistic separation there are more languages spoken
in the single city of Bombay than on the entire continent of Europe. 3
The complexity of the background of the students from India may be
analyzed and further generalized, however, under the four following major
considerations :
RELIGIOUSLY. Hinduism is the largest of the seven organized, historic
'"From this conspectus it appears that there are still about sixty distinct lan-
guages spoken in Europe.' 1 Encyclopaedia Bntannica. Article "Europe: Ethnology,"
llth Edition, Vol. 9, page 919.
"In Bombay, with its unrivalled geographical and commercial position, a greater
variety of languages is spoken than in any other city; sixty-two different dialects
recorded. 11 "Gazetteer ox Bombay City and Island, Compiled under Government
Order*," Vol. 1, page 203.
54 THE FOREIGN STUDENT IN AMERICA
religions in the Indian Empire. In the census of 1921 it enrolled 217
millions, or two-thirds of the total population of 319 millions. This large
preponderance in India itself is maintained among the students who come
from India to the United States.
The practical, as well as the theoretical, difficulty of stating authorita-
tively and succinctly what are the distinctive beliefs and practices of Hin-
duism may aptly be illustrated from the difficulties reported by the British
Census Commissioner in starting his chapter on Religion:
In this country no one has any objection to stating his religion. And,
if all the creeds were clear and mutually exclusive, there would have been
no difficulty whatever in the way of obtaining an accurate return. But
with the exception of the exotic religions, such as Christianity and Moham-
medanism, there is no such thing as a definite creed. ... No one is in-
terested in what his neighbor believes, but he is very much interested in
knowing whether he can eat with him or take water from his hands. . . .
Hinduism is a most heterogeneous mixture. The term includes a complex
congeries of creeds and doctrines. It shelters within its portals monotheists,
polytheists, and pantheists. . . . There is a bewildering maze of sects,
which overlap each other in a most extraordinary way. General Report
of the Census of India, 1911, pages 113-114.
However, for about 3,000 years there has been a definite practical char-
acteristic of the Hindu religion, viz., the fourfold caste system. In the very
earliest document of Hinduism, viz., the Rig Veda (which is to be ascribed
probably to a date earlier than 1,000 B.C.) an origin from the different
parts of the primeval Being is assigned to the four main Hindu castes :
The [intellectual, priestly] Brahman was his mouth. The [princely,
warrior] Rajanya was made from his arms. The [peasant] Vaisya, Ms
thighs; the low-caste Sudra from his feet was produced. Rig Veda
10.90.12.
The same explicit explanation may be found in the successive docu-
ments which during the course of a thousand years became the sacred
Scriptures of Hinduism, notably in the Laws of Manu 1.81 j 1.81; 10.45.
And in the favorite "Song Celestial/' the deity Krishna, who presents him-
self as the Saviour of men, reiterates the separate divine origin of the
four castes. (Bhagavad Gita 1.13; 18.41.)
A dozen outstanding Hindu reformers protesting against this deep-
seated characteristic of Hinduism may be cited, from Buddha five hun-
dred years before Christ, down to the Hindu Missionary Society founded
in 1917, and Maliatma GandJbi since the World War. The exigencies of
modern strenuous business, of course, and the tendency of modem educar
tion and of all international intercourse have been breaking up the old
rigorous caste-eocdusiveness. All these Hindu students, however, have been
BACKGROUND OF STUDENTS COMING TO AMERICA 55
born in some one of the four main castes, and are by the great bulk of
their coreligionists relatively esteemed or disparaged simply by the fact
of their birth. Yet the very fact of their having traveled abroad evidences
their own relative freedom from the old restrictions, such as for instance
stands explicit in the most important theological scriptures of Hinduism:
"One should not go to foreign people; one should not go to the end of the
earth, lest he fall in with evil, with death." The Great Forest Treatise,
"Brihad Aranyaka Upanishad," 1.3.10. 8
Here, on the other side of the world from their original home, the
Hindu students would probably be quite disinclined to discuss their in-
dividual caste-status in India. Indeed, the important fact in this connection
which is to be borne in mind by all friends of theirs is the fact that these
Hindu students have already risen above the chief differentiating charac-
teristic of their inherited religion.
Theoretically almost all Hindus would avow their belief in an invisible
world of Brahma, the Supreme Spirit, and in re-incarnation according to
their conduct in this life.
Mohammedanism, an exotic religion in India, the youngest among the
great religions of the world, is now the second largest in that country with
a following of about sixty-nine millions. According to this proportion,, per-
haps a fifth of the students from India are Mohammedans.
They are uncompromising monotheists. Their creed is brief, clear, un-
alterable : "There is no God but Allah, and Mohammed is His Prophet/ 7
They have been trained to regular daily prayer, nominally five times each
day. All orthodox Mohammedans are punctilious in attending public wor-
ship of Allah every Friday in the mosque, and in their reverence for their
sacred scripture, the Koran.
Buddhism, though numerically and also chronologically the third reli-
gion of the Indian Empire, is professed by only an occasional student from
the Middle East, either from Burma or from Siam. Inasmuch as Burma
is administratively a part of the Indian Empire, and there are over eleven
million Buddhists in the Province of Burma, the general idea is that Bud-
dhism is still flourishing in India. But, omitting also the native states
among the Himalayas, in British India proper "the only survivors of purely
Indian Buddhism are the small community in the Onssa States,, of whom
nearly two thousand belong to that religion." *
The first religion in the history of the world actually to become inter-
national to any considerable degree, Buddhism was founded by the son of
a Hindu rajah or ruling prince. Like Mahavira the founder of Jainism,
so also Gautama the Buddha (born about 560 B.C.) renounced the pros*
1 Hume, "The Thirteen Principal Upaniahads," p. 78.
* "General Report of the Census of India, 1911," page 126.
56 THE FOREIGN STUDENT IN AMEEICA
pective sovereignty of his father's throne. But by his teaching and ex-
ample of humility, serenity, self-discipline, gentleness, and general com-
passion, Buddha became the spiritual creator of the East. He has actually
brought together the peoples of India, China, and Japan into a conscious
sense of kinship and into the common ideal of quiet, religious restf ulness.
Verily in self-denying quietness has been their strength.
Sikhism is the fourth largest religious community in India, now num-
bering over three million followers. This faith goes back to Guru Nanak
(born 1469 A.D., a contemporary of Martin Luther in Europe). He sought
to reform and reconcile the two then prevailing religions of India, viz.,
Hinduism and Mohammedanism. The general name which he gave to all
his followers was "Sikh," which means "disciples" of the one true God.
They became a steadily more powerful unit. In order to consolidate them
still further, their tenth Guru required them all to take a common family
name, typifying their spiritual kinship and their genuine brotherhood, viz.
"Singh/' meaning "Lion." Ever since then, the Sikhs have been, literally
as well as metaphorically, "the Lions of the Punjab." The conquest of the
Punjab and its annexation in 1849 was the last accomplishment for the
completion and unification of British India, The British have found in
the Sikhs their bravest soldiers. Not all, but most, of the Indian students
who bear the surname of "Singh" are Sikhs in their religious faith.
Jainism is another small, but remarkably virile, religious group in
India, representatives of which are to be found among the Indian students
in this country. It was the first personally founded religion in India. Its
putative founder, born in 599 B.C., is usually referred to by his honorific
appellation, Maha-vira (corresponding to the Latin cognate "magnus vir"),
meaning "Great Hero." He was born a Hindu of the second caste, his
father actually being a rajah. The royal son, being more devoted to religion
than to worldly affairs, tried to introduce certain purer forms of religion,
notably the method of self-renunciation and asceticism, in place of the
characteristic Hindu speculation and caste- Jainism has had a rather
checkered career, now numbering about one and a quarter million adherents.
A Jain religious monument at Mathura, however, is "probably the oldest
known building in India." 6 The Jain temples at Ahmedabad and at Mount
Abu are still among the choicest and most famous of India's architectural
treasures. The Jains, who are found mostly in Western and Northwestern
India, are largely prosperous business men. And the Jain students who
have come to the United States to study have come chiefly to the schools
of business in Harvard and Columbia universities.
ZoroastriMMsm is the smallest among the great religious groups in
India, numbering in all only about 102,000. The Parsis, however (as they
Survey of India," Vol. 20, pag IS.
BACKGROUND OF STUDENTS COMING TO AMEEIOA 57
areTusually designated from the ancient religion of Persia), have the honor
of being followers of the very first among the teachers and founders of
religions who taught that religion is something which must be individually
chosen, not inevitably inherited like family and race. Being not merely
hereditary or tribal, Zoroastrianism started out to become a universal re-
ligion. And the modern Parsis have inherited a vigorous and noble theistic
faith in the Ctf Wise Lord/' Ahura Mazda, even though they have not con-
tinued their founder's missionary aim and activity. In India the Parsis
have been among the most progressive, public-spirited citizens and suc-
cessful business men. And the representatives of that religious community
who have come to this country have proved themselves among the most
alert and effective of students here. It was a member of the Parsi faith
who was the first Indian to be knighted by the British Crown, the first
Indian to be advanced to the baronetcy, the first Indian to be elected Vice-
President of the recently reconstituted national legislature. It was a
Parsi who gave the endowment for the Hongkong University, to be admin-
istered under a British chancellor. It was the one Parsi among the Indian
students at Columbia University who was elected their chairman when
they formed themselves into a separate group from the British Empire
group in the Cosmopolitan Club of the Intercollegiate Y. M. C. A. Small,
but influential is the religion which has been virtually evicted from the
land of its birth in Persia, and which now flourishes chiefly under the
Christian sovereignly ruling over India. It is the only religion from
among all that were connected with the Bible which has survived to the
present day. Of one of its representatives (King Cyrus) the Prophet
Isaiah (45:1) declared that he was the "anointed" of Jehovah, (in the
Hebrew, the "messiah" of Jehovah). Indeed a characterization which the
Psalmist (23 :1) used for Jehovah and which Jesus used for Himself (John
10 :11, 14) is put by Isaiah in another chapter into the mouth of Jehovah
himself with regard to that same Zoroastrian: "He is my shepherd"
(Isaiah 44:28).
Christianity now ranks as composing the third largest religious commu-
nity in British India proper. But the Christian students from India who
come to this country are far more numerous than in proportion to the rela-
tive size of the Christian community in India. More than half of the
4,754,000 Christians in India are Eoman Catholics. However, without a
single exception known to the present writer, all the Indian Christian stu-
dents who come to this country axe Protestants. The Protestant Indian
Christians who are connected with British and Continental Missionary
Societies, naturally follow the national connections of their respective de-
nominationfl when seeking foreign study. But of the 6,020 foreign mis-
58 THE rOEEIGN STUDENT IN AMEEICA
sionaries in India, 6 considerably more than half are Americans. Accord-
ingly, a quite disproportionately large number of the Indian students who
travel to this country for study, have sprung from American Missions in
India.
Christianity in India, although it is being propagated by some 134
different foreign missionary organizations with headquarters outside India,
has advanced notably away from those imported dividing Imes. More than
m many other foreign mission fields, there has been accomplished among
Indian Christians a breaking away from ancient foreign sectarianism. In
the South India United Church, Indian Christians have deliberately sev-
ered connections from the foreign groups which had originated them, and
have formed a notably strong and effective group of their own. A similar
effort is nearing completion in the organization of a North India United
Church.
Accordingly, the Indian Christian students here, while they represent
an unusually close relation to Protestant Christians in this country, are
not much concerned with the differences which exist among American
Christians.
Summarily, the students from India are probably the most variedly,
yet intensely, devoted to religion of all the national groups in the country.
Not even with American Christian students can a conversation be so
quickly, naturally, profitably turned to the subject of religion as with
the students from India. To whichever of the seven different religions
they may belong, practically all the students from India would agree in
believing in the religious necessity and efficacy of prayer, in the existence
of a superior realm of reality above the material, and in the sure expecta-
tion of a future life. Some things which they really need to be taught are
the very things on which they will be quite ready to acknowledge that their
knowledge is incomplete, viz., how to pray with most effectiveness, how to
behave oneselJt concretely towards the Supreme Power of the world, and
how to prepare oneself for a future life which shall be ever so much supe-
rior to the quality of the present life. The students from India will
prove themselves quite as ready as any other group to argue and debate
and rebut a censorious attitude. But probably the students from India
will also prove themselves more ready than any other group to respond to
sympathy, appreciation, evident helpfulness, and personal friendliness. A
genuinely self-sacrificing, servicef ul love, which is the prime practical char-
acteristic of the true Christian, will prove wonderfully winsome and suc-
cessful, when coupled with an intelligent acquaintance with the religious
background of the students from India.
"Directory of Christian Missions in India, Burma and Ceylon," Fourteenth
Edition, November, 1924, p. v.
BACKGROUND OF STUDENTS COMING TO AMEKICA 59
POLITICALLY. Of course, all the students from India come from
tinder a foreign rule. Yet in this respect, as well as in regard to religion,
they differ decidedly. A large majority of the Parsis are pro-British,
because they have been persecuted by Mohammedans, and barely tolerated
by Hindus, while by the British they have been genuinely protected and
advanced. Probably of no other religious community in all India can it
be said with such general uniformity that they stand openly for the
British Kaj without sore criticism. Even among the Indian Christian
students there is to be found some rather bitter invective. Probably many
of the Indian students in this country hold the position which the present
writer believes that most of the intelligent, steady, balanced, really depend-
able people in India also hold towards the British rule, viz., that, despite
a certain slowness of progress and despite certain outstanding lamentable
instances to the contrary, the British rule has given to India a measure
of justice, unity, and progress which India had never before enjoyed,
and which India would not have obtained from any other administration;
consequently the very best course at the present time is for India to con-
tinue to be a constituent member of the British Empire, but definitely
looking towards the time when India shall attain unto a status of repre-
sentative self-government like that enjoyed by Canada and other parts of
the British Empire.
However difficult is a generalization concerning the attitude of the
Indian people and of the Indian students in their appraisement of the
British rule, there is not the slightest question but that the students of
all religious and political groups are a solid unit in their love of mother-
land and m their ardent longing for the achievement of a national life
which shall be the equal of the best national life to be found anywhere
in the world. It were a hazardous question to ask an Indian student:
"What do you think of the connection of India with Britain and the
West?" But it will be a question at once searching and uplifting to ask
any and every Indian student in this country: "How are you planning
to use the education which you have acquired abroad for the uplift of
your motherland when you return to India?** And it will prove more
revealing of themselves and more profitable to ourselves to follow up the
inquiry further: "What and who have proved to be the greatest helps
that India has received from abroad ? What now can we of America do
to cooperate with the progressive element in India looking towards a
splendid national life? How can we help you to acquire an increasing
measure of that sense of loyal devotion and personal self-sacrifice to the
common welfare of all India which is requisite to a strong, balanced,
growing national life?"
The political situation is as complex and difficult as is the religious
60 THE FOREIGN STUDENT IN AMERICA
situation in India. But the students of India are genuinely keen for both
religious and political idealism.
SOCIALLY. The most brilliant and aspiring young men in India, when
they seek for a quick advancement in any sphere, whether governmental,
educational, or business, go to Great Britain for that higher step. Cer-
tainly there has been spread abroad in India the idea that somehow it is
easier for a young man without money or without a "pull" to get ahead in
the United States than in Great Britain. There exist very few fellowships
or appointments of any kind, like the few maintained by the Gaikwar of
Baroda, whereby Indian students come financed.
General "opportunity" is unquestionably the great attraction. And
undoubtedly there are more opportunities in this country than in Europe
for a poor young man, even for a "failed B.A." to mount socially, intel-
lectually, and every other wise than he could in India. If it is a delicate
question to inquire of any Indian student concerning his position reli-
giously, politically, or socially in his homeland, there is absolute assurance
that above all else in this land the desire of his heart is for "opportunity."
Give him opportunities of every kind, information, incentive, personal
friendship, and the Indian student will respond with alacrity. And on this
side, too, the Christians in the United States will find it to be one of their
great opportunities, sources of information, incentives, and responsibilities
to converse with, and variously to help, these students from India with their
varied background and foreground.
MORALLY. The students who come to this country from India are
wide apart as regards their religious beliefs and historic backgrounds, as
regards their political abilities and disabilities, and as regards the social
opportunities which have been enjoyed in India under their professed
ideals and tinder actual economic conditions. But as regards their moral
needs, they are all one* Not one of them, unless he is a Christian, be-
lieves that the Supreme Being in the world is an omnipotent loving
Father-God of whom human beings all may be regarded as His beloved
children, growing into His own likeness of perfect moral personality.
Not one of them has had in his national history a personage like unto
Jesus Christ, whose own life and character serve as an example and a
behest for the noblest life individually and socially.
Uncensoriously and with abounding sympathy, the students of India
with their varied religious, political, and social backgrounds, need a mighty
moral empowering in order to enable them to reach either their own or
our own highest ideals. They need a mighty moral empowering in order
to enable them, on their return home, to mediate to their countrymen the
fullest benefits of any technical or general education which they have
acquired in the United States,
BACKGBOUin) OF STUDENTS COMING TO AMEBICA 61
JAPAN
By ABTHTJB JOBGENSEN,
Student Secretary of the Young Men's Christian Association, Tokyo, Japan
Some distinction must be made between two groups of Japanese stu-
dents now studying in America. One of these groups, the undergraduates,
is a gradually diminishing one. Undergraduate study in America or any
other foreign country will not long continue to appeal to a very important
number of students. Such a course is discouraged by practically all who
are conversant with the issues involved. Unquestionably Japanese uni-
versities can better lay the foundations upon which the youth of the
country are to build their careers.
The second group is composed of post-graduate students. Of these
there is bound to be a continuous stream flowing into our American uni-
versities. Though this group may never become very large, it is likely
to expand somewhat within the next few years, and whatever its size it
will always be composed of men of promise in their various specialties.
They constitute on the whole a very select group of mature men, as a
rule graduates of the leading universities of the country, and thoroughly
imbued with the scientific and humanistic spirit. They are generally
marked with the great reserve that characterizes cultured Japanese. For
this reason they may have some difficulty in impressing upon Americans
with whom they associate their eagerness to acquire all that is best in
America. This eagerness will, however, manifest itself with the least
encouragement.
When these students reach our shores they are not only eager to learn,
but on the whole they are kindly disposed towards our culture and our
achievements. A recent editorial in the leading English daily of the Far
East on the subject of "Bacial Contacts/* touched on this point in these
words :
Knowledge of the West has had, up to the present at least, great prac-
tical value for the Chinese and Japanese. Those who cross the seas to our
Western lands are almost invariably driven by something much more
concrete than just seeing us.* (This in contrast to the Western tourist in
the East.) Having gone to our shores with definite purpose, they usually
remain long enough to get impressions that bear some relation to realities.
That they go as learners is of more than passing significance. There is
no noteworthy group coming to the East with a like purpose. As a result
of this eagerness to learn from the West, there is in Japan as well as in
China a considerable group of men, considerable in quantity but much
more so in the quality of their influence, who are not only prepared but
eager to interpret intelligently, and as a rule favorably, the civilization
of the West
62 THE FORBIGW STUDENT IN AMEEICA
The problem of background is one of peculiar difficulty in Japan where
within a half -century there has occurred one of the most memorable
revolutions in national history of which man has any record. How much
of the present is new and how much is old, not merely organically but
intellectually and even spiritually, are questions upon which there exists
the greatest difference of opinion even among those who are thought to
be well informed. External changes having been so unmistakable, it is
very easy to overestimate the extent of the inner changes As is well
known, for more than seven centuries the profoundest influence in Japa-
nese life was exerted by a system, continuing to this day as a powerful
spiritual momentum, known as Bushido, meaning loosely the way of the
military knight. Specifically Bushido was the code of the Samwrai, the
warrior class of Feudal Japan, but the spirit of the teaching permeated to
the remotest corner and to the heart of the humblest subject, of the
Mikado's domain Doubtless many of the Japanese students in the United
States are the blood descendants of the Samurai, but even where this is
not the case, they are inevitably the spiritual progeny of Bushido. Though
many changes have swept over Japan since Dr. Nitob6 wrote his now
famous book on this subject, I believe it is still appropriate to quote one
of his fundamental conclusions: "Scratch a Japanese of the most ad-
vanced ideas, and he will show a Samurai/' BusJiido engendered certain
qualities which are still dominant in Japanese character. It took up and
gave new life as well as new form to the conceptions of loyalty taught by
the religions of the country. It had a large part in creating and directing
the Japanese conception of and devotion to form, a conception that per-
meates life to the core. The ceremonial of daily life, as well as of more
formal occasions, is the product of BusJiido. This accounts for the dif-
ficulty many Japanese have in comprehending the excessive informalities
of American life, informalities that strike them as not only extremely
unconventional, but at times even as evidence of lack of polish or refine-
ment. This sense of form and conventionality is of course what distin-
guishes art. Not only so, but it has permeated the so-called lowest classes,
until the crudest country bumpkin is, paradoxically enough, the very em-
bodiment of good manners. As just suggested, it was Bushido that en-
hanced and gave new direction to the idea of loyalty that already existed
as a result of the combined influence of Shinto and Confucianism. In
fact, its penetration of Japanese life was so complete that those who are
best informed maintain that intellectual and moral Japan is largely the
creation of Bushido. "Unfonnulated, BusJiido was and still is," says Dr.
NitoW, "the animating spirit, the motor force of Japan."
Shinto, Buddhism, and Confucianism are peculiarly intermingled in
the religious history of Japan. Nominally, the last of these has almost
BACKGROUND OF STUDENTS COMING TO AMERICA 63
disappeared. Only rarely does one hear a Japanese speak of himself as a
Confucianist, though many acknowledge with gratitude the influence of
Confucian ideas upon their moral character. Speaking of Japanese stu-
dents generally, and especially of such a group as comprises those studying
abroad, it may be said fairly that their religious affiliations are almost
entirely nominal. Religion carries on among them mainly as a tradition.
Despite this fact they are very open-minded, especially when it comes to
an objective study of Christianity. Whether or not this open-mindedness
continues or takes on the form of a more lively interest, depends very
much upon the impressions they gather of Western life during their sojourn
among us.
The Japanese people as a whole are often described as sentimental and
idealistic. On the other hand there is also a great deal of truth in what a
noted Japanese scholar said recently to the effect that the great masses
of the Japanese people are practical and realistic in the sense that they
live pretty close to the ground. Even materialism does not alarm them
for the reason that they have never differentiated, much less juxtaposed,
the material and the spiritual in anything like the degree that we have
in the West, especially where Christianity is dominant. Their religions are
in the main doctrines of this present life, attempts to soften and make
endurable to the masses their frequently hard and all but unbearable lot.
This is done not so much by reference to future rewards as by inculcating
the stoic virtue of patience and the practical wisdom of fatalism. The
tendencies to personify and to deify are aspects of the common man's
outlook upon nature and the human spirit which afford him profound
inner satisfaction without transporting him to realms beyond the skies.
There is a very signficant tendency which touches the religious outlook
of a not inconsiderable group of thoughtful students. I refer to what is
frequently spoken of as the Buddhist reform movement. It is important
to observe that this tendency towards reform in Buddhism is largely, if
not wholly, outside the limits of organized Buddhism. It gets its main
impulse from the eager spirit of thoughtful young men* many of whom
are in the universities, who believe in the essential spirit of Buddhism,
but who see no hope for that spirit so long as it is encased, so to speak,
within the rigid forms of organized Buddhism. While many of the severe
critics of Christianity in the West remain affiliated to the Church, such is
rarely the case with the leaders of the movement for reform in Buddhism.
Temple Buddhism, say these men, is almost wholly bad, a solemn travesty
on the inner spirit and possibilities of the Buddhist faith. Perhaps one
needs to recall at this point that severe critics not infrequently go too far.
They revolt instinctively against the minutely doctrinized thought and the
highly ecclesiastical institutions of dominant Buddhism.
64: THE FOREIGN STUDENT IN AMERICA
The life and thought of Japan to-day are in a seething ferment. This
is more marked than at any time since the early 70's when the modern
era began. The result is a spirit of inquiry and disillusionment which,
especially among students, verges on revolt. Politics, economics, and
science have played the leading r61es upon the stage of Japanese events
during recent decades. Along all these lines there has been revealed a
quite remarkable inquisitiveness. Comparatively speaking, the fires of
religious thought and of philosophy have burned pretty low. The leaders
of Japan have almost been obliged to let these rest while they have at-
tempted to work their way through the more apparently pressing problems
of social, economic, and political organization.
The struggle between the liberal and reactionary tendencies in Japan
has been growing more intense during the past few years. With few ex-
ceptions the students are pronouncedly liberal in their sympathies, although
of course this does not mean that they are opposed to a monarchy.
In this connection a fascinating sidelight into the seething cauldron of
Japanese thought is afforded by a study of what the leading book stores
that deal in English books are selling to the public. The books m greatest
demand are, broadly speaking, those on social and economic subjects. The
books of Norman Angell, Bertrand Russell, H. G. Wells, J. M. Keynes,
James Bryce, Karl Marx, and Kropotkin disappear from the shelves of
the great Maruzen book store like hot cakes on a frosty morning. The
manager told me that it was virtually impossible to keep some of them
in stock. This he said was particularly true of two books by Bertrand
Russell, "Roads to Freedom," and "The Principles of Social Reconstruc-
tion." The freedom and boldness of thought that mark these two volumes
as well as the writings of some of the other men mentioned above, are
well known. The man in charge of the English department in the largest
book store in the country gave it as his judgment that at least half of
their sale of the books described was made to students. The more mature
of these students, such as those who go abroad for study, know fairly
well what is going on in the world of ideas.
Until recently the opportunities for intercourse between men and
women students in Japan were practically nil. Gradually the old con-
ventions are being broken down, but even yet there is little free inter-
course. One of the things which Japanese students., therefore, most
appreciate and desire in America is the opportunity to make the acquaint-
ance of cultured women.
The perplexing problems precipitated by the expansion of industrialism
are also giving concern to many of the Japanese who come to America.
They are eager to find effective means for solving these problems and are
frequently disappointed by what seems to them the failure of American
BACKGBOUND OP STUDENTS COMING TO AMEBIOA 65
Christians to make their religious faith function freely in industrial and
business life.
LATIN AMERICA
By S. G. ITOIAN,
Secretary of the Committee on Cooperation in Latin America, New York
On a recent visit to Buenos Aires the writer found himself in company
with a remarkable circle of intellectual leaders in the private library of
a professor of the National University. He found that these men were
equally at home in the discussion of any of the great international problems
lacing the world and that they spoke fluently most of the modern lan-
guages. He was shown about the library, a collection of sixty thousand
volumes made by this university professor. He was asked if he cared
to see his host's "five foot shelf," and was led to a table about five feet
long in the center of the library. Every book on the shelf was written
by the professor himself. When he again called on this professor, he was
shown the latter^s unpublished works, covering a shelf several feet long.
There is a remarkable circle of intellectual leaders in every capital city
of Latin America.
Suppose on that evening, when talking to those professors, one had
had the temerity to introduce the question of religion. What do you
think would have been the result ? Those gentlemen probably would have
looked at their visitor in astonishment and said: What! You, who come
from a university, introduce into this company of scholars an old, worn-
out subject like religion? Why, it is religion that has brought us to
where we are. It is because of religion that we have so many revolutions,
that so many of our people are unable to read and write, that we have
made so little progress. In the name of all that is good and great, deliver
us from religion !
On another occasion in this same city, the writer met three distin-
guished literati at dinner. One of them is probably the best known author
in South America to-day, editions of whose works have run to a half mil-
lion copies. Another was a justice of the Supreme Court of Argentina.
Another was formerly the Director of Secondary Education in Argentina.
From eight to twelve o'clock this group discussed the question of religion.
All present were close enough friends and understood one another well
enough so that they laid aside all reserve and got down to fundamentals.
After four hours of discussion with those gentlemen, one felt that it was
almost hopeless for an Anglo-Saxon, with all his background, to under-
stand the Latin American, with an inheritance and environment so
different!
66 THE FOREIGN STUDENT IN AMERICA
During the discussion one of the gentlemen arose from the table and
said : "When you ask us to be religious, you ask us to be immoral. Re-
ligion is organized evil and we will have none of it. I am against it and
I will die fighting religion." Another accompanied the writer to his
hotel, which was facing the plaza whereon is located also the beautiful
Cathedral of Buenos Aires. We walked around the plaza for an hour.
Every time we passed the Cathedral this man would shake his fist at
aquella cosa "that thing!" "That thing" this man hated as he hated
poison, because he said it was against all the social and educational and
economic reforms that he believed necessary for the upbuilding of his
country.
Such men as these are the teachers of the Latin-American students
that come to the United States. It would not be fair to say that all
university teachers take that attitude for there are some who are loyal
supporters of the dominant Church and others who believe in Protes-
tantism. But the great majority are either indifferent or hostile to the
Church. It is very evident that to understand this attitude of the educated
classes we must look into the historical background which has produced
such a condition.
LATIN* AMERICA'S SOCIAL, MORAL, AND RELIGIOUS HERITAGE. The
Iberian colonists who went to Latin America themselves wore of widely
divergent extraction, being descendants of the invaders who, in successive
centuries from three continents, swarmed into the Spanish Peninsula.
The viewpoint of the colonist was more predominantly Oriental than Occi-
dental. This strong Oriental influence is seen to-day in many ways,
the seclusion of women, the love of the philosophical and mystical, the
roundabout way of approaching a question, the emphasis on correct form
rather than true statement.
The national complexity of the Latin Americans, explained by their
historic origins and heritage, is reflected in moral standards and social
ideals which are quite different from those of North America. Account
must be taken of this in all attempts at religious approach. The ruling
class has adopted and imposed the language, the customs, and the soul of
Latin culture. Law, religion, and the sense of the artistic have emanated
through Spain and Italy; rationalism, socialism, poetic sentiment, and re-
publicanism have come largely from France. It is only recently that this
Latin spirit has sought to accommodate itself to the utilitarian realities
of Anglo-Saxon, Teutonic, or North American commerce. South Ameri-
can litterateurs make glowing acknowledgment of the great influence of
France upon the new democracies. It is the Latin spirit only which can
point the way to a knowledge of Latin-American character, Latin- American
culture, and Latin-American conscience.
BACKGROUND OF STUDENTS COMING TO AMEEICA 6T
The occupation by Christianity of the new Hispanic world was neither
inaugurated nor directly controlled by the Roman See. In the militant,
ecclesiastical autocracy of the Iberian monarchs from Ferdinand to Philip
III, the task of peninsular government, of colonial expansion, and of the
defense and propagation of the established religion at home and abroad
were inseparably related. Then the type of Christianity transmitted to
the oversea lands was, necessarily, the mediaeval orthodoxy of Spain. After
the manner of Charlemagne and Vladimir, the conquerors frequently gave
the Indians the option of war or submission to the Roman faith. When
war was accepted and the Indians had been reduced, they were enslaved
and baptized.
The political isolation, intentionally absolute and actually almost com-
plete, in which, through Spanish and Portuguese control, the transatlantic
colonies were so long held as regards the rest of the world, is another
experience of important relevancy to the right understanding of religious
conditions in the present Latin America. The government restriction
tended to make the intellectual isolation of the colonies as complete as
their political allegiance and their commercial dependence. Education was
committed to the hands of the clergy. General, and especially primary,
education was conspicuously neglected.
Spam threw a whole continent into conventual seclusion to defend and
preserve the Roman Catholic faith. Through circumstances, therefore,
outside of her own determining, Latin America was separated for three
centuries from the great centers and currents of liberation and reform
intellectual, social, and religious which arose in Europe and flowed from
it from the sixteenth century onward. Latin America inevitably bears
to-day the effects of her long isolation, in institutions and attitudes which
are all her own. Lord Bryce has named as Latin America's "grave mis-
fortune absence of a religious foundation for thought and conduct."
LATIN AMERICA. AND THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHUHOH. In achieving
political emancipation the colonies at first preserved their loyalty to the
Roman Church, despite the fact that that Church was the chief instrument
of Spain* s repressive regime. But freedom of conscience and of worship
was implicit in the forces that made for democracy. The principle of
religious liberty and toleration, although not universally understood and
observed in Latin America, is now established by legal enactments in
every one of the republics. Yet, notwithstanding this important fact,
Roman Catholicism still preserves, in varying degree, the aspect of a state
religion. Almost the entire population of Latin America is returned by
government census as Roman Catholic. In general, the Roman Church
regards itself as adequately occupying or preempting the entire Latin-
American world. The attitude, unfortunately, does not fully represent
68 THE FOEBIGN STUDENT IN AMEEIOA
the real situation. Abundant evidence establishes the fact that the vast
statistical membership of the census reports is largely nominal and super-
ficial. That there are immense and growing defections from the Roman
Church, not only in inward conviction and sympathy, but in outward
allegiance and conformity, is patent beyond contradiction in every Latin-
American land.
Whatever else visitors to Hispanic America may notice, they are prac-
tically unanimous in their observation of the lack of religion in those
countries. In former times this indifference or hostility to Christianity
was noted only among the men of the more cultured classes; now it is
spreading to the educated women and in a large degree to the workingmen
in the cities. As a recent observer puts it :
However the religious question is to be settled, it remains to-day the
greatest problem of South America. Until it is solved every South Aiaeri-
can republic is likely to witness from time to time such scenes
as those recently enacted in Chile, where crowds of its best educated
young men marched night after night through the streets of its capital
city deriding, mocking, and insulting the Church to which the nation
belongs.
THE STUDENT CLASS LE-AJDING THE ATTACK ON THE CHUBOH. That
the student class is leading the attack on the Church signifies that it is
in the college and university centers of South America that religious
indifference is most marked and sentiment toward the Church most hostile.
Garcia Calder6n, of Peru, recently said:
We do not find in Latin America either an elegant skepticism, a puritan
religion, or even a mysticism like the Spanish. Her Catholicism is a
limited and official religion. We are witnessing the decadence of traditional
religion. The Church is being converted into a bureaucratic institution.
Its convents attract only those of the inferior classes. The robustness of
creative convictions, which is the strength of the Biblical men of North
America, the deep interest in human destiny, the stern sense of duty, the
realization of the seriousness of life, do not disturb Latin- American Ca-
tholicism. ... In the Latin South, only a renovated and profound faith
can give to accumulated riches a national sentiment,
Sr. Calder6n's reference to the lack of emphasis placed on morality by
the Church has an important bearing on the students. This has been
followed largely by an apparent indifference of all classes to this matter.
The dean of a law school recently declared that the faculty had nothing
to do with the moral life of the students. There are no dormitories.
Students from out of town may live in a boarding house or may club
together with other students in unsupervised quarters which too often
have women connected with them, or they may live in any way, attending
BACKGROUND OF STUDENTS COMING TO AMEBICA 69
classes or not as they see fit. There are, of course, notable exceptions to
this rule, institutions in which individual professors and officers of a uni-
versity take a personal interest in the lives of the students.
The Director of the National Library of Peru, Dr. Deustua, says :
Spain conquered Peru only to enrich herself, organizing a colony in
which all, absolutely all, looked toward this end. . . . When we attained
our political liberty, the leaders of the Republic, without preparation for
political life directly opposite to that of the colony, without force to create
new forms of life, without other models than those offered by Spain, con-
tinued the same utilitarian regime which had originated all the dis-
asters of our national life. Morality, true morality, has not reigned in the
higher circles, and the country, which needs a heroic and continual struggle
to grow into a real entity, free from the past, has swung from a dictator
to revolution, which has engendered reciprocally the same political evils.
This is why we find ourselves to-day stripped of real civilization not
because we find ourselves without powerful industries, exploited a thousand
times by commerce, but because we find ourselves without the moral power
necessary to organize ourselves and govern ourselves as a free people.
A NEW INTEREST IN MORALITY AMONG UNIVERSITY MEN. A remark-
able book recently published, "Moral para Intelectuales," written by Carlos
Vaz Ferreira, professor of philosophy in the University of Montevideo, is
significant as showing a new interest in morality among university men.
He does not advocate Christianity, however, as a means of obtaining moral
improvement.
If the Latin-American student is generally prejudiced against the
Roman Catholic Church it would be a great mistake to conclude therefore
that he is favorably inclined toward the Protestant Church. The opposite
is more usually true. He often brings with him a deep prejudice against
Protestantism with its cold and formless worship as a kind of ally to
North-American imperialism, which he has been taught is working to
devour his nation.
It would not be fair to give the impression that all Latin-American
students are indifferent to religion. Some devout, spirituaUy-minded
Roman Catholics are found among them. Others are loyal to the Church
because they feel that it is a part of loyalty to their Latin civilization.
There are also a small but growing number of students from Evangelical
schools being sent to the United States.
GENERAL ATTITUDE TOWARD THE CHDEOH ONE OE IJTOIFFBRENOE,
In the great majority of cases, it may be taken for granted that the
Latin- American student in the United States does not regard ecclesiastic
connections as of any importance in giving him strength to attain that
moral, intellectual, and spiritual acumen for which he is supposed to have
come to this country. The indirect argument of service, of hospitality, and
70 THE FOEEIGN STUDENT IN AMEBICA
of sacrifice for a cause will have far more weight than ecclesiastical or even
philosophical discussion.
THE NEAR EAST T
By 8. RILPH HAELOW,
Formerly General Secretary of the Student Volunteer Movement for the Near East,
and
PHILIP K. Him,
Professor in the American University of Beirut
Air AMERICAN BACKGROUND. In an attempt to sum up the background
of the student who comes to us from the Near Bast it is necessary to keep
in mind that he usually has already spent some time in. an American en-
vironment on a campus of an American educational institution in the
Near East. He may be a Syrian and have spent several years in the
American University at Beirdt; he may be a Turk whose education from
childhood has been in connection with Robert College at Constantinople;
or if he is a Greek, he has possibly studied in the International College
at Smyrna; or he may be an Armenian from St. PauFs College m Tarsus,
If he has studied in an American institution in the Near East he
comes to this country with many American ideas and ideals already per-
meating his thinking. He is all too apt to think of America as a land
where ideals of justice and righteousness and truth are held in universal
esteem and where the great spirit of democracy is in evidence on every
hand. He is pretty sure to feel that America is a Christian country and
that reverence for religion is part of the very heritage of the land. Many
of the young men and young women who come to this country from these
institutions have already been active members of the Y. M. 0, A. or
Y. W. C. A*; some of them have been members of the Student Volunteer
Movement and have taken the pledge of the movement to make Jesus
Christ supreme in the life of the Near East, They come expecting friendly
outstretched hands and when they come m contact with any friendly spirits
their hearts respond eagerly to such expression of Christian fellowship.
They must go through some pretty severe shocks as they begin to analyze
critically the life of America, but if they have had a warm personal Chris-
tian experience and if they come in contact on their college campus with
earnest Christian students and friends, they will be able soon to reinterpret
America's life and to differentiate between the good and the bad Un-
fortunately some of them find themselves in an environment almost hostile
to the Christian ideals which surrounded them on the campus of the
f Two independent articles are here combined under one frying by the editors
BACKGROUND OP STUDENTS COMING TO AMEBICA 71
American college which they attended in the Near East. Grateful indeed
is such a student for one understanding friend whose Christian ideals
and fellowship he is permitted to share.
There remains, however, a great number of young men and young
women from the Near East whose lives have been but superficially touched
by the appeal of Christ. There are many who feel hostile to Christianity.
To most of the students in the Near East, Moslem and Christian alike,
politics and religion have gone hand in hand and had little to do with
morals. To a Greek, being a Christian has meant being a member of the
Greek Orthodox community. He may cheat, he may lie, his life may
not be moral, but he can pass muster as a member of his race and com-
munity. Let that same man change his mode of living, seek to tell the
truth, to live a pure life, to join the Protestant fellowship, and he will
suffer persecution and be looked upon as a renegade by his race. In a
somewhat lesser degree this holds true of the Armenian who separates
himself from the national Church. When we come to the Mohammedan,
the rule holds with fixed rigidity. Provided he wear a fez and call him-
self a Moslem, he may be licentious and corrupt and yet be held in far
greater esteem than were he to become an unselfish patriot, a man of
integrity and pure life, but acknowledge that it was through Christ that
he came into the better way of life. In the latter case he will be stoned,
spit upon, and denounced as a traitor and men will think that they do
God service to kill him.
THE MORAL BACKGROUND. To the man of the Near East it is almost
impossible to dissociate politics and religion and neither has much to do
with morals. The moral atmosphere in which the young men and young
women of the Near East grow up is conducive to insincerity, bigotry, and
impurity. One never expects in the marketplace to be told the truth and
the clever man is the man who can cheat his fellowmen most successfully.
The double standard is carried to the limit. Men are not supposed to
live pure lives, and among the Turks there is no mingling of the sexes
after the age of twelve. The only women that a Turkish boy over twelve
can see unveiled are his mother, his sister, and in rare cases, his first
cousins. Among the Christians the separation is less rigid, although there
is nothing of the free social life which is such a blessing and such a menace
in our own land.
The thought life of adolescence in the Near East is strongly influenced
by the French type of novel and story. The best Turkish popular litera-
ture is full of suggestions which make it unfit for reading in a community
that strives for moral character. One cannot say much more for the
popular literature read by young people of the Christian communities in
the Near East. Where the literature read is not morally degrading, it is
72 THE FOBEIGN STUDENT IN AMERICA
thoroughgoing in its agnosticism and atheism. A large percentage of the
students in the Near East are acquainted with German and French
philosophical writings of the destructive type. These students are not real
philosophers ; they have merely skimmed the surface and they have hardly
reached maturity to think for themselves.
RELIGION. Unfortunately religion as presented by the spiritual leaders
and by the organized church has the tendency to increase their distrust of
all that goes under the head of religion in so far as religion has to do
with reality and with the problems of life. They may be fanatical Mos-
lems or fanatical Greeks but they will freely and superficially argue against
all the fundamentals on which belief in the spiritual is grounded. Faith,
prayer, immortality, God, they brush aside with a wave of the hand, and
commit religion to old women, to children, and to superstitious peasants.
They are astonished and amazed when they first discover religion can be
interpreted in terms which have meaning to the minds of modern men
who accept all that modern science has to offer arid who are not afraid of
truth. Books such as Fosdick's "The Meaning of Faith/' "The Meaning of
Prayer/' they read with great interest and a large proportion of the Chris-
tian leadership in our Student Movement in the .Near East has come
from among students whose superficial agnosticism broke down before the
presentation of a vital Gospel interpreted in terms which had meaning to
them.
Whether a Sunni (orthodox) Moslem from Turkey, Asia Minor, Syria,
Palestine, or Egypt, a Shi'ite 8 from Mesopotamia or Persia, or a Druse
from Lebanon, a Mohammedan is born to his religion just as an American
is born to his nationality. His religious community takes the place of
the State for him. It is therefore hardly possible to meet a Moslem
student who does not profess Islam no matter what the real nature of his
inner belief may be. To him there is no choice in the matter. His re-
ligion is a sort of nationality.
This intensity of community feeling furnishes a bond of union among
Moslems everywhere, and is one of the main features of Islam. It makes
the originally Mongolian Turk a brother of the Aryan Persian, and re-
duces both into terms of equality with the Semitic Arab or Hamitic
African. This equality is not only religious, it is social. But it is not
universal in its scope. All those outside of the Moslem fold are looked
upon as inferior beings to be treated according to a different code.
Most of the Moslem students in the United States must have come
under the Christian influence of some one of the American high schools
A follower of 'All, Mohammed's son-in-law and the fourth caliph.
Druses are a schismatic Mohammedan secret sect numbering some 50,000
followers.
BACKGKOUND OP STUDENTS COMING TO AMBBIOA 73
of Syria and Lebanon or of the dozen American colleges of Constantinople,
Smyrna, Cairo, Assiut, Beirfrt, Tarsus, 'Aintab, Marsovan, and Harput.
They may unconsciously read Christian ideas into their Mohammedan
doctrine; but in all cases their old faiths are retained. Moslem students
are conservative. They carry with them the consciousness that their reli-
gion is superior to other religions not excluding Christianity. For is not
their religion the true and only form of monotheism as compared with poly-
theistic and trimtanan Christianity? It believes in one God Allah
inculcates prayer, fasting, pilgrimage, and almsgiving, considers Mo-
hammed as the last and the seal of the prophets, acknowledges Adam,
Noah, Moses, and Jesus as pure and inspired prophets.
Not only is Islam a democratic religion, it is a human and rational
religion. Hardly anything is ascribed to Mohammed which raises him into
the realm of the superhuman.
PRIDE IN HISTORIC HERITAGE AND ACHIEVEMENT. Is there anything
in the Christian annals that in their eyes compares in glory and splendor
with the rise of the rule, the spread, and the cultural attainment of Islam?
One hundred years after the death of the Arab orphan the illiterate son of
the desert, the treble founder of a church, a nation, and an empire his
followers were the masters of a state extending from the shores of the
Atlantic to the highlands of Mongolia and India.
In the Middle Ages the Moslems were the only bearers of the torch of
civilization in Mediaeval Europe. The culture of the Crusaders was crude
and primitive compared with that of the Saracens.
Of all these facts the Moslem student is always conscious, although he
can not very well deny the present industrial and military supremacy of
the Western Christian nations.
KELIGIOUS ASPECT OB- MORALITY. Moslem morality is an aspect of
religion. It is incumbent on one to be moral not so much because it is
expedient or fashionable or scientific but because it is his religious duty.
Mohammed, however, was a many-sided personality, and it is possible for a
follower of his, who is sensual or scheming, to find in Mohammed's life
ample justification for his conduct. Another moral handicap upon the
life of a Moslem results from the fact that he is required to make a dis-
tinction in his attitude between those of his own faith and those who are
not. Nor are the standards of veracity on a par with those of the
Christians.
TEMPERANCE. It is to the credit of Islam that it not only inculcates
temperance as a theory but enforces it in practice. Moslem students, like
all other Moslems, know little of drinking, gambling, or other vicious
games of chance.
THE MOSLEM: FAMILY. The patriarchal principle with its accompany-
74 THE FOREIGN STUDENT IN AMERICA
ing conception of woman as an inferior being forms the basis of the
Moslem family. Moslem women live in seclusion and behind the veil.
Polygamy is practised and divorce not uncommon. The children and the
weak are not held with any special regard.
POLITICAL REACTION AGAINST THE WEST. The Moslem world of the
Near East is at the present time in a state of mental reaction against
things European or Western. It is embittered and humiliated as a result
of the Great War. Theoretically the Moslem state and religion are in-
separable. Religion, law, and science are different aspects of one and the
same thing. To the young Moslems the victories of Mustapha Kemal have
brought fresh hopes and a promise of liberation from Western political
domination.
THE RISING TIDE or NATIONALISM. In the face of the many con-
flicting ideas coming from the West that confront the Moslems of to-day,
the thoughtful Moslems often stand aghast. They are puzzled as to what
to take and what not to take. Of one thing, however, they are sure:
they are adopting the modern spirit of nationalism. They want to live
their lives in their own way and free from foreign hindrances. The Chris-
tian minorities Greek, Armenian, and Christian Syrian are regarded
with distrust and deep-rooted hostility. The Moslem community will be
better off without them. If they are not killed off, they are driven out of
the Moslem land.
The whole JSTear East is at present in a state of turmoil and confusion;
and its students reflect this spirit. They are nationalists to the tips
of their fingers and one of the first evidences of the vital influence of the
Gospel in their lives is a waning of an un-Christlike emphasis upon
nationalism. The history books used in the Turkish schools are nothing
more nor less than the gloriiicatioa of war in which the praises of the
warrior are heard above the clash of swords and the sound of trumpets.
Deliberate hate propaganda runs through the pages of these books and in
the signs and posters used in the schools, and in publications. This
nationalistic spirit, in which hatred of other races is a keynote, is found
everywhere. One cannot exempt the Christian races of the Near East.
Through a narrow interpretation of history their posters and books seek
to awaken nationalism of the kind that is opposed to the development of
world brotherhood.
In politics, in morals, and in religion, the so-called Christian powers
have done little to help make for righteousness in the Near East. Economic
expediency and moral deficiency have dominated foreign policy in that
land. The chief influence to work for righteousness has been the Ameri-
can missionary endeavor. The hopeful sign has been the almost eager re-
sponse in the missionary schools and colleges to the Gospel message pro-
BACKGROUND OF STUDENTS COMING TO AMSRIOA 75
claimed not in terms which contradict the truths of science bnt in harmony
with those truths. Before the terrible catastrophe which has practically
swept our Student Movement into the grave or into exile, there had been
developed a strong Student Movement in the Near Bast. Many students
trained in this movement are now studying in this country. If in the
future in Greece, in Constantinople, in Syria, or in any other part of te
Near East, the way shall again open for the spreading of the Gospel mes-
sage, these young men and young women will be in the forefront of the
effort. Whatever is done to strengthen and to help them in these days, may
be the very seed from which a harvest shall yet spring up in that land where
the blood of the martyrs has flowed so freely since first the Church was
founded in the shadow of the Cross.
THE PHILIPPINES
By ERNESTO J, CABBAIXO,
{Secretary for Filipino Students, Committee on Friendly Relations among Foreign
Students
Space does not permit us to go into the details of the religious history
of the Filipino people. With the exception of their Mohammedan Moro
kinsmen of the south and the several semicivilized tribes of the mountain
and interior regions, the Filipinos all claim to be Christians. In this
article we shall attempt to explain the religious experiences which they
offer as justification for this claim.
THE HISTORICAL EBLIGIOUS BACKGROUND. Practically all the Filipino
students that come to this country belong to the different denominations
of the Christian Church. We need not, therefore, concern ourselves with
the part that Mohammedanism in the south and primitive worship among
the semicivilized tribes of the mountain regions play in the religious life
of the Filipino student. The Filipino students in this country fall into
one or the other of the three groups of the Christian churches in the
Philippines, namely, the Roman Catholic Church, the Filipino Independent
Catholic Church, and the Protestant Church,
To the Filipino religion is not an ideal of living. Neither is it a
code of morals. It is the acceptance, whole-heartedly and without reserve,
by faith more than by reason, of the belief that there is a Supreme Cause
for life and the universe, which men, for the lack of a much more under-
stood and popular term, have called GOD.
The Philippines, roughly speaking, have undergone three distinct re-
ligious experiences. The first dated far back to a period beyond the bounds
of historical precision. Generally speaking, their religion was more or
76 THE FOREIGN STUDENT IN AMERICA
less animistic. To-day you can find remnants of this among the few semi-
civilized tribes that still inhabit the interior recesses of the islands.
About the fifteenth century the Mohammedans came, as they spread
from Arabia, through India, Sumatra, Java, and the other islands of the
East Indies, striking the southernmost part of the Philippines, namely
the coast regions of southern Mindanao and the Sulu archipelago. By
1565, when the Spaniards occupied the islands, Mohammedanism had
already reached Manila.
Spain was not only eager to extend her temporal power to the newly
discovered islands, but her ecclesiastical prestige must also be felt there.
So began a period of conquest and conversion, the Church and the State
working together as one, for the glory of the King and the sanctification
of the Pope. By about 1600 the religion of the Vatican had permeated
practically all the accessible portions of the archipelago, with the exception
of the Mohammedan sections of Mindanao and the Sulu Islands plus the
hill regions of the interior.
For over two centuries, 1600 to 1868, the Islands remained in a sort
of religious stagnation. The clergy, contrary to the washes of the King
and the Pope, seemed satisfied with the religious development of the
people. The education of the masses was also in a state of paralysis.
But in spite of enforced handicaps the Filipinos early proved their
capacity to imbibe the best that civilization and learning "had to offer.
Not fully satisfied with the conditions at home the Filipinos also took
advantage of the opportunities being extended to them from Europe and
America through the opening of the lines of communication. The religio-
political body then in power awoke from its lethargy of short-sighted
policy to stem the tide of a sweeping movement for self-determination.
But it was too late. Spain with all her pomp and power went down in
defeat before the combined forces of the United States and the native
Filipinos.
THE ADVENT OF THE UNITED STATES. With the advent of the United
States in the Philippines, Eoman Catholicism aud Protestantism once
more re-enacted on Philippine soil the religious conflict of Europe at the
time of the Reformation, though it was not on the battlefields this time.
Ten years ago it was not unfair for a writer to say that "the sects in
question (the Protestant sects) have never really succeeded in striking
root in Filipino soil/' But to-day we have a different story to tell.
Spain's errors in her policy toward the Philippines during these three
and three-quarter centuries of her control are too many to relate here.
It is not at all an exaggeration when we say that as a whole her policy
was suppressive and terribly exasperating. From the religious point of
view the threat of hell and purgatory, rather than the hope of heavenly
BACKGROUND OP STUDENTS COMTBTG TO AMEEIOA 77
reward, was all that was m the minds and hearts of the natives. They
were told to believe and to keep their mouths shut. Corruptions and
immoralities of the most atrocious kind were perpetrated upon the naive
and faith-bound natives by the very clergy itself . What chance was there,
therefore, for our people to understand what Christianity meant or what
Christ really taught? Religiously, the mind of the people was an absolute
blank.
So faith was their only hope, for it was through it only that ihey
could achieve spiritual satisfaction. They questioned what was being
handed down to them from the pulpits and the classrooms, but no
satisfaction was obtained. So one generation succeeded another, imbued
with a belief in the divinity of Christ as the Son of God yet not under-
standing it. What could the people do but follow the instinctive trend
of their religious nature, to look up to One they could not comprehend
but in whom they had faith?
If nothing else could be offered to immortalize Spain and Boman
Catholicism in the minds of the Filipinos for all eternity, it is the one
sublime fact that the Filipinos, despite this hideous system of religion,
have been brought to develop and maintain faith in God and in Jesus
Chnst. This alone is sufficient to outweigh all the possible condemnations
that one could pile against the infamy of Spanish domination in the
Philippines.
THE INTRODUCTION OF THE BIBLE. And then America came with its
principles of democracy and religious toleration. The introduction of the
Bible, formerly prohibited by the Church, brought about a complete revo-
lution in the religious thinking of many people, especially those who were
just on the verge of severing their connection with the old Church. The
opening of the public schools with their democratic ideas intensified the
craving to find the truth.
EELIGIOUS AFFILIATIONS OF FILIPINO STUDENTS IN THE UNITED
STATES. The great majority of the Filipino students that come to this
country are Roman Catholics. A recent Filipino doctor of philosophy
of Columbia University maintains that "the proportion of the Protestants
in the Philippines is about 150,000 out of a total Christian population
of 10,000,000, the rest being divided between the Koman Catholic Church
and the Filipino Independent Catholic Church." "It is probable," he
further asserts, "that much the same proportion would obtain among
Filipino students coming into the United States/* In my opinion the
figures are rather below the mark. Anyhow, the thing to remember is the
fact that a negligible percentage of those that come here are Protestant.
When I describe those that come here as Boman Catholics, I do not
mean that they are all confirmed members of this Church. Many of them
n THE FOREIGN STUDENT IN AMEEIOA
have never taken any active interest in the Church while at home and when
they get here they simply stay away from the Church. Yet they all daim
to be Roman Catholic Christians. There is only one explanation for this :
their parents are Roman Catholics and they, the children, have been born
and brought up in Roman Catholic communities. Their religion, there-
fore, is not one of their deliberate choice: it was rather handed down to
them by tradition and by the unconscious process of growing into it.
Thus as a rule, they are ignorant as to the meaning of being Roman
Catholics and more often as to the meaning of being Christians. Among
them the spirit of religious inquiry is lacking. There is an apparent
apathy toward all things that smack of religion. Occasionally, of course,
we meet some who are devoutly Roman Catholic and who attend a par-
ticular church and take an interest in religious matters.
FILCPIKTO MORALITY. The Filipino people have been criticized for
their institutions of gambling, drinking, cock fighting, and the ^querida
system." But as a matter of fact the majority of those in the Philippines
who indulge in the above practices never for a moment think of their
serious implications. Most often, except in the case of gambling, they
cany on these practices very openly and unconcernedly. In the "querida
system" instances have been known where the legal wife's permission has
been obtained by the husband beforehand. In other words, the Americans
and the Filipinos look upon these things differently. There is a world
of difference between these two situations.
Since the time when we were given our freedom of thought and ex-
pression we have unceasingly worked to abolish these institutions. The
public schools make the abolition of these evils a part of their program,
and the Protestant Churches denounce these institutions from their pulpits
and Sunday Schools. And to-day, generally speaking, the youths of the
land are unanimously against them. When the older members of this
generation die away, practically all these things will pass away too* Al-
ready they are, with the exception of drinking, tabooed in many sections of
the Islands.
Religion and morality do not seem to have any relationship at all in
the mind of some Filipino students; I have confronted many a Filipino
student with the question of immorality as un-Chriatian through and
through, but the usual reply was: "That has nothing to do with my
Christianity/'
The general religious background of all the Filipino students in this
country is practically the same, but their immediate background is one of
considerable contrast Those that have become Protestants have; of course,
undergone a religious experience that is not shared by their Boman Catholic
brothers.
THE OAEEEBS AND INFLUENCE OP
EETUENED STUDENTS IN
THEIE HOMELANDS
CSAPTEB III
THE CAREERS AND INFLUENCE OF RETURNED
STUDENTS IN THEIR HOMELANDS
THE subject of this chapter is the influence and careers of returned
students in their homelands. The first section is based upon expressions
of opinion from a representative group of Americans as to the potential
influence and leadership of the foreign students who have studied or are
now studying in this country. The replies quoted are obviously statements
of opinion, but because of the representative character of those whose
judgments are given their opinions are of interest and importance. The
second section of the chapter includes detailed reports from and con-
cerning eight different national and geographical areas, as to the individual
careers and general influence of students who have returned to their home-
lands after study abroad. These regional statements have been written
by men who either are living abroad among the students whom they are
describing, or have had long contact with the various nationalities con-
cerned. Their statements are based upon detailed questionnaires which
have been studied and answered by various individuals and institutions
in the areas named.
The second section deals more especially with statements of fact. The
fact should be kept in mind that the students described in the second
section of this chapter belong to an older student generation than do those
now studying in America. Undoubtedly generalizations that might be made
concerning this former generation of students could not safely be put
forth in regard to the present generation. On the other hand, there is
much that they both have in common and here, as elsewhere in history,
the past has much of value to teach in regard to the present and the
future.
BEPGEfcESBNTATIVB A1MEBICAN OPINION CONCERNING THE
POTENTIAL INFLUENCE OF BETUENED STUDENTS
Edited by KoBEBT L. KBLLT,
Executive Secretary, Council of Chunsk Boarda of Education
Thd Gotnmisaicfti wrote to a selected group of education^ and.
IB the Uniied Stated for their judgment on three .4
82 THE FOKEIGN STUDENT IN AMEBICA
What influence may foreign returned students be expected to have on
the Church and the Kingdom of Christ in their own lands and in the
world?
What influence may they be expected to have on the foreign policies
of their governments and on the attitude of their people toward other races
and nations ?
A third question and the answers to it are treated in a later chapter
of this volume.
Sixty letters were sent out; replies were received from twenty-five.
The answers, while varied, are at one in their recognition of the vital
character of the problems involved and of the sympathy of the writers with
the purpose of the present survey. Instead of a summary of the letters,
direct quotations of pertinent paragraphs have been made.
Mr. F. S. BKOOKMAN, Associate General Secretary, The International Com-
mittee of Young Men's Christian Associations
Let me say that both questions may be answered at the same time and
in practically the same words. The American returned students may be
expected to exert a powerful, formative influence upon the government
policies and upon the thought life of the nations to which they return.
Such has already proved to be the case.
The first cabinet of the Provincial Republic of China had three or
four students recently returned from America. As I recall, Yuan Shih-
Isfai's first cabinet had four American returned students. The former
Premier of China is a returned student from America. His predecessor
was likewise, and the High Commissioner of the Chinese Government in
charge of the negotiations with the Japanese for the return of Shantung
is an American returned student. The Chinese Ministers, both to the
United States and to Great Britain, are returned students from America.
I could go on endlessly. In the leadership of the Christian Church the
prominence of the returned student is no less seen than felt. At the
National Christian Conference recently held in Shanghai, the chairman
was a returned student from England and is now taking post-graduate
work in America. The next most important officer, the chairman of the
Business Committee, was a returned student from America. The most
powerful addresses were all made by American returned students. The
leadership of the new National Christian Council has been placed in their
hands.
BETURtfED STUDENTS Iff THEIB HOMELANDS 83
DR. SAMUEL M. CAVEHT, General Secretary, Federal Council of the
Churches of Christ in America
The influence which these students may be expected to have upon the
Church and the Kingdom of Christ in their own lands is simply incal-
culable. One could readily compile a list of scores of leaders in the
contemporary life of India, China, and Japan, and other nations, who
were formerly students in this country or in England, and whose work has
been especially influenced by their experience here. One thinks, for
example, of C. T. Wang of China, and S. K. Datta of India. On the
other hand, the influence which they may exercise against the progress of
the Kingdom of Chnst in their own lands, if their experience in our midst
is not such as to commend Christianity to them, is one of the most sobering
things that we have to face. Seared into my memory so that I shall never
forget them are the words of a brilliant young student from India with
whom I was a fellow-passenger en route to his own land. He said to me:
"When I came to England I was a Christian, as a result of my study in a
mission school; after five years in England I go back to India as a Hindu."
As a result of his experience in a so-called Christian land he had come
to the conclusion that Christianity was not the great power which he had
once supposed it to be.
The impressions which they here get of our motives and attitudes
toward other people cannot help having a lasting effect upon their own
motives and attitudes toward other nations in future years. Japanese
who have come in contact with fine, unselfish Americans, sympathetic
with other races, will not be likely in later years to think of the United
States as harboring militaristic designs against Japan. The establishing
of contacts between these foreign students and the best forces in our
American life is a direct contribution to the building up of a better inter-
national order.
DR. STEPHEN J. CORE*, Vice-President of the United Christian Missionary
Society, St. Louis, Missouri
One can hardly measure the influence which foreign students, studying
in our universities and colleges, will have on their return to their native
lands. It will be either for Christianity or against Christianity. These
young men and women are outstanding leaders and are recognized in their
own lands. Nothing in my judgment would yield richer fruits in the
Kingdom of God than to enlist these young people in active Christian
service before they return to their native countries.
Since these young leaders will have a relatively large part in the con-
84 THE FOREIGN STUDENT IN AMEEICA
duct of their own government, their influence on the foreign policies of
their governments will be very great. These young men and women will
in a large measure mould the thinking of their countries in connection
with other races and nations.
STEPHEN P. DUGGAN, PnJX, Director, The Institute of International
Education
It seems to me that the foreign student might readily be expected
to have a good deal of influence on the Church and religious life in his
own country. In the continental European countries practically no at-
tention at all is given to these matters. The careful observer coming to
our colleges and universities is struck by the fact that a real effort is
made to help guide the moral and religious welfare of the students as well
as their intellectual life, to which practically all the attention is given in
Europe. Upon students coming from non-Christian countries, I should
thmk the influence would be still greater, depending, of course, upon where
the student has studied with us. If it has been in the big city, and the
cosmopolitan university, not so much result can be expected; but if it
has been in a smaller community and in a non-urban institution, fine
results ought to be accomplished.
I think the influence of returned students upon their governments and
upon their people with reference to their attitude towards other races and
nations ought to be good. The average foreign student is very happily
received at our institutions. Whatever our attitude may be towards other
races, the average student seldom meets with an unfriendly attitude at
our colleges and universities. Moreover, he meets young men and women
from all conditions of society and all races and when he sees the poor
student working his way through college and honored with important
positions in the student body, the foreign student is usually Impressed,
therefore, with our democratic policy and very frequently has influence in
turn in his own country in that direction. Of course, we cannot conceal
the fact that our attitude towards colored peoples modifies the good that
might otherwise be accomplished.
Dr. SHERWOOD EDDY, Associate General Secretary, Foreign Division, The
International Committee of Young Hen's Christian Associations
My personal observation, extending over more than twenty-five years
through Asia and Europe, convinces me that the nearly ten thousand
foreign, students who are studying in the United States will exert an
BETUEEO3D STUDENTS IN" THBIS HOMELANDS 85
incalculable influence on the Church and the extension of the Kingdom
of God in their own lands. Out of all proportion to their numbers, these
men often exert nation-wide influence. They become the leaders in the
religious, political, and social life of their respective countries.
Many of them have exerted considerable influence on the foreign poli-
cies of their governments, to bring about more cooperation and better
understanding between foreign countries. This has been notably the
case as regards students returning to China to bring about better relations
between that country and our own.
Mr. HARRY E. EDMONDS, Director, International House, New York
The answer to the first question lies partly in the amount of Christian
conviction with which the student comes to this country, but more par-
ticularly in the contacts which he makes after arrival. Many devout
students are totally upset by the materialism and the un-Christian living
which they see here. On the other hand, they warm to personal friend-
ship and a true friend can help them sift the chaff from the wheat and
assist them to come into contact with the realities of American religious
and social life. If they can keep their spiritual balance, there is no
question that they go back a mighty force for the right sort of living
in their own lands and in many instances this influence extends beyond
the confines of their own countries.
How can one doubt that young men and women ambitious
enough to go thousands of miles from home to improve themselves will
be lacking in influence upon their return? There are numerous instances
of what returned students have done in ancient as well as modern times.
And now, when things change more rapidly than formerly, the student
from abroad is a broadening and international force. It cannot be other-
wise if he amounts to anything at all.
Mr. GALEN M. Fisnm, Executive Secretary of the Institute of Social and
Beligious Research
Unquestionably, the students who have gone from Japan to the United
States to study have upon their return formed one of the most important,
groups in the country. If they are rightly influenced during their stay
in America they generally return as Christians and take a leading part
in the Church, T. M. C. A., and other Christian enterprises. I am in-
clined to believe that there is only one body of Christian men and women
of equal size which can be compared to them for influence in the Kingdom
of Christ in Japan that is, the Christian graduates of the colleges in
Japan itself, including both Christian and government institutions.
86 THE FOEEIGN STUDENT IN AMEKICA
Manifestly^ the influence of such men and women on the attitude of
their own people toward other races and nations has been marked. They
are themselves, practically without exception, advocates of international
cooperation and good-will, and when they have been themselves rightly
treated in America, their own tolerance and brotherhood toward other races
are strengthened. At times of tension between America and Japan
over immigration matters, they have thrown their influence on the side
of moderation, patience, and a generous construction of American acts,
always maintaining that Japan could depend absolutely on American
justice and fair play prevailing in the long run.
PEOFESSOE J. A. C. HILDNEB, Board of Advisers to Foreign Students,
University of Michigan
The men and women who come to the universities from foreign coun-
tries are usually men and women of a superior type and it is inevitable
that they should wield an enormous influence in directing the intellectual
and social movements in their own countries.
Most of them soon become imbued with what is progressive in America
and impress upon their governments that there is in America a spirit of
friendliness and big-hearted cooperation with all nations.
HHNEY CHURCHILL KING, President of Oberlin College
I should think that the influence that might be expected from these
foreign students on the Church and the Kingdom of Christ in their own
lands, and in the world, would depend very largely on what their personal
associations were during their student days here. If they were sur-
rounded with warm Christian influence, I should think they might be
expected to contribute a good deal to their homelands.
If they were able and well trained men, as might reasonably be ex-
pected under the circumstances, I can see that they might naturally have a
good deal of influence in political matters, and if they had gotten pleasant
and helpful impressions here in America, that would be likely to affect
distinctly for good the attitude of their people toward America, and
toward other races and nations as well.
KRNNBIH SOOTT LATOTOBTXB, Professor of Missions, Tale University
I believe that students returning to other countries from the United
States, especially to non-Christian or Catholic countries, can have a pro-
EETUENED STUDENTS IS THBIE HOMELANDS 87
found effect on the religious life of their own lands. If, as is sometimes
the case, they come to believe as a result of their observations in this
country that religion has but little effect on the life of the American
people and is being outworn, they carry that impression with them to their
own lands and give it circulation. Their word naturally carries weight.
If on the other hand they have come in contact with a warm religious life
in this country, as fortunately is frequently the case, they may, and fre-
quently do, become towers of strength in the church life of their own
countries. It would, I think, be a matter of debate as to just what the
net influence is on any particular country, for we sometimes hear it said
that Chinese students are as a whole less Christian after leaving America
than when they came to it. Personally I feel that this statement rests
upon insufficient evidence and that it is extremely difficult to form an
accurate judgment as to just what the facts are.
Out of all proportion to their numbers, students returning from this
country to their land exercise influence upon their government, particularly
upon the foreign policies of their government. One need only cite the large
part played in Chinese diplomacy by returned students to see the force
of this assertion. Naturally they mould their foreign policies upon the
type of diplomacy with which they have become familiar in the "United
States and Europe. For example, Japanese diplomacy in the last forty
years is in my judgment very largely the fruit of occidental diplomacy and
some of the guiding spirits have been men who have been students abroad.
Prince Ito is a notable example of one who studied in Britain and returned
to his own country to be a force there.
Mr. ROBERT E. LEWIS, General Secretary of the Cleveland Young Men's
Christian Association
Students of foreign countries who have completed their education in
America are having a profound influence in their homelands. They are
proof positive of Benjamin Kadd's contention that you can change the
mental attitude of a people in one generation by applying yourself in
the right way. These students are becoming increasingly productive in
their native lands, although the historical process is not very far ad-
vanced. One of the difficulties in regard to foreign students 9 being as
effectively felt in the church life of their native lands as would otherwise
be possible is the conservative attitude of missionaries toward them in
many instances. To my personal knowledge, young men with advanced
education have not been granted the welcome, or advancement, or position
of trust and leadership whiph. was their due.
88 THE FOEEIGN STUDENT IN AMEEICA
I think the Church and other Christian institutions could have made
much greater use of foreign-educated students if we had an adequate
policy to promote their education and assimilation upon return to their
native lands, but as it is they are already having a profound influence as,
for example, was seen in the National Conference in Shanghai in 1922
and in the great statements for actual Christian unity for which this
new leadership stands. It is said that the denominational leaders are
so absorbed in denommationahsm that they have not given so much
support to the foreign students who are not favorable to the continuance
of denominationalism abroad, and I believe that when the native educated
Christians become numerous enough they will insist on the abolition of
denominationalism in their nations and will form indigenous Churches of
our missionary Churches.
Dr. D. WILLAED LYON, Secretary, Foreign Division, The International
Committee of Young Men's Christian Associations
The foreign students studying in our North American educational
institutions constitute a force to be reckoned with in the development of
the Christian Church and the extension of the Kingdom of God in the
countries from which they come. Those among them who were Christians
before they came to America will have their Christian convictions either
greatly strengthened or seriously undermined by their contacts with
American life. Among those who are not Christians on their arrival a few
at least will become convinced of the claims of Christ on their own lives
during their stay in North America, and the remainder will return to
their own countries either as friends or as militant enemies of the
Christian cause. Bach student, therefore, no matter what his personal
relationship to the Christian Church may be, on his return to his own
country will exert an influence decidedly for or against Christianity.
My observation leads me to believe that very few are neutral on their
return. It is highly important, therefore, in the interest of the extension
of the principles of Jesus that all these students be given an opportunity
sympathetically to study the best expressions of the Christian life which
North America possesses. There is so much that is un-Christian in our
American life and even withia the Church itself that foreign students
are not likely to gain a correct impression of true Christianity without
the helpful guidance of earnest American Christians who have caught the
vision of the future influence of these young men in the development of
the Kingdom of God in their respective countries*
I know of no more hopeful field for the cultivation of the spirit of
international good-mil than is offered by the foreign students in our North
American colleges. Many of these students will actually hold positions
RETURNED STUDENTS IN THEIB HOMELANDS 89
of political influence. Those who enter other walks of life will return to
their respective countries and will, as a rule, have an influence in their
respective spheres disproportionately larger than that exerted by other
young men who have not enjoyed the same privileges. It would be an
act of far-seeing statesmanship to make sure that all foreign students in
our American colleges became not only friends of America but, what is
of vastly greater importance, earnest advocates of international justice
and good-will.
THE REVEREND JAMES G. K. MCCLURE, D.D., President of McCormick
Theological Seminary, Chicago
From such an institution as McCormick Seminary these foreign
students may be expected to have a perfectly tremendous influence on the
Church and the Kingdom of Christ in their own lands and in the world.
They are sure to carry with them the atmosphere of McCormick Seminary
and to a very large degree its ideals and teachings.
The influence that they will have on the foreign policies of their
governments and on the attitude of their peoples toward other races and
nations likewise is bound to be tremendously large. With that thought in
mind at McCormick Seminary, we endeavor, in every possible way, to
cultivate a friendly attitude toward the governments of these foreign
lands, and we try to show by all means and methods at our disposal our
kindly sentiment toward people of all races and nations, both in our
immediate vicinity and in the far-away distance.
BISHOP F. J. MCDONNELL of Pittsburgh
Very wide influence. Good or bad, according as they are fairly or
unfairly treated here, or according to the impression of United States
policy they get here.
Mr. FRANCIS P. MILLER, Secretary, Student Department, The Interna-
tional Committee of Young Men's Christian Associations
I am frankly more skeptical than others in regard to the influence
which these Western trained students are apt to have in their own Church
on their return. It is, of course, perfectly true that many of the out-
standing younger Christian leaders in the Orient have been trained in
America. It is also true that they have in this way been to some extent
Americanized and this is not without its disadvantages for the future of
the Church in the East. I frankly question the wisdom both from the
standpoint of the future of religion and the future of political society in
90 THE FOBEIGN STUDENT IN AMEEIOA
the East of encouraging any increase in the number of students who come
to this continent. However, the fact remains that a very large number
of these students are actually here. This is the situation with which we
have to deal and for which we are responsible.
Dr. BIOHABD 0. MORSE, Consulting General Secretary, The International
Committee of Young Men's Christian Associations
The students from each land may be expected to exert that influence
in their country in the Church and Kingdom of our Lord which belongs
to them as members of the educated class a class which in every country
enjoys a larger percentage of leadership than almost any other class in all
that concerns the welfare of Church and State.
The same leadership above mentioned belongs to them in the attitude of
their nation and race to other nations and races.
Dr. JOHN E. MOTT, General Secretary, The International Committee of
Young Men's Christian Associations; Chairman, World's Student
Christian Federation; and Chairman, International Missionary
Council
The foreign students now being educated in the universities and
colleges of America and Europe will exert an influence out of all pro-
portion to their number on all sides of the life of their countries. They
will do more for or against the extension and the upbuilding of the King-
dom of Christ in their native lands than any other one factor. This I
believe strongly, in the light of my personal contacts with the countries
concerned.
I have observed in my travels in the Far East and in the Near East,
as well as in other parts of the world, that the young men who have
studied abroad are coming more and more into positions of first-rate
importance in government service. In fact, it is the exception to find a
prominent statesman to-day in Asia, Latin America, or Eastern and
Southeastern Europe who has not spent a more or less extended period in
study in the higher educational institutions of America, Great Britain,
France, or Germany. There are few ways for influencing right interna-
tional and inter-racial relations which will compare with that of helping
to determine aright the ideals and habits of these foreign students.
Dr. COBOTXIUS H. PATTOUT, Secretary, Home Department, American
Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions
Foreign students returning home after a stay in this country should
have a very great influence on the Church and the Kingdom interests in
their own lands. The fact that such students are brought to our shores
RETURN"ED STUDENTS IS THEIB HOMELANDS 91
for special study and observation should enable us as a Christian nation
to send them back practically as missionaries to their people. I use the
word "missionary" in the broadest possible sense. For us to miss this
opportunity would be sad indeed sad in respect to the spiritual needs of
the young men themselves, but also in respect to what they might accom-
plish as witnesses for Christ among their own people.
In a country like China returning foreign students should have a very
large influence upon the foreign policies of their own governments, and
upon the attitude of their own people toward other races and nations.
They should be in a position to interpret America's best political and
economic ideals to their own people, especially in the matter of applying
Christian principles to national problems and enterprises. Of course we
should not expect them to exert this influence in important and direct
ways for a number of years after their return, as their youthfulness will
be a limitation which cannot be surmounted except by time. It is encour-
aging to find that a number of the Chinese students who have studied in
America are now in a position to exert a real influence in governmental
affairs. America can render one of her greatest services in this direction,
and our government should be urged to utilize the opportunity in every
possible way by entering into friendly and helpful relations with foreign
students in our midst.
Mr. S. M. SHOEMAKER, Jr., of the Philadelphian Society of Princeton
University
The returned students from America may be expected to have the
greatest possible influence on the Church and the Kingdom of Christ in
their own knd and in the world if they are really reached in this country.
Everything is in their favor; why should they not be leaders?
The same seems to be true of their influence on the foreign policies of
their governments. Having seen us at close range, their reports are bound
to be taken as accurate. I cannot see how anyone would feel that their
influence could be negligible in this quarter, or that it could be anything
less than of the greatest moment.
Dr. EGBERT B. SPEER, Secretary of the Board of Foreign Missions of the
Presbyterian Church in the TL S. A.
Your first question has reference distinctively to the relationship of
these foreign educated men to the Church and the Christian cause. It is
quite true that some of these students who are educated outside of their
own land are weakened thereby and exert little influence on returning.
On the other hand, even these students may prove a hindrance to missions
and the missionary work as they may pass for authorities on the social and
92 THE FOBEIGff STUDENT IN AMEEIOA
religious life of America, making -^discriminatingly harmful report.
However, there are students who are educated here and who keep their
character and are likely to wield a great influence on returning. It would
be easy to cite the instances of men like Ito and Neesima and many others
in Japan, and Yung Wing and many others in China. In these matters
a great deal depends on what kind of training they got here and what
work they take up when they get back. It is a bad thing for these young
men to be educated here and to be Americanized and then go back with
conceptions of the Church and Christianity which they cannot fit into the
actual facts of their national life. When they go back as self-respecting
and self-supporting workers, qualified for leadership, and not disqualified
for it by any breach of sympathy or common life, they ought to be, and
many of them are, pillars of strength in the work of planting Christianity
among their own people.
As to the political and racial influence, some of the men are assets
to the cause of human progress and others are liabilities. Some of them
have seen the realities, good and evil, of Western life, and others of them
have seen only evil or have been unable to form just and balanced judg-
ments. Some go back with twisted and misshapen notions of nationalism
and others with true ideas of human unity and the place of nationality in
the progress of humanity.
THE BEVERBND J, Ross STEVENSON, D.D., President of the Theological
Seminary, Princeton, 1ST. J.
Our experience here at the Seminary is naturally limited to those who
come to this country for theological training. Each year we enroll ten
or more of these students. Usually they are exceptionally strong men who
have come to America to complete their education. For this reason they
make the very best use of their opportunities and on their return home
exert a conspicuous and a commanding influence- Generally speaking, they
take a prominent and leading part in all the enterprises of the Church.
As to their influence on the foreign policies of their governments and
on the attitude of their people towards other races and nations, I should
say that their influence is most friendly. They understand the spirit of
the American people and can beet interpret it to their own people when
questions arise that are likely to cause friction. A man like Kagawa of
Japan, who spent two years in Princeton Seminary, is the best investment
any nation could make in the direction of international peace and good*
will
BETUBNED STUDENTS IN" THEIB HOMELANDS 93
The BEVEBEND Dr. JOHN TIMOTHY STOOTS, Minister, Fourth Presbyterian
Church, Chicago, Illinois
I believe that these students will have great influence in their own
lands as they return to their work and that the influence of the Christian
Churches in this country cannot be overestimated if properly used to
guide them. They will undoubtedly influence the foreign policies of
their governments because they will speak with an added authority from
the experiences which they have gained.
Dr. GEOHGE M. STEATTON, for PEESIDENT BAEROWS, University of
California
When our foreign students, especially those from the Orient, return to
their homelands, their estimate of the value of Christianity will inevitably
be of important effect. They will rightly be regarded as having observed
the working of the Church, where it has had greatest opportunity to
express itself. And no amount of mere assertion that Christianity is, in
its essence, something very different from what these foreign students have
observed in America and particularly among their American fellow-
students will avail. Undoubtedly the impressions which our Oriental
students carry home with them will have a great and perhaps decisive
influence upon the educated judgment of Asia in regard to the value of
the Christian Church and the Christian religion.
These young men and women will return to their homelands with the
prestige of foreign travel and study and of university degrees. Their
judgment as to what is the controlling temper and purpose of the Occident
for example, their opinion as to the value we place upon commerce and
political power will be counted a reliable judgment of us. And as these
students mature and come into positions of enlarged social and political
importance, their attitude toward America and the Occident generally
may well have a deciding voice on the relations between East and West.
FACTS BBOUGHT OUT BY THE SURVEY AS TO THE INFLU-
ENCE OF RETURNED STUDENTS IN THE HOMELANDS
Edited by ALEXANDER B. DAVIDSON.
AFEIOA
By PBOFESSOB SIMBIHT M. NKOMO, M.A.,
Wiley University
Students who have come to the United States for study have come
from all classes. Some of them are partially supported by mission
boards. Host of the boys work their way through school. They go
94 THE FOREIGN STUDENT IN AMEEICA
to the cities to work in summer and if they cannot make enough money,
they stay out of school a year. Sometimes they never return to school
but disappear in the cities and lose the desire for an education. The migra-
tion of African students to the United States is of much later origin than
that to England and the continent of Europe, and the influence in the
homeland of American returned students has not to date been nearly sd
considerable.
In spite of many bitter experiences of race prejudice, we African stu-
dents become deeply rooted to the United States. This devotion, however,
does not make us forget to be useful to our country. The progress which
America has attained makes the Africans feel that they must go back home,
there to do something for humanity. Our stay in this country and what
we learn from our professors about service to humanity make us loyal not
only to the country but to our own native people at home.
Most of our students are Christians when they come out to the United
States, and if they are not, they soon become Christians, at least nominally.
Those who are Christians on coming to America seem to maintain their
Christian princples or teachings during their stay out here; they become
members of some church. When they go back they engage in Christian
work.
The movement is of great help to Africa because African students go
back home imbued with the spirit of service to humanity. They carry
the progressive spirit with which they come into contact in America. They
want to go and do something. Our acquaintance with students of other
countries in American schools furthermore creates a desire in our hearts
for international fellowship. The North American Student Conferences
like Lake Geneva, and others, where we find great numbers of foreign
students, have helped us greatly in the creation of international friendships.
The movement is helpful to the Christian Church; many of the students
axe members of some church and they are in most cases loyal to its claims.
This loyalty to the Church abroad is due to the influence of good Christian
missionaries who have come in touch with these young men and women in
their childhood days.
Is there any organization with a nation-wide field of service for assist-
ing such students? There is inadequate cooperation between the mission
boards in the homeland and the students who come to this country; the
success of many Africans in finishing their courses in American colleges
has been due to a few friends whom certain Africans have been able to
interest in their work in this country. Hence very few African students
have tried to study for higher degrees in colleges and universities of great
standing in America. One man, Mr. 3. E. K. Aggrey, is working for a
doctor's degree at Columbia University, He is being helped by the Phdps
RETURNED STUDENTS IN THEIE HOMELANDS 95
Stokes Fund, and by friends. Having passed with credit all the examina-
tions required of him for his doctorate, Mr. Aggrey is at present in Africa
completing the collection of data for his dissertation. He has recently
completed a tour of East Africa and South Africa with the Educational
Commission, and is at present Vice-Principal of Achimota College, the Gold
Coast.
AFRICANS WHO HAVE STUDIED IN GREAT BRITAIN OR ON THE CONTINENT
In 1751 the Reverend Thomas Thompson went to the Gold Coast, West
Africa, as a missionary. Upon his return to England, he took Philip
Gauckoe and other native boys to be educated there. Philip Gauckoe was
educated at Oxford University and then returned to the Gold Coast, where
for some years he acted as chaplain. A school was established which was
placed in his charge; within a few years it had forty-two students and
later this number increased.
In 1891 Thomas Hutting Mills from Jamestown, Accra, West Africa,
a member of the royal family, went to England and studied law. He waa
called to the bar at Temple Inn in 1894. Later he returned to Africa
and devoted his talents to the advancement of his own people. He is at
present the President of the West African Native National Congress. A
man of sterling Christian character, he is interested in missionary work
and for many years served on the Board of Education.
The Reverend Nicholas T. Cluk was sent about the middle of the nine-
teenth century to Germany and then to Switzerland by the Basel Mis-
sionary Society's West Africa station. He is now one of the leading
native pastors at the Basel Mission, under the Scottish Mission Board.
He is also the chief clerk of the Church. His son is at present studying
at Tuskegee Institute and is doing well.
Mr. David D. Jabavu was educated in England in the twentieth century.
He is now professor of African languages in Fort Hare Native College,
Cape Colony, South Africa.
The Reverend Tiyo Soga was sent to Scotland to be educated in the
latter part of the eighteenth century or the early part of the nineteenth.
After graduation he went back to Cape Colony and devoted his talents as
a teacher and preacher among his people m South Africa. His chief work
was accomplished at Umgwali Station, where he worked hard in the interest
of his people. He was a great man. The book containing his life and
work (J. A. Chalmers's "Tiyo Soga: a page of South African Mission
Work/' Edinburgh, 1878) may be obtained from any school of missions in
America and England.
Mr. Mugana, a leading lawyer educated in England, is also doing
good work in South Africa.
96 THE FOREIGN STUDENT IN AMERICA
More names could be given of sons of Africa who went to foreign
countries to study, particularly to Europe, but this will suffice to show
how that student movement began. Two or three of these men mentioned
above were sent abroad by missionaries. Judge Mills, of course, was sent
by his own people, for they were able to meet the expenses he incurred in
his study abroad.
SOME OF THE SUCCESSFUL AFBIOAN STUDENTS WHO HAVE COME TO THE
UNITED STATES FOR STUDY
The Reverend John Dube 1 came to America about 1881 or 1884; he
was graduated from Oberlin, Academic Department. He went back to
Natal, South Africa, and established Ohlange Industrial Institute. The
school is doing great work for the people in South Africa. He is also the
editor of Illanga Lose Natal, the native newspaper.
Others who may well be mentioned in this connection also are: Miss
Fannie M. Cele who was graduated from Hampton Institute and is now
a teacher in Adams Institute at Adams Mission Station, Natal, South
Africa; the Reverend Samuel Martin; the Reverend Isaac Steady; the
Reverend S. B. Campbell; Miss Lillian Tshabolola; the Reverend S. M.
Soujica; Mr. E. B. Jones; K. C. Simango, B.S. 7 2 formerly at Columbia
University, now studying in Portugal; the Reverend Mjimba, D.D., a
graduate of Lincoln University, Chester, Pennsylvania, now working in
South Africa; the Reverend Thomas B. Kalane; Miss S. Soumturyi,
teacher in South Africa, who died recently; Mr. Charles Wardoh, Pastor
in Atlanta, Georgia; the Reverend M. Oyerinde, missionary in Nigeria,
who was graduated from Union Virginia University; the Reverend M. I.
Cele and wife; Pixel Seme in South Africa; Dr, R. M. Sisusa and wife;
Mr. I. B. Richards ; Mrs. W. B. Bach, who after graduation went back to
South Africa and taught school, and later returned to this country and
married an American Negro. 8
*Mr. Charles Dube, his brother, was graduated from Wilberforce University
with the degree of B.A. He is the headmaster of Ohlange Industrial School. Mrs.
Dube was graduated from Wilberforce also.
Mr. Simango died in Europe during the summer of 1924 while en route to
Africa.
Some of those who are still in the United States are the following: Mr. Alfred
Xtona, B.D., from South Africa; Dr. Joseph Fearces from West Africa; Mr. John
Amakayi, teacher at Tuskegee Institute; the Reverend V. H. Qow, organist at
Tuskegee Institute; the Reverend M. Mdodaua, pastor of the Baptist Church, Char-
lotte, K. 0.; the Reverend E. N. Tausi, Pastor of A.M.B. Church. 108 Bond Street,
Beaton Harbor. Michigan; the Reverend N. Rhonnene, A.M.R Church, Burlington,
Iowa; Mr. Killie Bellle, a farmer at Tuskegee, Alabama; Mr* John Mopanja, B.A.,
from Moreland College; Dr. Thomas Kokoza, in Buffalo; the Reverend R. L,
Thompson, 4045 State Street, Chicago, Illinois, pastor of the Church of the Living
God; Mr. Joel M. Mediae, now working in Chicago; Mr. John Makone, working in
Chicago.
SBTUENED STUDENTS IN THEIB HOMELANDS 97
CHINA
By W. BEGOTALD WHEELEB,
Executive Secretary, Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions
The answers selected in this section were taken from ten questionnaires,
filled out by men of experience resident in different centers of China as
widely separated as Tinman in the West, Changsha in the center, Peking
in the north, Shanghai along the central coast, and Swatow in the south.
Both Americans and Chinese answered such questionnaires. The names
and records of ninety-seven individual students are given. The resulting
figures are not entirely conclusive, of course, but because of the wide terri-
tory represented, and because of the character of the men answering the
questionnaires, the data given are fairly indicative of conditions as a whole.
The answer to the first question, From what class do the students
come? Are they from homes and positions which would imply a com-
paratively large ability and influence? is one which might be expected.
Practically all the questionnaires state that the students come from either
the middle class or the official and wealthy upper class, with a fair pro-
portion from the Church. The United States is favored with .the best of
the streams of young life of the present generation in these student migra-
tions from China.
These students stay in the United States on the average between four
and five years.
ATTITUDE TOWARD THE UNITED STATES. Their study in the United
States affects most favorably their attitude toward this country. All the
answers report a very friendly attitude, although one qualifies this by stat-
ing the attitude is "friendly yet disillusioned/* The general opinion is
that stated in one questionnaire : "With hardly any exception, the attitude
of returned students toward the United States is most favorable ; there is a
general feeling of attachment."
ATTITUDE TOWARD CHINA. As regards their attitude toward their own
country, the answers swing from the adjective "critical" to "very favor-
able" and "ardently patriotic." A fair statement would be: "On their
return home, they are generally impatient to see domestic conditions
improved. As a rule, they sober down after a year or so. If they do not
get too pessimistic, they then become fit for work in the community in
which they live/'
ATTITUDE TOWARD SOCIAL AND MOBAL QUESTIONS. With reference to
their attitude toward social and moral questions, the data received would
indicate that approximately two-thirds of the returned students exert * good
98 THE FOREIGN STUDENT IN AMEEICA
influence, manifesting higher standards of moral judgment; and that
one-third are neutral in their attitude and opinions. "Their attitude
toward social conditions is far more liberal; at times, it is too much so,
a phenomenon which is rather deplorable, as China is not yet ready for
so much freedom. In the realm of morality, their thought is distinctively
modern : that is, they emphasize law rather than custom/ 3
ATTITUDE TOWARD RELIGION. In their attitude toward religion, and the
Christian religion is generally identified with this term, the study made
brings out a striking fact: "A large percentage are unaffected." "Some
are changed for the better, some for the worse/ 5 "The returned students
have a deeper conviction for and against religion; the Christians are more
devoted, the non-Christians are more opposed." "Those who are Chris-
tians have a good attitude toward religion; those who are non-Christians
are hardened in most cases." "Their attitude is not much changed."
Reports also indicate that the attitude of students who have come to
the United States in more recent years is more critical toward Christianity
than that of those who studied here in earlier years. The answers to the
questionnaires in regard to the attitude of students toward Christianity
before and after their stay m this country obviously apply to those of the
earlier group who have already returned to their homelands, and possibly
the answers under this heading might not be so favorable, if received from
the generation of students now in this country, as those received from
their predecessors.
ATTITUDE TOWARD INTERNATIONAL FRIENDSHIP. In answer to the con-
crete question, Do the results show the movement of foreign students is
helpful to their native land and to international friendship ? the answers are
invariably in the affirmative. In regard to their contribution to progress
in their own land, Dr. W. T. Tsur, a graduate of Yale and formerly head
of Tsing Hua Indemnity College, has written in the preface to the volume,
"Who's Who of American Returned Students" :
It does not seem possible to give an adequate estimate of what the
students as a whole have done for their country. But probably it is
within the bounds of safety as well as propriety to say that it has been
entirely due to their efforts and influence that the country is being mod-
ernized. To be specific, the early returned students from America, and
a few from Great Britain, toiled hard to clear the ground, break the soil,
and sow the seed. Those coming after them, though in larger numbers,
had naturally a much easier task to perform. To them as a class must be
credited, in spite of the very decided and far-reaching contributions by
other parties, the introduction of Western ideas and ideals, the institution
of fundamental reforms, and the gradual transformation of the social and
political order of the country along modern lines.
RETURNED STUDENTS IN THEIR HOMELANDS 99
With reference to the effects of this migration upon international
friendship, while the answer in general is an enthusiastic "yes," one
writer, a Chinese, makes this qualifying declaration:
The movement is very helpful in the way that the students* minds
become very clear on international questions of right or wrong. Of
course, their clearer mind on international questions may result in their
strong resentment toward the wrong nations and thereby not be helpful
to international relations directly
Dr. Tsur, in his answer to this question, wrote
Decidedly so. This conclusion is based on a forecast into the future.
China must align herself with the rest of the world. She cannot afford to
be otherwise. The present chaotic condition in every department of life
is only natural, as it shows that the Western leaven is leavening the East*
But the process has received a check. If the War had not been fought,
China, in the future, would have become one of the Western nations,
selfish and aggressive, and her rich heritage of the past would temporarily
have been swept aside. As it is, the failure of Western civilization has
made a deep impression upon us and we are paying more attention to our
own traditional culture. With the aid of science, a new thought a happy
blending of the best in the East and of the best in the West may evolve,
giving to the West a new philosophy and making life less mechanical and
therefore more happy and worth living. Hence the results of the move-
ment to China have been, and to the world will be, beneficial.
OF MIGRATIONS UPON THE CHURCH. As regards the direct bene-
fit to the Christian Church, the answers in general are optimistic, one stating
that "the Church is benefited most" and that "the hope is here." Another
answer gives the opposite viewpoint "Yes, because of the few who identify
themselves with the Church."" Another writes "Not positively a help, but
not ignorantly antagonistic as before." One writes : "Not very much help
except in a few brilliant instances." From a Chinese: "To the Church
also the movement has been of great service, because it has made it less
orthodox and more human. Religion, under any circumstances, is an indi-
vidual as well as a social necessity. Religious thought may become more
and more liberal, but man so long as he exists cannot get away from it.
Religion is a human reality."
In general it might be said that the movement is more a service to
the Church than a detriment to it, but that certainly it does not contribute
so much as it ought to toward the building up of a true Christian spirit
and faith in China.
SUCCESSFUL RETURNED STUDENTS. A list of some of the successful re-
turned students makes encouraging reading. Such a partial list sent in by
a resident of China, and a Chinese, gives an indication of some of the fiber
100 THE FOBEIGX STUDENT IX AMERICA
of these young American educated students : W. W. Yen, graduate of the
University of Virginia and Premier of China; V. K. Wellington Koo,
graduate of Columbia University and Minister of Foreign Affairs of
China; Saoke Alfred Sze, graduate of Cornell University and Minister to
Washington; Wang Chung-hui, graduate of Tale University and Premier
of China ; David Z. T. Yui, graduate of Harvard and General Secretary of
the Xational Committee of the Y.M.C.A.; Wang Ching-Chung, graduate
of Sheffield Scientific School, Yale, and President of the Chinese Eastern
Kailway; T. Clarence Sun, graduate of Cornell and Vice-Minister of
Communications; C. T. Wang, graduate of Yale, formerly Vice-President
of the Senate, and chairman of the Sino-Bussian Commission; F. C. Yen,
graduate of Yale Medical School and Dean of the Medical School of Yale
College, Changsha; Hu Suh, graduate of Cornell and professor of the
Government University of Peking; P. W. Kuo, graduate of Wooster and
President of Southeast University in Nanking; Chang Poling, post-
graduate student of Columbia and President of Nankai College; Lo-Wen-
kan, England, Minister of Finance.
To this list should be added among others the names of Y. T. Tsui,
graduate of Yale and former head of the Tsing Hua Indemnity College
and member of the Senate; C. C. Wu, delegate to the Peace Conference;
Y. S. Tsao, President of Tsing Hua.
In the Christian Church and in Christian colleges and universities,
there are many names that might be cited: Dr. Cheng Chmg-yi, a post-
graduate student at Columbia, Chairman of the China Christian Council,
the group which directs the work of all the Protestant churches in China;
T. T. Lew, Columbia University and Union Seminary, Dean of the School
of Theology, Peking University; W, P. Chen, Michigan and Boston Uni-
versities, Editor of Chinese Christian Advocate; Andrew Wu, Wooster
University and Princeton Seminary, Dean of Hangchow Christian College;
James Yih, Wooeter and Princeton Semi-nary, pastor, Presbyterian Church,
Hangchow; William Hung, Michigan University and Union Seminary,
member of the faculty, Peking University; Dr. Mary Stone, Johns Hop-
kins, head of hospital at Kin-kiang; Dr. Tsao* Michigan, Nanking Hos-
pital; and many others.
The influence of men of Christian character in China to-day and
especially those who have studied abroad was also indicated by a recent
vote as to the "twelve greatest living Chinese," a vote which was secured
in a competition conducted by The 'Weekly Review of Shanghai. It should
be remembered that the ratio between the total Christian population and
the population of China is as one to one thousand. In the final list selected,
of the twelve greatest living Chinese, the proportion was as one to three:
that is, out of the twelve chosen, four are Christians; of these four, three
RETURNED STUDENTS IX THEIE HOMELANDS 101
have studied abroad. Twelve of the fifty nominees for selection of the
twelve greatest were Christians, and in the final voting General Feng
Yu-Esiang, Dr. Wang Chung-Eui, Dr. C. T. Wang, Mr. David Z. T. Yui
were elected among the first twelve. The three last named are all returned
students. The final vote appeared in the issue of the Review, No. 4,
January 6, 1923.
One writer adds on the other side: ''There are many wrecks. They
have not attained any position of importance; so no mention will be made
of them."
Despite the occasional failures and the many obstacles and limitations
which the returned students encounter, it is impossible to read over the
list of names of those who have made contributions to the political, social,
economic,, educational, and religious spheres in their own land, without
concluding that the movement as a whole is helpful, and that the estimate
given by Dr. Tsur, already quoted, as to the share of the returned students
in bringing about such progress, has not been overstated.
OBGAOTZATIONS OF STATION-WIDE SEEVICE. In answer to the question as
to whether or not there is any organization with a nation-wide field of
service to assist returned students, the general answer is in the negative,
with the exception of references to the Y.M.C.A., the Y.W.C JL, and "other
Christian groups/* "The Y.M.C.A., with its branches and local organiza-
tions, has the equipment and facilities to help if they want to/ 9 In certain
centers special clubs or societies have been organized with the view to the
interests of the returned students. Usually these organizations take the
form of American university clubs or societies, which admit to their mem-
bership both American and Chinese students. In Shanghai, recently, a
society has been formed with the direct view to helping Chinese students.
One of the men who have been especially active in organising this society,
writes:
The work of our bureau is rather efficient in handling these men before
they leave for America. The final test of our work is what type of engi-
neers, bankers, educators, doctors, and men of other professions these
students will make upon their return to this country. I have consulted
with Mr. Robert Galley of the Peking Association concerning this so-
called returned students 9 problem. Peking and Shanghai seem to be the
largest centers for these returning men and more so in the future, par-
ticularly Shanghai, which is a great commercial center.
We have now in Shanghai an American Returned Students' Club,
which has about two hundred members, the only organization of its kind
in China. At present I am giving a good part of my time to devise ways
and means by which we can adequately serve these men. I am planning
to form an organization somewhat of your type. I am planning to ask
some of the leading educators, preachers, and business men to den* ft
this committee. I wish you would give me the names of the Tarkws forties
102 THE FOKEIGX STTOEXT IX AMEBICA
in the different college centers in America to whom I can write for in-
formation concerning some of the outstanding Chinese Christian students.
With these data I feel sure upon proper presentation to the committee
some results can be accomplished. 1 do not know whether you are aware
of the fact that these returned students, as a group, are not rendering the
largest possible service to China at the present time. We here on the field
must exercise patience, foresight, and sympathy as well in order to tie men
to a big program in the reconstruction of this country.
SIGNIFICANCE or THE FACTS ASSEMBLED. The data secured show that
the number of Christians and non-Christians who come to America and who
return to China remains practically constant, with a slight addition to
the total of Christians resulting from the four or five years spent in this
country. Certainly this fact is more encouraging than the statement
sometimes made that there is an actual loss from the ranks of Christians
because of residence in this so-called Christian country. But when all
the facts are taken into consideration, the fact that these students repre-
sent the cream of the life of their own land of this generation, the fact that
they have had an unusual type of preparation before coining to this country,
the fact that they will interpret the West and America after they return
to their homeland, the implications which are involved in their increased
knowledge and wider outlook upon the social, moral, national, interna-
tional, and directly religious problems when all these facts are taken
into consideration, there is an indictment to be brought against the Chris-
tian people of America because they do not more resolutely and conscien-
tiously set themselves to serve this constantly increasing body of the
leaders of the coming generation.
EUEOPE
By HEHBY H. KING
The migration of European students to the United States is less exten-
sive than that from many other parts of the world. Europe, therefore,
offers a somewhat restricted field of inquiry for the purposes of the present
study, in which Turkey in Europe is regarded as a part of the Near East,
and is consequently treated elsewhere.
BUBSIAH students have come to America in considerable numbers only
since the War, and because of the present disturbed conditions of their
country, have not returned as yet. They are assisted by the Young Men's
Christian Association, through its Committee on Friendly Belations, in
cooperation with which a Russian Students' Christian Association has been
formed. A Bussian secretary, Mr. Alexis B. Wiren, devotes all his time
BETUBXED STUDENTS IX THEIR HOMELANDS 103
to their interests, having charge of a loan fund established to aid them.
The Xational Board of the Young Women's Christian Association through
its Committee on Friendly Eolations also assists Bussian students in the
United States.
SWEDISH students have since mediaeval times been prone to study abroad.
The principal forces stimulating them in this direction are said to be
"yearning for culture and the want of getting into touch with the world
outside one's own country/ 3 Most of the Swedish students coming to the
United States are sons of clergymen. A considerable number of the
migrating students come directly also either from the middle class or
from the people. Supported either fay stipends or from private sources,
they seem to obtain as a rule a very fa\orable impression of America as a
land of "energetic and youthful enterprise, as well as of immense re-
sources. 3 ' Upon returning to Sweden, they are actuated by a sincere wish
to make their education abroad bear fruits in their own country. Their
attitude toward social and moral questions, toward their native land, and
toward international friendship seems broadened and enriched, though
evidence is not available as to the effect of their foreign sojourn upon
their attitude toward religion and the Church. In Sweden they are
assisted by the S\enge- Amenta Stiftelse, Malmtorgsgatan 5, Stockholm;
in America by the American Scandinavian Foundation, in Xew York, as
well as by the Y.M.C.A. and Y.W.O.A. Committees on Friendly Belations
in so far as individual students come into contact with these agencies.
GERMANY at present sends but few students to the United States, the
most conspicuous group being the holders of the Bryn Mawr fellowship
There have also been a few German exchange students at Harvard.
CZECHO-SLOVAKIA began almost immediately after the World War to
send students to foreign lands. The principal forces stimulating this move-
ment appear to have been "contacts with Western nations during and imme-
diately following the War, especially contacts with the A.E.A., A.R.C.,
Bockefeller Foundation, Y.M.C.A. and Y.W.C.A, representatives." The
movement seems to have attained its height "unless some special student
exchange program makes outside funds available/* Socially and financially
most of the students have come from the middle class, which is very large
in Czecho-Slovakia, but somewhat unfavorably situated from a financial
or social standpoint. Beligiously, the students migrating to the United
States have been Roman Catholics, Protestants, and Jews. Some of the
groups reported are the Bockefeller Foundation group, 1920-21, the Vaesar
College group, 1920-22, the Bed Cross group, 1921-22, the Y.M.C.A. group,
1921-22, and the Institute of International Education group, 1922-24.
These students have been supported almost entirely by governmental or
xeiief organization funds. Thej return to their homeland nearly ahraya
104 THE FOREIGN STUDENT IS AMERICA
keenly enthusiastic about America, where they feel that religion is really
applied to every-day life, convinced internationalists, and frequently so
critical of the defects in their own land that a readjustment to it is
extremely difficult "To the Church the movement is helpful only as far
as members of Protestant churches are concerned/'
During the past three years there have been annually about twenty
Czecho-Slovak students in the United States, or 0.1 per cent, of the total
Czeeho-Slovak student body of 20,000*, 85 per cent, of whom are in the
University of Prague. Every one of five special biographies submitted of
Czech students who have returned from America shows difficulty in re-
adjustment either to society or to the home, and in all but two instances
this has been so serious as to nullify any constructive contribution they
might be able to make to their homeland by reason of their American
sojourn.
Swiss students have but recently begun to spend a few terms in foreign
countries outside of Prance and Germany. The movement is said to be
at a minimum at present because of the unfavorable rates of exchange.
The few students who have come to the United States have belonged to
rich families, and met their expenses from private funds. There is no
organization in Switzerland for assisting students wishing to go to Amer-
ica. The few who have studied in the United States have returned with
great enthusiasm about the institutions, and particularly the universities
of this land.
FBAtfOE. Most of the French students who have come to the United
States have belonged to the middle class, though a few have been wealthy-
Fellowships have assisted many. Such students have returned to France
with a keen appreciation of the United States, with patriotism unchanged,
with a decidedly enlarged capacity for international friendship. The ratio
of French students going abroad to the total number of students in French
colleges and universities is "naturally very small." Some of the Franco-
American students of past years have won high recognition in their land
as authorities on American customs,, laws, or literature, and axe daily
making considerable contributions to the cause of international
understanding.
Among these may be mentioned a professor of American Literature
and Civilization in one of the universities of France who studied at Har-
vard University as the first exchange student from France, and who has
subsequently written many authoritative books, several of them of a nature
to promote in his land a knowledge and appreciation of the United States.
* Somewhat larger totals are given by another correspondent in Czechoslovakia,
Dr. Jar. Kose, who puts the number of students in foreign residence each year at
40, and the total number of university students in his country at 28,000.
RETUENBD STUDENTS IN THEIE HOMELANDS 105
Another instance is that of a younger man who was honorably dis-
charged from the French army in 1919 and who has studied in the United
States on American Field Fellowships. He has received the degree of
S.J.D. from Harvard. This student has read before the Comparative
Legislation Society of Paris papers concerning differences between Amer-
ican and French laws that have attracted special attention. He is con-
ducting a seminar in France on United States legislation.
A third French student who came recently to the United States on a
fellowship now holds the post of professor of English in an important
Lycee in his homeland.
SPAIN. The movement of students of Spain to foreign lands began in
1903, when the Spanish Government first granted scholarships for academic
residence abroad. About a 'hundred students carry on their studies each
year in other lands. They come mostly from the middle classes. A few
are from the laboring classes. Most of them are maintained by govern-
ment scholarships, though a few provide their own means. The effect of
residence in the United States upon their attitude to the homeland varies
with the temperament of the individual student. Some are loath to resume
life in their own country; "others discover merits in it that they had not
noticed before/ 5 To the inquiry as to the effect on international friend-
ship, the somewhat surprising answer is given: "Doubtful, as they find
abroad more imperialism and hatred than in Spain/* There are two nation-
wide organizations for assistance of students pursuing their education
abroad, both of them government institutions: the Junta para ampKcactfn
de estudios, and the Junta para ingenieros y obreros pensionados. Best
results are to be obtained from these migrations, it is suggested, by not
sending students to the United States "unless well prepared., already rooted
in Spain, and not inclined to vanity/' The most successful returned
students "occupy positions in universities or laboratories. Others go into
journalism, art, private industries. The unsuccessful ones incline to
politics."
By B. R. BABBEB,
Secretary of The International Committee of Young Men's Christian Associations,
formerly Student Secretary of the Calcutta Young Men's Christian Association
CLASSES OP STUDENTS WHO LLEAVE INDIA FOR STUDY. From what
classes socially, financially, and religiously, do the students come who leave
India for study? First of all, there is the outstanding or marked man who
has already made his impress upon India. From time to time for the past
hundred years such mien have been going abroad, not to take regular
106 THE FOREIGN STUDENT IX AMERICA
courses but to study foreign customs, methods of government, and busi-
ness, and to give the West an idea of the culture and civilization of the
East. Then there are the young chiefs who sooner or later must be ready
to assume responsibility in the sis hundred or more native states in India.
Some of these have been going to England for this preparation, some have
English tutors in India, and many are trained in the Indian Chiefs' Col-
leges at Lahore, Ajmere, Rajkote, and elsewhere. While some students
are from the upper gentry in affluent circumstances, as a rule the aristocracy
have refrained from leaving India, and Mohammedans have a prejudice
against Western education, though now both go abroad. Those who study
abroad are chiefly from the middle classes, in good social standing. They
are for the most part Hindus with a strong Hindu bias, though un-
orthodox. A few are from the small-propertied people and some from
the poorer classes.
RESULTS OF STUDENT RESIDENCE IN AMEBICA. Generally speaking, the
love and respect of the Indian student for his own country have been greatly
increased by his residence in America. He sees conditions at home which
he may help to improve ; he sees many opportunities to serve which quicken
his patriotism and national spirit. He becomes devoted to the uplift of
India because he has been living in a free country and hearing of freedom
and patriotism. He sees the women of America liberated from many
trammels ; indeed, he may think they are a little too free, but he is deter-
mined to strike from the women of his own country the shackles that have
bound them, such as the purdah, early marriage, and ignorance. He is
determined to minimize caste and to lift the depressed classes. Love of
country is quickened, too, as he beholds some of the evils in America:
materialism he is spiritual; divorce he is devoted to his home; drinking
his scriptures forbid it; law-breaking he has respect for law, Gandhi
to the contrary notwithstanding. He has a broader outlook ; new standards
of good and bad are set up; he applies his wisdom, exposes the bad, and
promotes the good.
But it happens occasionally that a student tames in America after the
immediate purpose of his visit is fulfilled. He is attracted by conditions
here and he may have hope of marrying an American girl, but to linger on
because he is more comfortable or because he is drifting from one thing
to another is most harmful indeed. He must find a new and greater
purpose to replace his original one if he remains; otherwise he needs to
get into the midst of India's mass of problems and from the vantage point
of his superior privileges and training, help to solve them. If he stays
abroad too long he does not, on his return, enter into life wholeheartedly/
He is dissatisfied with conditions and, having no sense of mission, becomes
EETUENED STUDENTS IN THEIE HOMELANDS 107
depressed by the poverty, superstition, and degradation which surround
him.
Indians are shocked by the sin they see here. From their contact with
missionaries and others in India, they receive the idea that America is
clean and pure and holy. When they discover that this is not so, a revul-
sion of feeling conies over them. As they look deeper, however, into our
ethics, our morals, and our Christian spirit, and as they recognize that
sound morality exists in so many of their own homes, they are strengthened
and not weakened in their moral purposes.
The attitude of the non-Christian toward religion is a negative one.
He is far removed from the intimate worship of his own country and not
being willing to accept another religion he takes no part in religious
things. He may go to church or to a religious lecture occasionally, but
it is a mere formality. Besides, the "activities of modern life loom too
large for hi'-m to give serious attention to religion. A right ethical life is
a religious life; that is good enough for the work-a-day world." Though
it is a sad indictment against us, it is true that on the whole Hindu
students are not changed much for the better in this country. They return
vaguely theistic but have little to do with religion in their own lives.
With the Indian Christian it is different. He casts in his lot with the
Church. He helps it and is helped by it. As a living example he makes
vivid the work of missions. He has entree to the Christian home and his
presence draws out tenderness and friendship between American students
and himself. He is made self-reliant toward church work and often
returns to his own land determined to engage in Christian education or
mission work or other forms of Christian activity. Often he first hears
while in America the call of God to dedicate his life to the service of the
Kingdom as against the many more lucrative positions which are open to
him in India.
There is no question but that m America international friendship is
promoted by the intermingling of the students of the different nations.
They look into one another's faces, they read one another's thoughts, they
recognize one another's similarities and differences, and they know one
another's desires and aspirations. Indians are attractive to Americana
and dose friendships are formed between them. The relation of ruler and
ruled does not exist and they meet as man to man. Usually, too, the
Indian holds his own with his American compatriot, at least in scholarship,
and this makes for a strengthening of the ties of friendliness.
On the other hand, if Indian students in England have difficulty in
entering Oxford or Cambridge or any other British university, if they are
not allowed to compete for honors, and if there is a feeling of race preju-
dice toward them on the part of some, how can it be otherwise than that
108 THE FOREIGN STUDENT IN AMEEICA
the cause of international friendship is weakened? It leads to disloyalty
and anarchy. Bad as these things may seem, race or color prejudice on
the part of Englishmen is not nearly so strong in England as it is in
India.
RECRUITING AGENCIES FOE STUDENTS ABROAD. There are several agen-
cies in India under which students find their way abroad, though few, if any
of them, are nation-wide. The Association for the Advancement of Scien-
tific and Industrial Education of Indians was established in 1904 with the
following objects:
1. To enable properly qualified students to visit Europe, America,
Japan, or other foreign countries for studying arts and industries ;
2. To make advances or render other help, when necessary, to prop-
erly qualified Indian experts returning home from foreign countries in
order to enable them to start industries or to impart instruction in them;
3. To enable distinguished graduates of the Indian universities to
prosecute further studies in science in Europe, America, Japan, or any
other foreign country;
4. To equip a central laboratory for the use of students, and for im-
parting scientific knowledge, and also to equip a technological library,
as well as workshops for giving practical training in arts and industries;
5. To take steps generally for the encouragement and promotion of
indigenous industries of the country.
Within the first seven years sixty-four students sent abroad by the
Association had returned to their native land and most of them had en-
tered into profitable and remunerative service, or into service which would
be of economic benefit to India. Of the number returned, fourteen had
studied agriculture, ten chemistry, five mechanical engineering, and four
each mining and electrical engineering. Many students were provided by
this organization with their traveling expenses and a monthly stipend for
living expenses.
In order best to utilize these trained men on their return, the Associa-
tion formed such organizations as the Small Industries Development Com-
pany, the Manufacturers' Association, and Indian banks with Indian
capital. In those countries to which the students went, the Association
sought to make proper contacts, to see that they were properly met and
introduced to their new fields of study. In America, for example, this
was done through such agency as the Committee on Friendly Belations
Among Foreign Students which to-day has its contacts with more than
ten thousand students from various countries of the world.
The Government of India has been granting scholarships to Indians
for study abroad amounting to 345 a year. It has been felt by some that
this is too little to cover the usual expenses. These scholarships include
BETUBNUD STUDENTS IS THEIE HOMELANDS 109
(a) grants to technical scholars fox study in the industrial development
of India; (b) university state scholarships as rewards for proficiency in
study (these scholars have usually gone into the Indian Civil Service or
law) ; (c) scholarships for the study of languages. Some would limit
Government scholarships to those who wish to take advanced study or
technical and commercial training, or to do scientific research. The Cal-
cutta University and the Deccan Educational Society give grants for the
study of pedagogy abroad. While in practically every case these students
proceed to England, there are those who advocate permitting certain
students, for example those studying agriculture, to proceed to America
and other countries. Government scholarships are now granted by the
Central Government but there is a move being made to have this function
taken over by the provincial governments.
In 1909 an Advisory Committee with a Bureau of Information and a
director, who was "educational adviser to Indian students, 57 was formed in
Great Britain. Provincial Government committees were created in Bom-
bay, Calcutta, Madras, Lahore, Nagpur, Dacca, and Allahabad. Sir T. W.
Arnold was the Adviser.
In 1912 this was developed into the Indian Students' Department at
the India office and additional provincial committees in India were
created at Gauhati, Patna, Delhi, and Ajmere. Sir C. E. Mallet was the
Adviser.
In 1920 this work was further developed by the appointment of two
Joint Secretaries to the High Commissioner for Indian Students' Work.
A summary of the Department's duties in England includes: corresponding
with the eleven Advisory Committees; supervising the work of Indian
scholars; guardianship of other students; meeting students on arrival;
securing return passages; furnishing references and certificates; advising
students of facilities available; counseling as to the choice of a profession;
obtaining suitable lodgings; giving financial assistance to students; caring
for those in ill health; promoting suitable social intercourse between
Indian students and English people. The Advisory Committee is now
recommending that this department be dissolved and the work taken over
directly by the various universities in India which will make contact with
students desiring to go abroad.
INDIAN OPINION or AMERICA. Below I am able to quote verbatim from
the reports of four Indian Christian students giving expression of their
experiences and opinions with reference to their study and residence in
America.
Mr. A.
1. The impulses that students of India have toward the West are
(a) curiosity to know what Western civilization is; (b) a deep concern
110 THE POEEIGJST STUDENT IN AMEEICA
and regard for the achievements of the Western peoples as they are under-
stood by Indian students to be the product of Christianity; (c) a desire
to come into contact with an alien people because of the novel experience
and for the chastening effect it has upon the stranger.
2. The conditions in other lands, such as, for instance, America:
(a) the wonderful opportunities thrown in the way of masses for education
and self -advancement materially; (b) the high value placed on the indi-
vidual; (c) the comfort of the masses in general; (d) the constant
reminder that he is a part of a whole
Anti-social conditions noticed are (a) drunkenness; (b) extreme pov-
erty in a few cases, (c) immorality due to excessive freedom of sexes;
(d) crimes such as murders of blood-curdling descriptions.
3. Sociological studies describing the slum conditions and social theories
and the psychology of the people as reflected in their social customs, man-
ners, dress, and entertainment, are all studies in which we are interested
outside of our professional studies.
4. The Christian students who come to this country are much better
prepared for their coming here, for: (a) Their minds become critical as
they see the great contrast between their home environment and the en-
vironment with which they are brought into contact. Their mental fiber
stiffens in discussing problems of sociological interest with their fellow
students, (b) Morally they feel that religion in India should be lifted to
a plane of social activity, of usefulness, instead of being allowed to spend
itself in useless vague mystical feelings about the Infinite; (c) Emotionally
they feel that social distinctions in India are barbaric and are the fossilized
remains of a historic past and that to rid our society of these caste dis-
tinctions is one step nearer to making India more powerful and a more
desirable place to live in.
5. Dangers are drunkenness, irreverence, lack of respect for par-
ents, disregard of the sacredness of that tie which binds men and
women.
6. The Student Movement should actively cooperate with Indian
Christian students in their struggle toward the light of social usefulness
(a) by inviting them to their homes; (b) by showing them things that
are of social value to their own community; (c) by discussing with Indian
students the best methods by which they can be helped to realize their
object in India.
Mr. B.
1. As far as I can make out from personal experience and from my
conversations with other Indian students, they come to the West because
of the varied opportunities for study and self-help. The advantages which
the West offers cannot be paralleled in the East. The glamor of travel also
has its force.
2. As far as I can make out, three dangers face us, and in order of
importance they are:
(a) A weakening of the moral life. The social relations here are not
hedged in by certain conventions. A man, consequently, is apt to discard
the reserve which holds him true to his ideals.
BETUBNED STUDENTS US THEIB HOMELANDS 111
(b) A general dissatisfaction over the mode of living in India as con-
trasted with the comparatively free life here. This dissatisfaction deepens
often into disgust and a man is tempted to give up the idea of a religions
education and to go in for professional work so that he may make his
mark on the secular life of India.
(c) Certain political doctrines on which Indian students who come here
are tempted to run amuck without understanding their purport. This sours
their lives when they return home and handicaps them for effective
service.
3. There are two things which the movement ought to do: (a) The
students in the different colleges and seminaries should be drawn together
by means of clubs and should follow one of the examples set by the Asso-
ciation of Cosmopolitan Clubs, that is, have conventions where delegates
may meet, (b) The second is that the movement ought to devise means
by which needy students can be helped. If I am not mistaken this is the
policj of the Association of Chinese students.
Mr. C.
I see progress in this country. I see achievement in health, wealth,
and education. I see enjoyment of life and also an active society. I see
also race prejudice and color prejudice. I seek to study the methods of
work in all departments of life. The splendid organizations to do efficient
work are worth noting. The organized Associated Charities and organized
social work have impressed me.
I think that the student is better prepared for work in India after some
training in the West, because of the opportunities to share the views of able
leaders and to be trained under them.
Dangers in residence here are: (a) the danger of estrangement from
his own people; (b) the danger of becoming so "Americanized" as to be
unfit for work among the common people of India; (c) the danger of
becoming a fanatic on "organization" (what I mean is that the organiza-
tion craze is apt to be carried too far so as to become 'Hop-heavy" ; efficiency
should be taken up along with strength of spiritual character) ; (d) the
danger of a belief that all the methods of work in America would apply
also to India.
Those who are interested in these problems could help : (a) by opening
special facilities for study; for example, the seminaries, I think, in this
country do not have courses of study that an Indian can take up to enable
him to do efficient work in India and so courses in Indian philosophy and
classics and literature ought to be given in the larger seminaries at least;
(b) by holding an annual conference of Indian, students to inspire in them
ideals of service with special reference to their country's needs and also to
make them fed a bond of unity in their years of preparation in that they
are all preparing themselves for a common cause; (c) by doing anything
that will make them feel at home while away from their own homes;
(d) by opening channels in connection with city or rural Y.M.O.A/8 or
with charity organizations by which the Indian student can undergo a
practical training in the summer months so that he will be an efficient
servant of the Christian cause on his return.
THE FOEEIGN STUDENT IN AMEEICA
MissD.
The students of India look upon America as the greatest and most
civilized country in the world and therefore the opportunity to come to
this country is the highest privilege possible. The character and attain-
ments of the missionaries from Christian lands make us desire the same
opportunities they have had.
I noticed the different educational buildings, hospitals, colleges, homes
for the aged, and industrial schools all equipped with every facility for
doing good work.
I consider that a man or woman who comes to America to study is better
prepared for Christian work on his or her return to India. The mission-
aries always send their children here to be educated and also prominent
men and women may be mentioned who were educated in this country and
returned to do a great work among their own people, such leaders, for
example, as Pundita Bamabai and Dr. Karmarkar.
By the fruits we know the tree. The fruits of Hinduism are caste
division, poverty, ignorance, polytheism, idolatry, the pride of the Brahmin,
the degradation of the outcaste. But in this country we learn that the
fruits of Christianity are liberty, social and educational progress, brother-
hood, honor for women, education, and social purity; and our influence
must be greater after living in such a land.
The dangers faced by the students are as follows : The students of the
East have to contend with a colder climate and different food, as well as
with the customs and manners, loneliness, and homesickness. The greatest
danger conceivable is the temptation to make their homes in this country.
The students of the West can show sympathy and friendship, which
means so much to the Indian students.
BIOGEAPBJBS OP BETUBNED INDIAN STUDENTS
Number One. A married man with a family of eight children, which
does not mean that he was an old man, was a teacher in the Lower Sec-
ondary Department of a high school in an Indian town. He had passed
the matriculation examination but had failed in the first examination in
arts. He had enterprise, however, and leaving his large family went to
America, having $335 in hand; was admitted to the University of Chicago
and in two years obtained the degree of M.A. He maintained himself
during this period by doing odd jobs. He returned to India and is now
a college lecturer in English Literature.
Number Two. A young student of eighteen years, after one or two
unsuccessful attempts to pass the matriculation examination, went to
America where he supported himself by his own efforts, aside from a few
small remittances from home. He studied at Harvard and Boston Uni-
versities and took the degrees of M.A. and S.T.B. He remained in America
eight years and is now a university professor of philosophy in India.
Number Three. A young student graduated from an Indian university
and went to England where he took his medical degree. While abroad he
BETUENED STUDENTS DT THEIE HOMELANDS 113
was elected to a very important position in student work and made his
impress upon the student life of Great Britain. He returned to India
and threw himself into student problems. He was a professor in an im-
portant Christian college, was offered its presidency but chose to continue in
vital contact with the students of India through a nation-wide organiza-
tion. He was editor of its magazine and has traveled on several continents
lecturing in the interests of student work. He has served on Government
commissions and is an outstanding man in India.
Number Four. This man left India just hefore the War, intending to
he an electrical engineer. He had read up to the B.A. in Physics and
Mathematics and knew English well. His character was excellent and he
meant business. He was encouraged to come to the United States because
the electrical training here is good. It was considered more difficult and
more expensive in England. He entered the University of Illinois and
received his B.Sc. degree in 1915, was taken on as an apprentice by the
Eeliance Electrical Company, Cleveland, Ohio, and was soon made an
assistant engineer in designing machines. When America entered the War
and the chief electrical engineer's services were requisitioned, this *** was
made Acting Chief Electrical Designing Engineer of the firm. He
acquitted himself welL He returned to India in 1919 as agent of the firm.
He is very American in his accent, and very business-like in manner.
He was a partner in a business firm for over a year. He is now Professor
of Electrical Engineering in the Hindu University at Benares, and is
carrying on experiments in designing. His admiration for liberty-loving
America is profound.
Number Five. Met some American tourists who encouraged him to
come to Philadelphia and study medicine. He spent nearly six years in
America and returned to India after the War. He has given up the idea
of a lucrative practice in one of the larger cities and with a deep patriotic
and humanitarian motive, has preferred to practise in a smaller town and
the surrounding district.
Number Six. Was a most brilliant youth all through his university
course. After making his M.A. he won the state scholarship and went
to Oxford. When called upon to answer a certain question regarding his
fellow students at Oxford, he refused to do so. It was pointed out that
as he held a state scholarship he should reply. He then resigned his
scholarship. He fell foul of the Government and sought refuge in the
United States. Afterwards he went to Switzerland, Germany, and other
countries. He recanted his admiration for Germany and is a voluntary
exile somewhere in Europe.
Number Seven. A rich man's son went to England immediately after
his matriculation to enter the Tuns of Court. He traveled widely in
114 THE FOEEIGN STUDENT IN AMEEICA
Europe and was ruined by drink and immorality. He was called to the
bar duly, but so shattered was his constitution that he died soon after
arriving in India.
Number Eight. This man was a brilliant Christian student and after
spending a term of years in America graduated from one of the leading
colleges. He was the President of the Union of Christian Students of
India in America. On his return to India he joined the United Theologi-
cal College at Bangalore in the Department of Church History. In
addition to his work in this field, he makes occasional excursions into
Indian economics. He is in demand for religious conferences and is
writing articles on the policies of the Syrian Church of Malabar, also on
church unity.
Number Nine. This young man was a graduate of a mission high
school at Ahmadnagar and of Ferguson and Wilson colleges with A.B.
and with honors in philosophy. He taught in the mission high school
in Bombay; conducted the Language School for missionaries in Western
India; has written text books for them; was on the Executive Committee
of the Bombay Christian Endeavor and the Graduates 3 Auxiliary to the
Student Christian Association; became a member of the Student Vol-
unteer Movement; edited the Sunday School notes for the Bombay Tract
and Book Society, and translated and wrote books for the Tract Society.
We understand that the American Board has accepted him as a missionary
and that he is now at work in India.
Number Ten. A graduate of the American Mission High School at
Fasumalai, the American college at Madura. He took his A.B. degree
at Cornell in 1916, after completing the course in three years' time, win-
ning a Phi Beta Kappa key in the process, then entered the Yale Divinity
School of Religion; was secretary of the Student Volunteer band; associate
editor of the Tale Divinity Quarterly. He' then engaged in work among
students in the American Mission College in South India for a time
and recently returned to America to finish at Yale his work for a Ph.D.
Number Eleven. A student sent abroad under the Association for the
Advancement of Scientific and Industrial Education of India, obtained his
master's degree in agriculture from Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y.,
and on his return to India was appointed by the Cooch-Behar State to
their tobacco farm at a salary of rupees 500 per month.
Number Twelve. Eeturned to India after passing with great distinction
the B.Sc. examination in agriculture from the University of California.
He was employed as Professor of Botany and Chemistry in the Bangabasi
College in Calcutta.
Number Thirteen. He attended the Pratt Institute, New York. By
means of an apprenticeship in the world-renowned Colgate Company plant
EBTUBinSD STUDENTS IN THEIR HOMELANDS 115
he mastered the technology of oils, fats, and soap. He was elected a
member of the American Chemical Society, being the first Indian hon-
ored with that distinction. On his way home via Japan, he was ap-
pointed chemist and supervisor of a big soap factory in Tokyo. His book
entitled "Commission on Technology of Oils, Fats, and Manufacturing
Products," earned for him a reputation in America. He has started on
his own account in Calcutta a vegetable-soap manufacturing plant.
Number Fourteen. This gentleman joined the Testing Department of
the General Electric Company of New York. The Director of the firm
was highly pleased with his work and appointed him as an engineer in
the hydro-electric plant which the company undertook in NepaL He
later joined the Calcutta Electric Supply Corporation.
Number Fifteen. This gentleman studied at the T. M. C. A. College
in Chicago and completed the entire course. He returned to Europe and
later to India in the war work of the Y. M. C. A. After serving in this
capacity he was appointed as Warden and General Secretary of the Indian
Students 5 Hostel in London, which is a large and important institution
established for the benefit of Indians who are living in that city. The
annual budget is $100,000 and this gentleman is carrying the work with
the confidence and esteem of his helpers and committee.
Number Siateen. Studied for years in the United States and secured
his M.A. degree from Columbia. On his return to India he became pro-
fessor of English Literature and Mathematics in one of the leading native
States, a position he held for more than a dozen years. His influence was
strongly felt on the side of Christ among the students of that State. He
is at present traveling in America on exchange professorships and has
widely influenced the thought of our students toward the students of India.
JAPAN
By GALEN M. FISHER,
Executive Secretary, Institute of Social and Religious Research
The attitude of the Japanese when they come to America varies all
the way from enthusiastic friendliness to cynical distrust. Taken as a
whole, however, their attitude is friendly and it is safe to say that with
rare exceptions they return to Japan more friendly and appreciative of
America's ideals and achievements than they were upon arrival. The ex-
ceptions occur chiefly among the students arriving in the larger cities,
where they have slight opportunity for intimate intercourse with better
types of Americans and see the more mercenary and materialistic aspects
of our civilization.
116 THE FOREIGN STUDENT IN AMERICA
Their attitude toward Japan unquestionably tends to become more dis-
illusioned and critical. It is very rare, however, to meet a Japanese who
has become in any sense unpatriotic. They may criticize the bureaucracy
and the elder statesmen and may declaim on the necessity for giving the
mass of the people a better chance to get on in the world and to share
in the government. The first reaction of a good many of them after reach-
ing America is to dwell upon the smallness and poverty and backwardness
in material ways of their native land in contrast with the opposite char-
acteristics of America, but before they return home they generally come
into a saner mood. They may go back convinced liberals or radicals and
impatient of the conservatism of their countrymen, but none the less they
have a firm belief in the distinctive values of Japanese culture and in
the certainly that she will hold her own with the aggressive nations of the
West.
The number of students in the various colleges and universities of
Japan as a whole is approximately 100,000 men and 20,000 women. Ac-
cordingly, the number of students in America is somewhat less than one
per cent. But if graduates only are considered, the percentage coming
to America either for study or for observation is doubtless above ten per
cent, and it may be considerably more.
It is a striking fact that out of a list of 146 Japanese who have studied
in America, most of them since 1900, fully seventy per cent, are Christians.
Upon returning to Japan thirty-five per cent, of this entire list have
become teachers, professors, or researchers; twenty-two per cent, have
entered the ministry and other forms of professional Christian service ; and
nineteen per cent, have entered business and industry, chiefly as managers.
It is impossible to say exactly what the result of their study in America
upon their Christian faith has been, but men like the Reverend E. A.
Ohori and the Reverend M. Shimazu, who have known most of them in-
timately and who kindly supplied me with the list, are of the opinion
that very few of them have entirely lost their Christian faith but that a
considerable number have lost the warmth and zeal which once character-
ized them. Even those who have lost something of what is generally
understood by "spirituality," have continued to make their influence count
for righteousness and social service and to give some sort of support to
the Christian Church, even though they may not be active members*
An indication of the chilling effect of life in the United States upon
some of the students is given in the statement by a close Japanese ob-
server: "I can readily name twenty young Japanese who intended to
become ministers and entered American theological seminaries, but later
they changed their minds and entered education or business or official
service/* Lest this statement, however, convey a false impression, it
RETURNED STUDENTS IN THEIR HOMELANDS 117
should be added that a number of these men had their eyes opened in
America to the great opportunities for genuinely Christian careers in
social service and education. A number of them, for example, are now
serving in the social welfare departments of the national or local govern-
ments. Indeed, the entire social welfare department of the National
Government has from the first been largely manned by Christians. The
same is true of Tokyo and Osaka, and of the South Manchuria Eailways.
Eesidence in America invariably tends to liberalize the ideas of
Japanese regarding the family and social relations between men and women
as well as regarding political institutions. Where students are given an
opportunity to mingle freely with Christian Americans in their homes, the
effect upon their entire life and ideas is generally deep and lasting. But
even those who live in the larger cities or in regions where social inter-
course between Japanese and Americans is infrequent, are apt to be favor-
ably impressed. In a few cases they are unable to resist the demoralizing
influences which characterize so much of the amusement and commercial
life of our large cities.
The general results of the coming of Japanese to study in the United
States have been beneficial to Japan as a whole and to the Christian move-
ment there. It has also done much to promote friendship between the
American and Japanese peoples and to counteract the misrepresentations
and designing schemes of chauvinists and exploiters of race prejudice.
At every outbreak of aoiti- American agitation in Japan or of anti-Japa-
nese legislation and agitation in the United States, the returned students
from America have exercised a potent influence on the side of forbear-
ance, faith in the ultimate justice and good-will of America, and de-
termination to maintain peace.
The only nation-wide organizations in Japan rendering service to stu-
dents going abroad are the student Young Men's and Young Women's
Christian Associations. Excellent as have been their endeavors, there is
much they have not been able to do. Their efforts have been somewhat
supplemented by the International Service Bureau which has its offices
in the building of the National Committee of the Young Men's Christian
Association.
The most regrettable gap in the efforts to be helpful to Japanese
students in the United States is represented by the very limited oppor-
tunities afforded many of them to mingle intimately with the best type
of American Christians, especially in their homes. The services of the
Committee on Friendly Belations and the various churches and Christian
Associations in this direction have been of incalculable value. Bible
classes and socials especially arranged for Japanese students have also
been helpful and should by all means be emphasized, but the most potent
118 THE FOEEIGN STUDENT IN AMERICA
factor of all in making and keeping Japanese students vitally Christian
in their ideas and in their conduct is the chance to see Christianity work-
ing spontaneously in Christian homes and to form friendships with cul-
tured Americans who will gladly give the time which such friendships
require.
LATIN" AIOIEICA
By S. Q.
CLASSES FBOM WHICH STUDENTS COME. All social, financial, and reli-
gious classes have been represented by the students who have come to the
United States, but it will probably be exact to say that the larger part have
come from the upper middle class, speaking socially and financially. All
classes are entering this group now. At first it was only the rich who could
afford to do it. Now since the possibilities of self-support are becoming
better known, the middle class and even the comparatively poor are coming.
This has not become a "movement" but little by little it is developing.
Some of the Latin-American students now in the United States who are in-
terested in improving the reputation of their student body here, are trying
to start a movement to bring more middle-class students. They maintain
that the rich students do not usually care to study and by wasting their
money in riotous living have often brought criticism on the Latin-American
students as a whole.
Speaking religiously, while it is still true that by far the larger
number who have come are Boman Catholics, yet it would also be correct
to say that evangelical Christianity has been represented out of all pro-
portion to its numbers in the population of the various countries. This
is because many students have passed through mission schools and have
thus been directed to the United States, while a great many others have
had some slight contact with missionaries and through them have been
able to get into touch with this or that university which they have later
attended. It is unfortunately true that there is just now a very strong
feeling among the students of Latin America in the United States against
evangelical or Protestant propaganda.
EFFECT OF Lroare ABEOAD. No doubt in the great majority of cases
students who have studied in the United States of America have been
favorably impressed with our great advance in civilization, our financial
power, and our spirit of progress. It is noted that practically all who have
had a chance to stay for any length of time in the United States are eager
to return to this country.
Many who have experienced our advantages here have returned home
with a desire to better the conditions under which their own people live,
BETUBNED STUDENTS IN THEIB HOMELANDS 119
and in some cases they have been successful in elevating civic and social
life. While a few would maintain that North Americans are no better
morally than their own people, most of them would say that our morality
is of a type that ought to be imitated in the lands that lie to the South.
Of course, they drop back into their own social cliques and naturally fall
into the moral situation as it exists in each land. Yet I believe that all
have been bettered and that the result as a whole has been favorable.
As regards the influence of their stay here on their attitude toward
religion, it can be said that all are liberalized in thought, though they
may not reach the point where they would be willing to Thnlr up with an
evangelical church. A correspondent recalls one case, that of a physician
in Colombia, who was especially impressed with our kindness of spirit as
regards the different divisions of Christianity. In the first of a series of
lectures which he was to give in his local university, he referred to the
fact that thousands of worshipers on Sunday go up and down Fifth Avenue,
little groups breaking off to enter their different houses of worship, yet
all chatting and evidencing the most kindly feelings toward one another.
He went so far as to say that he thought this same spirit might grow and
develop in Colombia. As a result of this expression of opinion, he found
it impossible to secure dates for the remainder of his lectures.
On the other hand, the writer knows of at least one instance in which
the young man professes to have lost all interest in religious matters.
After announcing big intention to study for the Christian ministry this
young man was repeatedly advised against coming to the United States
to continue his studies. But he insisted and, entered one of the colleges
of the Middle West, Now he maintains that what he has seen of Chris-
tian life in this sectarian institution has turned him completely against all
interest in religious work. No doubt he and others will return to their re-
spective countries and instead of being helpful will prove obstacles in the
path of progress of the work that is being carried on by the different
missions.
In practically every case they come back warm friends of the "United
States. But as one points out, if you listen to their enthusiastic praise,
you soon see that they are thinking of the comforts and pleasures of
America and not of her principles, institutions, and moral values. Some
return so completely "Yankeefied" that they can see no good in their own
country and its institutions. They are pessimists and make no effort to
change things. Some return with great ideas of bringing to their country
something new and better than it has known, but they are soon discour-
aged. One such, after ten years, seems to have no hope of doing any-
thing and he is making himself believe that he could do more for his
country if he were living in the United States where he could write
plain things about conditions here and send his ideas back in the form
of pamphlets. He suffered materially from having signed a petition asking
120 THE FOREIGN STUDENT IN AMEBICA
that the Young Men's Christian Association be organized here. At present
no thinker dares open his mouth about conditions which are not ideaL
Probably seventy-five men are now living in exile for having opinions
which they didn't keep to themselves. Only in exceptional cases do stu-
dents return with new attitudes on social and moral questions. But those
few cases make it worth while.
A Central American correspondent says.
Students have seemed to return with a greater loyalty to their native
land than before, if anything. They adopt the viewpoint of the United
States on moral and social questions generally on the Christian side.
Their religious thought has been upset and they as a rule are open to any
new ideas but not established in any beliefs. If they do become Protestant
while students, it does not bring them into the Protestant groups when
they return to their native country. Those going to Europe return most
often without any faith, whereas those from the States are either Christian
or open-minded.
From one of the more backward countries comes this observation :
These students discover their country's weakness and criticise its bad
government and priesthood ruthlessly. Yet, when they return, financial,
social, and marriage relations generally make them more cautious and
such men often revert to conservatism in middle life. Political loyalty,
like love of home, remains untouched.
In a general way, doctors and editors who have been in the United
States do help philanthropic causes somewhat and tend towards greater
political freedom and religious tolerance. Many become Free-masons.
Yet the direct complete conversion of such students to Christ and to a
life of service seems very rare, almost unknown. Any lingering attach-
ment to the Roman Catholic faith usually goes, but nothing very definite
or satisfactory comes in to take its place.
Do BESULTS SHOW THAT THIS MOVEMENT is HELPFUL? Any movement
that tends to bring the young people of a country in closer touch with the
sounder elements in the life of other peoples is helpful, not only to them
but to the land from which they come. The reflex influence of the new
ideas which these young people must receive as they journey and study
in the United States must evidently be a help to their native land. They
go back to put into practice new ideas of sanitation; many of the young
men graduate in engineering courses and return to promote industries in
their own lands; and others who go to be members of the legislative bodies
cannot fail to show in their own changed attitude toward life the results
of their thinking and to apply those results to the solution of the problems
with which they are to be confronted.
Certainly international friendship is promoted by this interchange of
BETUENED STUDENTS IS THEIE HOMELANDS 121
students. The great difficulty in the relations between Anglo-Saxon and
Latin American, is the lack of real knowledge which the one has of the
other. No greater bond could be created between the various republics of
the Western Hemisphere than that which naturally results from the closer
and more intimate contact of the youth of these countries, intermingling
in this or that university or traveling through lands hitherto unknown.
The staunchest friends that the United States has had in Latin America
have been found among the men who have traveled in the United States
and particularly among those who have remained here for some time as
students. As to the influence of the movement on the Christian Church,
it may be necessary to postpone judgment until some future time. Much
will depend upon the impression made on Latin-American students who
come to the United States and upon the success which the religious organ-
izations of this country may have in interesting these young people in
modern Christianity and its call to sacrificial service. As already noted,
there is now an unfortunate tendency among the students from Latin
America to depreciate that form of Christianity which prevails in the
United States, and to proclaim that in its influence on life it is no better,
no stronger or more virile, than that to which they have been accustomed
in their own land.
At the same time, it must be admitted that all Latin-American students
who spend any time in the United States are liberalized in their methods
of thinking and will hardly, at least in their saner moments, declare that
evangelical Christianity is a failure.
A correspondent from one of the smaller countries says that, unfor-
tunately, the things many of the students bring back are the things we
are the least proud of in the United States, such as the latest dances and the
excessive freedom of the sexes. In general those who return from study
abroad are favorable to the country in which they have studied and also
have more of a world outlook.
OaaAtfizATiosrs FOE ASSISTING SiUDEKTS. In the various Latin-Ameri-
can countries there are few organizations which have as one of their objects
the helping of students who desire to go to foreign countries for study.
The Department of Education in the government sometimes, but not often,
is prepared to render such service. The Young Men's Christian Associa-
tion, wherever established, will give help when sought, though it is not
always furnished with definite data, catalogues, etc. In Mexico there has
been recently established by the American business men a Mexican-
American Scholarship Foundation that maintains a secretary to look after
the students whom the organization itself sends to the United States.
In Chile, the professor of English in the university has made Thnntrff
responsible for looking after a considerable number of students who go
138 THE FOREIGN STUDENT IX AMERICA
from the capital. In Buenos Aires the Xorth American University blub
have a special committee to help progressive students. North American
diplomatic agents sometimes take a great deal of interest in this question,
but more often give their time to purely commercial interchange. There
is really a great need of a central bureau in each Latin- American country
where young men and women can get accurate information concerning
curricula, costs, living conditions, and the general situation in the various
schools in the United States to which the student might be inclined.
SOME BIOGRAPHIES OF RETURNED STUDENTS
PERU
Dr. A. Studied veterinary medicine in the United States, returned,
and did much in his region for better stock and more scientific farming.
Became dissatisfied after several years at the slowness with which his
ideas were received and returned to States. Hard times following the
War and illness of his family caused him to return to Peru where he is
doing considerable for fanning, but mostly for his family. Would help
in any well-directed movement in his community. Sent by family which
is wealthy. Liberal and fair-minded.
Mr. B. Sent to States at government expense to study normal methods.
Returned after year and a half and is doing much to modernize instruction
and create a better professional spirit. Has good moral influence and
interested in temperance. Life much affected before his going to the
United States by zeal and example of an American director of the Na-
tional Normal School. Liberal toward religions, friendly to evangelical
reforms.
Mr. 0. Came to the United States with returned missionary; soon was
able to support himself and worked his way through college. Worked
several years as insurance agent and made good. Taught Spanish in T.
night school and saved money. Helped educate younger brother. Later
returned to Peru where he is in business. Morals good and is ready to
join any movement for the good of his community.
Mr. D. Younger brother of above. Came to the United States against
advice of missionary who frankly told parents that the boy should prepare
better in mission school before going to States and probably would not
make good. The boy didn't do well, was careless about debts and so
generally bothersome that the president of the school asked his family to
take him out of the school
Mr. B. Educated in mission school. With knowledge of English;
secured a position in American Tuning camp; well behaved. Was lucky
RETURNED STUDENTS IN THEIE HOMELANDS 123
playing cards and saved the money won, letting the missionary keep it
for him until he was ready to go to the States. He perhaps did not
know we considered gambling immoral and missionary thought the money
was saved wages. Is in college in California and good reports come from
him.
Mr. F. Promising product of mission schools educated partly at mis-
sion-board expense in theology. Has been through his course about two
years but will not return to preach in native country.
OTHER SOUTH AMEEIOAN OOUNTBIES
Mr. Me. This young man came to one of the mission schools when he
was but a small lad and asked to be allowed to work for his board and
tuition. He was given this opportunity and for a number of years acted
as night watchman, as purchasing agent in the markets, etc. He com-
pleted his course and received his diploma from the mission school and
then went to New York City, where he took a course in New York TTni-
versity and finally received his degree as an accountant. The work for this
degree was done at night and he supported himself by holding a business
position. He returned to South America and taught for a number of
years in the mission school in order to pay what he owed the institution.
Since then has been a very successful business man in the capital city.
He is a Christian man and stands high in the estimation of all who know
him. 1 ' r J "W
Mr. V. Graduated in the mission school, then came to the "United
States and worked in one of the commercial houses for two or three years.
He thus acquired a practical knowledge of business which has been of
great service to him in past years and he has accumulated a very large
fortune. He has been a member of Congress and has held other positions
of trust in his native country. In all his private and public relations he
tries to put into practice the vital principles of Christianity.
Mr. B. He has a generous proportion of Indian blood in his veins.
He studied for three or four years in one of our colleges of the Middle
West, then returned to the mission school as a teacher. Afterward he
became a professor in the university and edited an influential paper for a
number of years. Although not a member of an evangelical church his
influence is favorable to it.
Mr. T. Of pure Spanish stock and bora in one of the South American
Bepublics. After graduating from a mission school he came to the
United States and studied for a number of years; returning, he entered
the Tnfmttiry of one of the evangelical denominations and to-day ranks
very high among the preachers of that Church.
124 THE FOBEIGN STUDENT IN AMEEICA
CUBA
No. 1. Went from private school in Cuba to Berea College; then to
Colgate; married an American girl; returned to Cuba for Christian work
and is at present teaching in a high school. He is in every way a better
man than he would have been had he not gone to the United States. He
has made his own way independently. More intensely Cuban because of
stay in North.
No. 2. Graduate of mission school; helped by fnends in the United
States to complete medical course in the South; returned to native city;
married a fine Cuban girl; has a good practice; both he and his wife are
very active in local church work and in community uplift. He was a
good fellow before going and is better since returning. Sincere admirer
of the United States but a thorough Cuban.
No. 8. Went to mission school, lacking one year of graduation; went
to high school in Des Moines; later Des Moines College; taught in high
school in same city; later in Texas. Has become Americanized; made his
own way; a great admirer of everything American and rather inclined to
forget his Cuban antecedents.
PORTO RICO
The present Mayor of San Juan and the first native Porto Eican to
act (for a time) as Governor of the Island is a graduate in law of Cornell
University. One of the leading dentists, who became a naturalized Ameri-
can citizen in Spanish times in Porto Eico and who suffered as a result of
so doing, is a graduate of the University of Michigan. The General Man-
ager of the Porto Eico Eailway Light and Power Company, one of the
largest corporations in the Island, is a graduate of Lehigh and was recently
called back there to receive an honorary degree. He has been Mayor of
the city of Ponce, Commissioner of the Interior, President of the Chamber
of Commerce, and President of the Eotary Club. He is a director of
the T. M. C. A. and is active in all civic movements.
One of a number of Porto Eicans sent by the Department of Education
to the United States, soon after the American occupation, was placed in
Carlisle Indian School along with others. But he did not stay there long.
He went "on his own," fitted himself for college, entered Penn. State,
working his way largely; became a Protestant, decided to enter the min-
istry, took the theological course, married an American girl, returned to
Porto Eico as a missionary, became dissatisfied because he was treated as
a "native** though he had the training and ability of an "American/* and
left the ministry. He returned to the United States, spent three or four
years studying, supporting himself by preaching; received his PhJ). in
RETTTEITBD STUDENTS IN TEEIB HOMELANDS
Education and is now again in Porto Bico occupying a prominent place
in government education.
COLOMBIA
X was a promising Presbyterian student, son of an elder, secretary to a
missionary. He was taken to New Orleans by a wealthy business man,
given remunerative work and a chance to study. Joined the church, has
done well, and remits money monthly to his mother.
Z studied medicine at Harvard. He now champions Eed Cross work,
Children's Hospital, etc., in Bogotd and is a useful citizen, a friend of
the missionaries, and editor of a medical journal.
If is one of our ablest physicians, related to forward movements in
hospital work. He is tolerant, keen, and just, and an ideal husband.
London and Paris, where he was a star student, gave Tri-m a horizon and
perspective, and enabled him to earn a large income.
was a military officer who taught temperance and loyalty and truth
by his life and as editor of a paper. He imbibed certain "Franklin" char-
acteristics during his visit to the United States and studies here.
THE NEAB EAST
By K. P. DAMT.AMT/MT,
Staff Executive, International House, New York City
Most of the Near-Eastern students come from the middle class, socially
and financially. Those from Egypt and Mesopotamia, as a rule, come
from wealthy families. The majority of them are Christians, while a few
are Hebrews and Moslems. The Christian students are Orthodox, Greek
Catholics, Maronites, Protestants, Gregorians, and Copts. Some of the
Egyptians are Moslems., as are all the Turks and Arabs.
The majority of these students get partial support from their families
and relatives and work while they study. In 1909 the Young Turk gov-
ernment sent to Columbia University a few Turkish students and, after
the Armistice, a wealthy American supported several Turkish students in
the same institution. The Syrian Educational Society in New York
confers every year a number of scholarships on needy and intelligent
Syrians, while the Armenian Student Association of America, Inc., and
the Armenian Educational Foundation give scholarship loans to worthy
and needy Armenians. The Eockefeller Foundation has bestowed during
the last two years three scholarships on young physicians from the Ameri-
can University of BeirfLt, Syria.
126 THE FOBEIGN STUDENT IN AMERICA
During their stay in America as students these men and women find
themselves attached to America and to .American life, and their training
makes them more fit for the life of America than for that of their own
lands. Consequently most of them prefer to remain here. There is no
doubt that at the time of their arrival they were quite sincere in their
intention of returning home, but very few so far have been able to go
back. In fact, the number of those returning is very insignificant. The
political conditions in the Near East are largely responsible for this fact.
It must also be mentioned that the reluctance of some of the American
institutions in the Near East in offering positions to these students has
also prolonged their sojourn in the States. The few Moslem students, par-
ticularly those from Egypt, Turkey, and Mesopotamia, are too much at-
tached to their native lands to accept anything more than a temporary
separation. " 1<pp: *V2
Those who have temporarily or definitely made their homes in America
have a very sympathetic and patriotic attitude toward their native lands
and people. They have always held themselves in readiness to help their
countries when they were in trouble and suffering.
Those who have returned have been, on the whole, alive to the limita-
tions of the situation in the East, and have met the difficulties and ful-
filled their duties faithfully. Some of them have been most exemplary in
their conduct and service to their fellow countrymen. Toward social and
moral questions their attitude and influence have been good everywhere
except in Egypt. There have been some cases where they have not been
found ready to fight for what they considered the right. They have found
themselves much changed in their religious views. Many of the religious
convictions which they held so sacred before going to America have been
greatly modified and they are more tolerant. In fact, in more than one
case, they are quite indifferent toward religion. Their international views
are greatly broadened and they believe strongly in international brother-
hood and good-will as the only means of bringing permanent peace to the
peoples of the world.
The usefulness of the movement cannot be denied in spite of the
disorganized way in which it has been carried on. Men and women who
have gone abroad now stand among the leaders of their nationals in
America, and once safety and favorable conditions of usefulness are prom-
ised, many will return to their homelands. No doubt the destinies of
their countries and peoples will be held in their hands and there is every
reason to believe that they will be equal to the opportunities. The in-
fluence of the few who have already returned has been very wholesome.
As an example, mention may be made of a young Syrian who, after
graduating from the American University of Beirftt, came to Columbia
RETTJEBTED STUDENTS IN THEIB HOMELANDS
University, where he received his Ph.D in History. For several years he
worked among the foreign students of New York City, while employed as
a lecturer in Columbia. A few years ago he returned to Beirftt as Pro-
fessor of History in the American University. Aside from his classroom
duties, which he so efficiently performs, he leads the religious organiza-
tions of the University and is promoting the Student Volunteer Move-
ment of Syria and Palestine. He is active in organizing the Student
Summer Conferences in the Lebanon and is constantly contributing articles
interpreting the spirit of America to the Arabic-speaking world.
THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS
By jEStf S DlNEEOS,
Executive Secretary, Student Young Men's Christian Association of the Philippine
Islands
The movement of students from the Philippines to foreign lands began
'in 1882 and perhaps earlier, when men and women who were entertaining
liberal ideas were prosecuted and when the freedom of speech and of the
press and the right of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition
the government for a redress of grievances were denied to them or
abridged. Among our first students in Europe were Dr. Jos6 Eizal,
Mercelo H. del Filar, Graciano Lopez Jaena, Juan Luna, and many
others who followed them. Those students and the ones who went to
America were and are imbued with the desire for higher education, the
desire to get the best that is in foreign lands, the desire to come into con-
tact with the liberty-loving people of Europe and America, and the inherent
desire to prepare themselves for greater participation in their government
and, ultimately, for the absolute control of their own affairs.
It is needless to say a word now as to what Dr. Jos Eizal and his
contemporaries have done for their people because their deeds are written
not only in books and on monuments but in the hearts of their countrymen.
We are now called upon to say something concerning our present returned
Filipino students.
It is interesting to note that most of the students have come from
representative classes. Many of them were pensionados sent by the gov-
ernment and by the various religious, social, educational, and commercial
organizations. Others were sent by their parents and some on their own
initiative. In general, the results are very encouraging.
The attitude of returned students towards the United States is most
favorable. Practically all of them have a friendly attitude. One of our
prominent returned students, a leading educator, who is taking an active
138 THE FOEEIGN STUDENT IS AMERICA
part in all our activities, said: "The stay of a good many Filipinos in the
United States made them admire the liberty-loving people of America and
their apparent devotion to democracy and independence. It has, however,
intensified their feeling against Americans who apparently are imperialistic
in their tendencies and un-American in their advocacy of American prin-
ciples as applied in other countries."
Mr. L. T. Euiz recently issued to Filipino students in the United
States a questionnaire which elicited the following information that may
be quoted as revealing much as to the attitude of returned Filipino stu-
dents toward the United States :
MAIN POINTS or STBENGTH AND WEAKNESS IN AMERICAN LIFE
The most common answers to this question come in order as follows :
Strength:
1. Businesslikeness
2. Sportsmanship
S. Alertness
4. High standard of living
5. National pride
6. Humanitarian interest
7. Self-confidence
8. Strength in organization
9. "Speed" and keen observation
10. Cooperation
Weakness:
1. Too much freedom given to young people
2. Moral laxity
3. Loose family ties; too many divorces, lacking sacredness in mar-
riage
4* Self-conceit and arrogance
5. Eacial prejudice
6. Too materialistic
7. Over-evaluation of everything American
8. Lawlessness
9. Provincialism
10. Criminality
11. Luxury and vice
EETUENHD STUDENTS IN THEIB HOMELANDS 129
POINTS OP SUPERIORITY OF THE PHILIPPINES OVER THE UNITED STATES
Here the opinion is almost unanimous that hospitality is the first point
of superiority of the Filipinos over the Americans. The next point in order
is that the Filipinos have a higher standard of morality. The next is the
sacredness of family ties.
OTHER POINTS OP SUPERIORITY
1. More religious
2. Greater love for the home
3. Greater respect for parents and older people
4. More obedient
5. More courteous
6. More polite
7. More self-sacrificing
S. More conscientious
9. More patient
10. Less race prejudice
11. Kindness to strangers
12. More law-abiding
In spite of the many obstacles which the returned students encounter,
their acts show that their contact with broad-minded and real Christian
people abroad has given them new vision for service They have come
to realize that they were trained to serve. A great many of them are
rendering valuable service to their country. It is also interesting to note
that their spirit of patriotism has been intensified abroad and that in their
teachings and practices an observer can see the happy combination of the
best that the East and the West have given them.
It is indeed a very encouraging fact to us all that a good many of the
returned students have deeper interest in social and moral questions.
Wherever they work, their inevitable good influence is felt. They are
instrumental in the formation of the right kind of public opinion. Their
standard of morality is high and their norm of conduct is a contributory
factor for good. Of course, there are some whose attitude toward social
conditions is altogether too liberal and whose standard of morality is low.
Their behavior does not redound to the credit of American institutions
nor to their precious heritage of the past, our own traditional culture.
With, reference to the attitude of returned students toward religion,
let me state the following illuminating opinion of one of our leading
Filipino educators : "Their stay in the United States has tended to lessen
their religious fervor, intensifying their love for things material and
130 THE FOEEIGN STUDENT IN" AMEBIOA
economic, which seem to many the distinctive features of American life
and American institutions."
Let us consider further the results of this movement. The record
shows that such a migration of students to foreign lands is helpful to our
native land. In all departments of our government, in all business enter-
prises, in our social and religious organizations, in the development of
our natural resources, and in our educational institutions especially, you
can see these returned students holding positions of great importance.
They have the confidence of their people. They are giving themselves to
the sacred task of preparing the ground for their successors and for the
generations yet unborn. That this movement of our students is helpful
to international friendship is proved by the fact that there exists to-day
a better understanding and relationship between the foreigners and our
people. This is a very natural outcome when peoples of different countries
with different habits and customs and with different traditions have come
together with open minds to deal with each other and to understand each
other; when they, by their contacts, have learned to work together, in
spite of their differences, for the accomplishment of a common purpose.
In general the movement is helpful to the Christian Church. It is
more a service than a detriment to it. But it has not done much except
to a few students, partly because they were already enthusiastic for Chris-
tianity before they went abroad and partly because of the existence of race
prejudice which they observed in the United States even among many of
those who call themselves Christians. Fortunately, their contact with the
real Christians has led many to realize that religion is not a creed nor a
dogma but life as exemplified by Christ.
Among the organizations with nation-wide field of service for assisting
such students are the government, the Young Men's Christian Association,
the Philippine Columbian Association, the Masonic lodges, and various
other organizations, religious and otherwise.
I should not attempt to write down names of the most successful of
these students, for there are so many of them and I do not have the com-
plete data in hand. Nor would I attempt to mention the few who have
followed the echo instead of the real sound and who, like ships without
compass, have ventured out on the turbulent ocean of life. But we must
remember that it is a solemn obligation of those who have safely reached
the harbors to help these few struggling sailors. Suffice it to say that
the successful men and women are holding, and will continue to hold,
responsible positions in the executive, legislative, and judicial branches
of our government, in commercial houses, foreign and native, in the banks,
in our universities, colleges, and high schools, in our churches and other
religious, social, and civic organizations. It should be noted, moreover,
RETTJBNTSD STUDENTS IK THEIR HOME-LANDS 131
that a great many of these returned students follow the teaching profession.
In the light of these facts., and in view of the inevitable contact of
the East and the West in the fields of polities, commerce, education, re-
ligion, and what not, it is tremendously important for all concerned that
our students should have the right kind of associations abroad. More than
this, they must be taught, by examples and precepts, that before they or
any people can really teach and serve others, they must have a new and
larger ideal of Christian service, a deeper and broader human sympathy,
and an unwavering faith in the life of man.
Whatever the future holds for these returned students and for their
country, be it joy or sorrow, success or failure, they must be taught to
carry forever in their hearts the undaunted faith, the never-failing courage,
and the priceless experience of young and strong manhood and womanhood
that have been founded upon the divine principles of Christianity. The
time will come when this momentous event of their life abroad will dwindle
into a dim memory to most of their new friends and acquaintances in for-
eign lands. But to them and to those whom they serve the memory will be
forever fresh even when silver threads the hair, and age dims the eye.
In the years to come, even in hours of distress and trial in their lives
and in the life of their nation, the recollection of their pleasant associa-
tion with best and real America and Americans will brighten cheerless
thoughts like a ray of sunshine, a beam of grace, lighting the dimness of
lonely hearts and illuminating the landscape of their dear Philippines.
THE FOREIGN STUDENT AND
AMERICAN LIFE
CHAPTER IV
THE FOREIGN" STUDENT AND AMERICAN LIFE
By CHARLES D. HUBREY,
General Secretary, Committee on Friendly Relations Among Foreign
Students, The International Committee of Young Men's
Christian Associations
SOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS. Attention must be directed at the outset to the
primary importance of the social treatment received by students coming
from abroad. No single influence does more to shape their judgment of
America and its institutions, and, by natural inference, of Western civili-
zation. These social experiences also have an inevitable influence upon
their whole mode of life. What we do to these strangers speaks so loudly
that they may be pardoned for disregarding much that we say.
ADMISSION TO THE UNITED STATES. The typical foreign student ihinVg
of America as a land of freedom, wealth, and kind-hearted people. From
the missionaries, tourists, business men, the cinema, books, and newspapers
he has gathered the impression that the American people are generous,
just, and sympathetic and that therefore he will be surrounded by true
friendship after he arrives in the country. Impelled by such convictions
the student often arrives in the United States with very little money and
with no definite idea of what he is to do; his first disappointment may
await Mm in the interview with the immigration officials.
The following are the provisions of the new immigration law effective
July 1, 1924, referring to students :
Section 4. NON-QUOTA IMMIGRANTS. When used in this Act the term
"non-quota immigrant" means:
(e) An immigrant who is a bona fide student at least fifteen years of
age and who seeks to enter the United States solely for the purpose of
study at an accredited school, college, academy,, seminary, or university,
particularly designated by him and approved by the Secretary of
Labor, which shall have agreed to report to the Secretary of Labor the
termination of attendance of each immigrant student, and if any such
institution of learning fails to make such reports promptly the approval
shall be withdrawn.
*
185
136 THE FOREIGN STUDENT ITS AMEBICA
Section 15. Maintenance of Exempt Status. The admission to the
United States of an alien excepted from the class of immigrants by
. . . subdivision (e) of section 4, shall be for such time as may be by
regulations prescribed, and under such conditions as may be by regula-
tions prescribed, to insure that at the expiration of such time or upon
failure to maintain the status under which admitted, he will depart
from the United States.
If the incoming student is traveling third class he must pass through
the immigrant station, a process requiring sometimes two or more days;
if he is a first- or second-class passenger and does not have all the neces-
sary papers, he must pass throngh the immigrant station for special in-
quiry. If he cannot establish a non-quota status, and is in excess of the
quota allowed from his country, he will be detained on board ship or in
the immigrant station, pending special inquiry, and may be deported.
Many a student has not been on American soil twenty-four hours
before he is sadly disillusioned. The reports of ill treatment at the hands
of immigration officers and taxi drivers, hotels, and restaurants are the
first chapters in the stories of shattered hopes and lost confidence. We
mention some of the cases reported. Two prominent Chinese gentlemen,
post-graduate students, were put under lock and key over night in a
room crowded with Chinese coohes, because their boat arrived in the early
evening after the immigration officials had finished the day's work. An
Egyptian student, from an influential family, traveling second class, was
detained twenty-three days at the immigrant station pending investigation
of his case. He became ill under such conditions and consequently was
very much embittered toward American institutions. It should be stated,
however, that most students have no difficulty whatever with immigration
authorities; generally the government scholarship students, such as the
group of 150 Chinese recently arriving in Seattle, are cleared without
delay. Since first impressions are lasting, it is of the highest importance
that all students from abroad should be accorded every courtesy at Ameri-
can ports of entry and that everything possible should be done to expedite
the negotiations in cases which are appealed to Washington. Two Hindu
students came to the offices of the Friendly Eelations Committee and
reported that they had just paid a taxicab driver thirty dollars to bring
them from the steamship pier! On the other hand, kindness in the
first hours has created a ready response. Another Hindu has been kept
from bitterness by an act of service at B11JB Island. A fourth is altogether
friendly because of the care given him in a hospital and a charge adjusted
to his ability to pay.
Whenever possible, some American, such as a representative of the
Friendly Eelations Committee, should meet foreign students upon ar-
THE FOBEIGN STUDENT AND AMERICAN LIFE 137
rival; a third person of this type, while working in full harmony with the
law, can render helpful service to students and assure the government
officials that such students will not become public charges.
ATTITUDE OF AMERICAN PEOPLE. Chambers of Commerce are doing
much to give a cordial reception to foreign students ; this is notably true in
San Francisco and Seattle. Students arriving at these ports are taken in
automobiles to their hotel; a complimentary luncheon is given and a motor
ride about the city; help is given in obtaining railway tickets and check-
ing baggage; notice is sent to the Chamber of Commerce in important
centers such as Chicago, through which the students will pass, in order
that some courtesy may be extended.
The Chamber of Commerce in San Francisco gives annually a dinner
to all foreign students graduating from colleges in the Bay District.
The Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce gives an annual dinner for for-
eign students in the city; seats at the tables are so arranged that the
American business man and the foreign student alternate; speeches are
made by members of the Chamber and by representative foreign students;
this has become such an important event in Philadelphia that other Cham-
bers of Commerce throughout the country are doing likewise. The object
of such delightful gatherings is not the promotion of trade but the estab-
lishing and strengthening of friendship with future leaders from many
lands. Similarly the Eotaiy Clubs are inviting foreign students to
luncheons at which speeches are made by the guests from abroad, setting
forth the conditions and progress of the various countries.
The work that has been organized in behalf of foreign students in
Boston and vicinity is an interesting one. In the fall of the year 1918 a
group of men who were interested in the foreign-student situation formed,
under the guidance of the International T. M. C. A., an organization
which eventually came to be called the Committee on Friendly Edations
with Foreign Students. The personnel of the group is varied, including
business men, preachers, teachers, and doctors, and their wives. Most of
them are quite active in performing the actual work of the Committee.
Some assist merely financially. The Executive Committee consists of a
chairman, a secretary and treasurer, and five other members, one of whom
is a woman. The Executive Committee meets four or five times a year
and the Committee as a whole meets twice a year. The aim of the Com-
mittee has been formulated as follows :
This committee is organized to perform a service for college students
from foreign countries men and women likely to become leaders in their
own lands. The every-day experiences of these young people necessarily
reveal only the business and impersonal side of our American life, so
136 THE FOBEIGK" STUDENT IK AMEBICA
Section 15. Maintenance of Exempt Status. The admission to the
United States of an alien excepted from the class of immigrants by
. . . subdivision (e) of section 4, shall be for such time as may be by
regulations prescribed, and under such conditions as may be by regula-
tions prescribed, to insure that at the expiration of such time or upon
failure to maintain the status under which admitted, he will depart
from the United States.
If the incoming student is traveling third class he must pass through
the immigrant station, a process requiring sometimes two or more days;
if he is a first- or second-class passenger and does not have all the neces-
sary papers, he must pass through the immigrant station for special in-
quiry. If he cannot establish a non-quota status, and is in excess of the
quota allowed from his country, he will be detained on board ship or in
the immigrant station, pending special inquiry, and may be deported*
Many a student has not been on American soil twenty-four hours
before he is sadly disillusioned. The reports of ill treatment at the hands
of immigration officers and taxi drivers, hotels, and restaurants are the
first chapters in the stories of shattered hopes and lost confidence. We
mention some of the cases reported. Two prominent Chinese gentlemen,
post-graduate students, were put under lock and key over night in a
room crowded with Chinese coolies, because their boat arrived in the early
evening after the immigration officials had finished the day's work. An
Egyptian student, from an influential family, traveling second class, was
detained twenty-three days at the immigrant station pending investigation
of his case. He became ill under such conditions and consequently was
very much embittered toward American institutions. It should be stated,
however, that most students have no difficulty whatever with immigration
authorities; generally the government scholarship students, such as the
group of 150 Chinese recently arriving in Seattle, are cleared without
delay. Since first impressions are lasting, it is of the highest importance
that all students from abroad should be accorded every courtesy at Ameri-
can ports of entry and that everything possible should be done to expedite
the negotiations in cases which are appealed to Washington. Two Hindu
students came to the offices of the Friendly Kelations Committee and
reported that they had just paid a taxicab driver thirty dollars to bring
them from the steamship pier! On the other hand,, kindness in the
first hours has created a ready response. Another Hindu has been kept
from bitterness by an act of service at Ellis Island. A fourth is altogether
friendly because of the care given him in a hospital and a charge adjusted
to his ability to pay.
Whenever possible, some American, such as a representative of the
Friendly Belations Committee, should meet foreign students upon ar-
THE FOBEIGN STUDENT AND AMEEIOAN LIFE 137
rival; a third person of this type, while working in full harmony with the
law, can render helpful service to students and assure the government
officials that such students will not become public charges.
ATTITUDE OF AMEBICAN PEOPLE. Chambers of Commerce are doing
much to give a cordial reception to foreign students; this is notably true in
San Francisco and Seattle. Students arriving at these ports are taken in
automobiles to their hotel; a complimentary luncheon is given and a motor
ride about the city; help is given in obtaining railway tickets and check-
ing baggage; notice is sent to the Chamber of Commerce in important
centers such as Chicago, through which the students will pass, in order
that some courtesy may be extended.
The Chamber of Commerce in San Francisco gives annually a dinner
to all foreign students graduating from colleges in the Bay District.
The Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce gives an annual dinner for for-
eign students in the city; seats at the tables are so arranged that the
American business man and the foreign student alternate; speeches are
made by members of the Chamber and by representative foreign students;
this has become such an important event in Philadelphia that other Cham-
bers of Commerce throughout the country are doing likewise. The object
of such delightful gatherings is not the promotion of trade but the estab-
lishing and strengthening of friendship with future leaders from many
lands. Similarly the Eotary Clubs are inviting foreign students to
luncheons at which speeches are made by the guests from abroad, setting
forth the conditions and progress of the various countries.
The work that has been organized in behalf of foreign students in
Boston and vicinity is an interesting one. In the fall of the year 1918 a
group of men who were interested in the foreign-student situation formed,
under the guidance of the International Y. M. C. A., an organization
which eventually came to be called the Committee on Friendly Relations
with Foreign Students. The personnel of the group is varied, including
business men, preachers, teachers, and doctors, and their wives. Most of
them are quite active in performing the actual work of the Committee.
Some assist merely financially. The Executive Committee consists of a
chairman, a secretary and treasurer, and five other members, one of whom
is a woman. The Executive Committee meets four or five times a year
and the Committee as a whole meets twice a year. The aim of the Com-
mittee has been formulated as follows :
This committee is organized to perform a service for college students
from foreign countries men and women likely to become leaders in their
own lands. The every-day experiences of these young people necessarily
reveal only the business and impersonal side of our American life, so
138 THE FOEEIGN STUDENT IN AMERICA
that such students often return home unconscious of the deeper human
and spiritual purposes of our people.
By introducing them into our homes, we believe we can help them
in this respect, and can learn their point of view, thus forming a real
bond of friendship between the nations.
While this work is under the auspices of no Church nor sect, it is under-
taken as a definite effort in applied Christianity with the purpose of inter-
preting Christian ideals of the highest type.
As it is impossible to get in touch with the foreign students by the
more usual means, processes which often consume years, the Boston com-
mittee has adopted a rather forced method which is as follows : It obtains,
with the cooperation of the local Y. M. C. A., from all of the educational
institutions of college grade, in or near Boston, and from some of the
high schools, a list of the foreign students with their nationality and
local address. It then sends out a circular letter, with a card or two
which the student is asked to fill out. Usually from 650 to 750 of these
letters are sent out and replies are generally received from about fifty
per cent, of the number. One of these student-data cards then is filed
for reference and the other is sent to a member of the Committee, it being
understood that the student in question will be his special charge.
Each family group on the Committee receives, on the average, a dozen
cards, and his family group takes charge of the twelve students itself, or
takes charge of three and obtains three other families from its own friends
who each take three. The young people are then invited to the American
home and the contact is made as intimate as is possible.
Despite such work as this that is being carried on in Boston and else-
where, however, to read the testimonies of students and the reports of pas-
tors, Association secretaries, Cosmopolitan Club directors, and other work-
ers is to discover that our people are not doing their full duty by these
strangers within our gates. Many encounter discrimination and ill treat-
ment Color consciousness is not restricted to any one section of this land,
and students of the yellow, brown, and black races are often not received
into social circles on the same basis as whites. This stirs deeper and more
abiding resentment than any other rebuff the student encounters. In one
city, the refusal of an American girl to accept the escort of an Asiatic
student at a church social led to the withdrawal of the entire student group
from the church. Irrespective of the arguments pro and con, these ex-
periences of racial prejudice among Christian people make serious inroads
upon their confidence in our sincerity. Scarcely less disastrous is the
effect when they are refused lodging in rooming houses or service at restau-
rants and barber shops, or are compelled to sit in the galleries at theaters.
A Chinese student, seeing a room-for-rent sign in a window, made inquiry
THE FOREIGN STUDENT AND AMEBICAN LIFE 139
and was told by the lady that there were no rooms vacant; he noted that
the walls of the hall were covered with religious pictures, and wondered
why the Christian lady would refuse M a room and lie about it in the
bargain ! It is safe to say that nothing is shattering moral and spiritual
ideals among these students more than the social isolation to which so
many of them are doomed by reason of color, inadequate English, economic
pressure, or natural shyness. Most students do not have adequate contact
with good friends and good homes, and there is much loneliness among
them. Some have been here five to sis years without having received the
hospitality of a family circle. Yet the testimony of students and observers
alike is that no saving influence compares with the touch of friendliness
possible at a dinner table or fireside. It has been responsible for the
reclamation of many who were traveling on the road to ruin or despair.
Too often these young persons have been left to battle alone with the
perils of social and spiritual solitude. Several cases of insanity have been
attributed to lack of normal social life and self-expression.
Study of the data and wide knowledge of foreign student life make it
clear that, notwithstanding some fine work that has been done, little
attention has been given in most centers to the matter of bringing the
student into natural and wholesome contact with his environment. When
he meets disappointment and rebuff, it is usually harbored in his heart,
first arousing doubt of American sincerity and good-will, and in course of
time developing antagonism and bitterness toward our habits of life, our
religion, and perhaps our entire Western culture. To protect him from
this unfortunate condition and ourselves from such regrettable conse-
quences, there must be an enormous increase in what some one calls our
effective ministrant good-will, and a constant welcoming of the student
through guiding friendships into what is most representative of our Chris-
tian life. A very intellectual Hindu, who is thoroughly loyal to the best
teachings of his faith, recently expressed his great admiration of the
Christian Church and our civilization, with sympathetic tolerance for our
faults and good-natured refusal to be insulted by those who discriminate
against his color. Inquiry disclosed that he has been fortunate in his
associations here and has been often in American Christian homes.
The testimony herewith adduced in support of the primary values of
these contacts comes not alone from the writer, but from the students
themselves and the most competent observers everywhere. When students
are asked what is the best single privilege they can enjoy in America, aside
from attendance at a college of their choice, the commonest reply is "the
privilege of being in good homes." In several instances, representatives of
foreign-student groups have come to traveling secretaries of the Friendly
Relations Committee and asked that they endeavor to open such homes to
140 THE FOREIGN STUDENT IN AMEEICA
their fellow nationals. A Hindu who had been having a hard fight against
loneliness said, "Oh, if I could only drop in occasionally at some friend's
house and have a cup of tea, as we do in India, it would make all the
difference in the world/' The need of such touches is simply the cry of
the human heart to know that somebody cares. The excuse is often made
usually by those who should know better that American students fare
just the same; but it is forgotten that the American is at least in a
familiar environment and has an open door to the social life of the school
and town, also that he gets home once a year or oftener, and is always in
communication with his family ajid friends. The student from abroad,
on the contrary, is thousands of miles from home, will be away from one
to five or more years, can get a reply to a letter only once in two months,
and most probably is tacitly debarred from much of the life of the school
and community.
Here indeed is abundant cause for homesickness and a retreat for
comfort to lower forms of amusement ; and it is the marvel of every worker
among these students to see the cheerfulness with which they carry on
and tile rofrequency of moral lapses under most trying conditions. The
argument for the opening of home and heart to these men is not hard
to make. All who have given this form of kindness a fair trial will bear
witness to its efficacy. Only the men who have been received into family
circles can tell what it has meant to their lives. Many a one has been
snatched from despair or the grip of a ruinous resolve. Many another
has found at a dinner table or a fireside, in the frank chat of a father
and mother or the innocent play of little children, the deepest meaning
of the Christian religion. The writer is intimately familiar with the
career of a South American student who spent five years in this country
and returned to become the secretary of the Young Men's Christian
Association in his native city. He came here as one of that large class
of intelligent young men of Latin America who have broken from the
Church of their mothers and lost active interest in organized religion.
The evolution in his life that turned him to a Christian calling came
about not through any argument or attempt to proselytize, but through
the contagion of genuine Christian living as he saw it in many homes
where he was privileged to visit and live. Another recent example of
the same principle is an Asiatic student who was baptized at the Silver
Bay Student Conference and who attributes his decision to the steady
impact of Christian lives in the places where he was guided by tactful
friends into family circles. Some friends of these students are fortunate
enough to become shepherds, looking after whole groups in a college or
town. These persons could write captivating stories of their relations
with their students, relations which constitute a ministry of personal help-
THE FOEEIGW STUDENT AND AMEBICAN LIFE
fulness and counsel reaching often into the deepest recesses of their lives.
We know of one man and wife who are the American parents of nearly
forty Filipinos in a midwestern city. Their home is open to the group
at all times and for that reason the students do not abuse the privilege.
Monthly socials are held at the homes of various families which have become
interested through "father and mother," and bi-weekly club meetings are
held at the city Y.M.C.A. Many of the group attend one of the churches
and are active in a large men's Bible class Two years ago during a series
of evangelistic meetings at the church, thirteen of these students were
baptized into membership. One day this man and his wife were quite
overwhelmed on receiving a copy of one of the leading daily papers of
Manila and finding on the first page a large picture of their family and
a glowing account of what they had done for the Filipino students of the
city. All who have extended this courtesy will testify to its values for
themselves in bringing information of new countries and opening up the
hearts of these young men who are often eager to unburden themselves.
Experience further shows that the home is the half-way house to the
Church. KTo invitation to church will have so good a prospect of success
as one offered within the walls of a home by those who have proved their
own friendship and now wish the student to meet other friends. We cannot
expect to draw many of these strangers by customary advertising or induce-
ments to go to a doubtful reception. But the case is different when they
are assured of a personal introduction by those already interested. Apart-
ment life has worked havoc in America with the ancient virtue of hos-
pitality, but it cannot be made an excuse for the disregard of an obvious
Christian duty and an investment of kindly interest that may pay dividends
beyond one's dreams.
THE IMPACT OF FOREIGN STUDENTS ON AMERICAN LEPE. The presence
of foreign students in America produces certain results.
1. They spread information about their countries.
To overseas students we are indebted for accurate knowledge of pre-
vailing conditions among their people; a few hours* conversation brings
out the facts regarding social, economic, educational, political, and moral
conditions, and serves to correct many false impressions that have been
created by prejudiced writers and superficial tourists. By informal talks
also and articles for local papers and magazines the student from abroad
disseminates information about his people.
2. They create an international outlook.
Just because he is an object of curiosity in many communities the
Oriental student arouses an interest in lands outside the United States.
A]H kinds of questions are put to him and by his answers the provincialism
143 THE FOREIGN STUDENT IN AMERICA
of American students is broken down; as acquaintance deepens into
friendship, racial and national barriers are obliterated and Oriental and
Occidental students become companions in the search for truth.
3. They arouse interest in Christian work among their people.
Often the appeal of a foreign student on behalf of his people is more
fruitful than that of enthusiastic missionaries; by such appeals gifts of
life and money have been stimulated, resulting in ultimate gain to the
Christian cause in mission lands.
4. They stimulate wider reading and travel.
Many business men and members of their families owe their interest in
books on South America, the Far East, Russia, and other lands to contacts
with students from those parts of the world; in several instances a tour
abroad has been taien as a result of friendship with one or more students
from overseas.
5. They reveal traits of sacrifice, patience, and perseverance.
Our admiration is challenged by the strength of character displayed by
these students in going far from home, struggling with a foreign language,
and battling against trying surroundings. In spite of obstacles many a
student surpasses his American companions in scholarship and general
conduct.
6. They afford examples of courtesy and appreciation.
In social life, on the campus and in the community, the general attitude
of foreign students is one of thoughtfulness and gratitude; they are not
so brusque and crude as some of the American students. It is unanimously
affirmed that, as a class, the foreign students are more courteous, con-
siderate, appreciative, serious, respectful, and diligent than American
students.
7. They deepen spiritual life and ideals.
Coming from lands in which Western materialism has not yet become
dominant, many overseas students by their habits of study, meditation,
and reflection remind us that "the things which are unseen are eternal."
They have time for fellowship with one another and for communion with
God; their penetration into spiritual truth and their interpretation of
religion are stimulating to American friends.
THE FOREIGN STUDENTS' JUDGMENT OP AMERICAN LIFE IN THE LIGHT
07 OUR CHRISTIAN PROFESSION. Many students from non-Christian lands
find no fault with the religion of Jesus Christ but denounce most vigorously
the "Christianity" of America. Their first introduction to the teachings,
example, and plans of Christ convinces them of His supreme idealism* and
of the realization of these ideals in His own life, but they do not find
THE FOREIGN STUDENT AND AMERICAN LIFE 143
enough Christians who practise the teaching of Jesus or who seem to take
seriously His plans for the world.
Here are the principal Western stumbling blocks in the pathway of the
Oriental non-Christian student: industrialism, imperialistic commercial
expansion, war-like temperament, racial haughtiness, misunderstood mis-
sionary policy.
How do these factors influence the Oriental student? One thoughtful
Oriental student writes: "Is it conceivable that Western civilization can
at the same time develop great industrial corporations and write the
Twenty-third Psalm or the thirteenth chapter of I Corinthians?' In
other words the Oriental is confused when, from reading in the New Testa-
ment "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God, w he turns to an examination, of
Western industrial activity.
He cannot reconcile the struggle for imperialistic commercial suprem-
acy among the nations of the West with the Golden Eule teaching of
Jesus. The non-Christian foreign student doubts the Christianity of a
people who enter his country and acquire large possessions and cany on
trade with attention fixed on their own profit without regard for the people
of that land.
Again the Oriental student does not find consistency between the
teaching and practice of Jesus and the war-like tendency of Western
nations. "Why are huge military and naval equipment the inevitable
accompaniment of Christian civilization ? 9 **If your Christianity means
so much to you, why do you not put your wealth into Christian education
and the expansion of Christian institutions? 95 These are questions which
crowd the baffled mind of the non-Christian in these times.
Another incomprehensible factor confronting the non-Christian student
is the attitude of superiority manifested by the white race. Successive
generations have intensified the conviction among white people that they
are destined to rule the world; therefore they proceed to dominate the
other races of mankind. As long as the darker peoples acquiesce and carry
the burdens as servants, all is tranquil, but let the non-Christian Oriental
arise and claim his rights as God's son in a world of brothers and trouble
ensues. Again the Christianity of Jesus is not practised in the inter-
mingling of the races, and the non-Christian concludes that Jesus cham-
pioned an unattainable ideal. In the discrimination against colored people
in America, especially on the part of Christians, the Oriental finds con-
firmation of his suspicion that Western folks are not able to practise the
religion of Christ.
The aggressive and often misunderstood missionary undertaking of
the Western Church has naturally aroused considerable criticism among
non-Christian Orientals and has stimulated a carefpl investigation of the
14A THE FOBEIGN STUDENT IN AMEEICA
methods and results of Christian propaganda in the West. Oriental stu-
dents in America often feel that their countries are misrepresented by the
speeches and writings of missionaries. In their eagerness to arouse the
church people of the West to the urgency of Christian work in the Orient,
the missionaries picture the awful need due to the backwardness and
ignorance of the people. The sensitive Oriental student, hearing and
reading such unbalanced descriptions of his country, becomes incensed and
is inclined to oppose the plans of missionary societies.
Oma FAILTHSE TO MEASURE UP TO THE STANDARD. Much of the disap-
pointment experienced by students from certain non-Christian peoples is
due to the fact that they are accustomed to take religion seriously; to the
students from India, for example, the realization of the presence of God
and the culture of the spiritual nature is life's chief business; hours of
each day are occupied in meditation, prayer, and worship, wbereds in the
West they soon discover that the ordinary Christian devotes a minimum
of time on Sunday to religious observances, while his best thought and
energy are consumed in the intense struggle to provide for himself and
family the comforts and luxuries of this world. In such devotion to
material development the Oriental observer is convinced that we are
dwarfing the soul; he frankly tells us that our motive in accepting Chris-
tianity is the gaining of a respectable status in our community rather
than such sacrificial service to humanity as characterized the daily life of
our Lord. He finds that it is easier for us to give money than to give
ourselves. Viewing us critically and taking Jesus at his word, the non-
Christian foreign student must conclude that there is wide discrepancy
between Western Christianity and the religion of Jesus Christ. If only
they would judge us by some standard less exalted than the Gospel of
Christ we might make a better showing, but as the case stands, we are on
trial and are being found wanting in several crucial tests; therefore, we
cannot do less than confess our shortcomings, cease to commit the sins of
our race, and deliberately practise Jesus' way of life. Such a course will
manifest our sincerity and will help to unveil the Master who will draw
all men to Himself.
CHRIST. Most of the students from non-Christian lands
admire the life and teaching of Christ; they freely admit that our world
would be a happier place if all people followed TTmK Often they are
more eager than we are to talk about Him and His philosophy; their
challenge to us is: "We would see Jesus/' But they find His face veiled
by man-made obstructions, theological controversy, sectarian strife, ecclesi-
astical organization, ritualistic formalism. "It is not your Christ,** they
THE FOEBIGN" STUDENT AND AMEEICAN LIFE 145
say, "that we reject, but you, His followers. We want to know the uni-
versal Christ, unlimited by geography, race, language, or sex; not alone
the victorious Christ of the triumphant entry, but Christ, the servant
washing the disciples' feet, the apparently defeated Christ, dying with
criminals, the forgiving Christ, the friendly Christ, the living Christ
where can we find Him?"
THE FOREIGN STUDENT AND THE
AMEBICAN COLLEGE
CHAPTEB V
THE FOREIGN STUDENT AND THE AMERICAN
COLLEGE
By A. B. PABSOX,
Assistant Secretary, Foreign Division, The National Council, The Protes-
tant Episcopal Church in the U. S. A.
AIM OF THE CHAPTER
THIS chapter of the survey presents a study of the foreign students'
life in residence at American colleges and universities and the attitude of
the American institutions toward them. It was impossible to inquire about
all the students in our institutions: we aimed to get information from
representative preparatory schools, colleges, endowed and state universities,
technical schools, women's colleges North, South, East, and West.
Inasmuch as another commission considered the moral and religious
influences surrounding foreign students, we sought to find out by studying
a cross-section what sort of students the men and women from other lands
are intellectually and socially; how they enter into our life, the study of
its language, its customs; whether they adapt themselves well; whether
they are received into fraternal organization and club; how many are
indigent, how many self-supporting; whether they participate in our
sports, whether they keep in health; and also how we, with them, are
developing in racial friendliness.
INTEREST IN THE SUEVEY AND ATTITUDE OF INSTITUTIONS
There was whole-hearted response from officers of institutions and
faculty members uncovering a genuine interest in the foreign student.
Such a statement is representative: "Very much interested in the effort
you are making in this survey . . .; believe the problem is very complex
and an important one on which to have data." It is clear, however, that
though individuals are in the main kindly toward our foreign brothers,
much remains to be desired in the official attitude of some institutions, as
manifested when one large university nonchalantly remarks, in answer to
a question about receiving students sympathetically, that its foreign stu-
dents "either keep up or move on/*
149
150 THE FOHEIGX STUDENT IX AMERICA
In the main it may be said that American colleges take some initiative
in pimnig to be hospitable hosts to our friends from other lands; that the
difficulty of their residence in strange surroundings is recognized; and that
they are treated not only impartially as students who are permitted to
take educational opportunities offered, but as visiting friends who are to
be shown regard and deference, not because of inequality, but because they
are unfamiliar with our language and customs. They are in a minority;
they are persons of restraint, easily awed by our push and activity, and all
too ready to retire into an isolation that breeds misunderstanding and at
times mistrust; and there is room for the development of much more
friendliness. Perhaps this survey may point the way to individuals and
to colleges to take the first step forward in offering a welcome to foreign
students who are to study here.
TTmTA-KT ELEMENTS CHEATING A COMPLEX BAOKGBOXTSTD
The American who would appreciate the situation must imagine to
himself a total student registration of apparently 10,000 of college grade
broken up into scattered groups of from 1 to 443 in 400 educational
institutions. They come from more than 100 lands, each with its peculiari-
ties of language, custom, religion, tradition, dress, history, home life, city
life. Our daily round is strange to them, frequently distasteful, brash.
It is not so much that they are peculiar as we; for most of them represent
older traditions: Oriental, European, Latin- American, and others. The
sources of our culture lie in scenes familiar to them; our heroes were their
ancestors. They come to us because of convenience, because we are at
peace, because we give to all free access to education, because we have a
certain aptitude in utilizing our inventive genius and our organizing skill;
perhaps especially because of our good nature and giffa for democratic
friendship.
They protest (at least inwardly) that much of our student life is crass
and rude; the overspectacular dominance of our athletics; our boorish
wit; our lack of culture as an academic ideal, with the corollary substitu-
tion of activity and achievement; our lack of privacy in life in dormitory
and fraternity; our wastefulness in spending, in dress, in pleasure; our
weak conventions in the relations of the sexes; our absence of manners.
And against <mr mundane habits they rebel : against our complicated break-
fasts, onr heating systems, our money, our dances, our slang.
Sometimes a shufeot never finds himself. Sensitive, modest, with a
native silence, he goes tkroTigh his course surrounded by many, known by
noneL A Chinese student writes back to a missionary friend in HTorth-
China:
THE VOBEIGN STUDENT AXD THE AMERICAN COLLEGE 151
The people here, as a whole, have a strong sentiment against Chinese;
so it is rather hard for a young Ghink to make acquaintances in refined
society. ... I don't feel at home at all. ... The hearty welcome I get
from Church people makes me feel the more that I am among strangers :
they greet me so much more warmly than they greet each other, it makes
me feel that I am different. I have written the following prayer for
myself :
Almighty God, our Heavenly Father, Thou hast made the earth and
the peoples thereon, white, yellow, red, or black, at Thy will and they are
all good in Thy sight. I beseech Thee to comfort me when I feel like a
stranger here; help me to endure persecutions and scorns; give me wisdom
that I may understand that peoples of whatever complexion are all Thy
children and Thou art their Father and Creator.
But sometimes a foreign student at once is taken in among friends. A
Japanese student arrived at one school; was introduced to a whole-hearted
group of fellow-students, who could not pronounce his long name and,
asking for a translation, were informed it meant Wtttaw-Tree-Lane.
Before the evening had progressed far the unpronounceable name and its
poetic equivalent had become first Will and then Bill!
A vast difference lies between these two experiences ! The happy solu-
tion comes when our friends from abroad find in us a ready will to make
them at home.
This task is made more difficult because of frequent short residence of
these visitors. Many are poorly advised as to the college or university best
adapted to their desires for education and there is much migration.
Let us feel that this is a task to be met by the thoughtful kindliness
of our educational communities.
CONCERNING CUEEIOULUM QUESTIONS
Policies of Institutions in Enrolling Foreign Students. We ascertained
that most of our colleges are glad to have foreign students; it being some-
times specified "if they can meet their own expenses and qualify for the
work." A wholesome effect on the general student body results. Ten per
cent, of our institutions, however, do not care, and one does not want to
encourage them, but will accept them. Several will encourage only the
"very able" students and impose unusually severe entrance tests.
In state universities and others where numbers are limited authorities
express a desire that the foreign students shall not increase too rapidly.
A few scattering replies indicated a feeling against all foreign students
or against certain races.
It is evident that our educational institutions of all types are sought
out by students from abroad; that such contact with representatives from
other lands is a benefit to our own students.
153 THE FOBEIGX STUDENT IX A^IEEICA
In many cases the attitude is worth recording:
We are very glad to have foreign students and would welcome more
than we have at present. . . . We find the representation from all
groups interesting and cannot say which we prefer.
We prefer to have a wide range of nationalities.
We feel that they contribute a great deal to the student body and open
up lines of interest for our students in international affairs.
We are glad to receive all foreign students who are prepared to enter
this college.
Selfishly, no; but for the good of all concerned, yes, for they are good
for the broadening of vision of American students.
The influence of foreign students on the campus is a wholesome one.
We are very eager to have foreign students enrolled with us.
Glad to have them when they are well prepared.
The survey found a few instances of out-and-out opposition to the
presence of foreign students.
Entrance Requirements. A widely different practice is in effect as to
the entrance requirements Certified credentials satisfy many; but most
require the usual examinations without any leniency; others are confessedly
lenient in reviewing credits and in marking examinations.
One large college for women says :
We are accustomed to show lenience in admission to foreign students in
view of the language handicap and different systems of instruction. Some-
times they are admitted as unclassified students after they have presented
credentials on the basis of which we admit them to certain courses. If
they maintain themselves in these courses, they are then admitted as
regular students. If they wish the degree they are required to mate up
whatever prerequisites are necessary. Great lenience should be shown and
admission should be very flexibly administered.
Careful investigation of a student's record in his home country is sought
by some colleges that have the opportunity of advance correspondence.
There seems to be increasing contact with many foreign institutions
sending students here, and trust in the record of such schools. But the
bulk of conviction is against extending leniency:
Foreign students do not expect or ask for leniency.
So leniency should be sibown, for in so doing their (the students')
handicap is increased.
We show leniency only to advanced students. Younger men get into
bad habits through too lenient a treatment.
If foreign studesnts are shown leniency, it becomes known and the
institution is chosen ly some for that reason.
THE FOKEIGN STUDENT AND THE AMBBICAN COLLEGE 153
While, therefore, many treat every case on its own merits and some
natural allowance is made for language difficulty and a few show leniency
in marking and in allowing changes of courses by substitution; and while
generally their own languages are accepted as substitutes for foreign
languages (Latin, Greek), in general, as to the educational standards
which he must meet, the foreign student finds himself on a parity with
our own students; which fact dignifies the worth of our friends, calls out
the best there is in them, and is a safeguard in the enrollment of a high
level of intelligent, earnest students, who even in the face of difficulty
would prefer to risk failure rather than to have the way made easy.
Standards of Scholarship. Our question was: **How does the work of
foreign students compare with that of Americans?" On such a question
many hesitate to generalize. It was a majority opinion that the foreign
group was a more selected group, the individuals of which as compared with
their fellow nationals, because of a superior capacity for, and ambition to,
study, went to unusual trouble to get the best available education; and it
was but natural that they should make a good record if given training in
English at home so as to be able to do work in our language readily.
On the other hand, testimony showed unusual application and industry
that made them forge ahead. Others testified to their wonderful memories.
There is no preponderating and wholesale testimony to these students as
far ahead of our students in all cases; but as a rule they are excellent
students :
They are variable, but on the whole better.
We have had excellent, average, and poor.
Europeans are our best students.
Orientals are our best scholars.
In almost every instance the language keeps them from the best
grades.
Hard to make comparison because the foreigners are so carefully
selected. They aie not taken except upon recommendation by those
fully acquainted with the conditions at the college and in a position to
know whether the student is equipped to do the work.
They make the honor societies though not in large numbers; yet in
some institutions it is reported that none ever have been admitted to such
societies.
The commission feels that there is major agreement as to the excellence
of work done that shows them to be a force for high intellectuality and for
original work. They are good students, worthy of admission to our insti-
tutions, bringing rare gifts and showing by a fine application their appre-
ciation of what we have to offer. The testimony of a few that they are
more uneven than our own students is exceptional and is completely
154 THE FOBEIGX STUDENT IX AMEEICA
neutralized by the generous and fair majority conviction that they either
compare favorably, are on a par with, or are on the whole more serious
scholars than our American students.
One familiar with the situation says :
In my undergraduate days I never saw anything more effective than
the measurement by American youth of their own brains with those of
Oriental students. It was a wholesome, sometimes humiliating experience.
It would be a good investment to provide inducements to secure some of
the well-trained youth from other lands to study in our institutions, if the
result was only to produce this point of view.
One denominational student secretary writes: "Apparently they are
more dignified and less flippant than the ordinary American college
student/*
It may be said from the point of view of our friends from abroad that
their intellectual ideal is different. They are in the main better students
per se; especially so far as a deeper general culture goes. A European
student says:
The visitor from Europe cannot fail to be amazed at two features in the
American college system: first, its extreme newness and tremendously
rapid growth; and second, its accessibility, at any rate as compared with
England, to the sons and daughters of the mass of the people. A degree
of opportunity for higher education exists over here which is absolutely
unknown on the other side of the water. A boy or girl can get into college
much more easily, and with much poorer parents, than is usually the case
in England.
But when the boy gets in he receives something entirely different from
what is known as a university education in Europe. He gets, not so much
an insight into ways of thinking and methods of reasoning, not so much
a background of culture, as a training in 'leadership/* "citizenship/* and
"character.** This may be a desirable thing at the present point of develop-
ment of the United States, but it is something quite distinct from the
European conception of a university.
The student not only gets something different, but he expects some-
thing different. In England you go to the university to develop yourself,
while in America you go to the university to distfagwsk yourself. There
you have a whole world of difference. In America a boy is always en-
deavoring to attain some outward sign of achievement, to make the college
paper, to make one of the clubs or fraternities, to make the football team.
The center of gravity is in the world of action far more than, in the world
of thought.
You get the same tendency echoed in the academic sphere. I was
struck by the excellence, the vigor, and the competence with which affairs
relating to the world of action are handled. I found that every one could
use a typewriter and drive an automobile. I found that drives for money
were made on a vast scale and with a success undreamed of in England
THE FOREIGN STUDENT AND THE AMERICAN COLLEGE 155
I found that the applied sciences, such as medicine and engineering and
agriculture, and the vocational studies, such as law, are at their best taught
(and learned) far better than anywhere in England. But when it came to
what one may call by contrast the world of thought, quite the opposite was
the case. Pure science and the purely cultural subjects, such as classics
and literature and art, are absolutely inferior in most cases and Tisually
neglected. The situation in regard to them is either tragic or comic.
Accordingly, although one meets students who obviously show promise of
becoming great engineers, great doctors, captains of industry and so forth,
one rarely if ever meets a student who seems destined to become a Darwin,
a Beethoven, a Shelley.
Language difficulties. It has already been mentioned that difficulty
with our language is a hindrance to study. This is not a matter of race,
though the Oriental seems to have great difficulty, perhaps because the
language of his birth is farthest removed from ours. All are handicapped
somewhat, with the occasional exceptions of fluent students whose spoken
and written style puts our slangy and carelessly used English to shame.
It is a common rule to refuse admission to students who are unable to
speak and read English; special courses for backward students are offered
in half of our institutions. The difficulty, being individual rather than
racial, is met sometimes by help extended to the individual by a process of
scattering foreigners through different courses, so that they must mingle
freely with others, rather than in segregating them for group study in
classes where they may persist in using their own language.
Only two institutions among many reporting had no provision for
special language help by official courses or by voluntary conversation
classes.
One Middle Western observer reported confusion in Oriental minds
caused by the slang used by an instructor!
PROBLEMS o* ECONOMY
Status of Students. We sought to ascertain from what sources foreign
students draw their support. Are they government beneficiaries, do they
come on their own charges, how many are dependent upon self-support,
are there many who are the recipients of scholarship aid? Many of our
friends come from countries of disturbed political conditions where there
is much need. They come to a country enjoying unprecedented national
prosperity. Do they come with adequate funds at their disposal? If not,
what are the conditions of their life? Are the universities and colleges
offering scholarship aid and making an attempt to be of service to needy
students?
Forty per cent, of all institutions that replied to our questions had BO
156 THE FOREIGN STUDEXT IX AMEEICA
information to give about the economic condition of these students. Some
of the others acknowledge that they had no definite facts; making some
such answer as : "This is only a rough guess."
The rest (something well over fifty-five per cent.) had an impression of
the financial status of the foreign group. From their observations it is
clear that local conditions differ very greatly : "Financially they are either
persons of means, or have a scholarship from the government or from some
charitable organization/' "Xearly all of our students are supported by
local scholarships." f *We know of no student who is entirely self-support-
nig/' "Over ninety per cent, of our students are practically self-
supporting." "Only a few are able to work for self-support." "Our
experience is that foreign students usually have means."
Such diverse testimony indicates a need of further study of their eco-
nomic conditions if we desire to be of help. The range of figures follows :
Three per cent, of the institutions professed to have all students of
private means.
Sixty per cent, gave estimates of the proportion of those who secured
their own money entirely from private sources, government, or scholarship,
as compared with those partially or entirely dependent upon work during
their course: of these figures the highest percentage of non-working stu-
dents was ninety per cent, (ten per cent, worked) ; figures ranged in
differing proportions down the scale, most of the institutions replying
being fairly equally divided; the average being fifty-seven per cent, non-
working to an average of forty-three per cent, working.
One per cent, of all institutions said one hundred per cent, of their
students were supported by scholarships or governments.
Two per cent, stated that all their students were self-supporting (mostly
on the Pacific Coast).
It is worth emphasizing clearly the facts here presented:
(1) A small minority of students are from homes of wealth.
(2) Nearly half of them are dependent upon their own labor, in whole
or in part. This number (if the percentage holds true) would concern
about 250 of our institutions ; the average of such working proportion being
forty-three per cent of the whole group.
(3) The fact that forty per cent, of our instittitions know nothing of
the economic life of their foreign residents indicates that this percentage
of working students probably would be increased if we knew about all of
them.
We were able to compile no figures on indigence among our visiting
students but learned of cases of real suffering where students came without
adequate supply of funds, either trusting to the famed beneficence of our
nation, or expecting to secure work which was nofc obtainable. Some
THE FOBEIGUST STUDENT AXD THE AMERICAN COLLEGE 157
students who possess a mere minimum break down from the combination
of hard study, limited food, and lack of exercise. They live on in reticent
resignation, glad of the chance to be awarded a cherished degree. Xo
statistics are available to tell of impaired health and future physical failure
which pursues them after leaving our shores.
Though we present no figures on this subject we are conscious of the
unrevealed existence of the baffling, if infrequent, occurrence of the very
pathetic human story of dire need. One university says :
The occasional indigent student who wishes to become an object of
American charity creates a distinct problem and that problem is eleemo-
synary, not educational. Under present conditions in America, when
living costs are relatively high, and most colleges and universities are
straining their resources, the foreign student who can live in this country
only by means of the charity of strangers should be advised to do his
undergraduate work in his own country.
Sometimes Mission Boards are asked for aid by students who come
unsolicited, unprepared, and unfinanced, expecting to meet with the largess
of organizations bearing the name Christian. Foreign students who thus
credulously confound sentimentality with Christian love create an em-
barrassing problem, as the impossibility of the Boards 7 granting such
requests often results in misunderstanding, enforced return home, and
permanent estrangement.
Scholarships. Fifty per cent, of our institutions have no scholarships
available especially for foreign students ; seven per cent, offer them on the
same basis to all students; forty-three per cent, provide special financial
aid to students from abroad; many of these are restricted to particular
nationalities: e.g. French, Chinese, Armenians, etc. Most of them are
limited in number, though a few in smaller colleges offer an unlimited
number.
There are in addition special funds in the keeping of a few colleges ;
student organizations (T.M.C.A. and Y.W.C.A.) in scattered instances
offer aid; there are committees on student aid; missionary boards co-
operate; and certain colleges make special appropriations to cover tuition.
It is customary to demand that students present testimonials certifying:
(1) need for financial assistance; (2) good character; (3) adequate
preparation; and (4) maintenance of good standing.
Usually sums advanced are gifts, not loans, though students are urged
by some colleges to make returns m the future to increase amounts avail-
able to help other students.
Opportunities for Self-Help. The need for self-help, as we have seen,
does not exist where students come entirely on their own charges. In a
158 THE FOREIGN STUDENT IX AMEBICA
few instances students are advised not to do outside work in order to
conserve all possible time for study.
Many of our universities and colleges find difficulty in securing oppor-
tunities for work for students of other races. In small towns, where many
institutions are located, the search for work is competitive and foreigners
are at a disadvantage. Fully one-third of our institutions state that work
is either closed or not readily accessible to foreign students. Such institu-
tions may have aid funds.
It should be remembered that some of our foreign students hold aloof
from manual labor since they have been brought up to think it degrading.
One foreigner who visited universities with others from abroad says :
To our astonishment, we found that a large proportion of the students,
both boys and girls, earned their living at the same time that they were
studying; we found that the students held widely varying jobs, from
waiting on table in the dining hall or in some fraternity house to regular
industrial work downtown or, in the case of the girls, a position in a house
as nurse or servant, if not one connected with the college. This in itself
is extremely interesting, even if we take into consideration that it is being
done in a country where life, after all, is incredibly easy; but even more
interesting still is the spirit in which the whole thing is carried out, the
way in which the working students look at their work, and the way in
which they are looked upon by their more fortunate fellow students. A
student would go to his job at four or five every morning or wait on table
in a fraternity house, apparently without thinking for a moment that
there was anything special about it or pitying himself for that reason.
And these students seemed to be fully recognized by the others as friends
and fellow students in the best spirit. After a meeting we would be taken
for supper by two girls who were intimate friends, and a moment later one
of them would sit by our side while the other one would wait on our table,
smiling and perfectly happy. This way of looking at work, of whatever
sort it may be, and the spirit among the students in relation to work, is
above praise.
Into this distinctly American situation, then, the bulk of foreign stu-
dents, discarding inherited bias against self-help, enter with a spirit of
enterprise, Tnafrtng them quickly one with us. The usual thing is to offer
them the same occupations as are open to our own students : waiting on
table, librarjr and office work, clerical work, housework (furnace, care-
taking, etc., for private houses, fraternities, faculty members). They are
sometimes peculiarly fitted for tutoring, especially in languages. Competi-
tion drives them to seek farther afield where they are found in city
restaurants and in factories.
Surety of KKpino S*wfeft&. A detailed study of one national groiip,
the Klipinoe, has beea made by LeopoMo T. Eniz, formerly Friendly
THE FOBEIGST STUDENT AXD THE AMERICAS COLLEGE 159
Delations Secretary for Filipinos, now a graduate student at Yale, and
his conclusions follow:
An examination of 575 information cards filed by Filipino students
at the office of the Friendly Eolations Committee, picked at random,
reveals the fact that 502, or 87.3 per cent., are wholly self-supporting; 56,
or 9.8 per cent., are supported entirely by others; and 17, or 2.9 per cent.,
are partially supported.
The wholly self-supporting students are those who have to work for
everything they need while in this country. This involves in the main
board, room, tuition fees, books, laundry, clothes, and miscellaneous college
expenses. Those that are supported are sent either at the expense of their
parents or relatives, or by the Philippine Government. In very few in-
stances do we find students supported by agencies other than the Govern-
ment. The partially supported ones are recipients of financial aid from
parents or relatives, and, in some cases, from the Government. The amount
received is usually enough to cover the student's college tuition, fees,
books, and clothes, leaving him to work for his board, which he usually
does by waiting on table.
One of the most important causes for Filipino migration to America
has been the opportunities for self-support in American institutions of
learning. This undoubtedly accounts for the high percentage of Filipino
students who are wholly dependent upon their own efforts for support.
The respect which a self-supporting student commands and the willingness
on the part of many Americans to help those who are working their way
through have greatly encouraged many a newly arrived Filipino. While
institutions in certain sections and states offer more opportunities for self-
support than others, there is on every college campus throughout the land
one kind of work or another open to those who are ambitious to work
their own way.
The Pacific Coast region, as a result, perhaps, of its proximity to the
Orient and also of the large number of Orientals that have come to be
employed as domestic helpers, has offered facilities, rather unique in that
region, to self-supporting students from China^ Japan, and the Philippines.
These facilities consist in (1) the practice of families on the campus of
taking into their employ the so-called "school boys." A school boy is one
who helps about the house from three to four hours in a day in exchange
for his board and room and from three to five dollars a week. The work
usually involves house-cleaning, cooking two meals usually breakfast and
dinner dish washing, etc. Students most successful in this kind of work
are those who have patience and fortitude. It is not uncommon for a
newly arrived Filipino who tries this sort of employment to find great
discouragement. The mistress who employs him oftentimes fails to realize
that not all Orientals can wash dishes, clean house, etc. ; that the student
in her employ has never done domestic work before; and that he is having
his days of adjustment to the new environment. This failure on the part
of the mistress has, many a time, caused the dismissal of the student after
two or three days of unsatisfactory service. It is only after he has tried
several places that the student gets adapted to and becomes proficient in
this kind of work. (2) Another type of employment for Filipino students
160 THE FOREIGN STTDEXT IX AMERICA
in this region is waiting on tables at restaurants, boarding or fraternity
houses. For from three to four hours' work in a restaurant he receives
his meals and some money in addition, which just about meets his expenses
for a room. Work in boarding and fraternity houses usually covers board,
room, and from thirty to forty dollars a month, depending on the amount
of time required of the person employed (3) A large number of the
part-time students in San Francisco and other large cities on the coast are
employed in various capacities, for example, as clerks in post offices and as
"bell hops* and waiters in hotels. Some are also employed in restaurants
either as helpers in the kitchen or as waiters. Most of those employed in
the Post Office are able to make arrangements to go on the night shift
and are thus able to attend classes during the day. (4) Summer in the
West offers opportunities for students to earn enough money to meet the
major part of their expenses in college. In the state of California a large
number of students go out and work on fruit ranches where they are able
to earn from $250 to $350 during the season. In many instances students
who have had more experience in fruit-picking are able to earn more by
doing piece work rather than going in as day laborers. By this they are
able to earn from seven to ten dollars a day and, although the work is not
steady, it gives them plenty of time for outdoor sports and other recrea-
tions. Many are employed in summer resorts and camps, where they are
paid from sixty to seventy-five dollars a month with board and lodging.
Others work in hotels as waiters and bell boys. This is especially true with
students in San Francisco, Portland, and Seattle. A considerable number
of the students in the state of Washington find it practicable to be employed,
under contract, for the whole summer at the canneries in Alaska; in a whole
season there a student may save from two hundred to three hundred
dollars.
In the large cities of the Middle West we find an unusually heavy con-
centration of the self -supporting students. This is especially true in Chi-
cago where there are over eight hundred Filipinos to-day, about six hundred
of whom are students. There has also been a great increase in such cities
as St. Louis, Kansas City, and Detroit. In these places the students find
employment in the Post Office, in factories, hotels, restaurants, club houses,
etc. Students having to work all day attend classes at night; this is
possible especially with students in law, commerce, and technical courses.
In Chicago we find a large number of this class of students; they take work
at De Paul University and other institutions giving courses in the eve-
ning. In Detroit most of the students are in technical schools and are
employed on a full-time basis during the day, giving them practical training
at the various factories in which they are employed. It is to be noted that
students wanting to stop schooling temporarily go to the large cities for
employment. Those that go to Detroit, Chicago, and Kansas City are
employed in various factories.
Students attending colleges located in smaller cities, such as ATIT? Arbor,
Michigan, Madison, Wisconsin, Urbana, Illinois, Lafayette, Indiana, Law-
rence, Kansas, etc., usually find employment in boarding, fraternity, and
sorority houses and restaurants, and as domestic helpers in private houses.
The employment bureaus maintained by university Y.M.C.A/S and other
campus organizations make it easier for foreign students to get placed.
THE FOBEIGN STUDENT AND THE AMEBICAN COLLEGE 161
Students here, however, do not get very much more than their board and
room and a few dollars a month.
Most of the self-supporting students in the Eastern section of the
country are found in the cities of New York, Philadelphia, and Washing-
ton, D. C., where there seem to be more opportunities for those who are
entirely dependent upon their own efforts for support. In New York City
these students are employed on a full-time basis at the TJ. S. Post Office,
in boarding houses, and quite a few in the commercial houses. New York
University, which specializes in evening classes, is largely attended by
these students. Most of them take up commerce. Very few of the students
in attendance at Columbia University are entirely self-supporting. The
College of the City of New York has a few enrolled, while the various high
schools and technical schools in Manhattan and Brooklyn have enrolled
quite a large number.
The large majority of the Filipinos in Philadelphia are employed in
factories ; one dry battery factory is said to have more than 150 Filipinos
employed. Some are employed in the Post Office. Only a few of these
Filipinos, however, are attending school, there being no more than 35 in
attendance at schools during the past year. Most of these were at technical
schools and at Temple University.
Students in Washington, D. C., are employed in the federal offices and
are able to attend night classes in George Washington, Georgetown, and
American universities.
A large number of the students in the Eastern cities, especially those
in high school and technical schools, were formerly employed in the United
States Navy. Universities in this section, however, have more of the pen-
sioned students than institutions in other sections of the country. Most
of them are found in Cornell, Columbia, Harvard, Yale, and Massachusetts
Institute of Technology.
On the whole, there seem to be opportunities for self-supporting stu-
dents everywhere, and the success of a student depends largely upon his
adaptability to the new environment and his willingness to do any kind of
work. There are on every campus men and women who take great interest
in foreign students and are only too glad to be of help to the newcomers.
A student making right connections upon arrival usually avoids unneces-
sary delay and trouble in securing employment and finds his stay in this
country more pleasant.
It is interesting to note that the great majority of Filipino students
that succeed in finishing their studies are those who are content to stay in
institutions located in small cities. The student who goes from place to
place trying to land a job that pays, loses more time and, in most cases,
fails to finish his studies. There are also hundreds who are out of school
working with the idea of saving enough to enable them to go on with their
studies later. Those who are conscientious and more mature usually suc-
ceed in getting back to their studies, but there are scores who are never
able to save ; such students usually stay here indefinitely without finishing
their studies.
One can surmise that much of the work sought by foreign students in
this country is difficult to secure because of racial prejudice and language
162 THE FOBEIGX STUDENT IS AMEEICA
handicap and frequently after it is secured is distasteful to the students.
But it is clear that they are willing to pay the price for the value of the
education.
CONCERNING THE ASSIMILATION OF FOBEIGN STUDENTS INTO OUR
COLLEGIATE LITE
How readily do foreign students adjust themselves to the life of our
colleges and universities? How far do these institutions assist in such
adaptation? What are the social factors of student life? First we made
inquiry into the local housing conditions.
The Housing of Foreign Students. In general all students are treated
alike and where dormitory or private house is the usual home of the student
population no official bars are raised. In a few instances, however, dormi-
tories refuse admittance to foreigners, especially to races of different color.
In a few universities there are special dormitories for members of an
Oriental race; not because of racial prejudice but for convenience and for
the benefit of the group. Sometimes though admitted to dormitories for-
eign students are assigned single rooms to obviate the necessity of their
rooming with others.
Where there are only private houses to accommodate the student com-
munity some racial antipathy is liable to develop, particularly against the
groups of races of color. It is here that the university's official impartiality
ends and racial prejudice begins. The Commission found a gratifying
majority testimony to the friendliness of American communities to foreign
students. Again and again in answer to the question: "Are there any
special problems created by the residence of foreign students in dormitories
or private homes P* the answer was: "We have no problems."
In cases where foreign students are forced to seek cheaper rooms they
have frequently met with opposition. On the other hand some families
report a preference for foreign students : because they are usually quiet and
orderly, keep good hours, and have studious habits.
There is some tendency for large groups of Orientals to collect in
particular houses (Chinese, Filipino, Hindu). American students, Cos-
mopolitan Clubs, and in some cases churches, try to be of aid in securing
comfortable housing for students from abroad. The universities combat
racial prejudice and local churches try to inculcate a friendly spirit. One
Housing Bureau inserted a notice in the calendar of each of several college
churches setting forth the need for rooms in Christian homes for foreign
students. A professor in a large Eastern university says :
As regards the mmgHng of foreign students with our own, let me
testify that it seems to me that the Chinese students at our "University,
THE FOBEIGN STUDENT AXD THE AMEBICAX COLLEGE 168
for example, are allowed to group by themselves far too much. What a
pity that a list could not be made of families which would be willing to
have a Chinese or Japanese roomer ! This would mean much.
The Commission while reporting a generally favorable attitude feels
that the existence of bitterness in only a few influential centers can do a
great harm. A professor says :
There is certainly an increasing bitterness expressed by foreign students
regarding the way they are overlooked by American students and the Amer-
ican people. Wherever a friendly relationship becomes established, it is
fine for both sides; but as a rule the average American student is too
busy to enter into the life of the foreigner. He meets h pleasantly in
classes, then goes on his way.
There is a vast amount of loneliness. Most students do not have
adequate contact with good friends and good homes. Often the fault lies
with the student, but the heaviest responsibility rests with the Association
secretary and others who are expected to help him in these adjustments.
Study of the answers makes it clear that only a few have made earnest
efforts to bring these strangers into normal touch with their environment.
Too often they battle alone with the perils of social and spiritual solitude.
Several recent cases of insanity are attributed to this cause.
There is urgent need to interest Christian families to bring students
into their homes, not once for curiosity or out of a sense of duty, but
frequently, with a view to satisfying friendships. The homes should be
not luxurious but comfortable, and always exhibiting the strength of the
American family. Receptions and parties are good but they do not admit
to the family circle. From that circle it is not a long step to the Church.
The movement by Chambers of Commerce, Botary, and Kiwanis to recog-
nize our students by receptions and dinners should be encouraged*
Foreign Students and Social Life. Only in a few instances are foreign
students taken into our social organizations as equals. They are aloof
from sororities, fraternities, and clubs. They join literary societies, Cos-
mopolitan Clubs, and Christian Associations, in which there is some social
life but where the main purpose of the organization is other than purely
social. They have their own literary societies and dubs and in several
instances fraternities, to which Americans are not eligible.
There is interesting criticism of our exclusive fraternities that indicates
that foreign students would prefer a different social unit. Much as one
student likes Americans he says he "is afraid of their society/' "I hate
their social activities* 3 says a foreign young women. A young .man says :
This spirit of true democracy is contradicted and denied as soon as we
consider the fraternity and sorority system. In these societies you will
find what is considered, by themselves and others, as the aristocracy among
the students on the campus. Here you find the typical student "~
164 THE FOREIGN STUDENT IN AMEBICA
here is lived the "high lif e" of the student "upper ten." The fraternities
have a social time together and the girls from a sorority are invited to a
ball, and not the slightest consideration seems to be given to all the poor
wretches who are outside. Of course, the members will join with them in
the classroom and in sports, and perhaps also greet them kindly on the
campus, but often no more. Both fraternities and sororities are founded
on an extremely undemocratic basis, in so far as the new members are
chosen out of every year's harvest of freshmen. No one can apply for
membership, but new members are chosen by the body of old members.
Who are chosen ? Only the rich or well-to-do students ? No, by no means,
though, after having seen the standard of living in many of the houses, I
believe that this is often the case. The standard seems to be uniformity.
Every one who is different is "crazy," perhaps a bookworm or the like, and
only those students are chosen who are believed to be able to become good
fraternity brothers or sorority sisters, and that of course means that they
will have to measure up to what is considered to be "good form." Under
a system like that you may be sure seldom to get a new member of a
distinct personality.
This whole system of fraternities and sororities is one reason, among
others, for the remarkable uniformity of the American students; east,
west, south, and north you meet with practically the same type. They dress
alike, they do the same things at the same time, they think and speak in
the same terms, and have practically all the same interests. As far as I can
see, it is worked out in this way: Given a fraternity chapter of a large
organization. It has been started long ago; and through the generations of
students a certain tradition survives, a certain standard is upheld, and cer-
tain things are considered good form. This tradition, this standardized
form of fife and behavior is honored as a sort of sacred rite by the older
members of the fraternity. Each year, when a number of freshmen are
chosen to become members of the fraternity, they have to undergo a long
period of education when they are told by the older students what is ex-
pected from a member and what it is necessary to do in order to keep up the
standard and honor of the institution. If by any chance the freshman has
a personality of his own, nevertheless he willingly submits to this whole
standardizing because he wants to enjoy all the good things which he can
only get as a member of a fraternity.
Qeneral Friendliness. In the crucible of our life it is patent that the
other races meet with a growing hospitality, with occasional rebuffs of a
serious nature, but with a friendliness probably not possible anywhere else
in the world. The difficulties in adjustment are partly from their own
innate reticence, their retiring dispositions. When the percentage of other
races is small in a given community, they are usually readily identified
with the life of the place, as indicated in the report from a large college
for women:
Our foreign students . . . have adjusted themselves to the life of the
community very easily. We cannot see that any group holds aloof.
THE FOBEIGN STUDENT AXD THE AMEBICAX COLLEGE 165
There have been both Chinese and Japanese students in the equivalent of
soronties. They are so few in number that they are very easily
assimilated.
Another report states :
It is easy to absorb the group of foreign students so completely that
through constant contact and friendly relations the racial prejudice is
broken and understanding built up.
College authorities are giving considerable attention to *fl" particular
phase of friendly relations. It is here that proof is to be shown that we
are friends of all races. This is the eras of the working out of friendship.
If we are Christians there can be no barriers.
Let it not be forgotten that as in all questions the individual repre-
sentative holds in his heart the necessary complementary attitude. He
must not be over-critical, over-thinskmned, hypersensitive. One professor
truly says:
The ability of a foreign student to adapt depends upon his character,
his manner, his ability to make friends, and his wish for society. The
members of the University form themselves into groups, distinguished by
difference of age, sex, interest, task, recreation, studious pursuit, etc. The
foreign student that most readily finds his place in whichever group is
most to his inclination is inevitably the one who is most like the members
of that group. . . . The national groups that tend to hold aloof are those
which have become so large as to enable their members to find social inter-
course within the group. The smaller the number of foreign students in
a college or university, the more readily do they learn the customs of the
place. Here foreign students are members of fraternities and sororities,
but Asiatic students, and except in rare instances, Latin-American students
are not. The Chinese students have become so numerous that they have
a fraternity of their own.
It is when these students increase in numbers in any one college that
they are more apt to form cliques and present the difficulty of strongly
intrenched aloofness. They are here for intensive study after all and it
is not strange if they form their own groups within the college circle. The
regrettable feature is in those few institutions where no attempt is made
to assist other students from foreign lands to adjust: as in the instance
of one answer received by the Commission (now given in repetition for
emphasis) i
If they cannot adjust, they usually move on.
It is apposite at this point to analyze the relative advantages and
disadvantages of study in large and small institutions and large and small
166 THE FOEEIGX STUDENT IX AMERICA
communities. The testimony of students and American fnends alike
seems to be fairly agreed upon this matter as it bears upon the student's
experiences and especially upon his moral and religious outlook. The
marked tendency of those who come to America on their own responsibility
or under government appointment is to enter the larger universities in
order to get the best equipment and study under the most famous pro-
fessors. Another primary factor in this choice is the fact that degrees
from smaller institutions are not regarded highly abroad. The case is of
course different with those sent by or under the influence of missionaries:
these students are gathered generally in the denominational or other col-
leges with avowed Christian objectives. It is not fair to make sweeping
statements in regard to this matter, but generally speaking the smaller
college and community have afforded the student the more wholesome
environment and the more sustaining friendships. The smaller student
body makes possible closer intimacy between student and faculty and the
smaller community has ordinarily not lost all of the pioneer neighborliness.
The evidence undoubtedly proves that students are received more frequently
into faculty and community homes and are more in contact with the
church and community interests in the smaller places. This is of course
what would be expected. There are, however., numerous exceptions to this
rule, where great universities have drawn these students closer to the
nourishing influences of school and town than has been done in some
denominational colleges. High tribute must be paid to some of the state
universities for the place held by the Association secretaries and certain
pastors in the confidence of the students, and the active interest they have
created among townspeople. Often there is success here when the so-called
Christian institution fails.
The worst plight befalls unshepherded students in the big cities. A
tone student in vast centers like New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston,
or San Francisco is easily lost to every touch of kihdness and in some in-
stances whole groups of a hundred or more share this fate. It is an urgent
problem for the student and city secretaries of the Associations in such
cities to find some means of reaching these groups. Their present condition
not only portends ruin for the character of many of them, but will send
them back home with bitter reproaches for the land that showed no concern
for their welfare. Most of this class of students are compelled to take
cheap lodgings and associate with persons of the same economic status.
A survey of the living conditions of these students in the larger cities
would reveal an amazing story of courageous straggle and in many in-
stances of surrender to the debasing influence of unwholesome environ-
ment, It is not germane to the present discussion to say that many of
these fellows should never come to America: they are here, and others
THE FOBEIGN- STUDENT AXD THE AMEBICAtf COLLEGE 167
will probably come, and the immediate question for us is whether we shaU
continue to close our eyes to their condition and its dire consequences.
The Friendly Belations Committee had for the college year 1922-23 a
register of some four hundred Filipino young men of student age and
purpose living in one large city; of this number not more than ten per
cent, were studying at the university, while the remainder are at high
schools, evening trade schools, and other continuation schools, or out of
school earning money. Inquiry disclosed that only a minority of them
were living under normal conditions; many were in small rooms in cheap
boarding houses or occupying apartments in similar places. The chief
amusement of many is found at public dance halls; for their living they
work at restaurants and in other places where very often the associations
are likely to be not at all uplifting. Very seldom is one of them asked to
a good home, and the Church is almost an unknown institution. It would
appear that in these situations such an undertaking is needed as that of
the Chinese Y.M.C.A. in San Francisco, or at least a close association of
the group under competent leadership such as is found among the Koreans
in Chicago.
BECREA.TION JLND HEALTH
It is most important for any student that he keep in physical condition
and that he have time for recreation. How does the foreign student acquit
himself in regard to these essentials?
Those institutions, a growing number, that have required physical
exercise allow no exceptions to students from foreign lands. They are
then brought under the influence of the atmosphere of health and enter
heartily into the regulations. In fifty per cent, of our institutions, how-
ever, there is report of serious oversight of health and play. (In two they
are reported as giving too much time !) They are not often reported as
on athletic teams, but occasionally make them, and in games that call for
speed and agility (tennis, basket-ball, swimming) are apt to qualify more
frequently. They easily develop love of games but neglect systematic
exercise: representing about "a low American average, neither markedly
indifferent to bodily exercise nor markedly negligent of their health.*'
Their failure to enter our sports is said by some to be due to their
feeling that they are not free to join in games. Again many of them are
critical of our overdevelopment of sport spectacles that call for a few
skilled players:
This process of leveling also goes on outside the fraternities and
sororities, and one of the great factors here is sport. It is assumed that
every one is interested in sport, and every student is expected to go to 'the
168 THE FOEEIGX STUDEXT IX AMERICA
intercollegiate games. I have not met a single student sincerely convinced
that sport is all bunk and waste of time; at any rate, I have not met one
who would say so. Considering the huge number of students in the
United States, this uniformity is unnatural and must exist only because
it is enforced. Where is the student who loves his books, who would stay
awaj from a game, a fraternity ball, or some other entertainment in order
to buy a new book ? You seldom find a student with more than twenty or
thirty books, and I have not, as far as I remember, met any who had two
or three hundred books. Why not? Because the time and the interest
which might have been given to books is taken by other activities.
interesting comments recehed were: '"They spend less time than Amer-
icans in recreation and less than they need/' "After some time of resi-
dence they learn our attitude toward play and enter in." tfc i[any of our
foreign students play tennis but otherwise neglect their health." "It is
highly necessary that special attention be paid to health and recreation.
We have had several deaths in the last few years, due to poor attention to
health." "The average foreign student is not inclined to take vigorous
exercise but it is something which he needs badly."
Some suggestions offered are: '"Teach hygiene and American games."
a lnstil a love of competitive games among different nationalities." "Have
special gymnasium classes for foreign students." "Let coaches and athletic
directors get them out more for making teams." '* Organize a special
committee to supervise their play. r "Increase compulsory intra-mural
sports." ^Arrange for instruction and advice on health questions to be
given by the college physician."
With such gigantic physical powers surely we can see to it that our
brothers who so often overtop us in mind may be led to preserve their
health better and grow up to match that one characteristic that is ours
peculiarly physical vigor.
THE DEGBEE OF RACIAL ANTIPATHY IN OUR iNSTirtrrioisrs
We sought to ascertain the degree of racial prejudice in our institutions
of learning and what steps were being taken to break it down. Twenty
per cent, of our colleges and universities do not recognize the existence of
any problem of race antagonism. The rest (eighty per cent.) concede it
in differing degrees. In many institutions this minority of other races is
popular and even runs the danger of being overemphasized. They are a
picked class and being in such a minority are the more easily assimilated
and the more readily understood : and perhaps in these instances they are
open to influences that minimize their peculiarities and make them more
perfectly one with us.
We have already noted their difficulty due to racial prejudice in
THE FOEEIGIST STUDENT AND THE AMEEICAX COLLEGE 169
securing homes and in entering into social relations. It is a ground for
hope that our investigation gives evidence that this prejudice is less wide-
spread in the educational institutions than might have been suspected; and
much less than among people removed from contact with our colleges.
The very feeling of at-homeness of our friends must mean that they are
not hurt by antagonism.
Says one:
One of the stereotyped questions put to us during our sir months' stay
in this country was : * fc How do you like America ?" In the beginning my
answer was: "I think I like it, I can't yet tell definitely." Then it be-
came: "I do like it, it's very interesting." Xow it would" be: ft l love it."
What secures understanding and defeats the growth of prejudice?
"Propinquity does it." 'The very presence of the students promotes inter-
national good-will." 'Internationalism grows out of personal contacts."
"Seeking to bring university and townspeople into intimate relation with
foreign students." "Acquaintance, socially and in the classroom, is a be-
ginning. Whatever promotes this promotes friendship."
There is a growing succession of students from given countries to
given universities: e.g. Latin Americans to a certain Eastern university.
The early training of these students is known and studied and thus the
institution can be sure of a more and more select group who have a
natural disposition to merge into our life. Without surrendering rich
gifts of distinction, they acquire a certain similarity in point of view to
our own students. Students are recognized as bringing something into
the general search for education. We know that they bring something as
well as get something.
The college community puts them in the forefront of its life, without
overpraising them or giving them a sentimental publicity. They are intro-
duced to guests of the college, meet leading alumni, attend public meetings.
Their appearance before public gatherings to speak of their own coun-
tries brings to our own provincial America-first prejudices the truth that
America is not first, but (if not last) a late comer in the family of nations.
We are willing to sit at their feet and learn. All this makes for good-will.
Upon graduating, foreign students carry the token home and it spreads-
Every friend gained for America is a friend gained for the world.
An annual international night is held at some state universities.
Representatives of different races are asked to speak of their racial ideas
in public forums. They are utilized by churches to speak in neighboring
places, thus bridging over the chasm of antipathy.
Our study was more a study of conditions than recommendations but
we received much good advice on this subject:
170 THE FOBEIGX STUDENT IX AMEBICA
We are trying to organize international good-will through a series of
opportunities for the foreign students to get into homes, clubs,, and fra-
ternities. We have a full program for next year beginning with an opening
reception and including a reception given by the foreign students for
their American friends.
Foster any kind of meeting where both foreign students and Americans
attend.
Make sure that they do not put forth propaganda which destroys good-
will
Make them feel that they have the same rights as Americans.
Let the foreign students take their natural place in the life of the
college.
I think the best way to make the presence of foreign students a means
of promoting international good-will is to let foreign students alone.
The very fact of common membership in an intellectual community tends
to break down any f eehng of difference between students of various nation-
alities. In the course of their daily life, students learn to meet one
another as persons and not as nationals. Those students of various
nationalities, in any one community, who wish to realize their sense of a
common human brotherhood, or who wish to discuss international questions
among themselves, tend naturally to form groups for those purposes. Such
groups include the Cosmopolitan Club, the British-American Club, and
the weekly Current Events Forum of the University Christian Association.
But the common daily life, in which the sense of nationality tends to
lose itself, is the most effective solvent of national conceit, which is a
product of ignorance.
Doubtless more on this subject will be given in other parts of this
volume. But this committee would like to add its influence in urging the
continuance and increase of our own study of the international and inter-
racial situation for securing among American students and faculty and
alumni a truly international mind.
Many of them seem to have reason to think that our cordiality ceases
with an effusive handshaking, that we are mechanical, superficial, and
really warm-hearted only in our verbal professions of what we are (not)
going to do. In fact, that we are not sincere but are suspicious. We
should either do the attempted thing right and completely, or not begin
it They expect intensity in social and religious affairs and are shocked
at our superficiality.
JUDGMENTS AS TO PBByEBAKUB LENGTH OP BBSIDENCB IN THE UNITED
STATES
We thought it might be valuable to have the judgment of different
leaders in answer to the question: "Should foreign students, generally
speaking, come to America for all their undergraduate work; or would it
be better for them to take two or more years of it in their own countries?"
THE FOREIGN STUDENT AND THE AMERICAN COLLEGE 171
A majority (sixty-two per cent.) of the replies advocated part (forty-
three per cent.), or all (nineteen per cent.)? of the undergraduate work
being done at home in the foreign lands. This would make for a more
mature student presenting himself, one who could with serious interest and
with adequate preparation better accept the educational opportunities of-
fered. The Tsing Hua method of half time in China, half here, was
commended.
When they start here they then have the fundamentals of their sub-
jects so that they have more chance to get the English necessary to con-
tinue in their work.
If they study at home in collegiate work, it gives them a better insight
into their own people, philosophy, and literature.
In the case of European students because of the general excellence of
their colleges and universities it was thought that they could always better
profit by getting some or most of their undergraduate study at home.
A strong argument is made by the nineteen per cent, that all under-
graduate work be taken at home, reserving American residence for serious
post-graduate study. Thus the less stable student would be discouraged and
those mature minds capable of appreciating higher levels of graduate study
would be encouraged to come over. Experience, they think, has taught
that those who come with degrees do the best work. The growth of edu-
cation abroad has gone so far that students can acquire the English lan-
guage adequately in many Christian institutions and the language is not
necessarily a barrier to earnest students.
A large college for women says: '^Foreign students would do better
to come to America after the completion of their undergraduate work."
(The testimony allows for exceptions where facilities are not adequate
abroad: in which case "it is desirable for some of them who are likely to
be leaders to come here as undergraduates to gain the training in democ-
racy which they do not get so fully in the conditions of graduate study/ 1 )
It is striking that a majority of our leaders think that part or all
of the study of foreign students should be done before coming here. And
yet in their opinion it is dear that we must not let it be thought that
mere graduate study and advanced degrees should be the goal, either of
our contribution or of their seeking:
A foreign student should certainly have enough work in this country
to grasp the fundamental principles of the education given here and to
become to some extent aware of the difference between our civilization and
his own.
172 THE FOKEIGN STUDENT IN AMERICA
It is our ideal as a people that we should strive to give as the end of
our educational scheme.
Perhaps it is this very thought which leads the minority (thirty-eight
per cent.) to advocate that all of the undergraduate work be taken here;
perhaps the inadequacy of foreign preparation plays a part. Even some in
this class say that the question depends on the opportunities at home:
opportunities for adequate study preparing the student to take up work
of a high quality here :
Four years devoted to college work is not too long a time to become
thoroughly acquainted with American ideals.
Such a reply as this indicates the attitude of a well-known women's
college :
The Oriental students especially gain much more by taking aU under-
cluate work in America. Some object to this plan on the ground that
j find it difficult to fit into the life of their country after so long an
absence. We have not found it so.
The rejoinder to this is the experience of a large university which
may be taken as expressing the general opinion on the subject :
Students who did all of their undergraduate work here find themselves
out of touch with their home country because they would often stay on
for graduate work and are unable to get back into sympathy with home
affairs. . . . Students should, if possible, receive their undergraduate
work at home and merely do their graduate work abroad. They should first
get well grounded in their own national education before coming to this
country.
SPECIAL COMMENT FBOM- PEEPABA.TOEY SCHOOLS
We asked leaders in preparatory school work if there were special
problems of life in connection with the presence of foreign students in
their enrolment. There was little uncovered to supplement in a valuable
degree the facts as given for colleges and universities. So far as any dis-
tinct findings came out of our questions they concerned a wider variety
of experience because the students are more immature. The questionnaire
brought out these experiences :
That no special effort is being made to secure preparatory students
and that more effort is exerted to get the highest recommendations for
those who come;
That they are accepted on the same basis as our American boys and
generally treated "in every respect like American boys**;
THE FOREI&N STUDENT AND THE AMERICAN COLLEGE 173
That special friendliness is shown them because of their youthfulness
and tendency to feel lonely :
During the holiday season when these boys are far from home they
are entertained in the Headmaster's study and the Headmaster and others
do all in their power to make the boys feel that we are all one large family
in Christ and that though we may come from different parts of the world
we are brothers to all who try to live His life.
That the students are given a more intimate Christian friendship
than is possible in colleges and universities, though no attempt is made
to make the schools a place of proselyting where Boman Catholics are in
attendance;
That because of the closer home life of schools the whole background
of foreign manners and morals is likely to be noticeable ; there are special
pitfalls likely to be present in the schools;
That the healthy emphasis upon outdoor life and athletic sports tends
to remove sinister influences;
That there is more trouble with standards of study, due to the presence
of those who won't work hard; but that the general average is high;
the difficulty perhaps being due to the extremely backward character of
these more youthful students and their poor grasp of English on entrance,
which is quickly remedied to give way to frequent enrolment in the highest
rank;
That foreign students at first arouse in small school communities mere
curiosity, but that this soon takes care of itself and they are accepted as
a matter of course;
That the schoolboys of America show a fine inter-racial sympathy and
respect foreign students, whatever their nationality, according to their
worth and that they are taken more readily into class and all other activi-
ties, make athletic teams easily, and in fact run the danger, in places, of
being too popular;
That various lands are represented in these institutions and that these
students come more generally from the higher social strata of affluence and
may be of great influence when they shall have returned to their countries,
if trained in America in Christian, democratic ideals.
CONCLUSION
Our Committee sought facts more than opinions; though as the ques-
tions were usually answered by individuals giving personal, not official,
judgments there was the likelihood that views expressed had been swayed
by the point of view of the individual. Tt was not our purpose to force
generalizations, and to go to any length of involved deduction. In the
174 THE FOREIGN STUDENT IN AMEEICA
light of the varied experience and the different points of view it is clear
that there is no simple life-story of a typical foreign student. The stu-
dents present a colorful and varied life for which we can be thankful.
They are a factor of real enrichment in the student life of America. They
are of distinct value to us. We want them; we want more of them.
We want them to know of this survey; we would like them to correct
any partial views, any unjust statements, any wrong emphasis.
To us the following simple declarations are worth stating as the final
word to what has been for us an interesting study:
A more numerous and a choicer and better prepared group of students
is coming year after year to the universities and colleges of the United
States of America. They now number nearly ten thousand;
They take their place as serious students, generally of high grade, not
seeking favor or privilege; not desiring pity or condescension no matter
what their race or the troubled state of their lands ;
They show an appreciation of our land and its language; while re-
serving to themselves a right to be sanely critical where we fall short;
They have achieved the highest honors in scholastic attainment, in
science, literature, medicine, engineering;
They accept with becoming grace the slight aid we offer, as from
brothers of one family; they show their spirit in working for their educa-
tion with head and hand;
They show remarkable powers of adjustment, yet preserving rare
national gifts and distinctive traits that we have come to value;
They are generally received without racial prejudice, and graciously
excuse the lapses of our own land, altogether too frequent;
They show remarkable powers of concentration in study, to the detri-
ment of health and the neglect of play, in which phases of their life we
would see them show more vigor without succumbing to our overdevel-
oped love of sporting spectacles;
They may be when they return to their own lands, apostles of inter-
national friendship as, God grant, we may the better be for having known
them.
SOCIAL AND BELIGIOUS LIFE OF
FOKEIGN WOMEN STUDENTS
CHAPTER VI
SOCIAL AND RELIGIOUS LIFE OF FOREIGN
WOMEN STUDENTS
By KATY BOYD GEOBGE,
Administrator, Committee on iFriendly Relations with Foreign Students,
National Board of the Young Women's Christian Associations
DltfPIOTOTY OP THE TASK
IT is difficult to summarize on this subject,, inasmuch as we are dealing
with students from some sixty-eight parts of the world, coining from
almost as many and varying social and religious backgrounds. In the
roughly sketched groupings which follow, the majority of students is kept
in mind. We are not speaking of the very small minority who are neither
good students nor adequate interpreters of their peoples.
EacM and National Groups. We have first the girl from the Far
East, generally a product of the mission schools. She is usually keen and
alert and, since this is her first touch with a Christian country, she is
inclined to he critical of our institutions and customs. America has been
interpreted to her through a Christian citizen the missionary teacher
and she expects to find the Christian spirit at work in all our relationships.
We quote from a letter written by such a student: 'TTou know we were
in a Christian school in our country, and when we came here not every-
thing was what we expected. We were going to lose our hope. But now
hope came back to us again." Moreover this student is eager to under-
stand and lay hold on our best. She comes from a social order that has
not until recently permitted women to step out of the traditionally limited
sphere of duties that center in and about home and family relationships.
She is feeling her way towards her place in a changing social system,
towards a new estimate of her own responsibilities and powers, and in a
remarkable degree she is open to the influence of American thought and
customs.
We have also the girl from such Eastern countries as India and the
Philippines, which have had close contact, in one sense, with Western
powers and cultures. She too is alert and critical, sometimes skeptical
of bur motives and the value of our contributions, often openly rebellious
177
178 THE FOBEIGM" STUDENT IN AMEEICA
against Western domination in her native land. She is perhaps accus-
tomed to more social and intellectual freedom than women from other
parts of the Orient, and she also is conscious that she is helping to create
a new place in society for the women of her country.
Then there is the student from Europe, in many instances frankly
claiming to come from a social system which is superior in her estimation
to that of America, less selfish, less materialistic, though admittedly less
dynamic and adventurous. She is not so open to the influence of our culture
as the girl from the Orient. Moreover she feels keenly the absence of
man-made beauty in our midst, the inconsistencies in our practice of
democracy, the adaptability of our social customs, and the lack of rever-
ence and unity in the expression of our religious life.
We have also the student from Latin- American countries, nowise be-
hind her sisters in keenness of mind and spirit. Inasmuch as she has, in
many cases, had a real struggle to come to this country to study, having
had to overcome family and social opposition, she values the opportunities
which college life gives her. Often seemingly less mature than other
foreign students, she has nevertheless steadiness of purpose and a keen
sense of responsibility. Since she is our neighbor in this Western Hemi-
sphere, coming from countries destined to be increasingly affected by our
policies, she covets every opportunity to know our life and to understand
our people.
In addition there is a small group of British students from the United
Kingdom and the Dominions, true to their traditions of independence and
freedom, bringing with them their habits of thorough scholarship. They
are perhaps the frankest critics of American life. They are also the
least influenced by contact with us.
With these very different groups in mind, it is easy to understand
the difficulties in the way of presenting adequately and fairly the impact
which life in America makes upon the social and religious attitudes of
women students from other countries. Gteneralizations can always be con-
tradicted, since the reaction of an individual student depends largely upon
her background and upon the environment in which she finds herself in
this country.
Common Points of View. There are, however, certain dements in
our life that challenge practically all foreign women, as they seek to
understand and appropriate that which America may give them. These
divide into two classes those which are definitely hindrances to their
growth and development, and those which they find releasing and helpful
Among the former are race-prejudice, the lack of earnestness on the part
of many American students in regard to academic life, over-attention, the
tendency to set the foreign, student off in a class by herself, emphasizing
LIFE OF FOBEIGN WOMEN STUDENTS 179
her differences from us rather than her likenesses to us, and the lack of
unity and beauty in the expression of our religious life. The question of
the freedom accorded to American women is one of very great interest to
them, and their reactions to the opportunities which this freedom gives
them may be either good or bad, depending upon the individual
The helpful elements are the opportunity for freedom of thought and
the development of their gifts and powers, the chance to fit themselves
for practical service to the women and children of their own countries
through the social-service organizations which exist in college communi-
ties, and the reinforcement of spirit which comes from a knowledge of the
"real America/* We shall proceed to the examination of some of these
questions.
ELEMENTS THAT HINDER FOREIGN WOMEN STUDENTS IN THEIR GROWTH
DEVELOPMENT
Race Prejudice. Perhaps the feature of American social life which
comes with the greatest disillusioning force is the matter of race prejudice,
the treatment meted out to people of other colors than white. This falls
perhaps with greatest weight upon the students with dark skins, who, if
they are connected with institutions that are situated in our big cities,
often have great difficulty in finding living and eating places. We have
in mind one East-Indian woman, who was rejected at some twenty-odd
boarding houses in one of our student centers, because of her color. We
remember what another student of the same nationality said, when refused
a lodging place among a group of white women: "I do not mind living
with colored girls. Fortunately I have not the Christian's race prejudice."
Though this falls heaviest upon the dark ones, all foreign students
are sensitive to the inhibitions under which colored peoples are placed,
and to the misrepresentations of their own peoples, upon which they come
from time to time. Even when an individual has not herself been sub-
jected to unfair treatment, she is aware of race prejudice, as she observes
our life and reads the columns of our newspapers and magazines. It
should be stated that race prejudice toward students of other countries is
rarely found in active measure on college campuses. When it appears
there, it takes the form of lack of intelligent interest and a tendency to
set the foreign student off in a class by herself. We quote from a foreign
student :
Decidedly I found prejudice against my people in the United States
of America, even among college students. They look upon me as an
ignorant girl. I seldom talk about home, for they would not listen to me.
Even if I tell them some custom which is not too strange for them to
180 THE FOBEIGN STUDENT IN AMEEICA
understand, they sometimes sneer. This happened in a very small dormi-
tory.
We quote again:
I don't like America at all. I am so homesick. When you all first
eame, you got lots of things to tell, but I simply have none. Some of the
girls are kind to us, but very, very few, and their kindness has pity in it.
Most of them look at us with curiosity and contempt.
And this from another :
"Now I am quite used to the loneliness, and I like it better than being
among foolish noises/ 9
The majority of foreign women students, however, do not have personal
experiences of race prejudice. We treat in a later paragraph of the difficul-
ties which arise from the frequent tendency on the part of American col-
lege groups to pay too much attention to the students of other countries.
Race prejudice is nevertheless a very real factor in the impact of these
years in America. It tends to embitter foreign students and to make
them doubt the reality of our social and religious professions. It also
puts them under the handicap of feeling that they are considered inferior,
that they are looked upon as takers rather than givers, and it makes them
shy of sharing; and thus our American student groups are deprived of the
very rich contributions which these girls from other countries have to give.
Lack of Earnestness on the Part of American Students. Another as-
pect of American life which impresses foreign women students is the
apparent lack of serious interest in the academic side of college life on
the part of our students. One foreign student, writing from a dormitory
in a standard institution, says :
I find no one here in my house who has a sympathy for studies.
Some one told frankly, "Oh, I hate them!" We talk about why we come
to college, and one girl says, "Oh, for anything but study V I ask her
"What for then do you come to college?" and she replies, "Because it is
stylish,, and Father and Mother wish it." Surely it is good to say so
frankly, but how sorry I feel for the poor studies which are so hated !
The foreign student in most cases comes to this country knowing what
her work in life is to be, and with the definite aim of preparing herself for
this work; and she has the directness and earnestness that issue from such
purpose. She expects to find here those who share her passion for truth
and the sense of responsibility for the making of a new and better world,
fortunately there are such students in every college, but they are not
usually the ones she knows best, and she finds what seems to her the
indefiniteness and carelessness of many of her fellow-students bewildering
LIFE OF FOREIGN WOMEN STUDENTS 181
Over-emphasis on the Differences of Foreign Students. One of the
things against which the foreign student must he on her guard is what,
for lack of a better term, we call an "over-kindly" attitude on the part
of those with whom she comes into contact. This may take the form of
over-attention a multiplicity of invitations for speech-making and for
social functions, and undue deference to her reactions and opinions. It
may also show itself in a tendency to allow her to fall below accepted
standards of scholarship and to make too great allowances for her failures
in other directions. This attitude is warmly resented by the discerning
foreign student who, despite the handicaps under which she works a
foreign tongue and environment regards herself as capable of reaching
the standard of character and scholarship set for the best American
students. Many students also resent the encroachment on their time and
energy which comes from too many invitations. One writes : "One of the
elements in American life which has been a hindrance to me, is the ex-
ploiting of one's time and personality by groups and individuals for the
sake of something new." On the other hand, they are glad for the right
kind of opportunities to interpret their countries to American groups,
and are always grateful for, and greatly benefited by, every chance to
experience real friendship and to enter into home life. The danger in
this too attentive, over-kindly attitude is that it unfits girls for leader-
ship, first by giving them an undue sense of their own importance, aad
secondly by encouraging in them the expectation of receiving something
from life for which they have not paid in work and character.
Lack of Umty and Bewty in Owr Expression of BeUgion. Still an-
other element to be reckoned with is that which our foreign women stu-
dents are pleased to call the lack of unity and beauty in our religious life.
Here one needs to keep in mind the varying backgrounds with which one
is dealing. To the girl from a country where one Church ministers in
great measure to the spiritual needs of the community, the number of
communions in the ordinary American town or city is bewildering. To
the girl accustomed to the beauty of ritual, the simplicity and the occa-
sional lack of dignity in the services of some of our churches is un-
satisfying and disturbing. The result is often that foreign students do not
HnTr themselves with the organized religious life of their adopted com-
munities. They follow the example of many of their American fellow-
students, and cut themselves off from the Church and its help during these
very formative years of their life. This is not true of all foreign women
students. There are many who find themselves greatly helped by Church
affiliation; but there are a goodly number who are out of touch with the
Chmrch.
We have, in addition, those students who will not ally themselves with
182 THE FOREIGN STUDENT IN AMEEICA
religion as it expresses itself in organized form, because they believe that
such religion is a foe to progress.
The Freedom of Women. There is a further element in American
life which affects foreign women students, and which may react favorably
or unfavorably upon their development, depending upon the individual
student, her steadiness, her background, her environment. It is the
freedom which is accorded to women. To many a girl from a foreign
country the opportunity to make her own choices and decisions in regard
to social obligations is a new and challenging experience. To her credit
it should be said that she is usually slow in adopting our freer customs.
She endeavors to understand the traditions that lie behind them, and she
is eager to take on only those things which are sanctioned by the judgment
of our best groups. Here is a word of advice written by a returned
student to those preparing for study in America:
It is better for a foreign student to be a little too careful than for
people to feel that she is bold and overfree. This is especially true of
girls* relations with men. Here it is often hard for a girl not living in a
private family to know the best customs. It is not at all safe in these
matters to follow the example of strangers about her, for their standards
may not be the kind by which she would have America judge herself and
her countrywomen. Unless she takes thought she may make mistakes
quite unconsciously, and may be doing what carefully-brought-up Ameri-
can girls of her own age would not be allowed to do.
It is not easy for her to know what things are the reflection of our best
judgment at this time, when social customs are in a state of change and
when few voices speak with authority in this realm. Occasionally there is
a girl who cannot stand up to the freedom which comes to her here, and
who becomes decidedly unfitted for serious social responsibility as a result
of her years in America. Fortunately she is rare. Usually the foreign
student makes the transition with judgment and poise. She realizes the
necessity of keeping dose to the best customs and traditions of her own
country, if she is to contribute to the larger life and outlook of her
countrywomen. The wisdom which she shows in her choices and rejec-
tions is one of the surest indications of her fitness for leadership.
ELEM3ENT8 THAT FTCT.P FOBEIGN WOMEN STUDENTS IN THEIB GBOWTH
DEVELOPMENT
We turn now from those elements that tend to hinder foreign women
students in their growth and development to the consideration of some of
those aspects of American life which they find helpful. It is well to re-
mind ourselves anew of the difficulties attending generalization. We are
LIFE OF FOREIGN WOMEN STUDENTS 183
dealing with such varied backgrounds and environments that it is difficult
to speak with authority for all.
Freedom of Thought and the Opportunity to Develop One's Person-
ality. For many women students the outstanding feature of our
student life is the opportunity which it affords for freedom of thought and
the development of personality. Despite the fact that she often criticizes
her American fellow-student for slackness of thinking, the girl from
another country is aware of democracy, of freshness of point of view, of
originality, of relief from the pressure of too strongly entrenched tradition,
once her college mates set themselves to discover solutions or "to think their
way through/* One wntes :
Doubtless this is an expensive experiment (study in America), for
some of us will go through our college years blindly, but I daresay the
majority will learn many valuable lessons in American colleges. The most
impressive thing to me is the democracy among American students. Stu-
dents of thin pockets but with high ambition have just an equal chance
with wealthy students.
Despite the fact that she criticizes their lack of earnestness in academic
work, and the number of outside activities to which American students give
themselves, the foreign student realizes that in identifying oneself with
one's community and in seeking to translate one's theories into action,
there is opened a way to the development of one's best powers and abilities.
Another student writes: "The experience that has been of most help to
me in America is to become independent, and to know the work of co-
operation." Another says that the opportunity she values most highly,
is that of "being free to think for myself, sufficiently free from custom and
tradition and family influences to decide what I really want to do with
my time and energy, and then to go ahead and do it." And a third:
"The spirit of dependence on self that has enabled me to find out just
where I am and how to go where I am headed for, is America's most help-
ful contribution to me."
The Opportunity to Become Acquainted with Social Work. Another
element which makes these years in America enriching is the opportunity
which the foreign woman student has to fit herself for social work in her
own country. She does this, not only by taking special courses, but by
working in the social organizations on the college campus, and by taking
advantage of every chance that offers to become acquainted with welfare
work of all kinds. She is eager to learn something of the ways in which
women, working together, have bettered the conditions of women and
children. She invariably wants to see a woman's club at work. She is
interested in the girl in industry, in the conditions under which she works,
184 THE POEEIG5T STUDENT IN AMEEICA
in the laws governing her wages and hours. She wants to know about child
labor, compulsory school laws, adult education, and like subjects. We find
her eager to serve through the social service organizations of the college, to
spend her vacation in settlements, in camps, in welfare centers, so that
she may have at least some first-hand knowledge of how such work is
done. The ideal of service, always present with her, receives fresh point
and impetus during these years in America. She gains in the conviction
that, whatever her way of earning her livelihood, the well-being of the
less fortunate groups in her country is one of her great concerns.
Spiritual Reinforcement. In addition to the technical equipment which
the foreign woman student takes away from America, as a result of her
academic training and her experience in social service, and in addition to
the intellectual development that her contact with American life brings
about, there is a reinforcement of spirit that comes from first hand
knowledge of the youth of our land. However truly and keenly she may
see our defects, and in most cases her vision is painfully clear, however
much she may deplore our selfishness and materialistic tendencies, our
inconsistencies in the practice of democracy, and our "superficiality" in
the practice of religion, she yet finds, whatever be her race and color, that
she holds many ideals in common with the youth of America. She comes
to view our faults and our virtues with friendly understanding; and she
returns to her native land counting on the youth of this land to stand
shoulder to shoulder with her in the making of a world where brotherhood
shall be real.
In seeking to ascertain from foreign women students themselves
whether the impact of life in America has tended to strengthen their
religious convictions, to send them forth spiritually strengthened and
better equipped for life in these difficult times, we received a variety of
answers. Many of them have answered "No" to this question, giving as
reasons:
The fact that they themselves have allowed pressure of work to crowd
out any thoughtful consideration of the things of the spirit :
"Beligion is rather kept in suspense, being eager to get all those things
which I may not be able to get elsewhere."
"College keeps me too busy to read any religious books."
"I have so much to study that it is hard even on Sunday to find tune
to go to church or join church activities."
That the Christian people with whom they have come in contact have
been superficial and indifferent in their allegiance and interpretation:
"Because I believe the present generation does not take religion very
seriously here in the United States."
LIFE OF FOREIGN" WOMEN STUDENTS 185
very much, because these yoxmg people whom I associate with
are not really religious."
"No, for people here as a rule are indifferent/*
"It seems to me that religious life has become some sort of custom.
It is rather superficial."
That some of the most respected members of their college communities
have given no place in their lives to organized religion. As one foreign
student expressed it: "Even very intellectual people ridicule 'church-
going*."
On the other hand, many have answered "Yes" to the question whether
or not their religious life has been strengthened by their sojourn in
America. Their reasons are, first, the fact that being alone in a strange
environment has thrown them bade on God in new ways. "Because I am
alone and my family is far from me, I trust God for everything." Sec-
ondly, that, through the Church and through religious organizations on
the campus, they have come into a "broader," a more "comprehensive"
view, and a clearer "intellectual understanding" of religion. "Yes, because
I have met in the circle where I live, a very helpful attempt to do away with
mere traditionalism and to replace it by a conception of religion which
meets our present needs and satisfies our intellect as well as our emotional
nature." Thirdly, that their religious life has been strengthened because
Christianity has been interpreted to them through the lives of "real Chris-
tians."
Again and again, in answer to the question, "What has been of most
help to you in your experience m America ?" the foreign woman student
has borne witness to the influence of persons :
The friends I am enabled to make in schools and conferences.
Dr. Fosdick's sermons.
Three days' contact with Miss Jane Addams at Hull House.
Having two or three Christian friends who are more than willing to
think with me and give me help in every possible way.
The personality of some of my professors.
It was a great privilege for me that I could go to Confer-
ence. I heard many times about conference and this time I had real
experience in attending the conference and in having fellowship with
those who believe in the same God. Still happy memories of the past ten
days are very clear, and the songs I learned there come out of my mouth
while I am. doing work. It seemed to me that I have known many girls
for many years. I never had such happy meetings before. I am keeping
in my mind many things which I am going to tell my people in Japan. I
do not know how to express gratitude for all kindness which was shown to
me. It is God's blessing toward me that I came to ' w
186 THE FOHEIGN STUDENT IN AMEEICA
Another letter:
I am grateful that I could attend the Conference. There
is the beautiful place, the inspiring place for goodness and love. I praise
the great idea of those people who started inviting the youth for the con-
ferences there, where no one could fail to see the greatness and the love
of the Maker of the world. It was very nice, interesting, and instructive
conference. Personally I had very valuable experience, and hope to start
similar things among our young people, by my return to Yugoslavia. I
am very glad that I made there new and nice friendships with those
American students that I was longing to meet, and to join the interna-
tional group, where we had our discussions and acquaintances. Beside
many inspirations that feed my love for your nation and your country,
I had also wonderful rest at the conference. Therefore I am afraid I am
not able to express how much I am obliged to all for giving me that chance.
In closing, it is perhaps well to be reminded anew of the number and
significance of these women students from other countries. There are
some fifteen hundred of them from sixty-eight sections of the globe.
Besides such obvious nationalities as French, Russian, Czech, British,
Filipino, Chinese, Japanese, Indian, and the like, they came from Bul-
garia, Siam, South Sea Islands, Iceland, Greece, Honduras, Korea, Java,
Peru, Serbia, South Africa, Syria, Turkey, Sumatra, and so on to the
ends of the earth. They are significant because as home-makers and pro-
fessional women doctors, dentists, nurses, teachers they will mould cur-
rents of thought in their own countries. If the impact of America on
their thinking and living can be wholesome and releasing, none of us can
reckon the result in better social orders, in international good-will and
peace : for those ideals which the women of a nation set themselves to teach
finally come to be written in the history of that country.
THE ATTITUDE OF THE FOREIGN
STUDENT TOWARD CHRISTIANITY
CHAPTEB VII
THE ATTITUDE OF THE FOREIGN STUDENT
TOWARD CHRISTIANITY
By ELMER YEI/EON,
Formerly Executive Secretary, Committee on Friendly Eelations Among
Foreign Students, The International Committee of Young
Men's Christian Associations
THE preceding chapters have included a survey and summary of certain
factors affecting the attitude of the foreign student toward Christianity.
The history of student migrations, the political and religious backgrounds
of foreign students who have come to America, their relationships, after
their arrival in this country, to American life in general, and to the
American college and educational institution in particular, have been dis-
cussed. The aim of this chapter is to summarize the attitude of foreign
students in this country toward Christianity, detailed material for this
study having been secured from specific questionnaires, this material being
interpreted in relation to the factors described in the preceding pages of
this volume.
DATA ON WHICH THIS CHAPTER is BASED
This study relates only to male foreign students in the United States.
The material for the study was gathered from the following sources:
seventy-two statements of student 7. M. C. A. secretaries; fifty statements
from other experienced workers among foreign students; one hundred
statements from pastors in college communities; special investigations
by secretaries of the Friendly Eelations Committee; statements of sixty
college administrators; statements of twenty city Young Men's Christian
Associations; 830 questionnaire replies from foreign students. Group in-
terviews with other students raise the total number of students consulted
to nine hundred, which is approximately one-tenth of the total number of
foreign men students in institutions of collegiate grade in the United
States.
This study covers groups from many parts of the world and with
widely different moral and religious heritages. The Tnaiu groupings axe
180
190
THE FOEEIGH" STUDENT IN AMEEICA
as follows : those from the non-Christian mission lands; those from the
Eoman Catholic mission lands, particularly Mexico, South America, and
the Philippines ; those from the Christian lands of Europe, the Near East,
and the outlying British Empire. Most of the data assembled relate to
students from the non-Christian lands of Asia China, Japan, Korea, and
India and the Philippines. The study of these areas is emphasized be-
cause their students, except the Filipinos, come from civilizations very
different from ours and face the most difficult problems of adjustment, and
because in these lands the missionary enterprise faces critical and urgent
problems. In the preparation of this report, the writer has had invaluable
help from the secretaries of these respective groups on the staff of the
Friendly Relations Committee.
It will be helpful to consider the approximate number of Christians
and non-Christians among the major foreign-student groups in the United
States. Obviously, it is quite impossible to collect exact statistics on such
a matter, and the answers of the 830 individual questionnaires filled in
by students are not representative of the whole body of foreign students.
It is easy to see that Christians would answer and return these question-
naires more readily than would others. The survey questionnaires supply
the following statistics regarding the main Oriental groups :
Nationality
Chinese
Japanese
Koreans
207
169
57
29
90
92
49
8
4
11
1
29
20
7
123 =59.4 per cent, of total
answering questionnaires
123 =72.8 per cent, of total
answering questionnaires
57 = 100 per cent, of total
8 =27.6 per cent, of total
73
45
21
11
1
462
Thai
1 18| per cent, of the ctadento of these mrapt in the United 8tatM of America .
Totals for four Oriental groups:
Total number of students answering ques-
tionnaires 462
Total number of Christians 311 == 67,3 per cent, of total recorded
Becoming Christians at home .... 239 = 76.8 per cent, of total number
of Christians
Becoming Christians in Hawaii . . . 16 53 per cent, of total number of
Christians
Becoming Christians in U. S. A, . . . 56 18 per cent, of total number of
THE ATTITUDE OF THE FOREIGN" STTTDEM 1 191
Estimates of Christians in Various Groups from Mission Lands, based upon in
formation of Friendly Relations Committee:
Chinese 30 per cent. Japanese .... 35 per cent.
Indians .... 12 per cent. Koreans . . , . 90 per cent.
Filipinos . . . 8 per cent. Protestant
Latin American . 3 per cent. Protestant
Note* Probably 90 per cent of Filipinos and 80 per cent- of Latin Americana declare themaetos of
Roman Catholic Christian faith.
The figures last given are based upon the known composition of many
local groups, the questionnaire returns, and careful estimates of the
Friendly Eelations Committee Secretaries. The classification of a student
as Christian or non-Christian is determined by his own statements re-
garding himself, and has no relation to his identification with a Church
or participation in religious activities. Without doubt there are many
who are Christian in outlook and purpose, who do not so register them-
selves; likewise it is certain that not a few who do so register are not
living effective Christian lives. Possibly these two elements will about
balance, leaving this estimate sufficiently accurate for our needs. The data
on Europeans and others are not adequate for an expression in percentages*
An explanation is needed for some of these figures. The larger per-
centage of Christians among the Japanese is due to the coming of so
many men to study in theological seminaries. Practically all Koreans
declare themselves to be Christians, and nearly all of them have been in
the mission churches and schools in Korea. The opposite is true of stu-
dents from India : the few Christians among them are for the most part
taking theology or preparing to teach in Christian colleges in India. Chris-
tians from the Near East are Armenian Gregoiians; Greek Orthodox
Greeks, Syrians, and Georgians; Catholic Syrians and Armenians. A large
number of Latin Americans give no evidence of possessing religious faith,
although when pressed for a statement they usually declare they are
Catholics. But only a minority attend church services or otherwise identify
themselves with organized religion. Those who practise or profess a
Protestant belief would be indicated in small figures. Filipinos nearly
always acknowledge religious faith.
The fact that eighteen per cent, of those who are Christian became
Christians in this country is sufficient refutation of the statement some-
times made that there is a marked loss, with no compensatory gains, in the
number of Christians among Oriental students who have studied in America.
193 THE FOREIGN STUDENT IN AMEEICA
GENERAL ATTITUDE OF FOREIGN STUDENTS TOWARD THE CHBISTIAN
OHTJECH IN AMEBIOA
Very few foreign students give the Christian Church their unquali-
fied endorsement. Even those who indicate highest approval, calling
it the source of all that is hest in Western life, its members the finest ele-
ments of our population, and its mission the highest in the world, usually
speak with reservations. These observing visitors are keenly alive to all
the failure and weakness of which we ourselves are conscious, without
having the background to understand our inconsistencies. They further
bring us to the tests of their own best ideals and standards. For instance,
our habitual flippancy in a spiritual presence grates harshly on the Brit-
isher, who is reared to a deeper sense of reverence, and is quite inexplicable
to the contemplative and spiritaally-minded son of India. A quiet, man-
nerly Japanese, who has inherited the belief that business is not the
highest concern of life, finds it difficult to reconcile religious pursuits with
the excessively business-like management of some of our religious insti-
tutions. The Latin, who has a highly developed taste for art and music and
inherits the ecclesiastical imagery of Catholicism, finds our hymns unin-
spiring and our church edifices crude.
Some of the points on which we are most frequently criticized are:
sectarianism; discrepancies between the profession and practice of Chris-
tians; over-socializing of churches, with the consequent loss of spiritual
vitality; commercialization of management and methods; craze for num-
bers and popularity, and attendant lowering of the standards of the Chris-
tian message; dogmatic teachings; frivolity and moral and religious irre-
sponsibility of young people of the church. This last condition is one of
the most discouraging to the foreign student, particularly to one who has
hitherto seen only the lofty type of young life prevailing in missionary
communities. An idealistic Indian Christian, a theological student, em-
ployed for a time in a factory, was shocked beyond utterance by the loose
relations he witnessed between boys and girls and young men and women.
Perhaps the severest blow comes to the new student when he sees the
apparent indifference of many American students to the Church and to
certain forms of religious expression. Small wonder if he becomes con-
fused and then dismayed, and decides either that there is little attracting
power in the Church or that our youth are sadly missing the mark.
Either conclusion is disastrous to his own thinking and shatters his con-
fidence in organized Christianity. A heavy burden of guilt rests upon
American youth, in college and out, whose apathy toward the Church and
Christian work and lack of concern for their own spiritual nurture, belie
the high expectations of those who cross the seas for study here.
THE ATTITUDE OF THE FOKEIGN STUDENT 193
A most formidable stumbling block in the pathway to the Church is
sectarianism. For us it has its historical explanations, which may or may
not be justifications to the Western mind; but the foreign student sees
it as a contradiction of the unity which he has understood to be the heart
of Christianity and the dearest hope of its founder. Numerous instances
are known where students are willing to become Christians but hesitate
to declare themselves because they do not know what church to join"!
There is critical need to put before these students a new and reasonable
apologetic for sectarianism, and the only appeal that will ever be con-
vincing with them is that a communion is a unit of organized Christianity
for effective service.
Eelated to this denominational problem is the division of the Church
by theological controversies. This is a little more comprehensible to a
mind that is searching for truth, but the dissensions within the Christian
body do not always appear to them as disinterested search for truth.
Among the criticisms heard of the Church, there is none more frequent
than that it lacks solidarity. Many students are repelled by this spectacle
before they have any knowledge of what the Church really is or what it
has to offer. This is especially true in the case of students from the
mission lands where comity has been practised among the missions or
where there may be one native Church of Christ. One advantage that
may accrue out of this situation is that when Christian students return
home it will be with a firmer resolve to protect the mission Church from
a similar development. These young Christians have been heard to echo
the earnest hope of the National Missionary Conference at Shanghai in 1922,
that the example of a united Church in China might be a means in the
Providence of God to heal the wounds of the Mother Church of the West.
It would be well if these children of a clearer light, born of the devotion
of our missionaries who are confronting the vital needs of men, could
herald more widely the gospel of Christian unity. This would indeed be
the return of bread cast upon the waters. Why not bring their most
thoughtful leaders more often before our congregations and church
councils?
THE ATTITUDE OF CHBIBTIAN STUDENTS TOWAEDS THE CHUKOH
There emerge two angles of approach to the religious study: the stndy
of the effect upon Christians and that of the effect upon non-Christians.
The initial statement to be made will fill many American friends with dis-
may, but it is hardly to be questioned that there is a loss of faith and reli-
gious experience among Christians which approaches the gain among non-
Christians already indicated on a previous page. This is due to a complex
of reasons, chief among them being the "shock of American un-Christian
194 THE FOEEIGN STUDENT IN AMEEICA
life," disappointment in the Church and its influence, and the apparent
conflict of newly acquired ideas with the teachings of the mission school.
Eemoval of home restraints and separation from Christian teachers and
companions are other primary causes. Attention is now called to a subtle
influence which bears on the nature of their beliefs. In the course of three
years of study of this question, largely through personal interviews with
students and the testimony of others who are acquainted with their religious
views, the writer has been disappointed to find so few that seem to have a
vital personal experience of Christ. Too often their Christian belief has
been a belief in the teachings of Jesus, to which is appended an ardent hope
that the widespread acceptance and application of these teachings will be
the means of progress and the solution of problems in their own lands.
Statements like this must be made with extreme care to avoid injustice and
offense to the large number of clear-visioned and single-purposed Christian
young men who will give themselves without reserve to the Christian
cause. ' !^H
The worst tragedy occurs when a student concludes, as some are doing,
that Christianity is in disrepute in the most favored land of its adoption,
and therefore it cannot have anything to offer to the newer lands which it
seeks to conquer. "Physician, heal thyself 5 has taken on a new meaning
to these disillusioned followers of our Lord. In many men, the result is a
neutralization of spiritual motive, leaving a drab acquiescence in the
Christian principle without any passion either to propagate it or to realize
it in their own lives. This may be a state of lukewarmness more dire
than the former state of these men. To return home silent on the great
issues that are stirring every people now, after having left with fervent
resolve to play one's part in their Christian settlement, this is the bitter
irony of student life in America for too many who have gone out from
our campuses. Right here will be found the explanation for the ready
falling away of some returned students into the old corrupt ways of com-
mercial and public life.
A frequent inquiry is whether Christian students tend to become more
conservative or liberal in their interpretations of the Bible and the Chris-
tian doctrines. There can be no doubt that the tendency is strongly
toward liberality of view. The foreign student has left his home to seek
for truth and he insists upon reality. Therefore, many of the bones of
our Western contentions have no meat or meaning for him. Whatever
our religion may connote to us, to him it connotes an intimate relation to
life; he will remind you that his native religions, however true or untrue,
in basic ideas, nevertheless permeate the life of the people, and he ex-
pects that Christianity shall not mean anything less. A doctrine is to be
accepted according as it is geared into the needs of mankind and conforms
THE ATTITUDE OF THE FOBEIGN STUDENT 195
to the most enlightened conscience of mankind. There is no sanctity in
an ecclesiastical organization or in the garb of the cleric, except as it is
identified with the spirit of service to man. Most conspicuous in the
attitude of the typical student is his passion for justice and world brother-
hood. This is emphasized in a marked degree in the replies to the question,
"What Christian teachings do you regard as most important for your
country?" The large majority give priority to the distinctive social teach-
ings as applied to fraternal international relations, the equality of all men,
the freedom of individual development, and social justice. This sort of
response is not confined to professed Christians, but is heard time and
again from those who have not personally accepted our faith and are
very critical of our Christian modes of life. The peril lurking in this
broad vision is, as heretofore pointed out, that it may become a vague and
pointless sentiment that is not vitalized by an adequate personal experi-
ence of the power of religion. If this experience can be secured to these
earnest young people, they will have boundless potentialities in the Chris-
tianization of their own nations.
There is another section to this picture that must not be overlooked,
for in it we find much to compensate for any alarms caused by the pre-
ceding statements. Let us think of that other class of students who are
fortunate in their contacts and who grow from strength to strength during
the years of their tutelage among us. Every worker among them can recall
the fervid witness of some who say that life here has been the benediction
of their years. This is most often true of students of theology or others
preparing for Christian callings, who in the very nature of the case have
been under better care than is the average man. There comes to mind a
young Mexican who has been a commanding figure in the religious life of
the schools he has attended and whose voice has been heard in many con-
ventions and church services. A Chinese who has been keenly conscious
of the weaknesses of our Christian life nevertheless declares his three
years here have been years of inspiration and expanding powers. A South
American who united with a Protestant church after coming here writes
articles for a church paper and delivers glowing addresses on the steady
deepening of his personal experience, and in his case it has come out of
heavy costs. Another Chinese, who was baptized at a student conference
three years ago, has been for two successive years the president of the
Chinese Students' Christian Association of North America, and has de-
veloped into a religious leader of unusual promise. It is to be noted that
in nearly all instances of spiritual progress, the student has been nourished
by the friendship of strong Christian personalities or by relation to a
strengthening piece of Christian service.
196 THE FOEEIGN STUDENT IN AMERICA
THE ATTITUDE OP NON-CHRISTIAN STUDENTS TOWARD THE CHURCH
The histoiy of the non-Christian student is essentially different from
that of those we have been considering. He comes from an environment that
is quite untouched by Christian enterprise or teaching or where he has seen
Christian life only in a limited contact with missionaries. More likely
he has witnessed much denial of Christianity in the practices of traders,
government representatives, and travelers from the so-called Christian
West. A very considerable number of our foreign students have studied
in mission schools but have not accepted the cardinal Christian beliefs.
Undoubtedly some of this number are Christians in faith and practice
and would respond to an invitation to make an open profession and identify
themselves with the Christian cause.
THE ATTITUDE OP CHINESE STUDENTS TOWABD CHRISTIANITY AND THE
CHURCH
The most easily influenced of the non-Christians are the Chinese. This
arises from the fact that the Chinese are an intensely practical-minded
race and are predisposed to adopt that which promises measurable benefit.
The Chinese student is altogether open to approach on religious matters
by one whom he trusts. The writer has never found that reticence and
sense of strain in such conversations that are often marked in our own
students. Bather one is impressed with the earnestness and the tacit
acceptance of the subject as one entirely proper between friends. This
open-mmdedness has made the Chinese very responsive to Christian person-
ality and the Church, when approached in a sensible and disinterested
fashion. He acknowledges the great debt of China to the Christian move-
ment for the introduction of modern education, medical science, sanitation,
social reforms, and the sowing of democratic ideas. The tendency to
evaluate Christianity in terms of national progress is readily explainable
on two grounds: first, the desperate plight of the country and the loyal
aspiration of the student to bring her relief ; and second, the fact that
Confucianism, which has heretofore dominated the national life, is essen-
tially a code for the proper conduct of the state and its citizens. This
student likes to remember that the sound teachings of the great sage have
held the country together through fierce storms of revolution and in the
face of appalling ignorance and poverty, and when he accepts Christianity,
it is with the conviction that he has found the fulfilment of all that Con-
fucius with his limitations could not have discerned in that remote past.
All this should not detract from the credit due every Chinese who accepts
Christ, for we cannot forget the long and bloody road that China traveled
before emerging into the light of modern ideas and before accepting foreign
importations of religion or anything else. This splendid devotion to
THE ATTITUDE OF THE FOREIGN STUDENT 197
country may well enter into the new-found faith if it can be conserved
for spiritual ends.
In too many instances their sojourn in this country does not seem to
strengthen the faith of Christian Chinese students. On the contrary, the
influence of life here often seems to weaken their faith and cool their
Christian enthusiasm. For this condition there are many reasons. In
China the church relationship is generally a family, and in small com-
munities, a community affair. This helpfulness is absent for our students
in this country as they are thrown in the midst of strangers. In China,
Christians feel the necessity and duty of effort to live as Christians and
to support the Church, because they are in the midst of non-Christians,
while in America they do not feel the responsibility of effort since they
are supposed to be in a Christian nation. The campus life in the larger
educational institutions in this country generally speaking is non-religious.
Other reasons can be given, but in summary, it may be said that the chief
causes for cooling faith on the part of Christian students are lack of com-
panionship in religious life and the absence of responsibility for active
participation in church work, including support. As to the non-Christians,
they are generally disillusioned in regard to Christianity, for in China they
hear missionaries and Christians make such sure claims of the power of
Christianity for social and moral uplift, and they find in this so-called
Christian nation many evil practices tolerated and many churches impotent.
They find this a convenient excuse for dismissing Christianity from their
minds and saying that Confucianism is good enough for China. As a
whole, non-Chnstian students are not interested in religion and do not
feel the need of personal religion. Some of them are definitely prejudiced
against Christianity on nationalistic grounds, for they confuse the Chris-
tian religion with the practice of Western nations toward China. Of
other influences which are helpful to maintenance of faith, I may mention
the friendliness of Christian people toward strangers and the companion-
ship in Christian faith, as illustrated in the case of those who are fortu-
nate enough to become affiliated to a church home and in the case of
**Local Units" which Christian Chinese students at certain large centers
have organized and found very helpful, and also definite responsibilities
such as being officers of the Chinese Students' Christian. Association or
the Young Men's Christian Association of the college and opportunities
for self-expression, such as invitations to speak in churches.
The following comments are selected from 207 questionnaires returned
by Chinese students. Favorable comments or friendly constructive sugges-
tions, 111; no answer, 29; very critical or sweeping condemnation, 67.
There follow excerpts typical of all points of view, but grouped in two
gene jui divisions of favorable and critical.
198 THE FOEEIGN STUDENT IN AMERICA
Favorable Comments
"Christian workers nicest people to meet very kind to strangers";
"Foundation of your social order"; "Doing great deal for betterment of
society and international friendship"; "Enable me to obtain education";
"Sunday Schools and Young People's Meetings especially good"; "Spirit
of service of Christians is most impressive"; "Much more liberal than found
in China" ; "United States without Christianity would be entirely different
in social structure Christianity is its moral foundation"; "Very friendly
to students"; "High spirited and full of hope"; "Children get good en-
vironment in Church"; "Churches reduce social crime"; "Promote higher
civilization" ; "Dogmatic aspect of Christianity passing and that is right" ;
"Most earnest and sincere"; "Strong and influential institutions";
"Churches the backbone of civilization"; "Impressed by their interest in
spreading Christianity throughout the world"; "Christians here broader
in conceptions of Christianity than missionaries in China"; "Much im-
pressed by outstanding Christian leaders in great industrial centers";
"Churches in this country serve as melting pots of social discrimination
schools of practical sociology fuel-stations for inner fire; they lead this
country"; "I am impressed with the true Chnsthkeness of your pastors
and your faithful church people; the Chinese churches in America need
improvement in respect to preachers."
Critical Comments
"Many sincere but narrow and superficial"; "Church becoming more
and more a social center; no recognizable difference between Christians
and non-Christians"; "Theological beliefs losing their hold on Church
people of educated classes"; "Church is business organization; work ef-
ficient but religious power surely degenerating; Christian people need to
learn much from what they caU heathen lands' 5 ; "Good but too much
denominational distinction"; "Mostly nominal Christians"; "Social life
carried too far young people go for good time not to worship God"; "Too
many divisions among Churches?'; "Teach too much dogma and creed";
"Going to church is a ceremony"; "Protestants and Catholics are not
friendly toward each other"; "Collection plate too demonstrative in wor-
shiping"; "Could do more for foreign students"; "Message of mission-
aries is not practised in America"; "Ninety-five per cent, of Christians
taj^jnaiae simply as line of demarcation between West and East"; "Too
many churches"; "Inclined toward materialism"; "The only really religfous
pSope'are the old people; middle-aged go to manage "church affairs; and
jomgjigpjlfi for, social life; women are more active than men"; "Church
organizations too loose and too much separated"; "Their orthodox teach-
ings and unscientific spirit astonish me"; 'TU^pt pastors need more edu-
cation"; "Traditional and formal"; "Convictions of younger generation"
less strong than older generation"; "Too much compromise with the
world"; "Should^ not^look down on, Boa-Christians as heathens and
pagans"; "DeBJiS^eythat^ churches are involved, in petty arguments
aggi&st pne'anoifier raffier~thaii devoted. copJSerafave wort*; "I have Hast
much of my TaitB. in Christianity since coming to America; racial pride
and racial prejudice are some of the reasons"; Christianity is not taught
THE ATTITUDE OF THE FOREIGN STUDENT 199
but caught; the best thing you can do is to help Chinese students to come
into contact with the best and true Christians so that they can get Chris-
tianity subconsciously and the prejudice toward nominal Christianity will
also disappear" ; "Majority are nominal Christians who are just as selfish
and false as, if not more than, the non-Christians. I met, however, real
Christians here and there, although in scanty numbers. The minority has
always encouraged me to stand for Christianity"; "Nearly accepted Chris-
tianity as I understood it when I was in China but changed my mind in
the United States."
Perhaps the general viewpoint of the Christian Church in America is
expressed by the statement: "Majority of Christian people are honest,
sincere, unselfish, open-minded, kind, and hospitable, and have high
Christian ideals. Churches important centers but there axe too many
denominations and divisions/'
In answer to the direct question why more of the Christian Chinese
students do not go to church certain of the questionnaires reply:
"Of the 120 Chinese students in Cambridge (M. I. T. and Harvard),
perhaps not more than ten who attend Sunday services. A majority of us
are over-burdened with school work." "Why we don't go to church?
Because we have lost our Christianity now that we are away from home
and away from the influence of our Christian teachers at home. Because
we are too busy 'usually a sham because those who work on Sundays
generally have good times on Friday and Saturday evenings. Because of
our intolerance seeing only the e^ls in America and laying the blame
on the lack of influence of the Church/' "About one-fourth of Christians
go to Church on Sunday; they are not interested in religion. I have often
heard them say: 'Science is what China needs; I don't care anything about
religion/ Besides their studies interfere with them. Because of the amuse-
ments round about them they want to tf go outf on Saturday and Sunday
and be amused; staying out late on Saturday night is not favorable to
going to church on Sunday." "In one of our colleges there are twenty-
nine Chinese "students, seventy per cent. Christian; at most three or four
go to church services. Their reasons are, they are out of the habit, and
their interest in Christianity has declined, to some extent influenced by
different environment, to some extent through the influence of American
social opinions and habits and thoughts of religion."
THE JAPANESE STUDENTS
The Japanese present a somewhat different problem. Here is a group
with whom patriotism is a religion, who are by nature very proud and
highly sensitive, reticent, and courteous to the point of being misunder-
stood by the uninformed American. The ideals of Bushido are strongly
inculcated and the Buddhistic influences quite pronounced. The approach,
of Christianity is often blocked by the apparent contradiction of some of
its fundamentals by the traditional loyalties of the Japanese state. Bev-
SOO THE FOBEIGN STUDENT IS AMEBICA
erence for the emperor has been for the Japanese a hindrance comparable
to that of duty to ancestors for the Chinese. Fear of family disapproval
has been a formidable obstacle to both, and handicap in the chances of
official position. Both these conditions are being rapidly reduced, how-
ever, by the growth of democratic opinion and religious tolerance in the
two countries. A serious factor that keeps the Japanese student in Amer-
ica from being adequately influenced by our Christian life and institutions
is his excessive reserve, which amounts in many instances to shyness and
aloofness. It is very regrettable that this often fixes upon him suspicions
that are unfounded but which withhold the cordial friendship that alone
can win men. But the Japanese in his isolation does a great deal of
tlnTiTnng which he confides to his intimates and may set down in writing
when requested.
Only 56 out of 169 Japanese who answered questionnaires give their
estimates of the Church and Christian people in America; the reason
being that most of those coming to this country have had little or no direct
contact with the Church in Japan or in America. A further explanation
is probably to be found in the natural reticence of Japanese students and
their reluctance to make unfavorable comments. The following are some
of the typical answers to the question, grouped as favorable and unfavor-
able:
Favorable Comment
u Very sincere"; "Earnestness" ; "Great activity" ; "It is one of most
beautiful customs in the life of the nation" ; "As near to the ideal as pos-
sible under the present conditions"; "They are the pillars of society.
The center of gravity of this nation is the Church and Christians"; "T
are extending great influence over the life of the people"; "In
American Christians appear to be more like Martha, while the
Christians show some tendency of Mary."
Critical Comment
"Lack of Christian living and hypocrisy Christians in, but not out
of, the churches"; "Formality of worship lack of spirit of devotion and
spiritual atmosphere"; "Emphasis is social, not religious and evangelistic";
"Capitalistic control of the Church and its members and its businesslike
effect"; "Church of old folks and indifference of young people toward
religion"; "Good in rural districts but no influence in large cities";
"Too strong denominationalism and sectarianism"; "Decreasing influence
of churches and general indifference for church attendance"; "Strength of
organization at the cost of vital power"; "No real Christian conscious-
ness' 3 ; "Inadequate training and education of pastors?'; "Aristocratic,
capitalistic, impractical"; "Too business-like. Many old men and few
young men"; "Church is socialized good music superficial morning
service lacks spiritual atmosphere"; "Do not like rivalry among different
denominatioiis."
THE ATTITUDE OF THE FOBEIGJST STUDENT 201
The Japanese student's personal reaction to Christianity as he sees
it preached and lived among us is best explained by one who was himself
a student in America for ten years and then served for two years as
Japanese secretary of the Friendly Eelations Committee: Mr. H. Kashi-
wagi, out of careful study of the subject among students throughout this
country, offers the following digest of opinion:
There is not a great deal to be said concerning the attitude of the
Japanese. This is due to their reluctance to speak unfavorably of others
and to the lack of personal information on the part of a very large number
who have come from government schools. It must further be remembered
that the native Church developed independence and self-support earlier in
Japan than in China and India and most of the delicate adjustments be-
tween foreign and native leadership have already been accomplished.
Japan's position as a first-rate power also removes the political complica-
tions that have been inevitable in lands more or less under European or
American control. This renders exploitation only a remote possibility.
There is occasional warning from students, however, that the peaceful
penetration of missions is preliminary to an aggressive policy of America
toward Japan. Quite often it is charged that missionaries interfere in
Japanese politics, particularly with reference to Korea and China. These
accusations have been notably softened since the Washington Conference
and the recent disaster in Japan. A condition deplored by Christian
students is the low standard of missionary educational work as compared
with that of the government schools and colleges, and the alleged failure of
many missionaries to keep abreast of conditions in modern Japan. There
is some dissatisfaction because missionaries do not take sufficient account
of native psychology, customs, and religious beliefs. Over-emphasis of the
backward and ugly is again the target for most reproach, many students
feeling that missionaries are by this means responsible for much of the
antipathy in this country toward the Japanese.
INDIAN STUDENTS
The problem of the Indian student is quite distinct. He is nearly
always Hindu, occasionally Mohammedan or Parsi or Jain. Beared in
a land that vaunts itself as the mother of religions, and having a reli-
gious heritage which is the pride of his people, the Indian is singularly
difficult to reach. The Hindu usually rejects the Christian position alto-
gether, or if attracted to it, asserts that there is nothing incompatible
with the central principles of Hinduism. When reminded of the fatal
weaknesses of Hinduism as seen by Western eyes, the caste system and
immoral practices in temple services, the hard lot of Hindu widows, etc.
he replies by denying the existence of the caste system, points to class lines
among Christians, and hurls a volley of well-aimed reproaches at social
vice and divorce, lynchings, and the riot of materialism in America, as
compared with the religious consciousness of India. The approach to
202 THE FOREIGN STUDENT IN AMEEICA
Indians is unhappily made more embarrassing because of the racial dis-
criminations to which so many of them are subjected here on account of
color. They are not favorably disposed to a religion whose followers, they
say, deny in practice the very fundamentals which they preach equality
of men before one Father, the brotherhood of all men, and the infinite
worth of the individual soul. The Christian practice of war in the face
of their gospel of love is a serious barrier to any confidence in us and
our religious establishments. Yet this same student will express his
reverence for our Christ and accord Him one of the highest places as a
prophet and spiritual leader of mankind. In short, the best we usually
hear from the Hindus is that we are vastly inferior to our book and our
prophet, whereas they themselves have a body of teachings which satisfies
them and to which they are true.
There are very few known instances of the conversion of Mohammedan
students to Christianity. Two striking cases may, however, be cited: one is
a man from Northwest India who became a Christian believer while a stu-
dent in a mission school, but did not dare to make it known to his family.
As a student in America for two years or more, he found his associates
among the kinfolk and friends who have disowned "hm). One notes the
environment as a secret disciple. There is a thrilling story of a young
man who worked his way across the Pacific and after a career of drunken-
ness and squalor in American cities, came in contact with a family who
made of him an earnest Christian. He is now studying at a Bible college,
preaches often in a public square, and plans to return soon as an evangelist
among the kinsfolk and friends who have disowned H. One notes the
absence of fanaticism which is associated with our thinking of Islam, but
the Islamic strain persists in the student mind and renders him notably
impervious to the Christian idea. Needless to say that the thinking of all
Indians in this country is strongly colored now by the political struggle at
home.
The Gandhi movement, of which the very large majority of the
students here are adherents, is semi-religious in its conception and method,
and students give to it an advocacy that is nothing short of spiritual in
fervor and motive. How far this passion for self-determination has en-
tered into their feelings toward our religion and its propagation in India,
may be observed in the statements summarized in other parts of this
report Suffice it to say here that no apologetic for Christianity, whether
in doctrine or in conduct, can have much influence at the present time
unless it relates itself to the aspirations of Young India for a larger life
of their own -making. This opinion pertains only to students who are
now among us and is based upon wide personal acquaintance with them
as well as upon the statements of others who understand their present
THE ATTITUDE OP THE FOREIGN STUDENT 203
mind. Nearly all the Christians in this student body are taking theology
or otherwise preparing for Christian work in India. They are as a class
very thoughtful men with intellectual and spiritual horizons that stretch
beyond that of the average American student. But no less than their non-
Christian brethren, these men are keenly sensitive to the repulses they
have had from our people and are conscious of the seams of weakness in
our civilization, and they may be expected to return with a resolve to
develop the inherent strength of Indian civilization and to spread Chris-
tianity with a view to the national progress.
By way of summary, it may therefore be stated that the problem of
Christianizing the Indian is complicated by three elements: the social
isolation into which he is usually forced by reason of color; the intense
nationalism which shapes all his views and values ; and the natural resist-
ance of the native faiths and culture which he has inherited. How these
are to be circumvented must be determined by the willingness of genuine
believers in world brotherhood to demonstrate Christian love while they
are among us. The following summary was prepared by a mature Indian
student, ten years in America, very well informed in Hindu culture and
very friendly to the Christian faith :
We find the following attitudes toward Christianity among our students
in the United States:
1. Students who have professed the Christian faith at home.
2. Students who accept Christ as a saint by virtue of their spiritual
experience.
3. Students who have only an open mind on the subject.
4. Students who are apparently hostile on the subject.
Among persons of the first class we are surprised to find that many
individuals have become violently hostile to everything Christian, be-
cause of their supposedly very disappointing experiences. There are of
course a few men who have kept a balanced attitude by recognizing certain
fundamental causes behind the situation which they find in the practice of
Christian faith in this country The study of this type of mind in con-
trast to that of the other type is complex though interesting and while the
writer is fully aware of the inherent reasons, the latter cannot be dis-
cussed here. The mind of the second class is the true product of Hindu
culture and only by virtue of the latter, this mind accepts Christ as a
saint and respects him with a poetic reverence. It must be remembered,
however, that men of this class rebel against being stamped into the mem-
bership, being compelled to announce their new faith and automatically to
denounce their original connection. The mind of the third class is that
of a student and observer. It is, however, subject to the various associa-
tions and environments and as such constitutes a problem. The mind of
the fourth class must not be thrown out of our consideration. We indeed
misunderstand the attitude of this mind. I do not think that students of
204 THE FOBEIGtf STUDENT IN" AMERICA
this type really mean it when they seem to oppose everything Christian. I
indeed suspect that they merely indulge in argument. These students are
full of boiling nationalism which places everything Indian over everything
else and their attitude is apparently antagonistic.
STUDENTS
When we come to the Latin Americans, another set of conditions
emerges. Unless it may be the Indians just considered, no group offers
more resistance to a religious appeal than do those men who come from
the South American republics, Mexico, and the West Indies. The explana-
tion for this is quite dear, and is given in a statement quoted later. It
is not only the inherited Catholic suspicion and the break with the Church
at home, but a difference in social usages and moral standards which has
perpetuated a deplorable gulf of misunderstanding and aloofness between
these men and our own people. There is no other group with whom reli-
gious, social, and political considerations are so tangled as to form such a
problem as has often been the despair of those who are best disposed toward
our Southern neighbors. No formal or academic advances are of any
avail. When a well-known North American writer and expert on Pan-
American matters went to visit a large group of these students at a univer-
sity, they received him with every mark of personal regard, but quietly
advised h not to discuss any religious topics while there ! They are as
a class outspoken in their disapproval of efforts to preach or lecture to
them, and resent the introduction of religion into personal conversation.
But here something else must be said. Whereas they are avowedly op-
posed to organized religion, especially Protestant brands, they are found
to be quite willing to discuss pure Christianity as it is found in the person
and teachings of Jesus Christ. This has been the experience of those who
are closest to the Latin-American students and who have studied their
religious consciousness. And this is, after all, consonant with their psy-
chology and religious history. Immediately the one avenue of appeal is
presented, and that is through personal friendship and the unanswerable
argument of a Christlike life. To sit down with one of these men in an
antagonistic mood and drive logic at fr is as futile as to try it with
a Hindu; but to love him as a brother and equal, to live the Christian
virtues before his eyes, and to lead him unostentatiously to witness for
himself the strength of Christlike personality and Christian insti-
tutions, this is the apologetic of life to which he may respond with
the fervor of his Latin temperament. The lack of such demonstrations of
comradeship has driven many student groups into social isolation in the
midst of great universities and American communities, and has rendered
them impregnable to religious influences. This revulsion of feeling against
THE ATTITUDE OP THE FOREIGN STUDENT 205
formal religion is not directed against Protestantism alone though nat-
urally suspicion goes out strongly toward a faith regarded as the enemy
of the mother faith, but is directed often against Catholicism. It is
likely that the Church that first arrives with a convincing demonstration
of the spirit of Christ will win the field. Protestants do not need to go
with the spirit of the crusader nor with the purpose of proselytizing, but
only with the sincere desire that a brother who has lost the light shall
find it again and follow it to whatever Church it- may lead him. The
following statement comes from Mr. Paul V. Shaw, who was born in
Brazil, has spent much of his life in South America, speaks Spanish and
Portuguese, and has had intimate contacts with this body of students both
in North and South America :
As a general rule Latin-Americans here neglect the religious side of
their development. This is partly due to their prejudice against religion
as it has been preached in their own countries, and due to their objection
to anything which seeks to curtail their liberties or which would in effect
criticize their mode of life and their desires. Many of them have main-
tained that they have no judgments to make concerning the Church and
the Christians in America because they have not come into touch with
them, partly because of the neglect of the Church in seeking them out, and
partly because of their indifference to everything which pertains to religion.
Many of them, however, are interested in it from a philosophical viewpoint
and have studied the different religions of the jvprlcL TSome are ardent
Roman Catholics, following the footsteps of their fathers, but the great
majority are agnostic, atheistic, and materialistic in their religious
thinking.
FILIPINO STUDENTS
The peculiar position of Filipino students in the United States is
at once apparent. They have come in rapidly increasing numbers be-
cause of American occupation of the islands, the American system of
education under which they have been brought up, and the hope of early
independence. The religious background of these students is almost
wholly Catholic and perhaps ninety per cent, of them would declare
a Catholic allegiance. The remainder are classified as Protestants and.
come chiefly from mission schools. The suspicion of Catholics is not
nearly so strong as among the Latin Americans, chiefly because of the
waning prestige of the Church in the Islands during recent years and also
because of the American principle of religious toleration to which they
have been accustomed. A considerable percentage say that they are favor-
able to a reformed Catholic Church. So liberal are these men that they
have often spoken with excellent results in Protestant churches, usually
with as much satisfaction to themselves as to their audiences.' As one
206 THE FOBEIGN" STUDENT IN AMEEICA
correspondent says: "The Filipinos are quite disposed to improve all
opportunities open to them for social or educational advancement, without
regard to confessional relations." This broadmindedness of the Filipino
student is of a piece with his willingness, rather his desire, to fraternize
with the American in all things. The attitude on the matter of inde-
pendence, while overwhelmingly nationalistic, is for the most part fair
and tolerant. So this student has, in a rather unexpected manner, been
agreeable to exposing himself to alien religious influences. Where he has
been in touch with religious agencies he has generally become more toler-
ant. The case may be cited of an exceedingly able government student of
the liberal Catholic type who kept in close contact with the Friendly Rela-
tions Committee and was frequently invited for church addresses. This
man developed a very fruitful friendship with numerous Protestant
religious leaders and would acknowledge the great benefits he received
from these contacts. Nevertheless, he did not move under false colors,
but always declared frankly on occasion that he was a Catholic. Several
times Catholic students have been brought into foreign students' Christian
leaders* retreats, and always with happy results. The exchange of experi-
ence and opinion on fundamental matters of faith and life-purpose has
revealed the unity beneath all superficial differences. At the conclusion
of one of these conferences a bright and open-hearted young Filipino rose
and said that for the first time in his life he realized that Catholic and
Protestant students could work together for the Kingdom of God, pro-
vided they both had the spirit of brotherly love and the passion for central
values that had been displayed in that conference. Happily, there is little
if any division among the students themselves on religious lines. The
remarkable national consciousness binds them all together as Filipinos.
We have heard two students one a Protestant and the other a liberal
Catholic give an interesting educational program on the Islands before
a church audience.
It must not be assumed from the foregoing accounts that this body of
students have drifted entirely away from the ecclesiastical traditions of
the Church of their fathers. Notwithstanding handicaps of political
differences, religious heritage, and the prejudice he encounters, it can be
said of the Filipino student that he has borne himself exceedingly well
and has responded to the approach of those who are sincerely interested in
his spiritual well-being. The most tragic losses have been among those
submerged groups that have wandered into the byways of the large cities
or the ranches of the Pacific Coast and canneries of the Northwest, away
from any who might shepherd them.
The following quotations represent the general attitude of the Filipinos
THE ATTITUDE OF THE FOREIGN" STUDENT 207
toward the Church and Christian people in America, hoth favorable and
unfavorable :
"Christianity is the foundation of American civilization"; "Churches
in America well organized"; "Christians are sympathetic and helpful"
"Toojnany denominations" ; "Too much conventionalism and hypocrisy
in tEe^C^urch^^(^urch is not up to the standard"; "3?ev real Chris-
tians"; Christians preach race equalityjbut do not practise it"; "Chris-
tians are superficial" ; "Many who pretend to be Christians are little short
of criminals"; "Indifferent and cold to strangers."
Christian Teaching Most Needed in Philippines. To this question
there is almost a unanimity that "practical Christianity" is the greatest
need of the people in the Philippines. One who is familiar with the
Eoman Catholic Church in the Philippines cannot help but be convinced
by this statement. For centuries the Christian religion as introduced to
the Islanders has been more static than dynamic ; it has been more a form
than a guiding influence in the daily lives of the people. Other answers
are as follows: Christian education, the Golden Kule, personal character
and social righteousness, love and justice, universal love, service, and
rational knowledge of the Bible.
STUDENTS
A group that merit attention far out of numerical proportion are
the Koreans. Having no independent national government and no finan-
cial resources, and unable in many instances in the past to hold free
conrnrunication with their people at home, the Korean students have
wandered over the country unobserved except by the few persons who have
had some special interest in them. All of them record themselves as
Christians, but many have not been living up to their Christian obligations.
This may well be understood in the light of their position, their penury,
and friendlessness. It is amazing that so many have kept their faith in
God and their f ellowmen. There are two reasons why so many have been
out of touch with the Church and any religious activities. The first is
that almost without exception they work hard and for long hours, and
have neither time nor strength left to give to other interests. The second
is the fact that their presence is so little known, and that their excessive
reticence keeps them frequently from the attention of those who would
gladly befriend them. The total effect of their stay here has been to
remove many of them from the vitalizing currents of Christian life and to
stunt their personal growth; but nothing has been able to stifle their
Christian hope, and it may be assumed, as it has so often been demon-'
strated, that a friendlier environment and more opportunity for spiritual
culture will rekindle the ardor far which their nation iff celebrated. Surely,.
208 THE FOREIGN" STUDENT IN AMERICA
no foreign student has a more appealing claim to our spiritual sympathy
and brotherly love than this lonely one who moves in and out among us in
a heroic struggle to make the most of himself for Korea. It may be
apposite to this present topic to say that during the last two years a radical
change has come over the Korean student body in their outlook upon the
future. They have lost none of their passion for independence, but they
have concluded in common with their most trusted leaders at home that
their best argument to the world will be furnished in an adequately trained
leadership of the new generation, and these young men are bending them-
selves to this task of preparation. The temper of the students is, there-
fore, not less nationalistic but less belligerent; and this is a favorable
condition in the view of those who are concerned for their highest spiritual
welfare.
RUSSIAN STUDENTS
The newest major student group now in the United States is that of
the Russians, who bring to us an entirely new set of problems. These
students are found mainly in two geographical sections on the Atlantic
and Pacific coasts. The best analysis of the facts and their significance
from the religious point of view is taken from a statement by Mr. Alexis
R. Wiren, Russian Secretary of the Friendly Relations Committee :
The very first group of Russian students consisted chiefly of those who
were sent to the United States by the Russian Government, at the begin-
ning of the War, as inspectors of war-materials ordered for Russia. Imme-
diately following the War, a constantly increasing number appeared in the
United States. The major part of these students are on the Eastern coast.
Later, a considerable number of refugee students arrived from different
European countries and with the beginning of 1921 large groups totaling
more than five hundred have come from Siberia, where they were tem-
porarily assembled from various parts of Russia. These students are in
three large groups on the Pacific Coast San Francisco, Seattle, and Los
Angeles, with smaller numbers at other places.
The majority of these students participated in the World War as
ofScers but were students prior to that time. Some were too young for
this. They came to the United States in the hope that they might obtain
their education and some day return to Russia, to participate in the future
reconstruction. Almost all of them are taking one or another form of
applied science or professional studies, chiefly engineering.
Since the students originally come from various parts of Russia you
can find among Russian students in the United States representatives of
man? different racial groups, White Russians, Little Russians, with Cau-
casian, Armenian, Polish, Siberian, and other ancestors. Students that
have come during the recent years are in the great majority Christians,
chiefly belonging to>the Russian Greek Orthodox Church with a small num-
ber of Protestants and Catholics. The remainder are Hebrews.
THE ATTITUDE OF THE FOBEIGN" STUDENT 209
The trials of recent years together with the experience of the Great
War and of civil wars have shaken the belief of most of these students.
Their belief both in God and in good seems to be in a state of suspension.
They had to go through unspeakable hardships when no one was willing
to help them and they have seen many cases where the best people have
suffered loss of both property and life. All that has been done to destroy
the home and religion in Bussia has also had its effect and now these
people are at the crossroads.
On account of the mysticism which has so large a place in the Russian
Church, you will find many of these students afraid that people belonging
to other denominations are trying to make them change their religion.
There are more than one hundred Eussian Greek Orthodox parishes
in the United States and at some places the priests have taken direct
interest in students, trying to help them in every possible way.
Many of these students have no friends and have lost many or all of
the members of their families. Most of the students used to belong to
the highest class of Eussian people, from the point of view of intellectual
development. Here they are often deprived of the company of similar
people. They are eager to have somebody who will take an interest in
them. They are very much in need of a friend. Unfortunately, it is not
always easy for a foreign student, particularly if he does not speak good
English and is doing heavy work, to find friends.
It goes without saying that every man who wants to advance learns
how to work. Those who have the desire to go ahead soon learn to make
the best use of every opportunity. If a student is fortunate enough to
meet and work with men who follow "the Golden Bule" his impressions
are good; if not, he thinks that America is the country of the dollar and
that the "dollar" is the master of everything. Fortunately, the number of
men in the second group is small.
There are certain phases of American life that can hardly be under-
stood by a Eussian, at least during the first years of his life in the United
States. He is unable to reconcile the apparent political and commercial
dishonesty and moral laxity with what he has seen and heard of America's
achievements in democratic government, economic prosperity, and social
and moral ideals. Notwithstanding this he finds here an excellent oppor-
tunity to observe applied Christianity.
What effect life in America will have on Bussian students will have to
be judged by the future. It can be, however, expected with a great deal
of certainty that the experience which they get here will help to prepare
them for the future Bussian reconstruction, for which they will be fitted,
not only by education but by good-will and desire for individual and
universal justice.
STUDENTS PROM ETTROPB AND THE BRITISH: EMPIRE
No extensive treatment is offered here regarding minor groups, since
those coming from Europe, from South Africa, and outlying parts of the
British Empire are products of Christian environment and are most of them
professed Christians. IE most cases, their religious problems and our
approach to them are not so complicated by differences of color, language,
210 THE FOBEIGN STUDENT IS AMEBIOA
and culture. The Swiss or Rumanian or Greek or Boer, who is assimilated
readily into American social circles, usually presents no special problem to
the Church or any who may desire to identify him with religious activities.
STUDENTS FROM THE NEAB EAST
Students from r Near Eastern lands are in a somewhat different class
because of color, language, and Asiatic admixtures. The following state-
ment is made by Mr. K. P. Damlamian, formerly a student and now a
secretary of the Intercollegiate Cosmopolitan Club of New York City:
The religious faith of Christian students from the Near East is usually
not strengthened in consequence of residence in America. There seem to
be two reasons for this failure. The first of these is that the Near Eastern
students are faced with such financial difficulties that they have to devote
all their spare time, very often including Sundays, to outside work in order
to earn enough to pay their school expenses. I know cases where the
student actually has no time to go to church or attend any religious or
social meetings. Consequently his interest in religion and Christian mat-
ters is dying out. This can be taken as a general rule among the Near
Eastern students.
Then, too, there is a process of reaction : the Near Eastern student is
brought up in a strictly old-fashioned orthodox or extremely conservative
religious atmosphere. Here in America, especially in the large American
universities, he finds either veiy little religion or no religion at all, and
what he meets with in the Christian Church is so democratic and liberal
that the student finds himself at a loss. Eeaction follows and he loses
his Christian faith.
That they are not drawn closer to Christianity seems to be a fact. At
this moment I am thinking of a Persian and a Turkish student. The
former when he first came was a converted Mohammedan and very sym-
pathetic toward Christianity. Now I know he believes principally in
international brotherhood; he has certainly gone one step backward and
he does not want to be called a Christian. The other student is a Turk.
He came to this country as a converted Mohammedan and entered one of
the best theological seminaries in this country, which has a most repre-
sentative Christian atmosphere. He finished the seminary course last
May. He is now less a Christian than he was three years ago. He does
not want to be baptized, does not want to join a church. In fact at the
bottom of his heart, I think he desires to go back to his old religion or
not have any special religion while for expediency styling himself a
Mohammedan. I cannot very well discover the reasons for such cases.
Both these men had the best Christian hospitality, kindness, and friend-
ship that America could offer. They have great respect for American
Christians but that has not made them come closer to Christianity. I
think the lack of interest in religion among the American students and
political conditions in the Near East can be counted as reasons in addition
to the two points mentidned. The student from the Near East, like other
students, is taking a keen interest in world-problems, especially in the
political problems of the Near East. The war years had more or less
THE ATTITUDE OP THE FOREIGN" Stf TJDENT 11
shattered the religious and moral standards of our young people, and now
unjust solution of matters that caused much sacrifice is making the student
hopeless, careless, uninterested, and even sometimes antagonistic to re-
ligious matters. This seems to me the dominant condition that is at
present affecting the faith and morals of the Near Eastern student.
The fact cannot be ignored that there is among foreign students in the
United States a rising tide of criticism of the whole Christian movement.
This attitude is almost as pronounced among Christians as among non-
Christian students. Much of it is due to inadequate knowledge of the
policies and achievements of the Church at home and abroad; but, when
allowance is made for this, there remains a serious situation.
ATTITUDE TOWABD FOREIGN MISSIONARY WORK
Judgment of missionary workers is often severe. Much warm appre-
ciation is expressed for the devotion and service of missionaries, but this
is often restricted to certain forms of work especially medical and educa-
tional. Many give credit for the pioneer service of missions, but desire
the missions now to yield place entirely to the native leadership.^ Indian
students are the most harsh, often indulging in bitter denunciation. The
Chinese are more judicial, not having the intense spiritual consciousness
or the zeal to preserve the native faiths that the Indian has. Koreans
are almost wholly commendatory, seldom offering any complaint. The
majority of Japanese make no comment, because they have had little or
no contact with missions, or are restrained from unfavorable expressions.
South Americans and other T^atfagj being of Catholic faith or origin,
usually are not friendly to Protestant enterprise, though some express
approbation of the educational work. Filipinos, though most of -them
have a Catholic heritage, are quite moderate in their views, and advance
many of their criticisms on political rather than religious grounds.
Assuredly it is no small matter that much dissatisfaction with Chris-
tian Missions is to be found among these young men who are so soon to
be living in the same lands with our missionaries. There is a need of
more opportunities for conference with mission-board representatives, fur-
loughed missionaries, Christian Association Secretaries, and other workers
among foreign students to consider these problems and to adopt a con-
sistent policy with reference to them. The least that can be done is to
lead these students while in America to an appreciation of the most
Christian elements in our national life and a better understanding of the
most progressive policies and programs of mission boards, to the end that
when they return to their own lands they may be able to help their fellow
countrymen into a truer comprehension of the values and realities involved.
ORGANIZED EFFORTS OK BEHALF OF
FOREIGN STUDENTS
CHAPTBB VIII
ORGANIZED EFFORTS ON BEHALF OF FOREIGN
STUDENTS
Edited by JOHK B. HILL, D.D.,
Secretary, Budget and Besearch Department, Presbyterian Board of
National Missions
GENERAL SUMMARY OF OBSANIZATIONS AT WORK IN THE SERVICE OP
FOREIGN STUDENTS IN AMERICA AND OTHER LANDS
By HENBT H. KING
THE subject of organized efforts in behalf of foreign students is so
extensive in its scope that it can be treated here only in the barest outline.
INTERNATIONAL OR WORLD-WIDE ORGANIZATIONS. Before turning our
attention to the outstanding agencies working in the different lands in be-
half of foreign students resident there, we may well examine briefly the
few outstanding international or world-wide organizations that fall within
the scope of this inquiry.
One of the most important of the international organizations working
for foreign students is the "World's Student Christian Federation. Founded
at Vadstena, Sweden, in 1895, it has from an early period in its existence
paid special heed to the problems and needs of foreign students, treating
the subject in the annual reports and giving it a pkce in the Federation
Conference programs. The former General Secretary and present chair-
man, Dr. John B. Mott, devoted in his report at the Beatenberg Conference,
July, 1920, an interesting section to "Student Migrations and the Federa-
tion/' 1 At the same conference a really new departure was made by the
Federation in its resolution to enter on a large scale into a plan of relief
of the needy students of Europe. The result of this resolution has been
the European Student Relief a of the World's Student Christian Federa-
tion, with headquarters at Geneva, Switzerland, which in 1920-23 assem-
bled and disbursed contributions in cash, food, and clothing to the total
*Mott, John R., "The World's Student Christian Federation: Origin, Achieve-
ments. Forecast." New York. World's Student Christian Federation, 1920.
' "Report on European Student Relief, 1920-1923." 16 Boulevard des Philosopher,
Geneva, Swtoerland. World's Student Christian Federation, 1923.
215
216 THE FOREIGN STUDENT IN AMEEICA
amount of Swiss francs 7,450,688. The funds and relief supplied were
contributed from thirty-six countries, and the lands in which they were
applied were: Asia Minor, Austria, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Esthonia,
France (foreign students), Germany, Poland, Eoumania, Eussia, Switzer-
land (foreign students), and Turkey. Besides the lands specially indi-
cated, others also have doubtless great numbers of foreign students who
were helped by the Student Belief Fund. In Germany, for instance,
some 250 Eussian students were included in the relief work. The European
Student Belief is still functioning actively, with increasing emphasis upon
student self-help enterprises as contrasted with the type of relief of which
the needy student is the passive recipient. Besides this specific under-
taking to relieve the suffering into which many thousands of students, at
home and abroad, have been thrown in consequence of the War, the Federa-
tion has always promoted in general ways activities in behalf of foreign
students. These activities have frequently been carried out by the national
student unions, or by local student associations. These national and
local organizations are in many instances, as in the United States, China,
and Japan, branches of the organization of the Young Men's Christian
Association and of the Young Women's Christian Association, which
institutions have thus worked also on a world-wide scale for the promotion
of foreign-student welfare.
A recently formed international organization of very great significance
is the "Pax Bomana," a federation of national Catholic student unions.
It issues a monthly periodical called also by the name Pax Romano.
A highly interesting organization of a more specialized type is the
World's Chinese Students' Federation, founded July 1, 1905, with head-
quarters at Shanghai. This organization was for many years represented
by a monthly, The World's Chinese Students' Journal. It now issues
occasional publications and an annual. Its headquarters are at 51 Bubbling
Well Eoad, Shanghai.
The Union of Eussian Student Emigration Organizations is an institu-
tion which has grown out of the present exile of so many Eussian students
from their fatherland. The Union has been reported to have branches in
Czechoslovakia, Turkey, Germany, Bulgaria, France, Yugoslavia, Poland,
Esthonia, Egypt, Greece, Cyprus, Eoumania, Corsica, Latvia, Italy, and
England, with a total membership of 8,000. So far as distribution is
concerned, it is interesting to note that the largest number of members in
any one country has been stated to be in Czechoslovakia, where there have
been at one time as many as 1,554, the second largest in Germany, the
lour branches in which land have represented a total of 1,355 members.
Turkey seems to be third on the list with 1,100, Yugoslavia fourth with
EPPOETS ON BEHALF OF FOBEIGtf STUDENTS 817
825, and Bulgaria fifth with 723. This Union is represented by a monthly
organ, The Student, published in Bnssian at Prague II, Elatef inskd 40,
Czechoslovakia.
The Corda Fratres is another organization that has rendered very
great service to foreign students the world over as well as to the conscious
promotion of international friendship. Its foundation occurred November
24, 1898, when Dr. Efisio Giglio Tos expounded before an assembly of
students he had called in the Eoman Forum for the purpose, his doctrine,
"Our hearts are and must be brothers," and the projected organization he
based upon it. This organization was greatly augmented when at the
Hague Congress in 1909 it was joined by the Association of Cosmopolitan
Clubs, a body which is said to have at the present time over twenty thou-
sand members. The first Cosmopolitan Club was founded at Madison,
Wisconsin, in 1903. 8 A recent development of a similar organization is
the Intercollegiate Cosmopolitan Club of New York City with 1,020 active
members from sixty-five countries; and a building just completed at a cost
of over two and a half million dollars, containing a dormitory for women
with 125 rooms, a dormitory for men with 400 rooms, and extensive up-to-
date equipment for social and gymnastic purposes.
All manner of international student organizations are interesting from
the standpoint of the present study, for such organizations are almost sure
as they develop to facilitate student migration in some way and to effect
some improvement in foreign-student conditions of life in the lands
involved. Student internationalism in Europe seems to have had its
beginnings in Scandinavia. The first international student conference was
held in 1842 in Lund, and was attended by Danish, Swedish, and Nor-
wegian students. It was followed in 1843 by a similar gathering in
Upsala, and in 1845 by a third in Copenhagen. A much more modern
instance of a student gathering embracing a small group of nations was
the Student Conference of the Baltic States, 4 held in Dorpat, April 10-11,
1923. In Germany 6 a student committee was formed, in Breslau, in 1848,
which called together at that place an international student congress, fol-
lowed by others at much later dates: Brussels, 1884; Bologna, 1888; Mont-
pellier, 1890; Lausanne, 1891; Madrid, 1892. A recent gathering of a like
character was the International Congress of Students held in Mexico City,
September 20 to October 7, 1921, in commemoration of the hundredth
Lips, Dr. Julius Ernst, "Die Internationale Stadentenbewegung uach dem
Kriege." Leipzig, 1921, p. 7.
* See "Die Sfoidentenkonferenz der baltiachen Staaten in Dorpat." HoohtoTwle
wid Austond, May-June, 1923, pp. 369-377.
Lips. Dr. Julius Ernst, *Die Internationale Studentenbewegung nach dem
Kriege," Leipzig, 1921, p. 1.
218 THE FOREIGN STUDENT IS AMBBIOA
anniversary of the University of Mexico. 6 In 1919 there was formed in
Strasbourg a federation of the general national student organizations of
Europe, called the "Confederation Internationale des Etudiants."
What are called Student and Correspondence Bureaus 7 entered a new
phase of international contact in their first international congress, held in
Prague in the spring of 1921. The type of organization included was that
represented by the American University Union in Europe, the Institute
of International Education, the "Cercle International des Etudiants," the
Universities Bureau of the British Empire, the "Danske Studerendes In-
ternationale Komite," with its extensive organization in other lands, and
the "Deutsches Korrespondenz-biiro fur auslandische Universitats- und
Studenten-Angelegenheiten" 8 (German Correspondence Bureau. for Foreign
University and Student Matters), with headquarters in Leipzig, and like
organizations in Holland, Italy, Norway, Scotland, Switzerland, Spain,
and Czecho-SlovaMa. The lands represented at the conference were Den-
mark, Germany, England, Holland, Norway, Scotland, Switzerland, Czecho-
slovakia, and Austria. Translation of a few passages of Dr. Lips's account
of the conference * will give a fair idea of the work to which the "corre-
spondence bureaus 5 ' are devoting their energies :
For student exchange, two points were to be differentiated: vacation
courses and sojourn for purposes of health and recreation.
In order to reduce costs to a minimum, all Bureaus are charged to
secure lists of families who will receive foreign students for a shorter or
longer period, either for study or for relaxation, on a basis of mutual
exchange, (if the family itself, for example, has sons who are students)
free of charge, or at a very moderate rate.
For a sojourn of longer duration the so-called bond system has proved
helpful. It is operated on the following basis : students wishing to study
abroad place their room and funds at the disposal of their Bureau through
bonds, and receive in return bonds entitling them to room and funds from
the students of the land in which they wish to continue their studies. This
arrangement makes, to be sure, a heavy demand upon the idealism of
students in the lands which enjoy favorable rates of exchange; yet on
closer examination one perceives that the transaction has great advantages
to both parties to it.
There follows a narrative of practical measures taken by the student
organizations to obtain reductions for students going abroad to study, in
See Dies, E^ '^International Congress of Students Meeting, 1921, Mexico City/'
Studente
No. 1, A
'Lips, Dr. Julius Ernst, "Die Internationale Studentenbewegung nach dem
Kriege?' Leipzig, 1921, p. 85.
'Sow combined with the Auslandsaznt der Deutschen Studentensohaft.
9 laps, Dr. Julius Ernst, "Die Internationale Studentenbewegunc- nach dem
Kriege? Lelpog, 1921, p. 101. ^
See Dies, R., "International Congress of Students Meeting, 1921, Mexico City,"
letin of the Pan-American Union, December, 1921; and also "Die Internationale
dentenkongress in Mexiko," Hoohwbule und Awfand, pp. 13-17. Volume I,
1, August, 1922.
EFFORTS ON BEHALF OF FOREIGN STUDENTS 219
the cost of passes, of vis6s, etc., and to organize and perfect a system of
international book-exchange. 10
Possibly the youngest international student organization of a general
character now in existence is the Federaci6n Internacional de Estndiantes,
the initial steps in the formation of which were taken at the Mexico City
international student conference on October 7, 1921.
Another new-born international organization whose aims bring it within
the purview of this study is The World Federation of Education Associa-
tions, organized at San Francisco, California, in July, 1983, "to secure
international cooperation in educational enterprises, to foster the dissemina-
tion of information concerning education in all its forms among nations
and peoples, to cultivate international good-will, and to promote the inter-
ests of peace throughout the world." This Federation has recently issued
invitations to a biennial meeting to be held at Edinburgh, Scotland, July
20-28, 1925.
In addition to the student or academic agencies just enumerated, and
before we turn our attention from the theme of international or world-wide
agencies, mention should be made of the League of Nations, with special
reference to the services rendered by that body to Russian students in exile,
in Czecho-Slovakia and elsewhere.
THE UNITED STATES. The first grouping of these organizations to attract
our attention is that of agencies created for general personal helpfulness
to foreign students. In the front rank among such agencies are the Com-
mittees on Friendly Eelations among Foreign Students, of the Young
Men's Christian Association and of the Young Women's Christian Asso-
ciation. The former, which has now been in existence for more than a
decade, frequently publishes directories of foreign students, organizes
special conferences in behalf of foreign students, and for the purpose of
rendering the largest possible assistance, employs secretaries for the
Chinese, the Japanese, the Koreans, the Latin-Americans, the Filipinos,
and the Russians. The corresponding organization of the Young Women's
Christian Association, though of more recent origin, has developed an
extensive work, maintaining service centers and foyers in New York,
Chicago, and Berkeley, in connection with each of which resident and
traveling secretaries are employed. In more or less organic relation to each
of these committees are units of foreign students. Mention is made of
such organizations among foreign women students as the Chinese Episcopal
Unit, the Chinese Educational Club, and the Icelandic Group. Among the
foreign students, also, the Chinese, the Japanese, and the Russians have
"For an interesting account of the second annual conference of these national
student bureaus, see "Die Leipziger Internationale Studentenkonferenz, 8-10 April,
1922," pp. 2-10. Sootechule wid Aittland, August, 1022.
220 THE FOBEIGN STUDENT IN AMEBIOA
their respective Students' Christian Associations, the Filipinos their "Stu-
dent Movement," the Indian students their Christian Union, and the
Koreans a Federation. The other groups through which the Committee on
Friendly Belations of the Young Men's Christian Association is rendering
its assistance to foreign students are unorganized.
The scope for constructive work that is afforded by these foreign-student
organizations may be illustrated by the following extract from the report
of the twenty-one Russian students who attended the Young Men's Chris-
tian Association student summer conference at Silver Bay in 1922 as repre-
sentatives of the Bussian Students' Christian Association :
SUGGESTIONS PROPOSED TOE FUTUBE ACTIVITIES OF THE R.8.O.A.
1. To bring Bussian students together
a. All Bussian students to become members of the B.S.C.A.
b. In towns where there are several Bussian students, they should have
meetings at least once a month, unofficial in character, for the purpose
of exchanging thoughts and information.
c. All students should send material of general interest to the office of
the B.S.C.A. and to other groups.
2. To obtain friends among Americans and other foreigners
a. Try to meet as many Americans and other foreigners of importance as
possible, particularly in your own line. Help others to do so.
b. Establish and participate in organizations similar to the tfr Wbrld Agri-
cultural Society" to which many students belong.
c. Enter American professional societies.
3. To prepare for future work in Bussia
a. Get groups of students in the same line into a more intimate knowledge
of one another and of their work.
b. Study the question of the adaptation of American methods in Bussia.
c. Receive and read Bussian professional books.
d. Seek contact with Bussian engineering and other professional societies
in America and elsewhere.
4. Publications
a. Establish a magazine of the B.S.C.A.
b. Establish a permanent contact with magazines edited by Bussian stu-
dents in other countries.
c. Urge Bussian students to write professional articles and seek to have
them published in American magazines.
d. Summarize in a book the impressions of Bussian students regarding
American life, customs, methods, education, etc.
Aid to Eiwffrcwds in the United States
It was resolved that religious and educational work be carried on
among Bussian emigrants in the United States, by Bussian students, and
in the name of the Bussian Students' Christian Association.
EFFOETS ON BEHALF OF FOREIGN STUDENTS 221
Important periodicals issued by or in behalf of foreign students in the
United States that may be mentioned here are : The Japanese Student Bul-
letin, The 0. 8. 0. A. Fellowship Notes, El Estudiante Latino-Americano
(bilingual, containing articles in either Spanish or Portuguese), The Fili-
pino Student Bulletin, The Hindustan Student, The Chinese Student
Monthly, and The Korean Student Bulletin.
The National Catholic Welfare Council has through its Bureau of
Education issued a bulletin listing opportunities for foreign students at
Catholic colleges and universities in the United States. 11 As the Director,
Dr. A. C. Monahan, explains in the preface, this Bulletin has been pre-
pared with a view to distribution in the Philippine Islands, Porto Bico,
Mexico, and other countries of Central and South America from which
numbers of Catholic young men and women migrate yearly to the United
States for higher education.
The Section of Education of the Pan-American Union assists in many
ways students from Latin-American lands enrolled in the colleges and
schools of the United States. Among other acts of helpfulness, it has
issued in Spanish a bulletin listing colleges and universities here that offer
free instruction to Latin-American students. It issues also a similar list of
normal schools which offer special assistance to Latin-American students
through the mediation of the Pan- American Union. These lists show
fifty-nine colleges or universities offering scholarships, seven of which are
said to cover more than free tuition; and twelve normal schools giving
scholarship assistance. 12
Particular interest in Mexican students has been manifested. In 1917,
for instance, the Peace Committee of the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of
Friends addressed over five hundred colleges and universities requesting
special grants for these students. In 1920 Mr. Will A. Peairs, Vice-
President of the Chamberlain Medicine Company, Des Moines, Iowa, in
conjunction with the American Chamber of Commerce in Mexico, initiated
an effort resulting in the formation of the Mexican-American Scholarships
Foundation. As this book goes to press it is reported that a group of
American capitalists, headed by Colonel Henry Dickinson Lindsley, former
Mayor of Dallas, Texas, have agreed to finance scholarships to the number
of about twenty each year to enable deserving Mexican students to carry
on their studies in the leading colleges and universities of the United
States.
The Association of American Colleges is another organization that has
2* "Opportunities for Foreign Students at Catholic Colleges and Universities in
the United States." Washington. National Catholic Welfare Council, Bureau of
Education, 1921. Bulletin No. 2.
"See also Brainerd, H. L., "Latin-American Students, the Nation's Guests."
Bulletin of the Pan-American Union, April, 1921.
222 THE FOREIGN STUDESTT IN AMEEICA
taken a deep interest in foreign-student life in this country. Its most
characteristic contribution has been, perhaps, the organization and develop-
ment of scholarships for French women students. Another like agency is
the American Council on Education. This organization offered to dis-
abled French soldiers during the five-month period, July-December, 1918,
twenty scholarships; and during the entire year 1918-19, thirty-eight
French soldiers came to the United States under these auspices. 18 Early in
April, 1920, the Association of American Colleges turned over to the Ameri-
can Council of Education the administration of the Franco-American
scholarship exchanges, 1 * to be carried on by it in conjunction, of course,
with the United States Bureau of Education and the representatives of
the French Ministry of Education.
There are numerous organizations of foreign students in the United
States, formed within the various national groups for purposes of mutual
protection and helpfulness. Certain of these have been mentioned already.
Attention might well be directed also to the large number of local Latin-
American student dubs, a partial but extensive list of which has beei*
prepared by the Pan-American Union; to the Brazilian Students' Associa-
tion, the Indian Students* Christian Union, the Chinese Students* Alliance,
the Hindustani Student Association, the Armenian Student Association,
and the Filipino Student clubs. The Russian students here are as-
sisted by means of their organization already mentioned, and also
through a loan fund in charge of Mr. Alexis K. Wiren, a graduate of
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, serving the Committee on
Friendly Eelations of the Young Men's Christian Association as secretary
for Eussian Students. Siam is an instance of a nation whose Government
maintains in this country a representative to care for the interests of its
nationals in academic residence here. The Office National des Universitfe
Franchises also has a most able and active representative in New York City
in the person of M. Champenois. This office is the American headquarters
of an interesting organization, active both in the United States and in
France, known as "The Association of Former and Present Franco-Amer-
ican Scholars.** This organization, which numbers over ninety members for
the Paris region alone, is more widely distributed in the United States,
where a bulletin aiming to keep them in touch has been started, the first
number appearing in March, 1922, under the name of Bulletin of the
Association of Former and Present Franco-American Scholars. The Chin-
"Kelly, Bobert L., 'Tnternational Educational Relations." BwW*m> Association
of American Colleges, March, 1920.
u Report of Committee on Franco-American Exchange of Fellowships. S, P.
Cknen, Chairman. The Education^ Record, Washington, D. C., October, 1920,
V oL 1, No, 4.
EFFOETS OKT BEHALF OF FOBEIGN STUDENTS 823
ese Government maintains two educational commissioners to supervise the
work of Chinese students in this country.
It is manifestly futile to seek to list here all the agencies in the country
which interest themselves in one way or another in the general welfare of
foreign students in academic residence in the United States. Various
churches and mission boards, occasional foreign governmental agencies, and
such an organization, for instance, as the General Education Board, estab-
lished by John D. Eockef eller, with a view to "the promotion of education in
the United States of America without distinction of race, sez, or creed/'
perhaps typify much organized effort in behalf of foreign students which
receives no direct mention in this summary.
Besides these organizations which devote their efforts to general assist-
ance of foreign students, there are others which render important assistance
by means of information or study of scientific problems, such as the fixing
of standards by which may be determined the amount of credit to be given
for academic work done in other countries. The American Council of
Education, which has a standing committee on International Educational
Relations, is typical of the organizations working through special com-
mittees upon this latter task, in which the Pan-American Union, the
American Association of University Professors, the Unitecl States Bureau
of Education, and other agencies also cooperate.
The Institute of International Education is rendering a particularly
distinctive and helpful service, giving purposefulness and efficiency to
student migrations to and from the United States. Founded in 1919, it
has issued some twenty bulletins, the nature of which may be indicated
by titles, taken at random, such as "Fellowships and Scholarships Offered
to American Students for Study in Foreign Countries and to Foreign
Students for Study in the United States/' "Guide Book for Foreign Stu-
dents in the United States/' and "Notes and News on International Educa-
tional Affairs/* It has also been issued in syllabus f orm, for International
Relations Clubs, fourteen or more outlines dealing with outstanding de-
velopments and issues in international relationships.
Mainly because of the efforts of the Institute of International Educa-
tion exchange scholarships have been arranged in consequence of which
French, Germans, and Czeeho-Slovakians in unusual numbers have been
reported as resident at the colleges and universities of the United States
in the academic year 1924-25.
Another important American agency working for the facilitation of
international student exchange is the American University Union. This
organization maintains in London, Paris, and Borne offices devoted to the
interests of American students in England, France, and Italy. It is the
224 THE FOREIGN" STUDENT IN" AMERICA
purpose of the Union to assist such students and to promote their progress
in every way. 18
In France as in the United States solicitude with regard to
foreign students has been felt for a number of years. In most of the
provincial universities, as well as at the Sorbonne, "Comit6s de Patronage"
have been developed to minister to the welfare of the various national
groups of foreign students. Such organizations are the Franco-Slavic, the
Franco-Russian, the Franco-Scandinavian, and the Franco-Roumanian, the
society for Argentine students, and the English Debating Club ; and before
the War there were special "Comit& de Patronage*' for Ottoman and for
Hungarian students. 16
But passing mention need be given in this connection to the "Rapproche-
ment Universitaire," an international organization for social intercourse
among university professors and leading thinkers of France and other
lands, rather than a student matter in the usual sense of the term.
The French Student Christian Movement is one of the most aggressive
organizations, perhaps, for the general well-being of foreign students in
France. It employs a national Foreign-Student Secretary and maintains
in Paris a Women-Students* International Foyer, the club connected with
which has had as many as four hundred members, half of them French,
and the other half representing twenty-three different nationalities.
The Franco-American Fellowship Exchange is the foreign-student in-
stitution of France of most immediate interest to the United States.
Twenty-seven American girls have recently been appointed to study in
France under the terms of it. The French universities have cooperated
fully and offered a number of new fellowships and scholarships to American
students.
In addition to their individual efforts to attract foreign students to
France, the French universities have the organization known as the "Office
National des University et Ecoles Frangaises," founded in 1894, "to make
known outside France the nature of French instruction and especially
advanced instruction given in the universities and special schools/* 17
A like organization, with a more restricted field of operation, is the
"Groupement des Universit&s et Grandes Ecoles de France pour Rapports
avec FAm&ique Latine," 18 which exists to keep alive racial and intellectual
"Lips, Dr. Julius Ernst, "Die Internationale Studentenbewegung naoh dem
* Leipzig, 1921, esp. pp. 86-87.
i * *" f jvX ***. . _
_ , L., "Les Etudiants Strangers dans nos UniveraiteV* Revue de
, May 15, 1917.
"Houllevigue, L., "Lea Etudianta Etrangera dans nos UniveraiteV' Revue de
Pans, May 15, 1917. See also handbook issued by the Office National: "Lea
Univerait& et lea Ecoles Francaiaes, Enseignement Sup&ieur, Enseignements Tech-
niques, Renseignements GSndraux." Paris. Office National des Universite's et Ecoles
Franceses, 1914.
"United States Bureau of Education, Report 1914, pp. 670-671.
EFFORTS ON BEHALF OF FOREIGN STUDENTS 225
sympathies between France and the Latin- American countries, and to pro-
mote intellectual relations with the lands of South and Central America.
It is maintained under university auspices, with government aid, and its
means of action are exchange professors, publications, and a permanent
office in Paris provided with a library of works on Latin-American affairs.
It issues a manual in Spanish containing information regarding study in
France. Copies of this publication are distributed freely in Latin America.
Mention should be made also of the "Bureau des Eenseignements Scien-
tifiques & la Sorbonne," and its handbook entitled: "Livret de 1'Studiant,
Universit6 de Paris." Exchange of university professors of France and
those of Latin-America has been arranged since 1912. In the case of
France and Brazil a "Course of Brazilian Studies," a series of lectures
given at the Sorbonne by a Brazilian professor, has been offered in exchange
for similar lectures in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo by professors from
France.
Special organizations which may be mentioned in this connection are
the Chinese Students' Christian Association with headquarters at 11 Rue
Jean de Beauvais, Paris; and the Association of Former and Present
Franco-American Scholars, whose organization in France is very flourish-
ing. Membership is limited to men and women of France or America who
have in the past studied on scholarship or on fellowship, in America or
France, respectively.
GKEAT BRITAIN. The Student Christian Movement of Great Britain and
Ireland appears to be one of the most important of the constructive agencies
working in behalf of foreign students resident in Great Britain and Ireland.
Three secretaries devote their full time to the foreign-student work. In the
membership of the Student Movement House, 32 Russell Square, London,
are representatives of "forty-four different races." In this house are held
the meetings of the Chinese Students' Christian Union, an organization
which includes in its activities the maintenance of a bi-monthly paper,
Ottuen Too, and the holding of a summer conference for Chinese students ;
the West Indian Students' Christian Union; and the West African Stu-
dents* Christian Union, autonomous bodies with which the British Student
Christian Movement cooperates closely. Other organizations with which
the British Student Movement cooperates in the work for foreign students
are : the International Federation of University Women, the International
Students' Bureau, East and West Societies in various college centers, and
national bureaus and organizations, such as the Anglo-Danish Bureau, the
Anglo-French Bureau, the World's Committee of the Young Men's Chris-
tian Association and the World's Young Women's Christian Association;
besides various consulates which axe coming year by year into an increasing
appreciation of the service rendered their nationals in academic residence
326 THE FOBEIGET STUDENT IN AMERICA
in England by the British Student Movement ; the Indian Students' Union
and Hostel, maintained at Keppel Street, London, W.C. 1, by the Indian
National Council of Y.M.C.A/S of India and Ceylon; 19 and boarding
houses for British and Foreign students operated under the auspices of
the Young Men's Christian Association.
ETTSSIA. Russia may best be represented in this connection by its Union
of Russian Students in Foreign Lands known by the title of "ORESO." An
interesting account of this organization is given in Hochschule und Air-
land, May-June, 1923, pp. 377-386.
SWITZERLAND. Ministrations to the foreign students of Switzerland
during the War and the period immediately following had many particu-
larly interesting aspects. One of the most significant of these was the
introduction into Switzerland, and by that port of entry, so to speak, into
Europe, of the quite American idea of student self-help, of "working
one's way" through the university An American woman, Miss Elizabeth
M. Clark, then a representative in Switzerland of the World's Student
Christian Federation, was the pioneer of the movement, about which she
tells most interestingly in The Student World, July, 1919. 20 The en-
trenched conservatism of European students with reference to this innova-
tion was very difficult to overcome. By the time the article was written,
however, occupation had been found for students in Zurich, B&le, Neu-
chltel, and Fnbourg, and work was gradually coming to be accepted as an
honorable substitute for the existing alternatives of starvation or suicide.
The establishment of cooperative kitchens, student restaurants, information
bureaus, and foyers in which all the work of administration and upkeep is
done by students, followed in the train of this innovation, which is now a
recognized part of the Student Movement program in Austria, Germany,
Czecho-Slovakia, and other lands, as well as in Switzerland.
The work of the Swiss Student Christian Movement in behalf of
foreign students really began in 1906. 21 This beginning was due to private
initiative, and took the form of discussion meetings, held in a popular
restaurant. In 1908, the Lausanne Association organized a very successful
Christmas tree meeting attended by over two hundred foreigners. In 1909,
as a result of the emphasis placed upon the needs of foreign students at
the Oxford Conference of the World's Student Christian Federation, the
Swiss Movement began its organized efforts in their behalf. In 1910 Miss
Elizabeth Clark, aided by Miss Grant, started at Geneva the first foyer for
19 See far details of this work The Indus, organ of the undertaking 1 published
since May, 1921.
"See also Clark, Elizabeth M., "Student Self-Help in Switzerland, a Venture
of Faith." The Student World, January, 1921.
"Rougemont, F. de, "Work Among Foreign Students in Switzerland." The
b** World, July, 1914,
EFFOBTS ON" BEHALF OF FOBEIGN STUDENTS 387
women students. This was followed by others, and by the introduction
also of foyers for men. Conferences for foreign students are also held.
During the War the Swiss Student Movement concerned itself with
such matters as the provision of lodgings, food, clothes, and employment
for foreign students. 22 In this relief work the universities and consulates
cooperated actively, organizing, for instance, the distribution of soap to
needy foreign students. The Town Council of Berne offered sleeping
accommodations for a number of weeks to fifty students, most of them
Russian or Polish.
Space does not permit even an outline enumeration of the work for
foreign students that is being earned on in all lands. Czecho-Slovakia,
Germany, and Japan represent perhaps the most outstanding omissions:
significant and constructive work in this field is conducted in each of these
countries. Enough has been said, however, to indicate the typical agencies
of helpfulness that interest themselves in this cause: the Young Men's
and Young Women's Christian Associations and the World's Student Chris-
tian Federation, either directly or through national or local organizations,
national associations of foreign students in the different lands, usually in
close touch with one or both of the two first-mentioned organizations,
ecclesiastical bodies and missionary societies, governmental agencies both
in the lands where the foreign students are in residence, and, to some
extent, in those from which they have come, national or international edu-
cational associations and foundations, and the individual universities or
other institutions in which foreign students are enrolled in considerable
numbers.
With reference to these agencies for the welfare of foreign students, the
following conclusions may be drawn. In most parts of the world where
foreign students are congregated in considerable numbers, numerous
agencies have been aroused to activity in their behalf. It would appear
that in the realm of standardization of university requirements or adapta-
tion of the educational requirements of a given land to the needs of the
foreigners studying there, but a mere beginning has as yet been made.
With regard to the agencies of general human helpfulness or of Christian
ministration to foreign students in the various important centers in which
they congregate, the number and variety of agencies and organizations
actively employed would suggest that much might be achieved by greater
coordination and a more definite and more extensive division of labor and
responsibility.
11 Rougemont, F. de, "Work Among Foreign Students in Switzerland," The
Student World, July, 1014.
228 THE FOREIGN STUDENT IN AMEBICA
THE COMMITTEE ON FEIENDLY RELATIONS AMONG FOREIGN STUDENTS
By EDWABD H. LOCKWOOD,
Executive Secretary
This Committee, maintained for the benefit of students from other lands
who are studying in the United States, is a bureau of the Foreign Division
of The International Committee of Young Men's Christian Associations.
Its services are available free of charge to students and professors from
every land without distinction of race, color, or religion. Much of its work
is to assist organizations and individuals who are able in all parts of
America to befriend foreign student visitors by giving information to
foreign students and to the Americans meeting them in this country. It
is interdenominational and international in its membership and spirit,
seeking to meet the student's immediate need and to cooperate with him
in realizing his highest aspirations. It is the Committee's hope that the
foreign student after his return home will devote his energies to the pro-
motion of international friendship and good-will and that Americans
through friendship with foreign students may have an understanding and
sympathy for other countries.
In 1911 a little group of far-seeing men in New York under the
leadership of Dr. John R. Mott, organized this Committee. Originally it
was an independent organization but it was later related to The Interna-
tional Committee of Young Men's Christian Associations. Mr. Gilbert A.
Beaver in collaboration with Dr. Mott devoted much of his time and energy
during the initial stages to the Committee's program. Dr. D. Willard
Lyon served as the first General Secretary until he was succeeded in 1915
by the present General Secretary, Mr. Charles D. Hurrey. Mr. Elmer
Yelton, the Executive Secretary from 1921 to 1923, did much toward
solidifying the work. Mr. E. H. Lockwood, for many years in the service
of the Y.M.C.A. in China, has recently succeeded Mr. Yelton as Executive
Secretary.
Because of the varied interests which it serves, the personnel of the
Committee is drawn from several Christian bodies. Bepresented on it are
not only the foreign and student departments of the International Com-
mittee, but mission boards, the Student Volunteer Movement, and the
Committee of Reference and Counsel. This makes available for the work
a rich store of experience and advice and allows the secretaries to report
to these agencies that are primarily concerned in missionary work.
The secretarial staff consists of two American administrative secre-
taries, an American headquarters secretary, and a group of foreign secre-
taries specializing on their respective national contingents. At the present
EFFORTS ON BEHALF OF FOREIGN STUDENTS 229
time (1924) there are secretaries for the Chinese, Japanese, Filipinos, and
Russians. All these have headquarters in New York City at the offices of
the International Committee, 347 Madison Avenue.
The service of the Friendly Relations Committee is of two classes:
that rendered in and from the New York office, and that rendered in the
field travel of its secretaries. The first comprises an extensive corre-
spondence throughout the world with missionaries and educators, but
particularly with students who consider coming to America; a study of
the facts about migrating students for the use of Americans dealing with
foreign students; and a wide range of ministry to the stream of students
coming through New York City and other ports. Students remaining
temporarily in New York City are helped in obtaining room, board, and
occasionally employment, and are introduced to friends. If intending to
study in New York City, they are directed to the local institutions and
placed under the efficient care of the Intercollegiate Cosmopolitan Club of
New York City. Students bound for colleges elsewhere have the assistance
of the office in arranging for purchase of tickets and in the transportation
of baggage. They are given letters of introduction to Y.M.C.A. secre-
taries and other friends at their destination who receive them and look
after their interests. If desirable, telegrams are sent ahead asking that
they be met at the trains. The Committee's representatives at New York,
Boston, Seattle, San Francisco, and New Orleans meet the steamers when
notified that students are due to arrive and give students arriving in these
ports help similar to that given students arriving in the New York port.
The Friendly Relations Committee promotes friendly relations work
in the colleges by acting as a clearing house of information on activities
promoted in the colleges. Foreign students are introduced to the friendly
influences of American life through Bible study classes; religious education
groups; forums on international questions; Cosmopolitan Clubs; addresses;
entertainments; gospel team service; international nights; making friends
in homes; group receptions and parties; local and sectional conferences on
student problems; national group organization; banquets or other recog-
nition given by civic clubs; attendance at churches and participation in
church work; contact with Student Volunteers and missionary societies;
and attendance at student summer conferences.
It is apparent that the final responsibility for carrying out these activi-
ties rests with local student Christian Associations and churches, together
with the leaders of the foreign students themselves. In larger student
centers special secretaries for foreign students are maintained by local
student Christian Associations and a faculty committee is appointed to
assist foreign students. Emphasis is placed upon the initiative of the
students from other lands whose support is necessary to the maintenance of
THE FOBEIGN STUDENT IN" AMERICA
any program. Special mention should be made of the Chinese Students'
Christian Association of North America, an active organization antedating
the Friendly Relations Committee. This Association, affiliated to the
Friendly Relations Committee, has given itself solely to Christian charac-
ter-making among Chinese students of the country, and its general secre-
tary serves on the Committee's staff. The Japanese, Indian, and Filipino
students have similar organizations.
THE COMMITTEE ON FRIENDLY RELATIONS WITH FOBEIGN
WOMEN STUDENTS
TEX NATIONAL BOABD of the YOOTG WOMEN'S CHBISMAHT ASSOCIATIONS
By KATY BOTD GEOBGE,
Administrator
The National Board has carried on for a number of years a work of
hospitality, friendship, and service among the foreign women students
studying in this country. This work is always done in personal ways
through genuine friendship and concern of the five secretaries who make
up the staff of the Friendly Eelations Committee and through the home-
like centers found in the Berkeley and Chicago foyers and the head-
quarters office in New York City.
When notified, secretaries of this Committee are on hand to meet an
incoming student at dock or station, to find her a living place, to connect
her with the people and institutions that will befriend her and interpret
American life to her, to lend her money when her check from home is
delayed, to find her a vacation position and a holiday home, to put her in
touch with all kinds of activities that make for larger life for women and
children. Indeed it is the task of these secretaries to see to it that every
one of these students, wherever she is, comes to know the people and the
things that shall make these years of hers in America enriching from every
point of view. The foyers are used for many kinds of activities. Some-
times a group of students, both men and women, from one country come
together for a social gathering; sometimes a group of several nationalities
meets for conference or study, and in one foyer at least we have had
Chinese and Mexican weddings.
It is the purpose of the Committee on Friendly Relations to care for
the personal problems of these young women. There are the questions of
finance, of illness, of social adjustment, of finding the right kind of
work in vacation time, of holiday and vacation homes, and there are the
EFFOBTS OW BEHALF OF FOBEIGN STUDENTS 231
many problems that are common to young people in every age and eveiy
land.
In addition to this, the Committee attempts to put foreign women in
touch with all kinds of activities for women and children, carried on by
the Church and by the social agencies, so that when they return to their
native lands they will have some knowledge of how social work is carried
on in this country; the Committee gives them an opportunity to go to the
summer conferences of the Churches and of the Young Women's Christian
Association and other organizations, and endeavors to keep them from
becoming over-Americanized, to keep them reminded of the fine elements
in their own native culture, and to help them to think clearly how they
may use the experience they have gained here to meet the needs of their
own country.
It is also the desire of the Committee that the contribution which
these foreign students have to make to our life and thinking, should find
its way back into American college groups. The Committee therefore
makes connections for them with groups of American students.
All the work which the Committee on Friendly Eelations carries on
has a distinctly Christian aim. The Committee serves girls of any race
or color and of any religious belief, and longs to see them return to their
countries really committed to the Christian way of life, faithful members
of the churches to which they give their allegiance, whether those churches
be Catholic or Protestant.
STUDENT YOUNG MEN'S CHEISTIAN ASSOCIATIONS 28
Questionnaire Replies Summarized by ELMEE YELTON
1. What contacts does your Association seek with foreign students upon
their arrival at college? How far do you serve them in obtaining room,
board, employment, financial aid, etc.?
Ten give direct assistance in all four ways.
One of them officially appointed by college.
Thirty give direct assistance in one to three ways.
Employment handled by college in three cases.
Boom and board so handled in one case.
Five report all assistance given by college.
Fifteen report no foreign students, or only very small group.
No service indicated.
Note: Fifteen report that they meet students at train.
" Hie answers to the following questions are taken from replies from seventy
student Associations.
232 THE FOREIGN STUDENT IN AMEEIOA
A few report "letters sent to students before arrival at college."
One reports every foreign student rooms with an American
student.
Several who report that the foreign students constitute a very
small group state they "give all help desired/' or "same as to
American students."
One reports that because of the prejudice the students are accom-
panied, by an Association representative in seeking rooms.
2. What religious work do you promote among them? Is it your
policy to encourage special activities for the foreign groups or to bring
them into the general student activities, or both?
Thirty-three bring them into general activities.
Seventeen encourage general and special activities.
Eleven encourage Bible classes and discussion groups.
Mostly regular, some occasional.
Pour encourage world forums.
Three encourage special activities, not defined.
Twenty encourage no activities, or have no students, or too few.
Note: One reports "nearly all Catholics."
Another reports "cannot promote special religious work because
of their own religions."
Several report bringing students into Student Volunteer meet-
ings.
Beports do not cover the extensive religious work done by
students themselves, especially the local units of the Chinese
Students' Christian Association.
One world forum held Sunday afternoons at a church.
Only a few indicate systematic or thoroughgoing effort to re-
late students to churches.
3. What other special work for and with foreign students do you
maintain? Social, educational, etc.?
Eighteen mention receptions, dinners, picnics.
Seven of these specify vacation times.
Twelve leave entirely or largely to Cosmopolitan Clubs.
Twenty-seven give no special activities no students or very few.
Four offer tutors or English classes for those deficient.
Four mention International Nights at Y. M. C. A.
Two name educational discussion groups.
Three mention inspection groups.
Conclusions : Most places seem to provide well for group social needs,
and intellectual needs as met in Cosmopolitan Clubs.
EFFOBTS ON BEHALF OF FOBEIGN STUDENTS 233
4. What special provision do you have such as Friendly Eelations
Committee, Foreign Student Cabinet or Council, part- or full-time foreign
student secretary for work among these students?
Twenty-seven report Friendly .Relations Committee or cabinet.
Three leave it to missionary committee.
One has international relations committee.
One leaves it to campus relations committee.
One leaves it to life-work committee.
Total of thirty-three have special committee.
Thirty-two report no committee or special means.
Three have foreign-student cabinet or council.
Three institutions of two cities report community Friendly Eelations
Committees.
Students of New York City are looked after by the Intercollegiate
Cosmopolitan Club, formerly a department of the Y. M. 0. A. but now
an independent organization. It combines the functions of a Cos-
mopolitan Club and a Friendly Eelations Committee.
Twelve have foreign students on cabinet; two of them Foreign Eela-
tions Committee chairmen.
Five have part-time foreign-student secretaries.
Two cities have secretaries giving part time to foreign students of
several institutions.
A Pacific Coast secretary of the Friendly Belations Committee also
serves as part-time secretary at the University of California.
One university assigns a major student group to each member.
Note: There are at least eight institutions having part-time foreign-
student secretaries, and one has a full-time secretary. Only
two of these nine men have had foreign missionary service;
one of the two secretaries reported by the two cities having
secretaries giving part time to foreign students has had foreign
service.
5. What relation does your Association or do you as secretary sustain
to various foreign-student organizations, including the Cosmopolitan Club ?
Could you bear a closer relation that would be helpful?
Seventeen have friendly cooperative relations with Cosmopolitan Club.
Twenty secretaries say they are members of Cosmopolitan Club.
Eighteen report indifferent relations that could be improved.
Ten have no Cosmopolitan Club.
Others do not say whether there is a Cosmopolitan Club.
Five secretaries are officers or advisers of Cosmopolitan Clubs.
Three say they axe close to other foreign student dubs.
234 THE FOREIGN STUDENT IN AMERICA
Associations of New York City now have no direct relation to Cos-
mopolitan Club, see answer on "Students of New York" under 4.
One Association founded the Cosmopolitan Club and maintains un-
official control over it.
Conclusions : Evidently the secretaries and Association leaders are not
close enough to Cosmopolitan movement, and have little contact with
the numerous and important group organizations.
6. How do you attempt to relate foreign students to the hospitality
of good homes? What difficulties are encountered? What values result
for students and hosts ?
Only nine or ten seem to have any definite plans ; most leave it to work
out through normal contacts.
Faculty homes appear to be opened oftenest; next church homes, and
then the general community.
Six refer to vacation Thanksgiving or Christmas dinners for all
students.
Three mention informal Sunday afternoon group receptions in homes
as means of acquaintance and obtaining individual invitations later.
Several secretaries make it a practice to take students to their own
homes.
Mention of several "group shepherds," who major in student friendship
and hospitality.
Difficulties encountered: reluctance of Americans, due to prejudice,
lack of understanding, or inconvenience; reluctance of students, due
to language handicaps, ignorance of social usages, preoccupation with
studies, suspicion of intentions of hosts and hostesses; timidity.
Values: educates hosts concerning foreign lands; reveals Christian
home life ; gives all an international outlook ; builds f nendships.
One secretary reports people will not invite because they "fear the
standards of foreign students among them."
Both Los Angeles and Corvallis, Oregon, report public feeling toward
Asiatic students improving because of contacts with them in homes.
Size of student body little related to problem; rather the vision of
secretary and general level of Association religious program; size of
city and distribution of students are important factors.
7. How extensively and by what means do you bring foreign students
into contact with the churches? What difficulties are encountered? How
do the pastors cooperate?
Not more than three or four indicate any clearly defined means of
encouraging students to church attendance.
EFPOETS ON BEHALF OF FOREIGN STUDENTS 235
Only two or three make any reference to the advisability of a student's
having a church home and participating in its life.
Two refer to special Association committee on church relations for
foreign students.
Three mention student Bible classes at churches.
Five refer to invitations from American students.
Two give church socials as a means of attracting.
Seven say it is left chiefly to the usual advertising of churches; by
implication, this is true of most of the others.
One says he^ gives pastors church preferences of students.
One refers to associate membership of churches.
Two say students are urged to attend campus churches.
One refers to compulsory chapel.
Four or five secretaries say they give personal attention to matter.
One reports that church work is part of training course (Y. M. 0. A.
college).
"Very few attend" is a frequent report.
Three say that "students usually attend" ; three that "they usually do
not."
Several smaller church colleges report that their students come from
the missions, are Christians, and are active in churches.
Three state that Catholic students do not attend Protestant churches.
One records efforts of Student Volunteers to bring to churches.
Twenty-one consider that the pastors cooperate well/ many very well.
Five consider that pastors cooperate not at all, or poorly.
Lack of warmth and welcome on the part of the churches is given
oftenest as a difficulty; second is sectarianism; third is religion of the
student. Most replies do not give difficulties.
Eeference should be made to Questions 2, 6, and 8.
8. How much do you use foreign students for addresses before
churches, clubs, and other audiences, in gospel teams, entertainments, etc. ?
What value does this have for students and American people?
Thirty-two use considerably on gospel teams and for individual talks.
Eighteen say they use very little.
Church meetings, especially Christian Endeavor, are mentioned often-
est ; next are missionary societies and clubs of the community.
One reports their very effective use before grade classes of public
schools.
Three refer to trips out of the college community, one out of the state.
Difficulties offered are: language handicaps, reticence of students,
lack of ability.
236 THE FOREIGN STUDENT IN AMEEICA
Values suggested are: interesting to students, gives students self-
confidence, educates Americans concerning foreign lands, high value as
missionary education (one says "better than missionaries"), informs
students more accurately regarding their own countries, creates bonds
of sympathy.
9. What is the general attitude of the student body and the community
toward foreign students? Is there racial antagonism?
Thirty-five report attitude as friendly or very friendly.
Sixteen report it as indifferent, in some cases antagonistic.
Five report general antagonism.
Five report antagonism only among uneducated classes.
Reference to antagonism to Asiatics on Pacific Coast.
Reference to antagonism to Mexicans and dark-skinned students in
the South,
Reference to antagonism to Jews in several parts of the country.
About twenty give no answer; no students or very few.
10. Are there other organizations or individuals in the student body
and community that take special interest in foreign students? Who are
they and what have they done? What is your relation to them?
Among individuals professors and their families are mentioned most
frequently; next are church workers.
Occasional mention of other families in the community.
Five refer to interest of Student Volunteer bands.
Following dubs are named once or oftener : Rotary, Kiwanis, Chamber
of Commerce, Woman's City Club, Twentieth Century Club, Japan
Society, Woman's Collegiate Club, City Club.
Reference is made once or oftener to : Ministers' Association, missionary
societies, young people's societies, Wesley Foundation.
Named once or oftener: faculty welfare committee, president's com-
mittee for foreign students, adviser (faculty) to foreign students, com-
munity committee of women, dean of men, fraternities.
Active interest of city branches of Y. M. C. A. mentioned several times.
Only two or three references to "shepherds," men and women who are
looking after interests of student groups; as matter of fact, there
are many of them in the country.
Tribute paid to service of a large community Friendly Relations Com-
mittee in a leading student center.
11. What attitude do you find these students generally take toward
Western civilization, America, Christianity, and the Church?
EFFOBTS ON BEHALF OF FOKEIGtf STUDENTS 237
Most answers report a friendly attitude, sometimes eager. Some use
extravagant phrases.
Twenty detect critical attitude, some kindly critical, others cynical and
destructive.
Only in three or four cases is discrimination made among the attitudes
of different student groups : Latin Americans described as very critical
of America and Protestantism; Chinese as generally very favorable, or
as kindly critical and open-minded; Filipinos as appreciative of almost
everything.
Very few report the particular criticisms of students. Most often men-
tioned are our insincerity in religion, sectarianism, and commercialism.
Those detecting most clearly are older secretaries who are experienced
in getting to inner life of students.
These replies disclose the inadequacy of the average secretary's informa-
tion concerning the real experiences and views of the foreign student.
CITY YOUNG MEIT'S CHEISTIAOS- ASSOCIATIONS**
Questionnaire Replies Summarised, "by ELMER YELTON
1. Thirteen reported a total of 121 students rooming in the building.
One other reports "very few." Seven indicate the nationality of these
students as follows: Latin American, 7; British, 1; Koreans, 4; Chinese, 5.
The institutions which they attend are indicated as follows: medical,
theological, law, engineering colleges, high school in one instance, and
universities in two instances.
2. Eight of the secretaries reporting declare that their impressions of
students are very good. Twelve make no statement. Six say that students
rooming in their buildings participate but little in Association activities.
Five say that they participate to a considerable extent. One reports **very
f reely." Eight make no answer.
One Association grants the students full membership privileges in the
summer time.
Two report that the students are not well liked by other dormitory
residents. Six report that they are very well liked. Five say that there is
very little contact. Seven give no reply.
3. Eight report that one or more national clubs of students in the city
use their building as a meeting place. The nationality of these is as fol-
lows: Filipino, 4; Chinese, 2; Japanese, 1; Greek, 1; Armenian, 2;
Swedish, 1 ; Porto Rican, 1 ; Hindu, 1 ; not stated, 1.
* These reports are taken from twenty city Associations that replied to
questionnaires.
238 THE FOEEIGN STUDENT IN AMERICA
The values of such group contacts are stated: an opportunity for the
students to see the inside life of a Y. M. C. A. building; the development
of a cordial feeling toward the Association; an opportunity for the Asso-
ciation to direct their thinking and develop their leadership; the multi-
plication of social undertakings with Americans.
4. Five report Cosmopolitan or other international student clubs
meeting regularly in their buildings. Two state that such groups are
earned through the university branches of the city. One reports that
such a club is in process of formation.
These five groups are fostered but not controlled by the Association.
In the case of three, this influence is exerted through the personal relations
of one of the secretaries of the staff. One Association reports that it
acts as host at the annual dinner to the club. Another reports that meet-
ings of the clubs are often held in homes of Association friends, including
the president of the Association.
5. Fifteen assert that the Association renders different forms of help
to these students, such as introducing them to other dormitory men, ar-
ranging introductions to good homes, inviting to church services, using
for addresses before churches, dubs, etc., providing Thanksgiving and
Christmas dinners, helping to obtain employment, advising on personal
problems, assistance in finding rooms, conducting Bible classes, and, in
the case of one port city, meeting students at the steamship and helping
them secure railway transportation. One Association grants free mem-
bership privileges during the holiday season. Three Associations report
that these matters are left to university branches of the city. Two Asso-
ciations make no report.
The services indicated above are not confined to students rooming in
buildings, but are rendered to others of the city who may apply for help.
THE CHUBOHES
Questionnaire Replies Sumtn&rfaed "by JOHN B. HIM.
What means does the Church employ to discover and reach foreign
students in its parish t
Several correspondents hint that the ambiguity in the words church and
parish makes it difficult to answer this question. Some reply for single
local churches, some for college churches or services conducted by college
pastors representing one or more denominations, and others for the sup-
posed "sum total of the religious bodies in this community." In some of
these parishes there are hundreds of foreign students; in others none.
There can therefore be no tabulation of the ninety replies received, though
on some subjects fairly definite conclusions may be reached.
EFFORTS ON BEHALF OF FOREIGN STUDENTS 239
The usual method of approach is probably through the college regis-
trar's office. Many registrars furnish interested inquirers classified lists of
home and foreign students, giving home and local addresses, and any
denominational membership or preference reported. Others allow
"checkers" to study their records or to take a religious census of all students,
and to use the college address lists in any resulting visitation or circulari-
zation announcing church services or social events. Such lists are fre-
quently furnished by college Young Men's Christian Associations, and
occasionally also by the Young Women's Christian Association.
Only three large institutions seem to be provided with special Bible
or Sunday School classes for foreign students, one of these being in an
Episcopal church near a Methodist university; one in a Methodist church
near a State university; the other report comes from Seattle, where
"some of the churches in the university district of the city have Sunday
School classes especially for the Chinese, or the Japanese, or the Filipinos.
In general, however, in this section of the city where the student body is
most largely represented, this sort of work is done under the lead of the
university Young Men's Christian Association, and is in this way very
systematically and efficiently attended to." Similar Y. M. C. A. help to
the churches is specially noted in connection with the Carnegie Institute
of Technology in Pittsburgh, and with the universities of California and
Chicago.
Few city churches even where there are known to be many foreign
students seem to be specially equipped, or even specially eager, to give
anything more than "an impartial welcome" to all students who may
choose to come, or to "incorporate in the congregation foreign students in
touch" with their own denominations. Occasional church committees are
mentioned, whose duty it is to "know groups from different countries";
but ordinarily the city church makes "no effort to deal with foreign stu-
dents as a group." "Being nobody's responsibility, many are doubtless
neglected." One university professor says: "I have not noticed much
activity with reference to foreign students and attendance at services.
In fact I have known Chinese students who have been baptized, and who
have lived here as much as two years without any invitation."
In the typical community religious work for foreign students is left
to overworked city pastors. These men sometimes accompanied by their
wives make "occasional calls," or in connection with faculty members
"take specific interest in them." Most exceptional is the Methodist church
near the "University of Illinois, which "has wonderful buildings and ef-
ficient organization. It has Chinese classes and an International Boom,
a kind of permanent dub room for all foreigners, but used chiefly by
Asiatics/' In some parts of the South, as at Atlanta, most of the foreign
240 THE FOEBIGN STUDENT IN AMERICA
students come from Latin-American countries, "and are Eoman Catholics.
These are young men, mostly with comfortable incomes, and we have not
found it possible to interest them in our church. All of them, however,
together with other students, are invited to our church and to receptions
given to the students."
Sometimes a city pastor, and frequently a college pastor, has one or
more classes in the college, and thus gains access to foreign students which
it would be difficult to get otherwise. One such writes from a Western
State University:
Our religious contacts with foreign students are very many. My
position as professor of Oriental Languages and Literatures brings me into
intimate touch with Chinese, Japanese, Filipinos, and Hebrews. I have
them in most of my classes, and in one class of advanced Hebrew have nine
Hebrew students. Through such agencies as the College Y. M. 0. A. and
Y. W. C. A., the Menorah Society, the Cosmopolitan Club, and the like,
I have very frequent meetings with foreign students, at my own home and
on the campus. As priest in charge of a mission chapel, I have the
opportunity of bringing general church influence to bear upon student
life. I may say that there is a very general desire on the part of many
of the faculty, and of many student organizations, to establish and main-
tain the contacts of which you speak. Foreign students are cordially
welcome, and suffer from no disabilities other than of their own seeking.
As might be expected, the most efficient work for foreign students is
commonly that done in the larger institutions by college pastors, working
either in connection with some one of the local churches or under the
auspices of a denominational board or agency, such as the Wesley Founda-
tion. The Episcopal Church publishes in its National Church Annual "a
list of college pastors and nearby rectors," whom it notifies of the coming of
students. However supported, these college pastors give their whole time
and thought to religious work among students. One says: "I know they
are lonesome. I speak to every student on the campus that's my job
and I invite such to my home." Probably every college pastor does the
same. 'The formal entertaining of foreign students does not amount to
a great deal; but where friendly contacts have been established, a visit in
the home may be of lasting value." One college pastor, representing four
great denominations in a school of 450 students, 29 of whom are foreign,
says : "In a small student body such as this is, I am acquainted personally
with all the foreign students. We have had social evenings in our home for
the Latin-American students and Chinese students by groups. We have
had others at our home as individuals. Three Chinese students have be-
come Christians and have been baptized during the past year."
A unique situation is found in the University of Dubuque, a Presby-
terian institution for the training of foreigners and of Americans of
EFFOBTS ON BEHALF OF FOREIGN STUDENTS 241
foreign speech. It 'lias about ninety students directly from foreign
nations. During the days of acquaintance with American language and
customs, they attend Chnst Church -services, Sunday School, and morning
worship. This lasts for one to two years. Then they associate and work
in the young people's organizations of the city. This association has been
going on freely for many years, and in some churches our students form
the leadership of their young people's organizations." The Christ Church
referred to is the University branch of the Westminster Presbyterian
Church of Dubuque.
What means are employed to secure their attendance at its services?
Compulsory church attendance, required of all students, foreign as well
as home, is mentioned by only one college in the South. One other
college in the North which recently abandoned this rule, reports that "all
students are continually invited." But in spite of the use of "adver-
tisements," "announcements," "free pews/' "communications, calls and
invitations," it is in general true that "churches do not manifest special
interest" in foreign students, "but welcome or favor such manifestation on
the part of individuals. The invitation and the urge to such service is
individual rather than general or corporate." Or, as another puts it, "This
matter is largely taken care of by their student associates. Church affilia-
tions run parallel to social affiliations, and personal friendship formed in
institutions and homes."
In the larger institutions, the approach to foreign students seems to
be chiefly through special invitations to social gatherings and receptions
of all sorts. One church reports "a Boosters' Committee in the Sunday
School, whose duty it is to invite foreign students"; and another tells of
"oral and written invitations, followed by calls by other students Sunday
mornings to bring them to church." A Boston student pastor finds that
"foreign students are just like the Americans, in that they crave friend-
ship, and enjoy an informal evening service." A very successful university
pastor in Ohio mails to every foreign student a personal note of welcome
to the university and the church, and then gains personal contact by
inviting the foreign students, by groups, to his home. Even the most
difficult classes of students are successfully reached by such methods: A
student pastor on the Pacific Coast writes :
This manifestation of church interest is, in the case of the Russian
students, somewhat limited and checked by the fact that so many of
them are members of the Greek Orthodox Church, or else are of the
Hebrew faith. The Filipinos are quite disposed to improve all opportuni-
ties open to them for social or educational advancement without regard to
their confessional relations. Of the Bussian students also, much the same
is true. The methods we use interplay, and the inspiration is the desire
242 THE FOREIGN STUDENT 1ST AMEEICA
to aid them in their moral and religious development, and to serve the
Church and enable the Church to do its full duty by this ckss of students.
Are foreign students cordially welcomed? If not, what is the explana-
tion? Churches and pastors uniformly reply: "Yes." If there is any
qualification, it is usually an emphatic "cordially/' "extremely/* or "every-
where." One says: "Yes. We started out a young Japanese for the
ministry in our own church." And another: "When they join the church,
as a few of them do every year, a very special mention is made of them."
Two correspondents are cautious enough to reply: "Yes by some," or
"by those who learn to know them." Only one goes as far as to admit:
"By most of the congregation, yes. Some of the people still have na-
tional and race prejudices."
Socially, however, race prejudice appears in many places. "In barber
shops, and perhaps in eating houses, they are sometimes discriminated
against, or feel that they are." In the North, as well as in the South
and West, there is a "tendency to avoid social contacts with colored races."
One Pacific Coast correspondent says: "Foreign students are welcomed at
Bible classes and church services, but not received in every way on a
social equality."
As a general thing, the foreign students seem more eager to have their
own national organizations than to be assimilated into the American ones ;
though I suspect that the condition might be somewhat different, if every
Christian in the churches and societies treated each one of them as he
would treat Christ. Evidently "the work requires a specialist in friend-
ships."
What means are used to identify them with its agencies and activities?
How extensively do they participate in its life and work? Bible classes?
Church socials? Toung people's societies, etc.?
In general the response of the foreign students seems to be quite as
hearty as the invitation of the churches. All are "welcome" in any service
or gathering; but the ordinary church in a college community pays little
attention to foreign students not officially entrusted to its care. Where
only a few foreigners are present in a mixed group, rarely does anybody
feel embarrassed thereby. In fact one reply brackets Bible classes with
the other activities mentioned, and comments somewhat ambiguously
"Their main source of social amusement and recreation."
The attendance at mixed Bible classes, at least in the smaller insti-
tutions, seems encouraging enough to warrant greater effort in that direc-
tion. One large agricultural college reports: "About fifty per cent, of
foreign students enrolled in Bible classes." Another university pastor
reports : "Twenty-five per cent, of the foreign students attend the churches
EFFOBTS ON BEHALF OF FOBEION" STUDENTS 243
with, some regularity. A few foreign students are found in the student
Bible classes; a larger number attend the church socials; we generally
have about three attending the young people's societies/*
Where there are several students of the same nationality, good results
seem more probable when they are formed into special Bible classes. The
pastor of an important Cambridge church writes: "Foreign students par-
ticipate more particularly in the young people's society, and after that in
the church socials, rather than the Bible classes. During one year there
was conducted for the Chinese a class for discussions and Bible lectures;
and I have a feeling that such a class should be run every year for the
benefit of foreign students of all nationalities." Several such classes are
rather favorably reported as conducted by college pastors, and one by a pro-
fessor, "who is very popular on the campus."
The typical young people's society is not very popular with foreign
students, though some churches report that they "attend and speak."
"They are as a rule shy of them." Occasionally they speak at special
meetings given over to their charge, or at special young people's banquets
or socials held in their honor.
The main reliance of the churches seems to be social events of various
kinds. When foreign students come in response to a general invitation,
the results seem fairly encouraging; though one pastor says: "They do
not care to mix with us," and another says : "They feel as ill at ease as
we do, and rarely come again." Evidently special pains and tact are
necessary, if any attempt to interest foreign students is to be successful.
A popular student pastor says: "We use them whenever possible in the
League, Sunday-school, and entertainments; call upon them to give their
own stunts/' Among the ways in which another student pastor gets into
helpful touch, he mentions "a special church social twice a year to which
the foreign students are specially invited; but there are more American
students brought to these affairs than foreigners, so that they do not feel
conspicuous." Of course, how well they participate "depends upon each
one's personality." They often seem best pleased to be thrown occasionally
upon their own initiative, especially as hosts. "Many of them come to our
church socials, and from time to time during the year they give socials
themselves in our building for other foreign groups or for their American
friends." In one Ohio church, a few months ago, "The Chinese students
conducted a Chinese supper in order to send money to relieve suffering in
the Orient. The church people supported the venture nobly."
The whole situation is thus summed up by a Pacific Coast cor-
respondent :
I have not heard of any feeling on the part of foreign students that
any lack of welcome exists in the churches and do not think that there
244: THE FOREIGN STUDENT IN AMEEICA
is any lack of welcome; but, in general, the foreign students are quite
utilitarian in their choice and course of action, going where they find a
special interest in going, or some special advantage to be gained. But
our own students show, of course, precisely the same tendency. . . .
Special results marked and lasting results of the contact of our people
and these foreign students depend, as in all the world and in all ages,
upon special and loving solicitude, devotion, and effort. This is the price
of special influence in character-building and disposition-shaping, with
foreign as with American students. And this sort of interest in foreign
students is the exception rather than the rule in our churches, whether
we speak of Bible classes, church socials, or young people's societies. The
distinctive thing done here, and constantly justifying itself by results, is
the series of socials conceived and engineered by the university Y. M. C. A.
Secretary and a member of the Student Relations Committee.
What financial or other material aid do churches extend?
Little financial aid is given though occasional loans are made where
needed, and emergency cases are taken care of as they arise. "Our pocket-
books are open to every worthy need." One church says: "We have a
loan fund for emergency cases. This has been created by students them-
selves." Only one church hints at the fidelity with which such loans are
repaid : "As far as I know these loans have been repaid/' Such loans are
doubtless needed at times in many of the institutions. One Wesley Founda-
tion director says : "Beyond going on notes to tide them over temporarily, I
have not been able to do anything in a financial way for these foreign
students, though we hope to have a fund in connection with the Wesley
Foundation to make possible such aid/* Many say that financial aid
is not needed by any foreign students they know. Doubtless it is true
that "theVforeign students are better fixed financially than many American
students."
The help most needed, and most often rendered, is in securing work,
boarding places, meeting places, and social advantages. One church only
reports: "The church building is at their disposal at regular intervals,
whenever theyAeed it." A Kentucky church got work for some of its
foreign boys, "waiting on table and delivering newspapers. A Bulgarian
boy did so well in this last year that he brought his brother over this year,
and both are making their way." A California student pastor has assisted
"in finding boar ding 'places, in paying tuition, in securing work, in pay-
ments on Club House, one Thanksgiving dinner a year." A church in
Washington, D. C., mentions "payment for lectures" ; and an Ohio church
gave a freewill offering to a young Filipino at the close of a prayer-meeting
talk. "He expressed his delight at the amount from so small a group."
A Presbyterian church in Pennsylvania "sent one Chinese student to Des
Monies Conference at a cost of $100."
EFFOKTS ON BEHALF OF FOREIGN STUDENTS 245
How far does the presence of foreign students inspire the church with
missionary zeal and a sense of world fellowship?
More than half of the correspondents either do not reply to this ques-
tion or say: "None," "None noticeably/ 7 "Sorry to say, mighty little/'
Most of the other replies seem fairly hearty: "Yes/* "a good deal/' "to a
considerable degree/ 5 "interested the people/ 5 "excellent effect/ 5 Normally
"interest in missionary affairs is largely increased by the presence of foreign
students/' In an Eastern state college "one young man from Africa has
stirred up a movement to finance him independently as a missionary to
his own people/ 5 Whenever church leaders are interested enough to see
that their people really know the foreign students in their numbers, "they
make foreign missions seem more vivid/ 5 "keep the vision before the
church/ 5 and "give the world viewpoint/' The effects are often "just to
the extent these students are put before them/ 5 Even though foreigners,
like Americans, are not uniformly interesting speakers, one university
pastor says . "We make it a rule to give every foreign student an oppor-
tunity to tell about his home country to the various missionary organiza-
tions of the church/ 5 They "have a great deal of influence on those who
take pains to cultivate their friendship/ 1 This is specially true in some of
the larger universities, where most work is done among foreign students.
"The presence of so many men from thirty-five different countries, here
at the University of Illinois/ 5 says one correspondent, "has given both our
students and the local residents a beautiful sense of their world fellowship/ 5
"Unquestionably, the presence of foreign students of ability and character
is a constant testimony to the worthwhileness of Christian work in behalf
of students from non-Ohnstian lauds/ 5 Possibly, if others would only try
the experiment, they would agree with a city pastor who says : "1 think the
foreign students bring a real enkindling message. I use them always
and wherever possible in the pulpit, Y. P. S. C. E., S, S., and Missionary
Society/ 5
Are the foreign students' church contacts here such as to assure their
friendliness to the chwrch here md tn their own lands f
Evaluation of the replies to this most important question is difficult on
account of the personal equation which enters into each.
Very few answer "No/ 5 or "1 fear not/ 5 Many others are only cau-
tiously affirmative. "I think, on the whole, they are/ 5 "The churches think
the students feel kindly toward the churches/ 5 "They certainly should be
friendly, and also grateful/ 5 Different persons in the same community
frequently give opposite answers. A church worker in Indiana, for ex*
ample, says: "I should answer: 'Yes, emphatically*"; while the pastor of
246 THE FOREIGN STUDENT IN AMERICA
the same church replies: "Fox many, yes; for most, I should say, No/*
In a state university town, one pastor says : "Foreign students share in our
church life just as our own young people do. In my conversation witH
some of them, I do not think they are greatly impressed, although they
seem friendly/' The judgment of a student pastor in the same town is :
"Throughout the entire community the foreign students are meeting
such evidences of good-will as to arouse their friendliness to the Church,
both here and when they return home." In another institution a college
pastor makes a similar statement, while a city pastor there says: "We
cannot get them to attend church services. There is an anti-churchgoing
spirit in the student body, though not anti-Christian." The same difficulty
is reported by churches in the vicinity of the University of Chicago.
tf TTes, when they will allow it. They come with a prejudice, and seldom
give the Church a chance at them." "The contacts of foreign students here
are such as to assure their friendliness to the Church here and in their
own lands. While we do not seem to touch large numbers of the foreign
students, who do not respond to our invitations, we do have a number
of members among foreign students, some of whom have become Christians
while here."
Difficulties for which the foreigners are in no way responsible should
not be overlooked or neglected by the churches. Many will agree with a
Massachusetts correspondent:
In all cases where contact comes through the Church, the friendliness
of the foreign student, when he returns, is assured. When the contact
comes outside of the Church, especially in the case of a certain type of
customs officials and immigration officers, unscrupulous representatives of
business organizations, unkind landlords and landladies the result is any-
thing but friendliness toward our country; although I think the young
people as a whole understand this class of people is not the best that exists
in America.
Race prejudice too, no doubt, exists elsewhere than in Ohio, where
Hindus have been mistaken for Negroes, and coldly treated.
Several of the longer replies are helpful, though sobering :
In general, yes; but we have not succeeded in establishing many of
those close contacts that would insure enthusiastic loyalty to that for which
the Church stands. ... I hope that we may make some little contribution
to a most pressing need that of understanding our foreign students. I
find no desire stronger in their hearts, so far as I have been able to know
them, than to be understood. Perhaps it is natural for all of us to be more
eager to be understood than to understand. That may explain our superior
strut in ^Americanization." If so, they prove their superiority in some
degree, at least, for they are also earnest to understand about us.
EFFOBTS ON BEHALF OF FOREIGN STUDENTS 247
The director of an open forum, in which foreign students participate,
writes :
It is certainly a fact that the Church in its contact with foreign
students has made a very favorable impression on them. Of course, the
impression varies with different individuals; but in my personal contact
with foreign students, I have found the majority of them imbued with a
desire to take the best of what the Church has to offer to their own people.
That is why I feel that it is very essential that the Church's ministry to the
students from other lands must be genuine.
One of the most sympathetic replies comes from a layman in Govern-
ment employ, in Washington, who says in conclusion :
As I review it, I gather the idea, which I believe is quite true, that
the American home is doing more by far for foreign students in America
than are the American churches, a circumstance that, if true, is much to
be regretted. I should like to suggest that the churches take a more active
part in the extension of financial and other aid to foreign students. Fur-
ther, I would urgently suggest that, to minimize the hazards of occa-
sionally wasting assistance on the exceptional student who is unworthy
of help, the best of the foreign students in the American schools be can-
vassed, and that students from foreign countries, especially the lands of
Russia and Czecho-Slovakia, be encouraged to come on the personal recom-
mendations of students in this country who know their characters, records
of life, and special qualifications for receiving the benefits which America
can and should offer through education, and through its home and church
influences.*'
Few can study this important question without coming to the conclu-
sion of a pastor in a seminary town: "It may well be that we receive more
than we return. You have called to my mind an opportunity that may-
be has been insufficiently utilized/'
THE CHEISTIAK HOME
1. To what extent are the homes of church people open to foreign
students t
At the outset "we must bear in mind that we live in a time when hos-
pitality of all kinds is difficult and rare." So long as "our city life does
not conduce to much home visiting, even among ourselves/' it need not
be wondered at if, occasionally, "the foreign student gets practically BO
home hospitality." A Chicago answer is fairly typical: "Very little;
but more than to American students."
In the smaller college towns it is practically universal that "the par-
sonage and a few other homes are open to them." They are thus remem-
bered at Thanksgiving and Christmas, as "best work is done during holi-
248 THE FOREIGN" STUDENT IN AMEEICA
days." In some such towns "most of the foreign students room in the
homes of the townspeople. They are not in the frats or clubhouses. Some
of them earn their way through school by work done in the homes of the
people of the churches/' "Probably all have some such home contact.
Some have a good deal of home life."
On the whole, the impression is strong that, the country over, the
foreign student is seldom entirely overlooked by the Christian home. In
some cities "our church people are always ready to have a foreign student
go home with them for Sunday dinner." Harvard students and many in
other large university centers have home invitations "very generally." In
some places "the Y. M. C. A. arranges so that every foreign student has a
chance each year to be entertained in a few homes." Near one state uni-
versity "more homes are open for individuals and small groups than the
(church) secretary can supply." In another place, "at least one family
takes a special interest in every student who is in any way identified with
the church." And everywhere it is most frequently the case that the homes
opened have been those of "people actively interested in foreign missions."
"Wherever there is personal acquaintance," as a Washington pastor inti-
mates, "invitations are likely to follow."
What methods are used to open such homes, and to introduce foreign
students to them?
Everywhere it is true that "many extend such invitations of their own
accord : others respond when solicited/ 5 The solicitation is "mostly private
appeal" from pastors, Y. M. C. A. secretaries, or chairmen of social com-
mittees. "An occasional request from us opens doors to them. Our
people are not hostile, but thoughtless." In the few places where there is
a Friendly Relations Committee, it "has for its main purpose the opening
of Christian homes, and the introduction of foreign students to such
homes." At one university "Southern hospitality" is sufficient to take
care of the whole situation, while another Southern correspondent says
significantly: "We fraternize with all of them, and never do a thing
that is calculated to make them think they are not of us." In institutions
where there are enough foreign students to form foreign clubs or a Cos-
mopolitan Club, "a few members of the church" and of the faculty are
sometimes invited to their meetings, "and through these, when practicable,
invitations are given for home visitation."
In a large Chicago church the matter is never left to mere chance or
personal fancy. "A committee of ladies tries to see that each foreign
student is invited into a Christian home at least once during the year,
Sunday dinner being a favorite occasion. The missionaries resident among
us are very hospitable to the students from their owjx fields of labor; and
EFFOKTS ON BEHALF OF FOEEIGUST STUDENTS
the students, especially the Christian ones, are highly appreciative of this
hospitality and understanding. One of our members presides over a large
apartment, in which a number of foreign students live. Several rent
single rooms, giving a glimpse of home life to the student. Groups of
students are invited to certain homes for a social evening." Other churches
are likewise successful because thoughtful and tactful. "The homes are
always open. We attempt to introduce the student to the host and hostess,
and have them invite the student for some time in advance. Eeally we try
to have it done with sufficient f ormakty that the student recognizes that it
has been planned " In Boston and Cambridge the personal interest and
influence of a Boston University professor and his wife have been the
means of opening many homes to foreign students and the results there
make clear the value of such activity. In an eastern community, represent-
atives of carefully selected homes form a hospitality committee which each
year gives a reception to foreign students Before this reception each for-
eign student has been allocated to the hospitality of some home which has
accepted the responsibility. At the reception each home makes a natural
contact with the foreign student who has been assigned to it. After this
each home is allowed to extend its hospitality in its own way.
What special difficulties are involved \n making them feel at home with-
out patronizing or suggesting social inferiority 9
In the great majority of instances there seems to be little difficulty after
"the first contact is made." "Ignorance of language or social customs, on
both sides," may be a temporary barrier. We need to remember that we
are as foreign to them as they to us; and that "a little prejudice is over-
come when foreigners are better known." "A warm-hearted interest in
them will go toward allaying their timidity." On both sides there are
ordinarily "no disabilities other than of their own seeking." And we
must admit that "difficulties along these lines are most generally encoun-
tered m the homes of people who are narrow and provincial."
There seems little danger that hosts will be "patronizing." All cor-
respondents leave the general impression stated by one in the South :
I feel that the people in the so-called better homes have not been, as
thoughtful of the foreign student as the people in the moderate homes.
Those who have entertained them have, I believe, done so on the high
level of equality. There is a race distinction, but I have never seen it
applied to foreign students here.
Everywhere it is comparatively easy to handle the social problem,
if there are only a few foreigners, even of the dark-skinned races. "Occa-
sionally a Mexican or an Argentinian has come. When he does, he is
received as any other young man, perhaps even a bit more favorably."
250 THE FOREIGN" STUDENT IN AMEEICA
Almost everywhere foreign students "are cordially received in the college;
attend social functions without discrimination (except negroes, who do
not attend dances). "
It must be admitted that there are cases in which there is likely to be
some difficulty. These should be recognized and prepared for in advance.
Somebody should have an eye to the "selection of the home" to which
each student is invited. It is often "rather serious, when we have young
ladies or girls in our families," to invite young men from races whose
"customs are apt to be different" from our own. Even where we are not
afraid of a given student, we face the social problem constantly. It may
help to remember that, "the difficulty in this line comes when we invite
them to our social affairs. But when we open our church for them to
invite us (as they are glad to do), the situation is reversed/'
Eacial differences are discussed by a Government official quoted else-
where, who says further:
So far as I have come in contact with foreign students, it would appear
that the earnestness and zeal for educational advantages far exceeds that of
American students, which is natural. There seems to be a lack of prac-
tical proportion and sense of usefulness of technical information acquired
by the Chinese. Technical training, other than mechanical, does not always
seem to fit the Chinese habit of thought. The machinery of his psychology
makes it difficult for him to grasp some phases of applied science. Their
application, as measured by hard work, is almost unlimited, their per-
sonality is generally good, many of them being men of culture and re-
finement. Their treatment by their white associates is generally com-
mendable, and the memories of their student life in America should, in
the main, be very pleasant.
Caucasian students likewise show marked appreciation of opportunities
for education in this country, and generally excite much friendly interest
and sympathy on the part of those with whom they come in contact, both in
and out of student bodies. Naturally they vary in temperament, as much
as Americans. Some of them never have worked, and do not know how to
work, and are not likely to reward efforts in behalf of their education. A
few appear to be suffering from psychological shock, analogous to what
among soldiers would be classed as shell-shock. They deserve special
consideration $nd interest. I feel that the importance of this condition
is not folly realized; and that in some cases failures are marked down
to lack of purpose and appreciation of the value of education, when, as a
matter of fact, the trouble is mildly psychopathic. Many of the most
meritorious and promising, as well as most interesting foreign students
now in America are from Eussia and Czecho-Slovakia. These students,
almost universally, are greeted with friendly interest on the part of their
fellow students; and I believe that the interest and sympathy developed
are very rarely expressed in ways patronizing or humiliating. Some of
these students would be a most valuable accession to society in this country,
should they elect to remain here permanently.
EFFOKTS ON" BEHALF OF FOKEIGN STUDENTS 251
As to social inferiority, there seems more feeling on the part of foreign
students than on the part of Americans that those with whom they asso-
ciate are their inferiors. Sometimes it appears on both sides. "Eesidents
of the city are rather indifferent to youth of decided foreign speech and
habits. Some of the boys are too proud, especially the Spanish boys/* One
university pastor says:
At these dinners we attempt to have the student talk about his own
country; and I think that the general run of Christian people can do this
in a very satisfactory way. These students often welcome the opportunity
of telling about their country. They welcome the opportunity to contra-
dict some of the stories of poverty, degradation, and heathenism that we
read. Very often the word pictures of their homeland sound like the talk
of a real estate promoter. I have noticed this specially of the students of
India. If we accepted the Indians' interpretation, America is a crude and
primitive land with some of the beginnings of civilization, as compared
with the land complete in glory from which they came.
And from the American point of view, another student pastor says :
As to inferiority, some of us distinctly teach, on every occasion, that
any one manifesting such feelings of superiority toward the Chinese
presumably others knowing the Japanese and Filipinos would say the same
regarding these groups manifests at the same time his own ignorance.
My wife and I have been improving every opportunity since coming here
for lecturing on China, supporting just this position that China is one
of the greatest nations in the world, if not the greatest. As regards inter-
marriage of the races, Eastern and Western, we teach that it is ill-advised,
not on the score of inferiority or superiority of either, but because of
widely different backgrounds and family relations, etc.
What social problems, if any, have come from such hospitality extended
to these students?
Whenever such problems arise, they are largely due to the fact that
it takes time for foreigners to discover, and then to adjust themselves to,
unknown ways and standards. That difficulty "always attends the mingling
of the races." Almost everywhere "there is the same tendency to avoid
social contacts with colored races." A university pastor in a Northern
institution, where they have "so far entirely ignored the race line with-
out difficulties of any kind/' reports several foreigners in the student
body, and "a much larger group of Negro students [presumably American
citizens], whom we cannot treat in the same manner, and they are proving
a very serious problem to us." Whatever the color, "in some homes the
relationship is merely a matter of employer and employed." One student
employee "did not want to be considered as an American servant but as a
member of the family."
The foreign students all crave a normal social life, and are specially
252 THE FOBEIGN STUDENT IN AMEEIOA
anxious to have some contact with home life." "The more they have the
more they expect." "If there are young ladies in the household of the
host, there is always a serious social problem" on which several cor-
respondents ask advice. And the guests whether American or foreign
are not always the most at fault. In one state school we learn that it is
''necessary for us to be very, very careful in counseling young women stu-
dents as to their relationship and the way they conduct themselves.
Nothing," says this correspondent, "has made me appreciate our Christian
religion more than what it has been able to do for the women of our
race." From another state school, in which "there is little trouble, be-
cause it is avoided" there comes the statement :
We are unanimous as to the unwisdom of close or frequent social con-
tact between foreign men and our young girls. Complications in a few
cases grave ones will arise, this due not so much to any real fault of
the boys as to the utterly ill-bred fashion of conduct on our American
part. When a young son of an old and dignified civilization is treated,
at first meeting, like a lifelong chum, he gets bewildered, and may lose his
balance.
Very naturally students who receive any sort of social recognition feel
grateful for it, and "make an effort to show some appreciation for any
hospitality extended them. They send Christmas cards, and make farewell
calls." To such expressions none can object, though "embarrassment
arises when the young ladies of a family have been given costly presents."
If such presents are accepted, the way is opened for further complications.
An Eastern correspondent has "known of two cases of foreign students'
becoming enamored of American girls, thus neglecting their own work.
But these girls have not been of the good type those to whom we would
introduce our foreign students."
"There are serious social problems from the natural tendency of men
and women to form close friendships which might result in unsuitable
marriages." Not many correspondents mention the possibility of inter-
national marriages, but the only social problem mentioned here by a
"dean of men for foreign students" is, "marriage with American girls,
followed by unhappiness, especially if they go to the foreign country/'
What are the values of such home contacts, both to the guests and to
the hosts f
Only five seem at all hesitant about a hearty reply. One says ; "A big
question. Not always good for either, when different races are involved."
Another supposes there is "a broadening influence for both; and when the
foreign student, as is often the case, is not accustomed to larger wealth
than the American home has, it is probably of educational value." Another
EFFORTS ON BEHALF OF FOREIGN STUDENTS 253
doubter offers the valuable suggestion that the reason why many contacts
are useless is because they are only temporary : "Probably not much, unless
some friendship is formed and followed through."
There is a very marked consensus of opinion indicated by the use of
such expressions as "invaluable/' "broadening to both/* "of great mutual
profit/ 3 "greater knowledge and wider sympathy." Most of these replies
are fairly summed up in the one which says "The value of these con-
tacts cannot be overestimated, as regards ourselves in broadening our
sympathies, curing our inveterate and supremely foolish national pride,
enlarging and Christianizing our sympathies; as regards the foreigners,
in correcting (or helping to correct) the bitterness engendered by the
selfish and narrow-minded political policies we are all representatively
guilty of, and tending to build up and cement friendships between the
intelligent and religious portions of these different races, Eastern and
Western."
It cannot be surprising to find that the best results are seen in homes
previously broadened by foreign travel or residence. "The most favorable
contacts are those of the university professors who have traveled suf-
ficiently to understand the Oriental, and who perhaps have small children
m their homes. The foreign student enjoys the children, and very
frequently a strong bond grows up between students and such families."
The guests m such homes are always eager to "show their appreciation be-
cause some one cares and is interested." Every such contact "makes a
reality of Christian brotherhood for both." It "makes for a certain ca-
tholicity of interest and toleration of judgment the mark of true cul-
ture."
Spiritual results also are to be expected, and are frequently seen. "The
guests are kept from the wrong associations, and return home with an
altogether different idea of America and the power of Christianity." They
have thus "received a demonstration of Christianity they cannot find out-
side the home., life is made happier for them, and the response to the
Church is the more readily given. v But the spiritual effects axe by no
means confined to guests alone. "The values of such home contacts are not
one-sided. They are a humanizing experience, which greatly needs to be
multiplied. The foreign student comes to see the best of our Western
life, and its key oftentimes in the spirit and practice of home religion."
In a Colorado school it is believed that "such contacts have been the
most important factor in bringing it about that three Chinese students
accepted Christ."
Similar testimony comes from a Chicago pastor :
Our relations with the foreign students at the university have been of
great value both ways. To our own church they have broizght a constant
THE FOKEIGN STUDENT IN AMERICA
reminder of our international relationships and missionary responsibilities,
which has greatly widened the horizon of our people. The presence of a
considerable group of foreign students in our services every Sunday morn-
ing is a most effective object lesson to the church, as are the names of
several of them on our church roll. Conversely, I sometimes think that
the most useful contribution of our church to the missionary enterprise
has been its influence on these students. Two illustrations may particu-
larly interest you. One of the most brilliant Chinese who ever studied at
the University, whose rich father had threatened to disinherit him, if he
ever became a Christian, joined pur church on confession of faith several
years ago, and has returned to important service in China. Even more
striking was the case of a professor of the Imperial University of Kyoto,
a well-known scholar in middle life who was baptized on Easter day of
1920, while resident here in connection with research work at the Uni-
versity. Letters and reports from Japan make it plain that his influence
since his return is of the greatest help to the Christian cause in Japan.
The secret of the success of many such home contacts is hinted at by
a correspondent in a Southern city, where, "though it was strongly anti-
Germany-and-all-her-allies, the Bulgarian students have never been made
to feel that they belong to the hosts of the foe. In fact, I believe they
have warm friends as warm as if Bulgaria had been on our side. Some
of us have given special thought to this, and been much gratified." Others
might well be equally thoughtful, for to the hosts in such contacts "it is
a matter of accepting a big challenge to a real bit of missionary work."
"The American comes to a truer appreciation of the worth and ability
not only of the foreign student but of the people of whom he is a repre-
sentative. The student forms a free contact, and his love of America is
pretty largely the reflection of the love and respect of individual American
families."
Doubtless many could concur in the statement that "every foreign stu-
dent who has had the hospitality of an American home extended to him ap-
preciates, more than he can say, the value of it." "I have heard them say
many, many times that the greatest influence that has come to them in this
country has been through the medium of the American home, where they
have seen American life at its best. It is my impression that if American
people could really understand the value of such a little ministry to men
and women of other lands, and could grasp the opportunity that is given,
a tremendous service could be rendered in the name of our civilization and
of Christ."
EFFOKTS ON BEHALF OF FOREIGN STUDENTS 255
MISSION BOARDS OF THE OHUEOH
Digest ly JOHN B. HTT.L
List of Abbreviations Used with Full Title of the Mission Boards to which
Reference Is Made
AMUR. BAFT. F M. Soo American Baptist Foreign Mission Society,
276 Fifth Avenue, New York City.
AM BIB BAFT. H. M. Soc American Baptist Home Mission Society, 23
East 26th Street, New York City.
F M. BOARD OF SOUTHERN BAFT.
CONV . ... Foreign Mission Board of Southern Baptist
Convention, PO. Box 1595, Richmond, Vir-
ginia
A B C. F. M Amencan Board of Commissioners for Foreign
Missions, 14 Beacon Street, Boston, Massa-
chusetts
CONG H M. Soo Congregational Home Missionary Society, 287
Fourth Avenue, New York City.
PBESIDING BISHOP AND COUNCIL,
PROT. EPISO CHURCH .... Presiding Bishop and Council, Protestant
Episcopal Church, 281 Fourth Avenue, New
Yoik City.
BD. OF F. M, M E CHURCH . . . Boaid of Foieign Missions, Methodist Episco-
pal Church, 150 Fifth Avenue, New York
City.
BD. OF MISSIONS, M. E. CH., SOUTH Board of Foreign Missions, Methodist Episco-
pal Church, South, Lambuth Building, Nash-
ville, Tennessee.
BD. OF F. M., METH. PROT. CH. . . Boaid of Foreign Missions, Methodist Protes-
tant Church, 316 N. Charles Street, Balti-
more, Maryland
BD.OFF.M., PRESS. CH., U.S.A. . Board of Foreign Missions, Presbyterian
Chuich in the U. S. A, 156 Fifth Avenue,
New York City.
BD. OF F. M., UNITED PRESS. CH. OF
N A Board of Foreign Missions, United Presby-
terian Church, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
BD. OF F. M., REFORMED CH. IN
AMERICA Board of Foreign Missions, Reformed Church
in America, 25 East 22nd Street, New York
City.
BD. OF F. M., REFORMED CH. IN U. S Board of Foreign Missions, Reformed Church
m the United States, 15th and Race Streets,
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
BD. OF H. M. AND CH. EXTENSION,
M. E. CHURCH Board of Home Missions and Church Exten-
sion, Methodist Episcopal Church, Arch and
Seventeenth Streets, Philadelphia, Pennsyl-
vania.
GENERAL BD. OF EDUCATION, PEES.
CH., U. S. A, General Board of Education, Presbyterian
Church in the U. S, A., Witherspoon Build-
ing, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
U. C. M. S United Christian Missionary Society, 425 Dt
Baliviere Avenue, St Louis, Missouri
256 THE FOREIGN STUDENT IS AMERICA
I. FOREIGN STUDENTS PEEPAEING FOE EELIGIOUS WOEK APTEE EETUEN
How many are under your caref Where are they now located? What
is their prospective field upon their return?
Number. Fifty foreign students are definitely reported as under the
care of Men's Foreign Mission Boards, though to this number should be
added perhaps the 130 foreign students receiving aid from the Presby-
terian Board of Education.
American Baptist F. M. Society, twenty-four; Board of Missions, M.
E. Oh., South, ten; Presiding Bishop and Council, Prot. Epis., seven;
Bd. of F. M., Fresh. Ch., U. S. A., three; Bd. of F. M., Reformed Ch. in
America, three; Bd. of F. M., Reformed Ch. in U. S., two; Bd. of F. M.,
United Presb. Ch., one.
Location. Of the fifty students, twenty are definitely reported as en-
gaged in theological studies ; eleven Bapt., six Episc., two Ref . IT. S., and
one TT. Presb.
The Northern Baptist students are distributed among six universities,
five theological seminaries, and three other schools, all named in their re-
port.
The Southern Baptists report : "Only a few young students from inip-
sion fields in the Far East, to study in academies and colleges of the
South. Most of the mature students go to Northern universities, where
they can pursue special lines of work."
Five of the Episcopal students are in three Northern theological sem-
inaries, one in a Southern seminary, and one in a high school.
The M. E. Bd. of H. M., and Ch. Extension says Methodist foreign
students are located in Boston University, Union Seminary, Drew Sem-
inary, Northwestern University, the Denver-Iliff School of Theology, and
the University of Southern California; a total of thirty-three foreign-
speaking scholarship men and eight women, mostly bilingual, and from
European sources.
The Southern Methodist students are distributed among two Southern
universities and one Northern.
The Presbyterian Board of F. M. reports only three foreign students
as definitely under its care, though receiving their financial aid through
the Board of Education, which reports that it gives scholarship aid to
130 foreign students, representing thirty-six nationalities, and rotary loan
aid to nine students from seven nationalities.
The United Presbyterians report one theological student; the Re-
formed Church in America three students in two colleges; and the Re-
formed Church, U. S., two students in Union Theological Seminary.
Prospective Field upon Return, The replies indicate that students come
EFFOBTS Off BEHALF OP FOBEIGUT STUDENTS 257
from many lands, but that the average correspondent had in mind almost
always those from the Par East. Presumably the students under care of
Foreign Mission Boards are all expected to return to their respective home-
lands, though that statement is not often definitely made. It is usually
stated or implied that students of theology and medicine are expected
to return, though some of them while in America desire to remain for work
among members of their own race in America. No doubt also a consid-
erable number of students will return to their old homes who are now
studying in American Schools not mentioned by Foreign Boards, such as
the International Baptist Seminary, East Orange, K J., the American
International College, Springfield, Mass. (Cong.), the Schauffler Training
School, Cleveland, 0. (Cong.), Bloomfield Seminary (Presby.), and
Dubuque University (Presby.) all such students usually receiving de-
nominational aid.
Have you any arrangement for receiving advance notice of their
coming?
The replies to this question may perhaps be best summed up in the
words of the correspondent in the M. E. Church :
We have no settled method of receiving advance notice, but are making
effort in correspondence to create in the field a conviction that men should
not be sent over here who will come upon our resources, or into our care
in any way, without having notice sent concerning them. We discourage
their coming, believing that the strength of the work on the field will be
increased by the large number of men who receive adequate training there,
leaving it for the really exceptional men only to make this venture in educa-
tional training in our own land.
Wherever students come with any sdrt of encouragement on the field,
however, the Boards usually are notified, even when not expected to have
direct care or oversight over the students while here.
How much contact with them and oversight of them while here do
you hcwef Could missionaries at home le used in this worJcf
Board Contact. Though the Boards discourage the coming of foreign
students, it is probably true that most of them seek and secure "a fair
amount [of contact], where there are such students" (Cong.). This work
is seldom systematically undertaken by the Boards, though the Northern
Baptists report that "contact with students while in this country is main-
tained through correspondence, a monthly bulletin, conferences, and visits 1 ' ;
and the United Presbyterians say : ""We have the same contact wiib them
and oversight over them as with our own students/' The nature of this
contact is explained by the Presbyterians, "since papers must be gathered,
258 THE FOBEIGN STUDENT IN AMEEICA
and it is necessary for them to renew each year their applications for aid,
these passing through our hands to he checked up." The closest official
oversight is probably that of the Methodists, among whom the Southern
Church keeps in touch with its students by correspondence with the
Foreign Secretary and by secretarial visits to schools containing such
students. The Northern Church has upon the staff of its Foreign Board
"a capable Chinese, who has all these students (so far as possible) cata-
logued, keeps in correspondence with some of them, and in general keeps
in touch with the group, in connection with central meetings and visits to
institutions where they are in residence." Their Board of Home Missions
has also "several departments for work among racial groups throughout
the United States . . . located in educational centers."
Most Boards, however, "have no organized contact or oversight over
such students, but try to keep in personal touch with them" (Eef. Ch. in
Am.)- Usually local agencies are depended upon, though apparently not
often formally asked, "in university towns where there are foreign students,
which interest themselves in these students" (Cong.). But "by and large,
they have to rely pretty much on their own personal friendship" (Episc.).
The Reformed Church, U. S., alone reports an effort "to get the professors
and students and friends of the institutions where the young men are
studying to show them every attention."
The need of more attention to such students by the Churches of America
is emphasized by the Methodist Protestants, who say: "What they learn
here of our Christian civilization, and what they acquire for their future
service to their country, will have great influence in the progress their
nations are to make." A similar emphasis is given in the reply of the
United Christian Missionary Society:
We have not undertaken anything specific for these students, except
that we have endeavored to keep our own churches in contact with them,
and have cooperated with the Y.M.C.A. and the Y.W.C.A. in the work
which they are doing for these foreign students. These latter organiza-
tions are doing much in bringing them in touch with Christian influences
and introducing them into Christian homes, and working among them
through other Christian associations. This is a great and needy field for
Christian service, and the Churches and organizations have not done the
work which they should have done. I can think of no finer or more fruitful
service to those of other lands than the possible contacts and helpful work
with this great number of foreign students.
Contact through Returned, Missionaries. Most correspondents either
do not answer this question or doubt that such contact can be systematically
secured, though "missionaries home on furlough always do what they can
to make the students feel at home in this country' 3 (Eef. Ch., U, S.).
EFFOBTS ON BEHALF OF FOEEIGN STUDENTS 259
The Eef ormed Church in America says : "Missionaries at home on furlough
can be used with great effect, and are heing so used." The Methodist
Episcopal Church says:
Careful arrangements would make it possible for missionaries at home
to be used in this work. A former vice-president of Peking University,
now at home on furlough, chiefly because of broken health, believes that
he could do a genuine service by having an opportunity to get into touch
with men from China. He has a very large influence in Ann Arbor, where
his residence is open to Chinese students who are there.
How much financial aid is given them by your Board, or other Boards
of your Church?
What is apparently the general opinion of Foreign Boards is that ex-
pressed by the Episcopalians: "Our Board does not offer financial aid; nor
does it, as a rule, encourage study on the part of foreign students in large
numbers. We find that it has, in some cases, made returned students dis-
satisfied with the conditions of their life, especially in regard to salaries,
and sometimes as to changed conditions generally. We insist that they be
financed from the field. In some cases individuals and local parishes
have made it possible for exceptional men to study here."
The attitude of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions toward
this whole problem is indicated by an extract from a letter addressed to
their missions:
You will recall lhat the requirement regarding scholarship aid for such
students is that the Mission and field Presbytery concerned should recom-
mend them to the Board as students who, in the judgment of the Mission
and Presbytery, should take post-graduate studies in America and should
receive aid from the Board of Christian Education for this purpose. We
find, however, that applications are corning to the Board of Christian
Education, and by it are referred to us, from foreign students who do not
have the recommendations of the Mission and the field Presbytery. Some
of them have joined churches m the United States and present recom-
mendations from a home Presbytery. Manifestly, it would be inadvisable
for young men on the foreign field to get the impression that they can
evade the requirement for a recommendation from the Mission and field
Presbytery by coining to America and joining a church here. May we
suggest, therefore, that in all cases where in your judgment a foreign
student should come to America and receive scholarship aid your recom-
mendation be officially communicated to the Board, either in the Minutes
of your annual meeting or in the Minutes or your Executive Committee;
otherwise we in the Board have no means of knowing whether the Mission
concerned regards a given student as worthy of assistance.
Some concern has been expressed lest even in this way the number of
students recommended by Mission and field Presbyteries may become so
numerous as to make unduly large calls upon the funds of the Board of
Christian Education. Our reply to this is that we believe that the number
260 THE FOBEIGN" STUDENT IN" AMEEIOA
of otudents so recommended by Mission and Presbytery will be small; that
as a rule the Missions feel that native students can be most effectively
trained for the Christian work which they are to do among their own
people in the institutions on the foreign field which are maintained largely
for those purposes ; that it is not to the interest of the Mission and Church
and not to the interest of the work that young men and young women
should be encouraged to turn away from those institutions in order to
come to America, and that it not infrequently happens that a residence of
several years in America develops tastes and ideas which make such young
men unacceptable, to some degree at least, for their return to the field.
Are we right in this? Do you understand, and do you wish us to under-
stand, that Mission and field Presbyteries will approve such recommenda-
tions for America only in the case of exceptional students who have first
availed themselves of facilities offered by Mission institutions on the field,
who have a sufficient knowledge of the English language to enable them
to pursue their studies to a reasonable advantage, and who, in the judgment
of the Mission, should have the benefit of some American post-graduate
work in order to fit them for such Christian work on the foreign field in
connection either with the Mission or the native Church? We believe that
you will see the advisability of guarding this matter with some care along
the lines indicated.
"Unofficial aid" (Cong.) is given in some cases; and sometimes "ap-
proved students" are regularly aided "to the extent of paying for passage
over and back, tuition, and sufficient allowance to pay living expenses."
The amount of such aid given is not often stated in dollars, but seems to
vary somewhat according to circumstances, the M. E. Church, South,
reporting from $15 to $50 per month; the Eeformed Church in America
a grant by the Board of Education of about "$180 and room rent per year
to those who have the ministry or missionary work in view"; and the
Eeformed Church, U. S., varying amounts, averaging "from $500 to $1000
per annum." In the Presbyterian and United Presbyterian Churches
foreign students, if aided at all, receive through their Boards of Education
"the same aid as American students."
The Methodist Foreign Board reports : "Last year our contribution to
the Friendly Relations Committee was $5,000. It will be much less this
year because of our diminished income. We extended aid to the amount
of approximately $5,000. This year we cannot go so far, and probably
will not have available more than $3,000 for this purpose. None of the
other Boards of the Church are interested, excepting the Board of Educa-
tion, which from its Loan Fund from time to time extends aid to the
amount of $100 to $150 to men who are in school."
"To qualify for any of this aid, the applicants must be members in
good standing" in churches formally recommending them to the aiding
Boards.
EFFORTS ON BEHALF OF FOREIGN STUDENTS 261
Do you employ them to create missionary interest in the churches and
elsewhere? What is the effect upon them and their hearers?
The Boards seldom make systematic effort to use foreign students as
speakers, though probably all of them do so occasionally, "the success of
this varying with the individual. Some have been most successful and
some are flat failures" just as other speakers representing such causes.
The Reformed Church, U. S., correspondent thinks "very few foreign
students are capable of making a good impression upon an audience"; but
the M. E. correspondent reports splendid service from one student, whose
"presentation of the needs of China and the relation of the Church to
those needs is compelling/' and from another, "a less eloquent speaker, but
a man of good sterling qualities, who would win the approval of any group
to whom he might go."
Effect. The varying effects suggested above are common, the results
being usually only "fairly good." The Reformed Church, U. S., reports :
Foreign students are usually taken to our summer missionary confer-
ences and other church gatherings, where they get to meet people. Years
ago the presence of a Japanese student created a great deal of interest.
My impression is that, as the number of these friends increases, the interest
on the part of the members of the Home Church is lessened.
Is their opinion sought about conditions, problems, etc., in the Mission
Field from which they come? and is it valuable?
The opinions of foreign students are frequently, but not systematically,
sought by the Foreign Boards.
The value of such opinions is, of course, always "subject to the limita-
tions consequent upon their youth and inexperience." "It is, however,
helpful as to general atmosphere," particularly when obtained informally,
when the students visiting in offices or in homes are made to feel their
questioners' "personal interest ui their country and people."
The most definite reply is that of the Methodists :
We are in constant consultation with men of these types concerning
the work in the Mission Fields. Their viewpoint, in my judgment, is one
of very great importance in the shaping of our opinions. On the other
hand, it is not du&cult to find in them the national spirit, and not always
is there tolerance of Western views and ways which enables them to give
the seasoned judgment which discussion on such matters requires. Some
of them are entirely sympathetic with the essential views and plans of our
Western Churches; but I should look for variations in their judgment.
And yet, even in these variations will be found material for us who are
trying to think through these problems.
262 THE FOBEIGN STUDENT IN" AMERICA
Are any measures taken to insure their certain and prompt connection
with the Mission Fields from which they come, and the Native Church,
upon their return?
The answers to this question are quite varied, but affirmative. "There
is little chance that they shall fail to be organically connected with the
Mission when they return" (Episc.). "Whenever the Board pays the
expenses of the students during their stay in America and their passage
to their own country, we see to it that they become identified with the work
of the Native Church" (Eel, IT. S.). "Yes, if they have been supported by
the Board of Education, or aided by the Board of Foreign Missions" (Eef .
in Am.)- Great pains, however, seem to be taken by most Boards to see
that, in every case, the return is voluntary and so planned as to result in
the largest possible adaptation of the worker to the field in which he will
likely be most useful
The Baptists say:
Students are not bound to make connections with the Missions or
native Churches on their return to their homelands, although opportunity
is offered, and communication between the Missions and students tends to
keep the relationships uppermost in the students' minds. Our purpose
in bringing them to America is to fit them to do the service for which they
are best fitted, in the place where they would feel the greatest satisfaction.
On the basis of this cordial confidence, practically all our students go bads:
to work in close relationship with the Christian enterprise in their
homeland.
The Methodist reply is:
We are constantly concerned to keep in touch with the fields to arrange
for the proper placing of men when they return. This, however, is a rather
difficult process, and I cannot feel that we have reached a finality in our
methods. The placing of men who are trained in our American schools in
the regular church work in foreign fields is difficult, both from the
psychological and the economic standpoint. It is not easy for a man
trained from the American point of view to go back let us say to China
or to India and share fully the point of view of the nationals who have
never been out of the country. We are, however, alive to the importance
of this question.
Spiritual efficiency is no doubt sought by all, though strongly empha-
sized by the Presbyterians only:
Upon the most important point of their return to their native land and
connection with Christian work there, we are endeavoring to work more
intelligently each year. We connect the foreign student applying to us
with the Mission in his country, often putting him in correspondence with
missionaries at home on furlough. We urge upon VTP the great posBi-
EFFOETS ON BEHALF OF FOREIGN STUDENTS 263
bilities of service, if he is willing to make the sacrifice and go out, not as
an American missionary (which he is not) but as a member of the native
Church, and stand shoulder to shoulder with his fellow Christians in the
work of building up that self-governing, self-supporting, self-propagating
Church on the mission field in whose hands we expect eventually to place
all direction and control.
II. FOREIGN STUDENTS OTHER THAN THOSE PREPABING POR CHRISTIAN
WORK
How far can you keep in touch with these, especially of your own
denomination f
Most Boards are naturally still less systematic in keeping in touch with
this class of foreign students than with those who are formally under their
care, but "through remittances from their parents, when sent through the
Board," or otherwise they usually pay some attention to their presence in
America, and often admit they ought to pay more. They think more often
about students coming from their own mission fields, but rarely give
advice or counsel unless asked.
The Episcopalians work through their National Student Council,
which makes a point of "urging the Episcopal Church groups in the dif-
ferent student centers to be specially cordial to foreign students, and to do
everything possible to make them feel that they are among friends, and to
maintain their connection with their church. In some places, notably in
New York City, there is a large group of Episcopal foreign students, with
a fine spirit."
"Special opportunities for keeping in touch with these students" are
found in summer student conferences.
In individual cases where it seems to be required and is possible, [the
Methodists] aim to emphasize the preparation for religious work upon
their return. On the other hand, usually the emphasis has been made
before they leave home, and our service is rather to help them to retain
their purpose amid the distractions which come in their American
experience.
Concerning all these students, Christian and non-Christian, it seems
[to the Presbyterian correspondent] that we should cultivate closer rela-
tions, endeavor to get them into our Christian homes and churches, as far
as possible, in order that they may form a truer judgment regarding our
American Christianity, and that all possible efforts for their evangelization
should be put forth.
Is any special effort made to induce them to prepare for distinctly
religious work upon their return?
The answer to this question is partly given or to be inferred in the
answers to the preceding qpflrtioa.
364 THE FOREIGN STUDENT IN AMEBICA
No special effort in this direction seems to be made by any of the
Boards, unless through the Y.M.C.A. or other local organizations. The
Baptists frankly admit that "the demands upon the time of our secretaries
prevent us from doing any particular work with students outside our special
list."
III. NON-CHBISTIAN FOBEIGN STUDENTS
Would it be wise to undertake evangelistic work among them as a
definite part of the Foreign Mission work of your Board?
Most Foreign Board secretaries seem to think evangelistic work among
foreign students important, but few look upon it as a work that ought to
be undertaken by their own individual boards. The Baptist opinion is
that it should be undertaken by the Home Mission Society m close co-
operation with the Foreign Mission Society. The Episcopalians leave all
such matters to the local church, emphasizing "personal work of an evan-
gelistic character rather than evangelistic campaigns.*' The Eeformed
Church, U. S., correspondent says : "Here in Philadelphia, I am sure that
the students in the several institutions of learning are brought under
Christian influences." The Presbyterians refer to the "most remarkable
piece of work" done by the Kev. A. W. Stevenson, "as Foreign Students'
Secretary of the Christian Association of the University of Pennsylvania/'
The United Presbyterians "think it would be wise for the Boards to
unite in concerted effort for the evangelization of such students who are
not Christians"; but that "care should be taken to avoid overlapping by
assigning certain schools or certain sections to certain Boards."
The Methodist reply is the only one to this question that insists that
the work be done, whatever method may be adopted in any given
institution :
I would think that the promotion of distinctive evangelistic work among
foreign students, which is already in large measure done in the Christian
organizations of students and through the Friendly Relations Committee,
might be better carried on as a common task than as a distinctive Foreign
Mission task of any one Board. On the other hand, there might be, in
part because of their scattered residence, a well-systematized personal work
amongst them where they are residing, or through the schools in which
they are studying, which would yield definite results. I think there is no
more important process for bringing religious influence upon the establish-
ing of future policies of Mission lands than to secure in firmer positions as
Christians here the men and women among them the very best who are
in our schools in this country.
One correspondent seems to think of this work as a Foreign Board
duty, saying: "Yes, decidedly so. Our Foreign Boards hardly realise the
EFFOKTS ON BEHALF OF FOBEIGN STUDENTS 865
importance of continuing strong Christian influence about these foreign
Christian students increasingly coming to America."
Desirability of seeking from them criticisms of mission work, or reasons
for their present rejection of diristiamty
Only two correspondents (Cong, and Bel, U. S,) seem doubtful as to
such desirability, though of course u due allowance would need to be made/'
"Within the natural limitations of age and experience, the mind of foreign
students is illuminating with regard to religious questions- It should
always be kept m mind, however, that they represent the students' attitude,
which may be distinctly different from the popular attitude of their fellow-
countrymen" (Bapt.).
The Episcopalian correspondent thinks "This would be invaluable, in-
asmuch as we need above all things to know as much as possible about the
non-Christian attitude toward our enterprise." The United Presbyterian
and the Methodist replies agree that "the interpretation given by these
men, where they are really thoughtful and familiar with all the facts, is
valuable, and would have an influence upon (M. E.) would be worth
having and a help in (U. P.) the determining of Mission policies."
REPLIES FEOM WOMEN'S BOARDS OP MISSIONS
Compiled by MBS. CHABLES K.
Executive Secretary, Board of Foreign Missions, Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A.
The same questions were sent to the Women's Boards of Home and
Foreign Missions as those sent to the Men's Boards and indicated in the
previous section of this chapter. Ten Boards answered, and the statements
which follow are quotations from their replies or are based upon their
answers.
With reference to foreign students preparing for religious work after
their return to their homelands, seven of the ten Boards reporting state
that they have students under their care, the total being thirty-three.
These students come chiefly from Japan, China, Korea, and the West
Indies and expect to return to their native lands. The Boards which have
accepted responsibility for these students have arrangements for receiving
advance notice of their coming.
In answer to the questions, "How much contact and oversight of these
students is there V 9 and "Could missionaries at home be used for this
work?" typical statements follow: "All who have thus far been in this
country have been under the direct care of the Foreign Secretary or mem-
bers of our Board. In a few cases missionaries have also given valuable
266 THE FOBEIGN STUDENT IN AMEBICA
help in supervising the work that these young women do in this country."
"Contact and oversight mostly through the college presidents and teachers
where they are at school/ 5 "Could missionaries be used in contact and
oversight? Yes, there is too little of this work." "Their post-graduate
study is earned on under the direction of the Board. Yes, missionaries at
home could be used in this work." "Contact with and oversight ? Social
and personal and trying to keep in touch with Christian people and our
own churches. In sickness and hospital cases attention much appreciated.
Yes, missionaries can do much, for they know the home friends of the
students and the home conditions and can take back definite word to
parents and friends overseas. One young missionary spent two weeks at
Northfield as host to twelve Oriental students."
The Woman's Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal
Church writes:
Missionaries of the nght type ought to be able to help make the visit
of foreign students to America effective. We quote an official action of
the Board which helps to keep the Board in touch with such students of its
own denomination: "Besolved, That the Field Student Secretary be re-
quested to report to the Chairman of Foreign Students in America the
names of all Methodist foreign students whom she meets in her college
visitations."
Five Boards assist foreign students financially, the Woman's Foreign
Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church reporting that
annual scholarships of five hundred to a thousand dollars are awarded to
some students, and the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society of the Baptist
Church stating that it has covered all the expenses of four of the seven
students under the care of the Board, allowances of three hundred to six
hundred dollars a year being paid to two, and the expenses of the remaining
student being met privately. Two of the Boards report that it is not their
policy to aid foreign students financially and two that such assistance is
given through the Boards of Ministerial Belief or of Christian Education
of their denomination.
Most of the Boards desire to use foreign students to help create mis-
sionary interest in churches and elsewhere, and report that there is almost
invariably unusual interest on the part of audiences thus addressed. Only
one Board reports that such students are rarely employed. "They create
mission interest wherever they go and as far as we now know they are not
spoiled by the attention they have received. Those who are studying, of
course, do not do much regular deputation work." "From time to time we
have students from Japan, Cuba, Brazil, and Mexico taking courses in our
Theological Seminary. These students are used to create interest in the
EFFOKTS OST BEHALF OF FOBEHHT STUDENTS 267
countries from which they come." "Employed to some extent to create
missionary interest and to good effect/' "Students employed to create
interest in churches. Effect on them and their hearers most unusual."
"We always use them to create missionary interest in the churches. They
are in demand usually." "While they are in school, study is their first
work, but they go occasionally to address interested groups. Too much of
this kind of work is not good for the students, but their presence usually
gives added interest/'
Two of the Boards report that the opinion of foreign students about
conditions and problems on the mission field from which such students
come are not sought, and that they do not believe such opinions are of
value. Six Boards state clearly that they desire the advice and counsel of
such foreign students, although two qualify their judgment as to the value
of such contributions : "The opinion of the older Oriental women, such as
Dr. Ma Saw Sa, is of value. I am not so sure that that of the younger
girls, especially those who have been away from their country for a number
of years, is of very much worth. The younger girls, too, do not have, I
find, any broad knowledge of our mission work as a whole. Their experi-
ence has been limited to one or two stations/' "We consider their opinion
regarding conditions in their native country of great value/' "Opinion
about conditions, problems, etc., in the mission field sought but do not
find it always reliable/' "Students who are working under the direction of
the Board are in constant communication with their mission on the field."
"Opinion about conditions is certainly sought. Often wonder if there is
much value in their presentation." "The opinion of foreign students about
conditions in their own lands is sometimes sought. I think it ought to be
sought more frequently. It certainly is valuable to get their point of
view."
Most of the Boards state that prompt and certain connections with the
Missions and the Native Church are secured through mission action or
through the relationships with missionaries rather than by direct action
of the Boards themselves. "Our Board here has nothing to do with their
work after they return, but our Missions usually have places of service
waiting for them, when they have completed their course in America."
"They are generally sent by missionaries and kept in touch through corre-
spondence with the missionaries who sent them." "We always attempt to
secure their services but we do not always succeed." "The strongest influ-
ence in this case is the missionary on the field who knows them and who
covets them for work. They carry on vigorous correspondence."
As to the wisdom of undertaking evangelistic work among non-Christian
foreign students, the Boards are one in their judgment as to the necessity
and urgency of such work. One secretary writes: "I consider it a greatly
268 THE FOREIGN STUDENT IN AMEEICA
needed department of mission work to-day to come in touch with the
non-Christian students in America, and to weigh very carefully and
thoughtfully their reasons for rejecting Christianity in the Christian land
to which they have come as students." And another, "Most assuredly it
ought to be done. Bible classes should be formed and efforts made to get
them to attend church and a Bible class."
On the other hand, two of the Boards point out that the Foreign Boards
are not organized or staffed for this work, and that the responsibility for
such efforts rests upon the Board of Home Missions of the Church, or upon
other agencies of the college or church.
In answer to the question, "Would the criticisms of mission work by
non-Christian foreign students and their reasons for rejecting Christianity
be a help in determining mission policy?" five of the Boards reply as
follows : "Very valuable I should think." "Yes, their criticism of mission
work or reasons for rejecting Christianity should be worth seeking/' "Yes,
indeed. Only yesterday a Chinese, who had just received his Ph.D. from
Columbia, complained to me about many things missionaries report to the
churches in the United States as wholly misleading and unfair. Another
said she left the Mission School and went elsewhere because the missionary
had taught her 'all she knew and had nothing more to offer/ which of
course was not quite true. That particular mission station had no high
school course. And others cannot understand why the native church is
denied the disposition of and control of board and mission funds, and of
even the pkcing of missionaries." "I am sure their criticism would throw
some light on the question." "Their criticism of mission work, in my
opinion, is decidedly worth seeking in determining mission policy."
COSMOPOLITAN CLUBS
By DB. L. H. PAMMEL,
President, Association of Cosmopolitan Clubs of America
The motto of the Association of Cosmopolitan Clubs is: "Above all
nations is humanity." This sums up the spirit of the Association. The
constitution of the organization states :
The object of the Association shall be the development in the world of
the spirit of human justice, cooperation, and brotherhood, and the desire
to serve humanity Tinlimited by color, race, nationality, caste, or creed, by
arousing and fostering this spirit in college and university students of all
nationalities. The membership of the organization is confined to all
college and university clubs and clubs made up of alumni of such college
and university clubs having for their object the uniting for mutual social
and intellectual benefit of persons of different nationalities.
EFFOETS ON BEHALF OF FOEEIGN STUDENTS 369
The first Cosmopolitan Club was organized at the University of Wis-
consin, in March, 1903 Later the organization became designated as the
Association of Cosmopolitan Clubs of the United States of America. It is
affiliated to the Confederation Internationale des Etudiants, and was repre-
sented by two delegates at the convention held by that body last year in
Warsaw. At the present time the following student centers and institu-
tions have chapters: Cleveland, Coe College, Cornell College, Cornell
University (Men), Cornell University (Women), Denison University,
Drake University, University of Denver, DePauw University, Georgia
University of Technology, Grmnell College, University of Illinois (Men),
University of Illinois (Women), University of Indiana, Iowa State College,
University of Iowa, Indianapolis (Intercollegiate Club), Kansas State
Agricultural College, University of Kansas, Miami University, New York
Intercollegiate Cosmopolitan Club (unaffiliated), University of Michigan,
University of Minnesota, Ohio State University, Oklahoma Agricultural
and Mechanical College, Leland Stanford University, Syracuse University
(Men), Syracuse University (Women), University of Southern California,
University of Wisconsin, Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
I do not have a full list of the membership but I am estimating the
number at about 1,500 students, who come from various countries in
Europe, Asia, South America, Africa, and North America.
The work of the Young Men's Christian Association and the Young
Women's Christian Association for the foreign students is highly appre-
ciated by the various Cosmopolitan Clubs, but these two organizations
cannot fully attend to the matter of organizing the work of foreign stu-
dents, especially in its application to the forum.
The local Cosmopolitan Clubs have a President, Yice-President, Secre-
tary and Treasurer, and a Board of Directors. There is also a Faculty
Adviser for some of the chapters. The national Association officers are a
President, General Secretary, Alumni Secretary, Treasurer, Vice-President,
and where the Cosmopolitan Student is published, a Business Manager.
There is also a Vice-President from each Vice-Presidential District. The
offices of the several clubs have been largely in the hands of foreign students.
The Cosmopolitan Clubs give the students a chance to do their own busi-
ness, organizing and carrying on debates. There is an opportunity to
become efficient m parliamentary procedure.
PEOGBAMS. The members of the Cosmopolitan Clubs prepare their own
programs and carry on their own discussions. American students are
benefited by coming in contact with some of the keenest students of foreign
countries. They have come to respect the views of students of foreign
lands and there is, I am sure, an appreciation of the many fine things of
other countries. The literature, history, and science of these countries are
270 THE FOKEIGN STUDENT IN" AMERICA
brought to the American student and thus the American student gets a
wholesome respect for the citizenship of other countries.
The general policy of these clubs is to discuss such topics as interna-
tional relations, forms of government in the different countries, habits and
customs of the people, the government of the United States and its political
parties, economic conditions of various countries, the youth movements of
the various countries. These subjects are discussed by men qualified to
speak. Discussions of our political institutions bring home to the foreign
students our method of conducting a political campaign and the manner
in which the legislative functions of our government are carried on. The
American student gets a good view of the political institutions of other
countries. One of the important phases of the work of the Cosmopolitan
Clubs is to put on an entertainment once a year known as 'International
Night." This entertainment is one of the best on the college campus.
The whole campus catches the spirit of Cosmopolitanism. The American
students and faculty are frequently amazed at the kind of entertainment
that is presented. Several chapters use the proceeds of this entertainment
for the Foreign Student Loan Fund. This International Night produces
the best talent the foreign students possess. There is a display of the
native costumes, the method of conducting business, agriculture, and educa-
tion. International Night also gives the American student an opportunity
to bring to the foreign students the best we have to offer in this country.
SELECTION OP AN INSTITUTION. The selection of a college or university
is brought about in several different ways. Foreign students returning to
their country often recommend the particular institution they attended, or
some missionary in a foreign country speaks highly of a certain institution.
The Methodist Church directs foreign students from Methodist missions
to attend its institutions in this country. The Presbyterian^ Episcopal,
and other colleges do likewise. Again, foreign students select the institu-
tion because of certain lines of work that are offered there. Mr. Claron
D. Barber of the Cosmopolitan Club of Champaign, Illinois, writes me as
follows :
The foreign student selects the institution to be attended by Trim in the
following ways. If he is a government student, as a large share of our
foreign students are, an institution or sometimes a group from which he
can make his choice is recommended to him by his government as being
best fitted to the course he desires to pursue, and which, or one of which,
he must attend. In some cases the government recommends only one.
In other cases the foreign student makes his own choice. Usually he
is much guided by the advice of his countrymen who have been educated in
this country or who are at the time in attendance at a school here. Also
he may from information gathered in other ways, decide on his school
here, as, for instance, the engineering school at this institution, which has
EFFOKTS ON BEHALF OF FOEEIGH" STUDENTS 271
obtained a desirable prestige in the Philippine Islands which attracts many
students. In selecting his institution the foreign student does not vary
greatly from the American student except that the location of the school
is not of such importance to him.
American education has, I believe, tended to broaden and strengthen
the life of the foreign student, the stimulating effect of contact with new
views, ideals, and methods found in a different environment being notice-
able. It has fitted him socially and scholastically for success in his home-
land.
Here foreign students have taken part in athletics to a limited extent;
they have been active in honorary organizations; some have entered publi-
cation activities; but on the whole students of other countries have con-
centrated on their scholastic activities.
MEMBERSHIP IN SOCIETIES. Many of the foreign students in our insti-
tutions are members of the Young Men's Christian Association and the
Young Women's Christian Association. They are members of literary
societies; quite a number have been elected members in certain honorary
societies like Phi Beta Kappa and Phi Kappa Phi, and a number have been
elected to the scientific research societies, like Sigma Xi, and other honor
organizations such as Tau Beta Pi, the engineering honor society, Gamma
Sigma Delta, the honor agricultural society, and the honorary agriculture
fraternity Alpha Zeta.
SCHOLASTIC ATTAINMENT. Many of these foreign students have done
splendid work in college and university. They are quick to see and appre-
ciate the importance of fine scholarly attainments. In matters of discus-
sion they are able to meet any of our students in debate. Many of the
foreign students who have returned to their native lands are now occupying
prominent positions in executive, scientific, and legislative work. They
are doing fine research work on problems connected with their agriculture
and doing fine work as professors and teachers. Some of these students
have spent years in thoroughly mastering the subjects which interest them.
For instance, one man from India studied thoroughly the agricultural
problems of this country. Another man from China studied the forestry
situation in this country thoroughly so that it might be applied to China,
Another man studied the sugar industry in this country so that it might
be applied to China, and another student studied the agricultural engineer-
ing problem with a view to its application to South Africa.
ADVANCED DEGBEES. Many of the students after completing their cotuse
in this country and receiving their Bachelor's degree, take advanced de-
grees, M.S., M.A., and PhD. Throughout this period these students
maintain their interest in the Cosmopolitan Clubs.
PUBLICATION AND CONVENTION. The Association of Cosmopolitan
Clubs issnes a magazine known as the Cosmopolitan Student, which is sent to
THE FOBEIGN STUDENT IN AMERICA
every member of the organization. This Student is edited by what is
known as the '^Editorial Chapter." The editorial part is altogether in the
hands of the students, mostly American students. The contributed articles
come from many different sources members from different countries.
The armnfll convention meets once a year, usually after Christmas.
The place of the convention furnishes the executive officers. Conventions
have been held at Bloomington, Indiana; Minneapolis; Madison, Wiscon-
sin ; and Philadelphia.
The biggest thing for the Association to do is to develop the alumni
membership of the Cosmopolitan Club in order to keep in touch with the or-
ganisation the world over and cement the friendships that were formed in
colleges.
In conclusion, I think it is proper to state that our American institu-
tions have impressed themselves on the foreign student and that through
the Cosmopolitan Clubs our American students have had instilled into them
the spirit of tolerance for the views of their foreign friends and co-
laborers. The Cosmopolitan Clubs thus exert a wholesome influence on the
American college life.
'*!NTEHNATIONAL HOUSE" NEW YORK CITY
BY HABRT E. EDMONDS, Director
During the last year a gray mass of brick and stone has raised itself in
Kew York on Eiverside Drive nearly opposite Grant's Tomb. It imme-
diately engages one's view, with its main f agade facing south on the park
where in the spring, Japanese cherry trees bloom, and across from which
are the trees planted by Li Hung Chang in memory of his friend, General
Grant. Its windows, row on row, in every direction drawing light, and its
two towers, like spires pointing upward into the blue, are symbolical of its
intellectual and spiritual aspirations.
One asks, "What is it?" Thereby hangs a tale, and thus the tale begins.
Prom the uttermost parts of the world they have come students ten
thousand strong to America seeking its best: the best of its institutions,
the best of its industries, and of its civilization; but most of all these eager
young people have come to study us you and me. They come with faith,
with an almost childish belief in our greatness and goodness and with a
generous spirit of willingness to sit at our feet and learn. Fifteen hundred
of these men and women are studying in the colleges and professional
schools of New York City. Here they are thrown into the varied surface
life of an impersonal city of -millions.
Fourteen years ago, a friendly "Good Morning" was spoken to one who
EFFORTS ON BEHALF OF FOREIGN STUDENTS 273
was lonely, one who said that no one had greeted him in any way during
the three weeks that he had been in New York. An investigation proved
that the students who come many thousands of miles to study in America
only a few of them then were really "lostf ' in the great City of New
York, with little opportunity to discover beneath its surface any real Amer-
ican life. An invitation to an informal tea on a Sunday afternoon met with
such a hearty response that a series of Sunday suppers was planned, and
these in turn proved so successful that a further program of hospitality and
service was projected. Through the cooperation and interest of many
American friends this program has been improved and enlarged year by
year until now (1925) the Club has the following membership: 1,020 stu-
dents from 65 different lands studying in 57 colleges, universities, and
professional schools of greater New York.
China with 121 members heads the list of foreign countries represented
in the Club. Japan comes next with 89, Canada 62, Philippines 38.
Excepting the United States, Canada has given the largest number of
women 5, Norway 16, China 14, Japan 12. The American women-
membership is 150.
China again heads the list of foreign countries in male membership
107. Japan comes next with 77, the Philippines with 32, Russia 22, India
20, Canada and Germany 17 each, Greece 15, and Armenia and Sweden
13 each.
The total number of women in the Club is 349 and of men 671.
The grouping of members according to continents is as follows : North
America 422, Asia 287, Europe 255, South America 54, Australia, New
Zealand, and Pacific Islands 12, Africa 10.
The religions represented are Brahmanism, Buddhism, Christianity,
Confucianism, Judaism, Hinduism, Jainism, Mohammedanism, Zoroastri-
anism. Of the Christian churches the following are represented : Catholic.
Christian Science, Greek Orthodox, Gregorian, Nestorian, Protestant* and
Quaker.
The wonderful new home center on Riverside Drive, provided through
the generosity and international-mindedness of Mr. and Mrs. John D.
Rockefeller, Jr., was opened in September, 1924.
International House the new home for this fourteen-year-old work
while architectually one building, is in reality three buildings with sep-
arate walls, under one roof. There is the Dormitory for Women, with 125
rooms; the Dormitory for Men, with 400 rooms; and the Club or activities
portion of the building to be used by both resident and non-resident mem-
bers. In this third section are the Social Rooms, the Assembly HaN,
Refectory, and athletic equipment. The building was under construction
274 THE FOREIGN STUDENT IN AMEEICA
for two years and its cost, including land and furnishings, is over two and
one-half millions.
While closely identified with the tmiversities and other educational
institutions and with agencies engaged in furthering international under-
standing and good-will. International House is separately incorporated
under a liberal charter which will enable it to carry on its program of inter-
national service free of any educational, religious, or political bias.
The Cosmopolitan Club now has a large and active American member-
ship. This will be increased in International House, on a resident and
non-resident basis, for it is recognized as obvious that the objects sought
require the hearty and unselfish support of a large number of American
students and friends. While International House will be a miniature world
with all races, all nationalities, all religious, each with its particular point
of view, inheritance, and traditions, it will also be to no inconsiderable
degree an American University Union metropolitan, national, interna-
tional in scope open to men and women interested in furthering the
objects for which it stands.
What are these objects? Broadly speaking, there is only one "That
Brotherhood May Prevail" This is the inscription carved over its main
entrance. It is the universal longing to-day of every human heart that has
a mind large enough to grasp the tragedy of the present world.
Mr. Bockef eller, at one of the Sunday suppers, has stated the ideal and
purpose of this whole undertaking. "Prevail where in the United States ?
In America? But this, we must remember, is International House, the
home of all nations; hence the meaning is clearly that international brother-
hood may prevail. That Brotherhood may prevail throughout the world.
International House, the home of all nations, rising majestically above the
greatest city in the world, standing for the brotherhood of man and the
fatherhood of God, shining forth as a beacon light to guide humanity into
the safe harbor of world brotherhood, proclaiming to mankind the gospel
of peace on earth and good-will toward men."
There are three principal ways in which International House will
endeavor to carry out its great purpose. First it will be a student move-
ment. Youth is crying out for expression. It wishes to play its part in
the new tides of thought that are abroad in the world. It is not content
to wait to take the reins from the older generation without having tested its
own wings. In the membership of this building there will be a commu-
nity whose citizens may test out and see if there be any good in such words
as Responsibility^ "Work," "Service/* "Truth," "Justice," "Brother-
hood," when applied to a community that is really a replica of the world
itself.
International House, in the second place, will be an educational under-
EFFORTS ON BEHALF OF FOREIGN STUDENTS 1375
taking. From the point of view that "a university is not a place where
everything is taught, but one to which every one may come/' it will be a
world university. Charles Lamb is reputed to have said to a friend whom
he was dining at his London Club, "Do you see that fellow over there ? I
hate him." "Who is he?" said his friend. "I don't know," said Lamb.
"That' s why I hate him." This well illustrates the educational problem
and opportunity of International House. Out of the wholesome student
activities the bumping of physical elbows in friendly rivalry in the ath-
letic equipment, and the intellectual give and take of friendly intercourse
will come about an educational process that will make itself felt in many
lands.
Something like this happened in Paris nearly a thousand years ago.
The fame of Abelard, a scholar of great learning, drew students to Paris,
from all over Europe. They came in such numbers, and most of them
had so little money that they were obliged to construct rude huts in the
suburbs, of mud and fagots. They came out of the darkness of the Middle
Ages. They listened to the lectures of the renowned monk. Then they
talked things over amongst themselves. The knowledge which they de-
rived from one another in their rude huts became the light of a common
understanding. Upon returning to their various countries, they passed
this light to their fellow countrymen and soon the ignorance and prejudice
of the dark ages gave way to the dawn of the age of learning. The Renais-
sance had come ! May not something similar take place in our day from
within the four walls of International House? As steel and stone are
stronger than mud and fagots, so may we take courage to believe that
International House may influence a world as the pupils of Abelard influ-
enced a continent.
In the third place this will be a spiritual movement. Not in the rivalry
of the adherents of different sects or religions, each trying to prove his
the best, but in the spirit of reciprocity, each loving his own, and trying
to see the good in his neighbor's. It will be a spiritual movement as it gives
its members the opportunity to evaluate truth, brought from the ends of
the earth, in the laboratory of human experience. They will learn, what-
ever the color of their skin, however ancient their cult, that no man, or
group, or nation has a copyright on truth. They will test great world
forces by this word. Applied to international affairs, they will hardly be
able to escape the conviction that war is murder, "spheres of influence"
are stealing, "propaganda" is lying; and in the realm of religion, that
adherents of time-worn phrases will not bring together a world for fellow-
ship and service.
Thus, as a student movement, an educational undertaking, and a
spiritual enterprise, International House has a promising future. Does
276 THE FOKEIG3ST STUDENT IS AMEBICA
it not give us faith in the possibilities of kindness and good-will when we
see how a morning greeting can develop into an opportunity for world
friendship ?
INSTITUTE OP INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION
By STEPHEN P. DUGGAN, PH.D., Director
The Institute of International Education was organized in February,
1919, by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace to be its organ
for the development of international good-will by means of educational
agencies. It is instrumental in bringing to this country distinguished
scholars, educators, and university professors from all the countries of the
world whom it circuits among our colleges and universities to deliver lec-
tures in all the fields of scholarship, but particularly in those which will
enable our people better to understand the institutions, culture, and civiliza-
tion of the other countries. likewise^ it has assisted American professors
on sabbatical leave to accept invitations from foreign universities to spend
their leave in lecturing at those places.
One of its most important functions is to secure fellowships for foreign
students who are eager to study in their special fields at American uni-
versities and for American students to do likewise in foreign universities.
It is essentially a clearing-house of information and advice concerning
things educational in foreign countries for Americans and concerning
things educational in the United States for foreigners. It has been of the
greatest service to teachers and students by giving them letters of introduc-
tion to people in the country to which they may be going and in providing
foreign teachers and students with letters of introduction to the universities
in which they will study or lecture in this country. The Institute has
correspondents in most of the countries of the world from whom it receives
reports concerning educational movements in those countries and to whom
it sends reports concerning activities in our own country.
One of the ways in which it has been instrumental in removing irrita-
tion has been in helping American institutions to evaluate the degrees of
foreign countries and to advise foreign countries of the evaluation of
institutions of education in our own country which measure up to different
standards. It also has been very successful in holding conferences on
particular problems of education, for example, a conference on the place
of the returned Chinese student in Chinese life.
In order to inform foreign students and teachers of conditions in the
United States the Institute has published:
"Guide Book for Foreign Students in the United States/'
"A Bibliography on the United States for Foreign Students."
EFFOBTS ON BEHALF OF FOBEIGJST STUDENTS 277
The above booklets enable Mm to secure his proper orientation here. It
has similarly provided the American students with:
"Opportunities for Higher Education in France/'
"Opportunities for Graduate Study in the British Isles,"
"Opportunities for Higher Education in Italy/'
"Fellowships and Scholarships Offered to American Students for Study
in Foreign Countries and to Foreign Students for Study in the United
States/'
The Director publishes every year an annual report which describes the
activities of the Institute during the previous year.
STUDENT VOLUNTEER MOVEMENTS
By BTJBTOIT ST. JOHK,
Formerly Candidate Secretary, Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions
At the present time there are four major Student Volunteer Movements.
They are those of Great Britain, the Near East, China, and North America.
In addition to these there are a number of similar movements numerically
minor, or developed in lesser areas so that they are not of prime signifi-
cance in the various Student Movements.
In all of these the relation between the Student Volunteer Movement
and the international migrations of students is incidental rather than
primary. This relationship is found first in the tendency of these move-
ments to put emphasis upon thorough training for missionary service, and
secondly in Great Britain and North America by way of recognition of
student groups from other countries as a peculiar field for the development
of international friendships.
THE STUDENT VOLUNTEER MOVEMENT IN CHINA. The Student Volun-
teer Movement in China is a movement for the ministry, which relates it
simply to men students. It is under the aegis of the Chinese National Com-
mittee of the Young Men's Christian Association. Its relation to Chinese
students who go to other countries for training is secondary only. It does
not financially aid or do other than encourage its members to get the best
possible training for their work in the Christian ministry in their own land.
In doing this, however, it does lead indirectly to a good many students'
going abroad for additional training, especially those who have been tried
out by actual experience in their own land.
THE STUDENT VOLUNTEEE MOVEMENT IN THE NEAR EAST. The Student
Volunteer Movement in the Near East is an independent movement and
includes in its membership those who purpose to give their lives to any type
278 THE FOKEIGN STUDENT IN AMEEICA
of Christian service. Thus it includes both men and women. It is the
youngest of the Student Volunteer Movements, and in its relation to
student migrations its position is analogous to that of the Student Volun-
teer Movement for the Ministry in China.
THE STUDENT VOLUNTEER MOVEMENT IN GREAT BRITAIN. The Student
Volunteer Missionary Union in Great Britain at the present time is not
an independent movement hut is an element in the British Student Chris-
tian Movement. As such its members function so far as general religious
activities are concerned, including that of work for and with students from
other lands, through the Student Movement. There are evidences, how-
ever, that the members of the Student Volunteer Missionary Union take a
particular interest in the work which is done by the Christian Movement
for students from other lands. This is a normal outgrowth of the purpose
to give one's life to foreign missionary service.
It has no relation whatever officially either to the encouragement of
students from other lands to come to Great Britain for study or to the
supervision of any Christian work that is done among those who do come.
THE STUDENT VOLUNTEER MOVEMENT IN AMERICA. As a national
organization the Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions is
independent, but it recognizes clearly that its membership should function
through the Christian Associations. In this way its situation is not differ-
ent from that of the Student Volunteer Missionary Union of Great Britain.
SOME CONSTRUCTIVE SUGGESTIONS
CHAPTER IX
SOME CONSTRUCTIVE SUGGESTIONS
THE first section of this chapter contains practical suggestions and coun-
sel originally intended to appear in preceding chapters of the volume. In
many places those who have contributed to the foregoing chapters made rec-
ommendations as to how the situations which they have been describing
might be remedied and changed for the better. The Editorial Committee
has selected certain of the most interesting and valuable of these comments
and they are given in the concluding chapter of this survey, the title of the
chapter from which they have been chosen being indicated.
The last section contains comments by representative American leaders
interested in the problems before the survey. These statements were made
in answer to the question : "How can foreign students be enlisted and made
most useful in the work of the Christian Church and in the cause of
international friendship, and where does the primary responsibility rest
for this work among them?"
There are doubtless certain duplications in the pages that follow, but
the Editorial Committee has felt that because of the varying sources from
which the material has come and of the difference in viewpoint of the
writers, the statements that follow justify their inclusion in the chapter.
THE INFLUENCE AND CAREERS OP EETURNED STUDENTS IN THEIE HOME-
LANDS
From China. In the first place, the caution is given that the students
should not be allowed to go to the United States too young. Prom other
sources the opinion has been expressed that a safe rule is for them to come
as post-graduate students rather than as under-graduates. A Chinese re-
turned student himself writes : "Send them out after they are about thirty
years old or after they have gone through college in China or have had an
equivalent education. Do not send them out too young."
A vice-president of one of our best known universities in China writes :
"It has been our policy to urge upon students the completion of college
courses in China leading up to special lines; then, following college, the
281
888 THE FOREIGN STUDENT IN AMEEICA
securing of definite practical experience in their specialties for two or three
years in China before going abroad for post-graduate study. Post-graduate
study should be intensive work along the line of their specialty, with time
allowed for travel and observation of American home-life and institutions,
but their special studies should be on those problems developed in China
and not in general post-graduate work on American problems/ 5
In the second place, the need of the returned students' emphasizing
the principle of practical service is pointed out. "They need (a) a phi-
losophy of life based upon common sense and service to mankind; (b)
emphasis on character; (c) more practice than theory. Students must
observe more, labor more, read less, and theorize still less/ 5 Another
writes : "Do not expect too much from them. Do not expect from them
what they can give only in circumstances other than the real circumstances
now in China."
In the third place, emphasis is placed in all the answers upon the
need of more and closer contact, both in the United States and in China,
with people of true Christian character and with Christian groups : "Close
cooperation with the Committee on Friendly Relations and the local
Y. M. C. A/' "Definite connection with individuals who will introduce
them to the best ideals, institutions, and Christian friends." "Get them
in contact with the best people abroad while there/' "More personal
attention to students while in Western lands; entertainment in Christian
homes. Many never see the home life in America/'
From Latin America. Correspondents recognize that the present situa-
tion is not at all satisfactory, since there are far too many tragedies con-
nected with the student migration and far too few complete victories.
One correspondent says that only those students who have finished
basic courses should be encouraged to come to the United States. Such
would be older in years and experience and would be more competent of
judging the new environment in which they would find themselves in this
country. But the best results will come through earnest, sane work
done with these same students who are among us. Some way must be
devised to reach them and put before them the real situation ip this country
in such a manner as to gain their confidence and esteem. There should be
strong, experienced men and women t whose sole duty would be that of
meeting these young people on their arrival
From the Near East. The following suggestions may be helpful in get-
ting better results from this student migration:
Encourage those to go to America who are above twenty and who seek
specialized forms of education which cannot possibly be secured at home.
Forewarn the poor, especially those who expect to earn all their living.
Create facilities for establishing closer touch with American families,
SOME CONSTRUCTIVE SUGGESTION'S 283
church, and Christian institutions, and inspire them with duty to their
native land.
Grant scholarships with express understanding that recipients should
return to their homeland.
The Committee on Friendly Relations of the International Y. M. C. A.
or the Institute of International Education should establish an office in
the Near East to look after the interests of these students before they
leave their homeland. The need for such an office is especially urgent to
facilitate the obtaining of passports for the students. Although the stu-
dents are exempt by immigration laws from quota limitations, yet they are
constantly facing the greatest difficulties and delays in getting proper
permits to come to America.
The governments of the Near East should appoint abroad representa-
tives to look after the interests of their students.
From the Philippines. The following suggestions concerning ways to
get best results from these student migrations are quoted from the findings
of the Filipino committee on survey of foreign students :
It is suggested that in the colleges and universities of America there
exist what might be known as Heads or Deans of foreign students who will
assist to minimize the snobbery to which they are subjected, and to show
them more of the best of American family life. America herself ought
to be more careful of the types of men and women she sends out to other
countries. These ought to typify in their life, in their conduct, in their
dealings, the true spirit of America and should show less of the false
pride which they are apt to entertain about their alleged superiority.
More thoroughgoing Christians, broad-minded and liberal, should be sent
to the Philippines and other countries in the Far East, to counteract the
bad influence left by drinking Americans and by purveyors of vice. More
Americans of spiritual depth should be sent to counteract the influence of
some American business men inclined to be too materialistic, thus giving a
false perspective to the people who judge America by the conduct of Ameri-
cans whom they see. There should be more spirit of comradeship on the
part of American students and foreign students. The Cosmopolitan Club
movement is a good example of movements of portentous possibilities in
this respect.
The following comments may also be made as to means of promot-
ing good-will and understanding between the United States and the
Philippines :
There is a popular recognition of the need of a much wider dissemina-
tion of facts regarding conditions in the Philippines. People in America
are on the whole ignorant about the Philippines, and in order that a better
understanding between the two peoples may be brought about they must
know more of each other. This can be done by unbiased publicity, lee-
284 THE FOREIGN STUDENT IN AMEEIOA
tares on the Filipinos and their country, "National Nights" in churches,
Cosmopolitan Clubs, and other organizations. Other suggestions given
are: the granting of Philippine independence or a clearer definition of
the American policy toward lie Philippine government; social intercourse
and friendship; exemplary life on the part of every Filipino in this coun-
try; promotion of friendly relations through the American homes; better
trade relations; sympathetic understanding of one another and the recog-
nition of desirable qualities in each other's civilization; more Christian
attitude toward one another.
By virtue of their inheritance from Spain, people in the Philippines
are largely Western in their mode of life. Parties, dances, and other forms
of social activity are part and parcel of the Filipino social life. The
Filipino student who comes to America, therefore, has the background
which readily fits him into the social life of the American people. His
opportunities for participation in the social life of the campus, however,
are conditioned by many factors, among which are the following:
The interest of such campus organizations as the Y. M. C. A. and the
Y. W. 0. A. in promoting friendly relations among foreign students.
Where this interest is lacking foreign students do not find much oppor-
tunity for social contact with one another. Here opportunity for social
contact depends chiefly on such functions as programs, games, etc., and
most of those in attendance are students from other lands. Only a few
Americans attend. Games and programs, however, do not always satisfy
the social craving of the Filipino students, most of whom are fond of
dancing. Big annual banquets for foreign students, to which Americans
are invited, are given by some local Young Men's Christian Associations,
such as in Chicago, the University of California, Boston, Seattle, and other
places. Under the auspices of the Y. M. C. A. students have been
invited into American homes.
The presence and activity of a Cosmopolitan Club on the campus.
Such a club usually gives programs, international nights, dances, recep-
tions, etc., which afford its members the opportunity to widen their
acquaintance and promote their social welfare. Unhappily, however, some
Cosmopolitan Clubs are conducted on a fraternity basis, thus limiting
their membership to but a portion of the foreign student body on the
campus. When the local Cosmopolitan Club is active, foreign students
find ample opportunity for social contact not only with foreign students
but with Americans as well. The Intercollegiate Cosmopolitan Club in
New York City is rendering service along social lines to hundreds of
foreign students in the city.
The existence of a local Filipino organization particularly when such
organization has a club house where students may find opportunity for
SOME CONSTBUCTIVE SUGGESTIONS 885
social activities. Tea parties are often given to which professors and other
American friends are invited. Dances by such an organization are not
uncommon. Students not having a local organization or a Cosmopolitan
Club where dances are given find no chance to participate in regular
campus dances. The general desire of Filipino student organizations to
own club houses is due to the recognition of the social opportunities af-
forded in such club houses.
The presence of American "mothers' 5 or friends such as those who have
taken a special interest in the welfare of Filipinos in some universities
and cities. These "mothers" have opened their homes for the students
to come and feel at home; they have been instrumental in bringing the
Filipino students to come into contact with the best types of Ameri-
cans. Students are often comforted by the presence of a real friend in
a community. Employment is often secured by such friends, counsel
given to newcomers, etc. These "mothers" are earnest Christians and
their influence upon the students on religious matters is of the most
elevating kind, and no doubt they have kept the religious life of most
of the students on a high plane.
When the question is asked what Filipino students need most while
in the United States, "facility for employment" is the answer given by the
majority. Many also put down "Christian influence" and contact with
"good Americans/* Following are other needs suggested: friendship and
sympathy, wholesome association, home life, "square deal/' good sur-
roundings, recreation or proper use of leisure time.
THE FOREIGN- STUDENT AOT> AMEBIOAN LIFE
Practical Suggestions. Among the positive suggestions offered for over-
coming racial discrimination we find the following:
Deans of women, sororities and fraternities, and Young Men's and
Young Women's Christian Association cabinets must give more time and
thought to removing prejudice from social relations; foreign students
should be urged not to worry over fancied slights and to make allowance
for American provincialism. Special functions arranged by foreign stu-
dents should be loyally supported by Americans.
It is urged that the foreign students should have opportunity to serve
as well as to receive. Indigenous movements, such as the Chinese Students'
Christian Association, should in every way be encouraged and more of the
ablest foreign students should be assembled in week-end retreats and con-
ferences in which they are the chief participants. Those who are acceptable
speakers and writers should be given adequate opportunity for expression
through Sunday School and Association groups, Young People's Societies,
public schools, and dubs.
286 THE FOREIGN STUDENT IN" AMEEICA
In the work of the Christian Associations they should hold office and
have regular duties as equal co-partners with American students. Repre-
sentative Christian homes should be open to foreign students where they
may meet influential members of the community. Civic organizations, clubs,
etc., should be encouraged to invite foreign students from time to time to
participate in their programs Nothing can take the place of a little
group of sympathetic people in each community who are determined to
live out the Golden Bule in all of their relations with the foreign students.
Special attention should be given to those students who are ill and dis-
couraged; the genuineness of our Christian profession is best tested not
by our attitude toward the strong and well-to-do in times of prosperity
but by our treatment of the weak and unfortunate in times of adversity.
The economic condition of many students is a cause of much worry and
racial bitterness; it continues to be difficult for certain foreign students
to obtain any kind of employment by which to pay part of their expenses.
Such students, refused repeatedly by boarding houses, private families,
offices, and factories, naturally conclude it is because of their foreign
nationality. Responsible persons should make a study of the economic
status of foreign students and of the possibilities of part-time employment
for all who may require it A determined effort should also be made
to see that engineering and other technical students from abroad have
adequate opportunity, after graduation, for gaining knowledge and experi-
ence in factory, bank, railroad, or other business or industry for which they
are training; no single service that we might render would do more to
make a favorable impact upon the hundreds of students from other lands.
Another very great service would be to make sure that all students
before leaving their homeland are fully advised regarding possible un-
pleasant experiences abroad. Let the foreign student know that there is
much un-Christlikeness in the social, moral, and religious life of Western
peoples. They should be told frankly that racial and color prejudice
prevail even among Christian people and are often manifested in dis-
courtesy and discrimination in restaurants, hotels, barber shops, theaters,
and public meeting places; that many of the people whom they will meet
in the West are more or less ignorant concerning the culture, history, and
customs of Oriental people and are likely to appear rude and ask many
silly questions. Some Christian Americans may even regard the Oriental
student as an intruder and may treat birn accordingly. Again we must
persist in telling the Oriental student that he will find much difficulty in
gaining access to business and professional opportunities; American banks,
industries, hospitals, and schools are often reluctant to admit the Oriental
student, no matter how sorely he needs employment and an opportunity
to complete his training as a clerk, artisan, interne, teacher, or preacher.
SOME CONSTRUCTIVE SUGGESTIONS 387
In many communities people will stare at the "foreigner" as an object
of curiosity or will extend hospitality in a patronizing manner. This leads
to the suggestion that we increase our efforts to see that each foreign
student is treated as one of our own students, naturally and without
ostentation.
Still another service to be performed is the explanation and interpre-
tation of the plan and program of Western Churches. Competent persons
should answer the questions that crowd the mind of the student from
abroad. Why are there so many denominations? By what processes are
missionaries recruited, trained, and sent forth? What efforts are Western
church people making to overcome racial prejudice, materialism, industrial
hardships, the curse of war? Has the Church any relation to modern
social, economic, and political questions ? What are the history, aims, and
achievements of the Young Men's Christian Association, the Young
Women's Christian Association, the World's Student Christian Federa-
tion, and the Student Volunteer Movement ? Concerning these and similar
vital questions, the Oriental student should have satisfying answers; he
should not be allowed to remain ignorant or prejudiced regarding the
objective, methods, and results of the Christian Church and its varied
A wider fellowship between Christian and non-Christian students must
be created; the students from non-Christian peoples should be encouraged
to make their distinctive contribution to such fellowship.
Some questions which might well be asked for our guidance in seeking
to serve the foreign student are: With what type of Christianity is he
acquainted ? Is his physical and economic condition such as to permit him
to give thorough consideration to the claims of Christ upon his life?
Is he willing to be fair-minded in forming his estimate of Western civili-
zation? If he is not a Christian, is he living up to the highest ideals
of his faith? Are his chief difficulties with religion moral or intellectual?
Is he willing to make an experimental test of the teachings of Jesus?
Let him bring forward with the utmost candor his reasons for not
accepting the Christian way of life ; in turn let him hear and observe the
most forceful apologetic that can be presented by word and life from
Occidental Christian students; together let these students discover the
things they have in common and let them unite in every possible form
of service that will build a better world.
THE FOEEIGN STUDENT AOT THE ATVTRRTOAJT COLIEGE
Need for Study of Economic Problems. The conditions revealed cover
a wide range of experience, difficult to present in small compass. There is
no simple statement of the factors involved. The story runs all the way
288 THE FOREIGN STUDENT IS AMERICA
from that of luxurious living through proffered self-help in more ways than
are accepted, to pathetic cases of the inability of students to find any kind
of work (especially women) and to tragic cases of suffering and sacrifice.
There is need for more thorough study of the most intimate sort. There
should be more generous help on the part of our institutions: not to
pauperize, but to lend assistance to worthy young men and women. At this
particular stage of the world's history when poverty and dire need stalk
through many nations, our people who now control a large proportion of
the banking power of the whole world might well extend more generous
help to our brothers of other races. They come and see our immense
material development, its creative ability, its vigor, its worship of muscle
and physical strength and health. How can we achieve so much and be
callous to the desires and needs of these thousands of young people from
other lands who want an American education?
How to Offset Racial Antipathy. There should be suggested ways of
offsetting the insidious nationalistic American propaganda in a sinister
section of the press, the creature of bias and ignorant blindness. One
student summer conference advocates "the awakening of students' hearts
and minds to the impelling problems of international, inter-racial, and
industrial relationships, and the un-Christian aspects of our present social
life, in order that a greater number of students shall engage in creative
thought and constructive leadership in solving these problems."
These students urge increase of interest in the missionary enterprise
(Student Volunteer Conventions), and forums under competent leader-
ship of men of other races.
Another student forum endorses the statement of the Federal Council
of Churches:
We believe that nations regarding themselves as Christian have special
international obligations.
We believe that the spirit of Christian brotherliness can remove every
unjust barrier of trade, color, creed, and race.
We believe that Christian patriotism demands the practice of good-
will among nations.
We believe that international policies should secure equal justice for
all races.
We believe that all nations should associate themselves permanently for
world-peace and good-will
We believe in international law, and in the universal use of inter-
national courts of justice and boards of arbitration.
We believe in a sweeping reduction of armaments by all nations.
We believe in a warless world, and dedicate ourselves to its achievement.
The Friendship Fund, the World's Student Christian Federation, and
the new courses on tftf lnternationalism and War," "Race Relationships,"
SOME CONSTRUCTIVE SUGGESTIONS 289
"World Economic Problems," and "TTouth and Renaissance Movements,"
and such agencies and influences can help to create that fellowship in
Christ which will demand racial unity. The colleges and universities of
America acting through their organized Christian associations must not
be found perpetuating an old fear, but must proclaim a new evangel of
actual brotherly love for all years to come.
ORGANIZED EFFORTS ON BEHALF OF FOREIGN STUDENTS
Student Young Men's Christian Associations. It appears that most
Student Associations are doing very well in ministering to the immediate
needs of foreign students upon arrival, sometimes giving them special
attention, but usually serving in the same manner as they serve American
students. The question should be raised whether more financial aid ought
not to be available for them m emergencies and for short terms. Also
whether much more responsibility should not be assumed for introducing
the new student to wholesome friends in the student body and the com-
munity, and relating him to activities that will safeguard character in the
early critical days. This lays the obligation upon the Friendly Relations
Committee at New York of furnishing advance information regarding
students, so that the student secretary and Christian foreign students of
the group can immediately build a wall of good influences around the
newcomer. There is apparent at once the advantage of having persons
who are shepherding student groups to whom the newcomer can be related
without delay, and who will give him among other things the touch of
home. '" " ' ^^^fl"
It is quite dear that much remains to be done toward identifying
students with the Church, its fellowship and activities, and to a less ex-
tent, to the religious program of the Student Associations. There is a
marked lack of personal effort, the winning of men through proved friend-
ship and community of interests.
The question also arises whether there should not be much more of
special activities for the national groups, particularly Bible classes, dis-
cussion groups, prayer and personal-work bands. The international prayer
group, demonstrated so successfully at one university, might be maintained
in numerous places. Special campus religious efforts in behalf of foreign
students might be multiplied.
Most Associations have not seriously undertaken the attempt to relate
foreign, students to the hospitality of good homes. They have not been
willing to pay the price in personal friendship and in devising more or
less methodical means of relating students to families. Often care has
not been used in selecting homes where there is sincere friendship and a
desire to cultivate a permanent relation with the student. Sometimes
290 THE POBBIGN" STUDENT IS AMEEICA
wealthier homes have been chosen largely for show purposes. A good
average of American life should be revealed. The reports indicate a few
persons who are specializing in foreign students, but there are scores of
others, and some of these men and women are ministering to the deepest
needs. The "group shepherd" is doing more for the foreign student than
anybody else, and appears to be taking the place that might be held by the
Association secretary. The average student is within a private house
very infrequently, though he needs this touch at least once a month.
It is quite clear that much remains to be done toward identifying
students with the Church. There is a marked lack of personal effort on
the part of secretaries and Association leaders as well as Christian foreign
students themselves. The failure of the Association seems to be in not
having consistent methods of creating and maintaining interest in the
services, fellowship, and service program of the churches, and in not being
willing to pay the price of personal friendship with students which will
develop common interests and lead the student in the right direction.
Much of the responsibility for this condition rests with the churches,
with pastors and laymen alike. The problem seems to be to know how
to receive and treat strangers of other race and color, and how to give
them a part in the work of the Church.
The third seam of weakness in this respect is in the uncertain religious
life and loyalty of very many nominally Christian foreign students.
While most Associations have done something, very few appear to
have realized the great potentialities of using foreign students for addresses
before churches, clubs, and other audiences, both as a method of interna-
tional education and as a most effective channel of student self-expression.
Only a few secretaries have attempted it systematically or in any large
measure. No report has any mention of the international gospel team,
which has been so effective wherever tried; nor, with one exception, of a
team operating through the state at vacation times. Next to relating stu-
dents to homes and to churches there is no need in foreign student work
more urgent than the adequate development of this program which com-
bines as nothing else can do the values of self-expression and international
and inter-racial education.
The service of the Committee on Friendly Belations Among Foreign
Students to foreign students in the colleges might be improved in the
following ways:
Longer visits by secretaries.
Advance notice of arrival of students.
Personalization of all work.
Financial aid for work at port of Seattle.
SOME CONSTRUCTIVE SUGGESTIONS 291
Installation of more full- and part-time local secretaries.
Dissemination of information regarding work among foreign students.
Publication of a periodical in English.
Plans for following up students as they transfer to other colleges.
Closer cooperation with local student Associations.
Engagement of strongest available secretaries for Committee.
Publication of directory of foreign students.
Provision of a foreign student chairman for every cabinet.
Bringing students under best influences upon arrival.
"Let the Y's and colleges know there is such a Committee."
More tangible program.
Follow-up of students when they return home.
Service to large student groups.
Closer relations with Cosmopolitan Clubs.
Becommendation of definite activities for local Associations.
Study courses for forums and discussion groups.
City Young Men's Christian Associations. From the study of the data
furnished and from personal observations throughout the country it is
evident that a great deal remains to be done by city branches in their
dealings with these students. Ordinarily a foreign student, coming to a
city building to room, is lost in the dormitory population and is left quite
out of the current of Association activities. This is due fully as much
to himself as to the Association. Probably he does not have initial contact
with a responsible secretary who sees in him a unique opportunity to in-
vest friendship. Finding not much in common in the interests of the
average dormitory resident, he lives much to himself and acquires a
reputation for aloofness or even secretiveness. On the other hand, there
are numerous instances of students of social qualities who have become
very popular in dormitories and have taken places of leadership in the
building life.
The chief need is that when the foreign student arrives he should be
greeted and introduced by the General Secretary or some other responsible
member of the staff who will see that he is immediately made to feel at
home among the dormitory men. This student is usually hard pressed for
time to give to anything outside of his studies, but he should be asked to
take some part, however small, in the community life of the dormitory
floors.
It is very important for his own good that he be induced to have some
relation to the gymnasium, because the vast majority of foreign students
very sadly neglect their health and bodily development.
Where foreign students are attending one educational center in a com-
292 THE FOREIGN STUDENT IN AMEEICA
mumty, they are naturally to be looked after by the student Christian
Association. But when they axe scattered among numerous schools in
various parts of the city where there are no Christian Associations, it
must be recognized that the city branch has a great obligation to them.
It is usually under these circumstances that students ask to live at the
dormitories. This is an opportunity to unite them for their mutual benefit
in Cosmopolitan or other forms of international clubs; there are further
advantages in admitting to such groups a few Americans of student spirit
or type who bring the clubs into contact with representative citizens.
The one solution, after all, is the practice of sincere friendship on the part
of the Association staff and the introduction of the students in normal
ways to the life of the American people, and to homes which will exert
a wholesome influence upon them. The student should not be treated as a
foreigner, but accepted as a brother man and admitted to the ordinary
circles of daily interests and activities.
Mission Boards. Mrs. W. C. Winsborough, Secretary of the Woman's
Auxiliary of the Presbyterian Church in the United States, St. Louis,
Missouri, writes :
During my recent visit to our Mission Stations in the Orient, I was
deeply impressed with the importance of the great student problem of those
lands, and feel that the Boards at home do not quite understand the
opportunities afforded the Church through better training of the Christian
youth of the Orient. I realize, of course, the many difficulties in the way,
but some plan should certainly be evolved by which young men and women
giving promise of future leadership in our Mission work might have the
great advantage of training in America. The colleges of the South have
comparatively few foreign students and almost none who are not Chris-
tians. In this we differ from the East.
Miss Eliza P. Cobb, Secretary of the Woman's Board of Foreign Mis-
sions of the Reformed Church in America, concludes :
I have longed for this contact of our Board with our foreign students.
I have suggested the appointment of a committee of returned missionaries
(permanently returned) and other interested women to get into touch with
the increasing number of foreign students from our own institutions, but
the time did not seem ripe. I am glad you have raised the question now.
Our Domestic Board has a fine work for Japanese in this city, which I
think reaches into the colleges, but it does not send out the students from
our institutions abroad, for whom our Foreign Board ought to be respon-
sible. I shall be eager to hear the plans of the Commission and hope our
Board may cooperate in this most important undertaking.
II.
"How Can Foreign Students be Enlisted and Made Most Useful in the
Work of the Christian Church and in the Cause of International Friend-
ship, and Where Does the Primary Responsibility Eest for this Work
Among Them?"
There follow answers to the question indicated from twenty-six leaders
in education and religion in America. The name and position of the writer
are given with a heading for each quotation, which indicates the institution
or organization or method upon which, in the view of the writer, the
primary responsibility rests for the work among foreign students in
America.
Individual College Assisted "by Friendly Relations Committees
PRESIDENT JAMES R. AKGELL of Yale University
It is a matter for the individual college or university to deal with in
terms of its own conditions, and I think the most that can be done is for
some organization like the Friendly Relations Committee to keep con-
stantly stirring them up about the matter.
Student Counselors
PROFESSOR J. C. ARCHER of the Department of Missions, Yale University
Considering the comparative fewness of the foreign students in our
higher educational institutions, they ought not to be difficult to reach. In
no educational center are the men of any one race so numerous as to feel
themselves an independent community. Whenever that is the case the
problem of control is difficult indeed. The expansion of a foreign com-
munity increases the difficulty of control, not only by reason of increase
in numbers, but also because of the growth of a community consciousness.
The problem of the foreign student here in America is not that of the
immigrant in our midst, for various reasons, not the least of which is
community consciousness.
The Cosmopolitan Club idea is good, but the club is possible mainly
because there are so few men of any one race. They must all get together
to make any impression of size. The Cosmopolitan Club idea is not, there-
fore, a final solution. In the long run the men must be treated in units
of race, let us say, although the most should be made out of opportunities
294 THE FOREIGN STUDENT IN AMEEICA
offered by the "cosmopolitan" group. Cosmopolitan socials and other occa-
sions under the auspices of, for example, the Y. M. C. A. are perfectly
natural and proper avenues for influencing the foreign students in behalf
of the Kingdom of Christ in their own lands and of the attitude of their
own people toward other peoples. There is the whole effective program
of the Friendly Eelations Committee of the Associations, and its detailed
penetration into centers where the foreign students are. One wonders
if he can add anything to the provision already made by it. If I were to
attempt any additions, they would surely be only in the way of emphasis
and not of novelty.
It seems to me that the foreign student I use the singular here de-
liberately, for I have personal work in mind should be dealt with by one
who is more or less expert in the matters at stake, one who knows both
sides of the problems, his own and the foreign student's. The student is
often influenced unwisely by one who does not know the student's land
and people. Such a one advises from the American point of view neces-
sarily. There is often an uncritical sympathy on his part with political
and social aspirations of his foreign f riend. Partisan and provincial advice
should be avoided.
If I were to venture to name by way of emphasis the things which,
it seems to me, the Corn-mission conducting this survey, or the Committee
referred to above might do, the list would be as follows :
1. Get the various essential facts about the foreign student, e.g.,
his educational motive, his religious beliefs, etc. In the case of some
nationals full information is difficult to secure, but sufficient data can be
gotten.
2. Discover some teachers, officers, and students in the various centers,
who are competent to handle problems at issue. It is not a mere matter
of opening one's home, of friendliness, etc. It is primarily a matter of
discussing intelligently and disinterestedly the student's problems. We
assume the counselor to be Christian, of course. We assume also that
he is no mere propagandist or proselytizer.
3. Arrange for student and counselor to meet for the sake of get-
ting at the heart of questions involved in the evangelization of the for-
mer's homeland. This means frank and penetrating discussion in the
proper frame of mind. The method of meeting, etc., will depend upon cir-
cumstances. The counselor will see to it that the student comes to know
what American ideals are, what may be their validity, what Christianity is
in its essentials, what the missionary enterprise really is and what its ends
are, and all this and more in the light of what the real situation is of
which the student at home is a part.
Personal work of this sort is not at all impossible among a mere ten
SOME CONSTRUCTIVE SUGGESTIONS 295
thousand foreign students. It can be organized and directed from the
New York office.
Americanize the American
MR. EDWARD W. BOK, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
The more I study the field the more I am convinced that instead of
our intense anxiety to Americanize the foreign-born we might do a little
to Americanize the American. We certainly cannot hope to influence the
foreign student until we strike the right chord ourselves, and we surely
have not done so with regard to our foreign policy so far, to say nothing
of our unfair attitude on the Japanese question.
The primary responsibility for the work rests with us.
The Church and Its Agencies, through the Friendly Relations Committee
DR. SAMUEL M. CAVERT, General Secretary, Federal Council of the
Churches of Christ in America
The primary responsibility for this work among foreign students rests
upon the Church and its agencies. The work which the Churches have
been doing for more than a century in foreign missions lays upon them
a special obligation to give attention to these foreign students whose in-
fluence will be vastly greater than that of any foreign missionary whom
we may possibly send. In carrying out this responsibility, the Churches
will no doubt have to depend largely upon the Committee on Friendly
Eelations with Foreign Students. The Churches must themselves, how-
ever, cooperate in every possible way, especially by welcoming these stu-
dents into the organized life of the Church, and by bringing them into
touch with the Christian home-life of ATP erica.
Christian Homes, Churches, Y. M. C. A., T. W. C. A.
DR. STEPHEN J. COREY, Vice-President of the United Christian Missionary
Society, St. Louis, Missouri
It seems to me there are three outstanding ways in which these young
people may be reached. 1 would put first, Christian homes. I can tHnV of
no greater impact on the lives of these people from non-Christian homes.
Christian people should consider this an opportunity for world service
and take these lonely young people in and accord them the courtesy and
influence of a Christian home. In the second place I believe the local
churches in the places where these people attend universities or colleges,
should be especially alert to reach them and make them feel their interest.
Only in this way will they have a proper conception of Christianity and
296 THE FOREIGN STUDENT IN AMEEICA
the power of the Church in American life. Third, I think the Y. M. C. A.
and Y. W. C. A. can do a unique and fruitful piece of work in connection
with these students. Perhaps this would be the very best approach with*
which to begin.
Y. M. C. A., Cosmopolitan Clubs, Student Forums
STEPHEN P. DUGGAN, Ph.D., Director, The Institute of International
Education
The foreign student can be enlisted in these two causes in the various
organizations that exist in our institutions which consider these problems.
I mean, in the Y. M. C. A.'s, the Cosmopolitan Clubs, student forums, and
other organizations. It seems to me that such organizations ought to
make a definite effort to have frank discussions on the problem of inter-
racial and international relations; that members of faculties ought to be
present to lend their wisdom to the guidance of such discussions, and that
these discussions ought to result in well-organized efforts to bring about
better understanding between not merely the students of different nations,
but the peoples of different nations.
Personal Friendship, the Christian Home, the Church
DB. SHEEWOOD EDDT, Associate General Secretary, Foreign Division, The
International Committee of Young Men's Christian Associations
By reaching these strategic students while they are in America, in
personal friendship, in entertainment in Christian homes, and in definite
Christian influence in this country, as well as by following them up when
they return to their own lands, these men may be made forces for right-
eousness. I have found individual students who had been neglected,
snubbed, or otherwise hurt while m this country, who have occasionally
returned with bitterness as forces for evil in their various countries.
One Real Christian Friend
ME. HABET E. EDMONDS, Director, International House, New York
Foreign students are most likely to be enlisted and made useful in
these two causes when they are surrounded by persons with the right out-
look on the world and its needs, persons who are willing to pay the price
of being a personal friend. The students come here to study us, you and
me, and if they do not see Christianity in us and the communities in
which we live, it is nothing short of absurd to expect them to go home in
the garb of modern apostles. Moreover, upon their return they create
SOME CONSTRUCTIVE SUGGESTIONS 297
a rather effective smoke screen which is difficult for our missionaries and
teachers to penetrate. On the other hand, one real Christian friend, who
lives his religion and doesn't preach about it all the time, may be a
positive influence to more than counterbalance the negative forces which
otherwise send the students back as one of the greatest problems and
obstacles to the spread of the true spirit and teachings of Jesus.
Efforts of Christian Men and Women and Christian Organizations
MK. GALEN M. FISHER, Executive Secretary of the Institute of Social and
Beligious Eesearch
The crux of the question is the vigor and wisdom of the efforts made
by Christian men and women and Christian organizations in the United
States to make foreign students feel thoroughly welcome in the homes,
churches, and social gatherings of America. More than a general spirit of
good-will is required. There must be hard thinking and careful planning
and the assignment of responsibility for individual foreign students. At
the same time, the primary responsibility for this sort of work, as far
as organizations are concerned, probably belongs to the Friendly Eelations
Committees of the T. M. C. A. and the T. W. C. A., provided they conduct
their work in such constant and close coordination with the churches and
with other voluntary student agencies as to utilize all the available re-
sources. In any case the responsibility of the churches in the various
college communities must also be emphasized.
Student Boards of Advisers, Cosmopolitan Clubs, Churches, Christian
Homes
PROFESSOR J. A. C. HILDNER, Board of Advisers to Foreign Students,
University of Michigan
Two, perhaps three, very important means to these two important ends
should be encouraged by your commission. The organization of Boards
of Advisers to Foreign Students in all the prominent universities of the
land, and of Cosmopolitan Clubs with their specific aims of uniting the
students of all lands into brothers and sisters of the heart, should be en-
couraged. In a more specific way you should encourage the churches in
university towns to discover and reach the students from other lands,
secure attendance at services, welcome them cordially and get them to
identify themselves in some way with the church's activities. (1) I would
suggest that each church have a fund set aside for the financial and ma-
terial aid of the foreign students in their parish, because they are often
in such need, (2) The homes should be opened to these men and women,
298 THE FOREIGN STUDENT IN AMERICA
of course, tactfully, and without any suggestion of patronizing them. Work
along these lines will help to give the student from other lands and the
church that acts as host to him a feeling of world fellowship. Such a
feeling is bound to express itself in practical realities.
Y. M. 0. A. Through Friendly Relations Committee
PRESIDENT HENBY CHUBOHILL KING, of Oberlin College
I should think that the Y. M. C. A., especially through its Committee
on Friendly Belations, might naturally take primary responsibility for
this work, and I should expect that there would be a fairly cordial response
to work along these lines.
Friendly Relations Committees, Y. M. 0. A., Colleges, Churches, (md
Governments
DB. JOHN KELMAN, formerly Pastor of the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian
Church
Undoubtedly by being introduced to good social and domestic circles
in the land where they are studying, and kept in line with the best life
of that land, instead of drifting into contact with the inferior and more
dangerous element in it. The primary responsibility for this work rests
with those who have specialized in the work among them. The universities
and colleges are responsible to a certain extent. So are the churches and
the government of the land into which they come. But none of these
can take the primary responsibility. We all ought to back such agencies
as yours and the Y. M. C. A. and others of the kind, which will be willing
to accept that burden of responsibility, and to carry it out thoroughly.
Influence of Classroom, Campus, Home, Church
KENNETH SCOTT LATOURETTE, Professor of Missions, Yale University
Upon the foreign student must be brought to bear the influence of the
classroom, the home, the Church, and the campus. As a matter of prac-
tical observation I am inclined to the belief that the initiative has usually
come from the student Christian Associations. Ideally, the initiative
ought to come from the college administration, from the churches in
the university towns, and from committees of friendly citizens as well as
from student Christian Associations. So far as I have been able to observe,
however, it has usually been the men and women who are active in Chris-
tian Associations who have taken the lead either through the agency of
the Associations or as individuals. The splendid work being done in Boston
SOME CONSTRUCTIVE SUGGESTIONS 299
is led by a man who was a Student Volunteer while in college, and yon know
of the work of the committee of New Haven residents that was organized
by the foreign student secretary of the Tale Y. M. C. A. It seems to me,
however, that the Association ought to have as its objective the interesting
of as many different people and organizations as possible.
Enlistment of Returned Students in Homelands
DR. EGBERT E. LEWIS, General Secretary of the Cleveland Young Men's
Christian Association
The enlistment of foreign educated students upon their return to their
homelands should be conducted upon a national scale. As it is now, it is
haphazard and defective. In the majority of cases they are left to sink or
swim. Eeactionaries are hostile to them; reactionaries in the Church and
in the State and in the social community. It is a wonder that so many
of them preserve their Christian status. We think of what a cold douche a
student with high purpose receives in this country when he plunges into
industry or business or politics. The experience of the foreign educated
student who goes back to his nation is a thousand-fold more difficult than
that of the American student who tries to find his place in the world about
him. As far as I know, no adequate provision has been made for assimilat-
ing foreign educated men when they return to foreign lands.
Christian Forces m Colleges
DR. D. WILLARD LYON, Secretary, Foreign Division, The International
Committee of Young Men's Christian Associations
The primary responsibility for helping the foreign students in our
North American colleges rightly to understand and appreciate the basis
of the Christian religion and loyally to promote the application of Chris-
tian principles to international relationships rests, in my judgment, primar-
ily with the Christian force resident in the educational institutions in
which these foreign young men are studying.
The Government of the United States
THE BEVBBEND JAMES G. K. McCLUBB, D.D., President of McCormick
Theological Seminary, Chicago, Illinois
We endeavor to lay before our young men the desirability and even
the necessity of their going forth from us with the defined purpose in their
hearts to strengthen and develop the Church in their own lands, to indoc-
trinate their own peoples in the principles of Christian civilization, and to
300 THE FOBEIGST STUDENT IN AMEBICA
love and serve all races and all nations, irrespective of race and color, on
the face of the earth. While in no respect whatsoever would I have our
educational institutions minimize their responsibility for thus inspiring
foreign students, I am inclined to believe that the primary responsibility
for this desired work rests on what I shall designate as the Government
of the United States. Unless the whole attitude of the Government of
the United States is in line with such ideals as we endeavor to inculcate
in McConnick Seminary, our foreign students are bound to return to their
native lands lacking in enthusiasm of a high degree for the opportunities
that await them amongst their own people.
Public Attitude on International Questions in this Land; Greater
Opportunities for Service in the Church in their Lands
BISHOP P. J. McCoNNBLL of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
The primary responsibility here is a better public attitude on inter-
national questions. In their own lands the Church should give them large
chance for service.
True Christian Hospitality and Respect for Distinctive Racial
Contributions
MR. FRANCIS P. MILLEE, Secretary, Student Department, The Interna-
tional Committee of Young Men's Christian Associations
If the students from other lands who are here are to be of any use
in their own countries on their return, it will only be as the Christian
Churches, Christian educators, and Christian societies like the Associations
realize the nature of the problem and devote themselves earnestly to meet-
ing it. As far as the Associations are concerned, I feel that their greatest re-
sponsibility lies along the line of showing these men true Christian hos-
pitality. We need to do very much more in the way of inviting them into
our best Christian homes and bringing them in contact with whatever
elements of genuine Christianity there may be in the country.
Alongside of this I would stress the very great importance of our
Associations' including foreign students in their various international dis-
cussion groups in order that these groups may not deal hypothetical^
with world problems but may consider them in the presence of nationals
who personify the various issues involved. We need to do much more
than interest them in things American. If they are to preserve the best
in their own civilization and be of any use on their return, we must expect
them to make distinctive racial contributions and not attempt to assimi-
late our customs and manners of thought too readily.
SOME CONSTBUCTIVE SUGGESTIONS 301
The Church, Christian Associations, and Christian Homes
DR. RIOHABD 0. MORSE, Consulting General Secretary^ The International
Committee of Young Men's Christian Associations
They can and should be enlisted through the hospitable brotherly and
sisterly activity of church and Association members; and especially should
they be brought in friendliest touch and fellowship with the Christian
family and home.
The National Student Christian Movements
DR. JOHN E. MOTT, General Secretary, The International Committee of
Young Men's Christian Associations; Chairman, World's Student
Christian Federation; Chairman, International Missionary Council
To my mind the primary responsibility for reaching these foreign
students rests upon the various National Christian Student Movements.
In the case of the United States, this means the Student Young Men's
and Young Women's Christian Association Movements. My reason for
this view is the fact that these organizations are interdenominational, and
thus represent all the Churches. They are also international as they have
contacts with virtually all the lands from which the foreign students come.
They have specialized on this problem, not only in America, but in other
parts of the world, and have thus acquired a vast body of helpful ex-
perience.
Churches, T. M. C. A., and Christian Homes
DR. CORNEWUS H. PATTON, Secretary, Home Department, American Board
of Commissioners for Foreign Missions
I should say the primary responsibility rests upon the Church, but that
the Church might well function through the Y. M. C. A., which as an
undenominational organization specializing along the lines of work for
students and young men, should naturally lead off. More specifically, I
should say this would be the work of the foreign department of the Inter-
national Committee. Personally I have rejoiced in the splendid work
which has already been accomplished through this agency. I think you
will find the churches, in an educational sense, quite ready to cooperate and
to open their doors to these young men when invited to do so. The church
to which I belong gives an annual reception to the students from the
Far East in Boston and vicinity. Even more, I think our Christian homes
should be open to such students, and I think much could be done in this
direction if the Y. M. C. A. should organize the effort.
302 THE FOEBIGN STUDENT IN AMEBIOA
Church, Religious Agencies in Colleges, and College Faculties
MR. S. M. SHOEMAKER, J&, of the Philadelphia!! Society of Princeton
University
I should like to say, in the first place, that President and Mrs. Hibben
are both intensely sympathetic, and are leaders themselves in the work
that is being done for all foreign students in Princeton. A reception is
given annually to all such men at the President's home, where many friends
are invited in to meet them; and each student is assigned, without his
knowing it, to some home in Princeton. This family tries to keep in touch
with him throughout his college course, to make him feel that there is a
place where he is welcome, and where he may find any kind of help that
he may wish.
It is gratifying that there are more families willing to help than
students to be cared for. The Philadelphian Society cooperates in every
way in facilitating whatever work is done for these men.
It would seem to me that the primary responsibility for winning stu-
dents to Christ lies with the Church, and with the religious agencies at
work in the institutions where they serve, and indirectly with their facul-
ties; that the primary responsibility for increasing international friend-
ship lies primarily with the faculties and indirectly with religious agencies.
The College and the Church Working Through Local Ministers, 7. M. 0.
A's, and 7. W. C. A.\ and National Organizations
DR. KOBERT E. SPEER, Secretary of the Board of Foreign Missions of the
Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A.
The responsibility for helping these men rests on two bodies, the College
and the Church. The influence of the College for good is only a fraction
of what it ought to be, and in too many cases it abdicates its function of
making full men out of these students. The Church did its duty pretty
well by some of the first students who came over, but later, for a number
of years, it neglected its task. Now it is being quickened to it again. It
ought, by means of Christian homes and local Christian ministers, the
agencies of the Y. M. C. A. and the T. V. C. A. and various national in-
strumentalities, to lay out an adequate and efficacious plan to cope with this
situation, presenting at once so clear a duty and so rich an opportunity.
SOME CONSTRUCTIVE SUGGESTIONS 303
Intercollegiate Y. M. 0. A. Cooperating with Churches and Christian Homes
THE REVEREND J. Ross STEVENSON, D.D., President of the Theological
Seminary, Princeton, N". J.
As to the primary responsibility for influencing foreign students aright
during their sojourn in America, I should say that this should be placed
on the Intercollegiate Y. M. C. A. as representing all the Churches.
Through this agency the different Churches can provide hospitality and an
atmosphere of friendship. This cooperation of the Churches with the
Christian Associations is most essential. In Pnnceton not only the
churches but Christian homes have been eager to cooperate with the Phila-
delphian Society in doing everything that can be done to make foreign
students feel at home and set before them our best ideals.
The Church in Cooperation with the Young Men's and Young Women's
Christian Associations and the Home
THE REVEREND DR. JOHN TIMOTHY STONE, Minister, Fourth Presbyterian
Church, Chicago, Illinois
In my judgment, all churches should in every possible way extend to
foreign students a most cordial welcome and make the effort to reach
those in the city by personal invitation. We have done some of this work
in our own church, first, by giving entertainments on the part of the young
people, and a general dinner inviting their free response.
We have worked in connection with the Young Men's Christian Asso-
ciation and the Young Women's Christian Association, extending such
invitations to them and with very pleasing and useful results.
I believe there should also be a very strong committee in many of our
churches who would enlist the personal interest of many institutions in
the church, thus introducing these students socially to our homes. This
after all will do more good than anything else.
Religious Organizations of University and University Towns
DR. GEORGE M. STRATTON, for President Barrows, "University of California
Oriental students can be enlisted for these causes hardly any farther
than they find our American students so enlisted. It is therefore, for this
and for other reasons, vital that in our own students there be a deeper
concern for a right religious life and for justice and order in international
affairs the world over. American students do not assume their due respon-
sibility for these larger interests ; they do not note the effect of their own
mass-conduct and individual conduct upon their foreign guests, nor the
important consequences of this effect.
304 THE FOREIGN" STUDENT IN AMERICA
At the University of California there is., I conclude, a commendable
and active interest in our foreign students by the Young Men's and the
Young Women's Christian Associations and by the Churches of the com-
munity. But this interest might well be given more life
The entire university and the community outside the university is re-
sponsible. But in a special way this responsibility must rest upon the
religious organizations of the university and the university town.
APPENDIX
APPENDIX
TABLE I
SHOWING COUNTBIES OF ORIGIN OF FOBBIGN STUDENTS IN THE UNITED STATES FOB
THE ACADEMIC YEAB 1923-24. Reprinted by Courtesy of the Institute of Inter-
national Education
27
22
34
2
231
31
3
89
708
96
8
2
4
5
1
1
198
18
10
58
1
12
52
591
67
181
11
24
391
6
38
3
30
1
97
12
52
58
36
25
36
4
15
13
5
34
6,988
Abyssinia
. . . . 1
Holland
Africa * ...
6
Honduras
Af prh *^T| ifttan
2
Hungary ... .
Alaska
Albania
Algeria . .
Arabia
Argentina
Armenia
Asia Minor *
Australia
Austria
Azerbaijan
2
5
1
2
33
101
7
. . 25
21
1
Iceland . ...
India
Ireland
Isle of Cyprus .
Italy . .
Japan . .
Korea
Latvia . . . . .
Liberia
Lithuania
Azores
Belgium
2
28
g
Macedonia . .
Malay States . .
Marshall Islands
Bolivia
Brazil
British Guiana
British West Indies
Bulgaria . . .
Burma
Canada
Canal Zone . .
Central America *
Ceylon
19
52
. . 13
90
. . 23
3
. . 684
. . 6
9
. . . . 3
Mexico
New Zealand
Nicaragua
Norway .
Orange Free State . .
Palestine . . . . .
Panama ...
Paraguay ... ...
Persia . ....
Peru . .......
Chile . . .
China
Colombia
Costa Rica
33
. 1,467
.34
13
Philippines . . .
Poland . ....
Porto Rico
Portugal .
Cuba ....
139
38
Roumania
Russia . ...
Denmark
37
Salvador
Dominican Ifoyp
5
Scotland r ...... T
Dutch East Indies .
Ecuador ....
. . 19
. . . 9
Sierra Leone . ...
Siam ... . ...
25
England
Esthonia
Finland . .
Formosa
France
Georgia
. 170
. . 4
15
2
. . 126
3
South Africa . . .
South America *
Spain ... . . .
Sweden . . . .
Switzerland .
Syria ... ...
Germany . . .
Gold Coast .
78
.... 2
Turkey . ....
Ukraine . .
Great Britain *
11
TTnuniftv ..... r
Greece
103
Guam
. . . . 2
Wales .
Guatemala
18
Yugoslavia
Haiti
.... 4
Hawaii ....
.... 85
Total**
* Specific country not designated.
** Students in secondary and trade school* not included
Note Then were 849 girl* reported and 019 graduate students.
307
308
THE FOREIGN STUDENT IN AMERICA
TABLE Ha
MAJOR COTJBSES OF STUDY BY NATIONALITIES. RETURNS PROM OVER 400 COLLEGES
AND UNIVERSITIES FOR THE ACADEMIC YEAR 1922-23. Reprinted by courtesy of
the Institute of International Education.
1
!
j
i
g
I
1
1
.
t
&
1
Country
^
JS
1
g
s
|
"i
i
c
"g
E!
|
g
jg
i
^
i
1
1
I
1
i
i
I
I
i
4
J
3
t-3
i
1
1
1
Abyssinia
.
.
i
..
.
m
.
1
Africa*
p
1
.
,
.
3
1
5
Albania . .
2
.
1
]
4
Algeria . .
.
m
t
.
B
, 9
.
. .
1
. .
i
2
Arabia
1
1
Argentina .
4
1
f
1
1
t
34
8
*;
5
57
Armenia
7
4
1
2
11
f
" 3
30
.
1
6
21
92
Asia Minor * . .
1
3
1
1
6
Australia . . .
1
3
10
r
3
\
i
...
5
3
5
6
39
Austna
m
1
.
3
1
,
m
.
"i
8
1
t
10
25
Azores . . .
1
B
t
m
B
. t
m ^
1
Belgium . . .
1
1
f f
]
8
i
.
20
,
1
12
45
Bermuda . . .
.
. .
1
.
.
3
4
Bolivia
3
1
.
1
.
14
.
6
1
]
2
2
31
Brazil ....
6
o
<&
2
4
]
22
.
i
12
1
5
56
British East Africa
]
.
1
British. Guiana
.
.
6
.
.
i
10
1
1
19
British Honduras
.
.
.
1
1
British West Indies
3
42
1
3
2
18
45
7
19
140
Bulgaria
1
1
4
1
9
8
7
12
34
Burma ....
B
1
5
6
Canada
25
12
9
14
140
8
35
88
3
10
4
15
216
3
69
5
48
114
827
Canal Zone
.
f
.
5
.
.
5
Central America *
.
.
2
.
.
1
1
1
1
6
Ceylon . . .
,
1
1
1
.
,
.
3
Chile
2
4
.
2
19
1
1
10
42
China ....
56
's
27
168
*5
19
54
305
2
6
24
573
5
49
5
39
146
1491
Colombia . . .
4
1
.
5
t
27
f
3
8
1
2
6
57
Costa Rica . .
1
5
4
1
7
18
Cuba ....
2
2
17
3
40
a
2
33
11
26
22
158
1
1
1
1
1
5
Czecho-Slovakia
4
2
'l
2
\
i
1
19
.
5
12
47
Denmark
]
5
2
9
1
4
16
38
Dominican Republic
5
1
2
8
Dutch Guiana
2
2
East Indies . .
.
.
8
f
I
" 6
"*12
1
1
3
1
35
Ecuador
B ,
^
1
. .
2
3
2
1
t
3
12
Egypt . . .
"ic
.
2
1
.
,
1
5
5
4
1
5
34
England
7
2
5
2
3
3
5
15
1
i
1
34
1
1
10
29
120
Esthonia .
t B
.
1
^
.
1
2
t
m
. .
2
6
Finland
% a
m
*>
1
, B
.
1
3
. .
3
5
13
Formosa
B
m
B
, t
1
.
. .
t
.
1
2
France . .
1
f
*3
2
4
2
5
3
1
85
2
1
9
26
144
Free City of Danzig
.
f
,
.
1
..
...
f
.
.
1
Germany . . .
1
1
1
1
1
5
6
.
*3
13
5
3
23
63
Gold Coast . .
2
.
f f
,
.
.
. .
1
1
4
Greece . . .
6
1
2
6
3
B
2
12
9
6
29
8
2
15
92
Guam ...
1
1
2
Guatemala . .
..
1
..
...
3
a
10
mu
1
2
" 1
3
21
Guiana .
1
1
Haiti .
..
..
...
1
.
1
1
.
1
1
5
Hawaii . .
i
1
"4
13
5
13
.,
i
"4
38
16
1
1
11
114
Holland
...
1
5
-
2
-
2
12
-
1
4
8
35
APPENDIX
TABLE II a Continued
309
Country
|
i
I
I
|
s
|
|
f
g
!
1
,
I
g
1
I
i
1
1
1
1
i
I
1
i
1
1
I
1
i
I
I
1
I
Honduras
l
5
l
5
1
6
19
Hungary
*
11
5
9
36
Iceland
1
1
2
India
24
1
5
16
8
3
8
58
i
51
6
2
" 5
28
218
Ireland
1
]
]
^
i
13
1
1
5
10
38
Isle of Rhodes
1
1
Italy .
1
j
1
4
m
2
26
6
*15
17
74
Japan
t>
5
J
51
17
10
K
62
"i
7
220
2
17
2
76
163
658
Korea
1
1
A
2
2
1
51
5
21
10
98
Latvia .
1
1
4
6
Liberia
1
m
1
3
2
7
Lithuania
4
4
1
1
e
4
16
Malay States
1
1
Manchuria
t
1
4
7
2
16
Mauritius
t
1
1
Mesopotamia
1
m
1
1
1
4
Mexico
21
3
1
r
'
1
101
5
49
14
1
2
20
232
New Zealand
1
]
1
.
]
I
4
1
2
1
17
Nicaragua
1
t
B
*3
7
]
12
Norway
.
1
1
4
23
1
11
4
1
7
5
58
Palestine
1
1
1
2
5
3
7
20
Panama
2
5
4
1
4
10
B _
2
28
Paraguay
2
,
2
Persia
1
2
7
2
"3
3
18
Peru
7
2
2
1
20
1
1
14
15
6
69
Philippines
37
3
6
63
4
2
20
136
6
4
45
191
40
6
13
73
649
Poland
2
1
1
5
3
17
1
1
3
21
55
Porto Rico . .
3
2
1
13
21
1
5
39
2
10
44
1
43
3
2
34
224
Portugal
1
2
4
1
8
Roumania
2
1
12
8
1
a
10
34
Russia
10
4
2
20
1
1
7
102
4
1
15
103
6
5
4
42
327
Salvador
m
2
2
1
1
.
1
7
Scotland
.
2
2
1
12
,
5
7
29
Siam
*2
5
1
19
.
1
7
4
.
1
3
43
Siberia .
.
3
.
10
1
1
m
1
1
17
Sierra Leone .
.
1
.
m
..
1
2
South Africa .
28
,
1
2
52
1
5
9
.
12
.
9
" 7
11
137
South America *
1
2
3
6
South Sea Isles *
f
.
."
t
.
1
.'..
1
Spain
4
5
10
11
1
1
2
13
47
Straits Settlement
m
^
. .
1
^
1
Sweden
4
4
f
2
2
2
t
1
19
2
6
22
64
Switzerland
1
1
1
3
1
3
B ^
t
B
12
6
10
38
Syria . .
.
.
1
1
1
11
m
.
2
4
a
2
i
2
5
30
Tahiti . .
.
.
B ,
1
m
B
m t
1
Tasmania
1
1
Togoland . .
1
t
.
.
.
..
.
.
1
Turkey . . .
5
3
"i
1
"l
10
.
1
.
12
3
1
4
42
Ukraine
i
4
1
1
7
15
4
19
Venezuela .
t
1
.
.
\
7
B
l
B
3
1
.
p
13
Wales .
1
"l
2
Yugoslavia .
*ii
1
5
5
*2
* 6
-
17
-
2
8
57
Total**. .
311
57
73
477
414
59
201
1382
23
16
27
175
2224
20
468
76
360
1131
7494
ide-tooated.
** Students in secondary and trades schools not included,
tfofr _ Number of foreign students reported as taldn
1246
310
THE POEEIGN STUDENT IN AMEEIGA
TABLE lib
MAJOR COURSES OP STUDY BY NATIONALITIES. RETURNS FROM OVER 400 COLLEGES
AND UNIVERSITIES FOB THE ACADEMIC YEAR 1923-24, Printed by Cow tesy of the
Institute of International Education.
Country
i
1
|
j
|
1 Education
1
I
^
1
Liberal Arts
1
1
I
EH
{
i
Abyssinia ...
!
1
Africa* . . .
i
.
.
;
6
Afghanistan .
.
;
;
2
Alaska . . .
I
.
2
Albania . . .
t
.
.
;
5
Algeria . . .
.
.
)
1
Arabia . .
;
.
;
.
. ,
2
Argentina . .
4
f
.
.
15
1
*
j
\
I
33
Armenia . .
9
.
<
2
j
13
22
.
$
4
6
26
101
A ma, Minor* .
9
.
.
B
;
7
Australia . . .
.
B
6
'
{
]
.
6
J
25
Austria . .
j
<
21
Azerbaijan . .
.
;
.
1
Azores
',
%
;
2
Belgium
,
\
;
;
8
' t
',
'
j
5
28
Bermuda
',
i
5
8
Bolivia . .
*
'
r
j
19
Brazil ....
4
;
]
;
;
17
;
1]
3
e
10
52
British West Indies
m
.
]
28
4
17
17
4
16
90
British Guiana .
9
f
A
6
t
13
Bulgaria *
' m
.
]
f t
ry
t
7
23
Burma
.
.
1
]
1
3
Canada . . .
20
f
t
6
12
92
20
59
2
8
160
2
56
t
61
170
684
Canal Zone .
f m
f
.
1
/
.
1
,
6
Central America *
f
rt
i
.
]
.
1
5
9
Ceylon . . .
m
.
.
1
^
3
Chile ....
1
1
13
7
1
10
33
China . . .
50
8
31
133
t
55
315
3
t
11
454
3
59
7
35
289
1467
Colombia . .
.
1
2
1
10
1
8
1
1
9
34
Costa Rica . .
1
,
.
.
5
2
5
13
Cuba ....
1
' 3
"l
9
4
"i
36
.
.
1
28
11
16
28
139
Czechoslovakia .
..
m
1
1
1
3
.
1
14
1
7
9
38
Denmark . .
*
,
1
4
8
1
3
18
37
Dominican Rep. .
m
t f
3
.
1
1
5
Dutch East Indies
m
.
m
6
3
1
.
5
2
2
19
Ecuador . . .
f
1
2
1
1
4
9
Egypt . . .
9
.
m
2
1
1
2
5
2
3
25
England .
3
" 2
2
16
4
12
4
50
7
1
35
34
170
Esthonia . .
1
3
4
Finland
2
6
1
1
5
15
Formosa . . .
1
1
2
France . .
"l
i
2
1
7
8
m
1
64
6
2
1
4
28
126
Georgia . . .
1
2
3
Germany . . .
1
i
3
1
4
2
30
4
5
27
78
Gold Coast .
2
m
,
.
t
2
Great Britain * .
m
m
5
6
11
Greece . .
2
tm
' 5
12
3
11
1
28
4
1
1
35
103
Guam .
.
_
m
2
t
.
2
Guatemala
m
1
2
io
2
1
m
*2
18
Haiti ....
3
1
4
APPENDIX
TABLE lib Continued
311
Country
Agnculture I
j
j
j
I
Education 1
1
f
^
1
I
!
j
f
1
,
Hawaii
2
1
4
16
5
8
6
19
16
2
6
85
Holland
1
2
3
3
8
1
3
6
27
Honduras
1
2
2
3
2
5
1
6
22
Hungary
1
1
2
1
10
2
1
7
9
34
Iceland
2
2
India
23
1
12
15
3
5
58
2
3
45
13
1
6
44
231
Ireland
1
1
2
2
9
1
12
3
31
Isle of Cyprus
3
3
Italy
2
2
3
1
7
3
26
14
1
9
21
89
Japan
5
8
10
50
20
16
59
2
2
300
28
7
73
128
708
Korea .
1
3
3
4
4
54
2
14
11
96
Latvia
1
2
2
3
8
Liberia
2
2
Lithuania
1
1
2
4
Macedonia
2
3
5
Malay States
1
.
1
Marshall Is
1
1
Mexico
22
3
1
3
6
1
90
5
36
1
9
3
2
16
198
New Zealand
2
2
4
4
1
5
18
Nicaragua
1
2
6
1
10
Norway
3
1
2
3
7
1
16
8
2
6
9
58
Orange Free State
1
.
.
1
Palestine
1
1
4
1
.
2
3
12
Panama
1
5
1
3
1
7
9
6
33
Paraguay
1
.
.
1
Persia
1
1
2
2
2
7
2
1
4
22
Peru
11
1
18
8
.
10
4
52
Philippines
Poland
22
1
4
1
63
3
3
2
29
1
123
c
3
3
26
2
179
14
48
8
3
1
8
3
76
29
591
67
Porto Rico
2
1
1
3
17
10
36
1
2
39
30
4
2
33
181
Portugal .
Roumama
1
-
2
1
8
1
8
2
1
4
1
3
3
11
24
Russia
9
4
3
19
9
6
133
8
6
89
"i
57
6
5
36
391
Salvador
t
.
.
2
.
4
.
.
6
Scotland
1
1
3
2
1
^
11
. .
3
9
5
38
Sierra Leone
9
.
.
.
2
. .
1
3
Siam
1
(
1
1
16
5
. .
2
.
.
4
30
Smyrna
South Africa
18
I
*1
29
5
11
1
1
5
10
.
'*3
*13
1
97
South America * .
e
1
4
3
1
]
12
Spain . .
Sweden
1
3
4
1
21
6
' 8
n
^
^
14
9
4
Q
40
1
10
8
14
52
58
Switzerland .
c
A
,
2
2
6
6
.
It
36
Syria ....
Turkey
4
1
4
1
1
e
\
8
ry
1
1
6
8
*
1
3
9
25
36
Ukraine
.
.
1
.
'
.
3
Uruguay .
.
9
.
j
'
13
1 K.
Venezuela
.
o
4
7
J
\
.
\
15
Wales . .
.
'
.
5
Yugoslavia
f
1
4
fl
2
7
2
34
Total***
258
48
81
389
343
208
1238
25
28
100
1966
25
510
74
363
1332
6988
* Specific country not deagnated ** Medical or pre-Medioal Courses
*** Students in secondary and trades schools not included
NaU Tbere were 849 girls reported and 919 graduate students
312
THE FOREIGN STUDENT IN AMERICA
TABLE HI
AVERAGE PERIOD OF RESIDENCE IN THE UNITED STATES ACCORDING TO RACIAL GROUPS,
As INDICATED BY STUDENT REPLIES TO QUESTIONNAIRES
207 Chinese
222 Filipinos
169 Japanese . . .
57 Koreans . .
63 Latin Americans
59 Europeans and others
2 yrs 10 mos
4
2
6
10
1
10
TABLE IV a
ATTENDANCE AT Y. M. C. A. SUMMER CONFERENCES
General Summary
ATTBN
BANGS
1921
1922
1923
1924
Asflomar . .
Blue Ridge . . . . .
EstesPark ...
Hollister
Lake Geneva
Seabeck . . .
Silver Bay
60
16
13
4
91
17
96
50
8
8
10
86
12
191
61
8
13
2
84
29
88
51
2
6
4
70
16
83
Blairstown (Prep. School)
Gibsland (Colored) .
Springfield (Latin American) .
Waveland (Col.)
1
5
20
2
Total . .
297
365
311
234
By National Groups
Country
1921
1922
1923
1924
China
105
133
105
69
Tnfjia. . ....
Japan . ...
Korea . . . . .
Latin America
Philippines . . ....
Russia
TVnfat/* f fll1p.THafVI|fl
14
39
5
30
55
2
47
19
62
5
19
37
42
48
8
64
15
29
26
17
47
20
37
11
6
25
19
47
Total
297
365
311
234
APPENDIX
813
TABLE IV b
ATTENDANCE AT Y. M. C. A. SUMMER CONFERENCES, 1923, SHOWING DISTRIBUTION
BY NATIONALITIES AND BY CONFERENCES
Country
1
"3
<j
|
S
n
6
ii
' Silver Bay i
I
1
|
Africa ....
Albania . . .
2
'i
*3
*4
'5
2
1
4
8
5
5
2
105
1
1
1
2
1
5
1
1
2
8
2
64
15
1
6
1
2
3
4
26
3
1
17
1
2
2
1
2
3
4
Armenia ....
1
British West Indies
Bulgaria
China . . .
Czechoslovakia
Cuba . .
Denmark .
France
Germany . . .
CrTa&f*(*
5
is
i
1
1
1
41
1
i
12
6
26
"i
.
i
1
1
2
1
2
1
Guam . .
|_| CLTITQ.il
1
Honduras
India ...
Italy
Japan
Korea ....
Macedonia
Mexico
2
i
i
16
2
-
5
1
1
18
2
1
3
1
1
'3
.
1
'2
2
1
..
1
24
8
1
i
1
TVT f\trgf A TT
1
IN Of way
Persia . . . .
Peru
Philippines . .
Porto Rico
Portugal .
Russia . . . .
1
1
8
-
2
3
'3
*5
*6
..
1
..
'i
8
2
4
'i
4
1
1
1
1
2
7
Siam
Sweden . . . ,
Switzerland
1
1
Uruguay ....
Total ....
61
i
S
13
5
2
84
88
20
29
311
Total number of oountnes represented, 87.
314
THE FOREIGN STUDENT IS AMEEICA
TABLE IV c
ATTENDANCE AT Y. M. C, A. SUMMER CONFERENCES, 1924, SHOWING DISTRIBUTION BY
NATIONALITIES AND BY CONFERENCES
!>nferei
aces
Country
1
I
1
&
i
Lake
Geneva
i
i
1
Waveland
1
Alaska ...
Albania .... .
1
1
1
1
Angola ... ...
1
1
Argentine ....
Armenia
1
2
1
fl
Assyria .......
1
1
Bulgaria ...
Canada . . .
China ...
Cuba
Czecho-Slovakia
Denmark
Egypt ...
Germany
Greece .
Hawaii . . .
India ...
Ireland
15
2
5
6
3
1
1
2
1
1
1
1
1
21
1
12
3
26
2
2
2
2
4
3
1
1
3
69
1
2
2
2
2
8
8
20
1
Italy
2
2
Japan
7
14
15
1
37
Korea
1
9
1
11
Mexico
1
?,
3
Philippines
Poland
6
1
7
1
7
1
4
25
2
Porto Eico ....
Rhodesia
1
1
1
2
1
Russia
3
1
8
7
19
Siam
1
1
Switzerland .
Syria
Turkey . .
1
1
1
2
1
3
1
Totals . ...
51
2
6
4
70
83
16
2
234
Total number of countries represented 30
APPENDIX
315
TABLE IV d
ATTENDANCE AT Y. W. C. A. SUMMBB COOTEKEXCES
Country
1921
1922
1923
1924
Algiers
1
Armenia
6
3
2
Austria
2
Brazil
2
Belgium
1
3
t
British West Indies
1
Bulgaria
1
Canada
1
.
Chile
2
3
.
China
36
30
18
11
Cuba
1
Czechoslovakia
6
1
Denmark
3
Ecuador
1
.
.
England
2
3
.
Finland
1
1
.
France
13
9
4
1
Germany
1
Greece
1
3
1
Hawaii
2
,
Holland
2
2
1
Iceland
1
Tndift
2
1
1
Italy
1
1
4
Japan . .
12
9
13
10
Korea
1
1
2
Latvia
2
.
Mexico
2
2
1
Norway
2
1
Persia
1
Philippines
2
3
4
1
Poland
1
2
Porto Eico
1
1
Roumania
1
.
Russia
5
3
5
8
Serbia
3
2
1
1
South Africa
1
Sweden
2
1
Switzerland
2
1
.
Turkey .
1
Total
109
91
60
44
Total number of countries represented 40
316
THE FO&EIGff STUDENT IN AMERICA
TABLE Va
ATTITUDE OF RESIDENT FOBEIGN STUDENTS TOWABD CHBTSTUNITT
4
1 1.
ill
iS3
a
Nationality
;gf|s
ill!
ml
ill
Total Christians
a|
1
S8&1
gJ8
gJs!s
Is
&
Chinese
207
90
4
29
123 =59.4 per cent, of total
73
11
answering questionnaires
Japanese
169
92
11
20
123 = 72,8 per cent, of total
45
1
answering questionnaires
Koreans
57
49
1
7
57 = 100 per cent, of total
Indians
29
8
8 =27.6 per cent of total
21
462
Totals for four Oriental groups:
Total number of students answering ques-
tionnaires ... . .
Total number of Christians
Becoming Christians at home . .
Becoming Christians in Hawaii . .
Becoming Christians in TJ. S. A, . . .
462
311 = 67.3 per cent of total recorded
239 = 76.8 per cent, of total number
of Christians
16 = 5.2 per cent, of total number of
Christians
56 = 18 per cent, of total number of
Christians
Estimates of Christians in Various Groups from Mission Lands, based upon in"
formation of Friendly Relations Committee:
Chinese ..... 30 per cent. Japanese . ... 35 per cent.
Indians ..... 12 per cent. Koreans . . . . 90 per cent.
Filipinos .... 8 per cent. Protestant
Latin Americans . . . 3 per cent. Protestant
Note: Probably 90 per cent of Filipinos and 80 per cent, of Latin Americans declare themaelvet of
Pnmftn Cathoho Christian faith
APPENDIX
317
TABLE Vb
ATTITUDE OF RETTTBNED STUDENTS TOWABD CHBISTIAOTTT
Country
or
Location
Men
Women
Average
Resi-
dence
Abroad
ATTXTUDB
Church
Relationship
Before
After
Chris-
tian
Non-
Chris-
tian
Chris-
tian
Non-
Chris-
tian
China
Antung,
Fengtien
1
13yrs
1
1
Non-member
Chef oo
6
-
3 2 / yrs.
1
5
3
3
3 reported mem-
bers
Hangchow
19
2V*yra
8
11
8
11
8 reported as
members
Harbin
25
1
6 yrs.
5
9
7
7
4 members
Paotingfu .
1
-
4 yrs.
1
1
non-member
Shanghai
23
4jyrs.
17
6
20
3
8 reported mem-
bers; 5 marked
"not definite";
10 not re-
ported
Swatow
11
1
*/*
4 6
8
4*
8*
4 reported mem-
bers and 7
non-members
Tai Yuan! u .
29
55yrs.
3
26
4
25
4 reported as
members; 24
reported as
non-members
Tsinanfu
20
-
3 S A yrs.
7
13
8
12
8 reported mem-
bers
Yunanfu ,
16
Syrs.
2
14
1
15
1 member; 15
non-members
India . .
26
62*
2
SViyrs.
11
17
13
15
13 members
Japan 4
Philippine
Tfl1<yn^fl
Bur. of Edu-
cation, Ma-
nila . .
37
6
3 yrs.
AllChr
istians
AllChr
istians
ATI members
318
THE EOKEIGN STUDENT IN AMERICA
Table V b Continued
ATTITUDE or RETURNED STUDENTS TOWAKD CHRISTIANITY
Country
or
Location
Men
Women
Average
Resi-
dence
Abroad
ATTITUDE
Church
Relationship
Before
After
Chris-
tian
Non-
Chris-
tisn
Chris-
tian
Non-
Chns-
tian
Bur Civil
Service,
Manila
116
4
4 l /yra
All: hi
istians
AllJhr
istians
All members
Univ. of Phil-
ippines, Ma-
nila
61
6
2/. yrs
tt
u
tt
tt
All members
Dept of In-
terior,
Manila.
100
3
2J*yn
it
it
tt
tt
All members
Miscellaneous
53
9
3?iyrs
it
tc
1C
tt
All members
Tripoli
5
2
3H vrs
7
7
4 members, 3
non-members
Turkey
Beirut
Amer. Univ.
69
3
3 yrs
57-
15"
50*
13
46 reported
members
Constantinople
31
Sidon
10
6/
&
4 reported mem-
bers and 2 non-
members
Smyrna *
2
Sjtfyn
1
1
2 members
Tarsus 6
Spain
Madrid
30
1
4Hyrs.
AllChr
istians
AllChr
istians
All Catholics
Brazil
Juiz de Fora
7
2 yrs.
(Of 4
2
(3stil
2
who re
2
1 in U.
1
turned
3
S)
I
1
4 repoi ted mem-
bers and 2
non-members
Lavras Agri-
cultural Col-
lege
8
l&yrs
(Of 5
3'
(3stn
who re
1
in U
3
burned
3*
so
1
3 reported mem-
bers and 2 non-
members
APPENDIX
319
Table V b Continued
ATTITUDE OP RETURNED STUDENTS TOWARD CHRISTIANITY
Country
or
Location
Men
Women
Average
Resi-
dence
Abroad
ATTTTUDB
Church
Relationship
Before
After
Chris-
tian
Non-
Chns-
tian
Chris-
tian
Non-
Chn-
tian
SSo Paulo
About
men a
wome
800
nd
n
2j^yrs
1
It
About 10 per
cent.
Costa Rica
15
13
l l /i yrs.
3 yrs
-
-
Nicaragua
Managua
20
5 yrs.
I
m
Peru
Luna
6
5 yrs.
n
(4
n
not re
n
ported
n
)
20
3 yrs
3
11
-
* Twelve not reported
* One change from Christian to non-Christian and one from non-Christian to CnnatiAn
* No details except vocations
<* No reference is made in this table to Japanese students as the assembled data covering this group
were lost in the earthciuake and fire
* Two who went abroad as Christians reported still abroad, 4 who went away as Christians not re-
ported in " Return'* column
/ Four reported Christians with no mention of time
a Many students from Turkey have stayed in United States on account of war
* Most students have been Armenians and Greeks and most of these have come from poorer 'Mjwe 8
and have had to work at least part of way through school Majority were church members Conditions
have been such that practically all our students have left for safer lands and many have reached the U.
3 A where they are studying or working. _,
* One reported non-Christian at time of going and returning with note. "Not nominally Ev. ^nr f
but such at heart "
Save some Jews all but a few were nominally Christians
* From Continental Europe they generally come back with little or no change save an accentuation
of the tendency to consider religion of no importance From England and the United States if there is
any change it is due either to dissipation or to a perception (?) of the reality of religion as a uie force.
All so-called Catholics
Just the same, with an open mind ,
One non-Christian upon arrival reported Christian upon return; one Christimn upon arrival wporwo.
non-Christian upon return.
320
THE FOEEIGN" STUDENT IN AMERICA
TABLE VI a
SUMMAET OF VOCATIONS OF RETURNED STUDENTS, AS COMPILED FROM
QUESTIONNAIRES
Career
China
Philip-
Latin
India
Near
Europe
Total
pinG0
America
East
Agriculture . .
..
12
2
16
1
..
31
Architecture .
. .
3
1
. .
2
. ,
6
Business . . .
39
19
1
9
7
1
76
Chemistry . .
m m
6
m m
10
2
,
18
Christian Work .
10
13
m m
3
13
2
41
Dentistry . . .
. .
1
13
5
19
Education . .
57
156
14
17
26
12
282
Engineering . .
16
29
8
18
13
84
Fine Arts . . .
m m
, .
1
. .
. .
. .
1
Government
Service . .
16
87
4
4
2
3
116
Law ....
1
14
2
3
17
3
40
Medicine . . .
3
22
11
8
19
30
93
Nursing
, t
7
f f
, .
3
, 9
10
Not Given . .
5
26
20
2
9
3
65
Total . .
147
395
64
90
127
59
882
Nat*: Data for Japan lost in earthquake and fire. Data for Korea not available
APPENDIX
321
TABLE VI b
STJMMABY OF PROSPECTIVE VOCATIONS, As COMPILED FROM QUESTIONNAIRES
Career
i
>?
It
I
il
i
II
1
I
i
Agriculture
Architecture
7
2
13
1
1
1
2
1
4
5
32
5
Banking
Business
Buddhist Priesthood
9
35
2
17
1
2
28
i
1
8
2
4
1
2
-
17
95
1
Chemistry . .
Christian Work
Dentistry . . .
Education
Engineering .
Fine Arts ....
Forestry .
JouiTjaJism
7
7
1
40
43
"3
3
5
4
1
30
17
2
2
5
1
1
32
64
*2
3
1
21
4
2
5
9
18
3
2
1
6
12
2
6
2
4
9
2
1
8
20
26
5
145
181
2
3
9
Law
3
2
17
1
2
i
1
1
28
Medicine ....
Ministry ....
TWiisie .
8
2
8
36
3
29
7
1
8
7
11
3
2
1
3
5
2
71
61
4
Politics . . .
Parses Priesthood .
Religious Education
Social Service
Not Stated . .
16
15
8
8
*2
13
14
6
*2
4
i
6
1
2
2
1
"i
3
*3
"i
36
1
2
33
37
Total .
207
169
215
57
63
42
10
37
14
814
Total Number of Stu-
dents * . .
2000
1100
2000
400
2200
300
400
1000
600
10,000
* These totals are baaed on the census as given in Tables II a and b with estimated increase to include
studenta w trades, commercial, and preparatory schools and secondary institutions.
322
THE FOREIGN STUDEISTT IN AMEEICA
TABLE VII
FOREIGN STUDENT DISTRIBUTION THROUGHOUT THE WORLD
Omission of numerous lands is due to lack of definite statistical data regarding
them Lowest rather than highest available figures are employed Only students of
college or university grade are included For comment on this table, see page 38,
Chapter I.
Austria (estimated)
Belgium
Bulgaria .
Czecho-Slovakia (estimated)
Denmark . .
Egypt
Esthoma . .
France ... .
Germany
Italy ...
Japan (estimated) .
Poland ....
Switzerland ...
Turkey (estimated)
United Kingdom
U. S A. (Bureau of Education Bulletin, 1922, No 18)
Yugoslavia . ...
Total
3,000
868
2,000
3,000
15
661
250
6,477
6,334
304
2,000
1,700
1,200
1,000
4,171
8,357
2,500
43,837
TABLE VIII
STUDENT APPRAISAL OP MISSIONARY WORK
1
Excellent
Good
Fair
Poor
No Answer
Total No
Chinese
Christians
46
12
21
6
10
95
Non-Christians
16
6
18
9
7
56
Japanese
Christians
39
23
18
9
20
109
Non-Christians
1
10
2
4
23
40
Indians
Christians
3
4
3
1
11
Non-Christians .
1
15
3
1
20
Koreans
Christians
22
1
9
8
31
Non-Christians .
Totals .
124
56
78
34
70
362
APPENDIX 323
TABLE IX
QUESTIONNAIRES FROM FOREIGN STTJDENTS
Filipino . . 222
Chinese 207
Japanese . . 169
Latin American 63
Korean 57
Indian 50
European and others 62
Total 830
Others reported in group interviews 76
OTHER QUESTIONNAIRES RECEIVED
906
Social Status from special workers among foreign students . 48
Student Y M C. A Secretaries 72
Pastors of college communities 100
City Y. M C A *s dealing with foreign students 20
College administrators 110
Women student questionnaires . 40
324
THE FOREIGN STUDENT IN AMERICA
X. KEY TO MAP OF THE UNITED STATES SHOWING
LOCATION OF COLLEGES
Reprinted by courtesy of the Institute of International Education
84. Sioux City
KANSAS
85 Atchison
86 Baldwin
87. Emporia
88. Hays
89. Kansas City
90. Lawrence
91. Lmdsborg
92. Manhattan
93. McPherson
94. Ottawa
95 Pittsburg
96. St Mary's
97. *Topeka
98. Wichita
99. Winfield
KENTUCKY
100 Danville
101. *Frankfort
102 Georgetown
103 Lexington
104. Louisville
LOUISIANA
105. *Baton Rouge
106. New Orleans
MAINE
107. * Augusta
108 Brunswick
109 Lewiaton
110. Orono
111. Portland
112. Waterville
MABYLAND
113. *Annapolis
114. Baltimore
115. Chestertown
116. College Park
117 ElhcottCity
118 Emmitsburg
119 Westminster
MASSACHUSETTS
120. Amherst
121. "Boston
122 Cambridge
123. Lowell
124. Northampton
125. South Hadley
126 Tufts College
127. Wellesley
ALABAMA
1 Auburn
2 Birmingham
3 *Montgomery
4. University
(Tuskaloosa)
ARIZONA
5. *Phoenix
6. Tucson
ARKANSAS
7. Fayetteville
8. *Little Rock
CALIFOBNIA
9. Berkeley
10. Claremont
11. Loma Linda
12. Los Angeles
13. Mills College
14. Pasadena
15. Redlands
16. *Sacramento
17. San Francisco
18. San Jos
19. Santa Clara
20 Stanford Univer-
sity
21. Whittier
COLORADO
22. Boulder
23. Colorado Springs
24. * Denver (Univer-
sity Park)
25. Fort Collins
26. Golden
CONNECTICUT
27. *Hartford
28. Middletown
29. New Haven.
30. Storrs
DELAWARE
31 *Dover
32. Newark
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
33 *Washington
FLORIDA
34. DeLand
35. Gainesville
36. Tallahassee
* State Capital.
GEORGIA
37. Athens
38. * Atlanta
39 Decatur
40 Macon
IDAHO
41 *Boise
42 Moscow
ILLINOIS
43. Bloomington
44. Carthage
45. Chicago
46. Decatur
47 Evanston
48. Galeshurg
49 Jacksonville
50. Lake Forest
51. Monmouth
52 Naperville
53 Rockford
54 Rock Island
55. *Springfield
56. Urbana
57. Wheaton
INDIANA
58 Bloomington
59. Crawfordsville
60 Earlham
61 Franklin
62 Greencastle
63. Hanover
64. *IndianapoliB
65. Lafayette
66. Notre Dame
67. St. Mary of the
Woods
68. Terre Haute
IOWA
70. Ames
71 Cedar Falls
72 Cedar Rapids
73. Decorah
74 *Des Moines
75 Dubuque
76. Fairfield
77. Fayette
78 Grinnell
79. Indianola
80. Iowa City
8 1 . Mount Pleasant
82 Mount Vernon
83. Oskaloosa
APPENDIX
325
128 Williamstown
129. Worcester
MICHIGAN-
ISO. Adrian
131 Albion
132 Alma
133 Ann Arbor
134. Detroit
135 Hillsdale
136 Holland
137 Houghton
138 Kalamazoo
139. "Lansing
140 Olivet
MINNESOTA
141. Minneapolis
142 Northfield
143 *St.Paul
144 St Peter
145 Wmona
MISSISSIPPI
146 Agricultural Col-
lege
147 Columbus
148. "Jackson
149. University
MISSOURI
150 Cameron
151 Columbia
152 Fayette
153. Fulton
154 * Jefferson City
155. Liberty
156. Marshall
157. Parkville
158. St Charles
159. St. Louis
160. Springfield
161. Tarkio
MONTANA
162. Bozeman
163. Butte
164. 'Helena
165. Missoula
Ni
166. Bethany
167. College View
168. Crete
169. Grand Island
170. Hastings
260. Beatty
261. Bryn Mawr
262. Carlisle
263. Chambersburg
264. Chester
* State Capital.
171. "Lincoln
172. Omaha
173. University Place
174. York
NEVADA
215 Davidson
216 Durham
217. Greensboro
218. "Raleigh
219. Wake Forest
175. "Carson City
NOBTH DAKOTA
176 Reno
220. Agricultural Col-
lege
NEW HAMPSHIRE
221. "Bismarck
177. "Concord
222. Fargo
178 Durham
223. Jamestown
179 Hanover
224 University
NEW JEBSEY
OHIO
180. Bloomfield
225. Ada
181 Convent Station
226. Akron
182 Hoboken
227. Alliance
183 Madison
228. Athens
184 Newark
229. Berea
185 New Brunswick
230. Cincinnati
186 Princeton
231 Cleveland
187 "Trenton
232. "Columbus
233. Dayton
NEW MEXICO
234 Defiance
188 Albuquerque
235 Delaware
189 "Santa Fe
236. Gambler
190 Socorro
237. Granville
191. State College
238. Hiram
239. Marietta
NEW YOBK
240 New Concord
192 *Albany
241 Oberlin
193. Alfred
242 Painesville
194 Annandale
243. Springfield
195. Aurora
244 Tiffin
196 Brooklyn
245. Toledo
197. Buffalo
246 Westerville
198 Canton
247. Wooster
199. Clinton
200 Elmira
OKLAHOMA
201. Fordham
248. Chickasha
202. Geneva
249. East Enid
203. Hamilton
250. Norman
204. Ithaca
251. "Oklahoma City
205. New Rochelle
252. Stillwater
206. New York
207. Niagara
OBEGON
208 Potsdam
253. Corvallis
209 Poughkeepsie
254 Eugene
210 Rochester
255. Forest Grove
211. Schenectady
256 Portland
212. Syracuse
257. "Salem
213. Troy
NORTH CABOIINA
214. Chapel Hall
292. Huron
293. Mitchell
294. "Pierre
295. Rapid City
296. Vermillion
PENNSYLVANIA
258. AUentown
259 Annville
318. Blacksburg
319. Charlottesville
320. Emory
321. Hampden-Sidney
322. Lexington
326
THE FOREIGN STUDENT IN AMEEICA
265 Collegeville
266. Easton
267. Gettysburg
268 Greensburg
269. *Hanrisburg
270. Haverford
271. Lancaster
272. Lewisburg
273. Meadville
274. Mont Alto
275. New Wilmington
276. Philadelphia
277. Pittsburgh
278 Scranton
279. Selinsgrove
280. South Bethlehem
281. State College
282. Swarthmore
283. Villanova
284. Washington
RHODE ISLAND
285. Kingston
286. *ProYidence
SOUTH CAROLINA
287. Charleston
288 Clemson College
289 'Columbia
290. Spaxtanburg
SOUTH DAKOTA
291. Brookings
* State Capital.
297. Yankton
TENNESSEE
298 Chattanooga
299 Clarksville
300 Knoxville
301. Maryville
302 *Nashville
303 Sewanee
TEXAS
304 * Austin
305 College Station
306. Dallas
307. Georgetown
308. Houston
309. Waco
310. Wacahachie
UTAH
311. Logan
312 *SaltLake City
VERMONT
313 Burlington
314 Middlebury
315. *Montpeher
316. Northfield
VIRGINIA
317. Ashland
323. Lynchburg
324. *Richmond
325 Salem
326 Wilhamsburg
WASHINGTON
327. *01ympia
328 Pullman
329 Seattle
330. Walla Walla
WEST VIRGINIA
331 Bethany
332 *Charleston
333. Morgantown
WlSCJONSIN
334 Appleton
335. Beloit
336. *Madison
337 Milton
338. Milwaukee
339 Prairie de CMen
340. Ripon
341 Smsinawa
342 Watertown
343 Waukesha
WYOMING
344. *Cheyenne
345 Laramie
APPENDIX 327
XI. The following tables show the approximate distribution of foreign students
in the principal educational centers and among the various colleges and universities
The numbers enrolled vary from year to year, requiimg the inclusion of other
centers in order to make the list exact for any given yeai.
Fifty or more FOREIGN STUDENTS are enrolled in each of the following educational
centers In the larger cities indicated by an asterisk, there may be found from two
hundred to twelve hundred students distributed throughout various institutions of
learning, located in the metropolitan area, for instance, "Boston" embraces Cam-
bridge, Newton, and neighboring communities.
Tuskegee, Ala. . Tuskegee Institute
*Los Angeles, Calif
Palo Alto, Calif Leland Stanford Umv
Berkeley, Calif Univ. of California
New Haven, Conn. Yale Univ.
'Washington, D. C.
Chicago, 111
Evanston, 111. . Northwestern Univ.
Champaign, 111 Univ. of Illinois
W. Lafayette, Ind Purdue Univ.
Angola, Ind . . Tn State College
South Bend, Ind Notre Dame Univ.
Valparaiso, Ind. Valparaiso Univ
Ames, Iowa . Iowa State College
Iowa City, la. . . Dubuque Univ.
Dubuque, la. . . Univ of Iowa
*Baltimore, Md.
"Boston, Mass.
Ann Arbor, Mich. . Univ of Michigan
'Minneapolis, Minn.
Columbia, Mo. , Univ of Missouri
Princeton, N J. Princeton Univ.
*New York, N. Y.
Ithaca, N. Y. . Cornell Univ.
Brooklyn, N. Y. Pratt Institute
Troy,N.Y. . . Rensselaer Polytechnic Inst.
Syracuse, N. Y. . Syiacuse Univ.
Oberlin, Ohio . . . Oberlin College
Columbus, Ohio . . . Ohio State Univ.
Newberg, Ore. . . No. Pacific College of Dentistry
Corvallis, Ore. . Oregon Agricultural College
'Pittsburgh, Pa.
'Philadelphia, Pa.
'Nashville, Tenn.
Seattle, Wash. . . Univ. of Washington
Madison, Wis. . ... Univ of Wisconsin
In the following institutions the foreign student enrollment ranges from twenty-
five to forty-nine. In the cities indicated by an asterisk the students are distributed
among several institutions.
Tucson, Ariz. . University of Arizona
Pomona, Calif . Pomona College
Golden, Colo. Colo Schqol of Mines
Denver, Colo. . . . University of Denver
Hartford, Conn. . Hartford Theol. Seminary
Lawrence, Kans. . . University of Kansas
'Louisville, Ky.
New Orleans, La. . . . Tulane University
'Springfield, Mass.
Medford, Mass. Tufts College
* State Capital.
328
THE FOREIGN STUDENT IN AMERICA
Lincoln, Nebr.
Reno, Nev. .
Delaware, Ohio
Cincinnati, Ohio
Eugene, Ore
Salt Lake City, Utah
Pullman, Wash.
Detroit, Mich
University of Nevada
Ohio Wesleyan University
University of Oregon
University of Utah
State College of Washington
In the following institutions the foreign student enrollment ranges from ten
to twenty-four. In the cities indicated by an asterisk the students are distributed
among several institutions.
San Jose, Calif.
Atlanta, Ga.
Moscow, Idaho
Greenville, 111. .
Greencastle, Ind
Bloomington, Ind.
Cedar Rapids, la.
Mt. Vernon, la.
Des Momes, la,
Wilmore, Ely. .
Orono, Me.
Wellesley, Mass
Worcester, Mass. .
Lowell, Mass
Northampton, Mass
Houghton, Mich.
Parkville, Mo. .
St. Louis, Mo.
Madison, N. J.
Poughkeepsie, N. Y.
Buffalo, N. Y.
Chapel Hill, N C.
West Raleigh, N. C.
Grand Forks, N. D.
Berea, Ohio
Denison, Ohio .
Ada, Ohio
Cleveland, Ohio
Stillwater, Okla.
Willamette, Ore. .
Bethlehem, Pa. . .
Bryn Mawr, Pa.
State College, Pa.
Mitchell, S. Dak.
College Sta., Tex.
Austin, Tex.
Charlottesville, Va.
Richmond, Va.
* State Capital.
College of the Pacific
University of Idaho
Greenville, College
De Pauw University
Indiana University
Coe College
Cornell College
Drake University
Asbury College
University of Maine
Wellesley College
Clark University
Lowell Textile Institute
Smith College
Michigan College of Mines
Park College
Washington University
Drew Theological Seminary
Vassar College
University of No. Carolina
No Carolina Col. of Ag
Univ. of No. Dakota
Baldwin- Wallace College
Denison University
Ohio Northern University
Oklahoma A & M. College
Willamette University
Lehigh University
Bryn Mawr College
Penn State College
Dakota Wesleyan University
A & M. College of Texas
University of Texas
University of Virginia
APPENDIX 329
XII. STUDENT CONFERENCES ARE HELD IN THE FOLLOWING PLACES
YOUNG WOMEN'S CHBISTIAN ASSOCIATION
Asilomar, Calif.
Blue Ridge, N. C.
Camp Maqua, Me.
Eagles Mere, Pa.
Estes Park, Colo.
Lake Geneva, Wis
Montreat, N C
Seabeck, Wash
Silver Bay, N Y.
Talladega, Ala (Colored)
YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION
Asilomar, Calif.
Blue Ridge, N. C.
Estes Park, Cob.
Waveland, Miss. (Colored)
HoUister, Mo.
Kings Mountain, N C. (Colored
Lake Geneva, WIB.
Seabeck, Wash.
Silver Bay, N Y.
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