The Y. M. C. A.addresses

THE Y.M.C.A. ADDRESSES

In the Various Churches of the City

WHY YOU SHOULD GIVE

For the Purpose of Carrying on This Work - Some Able Addresses Delivered

Sunday was Y.M.C.A. day in all the churches and good addresses were delivered by men interested in Y.M.C.A. work in each of the churches.  The extreme cold and the [illegible], however, largely reduced the attendance at the churches. Those who did attend felt well repaid.

AT THE M.E. CHURCH.

Mr. C.D. Harrington spoke in the M.E. church and his intense, earnest spirit denoted his personal interest.  

Roosevelt said, "A greater problem than the trusts is the problem of the young life of our country," and Rus[illeg.] said that "The young life is the strongest factor we have to deal with, is the greatest power in the world today," showing that they both realized what a mighty force is the young men of our country.  Church work must go hand in hand with Y.M.C.A. work, the two cannot be divorced from each other, as the association brings up men to serve the churches. Enough young men come of age every four years to sway the presidential election.  They hold the balance of power. The young man is thus the greatest factor for good or bad.  Seventy per cent of the inhabitants of six of the largest U.S. prisons are young men. The Y.M.C.A. is the only organization which is pre-eminently a work for young men.  Beginning in 1844 in a little upstairs room in England it has grown till today its members number in the hundred thousands in this country alone.

He showed how firm a hold the work had obtained in the various branches - railroad, college, city, Indian and mission. The Indian chief who led Sitting Bull's warriors against Custer's men in '76 was recently chairman of a Y.M.C.A. conference.

The Y.M.C.A. has a right to demand of the business man, the wives, sisters and mothers, support, moral influence, prayer, encouragement, money. The only way to reach the masses is one by one. Making the Y.M.C.A. the greatest means for personal work.

As Ann Arbor does for its young men so the city is going to be run in future years.

AT THE BAPTIST CHURCH.

W.C. Skinner, of Detroit, spoke at the Baptist church.

Business men believe in the Y.M.C.A. because: It has never defaulted; it has won confidence by its business-like methods; it has been uniformly successful; it reaches all classes; it is worth far more than the cost to maintain; the results of its work conserve the welfare of the whole city; It is open every day in the year with helpful attractions and safe companionships.  Men learn what is profitable to themselves and to others.  In Detroit the labor organizations were at first hostile to the educational work done by the Y.M.C.A. in its night school.  Just recently the Trades Council of Detroit passed a resolution endorsing the Y.M.C.A. night school and commending it to its members.  Evening classes for employed men enable them to earn better wages, to secure better positions, to merit promotion earlier, to become better workers, more intelligent citizens, and to have better homes.  The public schools might do this evening class work, but with less success.  The social feeling is lacking. While some are seeking these opportunities, the majority are quite content and need arousing. They need the personal interest and warmth of social fellowship to urge them on to best efforts.  Only one in eight gets into the high school. The remainder who are employed need educational advantages quite as much.

AT TRINITY CHURCH.

H.G. VanTuyl, of Detroit, spoke at the Trinity English Lutheran church.

About a hundred years ago the church took up Sunday school work, reluctantly and really for those outside of the church, little ragged children.  Now it is considered an indispensable part of the church. The same in true of foreign missions. The Young Men's Christian association is coming to be considered an indispensable part of the church.

Another point made was this.  One man said, "I will look after my own boy." But no father is able to control the influences upon his boy outside of his own front door.

AT THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH.

Mr. Smith, general secretary of the Detroit Y.M.C.A., spoke at the Memorial Christian church. Mr. Smith began with the assertion that the Y.M.C.A., which began some fifty years ago through the efforts of a few dry goods clerks in London, was God-born and God-kept.  He explained the three lines of work taken up by the Y.M.C.A., viz., religious, social and educational. He showed how through the social and educational work it was possible to reach the religious side of the young men, and do this in a more effective way than the church had been able to reach them.  He spoke of the millions of dollars that were being given every year by business men to maintain the association work in this country and of the nearly twenty five millions of dollars which had been intrusted to these associations in the form of real estate and buildings.  He argued that this never would have been done if the donors, usually shrewd business men, had not been able to see definite and valuable results of such investments.  In fact, he said, those in charge of large business affairs are directly benefited by the good results of the work of the Young Men's Christian associations because such people must necessarily depend upon young men to carry out the details of their business and unless young men have right principles they cannot aid in carrying on successfully their part of their employer's business.  The speaker showed that what the young man is is dependent almost wholly upon how he disposes of his spare time.  Right here is where the Y.M.C.A. is able to make its influence for God and for the church felt to the greatest extent. He severely criticized the society of today, which he claimed was actually doing the young man more harm than good.  As a result of such harm fully 78 per cent of the prisoners in our penal institutions today are young men under thirty years of age.  The Y.M.C.A. is working to change this by looking after the young men in a way that will accomplish the most good.  The Y.M.C.A., he declared, was the instrument of the church to do for young men what the church for some unknown reason had been unable to do.  He declared in this way that the association was doing a very great work for the church.  It is doing this by endeavoring to interest young men in social and educational work and then in religious work during the time when they are not occupied with their regular business affairs as this is the time when most of the evil enters into a young man's life if he is not at the time under some such restraining influence.

In closing Mr. Smith made a strong appeal for help for the Ann Arbor Y.M.C.A. which has just begun the erection of a building as a home for the association in this city.