mission, is thoroughly to canvass the State, learn where
the association is needed, plant it there, strengthen all existing
associations, and keep open communication between all. This is also the
international work, but its field is the United States and British
Provinces, under the efficient management of this committee.

As has been said, the convention of 1866 appointed the international
committee, which was directed to call and arrange for state and
provincial conventions. This is the result: in 1866, no state or
provincial committee or conventions. Now, thirty-three such committees,
thirty-one of which hold state or provincial conventions, together with
a large number of district and local conferences.

[Illustration: BUILDING OF Y.M.C.A. AT LYNN, MASS.]

In 1870, Mr. R.C. Morse, a graduate of Yale College, and a minister of
the Presbyterian Church, became the general secretary of the committee
and continues such to-day. Of the missionary work of the committee the
most conspicuous has been that at the West and South. In 1868, the
convention authorized the employment of a secretary for the West. This
man, Robert Weidansall, a graduate of Pennsylvania College, Gettysburg,
was found working in the shops of the Pacific Railroad Company at Omaha.
He had intended entering the ministry, but his health failed him. To-day
there is no question as to his health--he has a superb physique, travels
constantly, works extremely hard, and has been wonderfully successful.
When he began there were thirty-nine associations in the States of
Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri,
Kansas, Nebraska, Kentucky, and Tennessee. There was only one secretary,
and no building. Now there are nearly three hundred associations,
spending more than one hundred and ten thousand dollars; twenty general
secretaries, and five buildings. Nine States are organized, and five
employ state secretaries. The following words from a recent Kansas
report sound strangely, almost like a joke, to one who remembers the
peculiar influence of Missouri upon the infant Kansas: "Kansas owes much
of her standing to-day to the fostering care and efforts of the Missouri
state executive committee." In 1870, two visitors were sent to the
Southern States. There were then three associations only between
Virginia and Texas. There are now one hundred and fifty-seven.

[Illustration: BUILDING OF THE Y.M.C.A. AT TORONTO, CANADA.]

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