Investigating Conditions

              From: Smith, Experiences in Mountain Mission Work ( 1931)
INVESTIGATING CONDITIONS
IN A MOUNTAIN VILLAGE, several years ago, a youth about eighteen years of age was
tried in court for committing a crime and was found guilty. Before pronouncing sentence
the judge asked him if he had anything to say. He replied: “ Judge, I aint got nothen to say,
only I aint never had no chance in life.” This sad statement brought tears to the eyes of
many in the court room, but the law was relentless and the boy was sent to the chain gang.
His reply to the judge was a severe rebuke to the state and to the church also. In those
pathetic words he spoke not only for himself but for thousands of young people, living
without a chance, in the remote sections of the Appalachian Mountains.
The principal excuse we had to offer for this seeming neglect of our neighbors was that
our Southland had been impoverished by the Civil War; and for several years following it
our people were too poor to help the less fortunate brother.
As the years went by there was a gradual return of prosperity, and at the same time there
was a growing feeling in the churches of the Synod of North Carolina that we should
become more aggressive in home mission work. This feeling grew into action and the
Synod commenced a progressive program which has produced splendid results.
In those days a Macedonian cry came from the mountain people which resulted in our
organizing Asheville Presbytery, embracing a territory of eleven mountain counties. Of
the dozen churches, composing the Presbytery, only one, the First Church of Asheville,
was able to support a pastor; the others were quite small and weak financially. Many
regarded this step as a hopeless undertaking, but liberal special gifts from three men made
it possible for us to start this work with some degree of efficiency. They continued their
contributions for four years. By that time the little mission Presbytery proved its right to
be born and to try to live. The writer had the honor of being called to serve the young
Presbytery as its Evangelist and Superintendent of Home Missions.
We realized that it was a very difficult work which the little Presbytery was
undertaking. Most of us knew but little about the conditions in which a great majority of
the people were living. At that time the United States census reported that these eleven
counties had a population of 140,000 souls; of this number 30,000 were white voters; of
these voters 6,000 were illiterate, could not read and write. The franchise to vote had not
been given to women, so we inferred that around 6,000 of them were illiterate. Adding
the hundreds of illiterate young people to the 12,000 showed a serious condition that we
had to meet.
A map of illiteracy fell into my hands. It was made by a publishing company in a distant
state and was the first of its kind that I had ever seen. There were a number of black spots
on it, and I learned that they designated the illiterate sections of a state. I saw a number of
those spots on our mountain territory. Also, I learned that the object of the publishing
company was to know where to send its trashy literature, filled with catch- penny