The Eighteen Counties demand missionary activity on the part of the church as a whole, not only for the sake of the unfortunate people who live in them, but also for the sake of the other regions whose welfare is threatened by the transfer of low standards of all kinds, which, like a forest fire, are creeping away from the region where they originated. Among the large number of intelligent persons who know and deplore the situation in typical communities of southeastern Ohio, very few seem to cherish hope of improvement. Such pessimism appears to be unjustified. Good work is now being done by missionaries of the American Sunday School Union. What is more important, there is much promise that the trouble can be reached and cured by the modern country church movement, which is already making real progress in Ohio. As a result of this movement, for example, the Board of Home Missions of the Methodist Episcopal Church has, for the first time, appropriated missionary funds to be used in this section, while one of the District Superintendents of the same denomination is carrying out a radically changed program for the churches under his supervision. [Illustration: MAP A WHERE CONDITIONS DEMAND MISSIONARY AID] [Illustration: MAP 1 HIGH DEATH RATES FROM TUBERCULOSIS] [Illustration: MAP 2 HIGH RATES OF ILLEGITIMACY] [Illustration: MAP 3 WHERE ILLITERACY ABOUNDS] [Illustration: MAP 4 DISTRIBUTION OF FOREIGN BORN WHITES] [Illustration: MAP 5 EXCESSIVE OVER-CHURCHING] [Illustration: MAP 6 CHURCHES MANY BUT MINISTERS FEW] [Illustration: MAP 7 NUMBER OF PERSONS TO A RESIDENT MINISTER] [Illustration: MAP 8 VALUE OF FARM PROPERTY IN THE YEAR 1910] [Illustration: MAP 9 INCREASE IN VALUE OF FARM PROPERTY] [Illustration: MAP 10 RICH LAND AND POOR LAND] TABLE A SHOWING THAT IN A GROUP OF 18 COUNTIES IN SOUTHEASTERN OHIO THERE IS AN EXCESSIVE AMOUNT OF PREVENTABLE DISEASE AND ILLITERACY, AN EXCESSIVE NUMBER OF ILLEGITIMATE BIRTHS, EXCESSIVE OVERCHURCHING, A VERY SMALL NUMBER OF RESIDENT MINISTERS IN PROPORTION TO THE NUMBER OF CHURCHES AND NUMBER OF PEOPLE, THAT AS COMPARED WITH OTHER SECTIONS THE TOTAL VALUE OF FARM PROPERTY IS SMALL AND THE INCREASE IN VALUE SLIGHT Key: 1 _Average annual rate of deaths from tuberculosis of the lungs per 100,000 persons, 1909, 1910, 1911_ 2 _Average annual rate per 100,000 population of illegitimate births for 1909, 1910_ 3 _Per cent of illiterate males of voting age, 1910_ 4 _Per cent of total population who were foreign born white, 1910_ 5 _Number of persons to a church_ 6 _Per cent of churches which have resident ministers_ 7 _Number of persons to each resident minister_ 8 _Number of millions of dollars at which farm property is valued_ 9 _Per cent increase in value of farm property 1900-1910_