The church among the colored people has always been the chief factor in their social life. In Chicago there are twenty-nine regularly organized churches in addition to various missions, with approximately twenty thousand members. This includes nearly half of the colored population of the city, a much larger proportion than the church membership among the white population. The churches own property to the amount of six hundred thousand dollars, although every church is carrying a debt. The church is a center for the colored people for lectures, literary societies, civic meetings, and so forth. Many churches have young people’s societies, meeting every Sunday afternoon, united to the extent of sustaining in Chicago an annual oratorical contest to which they all send representatives. Two of the churches, one on the South Side and one on the West Side, at one time carried on institutional work, which has been discontinued because of lack of funds; one of the Baptist churches supports a religious training school which has eleven teachers and one hundred and fifty students. The clergymen are, as a rule, men who have been educated in some of the best northern and southern theological seminaries, but they are inclined to be sectarian and to confine themselves to the conventional church routine. The colored ministers of one denomination seldom meet with the colored ministers of another denomination and almost never with the white ministers of their own denomination. They complain that they meet with public approval when they work for the religious advancement of their own race, but are rebuffed when they enter into general movements for civic betterment. [Sidenote: =Young Men’s Christian Association=] A Young Men’s Christian Association building in Chicago represents the largest investment ever made by that association to be devoted to the interests of colored men and boys. Its entire cost approximates $195,000. It contains the standard equipment of gymnasium, restaurant, dormitories, etc., and has a membership of 2,000, although the annual fee is ten dollars. [Sidenote: =Juvenile Officers and Social Workers=]