grove on the estate of Mr. Roy C. Wilhelm and since that date Mr. Wilhelm has celebrated the event by an annual meeting which has become widely known throughout northern New Jersey and Greater New York. The large log cabin which Mr. Wilhelm has constructed, with a living-room and broad porches accommodating two hundred people, is frequently visited by architects and those interested in the possibilities of this unusual type of construction. These annual meetings have accomplished great good by spreading more liberal religious and social ideals throughout the environment.
A word might be said here on the subject of the newspaper and magazine publicity which has been received by the Bahá’í Cause in the United States and Canada since the publication of the first volume of this reference work. An impressive list of references to the Cause compiled by Mr. Bishop Brown of Boston, appears under the section entitled Bibliography. Through the services of a committee appointed by the National Assembly, information concerning the tragic events in Persia as well as subjects of more local interest has been supplied to the public press and liberally used. Feature articles such as that which appeared during 1927 in the San Francisco Examiner are becoming gratifyingly more frequent. The fact remains that the full weight of the Bahá’í ideals and teachings has not yet been perceived by editors and journalists, who, doubtless, have fallen into the attitude of regarding the Cause in the same light as those so-called "Oriental religions" which have entered America as not always desirable spiritual immigrants during the last generation. Special reference should be made to a letter written by one of the American Bahá’ís published in the Atlantic Monthly during the spring of 1927.
The first member of the family of Bahá’u’lláh to visit America since ‘Abdu’l-Bahá spent nearly nine months in that country during 1912, was the great-grandson of Bahá’u’lláh and cousin of Shoghi Effendi, Rúḥí Effendi Afnán—a graduate of the American College at Beirut and for two years a post graduate student at the University of London. Rúḥí Afnán has brought a youthful freshness and vital enthusiasm which have been a clear proof of the continuing spiritual power of the Cause of Bahá’u’lláh. During a visit which at this moment of writing has now been about ten months, Rúḥí Afnán visited about thirty of the largest cities of the United States and Canada and in nearly every case delivered a series of lectures under the auspices of the local Spiritual Assembly. The interest in these lectures, which were devoted more particularly to the social significance of the Bahá’í teachings, has been especially strong in colleges and universities, many of which extended him an invitation to speak.
In addition to the notable public meetings held by such American believers as Mr. Albert R. Vail and Mr. Louis G. Gregory, the results of Rúḥí Afnán’s services have been to diffuse ever more widely a true appreciation of the fact that the Bahá’í Cause alone can fully satisfy every aspect of the need for an authentic, world-wide religious re-birth. In this connection it should be pointed out that the younger generation, which had apparently denied the reality of religious experience, is studying the Bahá’í teachings with a directness of vision and a potential loyalty that is worthy of the highest commendation. The significance of the extent to which tradition has been swept away in the case of the new generation, although frequently lamented, has not yet been thoroughly appreciated, but the condition is increasingly favorable to the penetration of the Bahá’í Faith.
SOUTH AMERICA
In 1919 a Baha'i teacher from the United States, Miss Martha Root, who had determined to visit every country in the world as a Bahá’í teacher, visited all the most important cities of South America. Without literature in Portuguese, and but a small booklet in Spanish, although
