for railroad securities, which began early in the year and supported an unprecedented expansion of the total volume of values. Severe snow blockades, a large falling off of the corn and wheat traffic compared with 1880, and freshets in the early spring, coupled with the critical condition of the money market, caused fluctuations in the first quarter of the year. When it was found that the railroads were taking in more money than the year before, that passenger traffic and miscellaneous freight showed a remarkable increase, the confidence in the future became general. For the first three months the gross earnings upon a mileage 15 per cent greater were over 9 per cent in excess of those of the same part of 1880. In April the receipts of wheat and corn began to exceed those of the previous year, and the railroads reported 25 per cent greater earnings than in the April of 1880.

Between the 1st of January and the 1st of September the total amount of stocks and bonds for the construction of new lines or branches of railroad or of telegraphs amounted to $390,312,200. The cash payments undertaken by the subscribers, extending through

ISSUED TO SEPTEMBER 1, 1881.

For construction of new road.

For improvements, for purchase of other roads, or on con

solidation

Without valuable consideration.

Grand total.

the year and through a good part of 1882 in the cases of some of the heavier loans, amount in all to $234,683,000. Besides these issues placed upon the market there were others, amounting to at least 15 per cent in addition, which were subscribed privately by large companies for the construction of tributary lines. For improvements, purchase of other roads, and on consolidations, $243,684,200 of stocks and bonds were issued, calling for an estimated amount of $155,194,200 in cash. The aggregate cash requirements of the new issues for the first eight months of the year were thus $389,877,200, covering the remainder of the season and a portion of the next. There were issued in addition, in the form of stock dividends or otherwise, $26,933,700 of stocks and bonds which called for no cash payments. The grand total of the financial adventures in extending and improving the means of intercommunication taken up in the market during the first eight months of the year amounted to $389,877,200 in engagements for cash payments, and $660,930,100 in certificates of indebtedness and ownership given therefor, divided as follows:

Of the subscriptions for the construction of new roads, the mortgage bonds were sold at or near par, and called for full value in cash. The income bonds and stock were added as a bonus, except $13,500,000 cash subscriptions for stock. The amount of cash capital provided for new lines and extensions is therefore $234,683,000. For the increase of stocks and bonds issued on consolidation, some $155,194,200, as recited above, are payable. The third class represents improvements made out of surplus earnings or a higher capitalization for politic reasons, and asks for no cash contributions. Some of the largest of the new issues of stocks and bonds for railroad and telegraph construction were as follows: $16,000,000 of mortgage bonds and an equal amount of stock issued by the New York, Chicago and St. Louis company, and taken by a syndicate for the construction of road between Buffalo and Chicago; $20,000,000 of Northern Pacific bonds for extensions which will bring the mileage of the road up to 2,600 miles; $12,200,000 of bonds and half that amount of stock of the Oregon Short Line, a spur of the Union Pacific to run into the State of Oregon, length 600 miles; $15,000,000 of bonds and stock to an equal amount of the New York, West Shore, and Buffalo road, which will join the projected line up the west bank of the Hudson; $5,000,000 of mortgage bonds, $5,000,000 of income bonds,

and $6,250,000 of stock for the new division of the Richmond, Alleghany and Ohio consolidated railroads; $6,000,000 of bonds and the same amount of stock of the new Georgia Pacific line from Atlanta to the Mississippi River; $3,000,000 of bonds and $6,000,000 of stock to extend the Denver and Rio Grande narrowgauge line; $6,000,000 of bonds and $3,000,000 of stock to complete the Denver and Rio Grande system; $5,000,000 of bonds, accompanied by stock of the same amount, of the Texas and Pacific Railroad building from Fort Worth to El Paso; $3,000,000 of bonds, and the same amount of stock for the New Orleans Pacific, a combination of the above from Shreveport to New Orleans; about $6,250,000 of bonds and $12,500,000 of stock to carry on the construction of the Southern Pacific; $7,500,000 of bonds and stock to the same amount to construct the Mexican National Railway, for which the Paliner-Sullivan concession was granted; $5,715,000 of mortgage bonds, $1,139,200 of income bonds, and $4,572,000 of stock of the Mexican Central, for which a Boston syndicate secured concessions; $10,000,000 of mortgage bonds and $7,000,000 of income bonds of the Atlantic and Pacific line to be built from Albuquerque to the Pacific coast, about 600 miles; $5,000,000 of stock, with bonds of the same amount given as a bonus, to construct new lines of the Mutual Union Tele

graph Company; and $10,000,000 nominal capital of the Cable Construction Company to lay two new Atlantic cables.

The largest amounts of new stock and securities issued for improvements and to effect consolidations, not including the huge amounts issued on reorganization in lieu of the existing obligations of the merged lines, were as follows: $14,492,000 of mortgage bonds, $16,500,000 of income bonds, and $39,000,000 of stock representing the addition by purchase and construction of 850 miles to the 1,123 miles of road owned or being built by the East Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia company; $10,000,000 of bonds and $2,000,000 of stock for new lines acquired by the Wabash, St. Louis and Pacific company; $30,000,000 of stock of the Oregon Transcontinental company, which has expended $16,000,000 in purchasing an interest in the Northern Pacific road; $5,000,000 of income bonds and $22,500,000 of stock of the Alabama, New Orleans, Texas, and Pacific Junction, offered in London; $7,000,000 of mortgage bonds for improvements and acquisitions of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad; $7,600,000 increase of stock of the Ohio Central company; $10,237,700 of new stock issued to stockholders of the Union Pacific Railroad for extensions and betterments; $6,000,000 of stock for additions to the property of the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company; $10,000,000 of bonds issued by the Pennsylvania company for the purchase of leased roads; $10,000,000 of 4 per cent bonds issued by the Pennsylvania Railroad Company for the purchase of the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore line; $4,000,000 of bonds and $5,000,000 of stock of the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul company.

The largest issues of dividends in stock, certificates, and bonds, and increased allotments of stock to shareholders on reorganization, were an increase of $13,000,000 in the stock of the roads consolidated into the Columbus, Hocking Valley and Toledo; $4,225,008 of loan certificates issued to old stockholders by the Georgia Central company; and $15,526,500 of stock issued to former holders of Western Union Telegraph stock upon the absorption of the American Union lines.

The extent of new railroad definitely undertaken and destined to be completed before the end of 1882, was 15,886 miles. For the construction of that amount of new track within fifteen months, engagements were known to have been entered into before October 1, 1881. This does not include the roads projected but not yet subscribed for, nor those for which the means were provided and the plans matured, which had not been advertised to the public. Of the prospective extensions, 4,791 miles were to be built east of the Mississippi River and north of the Potomac and Ohio Rivers; 2,352 miles east of the Mississippi and south of those two rivers; 4,063 miles west of the Mississippi and north of the latitude of St. Louis; 4,140

miles west of the Mississippi and south of that line; and 540 miles on the west side of the Rocky Mountains.

Railroads require for construction an expenditure of about $20,000 per mile. Counting equipment and other expenses, they actually absorb about $25,000 per mile of new line. The railroads undertaken, as estimated above, reduce therefore about $397,000,000 of floating capital to this form of fixed capital. As new enterprises of the same sort were being matured with the same frequency during the remaining months of the year, that sum represents only a part of the aggregate capital provided for railroad extension in 1881 and 1882. A considerable part of the railroadbuilding of the earlier part of 1881 was done with money engaged for the purpose in 1880. The advance subscriptions for railroads to be constructed in the ensuing year were vastly heavier in 1881. Six new through or connecting lines have been projected between the Atlantic coast and the West, two of which are to be completed before the end of 1882, and all of them before 1884. The capital for these routes has nearly all of it been raised by private subscriptions of capitalists. The New York, Chicago and St. Louis road is being put down rapidly between Chicago and Buffalo. The Chicago and Atlantic is to connect with the Erie and Pennsylvania Railroads at Marion, Ohio. The New York, West Shore and Buffalo road is to run from Buffalo to Schenectady, and thence along the right bank of the North River, terminating opposite New York at Weehawken. The Boston, Hoosac Tunnel and Western follows a straight route from Boston to Buffalo. The New York, Lackawanna and Western runs parallel to the Erie road, and connects New York with Buffalo via the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western. The New York, Pittsburg and Chicago is to use the Central of New Jersey and its connecting lines in Pennsylvania, and to reach Chicago by the new Chicago and Atlantic Railroad.

The result of the railroad war, which strongly affected the stock market, was that the gross earnings of the five trunk lines were $126,500,000, against $121,000,000 in 1880; the net earnings $48,250,000, against $51,500,000.

In the autumn of 1878, just previous to the resumption of specie payments, the first signs of a revival in business appeared. Prices then stood at a lower figure than had been known for forty years. Since that date there has been a continuous general rise in values. In a table printed below are given the New York wholesale prices for the staple articles of American commerce on or about the 1st of November for 1878, and each succeeding year. A compatation based on those prices, and the quantities of the different commodities entering into consumption or into commerce, gives the following comparative estimate of the general rise in values, and its proportional distribution among the main classes of commodities:

The average effect was thus a mean advance of 2154 per cent in November, 1879, on the prices of 1878; of 4.2 per cent in 1880 on the prices current in November, 1879; and of 7.65 per cent in 1881 on the prices of 1880. The rise in the general average of prices between 1878 and 1881 was 36.4 per cent. The mean rise in articles of food is seen to have been nearly 50 per cent, in other classes of articles about 25 per cent. The quotations for staple articles in the New York markets in the first week of November, on which the above computation is based, were, for the four years to which we have alluded above, as shown in the following

table:

1880. 1851.

56

69

89

47

Pork, mess, bbl.....

7 75 11 87

15 00 18 00

Lard, Western, 100 lbs.

64

71

61

Sheep, N. Y., average week, lb.

41

41

4

44

Illinois..

Butter, N. Y., firkins, good, Ib..

Cheese, prime factory, lb.

Indian Territory..

Iowa...

90 1

Molasses, Porto Rico, gallon..

Louisiana..

Coffee, Rio, fair cargoes, lb...

Tea, young hyson, Ib..

Whisky, gallon (Chicago price)..

1 05

Massachusetts.

Beer, casks for export, av., gal.. Hops, Eastern....

40-4

Salt, Liverpool ground, sack..

75

75

Mississippi.

146

Tobacco, Kentucky leaf, lb.

Missouri

connected with the churches, 187,617; number of persons connected with Sunday-schools, 444,628. Total amount of benevolent contributions from 2,896 churches reporting them, $1,032,272; amount of contributions for home expenditure from 2,613 churches reporting, $3,446,489.

The seven theological seminaries (Andover, Andover, Massachusetts; Bangor, Bangor, Maine; Chicago, Chicago, Illinois; Hartford, Hartford, Connecticut; Oberlin, Oberlin, Ohio; Pacific, Oakland, California; and Yale, New Haven, Connecticut) returned altogether, 36 professors, 19 lecturers, and 279 students.

According to the tables given in their "Year Book" for 1881-'82, the Congregationalists of the Dominion of Canada have 91 churches with 51 pastors, 28 assemblies not churches, 84 preaching-stations, an average attendance on worship of 13,210 persons, with a total of 17,627 persons under pastoral care, 5,653 churchmembers, and 6,753 Sunday school scholars.

The "Year-Book" of the Congregational Churches of England and Wales for 1881 gives lists of 4,188 churches and 2,723 pastors, lay pastors, and evangelists. Seventy-five ministers had been ordained during the year. Eighteen ministers left the denomination, and as many had been received from other churches. I. CONGREGATIONALISTS IN THE UNITED STATES. The working capital of the American Congregational Union for the year ending May 1, 1881, was $55,359. The society had made grants and loans (mostly grants) to 71 churches. During the twenty-eight years of its existence, the Union had aided in the erection of 1,120 houses of worship, and it was now pledged to sixty additional ones.

The fifty-fifth annual meeting of the American Home Missionary Society was held in the city of New York, May 8th. The receipts of the society for the year had been $290,953, and its expenditures $284,414. It sustained missions in thirty-four States and Territories, employing 1,032 missionaries, who served 2,653 preaching-places. Five of the missionaries were commissioned to congregations composed of colored people, and twenty-six to congregations of foreign nationalities, chiefly of Welsh. The number of pupils in Sunday schools was 99,898. Seventeen more missionaries were einployed than during the previous year, and 131 churches had been founded.

A committee appointed to consider the subject of amending the constitution of the society has made a report proposing certain provisions for securing its constant control by influences favorable to the "evangelical" side of religious belief. The society was founded as an undenominational agency to assist congregations unable to support a minister, and to send the gospel to destitute places, and was supported for many years jointly by Congregationalists and Presbyterians. The Presbyterians having formed their own societies, it was left in the hands of the Congregationalists, who, however,

exercised no direct control over it as such. The committee recommended that the articles defining the object of the society be amended by the insertion of the words "but no minister or teacher shall be employed by this society who is not in regular standing in some Protestant evangelical church," and that the several State Congregational bodies be given the right to nominate, according to their membership, one or more directors, to be chosen by the society at its annual meeting. The committee also proposed that the Board of Directors thus chosen, besides selecting the Executive Committee of fourteen, as now, be also given authority to name the secretary and treasurer of the society.

The thirty-fifth annual meeting of the American Missionary Association was held at Worcester, Massachusetts, November 1st, 2d, and 3d. The total ordinary receipts of the association for the year had been $243,795, or $56,315 more than the receipts of the previous year. Besides this amount, the following sums had been received by institutions in which the association has an interest: Berea College, $60,106; Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute, $102,579; Atlanta University (appropriation from the State of Georgia), $8,000—making, with $114,563 received for endowment and special funds, the total receipts for the work in which the association is engaged, $529,046.

The association conducts missions and schools among the freedmen in the Southern States; at the Mendi mission on the west coast of Africa; among the Indians at the Skokomish agency; and among the Chinese on the Pacific coast of the United States. Its work among the freedmen included, according to the report for the past year, eight chartered institutions, and forty-six normal and common schools, with 230 teachers and 9,108 students, and 78 churches, with 5,472 church-members and 8,130 persons in Sunday-schools. The pupils in the schools were classified as follows: theological, 104; law, 20; collegiate, 91; collegiate preparatory, 131; normal, 2,342; grammar, 473; intermediate, 2,722; primary, 3,361; studying in two grades, 136. Seven State Conferences, holding annual conventions, had been organized among the freedmen's churches. Eleven missionaries had been commissioned to labor in the homes of the poor and destitute colored people. The Mendi mission, in West Africa, comprised a church and school, which had been well kept up, a coffee-farm that promised to make a good return, and a profitable saw-mill. Three lads from the Mendi country were at school in the United States. Commissioners had been dispatched to arrange for the establishment of a mission on the Upper Nile, near the mouth of the Sobat, in aid of which $30,000 were expected from English friends of the work, conditioned upon the association providing $20,000 more. The two churches among the Indians enjoyed an average attend

ance of about one hundred and twenty persons in the congregations, and had contributed $614 to benevolent objects. Indian youth under the tutelage of the society were attending school at the Hampton Institute, Virginia, and at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and the Executive Committee was contemplating the provision of accommodations for Indian youth in connection with other institutions. Sixteen hundred and thirty-two pupils were enrolled in the schools for the Chinese on the Pacific coast of the United States..

The seventy-second annual meeting of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions was held at St. Louis, Missouri, October 18th. The ordinary receipts of the board for the year had been $451,214, and the appropriations, including provision to meet the deficit of the previous year, had been $453,273; and the Prudential Committee was able to report, for the first time for several years, that the current annual expenses had been met by the current annual receipts; it also reported that the deficit at the beginning of the year, of more than $14,000, had been reduced to $2,059. Nine missionaries and thirty-one assistant missionaries had been added to the roll of the laborers of the board. The reports from the mission-fields included accounts of the progress of the work of evangelization in Africa (Zooloos), the Turkish Empire (European Turkey, Asia Minor, and Armenia), India, Ceylon, China, Japan, Micronesia, among the North American Indians, in Mexico, Spain, and the Austrian Empire. The report named, as events worthy of especial mention, the establishment of a new mission in Bihé, Central Africa; the advance in the higher Christian education in the Turkish Empire and in India; the success which had attended the work of the women "in nearly every mission-field"; and the illustration of the value of the boarding-schools in the development of Christian character.

Missions.-Number of missions, 17; number of stations, 81; number of out-stations, 733.

Laborers employed.-Number of ordained missionaries (5 being physicians), 159; number of physicians not ordained, men and women, 11; number of other male assistants, 10; number of female assistants, 253; whole number of laborers sent from the United States, 433. Number of native pastors, 141; number of native preachers and catechists, 365; number of native school-teachers, 1,005; number of other native helpers, 206. Whole number of laborers connected with the missions, 2,131.

The Press-Pages printed, as far as reported (Turkish, Japan, North China, Zooloo, and India missions), 25,000,000.

The Churches.-Number of churches, 272; number of church-members, as nearly as can be learned, 18,446; added during the year, as nearly as can be learned, with additions not previously reported, 2,161.

Educational Department.-Number of training, theological schools, and station-classes, 51; number of pupils in the above, 1,468; number of boarding-schools for girls, 36; number of pupils in boarding-schools for girls, 1,420; number of common schools, 791; number of pupils in common schools, 30,472; whole number of pupils, 33,360.

The National Congregational Council of 1880 appointed a committee to which it intrusted the duty of selecting a commission of twentyfive persons to consider the matter of preparing a new Creed and Catechism for the Congregational churches. This committee, in June, 1881, announced the appointment of the following persons as members of the commission: Rev. Julius H. Seelye, D. D., Amherst, Mass. Rev. Charles M. Mead, D. D., Andover, Mass. Rev. Henry M. Dexter, D. D., Boston, Mass. Rev. Edmund K. Alden, D. D., Boston, Mass. Rev. Alexander McKenzie, D. D., Cambridge, Mass. Rev. Samuel Harris, D. D., New Haven, Conn. Rev. George P. Fisher, D. D., New Haven, Conn. Rev. George L. Walker, D. D., Hartford, Conn. Rev. William S. Karr, D. D., Hartford, Conn. Prof. George T. Ladd, Brunswick, Me. Rev. Samuel P. Leeds, D. D., Hanover, N. H. Rev. David B. Coe, D. D., New York, N. Y. Rev. William M. Taylor, D. D., New York, N. Y. Rev. Lyman Abbott, D. D., Cornwall-on-the-Hudson, N. Y.

Rev. Augustus F. Beard, D. D., Syracuse, N. Y. Rev. William W. Patton, D. Ď., Washington, D. C.

Rev. James H. Fairchild, D. D., Oberlin, O.
Rev. Israel W. Andrews, D. D., Marietta, O.
Rev. Zachary Eddy, D. D., Detroit, Mich.
Rev. James T. Hyde, D. D., Chicago, Ill.
Rev. Edward P. Goodwin, D. D., Chicago, Ill.
Rev. Alden B. Robbins, D. D.. Muscatine, Ia.
Rev. Constans L. Goodell, D. D., St. Louis, Mo.
Rev. Richard Cordley, D. D., Emporia, Kan.
Rev. George Mooar, D. D., Oakland, Cal.

In announcing the appointments, the committee stated that, in making the selection, different sections of the country had been drawn upon somewhat in proportion to the membership in the Congregational churches in each. The list embraced men who were understood to represent different shades of opinion, while holding fast to the essential doctrines of the gospel. With a large proportion of pastors were joined representatives of theological seminaries and colleges, of the religious press, and of the missionary work of the churches.

The commission met at Syracuse, New York, September 28th; Professor Julius H. Seelye, of Amherst College, presided. The work assigned to the body was considered, and a plan of operations was adopted. The commission was divided into three committees, namely: a committee on the larger confession of faith, President James H. Fairchild, of Oberlin College, chairman; a committee on the smaller statement of belief, Rev. Dr. E. P. Goodwin, of Chicago, chairman; and a committee on the catechism, Rev. Dr. Alexander McKenzie, of Cambridge, chairman. The reports of the committees are to be made to the full commission, to be called together before July 15, 1882.