PREFACE. 



To Americans and perhaps to many more than Americans among the events of 

 the year 1901 the death of President McKinley was at once the most significant and 

 sorrowful. The present volume contains a sketch of his wonderful career from his 

 boyhood to the sudden termination of his presidency. It also contains a sketch of 

 the life of his successor in the chief magistracy, together with a full-page portrait. 

 Other events of importance and interest to Americans are duly recorded in the 

 articles " Congress," " United States," " Philippine Islands," " Hawaii," " Porto Kico," 

 and those on the various States of the Union. The most gigantic transaction that 

 ever took place in the financial and industrial world is that of the formation of the 

 great Steel Corporation, the story of which is told in the " Financial Review of 1901." 

 Two industries, perhaps developed to a greater extent in our country than in any 

 other, are described and illustrated under the titles " Printing" and "Wire-Making" ; 

 while nearly all the industries of this Western World were abundantly set forth in the 

 " Pan-American Exposition at Buffalo," of which the reader will here find a good 

 description, beautifully illustrated. While the typical American is thus accumulating 

 money more rapidly than any other man on earth, he is also showing that he knows 

 how to dispose of it so as to benefit his fellow mortals as well as himself. For proof 

 of this, let the reader turn to the article " Gifts and Bequests," where he will find an 

 itemized account of more than a hundred million dollars given to philanthropic and 

 educational causes in our country in the year that is here recorded. The cause of 

 popular education as it progresses year by year may be studied under the head of 

 Education in the several articles on the States, and in such other articles as those of 

 " Libraries " and the " Fine Arts." 



Court decisions that affect the constitutionality or interpretation of statutes are 

 recorded under the head of Supreme Court in the article "United States," and also 

 under Decisions in the State articles. The financial condition of the States and the 

 nation may also be seen by reference to the articles just mentioned. The subject of 

 irrigation, now most important in giving fertility to arid lands and increasing the 

 food-crops of the world, as it progresses year by year, may be studied by looking at 

 the articles on the Western States. 



Governmental, insurrectionary, and industrial movements in the various countries 

 of the world are recorded in the articles on those countries, some of which are of 

 special interest as a part of the history of the first year of our century. The change 

 of sovereign in Great Britain, the continued war in South Africa, the beginning of 

 peaceable settlement in China, and the federation of the Australian provinces are 

 among the most notable of these. 



The volume contains, as usual, an article on each of the great religious denomina- 

 tions, together with articles on such of the smaller ones as have recorded and pub- 



