FINANCES, UNITED STATES. 



FISHER, SAMUEL W. 



307 



cities on the lint have debts of comparatively 

 portions. 



.- next in size to those Just referred 



u-li u population exceeding 80,000 



"00, aro twelve in number having 



_Mt.- i>"|'uhiiion of about 760,000. Their t<>- 



t exceed $30,000.000, which gives 



til>( 'in $4(i per capita for the whole lint. 



Taking the next class of cities, having each a pop- 

 ulation exceeding 20,000 and less than 50,000, I find 

 .ire in all some tit'iy-tlin-i- in the L'niti-d Slut. , 

 with a total population of something over 1,500,000. 

 Their total debt cannot be less, I think, than $75,- 

 000,000, or $50 pr capita. 



Intiiri'st. <l us 1 liuvc been in making these investi- 

 uMti".:.- , 1 in. h:. ud one more class within the scope 

 of my inquiries and took the cities and towns 

 throughout the United States having populations 

 M H',000 and 20,000 each, a list which I found 

 to embrace in all 105 cities and towns, whoso aggre- 

 gate population amounts to nearly 1,400,000, and 

 whose aggregate debt is something over $35,000,000, 

 or about $22 per capita for the whole. 



Adding these four classes together it presents a 

 table which embraces the cities and towns of the 

 I'nitfd States having over 10,000 inhabitants each 

 of which there are in all Ifi6 with an aggregate pop- 

 ulation exceeding 7,000,000, and a total municipal 

 di'M of about $490,000.000. 



The towns having less than 10,000 inhabitants 

 each I have not been able to classify with the ap- 

 I'Dximate accuracy of those I have given, but I feel 

 well assured that the aggregate of these debts would 

 iv;idi $80,000,000 making the total municipal debt 

 of the country about $570,000,000. 



Added to these municipal debts proper, we find 

 the county debts of the entire country amounting to 

 about $180,000,000, and the State debts to about 

 $390,000,000 making a grand aggregate of $1,140,- 

 000,000 of public debt of States, counties, cities, 

 and towns. 



This sum total is nearly $300,000,000 greater than 

 that given in the census of 1870. The addition, how- 

 ever, has not been made within the four succeeding 

 years, but a part is due, I think, to incomplete re- 

 turns made to the census officials. I have been at 

 some pains, by original investigation and inquiry, to 

 get at the aggregates of State, county, and municipal 

 indebtedness ; and while I do not assume to give de- 

 tails <,r vouch for absolute accuracy, I think the totals 

 I have given may well be taken as approximate re- 

 liable statements. The difficulty in attaining perfect 

 exactness of statement results from the imperfect 

 manner in which statistics are gathered in the sev- 

 eral States. I have found, indeed, very few States 

 where the State officers were authorized by law to 

 keep any tiling of record in regard to debt except the 

 direct obligations of the State. In Massachusetts, 

 where great attention is paid to accuracy of statistics. 

 I huve been enabled to get precise information; and 

 the entire footintr of that Commonwealth, of State, 

 county, and municipal debts, shows a grand total of 

 $97,500,000, subject to a sinking-fund deduction of 

 $11,000,000 leaving $86,500,000 as the net debt of 

 that State. A very large burden, it would seem, and 

 yet such is the weulth of the State that the entire debt 

 does not constitute) more than 4 per cent, of its valu- 

 ation, and probably not 2% per cent, of its actual 

 wealth. 



Dunn & Barlow's circular gives the mercan- 

 tile failures lor 1874 at 5,830, and the total 

 numher of firms reported is 650,000. The dis- 

 tribution of the failures is given in the follow- 

 ing table. In 1873 the numher of failures was 

 5,183, and the amount involved $228,499,000. 

 The noticeable feature is, that there is a marked 

 diminution in the amount of liabilities. Two 

 causes are assignable for this, viz. : 1. That 



the panic of 1873 caused the failure of an un- 



UMIII! mini!.. ,- of largo houses, thus ruining very 

 much tli.- average amount of liabilities over all 

 |)R-\iiu-i v.ir; and, 2. That tho volume of 

 business had been greatly diminished during 

 IS"!, so Unit, when failures did occur, the lia- 

 bilities were comparatively light ; and further, 

 that tho houses which succumbed during the 

 year were in a great degree a smaller class of 

 traders than those of 1873, and than the aver- 

 age of those of several preceding years. 



FISHER, Rev. SAMUEL WABE, D. D., LL. D., 

 an eminent Presbyterian clergyman, college 

 president, and pulpit orator, born in Morris- 

 town, N. J., April 5, 1814 ; died at College Hill, 

 near Cincinnati, January 18, 1874. His father 

 was a distinguished clergyman of the Presby- 

 terian Church, a pastor at Morristown during 

 his boyhood. After thorough preparation he 

 entered Yale College in 1831, and graduated 

 with high honors in 1835. The next year he 

 entered Princeton Theological Seminary, but 

 after two years there he transferred himself to 

 the Union Theological Seminary, New York 

 City, whence he graduated in 1889. Before 

 leaving the seminary he was called to the pas- 

 torate of the Presbyterian Church in West 

 Bloomfield. now Montclair, N. J. He remained 

 there three and a half years, and was then 

 called to the Fourth Presbyterian Church in 

 Albany in October, 1843. In his less than 

 four years' ministry there he had achieved a 

 reputation, as a pulpit orator, inferior to no 

 other clergyman of his denomination in the 





