UNIVERSALISTS. 



URUGUAY. 



771 



own manufactures (in 1884. adding $30,000,000 to 

 their cost;, which, if exported, compete in other coun- 

 tries against similar manufactures from untaxed ma- 

 terials. Some rates have been retained after ruining 

 the industries they were meant to advantage. Other 

 rates have been retained after effecting a higher price 

 for a domestic product at home than it was sold 

 abroad for. The general high level of rates has been 

 retained on the theory of countervailing lower wages 

 abroad, when, in fact, the higher wages of American 

 labor are at once the secret and the security of our ca- 

 pacity to distance all competition from " pauper labor " 

 in any market. All changes have left unchanged, or 

 changed for the worse, by new schemes of classifica- 

 tion and otherwise, a complicated, cumbrous, intri- 

 cate group of laws which are not capable of being ad- 

 ministered with impartiality to all our merchants. As 

 nothing in the ordinary course of business is imported 

 unless the price here of the domestic as well as of the 

 imported article is higher by the amount of the duty 

 and the cost of sea-transit than the price abroad, the 

 preference of the tax-payer for duties upon articles 

 not produced in the United States is justified by the 

 fact that such duties cost him no more than the treas- 

 ury of his country gets. As for duties affecting arti- 

 cles that are also produced in the United States, the 

 first to be safely discarded are those upon materials 

 used by our own manufactures, which now subject 

 them to a hopeless competition at home and abroad 

 with the manufacturing nations, none of which taxes 

 raw materials. It is not to be doubted that in any re- 

 form which shall finally receive the approval of the 

 two houses of Congress, they will maturely consider 

 and favorably regard tne interests which can only 

 gradually and carefully be adjusted, without loss, to 

 changes in the legislative conditions for their advanc- 

 ing prosperity. 



UNIVERSALISTS. The Trustees of the Uni- 

 versalist General Convention presented to that 

 body, at its meeting in October, the following 

 comparative statement of the general condition 

 of the churches in 1884 and 1885 : 



Fifteen Young People's Missionary Associa- 

 tions had been organized since the previous 

 report of the trustees, making the present 

 number of such societies twenty-two. The 

 general receipts of the Convention for the 

 year had been $36,893. Special funds for 

 missions, ministerial relief, or education, had 

 been instituted in connection with sixteen 

 State Conventions, the aggregate amount of 

 which was returned at $196,365. The funds 

 of the General Convention were returned as 

 follow : 



Murray Centenary fund $122,577 



Theological scholarship fund 22,550 



Church extension fund 360 



Ministerial relief fund 10,187 



Making the total endowment of the convention $155,674 

 Add the total endowment oi the State Conventions 195,365 



In all $350,039 



This amount was exclusive of all endow- 

 ments of subordinate missionary agencies, and 

 of colleges and academies. 



The trustees had expended $1,000 in aid of 

 State Conventions, $1,603 for church exten- 

 sion, and $2,223 for church sustentation. Ac- 

 cording to the returns received, which were 

 incomplete, the amount contributed during the 

 year for the funds and missionary work of the 

 General and State Conventions exceeded $50,- 

 000 ; the contributions for the support of par- 

 ish services, and the erection and repair of 

 church edifices, were $815,000 ; for education- 

 al purposes, $107,500 ; making a total, in 

 round numbers, of $1,000,000, or an average 

 of $27 for each family. The educational in- 

 stitutions were represented as being in pros- 

 perous condition, with considerable increase in 

 the attendance at some of them. 



Woman's Centenary Association. The Woman's 

 Centenary Association met in Brooklyn, N". Y., 

 Oct. 20. Mrs. M. L. Thomas presided. The 

 receipts of the Association for the year had 

 been $9,657, and the expenditures $3,196. 



Universalist Historical Society. The report made 

 to this society at its meeting, Oct. 21, repre- 

 sented that considerable additions had been 

 made, by gift and purchase, to the library, 

 which now contained about 3,000 volumes. 



General Convention. The General Convention 

 of Universalists met in Brooklyn, N. Y., Oct. 

 21. Mr. J. D. W. Joy presided. The chief 

 topics of discussion at the business sessions re- 

 lated to the provisions to be made for collect- 

 ing moneys for the funds of the church. A 

 committee was appointed to make verbal 

 changes in the profession of faith. Resolu- 

 tions were passed condemning capital punish- 

 ment, with a specification of the reasons for 

 opposing it ; condemning war, and recom- 

 mending arbitration as a means of settling 

 national disputes; recognizing Dr. Benjamin 

 Rush as the pioneer of the temperance re- 

 form and its sequences total abstinence and 

 prohibition ; and favorable to the making of 

 provision for looking after persons, so that 

 they shall not be lost to the church, who, hav- 

 ing been members of a parish in one commu- 

 nity, move into another parish. A plan was 

 considered for the organization of a Sunday- 

 School Superintendents' Bureau of Exchange. 

 Mr. J. D. W. Joy, who had been President of 

 the Convention for eleven years, declined a 

 re-election to that office, and the Rev. E. 0. 

 Sweetzer, D. D., was chosen President of the 

 Convention for the ensuing year. 



URUGUAY, a republic in South America. 

 Area, 69,835 miles ; population in 1883, 520,- 

 536. Montevideo, capital of the country, had 

 in 1884 a population of 104,472. 



Government. The President is Gen. Maximo 

 Santos, whose term of office will expire on 

 March 1, 1886. The Cabinet is composed of 

 the following ministers: Foreign Affairs, Dr. 

 Manuel Herrera y Obes; Finance, Dr. J. L. 

 Terra; Interior, Seftor E. Zorrilla; War and 

 Navy, Gen. Tajes; Justice and Public Instruc- 

 tion, Senor J. L. Cuestas. The United States 

 Minister is Hon. John C. Bacon ^ the Amerk- 



