196 



CONGRESS. (THE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE.) 



London Missionary Society. The annual 

 meeting of the London Missionary Society was 

 held in London, May 7. The balance sheet 

 showed that while the society had begun the 

 year with a balance of 9,000 in hand, it had 

 closed it with a debt of 13,000. The expendi- 

 tures had risen from 112,496 in 1892 to 137,- 

 048. Thirty-eight missionaries had been added 

 to the staff of the society, and in two years the 

 number had increased from 196 to 245, or, in- 

 cluding the wives of missionaries, to 391. 



Union of Churches in Scotland. Joint 

 meetings of the Committees of the Evangelical 

 Union and of the Congregational Union of Scot- 

 land were held in Edinburgh in March to con- 

 sider the question of the amalgamation of the 

 two bodies. A resolution was unanimously 

 adopted declaring such a union desirable, and 

 asserting that there were no real difficulties in 

 the way. Special committees were appointed to 

 draw up a theological basis of agreement, and 

 also to draft plans for the union and working of 

 the various denominational societies. 



CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. 

 The second session of the Fifty-second Congress 

 began on Monday, Dec. 5, 1892. On the next 

 day the President's annual message was read, 

 as follows : 

 To the Senate and House of Representatives : 



In submitting my annual message to Congress, I 

 have great satisfaction in being able to say that the 

 general conditions affecting the commercial and in- 

 dustrial interests of the United States are in the high- 

 est degree favorable. A comparison of the existing 

 conditions with those of the most favored period in 

 the history of the country will, I believe, snow that 

 so high a degree of prosperity and so general a diffu- 

 sion of the comforts of life were never before enjoyed 

 by our people. 



The total wealth of the country in 1860 was $16,- 

 159,616,068. In 1890 it amounted to $62,610,000,000, 

 an increase of 287 per cent. 



The total mileage of railways in the United States 

 in I860 was 30,626; in 1890 it was 167,741, an in- 

 crease of 448 per cent. ; and it is estimated that there 

 will be about 4,000 miles of track added by the close 

 of the year 1892. 



The official returns of the eleventh census and 

 those of the tenth census tor 75 leading cities fur- 

 nish the basis for the following comparisons : 



In 1880 the capital invested in manufacturing was 

 $1,232,839,670. 



In 1890 the capital invested in manufacturing was 

 $2,900,735,884. 



In 1880 the number of employees was 1,301,388. 



In 1890 the number of employees was 2,251,134. 



In 1880 the wages earned were $501,965,778. 

 ' In 1890 the wages earned were $1,221,170,454. 



In 1880 the value of the product was $2,711,579,899. 



In 1890 the value of the product was $4,860,286,837. 



I am informed by the Superintendent of the Cen- 

 sus that the omission of certain industries in 1880, 

 which were included in 1890, accounts in part for the 

 remarkable increase thus shown. But, after making 

 full allowance for differences of method and deduct- 

 ing the returns for all industries not included in the 

 census of 1880, there remain in the reports from these 

 75 cities an increase in the capital employed of $1,- 

 522,745,604 ; in the value of the product of "$2,024,236,- 

 166; in wages earned of $677,943,929, and in the 

 number of wage earners employed of 856,029. The 

 wage earnings not only show an increased aggregate, 

 but an increase per capita from $386 in 1880 to $547 

 in 1890, or 41-71 per cent. 



The new industrial plants established since Oct. 

 '!, 1890, and up to Oct. 22, 1892, as partially reported 



in the " American Economist," number 345, and the 

 extension of existing plants 108 ; the new capital in- 

 vested amounts to $40,449,050, and the number of ad- 

 ditional employees to 37,285. 



The "Textile World" for July, 1892, states that 

 during the first six months of ttie present calendar 

 year 135 new factories were built, of which 40 are 

 cotton mills, 48 knitting mills, 26 woolen mills, 15 

 silk mills, 4 plush mills, and 2 linen mills. Of the 40 

 cotton mills 21 have been built in the Southern 

 States. Mr. A. B. Shepperson, of the New York Cot- 

 ton Exchange, estimates the number of working 

 spindles in the United States on Sept. 1, 1892, at 15,- 

 200,000, an increase of 660,000 over the year 1891. 

 The consumption of cotton by American mills in 

 1891 was 2,396,000 bales, and in 1892 2,584,000 bales, 

 an increase of 188,000 bales. From the year 1869 to 

 1892, inclusive, there has been an increase in the con- 

 sumption of cotton in Europe of 92 per cent., while 

 during the same period the increased consumption in 

 the United States has been about 150 per cent. 



The report of Ira Ayer, special agent of the Treas- 

 ury Department, shows that at the date of Sept. 30, 

 1892, there were 32 companies manufacturing tin and 

 terne plate in the United States and 14 companies 

 building new works for such manufacture. The es- 

 timated investment in buildings and plants at the 

 close of the fiscal year, June 30, 1893, if existing con- 

 ditions were to be continued, was $5,000,000, and the 

 estimated rate of production 200,000,000 pounds per 

 annum. The actual production for the quarter end- 

 ing Sept. 30, 1892, was 10,952,725 pounds. 



The report of Labor Commissioner Peck, of New 

 York, shows that during the year 1891, in about 6,000 

 manufacturing establishments in that State embraced 

 within the special inquiry rmide by him, and repre- 

 senting 67 different industries, there was a net in- 

 crease over the year 1890 of $31,315,130.68 in the 

 value of the product, and of $6,377,925.09 in the 

 amount of wages paid. The report of the commis- 

 sioner of labor for the State of Massachusetts shows 

 that 3,745 industries in that State paid $129,416,248 

 in wages during the year 1891; against $126,030,303 

 in 1890, an increase of $3,335,945, and that there was 

 an increase of $9,932,490 in the amount of capital and 

 of 7,346 in the number of persons employed in the 

 same period. 



During the last six months of the year 1891 and 

 the first six months of 1892 the total production of 

 pig iron was 9,710,819 tons, as against 9,202,703 tons 

 in the year 1890, which was the largest annual pro- 

 duction ever attained. For the same twelve months 

 of 1891-'92 the production of Bessemer ingots was 

 3,878,581 tons, an increase of 189,710 gross tons over the 

 previously unprecedented yearly production of 3,688,- 

 871 gross tons in 1890. T'he production of Bessemer 

 steel' rails for the first six months of 1892 was 772,436 

 gross tons, as against 702,080 gross tons during the 

 last six months of the year 1891. 



The total value of pur foreign trade (exports and 

 imports of merchandise) during the last fiscal year 

 was $1,857,680,610, an increase of $128,283,604 over 

 the previous fiscal year. .The average annual value 

 of our imports and exports of merchandise for the ten 

 fiscal years prior to 1891 was $1,457,322,019. It will 

 be observed that our foreign trade for 1892 exceeded 

 this annual average value by $400,358,591, an in- 

 crease of 27'47 per cent. The significance and value 

 of this increase are shown by the fact that the excess 

 in the trade of 1892 over 189i was wholly in the value 

 of exports, for there was a decrease in the value of 

 imports of $17,513,754. 



The value of our exports during the fiscal year 1892 

 reached the highest figure in the history of the Gov- 

 ernment, amounting to $1,030,278,148, exceeding by 

 $145,797,338 the exports of 1891, and exceeding the 

 value of the imports by $202,875,686. A comparison 

 of the value of our exports for 1892 with the annual 

 average for the ten years prior to 1891 shows an ex- 

 cess of $265,142,651, or of 34-65 per cent. The value 

 of our imports of merchandise for 1892, which was 



