494 



METHODISTS. 



annual conferences in the United States and the 

 domestic and foreign-mission conferences and 

 missions, of which 124 organizations are classed 

 as conferences, 11 as mission conferences, and 13 

 as missions. The aggregates are made up from 

 the enumerations officially reported to the con- 

 ferences in their annual sessions of 1899, except a 

 small number of conferences the statistics of 

 which, their meetings having been held late in 

 the fall, had not become available at the time 

 the yearbook went to press. In these cases esti- 

 mates based upon the official statistics of the 

 previous year are used: Number of ministers on 

 trial and* in full connection, including supernu- 

 meraries and superannuates. 17,583; of local 

 preachers, 14.289: of lay members (including full 

 meml>ers and probationers), 2,871,949, showing 

 a decrease of 21.034; of Sunday schools, 31,836, 

 with 34(5.003 officers and teachers and 2,660,339 

 pupils; number of churches, 26.986, having a prob- 

 able value of $116,275,007; number of parson- 

 ages, 10,931: probable value of the same, $18,- 

 341.811. 



Church Extension Society. The General 

 Committee of Church Extension met in Balti- 

 more, Md.. Nov. 9. The report of the treasurer 

 of the board represented that the increase of the 

 Conference collections over those of the preced- 

 ing year had been $1,814, and that the increase 

 on all items of the general fund amounted to 

 $37,592. All the items of the Loan fund were 

 likewise larger than in the preceding year. The 

 total receipts for the general fund, all available 

 for donations, had been $214,549, and those for 

 the Loan fund, to be used for loans only, $246,- 

 010, making a total amount available for use 

 under the two headings of $461,160. Outside of a 

 few exceptional years, the interest paid by the 

 board had heretofore considerably exceeded the 

 interest received. This year, however, a surplus 

 of about $15,000 remained after paying all an- 

 nuities. Four hundred and thirteen churches had 

 been aided during the year, making 11,301 from 

 the beginning. Three additions had been made 

 to the list of special Mountain fund churches 

 and 27 to the number of special frontier churches, 

 giving a total of 650 churches of these classes, 

 at an average cost when dedicated exceeding 

 $2,000. In nearly 100 cases the board had given 

 $100 each on Mountain fund conditions out of 

 the general fund, of which no accounting is made 

 in the Mountain fund list. The entire capital 

 of the Loan fund, including amounts received 

 subject to life annuity, was on Nov. 1, 1899, 

 $1,080,856. Borrowing churches had to that date 

 returned $1,270,367, making an aggregate for use 

 by loans of $2,357,224. In this way nearly 3,450 

 different churches had been aided, furnishing sit- 

 tings for about 1,000,000 hearers, and worth in 

 the aggregate nearly $12,250,000. The commit- 

 tee decided to ask the sum of $308,600 from the 

 annual conferences in aid of the church-extension 

 work during the ensuing year. 



Freedmen's Aid and Southern Education 

 Society. The annual meeting of the General 

 Committee of the Freedmen's Aid and Southern 

 Education Society was held in Philadelphia, Pa., 

 Nov. 13. The receipts of the society for the year 

 from all sources had been $355,827 and the ex- 

 penditures $329,663, of which $207,365 had been 

 applied to the schools ($109,404 to schools among 

 colored people and $37,871 to schools among 

 whites). An indebtedness of $178,074 was re- 

 turned. The society maintained 1 theological, 

 12 collegiate, and 10 academic schools among the 

 colored people and 3 collegiate and 23 academic 

 schools among white people in the South. 



Special notice was taken in the report of the 

 development of manual training in the schools, 

 for which enlarged facilities were greatly de- 

 manded. In view of the certainty that the great 

 majority of the students would engage in opera- 

 tions for which skill in working with their hands 

 would be required, encouragement was given them 

 to maintain themselves by labor while in the 

 schools. In some cases most of the work about 

 the buildings was done by the students. The 

 buildings themselves had in certain instances been 

 erected by them, and even finished by them. The 

 whole number of students in all the industrial 

 schools w r as 2,640, an increase of 834 over the pre- 

 vious year. Of these, 677 young colored men. 

 were learning various trades, and 1,755 colored 

 and 142 white young women were learning 

 branches of domestic economy, sewing, and other 

 women's trades. 



Missionary Society. The General Missionary 

 Committee met in Washington, D. C., Nov. 15. 

 The committee consists of the Board of Bishops, 

 the officers of the Missionary Society, 14 repre- 

 sentatives of General Conference districts, and 

 the 7 ministerial and 7 lay members of the Board 

 of Managers of the Missionary Society. Its busi- 

 ness is to hear the financial and missionary re- 

 ports for the year, make the necessary appropria- 

 tions for carrying on the missionary work in the 

 several fields during the ensuing year, and dis- 

 tribute the assessment of the amounts expected 

 to be contributed during the coming year among 

 the annual conferences. The treasurer reported 

 that the receipts for the year (Nov. 1, 1898, to Oct. 

 31, 1899) had been $1,236,544 and the expendi- 

 tures $1,232,566. The total indebtedness of the 

 treasury at the beginning of the year was $177,- 

 417; at the close $99,450, showing a reduction of 

 $77,967. 



The following appropriations were made for 

 carrying on the missionary work in 1900: 



Class I. Foreign Missions. Europe, South 

 America, Mexico, and Africa. Germany, $36,918; 

 Switzerland, $7,390; Norway, $12,487; Sweden, 

 $16,436; Denmark, $7,490; Finland and St. Peters- 

 burg, $5,200; Bulgaria, $8,868; Italy, $41,122; 

 South America east of the Andes, $46*384; West- 

 ern South American Mission Conference, $29,- 

 953; Mexico, $49,742; Africa, $24,868. 



Asia. China, $119,376; Japan, $49,739; Korea, 

 $16,911; India, $144,241 ; Malaysia, $12,500. Total 

 for foreign missions, $629,625. 



Class II. Missions in the United States. Con- 

 ference missions north of the Potomac and Ohio 

 and east of the Mississippi river, $24,761; con- 

 ferences in Iowa and Kansas and States north of 

 them, including Black Hills and Oklahoma Con- 

 ferences, $81,697; work in the mountain region 

 (Rocky mountains, etc.), $58,110; Pacific coast, 

 $33,376; white work in the South, Maryland, and 

 Delaware, $48,376; colored work, mostly in the 

 South, $46,061 ; new English-speaking missions 

 (Welsh, Swedish, Norwegian and Danish, Ger- 

 man, French, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Bohe- y 

 mian and Hungarian, Italian, Portuguese, and 

 Finnish) in the United States, $161,530; Ameri- 

 can Indians, $7,686; special appropriations for 

 cities, $11,176; total for domestic missions, $471,- 

 773; miscellaneous appropriations, $122,000; total 

 appropriations, $1,223,398. A number of contin- 

 gent appropriations were made, amounting in all 

 to $78,000. 



The reports from the mission fields summarized 

 at the close of 1898 give as the figures for the 

 missions in heathen and Roman Catholic coun- 

 tries (deducting the congregations in Protestant 

 countries, such as Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, 



