216 



DISCIPLES OF CHRIST. 



united in their desire to relieve the country of 

 the financial burden and the trouble of these dis- 

 tant negro colonies. The bankers and merchants 

 of Copenhagen, the university men, and the court 

 ' circle were as strongly bent on keeping -the is- 

 lands for Denmark. Since ratifications could 

 not be exchanged by the date fixed, July 24, 1902, 

 the time for ratification was, at the proposal of 

 Mr. Hay, extended for a year. 



Negotiations for the sale of the Danish An- 

 tilles to the United States have been resumed sev- 

 eral times since the conclusion of the abortive 

 treaty of 1807. The latest negotiations were sug- 

 gested to Mr. Hay by a Danish adventurer named 

 Christmas, who brought the information that 

 overtures for the purchase of the islands would 

 be favorably received at Copenhagen. Horace 

 White, secretary of legation at London, was en- 

 trusted with an informal mission early in 1900 

 to sound the views of the Danish Government. 

 Admiral N. F. Ravn, Minister of Marine in the 

 Herring Cabinet, who was also provisional Min- 

 ister of Foreign Affairs, was ready to discuss, the 

 matter with Mr. White, but turned Christmas, 

 who accompanied him, out of his office. Christ- 

 mas returned to the United States and pretended 

 to have a part in the business in association with 

 other lobbyists and go-betweens, on the basis of 

 which he demanded money from the Danish Gov- 

 ernment. His claim was denied, and when the 

 contest over the ratification of the treaty began 

 he turned to the opponents of the sale and sup- 

 plied them with scandalous tales of secret corrupt 

 dealings, asserting that Danish ministers had 

 promised a large sum to be expended in influen- 

 cing statesmen and legislators in Washington and 

 the American press and that he had paid over 

 money for these purposes. 



The Rigsdag increased postage rates, chiefly in 

 order to give better pay to employees. The session 

 was closed on May 17 after the Folkething had 

 spent over half a year on the budget, and left 

 it with a prospective deficit of 5,500,000 kroner, 

 making larger military appropriations than the 

 Conservative ministries had ever obtained, yet 

 accomplishing none of the fiscal reforms that 

 Radicals and Social Democrats have called for, 

 such as the abolition of tithes and revision of 

 the whole system of taxation. The Government 

 proposed to make a declaration to the powers that 

 Denmark desired to be neutral in all European 

 wars, such as had been made before, and in a 

 consultation with the Cabinets of Sweden and 

 Norway the policy of all the Scandinavian na- 

 tions making simultaneous declarations was con- 

 sidered. Elections were held on Sept. 20 to re- 

 place half the members. The old Conservative 

 party lost its small majority. Of the new Lands- 

 thing 29 were Extreme Conservatives, 8 Independ- 

 ent Conservatives, 3 Conservatives not belonging 

 to any faction, and 25 Radicals, including 1 So- 

 cialist. 



DISCIPLES OF CHRIST. The report of the 

 statistical secretary presented to the General 

 Missionary Convention at Omaha, Neb., in Oc- 

 tober, furnished the following summaries of the 

 churches of the Disciples of Christ: Number of 

 churches, 10,957; of communicants, 1,207,377; of 

 Bible schools, 8,271, with 796,699 pupils, officers, 

 and teachers; of ministers, 6.477; showing gains 

 for the year of 84 churches, 26,836 members, 269 

 Bible schools, 22,158 members of Bible schools, 

 and 94 ministers. The report gave as the money 

 raised during the year for the various church 

 enterprises: For the Foreign Christian Mission- 

 ary Society, $178,324; for the Christian Woman's 

 Board of Missions, $139,034; for the American 



Christian Missionary Society, $82,931; for the 

 Board of Church Extension, $54,866; for State 

 and district missions, $154,059; for miscellaneous 

 missions, $15,000; total for missions, $624,214; 

 for education and benevolence (including build- 

 ings and endowments of schools, homes for or- 

 phans, the aged, etc., and ministerial relief), 

 $254,753; for local church work (ministerial sup- 

 port, incidental church expenses, church build- 

 ings, and church and Bible school literature), 

 $5,315,000; making the whole amount of annual 

 contributions from all sources, $6,193,967. Spe- 

 cial notice is made of the growth of interest in 

 missions as shown in the increase of contribu- 

 tions for that object from $4,671 given to one 

 national society in 1874 to $464,902 contributed 

 to four national societies in 1902 one hundred- 

 fold in twenty-seven years. 



The General Board of the convention met in 

 Omaha, Oct. 18. H. O. Breeden presided. Reports 

 were made on church extension, ministerial re- 

 lief, and statistics, and addresses were delivered 

 on various subjects, in nearly all of which the 

 desirability of Christian union was emphasized. 

 A conference was held on this subject, as the 

 basis of which the following points were set 

 forth : " What modification or modifications of 

 our proposition on the subject of Christian union 

 ought we to make? None whatever. What fea- 

 tures of our plea for union ought to be made es- 

 pecially prominent to meet changed conditions? 

 The whole of it. In what ways can we promote 

 union among Christians? By practising it every- 

 where and all the time." 



The Christian Woman's Board of Missions re- 

 ported 1,716 auxiliary societies with 37,211 mem- 

 bers. Its receipts for the year had been $139,034. 

 More new work had been undertaken during the 

 past than in any previous year in its history. 

 Among the enterprises reported upon were new 

 school-buildings; additional missionaries and 

 new stations in India; special offerings for Mex- 

 ico and the purchase of a building site there, 

 evangelistic work in Chicago, and State Univer- 

 sity Bible work in Kansas. The year's receipts 

 of the Home Mission Board had been $82,931, in 

 addition to which $134,895 had been contributed 

 to the State boards for their missions, making 

 a total of $217,826 of offerings by the churches 

 for home missions. Forty-nine more churches and 

 62 more Endeavor Societies had contributed to 

 the work of the board than in the previous year, 

 and ' the whole increase of contributions was 

 $6,039. The board had assisted 274 mission- 

 aries in 34 States and in Ontario, Prince Edward 

 Island, Nova Scotia, Manitoba, and Porto Rico, 

 who had visited and assisted 947 places, organ- 

 ized or reorganized 101 churches, and received 

 11,284 members, of whom 6,419 had been received 

 on confession of faith and baptism. Adding those 

 under the direction of the State boards, 418 home 

 missionaries had been employed. Ten named me- 

 morial funds of $5.000 each, intended to keep one 

 missionary at work, were reported. The sum of 

 $23,720 had been received in annuity funds, bring 

 a gain of $10,020 over the previous year. The 

 Board of Ministerial Relief had raised $9,326 dur- 

 ing the year. The Board of Church Extension 

 returned $54,866 of new receipts, $37,551 received 

 from returns of loans, and $16.000 from the sale 

 of land, which, with $84 for insurance, made its 

 total receipts $108,501, showing a net gain of 

 $4,850 over the previous year. Its permanent 

 fund amounted to $345,044. Since the beginning 

 of its operations $180,658 had been returned on 

 loans, $60.289 had been received in interest, 655 

 churches had been aided, and 249 churches had 



