The

The brief period in the year during which the schools are open detracts greatly from an otherwise efficient system. The average for the entire country is a little less than 136 days-i.e. between six and a half and seven months. shortest state average is 634 days; the longest, 189 days. The unsatisfactory condition of many rural schools may be inferred from the fact that the average length of term in 638 cities of the country is a fraction over 188 days. The general average attendance for all the states is 876 days. This means that the real efficiency of the system is diminished by nearly fifty days. The lowest average attendance for any state is 39-2 days; the highest, 1394.

Finances. The gathering of school moneys is, in most states, a comparatively simple matter, though their origin is quite diverse. All the income, however, may be grouped under one or other of three classes: (1) that from permanent | funds; (2) that from state taxes; and (3) that from local taxes. There are in certain sections occasional appropriations made to the common schools, to be expended within the year; as is more frequently done for the state's higher institutions. In a few localities subscriptions, as in the earlier colonial days, may even yet be found. Among the most notable of endowment moneys for common schools, though forming but a small percentage of the aggregate sum, are the gifts and bequests that have been set apart in certain sections of the country. Such are the Peabody (q.v.) and Slater ($1,000,000) funds. In some states the public funds have been created or increased by legislative appropriation, as in parts of the south; and again, by the investment of the surplus revenue deposit made by the general government in 1837. In most states escheated moneys and lands and forfeitures go to swell the permanent school funds. For a hundred years the vast 'public domain' has been a source of constant revenue (this has been greatly reduced in recent years), 3 to 5 per cent. upon all sales being turned into the treasuries of the states interested. This in a dozen states was diverted to education, and became the means of increasing the investments for common schools in those states having public lands. At various times, also, the federal government has made grants of land to the states without specifying their use, but which have frequently i been set apart to the schools. So that, with the section 16 set apart in every township, the states altogether have received from the federal government not less than 75,000,000 acres of land, most of which has been used in the interest of elementary education. The total permanent funds for all the states, from whatever source, amount to about $130,000,000, and yield annually over $8,000,000 of income. Then, in most states, the school revenue is increased annually by a general tax upon property, to which in some states is added a poll-tax. The two yield annually, in the entire country, more than $25,000,000. The third, and much the largest source of revenue, is in the collections from taxes assessed by local authorities, upon local properties, for the benefit of the schools of the locality. These alone aggregate from $85,000,000 to $90,000,000 annually. From all the sources the total yearly income is about $130,000,000. Based upon the average attendance in the schools, the revenue raised per capita is $16.50; the highest average for any state is $45 84, the lowest $3.16.

If we

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Expenditure. Of the aggregate annual expenditure ($130,000,000) about $90,000,000 goes for This represents an teaching and supervision. annual expenditure per capita of total population of $2.17. The highest per capita is reported from California, $4.35; the lowest from South Carolina, 41 cents. The total expenditure for the entire country, further, is 56 mills to each dollar of property valuation. The highest rate per assessment is in Nebraska, 187 mills; the lowest in Georgia, 2.5 mills. The total estimated value of school property is $350,000,000, with an annual addition of more than 20 millions. Teachers.-The number of teachers in common schools increased from 200,515 in 1870 to 363,935 in 1890. included those in private and higher institutions the aggregate would not be far from 400,000, the superior and professional schools alone having a teaching force of nearly 15,000. Of the common school teachers 238,333, or 65.5 per cent., are women. In 188090 the proportion of men diminished nearly 8 per cent. Throughout the southern and central states the ratio of male to female teachers is highest; in the east, including New England, lowest. In Arkansas more than 73 per cent. of the teachers are men; in Massachusetts, 8.9 per cent. The average salary of teachers for the country at large is about $37.00 per month-for males, $42 43; for females, $34.27. The highest state average for male teachers is in Massachusetts, $108.88 per month; the highest for females in Nevada, $67 65. The lowest for males is in North Carolina, $24.57; the lowest for females in Maine, $17-24. Concerning the qualifications of teachers, it may be said there is no attempt at a uniform standard among the states, and in most states little effort that is effective toward supplying the schools with trained teachers. Much has been done, however, in the past, and the present shows even more noticeable improvement in the character of teachers and the teaching: 129 public normal schools report 22,618 students, 71 in every hundred of whom are women; 42 private normal schools contain 4781 students, 56 per cent. women; 58 cities possess local training schools, with nearly 1000 students; and a dozen higher institutions have departments or chairs of pedagogy. All this, however, means provision for the training annually of less than one-tenth as many teachers as are needed to supply the common schools, and the great majority of the 364,000 elementary teachers are relatively untrained. Nevertheless, while most teachers have had little or no systematic instruction in professional subjects, teachers' institutes, associations, and reading circles are used in a very effective way to familiarise them with their work.

Elementary Courses of Instruction.-Notwithstanding great diversity, the common school course is essentially the same throughout most states. Reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, United States history, English grammar, spelling, and physiology make up the major part of all elementary courses. Few of these are anywhere omitted, though in some schools other subjects are added. Most frequent among the latter are vocal music, drawing, elementary science lessons, and in a few cities manual work. Tuition in these is free to every child of school age. The greatest diversity appears in comparing the courses of urban and rural schools; the shorter terms, crowded classes, imperfect gradation, and the conservative habits of country districts greatly abridge the work in their schools. In cities the average length of the elementary course is eight years, of thirty-nine weeks each. Seven hundred cities reporting upon this point show an average aggregate of work required in the eight years to be 6433 hours.

Among these cities the average time given to language subjects is 48.6 per cent. of the whole; that to mathematics is 248 per cent.; to science, 11.3 per cent.; and to history and kindred subjects but 4.3 per cent. The remaining 11 per cent. is given to sundry branches, as moral instruction, music, drawing, physical culture, scattering attempts at manual training, &c.

At

Manual training can scarcely be said yet to have found a place in the public common school system. Some attempt was made as early as 1870 in Springfield, Massachusetts, to introduce it, and other cities have since tried it with varying success. present no less than thirty systems, representing a dozen states, report 80,000 children of elementary and high school grade together receiving training through manual industry by specially fitted teachers. There are also fifteen private, independent manual training schools in nearly as many cities, established, with a single exception, since 1880, and enrolling about 4000 students. These latter rank with the public, high, and other secondary schools, admitting pupils (mostly boys) | at fourteen years of age to a course averaging three years, and comprising both literary and industrial studies. In schools for the deaf and blind, the feeble-minded and the wayward, and the homeless poor the chief instrument of instruction is manual training.

GENERAL STATISTICS.

The figures in this section, wherever no date is given, refer to the census year 1890. The first census of the Union was taken in 1790, when it comprised thirteen states; in 1820 there were twenty-three states and three territories; in 1860 thirty-three states and five territories; in 1880 thirty-eight states and nine territories; in 1890 forty-four states and five territories, including Oklahoma, but not either the District of Columbia or Indian Territory. The following table shows the population of the republic till 1880, exclusive of Alaska and Indian Territory: for 1890, see p. 373.

In 1880, 13.3 per cent. of the population was foreignborn, 41.5 per cent. of these being from the United Kingdom, and two-thirds of these again from Ireland. In 1880 there were forty-five, in 1890 seventy-four, cities with over 40,000 inhabitants; in the latter year 29.12 per cent. of the entire population lived in 443 towns of above 8000 inhabitants. There is no state church in the United States. In 1890 the Roman Catholics claimed to have over 6,250,000 of the population; next in number come the Methodists, with nearly 5,000,000; the Baptists, with about 4,300,000; Presbyterians, 1,230,000; Lutherans, 1,086,000; Congregationalists, 492,000; and the Episcopal Church, 480,000. Nearly one-seventh of the people are actively engaged in agriculture. The public lands yet undisposed of in 1890 embraced 1,815,504, 147 acres, of which Alaska contained 369,529,600 acres unsurveyed. The following table shows the details of the cereal crops for 1889.

Add to this 162,040 acres under rice, producing 130,845,392 lb., valued at $3,983,464. The acreage under cotton was 20,100,019, and the production 7,434,487 bales; under hemp, 25,054 acres, yielding 11,511 tons, valued at $1,102,602; under flax, 1,318,698, yielding 10,250,410 bushels of flaxseed, and the total produce of seed, fibre, and straw being valued at $10,436,228; under hops, 50,212 acres, yielding 39,171,270 lb., worth $4,059,697; under tobacco, 692,990 acres, producing 488,255,896 lb., valued at $34,844,449; under sugar-cane, 274,391 acres, yielding 302,745,245 lb. of sugar, of a value of $12,809,610. Moreover, the crop of maple sugar was 32,952,927 lb., worth $2,696,692, and the cane molasses 25,196,567 gal., of value $8,073,981, while 2,258,376 gal. of maple syrup was valued at $1,973,836. The numbers of cattle, &c. in the United States in 1890 were given as cattle, 52,801,907; sheep, 44,336,072; swine, 51,602,780; horses, 14,976,017; mules, 2,246,936. The first three figures are, however, only estimates. The total value of farm animals exceeds 2300 million dollars; and the area devoted exclusively to the rearing of cattle is about 1,365,000 sq. m. Of wool 276,000,000 lb. was produced; of butter, 29,748,042 lb. ($4,187,489); of cheese, 95,376,053 lb. ($8,591,042). Over 400,000 acres are under vines (half in California alone), producing 24,000,000 gal. of wine and (in California) 27,443,900 lb. of raisins. For the forests, see TIMBER. The following table indicates the leading features brought out as to manufactures by the federal censuses of 1870-80.

It should be borne in mind that the values given for 1870 are for gold at 25.3 per cent premium. In the foregoing table the value of manufactured products as given is the gross value. The net value-i.e. the value of products after deducting the value of the materials consumed-is for 1870, $1,395,118,560; for 1880, $1,972,755,642.

About forty great industries, the least producing over $30,000,000 per annum, represent over 75 per cent. of the total manufacturing interests of the country. The census for 1890 shows an increase in the textile industries over that of 1880 amounting to nearly $200,000,000, the total value of the product being $693,048,702; the pig-iron industry reached a total of 9,579,779 as against 3,781,021 short tons; the production of steel in the form of ingots and direct castings aggregated 4,466,926 as compared with 1,145,711 short tons in the year 1879-80, and of these the product of Bessemer steel rails had increased in the decade from 741,475 to 2,036,654 tons. The total value of the manufactured products of the United States in 1890 may be set down meanwhile as not far below $8,000,000,000. Under minerals, the metallic pro

ducts show advance in 1889-90 from $269,391,487 to $307,334,207, and the non-metallic products from $307,882,575 to $335,009,190, or, as a total, from $587,474,069 to $642,343,397, to which $10,000,000 is added in the official report as the estimated value of unspecified mineral products. The principal items are pig-iron ($151,200,410), bituminous coal ($110,420,801), silver ($70,464,645), Pennsylvania anthracite coal ($61,445,683), and building stone ($54,000,000). In 1890 there were in the United States over 2000 miles of canals; of railways, 163,579 miles; of telegraphs, 202,143 miles (760,660 miles of wire); and of telephones, 240,412 miles

The

of wire. For fisheries, see under that head; also SALMON, SEAL, &c. The imports and exports from 1879 to 1891 show a remarkable advancethe former from $445,777,775 to $844,916,196 (1892, $827,391,284), and the latter from $698,340,790 to $872,270,283 (1892, $1,015,789,607); specie is not included under either head, and requires the addition in the latter year of $36,259,447 to the imports and $108,951,462 to the exports. chief trade is with Great Britain, which receives more than half of all the exports, and supplies about a fourth of the imports. The leading exports are cotton, wheat and flour, meat and dairy products, and mineral oils; the principal imports, sugar, coffee, iron and steel manufactures, flax, hemp, jute, and their manufactures, chemicals, and woollen and cotton goods. Foreign commerce of recent years has been carried on largely in foreign bottoms, but efforts are now being made to increase the United States mercantile marine. In 1891 there were registered in the republic 17,683 sailing-vessels of 2,668,495 tons, and 6216 steam-vessels of 2,016,264 tons; 988,719 tons was the burthen of all ships engaged in the foreign trade, but this was an increase of 60,657 tons on 1890. The navy has been to a great extent reorganised, and in 1891 comprised, besides old vessels, &c., fourteen ships in commission and twenty-three building; the latter include five armoured battle-ships (the two smallest of above 6300 tons displacement, had been launched), an armoured cruiser, and an armoured ram, while the former were mostly steel cruisers. The service has, besides 726 officers, 7500 enlisted men and 750 boys; and there is also a marine corps of 2177 officers and men. The standing army is limited to 25,000 men, and its strength, exclusive of officers, and the signal and hospital corps and general service clerks and messengers, is usually very close upon that number. The militia is supposed to comprise all men in each state, from eighteen to forty-five capable of bearing arms; the organisation is perfect only in a proportion of the states, but the returns show 8312 officers and 106,269 men. See ARMY, and NAVY. Indoor paupers (for whom alone there are proper statistics) numbered 66,203 in 1880, and 73,045—34,791 of them native-born-in 1890. In 1880 there were 35,538 convicts in penitentiaries; in 1890, 45,233— 12,842 born of native (both) parents. The numbers in juvenile reformatories rose in the same period from 11,468 to 14,846. The federal revenue ranged in the years 1880-91 from $323,690,706 to $403,525,250, and the expenditure from $242,483,138 to $365,773,905, each year showing a surplus, and often a heavy one. In the same period the public debt was reduced from $2,120,415,370 to $1,610,620,103. The total of the state and county debts throughout the Union reached in 1890 $365,058,728. In 1891 there were 3677 national banks, with a capital of $3,213,100,000.

See articles on Canal, Cotton, Great Britain and statistics there, Iron, National Debt, Patents, Pensions, Railways, Shipping, Steel, Sugar, Telegraph, Tobacco, Wheat, Vine, Wool, &c.; Bishop's History of American Manufactures (1864), and the Industrial History of the United States, by Albert S. Bolles (Norwich, Conn. 1881); the United States Census Reports from 1850 to 1890; and the Statesman's Year-Book, &c.

HISTORY.

England claimed the greater part of North America by right of the discovery of John Cabot in the summer of 1497. The first permanent settlements, however, were made by the Spaniards in Florida, and by the French on the banks of the St Lawrence. The later half of the 16th century witnessed a great and sudden expansion of England's sea-power. The defeat of the Armada made

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the seas vastly safer for the navigator, and rendered improbable another Spanish attack like that of Menendez (1565) on the French Huguenots in Florida. A sudden plunge into speculative ventures brought disaster in its train, and it is to this commercial distress of the early years of the 17th century that the planting of the first permanent English colony was due. Sir Walter Raleigh (q.v.) sent out colonies in Elizabeth's time, but the name Virginia is all that remains to remind one of his vast schemes. In 1603 his rights reverted to the crown, and in 1606 the Virginia Company was chartered to make good England's claims to the American land. Virginia, as defined in this charter, extended from 34° to 45° N. lat. Two sub-companies were provided-one, with headquarters at Plymouth, to settle the northern part; the other, with an official residence at London, to settle the southern portion. In April 1607 the London company founded the first permanent English colony at Jamestown, on the James River, near Chesapeake Bay. The English were then only learning the art of colonisation, and most of those who came to Virginia during the first half-dozen years of its existence starved to death. But others took their place, and the success of the plantations was ere long assured. There are few more astonishing phenomena than the rapid spread of the tobacco habit; before 1615 the demand was sufficiently great to ensure the permanence of Virginia. The early colonists were men, but the company encouraged the immigration of marriageable girls, and soon the settlers were bound to the soil by ties of family responsibility. Labour was still scarce, but in 1619 that problem was solved, for the time at least, by the introduction of negro slavery; though as a commercial venture the company was a complete fail

ure.

In 1619 the London company inaugurated a new era by granting a modified form of self-government to the colonists.

The

The next permanent settlement was made farther north by a band of honest, religious folk, who brought their wives and children with them. Some of them had passed a few years in the Netherlands, and they all are usually known as the Pilgrims (see PILGRIM FATHERS). They settled in 1620 on the shores of a wretched tidal harbour, which was called Plymouth (q.v.). Ten years later the colony of Massachusetts (q.v.) was founded by the English Puritans, to provide an asylum for themselves and their friends in the event of the struggle in England going against them. council for New England, as the successor to the Plymouth end of the Virginia Company was called, gave them a grant of land, which the king confirmed, whilst giving them in addition very extensive powers of government. For ten years (1630-40) a constant stream of immigrants poured into New England. It could hardly be expected that all these Puritans should think alike. Some of them, regarding Massachusetts as too liberal, settled at New Haven; while others, thinking it not liberal enough, founded the colony of Connecticut (q.v.). In 1662 Charles II. granted a charter to the people of Connecticut, including the New Haven colony. Other Puritans, whom the Massachusetts people did not like, settled Providence and the island of Rhode Island (q.v.); and these settlements were united and incorporated by charter in 1663 (see WILLIAMS, ROGER). The two last-named charters gave, in effect, self-government to the people of the two colonies. They were so liberal that the Connecticut charter remained the fundamental law of Connecticut till 1818, while the Rhode Island charter was not superseded by a state constitution until 1842. Other settlements were made by Puritans and others along the Merrimac River and the

The governors of New York, sensible of the grave error of the grant of New Jersey, placed all possible obstacles in the way of the grantees, and before long the property came into the hands of a syndicate of Quakers, at the head of which was William Penn. Trouble continued with New York, and the Quakers became involved in innumerable disputes about land and matters of local government. To avoid further complications the jurisdiction was surrendered to Queen Anne (1702). For a time New York and New Jersey had the same governor, though separate legislatures. In 1738 a governor was appointed for New Jersey, and thus it became a separate colony, remaining so until the revolution. William Penn does not seem to have been disturbed by the disputes of the New Jersey Quakers. He obtained from the king, in 1682, a large tract of land on the west side of Delaware, under the name of Pennsylvania (see PENN). He also obtained from the king and the Duke of York the Swedish-Dutch settlements on the western side of Delaware Bay, south of Pennsylvania. There was a long and bitter dispute between Penn and his heirs and the Baltimores as to the boundary between their possessions. A compromise was made in the middle of the 18th century, the present boundary line being run for some distance by two English surveyors, Mason and Dixon (see MASON AND DIXON'S LINE). For a century this line, known by their names, was regarded as the boundary between the north and the south. As the matter was finally determined in 1703, Pennsylvania and the lower counties on Delaware Bay had each its own legislature, but one governor. At the revolution, however, the counties set up for themselves as the state of Delaware.

The last colony to be planted was Georgia (1732). It had its origin in the philanthropic instincts of Oglethorpe, and the desire of the English government to push the southern boundary against the Spaniards. The philanthropists, however, were not good governors; one by one their schemes failed, and in 1751 they voluntarily surrendered the colony to the crown.

Toward the end of the Stuart period a scheme of colonial consolidation was set on foot. The idea seems to have been to form two or three strong colonies, governed directly from England, out of the thirteen free, weak, self-governing colonies. Charters were annulled, and all the colonies north of 41° N. lat. were formed into the dominion of New England, with a capital at Boston. Andros was appointed governor, with executive, judicial, and legislative powers, the people no longer having any political power. the arrangement did not long continue; on the news of the landing of William of Orange at Torbay the people of Boston rebelled, captured Andros and other officials, and sent them to England for trial. Rebellions occurred also in New York (Leisler's rebellion) and in Maryland (Coode's Association).

But

The new English government adopted a policy of compromise. The old forms of government were generally restored, except in Massachusetts; but as an offset to these concessions the trade of the colonies was still further restricted to England. Massachusetts, which now included New Plymouth, was given a modified charter government. Under this new charter the governor was to be appointed by the crown, the House of Representatives elected by the people on a property qualification, and the council appointed by the two jointly. The governor's salary, and the salaries of the other officials, were to be paid by the Assembly. Thus the Assembly really ruled; but there were always so many disputes of one kind or another that the Massachusetts people became accustomed to opposition and schooled in political methods.

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The colonies shared in the good and evil fortunes of England in the great struggle with France, which began in 1690 and continued until 1763. The earlier conflicts have little interest at the present time. But in 1745 the New Englanders, with some slight assistance from the English, besieged and captured Louisburg, on Cape Breton Island. At the close of the war, however, Louisburg was given up to France. In 1754 trouble began anew; the French endeavoured to connect their possessions in the St Lawrence valley with their settlements on the Mississippi by a chain of posts and towns on the Ohio River and its affluents. This brought France into contact with Pennsylvania and Virginia. The governor of Virginia at that time was a Scot named Dinwiddie. He sent a formal protest against the French occupation of Fort Duquesne, at the confluence of the Monongahela and Alleghany Rivers. The French paying no regard to this protest, Dinwiddie attempted to drive them out by force; but the campaign ended in disaster, Washington, the Virginia commander, and his little army being obliged to surrender at Fort Necessity. The war begun in this way soon spread over the whole frontier, and before long nearly all the nations of western Europe became involved in the struggle. In 1755 General Braddock was defeated near Fort Duquesne by the French and their Indian allies. Later, though, the fort was captured. But the principal interest in this war was in the north, where the English attempted to invade Canada by the line of Hudson River, Lake Champlain, and Lake Ontario, and towards the north-east by way of the lower St Lawrence. In 1758, after serious resistance, Louisburg was again taken from the French, this time by an English army commanded by Amherst and Wolfe. The next year Wolfe, with a strong fleet and army, sailed up the St Lawrence, and after a long investment placed his army on the Plains of Abraham, on the northern side of Quebec, just outside the walls, and there defeated the French under Montcalm. Both Wolfe and Montcalm were mortally wounded during the action. After many defeats the English penetrated by the line of Hudson River, and in 1760 captured Montreal, and thus secured the safety of Quebec. In 1763, by the peace of Paris, France gave up Canada and all her claims to lands east of Mississippi and north of Florida to England, with the exception of some small islands in the Gulf of St Lawrence and the island of New Orleans at the mouth of the Mississippi. At the same time she ceded to Spain, as the price of her unavailing assistance in the war, all her claims to lands west of the Mississippi and to New Orleans and the island on which it stands. Spain ceded to England all her claims to lands east of the Mississippi, with the exception of New Orleans; and England, on her side, restored what she had conquered in the West Indies to France and Spain, and relinquished whatever claims she might have had to lands west of the Mississippi. By a proclamation issued in the same year the king still further restricted the limits of those colonies to the Alleghanies. The Indians, formerly subject to France, proved hard to manage; a rebellion, led by Pontiac (q.v.), in 1763, convinced the English government of the necessity of keeping on foot in the colonies a force of regular troops. It seemed right that the colonists should bear a part of the burden their support entailed; and by act of parliament, therefore, a stamp-tax was laid on all the American colonies (1765). The tax was equitable enough, and it was fair that the colonists should bear a part of the burden of their protection. It did not seem right, however, that they should be taxed by an assembly 3000 miles away, in whose election