AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY

[s. 56] : This Society Eva nun denominational, representing all the It combines geUcal communities of the U. S. publishing work, both home and foreign Evangelical Christian literature in book and It or dialects. leaflet form in 155 languages is 38 depositaries in principal cities, employs and colporteurs, and inakes grants to religious has benevolent institutions. The po ibilities of the printing pre as an after the evangelistic agency were seen very soon At Basel, in Switzerland, invention ot printing. Colportage there was virtually a Bible Society, a as A ociation, and a Tract Society for France The New Testament and, after early as 1524. ward the Old Testament, in several portions, were very widely circulated. In many places, unreached by the reformers m person the Reformation was inaugurated by the circulation Melancthon. of the writings of Luther and Indeed the pre proved a most effective agency everywhere. in scattering seeds of reform The influence of this idea was manifested m England by the organization of the Society Knowledge in for the Promotion of Christian 1698 followed after a century by the Religious Tract Society, in 1799, and the movement exIhe tended acro the Atlantic. In 1812 formed, New York Religious Tract Society’ was Society,’ and in 1814 “The New England Tract In 1823 this latter society changed at Boston. Tract Society, and its name to the”American organ in 1825 it became a branch of a national the ization, which was then instituted, bearing same name, and designed to constitute a great the mvitmg Union, central society for the whole _ cooperation of Christians of all denominations, and of other tract a ociations as auxiliaries, in publishing and circulating whatever would Jesus best “diffuse a knowledge of our Lord Christ as the Redeemer of sinners, and promote morthe interest of vital godline and sound publications ality” provided only that such shouid be “calculated’to receive the approbation of all evangelical Cliristians.” Organization: The Society, consisting of persons who have become members and Directors by the payment of not le than $30 at one time, Vice elects a Board, consisting of President, and 36 Managers. This Board President appoints an Executive Committee of 18 Members which in turn appoints the Executive Officers, consisting (1903) of a Secretary, a Publishing, Secretary, an a istant Treasurer and Auditors. The Board of Managers also has authority to appoint Members, Directors, Honorary Vice The Exec uP residents and to fill vacancies. three Subtive Committee is divided into Publishing, Distribution and Publishing Committee is not permitted to contain two members from the same ecclesiastical connection, and no tract can be published to which any member of the Committee objects. The headquarters of the Society are in the Tract Society Building committees Finance. on The m New York City. There are also depositaries and Chicago, and District Boston, Rochester, Cincinnati, and Chicago, with Superintendents of Colportage at Rochester and St. Louis. Two of the organizations that were, for practical purposes, united with the American Tract Society of New York, still maintain a separate corporate existence; the American Tract Society instituted in Boston, and the AVestern Tract The Society, with headquarters at Cincinnati. former withdrew from the New York Society of 1857-60, discu ion during the anti-slavery but again united with it in 1897, so far as active work is concerned, the District Secretary for New England of the New York Society acting as its Secretary, and the Manager of the Boston depository as its Treasurer. In Cincinnati the Western Tract Society has a separate in Boston, Cincinnati, Secretaries at Secretary., o Development: For two years after the Society 8 In the organization, only tracts were i ued. third year volumes appeared, the first being Doddridge’s Rise and Progre , Saints’ Rest, System Baxter’s Call, Pilgrim’s Progre , etc. atic tract distribution in New York City and In the elsewhere began in the fourth year. sixth year prominence was given to the value of tracts in connection with faithful personal efforts to save souls, Harlan Page becoming eminent in this transcendent duty. The volume enterprise was inaugurated in the eighth year by attempt to reach every family in the South Altantic States with one or more volumes. The West was included the next year. “The work was so enlarged that in the seventeenth year nearly 100 works had been published, the Evangelical Family Library was i ued, and some 2,000,000 volumes had been put into circulation, and 60,000,000 of tracts. In 1841 the Society inaugurated its system of colportage, with special reference to the destitute, isolated settlements, unreached by the churches, and to the great numbers who The number of refuse to enter the churches. colporteurs increased rapidly until by 1860, over 600 were employed for the whole or a part of eacli year. Another important feature in tlie publications The of the Society has been its periodicals. first to be established was The American Me enger, tlie official organ of the Society, founded in 1843. It is an illustrated religious monthly. There followed in 1847 the Am erik an is cher Botschafter, similar in scope and purpose to the Me enger, designed for circulation among the • > population; in 1852 The Paper, now known as Good Cheer, Child’s an illustrated monthly paper for young folks; in 1871 a new German weekly, called the Deutand the Illustrated Christian scher Volksfreund, Weekly, which was afterwards sold (1888) to another house. Two new periodicals were added in 1879; Morning Light, for the younger scholars in the Sunday school, and Apples of Gold for Besides all these, there the youngest readers. is Light and Life, a monthly tract periodical German-speaking consisting of a new eight-page tract each month. The new conditions occasioned by such exigencies as attended the Mexican War, the Civil War, and the Spanisli War, have been met by the Society witli special publications and arrangements for distribution. Especially has this been the case in regard to the opportunity The Sunday furnished by the Spanisli War. School paper. Apples of Gold, has been i ued in Spanish, under the title of Manzanas de Oro; hymnals have been prepared and a general literature as complete as po ible, to all of which has been accorded a most enthusiastic reception from the mi ionaries of various denominations as well as from the pastors, teachers, and others in Cuba, Porto Rico, Mexico, and South America. The flood of immigration to America has furnished another field for the Society’s work. The great ma of these immigrants land at New York City, and the Tract Society employs a colporteur, sometimes with one or more a istants, to meet, encourage and advise them and to supply them with leaflets, papers, etc., in The readine of immitheir own languages. grants to receive these and the attention paid are remarkable, and many times thanks are returned to the Society by the new comers after they have reached their homes in various parts Special colportage work is also of the country. carried on among the Mormons, the negroes of the South, in the mining and lumber regions, and libraries are supplied to the army and navy and to merchant ships. The foreign work of the Society is carried on through grants to the mi ions of the various denominations or to local Tract Societies. The general method is for a committee, representing the several mi ion Boards abroad, to request the i ue of specific publications, original or The American Tract Society then provides the needed funds or prints the tract translated. or volume on its own pre es. Frequently it appropriates a lump sum from year to year to be used by a committee or mi ion pre , according to the principles and methods of the Society. Among the mi ions thus a isted during 1901-2 in Austria, Turkey, were those of the in South Africa and India; of the Burma; of the SBC in China; of the Free Baptists India; of the PN in Africa, India, Persia, Syria and Siam; of the RCA in Arabia and India, etc. Among the Tract Societies aided were the Religious Tract Society of France, the Evangelical Tract Society of Geneva, the Italian Evangelical Publishing Society, the North India Christian Book and Tract Society, the Central China, North China, and Chinese Tract Societies, the Korean Religious Tract Society, the Japanese Book and Tract Society, etc. The total number of volumes i ued from the home office during the seventy-eight years (to 1903), is 32,743,752; of tracts, 449,554,252; and of periodicals, 264,278,668; making a grand total of 746,576,672 copies of publications printed. During 1902 new publications i ued at foreign mi ion stations, by the aid of funds furnished by the Society, were 38, of which 24 were volumes and 14 tracts. The whole number of publications i ued up to 1903 at foreign mi ion stations, with the approval of the wholly Society’s Publishing Committee, either or in part with funds of the Society appropriated for this purpose, is 5,080, of which 1,018 are volumes and 4,062 tracts. ABCFM. American Tract Amparlbe 89 ABMU The regular catalog of the society includes, from a large number of books, tracts, hand bills, maps, etc., in English, publications in over 20 foreign languages, including German, aside French, Spanish, Italian, Welsh, Dutch, Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, Hungarian, Finnish, Bohemian, Polish, German-Hebrew, Lithuanian, Croatian and Chinese. The foreign cash payments for publication (1902) were $4,928.08, making a total expenditure of.$747,140.51. The total receipts (1902) were $383,983.06. 57