Allowing that all the mortgages from sickness and from unknown causes were the result of misfortune or of adversity of some kind, the foregoing table shows that 92%1⁄2 per cent. were for legitimate causes and such causes as indicated prosperity rather than adversity.

The investigation under the eleventh United States census comprehends the object of indebtedness for 102 selected counties in several states, the results being obtained by personal inquiry. through the experts of the office. That investigation is a clear and emphatic corroboration of the results arrived at by Commissioner Jenkins of Nebraska. It shows that to legitimate objects. indicating clearly prosperity and advancement, 94.37 per cent. of all the mortgage indebtedness of the 102 counties considered must be attributed.

The convict labor question is one that has attracted a great deal of attention during the last quarter of a century, but it was not until various state bureaus and the United States Department of Labor collected exhaustive statistics relative to productive. employments in penitentiaries and other penal institutions and showed the effect of different systems of employing convicts that the discussion took intelligent shape. There has been much reform along the lines of convict labor. Many states have made experiments which have been abandoned, while others have established new systems which are progressing favorably; in the whole work the contributions of labor statistics have been of the greatest possible value.

The advancement of technical science, too, has been greatly accelerated by the exhaustive publications of different departments and bureaus of statistics of labor relative to industrial education. It is only recently that the different states of the Union have felt it incumbent upon them, through their legislatures, to study all the phases of industrial training, consisting of manual training, trade school instruction, and the higher technological or university work which is done in our institutes of technology. The United States Bureau of Education has aided the discussion and consideration of such matters, and its work

has been grandly supplemented by the state bureaus and the United States Department of Labor. It is now possible to discuss the question of industrial education in all its phases not only intelligently, but on the basis of practical experience in this and other countries.

These few instances show the enormous value of statistics in removing apprehension and in correcting erroneous views. The money value of such information is not easy to calculate.

In september, 1883, the heads of the few bureaus of statistics of labor then existing met at Columbus, Ohio, and organized the National Convention of Chiefs and Commissioners of Bureaus of Statistics of Labor. Since then these officials have met annually for the purpose of discussing statistical methods and the best way of collecting information and of tabulating, analyzing and presenting it. It was one of the early dreams of the founders of this convention that some uniform contemporaneous work could be undertaken by all the bureaus in co-operation, but this dream was fraught with many difficulties. States did not organize their bureaus at the same time. Many of the subjects which had been covered by those organized at early dates formed the subjects of investigation of those which had been established at later dates, and hence there was a conflict; for the earlier bureaus did not wish to cover again what was new and important to the more recently established ones. Another difficulty arose in the fact that the industries and conditions of one state were not common to all states having bureaus of statistics of labor. Notwithstanding the fact that the original idea has not been and cannot be carried out, the convention has been of the greatest possible value to the different states. At each annual meeting each commissioner of labor reports the investigations he has in hand, the methods he has adopted for obtaining the information desired, and all the difficulties and complications attending his work. These matters are then discussed and the experience of older commissioners brought out for the benefit of those who have more recently come into the work of gathering statistics of labor. Thus great advantage is given to even the older commissioners to gain fresh inspiration from the troubles and difficulties of those who are new to the work. The convention also helps to call public attention not only to the value but to the methods of the work being conducted.

Notwithstanding all that I have said relative to the value and influence of the statistics of labor, I am perfectly well aware that

they could be made of far greater value; but that greater value can only be secured through the direct action of the legislative bodies behind the bureaus. They are very poorly equipped. They need more men and more money. They need experience, which can only come through the influence of the executives of the states. With a longer tenure of office, and an increase in the equipment and means of the bureaus, their futnre usefulness can be made to far excel that of the past and of the present. The lines of work which they can undertake are numerous and inexhaustible. Knowledge of production is absolutely essential for the adjustment of many of the difficult questions we are facing to-day, and any contribution, through statistical investigation or otherwise, that will enable both the capitalist and his employe to more clearly understand the real conditions of production should be welcomed by all elements of the community. The bureaus must be kept in the future, as in the past, free from partisanship. The statistician is not a statistician when he is an advocate, no matter how skillful he may be in the manipulation of figures. He must be impartial; he must make his investigations without any reference to theories to be proved or disproved, and give to the world the actual results of his inquiries. This country lacks trained statisticians. We have no means for training them, except in the practical work of the statistical offices of the state. and federal governments. These offices, therefore, become a school for the future, and the statisticians of this country that are to be of great service to the governments must acquire their knowledge through the statistical offices; but no work can be accomplished successfully without money and without men. We must look, therefore, to the legislative branches of our various governments for the increase of the usefulness and for recognized influence of our bureaus of statistics of labor.

SOME OF THE ECONOMIC AND INDUSTRIAL PHASES

OF

THE AMANA SOCIETY OR THE COMMUNITY OF TRUE INSPI

RATION.

BY BERTHA H. SHAMBAUGH.

The information embodied in this article has been collected by the author during personal visits to the several Amana villages within the past twelve years. The statistics given have been furnished by members and officers of the Society to whom the author desires to express her sense of obligation. To Mr. Abraham Noe, secretary of the Board of Trustees, to Dr. Charles F. Noe, physician at Amana, and to Mr. John Haas, Sr., one of the elders of the Society, the author is deeply indebted for their courteous assistance. The manuscript for this article was submitted to the Society before publication.

HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.

In Iowa County, southeast of the center of the Commonwealth. of Iowa, there is a group of seven villages bound together and surrounded by 26,000 acres of Iowa's richest prairie land. This little garden spot of Iowa is the home of the Amana Society, as it is known in law," or, as it is called by its members, The Community of True Inspiration.

This community was not founded by a social reformer or by political agitators. It is not an attempt to practice a system of economic theory. But it is rather the outgrowth of a united effort of a small band of German peasants to live honestly according to the promptings of their own consciences.

As a religious organization the community had its beginnings in Southern Germany two centuries ago, where its members, after the fashion of the age, suffered persecution and exile for the promulgation of their religious doctrines. Naturally they banded together in those troublesome times for mutual comfort. and protection. In order that the little band might be fed and clothed it was resolved to rent enough land in common to give profitable occupation to each member of the group. And herein lies the beginning of their communal economic life. The failure. of crops, the heavy rents, and the severity of the government

led the leaders of the community to seek a new home in a more promising land to promote their "temporal and spiritual welfare." A committee of four was sent to America, where, after numerous hardships, they selected a spot near Buffalo, New York. Here in 1843, Ebenezer, their first villege of a communistic nature, was laid out. Two more villages were soon established and 800 persons of the faith came from Germany to join the American colony.

After a twelve years' residence in New York, the elders of the Society decided it would be for the best interests of the community to relocate on the frontier where land was cheaper and the opportunities were better for development. The present location in Iowa County, Iowa, was selected by the committee. sent out by the Society; and here they have lived in peace and plenty for half a century. The little handful of Inspirationists in Germany struggling to pay the rent of their first estate has developed into the prosperous Amana Society of today with 1,767 members owning 26,000 acres of land and operating numerous mills and factories whose products find a market from Maine to California.

Thus it will be seen that Amana Society is not a creation; it is a product of gradual development. It has not been elaborated out of Utopian speculations; but it is the result of a long united effort to live soberly, righteously and godly in the present world."

SOCIAL AND POLITICAL ORGANIZATION.

The permanency and the prosperity of the Amana Society is largely due to its perfect organization. The entire conduct of the affairs of the Society rests with a Board of Trustees conisting of thirteen members who are elected annually by popular vote out of the number of elders in the Community. These trustees elect annually out of their own number a a President, Vice-President, and a Secretary. All contracts are made by the Board of Trustees, which has, in short, all the rights and privileges of an ordinary corporation. In the month of June in each year the trustees exhibit to the voting members of the Society a full statement of "the real and personal estate of the Society."

"Alle männliche Glieder, die die Constitution unterschrieben haben, so wie auch Wittwen und solche weibliche Glieder, die über dreiszig Jahre alt

A Brief History of Amana Society or Community of True Inspiration, 1714-1900, by Dr. Charles F. Noe and Mr. Geo, Heinemann (members of the Society), published by the Society.

'Constitution, Article IV.