AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY, The. This society was organized in New York city on 11 May 1825. Its work is interdenomina tional and international in scope, and is com mended by all evangelical denominations. The design of its founders was to estab lish a central society for the whole Union, inviting the co-operation of Christians of all the Protestant churches, and of other tract associations as auxiliaries, in publishing and circulating whatever would best diffuse a knowledge of Christ as the Redeemer and promote the interests of true religion and sound morality. The society has published the Gospel message in 178 languages, dialects and characters. It has carried on an important work among the foreign-speaking people in the United States, and its missionary colporteurs are distributing Christian literature in 33 lan guages among the immigrants, and making a house-to-house visitation among the spiritually destitute, both in the cities and rural districts, leaving all kinds of Christian literature in the home. During the past 75 years the society's colporteurs have made 18,612,843 family visits, in the course of which they have distributed 17,382,454 volumes. The total number of titles of distinct publications, aside from periodicals, that have been issued from the society's home office is 9,136. The grand total of its publica tions, including tracts, books and periodicals, issued from the home office during the past 91 years, is 794,639,700 copies. In Spanish and
Portuguese the society has issued 14,748,588 copies • of volumes, tracts and periodicals, in cluding 126,000 Spanish hymnals. For Latin America 14,748,588 copies of volumes, tracts ri and periodicals' eodicals have been issued, amounting in value to $633,545. For publishing Christian literature in foreign lands the society has for warded cash appropriations to the amount of $799,456.39, and has granted electrotypes to the value of $61,177.96, making a total expenditure of $860,634.35, by means of which many mil lion copies of books and tracts have been pub lished at mission stations abroad. During 1915 the society gave away Christian literature to the value of $16,684.99. The grand total value of its gratuitous distribution is $2,634,505.89, which is the equivalent of 5,269,010,000 tract pages. Grants of its publications are given to missionaries, army and navy chaplains, pastors and Christian workers of every description. The society publishes four periodicals, The American Messenger, an illustrated religious ionthly; The Amerikanischer Botschafter, a ;erman paper for the home; Apples of Gold, n illustrated weekly for the Sunday school, nd Manzanas de Oro, an illustrated Spanish veekly for the Spanish-speaking Sunday .chools.