UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST. The larger division of the Church, which accepted the new Constitution, had in 1902 47 annual conferences and mission districts, including those in Germany, Japan, Ontario, and West Africa, four bishops, 1967 itinerant ministers, 434 local preachers, 249,314 members, 263,041 pupils in the Sunday-schools, 3358 church houses, and 827 parsonages, and it contributed for all purposes $1,661,524. It has a theological seminary at Dayton, Ohio, eight colleges, and four academies. It has a publishing house at Dayton, and issues from its presses 16 different publications aggregating 10,000,000 copies annually. There is a Board of Education; a Home, Frontier, and Foreign Missionary Society sustaining missions in Africa, Japan, Germany, Porto Rico, Ontario, and the United States; a Woman's Missionary Association, conducting missions in Africa, China, and the Philippines; a Church Erection Society; a Young People's Christian Union, with 63,846 members; and an Historical Society. The branch which retains the old Constitution had in 1902 32 annual conferences, 4 bishops, 766 societies, 281 active itinerant and 133 local preachers, 25,670 members, 28,293 pupils in the Sunday-schools, 523 church houses, 88 parsonages, and aggregate contributions amounting to $144,624. There is a Home, Frontier, and Foreign Missionary Society, sustaining missions in 16 conferences and mission districts, including West Africa, and a Woman's Missionary Association, a Board of Education, a publishing house in Huntington, Ind., and colleges at Huntington, Ind., Albion, Wash., and in Oregon. The Religious Telescope (weekly), The Watchword (weekly), The United Brethren Review (bi-monthly), and The Year Book of the United Brethren in Christ, besides missionary and Sunday-school publications, are issued by the New Constitution branch at Dayton, Ohio. The Old Constitution Church issues The Christian Conservator (weekly), The Missionary Monthly, and a Year Book at Huntington, Ind. For the history of the Church, consult Berger, History of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ (Dayton, 1897); consult also biographies of Bishops Otterbein (ib., 1884) and J. J. Glossbrenner (ib., 1889), by A. W. Drury; Jonathan Weaver (ib., 1901), by H. A. Thompson; and James W. Hott (ib., 1902), by M. R. Drury. UNITED EVANGELICAL CHURCH, THE. A religious organization formed in 1894 as the result of a division which had occurred in the Evangelical Association (q.v.). A meeting attended by delegates from six annual conferences was held at Naperville, Ill., in November of that year, and constituted the first General Conference of the United Evangelical Church. The legislation necessary to perfect the organization of an independent Church was enacted; a Book of Discipline was adopted, based upon the old Discipline of the Evangelical Association, with certain changes, such as the introduction of lay representation into the conferences. In 1902 the United Evangelical Church had 10 conferences (including seven mission conferences), 979 organized congregations, 820 church buildings, 2 bishops, 501 itinerant and 214 local preachers, 63,390 church members, and 83,381 pupils in Sunday-schools. Besides assisting the seven mission conferences, the General Mission 48 UNITED IRISH LEAGUE OF AMERICA, ary Society has a mission in Changsha, Honan, China; and the Woman's Missionary Society cooperates with it. A Church Extension Society was established in 1902. The educational institutions are Albright College, Meyerstown, Pa.; Dallas College and La Creole Academy, Dallas, Oregon; Western Union College, Le Mars, Iowa. There is a publishing house at Harrisburg, Pa. Besides Sunday-school and similar publications the Church periodicals are The Evangelical (weekly), Die evangelische Zeitschrift (weekly), and The Missionary Tidings, all issued at Harrisburg. Consult Stapleton, Annals of the Evangelical Association of North America and History of the United Evangelical Church (Harrisburg, 1900). UNITED EVANGELICAL CHURCH, THE (IN GERMANY). A Church established in Germany in 1817 by the union of portions of the Lutheran and Reformed churches. Such a union had been attempted without success in 1529, 1631, 1661, and by Frederick I. of Prussia (1703-22). Frederick William I. published several decrees having the same object in view. It was favored also toward the end of the eighteenth century by the progress of theological thought. Schleiermacher proposed to establish an outward Church unity, leaving disputed points in scientific theology still open for discussion. At the tercentenary of the Reformation in 1817 a visible union was established, limited, however, at first, as many of its advocates supposed, to a common Church government, and a common celebration of the Lord's Supper. In this movement the Government of Prussia has always been the leader, and the United Evangelical Church is the State Church there, although dissensions have arisen at various times. A similar union of Lutherans with the Reformed Church has been accomplished in several other of the German States; while of the rest some are too exclusively Lutheran, and some too exclusively Reformed to warrant the attempt. In the United States a branch of the United Evangelical Church was established near Saint Louis in 1840. See GERMAN EVANGELICAL SYNOD OF NORTH AMERICA; see also GERMAN EVANGELICAL PROTESTANT CHURCH. UNITED FREE CHURCH OF SCOT LAND. See PRESBYTERIANISM. UNITED IRISH LEAGUE OF AMERICA. An association of Irish-Americans which is practically the successor of the Parnell Land League and of the Irish Federated Societies in sympathy with the Land League Movement. It was provisionally established in New York, December 4, 1901, and was ratified at the first National Convention of the United Irish League held at Boston, October 20-21, 1902. The purpose of the league is to act as an auxiliary in America to the national organization in Ireland in the achievement of its aims. These include self government for Ireland, the abolition of landlordism there, and other reforms of political and economic conditions in the country. Membership in the league is open to all Irish-American Nationalists without distinction of class or creed, and to all sympathizers with the national claims of Ireland. The general management of the league when not in convention is vested in a national committee, consisting of the president, two vice-presidents, treasurer and secretary, and UNITED IRISH LEAGUE OF AMERICA. 49 31 members at large. The National Convention is held biennially or oftener at the discretion of the national committee. • UNITED IRISHMEN, SOCIETY OF. An Irish UNITED METHODIST UNITED PRESBYTERIANS. BYTERIANISM. FREE See PRES UNITED PROVINCES OF AGRA, UNITED PROVINCES. See NETHERLANDS. UNITED PROVINCES OF AGRA AND OUDH, formerly NORTHWESTERN PROVINCES AND OUDH. A province of British India, occupying the Upper Ganges Valley. It is bounded by Tibet, Nepal, Bengal, the native States of Central India, Rajputana, and the Punjab (Map: India, C 3). Total area, 112,243 square miles, of which 83,198 belong to the Territory of Agra, 23,966 to Oudh, and 5079 to the native States of Garhwal and Rampur. Except the extreme northern part, which is a wild and elevated mountain region of the Himalayas, the province is a low alluvial plain watered by the Ganges and its numerous large parallel tributaries, chief of which is the Jumna. The climate is hot and unhealthful, especially in the large, marshy jungle region along the base of the mountains. The soil is fertile, but the western and southern parts of the province have a very uncertain rainfall, and are subject to severe droughts, so that these regions would be practically a desert were it not for their numerous large streams. Extensive irrigation works have been constructed. The area irrigated in 1900 was estimated at 8,234,000 acres, or about one-third of the total cropped area. About two-thirds of this area was irrigated from wells and the remainder principally from reservoirs (tanks) and Government canals. The different crops produced are of more nearly equal importance than in any other province. The region ranks next to the Punjab as a wheat producer, and though rice is of much less relative importance than it is in Benalmost as great an extent as does wheat, or gal and some of the other provinces, it covers about 4,500,000 acres. There are large acreages of millet, pulse, and other food grains. More sugar-cane is grown (1,000,000 acres) than in any other governmental district, and opium, cotton-oil seeds, and indigo receive considerable attention. The people eat little animal food, and stock-raising is of subsidiary importance. Cattle and buffaloes take the place of horses. Modern methods of manufacturing have been little adopted. There are six cotton mills, employing about 7500 hands. Four of these mills are located at Cawnpore. The Ganges affords a means of water transportation. The province is better supplied with railroads than any other in India. It exports large quantities of oil seeds, wheat, raw cotton, hides, sugar, indigo, and opium, and imports cotton goods, metals, railroad materials, coal, and salt. frontier trade is carried on with Tibet and Nepal. A The United Provinces are under the administrative control of a Lieutenant-Governor appointed by the Governor-General of India. There is a legislative council of 15 members, of whom 7 may be officials. There are 104 municipalities, in 98 of which the taxpayers elect a majority of the members of the municipal boards. There are also 44 district boards, over fourfifths of the aggregate number of board members being elected. There was a police force, in 1898, For the aggregating 24,888 officers and men. year ending March 31, 1901, the revenue collected amounted to $42,325,309, and the expenditure was $20,437,436. Allahabad is the capital. In 1901 the population of the United Provinces without Oudh (q.v.) numbered 34,812,000, or 417 to the square mile. The eastern part is the most densely populated. A comparison with earlier census returns shows that the population is almost stationary. The people are mainly Hindus. Those who hold to some form of the Hindu religion outnumber the Mohammedans about 7 to 1. The Christians number about 100,000. There are more large cities in the United Provinces than in any of the other provinces. The chief are Lucknow (in Oudh), Benares, Cawnpore, Agra, Allahabad, Bareilly, and Meerut. UNITED STATES. The territory of the United States of America, exclusive of Alaska and colonial dependencies, lies in the temperate portion of North America, but reaches almost to the tropical zone. It embraces an area of 2,970,038 square miles. The area including Alaska is 3,560,922 square miles; and including the colonial dependencies, 3,699,440 square miles. The United States proper, or the United States south of Canada, extends approximately from longitude 67° to 125° W. from the Atlantic Ocean (whose great arm, the Gulf of Mexico, forms half of the southern boundary) to the Pacific. The northern boundary is somewhat arbitrary in the east between New England and the Lower Saint Lawrence region, but from northern New York it follows the Saint Lawrence and the middle line of the Great Lakes to northern Minne sota. Beyond the Lake of the Woods the bound ary follows the 49th parallel to the Pacific Ocean. The peninsula of Florida extends to about 25°, and the southern part of Texas to about 26°, north latitude. The parallel 49° is about that of Paris, while the latitude of Key West carries one far down into the Sahara. It may be further observed that New York is on the parallel of Naples and Constantinople, and Memphis on that of Gibraltar. The United States has preponderatingly a natural boundary of salt and fresh waters. On the side of Mexico and of British Columbia the boundary crosses the Cordilleran Ranges. This article treats of the United States proper except when otherwise stated. Alaska, and also the colonial dependencies (see section Colonies below), are treated under their respective heads. GENERAL DESCRIPTION. The lands of the United States may be roughly separated into four areas: the Atlantic lowlands, the Appalachian highlands, the Mississippi Valley, and the Pacific highlands. These regions are nowhere sharply separated from each other. Leaving out for a moment the narrow strip of Atlantic lowland, one may best view the United States as made up of two great uplands, with a broad lowland ly ing between. The country thus shows the physical plan of North America, for the Appalachian belt rises from the Gulf plains in Alabama and ends northward on the shores of Labrador. The Western uplands or Cordilleras begin virtually at the base of the continent; they rise to a great elevation in Mexico, maintain great heights and gain their greatest width in the Western United States; and thence continue through British America and Alaska. In like manner the Mississippi plains are continuous with the Hudson Bay region and the central plains of Canada to the shores of the Arctic Sea, and it is possible to pass from the delta of the Mississippi to the mouth of the Mackenzie River without rising 1000 feet above the ocean. THE ATLANTIC LOWLAND. This region, although not large, contains a vast population, and is historically the most important. It made the interior of the continent accessible to dis covery from the east, offered hospitable ground to the colonists, and is rich in the harbors that have led to the building of cities and the growth of commerce. These lowlands are not the same in origin in the North as in the South. The Atlantic rim of New England is a rough lowland rising from sea level to the height of four or five hundred feet. It is beset with rough hills, of native rock, and of glacial waste. It is an uneven but subdued or nearly worn-out mountain country, like western Massachusetts or northern New England, except that it is more fully deSouth of New York, on the other graded. hand, and reaching to Florida Strait, is the Atlantic Coastal Plain, including southern New Jersey, Delaware, and a broad belt of all the It is a smoother land, South Atlantic States. without projecting masses of rocky hills, and sloping gently up from the tide levels to the rougher lands of the Appalachian belt. It is intersected by Delaware and Chesapeake bays and their rivers, and by more southerly streams. It is often known as the 'tidewater country' because the sea enters its estuarine rivers for scores of miles. It is covered with fields of tobacco, cotton, rice, and fruit orchards, or with The region is in pastures or native forest. greater part a sea bottom uncovered at a comparatively recent period, and becomes continuous, beneath the Atlantic waters, with the continental shelf which lies between the land border and the deep seas. West of this plain is a much denuded becoming known as the Piedmont Plain. It is belt of ancient Appalachian mountains, which is from a few hundred to a thousand feet in altitude and lies between the coastal plain and the Blue Ridge. See PIEDMONT PLAIN. One feature of the entire Atlantic coast is that the rivers are tidal. They may occupy narrow channels to the sea border, like the Hudson, or they may enter at the head of deep and spacious bays, as do the Delaware and the Susquehanna. Such a water system with the above rivers, the Potomac, James, and other streams, is well called a drowned' river system. By this is meant that the trunk valley and its branches were cut out by land streams, and that the sea has entered their lower parts because of a sinking of the edge or of larger parts of the continent. The historical meaning of these conditions can hardly be reckoned. It is enough here to observe that nearly all the harborages and quiet salt waters of our Atlantic border have this origin; and that thus have grown our great seaboard cities, where ships may ride safely at the mouth of tidal streams whose waters offer gateways to the interior of the continent. THE APPALACHIAN UPLANDS. From the physical point of view these may be taken as the eastern part of the rocky skeleton of the country and the continent. In their highest points, the White Mountains in the north and the Black Mountains in the middle south, they attain elevations exceeding 6000 feet in the loftiest projections east of the Rocky Mountains. Historically they form the Appalachian barrier, with large consequences in colonial annals and in the opening of the lands that lie westward. See APPALACHIANS. |