The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-02-28

The sixth day of March mark
O the ending of the one hun
dredth year of systematic dis
trlbution of the Bible, without note o
comment, throughout the world. S.
on next Sunday the anniversary O
the founding of the British and For
eign Bible Society, which occurred
on March 7, 1904, will be celebrated il
every country of the globe.
In this country the celebration viii
have double significance. The day
will also be observed in honor of the
american Bible Society, whose pur
pose is the same as that of the British
body, and which was founded in 1916
Since their organization these two
bodies have done almost incredible
work in circulating the Scriptures
free of charge in cases of necessity
but otherwise at prices irrespective OF
the original cost, which bring them
within easy reach of the poor"
The British Society alone has dis
tributed 100000 volumes, trans
lated into $40 languages, at a total
expenditure of about $7o,ooo,ooo; while
the figures showing the results of the
American Society's efforts in behalf
of the Book are equally amazing.
They Would Fill
Sixty Trains of
Thirty Cars Each
If all the Bibles distributed by the
home organization were offered in
bulk to a railroad for shipment, sixty
trains of thirty freight cars each
would have to be made up to haul
them. And if all these trains were
made up into one great train, and all
the sixty locomotives put on ahead,
the cars, every one conveying the
regulation twenty tons, would trail
out ten miles behind
Loaded into wagons of two tons
capacity each, eighteen thousand
would be required to hold these TO-
ooc, 900 books. Placed in a straight
line, beginning at the Bible House,
Astor Place, New York, the wagons
would make a procession eighty-five
miles in length; and at an ordinary
rate of travel this caravan would con-
sumo four days in passing a given
point.
Piled on one another, the Bibles
would make a column 1896 miles
high; placed separately, a regulation
space one from another, they would
mark each step of traveller for 49,
0oc miles-nearly twice around the
globe. Piled up, they would make
solid mass 100 feet square and two
and one-half miles high New York's
skyscrapers would be lost in such a
space.
Put these books in library, and
100000 shelves, each five feet long,
would be necessary to hold them.
These 1896 miles of shelves would tax
the capacity of the big buildings now
being made ready for the St. Louis
Exposition.
They Cost Nearly $31 100000
and Used Up $4,000 Tons
of Ink and Paper
Lastly, all of these Bibles have used
up 10000 tons of ink and paper, and in
their production and distribution have
caused an expenditure of $3o,o6oooo.
Multiply all of these figures by two
and one-half, then add the results to
the calculations already made, and
the work of one hundred years Of
organized Bible distribution will have
been reduced to cold statistical form.
For the British Society has accom-
plished two and one-half times as
much work as its American prototype.
While all this work represents a
century and eighty-six years i'll Eng
land and in America, respectively, the
major portion has been done in the
past thirty years, and 80 per cent. of
it in the last twelve years. For ex-
ample, the American Society dis
tributed during its first twenty-five
years, 100000 copies of the Bible;
the second twenty-five years, 1887
600 copies; the third twenty-five years,
32,478,Ooo copies, and the last twelve
years, 100000 copies.
The first year of its existence 6,4Io
volumes were distributed, and the re-
ceipts were $37,77o Last year the re
ceipts were $4I2, 10000, and the output
If these copies were placed side by
side they would extend thirty-one
miles along the earth's surface, and a
traveller on a journey could have one
book for each step i'll LOO miles.
Equally remarkable with these fig
ures is the fact that while wider and
wider scope is given to the distribu-
ton of the Bible, the average cost of
a Bible is steadily decreasing. To
publish Bible and give it to the world
cost, in 1920, SILL; in I84o, SO cents;
in 1860, IS cents; in 1894, 80 cents,
and in 1908, Is cents. These figures
include cost of manufacture, of trans
portation and of administration.
Up-to-Date Management,
Economy and
Improved Machinery
This cheapness is due to four things
-up-to-date management, greater
economy in manufacture, increased
circulation and improvement in ma
chinery The society was the first
establishment to use the power press,
and, curiously enough, the power was
furnished by mule. The society was
also forty years ahead of the daily
newspapers-always famous for their
enterprise-in the use of stereotype
plates. Printing and binding the
Bibles by up-to-date machinery are
four times as economical as twenty
five years ago. The society owns 100