New International Yearbook: A Compendium of the World's Progress

NEW YORK: EDITOR OF BAKER'S Biographical ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH
Dictionary of Musicians.

NAVAL PROGRESS AND RELATED SUB-
JECTS

LEWIS SAYRE VAN DUZER,

CAPTAIN, U. S. N., RETIRED; WRITER ON NAVAL
AND NAUTICAL SUBJECTS.

THOMAS F. MEEHAN,

EDITORIAL STAFF, America.

SANITARY ENGINEERING AND MUNIC-
IPAL SUBJECTS

MOSES NELSON BAKER, PH.D., C.E.,
ASSOCIATE EDITOR OF THE Engineering News-
Record.

THE NEW
INTERNATIONAL

YEAR BOOK

ABNEY, Sir WILLIAM DE WIVELESLIE. Brit- that of Addis Abeba, and this had about 100 ish scientist, died at Folkstone, England, December 2. Since 1903 he had been scientific adviser to the Board of Education and a memher of the advisory council for education to the War Department. He was born at Derby, July 24, 1843, and became a captain of the Royal Engineers in 1873. He was president of the Royal Astronomical Society 1893-5 and of the Physical Society 1895-7. He was celebrated for his researches in photography and spectroscopy, in which fields he published several important books, including Instruction in Photography (1870); Treatise on Photography (1875); Color Vision, Color Measurement and Mixture (1893); Trichromatic Theory of Color (1914). He also wrote a volume on Thebes in 1876, and The Pioneers of the Alps (with C. D. Cunningham) in 1888.

ABYSSINIA. A monarchy in northern Africa to the southwest of the Red Sea with Sudan, Massaua, the French Somali coast, and the British Somali Protectorate on the west, and British East Africa and the Uganda Protectorate on the northwest and south. Its estimated area is 350,000 square miles and its estimated population more than 8,000,000. It is divided into the following nine provinces: (1) Harar and dependencies; (2) Wollo; (3) Kassa and Magi; (4) Gore; (5) Tigré; (6) Damot and Gojam; (7) Equatorial Provinces; (8) Gondar; (9) Gima or Jimma. Its independence was recognized by Italy on October 26, 1896, by the convention of Addis Abeba and its frontiers were determined by treaties with Great Britain and Italy. On December 13, 1906, Great Britain, France and Italy undertook to preserve its integrity and agreed that henceforth industrial concessions should be so granted as not to injure the interests of any of the contracting Powers. They also agreed to abstain from interfering in the internal affairs of the country, but to act together in harmony for the protection of their interests in bordering lands, etc.

The inhabitants have been Christians since their conversion in the fourth century and the have remained members of the Alexandria church under an Abuna or head bishop who is always a Copt and appointed by the patriarch of Alexandria, subject to a native prelate known as the Echegheh. The ecclesiastics number about 100,000. The people are generally illiterate, education being for the most part confined to the clergy. Only one school was reported, namely,

pupils, for although an edict was passed in 1907
declaring education compulsory it has remained
a dead letter. The administration of justice is
in the hands of the provincial governors and
chiefs with right of appeal to the emperor; and
the basis of the legal system is the code of Jus-
tinian. The people are of Semitic origin and
consist of the following race groups: Gallas,
Somalis, Shoans, Tigrians and Danakils. The
Gallas constitute fully one-half of the population
and are chiefly pastoral and agricultural. The
Shoans, from whom the ruling class is derived,
number about 1,500,000. The Danakils are Mo-
hammedans. There are also some negroes in
the southern part. The chief pursuits are agri-
culture and grazing; though the soil is capable
of producing diverse crops, culture is backward.
Theoretically the soil belongs to the Negus or
Emperor and the system of private property can
hardly be said to exist. Stock-raising is of
some importance, and cattle, sheep and goats are
plentiful. Breeds of small horses and small
donkeys are raised and are used as pack animals.
Cotton, sugar cane, dates, coffee and the vine
are cultivated to some extent. Coffee produc-
tion is increasing and besides the cultivated
coffee, which is the long berry Mocha, there is
in the southern and western portions a consider-
able growth of wild coffee plants. The total ex-
ports of coffee were estimated in 1916 at 6364
metric tons. Other native products are hides
and skins, millet, barley, wheat, tobacco and
gesho. The manufacturers are, in a backward
state, but in some districts hatchets, knives and
other implements are made. Minerals are found,
including iron, coal, sulphur, copper and silver,
but are not extensively worked. In some parts
of the country placer gold-mining is carried on.
Commerce takes for the most part the route of
the French Ethiopian railway, but there is a
considerable caravan trade in the interior.
chief exports are hides and skins, coffee, wax,
civet, ivory and butter. Spices, gums, gold and
rubber are also exported to some extent. The
imports, which are chiefly from England, France,
India, Italy and the United States, comprise for
the most part manufactures, including cotton
goods, arms and munitions, liquors, railway ma-
terials, sugar, and petroleum. The exports
through Jibuti in 1917 were reported as follows:
Hides, 5,704,423 kilos; coffee, 5,092,647 kilos;
and beeswax, 381,313 kilos. In that year the
exports to the Sudan were reported as follows:

The

Coffee, £E105,895; wax, £E18,265. Imports from the Sudan in 1917 amounted to £E65,226. The Board of Trade reported the exports from Abyssinia into Great Britain for 1919 at £28,947 and the imports from Great Britain to Abyssinia at £10,822. Highway communications are backward and transportation depends on mere trails on which pack animals, including sometimes camels, are employed, but in the neighborhood of the capital some few miles of metaled road have been made. There is a French railway line to Jibuti and to Diré Dawa, 187 miles in length, and after January, 1909, measures were taken to complete the line to Addis Abeba. This reached the capital in 1917. Telegraph lines connect Addis Abeba with Harar, with Jibuti in French Somali, and with Massaua in Eritrea, the length being about 1056 miles. There is also a small mileage of telephone wire. The coin of the country is the Maria Theresa dollar, to which in late years has been added the Mene lek dollar of about the same value, that is, in the neighborhood of fifty cents.

The government is feudal, under a sort of state council consisting of the chief notables. In 1919 a form of cabinet government was introduced. The army amounts to about 200,000 men, but is ill equipped and ill organized. After the death of Menelek in December, 1913, his grandson, Lidj Yasu, succeeded, but was deposed September 27, 1916, and succeeded by a daughter of Menelek, Waizeru Zauditu, born in 1876. She was crowned February 11, 1917, and the chief or Ras, Taffaria, was proclaimed regent and heir to the throne. The government was recognized by Great Britain, but unstable conditions as the result of civil war prevailed during 1917, 1918 and 1919.

ACADEMY, FRENCH (ACADÉMIE FRANÇAISE). The oldest of the five academies which make up the Institute of France and officially considered the highest; founded in 1635; reorganized in 1816. The list of its members known as the Forty Immortals in 1920 was as follows: Othénin de Cléron, Comte d'Haussonville; Charles Louis de Saules de Freycinet; Louis Marie Julien Viaud (Pierre Loti); Ernest Lavisse; Paul Bourget; H. G. Anatole François Thibault (Anatole France); Gabriel Hanotaux; Henri Emile Lavedan; Paul Deschanel; Frédéric Masson; René Bazin; Alexandre Ribot; Maurice Barrès; Maurice Donnay; Jean Richepin; Raymond Poincaré; Eugène Brieux; Jean Aicard; René Doumic; Marcel Prévost; M'g'r Duchesne; Henri de Régnier; Denys Cochin; General Lyautey; Emile Boutroux; Alfred Capus; Pierre de la Gorce; Henri Bergson; Marshal Joffre; Louis Barthou; R. M. A. Tardiveau (R. Boylesve); François de Curel; Alfred Baudrillart; Marshal Foch; Georges Clemenceau; Jules Cambon; Henri Bordeaux; Robert de Flers; Joseph Bédier; Louis Chevrillon. Three of the above were elected in 1920, namely Robert de Flers, Joseph Bédier and André Chevrillon, whose receptions were to be held between February 7 and April 15, 1921, at intervals of one month. The Academy held its great annual public meeting on November 25th, with M. Raymond Poincaré presiding. There were speeches by the presiding officer and reports from M. Frédéric Masson, and M. Jean Richepin. Meanwhile the work on the dictionary was proceeding and had

advanced into the letter H.

Of those elected in 1920, Robert de Flers is a

popular dramatist, who had won great success before the war by a long series of plays written in collaboration with G. A. Caillavet, including one, L'habit vert, which had humorously satirized the Academy itself. Joseph Bédier is a prominent philologist. He was an active propagandist during the war and his writings, including an edition of the diaries of German soldiers, published early in the war, were widely circulated in translations in the countries of the Allies. André Chevrillon is the nephew of Taine and the author of books on India and on Ruskin in English literature, among other subjects, and has visited the United States.

ACADEMY OF ARTS AND LETTERS, AMERICAN. Founded in 1904 by seven members of the National Institute of Arts and Letters. This society is patterned on the French Academy in Paris. Membership is limited to 50 persons. Beginning in 1909 a series of annual meetings have been held. Until 1919 William Dean Howells was president of the Academy, but his death on April 11, 1920, caused the election of a new president, William Milligan Sloane. During 1920 four new members have been elected to the Academy: Childe Hassam of New York, David Jayne Hill of Washington, D. C., Lorado Taft of Chicago, Ill., and Booth Tarkington of Indianapolis, Ind. These members were to fill vacancies caused by the death of Julian Alden Weir, Horatio William Parker, and William Dean Howells, and one chair previously vacant.

The fifth series of addresses given under the auspices of the Academy was given at the Chemists' Club, 50 East 41st Street, New York City, during 1920. Speakers and their subjects were as follows: "The Spirit of Italy," by William Roscoe Thayer; "Music and Liberty," by William J. Henderson; "The English Language in America," by Paul Shorey; "The Literature of Japan," by William Elliot Griffis.

In 1920 the membership list was as follows: John Singer Sargent, Daniel Chester French, John Burroughs, James Ford Rhodes, William Milligan Sloane, Robert Underwood Johnson, George Washington Cable, Henry van Dyke, William Crary Brownell, Basil Lanneau Gildersleeve, Woodrow Wilson, Arthur Twining Hadley, Henry Cabot Lodge, Edwin Howland Blashfield, Thomas Hastings, Brander Matthews, Thomas Nelson Page, Elihu Vedder, George Edward Woodberry, George Whitefield Chadwick, Abbott Henderson Thayer, George de Foret Brush, William Rutherford Mead, Bliss Perry, Abbott Lawrence Lowell, Nicholas Murray Butler, Paul Wayland Bartlett, Owen Wister, Herbert Adams, Augustus Thomas, Timothy Cole, Cass Gilbert, William Roscoe Thayer, Robert Grant, Frederick MacMonnies, William Gillette, Paul Elmer More, Barrett Wendell, Gari Melchers, Elihu Root, Brand Whitlock, Hamlin Garland. Those elected after 1918 were Paul Shorey, Charles Adams Platt, Maurice Francis Egan, Archer M. Huntington, Childe Hassam, David Jayne Hill, Lorado Taft, Booth Tarkington. The permanent Secretary of the Academy in 1920 was Robert Underwood Johnson. Headquarters are at 347 Madison Avenue, New York City.

ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, NATIONAL. A body of distinguished American scientists incorporated by act of Congress, March 3, 1863, for the purpose of promoting scientific research and of examining, investigating, and reporting

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