COPYRIGHT, 1909, BY THE KING-RICHARDSON COMPANY, SPRINGFIELD, MASS. COPYRIGHT, 1910, BY THE KING-RICHARDSON COMPANY, SPRINGFIELD, MASS. ORIGIN. PREFACE The publication of the New Century Book of Facts has been brought about by the universal demand of the American people for a reliable handbook of quick reference. Such a reference work requires constant revision to hold place with events, discoveries, inventions, and political changes, and in keeping up with this progress lies its great usefulness. So extensively has this work been done. in the past by the publishers that the 1902 edition of the Century Book of Facts bears slight resemblance in many important respects to the edition of 1908. In six years the work of revision has practically changed the identity of the book. result of these improvements made in response to actual needs based upon the experience of many thousand users, the demand became so great that it has been impossible to take the plates from the presses for a sufficient length of time to make the radical betterments long planned by the publishers. PURPOSE. Consequently, as the publishers had long foreseen, it was necessary to make an entirely new book, in the preparation of which there has been one supreme object, namely: the production of the best possible single-volume reference. work in the English language, surpassing all others in scope, quality, and adaptation to present day needs in the same degree that a modern locomotive excels the first models. To accomplish this, three years have been spent in the selection, condensation, and arrangement of the subject matter, which is the most comprehensive and complete yet presented in a single volume. PREPARATION. EDITORSHIP. This vast array of facts was brought into logical order, verified, and made available for instant use under the direction of Hon. Carroll D. Wright, editor-in-chief, late president of Clark College, recognized throughout the world as a statistician and economist of the first order, and eminently qualified to shape a fact book along the lines of highest usefulness. In order to maintain a uniformly high standard throughout the several departments, he personally selected a board of sixteen associate editors, composed of specialists of the foremost rank, for the most part connected with our leading universities and colleges, and representing an average of editorial competency and scholarship not only higher than that of any other single-volume reference work, but also exceeding that of our largest encyclopædias. The topical arrangement of the subject matter was chosen with full ARRANGEMENT. realization that it imposed upon the editorial staff the necessity of fuller and better balanced treatment of each department than would either the alphabetical arrangement or the grouping of several departments into one. Each of the twelve departments consists of one and only one general subject. The great educational advantage of proper correlation of matter is gained by it, and it also does away with the unnecessary and disorderly miscellany so confusing in works of reference. The classification of the matter has proceeded on the basis of the Dewey decimal system for libraries, except that the large general division of sociology was divided カカートリ |