At the close of our last fiscal year, September 30th, 1893, we reported a debt of $45,028.11.  In that year we received aid from the Government for Indian work.  During the eleven months of this year we have received no aid from the Government, but our receipts from other sources have increased over those of last year, and we have cut down our expenditures, so that if we had received the Government aid as last year our debt on the eleven months of the current year would be only $5,409.80, but with that loss the actual indebtedness of these eleven months is $23,937.10, which added to that of the last year makes the total debt August 31st $68,965.21.  From present indications we can hardly hope for any material reduction of this amount during the current month, and hence the prospect is that this sum must be reported at our annual meeting.

A grave contingency confronts us as we enter (October 1st) on the new year.  Our great work, which has lifted thousands of young men and women from ignorance and poverty into hopeful and useful lives, and which has brought cheer and help to multitudes of homes where poverty has reigned, must be carried forward; and our debt, which has hung as a weight upon this work, must be wiped out.  A constantly increasing debt must be avoided at any cost.  The next six or eight months (the harvest months for collections) must decide the question.  If pastors of churches will lay the matter to heart and secure regular and increased collections, and if benevolent friends of these struggling races will bear them in remembrance by special contributions, an uplift of hope and help will be given where now they are threatened with discouragement in their great conflict with poverty, ignorance and race prejudice.

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CAPITAL AND LABOR.

Capital and labor are twin brothers, but they have been alienated almost from childhood, and the strife between them waxes warmer and warmer, and, like all other vexed questions, will never be settled till it is settled right.

There are various forms of these troubles—­now in the coal mines, now on the railroads, and now in the shops—­but there are aspects of the struggle which put on national traits and overthrow empires.  The French Revolution was a struggle between capital and labor.  The capitalists were the aristocracy, and they monopolized also intelligence and power.  With these advantages they ground down labor till patience was changed to implacable rage, and the reaction brought forth the most serious and terrible massacres recorded in history.