It is a form of mission history in which the omission of a few years may break the connection of the whole narrative.
7.

(i) It may perhaps cause surprise to some that the information for which we ask is mainly such as can be expressed in a statistical form.
But the fact remains that all statesmanship (and foreign missions involve large elements of statesmanship), and all organised effort (and foreign missions are highly organised), is in the world always based either upon carefully compiled statistics, or upon guess work; and that the business which is directed by guess work does not enjoy the same confidence as the business which is directed by knowledge derived from carefully compiled statistics.
Take, for example, this extract from a letter written by a firm in the United States of America which deals with candy securities:-- The candy business, the history of which shows a remarkable record of freedom from failure, is to-day enjoying unparalleled prosperity, and there is every reason to believe that the present high earnings of all the large candy concerns in the United States will continue indefinitely.

Those fortunate enough to hold shares in well-established candy manufacturing concerns may expect, therefore, to enjoy larger earnings than could reasonably be expected from funds placed in most other enterprises.

_Prohibition is proving a tremendous factor in increasing candy sales.

Best estimates show that the American public is now spending between $800,000,000 and $1,000,000,000 annually for candy_.