1 2 3 4 Population 4,767,121 1,693,894 342,077 2,731,150 No. of churches 9,890 6,060 582 3,248 No. of persons to a church 482 280 587 841 Complete data for ministers' salaries are not available, but the amount of the minister's pay is indicated by the figures in the official records of the two denominations which have the largest number of rural churches. There were in 1917, 688 pastors of rural churches of the Methodist Episcopal Church. (See Table IX.) These received, on an average, $993 per year, or $857 and free use of parsonage. Six hundred and sixty-two ministers, or 96 per cent, received less than $1,500 per year; 513, or 75 per cent, received less than $1,200 per year; while 303, or 44 per cent, received less than $1,000. In the United Brethren Church, according to the records of its Conferences, in 1917 there were 188 pastors of rural churches. (See Table X.) Their average salary was $787, or $680 and free use of parsonage; not one received as much as $1,500 salary; 171, or all but 17, received less than $1,200; while 135, or 72 per cent, received less than $1,000. Not only are ministers given inadequate pay, but the rate of its increase in relation to the increase in the cost of living gives no promise of its becoming adequate. In the Ohio Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church the average salary of the country minister in 1905 was $733, including the estimated rental value of parsonage, while in 1915 it was $915, making an increase of $182, or 25 per cent, in ten years. During the same period, however, according to data supplied by the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, the retail prices of food consumed by the ordinary workingman's family in the nation increased no less than 37 per cent. It is probable, on the other hand, that the farmers have a constantly increasing ability to pay, for in the ten-year period from 1900 to 1910 there was, according to the United States Census reports, an increase in the total value of farm property in the State of nearly 60 per cent. TABLE IX SALARIES OF METHODIST EPISCOPAL COUNTRY MINISTERS, 1917 Key: 1 _No. of ministers_ 2 _Average salary (including estimated rental value of parsonage)_ 3 _No. of charges giving salaries less than $1,500_ 4 _Per cent_ 5 _No. of charges giving salaries less than $1,200_ 6 _Per cent_ 7 _No. of charges giving salaries less than $1,000_ 8 _Per cent_ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 State 688 $993 662 96 513 75 303 44 Ohio Conference 151 $972 145 96 110 73 79 52 West Ohio Conference 237 $1,004 230 97 184 78 87 37 Northeast Ohio Conference 300 $995 287 96 219 73 137 46 TABLE X SALARIES OF COUNTRY MINISTERS, UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST, 1917