VAIL 150 VALDES ism" (1897) ; "National Ownership of Railways" (1897) ; "Scientific Socialism" (1899); "The Industrial Evolution" (1899) ; "Mission of the Working Class" (1900); "Socialism: What It Is and What It Is Not" (1900) ; "The Socialist Movement" (1901) ; "The Trust Ques- tion" (1901) ; "Militant and Triumphant Socialism" (1913) ; etc. VAIL, THEODORE NEWTON, an American capitalist; born in Carroll co., Ohio, in 1845. He was educated at Mor- ristown (N. J.) Academy. After study- ing medicine for 2 years he became in 1873 assistant superintendent of railway mail service at Washington, assistant general superintendent in 1874 and gen- eral superintendent in 1875. From 1878 to 1887 he was in the telephone busi- ness. After traveling for some years he took up farming in Vermont in 1893, and in 1896 became interested in elec- trical enterprises in Argentina, introduc- THEODORE N. VAIL ing an electrical street railway system in Buenos Aires and installing telephone systems in the principal Argentine cities. In 1907 he became president of the American Telegraph and Telephone Company, serving in this capacity until he died on April 15, 1920. He was an officer and director in many corporations in the United States and England, and was a member of many scientific and other societies. He received honorary de- grees from Dartmouth, Middelbury Col- lege, Princeton, Harvard and the Uni- versity of Vermont. VAISKNAVA (vish'na-vaz), a pri- mary religious sect of the Hindus, who adore Vishnu in preference to, if not to the exclusion of, the other persons of the Hindu triad. To carry individual preference to this extent is not consid- ered orthodox, and many of those who do so have united themselves into monastic bodies, which, drawing their devotees from various castes, virtually merge them in a new one — that of the Sec- tarian bi'otherhood. Horace Hayman Wilson divided the Vaishnavas into the following sections: (1) Ramanujas, Sri Sampradayis, or Sri Vaishnavas; (2) Ramanandis, or Ramavats; (3) Kabir Panthis; (4) Khakis; (5) Maluk Da- sis; (6) Dadii Panthis; (7) Raya Dasis; (8) Senais; (9) Vallabhacharis, or Rudra Sampradayis; (10) Mira Bais; (11) Madhwacharis or Brahma Sampradayis; (12) Nimavats, or Sanakadi Sampraya- dayis; (13) the Vaishnavas of Bengal; (14) Radha Vallabhis; (15) the Sakhi Bhavas; (16) Charan Dasis; (17) Harischandis ; (18) Sadhna Panthis; (19) Madhavis; and (20) Sannyasis, Vairagis, and Nagas. VALAIS (vala') (German, Wallis), a frontier canton of Switzerland; bounded on the N. by the cantons of Vaud and Bern, and on the S. by Italy; area, 2,027 square miles; pop. about 130,000. It forms one long and deep valley, included between two of the loftiest mountain chains of Europe — the Pennine and the Bernese Alps — and is drained by the Upper Rhone, which, rising at its N. E. extremity, falls at the W. boundary of the canton into the Lake of Geneva. The greater part of the surface consists of barren mountain slopes — in their higher elevations covered with the greatest of the Swiss glaciers. The forests and pas- ture-lands supply the inhabitants with their chief occupations. The heat at the bottom of the valley, where there is a strip of corn land, is intense in summer, and Indian corn and the vine are grown with great success. The Grimsel and Gemmi passes connect the E. part of the valley with German Switzerland; and the Great St. Bernard and Simplon (g. V.) passes connect it with Italy. Sion and Martigny are the chief towns. VALDAI HILLS (val'di), a range of hills in western Russia, averaging about 300 feet in height, but rising in Mount Popovagora to 1,080 feet. They are well wooded, and contain the sources of the Volga, Dnieper, and Diina. VALDENSES. See Waldenses. VALDES, ARMANDO PALACIO (val-das'). See Palacio Valdes. VALDES, JUAN DE, a Spanish theo- logian, reformer and writer, born in
