Arizona citizen., 1876-04-01
Wealth of the United States.


 fifty years.
 | A CAREFUL STATISTICAL EXAMINATION of the actual condition of the coun- try in 1926 and 1851 as compared with the present status of agriculture, commerce, mining, mechanical and manufacturing industries, will more than bear us out i'll this assertion. We will cite one interest alone The latest statistics show about rocco miles of railway in the United States, with a nominal capital of about $3,2OO, OOO- 600. Their gross receipts aggregate nearly $500, GOO, O00-sums greatly Tn excess of the Government debt and revenue. The increase in the agricul- tural wealth of the country IS no less astounding. The Mississippi valley, the most fertile portion of the earth's surface IS larger than the whole of Europe excepting Russia. Its popula- ton, 23, GOO, GOO, is about equal to that of England and Wales. This
 POPULATION IS INCREASING WITH
 MARVELLOUS RAPIDITY.
 The commerce of the Mississippi is already three times as large as the whole foreign commerce of the coun- try. There are those now living who remember the time when nesrl y the whole of this vast valley was an uninhsblted wilderness. Who can set limits to its future growth and wealth! Our agricultural possibili- ties are only limited by the waters of the Pacific. So great has been the material development of the West that the American center of trade has changed and the preponderanoe of wealth and population IS gravitating toward the Mississippi valley. In comparatively short period of time Chicago and St. Louis have grown from insignificant frontier posts to great commercial centers, with 8 population of 5O0,00 each. The large towns everywhere springing up in that magnificent region are
 MONUMENTS OF AMERICAN ENTERPRISE.
 The probable wealth of this coun- try in the year 1900, based simply on the rules of mathematical progress sion, would stsgger the veriest eDthu- siast in his widest dreams. The mag nitude of our internal or domestic trade will be better understood when we state that the total of the exports constituting the foreign commerce of the United States for the year 1873 were under $500, 100000, while it Is estimated that the value of products transported on all the railways of the United States for the same period was upward of $10, GOO, GOO, ,000. The con- merce of the Ohio river was estimated at $l,600, ,000, 900 eleven years ago. At this rate the entire domestic com merce of the country would at present be probably not less than $l5, ,OOO- 100000. When at the coming Gen. tennisl Uncle Sam takes an account of his stock in trade he will not for get his
 COLD AND SILVER MINES,
 Which produced for the year ending last July, $71, ,O0O, ncr must he forget the mortgage of about $3,OOO,- 900, 900 which covers all his real and personal estate. We have seen our pop ulation swell from 3,O0O,0O0 in l776 to 5000, ,000 in 1876, and we are yet in our infancy as compared with those countries which rank with us in wealth, power, population and en- frightened civilization. While this marvellous piling up of wealth, this wonderful increase of population, no doubt denotes great material prosper Ity, 1t cannot De denied that sltera- tions of a serious character are taking place in the structure of society. Though society has for certain pur- poses become all powerful, Is there no fear among us of changes which will put In hazard law and order, if not life and property? Who shall say where taxation ends and where confiscation begins? The voice of demagogues Is too often heard in Con- gress. in our Legislatures and more especially in our municipal bodies, openly
 PREACHING soCIALIsTIC AND CoMMU-
 MYSTIC DOCTRINES.
 We hardly tske up a paper but we find from those who have their own purposes to serve insidious appeals to the necessities, passions and preiudices of the workingmsn as against the capitalist and the employer of labor. These facts should be looked squsrely and bravely in the face. The only safety for society lies in turning plenty of light on tue processes by which these changes are being wrought out. Which ever way we look we see 8 loosening of the old bonds of society. Although many causes have helped to bring about this state of things the great disintegrator has been the un- preoedented increase of wealth, ex- citing feverish haste to be rich and lowering the morality of all engaged in the pursuit. That increase, instead ot knitting together. has divided fam IheS, divided households, divided class es, and therefore must have
 WEAKENED INSTEAD OF STRENGTHEN
 ING THE NATION.
 The sntsgonism of classes has slways been one of the most fruitful causes of political revolutions. To-day it looms