Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1888-01-14
AMERICAN PROSPERITY.
THE GREAT DEVELOPMENT IN
MATERIAL RESO RCES.
Increase Of on-Remarkable
Railroad Building = Unlimited
Future of the United States.

Since the year 1870 the population of the
United States has increased by 2O,00O,00
The miles of railway have grown from
10000 to more than 10000. The pro-
duction of grain and hay has been nearly
doubled; the production of iron has been
trebled. The property insured from fire
has become two and half times as great.
The cost of growing grain in the West
ern States, small as it always was, has been
greatly lessened by improved agriculture
and by reduction of nearly one-half in
the current rate of interest on borrowed
money and the cost of moving grain from
Chicago to Liverpool has been reduced no
less than lbs a quarter.
These are very brief statements. but
only think what they disclose Here is a
vast continent of virgin soil adding twenty
millions to its inhabitants in fifteen wears.
These people are all workers, and every
one is assisted BY the State There are
grants of fresh land to those who will cul-
tivate 1t; protection from foreign COMPETE
ton for those who will manufacture any,
thing. The increase in wealth and in
production is far more rapid than the in
crease IN numbers, great as that has been,
and the cost of producing and of moving
continually grows less.
Nor are these by any means the only
things Of vital interest to ourselves The
10000 miles of British railways have cost
f40, 900 a mile. The 10000 miles of rail-
way in the United States have cost only
81 900 mile, and their actual construc-
ton at this moment in the Western States
does not cost more than $4,000 mile.
Half the capital of American railways is
borrowed money, the average interest be-
ing four and one-half per cent; the other
half is share capital, on which the average
dividend is only two per cent. But these
low terms are sufficient to attract unlim-
tied investments, very largely English
capital. The interest on the borrowed
money is generally safe, and the share cap
ital would be found even if there were no
dividends; for every mile of new railway
in the West gives immediate value to at
least 1000 acres of new land State aid also
is never wanting where it Is necessary.
The railways west of the Mississippi have
received grants of no less than 200,000,000
acres of land, or as much as England and
France together. The average rate at
which goods are carried is one halfpenny
per ton per mile; the rate for grain for
long distances is less than a flrthing,
and corn is brought from Chicago to
Liverpool for something like 5s a
quarter. At these rates the profit over the
working expenses of the railways is one
the profit is one-half but the capital per
10 ,nI, L., l.
nearly four times as great as In America
The absolute confidence with which the
Americans themselves look forward to the
future is shown in the most emphatic way.
With full knowledge of the rates, the
traffic and the dividends before them, TO-
600 miles of new railway will have been
constructed this yeal. and they will make
more than 100000 acres of fresh land
available for use. The land is valueless
without the railways. The railways get
their traffic from the cultivation of The
land. The capital invested this year will
probably be sixty millions sterling; much
of which comes from England, and neither
the constructors nor the investors have any
fear as to the result
Putting all these things together, what
have we here but the most formidable engine
ofcommercial competition that has ever been
known and what chance is there that the
methods by which We earned our living
before this competitor was born will answer
now that he is at our door?
English farmers are told that American
farmers are being ruined by the present
price of wheat. They will be terribly de-
ceived if they dream either that this is
generally true, or that if it were true it
would make any difference to themselves.
If it were true in fact, the utmost result
! would be some little rise in price in
America, too small to be important here :;
but its truth in general is obviously i'm
possible. When fresh land is first brought
into use, many of the cultivators are
ruined, as a matter of course, for success
cannot be universal; but when cultivation
goes on, nevertheless, with increasing
rapidity, and capital is poured into it with
unfailing confidence, it is pure folly to
think that the business can be otherwise
than profitable on the whole.
And farming can only be Judged of ION
| the whole" No farmer grows only sin
gle thing, and the various attempts made
by many writers to settle the precise cost
of growing wheat are fruitless from their
very nature. The farmers business is to
grow food of every kind, and he is obliged
always to grow several kinds. His profit
or loss depends on the general result, and
it is under this general result that Ameri-
can land is sought after with extraordinary
avidity, while English land has become a
burden and loss.
Any doubt as to the immense prosperity
Of the United States is disposed of by their
revenue returns. Since their great war,
and Notwithstanding its prodigious cost,
| they have paid off in twenty years two
| hundred and thirty millions sterling of
their national debt, their revenue now
| shows an annual surplus of twenty millions
and their chief financial difficulty at this
moment is to know what to do with it.
| Let us take these figures home and ask
ourselves what inference we should draw
concerning the prosperity Of Great Britain,
| If we found ourselves with surplus reve-
nue. of twenty millions year?
We are face to face with the fact that
all the chief products of the soil can be
grown iii America in any quantity for
very much less than is possible here; that
the protection we have lived under in the
cost of transit is practically gone, and that
profitable farming in England is gone with
1t, if we resolve to buy our food in the
cheapest market, regardless of the results.
A special warning is needed here against
false hopes founded on temporary changes;
the price Of wheat, for example, has fallen
so low this year that its growth abroad
will be discouraged, and the area sown
somewhat reduced, and if by chance bad
season should follow, the price of wheat
may suddenly rise. But the advance
would be temporarily only. 1t would lead
at once to an increased production, and
the first good harvest would bring the
price down lower than before.
What then is to be done? We are told
TO reduce the cost of production in Eng
land, but this is no remedy at all unless it
is sufficient for the purpose; and how can
it be made sufficient? English farming is
not conducted by children; the experience
of ages, the help of capital, the resources
of science, have all been working under
the strongest impulse of self-interest in
| this great industry, and the result is seen
in the actual produce, which exceeds in
quantity per acre that of most other coun-
tries, Notwithstanding our defects of eli
mate and the natural exhaustion of the
soil That savings in cost NAV be effected