Goldsboro weekly argus. [volume] (Goldsboro, N.C.) 1885-1909, 1895-06-06
NATIONAL POWER.

ST. Louis Republic.
The North american ReUieaU for
June contains an article on the
power. and wealth of the United
States which every calamity
bowler in the country should
read. The author is not an
American, but an Englishman-
M. G.. Mulhall, one Of the best
posted men on social science in
the world and one of the ablest
and most reliable of Europe's
statisticians.
Mr.. Mulhall shows in this
article that the productive power
of the American people surpass-
es that of any other, past or
present. He estimates the work
ing power of an able bodied male
adult to be 300 foot-tonS daily;
that of a horse, 5000; and that
of steam horsepower, 4, 900 tons.
A foot-ton is a unit Of energy
equal to the work done in lifting
a ton one foot high. On this
basis he finds drought the
Government census returns and
other official and semiofficial re-
ports that the working power OF
the United States increased from
1928, 900, 900 foot-tons daily in
1890 to 125. 3O6, 900, 900 in the
present year. The increase per
inhabitant has been from 446 to
1910 foot-tons daily.
The working power per in
habitanG has doubled since 1S4O
and the absolute effective force
of the American people is now
more than three times what it
was in 1860. Steam engines
have been the main factor in this
development, passing the com
bined productive power of horse
nd manual labor since 1880.
Steam power is also classified.
Railway engines have the first
place. They represent nearly
twice the energy of all steam
boats and stationary engines in
the country put together. Loco
motive power in the United
States has about doubled since
1880. It is six times what it was
in 1860 and so times greater than
the railway engine power Of the
country in 1910. An idea Of the
railway development here is
furnished by these statistics.
Nearly two-thirds Of the steam
power Of the Union is employed
on railways. This, however, is
not SO surprising when we re-
member that the railway traffic
of the United States is much
larger than that of all other
countries put together. Accord
ing to this article it is double
the combined traffic of the rest of
the world.
In one of Mr.. Mulhall's tables
he compares the working power
of the United States with that
of other leading nations, divid-
ing each into hand, horse and
steam power. He finds that we
possess almost as much energy
as Great Britain, Germany and
France collectively and that the
ratio falling to each American is
about 80 per cent greater than
the Englishman's and more than
what two F'renchmen or Gers
mans have at their disposal. The
other European countries rank
still lower in the scale.
With the aid of our improved
agricultural machinery, an ordi-
nary farm hand in the United
States is shown to be capable of
raising as much grain as three
in England, four in France. five
in Germany or six in Austria.
He finds that four men here can
produce and deliver to the bak-
ers as much -four as will feed
1000 persons, at II ounce OF
bread per head daily, for a whole
month. In other words, lone
man can feed $50, whereas in Eu-
rope one man feeds but 80 per.
sons" This is what improved
machinery has done for the
United States. Further on we
are shown how the wealth Of the
United States has increased as a
whole and Der capita. The in
crease per inhabitant has been
from 1905 in 1920 to 81, O39 in
1890. The annual rate of in
crease, too, has grown. While
the ratio per inhabitant is lower
here than in Great Britain,
France or Holland. the rate OF
increase is SO much greater here
than in Europe than we shall
prohahlu soon mass them in this