The record-union., 1898-12-19
is EXPANSION
OUR DESTINY?
What Is Americas Share in the
WOrld-MOvenent?
1he Instinct Of Development Wiser Than the
Words Of the Wisest Men,

, change in world movement; note
how the great wave of English-speak-
ing civilization has flowed over the
continent, and not a square mile OF II
once covered, has ever been given back.
When Washington delivered his fare
we'll address the nation numbered but
e 200, coo, to-day it is a people of io,-
100000 with the early approach Of the
day when it will be 200O00,0OO We
have tanned a continent" as Mr.. Kidd
aptly expresses it; covered it with
network of the finest railways in the
earth, and grown to be the largest
and most homogeneous nation OF the
world with a great world-movement be-
hind 1t and a great worldfuture before
it,"
The men in the West realize all this
instinctively; they have been factors in
the movement, and they are willing TO
take risks says the essayist, at which
theoretical minds hesitate. The last
phase Of the struggle referred to was
the late war with Spain, and now
factor in the future Of the world Is
the destiny of the United States. If
it is to be a d-POWer 1t cannot es-
cape the effect of it's connection with
world principles.
He points out that We cannot we'll
think of the country as one of 2OO,OVO,-
600 people without considering them as
having behind them a world trade. We
cannot have an export without an i'm
port trade-that is impossible. Most
development has taken place in the
temperate regions, and the peoples OF
our civilization have been engaged in
colonizing these temperate regions.
That cannot last much longer, prophe-
sizes the essayist, the continent is very
nearly settled up already in the ag1i-
cultural sense, and the next era of eX-
pansion, which is upon us now, is the
industrial, which will bring us into i'm
portant relations with the worlds trade
and compel US to seek the widest pos
sible outside market for our industrial
products.
From this point, to which We have in
dicated only the line of argument pur-
sued, We present in the main the text
OF Mr.. Kidd's reply to the ''Atlantic's'
editor, eliminating where for brevity's
sake it can be done without materially
affecting the propositions advanced:
Now let us see what this trade
means. 1t would mean that there can
be little doubt that the trade of the
world in the future will be largely a
trade with the tropics. The tropics are
naturally the most richly endowed por-
ton of the world. Under proper con-
ditions of administration, the possibili-
ties of production in the tropics are
immensely greater than the possibili-
ties Of production in the temperate
regions. Even with the extremely un-
favorable conditions which at present
prevail in the tropics, as I have else
where tried to show, our civilization
already exists to a large extent on it's
trade with the tropics
Looking down the import list (of the
United States) for 1895, and taking
the fifteen heads under which the
largest values were imported, we find
that they include some two-thirds of
the total imports of the United States.
a glance at the principal commodities
is sufficient to show to what an enor-
nous extent the produce of the tror-
les is represented. Here the two items
which stand at the top of the list are
coffee and sugar, of which the imports
were valued at, respectively, $96,OO0,-
900 and $16,000,O0O. The value of the
not fall very far short of one-fourth Of
the total value of the imports of the
United States for the year in question.
If we add to it the values under three
other heads-namely, O India rubber,
% tobacco, and CD tea-we have a
total of about S221 900, 900.
If we endeavor to deal with the whole
import list and seek to distinguish
-bat Of oil re
of the United States comes from the
region embraced between latitude 30
degrees north and 80 degrees south of
the equator, We get a total value of,
approximately, S250, 100000 from trop-
ical regions This is over one-third of
the entire imports of the United States,
the total for the year from all sources
being S131, 100000. In the case Of the
exports Of the United States the cur
rents of trade are somewhat different,
about AZ per cent of the entire export
trade being with the United Kingdom.
But of the remainder the export trade
to the tropics forms a large proportion,
amounting in all to, approximately
100000.
Adding together, therefore, the eX-
ports and imports of the United
States, we have a remarkable analysis
Of the entire trade of the country as
follows:
Trade of the United States in
1895 with the tropics. S346, COG, 600
With the English-speak king
world mot including British
tropics) northumberland. 657 coo, coo
Total with the tropics and En-
glish-speaking world ......... 81 ,003 coo. 900
With the rest of the world. 539, eco. .Q10