The Winslow mail., 1899-08-03
NATIONAL PROGRESS.
Nothing Like the Commercial Growth
of the United States in the
History of Nations.

Daniels, general passenger agent of the
New York Central & Hudson River rail-
road, touched upon the effects of the
late war with Spain upon our commerce
and industries in the following impress
sive words:
'One of the remarkable statements of
MIR. Mulhall, the British statistician, in
his work on The Wealth of Nations,'
was this: If we take survey of man
kind, in ancient or modern times, as re-
CARDS the physical, mechanical and in
tellectual force of nations, we find moth
ing to compare with the United States,
in this present year, 1885
Mr.. Mulhall proved by his statistics
that the working power of single per-
son in the United States was twice that
of a German or Frenchman, more than
three times that of an Austrian and
five times that of an Italian. He said
the United States was then the richest
country in the world, its wealth exceed
ing that of Great Britain by 35 per
cent, and added that in the history OF
the human race no nation ever before
possessed forty-one millions of instruct
ed citizens.
SHOULD Mr.. Mulhall revise his fig
ures to-day, the differences would all be
in favor of the United States, for in
the past twelve months we have DEM
onstrated the superiority of our manu-
facturers in every direction, and our
ability to cope successfully with ques-
tions which have heretofore been
handled exclusively by the older ma
tions is recognized by all the world.
''The four years that have inter-
vened between the time of your meet
ing at Lake George and to-day have
been years of great events and achieve
ments.
81 said at the Lake George meeting
that 'one of the inevitable results Of
the war between Japan and China
would be the opening to the commerce
of the world of fields heretofore un-
known, perhaps the richest on the
GLOBE and in urging the members OF
the New York Press association to do
everything in their power to secure to
the United States a portion of the great
commerce to be developed between the
western nations and these two old coun-
iris of the world, | asked three ques-
tions
"'Shall the grain in China and Japan
be harvested by machines manufac-
tured along the lines of the New York
Central, or will the manufacturers of
England and Germany supply them?
'Shall the fires in Yokohama and
Tientsin be extinguished with engines
built at Seneca Falls, or will France
and England send their fire engines to
Japan and China?
''Will the locomotives, to haul the
fast mail trains between Yokohama and
the interior of Japan and through the
rich valley of China, be built at Sche-
nectady or Dunkirk or will our ORR
| entail friends and neighbors in the Pa
cifc buy them of our English cousins?
Il predicted that active efforts to-
ward the extension of American COM
merce by commercial bodies, supported
by liberal and broadminded policy
on the part of our government, would
undoubtedly secure to the United States
the blessings that come from a great
and varied commerce, and | said that
the New York Press association, and
similar associations all over the coun-
try, could stimulate public spirit that
would insure the important results out
lined.
"At that time we had no idea that
war between one of the old nations of
the earth and our young republic would
be fought; at that time we had no idea
that American manufacturers would be
| furnishing locomotives to the English
railroads, as well as Japanese, and no
one thought four years ago that Amer
lean bridge builders would go into the
open market and successfully compete
for the building of a great steel bridge
! in Egypt; nor that in so brief time
American engineers would be building
railroads into the interior of China from
the most important seaports and fur
nishing locomotives by the score to
nearly every country on the globe.
'In a letter from friend in Toxic,
Japan, written only a short time ago,
there was this significant sentences:
You will be interested in knowing that
| have hanging on the wall of my Of
flee framed picture of your Empire
State Express, and we expect in the
near future to be hauling a japanese
Empire Express with an American
locomotive They have now in Japan
nearly 100 locomotives that were built
in the United States. In Russia they
have over 400 of our locomotives, and
nearly every railroad in Great Britain
has ordered locomotives from this coun-
try since the beginning of the war with
Spain.
I'm this connection it will be interest
ing to note in passing that the second
American locomotive was built at the
West Point foundry near Cold Spring,
on the Hudson river, and was called the
Best Friend, and from that day to this
the locomotive has been one of the best
friends of all our people.
But it is not alone our locomtives
that have attracted the attention of
foreigners who have visited our shores,
our railway equipment generally has
commanded admiration and is now
receiving the highest compliment,
namely, Imitation by many of our sis
ter nations.
prince Michel Hilkoff, imperial min
lister of railways of Russia, has, since his
visit to the United States a few years
ago, constructed a train on much the
same lines as the New York Central's
Lake Shore Limited