Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1899-08-04
NATIONAL PROGRESS
Nothing Like the Commercial Growth
OF the United States in the
History of Nations.

In an address before the New York
Press association at its forty-third an
nual meeting recently. Mr.. George H.
Daniels, general passenger agent of the
New York Central & Hudson River rail-
roadS touched upon the effects of the
late war with Spain upon our commerce
and industries in the following impress
sive words:
lone of the remarkable statements of
Mr.. Mulhall, the British statistician, in
his work on The Wealth OF Nations
was this: If we take survey of man
kind, in ancient OF 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, 1895
MIR. Mulhan proved by his statistics
that the working power of a single per
son in the United States was twice that
of n 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
y
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
tons is recognized by all the world
1.-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.
Il said at the Lake George meeting
that 'one of the inevitable results of
the war between Japan and China
would be the opening 10 the commerce
of the world of fields heretofore I'M
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 Il portion of the great
commerce to be developed between the
western nations and these two old coun-
iris of the world. l asked three queS-
tions:
"'Shan the grain in China and Japan
be harvested by machines manufae-
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 eNtinguished with engines
built at Seneca Falls, or Will France
and England send their fire engines to
Japan and China?
e '.WilI 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
Pacific buy them of our English cous-
ins?'
Il predicted that active efforts to-
ward the extension of American com
merce by commercial bodies, supported
by liberal and broad-minded policy
on the part of our government. would
undoubtedly secure to the United States
the blessings that come from great
and varied commerce, and l 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
Sat 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 we'll 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.
sin a letter from a friend in Toxic.
Japan, written only a short time ago.
there was this significant sentence:
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 Springs
on the Hudson river, and was called the
Best Friend, and from that day to this
the locomotive has been one of the best