The Cape Girardeau Democrat. (Cape Girardeau, Mo.) 1876-1909, 1899-07-15
NATIONAL
Nothing Like the crou,h
OF the Caitcd States in the
History CO Nations.

AudI meeting recently. Mr.. George Ii.
Daniels, general passenger agent OF the
New York Central q Hudson River rail-
road, touched upon the effects of the
iate war with Spain upon our commerce
Ii Industries in the following impress
sive words:
One OF the remarkable statements of
Mr.. Mulhall, the British statistician, in
his work on The Wealth of Nations
was this: If we take a 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., 1885
Mr.. Mulhall proved by his statistics
that the working power of "A single per-
son in the United States was twice that
of a German or F~renchman. 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 50 per
cent, and added that in the history of
the human race no nation ever before
possessed f~orty-ome millions of instruct
ed citizens.
should Mr.. MuIhalI revise his fig
ures to-day, the differences would all be
III favor of the United States. for in
;he past twelve months We have DEM
onstrated the superiority of our manu-
facturers in every direction. and III
ability TO cope successfully with ques-
tions which have heretofore been
handled exclusively by the Older na-
tiOns is recognized by all the world.
The four years that have inter.
yrned between the time of our 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 to 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 twooldcOun-
iris OF the world. | asked three CUES
tons:
"'Shall the grain in China and Japan
he harvested by machines manufac-
tGrrd 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 eNtinguishod with engines
built at Seneca Falls. OF Will France
and England send their fire engines to
Japan and China?
viii the locomotives. to haul the
faSg mail trains between Yokohama and
The interior OF Japan and through the
rich valley of China, be built at Sche-
rcctady or Dunkirk. or will our ORR
entail friends and nei@hbors in the
Pacific buy them of our English cous-
ius?'
Il predicted that active efforts to-
ward the extension of American COM
mtTce by commercial bodies. supported
by a liberal and broad-minded policy
on the part OF our government. would
updoubtedly secure to the United States
the blessings that come from a great
and varied commerce, and | said that
tie New York Press association. and
similar associations all over the cOUn-
try. could stimulate a public spirit that
would insure the important results out
lined.
AT that time we had no idea that 4
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 he
furnishing locomotives 10 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; o hat in SO brief a time
American engineers would be building
railroads into the interior of China from
the most important seapGrts and fur
nishing locomotives by the score TO
nearly every country on the globe.
in a letter from Il friend in Toxic,
written only a short time ago,
there was this significant sentences:
will be interested in knowing that
| have hanging or the wall of my Of
fee a framed picture of your Empire
State Express. and we expect in the
near future to be hauling a Japanese
Empire Express with an American
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
I
In this connection it will be interest
ing to note in passing that the second
American locomotive was built at the
West Point foundry ear Cold Spring,
on the Hudson river. and was called the
Pest Friend. and from that day to this
the locomotive has been one of the best
of all our people.
prince Michel Hilkotf. imperial min
ister of railways of Russia. has, since his
visit to the United States a few years |
ago. constructed n train OH much the
same lines as the New GOrk CentraTSA