Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1899-07-16
NATIONAL PROGRESS
Nothing Like the Commercial Growth of the United States in the
 History of Nations.

l nual meeting recently, Mir. George H. Daniels, general passenger agent of the New York Central x 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. MHlhall, the British statistician, in his work on The Wealth of Nations, was this: If We take a survey of man kind, in ancient or modern times, as re- gards the physical, mechanical and in- tellectual force of nations, we find noth- ing to compare with the United States, in this present year, 1895.
 Mir Mulhall proved by his statistics 1 that the working power of a single per son in the United States was twice that of q German or Frenchman, more than three times that of an Austrian and | five times that of an Italian. He said tue United States was then the richest country in the world, it's wealth exceed ing that of Great Britain by B per cent, and added that in the history of the human race no nation ever before possessed forty-one millions of instruct cd citizens.
 "Should Mr. Mu1hall 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- lecturers in every direction, and our ability 10 cope successfully with ques- tions which have heretofore been handled exclusively by the older na- tions is recognized by all the world
 "rhe four years that have inter- vened between the time of your meet ing at Lake eGorge and to-day have been years of great events and achieve ments.
 T 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 10 secure to the United States portion of the great commerce to be developed between the western nations and these two old eoun- iris of the world, l asked three ques- tions:
 Shall 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 l. built at Seneca Falls, or will France and England send their fire engines to Japan and China?
 Will the locomotives, to haul the l fast mail trains between Yokohama and the interior Of Japan and through the rich valley of China, be built at Sche- nectady or Dunkirl5, or will our ori- ental friends and neighbors in the Pacific buy them of our English eous- ins?'
 'I predicted that active efforts to- ward the extension of American conn meree by commercial bodies, supported by a liberal and broad-minded policy on the part of our government, would undoubtedly secnre 10 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.
 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 ican 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 letter from friend in Tokio, Japan, written only a short time ago, lhere was this significant sentence: You will be interested in knowing that have hanging on the wall of my of fee a framed picture of your Empire State Express, and we expect in the aear future to be hauling a Japanese Empire Express with an American loeomotive.' 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.
 Tn 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 Inc locomotive has been one of the best friends of all our people.
 "Prinee Michel HillIoff, imperial min ster of railways of Russia, has, since his | .ief+ fr tba Ifpftod Stofac 2. foyv VaaTS