The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1899-07-01
AN EXPANSION STORY.
Growth ana Progress of This COun-
try Under the Expansion
System.

There are limitations that perhaps
the high estimates of the population of
the United States which have been re-
Gently made may not be quite realized
next year. 1t is well, of course, not to
place too much reliance on the eXuber-
ant predictions made in recent years,
yet If the lowest figures at which any
body put the population in 1900 be re-
allied the country will show growth
not approached anywhere else in the
case OF any great nation on the globe.
According to current estimates of the
treasury officials, made as a basis of
their computations of the per capita
circulation of the country, the popula.
ton in 1900 will be about 7S,000,000 out.
side OF the territorial accessions made
i'll the past year. But even if the 75,-
100000 mark be reached and the most
conservative of prophets put the total
up to that line, the expansion will have
been totally unexampled in the case of
a very great nation in the worlds his
tory. When Benjamin Franklin sur
prised the people of England century
and quarter ago by his prediction that
his country, still dependency of Great
Britain, would double in inha bitants ev-
cry quarter of century, he made a
prophecy whose truth time has vindi-
Gated with marvellous fidelity, for the
Is colonies had then only about 1000, 900
people.
In another particular the story of ex-
pansion has been equally surprising.
Blythe computation of the director of the
mint the United States produced $685.
1857 of gold in the calendar year 1898.
When the country's gold output started
downward about 40 years ago, after the
first great squirt in CALIFORNIA; produc-
ton had ended, nobody supposed that
the high figures of that time would ever
be closely approached again. The high
water mark in gold production was
reached in 1853, when the output was
| $65,000,000. All this was the yield of
California. None of the other states or
territories at that time produced enough
gold to get into the statistics. After
ward, with some fluctuations, the tend
ency was steadily downward until the
| period from 1882 to 1892, when the
country,s gold output ranged between
| $30,000,000 and $33,O00,OO0. Since that
time the production has grown by great
leaps, and in 1898, as already mentioned,
it was close to the $66 600 line, or in
excess of the great yield of 1853, when
the mines of California were at their
most productive stage.
Here is story of American eXpan-
sion-the increase in population and
the growth in gold output-which JUS
titles the most hopeful predictions
which were made in the past, and in
cite still more sanguine forecasts for
the future. The tendency, of course,
in nation as it grows older is to grow
slower in population, and this circum-
stance has really begun to be noticed
in the United States. Nevertheless. this
countrys increase in population will be
| one of the marvels of the nineteenth
| century. But in the production of gold
its growth promises to be much larger
| than it has been in inhabitants. The
! output of the gold mines was more than
double as great in 1898 as it was six
| years earlier, in 1892. The production
in the present year is likely to be be-
tween S73,000,000 and SIS 100000. Nor
is the advance in gold production con-
fined to the United States. Some OF
the other gold fields have now passed
this country, but whether they will
maintain their lead in the face of our
steady increase is doubtful In 1890
the worlds production of gold was
| $119,000,C0 In 1898 it was about $275,-
100000. In 1900, according to the esti-
mate of the director of the mint, it will
be $40OO00,OO0 The influence of the
gold fields of California and Australia
little over third of a century ago in
the development of the great nations
| is we'll remembered. We are entering
into another golden age in the worlds
| business and social advancement, and
the United States, on the whole, has
been the largest contributor to and will
be the most conspicuous beneficiary OF
this record of expansion and progress
st. Louis Globe-Democrat.
OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.