The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1899-07-13
NATIONAL PROGRESS.
Nothing Like the Com me rcinI Growth
of the United states in the
History of Nations.


| New York Central & Hudson River rail-
road. touched upon the effects of the
late war with Spain upon VI commerce
and industries in the following impress
sive words:
Zone 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 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, 1891
Mr.. Mulhall proved by his statistics
| that the working power of single per-
son in the United States was twice that
of 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 me richest
country in the world, its wealth exceed
| ing that of Great Britain by 80 per
cent, and added that in the history of
/ the human race no nation ever before
possessed forty-one millions of instruct
ed citizens.
I should Mr.. Mulhall revise his fig
ures to-day, the differences would all be
in favor of the United States, for III
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
tons 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 event 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 UNI
| 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 n portion OF the great
| commerce TO be developed between the
! western nations and these two old coun-
| iris of the world, / asked three ques-
| tons:
"'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
ricn 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?'
II predicted that active efforts to-
ward the extension of American com
merce by commercial bodies, supported
| by a liberal and broad-minded policy
on the part of our government, would
undoubtedly secure to the United States
and varied commerce, and | said that
the New York Press association, and
| similar associations all over the coup-
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
= a ii rpr hi in NIn1I1
| 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 IA 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 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. Ir 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.
prince Michel Hilkoff, imperial min.
lister of railways of Russia. has, since his