The age-herald., 1899-01-01
The Old Year and the New.

Three things make the old year very peace ropositlon, and the growth of our commerce.
 The first seems almost like dream-t was so short and one-sided; and yet in one phase or another it filled the entire year. The Maine was blown up on the fifteenth day of February. but before that time in- tervention in Cuba was imminent. Avowed open war did not come until April 20, and then came a quick succession of naval prizes and victories, and rapidly formed and as rapidly dissolved armies, and the blood stirring battles at Santiago, and finally on August 15, the fall of Manila, the sueing for peace, and the peace treaty itself, the rati- fication of which will become feature of the new year. Every part of the war is of historic value and interest. The disappear ance of Spain as a colonial power, and the appearance of the United States among the one can now judge, to the end of time.
 The proposition of the czar of Russia in favor of a lessening of war preparations, which have been carried to ridiculous and damaging extent in Europe, is seriously meant, and will be seriously pressed at the conference to be held in St. Petersburg in the gladdest month in the glad new year. Russia desires to develop her great em- pire, and she at least wants to limit her expenditures on account of war She is more than willing to partially disarm So is commercially ambitious Germany, and the debt-ridden nations. But the prospect is that while an agreement may be reached looking to the reduction of standing armies, the extension of naves will go on. It begins to look, in other words, as if future wars will largely be sea wars, and that the world is seeing its last battles. The imple- stage that land battles mean death, and the issue is decided before 1t is fairly begun. The sea is the only theater of war in which there are elements of uncertainty, and there are not many there.
 The old year was glorious one ill trade, and the new one is opening with prospects even fairer and brighter In the year just ended our domestic trade became more act i've than it was in 1892, year of marked prosperity; our exports of merchandise, both of the soil and the shop, were unex- ampled, and the tendency of wages and of property values was once more upwards. Bank deposits are the greatest in the his- tory of the country, and American bankers are actually discounting the notes of Euro- pean merchants. New York has become, if not the greatest, one of the greatest money markets of the world. Our exports reached millions, thus placing us above Great Brit ain, which had before held first place in the list of producing and exporting nations. The United States is now first, and will be easily first in the new year, and probably for all time to come. And this wonderful growth is not confined altogether to cot tOH, corn, wheat, prONlSlollS dHu OtileT ldrHf products, but pig iron. steel, cotton cloths, machinery and other finished goods begin to mount to large figures And yet the de- velopment of the country, as in the case of Russia, is only fairly begun.
 In all this wonderful growth the south had share In the old year. and 1t prom ises to do its part in the new year, It made in the old year a great crop of corn as well as of cotton, and the development Of its great iron industries in the Alabama district; of its coal fields in several states; of it's cotton industries in all of the cotton- growing states; is the marvel and glory of the land. It Is estimated that fully three thousand new enterprises were started in this section of the country in 1898, and the prospects are that more than three thous- and will be begun in 1899. These will include many small industries, which are just now tho chief want of the south-factories for the manufacture of stoves. furniture, fer tilizers, wagons. agricultural implements. brick, planed lumbSg and the like.
 If the new year should be one largely de- voted to small industries, all the better. We have. In the south. dreamed 70