Arizona republican., 1899-06-02
A STORY or EXPANSION
increase in Population and Gold Out-
 pull Justify HOpefu Predictions.

There are intimations that perhaps the high estimates of the population of i the United States which have been re- gently made may not be quite realized
 next year. It 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
 realized the country will show a 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
 basis of their computations of the per
 capita circulation of the country, the
 population in 1900 will be about 7S,-
 900, 900 outside of the territorial acces-
 sions made i'll the past year. But ever
 if the 75,000,000 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 history. When Benjamin
 Franklin surprised the people of Eng
 land a century and a quarter ago by
 his prediction that his country, still a
 dependency of Great Britain, woull
 double in inhabitants every quarter os
 a century, he made a prophecy whose
 truth time has vindicated with mar
 velCus fidelity, for the thirteen colo nies had then only about 1000, 900 peo- pie.
 In another particular the story of expansion has been equally surprising
 By the computation of the director of
 the mint the Uni.ed States produced
 65,7S2.677 of geld in tue calendar year 1898. When the country's gold output started downward about forty years ago, after the first great spurt in California's s production had ended. nobody supposed that the high figures Of that time would ever be closely ap- preached again. The high water mark ln gold production was reached in 1S53. when the output was S65, 900, 900. All this was the yield of California. None Of the other states or territories 1t that time produced enough god. to get into the statistics Afterward. with some fluctuations, the tendency was steadily downward until the period from 1882 to 1892, when the country's gold output ranged between $50 COG, GOO and S33,Oe0, ,000. Since that time the production has grown by great leaps, and Tn lS9S, as already mentioned, it was close to the S66.000,000 line. CT 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- sicn-the increase in population and the growth 1n gold output-Which jus tines the most hopeful predictions which were made in the past. and in- cite still more s2nguine forecasts for the future. The tendency, of course. ln. nation as 1t gets older is to grcw slower in population, and this circum- stance has really begun to be noticed ID the United States. Nevertheless, lnls countrys increase in population VIII be one of the marvels of the nine teenth century. But in the prcduc- ton or gold it's growth promises to be Lnucn larger than it has been in inhab- | Itants. The output of the gold mines | was more than double as great in 1898 | as IL was six years earlier, in 1892. The l production in the present year is like | " tc. be between $73 ,00O and S7J.- JO0,0O0 Nor is the advance in gold | production confined to the United | states. Some of the other gold fields | nave now passed this country, but l whether they will maintain their lead | III the lace CT Cllr steady increase is | doubtful In 1890 the worlds produc- 1 -lon Of god was $119, 9,0O0,OO0 In 1898 | : was about $275,000,0G0 In 1900. ac- 'orclng to the estimate of the director T the mint, it will be $40O, 900 900. The nhuence Of the gold fields of Califor- lla and Australia a little over third 'I century ago in the development of ne great nations is well remembered. we are entering into another golden lge in the worlds business and social advancement, and the United States 'n the whcle, has been the largest con rloutor to and will be the most con- picuous beneficiary Of this record of and progress-St. Louis lI