The Coconino sun., 1901-05-04
WORLDS NATIONAL DEBT.
Obligations at the End of the Nine. teenth Century are Thirty-one
 Billion Dollars.

century. This is ten times Us much as in the closing years of the eighteenth century, according to the expert statis- ticans of the treasury bureau devoted to this work. This bureau has just issued u statement on the subject, 1t apparently being suggested by the recent announcement of the new Brit ish loan Of S30O, ,OOO,OO0.
 In l793 at the beginning of the NapOleonic wars, the national debts of the world amounted to approximately S2,5OO, ,OOO,0 900; in 1900 they were, ac- cording to the best information obtain able, ,$3l, ,OOO, COG, GOO. In general terms it may be said that the worlds nat iOnal indebtedness in 1900 aggregated ten times what it did at the beginning Of the nineteenth century. Meantime population has increased l50 per cent, and gold and silver, which form the basis of the money with which debt payments are made, 300 per cent, though the proportion of the existing gold and silver which is turned into coin is now much greater than at the beginning of the nineteenth century, while the utilization of the various forms of credit as currency may have increased the worlds circulating medium quite in proportion to the in- cuo.ra in ito l.,ht,
 Whether national wealth has in. creased as rapidly as national indebt- edness is equally difficult to determine. since official estimates of national wealth were made ut the beginning of the century by only few nations.
 The wealth of the united Kidgdom, France, Spain and the United States in 1900 was estimated at $2O, PA, ,64O. 900, while Mulhall in 1895 estimated their wealth ut $l95, ,75O, S29,OOO, or practi- cally ten times that at the beginning of the century. The debts of these four nations in l793 aggregated but $l,63O, 279,O LOO, and in 1900 were $ll. 764,. OOO.00O, or seven times as much as in l793.
 If the rate of growth in wealth which has characterized the four nations dur ing the century may be also properly applied to the world at large, it may be said that the growth of national wealth has about kept pace with that of national indebtedness, since national wealth in the cases where it can be measured is to-day ten times as great as at the beginning of the nineteenth century, and the national indebtedness, where it can be measured, is to-day about ten times what it was at the be- ginning of the century.
 This enormous increase in national indebtedness is chiefly the result of wars, standing armies and works of public utility. To this may be added a tendency in many cases to create an annual deficit by expenditure exceed ing revenues made in difference to popular demand, which deficits ulti- mately take. the form of funded or bonded indebtedness. But the bulk of these enormous debts is from war and war preparations and the con struction of public works, such as rail ways, canals, harbors and the improve ment of water ways.
 Of the railways of the world, whose total cost has been estimated at $30, ,OOO,- 100000, about one third are owned by national governments, indicating tbat approximately one-third of the increase in indebtedness has been applied to works of this character.