The Savannah morning news., 1901-06-19

cumula ton of national wealth, we ascer-
/ tain facts OF vast significance to our fu-
| ture. The value of our food products not
only surpass those of any other nation,
but astonishing as II may seem they
form nearly one-third of those varied
fruits of the earth which the benignity
of the Creator has provided for the sus-
tenance of man. To speak with substan-
tial precision; although the United States
has but one-fifth of the worlds popula-
ton, we produce 30 per cent. of all the
food consumed by man. II is proba BILE
indeed that these are short of the true
facts, for in a late number of that charm
ing periodical the Youht's Companion, it
is stated by Hon William r. Merria m,
director of the census, that while it is
yet too early for positive figures the bu-
rcaU has already received returns from
almost 5000 900 farms, probably one-third
more than We're returned by the last
census And with what pride can we point
10 our contributions towards clothing our
fellow men. The cultivation of the cotton
plant, and its adaptation to the uses OF
men date from the earliest times. 1t is
said that the millions of XerXes which
confronted the heroic Athenians gathered
on the plains of Marathon, were clad in
cotton cloth, products of Persia and of
the Indies.
In the year 1880 the entire cotton crop
vi the United states amounted TO O,UOO
bales of 400 pounds net. | have not been
able to ascertain the price it brought.
The cotton crop for the year 1900, as fur
nished by the Worlds Almanac was g.
1858 bales of 4S7 pounds net. This was
100000 of bales less than the cotton crop
of 1889 which was the largest ever made,
but the excess of value of the crop of
1900 over that of 1899 was 500 600, OOO Nor do
these figures showing the development of
our royal Southern staple include the cot
ton seed which in 1893 amounted 4,450,000
tons.
1t is true that this valuable by-product
of our great Southern staple, while used
for ILLUMINATION, for the manufacture OF
various medicinal compounds, for
tempering steel for the manufacture of
lard candles. butterine, oleomargerine
and soap, also furnished 80 per cent. of
the olive oil sold in the United States,
and so excellent lis our olive oil for the
preparation of salads. and in the culinary
art generally, that the Italian govern
ment to protest the product of the re-
nowned olive groves of Italy has enacted
prohibitory laws against it's Importation.
Thus we may see that the world SUI
prcmacy of our country's native re-
sources is established, but of late the
world has been awakened to the con-
sciousness that in manufactures, as in
agriculture and mineral resources, we are
also supreme Europeans writes DR..
Josiah Strong, have been accustomed to
think of the United States as the worlds
great farm. They have been suddenly
aroused to the fact that it has become
also the worlds great workshop 1t was
for the first time discovered in 1898 that
in manufactures, our exports exceeded
our imports. In that year German trade
paper says One of the most characteris-
tic and at the same time most alarming
features of the past year has been the in
vasion by American competition not only
of Canada, Mexico, South and Central
America India, Australia and Japan, but
also all of the countries of Europe in
vading even our Oldest manufacturing
centers The apprehensions of this lugu-
brious German are happily for us well
founded. OF American locomotives more
than one hundred are daily at work in ia
pan the land of the Rising Sun. Nearly
thousand of these powerful creations of
the genius and skill of our artificers fly
daily across the steppes of Russia fol-
lowing paths marked deep in the past
by the hoof prints of the horsemen of
Alaric and Attila of Tamerlane and
Genghes Khan. American locomotives on
American steel rails climb the mountains
of Mexico and Colombia. They thread the
defiles of the Andes in Peru, Chile and
Ecuador. They penetrate the mighty for
est of the Amazon, traverse the vast ex-
panses of Brazil and the pampas of the
Argentine Republic They glide over
sands once disturbed by the tramp of the
Macedonian phalanx, the marching step
OF Caesars legions, and the Arabian
steeds of Mahomet. The sound of their
whistles reverberates from the pyramids
which have re-echoed the battle cry of
the Crusaders. and the thunder of Napol-
eon's artillery is borne across the waters
OF the sea which engulfed the horsemen
and chariots or Fhdrcah, and penetrates
the solitude of the desert which once re-
sounded with the songs of Miriam and the
daughters of Israel
And who shall say that the hand of
the American shpwright has lost its
cunning! Contemplate the hong succession
of our victories in contests for the Amer
lea cup, a contest which our British cous-
ms regard so important, that his Majesty,
King Edward, but a few days ago en-
dangered his royal person that he might
observe the performance of Shamrock H.
And what American is there whose heart
does not leap with pride when he re-
calls the achievements of the Oregon?
The great battleship is lying far to the
northward in harbor on our Pacific
Coast. A telegram from the Secretary of
the Navy flashes to her commander the
story of the destruction of the Maine,
and the duty OF the Oregon. In an in
slant her gigantic propellers begin to re-
volve. Her guide the Southern Cross"
her mighty engines are driving the ship
on her pathway to glory. Spurning alike
the tornadoes that hurl across tropic
seas. the blistering heat that stiles along
the line, the gales that howl around Cape
Horn and the tides that rage with pent-
up fury in Magellan straits, the glorious
ship storms on her way.
In view of the conclusive demonstration
of American industrial supremacy, in view
OF the enormous balance of trade in our
mill i'm nd L. r,tian