The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-02-17
Only -FOUR SHORT YEARS.
NOMIC CONDITIONS IN
THAT TIME
ADDRESS OF HON. G. E. ROBERTS
Director of the Mint Was Guest Of
Honor at Meeting of the Chi
cRgO Bankers Last
Evening.

director of the mint, was the guest of hon
or at the meeting of the Bankers club
at the Chicago Athletic club, this even
ing, and delivered an address which was
greeted with many manifestations of
applause and approval by the members
of the club and their guests. Enrique c.
Creel, president of the Banco Central
-MeXicano. was also a guest of the club,
and spoke briefly, saying that in his
opinion the time was not far distant when
Mexico would adopt the gold standard.
Speeches were also made by a number
of local financiers.
Mr.. Roberts spoke in part a follows:
MR. ROBERTS ADDRESS.
In any company of business men the
most obvious and suggestive subject of
comment at this time is the marvellous
change that has come over our Industrial
life and outlook in the last four years.
Out Of state of uncertainty, lis treSs,
and gloom, we Lave come in these years
to the highest level OF prosperity, and
achievement in all our progress Sons
to describe the new life, the new conf
Gence, the new ambitions that possess
our people. The figures for bank clear
tngs, coal production railway tonnage
crop values, and wage payments are ex-
traordinary, but they do not tell it all.
we have passed from hard times to good
times before, but this time we have done
more. we have passed from old things
TO new. A great change is working
out in our national life and in our reIas
tons with the outside world. For more
than hundred years our people have
looked landward, to the interior to en-
ploy their capital and energy The van
guard of pioneers crept painfully west
ward year after year, over mountains and
plains, through rivers and forests eS-
plortng, subduing, planting and founding
until the whole country, from ocean to
ocean, is practically occupied and in
progress OF development. We have been
engaged during this time with the OPP
portunlties at home. Our concern has
been to fill up our vacant lands to de-
Nelop the sources of national wealth is
establish the industries that make a peo-
pie independent, and that furnish EN-.
ploYment to every aptitude and variety or
labor. Our eyes have been turned in
ward and our thoughts have been or,
how to draw capital and labor from the
old world to do the work that every-
where was promising rich returns
FIRST INDUSTRIAL POWER.
This work CT development has been
prosecuted SO intently and so success
1ully that before we have comprehended
the tuIl measure of our achievements it
mas made US the most formidable indus
country has it's population so 4omplefeIv
equipped with labor saving tools ana
machinery, or possesses such Industrial
efficiency for man as the United States
from the quarter-Section farm to the
steel Ia1l mill, in every field of produc.
uon, the inventor and the caDitalist hava
reinforced the laborer and multiplied his
power. Partly by discipline of hard
times, partly by the steady pressure of
growing competition, but inevitable I'M
Ger the increasing Importance of capital
us factor In production has COM. y
reorganization of our Industries a union
ana alliance of interests an eliminatlo1
OF or friction and Waste and a centraliza-
ton of management which has gTeafI>
increased their ability to deyelop forefr7,
markets. Our stores of coal and iron
III OHc Ief9ests, cur cotton and other sup
pites OF raw material, our rapid accump-
Idlloh or capital, the energy and a1nbi-
Ion which characterize our business life
the intelligence and Vigor of orr work
ing people. all give assurance that In the
great industries whose products are
OF Worldwide sale, we have equal terms
with all rivals ms
Our exports last year exceeded those of
the United Kingdom, and no other. conn
try approached either. Our trade bal
ances are so great that to attempt 10 COL
!ect them IN cash would ruin our Gus
TONER'S ana involve the world, including
ourselves, IN disaster. In the last three
years their aggregate has equaled the
sum sum OF all the gold in all the banks and
treasures OF Europe, including tile Brit
1nents nave come here to place their
loans nation with the power to amass
Such credits as these becomes of necessity
trader and investor in all parts Of the
world. We are out to stay, for we never
can bring our belongings home
GAIN OF THE INDIVIDUAL.
Nothing is more apparent than the
steady gain of the individual in economic
importance, in command over property
and the joint products of labor and cap
tal. Compare twenty years ago and now,
the earning power of a given sum, and
the earning powers of a laborer The
money has gone down and the man has
gone up. 1t is the inevitable result of a
gain in wealth. Capital, property, the
dollar, If you please, go down, while the
man rises in the scale. So the child born
today occupies a higher and more COM
manding position and has in its native
taculu>S TIE eConom C equivalent of great
er wealth than the child of any other
year since the world began.
Is due to the steady gain in the productive
powers of society. The growth of wealth
In the community is the real source of
the Wellbeing of all. The poverty and
misery Of such countries as India and
China are due to the low productive pow
ers of the population, to the inefffciency
of labor working without the aid of cap
ftal You cannot divide any more than
all there is, and when the total value of
per head per year, poverty and misery
are the inevitable lot of the multitude
THE REAL PROBLEM.
1t is the common error of those who at
tack the existing order of society to treat
lance than production. Their schemes all
sacrifice productive capacity for theoreti-
cal equities in distribution. But the real
problem is how to get more from nature
Careful Statisticians have estimated that
the total production of wealth for even 50
efficient a population as that of the