The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-12-30
YEAR OF PROSPERITY
UNITED STATES HAS REEN MAKING
GIANT STRIDES TOWARDS conf
MERCIAL SUPREMACY
ENORMOUS IRON PRODUCTION
unncccessary Tariff Restrictions All
That Now Stands in the Way
OF Great Industrial
Ezra.

Summarizing the doings of the COM
mercial and industrial interests of the
United States for the year just ending,
Henry CleWs says:
This is the closing week OF NEST re-
narkable year. While all other CONNER
cIa1 and industrial nations have been sut-
fering reverses Of greater or less sever
ity, the United States has enjoyed an
other year of unexampled prosperity far
exceeding the most optimistic eXpecta-
tions Germany has been passing
through period of distress induced by
excessive industrial expansion and over-
speculation, while Great Britain has SUI
fered severely from the Boer war
France seems to have been fairly pros
porous, but Great Britain and Germany
are really our chief rivals in commercial
or industrial supremacy, and it is with
these only that comparisons are of IN
terest Meanwhile the United States has
made gigantic strides in the production
OF wealth with almost supreme 1ndiI-
ference to conditions in other parts Of
the world In these days of close in
Independence the spectacle of country
making such remarkable and continuous
exhibitions of growth, while its Chief
rivals remain at a standstil or retro
grade, challenges attention.
There is but one explanation for SUCH
a situation, viz, that the United States
has just passed through one of the great
bursts of national development winch
have always occurred at very well de
fined periods and which have usually
been termed ''booms" This particular
"boom.'' which began with the defeat OF
MIR. BRYAN in 1886, has been prominently
characterized by extraordinary indus
trial activity. The growth Of manufac-
turing enterprise has many times eX-
ceeded the growth of agriculture, and We
are rapidly changing from an agrlcul-
tural to a manufa curing nation. with
our magnificent mineral resources With
uneaualed facilities for transportation,
with an unlimited supply Of capital TO alo
enterprise with better supply OF skilled
labor than any competitor, with an I'M
rivaled capacity for organization ana the
use of machinery, all backed with an
abundance of energy, brains and oppor-
tunity: with all these requisites in plenty,
is it surprising that our situation IS the
wonder and envy Of the world?
Along with this astonishing develop
ment we have seen an irresistible ten
dency towards Capitalization; a readJust-
ment Of economic forces, which IN m
dustry has taken the form of trusts ~
TRANSFORMATION the grouping of railroads.
and in finance the consolidation OF banks
into INSTITUTIONS cdl)dDle VI liICCIhiso SiA>1
larger demands of these combinations.
This tendency towards concentration,
while capable of great advantages in CIV
ing us command of the world IS markets
has unfortunately been handicapped oy
decentralization and other abuses
for which a day of reckoning will IN
evitably come, but which it is not per
tinent to comment upon here. Just now
we may congratulate ourselves with
complacency upon our national strength
industrfaIly, commercially and tinan-
ciaNy. Our exports and imports for
eleven months of the current year, com
pared with the corresponding period last
year have been as follows:
1901 1890
.r,x.,orts s.. S2S, 49S 81 81, SS2 G56, 242
Imports S9 500 d55 co. co. ~ 4Y az fSs 7S5
Excess exports. 52s,e6S' f64 OIL ooo' 'S'
Our exports of manufactures snow a
falling off due to the operations in cop
per. lower prices for oil and the the MOI, more
pressing demand at horne for IRON proo-