The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1901-12-29

most men of this state upon Texas and
its possibilities, but as I must talk to
men who know this subject from a
daily contact with its business life, I
am afraid that nothing which 1 can
say will be new to you. Such an invl-
tation might well give voice to the
dumb. 1t Is a subject too great to be
rully grasped. He who would attempt
to paint the picture Of what is posi-
BILE for Texas would bring upon himself
the charge of being a visionary en-
thusiast I can only family touch it
! here and there.
AS we take a broad survey of the
progress of the United States during
the last century, or even during the
last quarter of a century we stand
amazed at what has been done. The
history of mankind shows nothing
with which to compare what this ma
ton has wrought in the development
of civilization and of business. We
are in an age Of stupendous activities,
the force Of which none can fully real
ize. The steam engine, the labor-saV-
ing machine, the railroad, the tele-
graph, have during the last half cen
fury been working a revolution, but
1t is only within the last few years
that the full effect of this has been
understood even by far-seeing men.
For so years under the eVer-increasing
growth of production by labor saving
machinery, the world has been adding
to it's wealth at a rate far surprising
anything known before. But this
wealth was being reinvested in new
railroads, in new machinery, in what
might be called new plant" for doub-
ling and quadrupling the productive
power of man. In this way new cap
ital was absorbed almost as rapidly
as it was created. Now we have
reached a period when surplus wealth
seeking new sources of profitable en-
ployment is being accumulated more
rapidly than new avenues for invest
ment can be found. The result must
be that the wonderful progress made
by our country during the last 20 years
will be far exceeded during the COM
ing 90 Our industrial advance, which
has been so great as to awaken the
jealousy of Europe, must continue on
a still broader scale.
Looking back over the last 20 years
we find that in 1880 the total capital
invested in manufactures in the Unit
ed States was 50, 100 100000. BY 1890
this had increased to $4,000, 900, 900, and
the present census will show a total
of about 10000, 900, or nearly four
times as much as in 1880. In 20 years
we have increased our railroad mileage
from $4,000 miles to nearly 100000. Civ
ing us nearly one-half the railroad
mileage of the world. In 1880 the total
value of the mineral productions Of the
United States was 1868, 100000; in 1890
it was 1851, 900 900, and in 1899 it was
$976, 900, 900. Against our total value of
mineral productions of $9I6,000, 900 in
1899, Great Britain, the next in point of
magnitude, had 1852, 000 000 Germany
$3.50, 100000 Russia $40, 900, 600, and
nt1Ys ion
of 270 900 tons is SO per cent. of the
coal output of the world, and our pig
iron production is 80 per cent. Of
gold and silver we mine about $780,,
600, 900 a year, or q per cent. of the
worlds output of these metals, while
of copper we produce 50 per cent. of
the total, of lead % per cent, and of
zinc "a per cent. In 1882 Great Britain
made $500, 900 tons of pig-iron, and the
United States 100000 tons. Last year
Great Britain made 100000 tons, a
gain of only 400 600 tons in IS years.
while the United States made 1S,700,-
900 tons, or a gain of $1,000 900 tons. Our
increase in 1900 over 1882 was greater
than Great Britain's total production
in 1900.
These figures give some indication
of the unparalleled growth of Amer
ica's industrial power, and point to the
dazzling future that is ahead of us.
The bearing of these facts upon the
future of Texas is self-evident. The
United States has taken the lead in
the revolutionizing movement iraugu-
rated by the development Of labor-sav-
ing machinery. and in this industrial
era holds the vantage ground against
the world. In this machine age, when
the value of manufactured products of
the United States now annually reach
es $4,000 900, 900 year, against $780,
600, 900 as the value of all farm pro-
ducts, no state can reach it's highest
capabilities under purely agricultural
conditions Diversity is a law of ma
ture as well as a law of business. Di-
versity in agriculture is essential to
the highest prosperity of the farmers,
but in this state diversity in agricul-
ture cannot attain its full measure of
success until there has come a devel-
opment of diversified manufactures,
affording to the farmer a ready mar
ket for the widest range of agricul-
tural products. Texas, so abundantly
endowed by nature, must take an ac-
tive part in the industrial activities of
the age. Blessed with a soul which
needs but to be tickled with the pillow
to laugh with corn and wheat and
cotton and rice, the first advancement
was necessarily based on the work of
the farmer. He was the pioneer in
and making it ready to enter upon it's
Industrial career.
Texas has a domain so imperial in
extent and in resources that it is diff
ficult. if not impossible, to adequately
portray either. 1t contains within it
self all the potentialities for the health
and happiness of it's people. 1t has
been said that if you could take this
state and place it over the central part
of the United States it would reach
with one arm to Raleigh, while the
other stretched to Little Rock; on the
north it would touch Chicago, and on
the south Mobile. Measure, if you can,
the wealth of advantages, of resources,
of Industrial and agricultural potential
tiles of that territory. And yet it is
possibly within reason to say that in
nature advantages of climate, soil and
weaIth-creating mineral possibilities
this state almost matches that Won
derful region, with its Opulent cities,
its millions of thrifty farmers and its
tens of thousands Of prosperous indus
trial establishments.
You have startled the world with an
oil discovery so far beyond our COM
prehension that even the boldest
dare not forecast its influence in rev.
authorizing the industries not only of
the Southwest, but of the world. 1t
may mean a new era in all business
affairs, World-SnClrcllnS movement,
with oil as a cheap fuel for steam
ships. for railroads, for factories; a
powerful influence in helping to hasten
the time so prophetically foreseen by
Commodore Maury, the great geog-
rainier of the sea, when, so years ago,
looking forward to the cutting Of an
isthmian canal. he told of the day when
the worlds commerce would center in
the Gulf of Mexico. But so little do
we know Of your mineral wealth that
,-our discovery Of oil may be followed