The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1901-08-10
ReteIling Story OF
american Progress
From an Address by Richard H. Edmonds, Editor
OF the Manufacturers Record.

From an Address by Richard II. Edmonds Editor
OF the Manufacturers Record
TN 1850 THE TOTAL wealth of the United
States. as reported by the census was 81
i Sl35, 100000, or SOS per capita; in ls60 1t
was S6,l59, n0oo. or Sjli per capita; in
$50 il was S3O,06S 100000, or $50 per capita;
in lssO the total was $4,000, ,O00, 900, aud the
per capita was $50 in 1890 We had increased to
ST., ,0CO, 100000, a per capita OF SlO56. II it now
stated that the census OF 1900 viii SHOW oar
wealth to be over $4,000 0OOOOO. or an in.
crease of sos, 900 900 90 or more in ten years.
In other wo,ds the gain in ten years has been
almost equal to our total wealth in $50 In
thirty years the wealth Of this country has
more than treblcd. Twenty years ago We
thought that country was rich and pro-
Grcssiye, and it then seemed to us As, well as
to the world. that We were doing wonderful
things in railroad construction and industrial
advancement, hut as We look back over that
brief period are amazed at our giant strides
and are appalled, by the sense Of new RESPONSE
bilites which rest upon we stand today
the foremost nation Of the earth, the richest,
the most progressive aud the iiIst powerful upon
which the smile II Heaven ever rested, We
praise or condemn. as car view may suggest,
expansion in polit,s az though our statC'mcn
or politicians were responsible for our entrance
into the worlds anars. But they are only the
pawnS upon the worlds chesSnoud, moved
hv the iorcps Of cnmIl z winch make and
unmlke the empires VI rartlL Wi'l the chang
ing currents Of trade anu commerce nariCns
arise and nstons dcca!.
We have become the dominant mower Of the
world not because Manila and santiago startled
Europe with our naval possibilities, but because
even before Dewey's victorious guns were heard
around the globe our manufacturers had been
victorious in the hrNt skiunishes IN the great
battle for industrial supremacy We have grown
accustomed 10 furnishing Europe with hread
and meat and taking manufactured goods in
ttturn. We thought t1it .Euppe was Qua
banker, and that no railroad could be built
nor any great undertaking made successful unless
Europe was called upon or the capital. That
was true even ten years ago, The day Barring Bros.
tailed a friend wrote mo, in substance, as
follows; "The failure Of Barring Bros. marks the
end Of England's financial supremacy New
York will now become the worlds financial
power, and the United States will take Eng
lands place as the worlds industrial leader"
The old Mother Country has been the advance
guard Of civilization. Wherever her Anglo
| Saxon banner has hccu planted commerce has
sprung into existence and law and order have
supplantcd harbarsm She has done great
work for mankind, but TO her offspring, America
her burden has now been transferred Not that
| England must wane except relatively. Such
| nation can scarcely know decay, but no longer
| can Great Britain stand as the mightlest nation
| Of earth and its greatest cviizing power. The
scepter of financial suprcmack has alieddy passed
| to New York There center the greatest financial
| resources and the most brilliant leaders which
! the world has ever seen
This is the dav OF gigantic operations. Yet
We are constantly amazed az the kaleidoscope
| changes as our great fuancers bring one COM
| bination after another into being scarcely ten
years ago a SlO0Go,OOO industrial enterprise was
projected, The press and the people thought
we had reached the liImt of our combination
| abilities In quick succession others OF even
| greater capital followed until a few months
| ago there came the organization OF the hrst
| billion'dollr industrial company in the history
OF mankind, But even TO that we quickly ad-
! iusted ourselves. Europe saw in this orsaniza'