The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-01-25
AMERICAN PROSPERITY.
A British View of the Great Activity
 Among Us.

A British View of the Great Activity
 Among Us.
 The quest of the London Times for
 "the little rift within the lute" which
 Is to spoil the music of our national prosperity has not been entirely sue
 cessful. It admits that the statistics of
 our industrial and commercial expan- sion during the past four years are sur prising, and to some extent startling, | but does not think that the results are sufficient to warrant much self-glorifi-
 cation on the part of the people of this country or serious apprehension in Eu-
 rope On this subject it says:
 The United States is not, as many Americans and some foreigners seem
 to imagine, exempt from the laws of nature, There are people who are so fascinated by great relative magnitude that they are unable to distinguish be-
 tween it and inf1nity Their judgment
 becomes, go to speak, polarized by the
 too intense contemplation of great but variable economic forces, just as a
 compass needle is disturbed by the proximity of relatively large mass of iron; and their minds become incapable of receiving impressions from evidence that the really permanent economic forces are not dead, or even sleeping. Now there have been several pieces of evidence during the past year that the economic situation in the United States
 is not altogether so good as 1t appears to those who merely look at and dis cuss the surface, whether from habit or because they have reasons for not wish ing the public to look any deeper"
 This Is all true enough, but the aver age reader will be likely to consider it rather academic and somewhat lacking in value as contribution to current economic literature It does not appear that thoughtful students of American conditions have ever claimed for this country exemption from the laws of na- ture. If we have had any basis for the confidence we feel and which has prompted us to great enterprise in everything pertaining to industrial and commercial development, it is because We have believed that the conditions here existing, and which were peculiar ly favorable to such development, were due to the operation of natural laws possibly temporarily but certainly for the moment oonspicuously, favorable to industrial and commercial expansion, The invest gations conducted by an ex- ceptonally well-informed and compe- tent correspondent of the London Times who came to this country two years ago to discover why the engineering and heavy iron trades of Great Britain were not holding their own in the com petition with other countries, and espe- cially with this country, found nothing to suggest that we were not working in harmony With natural laws in the em- ployment of labor-saving machinery, in perfect systems of shop organization and in the utilization of our resources of cheap and abundant raw material. As q matter of fact, he explained very the basis of our surpris- Ing prosperity in these lines, and urged British manufacturers and iron mas ters to adopt American machinery and initiate American methods if they would hold their own in the competi- lion for the business which was being taken from them. Like conditions would seem to account for expansion in ltHef tfdueS ana Wnlle IL may De pOSsl- l ole to discover evidences of a tendency to strain our resources of money and | ,redit in over-investment, most busi- less men will be disposed to a, rec with the sage remark of MT. Gage, that it f loes not matter to one of th's class where he borrows. or how much sn eng as he can employ the money profit lbly.
 However, 1t appears to be tbe opinion If the London Times that this country las gone, for the time being, quite as ar in the direction of employing her esources and credit as is safe, and pos ibly little further The reasons for his view are calmly stated and are untitled to respectful and thoughtful even by those who do lot fully agree with them. The Times avs;
 Several reasons can be given for aking this view, which, as our readers ]