The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-08-09

..AmeriCa'S Real Wealth..


1 live stock in 1890 was $2, 1909 OOO,OOO while in 1900 1t was ss,O7s OOO,0OO an increase of s769000,OO0 which also means real wealth. But the most astonishing figures have to do with the farm products In 1890 these products were worth $2. 460 0OO.000. The production of the year 1900 was $4, | 739,000 eco, an increase of S2.219 000,000. The | figures l am giving you are the latest l available. Undoubtedly the farmer has continued to expand in his production, and his prosperity is proportionately greater now than it was in 1900, and all that means real wealth
 ''I also find that the value of manufac- tured articles in a year have increased St950 GOO, and the annual wages have increased s232,000,000. This. too. means real wealth to the American manufacturer and the American mechanic
 "It is the strength of these fundamental conditions which has prevented the dis turbances in the stock market in May. 190l, in September, 1902. when the Presi- dent was shot, and the decline which has been going on for the last few months. from checking general business. This Is the best possible bulwark against any commercial and industrial depression and | the best guarantee of our powers of the recuperation.'
 Secretary NAson said:
 You ask me if the great boom we have been having has left the country richer in real wealth. Your question implies that the boom period of prosperity we have been enjoying has left the country. That l do not admit. Industries are all pros pering. Hardly are our manufacturers able to supply the demands made on them. The farmers are busy everywhere getting | fair prices for their products Laborers are all employed eVerywSere; no one is idle 1 who wants work. Money Is plentiful | Speaking for the northwest, in which my home is situated, l can say that the peo- 1 pie do not know what to do with their money. In agricultural districts of the | northwest to find investments they have l gone Into British Columbia and Western | Canada and bought up the rich and cheap farming lands there. Taking things all in all one finds a great period of prosperity for both capital and labor. They ars cer tainly hundreds of millions of dollars rich CT than before the present period of pros perity began
 There is another element in the United States whose headquarters are to be found In street in New York. It deals in stocks It has been putting a fictitious value on securities for the purpose of selling to the innocent. Now 8 movement is going on and whether the water Is merely being squeezed out or whether the big fish are eating the little ones I don't know.
 So here We have two movements. either of which might be called a boom. One movement is all In the substantial indus trlal line. The o,ner movement is all spec ulatlon. The industrial world Is all right The spectators are In trouble. That's the way 1t looks to me and whether the trouble of the speculators will hurt our industrial prosperity Is q question about which l am not advised
 believe the country will continue to en1oy It's prosperity because I believe the whole system largely rests upon agricul lnre. nave before me a table of things we have been exporting and selling to other nations. find that of the total. 0z '2 per cent was in agricultural products, 2sS2 per cent was manufactures, 22a per cent was mining, 415 per cent was the product of the forest. 56-l00 per cent was from fisheries and 46-1O0 per cent was miscellaneous. l eanot conceive that this country is going backward so long as it has such bounteous crops as it has been blessed with to fall hack on