The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-09-16
GREAT PROSPERITY
 OF THE COUNTRY
Facts and Figures About Five
 Fat Years
CROPS ARE PHENOMENAL
Large Acreage and High Prices. Amazing Leap In the Fortunes of the United States.
 Some Results.

some hesults.
 Through five consecutive years the United States has enjoyed degree of prosperity without precedent in half :. century, and perhaps not in it's history.
 The immediate cause of this amazing leap in the fortunes of the country Is ana lyzed by Carl Snyder in Moodys Maga- zine.
 The last five years of farm production have been doubly exceptional. We have known phenomenal crops associated, some- times with large acreage. sometimes with high prices
 This ripple combination has been known to occur in a single year; perhaps once or twice, as in 1881 and 1882, for two years. It has never before been known for five consecutive years, and it will probably not be known again within ths lifetime of the present generation.
 Our principal crops in order of total value are. corn. hay, cotton, wheat and oats The total value of these five crops for the last five years of the last century amounted to S90OO,0OO,OOO The returns for these same crops for the first five years of the new century were more than $l4,- O00 000. .000 a sheer advance of more than 55 per cent.
 These crops represent a little more than half the gross yield of the nations farms. We may then roughly compute that the immediate supporting population of the ao1 ,frrr tfoa a,f 00000O per year more for it's labors through these five astonishing years than what might be regarded as It's normal re- turn
 The aggregate values for all farm pro duets for the year 1905 were estimated by the department at more than S6, GOO, ,000,000. It would probably be difficult to show that ever before in history has farm ing received so high a return as in the last year
 Farmer Is opulent.
 It is perhaps no exaggeration to say that In consequence of these five unprecedented years, the American farmer Is in a po- sition of greater economic independence not to say opulence, than has ever before been known to a tiller of the soil.
 In 1875 the United States possessed a population between 40,00O0000 and 45, GOO. It has doubled in thirty years. In 1875 the total mileage Of the country was but 10000 miles; in 1905 1t was three times as great.
 In 1875 the total gross receipts of the railways yas zoe 00O0 600. In 1905 they ex- ceeded $2.0o0 ,00O. That Is to say, the total traffic was four times as large.
 In 1875 all of the railways represented a capital of stocks, bonds and debts of S4 300 100000 In 1904 the corresponding ac- count was $14,O0O, GOO 900; that is. rather 4t.. h e., times the traffic.
 The earning power of the invested cap ital had increased in this period by 50 per cent In 1875 the railway traffic earn ings were little less than 10 per cent of the gross capitalization. In 1905 they were nearly 15 per cent.
 Stock Values Up.
 Very naturally stock values show a corresponding increase. In the period from 1875 to 1880 the average value of the shares of the ten leading railways of the nation ranged around s60 to SEQ The average sank in 1872 to SIS low as S39 a share. At the close of 1905 it was about zoo a share.
 The average dividend return on the market price of the soldier railway stocks in the meantime had been cut very nearly in half. The average return to in- vested capital even so late as 1893 and 1895 was between per cent and 6 per cent. An average of twenty of the lead- ing dividend paying stocks at the close of 1905 showed return of but little more than per cent.
 In 1897 the total listings of bonds was 1850 000,000. In 1895 it was $os0. .000 900.
 In 1880 the total production of coal in the country, both anthracite and bitumi- nous. was but 70000.000 tons. In 1905 1t was 375, ,00O,O00. Tn 1890 the estimated value wss $145000,00 In 1901 it was s300,000, 900. In 1865 it was 536,000 600.
 The increase of pig iron production was still more rema rkable. A quarter of a century ago the annual production was about 100000 tons. The production for 1905 was 23,000, GOO tons. The annual value of the pig iron product from 1882 to 1898 ranged about $1OO, ,000,O ,OOO and in 1905 it reached record total of $377 100000.
 From 1883 to 1894 the net deposits in all of the national banks of the country in- creased from a little more than $1,000, ,000.- COG to g. OO0, 900. They fell away rather sharply in 1897. following the bad year of 1896. They rose from about sl, 750, ,000.0 GOO in 1897 to more than 5000, ,0O0.O00 in 1905. The increase in the eight years was not far from 300 per cent.
 Deposits of $13,ooo, 100000.
 If We add to this the s3,25O 100000 held by the savings banks and the s4,250. GOO, 900 of deposits in state and private banks and the loan and trust companies, we shall have an aggregate of deposits of nearly $13O00,000,O0 That Is an average bank account of lnore than s150 for every man, woman and child in the country or an average of $75O for every family, from tenement house or fishing village to s5000,e00 copper kings palaces on Fifth avenue.
 There were in 1904 and 1905 nearly S,0O0,- GOO individual depositors in the savings banks of the country alone. Their de- poslts were three times greater than all or France. and half again as large as the heards of thrifty Germany.
 More than 5,O00.O00 individuals in the United States are paying in annually to life insurance companies more than sG,- O00.000 per year This exceeds 800 for each policy and represents in large part savings bank account.
 The actual amount of money per capita in circulation in the country has been rather more than doubled in thirty years; it was only a little more than sl5 per head in 1877 and 1878 It now exceeds s31. Inn migration passed the record mark in 1882 in 1903 and again in 1904 reaching the un- precedented figure of more than 1.000,OOO in the last year. It will be curious to observe whether financial history will re- neat itself in 19O6-7. and a sharp depres- sion follow the incoming of this foreign flood. as it did in 1872, in 1884 and in 1893.
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 Blackburn has proven to be a safe and conservative legis- lator. Vote for him next Mon g-11-3t