The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-11-21

carry 9n anu enlarge our ouutu ANleliSFH trade Is but part of the general decline and feebleness of the American merchant machine. Secretary Roots subject was "Commercial Union With South American Republics" He said. in part:
 Secretary Root Speaks.
 MT. President and Gentlemen Of the
 Congress:
 "A little less than three centuries of colonial and national life have brought the people inhabiting the United States, by process of evolution, natural and with the existing forces inevitable, to a point of distinct and radical change in ther economic relations to the rest of mankind.
 During the period now past the energy of our people, directed by the formative power created In our early population by heredity. by environment. by the strug- gle for existence, by individual independ- ence, and by free institutions, has been devoted to the internal development of our own country. The surplus wealth pro- duced by our labors has been applied in- mediatey to reproduction iH ut sWf< l land. We have been cutting down for-s ests and breaking virgin soil and fenc- | ing praries and opening mines of coal l and iron and copper and silver and gold. | and building canals and railroads and telegraph lines and cars and locomotives and mills and furnaces and school houses and colleges and libraries and hospitals and asylums and public buildings and store houses and shops and homes We have been drawing on the resources of the world in capital and in labor to aid us in our work. We have gathered strength from every rich and powerful nation and expended 1t upon these homo undertakings. into them we have poured hundreds of millions of money attracted frnf fha inv af Q h1 been always a debtor nation. borrowing from the rest of ire world, drawing all possible energy towards us and concen- trating 1t with our own energy upon our own enterprises. The expressing pursuit of our own opportunities has excluded from our consideration and interest the enterprises and .the possibilities of the outside world. Invention, discovery, the progress of science capacity for organ lzation, t.he enormous increase in the productive power of mankind. have ac- celerated our progress and have brought us to result of development in every branch of internal industrial activity marvellous and unprecedented in the his- tory of the world.
 Have Accumulated Surplus.
 Since the first election of President Mckinley the people of the United States have for the first time accumulated a surplus of capital beyond the require ments of internal development That sur plus Is increasing with extraordinary rap idity. We have paid our debts to Europe and have become a creditor instead of a debtor nation; we have faced about. we have left the ranks of the borrow ing nations and have entered the ranks of the investing nations. Our surplus energy is beginning to look beyond our own borders. throughout the world, to find opportunity for the profitable use al lon k ata for our manufactures, foreign mines to be developed. foreign bridges and rail- roads and public works to be built. for eign rivers to be turned into electric power and light. As in their several ways England and France and Germany have stood. so in our own way are be- ginning to stand and must continue to stand towards the industrial enterprise of the world.
 Into Industrial Realm.
 "Concident with this change in the United States the progress of political development has been carrying the neigh boring continent of South America out of the stage of militarism into the stage of industrialsm. Throughout the greater part of that vast continent revolutions have ceased to be looked upon with favor or submitted to with indifference: the revolutionary general and the dicta- tor are no longer the objects of admiration and imitation; civic virtues command tho highest respect: the people point with satisfaction and pride to the stability of their governments. to the safety of prop erty and the certainty of justice; nearly everywhere the people are eager for for eign capital to develop their natural re- sources and for foreign immigration to occupy their vacant land Immediately before us. at exactly the right time. just as we are ready for 1t. great opportunities for Il al industrial expansion to the south are presented. Other investing nations are already in the ned-England. France, Germany. Italy Spain: but the field is so vast. tho new demands are so great. the progress so rapid that what other nations have done up to this time Is but a slight ad- vance in the race for the grand total
 Will Rank With Orient.
 with the increase of population in such field under free institutions. with the fruits of labor and the rewards or en- terprise secure the production or wealth. and the increase of purchasing power will afford market for the commerce of the world worthy to rank even with The markets Of the Orient the prize of business enterprise The material re- sources of South America are in some fmportant respects complementary tn our own: that continent is weakest where North America Is strongest as field for manufactures it has comparatively little coal and iron In many respects  .cnNTUNIfEn nN