The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1906-08-16

S''o per cent, southern " per cent,
central AZ per cent and western q
per cent. While the increase in the
Old manufacturing centers of the east
were normal and healthy the increase
In the central. western and southern
was In the nature of great boom In
Industrial development.
The comparative increases in labor
and wages also were much greater In
the west and south than in the old
manufacturing centers of the east. The
increase In wage earners in New Eng
land In the five years was little more
than ten per cent and the total wages
paid 1914 per cent: in the middle Allan
tic states the increases were wage
earners, 16 per cent, total wages 25.8
per cent: southern states, wage earn
ers % per cent, wages 50 per cent;
central states. wage earners 20 per
cent, wages 50 pee cent. More than
this the wonderful development of
manufacturing industry in the south
and west has already moved the indus
trial center to the country nearer to
Its geographical center and 1t is safe
to say that today fully one-half of the
capital. wage earners, wages paid,
and output from the manufacturers are
In the central. southern and western
states. The industrial census of 1905
shows this and demonstrates that un-
der the economic policy of the repub-
lican party. with its steady and pros
porous development. our manufacture
ing has steadily advanced into the
great agricultural sections, placing the
factory beside the farm, to make the
exchange between the two great bodies
of producers the more direct and equit-
able and make them more dependent
upon each other.
Not alone in manufacturing has
there been this doubling up process in
prosperity under republican admins
tration. The farmers have doubled
their crops and the money they have
received in exchange. The farm value
of those three great staple crops of
the west. corn, wheat, oats, in 1896
amounted to $685., 900, 900, and last year
it aggregated $1,912,00O,000, or more
than double the value in the last year
of democratic administration. The
value of farm animals also doubled in
the same period, increasing from
S. 72S,00O.000 in 1896 to $3,675, 10000
in 1906.
This prosperity to the farmer was
not confined to the corn and wheat belt
OF the country. Like the rain which
falls on the Just and unjust alike, it
descended upon our friends in the
south, who still refuse to believe that
prosperity can exist under republican
policies. The value of the cotton crop
went from $319, 10000 in 1896 to more
than 100000, 900 in 1904, the last year
for which we have statistics. The
miners doubled their output of coal
and iron, and in every line of indus
trial development the last ten years
have been in harmony with this scrip
tural Injunction to make two blades of
grass grow where one grew before.
Our foreign trade has been along
the same double track lines, our i'm
ports increasing from $780,000, 900 in
1896 to 1922. 000. 900 in 1906, and our
exports from 1888, 000, 900 in 1896 to
$1.744,000.000 in 1906. The total VOL
ume of our foreign trade in 1896
amounted to 81 .662 ,O0O, 900, and in 1906
to $3.50, 000. 900, add to that our trade
to Porto Rico. Hawaii, and the Philip
pines which amounted to SIS. 100000
and we have in the last year a grand
total of $3,045, 900 10000. as the amount
of the United States and the rest of the
world. This is greater than the foreign
commerce of any other nation, Great
Britain alone excepted,( and that be-
cause that nation imports her food
products, her imports being almost
double her exports, while our exports
exceed our imports by half q billion
of dollars.
Under the policy of protection the
United States produces one-third of the
manufactured and agricultural pro-
ducts of the civilized world. Our labor
receives double the compensation that
labor receives in Great Britain and
three times the compensation paid to
labor on the continent of Europe.
Ninety three per cent of this product
is consumed by our own people and the
comparatively small surplus that goes
abroad makes us the greatest export
ing nation on the earth. In the rapid
development Of the country we not
only live better than other people, but
from the savings of production we
have become the wealthiest nation on
earth.
While this unprecedented prosperity
has come in less than a decade of re-
publican administration and the Ding
ley tariff law has demonstrated that It
Is a revenue producer. both for the
people and the government, we occa-
sionally hear the old wall that the tar
IN is the mother of trusts and the shell
ter OF monopoly. The tariff revision
lists, are, however. answering their
own complaints. I find in the New
YORK Times, one of the ablest and most
uncompromising organs of tariff re-
vision, an editorial showing that the
steel trust no longer looked upon by
free traders as monopoly and that
1t has steadily declined in it's propor-
ton Of the steel since its organization,
The Times says:
1.-The widest interest in the steel cor
poratton report attaches to what ia
least discussed-that is. the conditions
In the trade as reflected by the first
hand facts now available. It is true
that the steel corporation is not the
steel trade. Big as It is, 1t is neither
the majority interest. nor even the con-
trolling interest In fact, it's propor-
ton of the trade is relatively declin-
Ing, while concurrently It is breaking
Its own records of production and
earnings. Its production of mig has
Infatuated since it's organization within
narrow range and without decided
trend, standing now at "A per cent of
the country's total. Its production of
open hearth and Bessemer castings
has fallen by about three per cent to
~ per cent. Its dominance is greatest
IN the wire nail product, which, al
though declining, remains at &C per
cent In short, the trust is not by any
means monopoly, and yet it is i'm
possible that the trust should nrnsner