Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1906-12-14

An Era Of World. wIde ExpansIOn.

In studying the progress of the country
In agriculture, in railroads, and in manu-
facturers, and attempting to forecast
something of what is ahead of us in the
continued expansion of these industries It
must be borne in mind that not alone the
United States, but the world, Is hungry
for iron and steel and copper and cotton,
and all the other great products which
enter into modern civilization. We have
entered a period of worldwide expansion
In industry, in commerce, in the construc-
ton OF railroads, steam and electric, and
In municipal improvements such as the
most enthusiastic optimist could scarcely
have conceived of FIVE or ten years ago.
We justly boast of the progress already
made by the United States, but in con-
sidering the future and in attempting to
measure its almost limitless potentialities
as compared with the past we must re-
member that much of Europe is almost
as busy as America, that Mexico and
South America and Canada are running
rivalry with us in the expansion of in
dustry, that the Orient, with more than
half the worlds population, is opening
up to Western civilization and to the uses.
of iron and steel in the arts Of peace as
we4l as of war; Africa and the isles OF
the ocean are alike sharing in this adj
vance movement, and If one should give
free rein to his Imagination, IL would
paint picture of increasing activity dur
ing the next ten years in which far great
er material progress would be indicated
than we have had during the last ten.
The world is no longer producing more
than 1t can consume. AS there Is a scar
city in the material things which enter in
to mans consumptive requirements, SO
there is an increasing scarcity in the sup
ply OF men to do the worlds work. The
laborer no longer tramps the streets
searching for employment at starvation
wages. as a million or more did ten years
ago. The employer is everywhere look
ing for the laborer with far more business
Offering to him than he can find the la
borers to handle. From the smallest farm
all the way through every field of human
| employment in Industrial affairs to the
construction Of the Panama Canal, the
| greatest undertaking of modem times,
the scarcity of laborers is the universal
cry Increasing wages on a scale never
seen before, marks the closing month of
1906. With prosperity on the farm, with
prosperity in the factory and In railroad
operations, with prosperity for the me-
chanic and the day laborer, there is be-
ing developed out Of the changed con-
ditions in the worlds business affairs q
| more well-rounded prosperity than any of
which history gives us a record The
progress of the last quarter of a century
| Is merely the beginning Of our real broad
national advancement, and what we have
wrought in that period win be doubled,
and In many things, quadrupled, during
the next 25 years. A conception Of the
possibilities which are ahead Of us should
| quicken the lifeblood and stir the pulse
Of every man whose horizon is broadened
as he looks out upon the worlds mighty
activtties.-[ From THE Most Prosperous
Period in Our History" by Richard H
Edmonds, in the American Monthly Re
view Of Reviews.