The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-11-21

Courtesy Counts for Much Our Mer-
chant Marine Must DO Revived with
Subsidies. Given as Europe Gives Them.
KANSAS CITY, Nov. 2o.-Secretary Of
State Elihu Root, speaking before the
Trans mississippi Commercial Congress,
this evening, said:
"A little less than three centuries Of
colonial and national life have brought the
people innabitlng the United States by Q
process of evolution, natural and with the
existing forces inevitable, to q point Of
distinct and radical change in their 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 struggle
for existence, by individual independence
and by free institutions, has beer devoted
70 the internal development Of our own
country. The surplus wealth produced by
our labors has been applied Immediately
been cutting down forests and breaking
virgin soil and fencing prairies and opening
mines of coal and iron and copper and sill
YER and gold and building roads and canals
and railroad and telegraph lines and cars
and locomotives and mills and furnaces
A0u tCllOOllhOb1CS 6Du OOlCkCc eLu
and hospitals and asylums and public
buildings and s~torehouses and shops and
homes. We nave been drawing on the re-
sources Of the world in capital and in labor
70 aid us in work. We nave gathered
strength from every rich and powerful
nation and expended 1t upon these home
undertakings; into them we ave poured
hundreds Of millions Of money attracted
from the investors of Europe. We nave
been always a debtor nation, borrowing
from the rest of the world, drawing all posi-
bic energy toward IA and concentrating il
with our own energy upon III own enter
prises. The engrossing pursuit Of u own
opportunities has excluded from our consid-
Grafton and interest the enterprises and the
possibilities of the outside world. Invention,
discovery, the progress Of science, capacity
for organization, the enormous increase in
the productive power Of mankind, ave
accelerated u progress n rave brought
us TO a result Of development in every branch
Of internal industrial activity marvellous
and unprecedented in the history Of tn 0
world.
IRIS SURPLUS.
Since the first election Of President
Mckinley the people Of the United States
ave for the first time accumulated a sur
plus capital beyond the requirements OF
Internal development. That surplus is in
creasing with extraordinary rapidity. We
have paid our debts to Europe and have
become a creditor instead of a debtor
nation; we have faced about; we have
and ave entered the ranks Of the invest
ing nations. Our surplus energy is begin
ming TO look beyond our own borders,
throughout the world, to find opportunity
for the profitable use Of our surplus capital,
foreign markets for our manufacturers.
foreign mines to be developed, foreign
bridges and railroads and public works
TO be built, foreign rivers to be turned into
electric power and light. AS in their sew
eral ways England Inc France and Ger
many have stood, so we in our " way
are beginning to stand and must continue
To stand toward the industrial enterprise
Of the world.
THAT we are not beginning our new
role feebly is indicated by 81 SIS, 56l ,606
Of exports in the year 1905 as against 81 Ill.,
N3.O OH Of imports, and by 81 743, se4 500 ex-
ports in the year 1908 as against 81 49,
b63 ,S43 OF imports. Our first steps in the
new field indeed are somewhat clumsy and
unskilled. In our W vast country. with
oceans on either side, we have had too
little contact with foreign peoples readily
70 understand their customs or learn their
languages; yet no one can doubt that We
shall learn and shall understand and shall
do our business abroad as we have done it
At home with force and efficiency.
SOUTH AMERICAS ADVANCE.
'Coincident with this change in the United
States the progress OF political develop
ment has been carrying the neighboring
continent Of South America out Of the
stage of militarism into the stage of in
dustralism. Throughout the greater part
Of that vast continent revolutions have
ceased to be looked upon with favor or
submitted to with indifference, the revolu-
tionary general and the dictator are no
longer the objects of admiration and imita-
ton, civic virtues command the highest
- ~
and pride to the stability OF heir Gov
ernnents. to the safety Of property and the
certainty Of justice, nearly everywhere
the people are eager for foreign capital
TO develop their natural resources and for
foreign immigration to occupy their vacant
land. Immediately before us, at exactly
the right time, just a we are ready for It,
great opportunities for peaceful COM
mercial and industrial expansion to the
South are presented . Other investing
nations are already in the ield-England,
France, Germany, Italy, Spain; but the
field ia so vast, the new demands are 50
great, the progress so rapid, that what
other nations have done up to this time is
but a slight advance in the race for the
grand total. The opportunities are so
large that figures fail TO convey them.
GREAT NEWLY AWAKENED CONTINENT.
The area OF this newly awakened Con-
ttnent is 1902 ,84s square miles, more than
two and one-haH times as large rs the
United States without Alaska and mors
than double the United States including
Alaska. A large part OF this r lies within
the temperate zone, with an equable and
invigorating climate, free from extremes
Of either heat or cold. Further north in the
tropics are enormous expanses of high
tablelands stretching ron the Atlantic
10 the foothills Of the Andes, m lifted far
above the tropical heats; the fertile valleys
Of the western Cordilleras are cooled by
perpetual SHOWS even under the equator;
vast forests grow untouched from a soil
OF Incredible richness. The plains of Ar
gentina. the great uplands OF Brazil; the
mountain valleys OF Chile, Peru, Ecuador,
Bolivia and Colombia are suited TO tho habi-
tation Of any race however far to the North
It's origin may have been; hundreds OF mil
lions o. men can find healthful homes and
abundant s~Ustenance in this great territory.
The population in 1900 was only 42,46l,-
Sl. less than sx TO the square milo. The
density of population was less than ono
eighth Of that n the State of Missouri, less
than ono-sixtieth Of that in the state OF
Massachusetts,, .ess than one-seventieth OF
that in England, less than n per cent. OF
th$ in Belgium.