The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-06-21

by Frederic j. Haskin.)
The United States today is the
wealthiest country on EARTH If the
American people are one-fifth as in
dustrious and thrifty in the coming
ninety years as they have been in the
past nine decades, they will have gath
cred in this country as much wealth
as is now possessed by the whole
world. The natural resources of the
United States, its farms and forests
and its mines, have by no means
reached the acme of their develop
ment. All wealth must come from the
bosom of the earth, created by the
farmers pillow, the miners pick and
the artisans constructive skill. Once
brought into existence that wealth
may be multiplied, as Americans have
multiplied it, by the application of
business and scientific ingenuity.
A Washington economist has shown
that the entire wealth of the ancient
Republic of Athens was not enough to
buy the New Willard Hotel at its
present valuation on the washington
real estate market. Not even the
swollen fortunes" of our Rockefellers
and Carnegies can be taken as a meas
ure of the wealth of the American
people. 1t has been shown that the
american farmer earns enough in
seventeen days to wipe out Standard
Oil, in seven weeks he makes enough
to buy out the steel trust. The farm
ers who work under the Stars and
Stripes have a daily income of S24,-
900, 600.
The United States has suffered many
great misfortunes. The Civil War was
more costly in blood and treasure than
any conflict of modern history, but in
the decade between 1860 and 1870 the
wealth of the country was increased
by eighty-seven per cent Since that
time there have been great panics and
commercial depressions. Yet the
growth has continued steadily without
a break, and if the ratio of increase
of wealth that has obtained since 1860
be maintained until the year 1000, the
American people will possess wealth
ten times greater than the whole
world can now claim.
The pessimist who may interpose
the objection that the increasing pop
ulation will prevent the indicated ac-
erection is already COMPOUNDED and
routed by the testimony of history. 1t
has been proved in every nation in
Christendom that wealth increases in
proportion to the density OF population
up to the point where the number of
inhabitants for each square mile Is
twice as great as necessary to give the
United States 100000 people-the
number predicted by the statisticians
for the census of the year 1000. There
is no room for the pessimist in this
country. Some western cities will not
let a "knocker'' live among them, and
they are typically American. That the
hurt of the growing
pains caused by the present depression
is reason for doubling a continuation
of growth is secuted by the figures
which show that the Civil War, the
Panic of 1873, the Panic of 1898, and
all other disasters have been powerless
to stop the onward movement.
The creators of this great wealth
have not begun to realize their full
Many of them have more
land than they can till. Only COM
paratively few of them have applied
the science of modern agriculture to
their work. When all the farmers
adopt the methods now in use by the
educated few, this daily income will
be swelled to a hundred million dol
lars a year, and that without adding
an acre to the ground now in cultiva-
ton.
The American balance sheet now
shows wealth of 1000, 900, 900. lit
tie more than 1910 per capita. The
rule that wealth increases with density
Of population is strikingly illustrated
in Europe. The United Kingdom of
Great Britain and ireland is the only
that excels us in per
capita wealth, the figures being
sI455. Its populatio is $50 TO the
square mile, oor more than twice
what America will have when it
reaches the 9S5,O00,00o mark France
has 100 to the square mile, as against
he prediction of 12S in the United
States in 1000, and its per capita
wealth is s122S. The same showing is
made by the several states in the