The commonwealth. (Greenwood, Miss.) 1896-1923, 1909-10-08
TIE AUTUMN OUTLOOK.

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ing is lacking to ensure a growth in
the trade and wealth of the country
to yet unattained proportions"
Nothing can prevent the rapid ex-
pansion of a country endowed with
so great a store of natural wealth
and inhabited by a people 70 enter
prising and so gifted. This eulog-
ium is not ours, but forms the op-
ening paragraph of a carefully pre-
pared article on the United States,
which appeared recently in one Of
the leading financial publications of
England.
We in turn congratulate Europe
on its improved outlook. But a few
months ago there existed abroad a
state of ferment, widespread and
disturbing. The threatened polit7
ical upheavals in France, the grow
ing animosity between England and
Germany, the internecine strife and
bloodshed in Turkey, the actual con-
Hict between Spain and Morocco,
the possibility of complications
through the INSTRUMENTATION Of
Greece and the menace of Balkan
affairs, made the nations fearful of
what the future might hold in store.
But today the crises have passed.
Wars have been averted, political
affairs adjusted, confidence restored.
The harvesting of the worlds crops,
the financing of its loans, the de-
velopment and future of its enter
prises are now matters of paramount
importance. It is a period of peace
in which, for example, the question
of a 4 per cent. bank rate and a
steadily diminishing gold supply
prove to be matters of far greater
public interest in Germany than ad-
ditions to her list of Dreadnaughts.
It promises also to be a season of
worldwide plenty. In Canada the
agricultural outlook is most graf
flying; the harvest yield in the Uni
ted Kingdom bids fair to be greater
than that of any year since 1905.
Important gains are looked for in
Russia and Roumania, even though
the severe drouth of July has some
what lessened the optimistic pre-
harvest estimates in the latter coun-
try. In Hungary all crops but
wheat show prospects of a record
yield; the Argentine outlook is
brighter than was at first anticipat-
ed; India and Australasia also are
promising we'll. Bulgaria, France,
Spain ard Italy probably will show
moderate increases. Germany, how
ever; is not so fortunate, and is like
ly to need substantial additions to
her own harvest of food supplies.
In our own highly favored land
only the most confirmed pessimist
would take exceptions to existing
conditions. It is well to remind
such that the United States, with
only about 81 per cent of the worlds
population, and occupying only
some 6 per cent. of the habitable
area of the globe, produces nearly a
quarter of the worlds gold, more
than one-third of it's silver, nearly
IS per cent. of its pig iron, more
than one-half of its copper, almost
40 per cent. of its coal, nearly two
thirds of its petroleum, and for the
enrichment of cultivable lands pro-
duces more than one-half of the en-
tire yield of phosphate rock. Ag-
r~iculturally, it raises one-ffth of the
worlds wheat, more than three
fourths of its corn, one-third of it's
tobacco, and nearly three-fourths of
its cotton, while for the transporta-
ton of its people and its freight, 40
per cent. of the worlds railroad
mileage is required. OF the bank
ing power of all nations it possesses
more than forty per cent. Small
wonder that the United States holds
a recognized place in the front rank
of world powers and is the Mecca
for all the people-burdened countries
of the globe.
At the present moment we have
especial cause for self-felicitation.
Practically all lost ground has been
regained. Although in our crops
there has been a diminution Der
unit of yield, the increased acreage
gives promise of producing larger
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