Evening journal., 1910-04-08

IN part, IL constitutes NEW NEWS OF
YESTERDAY, gornered from the men
who made the news-the history-or from
equally authoritative sources. As Inn
portant contributions OF the Human In
terest' sort to American history, these
articles have distinctive value all their
own.
For months following the close OF the
civil war, one of the great anxiedes felt
throughout the United States was born Of
our enormous national debt of more than
three thousand million dollars. Where
were we going TO get the money to carry
on the government and pay the interest
on this colossal debt? Many persons were
doubtful Of our ability to raise the neces-
sary revenues, they felt that the burden
imposed upon us by the war was SO great
as practically to prostrate--in fact, al
most bankrupt-the nation.
In the midst of this widespread anxiety
there appeared one day a modest little
pamphlet which bore the title ''Our
Strength and our Burden" and carried
the name Of David a. Wells as the author.
AS logically as one works out a problem
In arithmetic, he demonstrated that the
natural resources Of the United States
were Of inconceivable richness, that We
had hardly scratched their surface, and
that from their development would come
all the money necessary 10 run the gov
ernment. pay the interest ON the national
debt and, ultimately, to reduce il to nor
mai proportions.
So simply. 50 convincingly, was tho
pamphlet written that IT changed the ma
tional viewpoint in day, almost from
that Of pessimism to hope; ana at once,
too, from being an obscure school teacher
in Troy, New York, Mr Wells sprang into
national fame as an economist and from
then on tin the day Of his death In 1898,
he was an authority in economic mat
ters.
About decade after lac had done this
good work for the nation, I met Mr.. Wells
for the first time, and one day. months
later. when our acduaintanccship had rip
pened into friendship, 1 told him that I
was curious to know how he came to write
the essay which had served So greatly TO
change the business world from condi-
tlon of despair to one OF enthusiastic op-
timism.
"Wel." said Mr.. Wells. az he hgaed
gently at his whiskers which grew in
cumps each side of his ears when I was
"A college lad back in the forties l was
intensely interested i'm all subjects that
related to the natural resources of the
country, For example, 1 found deeper
pleasure than ] have ever received from
fiction In reading the statistics which aim
cd to tell how much prairie land we had
and how much OF it was available for
growing wheat. This liking l carried with
me from college, indulged it at every op-
portunlty, and finally, l became convinced
that the American people had not begun
to realize what their natural resources
were.
"rhis was my frame OF mind when all
that unreasonable doubt about our not be-
ing able to carry our heavy civil war debt
was filling the country and one day ]
went for a walk over Mount Ida the high
hin back OF Troy, n. Y. to think about
the problem. ON the way back 1 made a
dctour which took me by some freight
yards. There / saw cars marked with the
initials OF railways OF Illinois. Minnesota
and Wisconsin, and It was easy to guess
that most of them were filled with the
natural products Of those states. Anc
there we're other cars carrying the manu-.
factured products of New England and
OF New York State Why. I said to my
self. as I looked down upon them an
what is three thousand million dollars tC
a country with such inexhaustible resour.
ces as ours? our railroads alone are soor
TO have a greater capital than our debt.