The Tupelo journal., 1910-07-01

~ Inc ldCt ludt luSy oWuVu
of over 297, 900 square miles, or some
ave times as large as all England and
Wales, neither Poor Richard nor my
of the other dear old chroniclers
made note of the fact.
But inasmuch as the ~colonists felt
big enough and strong enough and rich
enough to pitch into Great Britain.
and, not only did pitch into her. but
beat her after a fair fight, 1t would
look to an unbiased person today as
IL the forefathers of the firecrackers
had a pretty good opinion of them
selves and of what they had In hand.
1t is quite likely that after the un-
pleasantness known as the Revolution,
when the country was striding ahead
with it's commerce, was selling Its
cotton and it's tobacco to every n
that wore clothes or used the weed,
they felt they had more reason to pat
themselves on the back for the mar
velous growth they showed before the
eighteenth century was done.
But just s~upposing one Of the
trainers of the Declaration could read
over a few statistics and observe a few
events that that are at hand today!
If you told him that since his day the
country-his country-haS increased
mor than ten times in area, more
than 80 times in population, and more
than a thousand times in wealth, how
would he take the news? Would he
still assert, as some of our friends
among the oldest inhabitants are
prone to do, that the good old days
were best" or would he not be more
likely to sally forth in search of the
beadle and make a peremptory de-
mand for your incarceration as a dan
gerous lunatic?
Surely If truth is stranger than fic-
ton figures are stranger still when
measuring the vast strides that our
country has taken since the Fourth of
July, 1776. What n of the signers
dreamed that In 1903, or less than 30
years after his ink dried upon that
historic document, the United States
would acquire a territory of $3.50 0
square miles, or nearly three times the
size of all the 10 original states put
together. But hat was what we got
when we bought Louisiana for $15,0O0,-
600. In 1919, when we took in Florida,
we added more than 10000 square
miles to our area; in 1845 we took in
Texas with its vast domain of $4,000
square miles; and within three years
thereafter had absorbed Oregon and
the Mexican concession, adding in
round numbers 0 10000 square miles
more.
Every once in a little while Uncle
Sam seemed to grow territorially hun
CRY, and would lunch off a promising
fragment of the continent. The Gads-
den purchase of $4,000 square miles
was made in 1858; Alaska was bought
for $1,000, 900 in 1857, adding nearly
SOC, 900 square miles to our map, and
In 1897 we took in the Hawaiian Is
lands to prove that we were not dis
in the matter of our favor. Then all
in a bunch, during the days of 1898
and 1899 we took in Porto Rico, Guam
and the Philippines, and a few of the
Samoan islands. The Sandwich is
lands were scarcely worth mentioning
for they added only a wee mite to our
real estate holdings-6,7 40 square
miles, to be exact-and Porto Rico
with its $500, and little Guam with
its It's might be left out altogether
and we'd hardly notice that we had
lost them.
The Philippines totaled about 49,
1000 square miles, and you'll hardly be
able to suppress a smile when you are
Uniformed that the Samoan Islands"
that we took over in 1899 had the
enormous area of 70 square miles. But
even at that there's plenty of room
upon those little ocean dots for ca
bile houses, dry docks and coaling sta
tions. A few thousand tons of coal
stored at any one of those places may
at some time In the future save the
American battleship feet and give it
the power to overcome a foe in the
far east. Thus, all told, when you add
up the various breakfasts, l%uncheons,
and dinners of new land that our
uncle has enjoyed since N76 we get
the tidy showing Of 1896, 731 square
miles.
This new territory cost the United
States treasury exactly $87.039,76S, or
about $50 a square mile. Add what
we've bought to what we had during
the Revolution, and you get a total of
a little more than 5000, 900 square
miles of territory.
The government figure experts, who
ought to be the best on earth, for they
get more pay than any other statisti-
clans on the globe, calculate that the
otal wealth Of the United States to-
lay is over $11O, 900, 0O0, 900. They have
come to the conclusion. after going
over acres and acres of numerals that
very man. woman and child in the
United States has $34.72. If you have
hot as much as that you should go to
Washington and demand the difference
rom Maj. o. P. Austin, chief Of the
ureau of statistics. If every one
tho has more than $34.72 should go
Major Austin and "whack up" with
i'm to the extent of every penny they.
ave above that sum, he could make
n exact distribution of our national
ealth and everybody might be salts
od-for a minute. The calculation of
hat every one in q country ought to