Evening capital news. (Boise, Idaho) 1901-1927, 1917-05-06


and make battle-ground studies Of the revo-
luton that is going on in our farms, factories
and mines. | want to show their Importance
in this critical stage of our history. want
to investigate their wonderful resources, and
how they may best be developed in view OF
the enormous demands that have arisen in
connection with our great war with Ger
many and with the trade war that will prob
ably result when peace comes.
wonder if you realize what great pos
session the United States is? 1t is the best
business proposition in the assets of the ma
tons. 1t is by far and large the richest coun-
try on the face of the globe and its posi-
bilties are beyond the dreams of national
avarice.
Suppose we take look at the globe and
see what we have. Pick the continents and
islands OUT Of the oceans and crowd the land
together into one block Measure it and
you will find that, all told, it is just about
100000 square miles, and that the Unit
ed States owns more than one-siNteenth OF
the whole. That means that if all the land
upon earth could be joined in one farm and
that farm divided into l6-acre fields, one acre
in every field would belong to us. If it were
punched into farms of 100 acres each, Uncle
Sam would own a lO-acre field in every one
OF those farms
Now cast your eye once more at the globe
and see where Our land lies. 1t is at just the
right angle in the face of the sun to give us
climate that will produce everything that
man wants and. at the same time the ozone
to supply the ambition and energy to drag
the products from the soil We raise 50
much that we feed not only ourselves, but
large part of the rest of the world, and our
country is SO situated that we have the best
place from which to trade with the whole
human race. Lying in the middle of the
North American continent, we have water
highways which connect us with the millions
OF Europe and the millions of Asia 1t is the
best trading stand in the market place of this
big round world.
Our soil is so good, our mineral resources
SO great and our position so fitted for the &C
emulation OF wealth that we have already
become the richest people of the whole hui
man race. Our wealth is of enormous ac-
count as a war asset. 1t is now estimated at
'22O thousand millions of dollars. The amounr
is so enormous that the human mind cannot
comprehend 1t. 1t is equal to one-fourth OF
all the wealth of all the world This means
that If all the assets of all the earth could be
turned INTO cash, and from the mines could
be dragged enough ore to make sufficient
twenty-dolar gold pieces to represent that
cash, one-fourth of all those gold pieces
would belong to us. If the golden eagles
could be loaded into bushel baskets, we
would own peck of gold of every basket.
If we could separate our share of the gold
en- eagles and contrive a wav to count them.
they would be lOOOOO 900 in number. If
we could divide them evenly among our
population, there would be about $500 for
every one OF us. AT five to the family, there
would be more than $1,000 for every FAM
ily-white, black and red-of the whole
United States; enough, if invested at ) per
cent, to bring in 5000 year, enough to give
every family an income of $50 a month for
all time to come. We are so rich that our
new war Indebtedness is bagatelle in com
parison with our national income Even at
per cent the annual interest charge on s.
5OO,OOO,O00 would be only ST. 40 for each Of
us, or only 81 per annum per family
We have accumulated this great wealth,
although we have just begun to develop our
resources and are still prospecting the coun-
try to find out what they are and how they
may best be brought forth for the use OF
mankind. Let us stop and look at few of
our assets We have now RI make cost