Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-01-15
PENNA.-SOME FIGURES

w E have. have become ,a, a,,,,"n SO used is, r.,a sa
ton to Pennsylvania prod
ucts and natural resources that we
scarcely stop to realize what a mil
lion means. We produce coal by the
hundreds of millions of tons; steel
by tens of millions and oil. gas, stone
and other things taken from what
Providence has given so bountifully
to the Keystone State or manufac-
ture from the raw material in such
large amounts that we do not think
of the effect of such imposing arrays
of terms of wealth upon people
across the seas.
We calmly read that the State OF
Pennsylvania licensed 100000 OF
more motor vehicles and received
therefor ss,250,00O in round num-
hers. all of which will be devoted
to maintaining, not building, but
Just maintaining roads. If each
motor vehicle is worth, averaging
them up, about $500, that is some
thing like $3.50, 900 in motor cars
of various types.
The State Department of Agricul-
ture says that the seven major crops
of Pennsylvania-whea corn, rye,
buckwheat, oats, hay and potatoes
produced in 1917 were worth
Ss51,5OO,0O0 in round numbers,
which was 100000 more than
the same crops were worth in 1916.
And on top of that we raised tobacco
worth s11 100000; apples and other
fruit, chickens, ducks and cattle;
gathered up eggs; clipped wool and
made butter and cheese worth tens
of millions more. These figures, like
those for the automobiles, are hard
to grasp.
And now comes Banking Commis-
sioner Lafean, who says that the re-
sources of the trust companies, state
banks and savings institutions under
State supervision, and that does not
include national banks, are s1,707,-
16S,s40.63. That is seventeen hun
dred millions, over four times what
all the crops above referred to were
worth in hish-priced 1917. And
these same institutions gained $751;
900, 900 more than the value of the
motor cars licensed for 1917 in re-
sources in one year. The number
of depositors increased in one year
by 2S5, 5,634, making a grand army of
people with money in the bank of
2,S57,591, or more depositors in
banking institutions in Pennsylvania
under State control alone than there
are men in our army now. These
depositors have about a billion and
quarter dollars in the banks, ac-
cording to Mr.. Lafean's statement,
while the banking houses own over
$714, 100000 worth of stocks and
bonds. And most gratifying is 1t to
read that these same banks bought
for themselves or patrons, Liberty
Bonds amounting to s243,O06,00O, al
most a quarter of a billion dollars,
and that they hold as investments
$55, 900, 900, an amount equal to the
total assessed valuation of Harris
burg.
The figures are dazzling. The in
crease of wealth is tremendous. If
the prices of the manufactured,
mined or piped products and the
wages paid our labor could be added
in the aggregate would be almost
beyond comprehension.
Is it any wonder, to use the words
Of one of the speakers at the meet
ing at the Capitol the other night
that the United States was next
on the Kaiser's program? Is it sur
prising that the German army Off
GERS always liked to talk about the
rich country that the Pennsylvania
railroad system tapped?
1t is a State which we have made
and which is our home. That is
why Pennsylvania youth is grid
ing up its loins to fight the preda-
tory Prussian and why the folks who
stay at home are going down into
their pockets TO buy Liberty Bonds
and Thrift Stamps and are going to
back up the government Until it's
over over There"