The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-10-16
GREAT WEALTH
 OF UNITED STATES
Fly HOLLAND

New York, October io,-CSpecial''SA course a statement recently made by one of the leading banking authorities or the United States that our national wealth would be appraised by skilful actuaries at not less than $500 GOO, ,OOo coo, is an es- innate, although it is probably not very far out of the way. The banker was us- ing these figures so that he might lm- press upon the country the fact that not- withstanding expenditures which arc reaching high into the billions, occa- stoned by the war, and the further 1acI that the United States may owe to ths people perhaps as much as $30Voo,Voo'VoV' represented by Liberty Bonds, and more than that should the war continue few years longer; and furthermore III spite of revenue bills which provide fol taxation which will cause SVO,Veo,o0o HI a single payment to flow into the treas ury: nevertheless we have abundance ol natural resources which we may rely upon as a security which stands behine our obligations.
 Iu the darkest days of the civil war David A. Wells prepared a pamphlet which contained statistics and reasoning that astonished not only the people Il. the north, but also Great Britain, Hol- land and France Mir. Wells demonstrate ed that in spite of what were, for the time, enormous expenditures, and III spite of the fact that it was with some difficulty that the government was able to market it's bonds, nevertheless the re- sources of the United States were sui ficient, if utilized, to meet all the eX- nenses of the war and to leave capital In aouEdance, even though the way were continued for 10 or 15 years longer.
 When Mr. Wells thus wrote we had no Pacific railroad. The Union Pacific Railroad company and the Central Pa- oific, under the leadership of C, r. Huht-s ington, were just beginning construc- tion Not much of the great area west of the Mississippi river was under cul- tivstion and the people of that time were still accustomed to speak of the great American desert and the Nebraska ter ritory which have since then been de- veloped into very flourishing conmuil ties. welding each year hundreds of mll- lions of new wealth to the United States,
 AWAITING DEVELOPMENTS
 There are abundant natural resources not yet highly developed, many of them not developed at all, which nevertheless constitute some part of the wealth or the I1nited States which is now estimated at S3G0, ,0o0 COG, GOO. Our wealth in rallfoaus will undoubtedly be considerably lh- creased since the new dispensation or which Secretary McAdoo is the leader is demonstrating to the people that II thefe be wise governmental control and req sonable opportunity to secure fresh cap ital our railroads will expand and new railroads will be built in the far west,
 OUR MINERAL WEALTH
 Our wealth in minerals, which onl,
 waits developments is enormous. NO other country, except possibly Russi' and China possess mineral wealth III amount equal to that which the United States invested. We have every kind ol mineral excepting tin. Our resources in coal are enormous, At the present rate ot consumption of our anthracite coal deposits it will be 200 years at least be-
 fore our deposits ot bituminouS coal are used up.
 There remains abundance of iron ore, some of it not yet developed. The gov einment authorities have demonstrated that considerably beneath the surface oi ralts of New York state and Pennsyi- Vania there are enormous deposits oi iron ore not yet worked, because the workable mines throughout the country now lie so near the surface. Nobody can tell what our wealth in oil and natural gas may be found to be We have enof- nous wealth in timber, although at one time there was some danger that whore sale cutting of timber might impair this resource.
 Splendid as is our agricultural produc- tion, nevertheless it is far below the pos sibili.tes James J. Hill estimated few
 years before his death that at the pres- ent time farm labor should yield yearly exclusive of cotton new wealth asgresat- ing Sl5 5.000, ,0a0,o00 Many believe that the day is not distant when our farmers Will ! be harvesting 2,O00.000,000 bushels o' wheat each wear. The wonderful devei- opment of electro chemistry, so-cailed is simply utilizing natural resources 1 whose wealth. producing capacity thS l public had little idea of in the carry
 wears of the present century. There are ! enormous stores of wealth in our water ! powers, and these are sure to be de' 1 veloped, some of them speedily, after the var is ended.
 Then, too. there is the amazing grown 1 of the United States as shipbuiidlhH nation. No one who is qualified to speah
 now doubts that at the end of the war | the United States will possess the great