1890]

Agricultural Development

587

ceeding in the total value of its manufactures every foreign
country, and also in the value of manufactured articles in
proportion to the total population. This expansion is only
partially shown by the increase in value of the manufactured
product, as prices of these commodities have very materially Iron.
declined since 1860. The most remarkable case of growth
in this period is seen in the iron and steel industries. The
amount of pig iron produced in 1860 was less than one
million tons; in 1880 it had risen to over four billion tons,
and in 1890 to over ten billion tons. In the latter year
Great Britain, which had heretofore been the largest pro-
ducer of iron in the world, fell behind, producing only eight
billion tons. The increase in the production of steel has Steel.
been even greater in 1865 it was thirteen thousand tons,
in 1880 it was over one billion tons, and in 1890 it was nearly
five billion tons. This remarkable growth has been due to
several causes, among which may be mentioned the cheap-
ening of the cost of pig iron by improvements in the con-
struction of the blast furnaces, which have brought about
great economies in the use of fuel. The application of
scientific methods, especially the Bessemer process, and the
use of improved appliances in every stage of production
have greatly contributed to this marvelous result, which has
been made possible by the access to the great markets of
the United States without fear of foreign competition. In-
deed, it is not at all unlikely that in the near future steel will
be produced in America at a lower cost than in either Great
Britain or Germany, notwithstanding the comparatively low
wages which operatives earn in those countries.

industries.

398. Agricultural Development, 1860-90. - This increase Agricultural in productive capacity has not been confined to manufacturing and mining industries; there has also been an extraordinary development in agricultural production. The area under cultivation has doubled in thirty years, and the application of better methods has also greatly affected the cultivation of the more important staples. For years agriculture was carried on by poor and wasteful methods,

National income and

expendi

tures.

National debt.

but lately the application of scientific methods in large sections of the country has enabled the cultivator to win larger returns from his land, although not so large proportionate returns from the application of labor and capital to the land. The ruder system of the earlier time was better suited to the conditions then prevailing—a fact which foreign critics have invariably overlooked. They always forget that the problem which the Western farmer had to face until recent years was how much he could get in return for a given amount of effort, and not how much he could gain from a certain amount of land by the application of labor and capital. Land was then abundant and easy to acquire, while labor and capital were both scarce and difficult to obtain. In 1865 the United States produced about one billion bushels of wheat; in 1890 it produced two and one half billion bushels. The largest crop of cotton produced by slave labor (1859) was about four and one half million bales; in 1890, under free labor, the crop was nine and one half million bales.

399. Prosperity, 1890.-The national income and expenditures have increased out of all proportion to the population, mainly owing to the burden imposed by the Civil War. The income of the federal government in 1860 was fifty-five million dollars, in 1890 it was over four hundred million dollars; the expenditures in 1860 were sixty-five million dollars, - in 1890 they were three hundred and forty million dollars. The exports and imports more than doubled in the thirty years under review, and amounted to about eight hundred millions each, in 1890 the exports slightly exceeding the imports.

The national debt of the United States in 1890 was nearly nine hundred million dollars, or fourteen and one quarter dollars per head. This total includes the paper money issued by the government and the interest-bearing debt. The aggregate debt of the several states, counties, municipalities, and school districts now exceeds that of the nation as a whole; in 1890 the former was over one billion dollars,

1890]

Prosperity

589

or a little over eighteen dollars per head. It will be interesting in this connection to cite a few figures by way of comparison. They are taken from the work of Mulhall, a British statistician, and certainly do not overstate the case in favor of the United States.

Mulhall estimates the wealth, debt, and ratio of debt to wealth of the four leading nations as follows (the figures are pounds sterling):

The banking capital of the United States exceeds that of Great Britain, and, in 1885, the year for which Mulhall gives statistics, there was more gold in the United States than in Great Britain. The American post office carried seven hundred million pieces of mail matter in comparison with nine hundred million carried by all the post offices of Europe. Finally, the average earnings of an inhabitant. of the United States are given by this foreign compiler as almost exactly double those of an average inhabitant of Europe.

The meaning of the facts as to production and wealth given in the preceding sections can be best understood, perhaps, in the light of a computation made by Edward Atkinson, the American statistician. He states that a "portion," consisting of food, fuel, and materials for clothing, Comparativ which corresponds to the average daily consumption of prices. artisans and mechanics in New England, could be purchased in 1860 for thirty-one cents, and in 1890 for thirty cents, although in the meantime the average daily wage has in

Conclusion.

creased from one dollar and sixty cents to two dollars and sixty cents.

400. Conclusion. In the preceding chapters has been traced the rise and progress of the American nation. We have seen how the first settlers came to the wilderness. They created homes for themselves in the New World and estab

Masonic Temple, Chicago

lished the freest and least aristocratic societies then known in Christendom. Others were attracted to these new communities, and they grew as no colonies had grown before. Their prosperity attracted the attention of British lawmakers, who attempted to use the colonists' wealth for their own relief. The first taxes were not oppressive, but the American colonists felt that these laws infringed upon their rights as men. They threw off allegiance to the British king

and established a republican form of government for their own communities. Gradually, driven by danger and a feeling of nationality, they grew together, established a general government, and worked out their institutions on democratic lines. Singularly enough, this free people tolerated on their soil a system of slavery after slavery had been abolished in every other Christian countrysave Spain and Brazil. This was due to the protection which the Constitution gave to the upholders of slavery as

1890]

Conclusion

591

a local institution. At length, the slave owners by their own act placed themselves outside the pale of the Constitution, and attacked the nation's government. With the extirpation of rebellion, slavery was extirpated likewise, and an era of unexampled industrial activity began. There are problems confronting the American people whose solution no one can forecast. But there are signs that the period of political uncertainty is coming to an end; the South is becoming a manufacturing re

gion. If this move

ment proves permanent, the interests of Southerners and Northerners will be identical.

The chief causes

of our prosperity in the past have been the frugality, our prosperenergy, and personal independence of our people; the rapid development of invention; equality of all men in the eye of the law; free institutions and the breaking loose from the prejudices of European societies. These qualities, inherent in the race from which the American people has sprung, without the barriers to human activity which surrounded them in their old homes, have been combined in the United States with a good climate, splendid soil, wonderful mineral resources, and free trade over an enormous extent of territory. These conditions have made the American people what it is; they are all still present in the inhabitants of the United States, and in the country in which they dwell. Great as has been the progress of the American nation in the past, there is every reason to believe that its achievements in the arts of peace have but just begun.