bined output of Great Britain and Germany. In other industries the advance was equally marvelous-in many instances over 100 per cent. in ten years.

Railroad mileage increased until at the opening of the century it was 193,345 miles 40 per cent. of the world's total. In 1910 it had grown to 239,991 miles. The gross receipts of the operating roads in 1910 exceeded $2,800,000,000. Our exports, which from 1891 to 1895 (both inclusive) increased 20 per cent., gained over 50 per cent. in the ensuing six years. In 1911 the total of domestic exports had risen to $2,013,549,025. In addition, we exported $87,259,611 of gold and silver. During the same period our imports increased but still lagged behind the exports in amount, as they had done almost every year since 1874. In 1911 they were in gross, free and dutiable, $1,527,226,105-a decrease of almost 2 per cent. from the preceding year. Moreover, a large proportion of our imports in this period was of raw or partially manufactured materials, instead of wholly manufactured goods, as in previous years.

An analysis of these figures goes far toward demonstrating the selfsufficiency of the United States and their practical independence of the rest of the world. The domestic supply of raw materials was ample for present and future needs, even should the foreign supply be cut off. Fully 90 per cent. of the manufactures of the country were kept for home use. In

wheat and cotton a large surplus was annually sent to foreign markets, but most of the other cereals were consumed at home. Dairy products were almost entirely consumed for home needs. Domestic industry, the interstate or the inter-sectional exchange of products and money, far exceeded in amount and value that which fed the foreign market. The vast accumulation of wealth from all sources remained at home for the most part, greatly enriching the Nation. Much has been written about the millions spent abroad by traveling Americans and the millions taken away or sent away by a transitory foreign population, but these losses have had little economic effect upon the great total of National wealth.

The savings of the people constitute another factor in measuring the growing prosperity and the accumulating wealth of the country. Before the close of the Civil War savings banks existed principally in the Eastern and Middle States. In 1888 such banks existed in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Ohio, Wisconsin and Michigan. The deposits in these banks constituted a considerable portion of the savings of the people of those States, although some had gone into life insurance, building and loan associations, real estate and industrial enterprises. In 1873-1874 the savings banks deposits in the entire United States were $759,946,000, while in

1888 they had risen to about $1,500,000,000-an an increase of nearly 100 per cent. and a proportionate addition to the tangible wealth of the country.

In 1890-1900, however, occurred the one serious break in this period's prosperity. In the preceding decade there was a great settlement movement to the West and Southwest which congested somewhat existing conditions. Land by the millions of acres was taken up and mortgages given for purchase price and working capital, resulting in an agricultural depression which spelt ruin to the farmers of Kansas, Nebraska and other States in that section. But the tide changed quickly and in the years following 1897, with good crops and higher prices, the farmers regained their losses. Mortgages were paid off and that part of the country again attained a condition of economic solvency. The incident is interesting and important from many points of view. It showed to what extent the prosperity of the country always depends upon its agriculture, notwithstanding its development in other directions, and demonstrated once more the wonderful wealth obtainable from that source. At the close of the first decade of the Twentieth century no section of the country was more prosperous than the Southwest.

At the beginning of the Twentieth century questions pertaining to the equitable distribution of wealth came into greater prominence than those re

lating to its accumulation. A century had fully demonstrated the country's almost inexhaustible natural resources and the capacity, energy and enterprise of her people. There was no longer any uncertainty as to the wealth-producing power of the country or any reasonable doubt as to the permanency of its economic progress.

With the period of initiative, enterprise and energetic exploitation of opportunities nearly over and the fruit of this intense National activity fully ripened, it was natural that the economic questions of distribution rather than of production should have come to engage the minds of the people, especially of those who studied economic and sociological conditions. In regard to the general subject of wealth, this was one of the most striking manifestations of the period. The conclusions have been almost as various as the investigators and commentators have been numerous. Some facts, however, seem to stand out prominently. Vast wealth had become concentrated in the hands of comparatively few individuals, families and business combinations; and yet the great middle class has secured more of the common accumulation than is generally believed. Beyond this the subject has infinite ramifications. This is not the place to enter upon a discussion of a subject of such magnitude, even if space permitted. As a vital part of the history of the period, however, it is essential to record at least the agitation and discussion which

formed so large a part of the intellectual life of the period, affected legislation, and exercised profound influence on business.

In the opening years of the Twentieth century National thought was largely concerned with the subject of government control of wealth and its production. Periodical literature treated of this more than of any other single topic. National and State legislation favored a more comprehensive and more effective government control of business. It were not too much to say that in the two decades ending with 1910 more than one half the legislation of the country bore directly or indirectly upon this matter. The merest reference to some of the measures to this end will serve to indicate the importance this question assumed in our National life. The socalled "anti-trust" laws, State and National, were numbered by the score. Municipal control of ownership of public utilities was established in many commonwealths and municipalities. To the National Interstate Commerce Commission were given powers that made its members virtual dictators of the railroad business of the country. In 1910 Congress created a Commerce Court, with jurisdiction, as its title indicates the only important addition to the Federal judiciary since the establishment of the District and

Circuit courts, inferior only to the Supreme Court itself. Most of the business that came before the Supreme Court was of this nature and the decisions of that body, almost without exception, favored government supervision and regulation of the business activities of the country. Inheritance taxes were placed on the statute books of nearly every State and early in 1912 the proposal to amend the constitution so as to authorize a Federal income-tax was so popular that it was ratified by many State legislatures.

*

* C. B. Spahr, An Essay on the Present Distribution of Wealth in the United States (New York, 1896); Statistical Abstract (Bureau of Statistics, Washington, 1865-1910); R. R. Bowker, Reader's Guide in Economic, Social and Political Science (New York, 1891); H. Gannett, Building of a Nation; Growth, Present Condition and Resources of the United States (New York, 1895); J. J. Lalor (ed.), Cyclopedia of Political Science, Political Economy, and of the Political History of the United States (3 vols. Chicago, 1881-84); Sir S. Morton Peto, Resources and Prospects of America (London, 1866); Census reports, 1870, 1880, 1890, 1900, 1910; T. D. Woolsey (ed.), The First Century of the Republic (New York, 1876); Hunt's Merchants' Magazine and Commercial Review (New York, 1840-70); David A. Wells, Recent Economic Changes (New York, 1891); J. A. Collins, The Distribution of Wealth in the United States (Senate Doc. 75, 55th Congress, 2d session); Wealth, Debt and Taxation (Eleventh and Twelfth Census reports, 1890 and 1900); M. G. Mulhall, Dictionary of Statistics (London, 1884); L. B. Ruggles, The United States of America (New York, 1880); L. H. Bailey, Agricultural Cyclopedia of America (4 vols., New York, 1907).

The principal industries of the United States are agriculture, manufacturing, mining, forestry and fisheries. Were we to consider the subject from the standpoint of occupations rather than that of industries in the ordinary acceptation of the term, commerce and transportation should also be mentioned, since the number of persons engaged in trade and transportation ranks third in the great groups of occupations. Considering the number of persons employed, agriculture stands first, manufactures second, and trade and transportation third. The census of 1900 showed the number of persons engaged in agricultural pursuits, 10,381,765; in manufacturing and mechanical pursuits, 7,085,309; in trade and transportation, 4,766,964; in domestic and personal service, 5,580,657; and in professional service, 1,258,538. In value of products, however, manufactures stand at the head of the list, with agriculture second, mining third, forestry fourth,

and fisheries fifth. Moreover, the growth in value of products from decade to decade- - and the figures for these various lines are based only on the decennial census-is more rapid in manufactures than in agriculture. The census of 1870 gave the number of persons engaged in agriculture as 5,922,471 and that of 1900 as 10,381,765. The value of the product in 1870 was $1,958,030,927 and in 1900 $4,717,069,973. Thus the number of persons employed has scarcely doubled and the value of the product a little more than doubled in these 30 years. In manufactures, however, the figures of 1870 showed the number of wage earners as 2,053,996 and in 1900, as 5,308,406; and the value of the product in 1870 as $4,232,325,442 and in 1900 as $13,004,400,143, the number of persons engaged in manufacturing having increased more than 150 per cent. and the value of the product more than 200 per cent. In minerals the value of the product was $218,598,994 in 1870, and $1,107,031,392 in 1900, hav

Chief of the Bureau of Statistics, Department of

Commerce and Labor.

sideration. The census of 1910 shows

the number of wage earners employed in the manufacturing industries as 6,615,046, an increase of nearly 25 per cent. over 1900; while the value of the product the same year was $20,672,052,000, showing a gain of more than 50 per cent. over 1900. The increase in the number of persons engaged in agriculture is as great as that employed in manufactures.

While the subject of agriculture in the United States is discussed elsewhere in this work, it may be proper to compare the growth in that industry with that in manufactures and mining, by way of indicating the relative importance (past and present) and the prospect of each. It seems not unreasonable to assume from an examination of the figures above quoted that manufacturing is to be in the near future - if, indeed, it be not already the leading industry of the United States, although at the present moment the number of persons actually employed in agricultural pursuits is greater than that in manufacturing.

In many respects the industrial history of the United States is similar to that of other temperate zone countries occupied by occidental peoples. Agriculture was naturally the first occupation of the people. Food was the primary requirement; for, while clothing was necessary, a part of this, in the earlier stages of the history of the country, was produced from the skins of animals captured primarily for food. Thus man gave his chief attention to the development of the soil and

In the meantime man learned, after many years of experiment, that coal could be used in the manufacture of iron. For many years - decades, in fact he had manufactured his iron by the use of charcoal. Later he learned to apply to coal a process somewhat similar to that by which wood was turned into charcoal, and by transforming the coal into coke produced iron and steel from the heat supplied by coal. Then came the Bessemer process of steel-making and other similar processes, by which the proper amount of carbon was combined with the iron by forcing air through the molten metal, and the production of steel was greatly cheapened and the quantity produced greatly increased. This process, while it developed in England somewhat earlier than in the United States, had been thought out almost simultaneously by Americans and came into general use in the United States but a short time after its adoption in England and the other manufacturing countries of Europe. Sir Henry Bes