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Show CUH IIATCnLESS COUlimY. - ;V' .vXfew Year finds the United States the most " . Jprosperous land ''that e'er. the sun shone"onfM 1 '. ' vfT"-"1 not a shadow on, the whole land save - i t? 'ch Tf uPn San Franciso. And even be-" Ajhin'd San .Francisco: the Golden; State, with more - resources. than any other and in extent greater than j all .New! England, with. 2ew York and Pennsylvania - j added, smiles' under her prosperity and holds up '' v er tre8ures of field and.orchard and vine and gold . V I ftoken"of . a' happy New Year. I. Vvt ' The yield from the soil has been without prece- '; : (4-eSt during'.the past year. Secretary Wilson's esti- i mates -foot up $6,500,000,000. It is just forty-six . ..:--'., years since' the great war of the rebellion broke :'','- lPPn our" country. The people had been toiling for , i four score. years since the fathers had won inde- 'Pence. ; Before that the colonies had been toil- .ing for 150;years, but in all those 230 years the total accumulations of the nation amounted to but $13,-000,000,000, $13,-000,000,000, or only twice what the farmers, fruit-, fruit-, raisers and stock-growers of the country took from ; the soil in 1906. It was enough to buy, people and '. 'settle a great empire. It was equal to one-third of the accumulated wealth of Austria-Hungary as reckoned by the census of 1890. But this was nobly seconded by the country ' manufactures. So magnificent was the output that the manufacturers' manu-facturers' had $400,000,000 worth of their wares to sell to. the outside world, or half as much as the I farmers had for export. But, considering the numbers engaged, the very finest showing was made by the miners. Perhaps the most impressive single feature of the industrial indus-trial triumph of the United States is that which, ' beginning with the mining of iron ore in Minnesota Minne-sota with steam shovels, transports it by rail to the .upper lake port, loads it upon great steamers, transports trans-ports it down the long chain of lakes to the smelters, smel-ters, and converts it into the iron and steel of commerce. To divert for a moment from our theme, it is a marvelous fact that during the season of transportation, a great steamer passes through 'Detroit river every eight minutes. The output of pig iron for the year just closed will be more than 20.000.000 tons. Think how much iron has to be mined, how much coal, how much coke has to be made to accomplish that ! But the circulating fluid of commerce and the regulator of prices is money, and in the production of this the West has kept up her ancient fame. We have not yet the figures for the year of the product of the precious metals and of lead and copper, but they are very large, and the promise for 1907 exceeds ex-ceeds that of 1906 by millions. The nation does not realize what this means. Were there to be a failure of the cotton or the corn crops, it would cause great ' distress to those upon whom the loss would directly fall, but the other work of the people would sweep on and prices would not be lessened. But were there a failure of the gold and silver production for a single year there would be a slowing down of every ' kind of business and a fall of 10 per cent in all ralues, and very likely a financial crash which would paralyze business, so sensitive is business to the increase or decrease of money. In only one thing is our country lacking. She is triumphant on land, but her dominion "stops with the shore." She looks to other nations to carry away her surplus to a hungry world, to bring to us what we purchase from abroad, and so far as jr object lesson is concerned, the outside world so seldom sees our flag that not one nation outide of three or four in Europe has any conception of the place we really hold. This is altogether to our discredit dis-credit and to our loss, and is a direct impeachment of the wisdom of our so-called statesmen. But in all other industries the country's products pro-ducts from field, mine and factory ere a notic to mankind that all other countries are mean and poor compared with ours. And so far as human foresight goes, there is not a cloud in the sky: nothing to hint that th coming com-ing year may not be more prosperous than the last. So the "Happy New Years" have full significance to the American people this year. Exulting in the glorious present, they can with confidence look forward for-ward to a more glorious future, and with the courage cour-age which the hope gives take up the burdens of the new year with joyous and grateful hearts. |