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Show I WHY -WE CONTRIBUTE? Explaining how important the United States "is. in the economic life of the world, a student of statistics has made the following comparisons com-parisons : 13ack in 1913 we' mined 3S per cent of the world's coal. Our output was 569,000,000 tons, as compared with 321,0.00-000 tons mined by Great Britain and 305,000,000 tons taken out of- the ground in Germany. In 191S. however, our share of coal mined amounted to AG per cent of the world output and the figures were: United States-073,000,000 States-073,000,000 tons; Great Britain, 255,000,000 tons; Germany 273,000,-000 273,000,-000 tons. In 3913 we turned out 31,300000 tons of steel, while Germany, Great Britain and France combined produced 31,100,000 tons. In 191S our production had risen to 45.000,000 tons and that of the three European nations had fallen to just over 26,000.000 tons. We spent something over $32,000,000,000 in the war. Of this sum we raised by- taxation well over $9,000,000,000. AVe loaned to our allies nearly' $10,000:000,000. leaving us a net war debt of just under $14,000,000,000. By contrast England spent nearly $50,000,-000,000. $50,000,-000,000. Of this she raised by taxatiou over $14,000,000,000, loaned to her allies near $9,000,000,000, and finds a net burden on her oeo-plc oeo-plc of over $26,000,000-000. In 1914 Great Britain had nine ships to our one and Germany had five to our two. In 1919 the actual tounage of Great Britain was 16.345,000 and our tonnage had "risen from 2,027.000 in 1914 to 9,-773.000. 9,-773.000. In 1914 only S per cent of the. commerce of the United States was carried in American ships. In 1919 the proportion was 3J per cent. "With these figures presented- wc- ccae lo wonder that the world j continues to draw heavily on the American people in order to exist. ! While Ave produce a percentage so large of the essentials of life, we must continue to serve common humanity by freely contributing our storehouses of plenty. |