| Show national affairs written tor for the park record by FRINK P LITSCHERT when we read that the average uninformed european regards america as a land of millionaires where every citizen owns 0 a high powered motor car and cottage by the sea we are olten often mildly surprised and moved to wonder how they get that way the explanation usually given Is that the american movies so EO popular in europe have hale give given the people over there an idea of luxurious amer am r ican life that american stenographers wear silk hose to work and that ameni can workers ride to the scene of their labors in six cylinder motor cars must indeed be a source ot of wonder to nations in n which the majority of the tha workers are till still a confronted with the problem of keeping the tha wolf from the door 0 but if europeans marvel at our prosperity it Is equally true that americans especially those who do not travel abroad often tall fall adequately to appreciate it in this respect it Is well to call attention to a few sentences from an address delivered recently at jackson mich by arthur M hyde the united states secretary of agriculture referring as these sentences do to our prosperity and progress mr hyde declared 4 W 0 the progress of america in the last seventy five years Is it record of gnp unbar a r adelaed achievement in population we have grown from to our railroads have increased their mile age from to our national wealth has grown from ten billion dollars to about billion dollars our per capita wealth has increased from about to about since 1850 1850 the number of paupers haupers in RIMs almshouses houses per hundred thousand population has decreased 66 per cent the number of children in schools per hundred thousand ot of population has increased 35 per pe r cent we number but six per cent of the tha worlds population yet we consume 78 per cent of the worlds automobiles 60 per cent of its telephones tele phou C 6 48 per cent of its radios we use 39 P per cent c en calit of t the he worlds coal 61 per cent of its is petroleum 35 per cent of f its water power and 40 per cent of its electricity our manufacturers rs require 43 per cent of the pig iron of the world 43 per cent of its copper 30 36 per cent of its lead 35 per cent cc t of its zinc and 46 per cent of its t tin in our people consume 15 per pe r cent of all the wheat gro grown wn on the earth 23 per cent of the sugar 51 per cent of the cottee coffee 28 26 per cent of the cotton 17 per cent of the wool 72 per cent of the silk and 68 66 per cent or of the rubber considering the tha tact fact that we are less than ones I 1 sixteenth of the peoples of the world w all this indicates a very high at standard andar adl of living tho quality of food Is higher h 1 percentage figures quoted above T the b e I 1 american people will be slow to coulten count na I 1 ance any risking of this great market tor for the quality of clothing Is better homes are m more ore C comfortable the spread of education throughout all the classes of our people Is equalled equal led only by the increase ain in the standards of education america has achieved a wider distribution of the good things of life than has ever been achieved by any nation on earth aw 40 all of which Is true without any fear of successful con tradition small wonder then that so many of the people of europe look upon us as a nation ot of millionaires lion aires and are eager to flock to the shores ot of a land where every one seems to live in what they regard as comparative luxury the lesson tor for us americans is that we should learn to appreciate our country more true all Is not perfect here perfection can come in a tree free gov got no more than in any other bu f man institution but our progress during i three quarters of v a century as ur mr hyde cyile points out has been nothing short of nt marvelous it has been due in large mea me sure to the inventive genius genias the indus try the integrity and the ability ot of the american people and it 14 has been made possible too by aue national policies which have put the wel fare ot of the american producer above abort that ot of the rest of the world if we tint to know the real value ot of the great hornet home market we have 0 only aly to study mr air hyde hyda the pot ot of gold at the end ol of the european rainbow |
