The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo. MONDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 1899. THE STRENGTH OF AMERICA.

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 30, 6 February 1899, Page 4

The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo.

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 1899. THE STRENGTH OF AMERICA.

In tie cawse that lask» aasUteaee, For tko -srrong that aesis rsastaate, Tor the future ia ths iistases, Aad t&a E«ed that m tai to.

j mere are very lew who nave even I a vague conception of the position I which the United States occupies in i the world's economy. Most are aware that by reason of its large population, extensive industries, and great private and national wealth, it is entitled to rank high in the list of nations, but few will be prepared for the substantiation of the assertion recently made in the United States House of Representatives by the Hon. John F. Shafroth, in the course of a speech, on the appreciation of gold, during which he said: 'There is no nation that- can compare with ours. It is only by comparison with groups of nations, or with the balance of the world, that the greatness of the United States is shown.' Mulhall, an eminent English statistician, a few years ago, in an article in the 'l\orth American. Review,' made the startling statement that in power and effective force the United States is nearly equal to Great Britain, France and Germany combined. There are few who would give these opinions much thought, concluding that they were the outcome of unsupported assertion, were it not that in Congressman Shafroth's ease they were backed up by presumably reliable statistics, more than partially bearing out his contention. It has come to be the recognised way of estimating effective force by calculating it in foot-tons, a system based on the principle that an adult labourer expends sufficient energy in one day's work to liftSOOtons one foot. The power of a horse is set down at ten times that of a man. On this footton principle the power of nations would be largely in relation to their numerical strength were it not that the allowances that machinery introduces into the calculation vary so widely with different nations that the basis of population affords very unreliable data. The United States js noted for the utilisation of laboursaving machinery, and Mr Mulhall gives the effective daily force of the country as 129,306,000,000 foot-tons, as against 50,100,000,000 foot tons for Great Britain, and 430.106,000,000 for the world.. While the population of the States is 75,000,000 that of Great Britain is approximately 39,000,000, so the effective force per unit is appreciably greater in the former country.

Mr Mulhall's figures, as regards manufactures, are still more surprising. He gives the manufactories of the United States as one-half as much as those of the balance of the world, the figures of the annual output being respectively £1,443,000,000 and £4,----474,000,000. As the United States use the whole of their manufactures, or the equivalent of them—export being balanced by import—it may be argued that the consumptive power of the nation is half tha.t of the world outside themselves, or compared as a market with the rest of the world, the United States' population is equal to a population of 500,000,000. The statistics, of railway traffic are proportionate to those of the output of manufactures. The total railroad mileage of the United States is nearly half as much as that of the entire world, there being 182,776 miles of railroad, as against 436,240 miles for the whole world, or 253,474 miles for the rest of the world after deducting the United States. The annual railway receipts for the United States are £219,000,000, against £.503,000,000 for the entire world, while'the goods trafiic (1892) was 845,000,000 tons and 1,348,000,000 tons for one hundred miles respectively.. This means that while the railway receipts of the United States are slightly less than half of the world's totals, the tonnage carried is considerably in excess of half. To use another illustration from Congressman Shafroth's speech, while the grain production of the world in 1896 was about 9,900,000,000 bushels that of the United States war, 3,533,200,000 bushels, or more than one third of the total.

Many other comparisons are given which it would occupy too much space to enter into, but Professor Francois' estimate of national wealth may be drawn upon to provide a final illustration. He sets down the entire world's wealth at slightly under three hundred thousand million dollars, and that of the United States at over sixty thousand million dollars, or in excess of a fifth of the whole. The figures thh't we have quoted will come as a surprise to most people. They form a tribute to the immense internal resources of the country and to the extraordinary energy of the ever-in-creasing people who are turning them to the best possible account.