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What Are the Wild Waves Say
ing: ?
BY DR. JOSEPH EDWARDS CARPENTER.
“What are the wild waves saying.
Sister, the whole day long,
That ever amid our playing,
I hear but their low, lone song?
Not by the seaside only,
There it sounds wild and free;
But at night, when ’tis dark and lonely,
In dreams it is still with me.”
“Brother! I hear no singing!
’Tis but the rolling wave,
Ever its lone course winging
Over some lonesome cave!
Tis but the noise of water
Dashing against the shore,
And the wind from some bleaker quarter
Mingling, mingling with its bleaker roar,”
“No! It is something greater,
'that speaks to the heart alone;
The voice of the great Creator,
Dwells in that mighty tone.
“Yes! But the waves seem ever
Singing the same sad thing,
And vain is my weak endeavor
To guess what the surges sing!
What is that voice repeating,
Ever by night and day?
Is it a friendly greeting,
Or a warning that calls away?”
“Brother! the inland mountain,
Hath it not voice and sound?
Speaks not the dripping fountain,
As it bedews the ground ?
E’en by the household ingle,
• Curtained and closed and warm,
Do not our voices mingle
With those of the distant storm?”
“Yes! But there’s something greater,
That speaks to the heart alone,
The voice of the great Creator
Dwells in that mighty tone!”
Progress of the United States of
America.
The following was written for a
French journal by Edw. Marbeau:
The American nation is destined to
take, sooner than is generally supposed,
the first place among the states of the
globe. It is only necessary to glance
over the statistics to see that the pro
gressive advance of the United States
threatens Europe with a competition
such that there will forcedly come a
moment in which the axis of industrial
power, human activity, and political
influence will shift to the profit of the
new world. What will become of old
Europe on the day that China, in her
turn, enters into the great movement of
industrial expansion? If we abandon
Africa to the propaganda oflslam, and
if the statesmen of the old continent
do not seize the last occasion which
oilers itself to attach Africa and the
black race to the destinies of Europe,
it will be all up with the preponder
ance that it has hitherto held over the
destinies of the human race. Mr. Paul
Barre sends us the result of some con
scientious researches that he has made
into the best statistics, and we publish
them in the hope that they will facili
tate the task of those who are attempt
ing to enlighten public opinions upon
the peril that Europe is running, and
to draw it into that movement of
expansion which is the condition of its
safety.
Extent and Population.— The United
States of America, which separated
from England in 4776, and elected
their first president in 1789, now con
sist of 42 States, 6 Territories, and
1 Federal District. The total area of
the Union, including Alaska, is about
3,605,000 square miles. As for the
population, that, during the century,
has made a truly fabulous progress.
While Great Britain’s population
has, in fifty years, increased by 10 mil
lions, France’s by 5 Ger
many’s by 16 millions, the population
of the United States has increased 37
millions. It has been calculated that,
since 1790, the population of North
America has been doubling about
every twenty-six years. At present,
the population of the
must certainly exceed 62 million in
habitants. Now, in 1790 the popula
tion did not reach 4 millions. In one
century, then, the population has
varied in the proportion of 1 to 15.5.
If this ascending advance continues,
and there is every evidence that it will,
the United States in fifty years will
count more than 200 million inhabit
ants, and in seventy years will be as
populous as Europe.
Four-fifths of the present population
consist of Americans of English origin,
the other fifth consists chiefly of Ger
mans, more than 3 millions of whom
have arrived within the forty years,
only, comprised between 1840 and
1880. Countries other than England
and Germany have furnished but little
to the emigration, so the French,
Italians, Spanish, ek , who have taken
up their abode United States
are swallowed up in the immense mass
of the Anglo-Germaus. In 1880, the
cities contained a quarter of the total
population of the United States.
Apropos of immigrants, let us recall
the fact that 13,500,000 have arrived
in the United States within a century.
The annual number of them varies
much with the year. Thus, in 1882,
788,000 were received, while in 1886
the number was but 334,000.
Financial Condition. — In 1850, the
fortune of the United States was
$8,430,000,000, while that of Great
Britain was estimated at more than
$22,500,000,000. Thirty years have
sufficed to change things around.
In 1884, the fortune of Great Bri
tain was estimated at. $45,000,000,-
000, and that of the United States at
$55,000,000,000, in which the Ameri
can manufactures represent a value of
nearly $5,600,000,000, say about half
that of all the European manufactures
combined, that is, $13,000,000,006.
If we admit that the fortune of
France is about $40,000,000,000, and
that of Germany $25,000,000,000, it
will be seen that the United States is
at present the richest country in the
entire world.
Despite the immense sacrifices made
during the war of the rebellion, the
United States are in the most prosper
ous financial condition of any country
in the world. While in ten yeais
they have paid off $530,000,000 of
their debt, and in another decade will
have entirely wiped it out, the different
states of Europe still owe $23,400,000,-
000. The interest on this crushing
debt is annually figured at from SBOO,-
000,000 to $1,000,000,000, to be raided
from the labor of European nations.
In order to render the comparison
still more striking, let us take France
and England only, whose united pop
ulation scarcely exceeds a quarter of
that of the American Union. France
and England annually pay $315,000,
000 for the interest of their debt and
$340,000,000 for their army and
navy. They keep 730,000 available
men in service, and, estimating the
possible work of each of those at but
SIOO a year, that represents a further
cold loss of $73,000,000 ; so that it is
impossible to estimate the annual
charges resulting from the debt and
the army and navy at less than $620,-
000,000",
Well, in spite of an enormous
amortizement, the United States depend
at present, for these three services,
upon $152,500,000. That is to say,
that the cost of these three services for
France and England aloue is figured
annually by a difference of $460,000,-
000 to the advantage of the American
system. Counting per head, we find
that the French and English systems
THE KENWEBAW GAZETTE.
cost $12.75 per inhabitant, or $63.75
per family of five persons, while the
expense in the United States is not
$2.50 per head, nor $12.50 per family.
Let us add that the United States
might much more easily support the
overwhelming burden that weighs upon
the English and French taxpayers,
who are oppressed besides by local
charges.
If this state of things does not change
before long, it will therefore be neces
sary to expect a rapid decadence of
the European nations in their produc
tive power and their prosperity as
compared with those of the United
States. Such decadence could be pre
vented only by finding an immediate
means of causing the population and
wealth of Europe to increase as rapidly
as the population of the United States
do. Now, not only does such a means
not exist, but the very severity of the
conditions that the present military
system imposes upon the old world
forces innumerable emigrants to leave it,
and a large proportion of these adds
its labor to the other elements ol
prosperity of the American republic.
Were the people of Europe to deliber
ately try to ruin themselves to Amer
ica’s profit, 1 bey would, therefore, not
act otherwise than they are doing.
Army and Favy. — A comparison of
the American militiary budget with
that of the great western powers —
France, England and German) —gives
the following results: In France we
find annually inscrib'd in the army
and navy budgets $182,500,000, or
$4.98 per head ol inhabitants; in
England, $158,400,000, or $4.20 per
head ; and in Germany (1886), $113,-
000,000, or $2.44 per head. The
United States kt ep up an army ol
but 27,000 men and expend on this
account only $50,000,000 per year, or
scarcely 86 cents per In ad.
Opposite these 27,000 men let us
put the 1,224,604 soldiers kept in
service in time of peace by the three
above named powers, and we shall find
that in this item they yearly consume
one-eighth of their productive power.
Again, this estimate is below the truth,
if we consider that the men thus taken
from the pursuits of peace are all in
the maximum of their strength and
at the age when character is formed.
The loss of revenue that results from
such a state of things becomes appal
ling when we consider it as a factor of
the industrial contest with the United
States.
The United States, then, have an
insignificant standing army and an
insignificant navy ; but, a quarter of a
century ago, at the time of the war of
the rebellion, they put into the field,
at the first call, two million well armed
men and 626 war vessels.
Commerce. — The imports and exports
of Arneiica nearly equal those of
France and Germany, say about
$1,500,000,000 but they are far from
coining up to those of England—
s3,ooo,ooo,ooo. As lor the interior
commerce of A meric, that of no
other nation offers r.ny comparison
with it. The annual radway freight
receipts in the United States exceed
$550,000,000—a sum greater than
that paid by England, France and
Italy combined, for the same object.
The Pennsylvania system al me carries
a larger tannage than that of all the
merchant vessels of England.
Merchant Marine. — Tim merchant
marine of the republic conns immedi
ately after that of England. In 1880.
the total tonnage of the English mer
chant marine was 18,000,000 tons, and
that of the United States 9,000,000 —
a tonnage four times as large as that
of France. American ships monopo
lize nearly 20 per cent of the total
receipts of the commercial maritime
carriage of the world. France and
Germany figure in this commercial
contest only for 5 per cent each.
Ways of Communication. — The United
States possess 145,200 miles of railway
(end ol 1887), while Europe has but
124,200. As the entire world con
tains about 337,000 miles, it follows
that the United States have 44 per
cent of the railways of the globe.
They will soon have more than the
rest of the world !
Moreover, nowhere can a person
travel so comfortably and luxuriously,
owing especially to the American in
vention of sleeping cars, which permit
of making trips of seven days and
seven nights, without fatigue, from
one ocean to the other.
Besides its railways, America has
rivers that are the largest in the world.
The Mississippi is equal to all the rivers
of Eur pe combined, with the excep
tion of the Volga. Its length is about
3,200 miles, ami that of its navigable
affluents is more than 19,200. The
Hudson is navigable for large steam
boats as lar as to Albany, that is to say,
to 160 miles from its mouth.
There are a dozen other rivers of
like importance. There are a number
of large seaports at considerable dis
tances from the coast properly so called.
There is nothing more curious than to
see ships of 3,000 tons at a distance*of
1,500 miles from the tea. These great
natuial watercourses are, in addition,
completed artificially and connected
with each other by canals. In 1880
there were in the United States 4,300
miles of canals that cost $265,000,000.
The maritime coasts accessible to
navigation have an extent of 13,000
mibs, and if we count the islands and
bays we find that the American sea
shore has a total length of 32,000
miles. Moreover, the length of the
coastsol the lakes accessible to naviga
tion is 1,600 miles.
Production. — To show the astonish
ing progress of American production
in a very short lapse of time, we give
the following comparison of results
collected twenty years apart.
1866. 1886.
Gold and Silver.. $63,5(J0,(i0(i $83,50U,0< 0
Sugar 20,060,000 lb. 286,000,1.0 lb
Cotton I,' 00.000.000 lb. 3,182,000,0( 0 lb.
Wheat 212,000,000 bii. 357.0 o,<>oo bu.
Corn 786 000,000 bn. 1,936,000, < (Hi bu.
Petroleum 132 ( oo.oou gal. 943,000,000 gal.
Post Office and Telegraphs.— ln no
country in the world, m a relatively
short space of time, has the postal
service been so extensively developed.
There are at present in tiie great
American republic 58,376 post offices
(against 23,328 in 1866), while Ger
many has but 18,583, Great Britain
17,567, and France 7,296. The postal
routes of the United Statts extend
over 240,000 milts, those of Germane
51,000, those of France 40,000, arid
those of England 25,000.
The American post office sent -last
year more than 3,576,000,000 letters
and printed documents of all kinds,
while the English did not exceed 2,270,-
000,000, the Germans 1,816,000,000,
and the French 1,400,000,000.
The proportion of postal matter for
waided is 71 per inhabitant in the
United States, 61 in England, 41 in
Germany and 37 in France.
Finally, the firet of these natioi s
spent tor its postal operations fiity-six
million dollars, the second nearly
forty-four million, the third nearly
twenty-nine mi.lion, and the fourth
nearly twentynine milli n.
As for the American telegraph
system, that is the most extensive in
the world. At the close of 1884, it
comprised 138,600 miles of lines and
417,600 miles of wires. At the same
epoch, Russia had 60,000 miles of lines
and 138,000 miles of wires, France