[From the Proceedings of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Columbia College, blew York, August, 1887.] . / Wealth of the Republic. The power of production; the present aggregate value and the non-economic consumption. By Charles S. Hill, Washington, D. C. The Science of Statistical Analysis is as essential to Political Economy as Political Economy is essential to the welfare and perpetuity of a Nation. The Wealth of knowledge of those conditions of life which are hidden from the sur- face view, or confused in the understanding of the general public-because of the misrepresentations so often made in solving the social problems of life which so deeply concern the interest of the masses of mankind-when acquired, is a wealth greater than all other. Such knowledge can only be acquired, however, from carefully collated official data: by untiring study, with skill and system; by unbiasedly searching, first, for the facts, then for the hidden causes which make up such data-for their origin and their consequences; and then by thoroughly analyzing and separating their several parts and values.we find the influences which create and the chances of results from those conditions which govern our existence. We can then distinguish golden truths from deceitful sophisms. Such knowledge becomes Political Economy. Wealth, whether possessed by a Nation in its public treasury or by a people in their private holdings, may come from force of circumstances, but without Political Econ- omy in the one and domestic economy in the other, bankruptcy must inevitably follow. It is sometimes easy to acquire wealth, but it will always require understanding and a great deal of practical common sense to retain it. The goal of life is wealth ; the labor of the mind or of the body is animated and sustained by the desire and prospect of acquiring wealth. Take from man this incentive and ambition in life and he loses the vital power of industry and deteriorates to the worthless condition of the spiritless serf, and in his insignificant sphere contributes to humanity and civilization even less than the fami- lies of the vegetable kingdom. Wealth is, therefore, naturally the longing of the poor who possess the soul of pride and, perhaps, pardonably, the avarice of the rich who nervously fear its loss. It is the universal sentiment throughout the world and the instinct of mankind to covet wealth ; it is tjie reward of industry, the honor of statesmanship, and whether individual or national it is-after looking to education-the only substantial legacy that we can leave to our children. It is necessary, therefore, to study the question of wealth to find the causes of its production and the contingencies of its consumption. PRODUCTION. The sources of production are both mental and physical, and the material for con- sideration thereof is voluminous ; but our distinguished vice-president ably presented at the opening of this session this part of my theme, and demonstrated clearly that, " in searching for the source of wealth, we find, with few exceptions and with mental talent directing its development, it is unquestionably produced from the soil." Prof. Alvord has left nothing to be said on this point, and I have the pleasure of relieving you from listening to some pages of thought less interesting compared with his analysis. It will not be my purpose, therefore, now, so much to present the means of produc- ing wealth as to seek the knowledge how to retain it. It is necessary, however, to glance at the origin of wealth in order to logically rea- son upon the existing conditions, that we may look beyond to possibilities and prob- abilities of the future. 2 It would be as foolish in the student, as it is in some of our statesmen, and indeed in some of our professors of Political Economy, to argue upon the precepts of the auld-lang-syne literature of Adam Smith, as it would be to draw conclusions of our conditions and necessities of to-day from principles that governed our unclad father Adam in his garden of Eden. And yet we continually hear such argument grated upon our ears. DEAD THEORY. What child in our public schools to-day would waste his life in idle application of the principles of philosophy which were taught before the invention of steam ? And yet Adam Smith lived prior to, and based his very ambiguous, though very beautiful, theories upon the conditions pre-existent to steam and modern inventions. Look at the record of time and at the changes by development in our conditions : Writers of Political Economy. Born. Died. Invention in Industry. Year of introduc- tion. w Year de- veloped. Sulley 1560 1641 Steam* 1780 1800 Smith 1723 1790 Spinning machinery, Arkwright.f 1780 1800 Beccaria 1738 1793 | Railroads and steamships^ f 1800 1807 Telegraphy (1840 1850 Say 1767 1832 Sewing machines 1846 1850 Bastiat 1801 1850 Agricultural machines 1850 1860 Now, with the cable, the telephone, and our great extent of cultivated territory from the St. Lawrence to the Rio Grande, from the Atlantic to the grand Pacific, with our great interior of the Mississippi Valley irrigated and enriched in every di- rection by its vast river and tributaries, with our wonderful and unequaled fields of cereals, with our inexhaustible bonanzas of minerals, with our innumerable schedules of raw materials, with the genius of our mechanics in invention, with the enterprise of our people; with all these natural resources and developed wealth shall we look back, like Lot's wife, to the past, upon the advice of those who had interests foreign to our own and thus trifle with our possessions in dreaming of the fancies and fasci- nating but vague theories of those who lived and taught a century ago? How long would it be before we were turned out of our American garden of Eden ? Who would be willing to-day to accept the theories in any scientific branch of study promulgated in the seventeenth century ? or who would be willing to sail to-day on the seas under a master who persisted in navigating his ship by the stars, who ignored the compass, the mariner's chart, and who knew not one beacon light from another? Without a thorough knowledge of official statistics, of all branches of government, according to the nature of the subject into which weare examining, we have no chart before us for studying for guiding us in research, nor for correctness in conclusion, neither can the analyses of data make an economist or a statesman, without discipline of mind, to combine research and result, with comprehension of every premise, ap- parent or non-apparent and with practical application instead of with biased purpose upon a pet theory-in presenting economic equations before a trusting public. Prof. James has very pointedly exhibited to us the errors of such theory or sophism, and he has, very ably, clearly shown the danger of misleading the public mind in his criticism of Mr. Atkinson's theories in the Century of August. Between Mr. George, * Newcomen and Watt struggled to apply steam to machinery, the first from 1778 and the second from 1780-85, but not successfully until after 1800. f Arkwright had obtained two patents by 1780, but did not utilize his invention until 1800. j Rumsey first succeeded in steam navigation in 1787 (see Washington's affidavit, "History of American Shipping," by Fulton), but on account of his death it was not brought to daily use until 1807; and in England, 1812. 3 Mr. Wells, and Mr. Atkinson the American people have a severe task in studying Political Economy and in learning their true interest. It has been asked, "IS POLITICAL ECONOMY A SCIENCE?" As well might it be asked, is Religion piety ? It depends upon the observance of the principles governing the performance of the duty. It, is not only in profession but in practice; not only in precept but in understand- ing; not only in equation but in application. We must consistently blend the study of research and knowledge derived in order to draw the true deduction from every premise, and utilize the information acquired for the frugality of our home or our nation. Political Economy is a science if studied with logic and reason according to con- ditions existing and with a purpose of comprehending correctly the social phenomena of life, if pursued with observation to discover the cause and if carried to com- pleteness in drawing conclusions. Political Economy is not a science if taught or applied upon one ideal rule, upon the hypothesis that one principle will govern every people or one deduction exhibit the relation of every nation of the world. Mathematics, astronomy, physics, geology, anthropology, would loose all identity as sciences if taught, studied or applied with a purpose of proving one conclusion or theory merely, from one standpoint, or from one interest, and by omitting observations and calculations necessary to be made in every part of the earth. INDUSTRIAL STRENGTH. To understand the industrial strength of our country which produces our wealth, whether by tilling the soil, by mechanical labor, professional or mercantile diversity of industry, we must look at the number so engaged and at the percentage of each branch thereof necessarily dependent, however, upon one another, as shown in the following table: Producers. 1870. Number. Per cent. industrial strength. 1880. Number. Per cent. industrial strength. Agriculture 5,922,471 47.35 7,670,493 44.10 Manufacturing and mining 2,707,421 21.65 3,837,112 22.06 Professional and personal 2,684,793 21.47 4,074,238 23.42 Trade, commerce, and transportation 1,191,238 9.53 1,810,256 10.40 Total industrial strength __ 12,505,923 44.30 17,392,099 47.31 Total population 38,558,371 50,155,783 Here we see 47 per cent, of all over ten years of age are contributors in the produc- tion of wealth, but the above exhibit is only the industrial strength of our country and is only 35 per cent, of our entire population. Excluding all under ten years of age from industrial consideration we have 53 per cent, of our people to be supported by this contributive element to the wealth of our country, as the following figures will show : 4 Producers 17,392,000 Females over 10 years (not included above) 15,378,000 Children under 10 years 13,630,000 46,400,000 Balance, males of no occupation 3,700,000 Total population 50,100,000 So closely blended and interdependent are these contributive branches in producing Wealth that their interest is clearly in co-operation and common acceptation of polit- ical economic legislation for mutual development. The major part of agricultural labor in the United States to-day is in a great meas- ure of a mechanical nature. Machinery is now as essential to our extensive farmers as to our manufacturers. In fact, the held is the source of wealth to the manufact- urer and merchant as well as to the farmer, and, vice versa, the farmer is as dependent upon these other pursuits for the increase of his Wealth in the development of his land and products. The progress of our Republic in the production of Wealth has been remarkably steady in growth through each decade, and shows excess over the increase of popu- lation proportionately. By the United States Census of each decade we have the fol- lowing, although we must remember that each of the last two Censuses have been appended with apologetic and ambiguous notes: Period. Wealth. Population. Excess in increase of wealth. Amount. Increase. No. people. Increase. 1790 $750,000,000 1,072,000,000 Per cent. 3,929,827 Per cent Per cent. 1800.. 43 5,305,937 35 4-08 1810. - 1,500,000,000 39 7,239,814 36 -4-02 1820.. - 1,882,000,000 25 9,638,191 33 4-08 1830_ - 2.653,000,000 41 12,866,020 33 4-07 1840.. - 3,764,000,000 41 17,069,453 32 4-08 1850.. 7,136,000,000 89 23,191,876 35 4-53 I860.. - 16,159,000,000 126 31,443,321 35 4-90 1870.. - 30,069,000,000 86 38,558,371 22 4-64 1880. - *43,000,000,000 70 50,155,783 30 4-40 AMBIGUITY OF THE CENSUS. . It is necessary here to refer to the facts that the Superintendent of the Census, in notes of same, repudiates the amount given in his own work of 1870 and surprises many, not only by giving an amount as the value of wealth of the Republic in 1880 below the expectation, but with several industries omitted and with a singular incon- gruity of data in explanation of the work of the last decade. Professor James has also referred in a measure to this unfortunate confusion, ♦Reliable reports from State authorities prove this to be an underestimate, as will be seen. 5 which renders doubtful the ground-work of any statistical analysis based upon the data above, The reasons for considering that the estimate of $43,000,000,000 was too low an amount to represent the aggregate wealth of the Republic in 1880 are too numerous to cite, but particularly should be noted the facts-1st, that some State official esti- mates made in several localities shortly after returned a difference of 30 to 45 per cent, increase ; 2d, that several important industries are not given ; 3d, that the figures of items as specified in different parts of the census do not harmonize. There are other points of serious defect not necessary to mention here.* The valuation of farms is clearly and emphatically separated and set forth, especially in the Introduction by the Superintendent of the Census.! This shows the importance of verification and the benefit of conferring together. The note below is taken verbatim from the volume of Wealth of last Census. Seven years have passed, and the census of 1880 is in fact ancient history, and there is no official data by which accurately to estimate our present condition. About the time or immediately after the census was taken activity and prosperity leaped forth together in some parts of our country, especially in the South, giving em- ployment, increasing wages, enhancing the value of land greatly, circulating money from hand to hand, and adding to the Southern States alone since that time the vast snm of over $1,000,000,000. In corroboration of this wonderful and sudden stride in prosperity and increase of wealth I refer to official data of those States where this development of industry has been realized. (See official State returns.) IMPORTANCE OF DIVERSIFIED INDUSTRY. Thus we see an increase that is enormous and remarkable in contributing employ- ment and wealth throughout that section of our country, and yet there is no appear- ance whatever of this great advance of wealth in any of our national data, which shows most emphatically the necessity and calls loudly upon Congress to provide for a census to be taken every five years instead of every decade. Here is an increase of 43 per cent, in wealth against 17 per cent, increase in popula- tion. And most of the rapid accumulation of Wealth comes from the wisdom of the Southern farmer in utilizing the great blessing of our national protective policy, ignored before the war from prejudicial reason and mistaken principles of economy conceived from political passions instead of from Political Economy, and in a tardy but sensible acceptance of the advice of the Sage of the Hermitage, "by planting manufactories by the side of his farm." As shown in the foregoing pages the difference of 30 per cent, exists in other localities in the increase over census figures, and with this la.st evidence of so much * In the letter of introduction the Superintendent specifies the values by items as follows : Farms 810,190,000,000 Real estate 9,881,000,000 Making 820,071,000,000 And if the item household goods &e., is meant to represent all- Personal property, it is placed at 5,000,000,000 Thus we have 825,071,000,000 But under the table of valuations the following figures and items are given, viz : Real estate 813,036,000,000 Personal'property 3,866,000,000 816,902,000,000 Here are amounts of the same specification-certainly in real estate-differing widely in differ- ent tables and a strange incongruity about others. f "In reaching the aggregate property in residence and business real estate reference was had to the number of families not engaged in agriculture, classified according to their occupation and presumed means of living; to the annual production of the building trades; to the Bradstreets figures ; to the known facts regarding the real estate occupied by certain branches of manufactur- ing industry, from which proportion may be derived applicable to other branches respecting which this class of information is not attainable; to the figures of assignment of real estate in many cities, corrected according to careful returns from bankers, real estate agents, business men, and public officials, and these again taken in connection with the known urban population of the country. The value attributed to the aggregate farming property of the country, to the mines, rail- roads, &c., are derived from positive returns in other branches of the Census."-Extract from Census. 6 greater difference it must not be surprising that I present, in aggregating the total wealth of the country, figures considerably in advance of those presented in the census of 1880. The evidence of our national growth with rapid strides is incontrovertible, how- ever difficult it may be to reconcile the two returns. In 1882 I had the honor and pleasure of preparing for the merchants and manu- facturers of New York State an argument upon our economic conditions, and, upon the foregoing grounds and other information at that time, I found, after the most diligent research, that the aggregate amount of the wealth of our Republic was, ac- cording to reasonable evidence, in that year $51,000,000,000, and asserted in that paper that the Wealth of the United States was greater than that of any nation in the world.* . It was at that time denied by several journals and by some deemed optimistic, but it has since been acknowledged, not only in this country generally but by statists of foreign countries also, and that amount is now generally accepted as the minimum figure of our national wealth. It is more, now however, as seen in the following table : . THE PRESENT WEALTH OE THE UNITED STATES. Real estate, urban property $15,000,000,000 Farms (assessed value) 10,000,000,000 Personal property 6,000,000,000 Manufactures i 8,000,000,000 Railroads 7,500,000,000 Stock and farm implements 4,000,000,000 Minerals 800,000,000 Banking 700,000,000 Insurance, life, assets 400,000,000 Insurance, fire, assets 200,000,000 Canals, value 170,000,000 Shipping 150,000,000 Forest 100,000,000 Telegraph 100,000,000 Sundries, floating investments, &c. 2,000,000,000 Public property (buildings, navy-yards, ships, and all Government property) 5,000,000,000 $58,120,000,000 From which deduct the national debt 1,700,000,000 An aggregate Wealth from a national standpoint of $56,920,000,000 This shows an annual increase of about $800,000,000 per year, which is the accepted rate of our accumulations by the most reliable statistics, and therefore I ask your attention to the verification. This exhibit will doubtless be criticised as many vainless attempts were made to refute my figures of 1882, especially by some statesmen in Congress, but as that year's estimate has since been proven correct it is evident that the criticisms have emanated from political passions rather than economic reasons and should not influence those who prefer to analyze for themselves the true conditions and derive correct results from scientific deductions of statistical facts. In exhibiting this condition of our nation it is proper to exhibit also in the same relation the condition of the other principal nations of the world. *This fact was presented in my argument in 1882, before the Tariff Commission (see Report pages 1675 to 1875k It was the first announcement ever made of this important fact, and, there- fore, surprising at the time. That our country had under our wise economic laws advanced to the highest rank in Wealth was hard for pessimists to believe or acknowledge. 7 The accumulation of the world's Wealth is as follows : THE WEALTH OF THE WORLD. The United States $56,900,000,000 France 46,500,000,000 Great Britain 46,000,000,000 Germany 25,000,000,000 Russia 15,000,000,000 Austria 14,000,000,000 Italy 8.000,000,000 Spain 7.500,000,000 Asia (China, Japan, Persia, India, etc.) 65,000,000,000 Africa , 5,000,000,000 British Columbia 5,000,000,000 $293,900,000,000 This tabulated statement shows an increase of $13,900,000,000 since my estimate of 1882, although I have in this exhibit separated the Wealth of Great Britain from that of the United Kingdom in entirety. It will be seen that France claims and doubtless holds the second rank among nations at the present time in Wealth. Great Britain has not lost, but the progressiveness and the development of the United States and of France has exceeded her stand-still condition, comparatively, and left her third, instead of first among the wealthy nations of the world. Other nations have maintained more of a status quo in Wealth. HIGH STANDARD OF LABOR. In consideration of the comparative relations of these nations it must be borne in mind that the United States finds its source of wealth in the soil. Not only should we consider this source, but also, and more particularly, the powerful agency of diversified industry which has particularly contributed to our recent accumulation, and this has been as peculiar in farming as in manufacturing. There is another great influence which has contributed to the wealth of our coun- try, and that is high-priced labor. Nothing is so beneficial to a nation as the high standard of labor, which is devel- oped by a reasonable compensation and which contributes that elevation in character and in taste, and thereby develops in the working masses of our country a pride and spirit to be progressive and to rear their families to become good citizens in the en- joyment of comfort derived from frugality. The Wealth of our country is held by this class of our people. It is not centered in the rich as in England, but it is diffused throughout every part of our States and Ter- ritories, and indeed those who are now credited to hold the larger sums of wealth in- dividually are mostly-indeed almost entirely, originally-of that class of our fellow- citizens. Let us not abuse the principle nor depreciate the standard of high wages. Individuals who hold many millions are but specialists in every respect, and in their spendings they distribute almost as much in foreign countries or to foreign trade as in our own country in traveling on foreign steamships. It is, I repeat, the well-paid working classes that are the miners and the coiners of the Wealth of our country and the substantial-citizens of the United States. France owes her wonderful advancement, so soon after her great national disasters, to her remarkable genius in the exercise of political economy. In this respect she outranks our own country, and it is to her home investments and the co-operative disposition of her rural classes that she owes her wealth and remarkable recuperation. Great Britian relies solely and exclusively in the accumulation and retention of her wealth upon her commercial facilities and her extensive banking system, which forms a chain of connection and control in financial exchange to the remotest part of the earth. Deprive Great Britian once of her great Shipping and banking interests, par- ticularly the former, and she would have nothing whatever upon which to rely. Germany, which comes fourth in the rank of nations in Wealth, depends upon the application of her people and the thrift in their savings, and hence Prince Bismark's recent efforts to revive the Shipping of Germany by subsidy-paying honestly for a National economic service. 8 To review, comparatively, the conditions of living of these several peoples of the world it is necessary to see the difference proportionately in their living. In this you have also heard so fully and in so interesting a manner from our fellow- member Dr. Atwater that he too has left but little to be said. He has shown you that it is not so hard to live but that the difficulty is in learning how best to do so, and how one can exist upon the cheapest and most nourishing food, both physically and mentally. LABOR AND LIVING CONDITIONS COMPARED. From the reports of the United States Consuls I have prepared the following dia- gram, exhibiting the ratio of wages, living, clothing, thrift, &c., which I submit for your consideration because it is based upon data received authoritatively and pre- pared with great care by our Consuls abroad before returning the same to the De- partment of State at Washington. Conditions. The United States. Great Britain. France. Germany. Italy. Ratio of wages 12-12ths 7-12ths 4-12ths 4-12ths 3-12ths Ratio of potent food* 10-12 7-12 5-12 5-12 5-12 Ratio of cost of living 6-12 12-12 10-12 9-12 8-12 Ratio of cost of clothing 9-12 4-12 3J-12 3-12 3^-12 Ratio in mode of living 6-12 2-12 4-12 2-12 1^-12 Ratio in thrift of saving 9-12 5-12 6-12 10-12 6U12 Thus it will be seen that while the average laborer in Great Britain is paid a little over one-half that of the average rate in the United States, in France and Germany it is only one third, and in Italy the ratio of comparison is only one-fourth. The British laborer is more disposed to spend his earnings in gratifying the inner man rather than investing as the American laborer who has the opportunity of such great advantage over the English workman of becoming the possessor of real estate and of acquiring a large business as well as a high position in society. Pride is the synonym of success, and success is Wealth. In the mode or style of clothing the average American laborer preserves a higher order of refinement than the laborer of any other nation. Even the emigrant the mo- ment he lands on our shore feels that he is now necessitated to assume a higher order of life and to present a more respectable appearance. The Frenchman, the German, and the Italian do not seem to be so fond of self-in- dulgence as the British laborer, but, nevertheless, while possessing innately a more provi- dent disposition, they are each alike disposed to enjoy the peculiarity of rendezvous- ing in cafes as a Sunday amusement. Although this pleasure consumes a small portion of their earnings, through the week they are not in the habit of feeding upon more than the plainest food, without tasting a particle of meat. Professor Atwater has illustrated most truthfully and satisfactorily to you how it is that these poorly paid human beings exist upon such food as they consume, but the fact that they do live and multiply rapidly and thrive like the fish in the sea is the most emphatic verification of the illustrations that Dr. Atwater has given you. * This conclusion was approximately drawn by Prof. Atwater in his ably prepared paper from entirely different data. 9 The Chinaman is undoubtedly the most ingenious, but the ordinary habits of living of the lower classes of that people are much below mediocrity. These conditions of the foreign working classes cannot, however, apply to the masses of our own people, and may we never wish it to be so. The foregoing evidence and that following shows the absurdity of applying prin- ciples applicable to Great Britain, or to any other country, to our own conditions. There is a feature in the individuality of Industry of our country of steadiness and intelligence reasonably estimated at one and a half times greater than that of the work- man abroad. We are the wealthiest nation in the world because we have the best and most steady workmen; we have the best and most ingenious inventors; we have the best and cheapest production of food} and we have the best and most abundant home market! Regarding the waste of our people, to which Dr. Atwater referred, which I have termed Consumption, it exists in many ways in a far greater degree than in food. In fact, the numerous means of economizing in food in our large cities is curious to investigate and almost incredible to believe. For instance : So far from there being the slightest waste of food in our great hotels, there is one instance where a contract exists by the year for the purchase of all the swill daily for the sum of $5,000 per annum, the swill being purchased for the purpose of feeding cattle. Also it is a frequent custom, I find, for cheap restaurant-keepers to purchase the better particles of meat and material left at the larger hotels and other places, and to visit them daily with trays arranged for placing such fragments according to their worth, and repreparing or recooking the same, to be dealt out cheaply to the poorer classes in the lower boarding-houses and restaurants of our cities. There is more waste of food on the farms than in our cities, as the lesson of saving is learned more quickly and generally in the latter, from dire necessity, than elsewhere. There are no conditions of Political Economy more important to be known than the amount of production and consumption of food of each nation of the world ; yet there has been nothing more neglected than the collation of such data. I do not therefore assume responsibility for the correctness, absolutely, of the figures in the following exhibit, but hive compiled and tabulated them from the most au- thoritative data possible to collate: 10 France. Italy. Germany. Great Britain. Austria. Russia. The United States. Density of population in square miles. 180 246 212 289 160 10 14 Production of the people: Meat Grain $240,000,000 500,000,000 $54,000,000 162,000,000 $320,000,000 550,000,000 $280,000,000 250,000,000 $230,000,000 350,000,000 $700,000,000 1,000,000,000 $1,300,000,000 2,100,000,000 Consumption: Meat Grain $280,000,000 550,000,000 $50,000,000 165,000,000 $350,000,000 600,000,000 $450,000,000 450,000,000 $250,000,000 350,000,000 $600,000,000 950,000,000 $950,000,000 1,600,000,000 Surplus exported: Meat $4,000,000 $100,000,000 50,000,000 $350,000,000 500,000,000 Grain $5,000,000 Deficiency imported: Meat Grain $40,000,000 50,000,000 $30,000,000 50,000,000 $170,000,000 200,000,000 $20,000,000 Protection has saved the United States from de- ficiency. $3,000,000 The Food Wealth of our Republic will always be preserved if Labor is treated with justice. Protection has saved us from deficiency I The contrast that this exhibit presents between the Poverty of Great Britain and the Wealth of the United States in Food, illustrates the economic policy of Free Trade as necessary to the former and the policy of Protection as necessary to the latter, in order to maintain labor. In the United States Protection is essential to labor in Agriculture as well as in Manufacturing. Food Production, Consumption and Surplus Compared. 11 NON-ECONOMIC CONSUMPTION. We have shipped annually for years a large excess of Specie over and above mer- chandise sent abroad, and of the latter an annual shipment of nearly one billion and a half ($1,500,000,000); nearly all of which is carried under alien flags. This amount, as will be seen, is spent abroad without any apparent return. The return, however, necessarily is really credited in items to individuals in several ways to serve their preference and convenience. By examining more thoroughly into this consumption we find, first, the most ex- haustive waste to flow from our neglect of our Carrying Trade. But few persons outside of that vocation of life, or economists who have studied our national condi- tion, would believe that, as a people, we could so long have permitted our National Legislature to be so indifferent to rectifying and providing against this terrible influ- ence, which has done far more to ruin many of our best merchants and citizens, to rob our nation of its prestige in shipping, of the honor of our flag on the seas, to deny us the protection of American sailors, even on our coast, and to dispoil our greatest of industries, ship-building, thereby taking the labor, legitimately belonging at home, from hundreds of thousands of workmen and employment from our youth gen- erally. To Foreign Ships for freights and passenger rates we pay annually over $150,000,000 To Remittances abroad for railroad and general securities other than Government interest we pay over 100,000,000 To amount expended by American Tourists, and by those traveling for other purposes in Europe, we pay 80,000,000 To amounts expended abroad for Education* we pay 4,500,000 To United States Treasury remittances, annually, Interest on United States bonds (at present) i 5,000,000 To Foreign Exchange we pay more than would be believedf ? Making a yearly drain of cash paid from the United States of $339,500,000 As an offset against this we have a return by Emigration estimated at not less than 59,000,000 Leaving a clear balance of outgo from the United States annually of, in round numbers, over $280,500,000 It will be seen that we are paying to-day, in freights and passenger rates, over $150,000,000 per year to foreign ships, which is re-spent in Europe for steamship sup- plies and provisions, when this amount should not only go to ships of our own nationality but in employing our own people and in being re-spent in the purchase of supplies and provisions from the agriculturists of our own country. This is separate and distinct, as a woful waste, from the neglect to our ship-build- ing at home, which contributes labor and wages to over three hundred diversified in- dustries. The building of one steamship of twenty-five hundred tons employs six hundred men, earning on an average to each of $600 a year. *General Washington said in his will: " It has always been a source of serious regret with me to see the youth of these United States sent to foreign countries for the purpose of education, often before their minds were formed, or they had imbibed any adequate ideas of the happiness of their own, contracting too frequently not only habits of dissipation and extravagance, but principles unfriendly to republican government." How true this is ! The parent who sends his child to Europe for instruction robs his child. The standard of Education in the United States to-day is the best and highest in the world. t The foreign Banking houses in the United States positively refuse to give this data of their profits in Bills of Exchange. 12 Besides draining our country of this vast amount of wealth and robbing our work- ing people of their birth-right in ship-budding; instead of creating a national coast defense by such a merchant fleet, we cut off this arm of industry and ignore the vast benefit in a saving of wealth to our own people, especially to our farmers and labor- ers, as it would inure to their prosperity. We are now in a most profligate manner wasting that wealth, which is the most false economy possible, if not villainous tax, that could be perpetrated upon the holders of the wealth and the laboring masses of our country. Wealth and power have come to nations which for a time commanded the world, but both wealth and power have vanished and the people have become vanquished because th'-ir political economy has been a mere theory and not a science. Carthage, it was boasted by Aristotle, commanded the commerce of the world. The Turk controlled the Eastern Empire, but both lost their power for want of prac- tical economy in the administration of political affairs. It was boasted that- " When falls Rome, the world will fall." But luxury and extravagance destroyed Rome, and yet the world moves on. Spain owned our Western World until the skillful commercial tactics of England destroyed her commerce, as well as that of the Dutch. " Whosoever commands the sea commands the trade of the world, and whosoever commands the trade of the world commands the riches of the world." These were the words of Sir Walter Raleigh after he had reaped the treasures from our now Southern States and vanquished the Spanish fleets from the Atlantic. England possesses statesmen of foresight, that apply diplomacy to political economy, and in the skillful application of remedies to conditions in politico-economic affairs, she blows hot and blows cold for the true interests of her people, as manifested in her free trade doctrine in merchandise and the strongest subsidy to maintain her shipping, which brings her life, the ships of Tarshish, the wealth of the world. It was Ahaziah, the son of Ahab (900 B. C.), that said unto Jehoshaphat: "Let my serv ants go with thy servants into the ships. But Jehoshaphat would not." Had Jehoshaphat been a political economist he would have consented, as our British cousins inveigle us to-day, and have carried the commerce ol the tribe of Ahab, and thereby taxed them for freight and controlled their trade. History is repeated to-day. The United Kingdom and the United States are in the same economic conditions relatively. Our statesmen humbly permit us to cry, pray good British cousins, let our servants go with thy servants to carry our products unto Central and to South America, and to carry our Mails in thy ships! and that we may develop there our national doctrine which the noble Monroe gave us, but which, for want of statesmanship and political economy in aid of this national and most important condition and the want of Ameri- can ships, we are unable to trade therewith or to demand respect for our grand Ameri- can policy. . ' What a commentary! Not only has the unpatriotic non-action of Congress brought us to this national impotency and to this dependency, but, far worse, this frightful drain and consumption of our national, as well asindividual, Wealth brings upon us the hazardous position in which we are placed to-day in thp absence of the slightest defense upon our coast or dignity upon the ocean, for through such non-action we are compelled to continue to pay to Great Britain the earnings, of the sweat of the brow, of mental and physical labor, in order to exchange our surplus of products with the other nations of the world. How long can we hold our present rank as the first in Wealth among nations or our power as a people unless our statesmen provide against this continual waste by economic legislation ? It is only a question of time. If we desire to continue our prosperity and power, if we value the Wealth that hard struggles for the last century have developed, we must apply the principles of true Political Economy to the relief of the terrible waste exhibited in the foregoing table of Consumption, and no longer allow ourselves to be flanked by England, or we must anticipate beyond a doubt that the fate of other nations, which were more theoretical than practical, will inevitably be ours; and we must forego the cherished hope of leaving to our children's children the inestimable blessing and endowment of pride and wealth as a citizen of the once greatest nation of the world.