Democratic Sentinel, Volume 4, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 December 1880 — A WONDERFUL COUNTRY. [ARTICLE]

A WONDERFUL COUNTRY.

rk« I>«iT«fopniFiit of lRe flMat Natural Becoarees of the tailed State*. At a meeting of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in New York, Prof. Thurston delivered the address. ‘ ‘Much, ” he said, ‘ ‘remains to be done by the General Government in the development of the resources of this country. The new organization of the geological survey is such iu form and in the character of its administration that we hope to see the work of determining the value of our mineral resources done with maximum rapidity and efficiency. In tracing the progress in the various departments of American enterprise he said that ninety-nine years ago Samuel A. Slater started the first successful cot-ton-spinning mill at Pawtucket, R. I. To-day we raise 1,500,000,000 pounds of cotton to supply mills in nearly every New England State and in nearly every other State in the Union, which manufacture $500,000,000 worth of goods.. “From the day in 17,94 when the first rude woolen-mill was established at Newbury, Mass., our woolen manufactures have grown in extent and in excellence of product, until to-day our 12,000 or 15,000 sets of machinery, handled by nearly 100,00*3 of the most skillful operatives to be found in the world, produce $250,000,000 worth of goods, which in point of cheapness and excellence compete with the best work in Europe.

“We have seen the silk manufacture, after straggling with difficulties of every imaginable sort for half a century finally secure a foothold and enter upon a period of prosperity which is as marvelous as it is encouraging. The enterprise of the Cheneys during the past generation, and the steady persistence of the Paterson, N. J., manufacturers, have borne fruit in the erection of 250 mills, with a production of $30,000,000 worth of silk goods, which in strength and durability excel, and in beauty are fully equal to, the finest products of its French competitors at Lyons. “In the manufacture of iron and steel the story is the same. We have furnaces which are supplied with every variety of the best ores, and are making 2,000,000 tons of pig iron per annum. “By a wise policy of legislative protect ion we are practically free from that foreign competition which threatened to throttle our manufactures iu their infancy. We consume our whole product, and that is nearly 15 per cent, of all the iron used in the world. Of our enormous coal yield, about 50,000,000 tons a year, a large fraction is consumed in making and working this iron, 1,000,000 or more tons of which goes to market as wrought iron in a thousand different shapes. “The growth of our Bessemer steel production is even more marvelous. Twenty years ago this wonderful illustration of the marvels of chemical science was looked upon as merely an interesting and curious process, of no immediate value and of most uncertain promise. To-day a single establishment is making 100,000 tons a year. ‘ ‘The United States is looked upon as the'home of all ingenious and effective labor-saving devices. The Corliss engine has revolutionized the steam-engine manufacture of the world. The class of men from whose ranks the members of this society are principally drawn direct, and labors of nearly 3,000,000 of working people in a third of a million mills, are responsible for the preservation and profitable utilization of $2,500,000,000 worth of capital direct; the payment of $1,000,000,000 of wages; the consumption of $3,000,000,000 worth of raw materials, aud the output of $5,000,000,000 worth of manufactured articles. Fifty thousand steam-engines and more than an equal number of water-wheels turn the machinery of the hundreds of thousands of workshops throughout the country. ”