Rensselaer Journal, Volume 11, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 September 1901 — Progress of Ghirty years. [ARTICLE]

Progress of Ghirty years.

The bureau of statistics of the treasury department publishes a table on the "Progress of the Upited States in Its Material Industries," which makes a very interesting showing in many ways. Comparisons are indicated by decades since 1870, but we shall consider the two dates 1870 and 1900 only and call attention to some of the more remarkable features of the record. This may be done best in the beginning,by making a table from the table as follows: isro. 1900. Population 88,558,371 76,303.387 Salaries paid in public schools $37,832,566 $128,662,880 Newspapers and periodtcnls 5,871 21,178 Postotfices In existence 25.492 76,668 Receipts of Postofiice Department $19,772,221 $102,354,579 Telegraph messages sent 9,157.646 79,696,227 Railways in operation (miles) 52,922 190,833 While the population has increased by 98 per cent it is evident that society and the indivudual have been constantly gaining at a much more rapid rate In the facilities for communication. Postofflces have increased in number by 169 per cent, and the public patronage of the department has increased 418 per cent. There is also an increase of 261 per cent in the railway mileage, and the number of telegraph messages was 770 per cent greater in 1900 than in 1870. All these changes taken together tell of an evolution which must have produced a marked change in the life and thought of the nation in the last thirty years. An increase of" 261 per cent in the output of newspapers and periodicals indicates unmistakably that reading is becoming more general, while the concurrent increase of 240 per cent in the salaries paid to school teachers shows that our system of free education can always count upon the ungrudging support of the people. The largest Increase noted in the complete statistics of the bureau is that of 15,376 per ceift in the amount of steel produced, the figures running from 68.750 to 10,639,857 tons, and the next largest is that of 3,130 per cent in the tonnage pas lng the Sault. While imports of manufactures of iron and steel have declined by 37 per cent, exports have increased by 1,008 per cent. Of the great agricultural staples corn has hardly kept pace with the population, but wheat has more than done so, and cotton has increased by 228 per cent. Productive capacity is mutipying so rapidy under the impetus of modern Inventions that we are not yet within measurable distance of that possible era of overcrowding which people sometimes anticipate in their speculations. sHow to sell the surplus is more

than ever the problem that confronts us.