Rensselaer Journal, Volume 12, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 December 1902 — The Past the Coming Year. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

The Past the Coming Year.

The coming year promises to see in the United States a more marvelous period of commercial and industrial development than even that of the year 1902. The prediction may be safely made that American trade with the East will be doubled during the next twelve months and the United States will become the dominant power of the Pacific ocean. It is not beyond the bounds of possibility that within the next decade the empire of trade and commerce will pass from the Atlantic to the Pacific shores. Having in mind the vast strides taken by our country in comparatively a few recent years, what the volume of our commerce will be in another quarter of a century it would be foolish to predict, but it will be enormous. That the influence of America and the American people throughout the world will have increased, so that they will have become net only the great commercial nation of the world, but the greatest in political rank and power and influence and responsibility can scarcely be doubted by those who have an abiding faith in the energy and wisdom and integrity of the American citizen. The producing powers of the United States are still in their infancy. Compare our producing area with that of the well-developed and well-tilled countries of Europe and it will be apparent at a glance that in the matter of agriculture we may and shall increase enormously the products of the soil, not only in increasing the actual product per acre, but by bringing under cultivation many millions of acres which are now non-productive. In the matter of mines and minerals our production and productive powers have scarcely begun to show their possibilities. In all the great articles which enter into manufacture —the products of the mine, the forest and the field —we are the world’s greatest producer and likely to continue so indefinitely. We have more of coal, more of iron, more of copper, more of timber, more of cotton, more of all the requirements which enter into the processes of the manufacture of articles required by the world at large, civilized or uncivilized, than any other nation. We have the skill and energy with which to turn these into manufactures, by far the greatest railway system of the world to carry them to the water’s edge and a great ocean on either side to float them to the waiting millions of the world. This is a review of what we have what we shall do in the future. What done in the past, and only by it can we measure or attempt to measure wonders in the way of inventions and discoveries the next few years may have in store can only dimly be guessed at. A great thinker and inventor has said of the future news-

paper: “We may, and I believe shall, have news transmission by air waves into phonographic instruments which will repeat the news of the day and record it at the same time, so that people may listen or may read as they prefer. The great force of the future is electricity, and it is in its Infancy as yet. It will be used to obviate all unnecessary waste of nervous tissue, and the phono-air-wave newspapers of

which I speak will certainly he transmitted some day direct from the brains of their producers without any such manual labor as wriling and without even the need of speaking them aloud.” In reviewing the record made during the past year by United States soldiers it must be remembered that while the implements of war have been vastly changed by modern in-

ventions, and modern weapons can be used at much greater distances aid with more destructive effect, yet the principles of war have not changed, although skill, science and strategy to some extent take the place of valiant leadership and physical "strength, and courage, in successfully using the destructive weapons of war of the present day. During its varied experience of the

last few years on most extended fleMs of operation the United States vny has maintained its reputation for loyalty, intelligence and valot There have been a few instances of surprise and ambuscade of small detachments, but whenever it has met the enemy under ordinary circumstances it has achieved an unbroken record of success. What its future may be it is impossible to prophesy, but it is fair to

predict that it will be as commendable is its past has been glorious. So far as money is conoarned, it Is reasonable to suppose that the rates of interest will vary but little in the absence of unforeseen circumstances, such as war, etc. While we continue to sell our products to Europe and get large returns, we will be compelled to seek a market for our money. The result will be the enormous development of our own resources, mineral, agricultural, including wool, cattle and cotton, and the reaching out for markets in Japan and China, South America, and in fact all of the markets that have been monopolized by England, Germany and France. Having great natural advantages over our European competitors, we will eventually rout them from these fields of trade. The rapid growth of the great schools of applied science in the universities of America haa been one of the most notable features in the educational history of the past thirty years. To this more than to any other cause is due the overshadowing success of American manufactures and commerce. Higher education is coming more and more to mean development of the highest practical effectiveness. Without abundant and thorough technical training good articles cannot be produced in competition with the world. Navies, tariffs, trusts and other devices cannot the place of expert knowledge. The past year has been remarkable for a sudden and a practical advance In the marvelous history of the wireless telegraph. The scientific achievement which had been dreamed of for nearly half a century, and only within late years had shown itself something better than a dream, has given the most definite and the most encouraging evidences of its claim to be regarded as one of the world’s greatest accomplishments in the domain of practical science. Something of the same kind, although in a lesser degree, may be said of the attempt to construct a flying machine, that project which had its beginning, so far as we know, in the realms of classic fable, and may have had its beginning for aught we know in days long before the gods of Greece had ever come to be classified and worshiped. It is not too much to say that whatever may come of this ever-renewing enterprise, the year saw the most practical evidence of its possibility yet given to the world. The year cannot boast of any great triumphs entirely its own in the realms of literature and art. Its literary and artistic firmament has. not indeed been clouded, but no new star of the first magnitude, no blazing comet even, has arisen on the field of mortal vision.