wealthiest in the world. The rich natural resources of the nation have been utilized by The United a virile, energetic people, living under a helpful legal system. As States the a result the United States is to-day the wealthiest country in the nation world. Though the exact measurement of our national wealth is perhaps impossible, the estimates of careful statisticians are generally accepted as approximately correct. From such estimates it appears that the wealth of the nation increased, between 1850 and 1912, from $7,000,000,000 to $187,000,000,000. The character of this wealth, and its amount in comparison with the wealth of other countries, are shown in the following extract of a special bulletin of the Census Bureau: ... These estimates have been prepared upon two different bases and by a number of different methods. The estimates for 1850, 1860, and 1870 were confined to taxable real property and the personal property of private individuals, firms, and corporations. They did not include any estimates of the value of the public domain nor of other exempt realty, nor of the value of the furniture or equipment of public buildings of governments nor of charitable, religious, or educational institutions, all of which were included in the estimates for 1880, 1890, 1900, 1904, and 1912. ... Estimates for 1912 and 1900. Table 2, which follows, affords a ready means of comparing the total values of the several classes of wealth in 1912 with those of 1900. . . 1 From the United States Bureau of the Census, Estimated Valuation of National Wealth, 1850-1912. Washington, 1915; pp. 14-16, 18-20. Wealth of the United States compared with the wealth of other countries. 1 Includes wireless systems. Estimated wealth of different countries. Owing to the insufficiency of official and trustworthy data pertaining to the subject, it has been impossible to prepare a summary of the aggregate wealth of all nations. The following statement summarizes the information concerning the wealth of the principal nations as it has been assembled by Augustus D. Webb, Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society, and published in "The New Dictionary of Statistics" for 1911. The authority referred to gives the values in pounds sterling. The reduction to dollars is at the rate of $4.8665 per pound sterling. It will be observed that the figures for the United States are those compiled by the Bureau of the Census for the year 1904. The data presented are far from comparable because of the difference in dates for which the estimates were made and the character of the data included. . . . 1. Upon what two factors does industrial development depend? 2. Compare the area of the United States in 1783 with the area of this country in 1900. 3. Describe briefly the extent of our mineral resources. 4. What, according to Professor Channing, has been the effect of the American environment upon the European race? 5. Discuss briefly the distribution of the population of the United States in 1790. 6. Outline the extension of the frontier line between 1800 and 1860. 7. In what sections of the country did our population increase most rapidly between 1880 and 1890? 8. Summarize briefly the increase in population in the United States between 1790 and 1910. 9. What is the significance of the fact that more than a hundred million people now make their homes within the United States? 10. Name some occupations which the census bureau lists under the general head of "manufacturing and mechanical industries." II. What are some of the occupations which have to do with transportation? 12. What occupations does the term "professional service” include? 13. What was the total number of persons ten years of age and over, who in 1910 were engaged in gainful occupations in the United States? 14. What is the relation of government to industry? 15. What are some of the functions of the Department of Agriculture? 16. Outline briefly those functions of the Department of the Interior which are closely related to our industrial development. 17. What are the chief functions of the Department of Commerce? 18. What are some of the concerns of the Department of Labor? 19. Describe the method by which the National City Bank of New York keeps track of industrial tendencies in the United States. 20. What factors have made the United States the wealthiest nation in the world? 21. Summarize the increase in our national wealth between 1850 and 1912. 22. Name some of the forms of wealth which are recognized in the enumerations of the Federal Census Bureau. 23. Compare the wealth of the United States with the wealth of the British Empire. 24. Compare the United States with several other European countries with respect to national wealth. No term is more commonly used in business circles than "production," and yet the exact meaning and significance of this word is often difficult to explain. As a working definition we may say that production is the manufacture of objects, or the performance of services, which will satisfy the wants of man. The part which man actually takes in the productive process has been described by the celebrated Austrian economist, Boehm-Bawerk, in the following language: A definition of pro duction. To "pro what does this mean? To "produce": what does this mean? It has been so often said by economists that the creation of, goods is not the bringing into duce": existence of materials that hitherto have not existed is not " creation" in the true sense of the word, but only a fashioning of imperishable matter into more advantageous shapes, that it is quite unnecessary to say it again. More accurate, but still exposed to misinterpretation, is the expression that in production natural powers are the servants of man, and are directed by him to his own advantage. If this proposition be taken to mean that man in any case can impose his sovereign will in place of natural laws, can at will "bully" natural law into making a single exception at his bidding, it is entirely erroneous. Whether the lord of creation will it or no, not an atom of matter can, for a single moment or by a hair's breadth, work otherwise than the unchangeable laws of nature demand. Man's rôle in production is much more modest. It consists simply in this that he, himself a part of the natural world, combines his personal powers with the impersonal powers of nature, and 1 From Eugen von Boehm-Bawerk, The Positive Theory of Capital. The Macmillan Co., 1891; pp. 12-14. Man plays a modest part in production. |