PART II • AMERICAN ECONOMIC PROBLEMS

Q. ECONOMICS OF AMERICAN INDUSTRY

CHAPTER VI

THE NATURE OF AMERICAN INDUSTRY

31. Natural resources of the nation 1

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Industrial development and material prosperity depend primarily factors upon two factors: first, natural resources; and second, the character conditioning

industrial of the people. From the earliest times, the territory now included success. within the bounds of the United States has been celebrated for its great extent, the favorable character of its climate, and the abundance and diversity of its natural resources.

America has offered everything which a virile, energetic people could consider necessary to the development of an industrial civilization. Some of the more important of the natural resources of the United States are described by Professor Bogart as follows: By the treaty of Paris, 1783, the new nation came into posses- Area of the

United sion of an immense domain of 827,844 square miles. Since that

States. time the area of the United States has been vastly increased, by purchase, by conquest, and by cession, until, in 1900, the United States consisted of 3,726,500 square miles or about one fourteenth of the entire land surface of the earth. .. The advantages to a nation of having a seacoast well provided Coast

line and with numerous bays and harbors are obvious. Not less important

waterways. for the internal commerce of a country is a system of long and navigable rivers. In both these respects the United States is wonderfully well provided. The Mississippi River with its tributaries drains over 1,000,000 square miles of territory in the very heart of the most fertile region of the country. Cities more than 1000 miles inland have direct water communication with the seaboard, and coal is

1 From Ernest L. Bogart, The Economic History of the United States. Longmans, Green & Co., 1912; pp. 2–15.

Extent and quality of our coal deposits.

Iron resources.

transported more than 1000 miles from Pittsburg to the upper reaches of the Missouri River. Altogether, it is estimated that there are 18,000 miles of navigable rivers in the United States, while the shore line of the Great Lakes extends for at least 1500 miles more.

Fortunately for the human race, coal is widely distributed throughout the world, although Europe and the United States to-day supply practically all the coal now mined. Professor Tarr estimates the actual coal-producing area in the United States at not over 50,000 square miles, of which only a small part is being worked. . . . By far the greatest part of our available supply is bituminous, the area which is underlaid with anthracite being not more than 484 square miles. Not merely in the extent of the area underlaid with coal are we favorably situated, but our superiority over Europe and the rest of the world is made more evident by a comparison of the thickness of the seams, the depth, the dip, and the cost of working. In all these respects we have an advantage.

Next in importance to the fuel supplies of the United States rank its stores of iron ore. These exist in large quantity and are widely disseminated. . . . Iron and coal, more than any other mineral substances, form the material basis of our industrial prosperity, and in the possession of large supplies of both, the United States is greatly blessed.

Next after iron, copper ranks as the most necessary in the industrial arts. ... The United States is the greatest copper-producing country in the world, turning out over half of the total amount. ... Lead and zinc are usually found associated. . . . In the production of both of these, the United States is surpassed by Europe. . . Of far greater value, though of subordinate importance in the industrial arts, are the so-called precious metals - gold and silver. In the production of both of these, the United States ranks second, the first places being held respectively by the Transvaal and by Mexico.

The forests of the United States cover an area of about 700 million acres, or more than 35 per cent of the area of the country. Of these by far the greater part is found in the section east of the Mississippi which originally was a vast continuous forest. In the Mississippi valley are found the hardwood forests of oaks, hickories, ashes,

Other metals.

Forests.

gums, etc. West of the Mississippi stretches a forestless, often treeless, area of millions of acres; with the Rocky Mountains begins again the coniferous interior forest, and still further west the Pacific coast forest. ...

Among the valuable resources of a country should be included Climate a good climate and a fertile soil: together, these are of great impor- and soil. tance in promoting the welfare, prosperity, and material comfort of the people. Considered as a whole, the fertility of the soil of the United States is remarkably great. . . . It is noteworthy that North America is broadest in the temperate zone and tapers down to a narrow point in the tropical zone, in which respect it is the opposite of South America or Africa. ...

In its direct effect upon the race which has grown up in the new Effect world, the environment seems to have made for a stronger and hardier

of the

American people than any of those of the old world. . . . "When one considers environment all these things,” says Channing, “the climate and rainfall of the upon the

European United States, its physical configuration, its adaptability to the race. service of civilized man, its fertile soils and magnificent water powers, its inexhaustible mineral resources, and the effect of this environment on the physical body, one must admit that the European race has gained by its transfer from its ancient home to the soil of the United States."

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32. Growth of population in the United States 1 The rapid colonization of the New World discovered by Columbus Rapid

colonization is one of the most striking facts in modern history. Once the people

of the of Europe became aware of the rich natural resources of the North New World. American continent, there was a steadily increasing migration of home-seekers to the new land. Every important country in Northwestern Europe contributed to the colonial population of the Atlantic seaboard, and, later, to the multitudes which spread westward into the Mississippi valley and onward to the Pacific Coast. The growth and spread of the population of the United States have been described by the Bureau of the Census in the following language:

The first census of the United States, taken as of the first Monday

a

in August, 1790 ... showed the population of the thirteen States then existing, and of the unorganized territory, to be, in the aggregate, 3,929,214. This population was distributed . . . almost entirely along the Atlantic seaboård. . . . Only a very small proportion of the inhabitants of the United States, not indeed more than 5 per cent, was found west of the Appalachian Mountains. ...

At the second census, that of 1800, the frontier line ... had advanced. ...

During the decade from 1800 to 1810 great changes will be noted, especially the extension of sparse settlements in the interior. The hills of western New York had become almost entirely populated. The occupation of the Ohio River valley had now become complete, from its head to its mouth, with the exception of small groups below the mouth of the Tennessee. .

In 1830 the frontier line had a length of 5300 miles, and the aggregate area embraced between the Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, and the frontier line was 725,406 square miles.

The frontier line which now (1850) extended around a considerable part of Texas and issued on the Gulf Coast at the mouth of the Nueces River, was 4500 miles in length.

In 1860 the first extension of settlement beyond the line of the Missouri River is noted. The march of settlement up the slope of the Great Plains had begun.

During the decade from 1870 to 1880 . . . the first noticeable point . is the great extent of territory which was brought under occupation during the decade. Not only had settlement spread west over large areas in Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas and Texas, thus moving the frontier line of the main body of settlement west many scores of miles, but the isolated settlements of the Cordilleran Region and of the Pacific coast showed enormous accessions of occupied territory....

[Between 1880 and 1890] the most striking fact connected with the extension of settlement ... was the numerous additions which were made to the settled area within the Cordilleran Region. Settlements spread westward up the slope of the plains, until they joined the bodies formerly isolated in Colorado, forming a continuous body of settlement from the East to the Rocky Mountains.

The decade 1870 to 1880.

The twelfth census [1900] marked 110 years of growth of the Census

of 1900. United States, during which period the population increased more than twenty-one times, and the country grew from groups of settlements of less than four million people to one of the leading nations of the world, with a population of nearly 85,000,000. . . The returns of the thirteenth census (1910] measure the growth Population

of the of the United States after 120 years of development. During this

United period the country has grown from less than four million inhabitants States: to more than 90,000,000. [Of a number of important countries summary. which the Federal Census Bureau has compared with respect to population], the United States was eighth in 1800, but during the century its population increased so rapidly that it passed Spain, Italy, the United Kingdom, Austria-Hungary, France and Germany, and, at the census of 1880, and since that census, has been second, standing just below Russia. .

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33. Occupations of the American people In the three centuries which have elapsed since the English began More than serious colonization on the coast of North America, the territory

a hundred

million now embraced within the United States has become the home of people have more than a hundred million people. This is a striking tribute, not

found

homes in only to the appeal of the rich resources of America, but to the ability the United of our population to support and perpetuate itself in industrial and States. professional pursuits. The versatile character of the population of the United States is shown by an enumeration of the chief occupations by means of which our people earn their living. The following summary is from the census of the United States:

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the Thirteenth Census of the United States. Washington, 1910. Vol. iv,