Commercial failures and average of liabilities, 1889 to 1903. [From Dun's Review, New York.] Value of the Principal Farm Crops of the United States in 1899 and 1903 Compared with 1895-Farm Value of Ten Principal Crops Increased More Than $1,000,000,000 since 1895. This table shows the value of the principal farm crops of the United States in 1895, 1899, and 1903, and illustrates forcibly the importance of protection to the farmer. The values of ten principal crops are stated. It will be seen that in every case there has been a large increase and in some cases the value has practically doubled, while the total value of the ten articles named is 62 per cent. greater in 1903 than in 1895. Here is a gain of over one billion dollars ($1,215,596,963) in the value of these ten articles of farm production for the single year 1903.compared with 1895. The figures are from the Department of Agriculture, except those of flax, for each year, and those of cotton for the year 1903. *Estimate of Department of Agriculture. To appreciate what this means to each individual stock owner note the change in the average price per head of each class of animals: Expenditures of the United States Compared with Those of Other Leading Nations-Our Per Capita Much Below That of Principal Countries of the World. The expenditures of the United States Government are much less in proportion to population than those of many other of the leading nations of the world. This fact is shown by a statement published by the Department of Commerce and Labor, through its Bureau of Statistics, showing the population, revenues, expenditures, and indebtedness of the principal countries of the world. It shows that while the expenditure of the United States, with 80 millions of people, is 640 million dollars, that of the United Kingdom, with 42 millions of people, is 898 million dollars; that of France, with 39 million people, is 695 million dollars; that of Germany, with 58 million people, 553 million dollars; while in practically every country aside from China and India, with their enormous population, the per capita of government expenditures is greater than in the United States. Even in the case of Russia, with its population of 141 million, the per capita of government expenditure is about the same as that of the United States. While it is true that a larger proportion of public expenditures is borne by State and local governments in the United States than in many of the more centralized governments of Europe, these figures of the relative national expenditures of the various governments are at least interesting at the present time. The table puts the population of the United States at 80,372,000, the Government expenditure in 1903 at $640,323,000, and the per capita expenditure $7.97. The per capita government expenditure of Canada is given at $9.30; the German Empire, $9.45; Italy, $10.97; Austria-Hungary, $14.27; Belgium, $17.40; France, $17.84; the United Kingdom, $21.39, and Australia, $37.69. Russia's annual expenditure is put, for the latest available year, at $1,116,095,000, as against $644,883,000 in the United States; but the fact that Russia's population is given at 141 million brings the per capita expenditure to about the figure shown by the United States. The table in question also shows in the case of each country the excess of revenue or expenditure in the latest available year, and in this particular the United States also presents a satisfactory showing, the excess of revenues over expenditures being greater than that of any other country, while in many countries the expenditures exceed the revenues. For the latest available year the United States shows an excess of revenues over expenditures amounting to 50 million dollars, while France shows an excess of revenues amounting to only $26,000; Germany, an excess of expenditures over revenues amounting to 57 million dollars, and the United Kingdom an excess of expenditures over revenues amounting to 160 million dollars. The table which follows shows the population, expenditure, and per capita expenditure in the more important countries of the world in the latest available year. Most of the statements are for 1902, that of the United States for 1903. Every man who has made wealth or used it in developing great legitimate business enterprises has been of benefit and not harm to the country at large.-President Roosevelt at Spokane, Wash., May 26, 1903. COMPARISON OF FINANCIAL, COMMERCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL CONDITIONS IN THE UNITED STATES IN 1892 1896, 1900 AND 1903. This table is intended to show the contrast in conditions in the United States under Republican and Democratic administrations. The indebtedness, interest charge, money in circulation, bank deposits, commerce, agriculture and the value of its products, manufacturing, railway operations, and other measures of business and commercial activity and prosperity are shown for the years 1892, 1896, 1900, and 1903. The year 1892 was the last under President Harrison, 1896 the last under President Cleveland; and while the McKinley-Roosevelt term has been continuous and one of continuous prosperity, conditions in the year 1900, the last full year of President McKinley's life, are shown, since the comparison of conditions in 1903 with those in 1900 shows that prosperity and activity have continued under President Roosevelt and that the assertions that business has not prospered under the present administration are not true. No detailed explanation or comment upon the table is necessary. It speaks for itself and is in itself evidence of Republican prosperity and Democratic adversity. The figures of the table are in all cases official and in most instances are those of fiscal years. Financial, commercial, and industrial conditions in the United States, 1892, 1896, 1900, and 1903. 1,506,434,966 2,055,150,998 2,367.692,169 $2,127,757,191 4,781,605 $1,712,769,026 Money in circulat'n, per cap. 26.94 Bank clearings, New York..$36,279,905,236 29,350,894,884 51,964,588,564 h 30.38 70,833,655,940 Bank clear'gs, total, U. S...$60,883,572,438 51,935,651,733 84,582,450,081 114,068,837,569 Loans and discounts.nat'l 2,623,512,201 3,415,045,751 91,71.642,012 6,107,083 7,305,228 2,935,204,845 Bank deposits, total.. 9,673,385,303 Industrial life insurance in force. $583,527,016 888.266,586 1,468,986,366 a1,806,890,864 Total life insurance in force. $4,897,731,359 5,943.067,492 8.562,138,746 10,508,478.776 Imports $827,402,462 1,025,719,237 Imports, per capita.. $12,44 12.54 Exports... $1,030,278,148 Exports, per capita.. $15.53 Excess of exports over im ports... $202,875,686 102,882,264 544,541,898 394,422,442 Imports of mfr's materials.. 480,828,386 Exports of manufactures.. 407,526,159 Financial, commercial, and industrial conditions in the United States, 1892, 1896, 1900, and 1903-Continued. Our workshops never were so busy, our trade at home was never so large, and our foreign trade exceeds that of any like period in all our history.—President McKinley at Chicago, Oct. 10, 1899. Do Trusts Control Prices? Much has been said about the advance in prices, coupled with the assertion that the advances in cost of living is due to trust control and that the increase in prices has been more rapid than the advance in wages. This general question of wages, and the relation of wages to prices is discussed in the chapter on Labor, to which attention is especially called, but in addition to the facts there presented some statements with reference to the advance and more recent decline in prices is worthy of special attention. That statement, from official and recent reports of the Bureau of Labor, completely disproves the charge, and shows clearly the falsity of the Democratic assertion that cost of living has advanced more rapidly than wages. Another extremely important fact is the marked decline in prices in many articles during the present year, among these articles being many controlled by trusts and great industrial corporations, which are constantly charged by the Democracy with advancing prices and with ability to control the same. A table compiled from reports of the Bureau of Statistics shows the prices of principal articles of food and manufactures, in March, 1904, compared with March, 1903: Of the 40 articles named in this table, practically all of those in which advances occurred are the natural products of the farm-wheat, corn, oats, and wool-in which the advances cannot be ascribed to the trusts; while practically all of the articles manufactured by trusts or great corporations, such as iron and steel, sugar, copper, tin-plate, show a marked reduction in March, 1904, as compared with March, 1903. If the assertion that trusts are able to control prices were true, how is it that practically all of the trust-made articles in the United States have declined in price during the last year and that, too, during the very time when prices of farm products and prices of many of the articles imported for use in manufacturing were advancing? Attention is especially called to the fact that the single article of trust production in which an advance is shown is petroleum |