Twenty-six billion dollars! This sum is too enormous to be grasped by the finite mind. It may perhaps be better comprehended when it is stated as being more than the entire assessed valuation of all the real estate and personal property taxed in the whole United States in 1890, according to the Eleventh Census, namely, $25,473,173,418.

Two times the valuation of all farms in the United States, including land, fences, and buildings ($13,279,252,649).

Three times the value of all railroads, including street railways, with their rolling stock and equipments ($8,685,407,323).

Ten times the value of all live stock on farms, farm implements, and machinery ($2,703,015,040).

More than ten times the estimated value of all farm products for the year 1889 ($2,460,107,454).

Twenty-six billion dollars! More than $2,000, or over $500 per year, for each and every family in the United States.

was

The loss in volume of foreign business transacted under the Cleveland Administration as compared with that under the Harrison Administration was $258,308,684, but even this immense sum less than 1 per cent of the loss in the volume of domestic business. The significance of this tremendous decline in the volume of domestic business transacted under the Democratic policies should be apparent. These policies they may be depended upon to reinaugurate if given an opportunity, with inevitably similar results. If such a "balance sheet" were presented to the stockholders of a private corporation, would they not fall over themselves to vote back the old board of directors? And should the stockholders in the national concern-the voters-be less alive to their own interests?

Such a falling off in business done means most to the vast army of voters whose sole dependence is upon their earnings; to the laborers, mechanics, clerks, small tradesmen, and farmers; for it means vastly restricted opportunities for employment and trade. The fallacious arguments of "lower prices" and "cheaper living" should induce no man to advocate a policy which will result in reducing his earnings and opportunities.

To him who has no money nothing is cheap.

ALL BUSINESS RESTS UPON THE LAW OF AVERAGE. All trade and all civilization and everything rest upon the fact that men are honest and fairly competent-upon the average—and that any system of business which has for its foundation the average intelligence and average honesty of the people is safe. All business rests upon that. Every kind of business in every commercial community rests upon that. A jobbing merchant who

would sell his whole stock to one man and charge it up to him on the books at sixty days' time would make an unsafe and dangerous trade. He would not think of doing it. But he can sell the same goods to a thousand different men on the same terms-on sixty days' time-and charge it on the books, and it is safe business. It is safe because he has distributed his risk among a thousand men. Among these thousand men there may be a man incapable or dishonest here and there, but upon the whole his customers will be honest and capable, and as I have said, the whole business of the country rests upon the assumption, ascertained by experience, that men as a rule are fairly intelligent and fairly honest.

Many people, a few weeks ago, hearing of the terrible accident that occurred on the Hudson River, felt that they never wanted to ride on a railroad again, and yet the next day the railroad published a statement showing that they had carried 26,000,000 people the year before without killing a man. So, on the whole, we know that it is safe to ride on the railroads. Insurance companies are ready to insure your life for a very small sum for railroad journeys, and they make lots of money by it.-Judge Robert S. Taylor, before the House Committee on Banking and Currency.

COTTON.

Southern Cotton Industry Growing at the Expense of New England Mills.

The rapid growth of this industry in the South is shown by the valuable table compiled by Mr. Alfred B. Shepperson, of New York, and embodied in the Statistical Abstract for 1897, showing the amount of cotton taken for home consumption from 1848 to 1897. Only the last ten years are here shown; the figures stand for thousands of bales.

It will be observed that in 1893 and 1896 the total output of the Northern mills was less than that of 1887, while the increase for 1897 over that of 1887 was but 106,000 bales; whereas the Southern mills show a steady increase every year, and the output in 1897 was 589,000 bales greater than that of ten years before. Nearly all the Southern cotton mills were started by New England capital, and the successful way in which this new industry is competing with the old mills of New England, many of them with superannuated manufacturing machinery, only goes to show what well-directed efforts may do for the manufacturing interests of the South.

COTTON, 1897.

The total reported production of cotton in 1896-97 was 8,532,705 bales, being 1,371,611 bales, or 19.2 per cent, more than was reported for 1895-96.

The total reported area of production was 23,273,209 acres, as compared with 20,184,808 acres in 1895-96, an increase of 3,088,401 acres, or 15.3 per cent.

The total value of the crop was $291,811,564, a decrease from the preceding year of $1,547,292, or 0.5 per cent.

The average yield was 0.37 bale per acre, or at the rate of

2.73 acres per bale, as compared with 0.35 bale per acre, or its equivalent, 2.82 acres per bale, in 1895-96.

It may be stated, as a matter of interest, that while ten years ago only about 6 per cent of a crop of 6,500,000 bales was consumed by mills situated in the cotton-growing States, during the year 1896-97 over 11 per cent of a crop of more than 8,500,000 bales was so consumed. It is also worthy of note that the sea-island crop of 1896-97, 104,368 bales, was the largest ever produced, the next largest being that of 1895-96, estimated at about 93,000 bales.

CUBA.

Our Trade with Cuba from 1887 to 1897.

At a time when public attention is so largely centered upon Cuba, some account of our trade with this island prior to and since the outbreak of this revolution may prove of interest. The statistics given cover the ten years ending June 30, 1896, and in some cases also the first nine months of the fiscal year 1897.

A general summary of our trade with Cuba during the period mentioned is presented in the following table:

Value of merchandise imported and exported by the United States in our trade with Cuba during the fiscal years 1887 to 1896, inclusive, and the nine months ended March 31, 1897.

The statistics given in the above table show very clearly the effect of the revolution in Cuba upon our commercial intercourse with that island. During the fiscal year of 1897 the total value of our Cuban trade amounted to only $26,666,591, as compared with $102,864,204 in 1893, the year preceding the breaking out of the war. This was a falling off of nearly 75 per cent. in the short space of three years.

See also under "War."

CURRENCY.

President Buchanan's Message on the Misfortunes Resulting from a Vicious Monetary System.

In his first annual message, December 8, 1857, President Buchanan said:

"Since the adjournment of the last Congress our constituents have enjoyed an unusual degree of health. The earth has yielded her fruits abundantly, and has bountifully rewarded the toil of the husbandman. Our great staples have commanded high prices, and, up till within a brief period, our manufacturing, mineral, and mechanical occupations have largely partaken of the general prosperity. We have possessed all the elements of material wealth in rich abundance, and yet, notwithstanding all these advantages, our country, in its monetary interests, is at the present moment in a deplorable condition. In the midst of unsurpassed plenty in all the productions of agriculture, and in all the elements of national wealth, we find our manufactures suspended, our public works retarded, our private enterprises of different kinds abandoned, and thousands of useful laborers thrown out of employment and reduced to want. The revenue of the Government, which is chiefly derived from duties on imports from abroad, has been greatly reduced, while the appropriations made by Congress at its last session for the current fiscal year are very large in amount.

"Under these circumstances a loan may be required before the close of the present session; but this, although deeply to be regretted, would prove to be only a slight misfortune when compared with the suffering and distress prevailing among the people. With this the Government can not fail to deeply sympathize, though it may be without the power to extend relief.

"It is our duty to inquire what has produced such unfortunate results, and whether their occurrence can be prevented. In all former revulsions the blame might have been fairly attributed to a variety of co-operating causes; but not so upon the present occasion. It is apparent that our existing misfortunes have proceeded solely from our extravagant and vicious system of paper currency and bank credits, exciting the people to wild speculations and gambling in stocks. These revulsions must continue to recur at successive intervals as long as the amount of the paper currency and bank loans and discounts of the country shall be left to the discretion of fourteen hundred irresponsible banking institutions, which, from the very law of their nature, will consult the interests of their stockholders rather than the public welfare.”