3. The Capital of the United States
The United States apparently enjoys a large superiority over any single country in its reserves of some of the most essential resources. The same thing is true of productive machinery.
Figures showing the actual quantities of capital are available in only a small number of cases. Estimates of capital value in terms of money are useless. It is only the figures which show numbers of machines that really give a basis for judging actual differences.
Live stock on farms, the chief form of agricultural capital, is reported for the various countries in the Year Book of the United States Department of Agriculture. The United States (1916) heads the list with 61.9 million cattle; 67.8 million hogs; 48.6 million sheep and goats, and 25.8 million horses and mules,—204 million farm animals in all. The Russian Empire (including Russia in Asia) is second (1914) with 52.0 million cattle; 15.0 hogs; 72.0 million sheep and goats, and 34.9 horses and mules,—174 million farm animals in all. British India (1914) reports more cattle than any other country (140.5 million); she is also second in the number of sheep and goats with 64.7 millions, but she has no hogs and 1.9 million horses. Argentina (1914) reports 29.5 million cattle; 2.9 million sheep and goats; and 8.9 million horses and mules. The number of animals on European farms outside of Russia is comparatively small. Germany (1914), United Kingdom (1916), Austria-Hungary (1913), and France (1916) reported 61.8 million cattle, 46.6 million hogs, 60.8 million sheep and goats, and 11.5 million horses and mules, making a total of 180.7 million farm animals. These four countries with a population of about 206 million persons, had less live stock than the United States with its population (1916) of about 100 millions.
It would be interesting to compare the amount of farm machinery and farm equipment of the United States with that of other countries. Unfortunately no such figures are available.
The figures showing transportation capital are fairly complete. (Statistical Abstr. 1918, pp. 844-5.) The total railroad mileage of the world is 729,845. More than one-third of this mileage (266,381 miles) is in the United States. Russia (1916) comes second with 48,950 miles; Germany (1914) third, with 38,600 miles and Canada (1916) fourth with 37,437 miles.
The world's total mileage of telegraph wire (Ibid.) is 5,816,219, of which the United States has more than a fourth (1,627,342 miles). Russia (1916) is second with 537,208 miles; Germany (1914) is third with 475,551 miles; and France fourth with 452,192 miles.
The Bureau of Railway Economics has published a compilation on "Comparative Railway Statistics" (Bulletin 100, Washington, 1916) from which it appears that the United States is far ahead of any other country in its railroad equipment. The total number of locomotives in the United States was 64,760; in Germany 29,520; in United Kingdom 24,718; in Russia (1910) 19,984; and in France 13,828. No other country in the world had as many as ten thousand locomotives. If these figures also showed the locomotive tonnage as well as the number, the lead of the United States would be even more decided as the European locomotives are generally smaller than those used in the United States. This fact is clearly brought out by the figures from the same bulletin showing freight car tonnage (total carrying capacity of all cars). For the United States the tonnage was (1913) 86,978,145. The tonnage of Germany was 10.7 millions; of France 5.0 millions; of Austria-Hungary 3.8 millions. The figures for the United Kingdom were not available.
The United States also takes the lead in postal equipment. (Stat. Abstr., 1918, pp. 844-5.) There are 324,869 post offices in the world; 54,257 or one-sixth in the United States. The postal routes of the world cover 2,513,997 miles, of which 450,954 miles are in the United States. The total miles of mail service for the world is 2,061 millions. Of this number the United States has 601.3 millions.
The most extreme contrast between transportation capital in the United States and foreign countries is furnished by the number of automobiles. Facts and Figures, the official organ of the National Automobile Chamber of Commerce (April, 1919) estimates the total number of cars in use on January 1, 1917 as 4,219,246. Of this number almost six-sevenths (3,500,000) were in use in the United States. The total number of cars in Europe as estimated by the Fiat Press Bureau, Italy, was 437,558, or less than one-seventh of the number in use in the United States. Automobile distribution is of peculiar significance because the industry has developed almost entirely since the Spanish-American War and therefore since the time when the United States first began to develop into a world power.