"If the dry lands of the West account for one third of the 3,000,000 and more square miles of the United States, at least four fifths of Australia and the same proportion of South Africa are far more barren than this arid zone; three fourths of Canada is unfertile, or rendered so by cold; one half of Argentina consists of steppes or semi-desert country; and, finally, fully two thirds of the enormous Russian Empire is uncultivable, either by lack of heat or by lack of rain.
"More than this, in respect to mineral wealth, in respect to water power, and in respect to agricultural possibilities, all of the countries just mentioned are far less endowed than is the United States."
God has made America a giant in size that America may do a giant's share in the world-wide propagation of the Gospel.
2. Mineral resources. The United States furnishes the world to-day with 63 per cent. of its petroleum. Copper is indispensable in this electric age, and 57 per cent. of the world's supply comes from the United States. In the production of coal, America leads the world, and according to the Statesman's Year Book all Europe has only one fourth as much coal as the United States. The gold output of the United States is many times that of any other country, except the Transvaal in Africa.
3. Railroads. Railroads are an indication of wealth and progress and power. Canada has more railroad mileage than all the continent of Africa. Almost 38 per cent. of the total mileage is in the United States; or, putting it in another way, the United States could duplicate all the railroad mileage of Asia, Africa, South America, and Australia and then have enough left to build a single track line three and three-fourths times around the globe! The United States has six and one-half times as many miles of railroad as any other country in the world There are no railroads where Christ has not gone.
WEALTH OF THE UNITED STATES 1850–1910
4. Wealth. According to the latest summary prepared by the Bureau of Statistics of the Department of Commerce and Labor, the wealth of the United States equals 42 per cent. of the total wealth of all Europe. In 1910 the deposits in savings banks exceeded the amount for 1900 by sixteen hundred and eighty millions of dollars. The depositors increased more than three millions in the same period of time. The latest figures show that the people of the United States as a whole are now saving an average of about nine million dollars a day. The statistics of wealth as represented by manufactured products show that our nearest competitor is Germany, but that the United States furnishes millions of dollars more of manufactured products annually than any other country. The trade of the United States with foreign lands and its own island possessions, according to reports of the fiscal year ending June 30, 1912, set a high-water mark of $4,000,000,000.
As an illustration of the growing wealth of a single city, a statement is in circulation that in 1885, according to the city records, there were only twenty-eight millionaires in New York City; now there are more than two thousand.