MAGNITUDE IN COMMERCIALISM.

Gisborne Times, Volume IX, Issue 710, 5 January 1903, Page 3

MAGNITUDE IN COMMERCIALISM.

The following i 3 a sample of the high falutin’ of Americans: In the report of Mr Carnegie's address as Rector of St. Andrew's University the figures which he gave to convince Britons that their Uncle Samuel has a “ magnitude in commercialism ” which they cannot hope to overcome were omitted. But

we can readily imagine what they were. Doubtless he told them that within thirty years the production of American farms and plantations alone has nearly doubled ; that iAmerican exportß now exceed in value those of any other country in the world ; that this is already the leading wheat-growing nation; that its corn crop is larger than that of all other nations put together ; that its production of the two staple meats —beef and pork—larger than any other nation’s ; while of cotton, the leading dress material of civilised man, it grows three-fourths of the world’s total supply. The total annual value of its manufactures' is double that of Great Britain and equal to that of the combined manufactures is double that of Great Britain and equal to that of the combined manufactures of Germany, France and Russia. And its mines produce more gold and silver than those of any other land.

Moreover, Mr Carnegie may have told his British hearers that their Uncle Samuel has more miles of railroad than all Europe and two-fifths of the total mileage of the world ; that his telegraph mileage is twice as great as any other country’s, and he sends more telephone messages in a year than are sent by the whole of Europe. His mails carry rnoro letters and packages annually than all the post-offices of Europe combined, and his newspapers, free and uncensored, outnumber those of Britain two to one and are more than one-third of all the newspapers printed in tho world. Facts like these fully justify Mr Carnegie’s exhortation to the peoplo of Great Britain to cease dreaming of “material ascendancy.” It is manifestly vain for them to contend againßt such “ magnitude in commercialism ” as those figures express.