634 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



funds. German Government funds were also bought amounting to 

 about four millions sterling. Eussia was able to borrow in order to 

 purchase railway material. And it is understood that the United 

 States was willing to lend likewise to Switzerland and to other govern- 

 ments. This is the most dramatic change that has occurred for a very 

 long time." 



"The succession of extraordinary creditor balances," says the 'New 

 York Journal of Commerce,' of January 10, 1901, "has virtually revo- 

 lutionized our financial relations with the European centers. In a 

 very important sense, we have become the creditor nation of the world. 

 From a chronic condition of dependence upon the banking forces of 

 London, Paris and Berlin, we find those centers now dependent upon 

 the large floating balances of the United States, subject to our lending 

 ability in periods of exigency, carrying the largest stock of gold in the 

 world and holding the largest resource for dealing with crises in inter- 

 national finance. Three of the foremost European governments — Eng- 

 land, Germany and Eussia — have found it necessary to come to New 

 York for importau 1 loans, and the two former have not applied in vain. 

 Thus, if this city i::iy not be said to have yet become the financial 

 center of the world, yet we may incontestably claim a foremost rank 

 among the few metropolitan cities which have won that distinction." 



"One of the most important financial features of the year," says 

 'Bradstreet's' (January 5, 1901), in its review of the stock-market in 

 1900, "was the placing in Wall Street and with American investors 

 of issues of British consols, German Government bonds, and loans 

 by Eussia, Sweden, and other countries, giving point to the feeling 

 that our market has taken the lead in the financial world." 



THE FUTURE OF INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION. 



Summed up, therefore, the general conclusion of competent for- 

 eign authorities, as well as of our own, is that the commercial expan- 

 sion of the United States is no longer problematical, but a fact of 

 constantly enlarging proportions which opens up new vistas in the 

 struggle for ascendency among the industrial powers. Prolific as it 

 has been of great surprises, it is doubtful whether similar phenomena 

 will spring from its undemonstrated forces. It would seem, now that 

 the causes of our unlooked-for triumphs are known and are being care- 

 fully weighed and studied, that the future will be one of fruition, of 

 the gradual maturing of our powers, rather than of sudden blossoming 

 of some novel capacity of competition. The day, perhaps, is not 

 distant when the more intelligent of our rivals will be able to meet us 

 upon more nearly equal terms and when, as has already been indicated, 

 it will be necessary to supplement our natural advantages and our 

 highly developed industrial efficiency with the appliances of educa- 



