10 Jan., 1919.] America and Australia Compared. 3 



and remarkable waterways and lakes whicli greatly facilitate and 

 cheapen internal transportation. 



The wonderful progress in population, wealth, and power is due not 

 so much to the natural resources, but to the wise and energetic develop- 

 ment of those resources by the American Government and the American 

 people. Wealth is created by the exploitation of the resources of nature 

 by man. The increase in wealth of a nation endowed with great 

 natural resources depends on three things — 



1. The number of men productively employed; 



2. Productive efficiency of the workmen; 



3. The character of the leadership of the nation. 



The United States has always maintained an open door for immi- 

 gration. Men have been urgently wanted to open up the country, till 

 the farms, subdue the forests, harness the rivers, exploit the mineral 

 wealth, and convert the raw materials of agriculture and mining into 

 finished manufactures. In the year before the war the great number 

 of 1,197,892 immigrants landed in the United States, and complaints 

 of scarcity of labour were never so numerous as during the last five 

 years. 



But more important still than mere numbers of men is the produc- 

 tive efficiency of the individual workman. Man is a labour-saving 

 animal. Civilization is based on the use of power, and may be 

 divided into three ages — the age of man power, the age of animal 

 power, the age of engine power. The last age began but yesterday. 

 Man's power may be increased indefinitely by the use of machinery. 



The Americans have done more than any nation to enlarge the 

 productive capacity of their Avorkmen by providing them with the most 

 powerful and most perfect labour-saving devices of every kind. This 

 is really one of the causes of America's rapid development in power and 

 opulence during the last generation. She has drained the world for 

 ideas, appropriated inventions of other countries, and has developed 

 and applied labour-saving machinery to her agriculture and to her 

 industries beyond any other nation. 



Comparisons of United States with Australia. 



The land surface of Australia and that of the United States are 

 approximately the same. In point of fact, Australia has the advantage 

 in size by 691 square miles. 



As I reminded many an American audience, the island continent of 

 Australia was sufficiently large to take the 48 Stat-es of the Union, and 

 leave a track sufficiently wide to drive a car round the entire edge of 

 the continent. The area of each country is approximately 3,000,000 

 square miles. 



The population of Australia could, however, be accommodated in their 

 largest city — 'New York. The present population of the States is prob- 

 ably 110,000,000, and this provides a good home market for all forms of 

 agricultural produce, and has led to the stabilization of prices for pro- 

 duce. 



The rainfall over at least half the United States is over 20 inches, 

 and is adequate for the requirements of crop production. The heaviest 

 rainfall is in the east — the Atlantic States— and the amount of fall 



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