OUR INDUSTRIAL POSITION IN THE WORLD. 



BY HENRY GANNETT. 



[Henry Gannett, geographer of the United States geological survey ; born Bath, Me., 

 Aug. 24, 1846; graduated Lawrence Scientific school and Hooper Scientific school; 

 geographer of tenth, eleventh, and twelfth censuses; and since 1882 of the geological 

 survey ; author of many articles in magazines and reviews chiefly on the resources of 

 the United States, and of the following among other books : Commercial Geography, 

 Building of a Nation, The United States, and Manual of Topographic Surveying.] 



The United States has 7 per cent of the land area of the 

 earth, and 5 per cent only of the world's population. One 

 in 20 of the people of the world owe allegiance to Uncle Sam. 

 In numbers, we are exceeded by China, which has more than 

 one fourth of the earth's inhabitants; the British empire, 

 with nearly one fourth; and Russia, with about one twelfth. 

 All the people of China and 85 per cent of those of the British 

 empire represent an early civilization; the Russians promise 

 a high civilization in the future ; while the United States stands 

 for the highest type of the civilization of to-day. After us in 

 numbers are Germany, with 3.7 per cent of the earth's popu- 

 lation; Austria-Hungary and Japan, with 3 per cent each; 

 and France, with 2.5 per cent. 



With only one twentieth of the earth's population, we 

 have subdued and devoted to the use of man not less than 

 one fourth of the cultivated land of the earth, that is, more 

 than India or China, with their enormous populations; and 

 our 400,000,000 acres of land under cultivation produce in 

 such profusion as to give us pre-eminence in most of the prod- 

 ucts of agriculture. Of the wheat of the earth we contribute 

 21 per cent, which is more than any other nation. Russia 

 produces but 15 per cent, and France but 12 per cent. We 

 export from one fourth to one third of our crop to supply the 

 deficiencies of Europe. Indian corn, one of the gifts of the 

 new world to the old, still finds its home in American soil; 

 for four fifths of the world's crop is grown in North America, 

 and not less than 76 per cent in the United States. 



Vol. 3-1 1 



