THE INDUSTRIAL AND FINANCIAL FUTURE OF 

 THE UNITED STATES. 



BY FRANK A. VANDERLIP. 



[Frank A. Vanderlip, banker; born Aurora, 111., Nov. 17, 1864; educated in 

 public schools, University of Illinois and Chicago; began his business career as 

 a reporter on the Chicago Tribune, of which he later became financial editor; 

 associate editor of the Economist, 1894-7; became private secretary to Secretary 

 of the Treasury Gage, 1897, and later in the same year, assistant secretary of the 

 treasury; became vice-president of the National City bank, 1901. Author of 

 many articles on economic topics.] 



It has seemed to me fitting to attempt to review, in the 

 briefest manner, a few of the figures illustrative of our material 

 progress and to try to draw some deductions from them. In 

 order to get a setting for our comparisons, let us for a moment 

 glance back at conditions during the years when we were just 

 emerging from the depression of the panic year of 1893, and 

 when we were facing a great political and economic conflict 

 over the silver issues. The whole world was filled with dis- 

 trust in regard to the future of our standard of value and the 

 chilling shadow of that distrust was falling heavily on our com- 

 merce and finances. 



Then came the definite verdict of the people, declaring for 

 a sound currency, and following that began an unexampled era 

 of prosperity such as no other country, in any age, has ever 

 known. The expansion went beyond all the experiences of 

 men of affairs. We had learned lessons of economy, of careful 

 management and of cheap production in the depression whch 

 followed the panic of 1893, and now we suddenly waked to the 

 fact that we had obtained a grasp on the markets of the world. 

 Our exports of manufactures ran up from $183,000,000 to 

 $433,000,000 in half a dozen years, and this increase of 

 $250,000,000 in the annual average of our exports of manu- 

 factured products made Europe stand aghast at what was 

 denominated the American commercial invasion. Our gen- 

 eral foreign trade balance assumed such totals as to cause 

 economists seriously to consider what was to happen to the 

 rest of the industrial world if this march of progress went on. 



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