26 NATIONAL RESOURCES. 



was $.289,601,385 1 and that of the United States was 

 $591,172,795=^; and as yet, we have hardly begun to de- 

 velop these resources. Thousands of square miles of 

 mineral wealth lie wholly untouched. 



Let us glance at our manufactures, present and pro' 

 spective. Our first great advantage is found in our 

 superabounding coal. Our second lies in the fact that 

 we have our raw material at hand. England must go at 

 least 3,000 miles for every cotton boll she spins; we raise 

 our own. And mills are now being built in the South 

 which manufacture the cotton where it is grown. We 

 produce also the wool, the Avoods, the hides, the metals 

 of every sort, all that is required for nearly every va- 

 riety of manufacture. The remaining advantage which 

 crowns our opportunity is the quality of our labor; 

 American operatives being, as a class, the most ingen- 

 ious and intelligent in the world. Inventiveness has 

 come to be a national trait. The United States Govern- 

 ment issues four times as many patents as the English. 

 From the Patent Office in Washington there were issued, 

 during 1889, 21,518 patents. At the International Elec- 

 trical Exposition in Paris, a few years ago, five gold 

 medals w^ere given for the greatest inventions or dis- 

 coveries, all of which came to the United States. The 

 Mechanical World, of London, says that the United 

 States has the best machinery and tools in the world ; 

 and Mr. Lourdelot, who was sent over here a few years 

 since by the French Minister of Commerce, says that the 

 superiority of tools used here, and the attention to de- 

 tails too often neglected in Europe, are elements of dan- 

 ger to European industries. Herbert Spencer testifies 

 that, "beyond question, in respect of mechanical appli- 

 ances, the Americans are ahead of all nations." ^ The 

 fact of superior tools would alone give us no small ad- 



» The Statesman's Year-Book, 1890. 



2 The World Ahnanac, 1890. 



3 For much additional and weighty testimony to the same point, see Re- 

 port of Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics of Labor for 1879, pp. xiii. and 

 xiv. 



