68 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



United States cannot be questioned. In strength, as com- 

 pared the one with the other, the great world po^vers would 

 be arranged in the following order : the United States, Great 

 Britain, Russia and Germany of equal strength, with France 

 a doubtful fifth. This, in fact, is the order which Sir Robert 

 Giffen, statistician to the English Board of Trade, admits. 



Lest, however, this superiority on land should make us 

 unduly boastful, w^e may well look for a moment at the ton- 

 nage of the navies of the world, as recently compiled by 

 the Navy Department. Arranged in the order of naval 

 supremac}', the great nations would stand : England, France, 

 Russia, United States, Germany, Italy, Japan, — with Eng- 

 land so enormously in the lead as to equal the strength of 

 her three nearest competitors, France, Russia and the United 

 States. An exhibit of the commercial marine would be even 

 less likely to minister to our self-glorification. On the great 

 lakes we have an enormous tonnage, where we have no com- 

 petition ; but in the open sea, where the nations of the world 

 are free to compete, we cut a figure so small that it is hardly 

 worth while to repeat the actual figures. They do not sound 

 well to American ears. Let us hope that the decade just 

 beginning may tell a difi'erent story, and that our ships of 

 commerce may once more carry the American flag to as 

 many quarters of the world as they did in the palmy days 

 of American shipping. 



Taking up, briefly, the separate items upon which the 

 census will throw light, let us consider them with respect to 

 the developments of former decades. During the decade 

 ending 1900, the annual increase of wealth was closely that 

 which held between 1880 and 1890. The total wealth of the 

 country will reach approximately 90,000 millions of dollars, 

 and the average wealth for each inhabitant will amount to 

 $1,200. The growth of wealth in New England has appar- 

 ently not kept pace with the population, while in the Middle 

 States each inhabitant seems to have gained a slight increase. 

 The general increase for the Union is, approximately, $155 

 per head. In California the average wealth per inhabitant 

 is approximately $2,500, while in Massachusetts the average 

 wealth is $1,080, which is a slight decrease, compared with 

 the average wealth of citizens of Massachusetts in 1890. 



