The condition of this country to-day, Mr. President, is well calculated
to awaken the interest and arouse the attention of thinking men. It can
be safely asserted that no period of the world's history can exhibit a
people at once so numerous and homogeneous, living under one form of
government, speaking a common language, enjoying the same degree of
personal and political liberty, and sharing, in so equal a degree, the
same civilization as the population of the United States. Eminently
practical and ingenious, of indomitable will, untiring energy, and
unfailing hope; favored by nature with a domain of imperial expanse,
with soil and climate of unequaled variety and beneficence, with every
natural condition that can conduce to individual prosperity and national
glory, it might well be expected that among such a people industry,
agriculture, commerce, art, and science would reach an extent and
perfection of development surpassing anything ever known in the history
of mankind.
In some respects this expectation would appear to have been well
founded. For several years past our farmers have produced an annual
average of 400,000,000 bushels of wheat. Our oat crop for 1888 was
700,000,000 bushels, our corn crop 2,000,000,000 bushels, our cotton
crop 7,000,000 bales. In that year our coal mines yielded 170,000,000
tons of coal, our furnaces produced 6,500,000 tons of pig iron and
3,000,000 tons of steel. Our gold and silver mines add more than
$100,000,000 a year to the world's stock of the precious metals. We
print 16,000 newspapers and periodicals, have in operation 154,000 miles
of railroad and 250,000 miles of telegraph. The value of our
manufactured products at the date of the last census was $5,400,000,000.
Our farm lands at the same time were estimated at $10,000,000,000, our
cattle at $2,000,000,000, our railroads at $6,000,000,000, our houses at
$14,000,000,000. It is not too much to say that there has been an
increase of fully 50 per cent. in those values since the taking of the
census of 1880. Our national wealth to-day is reasonably estimated at
over $60,000,000,000.
Figures and facts such as these in the history of a young nation bespeak
the presence not merely of great natural opportunities, but of a people
marvelously apt and forceful. From such results should be anticipated
the highest attainable prosperity and happiness. Our population is
alert, aspiring, and buoyant, not given to needless repining or aimless
endeavor, but, with fixity of purpose, presses ever eagerly on,
utilizing every conception of the brain to supplement and multiply the
possibilities of the hand, and at every turn subordinating the subtle
forces of nature to the best and wisest purposes of man. No equal number
of persons on the globe better deserve success, or are better adapted
for its enjoyment.
But instead of finding, as we should find, happiness and contentment
broadcast throughout our great domain, there are heard from all
directions, even in this Republic, resounding cries of distress and
dissatisfaction. Every trade and occupation exhibits symptoms of
uneasiness and distrust. The farmer, the artisan, the merchant,--all
share in the general complaint that times are hard, that business is
"dull." The farmer is in debt, and is not realizing, on the products of
his labor, the wherewithal to meet either his deferred or his current
obligations; the artisan, when at work, finds himself compelled to share
his earnings with some relative or friend who is out of employment; the
merchant who buys his goods on time finds little profit in sales, and
difficulty in making his payments.