Some Leading Events in the Current Story of the World

SOME LEADING EVENTS IN THE CURRENT STORY OF THE WORLD. BY DR. J. M. TANNER, GENERAL SUPERINTENDENT OF CHURCH SCHOOLS.

Prosperity of the United States*

A recent reproduction of a cartoon in a local paper repre- sents acknowledged commercial advantages of the United the States over Europe, and especially over Great Britain. The fiscal year ending June 30, is without a parallel in the foreign trade of this country, and shows a total export of more than $1,500,000,000. The imports for eleven months were valued at $755,000,000, or $34,000,000 less than those of the preceding year. This showing will make our exports not so very far from double that of our

imports. This means an enormous balance of trade in our favor, an aggregate within the last four years estimated at $2,400,000,- 000. Such an amount is almost incomprehensible, and it goes without saying that a large amount of this excess of money due the United States from her foreign trade has gone to redeem and purchase American bonds held by wealthy European, and especially English, finaciers. Perhaps the bonds of this country which circu- late most in Europe are issued by railroads, and railroad companies tell us that they are sending the interest on their bonds, at this time,

mostly to bondholders in the United States. The result of this enormous balance of trade in our favor has been to make money very much more plentiful, and to destroy the demand for the free and unlimited coinage of silver. This country has never in all its history, had so much money to lend and at so low a rate of inter- est. Much of this enormous export trade consists of iron and the

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various wares manufactured from it, from a railroad engine to a plow. It is said that the output of our farms promises to exceed

anything before known in the history of our country. The esti- mate of the wheat crop in the United States is seven hundred mil- lion bushels. The year 1898 was the record-breaking year, with an output of wheat amounting to six hundred and seventy-five million bushels. The production of wheat, corn and cotton has relieved the farmers of the west from the burden of a heavy interest paid to capitalists of the east, just as the country generally has been relieved so largely from the burden of an interest-bearing debt due Great Britain. The business, therefore, of loaning eastern money on western farms has diminished wonderfully in the last two -years. Meanwhile, the great consolidations of capital are going on, the avowed purpose of which is to contest with Germany, and especially Great Britain, for the markets of the world. These consolidations of capital have ceased to create the suspicion and opposition which they created a year or two ago, and the greatest alarm that is felt about them is now felt in Europe. In Utah, the output of the farms will not be large, but the enormous production of grain in other parts of the United States will prevent any considerable rise in the cost of breadstuff. On the other hand, the unusual demands for labor, and the increased price of wages, will more than make good the loss of the pro- ducts of our farms. In many instances, one man in a family is left at home to gather the crops, while the rest of the laborers are seeking remunerative employment in the construction of rail- roads, in mining, and in other forms of labor, at present found in such great abundance in this and surrounding states. So what- ever misfortune or loss we may sustain from the limited produc- tions of the farms, we shall more than make up in other directions, and Utah can rejoice with the rest of the country !in our general prosperity.

The War in South Affica. Telegrams from London on July 4, announce an acrimonious discussion between the Radicals, in Parliament, and the party in

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power, on the South African war. The discussion arose over the announcement made by Mr. Broderick, secretary of war. This announcement was to the effect that the government had just re- ceived news that Commandant General Louis Botha had permis- sion, in June, to communicate with Mr. Kruger, the result of which was a meeting at which General DeWet, General Botha, and others, decided to continue the war, and to accept no terms short of independence. Mr. Broderick, the secretary of war, added "that the government's resolution was still unshaken, and that great progress had been made in the war during the last three months." Just what that progress was, Mr. Broderick did not state. It is further said that news from the front is that the Boers have still thirteen thousand men in the field. If this be

true, the end is not in sight. That number of Boer soldiers in the field raises the struggle above the character of a guerrila warfare. The country traversed in the struggle is one of great distances, and one which affords not only great opportunities for defense, but strong inducements to make sudden sallies at unexpected points upon detached bodies of the English army. From the news received, it would seem that the English are not only compelled to sustain their own army, but, at the same time, to support the army of the Boers. It is almost impossible to transport great stores of provisions over long stretches of country like that of South Africa, from Cape Colony to Johannesburg, in the Transvaal, without affording the Boers an opportunity to seize sufficient provisions for their support. It has long been believed that the Boers have received large

numbers of recruits from European countries, especially from among the Germans, and perhaps a considerable number from the United States. It is not, however, possible to conceive that any very considerable numbers could go from this country, or from Germany, without creating suspicions, and without calling forth a strong protest from England. It is very much more likely that the Boers are receiving their support from their brethren in Cape Colony and Natal. Lord Kitchener may be so conducting his military operations as to successfully entrap, and beat down all resistance. What his plans at present are, is of course a military secret, and the plans

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may be such as to consume a considerable amount of time, and thus prolong the sufferings and losses of the English army, as well as to cause the further depletion of the English treasury. In some respects, the war in South Africa is without a single parallel in history. Our. information from the scene of the struggle is, of course, ex-partisan, and from England's own statement of her case, prospects of a speedy termination are not promising.

The Oil Boom in Texas. The word "boom" has a peculiar significance to the United States, not found in any other country on the globe.Europeans have their commercial prosperity, and the development of their resources, as a rule, is in such a gradual order of growth, that booms, in which that term is understood in this the sense in country, are never known, and consequently, excitement does not prevail in European countries over the unexpected and sudden de- velopment of a national resource. Booms are very frequently current in the United States, and the one which is just now occu-

pying the attention of the country is the great oil boom in Texas. In the eastern part of that state is a small town by the name of Beaumont, which is at present the scene of great excitement over the oil discoveries that have been made recently in its

vicinity. An oil boom is not unknown to the United States, but for many years discoveries of oil wells have not been made, so that the present excitement is a reminder of what went on in Pennsyl- vania, in the days of the discoveries of her great oil wells. In those days, and even recently in California, it has been the ambition of explorers for oil to get what was known as a gusher, yielding the large amount of one hundred barrels a day. Such a yield soon put the finder on the road to wealth. If, however, a gusher of one hundred barrels a day was a great discovery, in those times, what

shall we say of a well whose daily yield now exceeds fifty thou- sand barrels —an amount greater than even any dozen wells ever before opened ? No wonder oil speculators went wild over the dis- covery of the great Lucas well, the first in the field, with its enor- mous flow of fifty thousand barrels a day.

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The finding of the Lucas has resulted in filling the little town of Beaumont with thousands of oil speculators. Correspondents from those regions tell us of the great excitement there, and of the extravagant prices which now prevail in eastern Texas. Tents are converted into hotels, and fabulous prices are paid for food and rooms. Great corporations are organized, and men deal in stocks representing many millions of dollars. Speculators have all sorts of wild schemes afloat, and Beaumont is just now enjoying a genuine "boom" with plenty of money in sight.

Canada and the United States. A Canada statesman recently said that the capitalists of the United States had lately invested so extensively in this British Dominion as to threaten the commercial connections of his mother country. The statement suggests the intimate relations and the similarity of interests that are growing between the United States and Canada. Heretofore, that country has looked to England for an inflow of capital, and the relation between the two has been one of mutual advantage, and has been one of the strongest motives that has actuated Canada's adherance to Eng- land's supremacy. United States' capital in Canada may operate in two very powerful ways. It may break down tariff barriers between that country and this, and place us in closer commercial relations than we have ever had before, and thus change the current of Canadian sympathy toward the United States. On the other hand, there is a strong possibility that the United States may be compelled to protect the commercial and financial interests of its people in Canada by political interference. It is to be hoped that as our relations become more intimate, they will build up a strong sentiment of friendship between the two countries. The political dependence of Canada to Great Britain hangs by such a slender thread that we might very easily annex that country commercially without any great political interference, on our part, with them. A commercial union is most desirable, and will undoubtedly be en- couraged by political leaders in both countries. For its rare pos- and the promises of unrevealed as well as unutilized re- sibilities,

sources, Canada stands first on the Western continent.