NATURAL ADVANTAGES. There is nothing strange in the large proportions which the manufac turing industry is attaining. There is no other territory under one government in the world with so much productive power. The abundance of raw material required by the manufacturing industries, the degree of availability, including transportation facilities, and the capabilities of the producers are unequaled. Both food sup plies and agricultural materials for manufacture are cheaper, more abundant, and more varied in the United States than in any other manufactur ing country. The well-distributed forests con tain most varieties of timber needed in large quantities, and in amounts that admit of heavy exportations. The mineral resources also include nearly every variety required for manufacturing industries. In the production of the two minerals which constitute the basis of modern manufac tures, coal and iron, the United States ranks foremost, and, indeed, produces nearly a third of the world's output of each. Moreover, the depos its of these minerals, together with deposits of limestone, which is needed in fluxing the iron ore, are frequently found in the same locality.
The transportation facilities include 18,000 miles of navigable rivers and a railway mileage that is greater than that of all Europe and that is over 39 per cent. of the railroad mileage of the world. The competition of the water ways with the railways gives the country the advantage of cheap rates. Another advantage
about which little is said, but which, neverthe less, is great, is the freedom of interstate corn „.„ meree. In no other equally large area in the civilized world is trade unrestricted by customs, excises, or national prejudice. The freedom which the United States enjoys from tradition is another factor of prime importance. At the same time the manufacturing industry has prof ited by reason of the contribution of ideas of people schooled under different industrial sys tems. The immigrant, like the native-born, is animated by the prospects of large possibilities, and a greater energy and ingenuity pervades in dustrial society in the United states than is known in the European countries. As a result the individual laborer accomplishes more in this country than he does abroad.
Mulhall says that nearly all meriean manu factures are produced by machinery, while in Eu rope more than one-half is hand work. With re spect to the completeness of organization, the minuteness of its subdivision, and the rapidity with which work is expedited, the United States also excels. The United States has developed a system of 'interchangeable mechanism' which has proved of inestimable value to the progress of the manufactrtring industry.