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Development of the Country. [Correspondence AMERICAN ECONOMIST.] WASHINGTON, D. C., March 23, 1899.Public men in Washington and all friends of the cause of Protection are looking forward with especial interest to the work that is to be porformed during the next year by the Census Bureau, that is now being organized here. course it is not the population statistics that will be collected by the bureau that will be of first interest to public men and thoughtful investigators throughout the country, but the mass of figures that will be collected showing the status of the producing industries of the country and the condition of the producers and wage-earners. The importance of this investigation in furnishing the people of the country with reliable data showing the progress of industry and the development of productive enterprises cannot be overestimated. The development of the country, the growth of industries and the advancement of the material interests of the wage-earners, will be brought out by this investigation, and from the mass of figures to be collected one may gain information as to the conditions existing throughout the country generally, whereas, ordinarily, this information, when collected by private efforts, cannot at best be extended over more than a small section of the country.

It is estimated by a Government official who had a share in the work of the last census that the investigation

soon to be set on foot in this work of collecting data will demonstrate to even the most skeptical of our countrymen that the period from 1890 to 1900 will be shown to have been marvelous in its achievements for the good of the country, in adding to the material wealth of our people, and giving a greater proportionate measure of benefit to the working people of the land than any other decade in the nation's history. This prediction seems a trifle overdrawn when one takes into consideration the period of industrial and business depression which hung like a pall upon the country from 1893 to 1896. The loss of wealth accumulated, the shinkage in values and the diminution of savings in the hands of the people during that period constituted one of the most grievous chapters in the annals of the country. But the official suggested, in that connection, that great as were the losses during that period, when the entire decade is taken into consideration, it will be found that the gains greatly overbalanced the losses. It is suggested that in the years 1891 and 1892 the development of the country was so rapid and wages increased in such marvelous proportions that the addition to the material wealth of the country in that short space of time was greater than the losses during the three years of depression which followed. If it should be impossible to make that statement good, from the records of the achievements of those years, it is pointed out that the years since 1896, coupled with the record to be made during the current year, will vastly more than make up the differences on the wrong side of the ledger, leaving a handsome record to the credit of the industrial, commercial and business prosperity of the nation during the entire ten year period.

It is believed by close observers that the restoration of values in the commercial and industrial world since the incoming of the McKinley administration, and the return to the policy of Protection, has been of a magnitude sufficient to vastly more than make up for the shrinkage during the period of depression. This fact is, apparently, fully demonstrated by the present quotations upon stocks and bonds, to say nothing of the better prices for property generally. As is always the case, however, wages are the last to rise after a period of losses and reductions. But the records for the past two years show that wages have, in many sections of the country, more than regained their former standard, and conditions are so much improved this year, with the prospects of the busiest and most prosperous season during the remainder of the current year, that the prediction is confidently made that the wage standard will be shown, at the end of the current decade,

to have risen considerably above that of the decade between 1880 and 1890.

The most interesting results are expected to be shown in the industrial development of the South and Middle West. The increase in the volume of manufacturing in the South will, of itself, afford a most interesting chapter in the nation's advancement. The progress in the South will also be shown to be accompanied by a rise in wage rates. and a betterment of the conditions of

the wage earners in all directions throughout that section. The decrease in the volume of imports during the past two years, coupled with the increase in the exports of products of American mills and factories, will produce a showing in the manufacturing lines that will be the wonder of the world.

In addition to the growth that is expected to be shown in the Middle West, where there has been a marked increase in the volume of manufacturing, and a tremendous increase in the wealth and progress of the agricultural communities of that vast and fertile section, there is every reason to look for a marked increase in the development and enrichment of the section west of the Mississippi River, especially during the past three years. All the reports which have come from the latter section during the past two years have given evidence of the rapid progress of that section, where, only a few years ago, there was so much desolation and despair on account of the shrinkage of values, the stoppage of operations in the silver mines, the low prices of wool and agricultural products generally, which accompanied the depression in manufacturing throughout the great industrial centers of the country. All this, it is believed, has been changed. True. the price of silver has not materially advanced, but the people of the far West have reaped advantages by turning their attention to other pursuits, and the development of the gold fields and the improved prices of farm products, including wool, an important staple of that region, has contributed to a greater improvement in the wealth producing facilities of those people than was lost by other causes during the time of depression. Such, at least, is the information which comes from Montana, Colorado, Wyoming, California, Oregon, Washington and the Dakotas, and interesting reports are expected from those States when the census returns are received.

Chairman Dingley lived long enough to see the first unfolding of the new prosperity which has come to his country under the revenue law which bears his name, but not long enough to behold its full fruition.-Boston "Jour

nal."