eage exceeds that of all the countries of Europe, Asia, and Africa
combined, and the employes, connected directly or indirectly with
railroads in the United States, number almost a million persons. The
half-dozen crude newspapers of the Revolution have expanded into more
than 20,000, whose daily news is gathered from every quarter of the
globe. The total yearly issue is more than three billions.

No country can approach the advancements we have made in invention, in
discovery, in science, in art, in education and in all the civilizing
agencies of mankind. Volumes would be required to name our achievements
in these lines. Our material property has been or is equally wonderful.
When the Civil War closed, our public debt was nearly $3,000,000,000. On
December 1, 1898, it was $1,036,000,000. Most of the leading nations
have great debts, but the United States is the only one which is
steadily decreasing its debt and at the same time enormously increasing
its resources. The debt of Great Britain is now about $87 per capita,
that of France $115, of Holland $100, of Italy $75, and of the United
States less than $15, with the security increasing all the time.

Let the thoughtful reader note these striking facts. European nations
generally, and some South American nations also, have been compelled to
resort to various methods of taxation to supply the sums needed for
ordinary governmental expenses, to meet the interest on the existing
debt, to provide resources for new expenditures, buildings, armament,
subsidies, and various public works. England has an income tax and many
stamp taxes, a house tax, and collects some 20 per cent. of its revenue
from direct taxation. France has a tobacco monopoly, registration taxes,
stamp taxes, tax on windows, and innumerable local taxes, one being the
octroi, or tax on goods entering cities. In addition to an income tax,
and many stamp taxes, Austria derives a good deal of its public revenue
from lotteries. Italy goes still further with her tobacco monopoly,
house tax, income tax, salt tax, octroi duties, stamp taxes, and heavy
legacy and registration taxes. In the United States, however, the public
revenues have been provided for and all public expenses met, and the
national debt reduced beside, without recourse to any direct taxation.
We have no government monopolies, and the Treasury maintains a healthful
condition from the receipts of customs and internal revenue payments.

Thus with the s