Great Britain may soon be a startling fact.

GERMANY'S MINES AND HARDWARE MANUFACTURES

It is in the development of her mines and of manufactures in which
MINERALS are employed that Germany has made most noticeable progress.
She produces four times as much coal as France, and she has over 1000
separate iron-mines. Her production of iron has increased tenfold in
fifty years. She employs over 400,000 men in her mines, and by the
use of labour-saving machinery one man can now produce as much as
three men could produce fifty years ago. Her HARDWARE manufactures
are one sixth of her total manufactures, and in the past half century
they have increased sixfold. They are now double those of France, and
are only one fourth less than those of Great Britain. She has 750
factories devoted to the making of machinery alone. Two of
these--Krupp's at Essen, and Borsig's at Berlin--are among the
largest in the world. Krupp's employs 20,000 men, has 310
steam-engines, and covers an area of 1000 acres. Borsig's employs
10,000 men, and in fifty years, starting from nothing, has turned out
nearly 4000 locomotives. One of Krupp's hammers (a fifty-ton hammer)
cost $500,000.

GERMANY'S INTERNAL TRADE

Germany's commercial energies up to the present have been mainly
concentrated on her INTERNAL TRADE. The total amount of this trade
foots up to $7,000,000,000, against France's $6,000,000,000, and in
fifty years it has trebled, while that of France has scarcely
doubled. Germany has more miles of railway than any other country in
the world except the United States, her mileage being nearly 30,000,
against France's 25,000 and Great Britain's 21,000. Her natural and
artificial waterways are also the best in Europe, and her vast
production of mineral wealth is transported from mine to foundry and
factory, and her vast production of lumber and grain is transported
from forest and field to seaport, largely by means of water carriage.
The Rhine, the Elbe, the Oder, and the Vistula are all navigable
throughout their whole courses through German territory, while the
Weser and the Danube are also navigable throughout great parts of
their courses. All these navigable rivers are interconnected by
canals. The total length of possible river navigation is nearly 6000
miles, while the total length of canals and canalised rivers is 2700
miles. Besides, in 1895 there was completed the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal,
a lockless sea-going vessel canal, twenty-nine feet