e coastwise trade of
the Great Lakes in 1890 aggregated 28,295,959 tons. On the Mississippi,
Missouri, and Ohio rivers and tributaries in the same year the traffic
aggregated 29,405,046 tons, and the total vessel tonnage passing through
the Detroit River during that year was 21,684,000 tons. The vessel
tonnage entered and cleared in the foreign trade of London during 1890
amounted to 13,480,767 tons, and of Liverpool 10,941,800 tons, a total
for these two great shipping ports of 24,422,568 tons, only slightly in
excess of the vessel tonnage passing through the Detroit River. And it
should be said that the season for the Detroit River was but 228 days,
while of course in London and Liverpool the season was for the entire
year. The vessel tonnage passing through the St. Marys Canal for the
fiscal year 1892 amounted to 9,828,874 tons, and the freight tonnage of
the Detroit River is estimated for that year at 25,000,000 tons, against
23,209,619 tons in 1891. The aggregate traffic on our railroads for
the year 1891 amounted to 704,398,609 tons of freight, compared with
691,344,437 tons in 1890, an increase of 13,054,172 tons.

Another indication of the general prosperity of the country is found in
the fact that the number of depositors in savings banks increased from
693,870 in 1860 to 4,258,893 in 1890, an increase of 513 per cent, and
the amount of deposits from $149,277,504 in 1860 to $1,524,844,506 in
1890, an increase of 921 per cent. In 1891 the amount of deposits in
savings banks was $1,623,079,749. It is estimated that 90 per cent
of these deposits represent the savings of wage earners. The bank
clearances for nine months ending September 30, 1891, amounted
to $41,049,390,808. For the same months in 1892 they amounted to
$45,189,601,947, an excess for the nine months of $4,140,211,139.

There never has been a time in our history when work was so abundant or
when wages were as high, whether measured by the currency in which they
are paid or by their power to supply the necessaries and comforts of
life. It is true that the market prices of cotton and wheat have been
low. It is one of the unfavorable incidents of agriculture that the
farmer can not produce upon orders. He must sow and reap in ignorance of
the aggregate production of the year, and is peculiarly subject to the
depreciation which follows overproduction. But while the fact I have
stated is true as to the crops mentioned, the general average of prices
has b