Of this stupendous
water mileage, more than one half is navigable by steam, employing an
interior steam tonnage exceeding that of all the internal steam tonnage
of the rest of the world. No country is arterialized by such a vast
system of navigable streams, to have constructed which as canals of
equal capacity would have cost more than ten billions of dollars, and
then these canals would have been subjected to large tolls, the cost of
their annual repairs would have been enormous, and the interruption by
lockage a serious obstacle. We may rest assured then, that, all Europe
combined, can never have such facilities for cheap water communication
as the United States. This is a mighty element in estimating the power
and progress of a nation. It shows, also, why we have no such deserts as
Sahara, so small a portion of our lands requiring manures or irrigation,
and no general failures of crops, with so few even partial failures of
any one crop.
We have more deep, capacious, and safe harbors, accessible at _all
tides_, than all Europe, with more than twenty capable of receiving the
_Great Eastern_. (Charts, U. S. Coast Survey.)
Our hydraulic power (including Niagara) far exceeds that of all Europe.
We have more timber than all Europe, including most varieties, useful
and ornamental. We have, including cotton, vastly more of the raw
material for manufactures than all Europe. With all these vast natural
advantages, has man, in our country, performed his duty, in availing
himself of the bounteous gifts of Providence? We are considering now the
question of our material progress, in regard to which, the following
official data are presented.
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