The
ingenuity and skill of American mechanics have been demonstrated at
home and abroad in a manner most flattering to their pride. But for the
extraordinary genius and ability of our mechanics, the achievements of
our agriculturists, manufacturers, and transporters throughout the
country would have been impossible of attainment.
The progress of the miner has also been great. Of coal our production
was small; now many millions of tons are mined annually. So with iron,
which formed scarcely an appreciable part of our products half a century
ago, we now produce more than the world consumed at the beginning of
our national existence. Lead, zinc, and copper, from being articles
of import, we may expect to be large exporters of in the near future.
The development of gold and silver mines in the United States and
Territories has not only been remarkable, but has had a large influence
upon the business of all commercial nations. Our merchants in the last
hundred years have had a success and have established a reputation for
enterprise, sagacity, progress, and integrity unsurpassed by peoples of
older nationalities. This "good name" is not confined to their homes,
but goes out upon every sea and into every port where commerce enters.
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