37,000,000 people to do it with. And this same 37,000,000 people pays
interest on a debt that is greater than that of the 142,000,000 people
in the three countries named. Yet there is no wail of distress, such as
we are familiar with, heard in this France, with its great army and
navy, and its fabulous interest-bearing, debt.

What is the secret of it?

France is the greatest producer of luxeries in the world, and, of
course, has the rich the world over for her customers; and she is a
nation of small owners, her resources, land and all else, being
subdivided among her people to an extent unknown elsewhere. This is only
half the secret.

There is a natural increase of wealth in every country. Keep that
natural increase in the country where it is made, and there will always
be a surplus left after the mere live and wear expenses are paid, and
this surplus can be used either to support an army or to build
macadamized roads. This then is the other half, without which she would
be where we are: France legislates to keep her wealth in her own country
- and her loss on that canal is only one plum out of her heeping bushel.

The foreign sapper and miner does no work on French soil. His field of
operation is the whole American continent, beginning in Canada and on
down through, without a skip, till he reaches Magellan and the Horn,
scattering his due bills all the way.

The French law-maker, in spite of his clatter, is without a peer, and he
dwarfs none so much as our own, who will become the butt of his own
sneer if he ever gets his eyes open.