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THE LAMD
WE LOVE

AMERICA

THE LAND WE LOVE

iwrlaratum of

—AMERICA FOR HUMANITY—

/, the Undersigned, hereby pledge my Loyalty to "America:
The Land We Love" and do here covenant myself to support by
word and deed the Principles set forth in The Declaration of In-
dependence and the Doctrines Established in the Constitution of
the United States.

I affirm my Faith in the Cardinal Principles of Liberty, Jus-
tice, and Equality throughout the World — regardless of Race,
Creed, Sex or Birthplace, subscribing to our Nation's policy:
"America for Humanity."

I consecrate myself to the High Ideals and Sacred Duties of
American Citizenship, to the protection of Home and Country, and
to the maintenance of the Honor of the Republic in my Civic, So-
cial and Business Relations — "with malice toward None and
Charity for All"

Sealed with my signature on this
.... day of . . . . , in the
year of

{Sign here}

AMERICA

THE LAND WE LOVE

A NARRATIVE RECORD

OF THE

ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE

THEIR HISTORY— GOVERNMENT— WARS— INVENTIONS— DISCOVERIES

—GREAT MEN— FAMOUS WOMEN— INDUSTRY— COMMERCE— AND

THE ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS THAT HAVE ENTERED

INTO THE BUILDING OF THE REPUBLIC

FRANCIS TREVELYAN MILLER, LL.D., LITT. D.

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF OF THE TEN VOLUME "PHOTOGRAPHIC HISTORY OF THE CIVIL WAR,"

AUTHOR OF "AMERICAN HERO TALES," "PORTRAIT LIFE OF LINCOLN,"

"WONDER STORIES," FOUNDER OF THE JOURNAL OF

AMERICAN HISTORY

WITH EXCERPTS FROM EPOCH-MAKING SPEECHES BY

WOODROW WILSON, WILLIAM H. TAFT, THEODORE ROOSEVELT,

PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES

THREE HUNDRED ILLUSTRATIONS
HISTORIC ENGRAVINGS — FAMSUS PAINTINGS — PHOTOGRAPHS

NEW YORK

WILLIAM THOMAS ELAINE
MCMXVI

(Egbert Gilliss Handy, President)

NEW YORK

J. F. TAPLEY CO.

NEW YORK

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PUBLISHER'S STATEMENT

IT is a privilege as well as a duty to present this volume to the Amer-
ican people under the inspiring title: "America: The Land We
Love," covering its 400 years of progress and growth. It is a book
with a great mission to perform; a book with a message. It has a
public service to render which we believe has not come within the province
of a single volume since the founding of the American Nation.

This book, therefore, is in the nature of a national survey for the
whole American People — regardless of creed, race, sex, political faith or
birthplace — a book for the hundred million Americans, uniting them all
under a common standard. Its purpose is to arouse them to an under-
standing of their potential power — their past achievements, their present
greatness, and their future opportunities — to awaken in them the full
realization of the magnitude of their obligations and responsibilities to
American citizenship.

This National awakening can be accomplished only through one
force — that is, the public press, the miracle of advancing civilization — the
greatest single force in the moulding of National character, in developing
the latent resources of a people, enlightening their minds, and generating
the elements that result in the rise or fall of nations. Through the loyal
co-operation of the American press, this volume undertakes to lay before
the American people a narrative record of their achievements — their His-
tory, Government, Wars, Inventions, Discoveries, Great Men, Famous
Women, and all the essential elements that have entered into the building
of the Republic to the first position among all nations.

It is sufficient to state that this work is under the direction of Dr.
Miller, a historian who has performed many notable services to his coun-
try. (See title page.) Under his supervision a national board of investi-
gators and researchers have examined carefully every phase of our National
progress. They have analyzed the evidence presented by more than 1,500
authorities. This examination covers every available source of accurate
information and includes the judgment of the most eminent American his-
torians. It is not only a work of approved scholarship and authenticity,
but an expression of loyalty for a common cause — our nation's lofty prin-
ciples of liberty, justice and equality — an endeavor to instill National
spirit, to organize National unity, to rally every loyal American to the
National pledge of AMERICA FOR HUMANITY. The wonderful and
inspiring story of American civilization is unfolded in graphic narrative in
these pages to give the reader a comprehensive understanding at a glance
of "AMERICA: The Land We Love," and to impress him with a correct
knowledge of the great honor and distinction of being an American citizen.

WILLIAM THOMAS ELAINE.
11

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTORY

PAGE

AMERICA FOR HUMANITY — American Flag on Field of White as the Ensign of
the World's Liberty and Peace — Emblazoned by Dr. Robert S. Freedman
of New York — Originally designed by Mr. Henry Petit of Philadelphia
on plan suggested by Dr. William Osborne McDowell of New York . . 3

THE NEW DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE — A Pledge for Every American —

Written for this volume by Dr. Francis Trevelyan Miller 5

AMERICA — THE BEACON OF LIBERTY — Frontispiece painted for this volume

by Carl Lotave 6

DEDICATION — Illuminated Title Page — Painted by Carl Lotave 9

PUBLISHER'S STATEMENT — By William T. Blaine 11

AMERICA — MY COUNTRY 'Tis OF THEE — Words and Music 19

AMERICA — THE LAND WE LOVE — A New National Anthem — By Dr. Francis

Trevelyan Miller and Hon. Henry Taylor Blake 20

HISTORIAN'S FOREWORD — The Purpose of this volume 21

EPOCH-MAKING SPEECHES

AMERICA — THE HOPE OF THE WORLD 25

By Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States (1913-1917)

AMERICAN LIBERTY — The Stability of Freedom 30

By William H. Taft, President of the United States (1909-1913)

AMERICAN IDEALS — Liberty, Justice, Equality 35

By Theodore Roosevelt, President of the United States (1901-1909)

PART I— HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT

CHAPTER PAGE

I AMERICA AND THE AMERICANS — A Graphic Description of the United

States and its people as they Exist To-day — Magnitude, Ideals, etc. 43

II NARRATIVE HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE — A complete concise
survey of the Discovery and Development of the American Con-
tinent— covering 400 years including Great American Political Cam-
paigns 55

III GOVERNMENT OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE — A clear interpretation of the
Government of the United States showing the actual operations of its

various departments 141

CONTENTS

PART II— GREAT EVENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

IV GREAT AMERICAN WARS 167

PART III— GREAT ACHIEVEMENTS
V GREAT AMERICAN INVENTIONS 201

VI AMERICAN TRIUMPHS OF ENGINEERING 243

PART IV— GREAT INSTITUTIONS

VII GREAT AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 277

VIII GREAT AMERICAN RAILROADS AND COMMERCE . 306

IX GREAT AMERICAN MINES 329

X GREAT AMERICAN AGRICULTURE 347

XI GREAT AMERICAN BANKS 361

XII GREAT AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS 368

PART V— GREAT AMERICANS

XIII GREAT AMERICAN STATESMEN 383

XIV GREAT AMERICAN SOLDIERS 393

XV GREAT AMERICAN JURISTS 401

XVI GREAT AMERICAN FINANCIERS . 410

XVII GREAT AMERICAN AUTHORS 421

XVIII GREAT AMERICAN ARTISTS 436

XIX GREAT AMERICAN COMPOSERS 448

XX GREAT AMERICAN EDUCATORS 460

XXI GREAT AMERICAN WOMEN 468

PART VI— HISTORIC AMERICAN SHRINES
XXII GRANDEUR OF AMERICAN SCENERY 480

XXIII BEAUTIFUL AMERICAN PARKS 493

XXIV GREAT AMERICAN ARCHITECTURE 497

XXV GREAT AMERICAN MUSEUMS 504

(Contents continued on page 14)

COLLECTIONS OF HISTORIC PAINTINGS— ENGRAVINGS-PHOTOGRAPHS

GALLERY OF PORTRAITS OF THE PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED
STATES WITH AUTOGRAPH SIGNATURES—

Twenty-seven etchings by Audibert — Reproduced by courtesy of Mr. Irving E.
Rines and permission of the American Educational Alliance.

George Washington
John Adams
Thomas Jefferson
James Madison
James Monroe
John Quincy Adams
Andrew Jackson
Martin Van Buren
William Henry Harrison
MASTERPIECES FROM THE

Rutherford B. Hayes
James A. Garfield
Chester A. Arthur
Grover Cleveland
Benjamin Harrison
William McKinley
Theodore Roosevelt
William Howard Taft
Woodrow Wilson
ART — Reproductions by

John Tyler
James K. Polk
Zachary Taylor
Millard Fillmore
Franklin Pierce
James Buchanan
Abraham Lincoln
Andrew Johnson
Ulysses S. Grant
METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF

special permission from:

Morgan Collection Altaian Collection

Vandcrbilt Collection Marquand Collection

Huntingdon Collection Hearn Collection

Coles Collection Van Horn Collection

Dun Collection Smith Collection

EXHIBITS FROM THE MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY

Reproductions by Special Permission
PHOTOGRAPHIC JOURNEYS THROUGH THE FORTY-EIGHT

STATES
Complete Collection of Reproductions of State Capitols

Alabama

Illinois

Minnesota

North Carolina

Tennessee

Arizona

Indiana

Mississippi

North Dakota

Texas

Arkansas

Iowa

Missouri

Ohio

Utah

California

Kansas

Montana

Oklahoma

Vermont

Colorado

Kentucky

Nebraska

Oregon

Virginia

Connecticut

Louisiana

Nevada

Pennsylvania

Washington

Delaware

Maine

New Hampshire

Rhode Island

West Virginia

Florida

Maryland

New Jersey

South Carolina

Wisconsin

Georgia

Massachusetts

New Mexico

South Dakota

Wyoming

Idaho

Michigan

New York

PORTO RICO— HAWAII— ALASKA— PHILIPPINE ISLANDS

FACSIMILE OF THE ORIGINAL DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE

RARE ENGRAVINGS OF GREAT EVENTS AND WARS

From Collection in the The Search-Light Library
PHOTOGRAPHIC TOURS THROUGH AMERICA

Collection of Photographic Prints Showing the Mountains, Rivers, Agricultural and

Mineral Wealth, and Scenic Grandeur of America
Hudson River Colorado Canyon Panama Canal

Niagara Falls Yellowstone Park Great Lakes

White Mountains Yosemite Valley Mississippi River

Natural Bridge Garden of the Gods Pacific and Atlantic States

Together with other photographs, covering the various phases of American Life,
making a collection of about 300 historic illustrations.

PRESIDENT'S ROOM IX THE WHITE HOl'SK— (ilimpse behind the scenes of Governmen in Washinj.

ton — Here the diplomats from the world's great powers meet the President on State occasions —

Momentous problems are discussed in this room.

NATIONAL CAI'ITOL AT WASHINGTON — Tins magnificent strtn-tiiro is a monument to democracy — It covers an
area, of 153,112 square feet — The corner-stone of the original building was laid by Washington in 1793.

T OF THE AMERICAN GOVERNMENT It is here that the American people are molding the destiny of the
republic — This la where the Congress of the United States and the Supreme Court convenes.

\VASIIIXGTOX AT TKKXTOX— This engraving by Faed portrays the Commander-in-Chief of t!ic
American Revolution at the moment of Victory — Washington was unanimously elected by
Congress to lead the American forces in the War for American Independence on
June 15, 177.~>--lle )«'d them to triumph, after seven years of heroic
struggle — Bidding farewell to his army, he resigned his com-
mission and retired to his home at Mt. Veruon
on December 23, 1783.

4
a

MY COUNTRY. Tis OF THEE.

SAMUEL FRANCIS SMITH.

• OftfAAT*

UNKNOWN.
AIR. ~COD SAVE THE KINt."

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2. My Da • live coun • try, thee— Land of the
3. Let mu • sic swell the breeze, And ring from
4. Our fa • (hers* Cod, to Thee, Au • thor of

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sing; Land where my fa - thers died,
love; I love thy rocks and rills,
song; Let mor - tal tongues a - wake;
sing; Long may our land be bright

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ho • ly light;

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noun • tain side, Let free • dom
rap - ture thrills, Like that a -
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AMERICA— THE LAND WE LOVE

A New National Anthem
By

FRANCIS TREVELYAN MILLER and HENRY TAYLOR BLAKE

(To be sung to the tune "My Country 'tis of Thee" — See Music on Page 19)

All hail! Beloved Land!
Our own Columbia grand

Whose flag unfurled
In majesty and might
Calls with its starry light
To all who love the Right

Throughout the world!

Hark! From Atlantic shores,
To where Pacific roars

In ceaseless boom;
From never-melting snows,
To where the orange grows,
And lilies and the rose,

Forever bloom.

Ill

Hear ye the trampling hum
Of thronging peoples, come

To bide with thee!
Thy boundless plains to till,
Draw wealth from every hill,
And myriad cities fill

With industry!

All! All, thy children true;
Whatever climes we knew

For Fatherlands,
To thee, our Mother now,
In loyal love we bow,
And pledge with joyous vow

Our hearts and hands !

Thus Nature moves apace
Building a mighty race
American/

To form her latest born
The varied brains and brawn
From all the nations drawn
She blends in one!

O! Father of all good!

Grant that with mingling blood

And blending soul,
Perfecting nature's art,
Each nation may impart
Its noblest traits of heart

To crown the whole!

VII

Our lives we consecrate

To Freedom, Home and State

To Love and Godi
To Justice — Liberty;
To true Equality;
To all Humanity —

World Brotherhood!

VIII

All hail the Age of Gold
When in that perfect mould

Peace reigns above!
Valor and Truth, with awe
For Justice throned on law
Shall rule America

The Land we Love !

And in those glorious hours
When from their thrones all powers

Of Wrong are hurled!
Columbia ! Still on high
Uplift thy stars to sky!
Goddess of Liberty

Lighting the World!

AMERICA

HISTORIAN'S FOREWORD

A MERICA: The Land We Love"— There is no grander

/% epic than that of a Hundred Million People gathered into

/""^k one loyal nation pledged to the support of the principles of

"^^ democracy and working conscientiously with their hands and

intellects, their hearts and souls, to build a nation upon the foundation

stones : Liberty, Justice, Equality. It is the "Odyssey" of a strong, virile

people that has entered the world's arena not as a conqueror, but as the

creator of a new era toward which humanity has been struggling for seventy

centuries.

The record of such deeds and ideals is well worthy of a Josephus or a
Herodotus. It calls for a Thucydides to narrate the heroic struggles of
such a nation, a Plutarch to relate the stories of its great men, a Livy or
Sallust or Tacitus to proclaim its grandeur. Here on the Western Hemi-
sphere there has arisen a modern phoenix based on the noblest principles of
Christian Civilization. Its ethical system is the perfected idealism of Plato
and Aristotle; its laws are the realization of the legislation of Solon and
Justinian. Here we find the sons and daughters of all the peoples of the
earth gathered to create a new nation dedicated to the service of humanity.

We, who live in this second decade of the Twentieth Century — the
most portentous period thus far in the world's history — are witnessing the
greatest social, economic, and political revolution in the annals of man-
kind. Civilization is passing through the crucible; society is undergoing
a metamorphosis ; all races, religions, and political systems are in social con-
vulsions. Historiologists who have traced the laws of cause and efect
underlying these revolutions — or more properly evolutions — agree that
these crises, rather than being a reversion to medievalism or the overthrow
of organized government, are in fact the birth-throes of a new period in
the history of mankind — the birth of higher ideals, more perfect systems,
closer brotherhood among the peoples of the earth — a step toward a higher
state of civilization, which, like the human race, is born in blood.

It is well, therefore, that we as Americans linger over these pages for
a few moments to take inventory of our national stock, to test our abilities
as a people, to weigh our resources, to survey our country, and inspect the
structure of civilization that we have built. This book is an evaluation

AMERICA— THE LAND WE LOVE

of their achievements — an exposition of the products of their creation.
The conventional treatment and technique of the historian have been set
aside in the preparation of this book, and a more democratic treatment is
used to enlarge its service and more completely meet the needs of a broad
democracy.

The whole story of American civilization is unfolded in graphic nar-
rative which will give the reader a comprehensive understanding at a
glance. The Editorial Board has considered it advisable to organize this
work into Parts.

It has been deemed fitting to open this memorial volume with three
messages to the American People by the three most Eminent Americans —
President Wilson, and former Presidents Taft and Roosevelt. These ex-
pressions of staunch Americanism are taken from their public addresses
and form appropriate introductories to this book.

The literary pages of this book (Part I) begin with a graphic descrip-
tion of the United States — "America and the American People" — as they
exist to-day; their magnitude and ideals, — their fiber and character. The
reader then surveys in concise, visualizing style, the whole "Story of the
American People" from the discovery of the Western Continent, the found-
ing and development of the American Nation, and the wonderful growth
of the American race — 400 years of human activity. This includes a sum-
mary of "Great American Political Campaigns" tracing the rise and fall
of the various schools of economic thought as expressed through our politi-
cal parties. From this follows a clear interpretation of the "Government
of the United States" showing the actual operations of its various
departments.

This, in itself, might be considered a very good service to the Ameri-
can people, but we have desired to make this book more than a history ; we
have undertaken to make it a vital human record. It was Dionysius of
Halicarnassus who said: "History is Philosophy teaching by experience."
But Carlyle added the vital touch when he said : "History, as it lies at the
root of all science, is also the first distinct product of man's spiritual na-
ture," remarking that "histories are as perfect as the Historian is wise, and
is gifted with an eye and a soul." So it is in this volume that we have
undertaken to give it an "eye and a soul." We have taken the record of
man's life in America and endeavored to present the sum of his achieve-
ments, with here and there an interpretation of its economic and sociological
import.

Great Events are presented in Part II of the volume. It begins with
the story of the "Great American Wars" — their causes and results — with
a broad sketch of the battles and dramatic incidents.

HISTORIAN'S FOREWORD

The American people do not depend alone upon their prowess in war
or their sagacity in politics as the chief reason of their existence. They
are a people with far nobler claims to a physical and spiritual existence.
Thus, in Part III of this volume we survey our Great Achievements, with a
passing consideration of the Great American Discoveries and their con-
tributions to Human Progress through the "Great American Inventions"
proving that we are indeed the most ingenious and inventive race in the
world's history. This is followed by an inspiring chapter on "American
Triumphs in Engineering," the building of the Panama Canal, great
bridges, huge dams, tunnels, subways, and similar achievements.

A wise old classicist once complained that "history makes haste to
record great deeds, but often neglects good ones." This is indeed a just
criticism, but it is quite probable that the good deeds are in fact the
greatest. The final test of civilization is in the strength of its three foun-
dations: "Agriculture — Commerce — Industry" These are the basis of
all permanent society — the great "trinity" of civilization. Hence, in
Part IV we have laid before our readers the static record of their civiliza-
tion— a rapid glance at the Great American Industries, Mines, Railroads,
Agriculture, Manufacturing — and all that represents the inventoried wealth
and material interests of a nation, with a brief description of the Banking
System, and its mediums for intercommunication and mutual knowledge
through the great clearing houses of information and public opinion which
we call the "Great American Newspapers"

Carlyle in his essays remarks that "history is the essence of innumer-
able biographies." And so in this volume we have introduced in Part V
a series of little talks on "Great Americans." In these little fifteen minute
conversations we have endeavored to discuss the essential phases of the
character and work of the American people — their Great Statesmen, Sol-
diers, Jurists, Financiers, Scientists, Educators, Authors, Artists, Theolo-
gians, Composers, Women — with now and then a glimpse into the
psychology of human action. The limitations of space, however, have
allowed us only to suggest the possibilities of further study in this field of
human equations, using only the foremost figures for the purpose of "teach-
ing by examples."

The esthetic spirit of the American people is given recognition in Part
VI. Here we cast a mental vision for the "Scenic Grandeur of America"
and pass through the "Beautiful American Parks." We view the "Famous
American Architecture" and visit the Historic American Shrines, with a
brief sojourn in the "Great American Museums"

But this is not all — we live in a country so vast that no man can fully
comprehend its broad expanse, its imperial greatness, who has not jour-

AMERICA— THE LAND WE LOVE

neyed over its plains and mountains teeming with illimitable wealth; it
is a democracy in empire. Alcott in one of his essays truly says that
"travel makes all men countrymen, makes people noblemen and kings,
every man tasting of liberty and dominion" ; while Fuller gives this good
advice: "Know most of the rooms of thy Native Country before thou
goest over the threshold thereof." And so we go on a photographic series
of ''Little Journeys Through the States"- — forty-eight journeys through
the States of New England, the Eastern States, Southern States, Middle
West, Southwest, Great West, and the Pacific States — with four journeys
into our Insular Possessions — Porto Rico, Hawaii, the Philippines — and a
trip to Alaska. After our return from these literary journeys we may
exclaim with Menander, "Hail, dear Country! I embrace thee, seeing thee
after a long time," and with the poet, "O beautiful and grand, my own
my Native Land!'*

The subject "America — The Land We Love" embraces so magnifi-
cent a field of human action that a library of monumental works might
readily be erected under this name. Alas, we have but one volume here
in which to encompass half a world. It is necessary, therefore, that we
keep this volume as compact as possible — inspiring the reader with its
illimitable possibilities.

The material for this volume has been gathered only by exhaustive
researches into more than 1,500 sources, including the Congressional Li-
brary, the Government Archives, the historical societies throughout the
States, and the leading Universities. I am especially indebted to Mr.
Egbert Gilliss Handy, founder of the Search-Light Library, for the col-
lection of photographic records; to Mr. W. T. Elaine, as publisher; to
Mr. E. D. Appleton, who directed the publication, and to the investigators :
Mr. Walter R. Bickford, Mr. Gabriel Schlesinger, Mr. David St. Clair,
Mr. Herbert G. Wintersgill, Mr. Andre Tridon.

We trust that the volume may perform its humble service to Our
Country by awakening our people individually to the tremendous respon-
sibility which rests upon them and by inspiring them to the essential
attributes of a democracy — good, conscientious citizenship and the un-
selfish, intelligent administration of government. In this epoch of pro-
gressive Americanism, we need not pledge ourselves to that historic toast
of Admiral Decatur, "Our Country! May she always be in the right,
but Our Country right or wrong!" Neither need we adopt that intense
patriotism of Daniel Webster: "Let our object be, Our Country, our
whole country, and nothing but our country." But rather let us adopt
the broader words of President Wilson — the expression of world vision
and world justice: "America for Humanity!"

FRANCIS TREVELYAN MILLER.

AMERICA
THE HOPE OF THE WORLD

* Message to "New Americans,"

BY WOODROW WILSON

is the only country in the world which experiences constant
and repeated rebirth. Other countries depend upon the multi-
plication of their own native people. This country is con-
stantly drinking strength out of new sources by the voluntary
association with it of great bodies of strong men and forward-looking
women. And so by the gift of the free-will of independent people it is
constantly being renewed from generation to generation by the same proc-
ess by which it was originally created. It is as if humanity had deter-
mined to see to it that this great nation, founded for the benefit of
humanity, should not lack for the allegiance of the people of the world.
You have taken an oath of allegiance to the United States. Of
allegiance to whom? Of allegiance to no one, unless it be God. Cer-
tainly not of allegiance to those who temporarily represent this great
Government. You have taken an oath of allegiance to a great ideal, to
a great body of principles, to a great hope of the human race. You have
said, "We are going to America," not only to earn a living, not only to
seek the things which it was more difficult to obtain where you were born,
but to help forward the great enterprises of the human spirit — to let men
know that everywhere in the world there are men who will cross strange
oceans and go where a speech is spoken which is alien to them, knowing
that, whatever the speech, there is but one longing and utterance of the
human heart, and that is for liberty and justice.

And while you bring all countries with you, you come with a purpose
of leaving all other countries behind you — bringing what is best of their
spirit, but not looking over your shoulders and seeking to perpetuate
what you intended to leave in them. I certainly would not be one even
to suggest that a man cease to love the home of his birth and the nation
of his origin — these things are very sacred and ought not to be put out of
our hearts — but it is one thing to love the place where you were born and
it is another thing to dedicate yourself to the place to which you go. You
cannot dedicate yourself to America unless you become in every respect and

• Historic Address by President Wilson delivered to New Citizens in Philadelphia directly after their
•aturalization, in which they swore allegiance to the United States.

AMERICA— THE LAND WE LOVE

with every purpose of your will thorough Americans. You cannot be-
come thorough Americans if you think of yourselves in groups. America
does not consist of groups. A man who thinks himself as belonging to a
particular national group in America has not yet become an American, and
the man who goes among you to trade upon your nationality is no worthy
son to live under the Stars and Stripes.

My urgent advice to you is not only always to think first of America,
but always, also, to think first of humanity. You do not love humanity
if you seek to divide humanity into jealous camps. Humanity can be
welded together only by love, by sympathy, by justice, not by jealousy
and hatred. I am sorry for the man who seeks to make personal capital
out of the passions of his fellow-men. He has lost the touch and ideal
to unite mankind by those passions which lift and not by the passions which
separate and debase.

We came to America, either ourselves or in persons of our ancestors,
to better the ideals of men, to make them see finer things than they had
seen before, to get rid of things that divide, and to make sure of the things
that united. It was but an historical accident no doubt that this great
country was called the "United States," and yet I am very thankful that
it has the word "united" in its title; and the man who seeks to divide man
from man, group from group, interest from interest, in the United States
is striking at its very heart.

It is a very interesting circumstance to me, in thinking of those of you
who have sworn allegiance to this great Government, that you were drawn
across the ocean by some beckoning finger of hope, by some belief, by
some vision of a new kind of justice, by some expectation of a better kind
of life. No doubt you have been disappointed in some of us; some of
us are very disappointing. No doubt you have found that justice in the
United States goes only with a pure heart and a right purpose, as it does
everywhere else in the world. No doubt what you found here did not
seem touched for you, after all, with the complete beauty of the ideal
which you had conceived beforehand. But remember this, if we had
grown at all poor in the ideal, you brought some of it with you. A man
does not go out to seek the thing that is not in him. A man does not hope
for the thing that he does not believe in, and if some of us have forgotten
what America believed in, you, at any rate, imported in your own hearts
a renewal of the belief.

I was born in America. You dreamed dreams of what America was
to be, and I hope you brought the dreams with you. No man that does
not see visions will ever realize any high hope or undertake any high enter-
prise. Just because you brought dreams with you, America is more likely

BIRTHPLACE OF DECLARATION OF INI >K1'KNI )KXCK —Historic Independence Hall in

Philadephiu — Here the Continental Congress held its sessions ; Washington was

appointed commander-in-chlef of armies — Constitution of United States was framed.

"AMERICA— THE HOPE OF THE WORLD"

to realize the dreams such as you brought. You are enriching us if you
came expecting us to be better than we are.

See, my friends, what that means. It means that Americans must
have a consciousness different from the consciousness of every other nation
in the world. I am not saying this with even the slightest thought of
criticism of other nations. You know how it is with a family. A family
gets centered on itself if it is not careful and is less interested in the neigh-
bors than it is in its own members. So a nation that is not constantly
renewed out of new sources is apt to have the narrowness and prejudice
of a family. Whereas, America must have this consciousness, that on all
sides it touches elbows and touches hearts with all the nations of mankind.

The example of America must be a special example. The example
of America must be the example not merely of peace because it will not
fight, but of peace because peace is the healing and elevating influence of
the world and strife is not. There is such a thing as a man being too
proud to fight. There is such a thing as a nation being so right that it
does not need to convince others by force that it is right.

So, if you come into this great nation, as you have come, voluntarily
seeking something that we have to give, all that we have to give is this:
We cannot exempt you from work. No man is exempt from work any-
where in the world. I sometimes think he is fortunate if he has to work
only with his hands and not with his head. It is very easy to do what
other people give you to do, but it is very difficult to give other people
things to do. We cannot exempt you from work; we cannot exempt you
from the strife and the heart-breaking burden of the struggle of the day —
that is common to mankind everywhere. We cannot exempt you from the
loads that you must carry; we can only make them light by the spirit in
which they are carried. That is the spirit of hope, it is the spirit of lib-
erty, it is the spirit of justice.

I like to come and stand in the presence of a great body of my fellow-
citizens, whether they have been my fellow-citizens a long time or a short
time, and drink, as it were, out of the common fountains with them and
go back feeling that you have so generously given me the sense of your
support and of the living vitality in your hearts, of its great ideals which
make America the hope of the world.

— WOODROW WILSON.

AMERICAN LIBERTY
THE STABILITY OF FREEDOM

* Message to the American People

BY WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT

President of the United States (1909-1913)

IF we would stand on solid and safe ground we must re-examine the
fundamental principles of stable popular government. The history
of the world seems to show that our form of government is more en-
during and satisfactory than any other. We began as a small Union
of thirteen states, strung along the Atlantic Coast, of three millions of
people, and under the same Constitution we have enlarged to be a world
power of forty-eight sovereign states, bound into one ; of more than ninety
millions of people, and with a humane guardianship of ten millions more
— nine in the Pacific and one in the Atlantic. We have fought, begin-
ning with the Revolution, four foreign wars, and we have survived a civil
war of the greatest proportions recorded in history, and have united the
battling sections by an indissoluble tie. From our body politic we have
excised the cancer of slavery, the only thing protected by the Constitu-
tion which was inconsistent with that liberty, the preservation of which
was the main purpose of establishing the Union. We have increased our
business and productive activities in every direction; we have expanded
the development of our natural resources to be continent-wide, and all the
time we have maintained sacred those inalienable rights of man, the right
of liberty, the right of private property and the right to the pursuit of
happiness.

For these reasons we believe in popular government. Government
is a human instrumentality to secure the greatest good to the greatest num-
ber and the greatest happiness to the individual. Experience, and espe-
cially the growth of popular government in our own history, has shown
that in the long run every class of the people, and by that I mean those
similarly situated, are better able to secure attention to their welfare than
any other class, however altruistic the latter class may be. Of course
this assumes that the members of the class have reasonable intelligence and
capacity for knowing their own rights and interest.

Hence it follows that the best government, in the sense of the gov-
ernment most certain to provide for and protect the rights and govern-

* Excerpt from Address delivered by President Taft on the "Judiciary and Progress" at Toledo,
Ohio.

AMERICAN LIBERITY— STABILITY OF FREEDOM

mental needs of every class, is that one in which every class has a voice.
In recognition of this, the tendency from earliest times in our history has
been the enlargement of the electorate to include in the ultimate source
of governmental power as many as possible of those governed. But even
to-day the electorate is not more in number than one-fourth of the total
number of those who are citizens of the nation and are the people for
whom the government is maintained and whose rights and happiness the
government is intended to secure. More than this, government by unan-
imous vote of the electorate is impossible, and therefore the majority of
the electorate must rule.

We find, therefore, that government by the people is, under our
present system, government by a majority of one-fourth of those whose
rights and happiness are to be affected by the course and conduct of
the government. This is the nearest to a government by the whole people
we have ever had. Woman's suffrage will change this, and it is doubtless
coming as soon as the electorate can be certain that most women desire it
and will assume its burden and responsibility. But even then the elec-
torate will only be part of the whole people. In other words, the electo-
rate is a representative governing body for the whole people for which
the government was established, and the controlling majority of the elec-
torate is a body still less numerous.

It is thus apparent that ours is a government of all the people by
a representative part of the people. The object of government is not only
to secure the greatest good to the greatest number, but also to do this as
near as may be by securing the rights of each individual in his liberty,
property and pursuit of happiness.

Hence it was long ago recognized that the direct action of a tem-
porary majority of the existing electorate must be limited by fundamental
law; that is, by a constitution intended to protect the individual and the
minority of the electorate and the non- voting majority of the people
against the unjust or arbitrary action of the majority of the electorate.

This made it necessary to introduce into the Constitution certain dec-
larations as to the rights of the individual which it was the purpose of
the whole people to maintain through the government against the aggres-
sion of any temporary majority of the electorate and to provide in the
same instrument certain procedure by which the individual might assert
and vindicate those rights. Then, to protect against the momentary im-
pulse of a temporary majority of the electorate to change the fundamental
law and deprive the individual or the voting minority or the non-voting
majority of inalienable rights, the Constitution provided a number of
checks and balances whereby every amendment to the Constitution must

AMERICA— THE LAND WE LOVE

be adopted under forms and with delays that are intended to secure much
deliberation on the part of the electorate in adopting such amendments.
I cannot state the necessity for maintaining the checks and balances in
a constitution to secure the guarantee of individual rights and well ordered
liberty better than by quoting from Daniel Webster. He said :

The first object of a free people is the preservation of their liberty; and liberty is only
to be preserved by maintaining constitutional restraints and just divisions of political power.
Nothing is more deceptive or more dangerous than the pretence of a desire to simplify gov-
ernment The simplest governments are despotisms ; the next simplest, limited monarchies ;
but all republics, all governments of law, must impose numerous limitations and qualifications
of authority and give many positive and many qualified rights. In other words, they must be
subject to rule and regulation. This is the very essence of free political institutions. The
spirit of liberty is, indeed, a bold and fearless spirit ; but it is also a sharp-sighted spirit ; it is a
cautious, sagacious, discriminating, farseeing intelligence; it is jealous of encroachment,
jealous of power, jealous of man. It demands checks; it seeks for guards; it insists on se-
curities; it intrenches itself behind strong defences and fortifies itself with all possible care
against the assaults of ambition and passion. It does not trust the amiable weaknesses of
human nature, and therefore it will not permit power to overstep its prescribed limits, though
benevolence, good intent and patriotic purpose come along with it. Neither does it satisfy
itself with flashy and temporary resistance to illegal authority. Far otherwise. It seeks for
duration and permanence. It looks before and after; and, building on the experience of ages
which are past, it labors diligently for the benefit of ages to come. This is the nature of
constitutional liberty; and this is our liberty, if we will rightly understand and preserve it.

I agree that we are making progress and ought to make progress in the
shaping of governmental actions to secure greater equality of opportunity,
to destroy the undue advantage of special privilege and of due advantage
of special privilege and of accumulated capital, and to remove obstruc-
tions to the pursuit of human happinesss; and in working out these diffi-
cult problems we may possibly have, from time to time, to limit or nar-
row the breadth of constitutional guarantees in respect of property by
amendment.

But if we do it, let us do it deliberately, understanding what we are
doing, and with full consideration and clear weighing of what we are giv-
ing up of private right for the general welfare. Let us do it under cir-
cumstances which shall make the operation of the change uniform and just,
and not depend on the feverish, uncertain and unstable determination of
successive votes on different laws by temporary and changing majorities.

— WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT.

GREAT AMERICAN POLITICAL CAMPAIGNS— National politics arc separated into groups of
political thought — Those parties appeal to the, people for support at the various elections
Photograph was taken during Republican Convention in Chicago.

NOMINATING A CANDIDATE FOR PRESIDENT — This is a glimpse of the Democratic Con-
vention at Baltimore when Wood row Wilson was nominated — The delegates to these
conventions gathered from every State In the Union to select the standard, bearer.

AMERICAN IDEALS
LIBERTY— JUSTICE— EQUALITY

* Message to the American Nations

BY THEODORE ROOSEVELT

President of the United States (1901-1909)

EVERY great modern civilized state, every state of vast industrial
possibilities is faced with very complex needs. In grappling
with American problems the average man is apt to pin his faith
to half truths. In certain cases the ordinarily accepted ideal
and the ordinary practice are diametrically opposed to each other. The
most striking example of this kind is the contrast between our avowed
ideals and our customary practices in regard to property, wealth and
riches. Many closet philosophers and many demagogues sneer at material
wealth and advocate as a matter of theory complete disregard of it; and
this is the position taken, purely as a matter of theory, by a large num-
ber of the men who speak of wealth from the pulpit or the rostrum.
In practice a very much larger number of men make wealth their god and
pay no heed to any moral laws that bar the way to its acquisition. Here
each side has seized a half truth which, by itself, spells destruction; the
theory represents hypocrisy and the practice represents a base and degrad-
ing materialism.

Speaking generally, it is true now as it was true in the days of the
Hebrew seer, that the most useful citizen is apt to be the man who is
neither bowed by grinding poverty, nor rendered arrogant by excessive
wealth. Normally a man must earn enough to support himself and those
dependent upon him in reasonable comfort before he can be of use to the
community at large. In the same way the community itself must pos-
sess a reasonable average of material well being before it can take its part
in advancing the great movements which make all that is worth having
in our modern civilization.

Therefore, it is essential that there shall be material prosperity in
the State, that railroads shall be built, that ranches and farms, business
houses and factories, shall prosper. To rail at such prosperity is not evi-
dence of a sound heart. It is merely evidence of an unsound head. En-
tirely unregulated and uncontrolled individualism under the conditions
of modern industrialism would lead to a condition of anarchy, injustice
and misery as frightful as the condition of anarchy, injustice and misery

* Excerpt from Address delivered by President Roosevelt in Buenos Ayres, Argentine.

AMERICA— THE LAND WE LOVE

produced by the unchecked military individualism of the robber baronage
in the dark ages. Moreover, this unchecked individualism would destroy
itself. . . .

We wish to destroy neither collectivism nor individualism. We wish
to use so much of collectivism as will form the best basis for an altru-
istic individualism; an individualism which is self-reliant but which
heartily respects the rights of others. In the industrial world this means
that there are some things that the State can do which the individual
should not be permitted to do; some things which should be left to uncon-
trolled individual action and some things which should be left to indi-
vidual action exercised under strict governmental control. Where the line
should be drawn in any case is a mere matter of expediency.

It is the business of the State to secure a measurable equality of
opportunity so that each man shall have the chance to show the stuff
there is in him. Each man should have what he earns and should not
have what any one else earns. There is wide inequality of capacity and
character among men; and therefore it is wise and just that there should
be inequality of reward, because the reward should bear some proportion
to the service rendered.

At present in the world of industry the difference in the reward of the
man at the top and the man lower down is often well nigh infinite, and
represents a travesty upon justice. And moreover the difference between
the reward given the man who. merely handles the money and the reward
given the man who actually handles the men and machinery is wholly
disproportionate to the difference of service. We propose sanely and cau-
tiously but resolutely to strive to reduce this inequality and to bring about
a condition of affairs more nearly corresponding to justice. As I have
before said, we agree with the seer of old that the best ideal for a man
is neither to suffer grinding poverty nor to possess excessive riches. . . .

We do not intend to destroy property. We intend to protect prop-
erty. But we intend to strive for a juster and fairer correspondence
between the possession of property and the service, whether of mind or of
body, which warrants such possession.

Men of valiant soul must be the lords and not the servants of what
they have themselves created. As long as strength is given us with cool
heads and fearless hearts we shall war unceasingly against what is evil
and for what is good, so as to bring nearer the day when justice shall be
done every man, every woman and every child within the borders of the
great free commonwealths to which we belong.

— THEODORE ROOSEVELT.
3C

THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER.

FRANCIS SCOTT KEY.

SOLO OR QUARTET.

1814.

say, can you see, by the dawn's ear

2. On the shore dim -ly seen thro' the mists of

3. And where is

4. Oh,

ly light, What so proud -ly we haH'd
the deep, Where the foe's haughty host

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thus be it ev • er when free-men shall stand Be - tween their loved home

at the
in dread
and the
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twi-light's last£leaming,Whose broad stripes and bright stars,thro' the per - il - ous fight, O'er the
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bat -tie's con-fu - sion, A ... home and a coun - try should leave us
war's des - o - la • tion ; Blest with vie • fry and peace, may the heav'n-res

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ram-parts we watch'd,were so gal - lant • ly stream-ing? And the rock - ets' red glare, the bombs
fit -ful-ly blows, half con-ceals, half dis-clos - esr Now it catch -es the gleam of the
blood has wash'd out their foul foot - steps'pol - lu - tion. No ref - uge could save the
pow'r that hath made and prc-serv'd us a na - tion ! Then con - quer we must, when our

burst-ing in air, Gave proof thro'the night that our flag was still there. Oh, say.does that

morn-ing's first beam, In f ull glo - ry re - fleet - ed,now shines on the stream : 'Tis the star-spangled

hire-ling and slave From the ter - ror of flight or the gloom of the grave : And the star-spangled

cause it is just, And this be our mot - to : "In God i». our trust T'And the star-spangled

star -span-gled ban - ner yet
ban- ner: oh, long may it
ban - ner in tri - umph doth
ban- ner in tri - umph shall

wave O'er the land
wave O'er the land
wave O'er the land
wave O'er the land

of
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free, and the home of the brave!

free, and the home of the brave,

free, and the home of the brave.

AMERICA— INSPIRING TRIBUTES

AMERICA is like a great sleeping giant — with its head at the North
Pole and its feet at the South Pole. Its arms stretch from the
Atlantic to the Pacific. Here it slumbered through the geological
ages. Four hundred years ago men came like pigmies and ran over
its huge body ; meeting in deadly combat on its breast ; lifting the lids of slum-
bering eyes and peering into their depths; putting their ears to the huge heart
and listening to its mighty beats like the hammer stroke on the anvil. Its
breath is like the tornadoes; its nostrils are great caverns leading into the
recesses of life; its lips are strong and decisive, and in its voice there is the
prophecy of the future of man.

One hundred and forty years ago the huge giant moved; he opened his
eyes and became conscious of his existence ; soon he began to stretch his limbs ;
he broke the bonds that held him down.

Through the Nineteenth Century, he struggled to his feet; he rose in his
might to a standing posture ; he tested his huge muscles like Vulcan and there
was born a new iron age; he swept the fields like Ceres and they burst into
harvest; he wielded the ax like Ajax and the forests fell and were transformed
into great cities; he swept the rivers and seas like Neptune and they became
great channels of commerce. Like Argus, he had a hundred eyes that delved
into the mysteries of the Universe ; he pulled the lightning from the skies ; he
flashed messages around the earth; he turned night into day. He arose and
stands to-day like Atlas supporting the world on his shoulders. This is Amer-
ica— the land which in the next generations is to be the dynamic force behind
civilization. — FRANCIS TREVELYAN MILLER.

THERE she lies, the great melting pot. Listen! Can't you hear the
roaring and the bubbling? There gapes her mouth — the harbors
where a thousand mammoth feeders come from the ends of the world
to pour in their human freight. Ah, what a stirring and a seeth-
ing. Celt and Latin, Slav and Teuton, Greek and Syrian, black and yellow,
Jew and Gentile. Yes ! East and West, the palm and the pine, the pole and
the Equator, the crescent and the cross, how the great alchemist melts and fuses
them with his purging* flame ! Here shall they all unite to build the Republic
of Man and the Kingdom of God. Ah, what is the glory to come . . . where
all nations and races come to worship and look back compared with America
where all races and nations come to labor and Look Forward!

— ISRAEL ZANOWILL.

EXECUTIVE OFFICES OF THE AMERICAN NATION — Administration Building on White

House grounds in Washington — It is here that the executive staff conducts

the public and private business of the President.

SCKNK OK MANY HISTORIC HALLS — East room in the White House at Washington— Here

the ambassadors of the nations and tin- world's greatest celebrities have

gathered in brilliant throngs in this magnificent room.

HISTORIC OLD WHITE HOUSE AT WASHINGTON — This imposing structure was begun in l~U'2 — First occu-
pied by Pros id en t Adams in 1*00 — It was burned hy the British in 1M4 and re-built four years
later — The structure is 170 feet long, 80 feet deep, and two stories in height.

OFFICIAL RESIDENCE OF PRESIDENT OF UNITED STATUS— \\'o enter the colonial mansion throuj
Ionic portico — Among the reception rooms on the first floor are the Blue Room used for diplomatic
functions ; the East Room used for public receptions, and the Red and Green Rooms.

HIGHEST r.riLDIN<; IN Till-: WORLD— Wool-worth r.uildiiiK in New York City—It towers
stories high — These modern skyscrapers contain as ninny people as many flourishing towns
— Structures rise from t:-n to twenty stories in nearly all l:ir<'e cities of United States.

CHAPTER I

AMERICA
AND THE AMERICANS

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal ;
that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights ; that
among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

44 A MERICA for Humanity" — This is the key-note of the Amer-
ica and the Americanism that stands before the world to-day
as the champion of the new era of World Democracy —
Liberty, Justice and Equality for the peoples of the earth.
There are in the great human family to-day nearly 2,000,000,000
people. They are divided into about seventy groups or nations — each
working out its own form of government and its own social and eco-
nomic system — the success or failure of which fixes the individual des-
tiny of each nation. There is among them, with their diverse and
conflicting interests, but one nation that is founded from its origin on
the rock-bed of Democracy and which stands to-day, and always has stood,
for world brotherhood — pledged to the principle that "government of the
people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

It is in the new light of this high standard of "America for Human-
ity" that we open the pages of this narrative of the American people with
a brief exposition of Our Country — its magnitude, its ideals, its history
and government, with an inspiring vision of its tremendous possibilities.
Its true power, its real purpose, and unmistakable destiny loom upon the
horizon of the nations as the greatest discovery of the human race in its
entire annals.

It is freely predicted — not only in the United States but by the most
far-sighted men in Europe — that within the present century America will
economically, morally and spiritually instill a new spirit into the world
that will exert a stronger power to an infinitely greater degree than that
by which Greece intellectually dominated the mind of the race, or the
Roman Empire ever legally swayed the conduct of men, or by which
the British Empire commercially stamped its fiat on the world's trade.
Within that brief time, to come within the actual experience of many of
the people now living, America will become not only the greatest and
most powerful nation ever conceived and brought forth on this earth by

AMERICA— THE LAND WE LOVE

sheer moral and economic pressure, but it will give the marching order to
the world — and that marching word will be "humanity." War or peace
for the world will be held eventually in the hollow of America's giant hand.

What a monumental prophecy to confront the reader in the outset
in these pages! Is there any foundation for it*? Or is it nothing more
than the revival of the outbursts of pride that were common in 1800,
1830, and 1850 and later? Its basis is facts — real and tangible, as
we shall see in this survey of the achievements of the American people.
Every man with an understanding of history cannot help but see what is
to be. What is America for1? Why was this greatest continent in the
temperate zone flung up from the floor of the ocean, far from Europe
with its multitude of races and tongues, and far from Asia with its color
and interminable gulf of races? Spread a map before you, turn these1
pages, and look at our home. Hear the thunder of the surf from the
earth's two great seas on our shores. Look at the men mingling — white
faces, yellow faces, red faces — brown faces, black faces — every son of
the earth. Listen to their speech; store in your memory its melody; fill
your soul with its inspiration.

The American Continent was created for the sole, supreme purpose
of making a definite, permanent beginning of the uniting of representa-
tives of all the human races on this earth into one nation. It was set
apart from the other continents to protect this work from invasion and
interruption. It was abundantly furnished with every gift of nature to
carry out this supreme purpose. The Indians came here savage; the
world was not ready for the beginning of work. The Norsemen came here
900 years ago to leave only a tradition; the world was still unready. But
with the close of the dark ages in Europe, some four hundred years ago,
the clock of destiny struck the beginning hour for the uniting of all the
races. Then there were guided to this continent the representatives of the
foremost race of men at that time. There was no accident in it — it was
nothing less than the greatest movement in the historical procession of
evolution.

The discovery, settlement and development of America is the greatest
thought ever evolved by the human mind, for it is nothing but the mind
of man opening for itself a new world of aspiration, imagination, and
achievement. It came at one of the darkest, if not the darkest hour in the
annals of the race. The kings of Europe were forging new shackles for
the people; there was intense restlessness; a barbarism more terrible than
that of Attila or Ghengis Khan seemed to threaten Western Europe.
Had the New World then not flecked the horizon of men's hopes, the
civilization of Europe would in all probability have been irretrievably

AMERICA— AND THE AMERICANS

lost. John Fiske says it saved the race from a cataclysm, for it came to it
as good news comes to a man on the point of committing suicide.

The American Continent is, therefore, the continent of "hope" for all
the peoples of the earth. A land, for the work such as the American
continent is designed for, must not only be difficult for any single race to
reach and conquer, but it must possess an unparalleled magnitude and
opulence to house and accommodate countless numbers of all the races.
Such a land must not only be able to protect itself from all enemies to
the principles which it proclaims to the world, but by the sheer magnitude
of its size, numbers and material success it must strive to impress its
moral example upon the world. No small country could assume this
responsibility. No country surrounded by numerous competitive nations
could set up this work. No place in Europe or Asia could shelter the
operations of such a gigantic task. England, by virtue of its island loca-
tion, has served as a stage in this evolution. Remarkable is the fact that
to-day the races of no one continent flourish to any high degree on
the other continents, except in America. Nowhere has the negro ever
been able to live even as a slave outside of Africa, except in America.
Every effort to acclimate the black man in Europe has failed. Europe
knows neither Chinese nor Japanese as they live in America. These races
do not prosper in Australia or New Zealand as they do in the United
States. And everywhere outside of Europe have the European races
tended to deteriorate, except in America where they have markedly im-
proved on the old stock.

The uniting of the races into one nation means first of all liberty and
peace. The whole history of the world cruelly demonstrates that the
races cannot be united by the sword and political servitude. To cut down
one race or nation is to raise up half a dozen new and stronger enemies.
No man who left Europe in the i6th, lyth and i8th centuries for America
had a thought that he was coming to a land where his descendants would
ultimately merge into the one new race with descendants of men he neither
knew nor liked. His only idea was liberty and peace, and for three
centuries America has grown on this idea; out of it has come confidence,
tolerance, sympathy, freedom. Everything has gone into this melting pot.

We are at last beginning to see the whole world (and the whole
world is beginning to see us) through the eyes of Patrick Henry and
Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln. We hear the note of human-
ity sounding high and clear above the thunder of World War. That
note of humanity is a world-note, a union-race note, a one-race note, the
note of the cross. When Lincoln put his Emancipation Proclamation on
the wires, he sent that same note down into every mansion and cabin of

AMERICA—THE LAND WE LOVE

the South. When America sent it as a world warning to Europe in
1915, it sounded like the small voice of conscience in the heavens. But it
penetrated through the purlieus of White Chapel and Cuxhaven ; it entered
the lacquered doors of the Wilhelm Strasse and Shonbrunn Palace.

Look for a moment at this continent through the eyes of Professor
Shaler, the eminent geologist. This great scientist traversed on foot every
continent on the globe, studying not only its earth formation, its minerals,
its soil, its sunshine, its rainfall and climate, but its human habitations.
He says that the part of the American Continent occupied by the United
States and Canada is incomparably superior for the habitation of the
human race to any like area elsewhere. When we speak of the magnitude
of the American Continent, figures swell and grow like mighty rivers.
Men now habitually think in millions and billions. A big thing is a
commonplace thing unless it is the biggest thing of its kind in the world,
for in this country we dearly love the colossal — it appeals to the American
imagination.

Such leading facts of physical magnitude, power and superiority as
relate to the continent as a whole, have, according to Lord Bryce in the
new edition of his "American Commonwealth," tended to make the Amer-
ican multitude quantitative rather than qualitative in their ideas of their
country. We would reply that in America magnitude in ideals backed
by magnitude in natural resources is the true American claim. President
Wilson recently said in a speech that it took a great people to conquer a
great continent and has written the following words on this subject: "It
has been pronounced grotesque that mere bigness and wealth should be
put forward as the most prominent grounds for the boast of greatness.
The obvious fact is that for the creation of the nation, the conquest of her
territory from nature was necessary; and this task which is hardly com-
pleted has been idealized in the popular mind."

America never could fulfill its destiny without not only retaining
this sense of magnitude, but recreating it as the mould for making its
impression on the world in terms for realizing its own power and per-
forming its great duty to the world. We shall in later chapters discuss
American invention, science, education, arts, and the intellectual and
spiritual forces that constitute true greatness, but let us first measure our
physical proportions and physical power.

Our country is continental in its magnitude. It is the only land
under one flag, occupying an area of more than three million square miles,
wholly within the temperate zone and washed by the world's two great
seas. No other country of the same area within the temperate zone pos-
sesses so much arable and habitable land as the United States. Russia

MONEY CENTER OF THE WESTERN WORLD— Wall Street, New York, showing the Stock Exchange

and Morgan Banking House — This thoroughfare ranks among the three most important

financial centers in the world.

1D1UJ11

JjJ 111 Jii

iLllllJJJ

id iU i»-
iU il-1
t^Ul-JU

GIANT SKYSCRAPERS OF WESTERN HEMISPHERE- — Brilliant night scene In Now York sliowinf

the light in Metropolitan Tower, overlooking Madison Square — This structure is ~>()

stories high or 700 feet, three inches,

AMERICA—AND THE AMERICANS

has more land in the temperate zone, but far less that is fertile, productive
and habitable to the degree of our American land. More of the earth's
population can develop itself here, can find raiment and shelter and take
root and flower and fruit into a surpassing civilization. There are, as we
have observed, according to a German statistician, about 2,000,000,000
human beings on this planet. America, and only America among the
nations, and even among the continents, has the capacity to feed and house
every family of this vast humanity and to give each one of them a far
more comfortable home than the great majority of them now have, accord-
ing to the opinion of more than one economic authority.

If America can feed and house the world let us for a moment suppose
that the whole human race were now here. Try first to conceive in the
mind what is the size of the human race gathered in one city where the
people live as close to one another as they do in New York. This number
of people would make 320 New Yorks, and 320 New Yorks would cover
only that small part of the country from New York City to within thirty
miles of Buffalo. The present population of the United States, if it were
possible to live in one city, would make a city twenty times the size of
New York. But with this population scattered over this vast country
there are only 33 persons on the square mile. If the world and all its
kin lived here there would be 533 persons to the square mile and that would
mean every mile, including Pike's Peak and the Grand Canons and the
Great Desert. But England has almost as many people to the square mile
as that; Belgium has more. Yet we are told that so rich and inexhaustible
is America in the gifts of nature that all these people could live here in
the present state of science far better than the people of China or India
live to-day.

This gives us an idea of the inexhaustible power of nature in the
United States. Germany occupies a large area on the map of Europe; it
has 67,000,000 population, 208,780 square miles, and is the third richest
country on the globe. We could put at least 14% Germanys in the area
of the United States. But we have one State — Texas — where Germany
itself could be laid down and Texas would remain uncovered. Moreover,
Texas could be made to produce more from its soil than does Germany.
You can very easily place 14% Frances in the United States. France has
an area of 207,054 and 39,000,000 population. Fifty-two Englands can
be put down on the map of the United States. If England were placed
on the State of New York only a little of it would lap over upon the
State of Pennsylvania. England could be put down in California 2%
times; in Texas 4%; in New Mexico 2/4i; in Arizona nearly twice; in
Nevada 1% times.

AMERICA— THE LAND WE LOVE

Nowhere on this planet in an equal area is there such an equal distri-
bution of sunshine and rainfall. The mean annual rainfall of twenty-nine
inches is so extensive that every square mile of the great Southwestern Des-
ert can be abundantly irrigated without depleting the water supply else-
where. With all the violent changes of climate on the North Atlantic sea-
board and around the Lakes, we have a climate ranging between 40 and 70
degrees Fahrenheit. The European climate, including Russia, ranges from
70 to 30. Nowhere over so vast a territory is there so little fog as in
America.

We have seen the possible capacity of the United States and the
magnitude of its area — now let us assay our natural wealth. We have
another sort of magnificence of magnitude to which we claim distinction.
It is in what we have wrought out of this country since we came into
possession of it. The national wealth of a country with its periodic growth
and present sum, is the most concrete, tangible expression of the nation's
power in the world. It represents most nearly the moral, mental and
physical energy of a whole people that can be expressed in physical terms.
If it is hoarded and stagnant wealth the energies of the nation may be
dying with its wealth in its coffers. If it is dishonest, stolen wealth it may
destroy the nation possessing it. The wealth of the United States is
anything but stagnant or hoarded, and it is probably the most honestly
accumulated wealth in the world. Forty years ago, Carlyle said the
American people boasted of doubling their population every twenty years
— "doubling their dollar chasers." John Fiske retorted: "The Euro-
peans double their population now and then and just as often double their
scalp chasers."

The United States is by far the richest country on this globe in
national wealth. It is almost as rich as both England and Germany added
together and at its present rate of progress it will surpass them both within
five years. Its national wealth was estimated in 1915 at the enormous
figures of $150,000,000,000.

How much was the Roman Empire worth"? Bear in mind that when
the Roman Empire was at its height of power, the whole known world
occupied a place in the world of its day comparable only to the whole
planet of the present. Some one has estimated from what historic data
that is available that the wealth of Rome in the days of Julius Caesar
50 B. c. could not have exceeded $20,000,000,000 in our money. The
American people produced more wealth last year than the whole world
was worth 2,000 years ago, when it stood at its supreme height and power
in ancient history. It is hard to clutch cold black figures in the mind, but
try to realize what is undoubtedly a fact that the State of New York

AMERICA— AND THE AMERICANS

is giving to the world more dynamic energy and power than the whole
Roman Empire ever generated. New York City alone is doing more
work to-day than the whole world did in the days of Augustus Caesar.

But now let us make some comparisons of the wealth of the United
States with the other richest nations in the world. We find in the last
statistical statement of 1910, these twelve nations ranked as fol-
lows : — United States $ 1 20,000,000,000 ; Great Britain and Ireland $68,-
000,000,000; France $45,000,000,000; Germany $43,000,000,000;
Belgium $7,000,000,000; Spain $5,000,000,000; Netherlands $5,000,-
000,000; Portugal $2,000,000,000; Switzerland $2,400,000,000. At
the end of 1914 they stood as follows: — United States $150,000,000,000;
Great Britain $85,000,000,000; Germany $80,000,000,000; France
$50,000,000,000; Russia $40,000,000,000; Austria-Hungary $25,-
000,000,000; Italy $20,000,000,000; Belgium $9,000,000,000; Spain
$5,400,000,000; Netherlands $5,000,000,000; Switzerland, $4,000,000,-
ooo; Portugal $2,500,000,000. In the next five years there was an enor-
mous increase. The German Empire rose to $80,000,000,000 and the
others made large advance while the United States reached $150,000,-
000,000.

Nothing can more truly reveal the overwhelmingly increasing power
of America among the nations. The Russian Empire is the greatest land
empire in the world, but America has produced enough wealth since 1907
to buy the Czar's entire dominions under the hammer. Our railroads are
worth more now than the entire kingdom of Italy. Our harvest this year
would more than buy the whole of Spain or the Netherlands. The prod-
ucts of our mines would more than purchase Portugal. The values that
we have added to our farming lands and city lots within the last fifteen
months would buy the little mountain republic of Switzerland. Our
harvests this year, and the values that we have added to our national
domain by buildings within the last twelve months, and other real estate
improvements, are worth more to-day than this whole republic was worth
in 1850; its wealth then did not exceed the modest sum of $7,000,000,-
ooo. England then had nearly three times our wealth, and France was
not far behind England.

What does $150,000,000,000 mean to the imagination*? With this
sum of money the United States could buy nearly twenty cities, each as
wealthy as New York. It could pay for Germany and France, or France
and Russia, with enough left over to purchase Spain and Portugal. It
could buy thirty Spains, thirty Hollands, three Frances and nearly four
Russias. It could buy out all the railroads of the world and then leave
enough to pay for England. If this money could be put on interest one

AMERICA— THE LAND WE LOVE

***.:'.-•"••

year at six per cent the interest would more than pay the public debt of the
United States three times. This interest could build a fleet of 500 super-
dreadnoughts. One-sixth of this interest could build a fleet stronger than
all the navies of the world to-day. This interest for two years could build
and equip all the railroads in the United States, and all the roads of the
world in four and a half years. If this national wealth were equally
divided among the people each person would have about $1,500.

We Americans enter our claims to distinction and stand before the
judgment of the World on the record of our achievements which will be
presented in the following chapters in this volume. We shall show that
we have the continent; we have the natural resources; we have the popu-
lation; we have the form of government; we have the ideals, indomitable
will, perseverance, resolution — all the elements essential to the building
of a great nation. We claim, moreover, that in the 140 years of our
national life we have made greater progress toward this achievement and
have contributed more liberally to civilization than has any other nation in
so brief a period within the records of mankind.

Human progress is an admixture of all the powers mentioned, plus
spiritual force and economic determinism. As the philosopher said:
"All growth that is not toward God is growing to decay." Nations are
but groups of men and are subject to the same laws of physical, moral, and
intellectual development. The whole spirit of human, progress is em-
bodied in the American people — possibly more so than in any other people
on the earth. We have the determination, industry, inventive genius and
decision to become great, and we have the inventive genius to translate
these qualities into action — stupendous action.

We entered the arena of the world's activities less than a century
and a half ago and we speeded up human progress; we broke the chains
that stayed it; we gave it momentum; we emancipated human progress and
inspired the world with new ideals, kindling new hopes in the hearts of
mankind, and opening up new and larger opportunities for the growth of
the human race.

We have set up on the Western Hemisphere a new model for hu-
manity. We realize that nations with similar ideals have passed their
brief existence and gone to decay — such as the democracy of Greece and
the republic of Rome. But we can only say with the Bishop Berkeley
"On the prospect of planting arts and learning in America" :

"Westward the course of empire takes its way,
The four first acts already past,
A fifth shall close the drama with the day;
Time's noblest offspring is the last!"

GUEAT INDUSTRIAL CENTER OF MIDDLE WEST — The commercial growtii of Chicago is

one of the miracles of the development of the West — It is one of the chain of cities

that have made the Great Lakes the most active inland sea in the world.

SECOND LARGEST CITY IN UNITED STATES — Chicago lies on the southwestern shore of
Lake Michigan — This city has grown to enormous magnitude with the development of
the West — H wa.s settle<4 about 1777 — First migration began about

LARGEST CTTY ON WESTERN COAST OF AMERICA — San Francisco ranks ninth in popula-
tion; seventh seaport in commercial importance— It was visited by Europeans in 17t5!>,
incorporated in 1S.~>0 — It is an active force in the development of the nation.

GOLDEN GATE TO THE ORIENT — The Bay of San Francisco forms a magnificent harbor

about ninety miles long and from flve to fifteen miles wide — Regular lines of steamships

connect with all the ports on the Pacific Coast and countries of the far East.

PART I CHAPTER II

NARRATIVE HISTORY OF THE
AMERICAN PEOPLE

"A thousand years scarce serve to form a state ;
An hour may lay it in the dust."

— Byron.

"Let me entreat you, gentlemen, on your part, not to take any measures
which, viewed in the calm light of reason, will lessen the dignity and sully
the glory you have hitherto maintained. . . . You will, by the dignity of your
conduct, afford occasion for posterity to say, when speaking of the glorious
example you have exhibited to mankind : 'Had this day been wanting, the
world had never seen the last stage of perfection to which human nature is
capable of attaining.' " — Washington.

amour of romance casts its golden light over the pageantry
of American progress ; a romance ennobled by the stern duty of
a purposeful people ; a people inspired in a Great Cause ; a cause
as heroic and courageous as that of the old Crusaders — the plant-
ing of the standard of triumphant democracy before the whole world. It
is frequently charged that the Americans have no background — that we are
a "colorless" people, with no tales of adventure, no deeds of daring to re-
late, no heroic episodes in our life story. This common belief is indeed a
legend in itself, for the progress of the American people is one continuous
epic filled with dramatic power and tense in its human emotions, with
perhaps the most picturesque characters that have ever trod the highways of
human existence. It is a romance more heroic than that of ancient Greece,
sturdier than that of the old Romans, more chivalrous than the days of
knighthood, because it is the romance of nation building and there is no
more heroic adventure in the episodes of mankind.

America is the borderland of chivalry, but it is the chivalry of a
courageous, lion-hearted people, conquering a continent, subduing wild
beast and savage, fighting its way through dense forests, through ravines and
mountain gorges, over snow-clad peaks, fording mighty rivers — and sub-
jecting them all to the will and utility of man. It is quite true that in
America there is no glitter of hauberk, helm, and lance, and ladies did not
ride with hawk on wrist, but the trumpet sounds and the banner waves,
while mighty men blaze their way across a hemisphere, bridging rivers and
canyons, harnessing the torrents and floods, conquering the rock barriers
of mountains, causing great cities to rise from the vast forests, and com-

AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

manding the wilderness to blossom and the earth to disgorge its hidden
riches.

The Great Adventure — Days of American Knighthood

LET us pass in procession before us the four hundred years of pag-
eantry, in which we look upon the men and the events that have
laid the foundation of the American nation. The march of Amer-
ican civilization begins with what we might call the Great Adventure — the
period of Discovery from the year 1000 to the first permanent settlement
in the New World. It begins with the daring sea tales of the Vikings and
the sea rovers, bold Spanish explorers, gallant English navigators, debonair
French adventurers, monks, courtiers, knights — a wonderful procession of
strong characters that appeal strongly to the imagination. Here we meet
the hardy old Norsemen, whose adventures brought them along these
shores in the days of the sea rovers, whom the storms tossed from the oceans
on this side of the earth.

These were the days when gentlemen of adventure and knights of
fortune were roving the unknown seas to find new lands of fabulous riches.
It was a partnership between kings, bankers, and adventurers which began
this period of world discovery; it was a business speculation in which the
profits were distributed among the several interests. They started forth
not only to stake out the earth and claim dominion over it, but to own and
control the sea-routes — to charter and lease the oceans — to claim absolute
monopoly over the universe, or as much of it as they might set foot and
plant their standards upon. It is interesting to note that these early expe-
ditions were not for the purposes of scientific discovery or geographical
exploration but wholly for trade and empire — they were purely specula-
tions for profit, a game played for big stakes by the Old World monarchs
and financiers. It is interesting further to note that out of this business
speculation should develop not only the world's greatest democracy — the
greatest business nation in the world, but a nation that has broken down
all the despotic privileges of the Old World and stands for complete free-
dom of the seas and absolute justice and equality on land.

There looms before us in this period of adventure the tall figure of a
Genoese— a man with an idea, with a business proposition. He is willing
to promote a venture for the purpose of laying claim to a new route to the
Far East by the way of the western seas if he can secure sufficient financial
backing. This man was Christopher Columbus — and the result of his
achievement was the discovery of America. Columbus, in command of an
expedition of three ships sent out by the King of Spain, sailed in August,
1492, on his voyage to reach Asia by sailing westward on the Sea of

NARRATIVE HISTORY OF AMERICAN PEOPLE

Darkness (the Atlantic). It is a great sea story — with its mutinies, chains,
storms, hunger, and desperation — above which looms the determined coun-
tenance of Columbus. After leaving the Canary Islands, the first land
that he sighted was one of the Bahamas — on October 12, 1492 — and,
though he believed that he had reached Asia (a belief which he carried to
his death), he was the discoverer of a New World. It is interesting to
recall that in this same year occurred one of the most momentous events in
European history — the capture of Granada by the armies of the heroic
queen — Isabella of Castile — who pawned her jewels in order to assist
Columbus in his great enterprise, and the definite expulsion from the
Iberian Peninsula of the Moors, who had occupied it for 700 years.

Columbus made three or more voyages to the New World, which he
called the Indies, from which fact the natives of these continents have
ever since been known as Indians. The tragic end of Columbus, his over-
throw by his political enemies, his trial, imprisonment, and death are great
studies in human psychology — plots more intense in their action than
dramatists have ever been able to conceive from the imagination.

It was a picturesque group of adventurers that crossed the seas in the
wake of Columbus — hardy old navigators from Spain and Portugal fol-
lowed his lead and quickly found the mainland. The first of these was
Americus Vespucius, an Italian in the employ of Portugal — and from him
the land received its name, when a German geographer issued a little book
in 1507 about the new discoveries, and, because Americus Vespucius was the
first European to sight the mainland, named it in his honor — America.

Then came Balboa, a Spaniard, who crossed the Isthmus of Panama
in 1513, fighting fever, beasts, and Indians, traversing swamps and moun-
tains under the tropical heat — and discovered what he called the South Sea
— the Pacific. Soon we see Ponce de Leon, another Spaniard, in search of
a fountain of perpetual youth, who first came upon Florida (1513) ; and
his countryman, Pineda, exploring the shores of the Gulf of Mexico

At this time the great cataclysm of the Reformation burst over Europe.
But this movement little affected the Iberian powers, bent on adventure and
conquest, led on by the two motives of avarice and zeal — and the zeal was
ever for the ancient religion.

It was not until an expedition commanded by Magellan, a Portuguese,
circumnavigated the earth in 1519, that it was definitely known that Colum-
bus stumbled upon a new continent which blocked sailing directly to the
Orient, instead of having reached the Orient itself. On came the Span-
iards, exploring the interiors of these new lands, and in 1565 founded the
settlement of St. Augustine in Florida — the first settlement of Europeans

AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

in what is now the United States. Thus we owe to Spain the beginning of
civilization on the Western Hemisphere.

Tales of incalculable wealth — gold, fur, hides, precious woods and
metals — soon began to be told in the inns of England where the navigators
gathered. The English adventurers had been liberally financed by the
Government and the bankers in their East Indian ventures, which were
beginning to pay large profits in spices and silks. Their attention now
turned to the new America. An English expedition under the command
of John and Sebastian Cabot, Italians, explored what is now our Atlantic
seaboard (1497) ; but it was nearly a century before other English expedi-
tions came to the New World. Frobisher, seeking a passage through the
continent to Asia, found the bay which bears his name (1576), and Drake,
after rounding the Horn, explored the coast of Oregon and stopped for a
time in what is now the Bay of San Francisco (1579). Sir Walter
Raleigh, a favorite of Queen Elizabeth, attempted to make a settlement
at Roanoke Island in 1585, but it was a failure. The returning settlers
took back with them tobacco and potatoes — novelties for Europe — and the
Western Hemisphere began to be spoken of as a land of opportunity for
permanent colonization.

Meanwhile, in the Old World, Shakespeare was inditing his immortal
works, Spenser was extolling the charms of the "Faerie Queenes." It was
the Elizabethan Age of English literature — only comparable in the world's
history to that of Pericles or Augustus.

The first permanent settlement of the Anglo-Saxon race in what is
now the United States was that at Jamestown, Virginia, founded in 1607.
There were 4,000 colonists in the province within thirteen years. When it
was ordered that the inhabitants of the eleven boroughs in which they lived
should send representatives to a legislature to be called the House of Bur-
gesses, the first representative body in America came into existence (1619} ;
and in the same year a Dutch ship arrived and sold twenty negro slaves
brought from Africa, thus establishing another institution — slavery.

It is at this time that we receive on the American shores the ship-load
of regicides, who, fleeing from the theocracy of the Old World, were to
plant the first seed of democracy on the Western Hemisphere — a sect called
Puritans because they insisted on certain "purfying" reforms for both the
Church and State. These liberals little realized that their secession from
the established orthodox forms in civil and religious government — their
heresy was to mark the birth of a new freedom, religious, intellectual, so-
cial, and economic. Leaving England — practically ostracized and exiled
— they went to Holland and finally came to the rock-bound coast of what
is now New England. They set up a colony at Plymouth in the present

AMKRK'AX IIISTOKY IX KfROl'KAX ART This aiirimt ].;iintin« in .Madrid shows Columbus

delivering the Royal Order for the Caravels to start on his journey from Palos,

Spain, which resulted in the discovery of America in 1493t

NARRATIVE HISTORY OF AMERICAN PEOPLE

State of Massachusetts in 1620, after sailing thence in the Mayflower.
New colonists, fleets of white-sailed ships, soon headed toward America
from England, and the Pilgrim foundations were laid.

Romance of Colonial Days — Awakening of the Wilderness

THE romance of colonial days now begins to lighten the dark recesses
of the virgin wilderness. It is a period of colonization from 1607
to 1763 — 156 years. This second period is replete with pic-
turesque glimpses of human life. It is filled with gallant deeds, unique
costumes, and rich humor; Indians, quaint Dutchmen, somber Puritans,
brave Cavaliers, pious Quakers, Jesuit priests, lords and ladies — all moving
through quaint villages and thrilling Indian Wars — scalping, witchcraft,
pillories, burning at the stake, villages in flames, heroic women, fleeing chil-
dren— an almost illimitable field for historical drama.

But we should here warn ourselves against a common error — we must
not make the mistake so often made by historians. The permanent foun-
dations of the American nation were not all laid by the English-speaking
peoples. This nation is built upon the courage, self-sacrifice, labor, and
lives of many races — Spanish, English, Dutch, French, Swedish — each of
which contributed in those early days very substantial and essential founda-
tions upon which later the whole structure was to be built by all the na-
tionalities of the earth — Irish, Scotch, German, Italian, Scandinavian, Slav
— with the sinew and blood of the whole Occident and the Orient welded
into one race — the American people.

The Dutch — a trading people who were powerful in the world's com-
merce— founded the greatest metropolis on the Western Hemisphere.
Henry Hudson, an Englishman in their employ, discovered Hudson Bay,
and also a river, which now bears his name, in 1609. Here, at the mouth
of the river, the Dutch established a trading post on Manhattan Island.
This grew into a colony known as New Amsterdam. Pushing north, they
established other colonies in the Hudson Valley, until they were firmly im-
bedding in American soil the characteristics that have been large factors in
our commercial growth.

The increase in colonization by the various nationalities cannot be
studied here in detail. It is sufficient to say that by 1650 the Atlantic sea-
board was held by the Europeans as follows: the Spaniards held and
colonized the inland and coast along the Gulf of Mexico and along the
Atlantic, about as far north as the northern boundary of Florida. North
of that lay what the English called their Virginia Colony, reaching nearly
to the headwaters of Chesapeake Bay. Then came, near the present site
of Wilmington, Delaware, a settlement of Swedes (for that people, too, set

AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

up colonies here), and north of them were the Dutch colonies, embracing
what is now part of New York State and part of New Jersey. North
of these there was another English territory, embracing what is now called,
and what was then named, New England.

The French began their explorations and settlement in America later
than the other nationalities, but performed the heroic task of penetrating
the interior. By the time they started there was nothing on the seaboard
for them to acquire except land in the north, around the mouth of the
St. Lawrence River. Cartier explored the St. Lawrence Valley, however,
as early as 1534, and in 1608 a party under the command of Champlain
founded a colony at Quebec. The conquest of the interior was a mighty
achievement. Marquette pushed inland till he came to the headwaters of
the Mississippi and sailed down that river as far as the mouth of the
Arkansas (1673). La Salle, after exploring Lake Erie, also went to the
Mississippi and followed it to its mouth. He took possession of all terri-
tory drained by that river in the name of the French king (1681). Their
energies brought to the possession of the French, Canada, and Nova Scotia
and Louisiana, thus hemming in the English colonies on the north and on
the west of the Appalachian Mountains. At home in France, a galaxy of
talent fostered by the "Great Monarch," Louis XIV, raised France to her
zenith of literary glory. Pascal in his study, Moliere on the stage, Bossuet
in the pulpit — such were the gigantic figures that have made the reign of
the "Great Monarch" the most remarkable in French history.

The time was sure to come — and soon to come — when the conflicting
claimants of the American continent would meet face to face in a struggle
of the survival of the fittest. America was now recognized as a land of
vast resources and it was seen by far-sighted statesmen that its broad do-
minion, its rapidly increasing population, and its natural resources would
be important factors in determining the political future of the world. Suc-
cessive wars in Europe throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries
were to determine the possession of the territories held by the belligerent
European nations in America. Battles were fought here as well as on the
other side of the Atlantic which were balancing the future of America on
the point of the sword. The diplomatists began to calculate the value of
America in the great game of statescraft. By the treaty of Ryswick
(1697) which ended the war of the Spanish Succession in Europe (known
to the colonists as Queen Anne's War), France ceded to England, Port
Royal, in Nova Scotia, which had been captured by the English colonists;
and by the Treaty of Utrecht, at the close of 1713, the English received
from the French all of Nova Scotia and right to the Hudson Bay region.

England and Spain went to war in 1739, and the English colonists

NARRATIVE HISTORY OF AMERICAN PEOPLE

captured St. Augustine, Florida; the English possessions thereafter ex-
tended southward into what had formerly been Spanish territory. Strug-
gles between the Swedish and Dutch colonists ended with the disappear-
ance of Swedish possessions; and in 1667 the Dutch traded their possessions
in North America for the English possessions in Guiana, on the coast of
South America.

War between the French and English colonists in America was at
last to come independently of the relations of the mother countries. The
English colonists, by pushing west and north, came into open conflict with
the French colonists. Though England and France were at peace at home,
a war broke out between their colonies in America in 1754. This is known
as the French and Indian War, because these two formed an alliance
against the English settlers. In this conflict, George Washington had his
first military experience, being in command of an English force which de-
fended a fort on the present site of Pittsburgh. Warriors from England
and France crossed the seas and crossed swords on the American continent.
Those from England were under command of General Braddock, who, in
attempting to capture Fort Duquesne, was defeated, because he would not
take the advice of Washington.

The mother countries were soon embroiled in European politics, and
there broke out the Seven Years' War in 1756. By the Peace of Paris
(1763), which brought that war to an end, the victories of England and
her colonists won for her (so far as America was concerned) all of the
French territory east of the Mississippi and all of Canada, which had been
conquered by Wolfe against Montcalm. France ceded her possessions west
of the Mississippi to Spain; and Spain, in turn, ceded Florida to England.
France had lost all her possession in North America — the only traces which
remain are the French-Canadians in Quebec and Montreal and the French-
speaking Creoles in New Orleans. Possession of the then known regions
in North America was left in the hands of only two nations, England and
Spain, and, as the latter's territory consisted only of Mexico, it was to Eng-
land that the whole of what was then known of North America belonged.
Thus, it was decided and from this moment ordained that the English
tongue should be the language of this great people in the northern part of
the Western Hemisphere.

The American Revolution — the Birth of the Republic

WE now enter upon the third epoch in the conquest and civiliza-
tion of the New World. This period (1763-1789) is one that
vitally concerns every American. It is filled with the angry
protest of the people against tyranny, wrathful denunciation of injustice,

AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

and declaration of independence. The call of the bugle is heard in the
fields, the marching feet of determined men, the roar of the cannon rever-
berates across the valleys. We look into the sad eyes of women ; we hear
the weeping of children, and we catch the exultant cry of a new people, as
a new flag unfurls before the breeze at the head of marching regiments,
while the shrill voice of the fife pierces the air and the drum beats — these
are the men who fought the American Revolution — the minute men of
1776, the Continental Army, the Light Horse Cavalry; the farmers and
mechanics, the tradesmen and scholars — the American patriots who rose in
defense of human rights and gave to the world the American nation.

The cause of wars, as we shall see in the chapter on Great Wars, is
fundamentally economic. The trouble came through England's desire to
control the seas, command a great empire, and mold the policies of world
trade. This was the natural right of monarchy, enforced by military
power, and England demanded only that which she believed to be her
legitimate heritage under the doctrine of the divine right of kings. But
England failed in one thing — she failed to comprehend the evolutionary
forces that were cumulating toward democracy; she failed to realize the
vastness and the economic destiny of the American continent, and she failed
to understand the spirit of the American people and their potential power.
Thus, in endeavoring to stay the laws of evolution, she plunged into
revolution, probably as all other nations would (and most nations have)
under similar situations.

There is no spectacle in human life or in the dramatic development
of nations so tragic as that of war — human misunderstandings, fanned by
a sense of injustice into anger, hatred, vengeance, and yet ennobling the
spirit of man in inspiring him to a willingness to die for what he believes to
be right; a sublime unselfishness — a complete forgetfulness of self — for
the sake of what he believes to be the welfare of his country. The Amer-
ican Revolution was a war for humanity; it was fought not alone for the
American people but for the whole human race. And yet its origin was
economic rather than altruistic. It began with a sense of injustice caused
by a system of burdensome taxation — a revolt against the yoke of mon-
archy, which came to its culmination in the birth of a new democracy.

Money — that is the root of most evil and also the glory of most hu-
man achievement — the dual force behind human progress. The recent
wars had cost England much money, and, as the colonies had benefited by
them to no small degree, she decided that they must bear some of that cost
— such seemed reasonable to the monarchy. This was to be done by mak-
ing them pay tribute to the navigation laws, which provided that all trade
to or from the colonies with England or any other country must go in

COLUMBUS CROSSING THE SEAS TO AMERICA— His fleet consisted of three ships ; each

had a crew of 90 men — His sailors threatened to throw him overboard — He

sighted land after 70 days of perilous adventure.

LANDING OF COLUMIU'S IN AMERICA — A cannon shot announced the discovery of It
October lli, 14!>'J — He landed at San Salvador and throwing himself upon
his knees, kissed the earth, returning thanks to God.

CELEBRATION OF AMERICAN LIBERTY — This rare engraving shows the raising of the liberty pole dedi-
cated to American independence in 1776 — The original was engraved by James (.'. McRae and
exhibited during the centenary of independence at Exposition in

GLIMPSE OF AMERICAN LIFE IN 1770 — Here we witness the jubilation which swept the country preceding

the American Revolution — The spirit here shown was given expression In the Declaration of

Independence — It \s Interesting to note the costumes and custQWS.,

z a
-•o

NARRATIVE HISTORY OF AMERICAN PEOPLE

English ships or ships owned by colonists, and that manufactured goods
leaving the colonies must go to an English port before being sent to a for-
eign purchaser, or pay an export duty. The cost of the recent wars was
also to be met by taxes on sugar and molasses brought into the colonies, and
by a stamp tax by which every legal document executed in the colonies was
to bear a stamp costing from six cents to fifty dollars, according to the im-
portance of the document. The first two methods of raising money in the
colonies were not new ; the new stamp tax was to go into effect on Novem-
ber i, 1765.

The British statesmen were born rulers ; they believed they knew how
to pacify the people. So they announced that the money raised by these
means was to go toward paying for the defense of the colonies. But the
American spirit was near eruption; it was struggling to break the chains.
The colonists declared that the taxes were odious, both in the hardships
which they imposed on the people here and in the fact that the people re-
sented the right of the English Parliament to tax them. They took up the
cry that "taxation without representation is tyranny" and made resistance
against such taxation. But this principle in equity was not understood
by the English Parliament, for that body was taxing Englishmen who were
by no means properly represented in it.

The colonists defied the monarchy. They refused to use the hated
stamps. So united were they in their opposition to the tax that it was re-
pealed in 1766. But England considered it necessary to introduce severe
measures to maintain the authority of the monarchy. It passed the Town-
send Acts, which required the people of New York to quarter British troops
or to give up their legislature, provided for strict enforcement of trade laws
at Boston, and for taxes on certain goods, tea included. The breach
widened — the crisis was near. Colonial assemblies were dissolved for of-
fending the king. Troops from England began to arrive in 1770. The
colonists refused to quarter them. In Boston the matter became so serious
that in the same year a riot followed. The troops fired on a crowd — this
was the "Boston Massacre."

British America was aroused. England now found it necessary to
recede from her position. She took the tax off all goods coming into the
colonies, with the exception of tea. But it was too late ; democracy was on
its virgin bed — soon to be born in blood. The people here were determined
to tolerate no tax imposed by a parliament in which they had no repre-
sentation and decided to evade the tax by importing no tea. At Boston the
populace attempted to send cargoes of tea back to England. The authori-
ties by prohibiting it precipitated the raid known as the "Boston Tea
Party." Several young men, dressed as Indians, dumped the cargoes of tea

AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

into Boston Harbor. Parliament struck back in retaliation and passed five
acts : closing the port of Boston ; providing for the trials of offending col-
onists in England; giving Massachusetts a military governor; forcing the
people to quarter troops; and enlarging the province of Quebec so that it
encroached on territory claimed by Massachusetts.

The alarmed colonies organized for concerted action. The first Con-
tinental Congress assembled on September 5, 1774. It was a gathering of
determined men — representatives from all the colonies, excepting Georgia.
It met at Philadelphia with much fervid oratory and passed addresses to
the colonists, to the Canadians, to the people in England, and to the king.
It drew up a Declaration of Rights, asserting these rights to be those of
life, liberty, and property, the right to tax themselves, to peaceable assem-
bly, to address petitions to the king, and to enjoy the rights of Englishmen
and those which were provided for in the colonial charters. It declared,
further, that these rights had been violated by the English authorities.
Before adjourning it agreed to meet again in May, 1775*

We now look up the most memorable event in the history of Amer-
ica. It is July 4th, 1776 — and there has never been a 4th of July since
that the American people have not celebrated this event. It marked the
birth of the greatest republic the human race has ever known. For months
the Continental Congress had been in session at Philadelphia and every
day of that time it had been a challenge to British monarchy. The colonies
were actually in a state of revolt. Congress was working with all of its
might to arm the country. The very words and phrases that have been
immortalized by the Declaration of Independence had long been heard on
every lip from Maine to Georgia.

Congress met in the Spring of 1776. It was evident that no peti-
tion would again be addressed to His Majesty's Government. Public
opinion in the colonies was divided on the subject of separation. It now
required spirits of the most heroic mold to set up an independent govern-
ment in the face of the persistent claim of the people that they were not
rebels in demanding their rights. But so numerous and determined had
grown the separatists that in May they compelled the Congress to pass a
resolution calling upon the colonies to form independent governments.

This wave of patriotism had not subsided when Richard Henry Lee,
the spokesman of the Virginia delegation, arose in the Continental Con-
gress on June 7th and said that he had received instructions from the Coun-
cil of Virginia to move the following resolution: "That these United
States are, and of right ought to be free and independent States ; that they
are absolved from all allegiance to the British crown; that all political
connection between them and Great Britain is and ought to be totally dis-

NARRATIVE HISTORY OF AMERICAN PEOPLE

solved." John Adams was on his feet, seconding this resolution, before
Lee could take his seat.

The gauge of battle had been thrown down. The fifty-six immortal
members of that Congress, in considering Lee's resolution, knew that they
were precipitating a crisis. The Journal of the Congress is as silent as
the grave on what passed after John Adams arose, except to note "that
certain resolutions were moved and seconded and the consideration of
them was deferred till to-morrow morning and the members were enjoined
to attend promptly at 10 o'clock." The delegates were seriously divided;
but in order to lose no time a committee, consisting of Thomas Jefferson,
John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert Livingston,
was appointed to prepare a Declaration.

Jefferson was selected to write the Declaration. In a little room
on the corner of Market and Seventh Streets, he toiled over the document,
writing and rewriting it. For several days the Congress had the Declara-
tion under consideration. It was known that the separatists lacked only
one vote of having a certain majority. One of the eloquent members was
making a speech in favor of adopting the Declaration, drawing on nu-
merous letters and documents from each of the States to prove that public
opinion favored the separation. Coming to North Carolina, he gathered
up an armful of letters and resolutions and read them with wonderful
dramatic effect. Mr. Hewes, who had constantly voted against the
Declaration, suddenly lifted his hand and almost shouted: "It is done,
I will abide by it."

A look of terror swept over the faces of the members who had per-
sistently opposed the Declaration. In that tense moment of the drama,
the Republic of the United States was born. Something, however, more
than a mere majority was needed to secure the safe passage of this mo-
mentous bill of rights. The desired majority was finally obtained. Lee's
resolution was adopted on July 2nd, 1776. This act separated the col-
onies from the mother country. The formal declaration was adopted on
July 4th. How many speeches were made on that first 4th of July
in American history, what was said and how the vote was taken, have never
been revealed. Only John Hancock, the President of Congress, and
Charles Thompson, the Secretary, signed the document then.

There was no crowd about Independence Hall on that day. The
document was published in the Philadelphia Packet two days later, and
on the 8th it was read from Independence Hall to a crowd in the Square.
Liberty bell was not rung. The crowd did, however, tear down the king's
coat of arms in the State House. On August 2nd all the members of the
Congress present signed the Declaration. There it was that John Han-

AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

cock warned the members: "We must all hang together"; and Franklin
made his famous witty reply: "If not we shall all hang separately."

The American Revolution marked the end of the British hopes for sub-
duing the Colonies. Colonies they were no longer; by November, 1783,
the last British force had sailed for home. Washington resigned his com-
mission and returned to his estate at Mount Vernon. The treaty of peace
was signed in 1783, and the boundaries of the United States were denned
as a line running from the mouth of the St. Croix River to Maine, thence
to the Lake of the Woods; west along a line running due west to the Mis-
sissippi, down that river to 31 north latitude, eastward along that parallel
to the Apalachicola River, and by the present northern boundary of Florida
to the Atlantic. It was an area of 827,844 square miles inhabited by three
and a quarter million souls — a mighty nucleus for a new nation and a new
nationality.

Building of a Great Nation — and Its Development

THE scenes now change from Spartan valor on the battlefields to
Solonistic statesmanship in the halls of liberty. We witness the
tremendous spectacle of the building of a nation and pass through
the first period of National Development — from 1789 to 1861 — 72 years.
This period brings us face to face with the great figures that laid the foun-
dations of the Republic. Here we see the inaugural procession of Wash-
ington— his inauguration, his inaugural ball. We meet Hamilton, Ad-
ams, Jefferson — and the statesmen of the new democracy. We visit the
old colonial houses. There is the War of 1812, the War with Mexico.
This is interspersed with the development of invention — the steamship,
railroad; territorial acquisition, the Louisiana Purchase, the beginning of
the West, the gold seekers, the whole wonderful panorama of the awaken-
ing of a giant in civilization.

Let us begin to view the panorama in the days immediately following
the triumph of the Revolution. While the troops of the colonies had been
fighting in the field their statesmen were preparing for a union of their
governments. An agreement known as the "Articles of Confederation"
had been drawn up by the Continental Congress in 1777. It was a heroic
task to attempt to unite all the conflicting interests, all the diverse ideas,
all the various interpretations of liberty, under one instrument. Conflicts
about the lands claimed by the various colonies kept some of them from
ratifying these articles until 1781; and then they were of little practical
value as governmental machinery because they gave Congress such limited
powers. Most serious was the prohibiting of taxation at the hands of that
body. The various interests hesitated to contribute their individual priv-

BEGINNING OF RELIGIOUS LIBERTY IN AMERICA— This engraving shows the religious

regicides as they fled from the Old World to take ship for the New World

to worship God according to the dictates of conscience.

FIRST LANDING OF THE PILGRIMS IN AMERICA— The Mayflower, after a stormy voyage

pf 63 days ; anchored off Cape Cod, with 102 passengers — They landed at

Plymouth Rocfc to establish a colony in November, 1620,

NARRATIVE HISTORY OF AMERICAN PEOPLE

ileges to the common consent of all — it was difficult to divest themselves.
Autocracy still fought inwardly with democracy.

The great crisis came on a May day in Independence Hall, in Phila-
delphia. The representatives from all the colonies met in convention, and
fought out in debate the issues involved, coming to a final agreement after
months of discussion, in the epoch-making instrument known as "the Con-
stitution of the United States" — the greatest creation of governmental ma-
chinery ever devised by human minds. Its provisions will be found in
another chapter. It here suffices to say that it was ratified by the ninth
State on June 21, 1788, and on that date became operative.

The first presidential election was held in 1788. This, too, is de-
scribed in the chapter on "Great American Campaigns." The people chose
as the first President of the Republic, their war hero — Washington, and on
the 3oth of April, 1789, he took the oath of office on a spot still designated
in Wall Street, New York, amid the shouts and cheers of the populace.

The first work of the first administration was a gigantic task — that
of putting into effect the machinery of government provided for by the
Constitution. A tariff law was passed, that money might come to the na-
tional treasury; the federal courts were established; the executive depart-
ments were established, and their heads became the President's cabinet; and
a national debt was contracted.

The problem of financing the new nation fell upon Alexander Hamil-
ton, first Secretary of the Treasury. To him the financial matters were en-
trusted. A national debt of $1 1,700,000 was due to Holland, France and
Spain, for aid during the Revolution ; a domestic debt of $42,000,000 ; and
State debts amounted to about $21,000,000. For the redemption of these,
Hamilton bonded the first two and assumed and funded the State debts.
Congress then ordered stock bearing interest to be issued in exchange for the
old debts. In 1790 the National Debt amounted to $75,000,000. The
matter of funding the State debts was opposed by men from Virginia and
Pennsylvania in Congress, and in order to get these members to agree to it,
a compromise was made whereby Congress provided that for ten years the
national capital should be Philadelphia, instead of New York, and that
thereafter it should be in a new city on the Potomac. This resulted in the
building of the city of Washington, where the National Government was
established in 1800.

The genius required to finance a nation is equally as great as that re-
quired to win its battles — and especially a new nation in an experimental
stage without credit. Moreover, it is a much larger problem to promote
a republic than to finance a monarchy. Thus, the foundation arch to a
democracy must have two pillars — industry with finance to maintain it —

AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

labor with capital to promote it — men and money as a medium for ex-
changing their services. Neither can exist without the other under the
present age of human development.

How to finance the American nation was its most serious problem
after it had won its independence; how could it maintain this indepen-
dence? A national bank was established during the first administration.
Under Hamilton's plan, there was to be capital stock amounting to ten mil-
lions of dollars, two millions of which were to be raised by the government
and the remaining amount by popular subscription. The parent bank,
then located at Philadelphia, established branches throughout the country,
made payments through them, received moneys due the government and is-
sued bills which were to be received all over the country for duties, postage
and other payments to the government. Despite opposition it was granted
a charter for twenty years and began business in 1791. These financial
measures gave confidence to the people in their governmental experiment
and also brought the confidence of foreign countries.

But every step of progress, every idea in political economy — was
vigorously challenged. No measures were carried through Congress with-
out great debate both among its members and among the people outside.
Self-government means conflict of ideas. Human nature questions mo-
tives. The psychology of human nature enters as much or more into de-
mocracy than does the science of economics ; one is a temperamental fact —
the other is a mechanical theory. The individual States were jealous of
the powers that they formerly had — powers which were inheritances from
the days when they were colonies working under charters held from the
English government. In each State there were men who disliked what
they called the outside influences of the Federal Government.

The issue was clear — it was soon seen that the future must decide
whether the Federal Government should be more powerful than the State
Governments or whether the converse should be true. Those who held out
for the supremacy of the Federal Constitution, for stronger federal feeling
and operation, were called Federalists. They soon had their opponents
throughout the whole of the Union, and these opponents organized them-
selves into a political party known as the Democratic Republicans. Among
their leaders were Jefferson, Randolph, Monroe, Madison, and Gallatin.
An early test of the powers of the Federal Government in internal affairs
came. Certain farmers in Pennsylvania, who had their own stills and re-
fused to pay the internal revenue on their output of whiskey, rebelled and
were put down by a force of militia from neighboring States. This came
to be known as the Whiskey Rebellion.

Differences of opinion — based frequently on self-interests or individ-

NARRATIVE HISTORY OF AMERICAN PEOPLE

ual interpretations of human existence, cause political parties. As has been
shown, the matter of difference of opinion which brought about the birth
of one political party, was due to open questions on the internal policies of
the Government. But foreign affairs and threatened "world wars" were
to occupy official minds after 1792 and it so happened that there came
the same alignment of opinion on these questions as there had been on in-
ternal affairs. It is interesting to note the attitude of the American people
during this world crisis. When the French Revolution got under way, in
1 789, the people in America, as well as those in Europe, watched its succes-
sive stages with great interest. When the French populace started to go to
extremes, after 1792, beheading its king and falling into the hands of po-
litical leaders who did not hesitate at the worst crimes, the people in the
United States, as did those in other countries, divided in their opinions:
some upheld the actions of the French radicals ; some deplored those actions.
When war came between France and England, Washington decided to take
a neutral position.

This immediately called up the disfavor of the Republicans who
claimed that he should stand by France, our erstwhile friend and against
England, our erstwhile enemy. To make this position more difficult for
the President there came the interference with American commerce by Eng-
land in her efforts against France, until Jay obtained a treaty with Eng-
land (1794) which settled that matter to some extent. In the following
year a treaty with Spain settled the disputed matter of the northern boun-
dary of Florida and gave American ships the right to pass through her pos-
sessions, which included both sides of the shore at the mouth of the Missis-
sippi.

The political and economic foundations of a nation are so essentially
the root from which the people themselves have grown that these annals
must be related in other chapters. Neither can we linger here to consider
the social conditions other than occasionally to suggest the home life and
character of the people in its process of national evolution. We look now
upon Washington for the last time. He is aged with the stupendous bur-
dens placed on his shoulders — a modern Atlas supporting the New World.
With dignity of bearing, classical features, cultured voice, we see him as he
stands before the populace, after serving two terms, and hear him delivering
his famous Farewell Address in 1797. He was succeeded by John Adams,
the candidate of the Federalists. Thomas Jefferson, candidate set up by
the Republicans, received the next largest number of votes and became
Vice-President. Three days after the inauguration a crisis occurred — the
American Minister to France (Pinckney) was driven from that country by
the French Directory, the five men who were then governing France in lieu

AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

of any other government. They were grieved because Jay's treaty with
England amicably settled the differences that had existed between England
and America and because it precluded the possibility of those two coun-
tries going to war.

Angry over the insult, President Adams yielded to pressure and agita-
tion and sent Marshall, Gerry and Pinckney to Paris as a delegation to set-
tle the differences with France. Much to the amazement of the American
people, agents of the French Directory approached these men and proposed
that they apologize for the denunciation our President had made about
France, that each of the Directors be given an indemnity of $50,000, and
that tribute be paid to France. The Americans were aroused. The cry of
"millions for defence, not one cent for tribute" rang through the country.
It looked for a time as though we should go to war. During the outburst
of patriotism which followed, the national song, "Hail Columbia," was
written and its strains were echoed from town to town.

National spirit rose to a high point. This culminated in the passage
of the Alien and Sedition Acts which provided that no foreigner might
become a citizen until he had resided here nine years. These acts also de-
nned sedition as speaking or writing about any member of the Federal
Government with abuse, and provided for proper punishment. These laws
were carried out with vigor. Opposition to them was wide and aggressive.
Resolutions were passed declaring them to be unconstitutional and pro-
claiming that when such laws are passed any State that insists upon their
unconstitutionally had the right to secede from the Union. Thus was
born the doctrine of nullification. Meantime, war with France did come
and the navy of the United States carried on a vigorous campaign against
French commerce. The Directory fell from power before terms of peace
could be broached. Napoleon became First Consul of the French Empire.
These martial acts caused the raising of new revenue in the United States
in the form of a stamp tax and a direct tax on land, houses and slaves ; they
caused so much opposition in certain parts of the country that the President
had to call out the militia to restore quiet. A second time it had been
shown that the Federal Government was determined to uphold the Con-
stitution.

The Nineteenth Century opened with many forebodings for democ-
racy. The Napoleonic wars were to crush Europe under the iron heel of
the conqueror in the name of republican government — and finally to over-
throw the conqueror.

The beginning of the new century brought Jefferson into the Presi-
dency— a victory for the Democratic Republicans. And in this administra-
tion we find the young American nation entering upon a new era of mighty

UOME LIFE IN EARLY AMERICA — Glimpse of an interior of a pioneer's home in New England

during first century of English colonization — Here we see the Puritans in their

log cabins laying the foundations for the American nation.

FIRST MISSIONARY AMONG THE INDIANS*— Here we see John Eliot, who arrived from.

England in 1G31, delivering the first sermon to the Indians in their native

tongue on the American continent — Eliot translated the Bible,

NARRATIVE HISTORY OF AMERICAN PEOPLE

expansion — we sprang suddenly from a little group of struggling States
into a great empire. Here we record the greatest real estate transaction in
the world's history — the Louisiana Purchase which brought the Great West
into the American nation. And this all came about through the Napoleonic
wars. The only real victor in the Napoleonic wars was the United States
— and it gained its victory through its neutrality. Europe was devastated
by the ravages of war; England defended itself from being crushed out of
existence and won notable military honor — but the American nation won
a continental dominion. This all resulted from the fact that Napoleon
needed money — and we were able to supply it. At this time the American
nation was crowded into a small corner of the continent. The western
boundary of the United States was the Mississippi River. The Spanish
flag floated over the territory west of that river from the British posses-
sions on the north to Brazil on the south. The southern boundary of the
United States was the 3ist parallel of latitude, and the Spanish Floridas
occupied all the intervening country below that line from the Atlantic
Coast to the Mississippi River, completely shutting off the American peo-
ple from all communication with the Gulf. The ambitious Napoleon
had secured control of Louisiana in 1800 for the purpose of establishing a
great western empire — ultimately to absorb the American republic. But
his plans were not materializing. France was humiliated and in want of
money. England was preparing to seize the French possessions in Amer-
ica, which had two years before been ceded back by Spain to France, and
New Orleans and the Mississippi River were the objective points of attack.
Twenty ships from the British navy were cruising in the Gulf of Mexico
off the mouth of the river, waiting for the conflict. Napoleon was alive
to the situation, and resolved to checkmate England in her plan to obtain
the coveted prize.

Accordingly, on the loth of April, 1803, Napoleon announced to two
of his counselors, that he had determined to sell his American possessions
to the United States. His startling proposition met with opposition. The
next day he held audience with them again, and it was then and there de-
cided that war with England was inevitable; that money was needed to
carry it on ; that they could not hold their American territory against Eng-
land. The only alternative being an immediate sale of the country for
money, or a seizure without it; they resolved to sell.

Livingston, the American minister at Paris, was apprised of this prop-
osition, but it so far exceeded the limits of his instructions, that he could
not negotiate without authority from Washington. To communicate with
Washington, and obtain a reply, would occupy about three months. Such
a delay would be hazardous to the interests of France and the United

AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

States. But the new minister, James Monroe, was already on his way to
Paris, and when he arrived there the proposition was submitted to him.
Though it exceeded his instructions, he took the responsibility of making
the treaty and it was signed April 3Oth, 1803. It stipulated that the
United States should pay 80,000,000 francs; and, as part of the same
transaction, 20,000,000 francs should be applied by die United States
at Washington, to the payment of certain claims owed by France to Ameri-
can citizens, if they should amount to that sum. The amount finally
agreed upon was $3,738,268.98. The whole sum actually paid was in
round numbers $16,000,000 — less than two cents for each one hundred
acres of land conveyed.

This epoch-making transaction in America precipitated the war be-
tween England and France. The matter was conducted so secretly and
expeditiously, that the minister of England at Paris knew nothing of the
negotiations till after the treaty was signed. On learning that fact, he at
once demanded his passports and left for England. The French ambas-
sador at the Court of St. James also took his passport and left. The events
which followed need no description here. The clash of arms between these
two great powers and their allies shook the world from center to circumfer-
ence. Napoleon, who had carried the eagles of France in triumph through
a hundred battles, was to go down in the conflict a few years later at
Waterloo, and Wellington, the Iron Duke, was to mount the pedestal of
fame, as the conquering hero of the world.

The purport of this transaction in America is but little understood or
comprehended by the people of this country even to-day. It brought to
the American nation a territory much larger in extent than the thirteen
original States of the Union; greater in agricultural resources and richer in
mineral wealth. It brought us mountains, magnificent in grandeur; the
most beautiful scenery on the hemisphere ; and its river courses the longest
in the world. Twelve great States, each nearly double the size of New
York, have already been admitted into the Union out of territory east of
the Rocky Mountains; and there was in addition, the Indian Territory,
with 64,690 square miles, and the Yellowstone, or National Park, with
3,575 square miles. There was also taken from Florida, eventually, south
of the 3 ist parallel of latitude, 2,300 square miles to be added to Alabama,
and also 3,600 square miles which was added to Mississippi, to give to
those two States a water front upon the Gulf of Mexico.

This territory between the Mississippi and the Pacific Ocean, then an
unbroken wilderness, is to-day a great empire, bustling with activities — its
development too rapid to be calculated, and its possibilities too great to be
computed. Sixteen millions of dollars was a large sum for our country to

NARRATIVE HISTORY OF AMERICAN PEOPLE

assume at that early date, and yet, the sum paid for the entire purchase is
not equal to the product of the mines in Montana for one month, or the
wheat of Kansas or the corn of Iowa for a single year.

How much this nation and the world at large is indebted to Thomas
Jefferson and James Monroe, for the peaceful acquisition of this territory
amid threatening and impending difficulties, can never be told or compre-
hended. This purchase gave us the breadth of the continent from ocean
to ocean, the command of its rivers and harbors, the wealth of its moun-
tains, its plains and valleys, a country sweeping from the Gulf to the Lakes
and the Lakes to the Sea, in which is being worked out the sublimest prob-
lems of human life and of self-government in the interests of the people.
Without it to-day the country, if in existence at all — hemmed in by Eu-
ropean powers on three sides — would be a struggling, provincial, inconse-
quential people.

The Napoleonic wars shook the foundations of Europe. The United
States continued to remain neutral but with much difficulty. Crises con-
stantly arose which threatened to drag us into the maelstrom. The warring
nations waged a war to injure commerce and trade. England passed an
order in Council, which declared the whole coast of Europe — now in con-
trol of Napoleon ( 1806) — to be blockaded. It was a paper blockade; no
ships actually carried it out, but American vessels were seized for "running"
it. In retaliation Napoleon issued the Berlin decree, declaring a "paper
blockade" against the British Isles. American ships were now seized by
the French.

The two nations then issued further decrees with the result that almost
all trade between America and Europe was stopped. To combat France
and England, the administration passed a non-intercourse act forbidding
the importation of all goods from those countries. Reforms were made
in the American navy and a new treaty made with England ; but it made
no mention of our rights on the seas nor of the impressment of American
sailors by the English. Smuggling made the embargo, and a successor to
it, worthless and the outrages against American ships went right on. This
was the critical situation, when Jefferson's second term came to an end.
Following Washington's precedent, he refused to stand as candidate for a
third term, and Madison became President in 1809.

America Drawn Toward Vortex of Napoleonic Wars

THE Napoleonic wars still drew America toward the vortex. The
troubles over shipping were again imminent. The Macon Act,
named after the Congressman who drew it, provided that United
States ships would renew intercourse with either of the warring nations

AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

that would first withdraw its decrees and would then have no intercourse
with the other. Napoleon accepted the offer. But when cargoes of Amer-
ican ships reached French ports, he repudiated his action and seized both
ships and goods. England, meanwhile, continued her raids on American
commerce.

The situation grew tense — the crisis came. Congress convened in
1811 and decided to declare war on England. In that historic Congress
we meet Henry Clay. His rival from that time, for forty years, was John
C. Calhoun. The declaration of war came on June i8th, 1812, five days
after the British orders in Council had been repealed. But in those days be-
fore the cable or the ocean steamship, news travelled so slowly that no word
about the repeal arrived in Washington for several weeks. The procla-
mation, accompanying the declaration of war, stated that we entered it be-
cause England had incited Indians to attack Americans, had interfered with
our trade, had searched our ships off our own ports, and had impressed some
six thousand of our sailors. The chief events of the war are narrated in
another chapter.

Peace came with the Treaty of Ghent, signed in December, 1814.
The treaty, however, failed to settle any of the matters which had caused
the war. But the naval victories of America had raised her to higher estate
in foreign esteem; the war did much to consolidate the Union; and it es-
tablished American integrity on the high seas. Thus the Napoleonic wars
unloosed two great forces in America — her great natural resources in the
West and her commerce ; it started America on her career as a world power.

In the twenty-five years which passed after Washington's inauguration,
the population of the country had increased by 5,000,000. Five new
States had become members of the Union. Immigration was fast making
the wild regions west of the Appalachians part of the habitable world.
Wars and treaties with the Indians subdued the savages, and emigration
became the forerunner of permanent settlements. Kentucky, Vermont and
Tennessee had become members of the Union before 1800. Ohio had en-
tered in 1803. New inventions for industrial purposes, new manufactures,
prosperous banks, and the building of canals showed how the new nation
had flourished since gaining its independence. Manufacturing was boomed
by the embargoes against England and France, for heretofore much raw
material had gone abroad to be sent back to the United States as finished
product.

To further encourage manufacture and the "infant industries," socie-
ties were started everywhere to boycott foreign goods, prizes were offered
for the best made domestic goods, exchanges for the latter were established,
men with capital came forward with money for mills, and public officials

"P/ • • •'•'•.'

'; _• Jt

REMAINS OF ANCIENT CIVILIZATION — Pueblo ruins of the famous Csusa Grande in Arizona —

Survival of prehistoric times — Father Kino said mass within its walls in 1694 — The

first white men to traverse this territory were two friars in 1538.

FIRST WHITE SETTLEMENT IN NOKTH AMERICA — It was made at St. Augustine, Florida,

after Ponce do Leon discovered the land of flowers in 1512 — This picture shows what is

believed to be the oldest house in the United States — It was built in 1516.

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NARRATIVE HISTORY OF AMERICAN PEOPLE

insisted on wearing and using things "made in America." The value of
goods manufactured within the United States in 1810 was $173,000,000.
Roads and canals were extended to all regions. Steamboats began to ply
on important rivers; the Government began to mint gold and silver; State
banks came into existence in many places. Suspension of payment by these
came with the panic caused by the British attack on Washington, but this
was prevented from recurring by the establishment of a second National
Bank, modelled after the first.

This was a period of expansion. James Munroe was elected to the
Presidency and took office on March 4th, 1817. No Federalist candidate
ran for office after that time. The differences which had led to the estab-
lishment of two political parties no longer existed when once the doctrine
of Federal supremacy had taken root, and after peace reigned in Europe
the question of American neutrality was no longer raised.

This, too, was a period of momentous events. The American people
were beginning to feel their dormant power. The Seminole Indians in
Florida and the Creeks in Alabama were harassing the white settlers. The
first force sent against the Indians failed to pacify them. General Jackson
then invaded the Spanish territory of Florida and took possession of it.
"He was officially rebuked but publicly applauded."

At this time also the question of the northern boundary of the Louisi-
ana Purchase was settled. The line decided upon was the 49th parallel
north latitude, running from the Lake of the Woods to the summit of
the Rockies. England and America were to occupy the Oregon territory
jointly until 1828. The purchase of East and West Florida from Spain
for the sum of $15,000,000 was completed in 1821, and the western boun-
daries of the Louisiana Purchase were agreed upon.

Thus the wings of the great American family continued to spread.
The acquisition of Florida not only added to our national domain a terri-
tory seven times larger than Massachusetts, but gave us an unbroken line
of seacoast from Nova Scotia on the north to the Sabine Pass on the south,
with no foreign waters washing our shores and no unfriendly settlements to
embarrass our commerce. The soil of Florida, moistened by Spanish and
English blood, peacefully passed under the flag of the United States, and
Spanish grievances were ended.

American democracy now played its master-hand against Old World
monarchy and won through diplomacy a more far-reaching victory than
that of many wars. It took its stand courageously for the integrity and
preservation of the whole Western Hemisphere — without molestation or
invasion by any foreign power. This world-molding policy came about in
this way: Russia, which held the territory now known as Alaska, at-

AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

tempted in 1822 to fix its southern boundary at the 52nd parallel, thus tak-
ing in part of the Oregon territory. The Russian Government also had a
colony in California and seemed to be bent on excluding Americans from
the Pacific. John Quincy Adams, then Secretary of State, protested. He
proclaimed to the Russians that European nations no longer had the right
to plant colonies in North America. This was the birth of that principle in
international law known as the Monroe Doctrine.

The first test of this daring warning to the world from the new Amer-
ican nation came in 1823. The possessions of Spain in South America had
gained their independence, after bloody struggles. They were now threat-
ened by the Holy Alliance composed of Russia, Prussia, Austria, and
France. Under these conditions, the United States could never be se-
cure; the Western Hemisphere would be subject always to invasions from
the older civilization. England also feared the strength of the Holy Alli-
ance, with the power it might gain in the western world — hence it sug-
gested to the American Government a protest against the interferences of
European governments with the South American countries. Coming as
this did at the same time that our protest was sent to Russia, the suggestion
was acted upon. President Monroe in his message to Congress, December
2nd, 1823, proclaimed to the world that the American continents were no
longer open to European colonization; that America would not engage in
European affairs (except on occasions when they directly attacked Ameri-
can integrity) ; that the European nations must not "extend their system"
to any part of the New World, nor seek to control the destiny of any of the
countries in it.

Behind this declaration was the voice of a great people. By its own
force it became a law. Since that time the American Government has been
extremely jealous of this doctrine. It has maintained it even so far as tak-
ing control where a European nation had tried to collect debts from some
of the smaller republics in this part of the world. The term "extend their
system" has received the broadest interpretation. European nations have
since chafed under the Monroe Doctrine, but none has yet dared to test
its validity with force.

Great Westward Movement in Immigration

THE next great movement of the American people was migration
westward. Trade had declined after the War of 1812 ; the ex-
pected good times which were to follow did not arrive. It was
now that many farmers in the East gathered their families, stock, and
possessions, and made their way to the new lands in the West by wagon.
Here they settled, opening up vast stretches in the Middle West. This

NARRATIVE HISTORY OF AMERICAN PEOPLE

migration was at its height in 1817. The frontier of the country was
pushed as far as the western border of what is now Missouri.

Life on the frontier was crude — the frontiersmen were a stalwart stock
— not unlike in their gallantry the folk in the days of Rob Roy and Ivanhoe.
It took hardy people to stand the hardships of the journey thither; their
open-air life made them sturdy. They fought the beasts of the forests and
challenged all danger. They could bring with them few of the accessories
of civilized life. Their homes were log cabins, without glass and without
stoves or conveniences. Iron was not then as plentiful as it is now. They
had almost no nails, and their tools were so poor that they cleared their
lands with the greatest difficulty. But these very hardships developed
them into a race of shrewd, philosophic, clean-living people, with the breath
of Nature in their souls, the bronze of the winds on their faces, the roar of
the forests in their voices, and the stability of the rocks in their muscles.
Migration took them to Indiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Illinois and Mis-
souri— these States, together with Maine, entered the Union between the
years 1816 and 1821. All but Maine had become populous, due to the in-
creased migrations.

The admission of new States raised a question which was to bring
about the first great national crisis and threaten the dissolution of the
Union. This was the matter of slavery. As has been noted, the first
slaves were brought to America by a Dutch ship in 1619. There was no
protest — they were considered as property. The institution of slavery
spread and became grafted into our economic system, so that by the time
the Union was formed it existed in every one of the States. It was a con-
stitutional right. So long as the country had no industrial life, the em-
ployment of slaves was economically advantageous. But in the North,
where industry grew faster and where cities grew larger, the slaves could
be used only as servants ; they had not the hereditary training necessary to
be used where skill and technical knowledge were needed — as in factories,
mills, and shops. Consequently, without service for them in the North,
slavery in the States above Maryland was dying out of its own accord dur-
ing the first quarter of the Eighteenth Century. Here develops a strange
social psychology.

When all selfish interests are eliminated — when economic values dis-
appear— then humane instincts rise. So, when the economic gains were
lifted from the institution of slavery, prejudice arose on humanitarian
grounds. But the South did not become an industrial region; it was still
profitable there to use slaves in agriculture; and, when the raising of cot-
ton became the paramount business of the South it rested almost entirely
on slave-labor. Consequently, slavery meant economic health to the South-

AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

crncrs — even existence itself. Between the people in the two sections of
the country there began to be a division of interests over the matter. The
Northerners were determined to restrict the institution; therefore, when
new States were admitted to the Union, they raised the question whether
they should be admitted if they permitted slavery.

There were twenty-two States in the Union in 1820; the eleven lying
north of Pennsylvania's southern boundary and west of its western boun-
dary were "free States"; the remaining eleven were "slave States." Be-
yond the Mississippi none of the territory was at that time part of any
State. Consequently, forty-four of the Senators were defenders of the in-
stitution; the remaining forty-four were opposed to it, in theory at least.
When Missouri petitioned for admission in 1819 and was known to be a
slave-holding territory, this balance was threatened. The ensuing dead-
lock was settled by what was known as the "Missouri Compromise"
(1820). To offset "slave-holding" Missouri, "free" Maine was admitted
at the same time. It was agreed that States later created from the Louisi-
ana Territory should be "slave" if south of the line 36° 30' and "free"
if north of it. This seemed to be a compromise — but proved to be only
the postponement of the decision of a vital policy in the future democracy.
Monroe was re-elected President on his brilliant record, receiving all but
one of the total of 220 electoral votes.

Beginning of Modern Age of Industrial Development

ANEW age now began to dawn — the beginning of the modern age
of vast industrial development. "Necessity," says the old adage,
"is the mother of invention." There is no greater truth — every
great invention is the result of a great economic need — it is the answer to
a social problem. So it was that, with territorial expansion and the estab-
lishment of new settlements in the West, came the problem of communica-
tion between that section and the East. Thus we conceived the Erie Canal,
connecting the Great Lakes with the Hudson River, to solve this problem
— to meet this necessity. This gave New York a rebirth and greatly re-
duced freight rates between East and West. Moreover, it established New
York as the great market and metropolis of the American nation; it gave
New York the start from which it has since risen to world power — the gate-
way to a continent. Heretofore, produce and passengers could be trans-
ported by horse-drawn vehicles only — a slow and costly business. Canals
were built throughout the whole country — and the problem seemed settled.
But national growth rapidly exceeded the pace of the canal; it de-
manded large, swifter channels in which to carry the burden of a nation's
production. The new West called for transportation — for communication

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GENEKALS OF TIIK AMKKICAX REVOLUTION — This Impressive engraving presents Washington surrounded by tin

generals who led the Amerionn armies to victory in the battles for American independence — This is
the genius that caused the fall of monarchy in the Western World,

;EGACY OF Till: AMKUK'AN I'KOPLK Washington wrote on disbanding the army: "The citizens of America are
placed in the most enviable condition as the sole lords and proprietors of a vast tract of continent
comprehending all the various soils and climates of (he world.,"

FIRST ITRE DKMOl'HACY IX AMKUH'A — The landing of Itoger Williams (1(>:>0) — He denied

the right of magistrates to interfere with the consciences of men and demanded

the complete separation of church and state.

WASHINGTON AND HIS MoTHI.U -Washington was born February L'L'nd, IT::'-1, in Virginia.

son of .lohn Washington and Mary Hall Washington- His father died and

through Ills mother's guidance he developed into greatness.

NARRATIVE HISTORY OF AMERICAN PEOPLE

with the stretching limbs of the continent. Thus the idea of railroads on
land and steamships on the seas. Experiments were made through the
twenties with this new power that was soon to break the economic bondage
of the peoples of the earth, emancipate the world's trade — and create a new
epoch in civilization. The first use of the steam locomotives economically
successful was on a line — with gaps — that ran from Philadelphia to Pitts-
burgh, from 1836 onward. The invention of straw-made paper, farm ma-
chinery, the telegraph, and the sewing machine, the use of chloroform,
American-made hardware, anthracite coal, and fire brick all came between
the years 1825 and 1840 and were due to American genius. In the cities
the omnibus and street-car began to be used.

This period saw the rise of the Mormon sect in upper New York and
their migration as they moved farther and farther west, till they set up a
city of their own in 1847 at the Great Salt Lake, then in Mexican territory.
The period saw also the rise of certain features of the American political
system. With the coming of a broader democratic outlook the punishment
meted out to convicts was made lighter, free schools, asylums, and better
prisons were established, and the States amended their constitutions to open
suffrage to greater numbers. Democracy, too, was experiencing a rebirth
— it was about to step out into a great industrial age when it should test
its might with the surviving elements of autocracy and fight for its existence
against feudalism and oligarchy entering into our industrial life.

As the Erie Canal was completed there came into the Presidency, John
Quincy Adams — a National Republican. The first locomotive in this coun-
try was brought from England; lithographic printing came into America.
Then came the election of Andrew Jackson to the presidency — the first
President who came up from the ranks and did not belong to the aris-
tocracy. The first American locomotive, constructed by Peter Cooper, was
tested on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad; the Delaware and Hudson
Canal and the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal were finished, giving to
New York and Philadelphia respectively new commercial inland water-
ways. At this time Dr. John Revere crowned this year of achievement by
inventing galvanized iron. The ready oxidation of iron had made it more
vulnerable than wood to the action of the atmosphere. Dr. Revere's dis-
covery had advanced the world a long step into the iron age.

We now enter upon an era in which events crowd upon us so rapidly
that it is necessary to witness each step, year by year — a rapidly moving
panorama of national progress. The year of 1830 was made memorable
in the commercial and industrial history of the United States by the nego-
tiation of a treaty with Great Britain throwing open to American commerce
all the ports of the West Indies and South America, and by a treaty with

AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

Turkey giving American ships access to the Black Sea; by the founding of
what is now the third greatest city of the world, Chicago, at a rude trading
outpost on Lake Michigan ; by the running of the first steam passenger train
in America on the Charleston and Savannah Railway, the train being drawn
by a locomotive built in New York and called the "Best Friend" ; and by
gazing at the stars through the first American telescope erected at Yale.

The year of 1831 opened with an insurrection of negroes led by Nat
Turner. William Lloyd Garrison sent to the press the first copy of the
Liberator, his famous anti-slavery paper, which had sprung the movement
which was to culminate thirty years later in the American Civil War. The
State of Pennsylvania completed the great freight line from Philadelphia
to Pittsburgh, part of the way by canal, part by horse railroad. The Alle-
gheny Mountains were scaled by rail with stationary steam-engines for
hoisting. Albany and Syracuse were joined by rail and a New York built
locomotive scored the record of a mile in three minutes on this new road.
John Henry, of Albany, invented an electric apparatus that produced
sounds and that was the forerunner of Morse's celebrated invention, the
telegraph.

Jackson was again elected to the Presidency in 1832. His opponent
was Henry Clay, the issue being the rechartering of the National Bank. A
tariff bill was passed, raising the duties on molasses, reducing it on iron,
letting raw wool come in free and leaving cotton unchanged. But this
law did not satisfy the South, and South Carolina threatened nullification
by summoning her State troops to arms to prevent the enforcement of the
law. She declared that if her troops were attacked she would withdraw
from the Union. Jackson denounced this act as treason, and Congress
enacted a Force Bill giving him the power and money to enforce the law.
This was the omen of a future crisis.

The tariff struggle led to the "Compromise Tariff" in 1833, and South
Carolina, having won a reduction, abandoned nullification. Jackson
vetoed the rechartering of the Second National Bank on the ground that it
was undemocratic and was a political machine. The Sacs and Foxes, two
tribes of Black Hawk Indians, vowed that they would not give ground to
civilization in Illinois by crossing to the west bank of the Mississippi.
Under their chief, Black Hawk, they ravaged the frontiers, and were
crushed and expelled by General Atkinson. The intrepid explorer, School-
craft, found his way to the headwaters of the Mississippi. New York's
old Bowery jangled and rattled from the city hall to Fourteenth Street
with America's first street-car. Massachusetts abolished her age-long cus-
tom of paying her ministers and the event marked the final separation of
Church and State in America. Jackson, to clinch the nails in the coffin of

NARRATIVE HISTORY OF AMERICAN PEOPLE

the National Bank, withdrew the Government funds and placed them in
certain State banks.

"Abolition" was the cry in the North. William Lloyd Garrison was
beaten in Boston by an anti-abolitionist mob in 1835. The Seminoles in
Florida refused to obey the order of the Government to take up their habi-
tations west of the Mississippi. They ambushed and slew Major Dade,
with a hundred United States troops, and massacred General Thompson
and other whites. This was their second and most serious war.

Van Buren, a New York Democrat, was elected President in 1836.
Texas, under the leadership of General Sam Houston, in the battle of San
Jacinto, severed her connection with Mexico and sought admission as a
State to the United States, but was rejected by the opponents of the further
extension of slavery. The House of Representatives passed the "Gag
Resolution," tabling all resolutions dealing with slavery. John Quincy
Adams, a member of the House, vigorously opposed this as a violation of
the right of petition ; it was repealed eight years later. One of Jackson's
last acts as President was to issue his famous "Specie Circular," providing
that all public lands be paid for in specie only on account of the deprecia-
tion of the State Bank notes. The act was partially responsible for the
panic which followed.

Financial distress now befell the republic. Van Buren's administra-
tion began in 1837. Calhoun proposed that loans should be made to the
several States according to their representation in Congress. But, after
three payments had been made, the panic of 1837 emptied the treasury
and paralyzed the monetary life of the whole nation. The country had
grown too fast and furious for its financial health. It had gone mad with
wildcat banking, with reckless speculation in Western lands, and with
breakneck industrial expansion in the States. Texas was now recognized
by the United States as an independent, sovereign Government, and Van
Buren sent a minister to the new republic to represent the American Gov-
ernment. In the midst of the great panic and gloom, Morse flashed his
first telegram over a wire a few miles in length, thus giving lightning's
wings to words.

The year of 1838 opened with the founding of the Smithsonian Insti-
tute at Washington, a national laboratory and museum which has been an
important factor in the scientific progress of the world. In this same year,
there came into the harbor of New York two giant steamships, the Great
Western and the Sirius on their regular traffic across the Atlantic. With
all sails set, with black smoke rolling from a great lone stack amidship,
and propelled by side wheels, it took these first ocean liners from twenty to
twenty-five days to cross the Atlantic.

AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

America Enters Epoch of Invention and Expansion

AMERICAN invention (described in another chapter) began to place
its momentum behind American progress. A screw steamship in-
vented by John Ericsson crossed the Atlantic in 1839, a triumph
of marine engine mechanics. The first real likeness of a human face, made
by the daguerreotype process, succeeded, and the day was heralded when
every one who wished, could see his face printed in a picture. Congress,
with the experience of the panic before it, established subtreasuries for the
care of the Government money. The year approached its close with the
noisiest and most rollicking Presidential campaign the country had ever
seen and Tyler was swept into the Presidency.

The problem of the National Bank came up to perplex President
Tyler in 1839, threatening the disruption of his administration. There
arose serious Canadian boundary disputes with England, and also the
slavery problem through the mutiny of the crew of the Creole, a slave ship,
carrying 135 slaves in the British West Indies, where it was set on fire
by England. The slaveholders in Congress twisted the British lion's tail
in herculean fashion. During this excitement, Horace Greeley came to
the front and published the first copy of the New York Tribune.

We witness an important diplomatic coup in the year 1840. Daniel
Webster and Lord Ashburton negotiated a treaty, settling the boundary line
between Canada and the northeastern boundary of Maine. This is the
beginning of the settlement of that long line between the Dominion of
Canada and the United States. Thomas Dorr, a leader of the common
people in Rhode Island, headed a rebellion to establish popular suffrage.
At an election held to adopt a new constitution, he claimed that his party
had won, and he accordingly established a government in opposition to the
regular State Government. He was arrested as a traitor. But the next
year his party triumphed and he came forth from prison a political hero.

Then came the great exploration. Major John C. Fremont was sent
by the National Government to find a path over the Rocky Mountains to
the far distant land of Oregon and the Pacific Northwest in 1841. He
planted the Stars and Stripes in the Great West. When his party came
back with the news of the promised land far beyond the mountains, those
bold and venturous spirits who had gone as far as Missouri sprang into
their schooner wagons with all of their household goods, their wives and
little ones, and set their teams towards the Northwest.

Within a year (1842) ten thousand American frontiersmen had scaled
the Rocky Mountains and driven stakes in the new empire. The English
lion again began to growl and another Presidential campaign dawned.

WASHINGTON IN THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH WAR — Here we see the young soldier fighting

against the attempt of the French to establish control of region between

the Mississippi and the Alleghenies, in 1754.

HOME LIFE OF GEORGE WASHINGTON — Washington with his family at Mount Vernon, Vir-
ginia— He married Mrs. Martha Custis in 17.r>9 and adopted her two children— 7-
The daughter died in young womanhood — The son became aide-
de-camp to Washington in American Revolution.

DRAFTING THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE — The first resolution for Indepen-
dence was presented to the Continental Congress by Kichard Henry Lee of Virginia,
June 7, 1770 — A committee was appointed on June 11, to prepare such a
Declaration — It was composed of Thomas Jefferson, John Adams,
Benjamin Franklin Robert Livingstone. Uojrer Sherman — Jefferson
was appointed in the place of Lee. who had heen called home —
He was selected by the Committee to make the first draft.

NARRATIVE HISTORY OF AMERICAN PEOPLE

The Democrats raised the issue : " It is fifty-four forty or fight," and their
leader, James K. Polk, won on the issue. The Democratic victory also
swept Texas into the Union as a State.

The young American nation was expanding by leaps and bounds.
The first act of President Polk's administration in 1843 was the negotiation
of a treaty, throwing open Shanghai and other Chinese ports to American
goods. The invention of the telegraph prophesied the dawn of a new age.
The whole world was affected by flashes of electricity bearing the epoch-
making message over a wire between Washington and Baltimore : "What
hath God wrought?" It was in the following year ( 1844) that New York
and Philadelphia were connected by telegraph. Then came another world-
molding discovery in the discovery of petroleum in Western Pennsylvania

(1845).

The stage of American history was crowded with events in 1846.
England and the United States drew the Oregon boundary line at the 49th
parallel, and peace reigned again between London and Washington. But
the admission of Texas as a State precipitated between the United States
and Mexico a boundary question that drew the sword as arbiter. Mexico
demanded that the Neuces River be made the southern boundary of Texas,
while the United States demanded with equal emphasis that the Rio Grande
River be made the boundary. General Taylor was sent to hold this region.
His advance forces were attacked and the Mexican War followed. It was
the third real war that had come to this country since the day of the
embattled farmers at Lexington. New England strenuously objected to
the war, on the ground that any annexation of Mexican territory would
extend the black cloud of slavery, now hovering ominously over the peace
and harmony of the whole country. Nevertheless, all the rest of the
country flung its heart and soul into the war as if on a moral crusade.
These events are related in the chapter on "Great American Wars." While
they were occurring, American sailors set up the independent State of Cali-
fornia. The one great invention of this period was the patenting of the
sewing machine by Elias Howe, of Boston. It was during this time also
that the House of Representatives passed the Wilmot Proviso to exclude
slavery from any territory to be acquired from Mexico (1847). The bill
was defeated in the Senate.

The Americans gained an empire with the end of the war with Mexico
and the Treaty of Guadaloupe Hildalgo in 1848. For $18,000,000
Mexico sold to the United States all the northern half of her territory,
including all that region now known as California, Nevada, most of Ari-
zona, New Mexico, Utah and a part of Colorado. The boundary of Texas
was fixed at the Rio Grande. The war had made General Taylor a na-

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AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

tional hero and the Whigs nominated and elected him President over Cass,
his Democratic opponent. The Oregon Territory was organized by a bill
that prohibited slavery. The Mormons, expelled from Illinois and Ne-
braska, now permanently established themselves on the shores of Salt Lake,
Utah. Chicago's great future was assured in the finishing of a canal that
connected the Great Lakes with the Mississippi Valley. One of the great
romances of American history, a tale that surpasses all fiction, began to
unfold itself. A man, stumbling, had turned up with his foot a great
nugget of gold in California. It was the signal for another migration, and
the eager adventurous spirits of the whole land flocked to the golden shores
of the Pacific.

Dawn of the Golden Age of the Great Pacific

THE dawn of the new age of the Pacific — the golden age — now
awakened the young America. Under the name of the Forty-
Niner (1849), representatives of every class of citizens in the
United States, except the old slave-owners, became gold hunters. By the
end of the year, forty millions of dollars of the yellow metal were found.
Economic determinism here played a strange part in America's future.
This event doomed all possibility of the extension of slavery in the West
on two peculiar grounds : first, sociologically the eager gold hunters did not
tolerate negroes working at their elbows; secondly, the negro was not
physiologically adapted to the development of the mining industry. The
exodus to California so increased its population within a few months that
a constitutional convention at Monterey asked Congress to admit California
into the American Union as a free State. A critical political situation now
arose. If California should be admitted as a free State this would jeopard-
ize the Southern majority in the Senate. But President Taylor, a South-
erner, recommended the admission. The South was agitated. It de-
manded that the Missouri Compromise be extended beyond its original lim-
its of the Louisiana Purchase, so as to include Southern California, mak-
ing that part of the territory a slave State. It was at this stage, created by
the discovery of gold, that the South began to threaten secession if Califor-
nia was made a free State. President Taylor died, and Fillmore, a North-
erner, assumed the responsibility.

Coming events cast their shadows before them. The North and the
South now set to work to formulate a truce in the Compromise of 1850 —
but it was only a truce. Both sections dreaded the thought of the future.
Farseeing men everywhere saw the great nemesis it held in restraint — only
soon to break over the nation like a tornado. A Southern convention had
solemnly declared that a State had the abstract right to secede from the

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NARRATIVE HISTORY OF AMERICAN PEOPLE

Union. A compromise bill was passed admitting California as a free
State, organizing New Mexico and Utah as territories, and forbidding their
legislatures to restrict slavery, fixing the northwestern boundary of Texas as
at present, and paying to the State the sum of $10,000,000 for relinquish-
ing its claim on Mexico. To pacify the South, a Fugitive Slave Act was
passed, enabling a master or his agent to take a fugitive from a State in
which he was residing, without jury trial in that State. It imposed a fine
on all who interfered with the capture and recovery of fugitive slaves; it
compelled all citizens who were summoned to aid in the capture to give
their assistance; it provided a fee of ten dollars to be paid to a United
States marshal for capturing slaves, and five dollars for capturing others.
The slave trade was abolished in the District of Columbia.

Here, too, we find the genesis of the Panama Canal. The expansion
of the United States, westward to the Pacific Coast, brought to the fore the
problem of piercing the Isthmus of Panama with a canal, or one across
Central America. England had secured control over the coast of the
Mosquito Indians, occupying the only practical eastern terminal of a Cen-
tral American canal. To persuade England to withdraw from this terri-
tory, the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty was negotiated. It provided that neither
Government was to have exclusive control of the canal ; that the canal must
not be fortified, or the land about it colonized; and that neither Govern-
ment should assume control over any part of Central America. Both Gov-
ernments guaranteed the protection and neutrality of the canal. It was at
this time that General Lopez, a Cuban patriot, came to the United States,
organized a filibustering expedition, and invaded Cuba. After a passing
success, Lopez fled and his followers were captured, but the Spanish authori-
ties finally surrendered them to the United States.

The economic problem of slavery, despite the heroic measure of the
statesmen, continued to fulminate. The attempt to execute the Fugitive
Slave Law in the North created moral sentiment in 1851. The arrest of a
single negro in Pennsylvania did more to arouse the plain people of the
North than all the preachings and writings of William Lloyd Garrison,
Wendell Phillips, and other abolitionists had done in twenty years. Many
Northern States were quick to pass "personal liberty" laws, forbidding
state officers to aid in capturing slaves, and preventing citizens from taking
part in the return of fugitives. Underground railways were built from the
border States of the South to Canada, by means of which many negroes
were transported to freedom. Simultaneously, new issues were arising.
Maine legally forbade the making and selling of intoxicating liquors. San
Francisco, having drawn to itself, through the gold fever, the adventurers
of the earth, was compelled to organize a vigilance committee to deal with

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AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

disorder. During this year, General Lopez headed another filibustering
expedition to Cuba, and this time he was defeated, captured, and with fifty
of his followers was executed.

The patriarchs of the American nation were now passing away,
Daniel Webster — the last of the great triumvirate of Clay, Calhoun, and
Webster — died. The leadership of the nation, in the great struggle it had
now entered, had fallen upon the shoulders of new and younger men. It
was at this moment that an epoch-forming book now issued forth under the
title of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" — a book which proved to be political propa-
ganda that was to make history. The story, written by Harriet Beecher
Stowe, filled the Northern heart with anti-slavery emotions. It had a
more far-reaching effect than all the legislation or abolition agitation. It
massed onto one stage of action, with all the intensity of the romanticist,
situations intended to arouse moral sentiment. During this excitement,
however, Franklin Pierce, a Northern Democrat, was chosen President.

American discovery now interrupted the agitation long enough to
observe Dr. Elisha Kane, heading an Arctic expedition, reach a point that
remained for years "Farthest North," in 1853.

But only for an instant — when the scene turns again to the slavery
problem. Statesmen struggled with the problem. In the United States
Senate, Stephen A. Douglas, an Illinois Democrat, brought forth a bill
claiming that the Compromise of 1850 had displaced the Compromise of
1820 regarding slavery in the territories. Douglas proposed that the
Northwest should be divided into two territories, Kansas and Nebraska,
both north of 36°, 30', and that each territory should decide for itself
whether slavery should be permitted or not. The bill became a law; it
was immediately dubbed "squatter sovereignty." This resulted in the
creation of a new anti-slavery party in the North, called at first the anti-
Nebraska men, which culminated in the outbreak of civil war in Kansas
between the slavery and anti-slavery factions.

Again public attention was diverted long enough to witness Com-
modore Perry, an American naval officer, head a naval expedition to Japan,
and by threats, cajolery, and shrewd diplomacy, succeed in persuading the
Japanese to open their ports to American trade (1854). From this date
began what is called modern Japan. Canada and the United States prac-
tically broke down their trade barriers on the border and entered into a free
exchange of their commodities. This season of commercial brotherhood
lasted for twelve years, when the United States abrogated the treaty.
Filibustering expeditions to Cuba continued and the Black Warrior was
seized by the Spanish Government in the island. The American ministers
to Great Britain, France, and Spain met at Ostend and drew up a mani-

104

VIEW OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN — It was chartered in 18:57 and first opened at

Ann Arbor, in 1841 — It has nearly 7,000 students — The institution is part

of the public educational system of the State.

LARGEST STATE IMVKKS1TY IN AMERICA — Tliis is a glimpse of the University of Minne-
sota, near Minneapolis — It was founded in 1868 and has more than 9,000 students —
It is the head of the system of public education in Minnesota,

GALLERY OF 1'OUTRAITS OF PRESIDENTS OF THE, UNITED STATES— 1789-1800.

festo declaring that the sale of Cuba by Spain and its purchase by the
United States was most desirable; but that if Spain refused to sell, the
United States would be compelled to "wrest it from her."

The incipient anti-slavery war in Kansas now burst into a flame in
1855. The arrival of numerous immigrants from New England brought
matters to a crisis. Emigration from the South was light, but the Mis-
sourians, who called themselves "Sons of the South," crossed into Kansas
to establish a government, and to hold the best land until actual Southern
settlers should appear. Rival governments were set up, and conflict fol-
lowed. Lawrence was sacked by the pro-slavery forces. In revenge, John
Brown, with his followers, massacred some of the "Sons of the South" at
Pottawatomie. Kansas had become "bleeding Kansas." It was under
this stress that the Republican party was born. It was in the form of a
revolt against the Kansas-Nebraska Bill. The new party descended from
the free soilers, and it gradually absorbed every party and faction in the
country opposed to slavery.

Indian massacres were added to the slavery disturbances in 1856.
The white man had made an enemy of the Indians in Oregon, and they
attacked and massacred the settlers just as they had done two or more
centuries before in New England and in New York. An episode now
occurred that illuminated the intense bitterness of feeling gathering between
the North and the South over slavery. Senator Sumner, of Massachusetts,
more eloquent than judicious, made a speech in the Senate, denouncing
several Senators because of the "Crime of Kansas." For this speech, Sum-
ner was assaulted and beaten senseless by a nephew of the South Carolina
Senator. The assailant was hailed as a hero throughout the South. The
Democrats elected one more President, James Buchanan, out of the po-
litical struggle over slavery.

The slavery question finally reached the highest courts for judicature.
Dred Scott, a negro, sued for his freedom, and the United States Supreme
Court decided in 1857 that no negro, free or slave, was a citizen and there-
fore could not bring any suit at law. The decision implied that the
Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional in its discrimination against
slavery. The people of Kansas were now permitted to vote on the ques-
tion whether they would accept a constitution with or without slavery.
The free-soil people refused to vote for a constitution — one way or the
other — and thus the votes "with slavery" exceeded those "without slavery"
and slavery was declared established. The Democrats in Congress con-
tended for the legality of this election.

The new republic was indeed heavily distressed. To add to the bur-
dens another great panic swept the country — the panic of 1857. It sprang

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AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

from over-capitalization, the over-building of railroads, the rise in prices
and mania for speculation following the discovery of gold in Australia and
California, the diminishing of the specie reserve, bad crops in America and
good ones abroad, bad State banking, and the diminution of the gold out-
put. The whole country stood bankrupt. The last spikes were driven in
a railroad, connecting the Atlantic with the Mississippi River, between
Baltimore and St. Louis. The Mormons had grown at such rate in num-
bers and ambition that they demanded that Congress admit Utah as a
State of the Union. Congress refused, and the Latter-Day Saints rose in
rebellion. United States troops crushed the uprising.

America 's Great Tragedy — and the Reconstruction of the Nation

WE now look upon the tall, gaunt figure of the man who was to be-
come the "savior of the nation." The greatest joint political dis-
cussion this country has ever beheld took place on the stump in
the State of Illinois in 1858. The debaters were two strong men — Lincoln
and Douglas. Here the issue assumed decisive form. Douglas supported
his "popular sovereignty" doctrine as against the Dred Scott decision. The
State-rights issue was now clearly before the people. There was no eva-
sion; it must be decided in the next political campaign.

It was during this agitation that an event brought great rejoicing to
both America and England, the laying of the first Atlantic cable by Cyrus
Field (1859). A. new and rich gold district was also discovered in the
West and the "Forty-nine" rush was repeated. The discovery of silver in
Nevada in Golconde quantities produced a group of Western silver kings
who entered politics and set up a new standard in the United States Senate.

The slavery agitation fumed over in mob riot. John Brown, conceiv-
ing the idea of establishing a black republic, led a raid into Virginia to
arouse the slaves. He was seized after a short fight by United States
troops, tried, and executed. The event inflamed the South, which charged
that Northern abolitionists had employed Brown to make war on them.
The North hailed Brown as a martyr. Kansas now formed and adopted
a constitution prohibiting slavery and asked admission as a State into
the Union.

At last the storm burst upon the nation ! It could not longer be held
in political restraint. After eighty-three years of political experiment in
the republic, the economic problem demanded decisive action. We enter
upon the period of Civil War and Reconstruction (1861 to 1877 — sixteen
years). Lincoln was elected to the Presidency; Douglas was defeated.
The South seceded — and the American Civil War fell upon the country
like a tornado from overhead, an earthquake from underneath, and de-

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NARRATIVE HISTORY OF AMERICAN PEOPLE

vouring flame sweeping through the nation. These four years of terrific
warfare are fully described in the chapter on "Great American Wars."

We will linger here, therefore, at the moment of crisis, only to
record in this narrative the essential facts that South Carolina was the first
State to leave the Union by calling a convention on December 20, 1860.
The other States, supporting the doctrine of "State Sovereignty," followed
within the next few months. On the eve of the Union's great crisis, the
Prince of Wales, afterwards King Edward VII, visited the United States
and reported to his mother, Queen Victoria, what he had learned. The
seceding States organized a government with a constitution, called the
Confederate States of America, with Jefferson Davis as President (1861).

The underlying causes of the Civil War were the doctrine of Popular
Sovereignty and Slavery. Great Britain, on May 13th, recognized the
Confederate States as belligerents. During this crisis the first telegraph
line from St. Louis to San Francisco was built over the country from ocean
to ocean and clicked and flashed through the Union. On New Year's
in 1863, Lincoln brought into effect his celebrated Emancipation Procla-
mation, proclaiming all slaves free in the States in rebellion. This was the
moral turning-point in the war, but it rallied around the Government all
the moral power and energy of the Northern States. West Virginia, which
had refused to secede, was admitted to the Union as a separate State. To
emphasize the frightfulness of the times, the Sioux rose in Minnesota and
committed their savage atrocities on the white inhabitants before they were
crushed by General Pope. The war called for billions of money as well
as legions of men, so Congress passed an extremely high tariff bill and an
internal revenue law, taxing almost every sort of business by means of
license and taking a heavy toll from liquor dealers and theaters. A tax
was also levied on incomes for the first time in the history of the country.
The rich silver mines of the Nevada region had attracted to it a sufficient
number of inhabitants to admit it to statehood and under these circum-
stances Nevada became a sovereign State of the Union. The Stars and
Stripes broke out from the flag-staff of Fort Sumter on April 14th, 1865,
just four years, to the hour and the minute, from the time it had been
hauled down.

On this historic day (April 14, 1865) there occurred the saddest per-
sonal event in the whole history of the country. President Lincoln was
shot by John Wilkes Booth in Ford's Theater. This event came like a
stab at the heart of the nation's rejoicings over the end of the Civil War.
Jefferson Davis, who had fled South just before the fall of Richmond, was
captured in Georgia and imprisoned on May 1 1, 1865. President Johnson
succeeded Lincoln.

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AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

Foreign relations now engrossed the Government's attention. In
1861 a combined army of French, English and Spanish soldiers had gone
to Mexico to hold her ports until she paid certain debts. When it was seen
that Emperor Napoleon III of France had designs on the country, England
and Spain withdrew their soldiers. In defiance of the Monroe Doctrine,
the French Emperor set up Maximilian, brother of Francis Joseph of
Austria, as Emperor of Mexico. As soon as the Civil War ended General
Sheridan was sent to Mexico with 50,000 troops. The French withdrew,
and the Mexicans reestablished their republic, executing Maximilian.
During this time also the Fenians, a body of men of Irish birth who had
brought with them to America deep animosity against England and many
of whom had served in the Union army, organized an expedition to invade
Canada and succeeded in crossing the border, but after a short skirmish
with Canadian troops they returned to the United States.

America Arises from Economic Ruin to World Power

WE enter upon a new epoch — an epoch, which, after passing
through the reconstruction days, brings us into an age of great
inventions, industrial expansion, and world power. The United
States purchased Alaska from Russia for $7,000,000 in 1867. The critics
of Secretary Seward said it was "money thrown away."

The House of Representatives impeached President Johnson in 1868
for high crimes and misdemeanors in office and he was brought to trial —
the only President of the United States ever tried on impeachment charges
by Congress. It required a two- thirds vote to convict the President and
take his office from him. His "radical" antagonists failed by just one vote
to secure the necessary majority. All the Southern States except Virginia,
Mississippi, and Texas, were readmitted to Congress. The Fourteenth
Amendment to the Constitution was officially adopted by the States. On
the following Christmas a final proclamation of amnesty was issued, pardon-
ing all who took part in the rebellion. General Grant was elected to the
Presidency.

The panic of "Black Friday" swept the country in 1869. The con-
tinent of the United States was now conquered by rail. The Union and
Central Pacific railroad, aided by a government bonus of $27,000,000,
drove the last spike in the Union Pacific railroad on May 10, 1869. The
territories of Wyoming and Utah voted to allow woman suffrage on cer-
tain questions. The industrial expansion necessitated the organization of
labor. The Knights of Labor, the father of all the labor organizations
in this country, was formed.

The final step in universal male suffrage came with the Fifteenth

110

GALLERY OF PORTRAITS OF PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES — 1809-1837.

GALLERY OF PORTRAITS OF PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES— isaz-

NARRATIVE HISTORY OF AMERICAN PEOPLE

Amendment to the Constitution, which was adopted by the States in 1870.
The negroes everywhere now had the right to vote. The remaining South-
ern States were admitted to the Union after they had ratified both the
Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments. President Grant, besieged more
than any of his predecessors by an army of office seekers, advised Congress
of the need of selecting Government officials from a competitive list. His
message was a challenge to the Congress to lift the Civil Service of the
Government above the greed and corruption of party politics. Congress
authorized him to provide for examinations. But the Civil Service re-
formers were ahead of their times, for after three years Congress withheld
the appropriation and the reform ended for the time. The great fire of
Chicago occurred in 187 1. Two hundred lives were lost and $200,000,000
in property destroyed, but, when the smoke had cleared away, Chicago be-
gan to rebuild a greater city which since has risen to the rank of the second
largest metropolis on the Western Hemisphere.

The aftermath of the Civil War prolonged itself through the years.
It was only through the courage and character of the American race — and
the inherent justice of its national ideals — that this period of reconstruc-
tion was safely passed. Claims were presented to England for the damage
done during the Civil War by commerce destroyers of the Confederacy
which had been built and fitted out in British ports. England had per-
mitted the Alabama, a Confederate privateer, to prey on American com-
merce, but after the war the two countries had agreed to settle the claim
by arbitration and a commission was appointed. It sat at Geneva, Switzer-
land, in 1872, and awarded to the United States damages to the amount
of $15,500,000 in gold to be paid out of the British treasury. At the same
time there was another dispute between the two countries; both sides
claimed the island of San Juan on the extreme northwest boundary of
Canada. The question was finally submitted to the German Emperor,
William I, who awarded the island to the United States. General Grant
was again chosen President. The Southern States still suffered under the
burdens of reconstruction. During these days, Boston was visited by a
$70,000,000 fire, destroying the business heart of the city.

The strength of the nation was now severely tested by another great
financial panic which swept the country — the panic of 1873. It sprang
from a combination of causes, among them were the over-capitalization of
railroads and industries, need of currency to move crops, the heavy land
mortgages in the West, unrest due to exposure in public life, the Boston
and Chicago fires, and the growing extravagance in living. The failure of
Jay Cook & Co., of Philadelphia, brought on the crisis. The panic ran for
five years, reaching its climax with 5,000 failures in its last year. The

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AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

Spanish captured the Virginias, an American vessel carrying supplies to the
Cuban insurgents, executed a number of American sailors and the United
States went to the verge of war with Spain over the episode. The general
public was aroused.

The Southern States, goaded almost to despair by financial and politi-
cal manipulators, known as the "carpet-bag" domination, attempted to
throw it off in 1874. Business credit was now at such a low ebb in the
country that Congress passed an act providing for the redemption of every
legal tender note in gold after January 1st, 1879. Out of the opposition
to this measure arose the "Greenback Party." Congress, persisting in its
efforts to secure to the negroes the full enjoyment of their freedom in
the South, passed another civil rights bill, forbidding discriminations
against negroes in inns, public conveyances, theaters and other places of
amusement. The Supreme Court wrote across this law the decision, de-
claring "rights" to be not civil but social and that in such matters the
State and not the nation had jurisdiction. Charles Brush, the noted
pioneer electrical engineer of Cleveland, invented the "Brush light" and
thus increased by billions the resources and energies of modern humanity.

The first great industrial and commercial exposition of the country
was held in Philadelphia in 1876, to celebrate the first century of the
Declaration of Independence, the South sent its men and women with their
wares, and for the first time within a generation the whole country breathed
with the faint consciousness of a national spirit. This year was to end the
crisis brought on by slavery and the agitation over it. After a bitter con-
test, Hayes became President.

The war between the North and the South had not only settled the
question as to whether a State might secede from the Union; it had also
given birth to an industrial revolution throughout the whole country. It
has been said that the McCormick reaper released enough men from the
farms in the North to allow five army corps to be put in the field against
the South. With the abolition of slavery the South could no longer have
agriculture as its sole industry and began to develop its resources. Bir-
mingham, Chattanooga, and Atlanta became great industrial centers. Coal
fields of almost unlimited extent were discovered and opened up. Even
the cultivation of cotton was to improve in spite of the fact that it had
heretofore depended almost entirely on slave labor.

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NARRATIVE HISTORY OF AMERICAN PEOPLE

America Conquers Its Obstacle and Marches Forward

THE nation that does not have serious problems to face is not making
progress. Every step forward brings new obstacles to be con-
quered. The American nation has been beset by constant prob-
lems because it is constantly marching forward. Every new invention and
every step of industrial progress creates new economic conditions that re-
quire adjustment. Thus arise the labor troubles, which are but fulmina-
tions of American energy and ambition. We now enter upon a new epoch,
which may be called the Period of Expansion — 1877 to 1900 — twenty-
three years. This brings us to entirely new scenes in our rapidly moving
story. It is a picture of wonderful expansion — invention, industrial prog-
ress, intermingled with exciting situations and rising to a great climax in
the Spanish-American War. It includes the first telephone message, first
electric lights, the building of Brooklyn Bridge and the Northern Pacific
Railroad; the erection of the Statue of Liberty, the building of the West,
Americans invading Cuba and the Philippines, and the triumph of the
United States as a world power.

This is a period of stupendous plans brought to successful culmination.
In the North, the use of petroleum for commercial purposes was to create
a new giant industry. Bessemer steel, wire nails, cotton-seed oil, coke, and
canned goods began to be put on the market and the output of them in-
creased at an astounding rate. In the Northwest, the flour output was
reaching immense proportions. And the United States was becoming the
meat market for all Europe. The frontiers of the country disappeared soon
after the war. Where there had been forests and untilled prairie, there
now came to be prospering farms. The "Great American Desert" was no
more, for as men penetrated the region they found that it could be made
into good farm land. Cattle and sheep began to graze where wild hordes
of buffalo had grazed two decades earlier. "Boom" towns came into being
throughout the whole region, from the Mississippi to the Rockies, and
from the Mexican Gulf to the Canadian border.

Under these circumstances, where there was more work to be done
than there were men to do it, and where a new device had possibilities for
profit, it was not surprising that mechanical inventions should come in
quick order. A new transatlantic cable was laid. Dynamite was intro-
duced. The Gatling gun became a part of the Government's ordnance.
Barbed wire was used to close in the great ranches in the West. In the
business world the typewriter came into use. On the railroads came the
air brake, the car coupler and improved switches. The canning industries
grew with improvements for turning out the cans in larger quantities.

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AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

The newspapers installed presses that could produce tens of thousands of
copies of one issue in a few minutes. The cable-drawn cars were intro-
duced in the cities and the electric light began to be used to illuminate
streets. Electricity came to be used for motors. All the minor and
superior inventions, which mark the present generation's triumphs, had
their beginning in this period — the phonograph, the telephone, the camera,
the bicycle, the gas engine, elevators and "skyscrapers."

Let us rapidly pass through these expanding years. We begin with
railroad strikes in 1877, where the strikers destroyed $40,000,000 in Pitts-
burgh and many millions in Chicago, when over one hundred rioters were
killed by United States troops. During this distress, Alexander Graham
Bell invented the telephone which was further to revolutionize American
industry and inaugurate a new epoch. Congress remonetized silver in 1878
to raise the value of the white metal which had fallen to its lowest figures
on account of the discovery of new mines. A Pension Bill was passed,
allowing claims for "back pensions." A treaty was negotiated with China
in 1880, stopping Chinese immigration to this country whenever desired.
There was a triangular struggle in the National Republican Convention
with Blaine, Grant and John Sherman as candidates. Garfield was chosen
as the compromise candidate and was elected President. Party feuds
agitated Guiteau to shoot President Garfield at the Pennsylvania Station in
Washington on July 2, 1881. He died ten weeks later, and Chester A.
Arthur became President. Edison improved on what Brush had done to
light the world with electricity, and private companies began to install
electric lighting plants in all the chief cities of the country. The Govern-
ment sent Lieutenant Greely on an expedition for scientific research in the
Arctic. Nearly all of his party perished, the survivors, including himself,
being brought back three years later. There was held in 1881 in Atlanta
a great Southern exposition in which the old South was reincarnated and
rechristened the "New South," the "forward-looking South," the "young
men's South." The exposition caused the North to open its eyes with
admiration at the South's quick reaction and recovery.

The growth of the country was unparalleled. Congress passed a
Chinese Exclusion Bill to keep the Chinese out of this country in masses in

1882. The assassination of President Garfield, who was called the "vic-
tim of the Spoils system," moved Congress to pass a Civil Service law in

1883, taking most of the minor government appointments out of politics
and basing them on competitive examination. The postal service had
grown to such an extent that letter postage was reduced to two cents. The
Northern Pacific Railroad, the second ocean-to-ocean line, was completed
and opened to traffic. The great Brooklyn Bridge, connecting Manhattan

116

GALLERY OF 1'OHTHAITS OF PllESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES— 1849-1861.

FAMOUS PAINTING OF BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG — This historic canvas was historically arranged by

John B. Bacheldcr ; painted by James Walker ; and engraved by II. B. Hall — It gives a correct

panoramic view of the battle with the mountains in the distance.

n KMN<; POINT OF THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR — Here we look upon the Battle of Gettysburg, the great-
est battle 011 A in. Tien n soil — It was fought on July 1, 2, :i, 1X03 — After a heroic struggle, Lee
was forced to retreat and Meade led the Federal Army to victory.

GALLERY OF PORTRAITS OF 1'HESIDENTS OF THE UMTED STATES— 1801-1881:

NARRATIVE HISTORY OF AMERICAN PEOPLE

and Brooklyn, was completed, and on the first day one hundred thousand
people crossed the bridge. The South made a further display of its great
resources in an exposition at New Orleans. Grover Cleveland was elected
President of the United States in 1884, the first Democrat in twenty-eight
years.

The South now came back into the National Government in the robes
of office, and with unspeakable joy. The people of France, with character-
istic emotion, presented the Bartholdi Statue of Liberty to the people of the
United States and it was erected in New York Harbor in 1886. The
Apaches, the most savage tribe of all the red men, headed by Geronimo,
were captured after committing many depredations, and after a long pursuit
through New Mexico and Arizona. An earthquake that shook the whole
South Atlantic seaboard from two to three hundred miles into the interior
almost destroyed Charleston, South Carolina. Chicago was visited by
labor troubles and the Haymarket riot created tense feeling between capital
and labor. All industrial centers of the country were in such imminent
peril of the labor wars at this time that New York, Missouri, Iowa, and
Kansas found it necessary to establish State boards of arbitration, without,
however, conferring compulsory powers upon them.

Labor, religion, invention, now crowded the public mind. The Su-
preme Court affirmed the Edmunds Law, dissolved the Mormon Church
Corporation in 1887, and declared its property in excess of $50,000 for-
feited to the United States; the property was restored three years later.
Congress now created another institution, the Interstate Commerce Com-
mission, to prevent railroads when operating in more than one State from
charging unfair rates or discriminating between persons. Out of the
labor troubles was born the American Federation of Labor. Labor now
forced Congress to exclude all Chinese laborers from the soil of the United
States and not to readmit Chinamen who had returned to China. Cleve-
land took a strong stand for a "tariff for revenue" and was defeated for
President by Benjamin Harrison. Edison invented the electrical trolley,
and the first electric cars were run in the hilly streets of Richmond, Vir-
ginia. The invention was the greatest spur to the growth and progress of
the American cities.

International relations intermingled with domestic problems. Eng-
land, Germany, and America jointly occupied the Samoan Islands in 1889.
The President declared the Behring Sea and the seal fur trade in Alaska
closed to foreign nations. Fifty thousand persons, eager to own their own
homes, camped on the borders of Oklahoma, and when the Government
lowered the bars, rushed across the line. Massachusetts introduced the
Australian Ballot system. A Pan-American Congress was held at Wash-
ington.

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AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

Tremendous Developments of Last Decade of Nineteenth Century

THE last decade of the Nineteenth Century witnessed tremendous
developments. The McKinley Tariff Bill and the Dependent
Pension Law were passed. Railroads, oil, sugar, meat, tobacco,
leather, lumber, steel, became such gigantic industries that each was or-
ganized into great trade units, and trusts or monopolies now began to
spring up all over the country. This great movement in industry caused
Congress to pass the Sherman Anti-Trust Law to prevent restraint of trade
in interstate commerce. But for years the law lay moribund in the Federal
Statutes while the trusts went on growing into huge combinations of capital.
The Mergenthaler typesetting machines were introduced in the printing
industry, and the day of the one-cent newspaper was dawning.

The workers in the steel mills at Homestead, Pennsylvania, went out
on a strike and one of the most violent labor wars ensued in 1892. Cleve-
land, who held on tenaciously to his lower tariff policies, came back into
the White House — the only President of the United States who had suc-
ceeded himself after an interregnum.

The spirit of annexation, or imperialism, now arose. Queen Liliuo-
kalani, of the Hawaiian Islands, had been overthrown by a party of revo-
lutionists. Among them were some Americans, and strong pressure was
brought in the United States to have the Government annex the Islands
in 1893. President Harrison had sent a treaty to the Senate, making the
Islands American territory, but before the treaty was ratified, Cleveland
entered the White House and withdrew it from the Senate. The Behring
Sea Commission met at Paris and rejected the claims of the United States
to control seal fishing outside of the three miles' limit. Colorado granted
full suffrage to women. The World's Columbian Exposition was held at
Chicago and its most unique feature was a world congress of religions and
creeds, bringing to the same platform, Brahmans, Buddhists, Moham-
medans, and Christians. The business faith of the country was severely
shaken by the hoarding of gold and the fear of radical tariff legislation.
The country was plunged into a terrific panic; a million people in the
United States were forced to depend on charity in municipal soup kitchens.

The Pullman car factory employees of Chicago went on a strike in
1894, tnat surpassed all its predecessors in the destruction of property.
United States mail cars were stopped. Cleveland sent battalions of United
States troops to Chicago to check the violence. John P. Altgeld, the
"Labor" Governor of Illinois, protested that the President's action was an
illegal interference with the government of the State.

International complications under the Monroe Doctrine arose in 1895.

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NARRATIVE HISTORY OF AMERICAN PEOPLE

Great Britain was about to force Venezuela to accept a disputed boundary
line. The United States urged that the dispute be left to arbitration.
The British Cabinet replied that the matter did not concern Washington,
and in substance that it take itself out of the business of protecting Latin-
American countries. President Cleveland, who had nailed his flag to tariff
reform rather than be elected without it, who had driven a hostile Congress
to demonetize silver, and who had defied lawlessness, met the situation with
an iron hand — he wrote the strongest message on international relations
that had ever issued from the White House. He invoked the Monroe
Doctrine, a policy which England had long claimed with pride to have
inspired. Congress upheld him and England and Venezuela arbitrated
the question.

The next step of importance, which was to engage the Government's
attention, was to lead the country into war. The islanders in Cuba for
years past had been fighting for independence from Spain, and the
Spaniards had been retaliating with cruel measures, which brought criticism
from the American people. Congress, in 1896, recognized the belligerent
rights of Cuba and the President tried to persuade Spain to grant it inde-
pendence.

With McKinley and the Republican Party coming into the Presidency
in 1897, came the Dingley Tariff. In the Yukon, a rich deposit of gold
was discovered and there was a rush of a multitude of gold hunters to this
region, which lay on both sides of the Canadian-Alaskan frontier, and
which created some friction between Canada and the United States. New
York City, with all its suburbs, was consolidated into "Greater New York."

The moment now came when, by a series of events, the United States
was to stand before the nations of the earth as a great world power. The
Hawaiian Islands were annexed to the United States in 1898. The con-
tinued repressive policy of Spain in Cuba increased the filibustering expedi-
tions from America to such an extent that the Government was compelled
to police many of its ports to maintain neutrality. During this growing
tension the American battleship Maine was blown up in Havana Harbor,
carrying to their death over 250 of her crew. Congress issued an ulti-
matum, demanding the withdrawal of Spain from Cuba. On her refusal,
Congress declared war, on April 28, 1898. (See Chapter on "Great
American Wars.")

The last year of the Nineteenth Century was a crowning year for the
triumphant republic. It saw the end of an old era — and the beginning of
a new democracy. Great problems figuratively fought for decisive action.

The new century marked the dawn of the new age — the golden age of
American achievement. The story of the American people now moves

'l23

AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

rapidly to its grand climax, increasing in its intensity. The new century
begins with the assassination of McKinley, and with Roosevelt taking the
oath of office. Here we witness the rise of the American people to their
glorious position as the greatest nation on earth. We follow Roosevelt
and Taft and Wilson. We pass through great news events. We meet
Peary, the discoverer of the North Pole, and other great men of achieve-
ment. We see the building of the Panama Canal; we go to the Pacific
Expositions. We begin to realize the vastness and greatness of our coun-
try to-day ; its tremendous richness, its natural resources, its great cities, its
rivers and mountains; its scenic beauties; its great engineering achieve-
ments; its magnificent buildings.

The East, West, North and South are brought before the eyes of the
people — mines, wheat fields, orchards, vineyards, fisheries, sheep and cattle
ranches, the great animal and agricultural wealth of the nation.

Let us glance quickly at the cinematographic record of events as
they pass before us. Provincial America is now a world power — stretch-
ing into the Orient. Hawaii, petitioning for annexation, was organized
as a territory in 1900. Civil Government was established in the Philip-
pines. Porto Rico also became a dependency, receiving a civil govern-
ment. Cuba was allowed to set up a government of its own, with the
understanding that it was to be under American supervision until such
time as it was well able to care for itself. Disorders in China led to the
killing of foreigners, Americans among them. Co-operating with England,
Germany, and France, the President ordered warships and land forces to
China. The allied forces put down rebellion and took the city of Pekin.
A heavy indemnity was exacted of the Chinese by the countries involved,
but the American Government wisely returned all sums over what it con-
sidered just compensation — a deed which brought its reward in the good
will of the Chinese and a good market for American goods.

The Samoan Islands under the joint protection of Germany, Eng-
land, and the United States were divided in 1900, the United States tak-
ing Tutuila. McKinley again defeated Bryan for the Presidency on free
silver with the new issue of Imperialism injected. A gigantic coal strike
occurred in the Pennsylvania mines, seriously threatening all the Eastern
cities with a hard coal famine for the winter.

McKinley, the third President of the United States to be assassinated,
was shot by an anarchist at the Buffalo Exposition in 1901, just after the
President had finished his greatest speech. Roosevelt succeeded to the
Presidency. The Hay-Pauncefote Treaty, superceding the Clayton-Bulwer
Treaty, was negotiated between England and the United States, giving
the latter the sole right to build the Isthmian Canal and to be its owner

124

(JALLERY OF PORTRAITS OF PRESIDENTS OF TIIE UNITED STATES— 1881-1807..

GALIvEIlV OF 1'OKTUAITS OF TRESIDEXTS OF TIIE UNITED STATES— 1897-191?.

NARRATIVE HISTORY OF AMERICAN PEOPLE

and protector, while at the same time making it a natural waterway. The
United States at first chose the Nicaragua route but later settled upon
the route at Panama. Marconi, an English resident of Italian nativity,
in experimenting with the Hertzian waves of electricity, discovered a prac-
tical means to employ these waves to send messages without wires.

Industrial Age at Dawn of Twentieth Century

THE industrial age now set in with tremendous momentum — a
season of unprecedented prosperity began. Great numbers of
"trusts" were organized under the favorable laws of New Jersey,
reaching their tentacles over the whole country. Another gigantic coal
strike in Pennsylvania occurred in 1902. President Roosevelt persuaded
the mine owners and the miners to arbitrate the dispute. It was settled on
terms largely in favor of the miners. Funds from the sale of public lands
were appropriated for the irrigation of Western lands and huge dams and
reservoirs were constructed in Colorado and other neighboring States.
Morgan organized the great "shipping trust" of freight lines across the At-
lantic. Marconi came to America and sent a wireless message across the
ocean to Europe.

Great developments require constant readjustments. With the rise
of the powerful combinations of capital the Elkins Anti-Rebate Bill was
passed in 1903, increasing the power of the Interstate Commerce Commis-
sion over shippers. A large number of railroads were brought under the
scrutiny of the courts. A low tariff between Cuba and the United States
was adopted. The boundary of Southern Alaska was fixed by a court of
joint arbitration. The United States and Colombia had not succeeded in
negotiating a treaty, for the right of way of the Panama Canal, when a
revolution broke out on the Isthmus of Panama, setting up a separate
government. President Roosevelt recognized the new republic, nego-
tiated a treaty with it instead of Colombia, and thus established the Canal
Zone. Congress created the Department of Commerce and Labor, and
gave it power to investigate the organization and general management
of any corporation other than railroads engaged in interstate commerce.
The investigations resulted in numerous suits brought by the Govern-
ment against "trusts." The Government brought suit against the North-
ern Securities Company on the ground that it was an organization whose
acts were in restraint of interstate commerce, and the United States Su-
preme Court sustained the Government. The court also decided that the
"Beef Trust" was a combination that restrained interstate trade.

The new regime was in full operation. Roosevelt was elected Pres-
ident by the largest majority ever cast, over two million votes. The third

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AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

International Exposition on American soil was held in St. Louis in 1904
to celebrate the Centenary of the Louisiana Purchase. The United States
took charge of the custom houses of San Domingo in 1905 in order to
manage the country's foreign indebtedness. President Roosevelt acted as
mediator in the Russo-Japanese War, and the two nations signed a treaty
of Peace at Portsmouth, New Hampshire. A number of great life in-
surance companies of New York were investigated by a legislative com-
mittee and reorganized to meet the demands of the new economic refor-
mation.

World power brought to America larger responsibilities. General
Wood pacified the "Moros" in the Philippines in 1906. Cuba became
turbulent, and the United States resumed the military occupation of the
island. Secretary of State Root visited South America as a delegate to
the Pan American Congress, cementing friendship with America's south-
ern neighbors. Congress voted to construct a lock canal across the Isthmus
of Panama. The Interstate Commerce Commission was authorized to fix
a minimum rate for the transportation of certain articles. Congress passed
a Pure Food Law, forbidding the sale of impure foods in interstate trade
and requiring the manufacturers of patent drugs to name all ingredients
that might be considered injurious. This law supplemented the State laws
against impure foods.

The economic readjustments created a financial disturbance in 1907.
Georgia and Alabama voted for State prohibition and the movement
spread to Kentucky and other States. Judge Landis, of the United States
Circuit Court, in Chicago, imposed a fine of $29,240,000 on the Stand-
ard Oil Company, the biggest fine ever imposed by a court. John D.
Rockefeller gave $32,000,000 to continue the work of the General Edu-
cation Board.

The American Navy, under the command of Admiral Evans, sailed
from Hampton Roads in 1908 for a cruise around the world, the most
splendid armada that ever circled the globe. President Roosevelt, while
refusing to be a candidate again for the Presidency, declared for Secre-
tary Taft, who was elected. The National Civic Federation, with repre-
sentatives of both Capital and Labor, met in New York. Congress organ-
ized the Inland Waterways Commission; the Monetary Commission or-
ganized under Vreeland-Aldrich Currency began its session in Washington.
The United States withdrew from Cuba and the island government was re-
stored in 1909. The Payne-Aldrich Tariff was passed. The United
States and Great Britain submitted to the Hague Tribunal a dispute over
fisheries.

Then came the great discovery — on April 9th, 1909, Lieutenant

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NARRATIVE HISTORY OF AMERICAN PEOPLE

Peary, who had spent twenty years and a half million dollars in Arctic
Expeditions, stood on the apex of this globe at its North Pole — and planted
the American flag. The Government created a postal savings bank to
encourage thrift by inducing the people to make small deposits. The
governors of the various States met in Washington and organized the
House of Governors as a clearing house for the discussion of State legis-
lation. So great had grown the volume of litigation from the work of
the Interstate Commerce Commission that the Court of Commerce was
created to take care of it and the powers of the Commission were increased
so that it could investigate a carrier without first having received a com-
plaint. The jurist, Charles E. Hughes, who had made a unique record
as reform Governor of New York, accepted a place on the bench of the
Supreme Court of the United States.

Gigantic Growth of Nation Requires Economic Readjustments

THE wonderful growth of the country caused economic inequalities.
With such rapid progress it was hardly to be expected that all so-
cial factions should keep pace. It is interesting to note, however,
that no single interest is able long to maintain itself at the expense of
the others. It is especially to be witnessed that wheneve-r danger arises,
then democracy asserts its power and assumes control. The trusts had
scarcely reached a state of organization when they were levelled by the
demand of the populace. The voice of the multitude arises and the strong
arm of democracy strikes whenever and wherever its welfare is threat-
ened. This was proved many times in these early years of the Twentieth
Century. The increase in the cost of living created much dissatisfaction
and was charged against the corporations. The trusts and the Payne-
Aldrich Tariff were severely blamed. There was also much unrest in
labor circles. On many of the great railroads demands were made for
higher wages. Several systems granted a considerable increase. The
population of the country had grown 44 per cent, in twenty years, while
the expenditures of the Federal Government had increased 170 per cent.
In the midst of this agitation the Supreme Court ordered the rehearing
of the suits against the Standard Oil and Tobacco Trusts. Woman Suf-
frage was adopted in the State of Washington. This new addition to
woman suffrage gave the movement a new momentum and plans for the
organizing of campaigns were made in the Eastern States.

The year 1910 had its full share of strikes throughout the country,
and the great burden of the people was the high cost of living. The
Democrats charged it to the Payne-Aldrich Tariff; the Republicans at-
tributed it to greatly increased production of gold; and many economists

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AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

blamed it on the increasing luxuries of the people, or "the cost of high
living." The eleventh census 6f the United States showed that there
were in the continental United States 91,972,226 people as against 75,-
994,596 in 1900. About 45 per cent, of the population were urban. In
the older States there was a relative decline of rural population.

Economic readjustment stirred the business world. Congress passed
a reciprocity bill with Canada in 1911, but the Dominion rejected it.
The Supreme Court ordered the Standard Oil Company, which controlled
sixty-five companies, to dissolve within six months. But in doing so the
court reassured business that reasonable restraint was not illegal. Two
weeks later the court ordered the American Tobacco Trust to dissolve
within six months and directed the lower court to devise some way for re-
arrangement. The Steel Trust was also investigated but as its monopoly
had decreased from 60 to 50 per cent, in control of its ore output, it was
not then prosecuted.

Arizona and New Mexico, the last remaining territories in the con-
tinental United States, were admitted to Statehood; there were now forty-
eight stars on the flag of the republic. Congress passed a resolution to be
submitted to the States for ratification, amending the Constitution so that
United States Senators could be elected by popular vote. The Amend-
ment was ratified by the States two years later.

Trusts were now collapsing like a house of cards in 191 1. The Wire
Trust dissolved itself; the Electric Trust was dissolved. The Steel Trust
announced its intention to cancel its lease on its northern lands and to re-
duce rates on its railroads, but notwithstanding this concession the Gov-
ernment brought suit against this trust. The Standard Oil and the To-
bacco Trusts presented plans for reorganization and they were accepted.
The treaty with America's old historic friend, Russia, was abrogated be-
cause Russia had refused to admit naturalized American Jews who had
left the Empire without complying with the regulations as to expatriation.
The Supreme Court legalized the corporation tax and the Federal Reserva-
tion of forests without the consent of the States containing the forests.
The Woman's Rights movement captured California by having a suffrage
clause put into the State's Constitution and giving them also the right to be-
come jurors. The women had now practically conquered their cause in the
Far West and they turned their faces to the East with onward wills.

On the morning of April i6th, 1912, the whole world was startled
by the greatest steamship tragedy since the American invention revolu-
tionized the seas — the sinking of the giant White Star Liner Titanic on
her maiden voyage, by striking an iceberg in the North Atlantic on the
night preceding at about 1 1 o'clock. Over two thousand persons perished,

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NARRATIVE HISTORY OF AMERICAN PEOPLE

a large portion of whom were Americans. A lunatic, named Shrank, shot
Roosevelt in Milwaukee, but the wound did not prove serious. Wilson
was elected President. The Supreme Court ordered the Union Pacific to
discontinue its control over the Southern Pacific, which it had acquired
through the "Harriman Merger." The Pujo Congressional Committee
investigated the "Money Trust." The Committee reported that there were
evidences of a money trust, that is, the concentration of capital in the
hands of a small group of great bankers, and proposed legislation for clear-
ing houses and banks. Michigan, Oregon, Kansas, and Arizona were
added to the States granting suffrage to women, making in all ten States.
A strike that attracted unusual interest occurred among the 14,000 Slavs
and Italians in the woolen mills of Lawrence, Massachusetts. The strike
had been caused by a reduction of wages on account of shortening hours
of labor by State legislation. It was organized by "Industrial Workers
of the World" and grew so violent that the State militia had to be called
out. There was bloodshed, but the dispute was finally settled in favor of
the strikers. This was the most important of a number of strikes in the
country, all mainly caused by the high cost of living.

Triumph of Democracy and Financial Reconstruction

THE trend of democracy gathered momentum. The United States
Supreme Court declared illegal the Patten pool in cotton as a re-
straint of trade under the Sherman Anti-Trust Law in 1913. The
Cash Register Company was adjudged as doing business in restraint of
trade by a Federal Court; on appeal to the higher court this decision
was reversed. The Constitutional Amendment, levying an income tax,
was ratified by the States. President Wilson called Congress in special
session to pass a tariff and other legislation. The United States with-
drew from participation in what was called the Six Power Loan in China.
The California Legislature passed a law prohibiting aliens ineligible to
citizenship from owning land in the State. The Japanese ambassador
protested that the act violated the treaty of 1911, but this treaty gave the
Japanese the right only to lease land and own or lease buildings but did
not specify agricultural lands. Secretary Bryan hastened to California
and made a speech before the legislature with a view to preventing the
passage of the bill or of modifying the legislation, if possible. The fiftieth
anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg was celebrated on July 4th, 1913,
the President addressing 55,000 Union and Confederate War Veterans en-
camped on the ground.

The economic revolution in Mexico threatened the peace of the
United States. In the revolt against Madero's government the Mexican

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AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

executive was murdered. General Huerta seized the office and another
revolution was started in the North to depose him. President Wilson
sent Ex-Governor John Lind, of Minnesota, as an envoy to Huerta to re-
quest him to resign from the Presidency and to convene an election at the
earliest possible moment at which Huerta himself should not be a candi-
date. President Wilson believed that Huerta had usurped the office, pos-
sibly by complicity in the assassination of Madero, and refused to recog-
nize him as the constitutional President of Mexico. Huerta refused to
accede to the President's wishes and the Mexican War continued.

Radical readjustments in our domestic affairs now took place. The
Underwood Tariff was passed, greatly reducing the custom duties. The
Currency Bill was passed, creating a Federal Reserve system of banking
with twelve reserve banks situated in twelve cities of the United States.
Michigan adopted the Initiative and Referendum. Pennsylvania passed
a eugenic marriage law, requiring candidates for matrimony to present cer-
tificates of health from physicians. Illinois adopted woman suffrage to
the limit of its constitution. The "Industrial Workers of the World" en-
gineered another serious strike among the employees of the textile mills
in Paterson, New Jersey.

American finance was now undergoing a complete reorganization. As
a result of the report of the Pujo Committee, members of the great banking
house of J. P. Morgan and Co. voluntarily resigned from thirty out of
thirty-nine directorships in 1914. Morgan retired from the directorship
of the New York Central Railroad and the Western Union Telegraph
Company, while his partners retired from the United States Steel Corpor-
ation and the Westinghouse Electric Company. Other bankers followed
the Morgan example.

World affairs seemed to concentrate in America. The President,
deeming that there was no constitutional government in Mexico, removed
the embargo on arms to aid the insurgents to drive Huerta from his of-
fice. England protested against the Canal Toll Bill, exempting American
coastwise shipping from paying tolls in the passage through the Panama
Canal. President Wilson went before Congress with a message in which
he declared that the nation was "too big and powerful and self-respect-
ing" to put a strained interpretation on its promises, and the bill was re-
pealed.

A party of American blue jackets from Admiral Mayo's fleet at Tam-
pico, Mexico, while ashore to obtain petrol, was arrested by the authorities
of the Huerta Government. The Americans were soon released, but the
Admiral demanded that the Huerta Government apologize by firing a sa-
lute of twenty-one guns to the American flag. Huerta replied that he

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NARRATIVE HISTORY OF AMERICAN PEOPLE

would comply if the Mexican flag should be hoisted with the American
flag and both flags be saluted together. The Washington Government
objected on the ground that this would amount to a recognition of the
Huerta Government. President Wilson laid the matter before Congress
and asked its authority to use the military and naval forces in Mexico
in such a manner as to enforce the dignity of the United States. But be-
fore this authority was granted by Congress, Admiral Fletcher, with a
fleet, was dispatched to Vera Cruz to seize the custom house. The Ad-
miral demanded the surrender of the town, and on being refused, he landed
a battalion of marines, who were fired on by snipers. The ship bombarded
the barracks and the naval academy, while the marines took possession
of Vera Cruz. Commissioners from Huerta's Government met the ambas-
sadors to America from Brazil, Argentina and Chile, with representatives
from the United States Government at a conference at Niagara Falls. The
insurgents were invited to send representatives to this conference but they
did not officially do so. The conference hastened the fall of Huerta by
demonstrating to him that the stable South American republics were op-
posed to his regime. Huerta fled from Mexico and sailed for Spain.

The period of financial reconstruction, caused by overgrowth of huge
industries, continued. Interlocking directorships were forbidden. The
great railroad system in New England — New York, New Haven and Hart-
ford— underwent reorganization.

World Problems Culminate in World War

THE culmination of world problems came with the outbreak of the
Great War in Europe in 1914. A tremendous financial crisis in
America was averted by quick action. An immense amount of
stock, both domestic and foreign, would be thrown on the market the
next day, creating a panic by taking all the gold out of the country. The
governors of the New York Stock Exchange decided not to open the mar-
ket and run this great risk. For nearly six months the Exchange remained
closed from fear of a deluge of stocks. The whole business world of
America trembled under the great shock. Commerce piled up on the
wharves of New York, Boston, Baltimore, and other eastern cities, for
the whole transatlantic shipping trade had become demoralized. The
Mauritania and the Cedric, under temporary precaution, put into Halifax.
The Kronprincessin Cecilie, with $10,000,000 gold for London, fled back
across the Atlantic under a wireless message from Berlin and ran into
Bar Harbor, Maine. Emergency currency for $500,000,000 was ordered
printed for any sudden emergency that might arise. Great numbers of
Americans were caught in the European War Zone, and for nearly a month

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AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

a frantic cry for help to get them home rang across the Atlantic. The
American Government sent $250,000 in gold and two or three ships to res-
cue these stranded travellers.

President Wilson at once rendered his services for meditation to the
warring nations and issued a proclamation of strict neutrality. The Amer-
ican Red Cross issued a call for money to prevent the Belgiums from starv-
ing and the response was both instant and generous, over $20,000,000 in
American food and clothing reaching the destitute before the New Year.
Secretary Bryan secured signatories to twenty-three arbitration treaties
and twelve peace commissions, giving a year of grace for discussion of an
issue between two nations before either should force the issue. Congress
passed the Trade Commission Act, creating a tribunal to arbitrate com-
mercial disputes, and the Clayton Anti-Trust Bill, preventing interlock-
ing directorship. An emergency war taxation bill producing $100,000,-
ooo was passed. No sooner had the war broken out in Europe than a
campaign for and against armaments was started in the United States.

The eventful year of 1914 closed with complex problems. The
Miners' Union called out 11,000 miners because the owners had refused
their demands, which included freedom to buy provisions and supplies
when they pleased, to choose their own doctors, the right to elect their own
chief weigher. President Wilson appealed to both sides to try to end
the strike and it was finally settled by a commission. The Cape Cod
Canal, connecting Buzzard's Bay with Barnstable and dispensing with the
long sea route around Cape Cod between Boston and New York, was
opened; it cost $12,000,000. The Panama Canal was unofficially opened
to general traffic. The first vessel, steaming through the canal, was the
United States vessel Ancon, 6,000 tons, at the head of a long fleet of
steamers.

America — The Hope of the Peoples of the Earth

THE remarkable year of 1915 was ushered in with world war,
economic reconstruction, and a general assay of civilization. It
was announced that a group of American bankers had made a loan
of $15,000,000 to Argentina. This fact is significant, as it is the first
time that an American banking institution has ever loaned money to a
South American country. It indicates the practical effort that is now be-
ing made to cement friendship and trade relations with Latin-America.
President Wilson, in an address in Washington, laid down the follow-
ing principles for the conduct of business : First — publicity of operation ;
second, full equivalent for the money; third, conscience in transactions;
fourth, spirit of service. The creation in the United States in time of

136

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peace of the same kind of united spirit which moves nations during wars
was advocated by the President. North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota
all abolished capital punishment. More than six hundred business or-
ganizations were represented at the meeting of the American Chamber of
Commerce in Washington. Every State in the Union and all the island
dependencies sent delegates to the greatest commercial congress ever as-
sembled. The legislatures of Alabama, Iowa, California and Pennsyl-
vania passed laws prohibiting child labor.

The European War drew America dangerously near the maelstrom.
The contraband question loomed large on the horizon. Copper and brass
sent from New York to Germany was seized at Copenhagen. So many
steamers with American cargoes were held up by English warships that
the United States determined to furnish inspectors to certify cargoes.
An arrangement was made between Germany and Austria on the one hand,
and Great Britain on the other, for American representatives to inspect
war prisons. The United States sent notes to both Great Britain and
Germany concerning the war zone in the North Sea and around the British
Isles. President Wilson advised the German Government that the Amer-
ican Government would hold it responsible for any loss of American prop-
erty or lives. In both notes it was suggested that Great Britain and Ger-
many restrict use of mines, and abandon submarine attacks on merchant
vessels.

The beginning of 1915 found the Government of Mexico in the hands
of two rival factions. Many thousands of non-combatants were reported
as starving. President Wilson informed General Carranza that unless
there was an improvement in conditions with respect to foreigners in
Mexican territory under his control, it might be necessary for the Amer-
ican Government to obtain the desired protection. The Panama Pacific
Exposition was opened in San Francisco, forty-five foreign nations and
forty-three States and Territories sent exhibits. A great American indus-
try, the Ford Motor Company, of Detroit, Michigan, shared $10,000,-
ooo with its 20,000 employees at its Detroit and branch factories, giv-
ing an exhibition of the workings of the biggest profit-sharing scheme
organized in America. Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Arkansas, Oregon,
and Utah all joined the state-wide prohibition States. The Dalles-Celilo
Canal, opening the Columbia River from the Pacific Ocean to Lewiston,
Idaho — 475 miles — was finished after ten years' work at a cost of nearly
$5,000,000 by the Federal Government.

The European War began to write many great events into the pages
of American history. The most serious and dramatic of them all was the
destruction of the Cunard Liner, Lusitania, off the coast of Ireland, by

139

AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

a torpedo fired from a German submarine without warning; 1,365 lives
were lost out of a total of 2,160 aboard the steamer. The number of
Americans who died was placed at 107. Many of those who perished
were women and children. No event of the war had so shocked the civ-
ized world. Before the steamer sailed from New York, the German
Embassy at Washington had assumed the task of warning Americans not
to go aboard of the steamer. After all the facts relating to the sinking
of the Lusitania had been ascertained, and when the excitement had some-
what receded, President Wilson addressed a note to the German Govern-
ment warning it that the American Government would expect it to dis-
avow the act, make reparation for it, and promise to stop the destruction
of non-combatants on passenger ships in the war zone. Secretary of
State Bryan resigned from the cabinet, giving as his reason his pledge to
the "peace at any cost" policy. For months the controversy continued,
the German submarines in the meantime sinking other ships, with the loss
of American lives. Among other things the controversy had the effect of
emphasizing the cleavage between the faction for preparedness for war and
the faction for peace. President Wilson stood by his strict neutrality pol-
icy and a long series of diplomatic negotiations resulted.

It is at this point that this rapid survey of more than four hundred
years of American civilization is brought to a close. Later events must
require adjudication before they have reached the state of finality which ad-
mits them to permanent historical record. An analysis of the narrative,
through which we have just passed, will give the reader a broad comprehen-
sion at least, and perhaps a realization of the purpose and trend of Ameri-
can progress. It depicts the noble struggle that it is making against all
obstacles — the courage and sacrifice with which it faces every problem.
Moreover, it proves overwhelmingly that if at times the spirit of democracy
seems to be stifled, it arouses itself to herculean strength whenever the re-
public seems endangered.

The great story of the American people is now rising to its grand
climax. We stand at the gateways to the New World (the harbors of
New York and San Francisco) and watch the people of all nations flock-
ing into the country. Here we see groups of men, women, and children
of all nationalities who have come to America to cast their lots in the fu-
ture of this vast land of opportunity — Germans, Italians, Russians, Chi-
nese, Africans, Hindoos — peoples of every race and climate from all cor-
ners of the earth — a great moving, throbbing panorama of human life.
The great procession of men and events comes to its close with the peoples
of the earth gathering for protection under the American flag — the flag of
Triumphant Democracy !

140

GOVERNMENT
OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE

"We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal;
that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights;
that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

— Declaration of Independence.

w iHE American people are working out the problem of the ages —

the problem of setting up before the world a complete reali-
zation of the long-sought ideal of "government of the people,
*^^ by the people, for the people." The Mosaic laws proclaimed
it; Athens attempted it before the dawn of the Christian era; Rome de-
clared itself a republic. There were flourishing republics in Italy in the
Middle Ages. But it has remained for America to demonstrate the per-
manency and practicability of this great principle. All preceding attempts
failed.

The future of the American nation is with the people — they hold its
destiny in the hollow of their hands. We have proclaimed to the world
the divine right of the people to govern themselves. We have further
declared that "whenever any form of government becomes destructive of
these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to in-
stitute a new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and
organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to
effect their safety and happiness."

This declaration places upon every American a tremendous respon-
sibility— a moral responsibility greater than has ever before been borne
by men. For, if this rich inheritance of Liberty is to be bequeathed by
every American to his children as a priceless heritage, it must be preserved
by each individual. And this means allegiance to the sacred principles set
forth in the Declaration of Independence and to the doctrines established
in the Constitution of the United States — the most perfect instrument
that human intellect and human justice have yet been able to conceive.

Burke in his "Reflections on the Revolution in France" sounded a
warning when he exclaimed : "What is Liberty without wisdom and with-
out virtue? It is the greatest of all possible evils; for it is folly, vice
and madness, without tuition or restraint." It was Madame Roland who
cried: "O Liberty! Liberty! how many crimes are committed in thy

141

AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

name !" And Polybius warned that "government may take the fairest of
names, but the worst of realities — mob rule."

On the integrity of self-government, therefore, the very existence of
the republic depends. It rests on the maintenance of the integrity of the
laws made by the people and a faithful adherence to the rule of the ma-
jority, for "where law ends — tyranny begins."

Self-government is a process of slow growth, guided by wisdom, and
held in restraint from passions and impatience. It must mold itself
wisely into the ever-changing forms of social evolution, and must adapt
itself to the needs of the largest number of people — working out con-
scientiously the fullest possible measure of justice. Its greatest danger
is in the impatience of the minority; its greatest enemy is anarchy; and its
arch-traitor is mob violence. "Irresponsible government spells ruin."

It is with this borne fully in mind that we will give a brief discussion
of the system under which we are endeavoring to work out the problem
of democracy in the United States. It would be folly to claim that we
have a perfect system. Alas, we find too often that we are far from our
ideals — far from economic justice — but we do know that we have the firm
foundation upon which to build the instrument with which to work, and
the machinery of government, which, if properly administered, weighs jus-
tice in the scales more accurately than any other system that the genius
of man has been able to devise. Let us examine this machinery :

How the American Government Is Operated

HE American Government is that of a union of forty-eight States
all working for a common purpose — liberty, justice, equality. It
-*• is a democratic republic. The chief instrument of government is
a written constitution. This working agreement was ratified by eleven of
the thirteen original colonies and became operative on March 4, 1789. In
this document, and in the traditions which have arisen through interpre-
tating it, are to be found the results of the political wisdom and experience
of the American colonists, together with much of the political philosophy
which was current at the end of the Eighteenth Century. Inasmuch as
each of the forty-eight States is to a great degree self-governing, it is neces-
sary, in making a study of the American Government, to examine their
general qualities and interrelations in addition to those of the Federal Gov-
ernment.

The Constitution provides that there shall be three branches of the
Federal Government. These are the executive, the legislative, and the
judiciary. These three branches check and balance each other, thereby
preventing the assumption of all power by any one of them and insuring

142

HIGHEST LEGISLATIVE BODY IN THE REPUBLIC— This is a glimpse of the United States

benate at the National Capital — This photograph of the emptv chamber is

the only picture that the officials of the Senate will allow.

LIHEKTY HELL IN INDEPENDENCE HALL— Famous boll that rang out the joyful tiding of the
Declaration of Independence in July, 1776 — When the Hritish approached •
Philadelphia the bell was taken down by the Patriots,

SIGNING OF DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE — Here we witness that epoch-making moment on July
•4th, 1776, when a new nation was born — This document written by Jefferson, was signed in Indepen-
dence Hall, in Philadelphia, by the delegates from the colonies, on August 2, 177G.

riSTORIC AMERICAN PAINTING BY TRUMBULL— Original painted for rotunda of National Capitol— The
canvas portrays life-like portraits of 48 signers — The five men standing in front of table are Adams,

Sherman, Livingstone, Jefferson, Franklin.

GOVERNMENT OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE

the democratic form of the Government. Washington is the capital of the
nation.

How the People Elect- the President

The Executive Branch of the Government is headed by a president
whose term of office is four years. There is no constitutional limitation
to the number of terms which one man may enjoy. He must, according to
the Constitution, be a native-born American, a resident of the country for
at least fourteen years, and must be at least thirty-five years old. He re-
ceives a salary of $75,000 and additional allowances.* The Presidency
is an elective office; the candidates for it are nominated by the national
conventions of their respective parties. On the same tickets are found the
men who are candidates for the office of Vice-president, the legal successor
of the President should he leave office before his term has expired.

These two officers are not directly elected by the voters of the country,
for, according to the Constitution, in each State the voters choose a num-
ber of electors which shall be equal to the number of Senators plus the num-
bers of representatives to which that State is entitled in Congress. These
electors are not bound by law or the Constitution to vote for the candidates
coming from their own parties, but tradition has brought into existence an
iron rule which makes them do so. Therefore a party which secures a
plurality of the votes in a State is entitled to the votes of all the electors for
that State for President and Vice-President; and the party that wins in so
many States as to insure control, through a majority, of the Electoral Col-
lege, as the body of electors is called, is certain of having its nominees for
the two offices elected. It may thus come about that a President is elected
by a majority of the electors, though but a minority of the votes cast
throughout the country were for the electors who in turn voted for him.
Qualifications for voters are determined by the States and will be considered
later.

Duties of the President of the United States

A NEWLY elected President takes his oath of office, administered by
the Chief Justice of the United States, and immediately, by the
terms of the Constitution, becomes responsible for the enforce-
ment of the provisions of the Constitution, the laws and treaties of the
United States and the decisions pronounced by the Courts of the Federal
Government. He has the power to appoint to administrative offices two
groups of incumbents — those who hold important positions, such as heads
of departments, bureaus and commissions, and those who hold inferior of-

* la 1909 the total cost to the nation for the executive was $329,420.

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AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

fices. The former appointments need the ratification of the Senate; die
latter are in the hands of the President alone. He has the power to remove
men in either group without consent of the Senate.

The President is Commander-in-Chief of the army and navy, but the
right to declare war is not in his hands. The conduct of the nation's for-
eign affairs is in his control; he appoints the representatives of the nation
in foreign countries (with the consent of the Senate), he can make treaties
(with the concurrence of two-thirds of the Senate), he receives the repre-
sentatives of foreign powers, he may order the navy to foreign ports even
at the risk of bringing on war, and he may move the army to foreign bor-
ders at the same risk. Except in cases of impeachment, he may grant re-
prieves and pardons to those who have been convicted by Federal (not
State) courts, and, though this power enables him to reverse completely the
action of a Federal court, its abuse is prevented by his voluntary reliance
on the opinions of others in dealing with such cases.

The Constitution makes it mandatory for the President to inform Con-
gress, from time to time, as to the state of the nation. Such messages, fol-
lowing a precedent set by Washington, were formally written papers read
before the legislative body by a clerk, but President Wilson broke that
precedent in delivering his first message by reading it to Congress in per-
son. Congress is not bound to carry out any recommendations which his
message contains, but it hears them with respect and, when the majorities
of the legislators in both houses of Congress are of the same party as the
President, it usually happens that his recommendations find their way to
the statute-books. On the other hand, a bill passed by Congress does not
reach the statute-books unless signed by the President, and by the power
of veto he wields a great influence. But Congress by a two-thirds vote
of both houses can make a bill law in spite of his veto. A bill coming
to the President for his signature becomes law without his signature if he
fails to return it to Congress within ten days after receiving it. Sundays
are excepted in this count.

Certain privileges and rights belong to the President; no court can
bring him before it for any offense, no crime he may commit can cause his
arrest, and, even when impeached, no limitation may be placed upon his
liberty until sentence has been pronounced upon him.

How the President Selects His Cabinet

NOT all of the work connected with the executive branch of the
Government can be attended to by the President alone, con-
sequently it is necessary to maintain certain departments, bureaus,
and commissions to carry it on. These departments in order of their im-

148

GOVERNMENT OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE

portance are those of State, Treasury, War, Justice, Post-Office, Navy,
Interior, Agriculture, Commerce, and Labor. The heads of these depart-
ments connected with the executive branch form the President's Cabinet,
and, though the Constitution makes no provisions for these, it assumes their
existence. The Cabinet officers are appointees of the President and may
be removed at his discretion. Their duties are laid down by enactments
of Congress, and for these duties they are responsible to the President.
They enjoy large appointive powers, subject to the operations of a Civil
Service law; they may promulgate regulations, which must be consistent
with law; and they decide with finality on cases appealed from the officials
beneath them. On the other hand, they must prepare annual reports on
their respective department for Congress. Their other relations with the
legislative branch of the Government are less definite. They cannot be
members of Congress, but there is no Constitutional provision preventing
them from sitting and speaking there. They influence legislative action
by conferring with Congressional committees and by appearing before them,
and often draft in their entirety bills which become law.

The Cabinet as a collective body has no existence in legal enactment
nor has it any powers ordained by law. Custom regulates it to a remark-
able degree. Its meetings are stated and are ordered by the President.
Usually they are secret, even to the extent of having no record of their
transactions placed on record. The President, though he consults his Cab-
inet for advice and discusses with it matters of importance, is in no way
bound to observe its recommendations, and not infrequently acts in direct
opposition to them.

How Members of the House and Senators Are Elected

THE legislative branch of the Government is known as Congress and
consists of a House of Representatives, coming from the various
States in proportion to their respective populations, and a Senate
consisting of two members from each of the States. The members of the
House of Representatives must be men who have been citizens of the coun-
try for at least seven years ; they must be at least twenty-five years old and
must reside in the States which they represent. They may not hold other
office under the Federal Government, and by provision of State laws can-
not, except in rare instances, hold office under State governments. All but
this last-named qualification are to be found in the Federal Constitution;
in addition, either house may bar members on certain grounds.

Each member of the lower House represents a single Congressional
district, which according to statute must be "contiguous and compact ter-
ritory" ; no district may have more than one representative.

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AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

Each Representative is elected for a term of two years and receives
a salary of $7,500. The electoral machinery by which a member becomes
a nominee and an incumbent for the office of Representative is a matter
controlled by the States, but their prescriptions may be altered by Congress.
An act of Congress provides that they must be elected by ballot on the
Tuesday following the first Monday in November, though a few States
are exempted from this provision relating to the date. Both houses of Con-
gress through committees judge of the elections and qualifications of their
members and decide the issue where contested elections exist.

The Constitution specifically determines the number of Senators — two
from each State, and no State is to be deprived of equal representation in
the Senate without its own consent. The qualifications of Senators are a
minimum age of thirty years, citizenship for nine years, and residence in
the States which they represent.

According to the Seventeenth Amendment to the Constitution, Sena-
tors are elected by the electorates in each State instead of by the State legis-
lative bodies, as heretofore. Each Senator is elected for a term of six
years, at a salary of $7,500 a year; and the Constitution provides that one-
third of the total number of Senators shall retire every two years.

The Constitution also provides for certain privileges to be enjoyed
by members of Congress. The first of these is monetary allowance for sec-
retaries and other assistants and for traveling expenses in addition to their
salaries. They are free from arrest, during attendance at Washington, for
all crimes except treason, felony, and breach of the peace. They may at
no place be held responsible for utterance during debate in the Congres-
sional chambers. Though the elections of its officers, the attendance of
its members, and its methods of procedure are matters left in the hands of
each house, the Constitution provides that the Vice-President shall be the
presiding officer in the Senate, that each house must keep a journal, that a
two-third vote is necessary to expel a member from either house, and that
record of vote, under certain circumstances, must be taken by roll-call. A
quorum in either house consists of a majority of its members.

How Congress Makes Our Laws

THE Constitution provides that Congress meet annually, the open-
ing day being the first Monday in December. There are two an-
nual sessions of each house. The President may call special ses-
sions at his own discretion. The powers of Congress are only those which
are named in the Constitution. It controls the matter of taxation raised
to pay the debts of the Federal Government, for the defense of the coun-
try and for its welfare. Armies and navies may be raised and maintained

150

DEFENCE OF FOUT MOULTRIE IN AMERICAN REVOLUTION — Here the South Carolinians

repulsed the English fleet and turned back the Expedition of Sir Henry Clinton

for the subjugation of the South — June ^'8, 177G.

SIEGE OF CHARLESTON IN AMERICAN REVOLUTION — This historic city in South Carolina

heroically held off the British fleet in 177<> — Forced to surrender to British,

after a noble defence, in 1779, it was pillaged.

GOVERNMENT OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE

by it; it may declare war, regulate commerce, establish post-offices and
post-roads, authorize standards of weights and measures, provide for pat-
ents and copyrights, and promulgate uniform laws on bankruptcy.

Over foreign affairs Congress has slight control. But in the matter of
the country's monetary system its control is exclusive. It has limited power
in defining crimes against Federal laws and providing punishment there-
for; the crime of treason is defined unalterably by clauses in the Constitu-
tion. The rules and regulations for the government of the District of Co-
lumbia, in which Washington is located, and for the government of terri-
tories and property belonging to the United States is entirely in its hands;
it has the right to admit new States into the Union and can make what ar-
rangements it sees fit for the process of admission. Through its control
of finances and the fixation of salaries and allowances it can to a certain
extent wield an influence over the executive branch of the Government via
the executive departments, bureaus and commissions; and in a similar man-
ner it wields a control over the judiciary branch. Its power of removing
Federal officers extends even to the right of impeaching the President — a
right which it has exercised only once. When the President is impeached,
the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court is the presiding officer, and the Sen-
ate acts as the high court. The Constitution provides that impeachment
may be brought only in cases of treason, bribery, and high crimes and mis-
demeanors.

The manner in which Congress goes about its work is due to the fact
that two great political parties seek the control of the Government. The
party having a majority in either house controls the actions of that house,
this action being determined by a caucus of the members of the party in a
majority. The leading member of the party in majority becomes the pre-
siding officer (Speaker) of the Representatives, and the leader of the mi-
nority becomes the floor leader of the party in opposition. The rules of
the two houses differ.

The Speaker of the House of Representatives is clothed with wide
powers in order that he may prevent "filibustering" — the delaying of action
by the party in opposition. A Representative may speak no more than one
hour in a given debate and he may not speak more than once during that
debate. But there is no time limit on the speech-making of the Senators.

The greater part of the business in each house is attended to by com-
mittees. There are over fifty such in each house ; the more important ones
in the lower house are those of Appropriations, Commerce, Finance, For-
eign Relations, Interstate Commerce, Judiciary, Military Affairs, Naval
Affairs, Public Expenditures, and Rules. In the Senate the more impor-
tant ones are those of Appropriations, Banking and Currency, Foreign Af-

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AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

fairs, Interstate and Foreign Commerce, Judiciary, Military Affairs, Naval
Affairs, Rivers and Harbors, Rules, and Ways and Means. Important and
unimportant bills are considered by these committees and it is at their meet-
ing that the real legislative work of the nation is done. When a member
introduces a bill — and this is the privilege of every member in either house
— it is referred to the committee which would naturally be interested in it.
This committee may pass favorably upon it, whereon it is voted on by the
house in which it is introduced. The committee may alter it, or it may
"kill it." In the last case it never comes up for debate by the house.

A bill favorably reported on by committee and passed by one house
then goes to the other house for its approval. Here it again goes through
the hands of the proper committee before being finally considered by the
house itself. The bill may be altered by the second house or it may be
rejected by it. Conferences between members of both houses — extra-
cameral and extra-legal conferences — are held to overcome differences in
such contingencies. If a bill is passed by both houses it then goes to the
Secretary of State for official publication and then to the President for his
signature. Receiving that, it becomes law.

How the Judiciary Branch of the Government Is Operated

THE Constitution provides that there shall be a Supreme Court and
that Congress shall create such inferior courts as it sees fit. Con-
gress has provided for the following arrangement of Federal
Courts; the most important is the Supreme Court, consisting of a Chief
Justice and eight Associate Justices, the former receiving a salary of $13,-
ooo and each of the latter $12,500. They hold office for life and during
good behavior. Their most important business is the consideration of cases
involving constitutional law which come up on appeal from lower Federal
courts or from State courts on writs of error. Each case must be tried with
at least six of the Justices present, and a majority is needed for a decision.
The Federal Courts of next importance are the nine Circuit Courts of
Appeal, one for each of the nine circuits into which the nation is divided.
These courts consider questions appealed from lower Federal Courts in their
respective circuits, unless the cases involve such weighty matters as capital
punishment, or the Constitution, or treaties of the nation, and so on, in
which instances appeal goes directly to the Supreme Court. Below the
Circuit Courts of Appeal are the Circuit Courts having jurisdiction in mat-
ters involving breach of the Federal law, or cases between citizens of dif-
ferent States. The Federal District Court is the lowest United States
Court. There are about ninety of these throughout the country and they
vary in the matter of territory under their jurisdiction. Thus while there

154

GOVERNMENT OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE

is but one Federal District Court for Colorado, New York State has four.
These courts consider questions appealed from lower Federal Courts in their
punisliment — and admiralty, maritime, and bankruptcy cases.

The Department of Justice, headed by the Attorney-General, who is
a member of the Cabinet, is another part of the judiciary branch of the
Government. Members of this Department act as the attorneys for the
Government where it is involved in legal cases and also enforce regard for
federal law through bringing cases of disregard before the proper Federal
Courts. The Government is represented by an attorney, who is a member
of the Department of Justice, in each of the Federal judicial districts. In
each district there is also a Federal marshal who makes arrests. Both offi-
cers are appointees of the President.

The jurisdiction of the Federal Courts covers cases in which the United
States takes part, cases involving one or more States as parties against other
States or citizens without the jurisdiction of said States, cases involving
questions concerning the Constitution, admiralty and maritime enterprise.
The Federal Courts also have the power of issuing the writs of habeas
corpus, mandamus, and injunction, wherever Federal law enters into a
case. Where the constitutionality of either Federal and State laws is in-
volved, the Federal Courts also have jurisdiction.

What the Government Guarantees the People

WE have considered the machinery of the Federal Government;
now we may observe its operations. The Constitution may be
amended in four ways. Such a proposition may arise in Con-
gress by action of two-thirds of both houses and may be ratified by the leg-
islatures of three-fourths of the States. It may arise in the same manner
and be ratified by conventions in three-fourths of the States. It may arise
upon application of the legislatures in two-thirds of the States, whereupon
Congress must call a national convention to draft it, after which it must
receive the ratification of conventions in three-fourths of the States. Or,
having had the same origin and having been drafted by a similar national
convention it may be ratified by the legislatures in three-fourths of the
States.

The rights guaranteed to the individual against the Federal Govern-
ment are found in clauses in the Constitution which provide that the Fed-
eral Government may not establish a religion or interfere with free-
dom of worship. The Federal Government cannot interfere with free-
dom of speech or of the press, or the right to assemble peaceably and of pe-
tition to Government. As to the punishment of persons it is provided that
treason should be such an act as is defined in the Constitution only, no bill

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AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

of attainder or ex-ppst facto law is valid, arrest by general warrant is pro-
hibited, indictment by grand jury and trial by jury are guaranteed, the writ
of habeas corpus cannot be suspended (except in case of rebellion or in-
vasion), excessive bail is not to be levied, and in criminal proceedings due
process of law must be regarded.

As to the property rights, the Constitution provides that the Federal
Government may not define property; and, though the right of eminent
domain is to be held by the Federal Government there are restrictions as to
its actions against private property. These provide for uniformity of im-
posts throughout the country and against the taxation of goods exported
from any State.

It will be noted that all of these rights guaranteed to the individual
are held against the Federal Government; the Constitution guarantees none
against the State Governments. The rights of person against the latter
are to be found in their respective constitutions and will be dealt with
later.

How Our Foreign Affairs Are Conducted

BETWEEN the President and foreign countries the Department of
State acts as the functionary organ. No official communication
may go to a foreign State or be received from one without going
through that department. The ambassadors, consuls, and other officials
of the United States abroad are officers of the State Department. But
the treaty-making power is in the hands of the President and the Senate;
yet even here the State Department is the agency through which negotia-
tions are carried on.

How We Maintain Our Army and Navy

NATIONAL defense is primarily the business of the Departments of
War and of the Navy. The regular army is limited by law to
100,000 men; in each of the States there are regiments of or-
ganized militia — trained citizens — -at the disposal of the Federal Govern-
ment. In times of war it is customary to augment these forces by calling
for volunteers. But by a law passed in 1908 every male American citizen
between the age of eighteen and forty-five is a member of the Reserve
Militia. The navy of the United States has been created by Congress
under specific clauses to be found in the Constitution. Only citizens of the
country may enlist in it. The conduct of war is a matter which varies
with circumstances. The President, though he is Commander-in-Chief of
both branches of the service, does not actually take the field ; the manage-
ment of campaigns is left to experts in the proper departments. But the

156

BATTLE OF STONY POINT IN AMERICAN REVOLUTION — It was here that General Anthony
\\nyne stormed the fort upon a rocky promontory overlooking the Hudson on July 15,
1770— The Americans had been forced to abandon it — It was now occupied by the
British — Washington determined on its recapture — The attack was made
about midnight across the marsh leading to the fort — The Americans
did not fire but charged with bayonets — Wayne was wounded in
the head and was carried into the fort — The British surrend-
ered and the garrison of 540 men were taken prisoners,

GOVERNMENT OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE

money necessary to conduct war is controlled by Congress. As the head
of the country's militant forces, the President takes on a military charac-
ter and under it may suspend the writ of habeas corpus (though only in
times of war) and overrule the acts of officers or of courts-martial, and
may appoint or remove even admirals and generals.

How We Finance the American Nation

CONGRESS, according to the Constitution, has control over the na-
tion's finances. It may raise taxes, making them uniform
throughout the country, causing direct taxation to be apportioned
among the States according to their respective populations ; it may not tax
the exports from any State nor can it tax the instrumentalities or proper-
ties of any State. The sixteenth amendment to the Constitution gives Con-
gress the right to levy an income-tax. All bills for raising revenue must
originate in the House of Representatives as provided by the Constitution ;
but often the Senate, when it comes to consider these before they become
law, makes radical changes in them. The Department of the Treasury is
the agency which is entrusted with the collection of Federal revenue and
does so through one branch which is responsible for customs duties and
another which is responsible for internal revenue — taxes on liquor, cigars,
playing-cards, and so on.

Congress has the right to issue both specie and paper money, to regu-
late the value of money and make loans. No State may coin money, ten-
der payment of debt in anything but gold and silver currency of the United
States, or authorize bills of credit. Congress has arranged a system of
national banks for the sake of elasticity of the currency and has during the
present administration provided for a Federal Reserve Bank. National
banks, after meeting certain requirements laid down by law, may issue bank
notes, through the comptroller.

How We Control American Commerce and Trade

CONGRESS regulates the commerce between this country and for-
eign countries and that which passes between States. Through
the latter power it controls railways and common carriers operat-
ing between States, corporations doing business in more than one State, and
such matters as the purity of food, the purity of drugs, and the contents of
publications which pass from one State to another. The matter of immi-
gration also comes into its hands, as does the matter of tariffs. It may
pass such laws as it sees fit, provided they do not transgress the Constitu-
tion, in regulating these. The business of handling these matters comes un-
der the jurisdiction of the Departments of Commerce and Labor, these de-

159

AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

partments being also responsible for the diffusing of information on sub-
jects related to labor. They essay, also, to adjust the differences between
parties involved in strikes that affect interstate and foreign commerce and
trade.

How We Operate the Post-Office System

SPECIFIC clauses in the Constitution give Congress the right to es-
tablish post-offices and post-roads, and through the powers thus con-
ferred it has built up our postal service. The business of this serv-
ice is a matter in the hands of the Post-Office Department. In addition to
handling mail such as letters and post-cards, it handles parcels, within
certain physical limits, and issues money-orders for use both within the bor-
ders of the country and to foreign countries. A recent law has created
postal savings banks.

How We Protect tHe American Territories

TERRITORY which is not part of a State and which is under the
jurisdiction of the Federal Government is known as Federal Ter-
ritory. It is treated as property of the United States and is gov-
erned under clauses in the Constitution which give Congress the right to
dispose of such territory and property and to make the rule necessary for
regulating it. At present all land actually on the Continent of North
America, except the District of Columbia and Alaska, under the jurisdiction
of the Federal Government is part of one State or another; but Alaska,
the Hawaiian Islands, the Philippine Islands, Porto Rico, the Panama
Canal Zone and certain insular possessions are Territories.

The Hawaiians have a governor and secretary appointed by the Presi-
dent and the Senate; all persons who were there citizens of the republic
of Hawaii in 1898, before annexation to the United States, enjoy the citi-
zenship of the latter; the Islands have a legislature consisting of two
houses, the members of each being elected by popular vote, the voters being
citizens of the United States, residents, and at least twenty-one years old.

The citizens of Porto Rico are citizens of that island only and do not
possess the citizenship of the United States ; it has an appointed governor,
serving a term of four years, and six appointed executive officers, also ap-
pointed by the President and the Senate. These six, together with five
citizens of good repute appointed by the President and the Senate, form the
upper house of its legislative body; the lower house consists of thirty-five
members who are native inhabitants of the island, elected by the popular
vote of the adult males in the island who satisfy certain residence require-
ments.

160

GOVERNMENT OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE

The Philippine Islands are governed according to an Organic Act
passed by Congress in 1902. The executive government is in the hands
of a commission of nine men, including the governor. All of them — five
Americans and four native Filipinos — are appointed by the President and
the Senate. The Philippine Commission is the upper house of the legis-
lative body, and voters in all but certain parts of the islands elect the mem-
bers of the lower house, these voters being men who meet certain literacy
tests, tests concerning payment of taxes or owning of property, and a taking
an oath of allegiance to the United States.

Alaska is governed by an executive appointed by the President and
the Senate. He enjoys a four-year term, sees that the laws of Congress
are obeyed, commands the militia, and makes an annual report to the Presi-
dent. Congress has passed codes of civil and criminal procedure for use in
Alaska.

The Panama Canal Zone has for an executive official the chairman of
the Isthmian Canal Commission, an appointee of the President, who as-
signs his authority to one of the commissioners. The commission, by au-
thority granted by the President, is the legislative organ for that territory;
there are seven commissioners, appointees of the President.

The District of Columbia, in which the city of Washington is situated,
has for an executive organ a board of three commissioners, two of whom
are civilians and the third a military officer. All three are appointees of the
President and govern the city with ordinances.

How We Operate Our State Governments

THE State Governments operate in spheres which are defined by the
Constitution. Their taxing powers are limited; they cannot tax
exports or imports, Federal property or instrumentalities; they
cannot interfere with interstate commerce or exercise any control over the
monetary system. No State may pass a bill of attainder or pass a law
divesting itself of its obligation of contracts. No State may in any way
curtail the privileges of a citizen of the United States or deprive them,
without court trial, of the rights of life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness.
All of these inhibitions are provided for by the Federal Constitution. In
making a study of the State Governments, it is manifestly impossible to
study each separately ; all that can be done here is to indicate what are the
common principles which are to be found in them.

The fundamental law in each State is its constitution, this document
usually having six parts, the first being a bill of rights, the second being
a framework of the State Government with its limitations set forth, the
third dealing with State finances, the fourth providing for economic welfare,

161

AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

the fifth dealing with educational and social welfare, the sixth dealing with
the methods for amending the State's Constitution.

The part dealing with the bill of rights usually provides that no citi-
zen is to be interfered with in the matter of his religion, freedom of speech,
of the press; trial by jury, indictment by grand jury and similar famous
rights are guaranteed. The part dealing with the framework of the State's
Government provides, in every instance, for an executive, a legislative, and
a judiciary branch of government.

Every one of the States has at the head of its executive branch a popu-
larly elected governor, excepting Mississippi, whose governor is elected by
an indirect method. The terms of these governors vary from one to four
years, and the qualifications which they must have involve minimum age
limitations, restrictions as to the number of terms one man may enjoy, and
so on. Their salaries range from $2,500 to $12,000. Usually they have
a wide appointing power, commanding State militia, have extensive par-
doning powers, and, in all instances, are responsible for the enforcement of
the State laws. In every State except North Carolina the governor has the
power of veto. Most of the States have as part of their administrative
machinery a lieutenant-governor, who is the legal successor to the governor
should the latter's term end prematurely; a secretary of state who has in
charge the State's archives, keeps election records and supervises elections;
a treasurer, who has charge of the State's moneys; an auditor, who has
charge of the State's books, and an attorney-general, who acts as the State's
counsel when it is a defendant and who prosecutes those who transgress
the State's law. In addition, most of the States have an extensive list of
minor officers of administration.

The legislative branch of the State Governments is in all cases a bi-
cameral body, known sometimes as the legislative assembly, sometimes as
the general assembly and sometimes by names of less general application.
Members of both houses are chosen by popular vote; the members meet a
variety of qualifications as to age, residence, and so on; their terms vary
from State to State, as their salaries.

The business of the State legislatures is to promulgate the laws by
which the State is governed, always with the understanding that no law
it may pass is valid if it comes into conflict with a provision in either the
State Constitution or the Federal Constitution. In organization and pro-
cedure they follow the general lines of the Federal legislature and are to a
great extent copies of it.

The States' judicial systems are also broad imitations of that of the
Federal Government, with supreme courts at the head of the systems and
beneath them courts of appeal, circuit courts, district courts, and county

162

BATTLE AT PRINCETON IN AMERICAN REVOLUTION— Here Washington surprised the British

on January 3, 1777, with a deadly bayonet charge — Frederick the Great, of

Prussia declared it a brilliant military achievement.

BATTLE OF GERMANTOWN IN AMERICAN REVOLUTION— Hen, in the confusion pf
fog at sunrise on October 4, 1777. the Americans met the British and were
forced to retreat — Washington s plans were upset and war prolonged.

courts. It is the State Court that the cases involving breaches of State law
or State jurisdiction must go. There is a great variety in the way in which
judges come to their positions, their terms, their salaries, and their removal.
The two great sources of State law are the statutes enacted by the State
legislatures and the English common law.

How We Manage Our Towns and Cities

FR purposes of local government, the States are divided into counties
^parishes in Louisiana), and these in turn are divided into towns
and townships. The chief officers in the counties are the sheriff,
the prosecuting attorney for that county for the State, and the judges whose
jurisdiction is limited to a county. Towns and townships are governed
by boards of one kind or another.

Cities in the United States are without exception amenable to the law
of the States in which they are found and enjoy a varying amount of lib-
erty in dealing with their own problems. The most common form of mu"
nicipal government is that in which the executive officer is a mayor. Lately,
government of cities ruled by commissions has been coming into vogue. As
further parts of the executive arm of municipal government there are boards
of health, of education, finance, departments of police, fire, water, and
so on.

What corresponds to the legislative branch of government in the Fed-
eral and State Governments is, in the cities, known as the board of alder-
men or city council. Their promulgations are known as ordinances and may
not conflict either with State or Federal law. They may raise revenue
through issuing licenses or levies on property; they may provide for mu-
nicipal enterprises of various kinds, and in so doing may contract loans and
issue city bonds. The municipality is, in fact, a corporation.

Thus, in this brief survey, we have observed the operation of our form
of government. It is a simple, straightforward business proposition in
which our success or failure depends largely upon the character and ability
of the men whom the people elect to public office — the servants of the peo-
ple. These offices should be filled by men of integrity and capacity, using
the same discrimination that is ordinarily used in appointing managers for
any business enterprise — as the operation of government is the greatest of
all business propositions.

The American Government has many problems to solve; it has met
many crises and has stood the test; it will meet many new crises in our eco-
nomic development and social progress. Let us all stand loyally, shoulder
to shoulder, as equal shareholders in this great co-operative enterprise,
laboring indefatigably for the success and prosperity of the nation.

165

PART II CHAPTER IV

GREAT AMERICAN WARS

This hand, to tyrants ever sworn the foe,
For freedom only deals the deadly blow;
Then sheathes in calm repose the deadly blade,
For gentle peace in freedom's hallowed shade.
— John Quincy Adams.

""W "W" "TAR — that mad game the world so loves to play" is indeed
% M / a survival of the medieval dictum that "might makes

W V right." When Reason is overthrown, men and nations
abandon all social and economic principles and fall back
to their biological instincts — the survival of the fittest by brute force and
cunning. War, therefore, is the court of arbitrament when Reason breaks
down. It is the constantly recurring animal instinct in social psychology;
it is an economic eruption.

But, with all its hideous tortures and glories, war has been a purga-
tive with which society has cleansed itself — by which it has purified itself
with fire. Primitive though it be, it is the process through which civiliza-
tion has forged its way and from which human freedom has been born.
The chains of bondage have been struck from the human race largely by
fire and sword. Mankind has attained liberty by rising in its physical
might and taking it ; he has had to break down tyranny by physical force.
And, strange as the paradox may seem, the greatest despot that ever held
the human race enslaved in its hideous clutches is this same overmastering
system of war. It will be the last of the despots to be dethroned, but that
time will come and is coming rapidly when war will be abolished as the
last vestige of savagery, and then at last reason will rule.

The American people are not a warring people ; they have progressed
beyond the gluttony of war — but they do not fail to realize that, while
war exists as a peril to mankind, it is the rule of reason that all nations
should be prepared to defend themselves against it. As Washington said :
"To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual ways of preserving
peace." The time will come, as Hugo predicted, when a cannon will be
a curiosity and arms will rust — when the world will wonder how such
things ever could have been. But until this time nations must be ready
to strike down the destroyer, while expending their efforts and genius to
devise a new medium for arbitrament — while planning for the universal
abolishment of war. The American people are a peace-loving people;

167

AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

they are leading the world to-day in solving the greatest problem that
besets the human race — emancipation from war. Mankind learns only
by experience and experiment — war will cease only when man discovers
that its cost is greater than its gains.

American civilization, however, has not been born without the strug-
gles and pains of war. It has passed through the crucible, under the
flaming sword. Let it be said, however, with emphasis, that it has made
its greatest progress through peace — by its inventive genius, which has
revolutionized and reconstructed the modern world — despite war. (See
chapter on Great American Inventions.)

War's victories consist almost wholly of political liberties and terri-
torial expansion — purchased at an incalculable cost of human lives and
enormous economic losses. The first explorers fought their way across the
American continent. The first wars were wars of conquest — the subjec-
tion of savagery to civilization in order to avoid a reversal of the situation ;
it was meeting primitive instincts with other primitive instincts. The
Spanish adventurers waged war on barbarity with a cruelty that was bar-
barity itself. The clashes between the English colonists and the Indians
were in self-defense from both viewpoints — each feared extermination
by the other. The French and Indian wars were fought to decide the mas-
tery of a continent.

The American Revolution — War For Independence

WAR for American Independence — this is the first American war
— that is a war of American nationality. The American Revo-
lution was an economic explosion — a social evolution — the
birth-throes of a gigantic idealism which gave conception to a new nation
and a new era. Like an eruption of Mount Vesuvius, there was a so-
cial eruption on the Western Hemisphere in which was emitted the burn-
ing lava of democracy — later to coagulate into a solid substance that was
to form the foundations of the American republic. This was the war
for American Independence, the economic causes of which are set forth
in the Declaration of Independence with words that have since inspired
the whole world to the love of liberty. This war was not so much a
revolt against despotic monarchy, however, as it was an outburst of the
dynamic forces of democracy, which have found an outlet for expression
on the American continent.

Let us survey the chief military facts associated with this war. Here
we see an army composed largely of peace-loving farmers and mechanics,
who, upon refusing to pay the taxes demanded by the British monarchy,
were forced to defend themselves against invasion by the soldiers of the

168

FIRST I5ATTLK OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION" — Here we see the patriots opposing the

British as they ma relied from Lexington to Concord — Paul Revere carried the warning on

his historic ride— The first battle was fought at Lexington, on April 19, 1775.

FIRST STEPS IN THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION — Here we see the colonists fortifying Breed's
Hill on the night »t" .lunr If,. 177.", The patriots worked incessantly all night — At day-
light the British ships in the river opened fire. The cannonading aroiusX>d
the sleepers in Boston and the Battle of Bunker Hill was fought.

WASHINGTON CROSSING THE DELAWARE— It is early morning December 25, 177G— The river is packed

•with floating ice — Washington stands in the bow, leading his army to surprise the British

intrenched at Trenton — Behind biru two soldiers hold an American flag.

depicts one of the

AM<M s I'AIMIM; IX THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM— This historic canvas which de,

most heroic incidents in the American Revolution, was painted in 1851 by Kmanuel 'Leutze
(1810-1868) — It was presented to the Metropolitan by John S. Kennedy.

GREAT AMERICAN WARS

king. It was the culmination of a long series of anti-climaxes in which
the monarchy, failing to comprehend the spirit of democracy, sought to
maintain its integrity by discipline and force. The beginnings of the
American armies were the Minute Men of New England. The troubles
between the English military governor of Massachusetts and the people
of that State were fast approaching a crisis, in the spring of 1775. A
Committee of Safety (note the word and make your own economic deduc-
tion) at Cambridge ordered that a military force be formed; this force
was to consist of 2,ooo men, who at a minute's notice were to leave the
occupations of peace and become soldiers. These men drilled to prepare
themselves for an emergency, and munitions for their use were stored.

The British governor, hearing of these activities, decided to assert the
power of the monarchy against insurrection and sent a force to Concord,
Massachusetts, where the munitions were hidden. But he was anticipated
by the people. On the night of April 18, 1775, the British troops began
the twenty-mile march from Boston to Concord. The Minute Men were
called to the defense of their property — and the two forces met in conflict
at the little village of Lexington. Here the first battle of the American
Revolution was fought — and won by the defenders. As soon as the news
reached Vermont, the Green Mountain Boys attacked and captured Fort
Ticonderoga, May 10, 1775.

The first real American army was now to come into existence. The
Continental Congress met in June, 1775, and designated the Boston forces
as the Continental Army of America. George Washington was appointed
to take supreme command. He received his commission on June i6th,
and, while on the way to join the army, he learned that the Battle of
Bunker Hill had been fought (June 17, 1775). Bunker Hill and Breed's
Hill, two mounds which overlook Boston, near Charlestown, were of
strategic importance, and the Americans knew that the British General
Gage intended to fortify them. A force sent to occupy Bunker's Hill
went by mistake to Breed's Hill and there threw up breastworks. The
British soldiers made the attack. In the first charge the Britishers were
driven back, for the Americans, waiting till "they could see the whites of
the enemies' eyes," withheld their fire till the enemy was right on top of
them. A second charge by the British was successful, and the Americans
retired.

It was on July 3, 1775, that Washington arrived at Boston and took
charge of the American forces. His troops were without discipline, they
were without uniforms, without sufficient powder, and their guns were of
every description — but they were aflame with an ideal. For eight months,
Washington kept the British locked up in Boston with this force, and in

173

AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

that time he organized a strong volunteer army under his inspiring leader-
ship. In the meantime, to forestall an attack from Canada, Congress sent
two forces there; one under Benedict Arnold, and another under Richard
Montgomery. Though Quebec was entered and Montreal was captured,
the American armies could not hold their positions and retired again to
American territory.

In the spring of 1776, Washington began active campaigning
against the British force in Boston. On March 17, he took Dorchester
Heights, south of Boston. The British General Howe, deeming it wiser
to retreat from Boston than to give battle, evacuated the town and sailed
with his army to Halifax. Washington, under the belief that New York
would be the next point of British attack, moved to that city and encamped
on Brooklyn Heights. General Howe, with 25,000 troops, came to Staten
Island, where he established a camp. He attempted to take the American
force at Brooklyn Heights in August, 1776, but Washington ingeniously
retreated from there, crossed over to Manhattan, and with the English
at his heels moved north to White Plains, where he finally crossed the
Hudson to retreat to Newark, New Jersey.

Here we witness the first discord which threatened to disrupt the
American cause. Washington had left General Charles Lee in New York
with a small force of men; he now ordered Lee to join him at Hackensack,
New Jersey. But Lee became a victim of his own jealousy and mutinously
refused to join Washington, who was then forced to start a retreat with
Philadelphia as its objective. The British General Cornwallis took ad-
vantage of the situation and followed him closely. Lee finally did cross
the Hudson and was captured by the British, but his force escaped, and,
under the command of General Sullivan, joined the commander-in-chief
just in time for an attack against the Hessians, mercenaries of the British,
in the battle of Trenton, on Christmas night, 1776, when 1,000 Hessians
were made prisoners. On came Cornwallis, driving the Americans into a
critical position between his own forces and the Delaware River. But
on the night of January 2, 1777, Washington slipped around Cornwallis'
army and routed three regiments by a rear attack. Cornwallis then retired
to New Brunswick, and Washington to Morristown, New Jersey. Both
armies encamped for the winter.

With the spring, activities were resumed. The British with a fleet
made a feint as though they were to take Philadelphia. Washington, who
had already made a march into New York from Morristown, found
it urgent to change his plans and march south. A British force under
Howe was landed on the shores of Chesapeake Bay. Washington moved
on to Wilmington, Delaware. As the British began a move against

174

(GREAT AMERICAN WARS

Washington, he fell back from Wilmington to Chadds Ford, on the Brandy-
wine, and there, on September 11, 1777, Washington was defeated.
Among those wounded in that fight was the Marquis de Lafayette, the
French aristocrat who had volunteered for service with the American army.
Washington retired to Philadelphia. Howe followed him thither, and,
being out-marched, Washington abandoned the city of Philadelphia and
moved to Valley Forge, after suffering a severe defeat at German-
town, Pennsylvania. Here he spent the winter; his troops were in pitiable
condition, the shoes of his soldiers being so worn that their bleeding feet
left blood-stains in the snow. Howe spent the winter in Philadelphia.

The two armies were now pitted around Philadelphia, fighting for pos-
session of that city. There was brilliant strategy, however, in this plan that
worked to the advantage of the Americans and won them the decisive vic-
tory. The defeats of the American army kept the British army divided.
The British, having planned to cut the New England States off from the
rest, decided to conquer the eastern part of New York State. General
Burgoyne was to march down to Albany from Lake Champlain. There
he was to meet a force under Colonel St. Leger, which would arrive after
coming down Lake Ontario to Oswego and through the valley of the Mo-
hawk to Albany. A third force under General Howe was to go up the
Hudson from Manhattan. On July 5, 1776, Burgoyne took Ticonderoga
and then went to Bennington to destroy American munitions, but there he
encountered Colonel John Stark's force and was routed. Howe failed to
come up the Hudson, and St. Leger met with defeat at Rome, New York.
Burgoyne, having no support, tried to retreat. He reached Saratoga and
there on October 17, 1777, was forced to surrender — thus the first decisive
victory in the war was won by the Americans.

France now espoused the American cause and sent aid in the form
of a fleet. Hearing of this, Sir Henry Clinton, successor to Howe, left
Philadelphia and came to New York. General Washington followed,
and in the fall of 1778 partly surrounded the British army in New York
by stretching his forces in a cordon from Morristown, New Jersey, to
West Point, New York. The British in New York now for some months
were to rest on their arms. Their campaigns as a whole had not been
decided successes. They now transferred their activities to the South,
after making attempts, during 1779, to draw Washington away from
New York. The British General Clinton, in the spring of 1780, cap-
tured Charleston, South Carolina. A new American army had been
quickly raised and placed under General Gates, but it was defeated by
Cornwallis at Camden, South Carolina, on August 16, 1780. It was a
very severe defeat and came soon after another tragedy — the brilliant

175

AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

but deluded Benedict Arnold, in command at West Point, intrigued in
July, 1780, to deliver the fort to the British. The British agent in the
conspiracy, Major Andre, was captured, and Arnold fled to the British lines,
later becoming a British officer.

Again a new American army was raised for operations in the South,
and this time General Nathaniel Greene was given command. He all but
destroyed the British forces in the South at Cowpens, South Carolina, on
January 17, 1781. Cornwallis was now pitted against him. Though
forced to much strategical retreating during the next few months,
Greene had driven the British out of South Carolina by the fall of
1781. Cornwallis now started to fortify Yorktown, Virginia, where he
was surrounded by the American forces on land (now under the com-
mand of Washington) and the French fleet on the sea. The decisive mo-
ment had come — only surrender was left to him, and he took that action
on October 19, 1781. This marked the end of British hopes for success,
and, though there was further fighting between scattered forces, a treaty
of peace was signed in November, 1782. The American Revolution had
been fought and won — the spirit of democracy had triumphed — a new na-
tion was born.

It would not be just to close this brief survey of the American
Revolution without a few words regarding the American naval forces and
their brilliant victories. The American navy had come into existence on
October 13, 1775, when Congress commissioned two sailing vessels; two
months later it authorized the building of thirteen cruisers. While
these were on the stays, merchant vessels to the number of eight were
converted into warships; this fleet sailed to the Bahamas, where it made
an attack and returned safely to New London, Connecticut. Meantime,
privateers were "sniping" at British merchantmen and warships every-
where. On the coast of France, the Surprise and the Revenge were fitted
out and sailed under the American flag, doing much damage to British
shipping in 1777. John Paul Jones, with the Bonhomme Richard, har-
ried the English coasts, entered the harbor of Whitehaven, destroyed mu-
nitions there, and fought the British Drake, which he captured (1778).
On September 23, 1779, he met and fought the Serapis, which survived
the fight. When his own ship went down, he sailed away in his prize.
The British lost 102 vessels in the war; the 24 lost by the Americans
amounted to almost their entire navy. By the articles of the final treaty
of peace, which were signed in 1783, the English Government acknowl-
edged the Independence of the United States, and the boundaries of the
new republic were decided and agreed upon.

176

BATTLE OP THE THAMES IN WAR OF 1812 — Gen. William H. Harrison vanquished the

British, on October 5, 181 3 — Their Indian allies were routed, and fled into

the swamps — Tecumseh, the Indian chief, was slain.

BATTLES AT PLATTSBURG IN WAR OF 1812 — Here, on banks of Lake Champlain, the

Americans met the British on their invasion from Canada — After terrific fighting

the British on September 11, 1814, fled back to Canada.

FAMOUS NAVAL BATTLES IN AMERICAN HISTORY— This engraving memorializes the
great battle between the Constitution and the Guerri6re — It was fought on August
19, 1812, off the Bay of Fundy — The Guerri6re was set on fire and blown up.

HEROIC DEEDS OF GALLANT AMERICANS — Captain Lawrence was fatally wounded
battle between the Chesapeake and Shannon, on June 1, 1813 — Forced to surrender, his
ship was taken as a prize into Halifax — His last words were : "Don't give up the ship."

GREAT AMERICAN WARS

War With France — Establishing American Integrity

WAR with France — this is the second war of the American people
and the first after the founding of the nation. It was a series
of short hostilities with France — a most unfortunate misunder-
standing with America's loyal friend in the American Revolution. After
the Revolution the French became offended with America because of our
recent treaty, Jay's Treaty, with England, which was signed in 1794. It
brought an end to France's hopes that America might again engage in
war against her enemy England, and it angered the French because of
the advantages which it gave to England. Friction between America
and France grew until the public here believed that our national honor
was at stake. The expulsion of the American minister from France had
much to do with bringing on this state of affairs. War came in 1798,
and it was fought entirely on the sea. The Amercian warships Constella-
tion^ Boston and Enterprise met the French ships Insurgente, Vengeance,
Berceau, and others, in individual encounters — and in each the Americans
won. Minor fights proved as glorious for America and, when Napoleon
became the head of the French Government, he, in 1800, brought the hostil-
ities to an end. This war at least asserted to the world that the Amer-
ican nation was an independent power that proposed to maintain its
integrity.

Second War With England — Establishing Freedom of the Seas

WAR of 1812 against England — this is the third American war
— only twenty-nine years after our first victory over the Mother-
country. It is known as the second war with England or the
War of 1812. The trouble arose over the freedom of American com-
merce. England and France were engaged in the Napoleonic War. In
seeking to destroy each other's commerce, they flagrantly disregarded
American rights on the sea from 1806 onward. The actions of the Eng-
lish in this respect were very defiant to the American people. It was
generally believed that they were seeking revenge because they had not
forgotten the English rule in America previous to 1776. In the proclama-
tion of war, issued June 18, 1812, President Madison named four causes
for declaring it: the inciting of Indians to attack on the American fron-
tiers, the interference with American commerce in European waters, the
stationing of cruisers off American ports to search American vessels, and
the impressment of American seamen.

Three American armies immediately started to invade Canada under
Generals Hull, Van Rensselaer and Dearborn. But all three were de-

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AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

feated, Hull surrendering. Oliver Hazard Perry, with a fleet hastily
equipped on the Great Lakes, captured the whole of the British lake fleet
at the Battle of Lake Erie, in September, 1812. His victory was com-
plete and his report of it was given in the cryptic message: "We have
met the enemy and they are ours."

Another attempt at invading Canada was made in 1813. The town of
York was taken and burned, but the American forces did not have confidence
to go on and returned to New York. A third attempt was made in 1814,
and Generals Winfield Scott and Jacob Brown won the battles of Chip-
pewa and Lundys Lane, only to be driven out of Canada later. The
British now planned to invade New York with the same plan on which
Burgoyne had started out in 1776. But their land forces were defeated
at Plattsburg by General Macomb, and their fleet was destroyed in Platts-
burg Bay by McDonough.

On the high seas the Americans were writing glorious history.
When the war started, there were sixteen ships in the American navy to
1,200 in the British service. The American frigate Constitution started
with a victory over the Guerriere and many other British ships. The
United States defeated the Macedonian, and the Wasp captured the Brit-
ish ship Frolic, but on the same day was taken by the Poic tiers. In 1813,
the Constitution added to her fame by taking the Java; the English ship
Peacock fell a victim to the Hornet, and the Boxer was captured by the
American ship Enterprise. The Pelican of the English navy defeated
the Argus after the latter had destroyed 27 ships in English waters.
The American ship Chesapeake, under Captain Lawrence, was challenged
by the Shannon in Boston Harbor and was defeated. Lawrence, before
meeting his death, uttered the famous command: "Don't give up the
ship." By 1814 the British ceased to consider the heroic little American
navy as a weak adversary, and, realizing the humiliating position in
which the empire was being placed, sent over here all available ships
and blockaded the American ports. A large fleet came up from Bermuda,
and, entering Chesapeake Bay, sailed up and landed troops in Mary-
land. Marching on to Washington, the British burned public buildings
in revenge for the burning of York. Meanwhile, an extremely large ex-
pedition set out from Jamaica in November, 1814, to take New Orleans.
Madison ordered Andrew Jackson to defend the Southern city. With
a loss of only 71 men, he saved New Orleans and inflicted the loss of
2,036 English troops in battle on January 8, 1815. The British made
no further attacks against him. Peace negotiations had been opened and
a treaty was signed at Ghent, calling for cessation of hostilities and arrang-
ing permanent agreement for peace, a month before the attack was made

180

GREAT AMERICAN WARS

on New Orleans. But, owing to the fact that news could at that time
cross the Atlantic only on sailing vessels, this message arrived in America
too late to prevent the battle.

The treaty which resulted from the war embodied no mention what-
soever of the causes of the war. As far as the document itself went, it
did little more than end the fighting; but the war had brought the atten-
tion of the world to the fact that America stood ready to defend its rights
at all times. It was an excellent warning to the Old World powers —
and a warning which they heeded till the end of the century.

War With Mexico — Maintaining American Principles

WAR with Mexico — this is the fourth American war. The causes
of this war lay hi the troubles that had been engendered by the
admission of Texas into the Union in 1845. When the Re-
public of Texas declared its independence of Mexico, in 1837, its
boundaries were set to the westward along the Rio Grande, from one
end of it to the other, and along a line running north from its source
to the 42nd parallel. Mexico claimed that the western boundary ran
along the Nueces River. The land between the Nueces River and the
Rio Grande was in dispute up to 1846. At that time the Federal Gov-
ernment decided to stand by the claims of Texas and sent troops into
the disputed territory. General Zachary Taylor was placed in command.
He was attacked by the Mexicans on April 25, 1846. When the news
reached the President, he decided to declare war. A proclamation was
issued on May 12, 1846. Congress voted money and supplies for an
army of 50,000 volunteers. Taylor met the Mexicans at Palo Alto and
defeated them. He defeated them again at Resaca de la Palma and then
took Matamoras. Here he remained to wait for supplies and reinforce-
ments before marching on to Monterey. The Mexican General Ampudia
surrendered that city on September 24, 1846, after a hard battle. Gen-
eral Taylor moved on to Saltillo.

With the increase in the number of American troops, General Win-
field Scott was placed in supreme command of all the American forces
and was despatched to Mexico. He reached the theater of war in Janu-
ary, 1847. He met Santa Anna at Vera Cruz, whence the latter had
gone after having been defeated by Taylor at Buena Vista on February
23, 1847. Scott took Vera Cruz in March and then started on his con-
quest of Mexico City. He fought battles in quick succession — Cerro
Gordo, April 18; Jalapa, April 19; Perote, April 22; Puebla, May 15.
He reached his goal on August 10, 1847, and captured it on the 14th of
September, 1847. General Scott had been victorious in every engagement,

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AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

but the loss of men through the climatic conditions, disease, and battle,
was enormous.

While these operations to the southward were going on, the Gov-
ernment despatched Colonel Stephen Kearny to New Mexico in the sum-
mer of 1846. After taking that territory in the name of the govern-
ment he marched west to take California, but on his arrival there found
that it had been taken by Fremont. Hearing rumors of the war with
Mexico, the American settlers in California had revolted and set up a
republic of their own, receiving material aid from Fremont, who hap-
pened to be in the mountains with a force, and from Commodore Stock-
ton, who was then in Californian waters with his fleet. These forces held
the country until Kearny arrived.

The Mexicans, defeated everywhere, were not loath to sign the
treaty of peace which was promulgated at Guadalupe Hidalgo in Febru-
ary, 1848. By its terms Mexico ceded the land which now comprises
California, Nevada, part of Utah, New Mexico, and part of the present
State of Arizona — upon a payment of $15,000,000. Claims held by
American citizens against Mexico, amounting to more than $3,000,000,
were to be paid by the United States. The newly acquired territory con-
tained 522,568 square miles.

American Civil War — Decision of a Constitutional Problem

AMERICAN Civil War — this is the fifth great American war.
Here we find the country divided against itself on a great eco-
nomic issue. The issue which brought on the Civil War, and
which was fought out by that war, was a constitutional question — the
right of a State or States to secede from the Union, arising over the ques-
tion of the extension of slavery, not the abolition of slavery.

When Abraham Lincoln was elected to the Presidency, in 1860, the
Southerners realized that to rely on the ballot for the maintenance of
their stand on the question was hopeless. They were out-voted; they
saw that their voice would be a minor voice in the new Congress; they
feared that this Congress and the President would not properly represent
them and guarantee what they believed to be their rights. They decided
to sever all connections with the Federal Government and set up their
own Confederacy.

A convention of delegates was called by the legislature of South
Carolina a few days after Lincoln was elected. It formally renounced its
connection with the Union, claiming to be a "sovereign, free and inde-
pendent" State. This action was quickly followed by Alabama, Florida,
Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas. Six of these States entered a

182

BATTLE OF CIIIPPEWA IN WAR OF 1812 — It was here, near Niagara Falls, on the Canadian

border, that the Americans under terrific fire attacked and repulsed

the British and Indian allies on July llth, 1814.

BATTLE AT LUXDY'S LANE IN WAR OF 1812 — Here, near the great cataract of Niagara Falls,

a terrific battle between the Americans and British took place on July

23, 1814 — It was the most brilliant exploit of the war.

GREAT AMERICAN WARS

confederation on February 4, 1861, and set up the government of the
Confederate States of America. Jefferson Davis was elected Provisional
President and a constitution was formed.

President Lincoln, in his interpretation of the American Constitution,
refused to consider the Union dissolved. He declared he would carry
out its laws with force as a final means. Fort Sumter, in South Caro-
lina, was a Federal military station defended by a force of Union soldiers.
On April 12, 1861, the Confederates fired on it and forced it to fall —
the first shots in the most terrible fratricidal war in the world's history.
The South had a population united in opinion as to the righteousness of
its course. It had, also, the sympathy of all the great powers in Europe
with the single exception of Russia.

President Lincoln immediately called for 75,000 militia for three
months' services. Arkansas, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia were
forced to declare their position — all of them pledging themselves to the
Confederacy. The Confederate capital was established at Richmond,
Virginia. The mountaineers in the western part of Virginia formed the
new State of West Virginia and cast their lot with the Union. Acting
on the ground that the Union was still intact, Lincoln indicated that
his volunteers were to come from every State in the Union, but no response
came from those which had seceded, and the 75,000 men came from the
North. By the summer of 1861, there were 183,588 men in the Union
uniform, 42,000 having been enlisted for three years' service. The
South raised a formidable army, and the two forces lined up for battle.
The dividing line was in three parts; the first ran from Fortress Monroe,
Virginia, up Chesapeake Bay to the Potomac River and westward to the
mountains; the second part ran from there through West Virginia, and
across Kentucky — which assumed neutrality — to the Mississippi River;
the third part ran from there across the Indian Territory and New Mexico.

The first battle occurred at Bull Run, in Virginia, thirty miles south-
west of Washington, on July 21, 1861. It was a victory for the South.
General Winfield Scott was chief in command of the Union forces.
Under him was General McDowell, commanding the forces near Wash-
ington. Further to the west, General Patterson was in command, while
General George B. McClellan held the lines across West Virginia and the
western part of old Virginia. General Lyon held command of the Union
troops in Missouri. On the Southern side, General Beauregard opposed
General McDowell at Bull Run, and other able strategists were espous-
ing *he Southern cause. In the eastern theater there was to be no fight-
ing for some time after the battle of Bull Run, for McClellan gave his time
to drilling his troops.

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AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

In the western theater of war, General Buell sent General Thomas
against the Confederates at Mill Springs in January, 1862, in an effort to
break the Confederate line. And, in the next month, General Grant and
Flag Officer Foote of the naval forces were commanded by their superior,
General Hal leek, to attack Fort Henry on the Tennessee River. Foote,
having accomplished this alone, Grant took his own force to attack Fort
Donelson on the Cumberland River and defeated General Buckner, who
surrendered to him on February 16, 1862.

The Confederates now fell back toward Corinth, Mississippi, and
were followed by three armies under General Halleck. The army under
General S. R. Curtis defeated the Confederates in Missouri; the army
under General John Pope cooperated with a force under Foote, took
Island No. 10 and then rejoined Halleck as he moved against Corinth.
A Union fleet went down the Mississippi and after causing the fall of
Fort Pillow, sailed on down to Memphis, which was captured on June 6,
1862. Grant had meanwhile been following the Confederates and, upon
reaching Pittsburg Landing, was given battle and defeated by General
A. S. Johnston. On the next day, April 7, 1862, he fought Johnston again
and won the battle of Shiloh. Johnston moved on to Corinth and left it
on occupation by Halleck at the end of May. The Unionist commander
was then called to Washington to take command of all the Federal forces.

The Unionist line in the west now ran from Memphis and Corinth
to Chattanooga. Starting from the last named place, the Confederate
General Bragg moved toward Louisville, Kentucky, but a counter move
by General Buell thwarted him. Buell had drawn on Grant for troops
for this move. Knowing this, the Confederate Generals Price and Van
Dorn moved from luka and Holly Springs, respectively, for Corinth, but
Grant despatched his subordinate, Rosecrans, to meet the former, which
he did with success. Bragg now prepared to winter at Murfreesboro, Ten-
nessee, and was attacked there by Rosecrans, who now had command of
BuelPs army. A three days' battle fought there, beginning December,
1862, ended in the defeat of Bragg. Farther west, General Curtis drove
the Confederates south of the Arkansas River and west of the Mississippi
during the year 1862, and at the end of that year only Vicksburg, Grand
Gulf, and Port Hudson were left to the Confederate forces in that theater
of war. General Butler, cooperating with naval forces under Farragut,
in the spring of 1862, set out to capture New Orleans. Farragut bom-
barded its defending forts, destroyed the Confederate fleet, and, by April
25, 1862, had taken the city. General Butler marched into it and held
it till the end of the war.

The year 1862 had not given the Unionist forces much hope in the

186

GREAT AMERICAN WARS

eastern theater of fighting. The Northern populace was demanding that
the army take Richmond. McClellan aroused disfavor because he failed
in the attempt and did not agree with the Administration's plan for the
move. The fighting here was to take place on the peninsula formed by
Chesapeake Bay and the James River, which gave these operations the
name of the Peninsula Campaign. It was finally settled that McClellan
was to go from Washington to Fortress Monroe by water, and then march
up the peninsula to Richmond, where he was to be joined by McDowell.
McDowell was to arrive there by marching from Fredericksburg. To pre-
vent an attack by the Confederates upon Washington from the west, Gen-
erals Fremont and Banks were to operate in the Shenandoah Valley. The
fear of attack on Washington hampered Unionist operations throughout
the war. It was a favorite move of the Confederate generals to threaten
the capital whenever they wished to draw Unionist forces from Virginia.

General Joseph E. Johnston gave McClellan battle when the latter
landed at the southern end of the Peninsula, while General T. J. Jack-
son ("Stonewall" Jackson) prevented McDowell from joining McClellan
by raiding the Shenandoah, driving the force of General Banks into Mary-
land, and escaping southward before he could be apprehended by Fremont
or McDowell. Jackson won four hard battles in a little over a month
and so alarmed the authorities at Washington that they ordered the force
of McDowell to be held in northern Virginia. McClellan was left to his
own resources and support; he went up to within eight miles of Richmond,
by following the Chickahominy River, and defeated Johnston at the bat-
tle of Fair Oaks on May 31, 1862. That commander was now replaced
by General Robert E. Lee, who, in cooperation with Jackson, gave battle
to McClellan at Mechanicsville and Gains Mill and forced him, on July
i, 1862, to retreat to Harrison's Landing; he remained there until Au-
gust and then was ordered to take up a position on the Potomac River.

It was at this time that Halleck arrived from the West to take
command of the Union forces. A new Unionist army, under General
Pope, covered a line running along the Rappahannock and Rapidan Riv-
ers to the Shenandoah Valley; this was attacked by Lee, who defeated
General Banks on the Rapidan, moved against Pope at the second battle
of Bull Run, and sent the Unionist forces back to Washington, there to
be joined by those of McClellan. Crossing into Maryland, Lee was de-
feated by McClellan at the battle of Antietam, September 17, 1862, and
returned to Virginia. McClellan was removed in favor of General Burn-
side, who moved against the fortifications at Fredericksburg Heights, De-
cember 13, 1862, and went into winter quarters after a bloody defeat
there.

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AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

Lincoln now issued the Emancipation Proclamation, on September
22, 1862, declaring free all slaves in territory at war with the Union,
thus placating the discontented Northerners by making the war turn on
.the slavery question and giving it a moral sanction, and also thwarting
the plans of European governments, which were about to recognize South-
ern sovereignty. He knew that the common people in Europe would not
support action by their governments which showed any sympathy with
the institution of slavery. The proclamation was, therefore, strictly a
measure of war.

The spring of 1863 was to see renewed activity by the armies on
both sides. Burnside was succeeded by "Fighting Joe" Hooker, who led
his force against Lee and met defeat at Chancellorsville on May 4, 1863.
Lee now decided to take the offensive and went into Pennsylvania by way
of the Shenandoah and a crossing of the Potomac. A small detachment of
Confederate soldiers, having gone into the little town of Gettysburg, Penn-
sylvania, for shoes, accidently met and fought with an equally small de-
tachment of Federal troops. The commanders of the larger armies —
for General Meade, a successor of Hooker, had followed Lee — hearing
the firing, sent small reinforcements to these small detachments. More
and more reinforcements were sent by each side, so that the accidental
meeting of the original detachments on July i, 1863, developed into a
three days' battle — the greatest battle ever fought on American soil. Lee
was defeated and on July 4, 1863, with his army, was again on his way
south. The first attempt at raiding Northern States had ended in failure.

Independence Day, 1863, brought more news to Washington, for on
that day Vicksburg had surrendered to Grant after seven weeks of siege.
When Fort Hudson surrendered on July 9, 1863, the Mississippi River
was open to Federal use from one end to another, and the Confederacy was
cut in half.

The business of the Unionist armies in the West was now to force
the Confederates eastward. Rosecrans, while Grant was operating
against Vicksburg, advanced against Bragg, defeating him south of Mur-
freesboro and compelling him to retreat into northern Georgia; Rose-
crans defeated Bragg again at Chickamauga, September 19 and 20, 1863
— mainly through the splendid generalship of his subordinate, George H.
Thomas — and th«n retired to Chattanooga. Rosecrans was here suc-
ceeded by Thomas, and the army was saved from starvation by the arrival
of an army coming from Virginia in command of General Hooker. Bragg
had followed Rosecrans' army to Chattanooga, but was now to be de-
feated by Thomas in the battle of Lookout Mountain, or the Battle in the

188

CAPTURE OF FORT GEORGE IX WAR OF 1812 — Desperate charge against the fort "on Niagara

River — It was captured by the American troops under General Dearborn after a

daring attack on May 27. 1813 — Its defenders were taken prisoners.

MASSACRE OF FOIJT MI-M.MS IN WAR OF 1812— This massacre of the whites by Creek Indians

took place at the Stockade in Alabama on August 30, 1813 — Over 500 men.' women

and children were killed by Indians under Weathersford, a half-breed.

GREAT AMERICAN WARS

Clouds, November 25, 1863. Bragg retreated into northern Georgia and
was succeeded in command by General Joseph E. Johnston.

There were now left but two points of resistance in the hands of
the Confederates — Dalton, Georgia, where Johnston rested with his
army; and the Rapidan and Rappahannock Rivers, where Lee was win-
tering with the army of Virginia. With the passing of the winter, Grant,
who now held the rank of Lieutenant General, a rank held previously
only by Washington and Winfield Scott, put into operation a scheme for
destroying both the remaining Confederate armies. He had left Gen-
eral Sherman in command of the armies of the West and ordered him to
commence a drive into Georgia on the 4th day of May, 1864; he himself
was on that day to start a campaign against Lee in Virginia.

Sherman started on the appointed day and, with 98,000 men, moved
against the Confederate commander, Johnston, at Dalton, Georgia. But
Johnston was a master of the strategy of retreat and succeeded in escap-
ing to Atlanta. Here Johnston was succeeded by General J. B. Hood,
who, after giving battle to Sherman three times during July, 1864, left
Atlanta and started northwestward. But Sherman was wise enough not
to pursue him with his whole force and sent General Thomas against him.
Thomas drove Hood into Tennessee and then rejoined Sherman at Atlanta.
In November, 1864, with 60,000 troops, Sherman began his famous march
from Atlanta to the sea, leaving behind him a belt of devastation sixty
miles wide, tearing up all railroads, destroying bridges, despoiling farms
and all property which might be useful to a pursuing army. He "pre-
sented Savannah as a Christmas gift" to Lincoln at the end of 1864.
Resting there for a month, he marched north, and, by March 1, 1865,
had reached Goldsboro, North Carolina, routing an army under Hood on
the way.

Grant had kept his part of the agreement by marching into "the
Wilderness," the wooded country south of the Rapidan, and after terrific
battles reached Cold Harbor, an outer-defense of Richmond, and then took
up his position for the siege of Petersburg from the south. He had been
engaged in a "hammering campaign," which he determined to carry
through to victory without regard to the great loss of men which it neces-
sitated.

Lee, with brilliant strategy, in order to draw Grant's forces away,
ordered a raid made up the Shenandoah, threatening Washington, and
chose General Jubal Early to make it. He arrived before the capital's
fortifications and then returned to Virginia. When he attempted further
raids, Grant sent General Sheridan into the Shenandoah to stop them, and

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AMERICA: THE LAND W& LOVE

this Sheridan accomplished by defeating the Confederates at the battle of
Winchester, on October 19, 1864.

The Confederate forces were now so near annihilation that pour-
parlers for peace were initiated. The Confederate Vice-President, Alex-
ander H. Stephens, met Lincoln on a vessel in Hampton Roads, but the
terms proposed by Lincoln were not acceptable, and the fighting continued.
In the spring of 1865, Lee saw that Richmond could not hold out. Ac-
cordingly, he evacuated the Confederate capital on April 3rd. He was
pursued by Grant and surrendered at Appomattox Court House, Virginia,
on April 9, 1865. On April 26th, Johnston surrendered to Sherman near
Raleigh, North Carolina.

The war was not decided, however, merely by the operations of
the opposing armies. The Federal navy had been largely instrumental
in securing the Confederate defeat. There were forty steam-propelled
and fifty sailing vessels listed as warships of the United States when the
war began. These were well scattered throughout the seven seas at the
opening of hostilities, and many were out of commission, but a force was
made available to blockade all the Confederate coasts. The remaining
business of the navy was to capture what seaports it could, to command
estuaries of every kind — river mouths, bays, etc., — to open the Mississippi
with the aid of the army and to destroy all ships flying the Confeder-
ate flag.

The blockade was declared on April 19, 1861, and was successful
from the start. This had great strategic influence, for the South had no
ships to bring to it munitions of war, which it could not produce because
of the lack of mills and factories characteristic of agricultural regions.
In addition, the South could be impoverished by stopping shipment of
its great cotton crop to the customary buyers in Europe. The embar-
rassing feature about the blockade was that it caused hardship in Eng-
land, where thousands starved when the cotton-mills could no longer ob-
tain raw cotton. This induced the British Government to seek relief by
aiding the South in breaking down the blockade and bringing a quick end-
ing to the war.

Blockade-running, of course, became profitable. The South tried
retaliation by sending out commerce destroyers to prey on Unionist
merchantmen, and was aided in these operations by England. The cruis-
ers Florida, Alabama, and Shenandoah were built in British seaports, fitted
out there, and sailed to attack American ships — a breach of neutrality
on the part of England which was settled long after the war by her pay-
ment of an indemnity. The cruiser Wachusett captured the "Florida in
the harbor of Bahia, Brazil ; and the Alabama was defeated by the Rear-

192

GREAT AMERICAN WARS

sarge off the coast of France, near Cherbourg, June 19, 1864, in one of
the most famous battles in marine history. The Shenandoah went uncap-
tured during the entire war and with the end of the Confederacy returned
to England.

In the defense of their rivers the Confederates devised a new type
of fighting ship. Cutting down the hulls of several sailing vessels, they
covered what remained of them with sheet iron or railway ties, thus
making them almost invulnerable against the cannon of the day. These
ironclads, as they were called, could ram and sink the enemies' ships with
ease, and the Southerners used them for that purpose with great success.
This was the beginning of the ironclad. The most famous of them was
the Merrimac. To stop her depredations, the Federalists sent to Hamp-
ton Roads the craft named the Monitor. This ship was built mostly under
water; it had an iron deck like a raft and mounted a revolving turret car-
rying two guns. It was said to be like "a cheese-box on a raft." These
two odd boats met in combat in Hampton Roads on the morning of
April 9, 1862, and fought a drawn battle. It had a great result, never-
theless, for by the next morning every wooden fighting ship throughout
the world was obsolete — the ironclad age had dawned.

The surrender of Lee and of Johnston brought about the fall of the
Confederacy. No treaty brought the war to an end, for the Federal vic-
tory had established as law the assertion of Lincoln that the Union still
existed. It had been finally settled that no State could lawfully secede
from the Union. In money the war had cost heavily. The national
debt stood at $90,000,000 in 1861 before the firing on Sumter; it stood
at $1,109,000,000, plus the $90,000,000, by August 31, 1865. The
States and municipalities had contracted debts to the amount of $468,000,-
ooo through the war. Six billion dollars more were to be laid out by
the Federal Government from the time that Lee surrendered to 1879.
The cost in money to the South was incalculable; most of the fighting
had taken place on Southern soil, and the damage resulting to property
cannot even be estimated. The loss from the emancipation of slaves came
to at least $2,000,000,000. The cost of the American Civil War has
been estimated at $10,000,000,000 in money — a total of $30,000,000,-
ooo with all the economic losses.

But the loss in men was even more serious, and more to be regretted
because both sides were of the same nationality. The highest number of
men in the Unionist uniform at any one time was 1,000,516, and the total
enlistment for the four years for the North came to more than 2,000,000.
The Federals lost a total of 67,000 men killed in battle, 43,000 who
died of wounds, 230,000 who died of disease, exposure, and other causes.

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AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

The number in the Confederate army has never been accurately estimated,
but is probably nearly 1,000,000 men. The losses probably were as
large as on the Northern side. Thus the war brought death to 700,000
American men. It settled forever, however, a great world problem and
united the American people into an indissoluble Union — now and forever.

War With Spain — "America for Humanity"

WAR with Spain — this is the fifth great American war— the dis-
coverer of the Western World. Throughout the Nineteenth
Century the islanders in Cuba were agitating for independence
from Spain, following the successful attempts made by Mexico and the
countries in South America. A sixth attempt was started in 1895, an<^
such severity was resorted to by Spain to suppress the spirit of freedom
that it stirred up the feelings of the American people. Money and food
were sent to the Cubans, and attempts were made to induce Congress to
recognize their belligerent rights. Hatred for the repressive measures
of Spain grew intense in the United States. It was brought to a climax
when the battleship Maine, while lying in Havana Harbor, was blown up
on February 15, 1898. It has never been determined whether this was
done by Spaniards or by Cuban patriots who wished to precipitate action
on the part of the United States. But public opinion demanded that the
United States restore peace in Cuba. This could be done only by driv-
ing Spain from the island. War was declared on April 21, 1898, and
$50,000,000 was voted by Congress to carry it through. Volunteers were
called for, and 200,000 men enlisted.

Commodore George Dewey, who was at Hongkong with an Amer-
ican fleet, was ordered to proceed to the Philippine Islands — Spanish pos-
sessions. The fleet under Rear-Admiral Sampson was sent to Cuban
waters. Dewey destroyed a Spanish fleet in Manila harbor and then
blockaded the city, May i, 1898. Sampson found the Atlantic fleet of
the Spaniards in the harbor of Santiago de Cuba, and, after keeping it
bottled up there, fought it on its attempt to get away to sea. He de-
stroyed the fleet and took its admiral, Cervera, prisoner, on July 3, 1898.
Cervera had attempted to flee when the city of Santiago was about to fall
into the hands of the American land forces operating in the island. Gen-
eral Shafter, with 18,000 men, after fighting the battles of El Caney and
San Juan Hill, July 1-3, was ready to take the city itself. It was oc-
cupied by American troops on July 14, 1898. General Miles was then
sent with a force to capture Porto Rico, which he did with little trou-
ble. Spain was now willing to consider peace negotiations, and a protocol
was signed on August 12, 1898, but, before word of the cessation of hos-

194

BATTLE OF VERA CRUZ IN WAR WITH MEXICO — This War was the first In history, lasting

two years, in which no defeat was sustained by one party and no victory

won by the other — Vera Cruz was captured, March 27, 1847.

BATTLE OF CERRO GORDO IN WAR WITH MEXICO— Gen. Scott on bis march from Vera

Cruz to City of Mexico stormed the fortress, bristling with batteries 1,000 .feet

above the river and routed Santa Anna on April 17, 1847.

BATTLE OF NEW ORLEANS IN AMERICAN CIVIL WAR— This painting shows Admiral Farragut

on the Flagship "Hartford," running the fire of the Confederate forts at daybreak, with

ship in flames — This victory prevented Napoleon from recognizing the Confederacy.

ni IN GREAT AMERICAN WARS— Famous Civil War Paintinjr by Overond

fl*ht hnt* 'n Amer^an Art th« heroic adventure of Admiral Farragu ? in the naval
nght between the Federal and Confederate fleets on the Mississippi River in 1862

BATTLS OP BUENA VISTA IN MEXICAN WAR — Here Gen. Zachary Taylor, after fearful

slaughter, routed the Mexicans on November 23, 1846 — Santa Anna fell back

and his utterly dispirited army was almost dissolved.

BATTLE OF MOLINO DEL KEY IN WAR WITH MEXICO— Here the Americans under General

Scott fought a desperate battle on September 8th, 1847, on the march to Mexico

City — Six days later victorious army entered the capital.

GREAT AMERICAN WARS

tilitics could reach the Far East, the American land forces under Gen-
eral Merritt and the fleet under Dewey closed in on Manila and took
that city.

The final treaty of peace was signed at Paris, December 10, 1898.
By its terms Spain gave up claim to Cuba, Porto Rico, Guam (an island
in the Pacific), and the Philippines. For public works in the latter she
received $20,000,000. Cuba was later to be set up as an independent
republic, but the other territories were to become part of the American
domain. Some years were spent in suppressing native insurrections in
the Philippines, but peace was finally restored, and the islands entered on
a new era of civilization and prosperity. It was the Spanish War, more-
over, that broke the chains of provincialism in America and brought the
United States before all the nations as a world power.

America, therefore, has not been a warless nation. It has been
forced to fight its way up from the wilderness; it purchased its freedom
with blood; it established its integrity with blood; it secured its freedom
on the seas with blood ; it expanded its dominion of freedom with blood ;
it emancipated its slaves and established national unity with blood; it took
its stand for humanity and stepped out as a world power with blood. But
it may be said that the Americans have never instigated a war; they have
never fought a war for self-aggrandizement; they have never lost a war.
Every American war has been for the furtherance of civilization and the
betterment of humanity.

199

PART III CHAPTER V

GREAT AMERICAN INVENTIONS

"Necessity is the mother of invention." — Farquhar.

Epoch-builder of civilization is not the discoverer, nor the
statesman, nor the soldier — it is the inventor. He is the "super-
man" who adapts the labors of all to the needs and utility of
the people. Moreover, government and law — the whole ethical
system of society — may be changed by a single invention. The telephone
and the telegraph, the steamship and railroad — all American inventions
except the last named — have had a larger effect upon human progress than
all the world's wars. Electricity — an American discovery — is a more
potent force in the world's advancement to-day than statecraft.

The seven wonders of the ancient world were the towering pyramids
of Egypt, the wonderful light-house, or Pharos, in Egypt, the Hanging
Gardens of Babylon, the beautiful temple of Diana at Ephesus, the statue
of Jupiter by Phidias, the sumptuous mausoleum of Artemisia, and the
bronze Colossus of Rhodes. We look back with awe and admiration at
the seven wonders of the Middle Ages; there we see the stately coliseum
of Rome, the catacombs of Alexandria, the great wall of China, the cele-
brated Stonehenge on Salisbury Plain, the leaning tower of Pisa, the
porcelain tower of Nankin, and the mosque of St. Sophia in Constantinople.

It is interesting to contrast these with the wonders of the modern
world: the wireless messages which speak from the sea and air; the tele-
phone which hurls the human voice across the continents ; the aeroplane in
which men travel through the clouds, the phonograph, the motion pictures,
the innumerable inventions that are daily proving the genius of man; the
great scientific discoveries such as radium, antiseptics and antitoxins,
spectrum analysis, and X-rays; and the gigantic engineering achievements
that typify our present civilization.

America, if it had never accomplished any other service to humanity
than the inventions which it has contributed, could well claim distinction
as the greatest force in the world's progress. On this foundation, the
American people have earned recognition as the foremost race among the
nations. We are a nation of inventors; we are millionaires in inventions.
The Patent Office has issued in excess of a million patents out of a total
of three million for the whole world. We breathe invention in the very

201

AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

air. Every day we are giving some new idea, great or small, to the world.
It is America first and the rest seldom to be considered; in a single year
when 35,807 patents were issued in this country, Germany stood second
with but 1,083, an<^ England third with 894, the list retrograding till we
reach two apiece from Turkey and Costa Rica, and one each from Portugal,
China, and Chile.

What have the great American inventions done for the human race1?
First, they have liberated the human race. To-day it takes about 50.000,-
ooo people out of the 1,600,000,000 on this planet to manufacture the
world's merchandise. Without American inventions, it would take the
hands of 1,000,000,000 or nearly two-thirds of all the people, working ten
hours a day, to manufacture this merchandise. And all the men and horses
in the world and all the sailing ships could not transport the products of the
farms, the mines, and the shops that American inventions have made pos-
sible. If it were not for American inventions the human race would be re-
duced to a state of economic slavery.

American inventions have enlarged the earth (or rather its power)
many fold. They have multiplied the energy of the people of the earth
by over 1,000 in transportation; by over twenty in manufacturing; and
over fifteen in farming and mining. They have enormously enlarged the
mental forces of the whole world, and have reduced the globe to a girdle
of thirty minutes in communication. Since Benjamin Franklin "snatched
the lightning from the heavens and the sceptre from the hands of the op-
pressor," American inventors have given to the world epoch-making inven-
tions which have done more than all the preceding thousand years to shape
the course of history.

The American inventor brought the world into communication; he
girdled the world with the steamship; he lights the world. The American
inventor harvests, threshes, grinds, and bakes the bread of the world. He
makes the blank paper from the mountain spruce, flashes the news of the
world to it, and prints it thereon. He types the world's letters. He has
taken the tired horse away and put in his place the rubber tire and the
automatic-car. He has laid down the rail around the globe that holds to
the track the thundering express train with a speed of sixty miles an hour.
He pumps the rivers and gives sanitation to great cities. He grips and
brakes the railroad trains from head-on destruction. He has given the
world the iron-bellied ship and the torpedo that destroys it. He has put
into the hands of the man in the trench the breech-loading gun. His steam
shovels cut the channels of the great canals. He makes midnight turn
into the light of day. He penetrates the secrets of the clouds, the fogs,
the winds and the calm azure blue, and tells the farmer when to cut and

202

AMERICA'S CONQUEST OF THE AIR — The airship bepins with the discoveries by Prof: Samuel

Langley of the Smithsonian Institution — The first successful fliphts in modern

aeroplanes were made by Orville and Wilbur Wright in 1908.

GREAT AMERICAN INVENTIONS

take in his hay, and the ship at sea the weather ahead. He carries the
vibrant voice of man's lips to his fellows' ears across the vast spaces of
light and darkness. He immortalizes a world-renowned singer's voice and
sends it to the peoples of the earth. He wings the central blue and carries
a sword of battle to the clouds and drops it upon the naked head of a city.
He gives every son and daughter of Adam a cotton shirt and sews the cloth.

American genius has done all these things and many more, for the
clock scarcely strikes an hour when someone in this country does not invent
something. Americans have invented more than half of all the useful in-
ventions of the world. Before Americans began to invent in earnest,
Europeans had from the days of Pericles invented not more than a dozen
great things, among them, movable type, the galvanic battery, the telescope,
the steam-engine, the power-loom and the spinning jenny. The power-
loom and the spinning-jenny never would have been developed without
Whitney's cotton-gin.

It was the American inventor that forged the key to the Great War
in Europe, for that key, according to David Lloyd-George, is the machine-
tool. The United States Government gave Eli Whitney, the inventor of
the cotton-gin, an order to manufacture 10,000 muskets for the army. It
was then that he invented a machine for making the duplicate parts of the
gun. He was the father of the machine tool — and not until about twenty
years ago did Germany adopt this American idea that has made her a land
of annihilating machinery. The machine-tool is the key to America's
supremacy in invention, for every great American inventor since the days
of Whitney has inherited it.

Every great American invention with its human element is an absorb-
ing romance. Among the immortal engineer inventors are John and
Robert Stevens, Fulton, Ericsson, Shaw, Langley, Westinghouse, and the
Wright brothers. Among the famous mechanics are Howe, Morse, Edison,
Bell, Whitney, Sholes, Hotchkiss, Mergenthaler, Reynolds, and McCor-
mick. Among those who made new discoveries in chemistry are Goodyear
and Tilghman. And towering even above these was that supreme scien-
tific mind, Benjamin Franklin, the father of American science and inven-
tion. His mind went down to fundamental principles, and he identified
lightning with electricity and brought the whole scientific world to direct
electricity into practical channels. America's debt to Franklin is greater
than its debt to Washington or Columbus.

On all the seas of the world there are nearly 5,000,000 tons of steam-
shipping afloat, as we observe in the chapter on commerce. This vast
navy, with its passenger service for the earth's travel, with its hundreds of
millions of dollars of cargo, and with its giant naval armament, was all

205

AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

brought into this world by the inventions of three Americans — Robert
Fulton, Colonel John Stevens, and John Ericsson. Fulton had given the
steamboat and the submarine to the world in the first decade of the Nine-
teenth Century. The next long step was inevitable in the invention of the
screw-propeller by Stevens, which forever sealed the doom of the sailing
vessel and completed the conquest of the ocean by steam. There was but
one more long, distinct step in invention to be taken to arrive at the great
floating steel fortresses and ocean grayhounds which we have to-day, and
that step was also taken by Ericsson, in the famous Monitor of our Civil
War. So it was an American that harnessed steam in a ship; it was an
American who first made the steamship stake control of the seas ; and it was
an American that made possible a liner of 50,000 tons and 1,000 feet in
length, with her flexible steel sides, the modern conqueror of the world's
commerce. From the brains of Fulton, John Stevens, and Ericsson have
come not alone the world's commerce but also the present terror of the
seas, the submarine.

It was Fulton's steamboat that threw open the Mississippi and the
Missouri Rivers in the first quarter of the Nineteenth Century and made the
Great Valley and Middle West a land of reality to the American people
soon after the Louisiana Purchase. The American continent owes its con-
quest in the first place to the steamboat.

There are now 600,000 miles of railroads in the world, which repre-
sents about $40,000,000,000, as discussed in the chapter on railroads. If
the inventions of two Americans, Robert Stevens, and George Westing-
house, had not come to crown the inventions of Watt and Stephenson, this
railroad mileage equaling a distance of twenty-four times the circumference
of the globe, could never have been built. The cost of its construction
would have bankrupted the world, and would have destroyed more life
than war. American inventive genius has not only made the modern rail-
road possible, but has given it all the efficiency and safety that it possesses.

It was an American, Robert Stevens, the son of Colonel John Stevens,
who perceived that a train of cars would never attain a speed of more than
ten to fifteen miles an hour on the then flat iron rails without running off.
Out of this pressing necessity for both speed and safety, he conceived the
cross section or T rail which called for the flanged wheel. Stephenson's
engine could pull the train. Robert Stevens' T rail fixed the cars to the
track up to a certain limit of speed and scored a tremendous advance in
railroading. It fixed the pace and safety of the middle of the Nineteenth
Century in America and Europe. But, while the driver of the locomotive
might run his train as fast as the traffic on the road would permit, a fifty
mile an hour express train was an impossibility. The railroad was limited.

206

GREAT AMERICAN INVENTIONS

It must be swamped by the growth of travel and shipping. Then it was
that, in the memory of men living, George Westinghouse put the full con-
trol of the car-wheels into the hands of the man in the cab by means of the
air-brake lever and the age of railroading entered upon the modern era.

American Genius Revolutionized the World with the Telegraph

AMERICA gave to the world the power of communication by elec-
tricity. The telegraph stands as a mighty memorial to Ameri-
can genius, virtually holding together with its web of copper
wire the whole structure of modern civilization. Its sensitive nerves
stretch from city to city, from hamlet to hamlet, wherever there is a pre-
tense of civilization, welding the whole world into a common brotherhood
of intelligence. It is the hand-servant of every progressive industry.
Many could not exist without it. Think of the newspaper without its
telegraph wires, the railroads, the business world, the armies, the navies,
the governments, or any other phase of our modern life. The mammoth
railroad system of the earth never could have been developed without the
telegraph. The telegraph is the eyes and ears of the railroad, for the
railroad is as dependent on these as a man on his senses for the protection
of his body.

There are now 325,000 miles of telegraph wires over which were sent
last year 90,000,000 messages. Some of these lines have more than a
hundred separate wires and are attached to instruments sending as fast as
twelve words to the second. These 90,000,000 messages range from a
page of 7,000 words in a newspaper to the short ten word message. If all
these messages were only of ten words in length, they would amount to
900,000,000. If they average 100 words they would rise to 9,000,000,-
ooo. They do probably average 50 words for there is now an immense
service of long cheap night letters and the volume of business of the press
associations and special news is growing at a rapid rate. This vast
aggregate of messages does not include the business of the railroads.

Within the last five years the words sent over the telegraph wires
within the United States would more than fill every book in the New York
Public Library. It would rival the number of words in the books of the
British Museum. These messages are coming by the tens of thousands at
every tick of the watch in the twenty-four hours of the day, and the
young army of 60,000 messenger boys are delivering them in ten thousand
cities, towns and hamlets in this country. These telegraph messengers
visit more people in a day than any other group of employees not even
excepting the postmen.

A single American telegraph company has a sufficient length of wires

207

AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

woven all over the United States to form three telegraph systems, allowing
two wires to each, to reach to the moon. Even then, there would be enough
left to wrap eight times around the earth at the Equator. Even this would
not use it all, and the balance would form a line from New York, across
Europe and Asia and beyond to San Francisco. There are about 100,000,-
ooo people in our nation; if these telegraph wires were divided equally
among the Americans, each one, irrespective of age or sex, would have a
line 837 feet long. This one company has more telegraph offices in this
country than there are dwellings in the State of Nevada.

The wizardry of the telegraph was well tested when Great Britain's
ruler, King Edward, died at midnight of May 6th, 1910. In New York
the people on the streets read of his death four hours before that time.
This is accounted for by the difference in time between London and New
York and the genius of the telegraph. Compare this with the experience of
our grandfathers and you can understand what the electric telegraph means
to modern civilization. In their generation, King William IV, great-
uncle of Edward, died co-incidentally with the birth of the electro-magnetic
telegraph. The news did not reach this country until about three weeks
had passed, though swift messengers carried the news to the seaside, from
whence steamships raced across the Atlantic.

It is hardly necessary to mention the name of the inventor of the
telegraph — it is a household word. To tell the development of the idea
of the telegraph is to relate the history of civilization. From the time man
began to write or communicate, he strove to increase the distances. The
word telegraph, taken from the Greek language, literally means "far writ-
ing." History tells of the Greeks signalling by torch, of the Romans' fleet
messengers, and of Napoleon's semaphores. It tells how electricity was
discovered, and how scientists discovered many new uses for it, and de-
veloped those elements which the American genius of the telegraph was to
have at his command enabling him to send messages over a copper wire to
almost any distance. To-day one can telegraph around the earth within
thirty minutes.

The man who placed the world under obligation to him for permitting
it to flash a letter to China, or a million dollar business contract to Russia
or Timbuctoo, was Samuel F. B. Morse, the inventor of the telegraph pen-
cil. As a boy, he had studied Franklin's discovery that electricity could be
conveyed by a metal rod or wire. But he dropped the subject and became a
painter of portraits, and for a time eked out an existence with his brush.
Then his friend, Freeman Dana, interested him in electro magnetism and
led him to investigate the subject. On the way back from Europe, where
he had gone to study electrical science, he developed the idea of a small

208

ATHLETIC SPORTS IX AMERICA — Glimpse of 70.000 people watching a football game at the
famous "bowl" at Yale University — The National game of the American people is base-
ball— Athletic contests are important events in various parts of the country.

GREAT UNIVERSITIES OF MIDDLE WEST — University of Chicago has more than 8,000 students
— The present institution was chartered in IH'tO — Women are admitted to all depart-
ments of the University — First to establish a university extension course.

STATE CAPITOL AT AUGUSTA, MAINK— This State has an area of .S:5,04() squ
(larger than Ireland) — Its population is 74L',.'?71 (nearly equal to the Repulmi
of Santo Domingo and British Honduras) — Admitted in 1820.

re miles

STATE CAPITOL AT P.OSTOX, MASSACHUSETTS— This State has area of S.2GG square miles

(larger than Porto Rico and Cyprus combined) — Population 3.3:'>G,41G (larger

than Xorway and Xe\v Zealand comMnod I — Original State in 17S.S.

GREAT AMERICAN INVENTIONS

telegraphic apparatus with notations. He reached Washington and asked
Congress to aid him in constructing a telegraph line between that city and
Baltimore. Both England and France refused him a patent. He had be-
come penniless, but he fought Congress until, five years later, it granted
him an appropriation to build a line between Baltimore and Washington.
His first message, "What hath God wrought?" was flashed across the wire
in 1844. Congress was unable to appreciate the value of the telegraph
and the Postmaster-General declared that the revenue could not be made
equal to the money necessary to construct the lines. Hence, the invention
was developed by private ownership and the telegraph property hi the
United States alone is worth to-day over $500,000,000.

The laying of the mighty Atlantic cable is a familiar story to the
average American. It is this great telegraphic agent which has literally
swept away the watery barrier to the conveying of information between the
New World and the Old. Another of these great wizards is the Wireless
telegraph, a name synonymous with that of its invention, Marconi, an
Italian, who is working out his problem in America. Seldom is it the for-
tune of the inventions to have such dramatic baptisms as that which at-
tended the introduction of the wireless telegraph to an incredulous world.
Everyone recalls how its mysterious electric spark leaped out of the dark
night from the deck of the foundering Republic, when she was rammed by
the Florida in 1909, circled in eddying waves from the depths of the sea
to the Nantucket shore and to those vessels equipped with wireless ap-
paratus and within range of its appeal, and how help was rushed to the
sinking ship in time to rescue more than a thousand lives from a watery
grave. That was but one of the many services it renders to humanity,
as men become more acquainted with its powers. It was in 1913 that the
world was again astonished by its powers. Then the mighty Government
station at Arlington, in the shadow of the National Capitol, succeeded in
sending and receiving a message from Italy on the Mediterranean.

American Genius Hurls Human Voice Over the Earth — the Telephone

THEN comes the telephone to hurl the human voice around the
earth. The telephone is an extension of the telegraph but in
the United States the child has outgrown its father, and this
country has more telephones than all England, Germany and France com-
bined. The telephone is more American in its origin than even the tele-
graph. It was not only an American that invented it but every improve-
ment that has made the telephone what it is now, one of the most indis-
pensable necessities of civilization, has been effected by American inventors.
The whole world now has about 15,000,000 telephones, 10,000,000

211

AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

or two-thirds of which are in America. Germany has 1,500,000, Great
Britain 800,000, France 600,000. The length of the wire used throughout
the world is 80,000,000 miles. Of this mileage the United States had
16,000,000 miles last year. Over this world mileage 25,000,000 conver-
sations passed, 1 5,000,000 of which were in this country.

Nowhere else does the telephone work so fast as it does in America.
It takes a man in Paris seven and one-half times as long to speak to another
man over the telephone as it does in New York. In New York the average
time is eleven seconds while the Parisian has to wait one minute and twenty-
eight seconds. New York now beats London within the Metropolitan dis-
tricts but to nearby towns London holds the record. In long distance calls
as far as Buffalo, Chicago, St. Louis and Atlanta, New York ranks first.
It takes Rome an hour to reach Berlin, or Berlin half an hour to reach
Vienna. After 9 p. M. long distance telephony is closed between the
smaller cities of Europe. You may thus see the value of time in America
as compared to Europe.

New York now has more than 800,000 telephones, London 300,000,
Berlin 200,000, Paris 100,000. New York's 5,000,000 population has
200,000 more telephones than 12,000,000 population of the three first
cities of Europe. New York now calls over the telephone 2,500,000 times
every day. New York is the telephone capital of the world. So depend-
ent is business on telephones that if all the telephones were to stop for
twenty-four hours there would be a panic. In the two telephone systems
in America more than $1,000,000,000 are invested. The salaried em-
ployees number 35,000— the salaries $25,000,000 per year. The wage
earners 125,000, the wages paid $62,000,000, the income is $200,000,000.

The name, literally meaning "a voice from afar" is taken from the
Greek. It developed from one of those accidental discoveries; Alexander
Graham Bell and his assistant, Thomas Watson, were experimenting with a
multiple telegraph in 1875 m Boston, when the latter, standing before one
of the telegraph instruments, suddenly heard Bell's voice as though the
speaker were at his elbow, though actually he was in another part of the
shop. They investigated and were startled to find that they had solved
the principle of conveying speech by telegraph, as they first called it. It
is for that wonderful discovery that Bell's name will ring down through the
ages. He accomplished what hundreds of other scientists had tried to do
since Sir Charles Wheatstone, the English scientist, began the pioneer ex-
periments in the same year that the first steamship, the Savannah, crossed
the Atlantic, 1819.

Among other great inventors working on this problem were Edison,
Bell, Gray and Dolbar. Bell discovered the fundamental principles of

212

GREAT AMERICAN INVENTIONS

transmitting and receiving the human voice. Every valuable improve-
ment made on Bell's model is American; they are the transmitter, the
instrument ridding the wire of the sound of the earth noise, the invention
of the switchboard, the discovery of the phantom circuit, the hardening of
the copper wire so that it would stand up on long distances and magnetiz-
ing it so as to increase its efficiency. Every one of these discoveries was an
achievement of great magnitude for as a result long distance telephony has
come.

When we speak of the telephone our earth is not large enough to allow
adequate comparisons. Mars' luminous rays of light are something like
35,000,000 miles away from the earth when it is nearest to us. The
telephone wires radiating throughout the world are long enough to reach
to Mars and back to the earth again, and there would still be 6,000,000
miles left with which to drape festoons to the moon. Of this the United
States has about one-sixth strung throughout the nation, from the Atlantic
to the Pacific and from the Gulf to the Canadian border. Each year a
forest of over a million trees is leveled to supply the poles we require for
new systems and to replace old poles.

Modern business could not be conducted in its modem proportions
without the telephone. There are in the New York Stock Exchange nearly
650 private telephones, over which each of the brokers sends at least
50,000 cryptic messages, involving millions of dollars, every twelve-month.
Think of what it means to the modern newspaper. One metropolitan
paper has twenty trunk lines and eighty telephones, over which are dis-
patched 200,000 calls, and 300,000 more are received every year. It has
revolutionized the reportorial end of the industry; one reporter runs for
the news, and then telephones it in to another who writes it. The tele-
phone has become as indispensable in modern warfare as the artillery itself.
Witness, in the Russo-Japanese War, the battle of Mukden, where 150
miles of telephone wire stretched across the field between the loo-mile
crescent of Japanese soldiers storming the foe and the Japanese generals
standing miles in the rear, but directing the assaults as clearly and ac-
curately as though they stood at the head of their troops. It also performs
a great secret part in the European War. To take the telephone away
from the business world would be to stop its ears and cut out its tongue.
It would paralyze every great modem center on the earth.

The telephone is now entering upon a new era — the age of wireless
telephony. Messages were sent during 1915 across the continent and
across the oceans on sound waves. The time is probably coming when
the human voice will be hurled around the earth. This is the next
progressive step in the development of telephony.

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AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

American Genius Lights the World's Cities

IT is the Americans that solved the problem of "turning night into the
lightness of day." Darkness is driven from the face of the earth
wherever or whenever we decide to do it. By the mere touch of the
finger on a button whole cities are aroused from their slumbers into a blaze
of light, and lie before us like fairylands. The Creator made the sun to
shine by day, and the moon and stars to shine by night. And man dis-
covered that what work he had to do must be done by day. He, the Cre-
ator, also made man tremendously ambitious. Moreover, He endowed
him with the power to work out the solution of his own happiness.

Man soon came to feel that night was somewhat of a burden to him.
When the sun had set there was nothing for him to do but sit in darkness
or go to sleep. So he decided to see what he could do to make light for
himself; and his success has been astounding. By the time of the Pharaohs,
bundles of wood were being dipped in grease to make flaming torches.
Then, a thousand years later, some shrewd person invented candles. Wax
candles began to appear at great State functions and at religious cere-
monials. The candle consisted of a reed that had been coated with fat.
This was held in an iron clamp, so that the burning end would be kept
upright. When it was desired to obtain more light from the one candle,
both ends were lighted. From this came the phrase, "burning the candle
at both ends." After a while, men learned to refine tallow, and this solved
the candle problem. But the ingenuity of man never ceases. About this
time someone created a crude device for burning a wick soaked with grease
or oil. It was called a lamp.

The first lamp was a hollowed receptacle. It was made of stone, a
gourd, a shell, or a piece of bone. Oil or refined grease was poured into
the hollow. A wick of moss or other vegetable matter was used to absorb
the grease. The tip of the wick was then lighted and gave a glowing
flame. The Greeks and Romans substituted metal receptacles. With
their artistic capabilities they were able to make lamps of very beautiful
designs. It was an American, Benjamin Franklin, who first proposed the
hempen wick, but lamps were still without chimneys. One day a French-
man was holding a bottle near a lamp. The bottom of the bottle was
suddenly cracked off by the heat, and his fingers were burned. Quickly
setting the bottomless bottle down, he placed it accidentally over the burn-
ing wick. He was amazed as he saw the effect. The light immediately
grew brighter and burned more steadily. From that day onward we have
had lamp chimneys. The chimney lamp was supposed to be a wonderful
invention, and no doubt it was ; but to-day we regard it as a most primitive

214

STATE CAPITOL AT CONCORD, NEW HAMPSHIRE — This State has an area of 9,:?41 square

miles (larger than the Republic of Salvador)' — Its population is 430,572 (larger than

South Australia) — Original State admitted in 1788.

STATE CAPITOL AT MONTPELIEK, VERMONT— Tills State has an arou of n,.r)(!4 square miles

(larger than Porto Rico and Alsace-Lorraine) — Its population is 355.95Q

(larger than Abyssinia) — Admitted to the Union in 1791,

STATIC CAPITOL AT IIAIJTF* )KI>. OONNKCTICT'T — This State has an area of 4.1
miles (larger than P.ritish Island of Jamaica) — Its population is 1,114,570
(larger than Now Zealand) — Original State in 1788.

square

STATK CAPITOL AT PROVIDENCE, UIIOI>E ISLAND-^-This State has an area of 1.:>4.S square

miles (nearly as large as Luxemburg and Hong Kong combined I — Its population is

04l',(>10 (nearly as larger us Itcuublic of Honduras) — Original State in 1790,

GREAT AMERICAN INVENTIONS

thing. It requires much cleaning and care; the wick had to be trimmed
regularly, and the chimney was broken with discouraging frequency.
With the discovery of oil and kerosene came the dangers of exploding and
catching fire. Thousands of lives were sacrificed through accidents with
chimney lamps, and nothing was ever discovered which would make them
safer.

American inventive genius found the solution. It was in 1865 that
Professor T. S. C. Lowe, who had already won fame for his aeronautical
exploits in the Civil War, discovered how to get water gas from coal.
That same year he erected the first central gas plant in the world. The
gas, after it was generated, was sent into an immense tank, and from this
it was distributed by iron piping to homes and factories. Gas lighting
as an institution owes its greatest development to Americans. It was
thought at that time that this was the last great improvement that could
possibly be made in connection with artificial lighting. It was only neces-
sary to turn a stop-cock and apply a match — and there was illumination.
The cost was not great and the convenience was wonderful. Gas lighting
was at first a luxury to be found only in mansions and palaces. Soon it
was put in even modest homes, and the streets began to be lighted by it.

But the last word in lighting had not yet been said. The time was
to come when gas light was to be as old-fashioned as candle light. It was
in 1879 th^ the American wizard of wizards, Thomas A. Edison, revealed
the secret. He took a glass bulb from which the air had been drawn.
Then he placed a filament of carbon in it so arranged that an electric cur-
rent could be passed through it. Behind, the filament burst into light and
glowed brightly. This was the first electric light for practical home pur-
poses. It was made to give a light equal to about eight candles. The
old-fashioned gas jet gave about that amount of light, so it now had a rival.

The world figuratively sat up and rubbed its eyes. For the first time
in the history of civilization, man was in possession of a practical light
that was not produced by combustion of anything. It burned, or rather
glowed, without the slightest nicker; there was no smoke; it gave off very
little heat, and it would not be blown out. All that was needed to carry
it into any house was a double line of wire that could be very easily strung
from the central power plant. Now, for the time, rural districts as well
as cities could be brought into the new "darkless age." Gas lighting had
never been practical except in cities, and the farmer still was forced to use
oil lamps — until the coming of the electric light.

The great modern city, with its tens of thousands of night workers,
would be well-nigh impossible without electric light. It has reduced crime
in the streets of great cities fifteen per cent, and increased the service of

217

AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

the streets at night thirty per cent. The first electric street light was the
invention of Charles Brush, the noted electrical engineer of Cleveland,
Ohio. He lighted his lamp by means of a carbonized filament. The
electric light has been further greatly improved by the substitution of the
Tungsten filament for the carbonized filament.

Through the electric light, man's activity has been doubled. Former
civilizations may have excelled in some respects, but ours has seen the end
of superstition and has shorn night of its illusions and terrors. Modern
lighting is nothing less than magical. Gigantic chandeliers light our halls
with even greater brilliance than comes with the daylight. Our streets are
very nearly as bright at midnight as they are at noon. On our coasts stand
lighthouses with beacons that may be seen fifteen miles away. In our
forts are searchlights which may pick up and illuminate ships ten miles
out at sea.

Where has the world seen such magic before? A man in a power
house turns a switch and a home many miles away is lighted. The turn
of another switch — and the streets of a whole city with millions of in-
habitants burst into radiance. The turn of still another switch sends a
flood of light under the earth into the tunnels of the city where trains roar
under the same power of electricity. Again, the turn of a switch lights up
hundreds of miles of country roads. As late as the Eighteenth Century any
man who had declared that such a thing might be might have been prose-
cuted as a madman or as a practitioner to the "black art." Lincoln, as a
boy, studied by the light of a wood fire ; yet many of his contemporaries are
still living. In two generations the electric light has completely revolu-
tionized the life of man.

American Genius Immortalizes Human Voice — the Phonograph

PERHAPS the most miraculous of all the American inventions —
the one that raises man to the planes of immortality — is the phono-
graph. Though mortal man may die, his voice lives forever
through the agency of this American invention. Through its weird power
a man's voice may sing his favorite song over his own body as it is laid in
the grave; the wife touches a lever of this machine and again hears her
husband's voice, though he has been buried beneath the earth for years.
The inspiring notes of the world's greatest musicians have been captured
and locked within this miraculous talking machine — Caruso, Patti, Calve,
Tetrazzini, Sembrich, Paderewski, Kubelik, and scores of others have given
their greatest masterpieces to the machine which will preserve them for
future generations. The voice-records of the contemporary singers, musi-
cians, and statesmen are being taken upon imperishable records, and stored

218

GREAT AMERICAN INVENTIONS

in air-tight metallic cases, within hermetically sealed vaults, which are not
to be opened for at least one hundred years. Think what it would mean to
the American to hear the inspiring voice of Washington, as he bade fare-
well to his officers of the American Revolution; or the thrilling voice of
Lincoln, as it swept out over the battlefield of Gettysburg; or the patriotic
voice of Patrick Henry, or Henry Clay, or Webster, or Calhoun, as they
swayed the destiny of the nation with their magical utterances.

The invention of the phonograph is a product of Thomas A. Edison's
genius. Its great principle is that of fixing and storing sound in dense
matter for reproduction. The wonderful possibilities of this principle are
not fully dreamed of as yet. Science is already aware that all matter fixes
sound within it, but we must know how to reproduce the sound. The wall
of a house undoubtedly contains the sound of the speech of one who spoke
there a hundred or a thousand years ago.

Edison invented the magic "box of wood, mechanism, and mica," as it
has been called, in the same year that Alexander Bell completed his tele-
phone. It was accidental, in a way, for he was working to perfect the
sending instrument of the telegraph, when he suddenly found that he had
almost unconsciously unearthed the secret for which scores of Europeans
had been striving for a century. But there was one thing that stood be-
tween him and success — the cylinder, or record, which he had wrapped with
tin-foil and which proved unpractical. It was Alexander Bell and Sumner
Tainter who contrived the wax record, using it on their machine, which
they called the graphophone, in the year 1885, eight years after Edison's
phonograph. Two years after the birth of the graphophone, the European,
Emile Berliner, produced the gramophone.

American Genius Regenerates Trade — the Typewriter

IT was an American who revolutionized the whole business world, who
increased the productivity and capacity of business more than a hun-
dred fold when he gave to the world the typewriter. It has been the
economic emancipator of woman — through the typewriter the American
woman has entered into the business world as a strong factor. It gives
employment to a feminine army larger than that with which Wellington
crushed Napoleon at Waterloo ; or a host more numerous than that which
was mustered under the standards of the French and Allies at Leipsic —
said to have been the largest gathering of armed troops on a European
battlefield until the present European War.

The typewriter received its first public recognition at the time when
we were celebrating our first hundredth national birthday, in 1876. It
is only during the past few decades that it has been in general use. To-

219

AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

day the modem business world is dependent upon the typewriter and could
not continue if compelled to go back to using pens and pencils to write out
correspondence by hand.

The American, W. A. Burt, made the first machine in our country
about the time we were laying our first railroads, but his machine proved
impracticable, as did those of many of his followers. It was the American,
Charles Latham Sholes, who has the honor of inventing the first practical
machine, beginning his work in 1868 and spending the following eight
years before he was successful, until finally his machine was introduced to
the world in 1876. The first machines placed on the market were made in
Milwaukee. The typewriter is literally the right hand of the whole busi-
ness world. Nowhere where money goes and trade flourishes is man with-
out the typewriter. Every language with its distinct letters has its type-
writer, as it has its Bible.

American Genius Emancipates Woman — the Sewing Machine

WHAT American invention has done the most for the women of
the entire world? The answer is plain — the sewing machine.
It is indeed the great benefactor of woman. No invention
has done so much to deliver woman from drudgery. No one piece of ma-
chinery has done so much to deliver her from her burdens, her seclusion,
her serfdom. Fifty years ago, more than half the people of Europe and
America went barefooted half the year. The sewing machine has changed
all that — and it has prolonged millions of lives. It has broken up harems
in Turkey; it has lifted the veil from many feminine faces in the Orient.
This wonderful machine, which has changed the habits and customs, and
even the personal appearance, of the people of the earth, is the product
of American genius and American skill. It took many minds, and more
than a hundred years, to invent and perfect it. The history of no inven-
tion is more replete with effort and disappointment. It is not known how
many men tried to construct and improve it, but there have been at least
25,000 patents recorded on the sewing machine and its attachments. In
this respect only the steam engine surpasses it. It was the dream of early
England, but it required America to bring it into realization.

The first lock-stitch machine was made in New York, in 1832, by
Walter Hunt, but he failed to perfect his idea or to have it patented, and
thus lost the credit and the fortune. It remained for another American, a
farmer's boy, to give the sewing machine to a waiting world. His name
was Eli as Howe, and he was born on a farm in Spencer, Massachusetts, in
1819. He lived with his father, working upon the land and in the grain
mill, until he was seventeen years of age, and attended the district school

220

STATE CAPITOL AT ALBANY, NEW YORK — This State has an area of 49,204 square miles

(larger than Ireland and Switzerland combined) — Its population is 9,113,279 (about

equal to the Persian Empire.) — Original State in 1788.

STATE CAPITOL AT' TRENTON, NEW JERSEY— This State has nn area of 8,224 square miles

(about equal to Saxony and Oldenburg combined) — Its population is 2,537,107 (larger

than Norway or liolivia) — Original State admitted to Union in 1787.

FIUST KKCKI'TIOX OF Till-: IIUST LADY OF TFIF KKITHLIC -Tnis historic onwravinf,' by Seitz portrays the
brilliant reception jiiv«-n to Martha Washington during tho Inaugural of her husband as first president
of the United States. Jt was attended by the aristocracy of the New World.

MLLIANT SCENE IN THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY — Tiie wife of Washington arrived nt the inaugural ceremoni

accompanied by a cavalcade of gentlemen and brilliant women in carriages — The thunder of 13 cannon

welcomed her at the battery in New York — The throngs paid her homage.

STATE CAPITOL AT COLUMBUS, OHIO — This State has an area of 41,040 square miles (about

equal to Scotland and Belgium combined) —Its population is 4,7(17,121 (largej

than Greece, or I'eru, o.- Lulguria) — Admitted in 1V03.

STATE CAPITOL AT HARRISBURG, PEXXSYLVANIA— This State has an area of 45,1-0

square miles (about equal to Scotland and Denmark combined) — Its population is

7,Gt>.'.,ili (about equal to Norway and Sweden) — Original State in 1787.

during the winters. Then he learned the trade of machinist. It was in
1846, when Elias Howe was 27 years old, that he announced that he had
solved the problem of the sewing-machine.

This was the beginning of a remarkable career, in which he fought
and overcame many obstacles. He constructed four machines and then
went to England to introduce them into that country. He sold out his
English rights to a corset manufacturer for a few hundred dollars and
worked in this man's shop with his primitive machine. Two years later,
he learned that his patents were being seriously contested in Boston and
returned to that city. He was penniless, and for months the inventor of
the lock-stitch needle fought with his back to the wall. He found it neces-
sary to resume his trade as a machinist to keep his family from starving.
Greedy inventors began to infringe his patents, and expensive lawsuits
kept him in poverty for several years.

It was not until 1854 that his claims were firmly established and his
patent rights acknowledged. Then began the royalties that were to be
his reward. When the Civil War broke out, his heart was stirred with
patriotism, and he enlisted as a volunteer. Honors began to pour upon
him. He was the recipient of many medals and the Cross of the Legion
of Honor. Twenty years after his invention, he was a millionaire, and
his lock-stitch needle, though apparently a very simple invention, has given
him rank as one of the world's greatest mechanical geniuses.

Ingenious American brains finished the invention. John Bachelder,
a well-to-do Boston merchant, was quick to perceive what Howe's machine
needed to make it a wonder-worker. He sold his prosperous business, set
up a machine shop, and undertook to build a machine that had a horizontal
head-piece or table, on which the material to be sewn was supported;
Howe's bent needle was straightened into a perpendicular one with an eye
point; it was given a needle plate, a continuous feed, and a device for
pressing down the cloth while in the vicinity of the needle — five vital
points. With these improvements, the great American sewing-machine
was on its way to perfection. A few years later, an improvement was
added by Isaac Singer, a New York mechanic. Then came A. B. Wilson,
who practically completed the leading principles of the sewing-machine.
What have been added since are minor features and improvements.

Thus the sewing-machine was evolved by slow degrees and at the close
of the Civil War its sale had grown to a considerable business. It played
its part in making clothing for soldiers in the Union Army, and a number
of machines were smuggled across into the Confederate lines. There were
eighty-six establishments, in thirteen States, manufacturing sewing-ma-
chines in 1860, and the output was valued at $4,000,000. The output had

225

AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

increased to $15,000,000 ten years later. To-day there are forty-seven
factories in the United States, employing 20,000 workers, with an output
of $28,000,000.

The sewing-machine has now encircled the globe. Over ten million
dollars' worth of machines are now exported in a single year, nearly a
fourth of these machines going to Scotland alone. Of all the foreign na-
tions, only the Germans have succeeded in making a machine that can
compete with the American machine. One may now find an American
sewing-machine in almost every civilized community on the globe. The
peasant in Russia, the black mother in Africa, the coolie in India, the al-
mond-eyed ladies in China — all have American sewing-machines to-day.

American Genius Solves World's Food Problem — Agricultural

Implements

AMERICAN inventive genius solved the food problem for the
peoples of the earth. At the beginning of the Nineteenth Cen-
tury, when our modern farm machinery was not known, ninety-
seven per cent, of the Americans were compelled to work farms to raise
enough food for themselves and stock. Then there were only six cities with
populations of over 8,000. One century later, through our modern farm
machinery, only thirty-seven per cent, of the Americans were required to
work the farms, and they were producing not only ten bushels of wheat for
every American, but were also able to export farm products valued at
$950,000,000. The remaining sixty-three per cent, of our population,
released from farm work by modern machinery, were able to live and work
in the urban districts, and, at the close of the century, had reared 484
cities each of whose populations exceeded 8,000 people.

The first practical reaping machine had its birth down on a small farm
in Rockridge County, in Virginia. On this same farm, Robert McCor-
mick had attempted to solve the problem, but it remained for his son,
Cyrus H. McCormick, to make the first practical machine, in 1831.
Though crude in workmanship, it embraced all the essential features of the
modern machine — the divider to separate the standing grain from that to
be cut, the revolving reel to press the grain against the cutting blades, and
the platform between the two wheels on which the sheaves fell, ready to
be bound by hand. At this time, that other great machine, the thresher,
was in its formative stage, being known as the "ground hog" thresher. Six
years after the birth of the reaper, the Maine inventors, Hiram and John
Pitts, patented their machine of endless belts and beaters, which separated
the grain from the straw and chaff and cleaned it. This was improved
upon by Cyrus Roberts, of Illinois, in 1856, and it is this machine which

226

GREAT AMERICAN INVENTIONS

embraces the chief features of the modern machine. But the problem was
not yet fully solved. Without Case's wheat-thresher the bulk of the great
wheat crop would rot in the chaff and straw. All the old-fashioned flails,
and treadmills and crude threshers of fifty years ago could not thresh a
third of it. Case made the first model of his machine in a farmhouse near
Racine, Wisconsin. His first device united the thresher to the separator,
and to-day that machine and its like made the great wheat elevator what
it is. The third great harvesting machine, the automatic twine-bind-
ing harvester, was the invention of John F. Appleby, of Wisconsin, and
appeared about the year 1880. To-day these three wonderful machines
are combined into one and are harvesting the great grain fields of the Pa-
cific slope, while the same machines, as separate units, are traveling in
batteries of twenty to forty over the wheat fields of the Dakotas and mid-
Western States.

It is an inspiring sight to watch the harvest of wheat in the San
Joaquin Valley of California, for instance. Yellow as gold, with the
sheen of the sea, the field billows from sky-line to sky-line. Here comes
the huge combination harvester, either drawn by a modern tractor engine
or scores of horses. In the latter case, the driver is perched upon what
seems to be a ladder thrust at right angles from the ground and out over
the horses' backs. At the right side of the machine is seen flashing in the
sunlight what appears like a frail, old-fashioned mill-wheel, but is in
reality the revolving reel which captures the grain and holds it until the
knives have performed their work. Under the reel is an endless belt, which
receives the cut grain and conveys it into the mysterious interior of the
machine, where it is threshed, cleaned, and poured into sacks. The chaff
and straw pass in another direction. Thus the machine goes, cutting a
swath fourteen feet wide, performing the work of 150 horses under old-
time conditions and leveling each acre of wheat at the average cost of fifty
cents — a fraction of the cost by old-fashioned methods.

The farm machinery and implements of the United States represented,
in 1912, an investment of over $1,000,000,000 — a sum sufficient to pay
the expenses of running the entire Government for a year. In the course
of an argument before the Commissioner of Patents, it was declared that
the McCormick reaper was worth $55,000,000 a year to this country. So
valuable was this patent that its extension was refused McCormick, but
with improvements on the original patent, the McCormick works in Chi-
cago were founded and now turn out more than 100,000 reapers a year.
The world's great wheat crop of over 5,000,000,000 is all practically
harvested with this American reaper.

Then came John Stevens; he discovered that he could get twenty-five

227

AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

per cent, white flour from a stone smoothly dressed, while a rough stone
would give him only ten per cent. The supply of burrstone was limited,
and the idea occurred to him to use smooth corrugated iron rollers. After
much trouble and expense, he had the iron roller made according to his
idea. When he got his system into operation, it doubled the output from
the same power, and he was able to secure ninety per cent, of good flour.
Thus we have the roller-mill, now used the world over and undoubtedly
one of the greatest American inventions.

It is the plow, perhaps, that tells the story of civilization more elo-
quently than any other agency having to do with the building of nations.
It is interesting to note that, in this age of American forty-gang plows
drawn by machinery, the ancient plow of the Babylonians and Egyptians
still turns the furrow in various parts of the world. The ancient forked
stick, drawn by camels or oxen, still plows the plains of Sharon, outside of
Palestine, just as a similar instrument turns the earth in the highlands of
Mexico, or even on the farms of Mohave Indians in our own Southwest.

There are legions of American plowmen, probably 10,000,000, who
go into the fields every spring and with their modern plows turn up empires
of rich earth.

In the decade preceding the oeginning of the American Civil War,
American plowmen were most all using the English wooden moldboard
plow, equipped with an iron point. At that time they were plowing an
area of land which was larger than the entire country of Sweden. Sixty
years later, the era of modern plows had dawned, and our plowmen were
turning over every year an area four times greater, or nearly as large as the
whole of Mexico. Our crops in that time increased from about $2,000,-
000,000 to nearly $10,000,000,000. That is the magic of the modern
plow, without which these tremendous crops could never have been
planted.

Two years before the first complete railroad joined the Mississippi
with the Atlantic, the real secret of the plow had been discovered. This
genius was the American, James Oliver, of Indiana, who began, in the year
1855, to manufacture his famous chilled iron plow, which successfully
resisted the wearing power of the earth and automatically scoured itself,
as it passed under the ground. While Grant was besieging Petersburg in
the American Civil War, the first steam plow was operated in America.
Two plows were used first, and then more added, until ten, twenty, and
even thirty plows were hauled by one engine cutting parallel furrows.
Then the climax was reached when recently forty- four plows were attached
and turned up the same number of furrows in any kind of soil. This
mighty machine, operated by only two men, can do more work than was

228

STATE CAPITOL AT LANSING, MICHIGAN— This State has an area of f>7,9SO square miles

(about equal to Greece and Belgium combined) — Population 2.810.173 (about

equal to Norway and Orange Free State combined) — Admitted in 1837.

STATK CAPITOL AT MAI'ISON. WISCONSIN" — Tbis State has an area of 50,006 square miles

(larger than Switzerland, Holgium, Denmark, Kuropean Turkey combined) —

Us population is ^,333,860 (larger than Norway) — Admitted in 1843,

STATE CAPITOL AT SPRINGFIELD. ILLINOIS— This State has an area of -.0.005 square

miles (nearly equal to Oreece and Belgium combiner! 1 — Its population is 5,038,591

(larger than Kingdom of Sweden) — Admitted to the Union in 1818.

STATE CAPITOL AT INDIANAPOLIS. INDIANA — This State has an area of 30.354 square

miles (larger than Portugal) — Its population is 2.700.S70 (about equal to

the Republic of Venezuela) — Admitted to the Union in 1810.

done formerly by forty-four men and eighty-eight horses. It travels at
the average rate of twenty-five miles a day.

This is the wonderful machine which has made possible the vast wheat
fields of Western America. In the springtime it is an inspiring sight to
look upon the monster "caterpillar," as it is familiarly called, starting to
turn a 3o,ooo-acre field. It often performs three operations at once.
Behind the tractor engine come the plows, steadily performing their work,
while attached behind them are modern harrows to smooth the upturned
earth, and behind the harrows come the mechanical seeders, dropping the
grain in the furrow.

American Genius Inaugurates New Epoch — the Cotton Gin

ANOTHER great epoch-maker in American inventions is the cot-
ton-gin, the machine that revolutionized the whole economic
system of the nation and made cotton one of the world's greatest
crops — a crop upon which the financial condition of the nation is largely
dependent. The story of the cotton-gin is the revelation of the develop-
ment and prosperity of the Great South. Its development is the develop-
ment of the South ; its wealth is the wealth of the Southern people. And
we owe it all to the genius of that American — Eli Whitney, the Massachu-
setts tutor — to whom the South pays deep homage. Wherever you go in
our great cotton belt, which sweeps from the Atlantic to the far borders of
old Mexico, you will find the same cotton-gin, in essential points, that
Whitney invented while residing in the family of our distinguished South-
ern lady, Mrs. General Greene, wife of the Revolutionary hero, in South
Carolina. He brought it into this world a completed machine, which
countless mechanics have been unable to improve upon, one of the few
great creations which have this distinction. His gin was completed in
1784, two years after the first government coining mint was opened in
Philadelphia.

The cotton-gin is a simple machine, but it is in its simplicity that its
greatest value lies. For ages planters had been growing cotton, but the
picking out of the seeds was an endless task and prohibited cotton culture
on great scales. The Hindus and the Chinese are said to have had a crude
machine which is known as the "churka." What the cotton-gin means to
the South, and of course to the world, is revealed in the fact that, before
Whitney invented it, the Southern States produced only about 2,000,000
pounds in 1 790. One hundred and twenty years later, the crop amounted
to 6,000,000,000 pounds, or three thousand times as much. In 1793, the
year in which Whitney devised his gin, 5,000,000 pounds of cotton were
grown in America. In 1825, the year of Whitney's death, the cotton ex-

231

AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

ported from the United States was valued at $36,846,000, and all other
exports at $30,094,000. In 1913, the American cotton crop was worth
a round $1,000,000,000. We supply three-quarters of the world's 133,-
000,000 spindles with cotton which is valued at $700,000,000, a sum
nearly as great as that which the Russians had in their state and postal
savings banks in 1912. Cotton is the world's great commodity; it is as
standard as gold. It has been estimated that, if all the cotton bales pro-
duced in a year were stood on end to form a column, it would reach nearly
9,000 miles high, or it would require a solid train of freight cars, each
loaded to full capacity, numbering about 138,000 cars, to move them.

American Genius Utilizes Rubber Forests — Process of Vulcanization

AMERICA revealed to the world the secret of the utilization of
rubber by the process of vulcanization. This developed one of
the greatest and most indispensable industries. So valuable is
rubber the chemists have spent years of toil in trying to manufacture it
synthetically, and they have succeeded, but not for commercial purposes.
Rubber in great quantities is used in almost every industry. Fifty million
dollars are spent annually for the rubber tires on automobiles alone.
Without them the automobile age would be impossible. Every one of
these cars that spins over the globe to-day for whatever purpose is a monu-
ment to an American chemist inventor who struggled for years and nearly
starved before he succeeded in vulcanizing raw rubber.

This was Goodyear, of Connecticut. After many efforts to vulcanize
rubber, that is, to make it resist the hardening chemical process in water
and melting in the heat of the sun, he succeeded by accidentally dropping
some nitric acid on it. This made the rubber soft, pliable, flexible, and
resisting to the hardening and melting processes. It was one of those
accidents due to long patience and hard work in experimenting. This dis-
covery made possible the great rubber industry and the great automobile
rubber-tire industry of the world.

American Genius Inaugurates the Paper Age — Pulp Processes

MODERN pulp paper is an American product. It was from
Tilghman's discovery that the wood-pulp industry arose and
has done so much to make the American newspaper what it is
to-day. Until less than a short generation ago every newspaper was made
of rags, and a copy of a paper with its comparatively meager news was a
luxury. Now one has only to learn to read to have all that can be read.
There is no great product so cheap as a newspaper. Without paper the
modern world would be literally impossible. It has become a great part

232

of our social and business life. We use it for our money; we use it to send
our news into every part of the earth ; we use it to conduct the great stream
of business correspondence which is the foundation of the whole commer-
cial world to-day. It is the basis of our schools; it is the keystone of our
system of law and justice; it is the medium of expression for our religions.

The world has passed through several so-called "ages" — but the pres-
ent period may well be called the "paper age." We are slowly eating up
our forests to turn them into paper. We are using nearly 5,000,000 cords
of wood this year to make paper. One metropolitan Sunday paper will
use 100 tons of paper, which requires for its manufacture 125 cords of
wood, enough standing timber to cover six acres. Thousands of square
miles of forests are being cut down to feed our paper mills. This is re-
sulting in drying up our rivers and even checking our rainfall. At the
rate with which the forests are disappearing since the coming of the
"paper age" it is only a question of years before the supply will be ex-
hausted.

The paper mills of the United States are turning out over 5,000,000
tons of their product every year. Its commercial value is over $300,000,-
ooo, or more than twice that of all the gold and silver mined annually in
this country. There are 90,000 people working in the paper mills. The
total horse-power required to operate these mills was 1,034,265} exceeding
the horse-power of the cotton industry and approaching that of iron and
steel. It is estimated that 2,400,000 tons of this paper become absolute
waste within three or four years, representing a waste of $10,000,000 per
year. The United States produces and consumes more paper than any
other country in the world.

American Genius Revolutionizes Printing — Modern Presses

THE modern rapid printing press is an American development.
We have taken the Gutenberg invention and adapted it to the
needs of modern times — and especially the great American news-
paper. It is a remarkable advance from the press which Johann Guten-
berg used in the year 1450 to print the first book, a Bible containing thirty-
six lines. In the year 1814, the publishers of the London Times astonished
the world by printing 800 papers in an hour on the steam printing press
which Frederich Koenig, a Saxon, invented. Compare that with what our
modern printing presses are doing every day in some of our metropolitan
newspaper offices. There in the center of the press room is a mammoth'
mechanical genius which sweeps the whole gamut of mechanical ingenuity
— from the most delicate chronometer to the swiftest locomotive. It vir-
tually is twelve presses combined into one. It prints, pastes loose sheets

233

AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

together, folds, counts, and stacks 160,000 sixteen page newpapers in
an hour.

Let us compare its marvelous speed with our great railroad engines.
The distance between New York and Chicago is about 900 miles, and the
quickest schedule time by railroad is 20 hours. Starting the printing press
and the locomotive at the same instant, the former will have printed and
folded and counted into newspapers more than 1,000 miles of paper before
the locomotive has completed half of its journey to the Illinois city. The
paper is supplied to the press from rolls, weighing about a ton apiece.
When one roll is finished, another stands ready and is automatically pasted
onto the end of the paper as it leaves the first roll — and this is done without
halting the flying machinery for an instant.

These inventions allow the American publishers to print more than
120,000,000 copies of newspapers and periodicals in a year. That is the
miracle which allows the newspaper and periodical publisher to sell 8, 10,
and even 48 page publications for a cent apiece, and enables him to dis-
tribute millions of copies throughout our nation every day — and allows
him to publish successive editions during the day.

The first printing press made in America came from the shop of Adam
Ramage, in Philadelphia, in 1795. George Clymer, of Pennsylvania,
built the first printing press capable of printing on both sides of a news-
paper at once in 1817. Daniel Tread well, of Boston, made the first
American printing press operated by steam in 1822. Robert Hoe con-
structed the type revolving press, in which the type form was arranged on
one cylinder and made to imprint upon paper passing over smaller cylin-
ders. Then, William Bullock, of Philadelphia, applied the principle of
printing on both sides simultaneously to the steam press. This marked the
dawn of the modern printing era.

To-day the printing industry is the sixth in importance in the United
States. It gives employment to more than a quarter of a million people,
and creates in a single year products valued at more than $800,000,000 —
a sum much greater than the total value of men's clothing, or cotton goods,
or boots and shoes.

American Genius Gives to the World tJie Typesetting Machine

THE Americans not only developed the modern printing press but
solved the problem of type-setting. Johann Gutenberg, of Ger-
many, made the first movable type about the year 1438. Guten-
berg carved his type out of wood. His collaborator, Peter Schoffer,
improved this method by substituting metal for wood. Four centuries
after the birth of printing, an American watchmaker, Ottmar Mergen-

234.

STATE CAPITOL AT ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND — This State has an area of 12.327 square

miles (larger than Belgium) — Its population is 1,295,346

(larger than Porto Rico) — Original State in 1788.

STATE CAPITOL AT DOVER, DELAWARE — This State has nn area of 2,370 square miles

(twice the area of Zanzibar) — Its population is 202.322 (larger than Island

of Hawaii)— Original State in 1787.

STATE CAPITOL AT RICHMOND. VIRGINIA— This State has an area of 42.027 sauare mile;

(larger than Scotland and Belgium) — Its population is 2,0*11,012 (nearly as

large as Kingdom of Norway) — Original State in 1788.

STATE CAPITOL AT CHARLESTON, WEST VIRGINIA— This State has an area of 24,170 square

miles (larger than Belgium and Netherlands) — Its population is 1,221,119

(larger than New Zealand)— Admitted to the Union in 1863.

GREAT AMERICAN INVENTIONS

thaler, revolutionized the printing industry with his marvelous linotype,
which transformed cold metal into solid lines of type-matter. For more
than three-quarters of a century, the world's greatest mechanicians had
struggled with the problem.

Mergenthaler's linotype is an invention that has won a fortune for the
poor German immigrant, with only $30.00 in his pocket on landing. It
has made the cheap book a reality the world over and has multiplied the
power of the printing press. The modern linotype is more intelligent and
accurate than the average human typesetter. The machine resembles,
roughly speaking, a small pipe organ of iron and steel, with a typewriter
set in position where the organ's keyboard would be. Before this keyboard
the operator sits operating the keys and following the manuscript which
hangs before him. Every time he presses a key, a little mould in which
that particular letter is to be cast takes its place beside the preceding letter
in an assembler. When the line of moulds is complete, a bell warns the
operator and he begins a new line. The completed line of moulds is auto-
matically carried by the machine to a pot of liquid metal. Here a little
pump forces the metal into the moulds, and the type are cast. When the
letters are solidified into a solid line of type as it will appear on the printed
page, the line, or "slug," drops into its proper position in a frame, or "gal-
ley," and this, when full, is carried away to the composing room tables.
In the meantime, the moulds have returned to their first position and are
ready to make another journey through the linotype. Thus the modern
linotype operator can set more than 1,000 words an hour, and it is by this
magic that a battery of linotypes can digest and reproduce in cold type the
thousands of words that flow through a modern newspaper composing
room in the space of a few hours.

American Genius Creates the Modern Cities with the Elevators

AMERICAN genius also conceived that wonderful contrivance,
called the elevator, which has made great business structures pos-
sible. Without these steel cages, that plunge up nearly a thou-
sand feet and then fall again like meteors from the sky, we should still
be living on the ground in low, sprawling structures that would require
a whole state to house the people of one of our large cities. It is the ele-
vator that has made it possible to erect million dollar buildings on seventy-
foot plots of land, and has caused our cities to expand vertically instead
of horizontally.

The first American elevator was built by George H. Fox in 1850.
It was operated by means of a vertical screw, the butt carrying the cage.
But the "father of the elevator" is Elisha G. Otis, who, three years later,

237

AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

exhibited an improved invention at the World's Fair in the Crystal Palace
in New York. Otis was a Vermont farm boy, whose Yankee inventiveness
had first led him to improve agricultural machinery. He became a suc-
cessful carriage builder. His chief claim to fame is the elevator. It was
invented by him at the age of forty- two. The year 1871 saw the first hy-
draulic elevator. It held the field jointly with the steam elevator, until
the electric elevator came into use about 1888. It plays no small part in
the development of our civilization.

American Genius Develops Photography — the Kodak

THE modern camera is an American development. Through this
adaptation of an earlier invention, the earth has been brought be-
fore our eyes, the faces of the peoples of all nations are preserved
for the generations. It is one of the greatest factors in our modern life.
To-day we can sit among our photographs and look at the world's events.

Photography began with Giambattista della Porta, an Italian philos-
opher, in the latter half of the Sixteenth Century. A German, J. H.
iSchultze, in 1727, has become known as the "Columbus of photography,"
and obtained the first actual photographic copies of writing. Various ex-
periments were made with chloride of silver, but little progress was made
until, in 1814, Joseph Niepce, a Frenchman, succeeded in producing per-
manent pictures by a process which he called heliography. Another
Frenchman, Daguerre, in 1832, invented the famous process, called
"daguerrotype," which consisted in exposing a metal plate covered with sil-
ver solution. Subsequently, he developed in a darkened room the im-
pression, which was rendered permanent by special chemical treatment.

But the first actual photograph ever taken was by an American, John
W. Draper, in 1840. Up to that time metal alone had been employed in
photography but, about 1850, sensitized paper began to be used, and the
era of modem photography commenced. Since then that art has been per-
fected in various ways, and it has become intimately connected with many
sciences, especially physiology and astronomy.

The important American development is the "kodak" or hand camera,
which first appeared in 1888. That which led the way to the introduc-
tion of the kodak and the displacement of glass plates as a necessity in
photography, was the invention of the "film." This arrangement made
daylight photography and practically revolutionized the art. The kodak
has popularized photography. The instrument is capable of instantaneous,
time exposure, landscape, portraiture, flash light, and panorama work.
The kodak has played an important part in illustrating war scenes. It
was used in the war in Cuba, in South Africa, in the Philippines, in Corea

238

GREAT AMERICAN INVENTIONS

and Manchuria. One of the great weeklies reports that ninety per cent, of
the war pictures were upon films.

American Genius Solves Problem of Aerial Navigation

MAN'S conquest of the air practically dates from the year 1908.
It was in that year that man stepped forth, as though from a
chrysalis, with full-grown wings. It was then that he slipped
those fetters which had bound his feet to the earth for countless ages, so
that now he can consort with the feathered creatures of the heavens; or
he can sport with the condor and the eagle in their mountain-top aeries
— the beginning of the aerial age. For long ages flight had been a dream.
The philosophers said that it could never be accomplished, but it seethed
in the brain of certain adventurous inventors, and at last it has come.

It remained for American genius to discover the fallacy of the New-
tonian law, and, after he succeeded in disproving it under actual experi-
ments, it was only a question of a few years when the heavier than air
flying-machine should become a realized dream. That man was the late
Professor Samuel Langley, of the Smithsonian Institute. He learned by
actual experiments how much horse-power was needed to sustain a sur-
face of given weight by means of its motion through the air. To accom-
plish this, he erected a huge whirling table in the open air at Allegheny,
Pennsylvania, driven by a steam-engine. The outer end of its revolving
arm swept through a circumference of 200 feet and could be made to
travel as fast as seventy miles an hour. It soon was discovered that the
faster a thing traveled, the less weight was required to sustain it. A
brass plate weighing a pound at least was found to weigh only an ounce
when carried by a fast motion, and, the faster the table whirled, the less
power it took to make the plate move. On the basis of this discovery,
Professor Langley constructed his aeroplane, whose practicability has since
been demonstrated.

The real conquerors of the air were the two American brothers, Or-
ville and Wilbur Wright. Just after the death of Otto Lilienthal, the
German experimenter, who only partially succeeded in building a heavier-
than-air machine that would float, these two Americans, then manufactur-
ers of bicycles, began to experiment in 1898. Five years afterward, the
birds fluttering around the sand dunes near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina,
were startled when a machine flew from the ground, and a throbbing motor
carried the aviator a few hundred feet through the air. The next years
they spent in perfecting their machine, and the world was astonished to
learn that Orville Wright had made a successful flight, in 1908, remain-
ing in the air one hour and fourteen minutes. That was the beginning

239

AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

of the successful aeroplane. What Langley, Lilienthal, Sir George Cay-
ley, Sir Hiram Maxim, Francis Wenham, Chanute, Pilcher, and scores of
others had spent fortunes, and in some cases their lives, to achieve, these
two Americans brought to success, and their names will stand in history as
the pioneers.

There are thousands of other great American inventors, less epoch-
making perhaps than those briefly described above, but of great impor-
tance. The inventions in metallurgy have added billions to the value of
the world's mines. American iron is the cheapest in the world, for no-
where else can a ton of iron ore be taken from the mines and be converted
into finished steel with such complete facilities.

Man's progress has been marked by continual revelations, by constant
discoveries — each of which opens a new world of human life and prac-
tically reconstructs the earth. So it will continue throughout the ages,
picking up the links of an endless chain that leads us toward eternity.
Life is neither incident nor accident — it is the eternal law as positively fixed
in its course as the law of night and day. "We sleep," as Henry Ward
Beecher said, "but the loom of life never stops ; and the pattern which was
weaving when the sun went down is weaving when it comes up to-morrow."
And likewise, as Leigh Hunt suggested, "there are two worlds; the world
that we can measure with line and rule, and the world that we feel with
our hearts and imaginations."

The scientist is the great emissary to the world of unrevealed reali-
ties; he journeys into the seas and skies or into the bowels of the earth and
returns with the treasures that were locked in the universe. There is no
miracle about it — the miracle is that we do not find these hidden forces
sooner and learn to utilize them.

America is a land of incalculable resources, and therefore it is a land
of many great scientific discoveries. Moreover, its political liberation
brings about a similar freedom in the domain of science which throws open
the whole field of discovery to the whole people and consequently results
in larger and more frequent revelations. Democracy in government means
democracy in scientific discovery and invention. Equal opportunities to
all are not confined to political opportunities, but extend to the whole
realm of human activities ; the universe becomes every man's dominion by
inheritance.

240

STATE CAPITOL AT FRANKFORT. KENTUCKY— This State has an area of 40.598 square

miles (nearly equal to Scotland and Belgium combined) — Its population is

2,289.905 (nearly equal to Norway) — Admitted to the Fnion in 1792

STATE CAPITOL AT NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE — This State has an area of 42,022 square

miles (larger than Switzerland and I'enmark combined) — Its population is 2,184,789

(about equal to Republic of Cuba i —Admitted in 1796.

AMKKICAX (JEXU'S SEVERS THE CONTINENTS— This is a glimpse of the Panama Canal,

connecting Atlantic and Pacific Oceans — a triumph in modern engineering — This canal

changes course of much of world's commerce— It has cost about ?375.000,000.

FIRST SHIPS TO PASS THROUGH PAXAMA CAXAI The ship on the left is the first

commercial steamer to pass through the locks — On the right we see the first battleship
passing through the canal — The canal was formally opened in 1915.

PART III CHAPTER VI

AMERICAN
TRIUMPHS OF ENGINEERING

AH the means of action —
The shapeless mass, the materials —
Lie everywhere about us, what we need
Is the celestial fire to change the flint
Into transparent crystal, bright and clear
That fire is genius !

— Longfellow.

CIVILIZATION has been created largely by the hands of men.
It is a plastic substance that is molded by the fingers into images
and structures that typify their ideals and ideas. It is the con-
crete expression of soul and intellect. Great achievements —
the handiwork which each generation leaves behind it — are the truest in-
dexes to the status of their civilization.

The Americans are a constructive — not a destructive people. Not
only has their inventive genius brought forth many epoch-making crea-
tions, but their conquest of material obstacles is surpassed by that of no
other race. No achievement is too great for them to undertake; no diffi-
culty seems to hold them dismayed; they do not hesitate to attempt to re-
move the "impossible" and transmute it into the "possible." Thus they
bridge rivers, undermine or tunnel mountains, sever continents, and make
the arid desert fertile by the indomitability of modern engineering.

The greatest of all American achievements is the Panama Canal,
the greatest of all the engineering conquests in the annals of man ; a per-
petual memorial to the American courage and genius that triumphed
where all other nations feared to tread and where one, the most resource-
ful of all, had gone down in defeat. Here, the Americans by might and
will severed the Western Hemisphere into two continents; by the magic
of American skill and courage the waters of the two greatest oceans were
to rush together into perpetual wedlock. It is a new milestone in the
march of civilization. It was a day of triumph — October loth, 1913 —
when President Woodrow Wilson, seated in our national capitol at Wash-
ington, pressed a button which hurled an electric impulse from the shores
of the Potomac to the mighty Gamboa Dike, 2,000 miles away, and re-
leased the furious power of 40 tons of dynamite which hurled the barrier
heavenward in scattering clouds of earth and rock and leveled the last

243

AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

barrier at Panama which held apart the surging waters of the Orient and
the Occident.

This awe-inspiring spectacle marked the culmination of nine years
of herculean labor. Its thundering tones echoed around the world to an-
nounce the practical completion of the most colossal wonder of human
creation. It proclaimed that the Americans are the greatest miracle work-
ers of all time, and it placed the name of its chief builder, Colonel George
Washington Goethals, a native of Brooklyn, New York, among those of
the immortals. With his name, too, will be inscribed that of his fellow
miracle worker, Colonel William Crawford Gorgas, the Alabamian who
drew the deadly disease fangs from the tropics so that the workmen from
the north could exist in the jungles where they labored.

This mighty achievement has been the dream of four centuries. Two
decades after Columbus landed on Watling's Island in the New World,
Balboa, having discovered the Pacific, dreamed of a strait which would lead
from the Atlantic to the Sea of Cathay. Then came in 1520, Angel Saeve-
dra with the startling and visionary proposal to pierce the Isthmus of
Darien. But when Antonio Galvao proposed thirty years later that a
canal be cut through the Isthmus of Panama, he brought upon his head the
wrath of the Spanish king, who then and there declared an embargo upon
such ideas under the penalty of death. It is said that the reason was
political. However, Spain had reconsidered its edict by the year 1821 and
was about to begin the task when Latin America revolted and drove the
Castilians from the Isthmus.

The tropical Isthmus of Panama had long defied the world. It drank
the life blood of thousands of laborers under De Lesseps, the French engi-
neer, and it swallowed up more than $260,000,000 in money and machin-
ery. It was in the epochal year of 1904 that a courageous band of
American engineers swarmed down from the north to perform the miracle
of cutting the Western Hemisphere into two continents. Armed with huge
steam shovels and steam dredges, electric and compressed air drills, sticks
of dynamite and powerful cranes, carrying enormous tanks of oil and
petroleum to battle with the deadly mosquito which virtually had defeated
the French canal diggers, they began the long conquest of nature and the
elements.

A psean of industry came up from the tropics, drowning out the cries
of scoffers. The full orchestra of shovel and siren, of rendering blasts and
crumbling mountains, silenced the criticisms. Under the leadership of the
gallant American engineers the workers cleaved the neck of the jungle land
and slowly cut their way from ocean to ocean. Two years before the
fondest dreams had predicted, there lay in the words of Hudson Maxim:

244

AMERICAN TRIUMPHS OF ENGINEERING

"An ocean-way that cuts in twain a continent,
Hewn through the mountain's primal rock,
And through the shifting shale, the mire and mud
And fickle sand of marsh and swamp and plain;
That lifts and bears the burdens
That the oceans bear in giant ships —
A half the freighted commerce of the world."

So it is that to-day the mighty Panama Canal changes the tide of
commerce. It lessens the journey between the Orient and North American
ports by thousands of miles. It brings San Francisco nearer to New York
by 7,873 miles; Yokahoma by 3,768; Shanghai by 1,876 miles; Valparaiso
by 3,747 miles, and Melbourne in Australia by 2,770 miles. This mighty
transformation brings San Francisco and other Pacific ports 7,000 miles
nearer to Liverpool and Hamburg. It takes a vessel twelve hours to pass
from the Atlantic to the Pacific through the canal, a journey of about fifty
miles. About fifteen of these lead through that part of the canal which
lies at sea-level, and the remaining distance through Gatun Lake, Miraflores
Basin and the three sets of locks at about eighty feet above the surface of
the oceans.

A ship following in the course of the setting sun approaches through
the Gulf of Mexico. Skirting a huge two-mile break-water which guards
the entrance of the Canal, it enters a channel 500 feet wide and 41 feet
deep. Scudding through Limon Bay, past the red-tiled roofs of ancient
Colon, on the left, the ship heads direct through a low-lying garden of
tropical verdure lying on either shore. At the end of five miles appear the
mighty walls of Gatun locks, the most stupendous concrete structure ever
created.

This is the first of the series of locks which lift the heaviest ship afloat
up into the great Gatun Lake. Its portals are guarded by massive steel
doors seven feet thick, sixty-five feet wide, eighty-two feet high and weigh-
ing nearly six hundred tons each ; yet they are balanced with such exquisite
nicety that one of them could be moved by a hand thrust. Tremendous
air-cushions help the mighty gates to hold back the tons upon tons of water
held within the locks.

The gates swing open. The ship passes within and is hidden from
sight. The massive doors close again. While you are waiting for the
inflowing water to raise you to the level of the floor of the second section
of the locks, look about you upon the massive walls. It is a huge basin of
concrete, 1,000 feet long and 1 10 feet wide in the clear. Beyond the huge
wall of concrete, on your left, is an exact duplicate of this basin. This
dividing wall is sixty feet thick, and built into it at the top is the titanic
machinery which operates the locks. Further on in your journey you will

245

AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

see the man-made Niagara which supplies the power in the form of elec-
tricity. Beneath the keel of your ship is the floor of the basin, made of
concrete and as enduring as a mountain.

The ship begins to move. You look up in amazement. The doors of
the second section of the locks are swinging open. Your vessel, probably
weighing 30,000 tons, has been magically raised twenty-eight feet while
you were gazing in awe at the stupendous work of your fellow-Americans.
The miracle has been performed — simply by allowing water to flow into
the basin. The second, and the third lock section is a duplicate of the first
except that the doors are slightly shorter and consequently weigh several
tons less.

What is this that greets your vision? Your ship has been pulled by
a powerful electric locomotive running along the concrete wall. At this
instant it sails out under its own steam into the 170 square miles of Gatun
Lake. Here on your left, looms a great artificial hill — it is the gigantic
Gatun Dam. The waters of the lakes are being passed off through a huge
spill-way and into turbine engines which create the power to operate the
machinery of the entire Panama Canal. This mighty dam stretches for
one and two-thirds miles, looming thirty feet above the normal level of the
lake, and is one hundred feet wide, except for a distance of one thousand
nine hundred feet which is three hundred and seventy-five feet wide.
About 140,000 cubic feet of water flow over the spill-wray every second.

The lake itself, nestling under the green carpeted slopes of the sur-
rounding mountains, is large enough to accommodate the entire United
States Naval fleet. Through this great inland sea, your ship will speed
under its own steam for a distance of thirty-two miles until it reaches the
closed doors of a single lock, the Pedro Miguel, which will lower the vessel
a distance of thirty feet into Miraflores Basin. A short distance beyond,
the ship enters the first of the two Miraflores locks and is lowered twenty-
seven feet into the second lock which also lowers it another twenty-seven
feet. Then the mighty steel doors are flung open. The ship is free to fly
down the five-mile avenue leading into Panama Bay — and out into the
waters of the Pacific Ocean.

It required at one time 40,000 men employed in building the Panama
Canal. Fifty-eight hundred men were employed in building the locks
alone, and more than 57,000 tons of steel went into the manufacture of the
lock doors. The huge Gatun locks consumed 2,000,000 barrels of cement
— and 5,000,000 barrels were used in constructing all the locks and dams.
Six million rivets were driven in the construction work, while 212,514,138
cubic yards of earth, rock, mud and shale were dug out to make way for the
new highway of commerce and travel.

246

GREAT SOUNDS OF THE PACIFIC — This is a view of Puget Sound, on which Tacoma, "The

City of Destiny," is located in the State of Washington — In the distance rises

snow-capped Mount Rainier to the height of 14,408 feet.

CANAL OF THE GREAT LAKES — Sault Sainte Marie Canal which connects Lake Superior with

Lake Huron — It is but 1J miles in length and its volume of traffic exceeds that of any

other canal in the world — Its tonnage exceeds 18,000,000 per year.

FAMOUS AMKRK AN IXVKXTORS— This photograph presents one of tne most historic occasions in tlie

development of the American -Nation — It is the first meeting of the Naval Advisory Hoard of

Inventions in October, 1915 — The Board was selected to provide plans for national defense.

1'LKIHIK TIIKIK liKNirs TO THEIR COUNTRY — Here we see the genius of American industry offering
its services to the nation during the World Crisis in 1015 — At the desk sit Thomas A. Edison and
Josephus Daniels, Secretary of the Navy — The board consists of twenty-three members.

GIGANTIC I'.UIIHJES AT AMEUICA'S METROPOLIS — r.rooklyn Bridge, 7.580 foot long; cost
about $24,000.000 — Manhattan Bridge, 0,855 foot Ions, cost about .^G.000.000 — Williams-
burg Bridge, 7,. '508 foot long, cost ovor $:>:{.000,<)<)<) — Queensboro Bridge, 7,449
feet long, cost about $1 8,000,000.

GREAT STEKL AUCIIEI) BUIIX1E OVER THE MISSISSIPPI — .This is Eads Bridge at St. Louis,

Missouri — It was begun in 1S(>7 and finished in 1S74 — Over fiOO nion were prostrated

during the work and 13 died — Its cost was about *<>.500.000.

AMERICAN TRIUMPHS OF ENGINEERING

The Panama Canal cost not more than the sum estimated at the be-
ginning of the work — $375,000,000. It is a sum greater than Spain,
Japan and Sweden had in stocks of gold in the year that it was opened.
It is a sum over seventy thousand times greater than that required by
Columbus to discover the Western Hemisphere. And yet it is only about
the estimated wealth of a single American in these days of stupendous
fortunes. Moreover, a new Panama Canal could be built every twelve
months with the money consumed by fire and in fighting flames every year
in this country. These are days of colossal figures and tremendous
achievement.

Americans Build the World's Greatest Dams

AMERICA leads the world in great hydraulic engineering achieve-
ments. American dam builders erect monstrous bulwarks of
granite and concrete, — mighty walls ranging across rivers two
miles wide, to flood arid lands, or to store up water for a thirsting city, or to
create titanic power with which to turn his industrial wheels, light and heat
his homes.

The world's longest dam curbs the mighty Mississippi where it flows
through the heart of our nation. It is a bulwark of adamant, completed
in 1913, a worthy foe for the Father of Waters. This part of the Mis-
sissippi, because of the Des Moines Rapids, was one of the most dangerous
for navigators. Our Government has spent $8,000,000 to build a canal
that would subdue the rapids, but in vain. To-day our great dam, stretch-
ing between Keokuk, in Iowa, to the opposite shore, not only floods these
rapids with sufficient water to cover their jagged spurs, but it backs up the
river for a distance of sixty-five miles, thus forming a great inland sea and
generating about 300,000 horse-power of electricity with which to light and
heat, run the cars and turn the factory wheels of cities lying within one
hundred and fifty miles of the lighting plant. It is the longest in the
world — nearly two miles long. The power-house alone, built into the dam
itself, is more than a third of a mile long.

The highest dam in the world is in Wyoming. The Shoshone is 325
feet high, or just half as high as the tallest office building in the world.
The modern dam builders are men of great daring. They must have the
qualities of pioneers. They frequently find themselves in the heart of
primeval Nature, almost cut off from civilization, and must blaze their own
wagon roads for the transportation of supplies and materials. That is
what they did when they built the great Shoshone dam. The road ran for
eight miles and in many places tunneled through the granite-ribbed moun-
tains. But the greatest problem was the torrent of water plunging through

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AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

the gorge they intended to dam. Its sheer sides towered 2,500 feet above
the river and were only sixty feet apart. The river dashed through the
gorge like a mill-race, but the engineers captured and led it through a
temporary channel above the gorge. Then in the dry river bed they ex-
cavated a ditch eighty-seven feet deep and one hundred and eight feet wide
in which to lay the foundations of the dam in solid rock. On this founda-
tion they piled the dam proper until its top reached two hundred and thirty-
eight feet above the bed of the river. It was a stupendous task and
consumed four years' of time, 90,000 tons of granite and 75,000 barrels of
cement.

The mighty Roosevelt Dam, in the Salt River Canyon, in Arizona,
rears a bulwark of granite 276 feet high. It is a romance of civilization
and will stand as an enduring memorial to the united efforts of white men
and the Gcronimo Indians, who built it. Like the Shoshone, it lay in the
heart of a wilderness, but it was sixty miles from the nearest railroad, and
this space of primeval forest and mountains had to be covered with a wagon
road. Behind the dam to-day is a huge lake covering 16,329 acres. If
the water were let out, it would cover an area greater than the State of
Rhode Island a foot deep. Beneath its waters lie the remains of the little
town of Roosevelt, which at some future day archseologists may discover
and learnedly speculate upon its fate.

For many years Colorado had the highest dam in the world ; that was
the Cheesman, which blocks the south fork of the South Platte River. Be-
hind its 225 foot granite wall lie thirty billion gallons of water, enough to
quench the thirsts of all Americans for a year, allowing a gallon a day for
each person. In the Catskill Mountains, in New York, there is another
great reservoir of water, equal in capacity to Colorado's great storage
supply. It is the Croton, which is the second highest in America, being
297 feet high. Boston gets a great part of its water from the famous
Wachusett Reservoir, whose dam is 207 feet high, which is equal to the
average sixteen story skyscraping building.

These great engineering feats prove man's control over nature.
Whenever the necessity has arisen, he has curbed it; and when he needed
its power, he harnessed it. The dam indeed, stands as a colossal monu-
ment to man's subjugation of nature to his requirements. It is one of the
proudest trophies of our civilization and through it we have to-day our
great public water supplies. Christopher Christiansen, of Bethlehem,
Pennsylvania, began to construct, in 1754, what was to be the first public
water works in America. Water was conveyed by pipes from springs to a
cistern 350 feet away. A wooden pump forced the water from this to a
wooden tank in the town square. In the year that George Washington died

252

AMERICAN TRIUMPHS OF ENGINEERING

there were sixteen public water plants in the United States. The develop-
ment of the system grew quickly. Streams were dammed to form reser-
voirs to take the place of springs. Instead of the wooden pipes, metal
ones were used. When Philadelphia fitted her water system with cast
iron piping, in 1804, she attained the distinction of being the first city in
the world with such equipment. London adopted it in 1820. The idea
grew rapidly. Larger and larger reservoirs were built. The areas which
they drained became greater. The size of the conveying pipes was in-
creased, till finally the building of water works became one of the most
important branches of civil engineering.

Americans Conquer the Power of Water — Great Reservoirs

AMERICAN cities to-day all have modern water works or artesian
wells. The Wachusett Reservoir in Boston, contains sixty-three
billion gallons of water, and supplies that city. The city of San
Francisco gets its water from the San Mateo Reservoir, which holds thirty-
one billion gallons. New York depended for years upon the Croton Res-
ervoir, with a capacity of thirty-one billion gallons, until it was decided to
construct near Kingston, at a distance of over seventy-five miles from New
York City, the Ashokan Dam to hold back one hundred and twenty billion
gallons of water. Five hundred million gallons will daily flow through a
gigantic aqueduct that is built cross-country, over mountains and under
the Hudson River, to bring water into the homes of the metropolis of the
Western Continent. This stupendous system will cost $200,000,000.
The water will have pressure enough behind it to flow up to the twenty-
fourth floor of the skyscrapers. The deepest well in the world used for
obtaining water is located at Putnam Heights, Windham County, Con-
necticut. It goes down 3,848 feet and gives a supply of two gallons of
water each minute, shooting the water four feet above the level of the
ground. These deep wells are known as artesian wells, a name derived
from Artois, where they were first used. Brooklyn obtains 78,000,000 gal-
lons of water each day through artesian wells and many other towns fare
almost as well. The city of Buffalo, New York, supplies each inhabitant
an average of two hundred and thirty gallons of water a day; in Pittsburg
the average is two hundred and fifty gallons.

Human life depends upon water, food, and air. Air we get without
trouble; food we get with a little more exertion; but water we get through
elaborate systems. Yet we must have them — for no city would be safe
without water more than sixty days. Great fortunes are being made in
selling water. Big corporations have gone into the business, and millions
of dollars are invested in water companies. So great has become the in-

253

AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

dustry of supplying water that many cities have started their own reser-
voirs, and one of the most frequently discussed phases of American politics
is the municipal ownership of water plants — a problem that sooner or later
must be settled in every town in the United States.

The creation of power is one of the genii of American civilization.
In the early years we took it out of the winds ; then we took it out of the
rivers; in later days we have been digging it out of the earth in the little
black nuggets that we call "coal." Through this, we have created steam,
gas, and electric power for our machinery and our domestic appliances.
But in about five hundred years the world will be without coal — then what
shall we do? Strange to say we shall not even miss it. For we have
already found a substitute that is inexhaustible — water. There is power
enough in our rivers and lakes to keep the world going for ages. This
wonderful chapter in the long story of man's conquest of Nature is just
beginning. We are setting water to work for us ; we are turning its energy
into power that we can use in a thousand ways for thousands of years.
With this power we can generate electricity; and thereby we can do all
that we have been doing by means of coal, and many new things that the
minds of men will conceive.

The rivers of the United States, great and small, threading their way
everywhere through the land, contain a hidden force alone equal to about
twenty-five million horse power. When we say "horse power," we assume
that one horse can raise 33,000 pounds one foot per minute. Now, ten
million such horses could run all the manufacturing establishments in the
United States. Water power, in order of use, must be concentrated by
violent motion. Nature provides this process in one of the most notable
instances in Niagara Falls. The idea of "harnessing Niagara" is startling
at first — it sounds almost sacrilegious. A protest arose when it was sug-
gested that its waters be utilized for commercial purposes. The vision
evoked of a Niagara run dry astounded the Americans. It is exactly what
is said to have been foretold ages ago by an Indian — that one day the
waters would vanish and expose the bare shelf of rock to view. That day
of desecration has come.

The power of Niagara is almost beyond comprehension. It pours
over the falls twenty-five million tons of water every hour. This power
would be sufficient to run all the trains in the country, light all the towns
and villages, conduct our telephone and telegraph service, turn all our
spinning wheels, and operate our three greatest industries — all at the same
time. The power of Niagara is equal to the power that can be generated
from all the coal taken from our mines in a day, — the power of seven
million, five hundred thousand horses. By agreement between the United

254

STATE C \PITOL AT R \LEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA— This State has an area of 52,426 square
' miles ; (nearly %ial to Netherlands and Liberia combined)-Its population is
2.206,287 (larger than Republic of Cuba) — Original State, 1789.

STATE CAPITOL AT COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLIN \ This Stati- has an area of 30,989 square

miles (larger than Scotland)— Its nopulatioii is 1,515.400 (about equal to the

Republic of Ecuador) — Original State admitted in 1<»».

STATE CAPITOL AT ATLANTA. GEORGIA— This State has nn area of r. 0.205 square miles

(larger than England and Wales) — Its population is 2.009.121 (larger

than the Kingdom of Norway) — Original State in 17«8.

STATE CAPITOL AT TALLAHASSEE. FLORIDA — This State has an area of 58,006 square

miles (larger than England and Wales) — Its population is 751.139 (larger

than South Australia )— Admitted to the Union in 1845.

AMERICAN TRIUMPHS OF ENGINEERING

States and Canada, the amount of water to be diverted from Niagara has
been limited to fifty-six thousand cubic feet a second. This, without
diminishing appreciably the flow of the cataract, will provide power equal
to that of fourteen million tons of coal, which it requires thirty thousand
miners, working for a year, to take out.

The idea of "harnessing Niagara" is one of the most astounding in
the annals of man, — because it is the solution of the great problem of the
future. It was on October 4th, 1890, that the work began. The first
step was to excavate a tunnel two hundred feet below the city of Niagara
Falls. The tunnel is 7,481 feet long; the interior dimensions are twenty-
one feet by eighteen and a half feet. It required the excavating of three
hundred thousand tons of rock. Sixteen million bricks were used in the
lining. The water is taken through a canal, screened to exclude floating
ice and debris, to the generating station. The electrical energy here gen-
erated is transmitted to a distributing station. From this station immense
cables convey the power to various points.

Imagine, as you gaze at the majestic waterfall rushing in its eternal
course, that its power — its very spirit, as it were — is lighting the lamps and
moving the street cars one hundred and sixty miles away in Syracuse.
Around the Falls, on both the Canadian and American sides, a large manu-
facturing district has sprung up, evoked by the magic power of these waters.
Niagara's power is applied to-day to everything, from great steel shops and
trolley cars to ventilating fans and sewing machines. The modern electric
furnace has been evolved out of the water power of Niagara Falls. In
this way, its power is making itself felt all over the land, and to the ends
of the earth, with a vastness and complexity of operation that is be-
wildering.

All over the country great rivers have been harnessed; their mighty
force is being gathered in power plants and distributed for the needs of
industry and agriculture. The water power in actual service in the
United States is now doing the work every year of thirty-three million tons.
Its possibilities are vastly increased by the introduction of long distance
transmission of electricity. You need not move to the power-plant — it
stretches out its arms to you.

Americans Triumph Over the Desert — Irrigation

MAN is indeed the conqueror. One of the greatest of all his con-
quests is the triumph over the deserts. Through the power of his
brain and brawn, he has brought to fulfilment the prophecy of
ancient times that the "wilderness shall blossom as the rose." This is no
longer a figure of speech.

257

AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

It is only a few years since two-fifths of our territory was in the
hands of an enemy — not more than ten years — this enemy was drought —
and the weapon with which he is being beaten back, inch by inch, is irriga-
tion. Vast regions, extending over the length and breadth of our Western
States, were but waste and unproductive lands, owing to the scarcity of
water. This lost empire is being reclaimed. It was in 1902 that a gi-
gantic scheme was set on foot by the Government for irrigating these arid
regions. A start was made with twenty-five projects, involving in the
aggregate over two and a half million acres. Then began the construction
of those magnificent works of engineering that stand as perpetual memorials
of American skill and enterprise. One thought must have thrilled the
engineer, as he saw the giant structure growing under his hands — what it
meant to the surrounding land ; life instead of death, fecundity in place of
sterility, a panorama of fruitful fields and waving trees replacing arid
wastes.

What would be the feelings of a modern Rip Van Winkle, who had
fallen asleep in the "Great American Desert" a dozen years ago, if he were
to wake to-day? He would behold a transformation appearing miracu-
lous. Where had been a dreary expanse of arid plain, stretching bare and
treeless to the horizon, he would behold fields of waving grain, countless
fruit-trees laden with their luscious burden, with prosperous farm homes
and villages lining silvery canals. In the region of the Truckee River, in
Nevada, was a lifeless desert, strewn with the bones of animals and marked
by the graves of countless emigrants, who, on their long and toilsome
journey to the Pacific, had perished of thirst. It is now a region of smiling
fields, with prosperous cities springing up among them. Four rivers have
been linked together in a wonderful scheme of irrigation, and their waters
spread themselves through all this land.

The waterless valleys of California, through which the weary gold
hunters of '49 struggled, many to drop and die of thirst almost in sight
of their goal, have become fair vineyards and orchards and gardens, whose
products find their way, not only to New York, but to far distant London
and Paris. Think of what has been done in the Yakima Valley, in the
State of Washington, where a territory of 350,000 acres has been reclaimed
by the waters of the great Sunnyside canal. Or in the Shoshone Valley,
where a territory of 476,000 acres is watered to a depth of one foot. On
the "Great American Desert" in Kansas, a few years ago, as far as the eye
could reach, there was nothing but a dreary expanse of flat, treeless prairie ;
there was hardly any rain ; hot winds swept the country. But it was found
that there was an abundance of water under ground. Wells were sunk, and
the water was pumped into reservoirs by means of windmills. Monster

258

AMERICAN TRIUMPHS OF ENGINEERING

crops are grown and the yield of the fruit trees is prodigious. Trees,
indeed, grow on all sides, where trees never grew before.

This great work of reclamation has made substantial progress. Two-
thirds of the first scheme of twenty-five projects is completed, at a cost of
nearly $80,000,000. When it is finished, it is proposed to start on thirteen
further projects, dealing with over three and a half million acres. But,
in addition, 7,000,000 acres have already been put under water by private
enterprises. It is hoped to reclaim in time at least 30,000,000 acres.
This would give an eighty acre farm to each of 375,000 persons. The irri-
gation scheme has greatly affected the population of the districts in question.
Hundreds of towns have arisen. More than 800,000 farms are now under
irrigation.

It is inspiring to think what this blessing of irrigation means to the
country. A million new and prosperous American homes ; the relief of the
congestion of the cities ; billions added to the wealth of the nation. This is
what the magic of irrigation has done and is doing, and it promises still
greater surprises for the future.

Americans Bridge the Rivers and Mountain Passes

THE bridging of mighty rivers is another triumph of modern civiliza-
tion. A half century ago, monster bridges did not — could not,
exist. To-day i,ooo-foot steel and iron spans demand elabo-
rate calculations of the mathematician, the best skill of the chemist and
metallurgist, the keen judgment of the engineer, the vast resources of the
financier, and the mighty strength of powerful engines and the weird in-
genuity of marvelous machine-tools directed by trained mechanics. Not
the least requisite is the physical and moral courage of the bridge-builder.

In this generation you will find American bridges in all parts of the
world. They span deep rivers, lakes, harbors and ravines. They weld
cities and states, cross international boundary lines, create and increase
commerce and level its barriers, modify despotic political power, ameliorate
social conditions, multiply property value many fold, and save thousands
of lives. Long steel spans are built to sustain without a tremor the weight
of a plunging express train as it dashes across a wide river or deep chasm.
This type of bridge dates from about the beginning of our American Civil
War.

The pioneer structure in modern bridge building is the bridge which
was thrust across the Mississippi flood at St. Louis, by James B. Eades,
without for an instant interrupting the heavy river traffic, and before the
science of estimating weights and pressures as they relate to bridges was
fully understood.

259

AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

The first Niagara bridge was the first railway suspension bridge in the
world; it was built in 1853 by John A. Roebling, when the world's greatest
engineers were declaring that it was impossible to span the Niagara.
Erecting two mighty masonry towers on opposite banks, Roebling slung
four huge steel cables across and from these suspended a roadway and a
railroad track two hundred and forty feet above the rapids. When the
slender wire threads of the cables threatened to give out, a new bridge was
projected, and this was the most marvelous feat of all. The new structure,
a steel arch bridge with its arches resting on either shore, was actually
built without disturbing traffic for more than a few minutes at a time and
when completed had been built around the old bridge.

When you voyage up the historic and picturesque Hudson River, you
pass under the famous cantalever railroad bridge at Poughkeepsie, built in
1889. To erect the five mighty spans of this structure, the engineers built
five tiers of staging on the surface of the river, which when completed
appeared like a modern skyscraper before its dress of brick and stone is
applied.

Crossing the Missouri River, at Omaha, is the world's greatest draw
bridge with a single span of five hundred and twenty feet, while the
longest fixed span of the type known as truss span reaches across the Ohio
River at Louisville.

Out in the Rocky Mountains, where our American bridge builders
have performed some of their most magical work, is the highest bridge in
the world. The floor of the roadway is made of glass so that the tourist
may look down to the seething waters 2,627 ^eet below. This is the bridge
in Colorado which crosses the beautiful Royal Gorge.

In the heart of the city of Chicago are several bridges, which at the
approach of a steamer along the Chicago River, quickly rise, just as the
feudal baron's drawbridge did before his castle. These are known as the
"rolling lift" bridge. Though these huge spans weigh sometimes as much
as 5,000,000 pounds each they literally raise themselves to an upright
position in less than a minute — it requires powerful machinery to pull them
down again to form the bridge across the river.

Even historic Albemarle Sound, in North Carolina, has been bridged.
Here a railroad span runs for five continuous miles across the water between
Edenton and Mackey's Ferry. What the North Carolinians have done,
Calif ornians are planning to repeat. They are planning to join the cities
of San Francisco and Oakland with a monster bridge over San Francisco
Bay, to be nearly nine miles long. Anywhere you travel throughout our
land you will find the magic structures of the bridge builders. They are
made of iron or steel or of concrete. The largest of the concrete structures

260

Ill 1 1

Ill 11 1 < 1 1
I II I

ill Hi in

STATE CAPITOL AT JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI— This State has an area of 46,865 square miles

(larger than Republic of Cuba) — Its population is 1,797,114 (larger than Porto

Rico, Hawaii, and Costa Rica combined) — Admitted in 1817.

STATE CAPITOL AT MONTGOMERY, ALABAMA— This State has an area of 51,998 square

miles (larger than Republic of Nicaragua) — Its population is 2,138.093 (larger '

than Republic of Cuba) — Admitted to the Union in 1819.

STATE CAPITOL AT ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA— This State has an aroa of 84,682 square miles

(about equal to Greece and Ireland combined) — 'Its population is 2,075,708

(nearly equal to Norway) — Admitted In 1858.

STATE CAPITOL AT DES MOINER, IOWA— This State has an aroa of 50,147 square miles

(nearly equal to Greece and European Turkey) — Its population is 2,224,771

(nearly equal to Republic of Bolivia) — Admitted in 1.«46.

AMERICAN TRIUMPHS OF ENGINEERING

in the world is that which our Government built in the National Capitol at
a cost of $850,000; it is known as the Connecticut Avenue bridge and is
fifteen hundred feet in length.

No other city in the United States has such tremendous bridges as span
the rivers about New York City. Here still stands the famous old Brook-
lyn Bridge, which John Roebling completed in the year 1883, now accom-
panied by three other larger bridges. It has been a faithful servant to the
cities it joins. When the bridge was twenty years old it was found that fif-
teen times as many people passed over it daily than when it was first erected.
What it means to the cities is revealed in the fact in the year 1904 more
people passed from shore to shore than live in the whole United States —
about 30,000,000 more. That meant a traffic for the year of about
120,000,000. In a single day more people passed over it than live in the
State of Vermont, or in Lisbon. At one period of the day 54,000 people
crossed it in an hour's time. For many years this was the world's greatest
suspension bridge. To-day four great structures stretch across the rivers
connecting New York. The Queen's Bridge is, with its approaches, about
three miles long and hangs one hundred and forty feet above the water;
it cost about $20,000,000.

Americans Tunnel Under Cities ^ Rivers and Mountains

THE titanic achievements wrought by American engineers culminate
with the tunnel builders — piercing the hearts of mountain ranges,
or delving beneath swollen floods, driving shafts through moun-
tain or river so that an hour or a few miles may be taken from the time
schedule of some transcontinental railroad.

Modern mountain tunneling can be said to date from the year 1856.
It was in that year that a courageous band of engineers and tunnel workers
pitted their strength and wits against the southern spur of the Green
Mountains in Western Massachusetts. To their aid they brought, for the
first time in America, electricity, nitro-glycerine, air compression, and power
rock drills. They divided into four armies, two starting on either side of
the mountain and two more digging down from the top in the center of the
ridge. Sixteen years later, the last smoke of the battle cleared away, and
a yawning hole nearly five miles long led through the solid rock. It was
about twenty feet high and wide enough to permit the laying of two rail-
way tracks. It had been a fierce battle and it had cost nearly $1 1,000,000
in money. But it had made possible that great railroad system now run-
ning between Massachusetts and Troy, New York, by way of the famous
Hoosac Tunnel.

That was the beginning; since then the tunnel builders fearlessly at-

263

AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

tack the most unpromising project. They have burrowed a tunnel through
the mighty Cascade Mountain Range in Northwestern Washington for a
distance of about three miles. They have cut through the vitals of the
Wasatch Mountains with a series of tunnels whose combined length meas-
ures about fifty miles. In Southwestern Colorado, they have tapped the
mountains by the famous Gunnison Tunnel, through which a former un-
derground river is made to deliver its precious water to the surrounding
valleys. In California the Big Bend Tunnel, two miles long, drains the
Feather River. And now they are performing the task of driving Ameri-
ca's longest tunnel, six and a quarter miles long, through the backbone of
the Continental Divide in Colorado, for the purpose of saving sixty-four
miles in the railroad journey across the continent, and twenty-three miles
between Denver and Salt Lake City, as well as saving a 2,5oo-foot climb
over the crest of the Rocky Mountains.

The marvelous subterranean railway system of the American metropo-
lis— the tunnels and subways of New York — are the greatest achievements
in tunnel building. Nearly a billion people are carried underneath the city
every year. There are nearly one hundred miles of track under New York
and Brooklyn, and within a few years there will be four times as much
more. The pioneer genius of this mighty achievement was the American,
John B. MacDonald, and he spent nearly $75,000,000 in building and
equipping the present subway. The new one will cost in the neighborhood
of $300,000,000. Boston has an excellent subway system. And Chicago
has a unique underground freight system underlying her business district
and covering more than fourteen miles. It is designed to transport mer-
chandise from warehouse to store and from store to the railroad freight
stations.

The greatest engineering feat was that which the young Tennessee
lawyer, William G. McAdoo, performed when he drove his railroad tubes
underneath the Hudson River, thus connecting New York with New Jer-
sey. For eight years he and his engineers and "ground-hogs" pitted their
strength against the swollen floods over their heads. Foot by foot, occa-
sionally stopping to plaster up the roof of their tunnel where the river had
torn through, they drove by hydraulic pressure a huge steel shield through
rock and silt, linking together the great steel rings of the tubes as each two
foot section was cleared away. It was a mighty battle, but in the year
1910 the tunnel was complete and the first public train rumbled from the
heart of New York to the shore and thence down under the great river
and up again to the New Jersey shore.

Like New York, Boston's suburban influx every day overtaxed her
ferry service. Consequently, Boston has a tunnel a mile and a half long

264

AMERICAN TRIUMPHS OF ENGINEERING

reaching from the city proper to East Boston and running beneath a part
of Boston Harbor. But one of the most unique tunnel constructions con-
nects the city of Detroit with the Canadian city of Windsor. An American
railroad expert, William J. Wilgus, studied the peculiar problems pre-
sented by the Detroit River, where nearly as much traffic passes as in the
Suez Canal. He conceived the idea of dredging a furrow in the river bed,
similar to that which the farmer plows across his field. Then the tunnel
tubes were made in sections. These were taken out on floats to their
proper positions and lowered into the furrow. Divers then descended and
fastened the sections together, while concrete was later poured into the
furrow, until the tubes rested in veritable solid rock.

One of the most modern engineering feats is the plan of New York
for taking its water from the Catskill Mountains. These mountains lie on
the opposite side of the Hudson River. The problem of conducting the
water across appeared easy until one far-sighted person suggested the
possibility of some foe in the future being able to destroy with a single
stick of dynamite any bridge or aqueduct erected. Out of this possibility
grew the marvelous tunnel which carries the water underneath the river to
the further shore. It lies like a huge syphon, in the form of the letter U,
the perpendicular shafts delving through solid rock more than 1,000 feet
below the river's surface. Then the lateral shaft, also dug in solid rock,
mostly granite, strikes straight across the river to the other side and then
upward. On its journey to the distant city the Catskill water travels
through four other tunnels whose aggregate length is about fifteen miles,
leading under the Rondout, Walkill and Moodna rivers and under Croton
Lake.

The art of tunnel building is one of the oldest of engineering sciences.
The Egyptians and ancient tribes of India dug them to bury their noble
dead. The Assyrians built one under the Euphrates River, by diverting
the river through a temporary channel and returning it to its original bed
when the tunnel had been bricked in. The greatest engineers of the ancient
days were the Romans — while to-day the Americans are performing feats
that give them large claims to distinction.

Americans Erect Modern Cities of Granite and Steel

THE Americans have done some wonderful things but their most co-
lossal achievement is the Twentieth Century city — modern towers
of Babel. The streets looked like canyons lying deep between
the gigantic walls of masonry. The crowds passing through them were
like ants in comparison — and yet they had built it with their own hands.
We build our massive structures; lightning plays about their towers; the

265

AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

storms beat against them; the earthquakes rumble beneath them. And if
perchance they fall, we throw them up again greater and more daring than
before — as if to challenge nature.

When great cities sprung into existence, becoming more and more
crowded, a new problem began to develop. Where were all the industries,
upon which depended the greatness of these modern cities, to be housed*?
The builders of the Middle Ages had fashioned lofty church towers only
for the sake of beauty. Now it was necessary to raise tall structures be-
cause there was no room to spread them over the ground — they must reach
up toward the skies, where space is illimitable. Land was becoming very
scarce in great cities like New York, Chicago, and Philadelphia. Men saw
the only way to build tall structures was to use steel. So, about 1880, a
new era was inaugurated — and America became a leader in a new kind of
architecture. Huge skeletons of steel were erected, and these supported
everything within and without; about them were built the gigantic walls of
masonry. These huge buildings were first regarded with doubt but soon
they ceased to be an experiment and the new age of the skyscraper was
ushered in. The skylines of the cities assumed a majestic ruggedness.
Each builder strove to outdo the others. The twenty-story structure was
soon overshadowed by the building of thirty stories. Soon came defiant
structures of forty and fifty stories. Where the race will end no one dare
predict.

The building of the skyscraper is in itself a miracle. It does not take
hundreds of years and tens of thousands of men like the pyramids. It does
not take decades. It is only a matter of days. Day and night the toil
goes on. Drills burrow a hundred feet into the earth to reach bed rock.
A battery of derricks is put into place, huge machines that lift tons and
tons of steel with no seeming effort. At midnight, when the streets are
deserted, mighty steel beams are delivered on ponderous wagons ready to
be used by the iron-workers. The gaunt steel skeleton almost leaps into the
air. After the erection of every ten stories, the derricks are raised. The
relentless noise of riveting machines fills the air. By sunlight one gang
of men ply their trade; by electric light another gang continues. While
the upper stories of the frame-work are put into place, stoneworkers and
bricklayers are completing the lower stories. It has been estimated that at
times the work goes on at the rate of a story a week. The framework of a
large New York building, containing 22,000,000 pounds of steel, was
erected in only four hundred hours. To the glory of the contractors be it
said that as a rule these colossal buildings are erected with almost no loss
of life. The laborers walk and work on narrow steel beams 600 feet and
more above the sidewalk.

266

STATE CAPITOL AT JEFFERSON CITY, MISSOURI — This State has area of 09.420 square

miles (larger than Scotland, Ireland, and Hawaii combined) — Population 3,293,335

(larger than Norway and South Australia combined) — Admitted in 1821.

STATE CAPITOL AT LITTLE ROCK, ARKANSAS — This State has an area of 53,335 square

miles (larger than Republic of Guatemala) — Its population Is 1,574,449

(larger tban Ecuador) — Admitted to Union in 1830.

STATE CAPITOL AT AUSTIN, TEXAS — .This State lias an area of ^05,«yG square miles (larger

than the German Empire in Europe, England and Wales combined) — Its population

is 3,81)0,542 (larger than Switzerland) — Admitted in 1845.

STATE CAPITOL AT RATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA — This State has an area of 4R.50G square

miles (ahout equal to Rulgaria and Montenegro) — Its population Is 1,656,385

(larger than Republic of Hay ti)— Admitted to the Union ID 1812,

The highest building in the world is the Woolworth Building in New
York, the city of skyscrapers. Its foundations are laid in its lowest sub-
basement one hundred and twenty feet beneath the sidewalk, and its flag
floats 905 feet higher. It towers fifty-five stories high; 46,000,000
pounds of steel were used for its skeleton; 17,000,000 bricks are mortared
in its walls, together with 2,500 square feet of cut stone and 7,500 tons of
terra cotta. The building contains 1,800,000 square feet of floor tiles and
the same area of partition tiles. There are twenty-six elevators, each so
made that were it to drop from the top floor it would automatically come
to a gentle stop long before it reached the bottom.

The modern skyscraper is a veritable city in itself, containing an
actual population greater than that of many flourishing communities. The
tenant of one of the great office buildings may live in his room year in and
year out and still enjoy all the comforts of life. A restaurant on the top
floor serves his meals. Downstairs there are stores of all kinds. There are
news-stands and even theatres. There are barbers in the basement, and
there are tailors and confectioners, doctors and lawyers, brokers and bankers
— all trades and occupations within immediate call. Some of the sky-
scrapers have gymnasiums on the roof. These buildings are inspiring to
behold, full of dignified beauty. When we remember that some of the
great European Cathedrals took six and seven centuries to build, we will
gaze with even greater wonder upon these newer edifices, which spring from
the earth in a year.

This record of American achievements might well continue to occupy
this entire book and many other volumes, but this rapid survey is sufficient
to demonstrate at least the indomitable will, the courage, the daring, and
the skill with which the American people attempt gigantic tasks and bring
them to brilliant culmination — the triumph of the American spirit.

American Genius Erects World's Greatest Seaports

THE building of great seaports and erecting huge walls to hold out
the oceans is one of the daring American achievements. The
builder of seaports and their modern accessories is a soldier in the
battle against the destructive elements. They erect bulwarks for those
cities which are threatened by tidal waves and the like; and carve a way
to the sea for those which are barricaded by Nature. After Galveston,
Texas, was wiped out in 1900, and at least 6,000 people were killed, the
hydraulic engineers walled in the city from the Gulf with a four-mile con-
crete and granite sea-wall resting upon subterranean piles and planks to
prevent the sea from undermining the wall. They lifted the city up out
of the path of danger, in some places elevating it as much as seventeen feet.

269

AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

It required a little more than a year to build this wall, which is a barrier as
solid as a mountain, and it stands sixteen feet high and sixteen feet wide at
the base, while a boulevard runs the whole length of the wall. It required
13,1 10 car-loads of sand, crushed granite, cement and timber, and 100,000
tons of granite blocks, some of which weigh a ton each, for the riprap
before the wall. Seventeen million tons of sand were poured into Galves-
ton. That is enough to make five pyramids as big as the Egyptian Cheops.
You would have to load every human being in Europe with 100 pounds of
sand each to carry this away in one trip. The cost was about $2,000,000.
During a hurricane in 1909 this wall held back the Gulf and saved Galves-
ton from suffering another $18,000,000 property loss. A giant's causeway
connecting Galveston with the mainland was erected in 1912 at a cost of
$2,000,000. It is a beautiful structure of concrete and steel, and its low
arched bridges resemble those "moles" which the Romans built to enclose
their harbors. It is nearly a half mile long, and has a loo-foot lift bridge
to permit vessels to enter Galveston Bay. It combines a railroad system,
a roadway, and a promenade, and leads to beautiful plazas at either end.
Thus Galveston was rescued by American engineers from a debris-strewn
sand pit and made over into the third greatest seaport in the United States.

The American who drew the fangs from the mouth of the Mississippi
River, and consequently made of New Orleans the second greatest seaport
in our nation, is Elmer Lawrence Corthell, one of the world's greatest
hydraulic engineers, who has constructed $100,000,000 worth of seaports
and has added a billion dollars to the commerce of the world. He believed,
with James B. Eads, that if he could confine the waters of the Mississippi
through one of the three mouths between narrow dikes, the river would
carry away the alluvial soil that had choked up the pass. He was right,
as was proven when the steamship Vulcan proudly steamed up Little South-
west Pass on May 12th, 1877, and thence into deep water without having
touched bottom. The Mississippi was opened to commerce ; New Orleans
became a great seaport, Eads' reputation and money were saved, and
Corthell's reputation was made.

The world's greatest seaport, in point of value of commerce, is the
natural land-locked harbor of New York. Its water-front is estimated at
748 miles, or a distance equal to that between New York and Cincinnati.
It had, in 1912, more than 350 miles of wharves for the world's commerce
carriers to unload their cargoes. Nature provided abundantly for this vast
fleet of merchant-marine, but there was some room for improvement. One
of the most remarkable engineering feats was the making of the Ambrose
Channel, which lessens the journey to Europe by six miles. This is cut
through a bar in the Lower Bay and is 1 ,000 feet wide, forty feet deep, and

270

AMERICAN TRIUMPHS OF ENGINEERING

nearly eight miles long. More than 100,000,000 tons of earth, mud, and
sand, an amount equal to a third of that dug from the Panama Canal, was
taken out by dredges during the ten years of operations, which cost about
$4,000,000. If that amount of material were dug out for an inland canal
fifty feet wide, fifteen feet deep, it would result in a waterway nearly 500
miles long — a distance equal to that between New York and Columbus,
Ohio.

Millions of dollars have been poured into New York Harbor for im-
provements to accommodate its fleet of commerce carriers. Plans were
laid in 1912 to spend $34,000,000 to subdue the treacherous rocks of Hell
Gate, so that ocean liners can come into port through Long Island Sound,
and to dredge the Hudson River so that i,ooo-foot steamships can safely
navigate to their piers.

The world has never witnessed such activity as is now going on among
our American seaports. Boston is spending $12,000,000 to improve her
harbor; Baltimore has spent $6,500,000 since her disastrous fire on docks
and piers; the Southern States and cities are also spending fortunes. Out
along the Pacific Coast our engineers are creating wonderful harbors. Los
Angeles will have spent before the year 1922 more than $13,000,000 to
build up a twenty-three mile water-front; at San Francisco, the State-
owned docks are being extended at a cost of $1,000,000; Oakland is putting
$3,000,000 into the municipal docks, while San Diego is having her State
docks improved at a cost of $1,500,000. To the northward, Seattle and
Portland are putting touches to Nature's handiwork, so that they can ac-
commodate the flood of Oriental commerce coming to their shores.

American Genius Connected Hemispheres with the Cables

THE most far-reaching American achievement has been the connect-
ing of the hemispheres by laying cables under the oceans and
bringing the world into almost instant communication. The idea
of flashing messages along the bottom of the seas came from Cyrus W.
Field, to whom the conception of the ocean cable came as a sudden in-
spiration. It was in the year 1850; he was talking with his brother,
Matthew, about the possibility of laying a telegraph cable across the Straits
of Newfoundland. At that time, the cable had not been laid across the
English Channel, connecting France with England, and the possibility of
an ocean cable had not been dreamed. Field, then a rich retired merchant,
suddenly turned to his brother and said:

"Why cannot America and Europe be joined by cable?"
His mind brooded over this great idea, and in the meantime the cable
joining England and the continent of Europe had been laid.

271

AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

It was in August, 1857, that the first momentous step was taken in
linking together the two hemispheres. Two ships — the Niagara, an Ameri-
can naval vessel, and the Agamemnon^ of the British navy, left Valencia,
Ireland, in company, each carrying a section of the first Atlantic cable.
One year later — on August i8th, 1858 — Queen Victoria sent the first cable
message under the Atlantic to President Buchanan. It was, very naturally,
an occasion of great international rejoicing. This first cable had been laid
from Ireland to Newfoundland; it was 2,000 miles in length, and it had
cost Field and his company $2,000,000, and the cable message of twenty
words cost $100.

The Old World and the New had been brought together. But un-
expected trouble arose. Even in the midst of Field's great personal
triumph, the cable suddenly ceased to work. No one knew what was the
matter, or how to find out, but the calamity bankrupted the company.
With indomitable energy, Field set about to organize a new company, but,
before he could succeed, the United States was plunged into the Civil War,
and he had to wait. He chartered the Great Eastern in 1865 and began
paying out a new cable from Ireland to Newfoundland. More trouble en-
sued. When the Great Eastern had arrived within two hundred miles of
Newfoundland, at one of the deepest points in the Atlantic Ocean, the cable
parted, and more than a million dollars was lost in the sea. Even then,
the indomitable Field did not give up. The following year, he sent out
the Great Eastern again to lay a new cable. At last success was his. Not
only was the cable laid, but the cable that had been lost the year before had
been recovered.

Since the first working ocean cable was laid in 1866, more than two
hundred and forty thousand miles have been laid under the seas, and every
important seaport city on this globe has cable connection with the rest of
the world. The two longest ocean cables are the British cable from Mel-
bourne to Vancouver and the American cable from San Francisco to Manila.
The latter is over 7,000 miles long and touches Hawaii, Midway Island,
and the Island of Guam. It connects all the American possessions in the
Pacific. Within the last forty years, no one agency has exerted a greater
influence upon the life of the world than has the cable. It has revolu-
tionized international policies and diplomacy. Who can estimate the effect
of the cable on business? Billions of dollars in the world's commerce now
depend directly upon the cable. Before the Atlantic cable, there was little
or no business in international stocks and Wall Street did not take its
present commanding place in the financial world until the cable enabled
it to get into close touch with the London market. Now there is daily over
a hundred millions of dollars' worth of business on the world's cables.

272

STATE CAPITOL AT OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLAHOMA— This State has an area of 70,057 square

miles (about equal to Scotland and Liberia combined) — Its population is 1,657,155

(larger than Republic of Ecuador) — Admitted in 1907.

STATE CAPITOL AT SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO— This State hus an area of 122,634 square

miles (larger than the Philippines and Alsace-Lorraine combined) — Population 327,301

(nearly equal to Luxemburg and Iceland combined) — Admitted in 1912.

D EXI/ARATION

, /> ^ WAITED STATES

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ORIGINAL DRAFT OF DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE — This bears the signature of the dele
the Continental Congress who signed the document — It is interesting to note the alterations
developed during the discussion over the exact phraseology.

UGHT BY JEFFERSON OF THE

>Jnly 1776.

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^WRITING OF THOMAS JEFFERSON — This document was engrossed for permanent record — The orig-
ial is treasured in the archives of the Government — It had a greater effect upon the world than any

other document ever written.

STATE CAl'lTOL AT LINCOLN, NKr.RASKA — This State lias an area of 77..~.ii<) square
(about equal to Greece and Ireland) — Its population is 1, !!>'_', l!14 (about equal to
Republic of Salvador) — Admitted to I'nion iu 1SG7.

miles

STATK

. — Stnto lins nn nron of S2.1.r,S squaro miles

(about equal to Greece, Hayti. and Costa Kira combined) — Its population is
1,690,949 (larger tban New South Wales) — Admitted to the Tnion in 1861.

PART IV CHAPTER VII

GREAT AMERICAN INDUSTRIES

"O, it is excellent

To have a giant's strength, but it is tyrannous
To use it like a giant."

— Shakespeare.

*T • ^HE race of vigour, not by vaunts is won," exclaimed Pope.
It is difficult to relate with moderate restraint the progress of
the American in the industrial arts and sciences. We can

"*" only say with Burke that "he that wrestles with us,
strengthens our nerves and sharpens our skill; our antagonist is our
helper."

Every civilization, and every age of human progress, is gauged by
its power to create new and more serviceable forms for the aspiring spirit
of man to work in and express itself. Only by the fashioning of forms
does the mind of an individual or of a nation learn to know itself and
realize its destiny. We are a great industrial people — the precursors of
the Industrial Age — because we are a democratic people. Manufacturing
is the democracy of art. It is every man's craft in which to learn to use
the mind and hand for the ultimate creation of "life, liberty and the pur-
suit of happiness." That is why America is the greatest manufacturing
nation of the world.

Every American is a product of liberty, and he aspires either con-
sciously or unconsciously to express that freedom in his daily toil. Thus,
he strives, in metals, in woods, in earths, in leathers, in furs, in oils, in
all the chemical compounds and in all the naked elements themselves, to
liberalize and emancipate his soul, and to develop the God in him. Amer-
ica is expressing itself in a hundred thousand mills, factories, and shops,
in the ever-increasing skill, efficiency, patience, endurance and self-control
of millions of men and women, toiling at machines.

Our factories alone are kingdoms with populations larger than many
nations. There are more people at work over the benches in our manu-
facturing establishments to-day than there are in all of the kingdoms of
Greece, Norway, and Switzerland combined; or Portugal and Denmark
combined; or Switzerland and Servia. The population of our factories
is larger than that of Egypt, or Sweden, or Belgium, or Bulgaria, or Ar-
gentina, or Rumania, or Chili and Peru combined, or the six nations of

277

AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Cuba, Uraguay, and Paraguay combined.

It is a vast empire of machinists and mechanics which labors under our
industrial system to create the products that give us our national supremacy.
This brawn and brain of the laboring people form the structure of our
civilization. Twenty-five years ago the United States became an export
manufacturing nation. Fifteen years ago a number of its industries had
grown to giant size. Five years ago it had attained complete supremacy
in output in seventy-five per cent, of the world's great industries. To-day
it leads the world in iron and steel, in automobiles, agricultural machinery,
electric goods and machinery, flour and the milling industry, lumber, paper
and wood pulp, petroleum, printing and publishing, meat packing, boots
and shoes, cordage, cotton goods, soap, sugar, woolens, dyeing and finishing
textiles, machine-tools, and both heavy and light machinery.

America has no formidable rivals in this industrial age. This fact
more than anything else has changed the whole relation of America to the
world. It has given us a great foreign trade in manufactured goods in
competition with other nations and it is, moreover, giving us a world con-
sciousness, a new outlook on other peoples and nations, and a new foreign
policy. It is taking the provincialism, the narrowness and the feeling of
separateness out of our imaginations and creating for us a sense of world
responsibility and leadership. This is what our surplus manufactures in
iron and steel, in bridges, sewing-machines, typewriters, reapers, and plows,
beef and bacon, petroleum and locomotives are doing for us and for the
world.

The magnitude and power of our great manufacturing industries are
so colossal that it is difficult to get any real conception of them in figures.
There are nearly 300,000 manufacturing establishments, which give em-
ployment to nearly 10,000,000 persons. These establishments pay over
$5,000,000,000 in wages and salaries yearly and they produce goods worth
$20,000,000,000. Of this vast sum more than $10,000,000,000 is added
by the skill of the laborer and his machine, as the raw material costs about
$5,000,000,000.

During the ten years from 1899 to 1909 the number of establishments
increased 29.4 per cent.; the capital employed 105.3 Per cent.; the average
number of wage earners 40.4 per cent. ; the amount of primary power 85 ;
the value of the material consumed 84.6 per cent. ; the value of the product
81.2 per cent., and the value added by manufacture 76.6 per cent. The
gross value of products in 1909 exceeded that of 1899 by 9,000,000,000.
It has been estimated that the gross value of all the manufactured products
of the United States will reach the enormous sum of $25,000,000,000 in
1920.

278

It is estimated, as outlined in another chapter, that the United States
possessed $150,000,000,000 of national wealth in 1914; Great Britain
$85,000,000,000, Germany $80,000,000,000, France $50,000,000,000,
Russia $40,000,000,000. What is it that contributes most to swell the
wealth of the American people1? It is our manufactures. Our agricul-
ture, though a big item in our national wealth, is limited. Our mining,
another big source of the nation's wealth, is also limited. The value of our
manufactures, now exceeds them both, because with the advance of civiliza-
tion an ever increasing percentage of crude commodities has to pass through
the factory and mill to be prepared for a more refined use. Fifty years
ago, men did not dream of eating cotton seed oil for food or making varnish,
or paint out of petroleum, or paper out of wood, or saccharine out of coal
tar.

Every time the sun has risen on this great republic since 1910 its rays
have shone on $16,000,000 of new wealth that was not in existence twenty-
four hours before and our great manufacturing industries are now con-
tributing the largest item in that sum. Within five years our factories have
added nearly as much to our wealth as the little kingdom of Belgium was
worth at the beginning of the European War, or nearly half as much as the
whole kingdom of Italy is worth, or nearly one-fourth of that of the whole
empire of Russia, or one-fifth of that of the rich republic of France.
We take four billion dollars out of our fields, mines, and forests, and al-
most treble them in our mills. We have not only in many lines become
the first of manufacturing nations but we are fast approaching the days
of becoming the first of commercial nations — that is, the greatest ex-
porters of manufacturing commodities. The die is cast. Our great,
teeming cities, containing nearly half our population and ever growing,
have determined our future. We are to become the world's greatest work-
shop and mart.

Beginning of the Industrial Age in America

LET us go back into the years and watch the steady rise of the indus-
trial age. When Alexander Hamilton submitted his celebrated
"Report on Manufacturing" to Congress in 1791, practically every
family in our country supplied most of its own needs. In New England,
the cradle of American manufacturing, some families began to make more
than they needed and sold their goods to others. Tanneries, iron shops,
furniture factories, and houses for making boats and docks, for building
ships and various other manufacturing establishments, sprang up to meet
the needs of neighborhoods, villages, and groups of communities.

But the American people from 1800 to 1850 were on the move, push-

279

AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

ing back the frontier at sunset, driving on into the West till they had come
to the water's edge of the Pacific. During these five most eventful dec-
ades, the family loom and spinning wheel, the cobbler and the little shop
supplied most of the needs of a nation in the throes of its birth. When
this great movement reached the Mississippi River in 1840, the line was
growing long, and compact settlements stood wide apart. The railroad
had now become an absolute necessity. A railroad calls for a factory —
and factories came. The new farms of the valleys called for the plow and
the reaper — and they came. The nation now had to be built and the great
problem was to free as many people as possible from the toils of agriculture
to do other work.

Then came the Civil War and it tremendously stimulated the de-
mands for manufactures. Accompanied as it was by a high tariff to
raise revenue for the Government, it gave a great impetus to the building
of factories. Agriculture was the chief source of wealth until 1880. But
the country became a manufacturing nation from 1880 to 1890 and since
then manufacturing has dominated our national politics and the policy of
the Government. The great corporations and combines from 1890 to 1905
grew out of this dominance of manufacture. According to Mulhall, we
produced in manufacturing in 1900 about half as much as all Europe com-
bined. We had greatly increased our lead in 1910 and our manufactured
products are now worth more than those of Great Britain, Germany,
France, and Austria combined.

One of the secrets of the great power of American industries to
produce their enormous output is due to the inventions described in another
chapter. In over 90 per cent, of the mills, when it is possible for machin-
ery to do the work of hands, machinery is in use; therefore, an American
factory employee does three and even four times more work reckoned by
output than an English operative. The American workman uses machine
tools whenever it is possible, while English workmen, up to the beginning
of the great European War, generally failed to do so. The Germans use
these machine tools now very extensively, having some twenty years ago
begun the adoption of American machinery methods.

We witness the rapid rise of American industries during the last quar-
ter of the last century. During this period the growth of production of
manufactures in the United States was $5,932,000,000, while in England,
Germany, and France combined it was $3,833,000,000. The percentage
of increase for the United States was 85 per cent, and for the three Euro-
pean countries combined 42 per cent. The actual figures for the consump-
tion of three of the most important articles ultilized in manufacturing for
each of the countries in question for this term of years show the tremen-

280

STATE CAPITOL AT BISMARCK, NORTH DAKOTA— This State has an area of 70,837 square

miles (about equal to Republic of Uruguay) — Its population is 577,056 (larger than

Kingdom of Montenegro) — Admitted to the Union in 1889.

STATE CAPITOL AT PIERRE, SOUTH DAKOTA— This State has an area of 77,615 square

miles (larger than Scotland and Greece comhined) — Its population is 583,888 (nearly

equal to Republic of Nicaragua) — Admitted to Union in 1889.

STATIC CAPITOL AT KKLKNA, MONTANA — This State has an area of 14<>,'.>!»7 square miles

(larger than continental Italy and Ireland) — Its population is :{76,053 (about equal

to the Republic of Panama) — Admitted in 1889.

STATE CAPITOL AT ROISE, IDAHO— This State has an area of 83,888 square miles (about

equal to Korea) — Its population is 325.54!} (about equal to the Island

of Crete)— Admitted to the Union in 1890.

GREAT AMERICAN INDUSTRIES

dous advance of the American nation. The three articles — cotton, pig-
iron, and coal — supply in their consumption a better measurement of indus-
trial manufacturing activity than any other data available in countries
which take no census of manufactures. The figures presented in the annual
report of the Chief of the Bureau of Statistics show that the actual increase
in cotton consumption in the United States in the last twenty-five years
of the last century was 1,026,917,226 pounds, as against an increase of
but 883,653,016 pounds in the United Kingdom, Germany, and France
combined, the percentage of increase in the United States being 107 per
cent., as against 46 per cent, in the three European countries combined. In
pig-iron consumption, the actual increase in the United States was
15,263,454 tons, as against an increase of 11,518,000 tons in the four
countries, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, and Russia combined;
while the percentage of increase in the United States is 437 per cent., as
against an increase of 102 per cent, in the four European countries com-
bined. In coal consumed, the actual increase in the United States was
247,214,000 tons, as against an increase of 175,301,000 tons in the four
countries, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, and Russia, combined;
and the percentage of increase in the United States is 364 per cent., as
against an increase of 82 per cent, in the four European countries combined.

Considering the actual quantities of these three great articles con-
sumed, the figures for 1914 are: Cotton consumption, 5,649,000 bales
(each bale 500 pounds) in the United States, against 4,300,000 bales in
the United Kingdom, 6,000,000 bales on the Continent of Europe, the total
amount consumed in the United States thus exceeding by about 33 per
cent, that of the United Kingdom and being far in excess of that of
Germany and France combined.

The total production of pig-iron in the United States in 1912 was
29,798,927 tons, against 17,868,900 tons in Germany, 8,751,461 tons in
the United Kingdom, and 4,938,324 tons in France — the production of
the United States being thus nearly double that of Germany and consider-
ably more than treble that of the United Kingdom. Of coal production,
the figures for the United States are 575,048,125 tons, as against
321,922,130 tons for the United Kingdom, 281,979,467 tons for Ger-
many, 45,108,544 tons for France, and 31,752,744 tons for Russia, the
production of coal in the United States being thus nearly double that of
the United Kingdom and fully double that of Germany.

The one country of Europe in which the figures of growth begin to
approximate those of the United States is Germany, which shows in the
case of coal consumption an increase of 174 per cent., against 364 per cent,
in the United States; in pig-iron consumption, an increase of 366 per cent.

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AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

against 437 per cent, in the United States ; and in cotton consumption, an
increase of 170 per cent., as against 107 per cent, in the United States.
In actual consumption, however, Germany shows an increase in coal of
but 99,234,000 tons, as compared with 247,214,000 tons in the United
States; in pig-iron, an increase of 7,095,000 tons, as against 15,263,454
tons in the United States; and in cotton, an increase of 513,676,000 pounds
as against 1,026,917,226 pounds in the United States.

But it is not alone to high tariff, great combines, and the general use
of machinery that the supremacy of America in manufacturing must be
attributed. These have been great auxiliary factors but the people who
settled this country were naturally creators and inventors and their de-
scendants are so to a still greater degree. Especially was this true in
New England where the people, as we have seen in the beginning, showed
great aptitude for making things to meet their growing needs. The har-
nessing of the rivers was one of the greatest achievements in American
history.

Causes of America's Supremacy as an Industrial Nation

AN inventory of the causes of our greatness as a manufacturing nation
may be grouped under the following heads. First stands the native
genius of the people, referred to above. Second: agricultural
resources; third: mineral resources. There are separate chapters on these
factors in this volume. It is plain that a country which produces nine-
tenths of the world's cotton, one-third of its coal, one-fourth of its iron-ore,
one-half of its copper, and a similar generous share of many other things,
such as lumber, grain, hides, and petroleum, has a great advantage in the
matter of raw materials upon which to set labor and capital at work.

Another important factor in the development of American industries
was the canal system, a magnificent but now scarcely used system of navig-
able rivers amounting to 18,000 miles, and a highly important system of
Great Lakes waterways extending for 1,000 miles and carrying a tonnage
"equal to nearly 40 per cent, of that of the entire railroad system of the
United States." The greatest factor is our railway system, constructed
with great rapidity between 1860 and 1880.

As an example of American ingenuity, we may cite the invention of
the system of interchangeable parts, which has made possible the use of
complex machinery in agriculture or other industries at a distance from
machine shops or the point of original manufacture. Activity, skill, and
willingness characterize the best type of American workmen, and this
willingness is shown, in part, by a readiness to migrate to those places
where manufacture can be carried on most economically. The organizing

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GREAT AMERICAN INDUSTRIES

ability of American capitalists cannot be doubted. There is scarcely an
industry upon which the peculiar genius of the American has not wrought
an effect.

The introduction of machinery has changed our whole economic sys-
tem. In food manufacture we began with the slowly revolving millstone,
but Oliver Evans originated the system of automatic conveyors now in
use. When later this was coupled with the middlings purifier, also of
American origin, and the Hungarian roller process in a modified form, the
modern mill first became a reality. Here the factory system was first ap-
plied to the making of cheese and butter, resulting in the cheese factory
and creamery. An instance of a wonderful application of machinery to a
complex process is afforded by our slaughtering and meat-packing estab-
lishments. While the production of beef extract in South America is
reputed to be one of the most wasteful industries in existence, involving the
destruction of an entire carcass of beef to produce a few pounds of extract,
the American method with beef and pork products is based upon the utmost
despatch through the division of labor, continuous refrigeration from fac-
tory to consumer, and the utilization of every product so that there is no
waste. It has been said that "the packer gets everything out of the hog
but its squeal, and this he gets out of the public."

In textile manufacture we are now the second nation in the world in
the number of cotton spindles operated, and first in the amount of cotton
fibre used. In iron and steel manufacture, we long since passed our chief
rival, Great Britain. It was an old axiom for many years that the manu-
facture of steel could only develop where coal and ore were together.
iYet Chicago, very distant from ore and coal supplies, is the seat of an
enormous production of iron. The ore from Lake Superior and the coal
from Pennsylvania meet there half way. Other lake ports, like Cleveland
and Toledo, present the same phenomenon due to the cheapening of rail
transportation. The development of the industry in the Pittsburgh region
and in Alabama has made this country the greatest producer of iron and
steel in the world. Here structural steel was employed in buildings. The
structures into which the first girders went are still standing — Cooper
Union and Harper's publishing house in New York City. An enormous
demand for iron and steel is created for agricultural and mining and man-
ufacturing machinery and also for electrical equipments and gas and water
pipe. Nowhere are stoves and ranges made so large and beautiful as here,
and nowhere is tin plate used so lavishly. In lumber, leather, paper and
other lines the record is similarly very great.

The United States is at the head of the shoe export trade. It sells to
other nations some $12,000,000 worth of shoes annually, the principal cus-

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AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

tomers being Cuba, the United Kingdom, Canada, Mexico, the West
Indies and Bermuda, Central America, France, Germany and the Philip-
pines. Cuba alone purchases 35 per cent, of all the shoes exported from
this country, France only about 2 per cent.

Growth of Great Cities upon Industrial Foundations

INDUSTRIES of the United States are most of them strongly local-
ized in certain regions. This tendency to develop a territorial division
of labor always has been marked in this country, in agriculture as well
as in manufactures. The causes which lead to the location of industry in
certain places are enumerated by the census: Nearness to materials —
this is illustrated by the oyster canning of Baltimore. Nearness to mar-
ket— the agricultural implement manufacturers of Chicago find their best
market in the region which is tributary to that city. Water power — Fall
River, Massachusetts, with its textile manufacture, Cohoes, New York, with
its knitting industry, and Niagara Falls, with its electro-chemical industries,
have resulted from the utilization of water power. Favorable climate —
the Piedmont section of the South attracts cotton mills, not only because of
its nearness to materials and its water powers, but because of its favorable
climate. Supply of labor — the garment trades are largely monopolized by
New York City, Philadelphia, and other large cities on the coast because
there is a large population of foreign birth, with modest standards of living,
which furnish adequate supplies of economical labor.

The absorption of capital by American industries is an interesting
phase of our national growth. When the whaling industry declined,
New Bedford, which had become wealthy by means of it and was ranked as
one of the richest cities in the United States, invested much of its capital
into cotton manufacturing. The city of Chicago was not able to sur-
pass Cincinnati as the center of the pork-packing industry in the West
until the local banks acquired enough money to aid the packers in carrying
the enormous financial load of buying the raw materials, which for that
business constitute about 75 per cent, of the value of the finished product.
Sir William Johnston early brought glovers from England to Johnstown,
New York, and started the industry for which that city and Amsterdam
and Gloversville are now noted. Had the celebrated "shoemaker of Lynn"
settled in a neighboring village, Lynn might not now signify shoes wher-
ever the name is heard.

If we examine a map, showing the location of American manufactures,
we shall observe that they are markedly concentrated along the Atlantic
seaboard, from the middle of Maine to the latitude of Baltimore, and
covering a region extending perhaps one hundred miles back from the coast.

286

STATE CAPITOL AT CHEYENNE, WYOMING — This State has an area of 97,914 square miles

(nearly equal to England, Scotland, Wales and Belgium combined) — Its population

is 145,965— Admitted to the Union in 1890.

STATE CAPITOL AT DENVER. COLORADO — This State has an area of 103,948 square miles

(nearly as much as New Zealand) — Its population Is 799,024 (larger than

the Republic of Paraguay) — Admitted to the Union in 1876.

STATE CAPITOL AT SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH — This State has an area of 84,990 square miles

(larger than Uruguay and Belgium combined) — Its population is 373,351 (about

equal to Republic of Costa Rica) — Admitted to the Union in 1896.

STATE CAPITOL AT PHOENIX. ARIZONA— This State has an aroa of 113,950 square miles

(larger than continental Italy) — Its population is 204,354 (larger than

tne Island of Hawaii)— Admitted to the Union in 1912.

West of this an irregular belt of country, including middle New York,
western Pennsylvania, and northeastern Ohio, stands out prominently.
Passing still farther west, we find the manufactures not so evenly dis-
tributed, but rather concentrated at certain points, such as Cincinnati,
Louisville, the gas belt of Indiana, Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Louis, Min-
neapolis, Kansas City and Omaha. The South shows a large number of
small, rather isolated manufacturing localities. These occur most fre-
quently upon the Piedmont Plateau, from southern Virginia to northern
Alabama. In the Rocky Mountain States and the region west of them,
five centers stand out separated from one another by wide intervals of
undeveloped country. They are the middle portion of Colorado, Salt Lake
Valley, the Butte region of Montana, the Puget Sound and Columbia River
cities from Sacramento to Alameda.

The national center of manufactures has been fixed at a point in the
middle of Ohio, about ten miles southeast of Mansfield. It has moved
west only about forty miles in ten years. The center of population lies
west of this, in Indiana. California is first in preserving vegetables and
fruits, vinous liquors, lead smelting and refining. Connecticut is first in
ammunition, brassware, clocks, corsets, cutlery, needles, pins, and hard-
ware. New York is first in thirty-one industries, among which are butter
and cheese, gloves, factory-made clothing, furniture, chemicals, hosiery,
malt liquors, lithographing, printing and publishing, millinery and lace
goods, paper and pulp, patent medicines, soap and candles, sugar refining,
cigars and cigarettes. Illinois is first in the manufacture of agricultural
implements, bicycles, cars, glucose, and distilled liquors, and in slaughter-
ing and meat packing. Wisconsin is first in lumber and timber products.
Minnesota leads in flouring and grist mills. Texas leads in cotton
ginning and manufacture of products from cotton seed. Some manu-
factures are limited to very restricted areas, a group of States or a single
State or even a portion of a State confining them. The most highly con-
centrated industry is the making of collars and cuffs, of which 99.6 per
cent, is within New York State and 85.3 per cent, is in the single city of
Troy.

The tendency to centralize industry has given rise to cities which are
chiefly devoted to one occupation. The city most wholly given up to one
thing is South Omaha; 89.8 per cent, of the products of this city are the
output of the great packing houses located there. A list of cities of 30,000
and over in population, in each of which 40 per cent, or over of the indus-
trial products belong to one branch of manufacture, is an interesting study.
Brockton, Haverhill and Lynn, Massachusetts, signify shoes. In the past
twenty years the shoe business has been growing rapidly in the West,

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AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

especially in the Valley of the Mississippi. Lynn, however, has retained
its supremacy in the shoe trade and produces 75 per cent, of the shoes made
in New England and 50 per cent, of all the shoes made in the United
States, or about 10,000,000 cases. Springfield, Ohio, means agricultural
implements ; Troy, New York, is collars and cuffs. Cotton goods are con-
centrated in Warwick, Rhode Island; Fall River, New Bedford, Massa-
chusetts; Lewiston, Maine; Manchester, New Hampshire; Charlotte,
North Carolina; Columbia, South Carolina. Fur hats are in Bethel and
Danbury, Connecticut; Orange, New Jersey. Glass in Millville, New
Jersey; Tarentum and Charleroi, Pennsylvania. Knit goods in Cohoes,
New York; iron in McKeesport, Youngstown, Johnstown, New Castle,
Joliet, Pittsburg, Trenton. Jewelry in North Attleboro and Attle-
boro, Massachusetts. Gloves in Gloversville and Johnstown, New York.
Pottery in East Liverpool, Ohio. Silk in West Hoboken and Paterson,
New Jersey. Slaughtering and meat packing in Chicago, South Omaha,
Kansas City and St. Joseph.

About one-half of the manufactures of the United States are turned
out in our one hundred largest cities. These cities contain 28 per cent, of
the population. About one-third of these products come from the 209
cities having over 20,000 population. The greatest concentration of a
manufacture in cities is found in the case of men's and women's clothing,
hats and caps, cars, umbrellas and canes, lithographing and engraving.
The smallest degree of concentration is found in the case of flour and grist
mills, distilled liquors, and brick and tile.

New York City is most cosmopolitan in its manufactures, exhibiting
the greatest variety of them, and having a number of establishments which
are the only ones of their kind in the country. There were 45,776 manu-
factories in New York City (1910), employing $15,250,000 capital
and 600,000 persons turning out goods annually to the value of
$2,371,000,000. The most numerous class of establishments in the city
was for custom work and repairing of boots and shoes, of which there were
3,841. There were more than 1,000 establishments each for the manu-
facture of cigars, women's clothing, dressmaking, carpentering, men's cloth-
ing, and also for plumbing, painting, and blacksmithing.

Visit to the Iron and Steel Industries in America

LET us go on a few short visits to some of the great American indus-
tries. We view the huge mining and agricultural industries in other
chapters, but here it is instructive and entertaining to survey some
of the manufacturing groups. This is the day of giants — there is no deny-
ing the truth. We see them wherever we turn our eyes — giants that step

290

GREAT AMERICAN INDUSTRIES

from flaming furnaces and stretch their enormous frames over valleys and
rivers, or snort fire from their nostrils, or float on the waves like sea mon-
sters. And the greatest giant of all is the steel industry. Here we look
into blast furnaces that turn huge kettles of molten metal into far leaping
steel bridges, towering steel skyscrapers, deep steel tunnels under the
earth, steel greyhounds of the ocean, steel engines running swiftly across
continents on steel tracks. The molten masses of iron are daily trans-
formed into that greatest of metal — yes, greater than gold and silver — the
metal that is the back-bone of our modern civilization. First we had the
Stone Age ; then the Bronze Age ; then the Iron Age — this is the Steel Age.
Our lives are to-day encompassed by steel. We are absolutely dependent
on it for our daily necessities and conveniences. Imagine what the world
would be like with steel taken out of it. The amount of steel used for
warlike purposes is overwhelming, but it is nothing compared with that em-
ployed in the arts of peace. The railroads alone laid out through the
length and breadth of the United States represent a weight of 70,000,000
tons, while the engines in use total nearly 5,000,000 more.

Watch for a moment the transformation of iron into steel by the
genius of man. The molten iron is run onto a train of ladles, whose loco-
motive draws it to the open-hearth department of the steel works. There
the air is blown through it by what is called the Bessemer process, or it is
poured into an oven and subjected to a fierce heat. Then it is poured into
a gigantic ladle, capable of holding fifteen to twenty tons, which is swung
by a crane to a position just above a train of ingot molds placed in little
trucks on a railroad track. Through a hole in the bottom of the ladle the
steel is poured into each mold, filling it to the top ; and, when it has cooled
sufficiently to stand, the molds are stripped off, and there are the ingots —
massive blocks of steel, six feet high, and a foot or more thick, and still
red-hot. Then the little train moves on to the soaking pits, where an
overhead crane, with a pair of jaws like huge ice tongs, seizes each ingot
and lowers it into a pit, where its temperature is equalized, the surface
being warmed by a gas flame, whilst the inner part cools down. It then
goes to the roll-tables, where it is squeezed into shape, according to the use
for which it is designed. It is now sent forth to perform its mighty mission
in the world. Forthwith it takes myriad forms of usefulness. It girdles
the earth with railroads. It lines the huge buildings of our cities. It
builds up the machinery of the factory. It prints the newspaper. It fills
the surgeon's case. It plows and reaps the harvest of the world. It
moves the giant vessel over the ocean. It makes the world's clothing.
There is nothing of importance in the affairs of men in which the great
magician, Steel, does not have a part.

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AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

This is an American industry. A century ago, steel played a hardly
greater part in our lives than in those of our primeval ancestors. At the
beginning of the Nineteenth Century, about 35,000 tons of steel were made
annually in Great Britain, then the greatest producer in the world. It
produced six and a half million tons in 191 1. But the United States has
quadrupled that figure, with 24,000,000 tons out of the world's output of
58,000,000. We lead the world, not only in the production, but in the
use of steel. When Bessemer, an Englishman, suggested his new process
for making steel, in 1855, from cast iron without fuel, he was laughed to
scorn. But Americans were quick to see the possibilities of the invention,
and the production of steel by the new process increased by leaps and
bounds in this country. How astonishing this progress has been is shown
by the fact that, at the opening of the twentieth century, the United States
was producing as much steel as the whole world had produced in 1892.
It would have required the total production of all the gold mines of the
world to pay for that one year's production of steel.

Let us try to get an idea of the magnitude of the present annual
product of steel in the United States — which is five times the total produc-
tion of the world twenty years ago. Suppose that for one year the
country could spare from its ordinary use all the steel produced and devote
it to ornamental purposes. It would make a magnificent colonnade of
pillars, 4,150 on each side, 2O feet in diameter and 100 feet high. Or, if
we preferred it, we could build one colossal column, 100 feet in diameter,
and pile it up higher than Mount Everest, the loftiest peak in the world.

In the old days steel was used in destroying human life — that was
almost its sole use. In these times, it is employed for protecting and pre-
serving human life. Even in the case of a great railroad accident, the
disastrous effects are minimized by the use of steel cars. And here should
be mentioned one of the most beneficial purposes to which steel has been
applied — the construction of great buildings. It has proved its worth in
the presence of fire and earthquake. In the great Baltimore fire, the frame-
work of the steel buildings stood unscathed, even when exposed to the full
severity of the conflagration. An even more convincing illustration was
provided in the San Francisco fire, when the tall, steel-ribbed buildings
stood practically intact, after enduring shocks which threw everything
around them to the ground. And tests made of steel corrosion show that
the life of such buildings is practically assured for generations. The
strength of steel is phenomenal. The number of strands in a steel rope an
inch in circumference varies from 40 to 400, and a strand as large as a
knitting-needle will require a ton weight to tear it apart!

As America has become the empire of steel, so is Pittsburgh its capital.

292

STATE CAPITOL AT SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA — This State has an area of 158,297 square

miles (larger than England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, and Servia combined)

— Population 2,377,549 (larger than Norway) — Admitted in 1850.

STATE CAPITOL AT CARSON CITY, NEVADA — This State has an area of 110,690 square miles

(nearly equal to the Philippine Islands) — Its population is 81,875 (about equal to

Bermuda and Bahama Island combined) — Admitted in 1804.

STATE CAPITOL AT OLYMPIA. WASIIl.MiTOX— This State has an area of 00,127 square miles

(larger than kingdom of Roumania) — Its population is 1,141,000 (larger than

Republic of Uruguay) — Admitted to Union in 18SO.

STATE CAPITOL AT SALEM, OREGON— This State has an area of ittl.OOO square miles (nearly

equal to Republic of Paraguay) — Its population is 6711,705 (larger than the Republic

of Nicaragua) — Admitted to the Union in 1859,

GREAT AMERICAN INDUSTRIES

Around it, stretching in every direction in a huge circle is a network of
steel-making towns. Steel has multiplied the population of Pittsburgh by
ten during the past fifty years and has doubled it during the past twenty;
it now stands eighth among American cities. It has made more million-
aires, and more quickly, than any other industry. So long as America is at
the head of the steel industry, it will lead the world. "The nation that
makes the cheapest steel," said Andrew Carnegie, "has the other nations at
its feet. Steel has come to be the basis of all material progress, and our
civilization is built, as it were, upon a framework of steel."

Flour Milling Industries in the United States

A GLIMPSE at the flour milling industry in the United States
shows an interesting phase of our national everyday life. The
little grain of wheat feeds the world. Our enormous mills eat
up millions of bushels of wheat like hungry giants. England, Holland,
Switzerland, Belgium, Norway, and Sweden must all look to foreign coun-
tries for their wheat and flour. We bake bread enough every year to give
thirty loaves to each of the earth's inhabitants. We could build eight
"bread lines," each stretching from New York to San Francisco. The
little sheaf of wheat passes through in its journey from the harvest fields
of Kansas, or Illinois, or Washington, or Nebraska to the twenty-odd
millions of American breakfast tables. The first merchant mill was
erected in Minneapolis in 1854. The first great steel mill was erected in
1878, and in twelve years this infant city on the headwaters of the Mis-
sissippi became the world's greatest "flour city." Improved machinery
has made flour milling one of the greatest of American industries.

If you ever go to the "flour cities," be sure to visit the wonderful grain
elevators. They are high, windowless buildings, with a superstructure
resembling a cupola, in which is installed the machinery. The elevators of
the Northwest, such as those of Minneapolis, for example, are capable of
storing from 500,000 to 4,000,000 bushels of wheat, and can handle and
transfer as much as 30,000 bushels in an hour. There were in the United
States, at the time of the last census, 11,691 establishments producing
flour. They paid $38,981,000 in salaries and wages that year, and gave
work to 51,484 persons. There were $349,182,000 invested in these es-
tablishments, and the value of the products was $883,584,000. More
than two hundred million barrels of wheat flour were produced.

The sugar industry is one of the great factors in American progress
and is an economic and political problem. We Americans are now
consuming nearly 4,000,000 tons of sugar a year. The world's annual
output is 12,000,000 tons. More than 7,000,000 tons are obtained from

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AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

beets. Few persons realize how the industry has gone through an evolu-
tion which has made sugar the commodity which it is to-day. This evolu-
tion has been brought about by the application of modern American ideas to
the machinery and chemistry involved in extracting sugar from the plants
and in the methods of refining the raw product.

Sugar Industry and the Development of the South

THE first sugar mill to be established in this country was that of
Etienne De Bore. The cane had been introduced in Louisiana,
in 1751, by the Jesuits, and thrived there fairly well. De Bore's
mill was erected not long afterward on what is now the site of the city of
New Orleans. To-day the extraction and refining of sugar, as well as the
growing of the cane, constitute one of the most important industries of that
part of the South. Steam mills came into use in the first half of the
Nineteenth Century, a Mr. Coiron being the first man to adopt the idea.
From that time on, the mills have grown in size and effectiveness, so that
by 1900 there was exhibited at the Paris Exposition a sugar mill that was
capable of crushing three hundred tons of sugar-cane a day; but the
latest mills can crush from nine to twelve hundred tons in twenty-four
hours. American inventiveness has, of course, helped to make this possible.
Jeremiah Howard patented a device for the regulation of the feeding of
the stalks into the first roller in 1858. This patent operates so as to
have both sides of the roller working evenly and also prevents foreign
substances, such as stray pieces of wood or iron, from entering. The primi-
tive open receptacles have given way to the modern multiple-effect evap-
orator, an invention of Morberto Relleux, who first put it into use at New
Orleans in 1840. He discovered the important fact that, the shorter time
the juice is exposed to heat, the less loss there is of sugar. The time re-
quired has been cut down by carrying out this evaporation in vacuum pans,
an idea first put into practice by E. C. Howard. Before sugar is fit to be
placed on our tables, it must be refined, and the refining is often done miles
away from the sugar mills. There are great suger refining factories in and
about New York City, and to these hundreds of thousands of tons of raw
sugar are brought yearly from foreign mills as well as those in the southern
part of our own country. It was an American who finally produced sugar
from beets, and made it practical for commercial purposes. His name was
David Lee Child. He gave it his attention in 1840. The brothers
Genert set up a beet-sugar mill in Chatsworth, Illinois, in 1863. There
are now more than seventy beet-sugar mills in this country.

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GREAT AMERICAN INDUSTRIES

Leather Industry Grows to Gigantic Proportions

THE leather industry is a witness to American ingenuity. There are
over 200,000 engaged in all the branches of the industry in the
United States. We have 5,000 establishments in this country and
they earn more than $100,000,000 each year. We import from all coun-
tries of the world — the United States cannot begin to meet our demand —
more than $120,000,000 worth of hides and skins, stripped from the
backs of cattle, horses, buffalo, sheep, goats, kangaroos, pigs, and even the
fish of the sea, and many other kinds of animals.

It has been said that the Pilgrims, not intending to walk barefoot in
the New World, brought over a cordwainer for the purpose. The first
tannery mentioned in America is the Virginian establishment which began
operations in the same year that Boston was founded, 1630. It was only
a matter of a year or so before Francis Ingalls had one established in the
Massachusetts Colony, in Swampscott. In those days, the trade was con-
sidered of such vital importance that the authorities issued strict laws that,
whenever an animal was killed, its hide must be saved for the neighborhood
leather maker, and also laws that prohibited, under heavy penalty, hides
being exported. Under this protection the industry flourished, especially
that of making shoes.

Many great Americans have been shoemakers. One of them was
Roger Sherman, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and a maker
of the Constitution of the United States. He worked at the bench for
twenty-two years. From the old-time shoemaker's bench to the modern
shoe factory there intervenes but little more than a century of practice.
The battle of New Orleans was but a year old when J. W. Hopkinton
invented the shoe-pegging machine, one of the first steps toward the modern
era of shoe-machinery. If you have never been in one of the New England
shoe shops, as they are to-day, you cannot appreciate the wonderful in-
genuity of the machines. They perform all the work, from cutting out the
leather to putting on the finishing polish. There are machines that sew
the uppers together, make and attach the toe-caps, fasten in accurately the
eyelets, fit the uppers over the lasts so that they fit the foot like a glove,
cut grooves, and trim, nail, and stitch inner and outer soles together and
then to the uppers, level the soles and heels, which are nailed on by
machinery, to a uniform thickness and then sandpaper them, and finally
bevel, blacken, and burnish the heels and soles with hot irons. The fin-
ished product is the pride of American industry and is pronounced by the
world as the finest shoe made. The American shoemakers are turning out

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AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

their product at the rate of 250,000,000 shoes every year, enough to give
every individual in our nation two and a half pairs.

American Woolen Industries Clothe the Nation

THE United States is the greatest wool consuming nation in the
world. To supply this demand, or at least a great part of it, we
have in this country more than 50,000,000 sheep, a greater number
than we have of horses, mules, and dairy cows. In the one State of Mon-
tana alone there are more sheep than there are mules in the whole coun-
try. We clip from all our sheep more than 300,000,000 pounds of fine
wool, enough to supply every individual American with three pounds each.
Over 1,200 American woolen mills use this vast fleecy mass, and call upon
the rest of the world for sufficient wool to meet the insatiable demand.
Columbus when he came to America in 1493, included in his cargo several
Spanish sheep, which became progenitors of large flocks in New Mexico,
Utah, and Texas. Sheep were introduced from England into Virginia in
1609; into Massachusetts from England in 1624; and into New York from
Holland in 1625. Picture a well sheltered valley, deep with luscious
grass. Keen-eyed men, two to a flock, ceaselessly watch their charges,
numbering, in the aggregate, hundreds of thousands of sheep, each valued
at from $3 to $12 apiece. Scores of intelligent sheep dogs sit on their
haunches, keenly watching every move of the sheep. It is early spring in
one of our Southwestern States, and the drovers are preparing to bring
their flocks to the clipping sheds. They are long rambling buildings,
whose interiors resemble a modern factory in the point of machinery.
Long belts hang to the shaftings and lead down to the clipping machines,
or shears. Twenty shearers, men who are experts at their trades and
follow the clipping seasons, as the wheat harvesters do, take position beside
the machines. When all is ready, each man reaches into the shute leading
from the outside and seizes a sheep and with a quick swing has it in sitting
posture between his knees. The machinery whirrs, and the flashing shears
slip over the sheep's back, clipping off his woolen coat in less than two
minutes, a coat weighing on the average seven pounds of good wool, which,
after scouring, will sell at the rate of about 55 cents a pound.

Ninety-five out of every hundred Americans who wear woolen clothing
are clad in fabrics from American mills. To describe the processes by
which the various cloths are made would fill a volume, as almost every
kind of cloth is manufactured differently. The worsted machines are
ingenious. One, the gilling machine, levels the fibers and makes them lie
parallel, one pair of rollers pulling the yarn over heavy steel bars, fallers,
covered with projecting pins, the pins becoming finer and more numerous

298

GOVERNOR'S PALACE AT SAX JUAN, PORTO RICO— United States took possession of t'.iis

island in 18!)S — Its population is 1, 151.570 — Its area is 3.604 square miles — This photograph

is loaned to this volume by Ex-Governor George H. Colton of -Porto Rico.

GOVERNMENT BUILDING AT HOXOU'LU, HAWAIIAN I SLA NI»S— These islands became ter-
ritory of th(> United States in ]!)()() — Their area is (>,44!) square miles and their popula-
tion is 1100,003 — Hawaii is one of the large sugar producing countries.

FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS DELIVERED TC THE AMERICAN PEOPLE— This famous engraving by
shows Washington as he stood before both Houses of Congress on April 30, 1789, and delivered ins
inaugural address — It was characterized by his usual modesty, moderation and good sense.

or HKMoi UACV SET FORTH I?Y \Y.\ SI II NGTOX— Washington, at his Inauguration, sounded the
key-note <>f Republican <;<>vcrnment : "The foundation of our national policy," he said, "will be laid
in the pure and immutable principles of private morality, and free government."

COVKUNMENT WILIUNd AT MANILA, PHILIPPINE ISLANDS The 1'nited States estab-
lished civil government in tliosc islands in l'.)02 — The ]>o])ulation is X.4(JO.O."i:i — Its area
is ll.~>. <)•_:<; square miles (larger than the Kingdom of Italy).

GOVERNMENT lU'ILIUNd IN JINKAU. ALASKA— This territory was purchased by the Tnited

States in 1S<>K — Its area is r>!)O.SS4 sqiiiire miles (larger than the (Jerman Kmpiro in

Europe, England, Scotland, Ireland, and France combined).

GREAT AMERICAN INDUSTRIES

as the fiber travels through the machine. From here it goes to a machine
to be spun into very hard, twisted thread. Then it is ready for weaving.
John Kay gave to the world, in 1733, his flying shuttle, and, in 1760, the
drop-box, an attachment by which different colored threads could be woven
into the fabric. In 1784, the Reverend Edmund Cartwright invented the
power loom and revolutionized the industry. Next Joseph Jacquard, of
France, invented, in 1801, a loom for weaving figured patterns. Leonardo
da Vinci, the painter of "Mona Lisa," invented the machine which is used
to-day to trim the pile of cloth.

Gigantic Packing Industries in the West

ONE of the greatest American industries is ranching and the slaughter
of cattle. On our great ranches to-day, awaiting the whim of
our hunger, are over 60,000,000 head of cattle, 58,000,000 swine,
and 52,000,000 sheep and lambs — quite a delicate little luncheon. .Their
value exceeds $2,000,000,000; so it is rather an extravagant luncheon after
all. To drive this "living dinner" into our dining-rooms requires more
than 1,700 slaughter houses and meat packing establishments, employing
about 110,000 men, women, and children.

France was the first country to have these modern "meat handling"
plants. During the reign of Napoleon I, a commission was called together
to consider the question of "slaughtering animals for food," with the result
that, in 1818, six abattoirs were built and put into operation in Paris;
these six are still in use. It was not until 1860 that the need for abattoirs
was felt in America. The West had developed into the greatest meat
providing region in the whole world, and foreign countries were importing
our beef. As a central market was needed, the abattoirs were located in
the stockyards in Chicago, and soon became the most important, the largest,
and the best equipped in the world. To-day millions of heads of cattle,
hogs, and sheep are sent to Chicago alone. They are forwarded in airy
cars, they are watered and fed during transportation, and only the healthier
animals are selected for slaughter. Chicago stockyards spread over more
than 500 acres of ground. Huge abattoirs have been erected in Kansas
City, Omaha, and many other cities, until to-day it is one of the great
American industries. Wonderful machinery transforms these animals al-
most instantly into beef, pork, and mutton, which are hurried on refriger-
ator cars to the homes of America across the seas to the peoples of this
earth.

The higher development of abattoirs has rested entirely with America.
Countless patented inventions have helped to make them what they are,
and the brains of many men have worked out the problems, The practice

303

AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

of canning meat began about twenty years ago and has come to be one of
the most important departments of the meat producing industry. These
large abattoirs have enabled America to outstrip all rivals in the amount of
meat furnished to the world. The United States produced 3,059,000 tons
of beef in a single year. The nearest rival, Russia, produced 1,546,000
tons in that year; while the third highest, Argentina, produced 985,000
tons in the same period. American beef is used all over the world, being
exported in cold storage or in tin cans. Only American ingenuity and
inventiveness have made this possible.

Growth of the Huge Automobile Industry

TO pass through even the leading manufacturing industries in this
country would require a lifetime. It is possible here only to sug-
gest the most conspicuous. The growth of the automobile indus-
try has been one of our Twentieth-Century marvels. Six million dollars
were invested in the business about the beginning of the century. Twelve
years later, it had multiplied to $450,000,000. There were 2,500 persons
actually employed in about thirty establishments in 1899; there were more
than 85,000 employed in more than 400 establishments in 1912. With all
the persons who are affiliated with the industry, including the capacities of
salesmen and demonstrators, there is an army numbering in the neighbor-
hood of a quarter of a million. There were 3,500 cars in our country
about twelve years ago; to-day there are more than a million or about
twenty times as many as there are passenger coaches on our American rail-
ways. These figures are constantly changing, at the rate of 300,000 or
more new cars every year, four-fifths of which, it is said, are sold to Amer-
icans, the rest being sold in foreign countries.

What has the automobile actually done for Americans'? It has
worked a new revolution, greater in its results than war. It has brought
health, wealth, and pleasure; it has made the tourist familiar with the
out-of-way places of the world, as no railroad could possibly do. It has
inaugurated a new spirit of travel and thereby greatly increased knowl-
edge. It has built up the small towns ; it has taken people out of cities to
the fresh air of the country, instead of crowding them into the heart of the
congested city. It has greatly increased property values. It is a factor
in science; the doctor finds it invaluable when hurrying to save a life;
the hospital sends out its auto-ambulances. The fireman uses it to carry
himself and his apparatus to the fire. The parcels postman uses it to
carry his heavy bundles. The shopper utilizes it in her trips to the stores.
The visitor to ..a city finds taxicabs awaiting him at the station to con-
vey him through the crowded streets to a hotel. There are auto-police

304

GREAT AMERICAN INDUSTRIES

wagons and auto-commercial trucks. Auto-freighting cars carry the
precious metals from Costa Rica's mountain-tops to her seaports. Cali-
fornia auto-trucks carry borax out from Death Valley. There are auto-
street-sweepers, auto-hand cars, and even auto-chapels, from which mission-
aries preach the Gospel to those who cannot attend church.

The automobile is thirty times more efficient than the old mule team.
It can haul a load of 100 tons to a distance of 100 miles in twenty hours.
Furthermore, it is much cheaper than horses. The automobile is doing
our farming to-day. Its first test was in plowing; it showed that horses
cost $3.68 an acre, steam power $4.08, and gasoline motor power $1.97
each acre. An auto plow can do as much work in one day as a two-horse
team can in six. The marvelous little auto-tractors pull the plow, the
harrow, the planting and the mowing machines. The automobile has
proven the farmer's friend. One-fourth of the automobiles sold to-day go
to farms west of the Mississippi. In Egypt it turns up the desert in the
very shadow of the Pyramids.

But one of the greatest of boons that the automobile has renderd to
civilization is the demand for good roads. During its comparatively short
career, it has changed the whole highway systems. Not millions, but bil-
lions of dollars are being expended in building great highways that weave
their way through the continent like a huge spider's web. The automobile
has come to stay. It will become more and more general in its use until
the peoples of the earth are darting from place to place in these veritable
houses on wheels. Even when the airship lures us into the clouds, the
automobile will remain the master of the land.

We might continue this chapter throughout many volumes, but this
survey suffices to impress upon the reader the democracy of American
industry. America's vast industries are its great handicraft universities —
its real senates of national expression. Here the mind goes out from the
hand into the machine and creates an Industrial Nation and an Industrial
Age. The machine is endowed with all the powers of the human senses
— it is a magical creation. The great American industries are nothing less
than gigantic forums of human progress. The original statesmen are the
inventors, but the millions of operatives are in turn training to be the
diplomatists of democracy. Thus, the great American factory, with its
magical machinery, has washed from the face of the world's industry the
last vestige of human slavery. It has crowned the labor of the world with
the diadem of nobility — and the noblest of human attributes is industry.

305

PART IV CHAPTER VIII

GREAT AMERICAN RAILROADS
AND COMMERCE

"Nature is the master of talent; genius is the master of nature."

— Holland.

genius of modem civilization is — transportation. It is the
backbone of the anatomy of civilization. For civilization is not
an abstract thing; it is a physical structure — a huge body formed
over a gigantic frame and performing its well-defined functions
through it own vital organs. The newspaper is the heart, the organ of the
circulatory processes; the telegraph and telephone is the nervous system;
the railroad is the skeleton of the whole body; the street railways are the
muscles; and the arteries are the channels of commerce.

If one was to ask what single factor had done the most for Amer-
ican progress — what material force had contributed the largest to our de-
velopment— it is probable that the economists would reply: "The rail-
road." This is the stupendous power that made possible the Industrial
Age. It is the miracle that allowed the American nation to stretch its
limbs across a continent. Without it, neither agriculture, nor manufac-
turing, nor mining could exist to-day on their gigantic scale. Practically
every large city in America owes its existence to the genius of transporta-
tion. It is the burden bearer of all the products of the people and all the
materials with which they work and live.

Macaulay must have prophetically referred to the railroad when he
said: "Of all inventions, the alphabet and printing-press excepted, those
inventions which abridge distances have done most for the civilization of
the species." The railroad not only "abridges distances" but it annihilates
both distance and time.

The railroad has been the empire builder — it is the genii behind the
development of the Great West. Through its power the forests become
great cities; the waste lands pour out abundant riches, the desolate plains
become peopled by the multitudes. Out of the vast Western wilderness,
scorned by the greatest statesman of the day, there has been wrought one
of the greatest modern miracles. Darkest Africa held not more forbidding
dominion than lay beyond the banks of the Missouri River in these United
States a generation ago. It took bold spirits to dare to brave the storms

306

LARGEST RAILROAD STATION IN TOE WORLD — The Grand Central Terminal in New York

covers over 70 acres, and cost $180,000,000 — It can hold about 30.000 people — It is

estimated that 25,000,000 persons pass through this gateway to New York each year.

<;KI:AT AMKKH'AX RAILROAD STATIONS — This is the Pennsylvania station
City — It covers twenty-eight acres, more land than any other building in
world— this structure with site cost $70,000,000.

York

GREAT AMERICAN RAILROADS

of ridicule when it was first suggested that the rivers and mountains
be spanned by steel rails. In the year 1845, a year before the boundary
between the United States and British Columbia was settled, a man named
Asa Whitney petitioned Congress in behalf of a steam road, closing his
address with the prophetic words : "You will see that it will change the
whole world."

This challenge aroused the ridicule of the statesmen. Senator Dick-
erson, from New Jersey, had in a previous session caused the tabling of
a bill which favored making Oregon a State. "It is absurd," he said.
"Why, a member of Congress traveling from his home in Oregon to Wash-
ington and return, would cover a distance of 9,200 miles, at the rate of
thirty miles per day. Allowing him forty-four days for Sundays, three
hundred and fifty days would be consumed, and the member would
have fourteen days in Washington before he started home. It would be
quicker to come around Cape Horn or by Behring Straits, Baffin Bay, and
Davis Strait to the Atlantic, and so to Washington. True, the passage
is not yet discovered, except upon our maps, but it will be as soon as Oregon
is made a State."

No one seemed to believe in the possibilities of the great Western
dominion of the United States. Even those men who had penetrated the
heart of the wilderness had no encouraging words for it. We find the
doughty discoverer, Pike, for whom Pike's Peak was later named officially,
advising the Government that the region was "incapable of cultivation,"
and that perforce Americans must confine themselves to the banks of the
Missouri and Mississippi. The Great West by consensus of opinion
seemed doomed to exile from civilization.

But in all ages there are a few men with the courage of their con-
victions. They launched an expedition into the unknown region to de-
termine suitable routes for a "transcontinental railroad." This private
exploration began in 1853 under the auspices of Jefferson Davis, then
the Secretary of War. Ten years later, Lincoln dispatched General Gren-
ville M. Dodge to take definite surveys for the Pacific Railroad. There
were then only twenty-six and one-half miles of railroad west of the
Missouri River. The Government was paying at the rate of $40 per ton
for every one hundred miles to have supplies carted by wagon train to
army posts, and there were scarcely any settlements, excepting those de-
voted to trapping or mining.

About the time when the bloody battle of Chickamauga and Chat-
tanooga were taking place in the East, two bodies of workmen, one in San
Francisco and the other at Omaha on the Missouri River, broke earth and
began the great task of laying the first transcontinental railroad through

309

AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

the wilderness. The public was skeptical of success. The financiers
of the work were called foolhardy, if not worse. Even the workmen on
the western end of the road had so little faith in the project that they de-
manded their day's pay before they would work. These discouragements
were increased by the awful truth that every man employed upon the work
was in danger of his life, day and night. The Indians did not take kindly
to the idea and did their best to kill off the workmen and surveyors. A
constant guard of soldiers was required. The region for the most part
was destitute of timber or fuel, and these had to be freighted by steamboat
and wagon train. It was a prodigious undertaking, putting American
courage to the test, as it never had been before.

Less than six years after the epochal work had begun the miracle
had been accomplished — the Great American Desert had been spanned.
The East was bound to the West, in a union which was to yield vast
wealth and power to both. The scoffers ceased to scoff, and the whole
nation arose in jubilee. Some of the larger cities devoted the historic day
— May 10, 1869 — to a holiday of rejoicing. Out on Promontory Moun-
tain there existed but a single gap in the line — a gap of one hundred feet.
Sturdy bodies of workmen stood ready to lay the last rails. The builders
of the roads, whose indomitable courage had made it possible, gathered
to witness the historic occasion. Telegraph wires were connected so that
the news of the blows of the sledges could be flashed to all parts of the
United States simultaneously. Three spikes of precious metal were se-
lected close to the connecting link; one was of silver, gold, and iron from
Arizona; another of silver from Nevada; and the third of gold from Cali-
fornia. Beside the track stood President Stanford, president of the rail-
road and governor of California. In his hands he held a silver sledge,
ready to deliver the first stroke. The second blow was struck by Vice-
President Durant; succeeding blows were struck by distinguished guests,
until finally the spikes were driven home by the chief engineers of the two
roads. Two railroad engines, which had been waiting for the welding of
the tracks, advanced, and the engineers joined hands with each other as
they came together.

The nation could hardly restrain its joy. In San Francisco the blows
of the sledge were repeated by strokes on the city hall bell and the last
blow was a signal for the firing of a cannon from Fort Point. It was a
gala day for the Pacific metropolis, which had thus been virtually lifted
and placed within a three days' journey of the Atlantic Coast, instead of
three months. Omaha was raised from a frontier post to a great half-
way point between the East and the West; its citizens gave vent to their
joy in monster parades of all its civic organizations, while a hundred guns

310

GREAT AMERICAN RAILROADS

boomed on Capitol Hill. Chicago held a procession more than four miles
in length. New York fired a salute of a hundred guns, while in Phila-
delphia the historic tones of the bells on Independence Hall rang out the
glad tidings. It was a great national event, in which all the large cities
joined in memorable demonstration.

No man at that time had any comprehension of the great empire of
wealth which was to arise on sand and wilderness. It was hardly con-
ceived that great cities might spring up along the way. There was one
exception : it was Asa Whitney whose prophecy has come true in the space
of a few decades, and "the railroad has changed the whole world" in
many respects. It gave Europe a means to send its goods to the Pacific
coast. It opened an avenue for the silks and spices of the Orient to reach
the Atlantic States. It served as a pattern for the great transcontinental
railroads which now exist across Europe and Asia, and which are even being
forged through the heart of Africa.

But the greatest change came when the once despised Great American
Desert blossomed into the great granary of modern civilization. Mighty
commonwealths arose as if by magic. It will be remembered that, when
this territory was bought from France for the sum of $15,000,000 in 1803,
the statesmen raved for decades about the wicked extravagance. Could
they have looked through the curtain of the future, and seen the great
cargoes of produce being brought out of this wilderness, their ranting
would have changed to paeans of joy. From the single State of Ne-
braska, bordering on the Missouri River, the crop of alfalfa hay alone
equaled in value in a single year the amount of money Napoleon received
from the United States for the Louisiana Territory.

Let us take a hasty tour through these States west of the Missouri
River and see what they are doing to repay the price of their birthright.
First on the tour is Nebraska. Looking in her tax books, we find that
the real and personal property in this commonwealth is valued at $600,-
000,000 — and this is based on a one-fifth valuation ; in other words, "that
region of savages and wild beasts," as Daniel Webster called it, is worth
three billion dollars. Next comes Kansas, "the treeless plain," which
in a single year produces farm products and live stock valued at nearly
$500,000,000. Adjoining is Colorado, once the despair of statesmen,
which in the space of a half century has disgorged from her beautiful
mountains more than a billion dollars in gold, silver, lead and copper; and
still, if all these mines were shut down, the State would be independently
rich in her agricultural products.

We will now visit the tier of States along the north. We find Wy-
oming, seamed with coal veins and saturated with oil, but still standing

311

AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

forth among the Western States as a mammoth producer of agricultural
products and livestock, the former bringing in a recent year ten million
dollars more than the whole Louisiana Territory cost the United States.
Utah is a modern garden spot on which flourish great empires of sugar-
beets, mammoth communities of beehives, sweet scented forests of fruit
trees, while out of its bosom pour streams of gold, silver, copper, lead,
zinc, and coal, whose total valuation in one year reached nearly twice
the purchase price of the whole "wilderness." Then there is rugged
Idaho, which added in a single year nearly $100,000,000 to the wealth of
the nation. Along the Canadian border is Montana which digs from its
bosom, and clips from its sheep, each year a fortune valued at more than
$75,000,000.

Bordering the Pacific are three mighty commonwealths, Oregon,
whose name was long mentioned in sarcastic terms in the National Con-
gress, is to-day a cornucopia pouring forth its wealth. The value of the
lumber in its forests is estimated at the colossal figure of $3,500,000,-
ooo. Oregonians tell you that "half the world comes to us for lumber."
Washington, a still younger State, is able to exhibit an overflowing ex-
chequer. Her tax books show that in a recent year she had a total prop-
erty valuation of nearly $800,000,000; she, too, is part of that "rock-
bound, cheerless and uninviting coast," which Daniel Webster, in a speech
before the United States Senate, declared to be "without value." The
third and last of these Pacific commonwealths, on our hasty journey, is
bounteous California. It would seem unnecessary to recite the wealth of
this State. Its taxable property alone is estimated at $2,300,000,000; and
it pours out its riches in sums that stagger the imagination.

This is a glimpse of the great commonwealths which lie west of the
Missouri; this is the dominion which wise men once proclaimed to the
world as "worthless." This is the region that was pronounced from the
seats of the mighty as a region of savages and wild beasts, of deserts,
of shifting sands and whirling winds, of dust, of cactus and prairie-dogs
— the region that was reclaimed by the railroad. The average American
does not fully appreciate what a mighty railroad system he has in this
country. If all the main track railways in the United States were welded
into one continuous system, it would reach to and extend a distance of
100,000 miles beyond the moon, which is some quarter of a million miles
away from our earth. If this main track railway system were laid around
the earth at the equator, it would form nine tracks of equal length, over
which nine of the fastest engines, traveling at the topmost speed ever
attained (115 miles an hour), would complete the circuit in about nine
days. The rails of a railroad are but a single item in its equipment.

312

SUNSET ON "DEAD SEA OF AMERICA" — This is a glimpse of the Great Salt Lake in Utah-
It is 80 miles in length and 30 miles in width — The lake lies in the
heart of a vast inter-mountain plateau.

MAMMOTH HOT SPRINGS IN YELLOWSTONE PARK— "Hell's Half Aero," a steaming abyss

about 30 feet deep in limestone formation — Nearby is a boiling lake

which bubbles in beautiful colors.

£H

X _

'/. i

GREAT AMERICAN RAILROADS

Mighty forests have been cut down to supply the ties on which the rails
rest. If it were necessary to transport all these ties to Europe — there
are about 900,000,000 of them — it would require the services of all the
sailing and steam vessels flying the American flag, and each ship would
carry a cargo consisting of 34,000 each. And the spikes which secure the
rails to the ties — there are enough to supply each living individual on earth
with two apiece.

There were 509,000 miles of railroad in the entire world in 1913,
and of this mileage 234,000 miles or about 46 per cent, are in the United
States. In that same year, Congress passed a bill providing for the valua-
tion of our railroads. At that time it was estimated by the railroad
statisticians of the country that the railroads were worth $19,000,000,-
ooo. But so enormous is the task that Congress was asked to make an
appropriation to do the work — it is said that before it is finished it will
take $20,000,000. So to actually make an approximately correct valua-
tion of the railroads of this country will require enough capital to build
a great railroad. Every piece of property is to be listed and used. This
means a literal count of the ties, rails, coupling pins, cars, buildings,
original cost of production and cost of reproduction, franchises and other
property.

American roads carried 1,034,081,346 passengers in 1914. That
is nearly two-thirds of the number of people inhabiting the whole globe.
The American railroads carried a sixth as many passengers as all the rest
of the railroads of the world, though the American people constitute only
about one-sixteenth of the world's population. These same roads car-
ried 264,080,745,058 tons of freight one mile. To do this work these
roads had in their service 51,490 passenger cars and 2,331,184 freight and
other cars. Of these latter there were 1,700,000 freight cars. There
are enough cars to give one to every inhabitant living in Norway; or
enough to form a grand pageant on the railway to the moon, allowing
ten cars to every mile of track. The modern passenger coaches cost from
$8,000 to $16,000 each, and the luxurious Pullmans sometimes cost as
much as $30,000 apiece. It required nearly two million persons to
operate them and they paid dividends which exceeded more than $100,-
000,000 the amount of money which the people of Switzerland had in their
communal and private banks. These cars would make a train 5,682
miles in length and would reach from San Francisco to New York and
back almost to Denver. If each car were loaded with 10,000 pounds of
freight it would take 42,500 locomotives to pull the train. If each pas-
senger coach carried fifty people, 2,574,500 passengers could travel on
the passenger train. The whole city of Chicago could travel on that train,

315

AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

and Boston, Baltimore, Cleveland and St. Louis could all get aboard, but
the head locomotive would be in Washington before the locomotive at the
rear had reached New York. All this gives a bird's-eye view of the great
railroad capacity of this country.

These facts are the more marvelous when we consider that the rail-
road had its birth but about three generations ago, beginning historically
with the pioneer steam railway stretching fifteen miles westward from
Baltimore, and in the same year that Webster first published his diction-
ary (1828). There were other railroads in the United States at the
time, notably the one in Massachusetts which, operated by horse-power,
drew granite from the quarries at Quincy to the Neponset River. In
the light of present day achievements, it is curious to learn that the rail-
road was considered a visionary idea in its beginning, that few men were
so venturesome as to admit that it ever could successfully compete with
canals, the favorite of that day, for freighting purposes. It was the state
engineer of Virginia who solemnly declared "that a rate of speed of more
than six miles an hour would exceed the bounds of prudence, though some
sanguinary advocates of railways extend this limit to nine miles an hour."

Before the Nineteenth Century, mankind had to depend upon their
own feet, or the back of a horse, or, in some more favored cases, upon a
wheeled vehicle, to traverse the earth. When we consider that when Na-
poleon hurried his armies over the Alps, just before the dawn of the Nine-
teenth Century, he used about the same means of transportation and did
not exceed the speed made by his illustrious predecessor, Caesar, over the
same route with his Roman army in the days preceding Christ's appearance
on earth, you will understand what the railroad means to modern civiliza-
tion in the matter of abridging distances.

It required about two and a half centuries for American civilization
to extend inland from the Atlantic to the banks of the Missouri River,
virtually traversing the distance afoot, or at best, on horseback. But
with the aid of the railroad, after it had come into general use, it swept
on over the Missouri and within a few decades had converted the forbid-
ding wilderness to the westward into a domain of prodigious wealth and
culture, carrying colonization clear to the distant shores of the Pacific.

The benefits accruing to the Americans from their railroads are be-
yond calculation. Let us regard it in the light of what Macaulay said
about abridging distances. When we reduce the time of travel between
cities, we virtually reduce the intervening distance. By this measure-
ment let us compare travel in the United States in the Eighteenth Cen-
tury with that of the Nineteenth or Twentieth. Up to within a few years
of the beginning of the American Revolution, it required about thirteen

316

GREAT AMERICAN RAILROADS

days of laborious and perilous travel to go from New York to Boston.
In this time the modem traveler could make the round trip between New
York and San Francisco and still have a week left over in which to view
either of the great cities. Then it required about thirty days to travel
from Baltimore to New Orleans; to-day it is a journey of as many hours.
From Massachusetts to North Carolina the modern train schedule reads
twenty hours, instead of twenty days of the early Nineteenth Century.

We are living through the mightiest age that the world has yet known.
In the span of a single life of four score years, the world has awakened
from its slumbers like a mighty giant and shaken off the habits and cus-
toms of the centuries. Knowledge, plenty and beneficence abound. The
earth's dark and silent places are now known and mapped, and are visited
in luxury and safety by the tourist. The things that a generation ago only
those of wealth could hope to own or see are to-day the common heritages
of the modem laborer.

The world has been made over again in the last generation. The
modern locomotive literally picked up our western frontier along the
Missouri and carried it on its pilot to the beating surge of the Pacific.
It has magically touched barren spots in the desert and created populous
and rich cities and farm lands. It has hurtled over or through mountain
ranges, or across deep roaring rivers or broad bosomed inland seas, while
drawing behind it palatial traveling coaches ladened with human freight.

How long could our great cites, our rural districts, our mighty in-
dustries and vast commercial interests exist without the railroad1? The
locomotive carries modern civilization upon its pilot. A few hours' cessa-
tion of its ceaseless energy and millions of people would be in idleness
and want. The wheat of the field, the produce of the farms, the products
of the factories would be useless and unprofitable. These steel machines
must keep in never-ending motion to sustain and strengthen modern civili-
zation, to banish distances, to spread the mails and knowledge broadcast,
to mold the whole lr.nd into a neighborhood and make possible the modern
business world.

America Gave the Steamship to the World

THEN, there is another modern miracle in the science of transpor-
tation— it is the steamship. Without it, the nations of the world
would still be groping in comparative ignorance, poverty, and
peril. With it, the world has been re-modeled, reformed, and enlight-
ened. Together with the railroad, it has formed a girdle around the earth.
It has linked the continents so that man in safety and luxury can circum-
navigate the globe to-day in about the same time it required post-riders to

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AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

bring the news of the battle of New Orleans to Washington a hundred
years ago. It has, as if by magic, converted the great rivers of the world
from mere streams of running water into vast throbbing highways of
commerce and travel which are building up the wealth of nations and in-
dividuals.

If all the ships sailing under the American flag were formed for re-
view there would be a grand pageant of more than twenty-six thousand
vessels. More than half of them would be propelled by steam. This vast
fleet of ships would have a combined gross tonnage or capacity of nearly
eight million tons.

The steamship has proved the conqueror of the seas. Great levi-
athans, measuring nearly nine hundred feet in length, dash across the
oceans at the rate of an express train. A mighty fleet of luxurious floating
palaces plies between Europe and America at a speed so great that a trav-
eler can eat a farewell lunch in London on Saturday and dine in New
York on the following Thursday. Less than a century ago there was not
a steamboat afloat upon the open sea. Measured by the speed-standards
of to-day, America was nearly seventy thousand miles away from Europe
in the days of Henry Hudson. Or in other words, in the time required by
Hudson's Half Moon to sail from Amsterdam to New York, a modern
ocean liner could sail a distance of nearly seventy thousand miles, or circle
the globe nearly three times.

The story of man's early attempts to conquer the seas is more inter-
esting than fiction. He first paddled across a stream on a log; later fas-
tened two or more logs together to form a raft; then he hollowed out the
log and made a dug-out. Then came canoes made of bark or skins
stretched over a framework, and finally ships built by carpenters. The
first use of oars as power began in the earliest Egyptian vessels, dating
back to 100 B. c. ; they had as many as twenty-two oarsmen on each side
of the vessel. Then the Phoenicians added decks to their vessels. The
height of shipbuilding seems to have been reached in the reign of Ptolemy
Philopator, when tradition tells about a forty-decked vessel, which regis-
tered 11,320 tons. Then sails were added by the Phoenicians, to force
the winds to relieve the muscles of the men at the oars.

In the Twelfth Century there came an impulse which set the shipping
circles agog, and the period of exploration began. It was the discovery
and general adoption of the compass by Europeans. It is said, however,
that the Chinese were familiar with the instrument more than two thou-
sand years before Christ. With this wonderful little instrument to guide
their ships, the mariners became bolder and ventured out into the mysterious
oceans. This resulted in the great discovery of the New World and other

318

BATTLE ON LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN IN AMERICAN CIVIL WAR— This fierce combat known

as "The Battle in the Clouds" was fought on November 24, 186.S — Federal army

charged up Rocky Precipice, 1,700 feet above the valley.

BIRTH OF THE IRONCLAD BATTLESHIP IN WORLD'S HISTORY— Historic conflict between

the Monitor and the Merrimac, on March !», 1X02 — It was the beginning of a new

era in naval warfare — This was followed later by the first submarine.

GREAT AMERICAN RAILROADS

great voyages of exploration. Then began the tide of immigration into
America. The voyage was one of peril, with death, starvation, and sick-
ness always present. It was a voyage which required on the average three
months of extreme hardship.

Sails and oars served mankind well for many centuries, but now his
needs demanded a new motive power. There were many weird and crude
ideas suggested. One was to adapt the treadmill to a boat, worked by
either man or beast and attached to paddle-wheels slung over the side of
the vessel. These attempts to conquer the wind were met with storms of
disapproval. The good people declared vehemently that it was sinful
and an insult to Divine Providence to drive a vessel against wind and
tide. The inventor's ideas were met with ridicule.

It remained for the Americans to solve the problem. Four patents
were granted to inventors before the nation was two years old. The first
of these was John Fitch, who contrived a crude steam vessel, appearing
much like a many-legged spider walking on water. His craft traveled up
and down the Delaware River for three months in 1793 at the rate of
thirty miles in thirteen hours. Eleven years later, Colonel John Stevens
appeared on the Hudson River with a twin-screw steamer which sped across
the river at the rate of six miles an hour. Four years later, he startled
the world by launching a paddle-wheel steamer and sailing through the
open sea from New York to Philadelphia — the first successful attempt in
the world of a steam driven vessel to ride the boundless ocean.

It was in 1807 that the event occurred which was destined to point
the way to the revolution of the world's commerce as well as the world's
navies. It was in this year that the historic Clermont, the product
of the brain and energy of Robert Fulton, was launched, amid jeers of
ridicule and disbelief, at Corlears Hook Ferry, and began her momentous
voyage up the Hudson River to Albany. From stem to stern she meas-
ured about 150 feet, and was "a monster moving on the water, defying
winds and tides, and breathing smoke and flame." Her motive power
was furnished by a steam engine connected with paddle-wheels hung over
her sides. The Clermont performed the miracle of traveling the 150 miles
which lay between New York and Albany in the remarkable time of thirty-
two hours. It would have required seventy-five days for the Clermont to
cross the Atlantic ocean. The fastest modem liner, six times as long and
six times as broad, carrying 480 times as much freight and more than a
thousand passengers, has crossed the Atlantic in four days, ten hours, and
fifty-one minutes.

The world was slow in placing faith in a new miracle of the seas.
Five years elapsed from the launching of the Clermont before the first

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AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

steam-driven ferry-boat crossed the Hudson between New York and New
Jersey; ten years before Boston saw the first steamboat enter her harbor;
eleven years passed before the first steam vessel sailed from Buffalo
through the Great Lakes to Detroit; and it was twelve years before the
first ship set forth upon the world's first transatlantic voyage under the
power of steam.

The first steamship to sail from America to Europe was the Savannah,
a sailing packet equipped with an engine, boiler, and iron paddle-wheels.
She slipped from her moorings at Savannah, Georgia, on the 26th day of
May, in 1819, and sailed down over the horizon. Twenty-five days later,
a fleet of three-decked, wooden-sided, and sail-propelled men-of-war and
stately merchant ships, cruising off the coast of England, was startled at
the apparition which appeared in the waters before them. Through a set
of yellow sails came clouds of pitch pine and coal smoke. The decks of
the watching ships resounded with the cry of "Fire." When they read
the signal flags of the Savannah, they were nonplussed to learn she was
not afire, but was sailing under her new power — steam. They watched
her curiously as she slipped gracefully by and headed in toward Liverpool.

The story of the ocean steamships is the story of progress. Modern
science has replaced the old wooden sides with massive sheer walls of
steel. The decks have been increased in size and number until to-day a
modern ocean liner resembles in effect a modern hotel, in which its passen-
gers are transported from deck to deck by elevators. The bows have
drawn further and further away from the sterns, until now the whole
vessel measures nearly a thousand feet in length; if stood on end, one of
them would overtop the highest office building in the world. All the
luxury of the ages, as well as their necessities, has been gathered and in-
corporated into the interiors of these ships, until they are veritably float-
ing cities made of all the splendor of ancient despots.

There are hundreds of communities in our nation whose total popula-
tion could be transported across the Atlantic in a single one of the ves-
sels, whose passenger capacity is estimated at over 4,000 persons. These
passengers have at their command all the comforts of home. One of the
latest ships has a chapel, in which religious services are conducted, while
theatres, stores, tailor shops, gymnasiums, ballrooms, and a score of other
traces of modern life are to be found on nearly all our ocean liners.

The largest passenger-carrying river steamships in the world are on
the Hudson. They carry 6,000 persons on the historic route between New
York and Albany. The steamships on the Mississippi River and the Great
Lakes have been important economic factors in the development of the
interior dominion of the American continent. The coming years will wit-
ness a great development of our inland waterways.

322

GREAT AMERICAN RAILROADS

American Continent a 'Network of Street Railways

THIS chapter on transportation must give consideration also to the
economic value of the street railway. The street car is the mod-
ern magician that has threaded its way through our thoroughfares
and united our towns and cities; it has formed a gigantic network over
our states over which we may travel in nearly any direction at any mo-
ment of the day to any desired destination. It has done more than this —
it has broken down the barriers that so long held our towns and villages
in seclusion and has transformed them into modern, progressive communi-
ties. It has linked them to the great outside world and has made them an
important part of it. It was only a few years ago when the only way to
get out of town was to walk, or to take the old stage coaches. Then came
the omnibus to carry us from place to place within town limits.

The first street railway proper was put in operation in New York
in 1831. Horses were used as motor power, but the omnibus gave way to
a sort of carriage that ran on rails. These rails consisted of timbers
resting on edge, the upper edge covered with a strip of metal. The
horses were displaced by crude steam-engines in 1832, but they were so
unreliable that in 1845 the horses were again employed. The horse car
developed from this innovation, till finally our grandfathers came to look
at the jolting, rattling, bobbing contraption as a great convenience. The
idea was thus born in New York and taken up by various other American
cities as well as the cities of Europe. Philadelphia tried it first in 1857.
The French called it "the American railway."

In many American cities, nature helped along the development of the
street railway. Some American cities, notably San Francisco and St.
Louis, were so hilly as to make the ordinary railways almost impossible.
Other means were sought to propel cars, and, in 1 873, Andrew S. Hallidie
equipped the Clay Street Railway of San Francisco with a cable-car sys-
tem. A slot was built between the two car rails, and in this a heavy
cable traveled along. The cars were equipped ^'ith "grips" that could
catch hold of this traveling cable, and the vehicle was carried along with
it. When it was desired to stop the car, the grip released its hold on the
cable and the car ran "dead." With the coming of the cable-car, peo-
ple first raised the now familiar cry, "The horse must go." St. Louis,
Chicago, Kansas City, Philadelphia, and New York adopted the cable sys-
tem. There were 700 miles of cable car railways throughout the United
States by 1 894. But their many disadvantages, arising chiefly from want
of proper control, soon led to their abandonment.

There was erected in 1872 what was regarded as a "freak" railway

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AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

in New York — the elevated railroad. Its freakishness lay in the fact
that its rails were not placed on the ground, but rested thirty feet or more
above it on an elongated or continuous bridge. This was the first of its
kind in the world. Soon there were about forty miles of elevated rail-
road on Manhattan Island alone. People were slow in taking to this new
method of transportation, because of its insecure appearance, but grad-
ually New Yorkers came to depend almost entirely on them, in spite of
their noise and dirt. Chicago and Boston have been the only other Amer-
ican cities to adopt elevated railroads. Paris, Liverpool, and Berlin also
adopted the idea.

The American cities, however, were still dependent on the older
methods of transportation until 1884, when the first practical trolley-
car was run in Kansas City — this is the beginning of the real era of the
street railway — the era of electric power. Various attempts had been
made to apply electricity to vehicles for motive power. As early as 1836,
a workman named Davenport had tried it in Brandon, Vermont. His
electric motor was crude, and his experiment bore no fruit. But when
the mighty genius of Edison was brought to bear, success was assured.
He, in conjunction with Stephen D. Field, made some experiments over a
period lasting from 1879 to 1883, an<^> at the Chicago Railway Exhibit
held in the latter year, they built a 1,500 foot system. To Richmond,
Virginia, however, belongs the distinction of being the first city in the
world to have on its streets a really practical, as well as tensive, electric
system of cars, when F. J. Prague installed thirteen miles of electric rail-
way there in 1884.

The growth of the street railway since 1884 has been astounding.
The larger cities are crossed and recrossed by hundreds of lines. There
were 1,261 miles of track in use by street railways using all kinds of
power in 1890. Twenty years later there were 23,059 miles of track be-
ing used by electrically equipped systems alone, and the number of passen-
gers carried by all the street railways of the country was 7,441,114,508.
The aid that the electric car has given to business is incalculable. By
its means, not only are the different parts of the city linked together, but
whole regions are connected.

The street railway system is America's gift to traveling humanity.
It has primarily proved of immense advantage to ourselves, who live in a
country of vast distances. But from Petrograd to Capetown, from
Tokio to Rio de Janeiro, wherever, in fact, civilized men foregather in
large numbers — the street railway is daily ministering to the necessities
and the pleasures of the people.

324

TROPICAL BEAUTY OF AMERICA — Along St. George. Florida — -This beautiful Land of Flowers
contains 4,440 square miles of lakes, lagoons and rivers — Its coastline, including
islands, is 1,145 miles long — Its greatest river is St. John's.

«: I.I Ml 'SK OF THE WHITE MOUNTAINS — Now Hampshire lulls culminate in Mount Washington,

6,270 feet high— Largest of its lakes is seventy square miles and contains 264 islands —

This region has been immortalized in art and literature.

GREVT AMERICAN INVENTORS AND SCIENTISTS— This rare engraving by John *>artain 'bnngs «» before

the cenius that has revolutionized the world— American inventive skill fnd sciontific disco\ cry

have brought forth the modern era of civilization— The American race is the most creative

^ a

PART IV CHAPTER IX

GREAT AMERICAN MINES

The glorious sun

Stays in his course, and plays the alchymist;
Turning, with splendour of his precious eye,
The meagre, cloddy earth to glittering gold.

— Shakespeare.

MOTHER NATURE is surely bountiful in the riches that she
has deposited on the American continent. There is no place
on the face of the earth where she has been more generous.
The legends of the ancient argosies and the trail of the golden
fleece are all brought into realization on the Western Hemisphere. Here,
we find the wealth of Croesus many fold. The mountains and rivers bring
forth gold and silver; the breast of the earth is nourished with coal and
iron and ores. Rich veins run through the rocks like blood vessels in the
human body.

The future of every nation is not alone in its form of government or in
the genius of its people — these are insufficient in themselves. Man can-
not develop himself without the complement of nature. All riches begin
in the earth. The chief asset of every people is first in the resources locked
within the ground which they occupy; and secondly their skill and industry
in developing these natural resources.

The American people have become a powerful race because they have
had the raw materials at their command and the energy and industry to
utilize them. The inexhaustible wealth of the continent has given them
large opportunities — and wealth is largely a matter of the utilization of
opportunities. We have built our system of civilization on solid earth —
bed rock. It is not a theory in economics, nor an ideal in philosophy, nor
a vision of sestheticism — it is erected on the adamant foundation of the
geological ages — the science of mining and agriculture. In this chapter
we will visit the great American mines and assay our natural resources.
We shall see that we have built civilization not on shifting sands but on
foundations as indestructible as the mountains. Every dollar of riches
that we may display in our social system is but a feeble expression of the
illimitable riches behind it in the rock-ribbed vaults of the earth.

We have erected a democracy, but underneath it is a kingdom of
precious metals and ores more regal than any of the ancient oligarchies —

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AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

and more despotic in its control over our welfare — heat, light, transporta-
tion, are servile to the kings that from their subterranean thrones rule
humanity.

America is a mineral crowned king to all the world. America, years
ago, took King Coal's crown from his merry old soul in England and
brought it over here where it is likely to remain as long as men fire furnaces.
This country now digs from its mines annually 600,000,000 tons of coal.
This coal is worth at the mouth of the mines $800,000,000. There is no
single instance in all our records as a people that more illuminates the
character and progress than our leaping and bounding increase in the output
of our coal mines. We have doubled the output in fifteen years and have
mined more than eight times that of twenty-five years ago. We are now
increasing the output from 35,000,000 to 50,000,000 tons every year and
with the opening of the Panama Canal we are fast on the way to furnishing
the world with the cheapest fuel it has ever known.

Nearly 800,000 men are employed in our coal industry. If a single
horse-power can be produced from the burning of two and one-half pounds
of coal in a furnace, it will at once be seen how enormously has our coal
output increased our power engine capacity. The gas engine has increased
the horse-power of coal fifty per cent, at least within the last fifteen years.
Our 600,000,000 tons of coal, if it could all be put into one furnace and
fired, would produce enough power to drive this planet out of its orbit if it
could be directed against it. The geologic survey claims to have scientifi-
cally uncovered 15,000,000,000 tons of coal in Alaska and there is treble
that much in the United States proper.

Coal is buried power. The mammoth ferns and club-mosses of the
Carboniferous Age gathered the sunbeams, storing the carbon they brought
to them, and finally were submerged during the writhings of the forming
earth under masses of sand and rock and silt. Thus the Creator deposited
in our little planet His sunbeams, so that when our earth had become one
of varying climates and seasons (in the Carboniferous Age there were no
seasons nor changing temperatures), man would have a fuel to warm his
body and power to assist him in his mighty achievements. The abundant
forest trees supplied the ancient with sufficient fuel, so they did not need
coal. Twelve centuries after the birth of Christ mankind began to use
such coal as could be found in England and a few other civilized countries.
Americans did not begin their great coal industry until about the dawn of
the Nineteenth Century. Coal had been known long before then; Father
Hennepin had accidentally discovered it along the banks of the Illinois
River in 1679; forty years later, a Virginia boy discovered some in his na-
tive state ; and a Pennsylvania hunter, by the name of Ginter, found some

330

under an up-rooted tree. Its first use was discovered by Obadiah Gore,
who burned coal in his smith-forge in Wilkesbarre, in 1769, and Judge
Jesse Fell used it in a grate to heat his room in 1808. This was the genesis
of the American coal industry.

At the first centennial of the American coal industry, dating from
Judge Fell's discovery, there were more persons engaged rescuing "buried
power" in the United States than there were Americans earning their liveli-
hood as teamsters, hackmen, draymen, and the like. A coal-driver blocks
the wheel of his cart with a lump of coal. There is enough energy stored
in that lump to hurl his cart to destruction. That lump, if it weighs
exactly one pound, contains enough sunshine-energy to lift forty-seven tons
one hundred feet in the air in the space of a minute ; it is capable of running
an electric car, filled to capacity with passengers, for a distance of two and
a half miles at the rate of twenty miles an hour; or it would propel a
train of six ordinary coaches and a heavy Pullman and sleeper one-sixth of
a mile at the rate of twenty-five miles an hour. That one-pound lump of
coal could perform in one minute all the work that five powerful men could
accomplish in eight hours — it would require the united efforts of 2,800 men
to accomplish as much work in a minute as the lump of coal can do. It is
the great labor saver of civilization.

That is the power of coal. By it we are enabled to live through
frigid climates and seasons, to erect gigantic structures, and to journey to
all parts of the earth, either by land or sea. Coal mining is a battle of
giants, human and elemental. Man is the general, and electricity and
compressed air make up the ranks in this warfare. Let us visit our great
Pennsylvania coal districts. We enter the elevator cage and descend to
the bottom of the main shaft — one mine is more than a thousand feet below
the surface. Here we step out into a vast subterranean house, divided into
corridors which lead to various rooms. Along these corridors, kept venti-
lated by huge fans and connected with each other by telephone systems,
rumble what appear to be miniature electric trains, conveying the coal to
hoisting buckets. On the return trip, one of these electric engines will
carry us into the depths of the mine, whose intense darkness is partially
relieved by the patent lamp upon our caps. Arriving at the working face,
we find the miner, operating an electrically driven machine, whose series of
knives set upon an endless chain gash and tear at the coal vein. In another
room we find another miner drilling holes in the face of the vein with a
compressed air machine, making ready for the blasting charges. As we
attempt to enter another room, a miner suddenly appears out of the dark-
ened depths to warn us of a blast. His comrade pushes the button of an
electric battery, and the electric impulse darts along the wires into the

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AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

mass of blasting powder. A muffled roar and tumbling earth tell their
own story.

As we return to the surface let us follow a load of coal as it is sent
to the breakers to be broken into marketable sizes and cleaned. First it
passes through the screen made up of bars about six inches apart to another
screen whose openings are about three inches apart. It is on these screens
that the coal is cleaned, boys picking out the slate and other foreign ele-
ments. Then it passes onward, being alternately run through rollers to be
broken up into small sizes and then to screens to be cleaned. When it
emerges, it is in various forms familiar to the housewife, the furnace man,
and the engineers.

But King Coal would never be at home in America without his forge.
The earth must hold much of him in its dark bosom till the coming of
King Iron. This latter King left his old throne in England and moved
to America about the same time King Coal did. At once Europe grew
uneasy, for she had lost two old kings that had given her long primacy in
the world's markets and America at the same time became a world power.
Our great corn, wheat and cotton kings are international monarchs, but
when the black diamond and armor kings set up their thrones among us,
Europe became anxious. She began to study us with new eyes.

The United States produced 35,500,000 tons of iron and manu-
factured 31,000,000 tons of steel in 1914. Germany, our nearest competi-
tor, produced 19,000,000 tons and England, so long the maker of the
world's steel, stands to-day at 10,000,000 tons. We make more steel than
both of the two greatest industrial centers of Europe, and all around the
world stands our steel bridges even in the territories of our competitors.
Our steel has made it possible for Russia to span Europe and Asia with the
trans-Siberian Railway. It has made the Cape-to-Cairo project a practical
dream. The world's great navies of superdreadnoughts never could have
been realized until America's furnaces had reduced the price of steel. The
prices of the steel armor in the big ships to-day would have sunk the ship
thirty years ago.

But the greater part of this enormous output of steel went into the
framing of houses in our great cities. There are far over 50,000 new
steel framed buildings in the hundred biggest cities of this country and
they are rising by the hundreds every month. Our steel has given the
world the elevator, reduced fire insurance, and raised the skyscraper.
What would the world be without America's cheap coal and steel for
power, for bridges, for railroads, for cannon, and battleships?

Iron is the most wonderful of the earth's natural treasures. Its
presence can be traced in every phase of life. The food we eat has been

332

GREAT QUARRIES OF THE UNITED STATES— There are more than 6,000 quarries In this

country, with an annual product valued at over $100,000,000 — Some of the most

beautiful marble, granite, and limestone in the world comes from America.

OIL IXIM'STUY IN Till-: rNITKl> STATES— America is the world's oil kins:- Its output ex-
ceeds 10,000,000,000 gallons a year — Value of refined product is nearly $2,000,000,000 a
year It employs a vast army of men and lias created stupendous wealth.

FISH INIM'STIJY IN TNITKI) STATES — America produces more fish than any other country

in the world — Annual catch is valued at $70,000,000 — It fiives employment to •_»! .".. (•(•()

persons- (tovernnieut and State commissions have stocked the streams of this country.

GREAT AMERICAN MINES

cooked in iron utensils. The clothes we wear have been made by iron
machinery. The houses and offices we live and work in have been built by
and of iron. Our vehicles, over land or sea or in the air, are made of iron.
In fact it is everywhere — in your veins, in the satin ribbon, it tinges the
rosy skin of the apple.

Iron has always existed ; when it was first discovered, or who was the
discoverer, is unknown. The story reaches back into the dim twilight of
man's existence, where shadows and realities are inextricably mingled.
Amid these shadows stands forth the figure of Tubal-Cain, turning iron
into agricultural instruments and weapons of war, hundreds of years before
the flood swept the earth, and about six generations after Adam. Many
centuries later, we find Og, King of Bashan, sleeping upon an iron bed-
stead; and still later we find that the Israelites have been promised, as
especially desirable, a land whose stones are iron. We see that the bridge
builders of Babylon fastened huge stones together with bands of iron, fixed
in place by molten lead.

When iron becomes record, and not mere conjecture, we find frequent
evidence of the use of iron. We also find that it was held as too valuable
a metal for ordinary uses, King Og's bedstead being considered the height
of luxury, just as a bedstead of gold would be to-day. Therein lies the
magic of my story. By the wonderful methods we have of mining the
ore and of refining it until it is suitable for our purposes, we of the modern
generations can produce a metal for the most humble uses much cheaper
than any other ordinary metal. Who to-day would consider wearing a
necklace or a ring of iron, as did some of those ancient belles'?

Iron mining has flourished in more than half of the commonwealths
forming our United States at some time during their history. As one
deposit was exhausted, or as a new and richer deposit was discovered, the
miners moved onward. To-day the center of the industry rests around
Lake Superior, and the State of Minnesota is the greatest producer. The
American iron-workers — there are about a million engaged in all branches
of the iron and steel industry — produce about a billion dollars' worth of ore
every year, or more than a third of all mined throughout the world. The
miners in some of the Lake Superior "pits" look as if they were pigmies to
spectators at the mouth of the shaft. The mines near Vermillion Lake
extend more than i ,000 feet into the bowels of the earth, where the miners
are digging out hard-ore and sending it to the surface in huge buckets. In
another district the miners look like human moles burrowing under the
earth, until they have reproduced a rabbit's warren. Then they blow this
up with blasting powder, to secure the precious ore. Great ore-ships take
most of the ore from the mines to the iron and steel centers, where it passes

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AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

through the smelting process. Pittsburgh is to-day the largest center in the
world. There one will find mammoth furnaces — great cones, lined on the
outside with masonry and on the inside with steel jackets, between which a
constant flow of water passes. They stand ninety feet above the ground,
and at their tops are conical caps, also kept cool by circulating water.
Through these the ore is dropped into the fiery interior, whose heat averages
about 550 degrees. As the gases generate, they pass off to an engine which
utilizes them to heat the blast of the furnace. The fierce flames melt the
ore, separating the dross from the iron. The latter passes out through one
side of the furnace into sand channels to cool into "pigs," while the dross
or "slag," passes out in another direction. This is the iron that one will
find in myriad forms in every-day life, in telephone, or tea kettle, mowing
machine or locomotive.

Then comes King Copper — without this Bronze King for carrying the
words of men into ten million telephones and telegraph receivers ; without
copper for conducting the electricity of this globe it would be lame and
halt. The great modern city, and indeed civilization, would be as impos-
sible without copper as it would be without iron and coal. The whole
electrical industry of the last thirty years could never have come into exist-
ence. The United States produces more copper in a year than all the
balance of the world. Europe depends largely upon America, including
Mexico and Alaska, to furnish the world with the wires of the electric
lights, telephone and telegraphs. Our production was 600,000 tons in
1914. We might symbolize this great quantity of copper by stretching it
into a wire and girdling the earth ten times with it — a 250,000 mile
wire.

Man has come nearer to the center of the earth in copper mining in
Michigan than anywhere else. Here a copper mine shaft penetrates more
than 5,000 feet and is the doorway to a vast subterranean city having more
than 200 miles of streets, which are lighted by electricity. Electrically
propelled cars and elevators carry the "citizens" of this city under ground,
while electric and compressed air drills carry on their industry. What is
being done in Michigan is true of many of our Western States, notably
Montana and Arizona, though the mines in the latter regions are not quite
so deep as these ancient Lake Superior mines. It was this district which
lured the first French explorers from Quebec, when America was being
settled.

There are more than 80,000 copper miners and smelters in the United
States, and we are producing more than 1,000,000,000 pounds of copper
every year. We get nearly a third of this from the Arizona mines, with
the Montana mines standing second. Altogether, the copper mines of the

336

GREAT AMERICAN MINES

Unite'd States yield more than half of the world's total supply. These
mines are producing every twenty-four hours more copper than was mined
in a twelve month just prior to the American Civil War.

The Bessemer process has revolutionized the copper industry. Hours
have become minutes, so to speak. To-day copper ore fed into a furnace
in the morning can be shipped as 99 per cent, pure metal by evening.
The old-time methods required about four days. The old-time roasting
stalls and furnaces, covering many acres, have shrunken to a Bessemer fur-
nace and converter covering a plot about twenty-five by one hundred feet
and capable of producing 1,000,000 pounds of copper a month. By the
old methods, one ton of ore required a full day's labor; by the new processes
one day's labor reduces four tons of ore to fine metal.

We now come to oil. In America, petroleum is written as one of
the great industrial dramas of the world. American petroleum has the
fire of passion in it, and it has done more to impress the power of the
United States than all our industries put together. It created the idea
of the great American corporations and it has been classified with the
Napoleonic government in its centralized power. It was a one-man genius,
a one-man government, and a one-man power, and by its efficiency America
has long been the world's oil king. The oil output in the United States
was 10,500,000,000 gallons in 1914. That is enough to float a half a
dozen of the largest superdreadnoughts in any navy. If all that oil were
put into one lamp burning a thousand candle power it would last till
Doomsday.

The oil industry of this country is supplied from more than a thou-
sand wells and reservoirs in Pennsylvania, the Mississippi Valley, and
Texas. Twenty-five thousand miles of pipe line convey the output to
the great refineries. At these refineries more than 4,000,000 barrels are
manufactured annually and some 40,000 oil cars are shipped daily. An
army of employees are engaged in this business and $1,800,000.000 is the
value of the refined product. Laden oil-trains rush across the continent,
with their long trains of cars. Steamships ride the waves, with their tanks
full, to answer the call of China and Japan and far-away New Zealand
for their supply of American oil.

The first to tell of the oil in America was Sir Walter Raleigh, in
1595. It became legendary that the New World was rich in oil. A
well at Barkeville, Kentucky, yielded such great quantities of oil in 1820
that on one occasion it overflowed to the Cumberland River and seemed
to "set the river on fire." It was not until 1853 that an American sug-
gested the idea of using oil to light our homes. Far-seeing men saw in
this idea a royal road to fortune. The first oil company was formed and

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AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

failed. The first man to be successful in mining the mineral was E. L.
Drake, who came upon it through an accident. A couple of workmen were
drilling at Oil Creek, Pennsylvania, on the 28th of August, 1859; they
suddenly felt their tools drop into an underground cavern, sixty-nine feet
down. The following day oil was "struck." This was the beginning of
our modern oil industry. The first means of transporting Pennsylvania
oil was by storing it in wooden casks and floating them down the Alle-
gheny River. Later, four miles of pipe line were laid by Samuel Van
Sykle at Titusville, Pennsylvania.

When the crude oil is first taken out of the ground, it is offensive
to the smell and varied of color. It is then distilled at the depots from
which it had been conveyed from the wells. Fraction by fraction, the
mighty stores in the great wooden-shaped reservoirs are purified. From
this crude oil we obtain our benzine and naphtha, which are used by freez-
ing machines and all kinds of motors; our kerosene for light, lubricating
oil for machinery, and vaseline for medical purposes.

The value of oil to humanity can only be estimated by its multitude
of uses. Enough oil has been taken out of the bowels of the earth, right
here in the United States, to form a tank line around the globe — not once
but a hundred times. If all the barrels of oil taken from our American
soil could be lined up together, it would take five hundred cities the size
of Manhattan Island (New York) to hold them. It would keep a light
burning in the Statue of Liberty for billions of years. Over 265,000,000
barrels of petroleum (forty-two gallons each) are produced annually in
the world. The United States leads with about 167,000,000 barrels a
year. No novelist has ever lived whose imagination was so fertile as
to prophecy even in fiction the growth of this industry, which is but a
little over a half century old. The plain story of oil becomes more won-
derful with every passing year, as it brings its report of new fields and
new springs exporting their millions of gallons of oil into the vast store-
houses of man. Lastly it has created colossal fortunes and has made John
D. Rockefeller the richest man in the world.

The lure of civilization is gold. It lured Hercules into the dragon-
guarded garden of the Hesperides; Jason and the Argonauts to the shores
of the Black Sea; the Phoenicians into Spain; the Romans into Britain.
Columbus braved the perils of an unknown sea for it; Cortez and Pizarro
conquered Mexico and Peru in its name ; Britons traveled to the Far South
in Africa to capture it; pioneers overran California in search of it; Amer-
icans traveled to the Frozen North to find it. It has been the tocsin
which has gathered greater armies than any battle-cry ever uttered. It
has steeled brave hearts to the discovery of new worlds, and it has strength-

338

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GREAT AMERICAN MINES

ened brave spirits into populating those worlds with marvelous cities and
empires.

This is the age of gold. We find it in myriad forms. Authorities
have estimated that about one-sixth of the gold mined enters into the arts
and industries, the balance being divided up into gold and bullion.
Billions of dollars' worth of gold have been lost. It is one of the mys-
teries of the ages where it has gone.

From the discovery of America to the year 1911, $14,308,237,000
worth of gold had been wrested from the earth's treasure haunts. Pure
gold of that value would weigh about 23,725 tons. If it could all be
gathered and formed into a pillar twenty feet in diameter, the top would
reach within about twenty-five feet of the crown on the Statue of Lib-
erty. Our National Treasury is a veritable gold mine itself. There is
a fortune greater than King Solomon .took out of his mines in Ophir.
Twelve hundred tons of the precious metal are stored there and in the
Sub-Treasury in New York's financial district in bags.

Gold and silver have always fought for supremacy in the money
marts. From ancient times until the Seventh Century, both gold and silver
were standard. Then silver assumed the ascendancy until about the thir-
teenth century, when gold again stood beside silver, and both metals be-
came standard. During the period immediately following the American
War for Independence, gold forged ahead and became the standard all
over the world.

The consequent demand for gold brought on a crisis. The world was
in the grip of a gold famine. The golden hoards of the Incas and Monte-
zuma had dwindled into a comparatively small stream. The Bank of
England was rocking on its foundations, having more than once suspended
specie payments. Eminent economists were predicting another "Fall of
the Roman Empire." Then, like Moses in the desert, gold-seekers in Cal-
ifornia and in Australia magically touched the golden rocks, and, like two
reservoirs bursting through their dams, two floods of gold poured out over
the world. Its dazzling sheen changed the whole face of industry, altered
the course of commerce, shifted masses of people, and reversed the move-
ment of prices.

It was the dawn of the "Golden Age," which to-day holds us in its
thrall. The world has never witnessed such a rush as followed the dis-
covery of gold in California in 1848. The modern Argonauts were known
as the American "Forty-niner." San Francisco was emptied of its adult
population, and these gold-seekers were joined by others from all parts
of the world. Two years after James Wilson Marshall found his epochal
nugget in John Sutter's mill-race along the Sacramento River, there were

341

AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

100,000 men gathered on the gold-fields, which ranged for six hundred
miles and covered eight million acres. They took out $50,000,000 in that
year with crude pans and cradle rockers, and five years later exceeded that
sum by $15,000,000.

What they did then is being done to-day, and more, for in a year
California produced over $19,000,000 worth of gold and still leads all
other American gold fields, even Alaska and Colorado, the El Dorados of
the later generations. The modern miner has revolutionized gold mining.
He delves into mountain sides with his electric and compressed air drills,
often penetrating for thousands of feet. In some places the modern
miner squirts immense and powerful streams of water against a hill-side,
like firemen subduing the flames. This is the hydraulic method of min-
ing, which washes away the gravel and dirt and exposes the gold. In
another district gold is mined just as the coal is. Deep shafts lead into
the bowels of the earth, and from these there are tunnels branching out.
Huge timbers brace the walls and roofs, and the miners drill holes in
the walls with electric and compressed air drills. Their ore is carried to
the shaft opening in motor cars and thence up the shaft in buckets or
"skips." This is what they called "quartz" mining. Then the ore is
taken to the stamp mills to be crushed into a fine powder, after which it
is treated with acids and electric currents, put through wonderful ma-
chinery, until it comes out in the form of bullion, ready to be shipped to
the mints.

If gold is the autocrat of precious metals, silver is the democrat.
For every ounce of gold in the world to-day, there are nineteen of sil-
ver. From the day that Columbus first landed in the New World to the
day that China became a republic, enough silver had been mined through-
out the world to make 2,488 four-cylinder compound locomotives or more
than 300,000 tons of metal. If this had been sold on the market at pres-
ent day commercial valuations, it would have brought about four billion
dollars. Its coinage value would have been more than fourteen billion
dollars, or enough to pay the funded debts of Italy, Japan, the Nether-
lands, and Mexico.

But silver is accepted in circles where gold, because of its greater
value, cannot enter. It is in nearly every American home. What family
is there to-day without its silver knives, forks, and spoons, its silver
brushes, combs and hand-mirrors? In the art of photography, it faithfully
paints exact images upon printing paper. It performs feats of magic in
medicine, in association with other chemicals. It is one of the surgeon's
best friends. When the human arteries and like organs break down, it re-
places them and carries on their functions quite as well as the human tis-

342

GREAT AMERICAN MINES

sue. And it will carry the electric spark further and more easily than any
other known metal.

Mexico produces the most silver, with our United States crowding
it close for the honors. Our production is increasing and we will soon lead
the world. American continents, North and South, supply nearly five-
sixths of the world's silver. Before the discovery of America, silver was
as scarce as gold. But when the silver floodgates of the New World were
opened, it became so abundant that its value deteriorated, until to-day six-
teen ounces of silver is considered equal in value to one ounce of gold. It
costs as much to produce sixteen ounces of chemically pure silver as it
does one ounce of gold.

To transport the silver mined every twelvemonth in the United States
would require a train of nearly two hundred freight cars, and the ship-
ment would weigh about 6,300 tons; about no of them are destined for
the silver and other industrial shops in our country; the balance is dis-
tributed among the mints and the seaports for shipment to foreign lands.

A decade after the California gold rush, the world was again startled
by the discovery of another El Dorado, this time in Nevada and con-
sisting largely of silver. Its name, the Comstock Lode, was a household
word for many years. It was almost a pure vein, about four miles long
and three thousand feet at its widest point. From the day of its dis-
covery until the year 1890, a period of thirty years, it produced about
$200,000,000 worth of silver, and about $140,000,000 worth of gold.
Nevada had again assumed the leadership in the production of silver in
our country, with Montana and Utah close seconds. These three States
produce nearly a third of our total supply. Out in these Western moun-
tains sturdy American miners are forcing the earth to yield up its precious
metals.

The startling phenomenon of mysterious gas bursting like a pillar of
fire from the ground was first witnessed in the United States in 1821, by
the villagers of Fredonia, New York, but the occurrence passed without
further agitation — it was the discovery of natural gas. Thirty-eight years
later, in 1859, the presence of gas was detected in great quantities in Penn-
sylvania. Little was known of its value, however, so, to prevent com-
bustion of the oil, the natural gas was conveyed to a safe distance and
burned as a nuisance.

The great awakening to the usefulness of this "dangerous vapor*'
came in 1872 when it was conquered by the genius of man in Pennsylvania
and forced to go to work for him. It was found that imprisoned in the
great stone caverns of the earth are millions upon millions of gallons of
petroleum. This oil throws off powerful gases, which, when released, are

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AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

forced by compression through the porous rock to chambers in the earth.
A drill, mounted on a beam about seventy feet high and twenty feet at
the wooden hose, is used to puncture the gas vein. The natural gas rushes
to freedom with an average pressure of two hundred to six hundred pounds
to the square inch. There was recently a case in Pennsylvania where the
recorded pressure was eight hundred to one thousand pounds. The gas
is then conserved in a tank and directed into iron pipes. Meters measure
the gas and it is conveyed in all directions to light the homes and to
generate heat and power in the factories.

This gas is in quantities in the earth beyond all human dreams.
There are yet new regions to be found; new fields to be explored. Day
after day the storehouses of the earth are giving up new supplies. An
idea of its enormity can only be judged by the waste which occurs in the
United States alone by accidentally puncturing gas veins and allowing
the vapor to escape. A million cubic feet of natural gas is escaping every
day in Oklahoma. The value of this for a single year is $7,500,000.
The fuel value of it is equal to 1,250,000 tons of the best bituminous
coal. The waste is still more deplorable in Louisiana, where the means
of heat are wasted in the air and the people are paying for coal which
must be brought from a distance. The wastes in but three States made
a grand total of $23,000,000 worth of natural gas lost forever.

No one can estimate the possibilities of natural gas. They are be-
yond calculation. Millions of homes will no doubt be lighted in the fu-
ture through this medium of nature's hot breath; thousands of factories
will be run with the power it creates. Electricity will probably rely upon
it for its generation. The entire machinery of the country may be con-
trolled by its supply. The miracle of fire leaping from the ground has
come as a new evidence of the incalculable riches that remain hidden in the
heart of the earth.

These visits to the riches of the vast subterranean world that lies be-
neath the American continent, the foundation upon which the American
nation has been built, might be continued for a long period. There are
many metals that we have not even mentioned, but this is sufficient to
impress us with the main point — the indisputable claim that American
civilization is on substantial ground, that it is not merely a creation of
genius, but a geological fact — a product of nature.

844

BAXCHES IN AMERICA — We have more than 21.000,000 horses, valued at $2,500,000,000 — The

cowboys of the Great West tend the herds on these ranches — The sheep ranches

produce the wool for the American people.

PART IV CHAPTER X

GREAT AMERICAN AGRICULTURE

"The first farmer was the first man, and all historic nobility rests on possession and use
of land." —Emerson.

AGRICULTURE is the first of man's achievements — it was his
first discovery in the science of human existence. There has
never been a great people without a great agriculture; all real
values, say the economists, are land values. The first of all
modern commercial nations must be built on the foundation of its green
fields — it comes from the earth; there is its sustenance. The one thing
that threatens the supremacy of a nation is when its cities and commerce
have outgrown its fields and agriculture resources — that is the first step to-
ward national starvation.

America has come into the family of nations, endowed with an agri-
cultural heritage, the richest in the world. Its rich soil spans more than
thirty degrees of latitude and forty degrees of longitude, reaching from
the fruits of the semi-tropics to the grains of the North. This gives to
the nation an imperishable physical foundation. America's greatness and
power was born out of an agriculture that promises never to slacken its
pace with the growth of the nation. We are the only nation that can now
live absolutely on our own soil.

The first item of the nation's wealth are the farms of the country.
There are over 600,000 farms, more farms than in the Russian Empire,
which is over twice the area of the United States. These farms are valued
at more than $40,000,000,000. Some of them are the largest farms in
the world. In Kansas there is a farm of more than twenty-five thousand
acres, and the Dakotas, Nebraska, and Texas have a number of farms
exceeding ten thousand acres.

The American farms, exclusively of their stock and everything but the
buildings, are worth more than the entire Russian Empire with its over
7,000,000 square miles, its railroads, its mines, its great cities. On these
farms there are nearly $3,000,000,000 worth of farm animals including
their yield of products. There are more than 56,000,000 cattle, over
20,000,000 horses; 50,000,000 sheep; more than 4,000,000 mules; more
than 58,000,000 swine. These animals all told are more than 190,-
000,000 in number. The milch cows produced 983,000,000 pounds of
butter last year, not to calculate the gallons of milk. The horses of

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AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

the country are equal in power to all the power of our steam and water
machinery. These huge animal figures do not include the poultry, which
is a big item in the nation's wealth. The great American hen lays 5,000,-
000,000 eggs, or five dozen eggs for each inhabitant of the country. It
must have required 100,000,000 hens to lay all these eggs. The dairy
products of the United States exceeded $350,000,000 in value. Of these
animals, over 20,000,000 cattle, sheep and hogs are annually slaughtered
for meat — more than any four countries in Europe produce. Our meat
and poultry production together exceeds that of England, France, Ger-
many, and Italy.

Agriculture, beginning with the days of the first settlements, was the
chief occupation of the American people. Not only of the whole nation,
but especially of the American born. The census reports show that of all
the native born, exactly one-half were engaged in agricultural pursuits.
The foreign born on the contrary are attracted more largely by mills,
factories and mines. The only nationality that approaches the natives in
the proportion of agriculturists which they give to the nation, is the
Scandinavian, 50 per cent, of whose members till the soil.

American agriculture presents certain peculiarities which deserve at-
tention. The tendency has been to concentrate all efforts on certain great
staples: wheat, corn and cereals in the North; cotton, rice and sugar in
the South. In the production of those commodities a tremendous advance
has been made and extraordinary results obtained. This was due mainly
to the industrial genius of the men who developed the soil of this land.
American agriculture (like American railways) has been marked by its
adaptation to the peculiar needs and conditions of the country. It has been
not intensive but extensive. Like the railroad, it has spread thinly over
immense spaces, instead of concentrating its efforts on small patches of land.
Foreign writers several decades ago often mentioned the slipshod methods
of the American farmer, the meagerness of the crops, the waste of manure,
the failure to rotate crops, etc. But the American farmer was only adopt-
ing the methods which were the most advantageous for a community having
an abundance of land and not obliged to confine its operations to a small
number of acres. The important thing for a farmer was not how much
he could get out of a certain acreage but how much he could get out of a
certain amount of labor.

Land being cheap, it was more profitable to raise ten bushels of wheat
per acre on 50 acres than 25 bushels to the acre on 10 acres. Conditions
changed slowly, however, as the population became larger, and the soil
was becoming exhausted. The transition from extensive to intensive
farming has accomplished itself almost completely in New England, New

348

GREAT AMERICAN AGRICULTURE

York, Pennsylvania and Ohio. It has just begun in the Mississippi Val-
ley. In the Far West, on the other hand, the practical methods of the
first settlers will still obtain for some time yet.

The abundance of the soil was not the only factor that determined
the enormous development of American agriculture. A factor quite as im-
portant was the extensive use of machinery. There is no branch of in-
dustry in which the ingenuity and enterprise of the American nation have
been so strikingly manifested as in the invention of agricultural implements.
Mowers, reapers, binders, plows, cultivators, harrows and an endless variety
of other mechanical tools have revolutionized agriculture in this country
and will gradually revolutionize it the world over. It has been calculated
that the amount of human labor now required to produce a bushel of wheat
is only ten minutes, while it required three hours fifty years ago. The ease
with which large pieces of land on the Western prairie could be acquired
and placed under one single management has led to the creation of farms
the like of which the Old World had never known. And on those farms
as a rule only one single staple is produced. This high tide record in
farming is due to an abundance of land and a preponderant population on
the land to begin with, and now to the application of science to the soil in
all the older settlements of the United States.

The progressive American agriculturist of to-day must have as liberal
an education as any worker in the nation. He must be an agricultural
chemist, an engineer and mechanic, a bacteriologist. He must understand
eugenics as they apply to his stock, rural economics, horticulture, soil,
physics, agronomy and thremmatology. That last is the science of breed-
ing new kinds of plants, as well as animals.

The ancients practiced and appreciated agriculture, or husbandry, as
they liked to call the science. It was Cicero who made Cato say: "The
home of a good and industrious husbandman is stored with wealth, and
nothing can be more beautiful, nothing more profitable than a well culti-
vated farm." Wherever one goes throughout our nation, one will find
flourishing farm lands circling round cities and towns. There one will see
great fields of growing grain, heavily burdened orchards of fruit, trim and
scientifically arranged farm buildings; modern suburban homes lighted by
electricity (as are the farm buildings), heated by modern methods,
equipped with the latest house-keeping devices, connected with neighbors
and cities by telephone wires, which also radiate throughout the whole
farm, connecting the owner with all points of his field of operations. One
may meet the farmer and his wife and children speeding along macadam-
ized highways in high-power automobiles, the children destined for a mod-
ernly equipped school where they study the science of agriculture as well

349

AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

as the studies of the city-student, the wife probably making her social calls
while the farmer continues onward to sell his crops in the city.

This is the day of scientific farming. On the model farm one worker
may be putting blue litmus paper into the ground to find out if the soil
is sour; or another may be knocking half the apples from the trees, so
that the remaining fruit will be of better quality. In the cow barn an-
other may be spreading raw phosphate to be put in the soil to assist the
plants and grains to grow. Out in a field a worker is spreading a coating
of soil, brought from another field, to inoculate the poorer soil with bacteria
and help the legumes to flourish. That thundering noise heard is the
dynamite exploding or subsoiling the earth so that the roots of the crops
can penetrate farther into the earth and get nourishment that otherwise
would be forever cut off from it.

These are a few of the scientific methods which have enabled the
modern farmer to perform that miracle of "making two blades of grass
grow where one grew before." Turn to the reports of the Agricultural
Department, that wonderful institution which is spreading its knowledge
and beneficence among the farmers, and find out what the actual results
have been during the last decade. They relate that the yield of corn per
acre all over the country has gained on the average more than seven per
cent, and wheat over nine per cent. There are many more items, but these
will illustrate what scientific methods mean. These figures are for only
one decade, and the preceding decades shows a proportionate increase, ever
since the close of the American Civil War when agriculture began to receive
the attention of scientists. Since that time, the bushels to an acre of some
staples have increased from thirty to sixty.

The farmer is almost the only inventor who does not keep his discov-
eries for profit to himself alone. Owing to this fact the world is able
to test its cows' milk productivity through Babcock's testing machine; is
able to grow the naval orange which William Saunders brought into the
country and the Wealthy apple, said to be the best of apple seedlings,
which cost Peter Gideon of Minnesota his last $5 for seeds (even while he
had to make a coat out of a pair of trousers and a vest) ; or the wonderful
Minnesota experiment station, which to-day has added 15 per cent, to
the wheat crop in a decade. It was Wendelin Grimm who gave alfalfa
to America after having brought it from his native home in Bavaria ten
years before the Civil War broke out. The Alabaman, James F. Duggar,
was the discoverer of the modern method of inoculating soils, and he pub-
lished his conclusions in bulletins which were so well distributed through-
out the land that there is scarcely any modem American farmer who does

350

I.KMON r.nnvEs IN CALIFORNIA.

OliA.NGK GROVE IN V-ALIFORX1A.

FRUIT PRODUCTION IN AMERICA — The wealth of the orchards in the United States gives an

annual production exceeding $200,000,000 each year — This tremendous fortune Is but one

of the lesser elements In the agricultural wealth of the United States.

TOl'.AtVO PLANTATIONS IN AMERICA — Tobacco was unknown to the civilized world before

discovery of America — It was first found in Mexico in 1558 — The United States is

producing more than a billion pounds a year, valued at about ? 1 -5. 0< (0.000.

SUGAR PLANTATIONS IN AMERICA — Sugar cane was broupht Into Louisiana by the Jesuits in

1751 — The Americans were the first to refine sugar in 1792 — The United

States now produces over 20,000,000 tons a year.

AMERICAN FRUITS IN HAWAII — Pineapple plantations — The pineapple is a native of the

American tropics, but has been introduced into warm climates throughout the world:

West Indies, Florida, Northern Africa, Hawaii and Azores Islands.

<:HI;AT KOKKSTS OF AMERICA — The United States possesses 700,000,000 acres of forest-
Millions of acres have been devastated to secure lumber to build the nation — The govern-
ment has now entered upon a conservative policy to preserve its forest resources.

GREAT AMERICAN AGRICULTURE

not understand how to transfer good soil to poor. The names of these
benefactors to the farmer and the nation are legion.

One of the greatest benefactors is the Government itself, through the
Department of Agriculture. In a recent year its directing official figured
what the Department had actually accomplished, in dollars and cents,
for the country. It reached the tremendous figure of $231,859,000, count-
ing only those larger items which could be estimated, and they ranged
through all branches of agriculture.

It was estimated that for frost, cold wave and river-rising warnings,
the Weather Bureau saved the country $25,000,000. The Bureau of
Soils, which shows the adaptation of soils to crops, methods of handling
soils, and studying the alkali problems, totaled about $9,000,000. The
money spent for the destruction of farm pests, coyotes, wolves, and
other animals which endanger crops, and also for encouraging certain
birds of value, is conservatively estimated by the Bureau of Biology at
$3,000,000. For introducing the Australian ladybird to eat the San Jose
scale, not to mention the work on the black scale, cotton insects, includ-
ing the boll weevil, and the insects which prey on general crops, the Bureau
of Entomology required $5,000,000. The Bureau of Plant Industry
claimed $29,000,000, mentioning as its largest item the introduction of
Durum wheat. The largest bureau is that of animal industry, and it
claimed over $50,000,000, distributing its claims through tick eradication,
subduing pleuro-pneumonia, dairy investigations, new treatment of milk
fever, dipping sheep for scabies, inspecting cattle-ships, and inspecting
meat. Then there is the Good Roads Office, which aids in the building
of new and repairs old roads throughout the rural districts, and the Forest
Service for maintaining forest reserves, thus preserving stream flow and
indirectly bringing the rain in needed seasons.

The agricultural experiment stations are the outposts, or scouts, of
the Agricultural Department. There are about sixty in the United States,
located in every State and Territory, and they are units of the Agricultural
Colleges which are establishing scientific American agriculture. Michigan
claims the honor of first establishing an agricultural school, providing for
one in 1850, making it a part of her second State constitution. Seven
years later, Justin S. Morrill, the Father of American Agricultural Col-
leges, introduced a bill to the House of Representatives to endow the Land
Grant Colleges which Congress had established. Connecticut claims the
first experiment station, opening one at Middletown to be conducted along
modern lines, later moving it to New Haven.

It is these stations that reduce scientific agriculture from theory to

355

AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

practice. The results of the experiments are published in bulletins and
sent to the farmer. They will test the soils submitted and advise the
farmer the best crops to grow, or how to increase the fertility of the soil
so as to increase the yield per acre. What is true of soil is also true
of any part of a farm or its products. When a new plant suitable for
growth in America is found in any distant clime — and the Department
of Agriculture maintains a large corps of expert agriculturists to comb the
earth for these plants — it is first tried out in experiments and if practical
the information is sent broadcast. We mention just one instance to illus-
trate what this service means. A man sends word to the department that
his land, bordering the overflown banks of the Great Lakes, is too wet
to grow anything. Back to him comes a package of taros, or yautias, or
dasheens, and probably all three, with instructions on how to plant and
raise them, with the further assurance that they will not only thrive in the
wettest soil and are more edible than the sweet potato, but that starch,
flour, alcohol, and a few other things as well can be made from these arti-
cles which one of the department scouts found in the interior of Africa.

The agricultural resources of the United States are bound to increase
continually as intensive cultivation takes the place of extensive cultiva-
tion. Furthermore, to the arable lands now at the disposal of agricultur-
ists, irrigation is constantly adding new fertile tracks. Until 1902, all
the irrigation work had been done by private parties. The Reclamation
Act provides for irrigation works built by the Government, which repays
itself for expenses incurred out of the sale of land and water rights.
Up to 1910, some 15,000,000 acres of land had been reclaimed in that
way in the arid Western States. This system has proved very profitable,
for the receipts up to 1910 had been larger by $15,000,000 than the expen-
ditures. Irrigation has enabled many men with slim resources to settle on
cheap but fertile tracks of land in the West, and the number of small farms
has increased considerably in recent years. It is estimated that there are
brought under cultivation 1,000 new farms every year in the Western
States, compensating the steady abandonment of farm lands in the East,
particularly in New England and New York State.

America grows more corn than all the other countries of the world
and it has therefore been called Corn King of the world. This year it
is estimated by the Agricultural Department that the crop will be 3,000,-
000,000 bushels. Last year it was 2,500,000,000 bushels in round num-
bers. This gigantic production of corn has made it possible to raise all
these valuable animals and poultry on the farms and it has made America
the world's meat market as a consequence.

To give an idea of this, the greatest cereal crop in the world, let

356

GREAT AMERICAN AGRICULTURE

us suppose that the crop reaches only 2,750,000,000, a very conservative
estimate. If this corn were loaded in cars of 1,000 bushels, it would re-
quire 2,500,000 cars and 85,333 locomotives carrying thirty cars each to
carry this enormous crop. All the locomotives and grain and box cars in
the United States and Europe could not carry it on one trip, and if
stretched out in a straight line, allowing thirty feet for each car and
space between the end of each car, it would be 17,067 miles in length,
and would reach from San Francisco to New York, Liverpool, Berlin,
Constantinople, Bombay, and Hong Kong, China. This immense train
would girdle the United States twice, beginning at Chicago with a
double track, thence to New York, Baltimore, Wilmington, Savannah,
Jacksonville, Fla., Mobile, New Orleans, Galveston, Houston, San An-
tonio, El Paso, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, Helena,
Montana, Minneapolis, Milwaukee, and Chicago, the starting point. The
weight of this enormous corn crop would be 143,360,000,000 pounds. If
corn is worth 75 cents a bushel to-day, this enormous corn crop would be
worth about $1,700,000,000. This corn crop would be worth as much as
our great iron and steel industry, or as much as our wheat and cotton crop
combined.

The biggest corn farm in the world is located in the State of Missouri.
This farm contains more than twenty-five thousand acres. More than
8,000 head of cattle are fed on this farm and nearly 10,000 head of hogs.
The great corn States are Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, Kansas, In-
diana, but corn is cultivated on a large scale in eighteen other States. The
total production is close to three billion bushels, and the total acreage
close to 110,000,000 acres. The United States produces three-fourths of
the world's entire corn crop. Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota,
Kansas, Nebraska, Indiana, Washington are entirely devoted to the rais-
ing of winter and spring wheat, the average annual crop being about 750,-
000,000 bushels on an average area of 47,000,000 acres.

America grows more wheat than any country except Russia. This
year it is estimated that the crop will reach 1,000,000,000 bushels. But,
if it has to take second place in wheat production, it comes up to the top
again in hay, and forage. The value of the hay crop last year was nearly
$800,000,000 and exceeded in value all the metals mined in this country
but pig-iron. Hay is a twin brother to corn in making America the land
of beef. The hay crop is now 75,000,000 tons, and it would take far more
cars to haul this hay than the corn crop.

But America is King Cotton as well as King Corn, Queen Hen, Queen
Cow and King Grass, to the whole world. It raises over 70 per cent, of the
world's entire cotton crop. The high water mark of this crop was 14,-

357

AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

100,000 bales in 1912. At $50 a bale it would amount to $705,000,000.
But as hay and corn are converted into meat, more than doubling their
original value, so more than half of the cotton now grown in this country
is manufactured into products more than quadrupling its original, raw
value. The great American cotton crop when it has passed from the gins
through the factories pays to the American people in actual profits the sum
of at least $2,000,000,000. The cotton States are Texas, Georgia,
Mississippi, Alabama, South Carolina, Arkansas, the annual yield being
on the average of 14,000,000 bales or two thirds of the world's production.

The cane sugar States are Louisiana and Texas, which produce some
350,000 tons yearly; the beet sugar States are Colorado, Michigan and
California. There are about 450,000 tons of sugar extracted from some
3,500,000 tons of beets.

The oat crop is generally over a billion bushels a year, and the area
is close to 35,000,000 acres. The oat States are Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota,
Wisconsin, Nebraska, Ohio, Indiana, the Dakotas, Michigan, and New
York, producing each from 1,000,000 to 4,500,000 bushels.

The rice crop of the United States is approximately 24,000,000 bush-
els, grown on 750,000 acres. The rice States are Louisiana, Texas, Arkan-
sas, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Florida and North
Carolina. The value of the Louisiana crop is on the average $10,000,000
a year.

The above facts and figures constitute that which is and must always
remain the body, the backbone, and spinal cord of the great republic. It
is these staggering figures that we have dug out of our fields, and housed
in our barns and elevators, our mills, smoke houses, and pantries. You
will no longer wonder that we are the best fed nation on earth, and that
we are always ready out of our great abundance to pour into the lap of
charity and put bread into the mouths of the unfortunate and starving
throughout the earth.

358

SHEEP RANCHES IN AMEHirA — There are in the United States over 50,0<>0,0<X>
valued at nearly $.'{00,000.000 — Thev produce annually over 300,000,000
pounds of wool valued at $60,000,000,

sheep

PART IV CHAPTER XI

GREAT AMERICAN BANKS

"Private credit is wealth ; public honor is security."

— Junius.

MONEY is the driving power of the world; it is its physical
generative force. A nation's ability to accumulate money
denotes its ability not only to plan and launch enterprises,
but to make multiplication tables of profit out of its enter-
prise. No nation can ever grow great without the gift to make money
honestly and use it with wisdom. America shows that it possesses this
gift to a pre-eminent degree. It has made and saved more money than
any other nation, because it has more generative force, more enterprise,
more inventiveness, and more natural wealth. The following chapter
shows how America gives the most concrete expression to its great money
power.

The banking power of America is now nearly two-fifths of the bank-
ing power of the entire world. In another decade, at the rate it is increas-
ing (219 per cent., while the balance of the world is increasing 102 per
cent.), it will be over half the world's banking power. In 1906 our
banking power was $16,000,000,000, or greater than the banking power
of the whole world in 1890. In 1908 it had reached $19,500,000,000; in
1912, $25,000,000,000, and by the end of 1915 it is estimated that it
will have reached $28,000,000,000, while the balance of the world will
have reached only $42,000,000,000. In ten years it has nearly doubled
itself. There is nothing in our growth and progress as a nation more
amazing than these enormous figures, this huge aggregation of financial
power.

More than any other item in our national wealth does this banking
power represent the energy, the industrial and commercial vitality of
the people. It is the industrial and commercial blood of the nation in
circulation and it circulates with a power and pressure unknown in all
the past. Here is a people grouped under one nation and representing
only one-sixteenth of the human race, with two-fifths of the whole race's
capacity to circulate among themselves and into the outer world their
financial and commercial power. Nine-tenths of this great power is con-
fined to the carrying on of domestic trade and transactions at home. Eng-
land and Germany each has had a much larger foreign trade than has

361

AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

America, but the domestic trade of both of them combined does not begin
to compare with that of the United States. No people in the world buy
from and sell to one another such prodigious quantities of merchandise,
deal in such enormous real estate values, and project such gigantic financial
enterprises among themselves as the American people, and without their
great banking power they could not do this. This banking power, as ex-
pressed in figures, is the red letter index to our great volume of industrial
and commercial transaction.

This is not, however, an index to the whole story, for there are
many comparatively small transactions and trades daily in which banks do
not figure. There are now $3,000,000,000 in the pockets of the people
outside of banks, yet every bill of money and coin bears on its face a
part of the country's banking power.

There were at the beginning of 1915, 28,746 banks. Of these 7,581
were national banks, with $1 1,357,086,017 resources. Bank resources are
such items as loans, bank deposits, not individual, cash on hand, secur-
ties, etc. There were 1,978 savings banks with $4,513,427,930; 14,011
State banks with $4,143,052,802 resources; 1,515 loan and trust com-
panies with $5,123,920,197 resources, and 1,016 private banks having
$183,765,398.

The national banks and the State banks and trust companies have been
organized and welded into a great national banking system under the
Federal Reserve Banking Act. Out of six per cent, of the capital of all
these banks have been created twelve Federal District Reserve Banks with
a capital of $225,000,000, which in reality is a great central bank. As
the banking power of the American people grows this great central bank
located in twelve representative financial centers will grow accordingly.
It will in time become the greatest financial institution in the world, sur-
passing the Bank of England. It serves the banks and the business of
the country just as the heart serves the human body. It regulates the
circulation of money by making the great banking power of the United
States react readily to every need and demand of industry and trade. It
breaks up an overflow of money in New York and carries to the little
country towns of the agricultural West and South the cash to move crop.
Wherever there is the slightest indication of a panic, it is immediately
on the spot with a huge bag of gold to reassure the timid. No less a
financial authority than the late Senator Aldrich said that if the United
States had had such a bank, the people could have prevented all their
terrific panics, which is equivalent to saying that there will be no panics
hereafter. "We have forever scotched the snake of panic," declares Sec-
retary of the Treasury McAdoo. If we have, the banking power of Amer-

362

GREAT AMERICAN BANKS

ica has been increased a hundred fold, for America in its unrivaled progress
and sudden swift changes has long been a land of tempestuous money
panics at too frequent intervals.

There is now no great institution in the country more secure than
our national banks. The failure of a national bank now is almost un-
heard of. To-day our national banking system is even more honest than
the highly reputed banks of China. And the State banks and trust com-
panies are not less so. Our banking system has become a pillar of financial
honesty. An honest bank makes trade honest. There is no more essential
element in the growth of America's great banking power than this honesty.

Most, if not all the State banks joining the Federal Reserve System
are becoming national banks ; so, too, will the trust companies, and within
a short period our whole banking system is likely to become national in
substance and scope, even including our savings banks. Every bank will
then have the power of the nation behind it. The adoption of postal
savings banks, which are as yet too restrained in their capacities in receiv-
ing deposits, is in the direction of nationalizing the country's great bank-
ing power. A bank will be like the dollar that it holds. It will have
the stamp of the nation on it. Private banks are on the decline and must
go, for no bank can live in a highly organized commercial nation unless
it is the symbol of the security and power of the Government.

There is now in the United States a bank to every 3,400 persons or
to every 680 families. In the New England States there is a bank to
every 6,1 17 persons; in the Eastern States, including New York and Penn-
sylvania, there is a bank to every 7,618 persons; in the South a bank to
every 4,567; in the Middle West, a bank to every 3,206 persons; in the
Western or Rocky Mountain States a bank to every 1,564; in the Pacific
States, a bank to every 3,466, and in the Island Possessions a bank to
every 39,147 persons. The average bank has about $1,000,000 of assets;
the average bank in New England, $2,719,000 of assets; the average
bank in the Eastern States $3,520,000. In the great States of the Mid-
dle West the average bank has $705,000, or one-fifth as much as in the
Eastern States and one-fourth as much as in New England. In the Pa-
cific States the average bank has $919,000. The average bank in the
South has $378,000 and in the West $227,000, but the West has more
small banks than the South. Two-thirds of the banking power and money
of the country are found in the New England and Eastern States with
Illinois thrown in. Consequently, an individual in the South or West with
equally good security finds it much harder to borrow money than his more
fortunate fellow individual who lives in the East. This defect the Fed-
eral Reserve banks seek to remove. The banking power of New York

363

AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

State is, in round numbers, $14,000,000,000, or 17 per cent, of the total
of all the banks in the country. Of $173,765,528,000 bank clearings for
the whole country in 1913, New York's share was $98,121,220,000. Lon-
don, long the commercial capital of the world, has never shown such a rec-
ord, and indeed this was a high water mark for New York, which 1915 is
likely to surpass.

The great problem of our foreign trade especially with the South
American countries is more one of banks than it is of ships or goods. The
Latin-Americans trade on long time credits, and their principal security is
real estate. Only branch American banks established in these countries
can handle this sort of business with intelligence and safety. American
banks have at last begun to meet this problem by establishing branch banks
in centers like Rio Janeiro and Buenos Aires. Thus the great banking
power has begun to invade the world.

The most interesting human feature of the banks of the United States
are the individual depositors and their desposits. It should be borne in
mind that while these deposits are not banking resources they constitute
banking power but not the technical power of the banks described above.
They are one of the principal liabilities of banks and the power of the
people to make use of banks. The great bulk of these deposits in the
national banks are subject to check and are not really savings, but they give
a definite focus on the ever driving energy and enterprise of the nation.
These individual deposits in the national banks represent about one-half
of all the deposits in the other banks, and in 1912 they amounted to $5,-
025,000,000 against $11,198,000,000 held by all the other banks. In
1914, these deposits had increased in round numbers to $6,000,000,000.
In 1865, the national banks had only $500,000,000. In 1885, they had
$1,111,000,000, $1,720,000,000 in 1892, $3,111,000,000 in 1902.
From 1902 to 1914 they had nearly doubled, which shows that individuals
are doing twice as much business with their banks as they did twelve
years ago.

It is the record of the savings banks deposits to which the political
economist turns to reckon the thrift of the people. In the great industrial
centers they are the true gauge of this thrift. John Stuart Mill, the
high priest of political economy, frequently said that the most precious
possession a people can have, was what he styled "the effective desire or
instinct of accumulation." On the other hand, in the great agricultural
communities the savings bank is not a vault under lock and key, but it con-
sists of broad acres. In the $41,000,000,000 of farms in this country are
deposited most of the savings of the 600,000 farmers and their families.

There were in round numbers $5,000,000,000 of deposits in the

364

TREASURY OF THE UNITED STATES — The amount of money in circulation in the United
States exceeds $4,000,000,000 — The total wealth exceeds $150,000,000,000 — The
administration of government costs more than $1,000,000,000 a year.

GOVERNMENT BUILDINGS AT NATIONAL CAPITAL — This magnificent structure is occupied

by the State Department, the War Department, and the Navy Department —

It is here that our international relations are conducted.

FAMOUS UNIVERSITY IN AMERICA— Library at Columbia University— The University was
rounded before the American nation as King's College, under Charter granted
by George II in 1754 — It has nearly lii.OOO students.

LARGEST FREE I'UI'.LIC LIP.RARY IN THE WORLD— This magnificent structure is the New York

Public Library — It is built of Vermont marble, with a capacity of about

^,500,000 volumes. It seats nearly i>,000 readers.

GREAT AMERICAN BANKS

savings banks, the money of 10,400,000 depositors, in 1914. For the last
five years this army of depositors has been recruited on an average of 225,-
ooo new depositors every year. Some of these depositors have, of course,
a deposit to their credit in the country's savings banks, but the number of
depositors is growing faster in proportion than the population.

The distribution of these depositors over the country and the growth
and average amount of the deposits of each from time to time, as com-
pared with similar savings bank records in foreign countries, show that, al-
though America is considered by foreigners the most extravagant of na-
tions, it is really one of the most thrifty of nations. If the total amount
deposited in our savings banks had been equally distributed among the
population of the country, the amount to each person in 1820 would have
been $.12; 1830, $.54; in 1840, $.82; in 1850, $1.87; in 1860, $4.75;
in 1870, $14.75; in 1880, $16.33; m 1890, $24.35; m 1900, $31.78; in
1910, $45.05. In 1915, it is estimated that there are $50.00 in the sav-
ings banks to every person in the country.

The individual deposits in the Pacific States are larger than in the
New England or Eastern States, but, when we consider the average per
capita, the opposite is the case. In Massachusetts and Connecticut the
average per capita amount of deposit is over $250.00, and in none of the
New England States does it fall below $100. New England and the six
Eastern States furnish over three-fourths of the total deposits in the sav-
ings banks of the country. The magnitude of the deposits in these States
becomes more apparent when we realize that in half of the States of the
country the per capita deposits are less than $5.00. In the South and West
farm owners put their earnings in farm improvements and lands.

France has been proclaimed as the nation of incarnate thrift. In
1901 the French had in their savings banks only $22.75 Per capita, as com-
pared with $31.78 per capita for the United States, but the French, like
many Americans, have other ways of saving their money. In 1901 the
English had in their savings banks $23.14. In Prussian Germany the fig-
ures were $25.81 ; in Italy $13.66; Austria had $32.00. Poverty-stricken
Russia had jumped from $.04 in three decades up to $3.27. This gain
was a monument to the late Mr. Witte, who largely brought it about. In
1901 Canada had only $14.00 per capita in her savings banks. Aus-
tralia had $23.00 ; New Zealand had $40.00. But Denmark stood at the
head of the list with $76.00.

But it should be finally added, in making any sort of an accurate esti-
mate of the thrift of the United States, that in the last decade the Ameri-
can people have invested a billion dollars in new issues of bonds and se-
curities.

367

PART IV CHAPTER XII

GREAT AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS

"Here shall the Press the People's right maintain,
Unawed by influence and unbribed by gain ;
Here patriot Truth her glorious precepts draw,
Pledged to Religion, Liberty, and Law."

— Story.

THE American newspaper is to-day one of our greatest institu-
tions. It stands in the financial ranks with banking, railroad-
ing, and manufacturing. Here in America there are but two
estates — a free people and a free press — and against these com-
bined forces no human power can exist. "Four hostile newspapers," ex-
claimed Napoleon, "are more to be feared than a thousand bayonets."
The newspapers stand "between the governors and the governed, and form
the single organ of both."

Modern civilization is erected on the power of public print. The
modern Atlas, supporting the world on his shoulders, is the printing-press.
It is the printed page that sustains the power of law, that supports religion,
that makes education possible, that underwrites all the trade and commerce
of the earth.

The modern American newspaper is more powerful than the preach-
ers ; greater than the political bosses ; it is the main strength of the business
world and the people's grand jury of the whole. Newspapers mold opin-
ion; they preach to millions, and they enlighten and guide the democratic
multitude. Without them liberty, democracy, and self-government would
be incomprehensible and therefore impossible. Every historic democracy
before our own perished for want of a free press; our newspapers are the
very life breath of our institutions. They are the very atmosphere of our
minds, the throb of our great common heart. They are what we are and
what we have made them. Nothing else that we have created is so truly
a part of our life and being as the daily and weekly records of our history.

To have a correct knowledge of human affairs, to be well informed,
it is necessary to-day to read the current daily and weekly press. Fully
300,000 miles of ocean cables beneath the seven seas, wireless telegraphy
and the telephone, with a dragnet of wires over this continent, bring the
important events and affairs of the world daily into every center of popu-
lation through the printed page of the local current press. It correctly
and daily interprets the amazing age of scientific progress in which we

368

GREAT AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS

live. The important achievements of the human race of every character
are expressed in the most engaging and attractive form.

The four cornerstones in the building of our national structure are
the schools and colleges, churches and libraries, but the current press of
the nation rises like a great gilded dome toward which the eyes of all
our people are turned constantly. It is conservatively true that the local
newspaper in every community has larger influence with the entire popu-
lation of men, women, and children than all four of the previously men-
tioned educational institutions. We are not trying to draw in this state-
ment any unfavorable comparison but simply stating a fact that has ar-
ranged its own conclusion. To-day, the newspaper seeks every person upon
the street, in the cars, in the homes; it is practically everywhere and not
to be avoided. It is significant that the non-progressive countries that
have slumbered through the centuries have no current press. They can-
not bring about a world-wide interchange of ideas which the modern press
accomplishes in our nation.

There are about 28,000 publications in the United States distributed
through our forty-eight States. They are divided among daily news-
papers, weekly newspapers, monthly periodicals and quarterlies, scientific,
religious, and trade papers relating to various industries. It may be said
to-day that any man can sit in his own house with his newspaper and
periodicals before him and truly say, "Old Mother Earth, I know you."
The news of to-day is divided into two classes; general informative news
and business news. Our great commercial enterprises could not distribute
their commodities, and make our vast population acquainted with their
value, except through advertising in the current press. To-day business
news or advertising is almost as important to our general population as
informative news.

Our newspapers, which to-day are great in size, great in energy and
enterprise, swift in action and achievement, the mirror of the greatest free
and popular movement of humanity on earth — had the most humble be-
ginning. The first American newspaper was the Boston News-Letter;
its first real news was the execution of six pirates in that city on June
3oth, 1704. The report of this event filled nearly half the little sheet.
Within twenty years, four more little sheets, the Gazette and Mercury
in Boston, the Mercury in Philadelphia, and the Gazette in New York,
came into existence. The news from Europe was the most important news.
Scarcely anything that took place in this country got into print in the
colonial days. A month was then relatively longer than an hour now.

During Washington's administration the Minerva was founded in
New York in 1793. It was renamed The Commercial Advertiser in 1797,

369

AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

and is to-day The Globe — a paper that always has shown great enterprise
in national affairs.

The newspapers later fought the American Revolution, helped mold
the Constitution, directed the new nation, by acting as the link that united
the people to a common cause. The Courier and Inquirer, of New York,
and its rival, the Journal of Commerce, organized swift news schooners
in 1830 to meet the incoming ships one hundred miles out. Then, some
years later, the Journal of Commerce established a pony express between
New York and Philadelphia, later extending it to Washington, and by
this means published the news of Congress and of the South a day in ad-
vance of its competitor.

The definite beginning of the great national American newspaper
dates from about 1835. I* was t^ien t^iat James Gordon Bennett, the
elder, the first American reporter, published the New York Herald, a
penny sheet, from a cellar in Nassau Street, and fairly startled the staid,
easy going world of that day with the clearly stated, outstanding facts in
his reports, and with the striking headlines of the printed page. News at
once became a living thing. Bennett created the interview.

There is no business in the world that requires such enterprise, such
activity, such creative power and ingenuity as the making of a newspaper.
Bennett was longing for a great event to demonstrate his enterprise. It
came in 1838; the little steamer Sirius, the first regular steamship to cross
the ocean from England to the Untied States arrived at New York.
Like the true newspaper prophet that he was, he took passage on the
steamer on its return to Europe, and appointed correspondents in London
and Paris for his American paper — this is the beginning of the foreign
correspondent.

But Bennett's departure in journalism did not move Boston or Phila-
delphia to imitate it. The Boston Daily Journal refused to send a re-
porter to Brighton to report the speech of Daniel Webster, the most im-
portant piece of news of the day. Bennett organized a long distance pony
express from New Orleans to New York in 1845 and "beat" the Govern-
ment so badly in getting news of the Mexican War, that the Postmaster
General attempted to stop the enterprise.

Then came the telegraph — the twin brother of modern journalism.
Great names in the history of the American newspaper now began to loom
upon the horizon. It is a galaxy of genius — master minds, statesmen
of the public print — Among them were Bennett, Bryant, Greeley, Ray-
mond, Webb, Reid, Dana, Godkin, and Pulitzer, of New York; Hale,
Taylor, and others, of Boston; Childs, McClure and Smith, of Philadel-
phia; Abel, 'of Baltimore; Bowles, of Springfield, Massachusetts; Medill,

370

WHERE "THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER" WAS WRITTEN— Fort McHenry, Baltimore, Mary-
land— It was here that Francis Scott Key wrote the national anthem while
detained in the British fleet during bombardment of this fort in 1814.

CONQUEST OF THE CONTINENT — This photograph is taken at Battle Hollow, near Victory,

Wisconsin, where the last great battle of the Black Hawk War was fought in 1832 —

White settlers were massacred but Black Hawk surrendered.

GREAT AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS

Nixon, Stone, and Storey, of Chicago; Halstead and McLean, of Cin-
cinnati; Prentice and Watterson, of Louisville; Cowles and Armstrong,
of Cleveland; Locke (Petroleum V. Nasby), of Toledo; Belo, of Gal-
veston; Quinby, of Detroit; Wheelock, of St. Paul; Jones, Knapp, and
McCullough, of St. Louis; De Young, of San Francisco; Grady, of At-
lanta; Dawson, of Charleston, South Carolina — and many other geniuses.

The American Civil War was fought in the columns of the news-
papers; they recruited the armies, molded the political opinion and action,
brought Lincoln to the front and made him known to the people. The
papers became vigorous personal organs. The editors were greater than
their papers — they were nation-builders. This was the character of the
American newspaper for fifty years. Bennett had taught the world the
power of news; Raymond, and Dana, and Medill, and others, taught re-
porters how to write news, and then came Joseph Pulitzer to teach the
newspaper how to make news a necessary commodity. From the entry
of Pulitzer, in 1885, t^ie American newspaper began its evolution into
a great impersonal institution. The reporter mounted the throne of the
editor. "Give us facts," cried the man in the street, "we know what they
mean." The news columns expanded as historical records to cover every
phase of human life — even to catch the immemorial and sacred private
life of men, and the editorial page shrunk accordingly — a sure sign of
democracy spreading and growing. The people, rather than the editors
were now making the newspaper. The masses, the men in the street, be-
came news. In half a century, the value of facts concerning human events,
reported simply but graphically, increased ten thousand per cent. With-
out the publication of such facts now, the Government would perish and
the whole social fabric collapse. To-day, men must know ten thousand
times more about what one another is doing than they were required to
know a century ago. The telegraph, the telephone, the improvement in
the printing press, the invention of the linotype, and the typewriter, and
the building of the railroad, brought about this need — with the newspaper
as the great dynamic power behind them. The need of general information
and communication — an instinct developed by the newspaper — urged men
to invent these instruments of knowledge. The American newspaper is
the consummation of all great modern inventions.

Let us trace briefly the great newspapers through the age of the per-
sonal editors to their present impersonal status where their names conceal
the identity of armies of editors and writers — the recorders of history.

A virile, editorial power of his times was Nathan Hale, nephew and
namesake of the glorious "patriot spy." He gave to the Boston Daily
Advertiser, the first daily published, a character for excellence. He was

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AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

a strong force in American affairs for many years, writing all his editorials
and stamping into every sentence and phrase his robust personality. But
he did more for the American newspaper than edit it; he harnessed its
printing to steam, adapted the stereotyping process, and led the way in
many other improvements. Rather than print a falsehood in his paper,
he would wait to verify the news. Among Hale's distinguished contribu-
tors were Edward Everett, Daniel Webster, Ticknor, Prescott and the poet
Bryant.

A vigorous name in the history of American newspapers is Samuel
Bowles, of the Springfield Republican — one of its greatest exemplars of
American journalism. Every youth within the last forty years, who in-
tended to become an educated newspaper man, was advised to study the
career and the writings of the editor of the Springfield Republican, which
was for many years one of the two most carefully read journals in all
editorial offices — the other being the New York Evening Post. The
Republican combined the excellences of both the American and the
English press.

When the elder Bennett started the Herald, one of the men he
approached with an offer of partnership was Horace Greeley, then a printer
and editor of the New Yorker. Greeley, on learning of Bennett's meager
resources (Bennett had only $250 to start with) refused. Greeley began
the publication of the New York Tribune in 1841, which aimed at the
moulding of public opinion by the power of its editorials. The Herald
and the Commercial Advertiser had formed the first press association, and
the Tribune was the first "reformer" in American journalism. Greeley not
only stoutly advocated in his editorials abolition, woman's rights, temper-
ance, and the abolition of capital punishment, but he engaged Margaret
Fuller to investigate the condition of the poor in New York City — the first
woman reporter.

Then came the rugged figure of Henry J. Raymond, who founded the
New lYork Times, and Charles A. Dana, who transformed the New
York Sun into a great newspaper. Greeley was the first great "leader"
writer in American journalism; Raymond was one of the best equipped
all-around editors of any time; and Dana was never surpassed for his
pungent, exquisite English and his inimitable art of statement. The elder
Bennett, Greeley and Raymond passed away ; then came the younger Ben-
nett, who inherited his father's enterprise — and later Pulitzer. For fifteen
years the great leaders in New York journalism were Dana, Bennett and
Pulitzer. Bennett sent Stanley to Africa; Dana became a political power
and scourge to the White House; and there was not a week that Pulitzer
did not box the compass in his eternal hunger for news.

374

GREAT AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS

Great editors were rising in all parts of the country. Philadelphia
had her trio of newspaper statesmen — A. K. McClure, of the Philadelphia
Times; Charles Emory Smith, of the Philadelphia Press, and George
W. Childs of the Ledger. Childs was famous for his philanthropies, for
his fine citizenship, and for publishing one of the ablest journals in the
country. McClure had been an intimate of Lincoln and was an ardent
friend of the impoverished South. He never failed to aid that section in
his paper all through the doleful years when traduction prevailed. Smith
was one of the editorial forces of the Republican party.

One of the strongest factors in national affairs was the Chicago
Tribune, under the editorial management of Joseph Medill. Medill was
one of the strongest personal forces in journalism this country has ever
produced. There was no great venture in journalism, no redoubt of news
worth capturing, that the Chicago Tribune and its editor would not dare
to take. But the Tribune's neighbors, the Chicago Inter Ocean, Times,
News and Record-Herald were scarcely less enterprising. The iconoclastic
daring of Chicago journalism even startled New York with its Pulitzers
and Hearsts. Chicago journalism, like the city itself, has long been one of
the wonders of the times.

The Middle West has many powerful newspapers. Detroit has long
had a great journal in the Free Press on which "M. Quad" (Charles B.
Lewis) made his reputation. Cleveland has for more than forty years had
two superb papers in the Leader and Plaindealer; Toledo in the same state
has given to the country one of its famous journals, the Blade. During
the war no man read more carefully the letters of "Petroleum V. Nasby"
than did Mr. Lincoln. In reconstruction days Nasby's pen made the
Blade sought through all the Central West. In southern Ohio, Murat
Halstead in Cincinnati had built up the Commercial Gazette to a place,
where it had become to the Republican party of the Central West a power
like Greeley's New York Tribune in the East.

As we enter the Southern States, we find in Kentucky, Colonel Henry
Watterson, who inherited the editorial chair of George D. Prentice on the
Louisville Journal, consolidated it with the Courier, and for a long genera-
tion has stood with his Courier-Journal in the forefront of great American
newspapers. Its personal power, with Colonel Watterson still editing it,
even survived the "golden age" of impersonal journalism. Indeed, Colonel
Watterson is the last of the great personal journalists.

St. Louis has given to the American people two great newspapers, the
Globe-Democrat and the Republican. The Globe-Democrat, a radical
Republican paper, became a virile journalistic force in the Southwest in
the later seventies and eighties under the direction of J. B. McCullaugh,

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AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

who in defining journalism said "it is that thing which is always on the spot
when hell breaks loose." Charles W. Knapp made the Republic what it
long has been, the great political rival of the Globe-Democrat. Kansas
City has a great newspaper in the Star.

Passing into the West, St. Paul and Minneapolis have been fortunate
in possessing such excellent papers as the Pioneer-Press and the Sentinel.
Denver is proud of the Rocky Mountain News. San Francisco was noted
as far back as twenty-five years ago for its Chronicle, Call, and Examiner.
These papers have long kept pace with the great Eastern papers.

The Southern States have stood for the ablest journalism. After the
war, Colonel A. H. Belo rode all the way on horseback from Virginia to
Galveston, Texas, secured control of the News, edited it for nearly thirty
years, and made it the great paper of Texas. Who has not heard of the
New Orleans Picayune? For twenty-five years, one could scarcely read a
column of copied paragraphs in any paper in the country without finding
the Picayune, the Detroit Free Press, the Toledo Blade and the Yonkers
Statesman quoted. But New Orleans has long had another famous paper,
the Times-Democrat. Memphis has its Appeal. Atlanta has its Consti-
tution, the paper through which Henry W. Grady made the "New South"
conscious of itself and of its great future. Atlanta journalism is in its way
as wonderful as Chicago journalism. There is nothing in its sphere too
great for it to attempt, and this has been true ever since Grady inspired the
Constitution. In the News and Courier, Charleston, South Carolina, has
for over a half century had a potent moulder of Southern opinion. In the
reconstruction days, and after when Colonel F. W. Dawson edited the
News and Courier, the whole nation watched for its utterances. Balti-
more, in the Sun and the American, has stood in the foreranks in the proces-
sion of journalism.

The last two decades in American journalism have witnessed the rise
of the two modern factors in journalism — Pulitzer and Hearst, moulders
and formers of a new style of journalism which has injected itself more or
less into every community. Pulitzer was a foreign element, an importa-
tion. He was unquestionably the great factor of modern journalism.
These two men introduced the progressive features of modern journalism,
magazines, comics, political cartoon, human interest articles, etc. Previous
to them, the newspaper was a chronicler and purveyor of news, stated in a
comparatively conservative and prosaic style. They introduced the snap
and sparkle into up-to-date journalism and have demonstrated that while
the newspaper primarily is a purveyor of news, to fulfill its proper func-
tions in any community, it is also a teacher, a preacher and a servant to the
interests of the people.

376

GREAT AMF.UU'AN INVENTIONS — Alexander Graham Roll, inventor of the telephone, openinj

first long distance line between New York and Chicago in 1892 — Human voice first

spoke across continent from New York to San Francisco in 1915.

FAMOUS ASSEMBLAGE GREETING BENJAMIN FRANKLIN— A mong those present on this historic occa
sion were the Archbishop of Canterbury, Edmund Burke, the Bishop of Salisbury, Dr Priest-
ley, and ladies of the nobility — This rare engraving was mado in 1839.

FIRST AMERICAN STATESMAN TO APPEAR BEFORE BRITISH LORDS— This historic engraving shows

Benjamin Franklin as he stood before the lords in council at Whitehall Chapel in London in

1774 — Franklin is presenting the American cause to the mother country.

ttw

= a

GREAT AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS

We have considered, in the foregoing list, some of the representative
American newspapers. But nearly every city in the country, even rank-
ing as low down as 25,000 inhabitants, has had for many years one or more
first class newspapers. All the papers mentioned above have progressed
from "personal journalism" to the "new journalism" and are more power-
ful to-day than ever before. From personal organs, they have become great
financial enterprises. Their capital has been increased from ten to a
hundred fold within the last twenty years. These solid papers are estab-
lished on as firm a foundation now as the great banks, the big factories,
and the giant corporations of the country. Journalism has been organized
as a science, an art, and a business. The collection and purveyance of
news by these institutions, with their press association and other vast facili-
ties, are worked out on the scale of governments and nations.

And the greater the American newspaper grows, the clearer stands out
this fact, that this country, with its vast area and broad democracy, can
never have one paramount national newspaper as the London Times was
for so long a time in England. Every city and section will have its great
newspapers, but even New York, with its gigantic financial power and influ-
ence, cannot control the fields in Boston, or Philadelphia, or Washington.
This fact keeps the journalism of the country on an even keel and standard-
izes the news of the nation. If any city has no strong newspaper to-day,
it is largely its own fault and not due to the competition of another city.
There are few exceptions in the comparatively small cities within the radius
of Chicago, New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Atlanta, New Or-
leans, and San Francisco. But there can be no great national newspaper
in this country, no more than there can be a great national city which
controls all other cities. Each newspaper performs its own important
duties in its own field.

As the national and the state news have been standardized in its col-
lection and purveyance, a newspaper in one city differs from that in other
cities only in its local character. Without this emphasis on local news,
local self-government would not be possible. One of the greatest services
of the American newspapers has been their work for municipal reform
within the last twenty years.

There is one more point, among the multitude that might be cited in
weighing the value of the American newspaper — it is its economic value.
The whole modern mercantile world is being built upon the newspaper,
and its prosperity depends upon the newspaper. The public press stands
like the telephone and the telegraph, it is the message-bearer between the
separated parties at each end of the line — it brings them together and into
communication and agreement. Its advertising columns are the links be-

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AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

tween the selling world and the buying world — one of the most important
economic links in our whole system of civilization. The newspaper, there-
fore, is not only the power that unites the peoples of the earth under a
common intelligence — the greatest democratizer in the world ; it is the key-
stone of our political institutions, the foundation of our civic and social
structure; the champion of law and ethics; the supreme court of public
opinion. It is all these, and much more — it is the Ambassador of the Busi-
ness World.

882

PART V CHAETER XIII

GREAT AMERICAN STATESMEN

"Let the bugles sound the Truce of God to the whole world forever."

— Charles Swnner.

*4 V ^m EACE rules the day, where reason rules the mind" — this truism,
B J or altruism, is the basis of American statesmanship. And yet
the true statesman realizes that reason unfortunately does not
-*• always "rule the mind" and therefore peace does not always
"rule the day." "We love peace," said Jerrold, "as we abhor pusillanim-
ity; but not peace at any price. There is a peace more destructive of the
manhood of living man than war is destructive of his material body.
Chains are worse than bayonets."

True statesmanship is not the art of diplomatic strategy, or political
intrigue, or secret machinations and agreements; it knows neither cunning,
wit, nor power of personal persuasion. It is first, last, and all the time de-
fending the principles for which a nation stands and, by the power of right
and justice inherent in those principles, bringing them to a peaceful tri-
umph over all opposition by the force of their own truth. Statesmanship
is justice prevailing over injustice, right over wrong; it is the essence of
absolute fairness among men and nations. Pope in his moral essays speaks
of a statesman as:

"Statesman, yet friend to Truth, of soul sincere,
In action faithful and in honour clear;
Who broke no promise, serv'd no private end,
Who gain'd no title, and who lost no friend."

Burke, in his "Reflections on the Revolution in France," defines states-
manship as "a disposition to preserve, and an ability to improve, taken to-
gether, would be my standard of a statesman."

Here in America we have developed, if unselfishness, world-vision,
and nobility of purpose are any criterion — a new type of statesmen pledged
to the immortal doctrine of Lincoln "that this nation, under God, shall
have a new birth of freedom; and that the government of the people, by
the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth." Let us
measure some of our statesmen by this high standard.

Personal or party preferences may influence us in our estimates of
the services rendered to this country by the various statesmen who have

383

AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

guided its destinies. On one point, however, we are all agreed — their
attainments in statesmanship were the result of their own individual ex-
ertions and force of character rather than of fortunate circumstances. Suc-
cess of achievement was invariably the result of nobility of aim.

An ardent love of liberty characterized the earliest colonial statesmen:
John Winthrop, Roger Williams, William Penn. The free spirit that was
to detach the colonies from the mother country is well reflected in Penn's
famous statement: "Liberty without obedience is confusion and obedience
without liberty is slavery."

The first statesman to see the advantages of American independence
from Great Britain was Samuel Adams (1722-1803), who has been called
the "Father of the American Revolution." When he took his master's
degree at Harvard College, in 1743, he declared in his oration that "it is
lawful to resist the supreme magistrate if the commonwealth cannot other-
wise be preserved."

The first great American statesman of world renown, however, is
Washington (1732-1799), a man whom his countrymen offered to make
a king, but who was to carry out that proposition in freedom. Physically
and mentally, he was fit to become the "Father of his country," embody-
ing as he did every ideal of manhood. Over six feet in height, robust
and perfectly erect, solid rather than brilliant, and endowed with more
judgment than genius, he carefully weighed his decisions; but his policy
once settled was pursued with steadiness and dignity, however great the
opposition. A firm advocate of free institutions, he believed in a strong
government and rigidly enforced laws. As an officer, he was brave, en-
terprising, and cautious. He showed in his campaigns the qualities that
made him a great statesman. His tactics were always judicious. As Lord
Brougham said : "Until time shall be no more, a test of the progress which
our race has made in wisdom and virtue will be derived from the veneration
paid the immortal name of Washington."

The American nation had a hard struggle for existence. The theory
of self-government was an experiment. The new republic was threatened
with bankruptcy. European powers were taking full advantage of the
conditions. In a brief time 900 ships had been seized by the British and
550 by the French. While President Madison insisted on temporizing,
the Speaker of the House, Henry Clay (1777-1852), waged a strong
fight to defend the honor of the country. All the committees of the house
were placed under the control of the war party. The results of the War
of 1812 justified Clay's attitude. "Let any man," he said, "look at the
degraded condition of his country before the war, the scorn of the universe,
the contempt of ourselves, and tell me if we have gained nothing by war.

384

'GIVE ME LIBERTY OR fJIVE ME DEATH"— Patrick Henry delivering _his epoch-making

oration before the Convention in Richmond, Va., on March 23, 1775 — The

firebrand that ignited the spirit of Revolution.

END OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION — This engraving shows Washington resigning his

commission as Commander-in-chief of the American army at Annapolis,

December '2',',, 178:!— He had led his people to independence.

GREAT AMERICAN STATESMEN

What is our situation now? Responsibility, and character abroad, security
and confidence at home."

This was Henry Clay — a statesman. Through his strenuous and pic-
turesque career, Clay, who had been called a Southern man with Northern
ideals, never forgot the distressed and oppressed of this and other lands.
His sympathies went out not only to the Latin-American republics, but
to Greece, to Hungary, and to the enslaved Africans of our own country.
Many a time he offered to free his slaves provided some one guaranteed
their maintenance. At his death, Lincoln pronounced his eulogy.

The "great expounder of the constitution" was Daniel Webster
(1782-1852). He is still discussed by historians. Was his attitude to-
ward the tariff statesmanlike? His enemies point out that he changed
sides on that question. His friends remark that New England was not
in favor of a protective tariff in 1826 but was in favor of it two years
later. His enemies declare that he sacrificed principle for personal ex-
pediency when the slavery compromise of 1850 came up for discussion.
No man had denounced slavery more bitterly than he did, but he was
willing to support the Fugitive Law and to leave the question of slavery
in the new Territories to the laws of nature. His friends and enemies
alike, however, agree that he was honest. He died very poor and deeply
in debt. A lawyer and orator of genius, a great power in the land, a de-
fender of the nationality of the States, he was all his life unalterably de-
voted to the perpetuity and integrity of the Union.

The third brilliant star that shone in the political sky of the Amer-
ican republic during the first half of the Nineteenth Century was John C.
Calhoun (1782-1850). A Southerner born and bred, his logic was con-
vincing, his reasoning implacable, his intellect calm. The fire of his
genius burnt itself out in a defense of the institution of State rights,
and he died just as the cause to which he had devoted his life was on the
point of decision. An ardent patriot, he did more than any other man to
bring about the annexation of Texas and, although a great pacifist, he
sounded the clarion call when the country was in danger of aggression at
the hands of England and France. He was an ardent supporter of the
policy of internal improvements. He projected national roads, a system
of inland navigation destined to foster commercial relations between the
various parts of the country. A fervent advocate of State rights, he earned
the name of the Great Nullifier. Though he had ambitious dreams, his
course was singularly free from even the appearance of self-seeking. And
no breath of slander ever stained his name. The great system of national
transportation which Calhoun had planned was to be realized — but in a
way that Calhoun had little dreamt. Instead of roads and canals, rail-

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AMERICA: THE LAND .WE LOVE

roads were to unite North and South, East and West, and open that
hitherto mysterious land lying beyond the Mississippi which until then had
only been "The West."

The first great statesman for American expansion was Thomas H.
Benton (1782-1858). He devoted the thirty years of his parliamentary
activity to a strenuous fight for railroad construction and development.
His efforts finally culminated in the building of the great Central Pacific
Railroad. Born in North Carolina, Benton was, however, a typical West-
erner of the aggressive, alert, self -asserting kind. He had no sectional
prejudice and did his best to develop every part of the country without
showing any partiality. A great railroadman by vocation, he put him-
self on record in many other directions. He combated fiercely the spoils
system introduced in American politics, and it was the boast of his life
that none of his blood-relations had ever asked for office. Although
a slave-holder from a slave State, Benton allied himself with the Union
and opposed Calhoun's plan of nullification. His love of freedom and
independence caused him also to support Jackson in the fight against the
rechartering of the United States Bank. He felt that such an institution
would eventually wield too great an influence upon the people and the
government of the States. His heroic attitude cost him his seat in the
Senate and later his seat in the House. He then retired from public life
and undertook his work, "Thirty Years' View," one of the greatest records
of political life in America.

Typical of the romantic days in politics, when great events crowded
upon one another, is the life story of William H. Seward (1801-1872).
Running away from home at seventeen, and being a few years later ap-
pointed principal of Union College at Eatonton, Georgia, is an extraor-
dinary debut for a young man. He was not destined to become an edu-
cator, however. At thirty-three, we find him almost elected to the gov-
ernorship of New York State. Four years later he carried the election.
During his governorship, many wise measures were introduced. Impris-
onment for debt was abolished, the cause of general education was ad-
vanced, internal improvements were made, and foreign immigration fos-
tered. A rival of Lincoln and then a member of his cabinet, he fought
bravely for the abolition of slavery; a deep friendship united the former
rivals and only a mere hazard saved Seward from sharing the fate of the
martyr President. An important incident of Seward's career was the pur-
chase of Alaska from Russia by the United States Government — a trans-
action that he conducted with great skill and ability.

We now stand face to face with democracy's greatest champion —
humanity's statesman — Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) — a man who was

388

GREAT AMERICAN STATESMEN

much more than a statesman, who was a giant in every way, physically,
mentally, spiritually. To recount his achievements or even barely to enu-
merate the problems which he mastered during his Presidency would fill
volumes. We prefer to present him in this short sketch as a typical
product of the heroic times in which the republic was struggling to as-
sume shape, consistency, and permanency. The son of New Englanders,
who migrated from the Atlantic coast to Kentucky, thence to Indiana and
finally to Illinois, Lincoln led first the rough and ready life of a fron-
tiersman. He chopped wood, and split rails, and did carpenter work.
He went to school not more than a year in his entire life. But he read
every book and newspaper available, and everything he read he made his
own. Whatever he undertook, he mastered. Storekeeper, postmaster,
land surveyor, lawyer — he studied in actual practise all the economic, po-
litical, and human problems which he had to solve late in life. His kind
nature, his broad mind, his inexhaustible wit, together with his strange
physical appearance, have made of him a fascinating figure — perhaps even
more attractive to the American people than that of Washington. With
all his sterling qualities, Washington was to a certain extent tinged with
aristocratic tendencies after the English heart, but Lincoln, the rough
Kentucky boy, was in the noblest sense of the word a self-made man —
the greatest claim to the admiration of a manly, vigorous race. Lincoln
stands before the world as "the Great Emancipator"; his great humane
policies during the American Civil War, his speeches which embody the
whole spirit of a free people, make Lincoln without peer the greatest ex-
ponent of democracy in the world's history.

American party politics and diplomacy bring forth many strong fig-
ures but it is our purpose here only to sketch a few whose human qual-
ities were preeminent. There was Samuel J. Tilden (1814-1886) — at
eighteen years of age he made just one address to the people of New York
State that undermined one of the most powerful party coalitions in his-
tory. His address prevented the Anti-Jackson men and the Anti-Masons
from carrying the State in 1832. Years later, he was to break up the ring
which under the leadership of William M. Tweed ruled New York City
from 1869 to 1871. As Governor of New York State, one of his first
acts was to attack the so-called "Canal Ring" which was robbing the State
and preying upon internal commerce.

Statesmanship found a stalwart champion in James G. Blaine (1830-
1893), Secretary of State under Presidents Garfield and Harrison. Amer-
ica is indebted to him for initiating the movement which is knitting more
and more closely together all the Americans. Forty years ago, when this
country was totally indifferent to the opportunities of Latin American

AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

commerce, Elaine advocated the payment of subsidies to steamship lines
plying between the ports of the United States and those of Central and
South America. He showed how the great trade of those countries went
to Europe instead of coming to the United States and organized the first
Pan-American Congress which has cemented the relations of the republics
on the Western Hemisphere.

One of the most admirable figures in all the history of American
statesmanship was John Hay (1838-1905). He distinguished himself in
four great spheres of action — in journalism, in literature, in diplomacy,
and in administrative statecraft. He was one of America's greatest edi-
tors, justly entitled to a place with Greeley and Dana and Raymond.
As the author of the "Pike County Ballads," he stands with Lowell. At
the court of St. James, he forever clinched the friendship between England
and America and rendered to both countries a service only second to that
of Charles Francis Adams during our Civil War. As Secretary of State
he easily won from England, through his great skill, the Hay-Pauncefote
Treaty, which gave America the right unmolested to build and own the
Panama Canal. He also won for America and for the Chinese the open
door in China. But Hay was born to inherit a great opportunity. He
came to be at Lincoln's elbow and to hear the whisper of his great soul in
the country's darkest hour. Hay had his Lincoln, but it should be recorded
that Lincoln had his Hay and we should never know Lincoln as we do
without this gifted secretary. From Hay's diaries and other papers pub-
lished after his death, it is easy to follow the work of his hand in the Lin-
coln administration. Hay was not only a wise statesman but a man of
great nobility of character and personal attractiveness.

These incidents in the lives of American statesmen might be enu-
merated indefinitely, while the achievements of the great diplomatists
present the large phases of world statesmanship, but it is sufficient to state
here that each generation — every session of the United States Senate, every
political administration develops "a man of the hour."

American statesmanship is, and will forever remain, the foe to but
one thing — that is, injustice. It is and forever must be working for but
one purpose — that is, humanity. In the words of John Quincy Adams :

"This hand, to tyrants ever sworn the foe,
For Freedom only deals the deathly blow ;
Then sheathes in calm repose the vengeful blade,
For gentle peace in Freedom's hallowed shade."

890

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Of7B -NK^R n

* « i ' IZ75T~SS

fortifying the heights of ornng e

advanced with terrific flre and were twice repulsed in disorder— The Americans

exhausted their ammunition and were forced to retreat — General

Warren, fell, shot through the head with a bullet.

was enacted

is,1?' 1II1(ll'r (5«'»«'™l Gage, occupied Boston— The Americans were
Charleston— About 2:80 o'clock in the morning the British

PART V CHAPTER XIV

GREAT AMERICAN SOLDIERS

"The hero is the world-man, in whose heart
One passion stands for all, the most indulged."
—Bailey: "Festus."

soldier is and ever will be a mighty man; because he places
above self the honor and integrity of his country. His willing-
ness to sacrifice his life for a cause or a principle is one of the
noblest expressions of human love. The lines from Niles, in
his poem "The American Hero," give this valuation:

"Life, for my country and the cause of freedom,
Is but a trifle for a worm to part with ;
And, if preserved in so great a contest,
Life is redoubled."

The trade of soldier is one of the great evolutionary steps in human
society. To him we owe not only the defense of our lives, our rights, and
our property, but the human liberties that we now enjoy. The security
with which we now live and move and have our being is due largely to the
soldier; he fought and conquered the primitive instincts and primeval dan-
gers; he protected and defended with his life the communities of interest
that were nurtured into national ideals; and he has maintained these groups
against extermination by other groups with his own valor and his own
blood. Wordsworth paid the soldier this tribute:

"Doomed to go in company with pain,
And fear, and bloodshed, miserable train.
Turns his necessity to glorious gain;
In face of these doth exercise a power
Which is our human nature's highest dower."

With the coming of what we herald as the "war-less age" — an age
when there shall be neither wars nor need for wars — the duty of the sol-
dier should pass, but his deeds of valor will never dim. "Hero worship
exists," said Carlyle, "has existed, and will forever exist, universally among
mankind." A thousand years after the last bugle of war may have
sounded, the laurels will still be laid on the soldier's grave — even though
we shall have discovered in those days with Whittier that "peace hath
higher tests of manhood than battle ever knew."

Napoleon, in speaking of the science of strategy, said: "The pres-
ence of a general is indispensable. He is the head, the entire army. It

393

AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

was not the Roman army which conquered Gaul, but Caesar ; it was not the
Carthaginian army which made the republic tremble at the gates of Rome,
but Hannibal ; it was not the Macedonian army which was upon the Indus,
but Alexander; it was not the French army which carried war on the Weser
and the Inn, but Turenne; it was not the Prussian army which for seven
years defended Prussia against the greatest powers of Europe, but Frederick
the Great."

This continent had produced great soldiers before the American Revo-
lution, but they were then either English or French. It was only after
Lexington and Concord that we can speak of American soldiers. The
first great American soldier is Washington, the Virginian. Twenty days
after the actual beginning of the Revolution, he was appointed Comman-
der-in-Chief of the Continental Army. Washington had in the course of
the French and Indian wars earned the reputation of a successful military
man. When he accepted the commission in the Revolutionary Army, he
stipulated that he was to receive no pay for his services. Upon reaching
the headquarters of the army in Cambridge his difficulties were great. The
army was unorganized. The soldiers were impatient under camp life and
camp discipline and were discouraged by the lack of ammunition. This
was the critical situation. Washington molded this fighting material into
a great military organization, restored confidence, and aroused the inspira-
tion which developed into the "spirit of '76."

American patriotism was organized into an efficient, vigorous, vic-
torious force that finally swept the last vestige of monarchy from the Amer-
ican colonies. When, after the siege of Boston, General Washington be-
took himself to New York, which was threatened by the English, then
occupying Staten Island, he had only 20,000 troops, ill-prepared and sup-
plied with poor weapons. The English had 700 ships and 30,000 trained
troops. The English were well drilled, plentifully supplied with ammuni-
tion, and regularly paid.

While we cannot in the space at our disposal recount the glorious his-
tory of the American Revolution, it will be quite sufficient to bear in mind
the various handicaps that the Commander-in-Chief suffered to realize the
full meaning of his final triumph. One of his greatest achievements,
and one to which historians seldom refer, was the tremendous task of dis-
banding the army when peace again reigned in the land. Washington's
firmness, his good sense, his tact saved the country from what might have
been a terrible crisis. He bade farewell to his officers and retired from
public life until 1789, when his grateful fellow-citizens conferred upon
him the greatest honor it was theirs to give — that of first President of the
United States.

394

GREAT AMERICAN SOLDIERS

The most eminent soldier produced by the American Revolution
(other than Washington) was Nathaniel Greene, a Rhode Island black-
smith of Quaker birth. He was the fit counterpart of his great comman-
der. Washington stood for the aristocracy of the South, Greene personi-
fied nobly the democracy of the North. They came to mutual appreciation
by their similar qualities of common sense, rectitude, courage, and untiring
application to details. A wonderful tactician, Greene, when technically
defeated, succeeded on every occasion in retreating in good order and in-
flicting fearful losses on his enemies. It was after one of Greene's defeats
that Charles James Fox exclaimed : "Another such victory would destroy
the British army."

A picturesque old warrior who appeals strongly to the imagination
— a representative of the fervid Americanism born of the Revolution — is
Andrew Jackson. He occupies a conspicuous place in the military annals
of this country. Too young to take part in the War of the Revolution,
he was old enough to acquire a heroic love of the cause which spurred him to
vigorous action when the storm burst in the War of 1812. The revolt of
the Creeks gave him an opportunity to show his value as a commander.
When the Creek war was over, Jackson on his own responsibility conducted
an operation against Spanish Florida. Then he hastened to the defense
of New Orleans. Jackson's troops were rough frontiersmen, armed with
good rifles, ignorant of tactics and discipline, but perfect marksmen. He
led them to victory on that historic day in 1815. The British lost 3,300
killed or wounded and 500 prisoners out of 7,000 men. The victor was
suddenly magnified by this triumph, and the battle of New Orleans made
him a representative figure in American politics.

The war against Mexico developed two vigorous military characters.
Zachary Taylor had been fighting the Indians for forty years when he was
entrusted with the command of the army operating against Mexico from
the north in 1846. Early in the war, he defeated overwhelmingly the
Mexican forces at Monterey and Buena Vista. Politicians, however, were
playing havoc with the plans of the various generals. Most of Taylor's
troops were called back, and he was forced to discontinue operations.
Feeling himself ill-used by the Government, he resigned his command.
He left a lasting memory among his associates. His soldiers called him
"Old Rough and Ready." He was to them the personification of justice
and kindliness. A plain and direct man, he loathed "fuss and feathers,"
never wore a uniform, and went into action with a straw hat and a linen
duster.

Few American soldiers have been more neglected by historians than
Winfield Scott. It was his misfortune to end his career when public at-

395

AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

tention was riveted on the tremendous events of the Civil War, which soon
dimmed the memory of his exploits. Scott never was put to the test of
handling large armies, but in his small field he played his part like a great
strategist. His march from the coast to Mexico City, following closely
the route once adopted by Cortez, would have ended tragically for most
warriors. The natural obstacles encountered on his way to the table-land,
and the superior numbers of the enemy, taxed heavily his commanding
capacities, but his discipline, skill, and intelligence won the victory. In
five months he reached Mexico City, and the war was practically ter-
minated.

It was the American Civil War that brought the great soldiers to the
front — soldiers whose names stand to-day among the world's masters of
military strategy. The genius behind the armies of the Union and the
Confederacy made this war a terrific contest in the skill and wits of great
men. Let us look first upon the strong, bold figure of the victor — the quiet
man with the indomitable will — General Ulysses S. Grant (1822-1885).
Here we see a graduate of West Point; he served in the Mexican War
under Taylor and Scott. Through a chain of fortuitous circumstances he
resigned from the army and became a clerk in his father's leather store
in Illinois. There it was that the outbreak of the Civil War found him.
His past experience enabled him to forge rapidly to the front, and he was
soon made a brigadier-general. His capture of Fort Donelson brought
him prominently before the country, and the part he played in this coun-
try's greatest war need not be retold. It is sufficient to state that by sheer
force of decision, by his genius in commanding great bodies of men, by
his skill in driving them through terrific campaigns, by his ability to wear
down his adversary in numbers, munitions, and food supplies — by taking
the fullest advantage of all these conditions and, above all, by his tenacity
— he brought the Union arms to victory.

And it was a noble adversary that he met in a noble way on that mo-
mentous day of surrender. Grant and Lee are two magnificent examples
of American character at the moment of its supreme test. Grant ennobled
victory; Lee ennobled defeat — both clasped hands as an expression of a re-
united people and pledged themselves to the principles set forth in "Amer-
ica— The Land We Love." There is no name in American history that
evokes a more instant throb of affection in either the North or the South
than that of Robert E. Lee. Leader of a lost cause, he won admiration
in defeat by his great heart, his great soul, and his strength of character.
Lee led his people through the greatest crisis in our national life — the sad-
dest struggle in the history of nations.

It is unnecessary here to discuss the causes of the Civil War; they were

396

BATTLE OF MONMOUTH IN AMERICAN REVOLUTION— Here, in excessive heat after long

marches, Washington's Army met Sir Henry Clinton on June '28, 1778 — Where

Moll Pitcher took her dead husband's place as canoneer.

BATTLE OF EITAU SIMMNCS IN AMERICAN REVOLUTION — This severe battle wris fought
in South Carolina, on September 8. 1781 — The British were driven from the field but
rallied unexpectedly and renewed the battle, finally to retreat.

GREAT AMERICAN SOLDIERS

indeed unfortunate, but as Americans to-day we can all pay tribute to
Grant and Lee. Both have been accorded notable positions as great sol-
diers. Lee fought a losing cause to exhaustion — and then won a great
triumph of peace in his closing years. The scene of his surrender is prob-
ably the most pathetic and affecting event of the whole war. A plain room
with two men : one in gray, and the other in blue — Grant and Lee. The
business that brought them together was settled in a few minutes. Grant,
filled with reverence for the valor of his adversary, accorded him all the
consideration he deserved and accepted the parole of 28,000 men and their
officers. Having become once more a citizen of the United States, Lee
maintained during the period of reconstruction an attitude of dignified
silence and stood loyal to American institutions.

The Civil War brought forth many strong men. Here we can men-
tion but typical examples of American soldiery. In the Union Army one
of the conspicuous figures is William Tecumseh Sherman (1820-1891).
He first served in the Seminole War; then resigned from the army and en-
tered first mercantile and then professional life. He re-entered the army
at the beginning of the Civil War and was present at the first battle of
Bull Run. When Grant was made commander-in-chief, Sherman was
given the command of the chief armies in the West. Sherman carried out
Grant's strategical plan to destroy the enemy's prestige by marching
through its country and destroying the supplies sent to the Southern armies
in the famous march through Georgia. The credit for Lee's capitulation
at Appomattox is clearly due first and foremost to Grant. But the chief
subordinate factor in that victory was the use of cavalry in the form of a
massed division of mounted infantry and its brilliant leading by Philip
Sheridan. The march of his corps from Petersburg to Appomattox is a
great military object lesson. In no war has there been observed a better
strategical and tactical use of mounted men.

A virile, magnetic figure in the Army of the Confederacy was that of
Stonewall Jackson. He has been likened to Cromwell. Like Cromwell,
he had daring; he was swift in execution, decisive in crisis. He is best
characterized by one incident of the first battle of Bull Run. General Bee
galloped toward him shouting: "They are beating us back." Not a
muscle on Jackson's face moved. His thin lips parted, and he simply
answered: "Then we will give them the bayonet." And Bee, riding
back toward his routed soldiers, called out to them: "Look! There is
Jackson standing like a stone wall." The men took up the cry and pressed
forward. Fate willed it that at Chancellorsville, Stonewall Jackson,
through a fatal error, should be shot in the very instant of victory by the
soldiers who idolized him. He died a few days later, having received

399

AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

from Lee a letter which contained that sentence of heroic grandeur and
simplicity: "Could I have directed the course of events, I should have
chosen for the good of the country to be disabled in your stead."

The last Confederate general to capitulate was Joseph Eggleston
Johnston. His army surrendered to Sherman and was disbanded. It
was his duty to act as pallbearer at the funeral of Grant; the man who
twenty-two years before at Vicksburg, had declared that Johnston was
the only soldier he feared on the Southern side. Johnston rendered the
same homage to his great opponent Sherman and in the performance of
that duty caught a chill which a few weeks later met with a fatal result.

The Warrior. Let us pledge this parting toast to him:

"Soldier, rest. Thy warfare o'er,
Dream of fighting fields no more;
Sleep the sleep that knows no breaking.
Morn of toil, nor night of waking."

— Scott.

And with Bayard Taylor let us give due reverence:

"Sleep soldiers. Still in honored rest
Your truth and valor wearing :
The bravest are the tenderest,—
The loving are the daring."

400

PART V CHAPTER XV

GREAT AMERICAN JURISTS

"The foundations of Justice are that no one shall suffer wrong; then,
that the public good be promoted."

— Cicero.

JUSTICE — here we have the scales that weigh the policies that regu-
late civil society. And any deviation from it, under any circum-
stances, throws human society into chaos. "Justice," as Addison
says, "discards party, friendship, kindred, and is always therefore
represented as blind" — blind to everything but justice. And justice itself
must find its medium for expression in law, which again must be founded
on reason.

"Reason," said Coke in his "Institutes," "is the life of the law; nay
the common law itself is nothing else but reason." Froude, in his "Short
Studies on Great Subjects," remarks that "just laws are no restraint upon
the freedom of the good, for the good man desires nothing which a just law
will interfere with," adding in another essay that "our human laws are but
the copies, more or less imperfect, of the eternal laws, so far as we can
read them."

The American Nation stands before the world as an attempt to
gather all the races of the earth into one family group pledged to an effort
to establish not exact but comparative justice, or as nearly so as human
imperfections will allow. It is a noble undertaking that will require
many epochs of experimentation to establish the principle on a permanent
working basis, and will require constant readjustment to conform with
the ever-changing needs of the people in their social and economic evo-
lution.

Law, therefore, other than its Mosaic foundations, cannot remain
static; it is a growth, an evolution, subject to all the transformations and
all the frailties of the human race. Thus we have our courts of law as
the public tribunals in which the people may gather to protect their lives
and their rights, to arrange an equitable distribution of property, and to
maintain the equilibrium of society. These courts prove openly to the
world the measure of our ability or inability to control that subtle power
which we call Justice. Courts of law should be neither places of severe
discipline nor chambers which cast fear upon society, but rather houses of
refuge for the oppressed. "No government is safe until it be fortified

401

AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

by good will," said Nepos, while Terence, another Latin writer, truly re-
marked: "It is a great error, in my opinion, to believe that a government
is more firm or assured, when it is supported by force, than when founded
on affection."

There are more than thirty thousand lawyers practising before the
courts of the United States to-day. Billions of dollars have been ex-
pended to build courthouses. The judicial system in operation has been
explained in another chapter, and it is possible here only to consider a few
of the strong characters that have given their lives to the upbuilding of
this system of jurisprudence in America. Many men who distinguished
themselves at the bar or on the bench were also eminent in the public
service. We shall therefore confine our remarks to those who have shone
forth more brilliantly in the legal profession than in any of their other
activities.

The first eminent American jurist was John Marshall (1775-1835).
So famous did he become as a Chief Justice that few people know that he
was also a soldier, an envoy, a historian, and a statesman. He became of
age two months after the Declaration of Independence was signed and en-
listed in the American Revolution. He fought in two of the most impor-
tant engagements in the campaign of 1779. Soon afterward he began to
study law, and, after the surrender of Cornwallis in 1781, gained reputation
as a brilliant young barrister in his native Virginia. Marshall did more
than any one else, except Madison, to induce Virginia to adopt the Federal
Constitution. At the request of George Washington, he ran for Con-
gress and was elected in 1799. A year later, he was appointed Secretary
of State and rendered great service to the nation. For thirty years, he
was the respected Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.
He interpreted the Constitution in the most liberal spirit and discharged
his heavy duties with a moral courage that won respect and confidence
from every one who knew him.

The rulings and arguments of Marshall were of the greatest impor-
tance to the courts, for the machinery of the new government was still
working experimentally, and the Constitution was only vaguely under-
stood by the majority of the lawyers. Judge Story said of Marshall:
"If all his other judicial arguments were taken away from us, his clear
exposition of constitutional law would have sufficed to make his name live
forever." Some of the best-known cases that came before him which have
since served as precedents were Peck vs. Fletcher, when an act of the State
of Georgia was declared void; McCulloch vs. the State of Maryland,
when the court decided that Congress had the power to charter a national
bank with branches in all the States and that such banks could not be taxed

402

FAMOUS ORATIONS IN AMERICAN HISTORY— This painting by Rothermel shows Patrick Henry

delivering his celebrated speech before the House of Burgesses in Virginia in 1765— The

aristocratic Burgesses were astounded as the young statesman denounced the

crown and proclaimed the principles of liberty to the American people—

Ihe cry of "Treason !" rose from all parts of the house — Henry

paused a moment and then thundered : "Caesar had his

Brutus, Charles the First his Cromwell, and

George the Third may profit by these

examples. If that be treason,

in;ikc the most of it!"

GREAT MOMENTS IN AMERICAN HISTORY— This painting by Carpenter presents Lincoln surrounded by his cabi-
net, at the time of the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. This Proclamation exterminated
slavery from the Southern States forever — It was signed on September 2tl, 1862.

<;\l\<; THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION— This Proclamation, by a single stroke, struck the chains of
bondage from more than three million humat beings — It destroyed the institution of slavery
that had been drafted into the American nation since its foundation.

GREAT AMERICAN JURISTS

by State authority. Aaron Burr's trial for high treason also came before
him, and on many points the Chief Justice boldly stood at variance with
the most important men of the day.

The great diplomatic negotiations which took place after the Amer-
ican Revolution will always be associated with the name of William Pinck-
ney, one of the leading lawyers of his day (1764-1822). He was se-
lected by Washington as one of the commissioners to England mentioned
in Jay's treaty. For eight years he stayed in London and performed his
arduous duties with great skill. On his return home he became Attorney-
General of Maryland, but went back to London to settle the delicate ques-
tion of England's right to seize English seamen on board of American
vessels. He returned in 1811 and accepted the office of Attorney-General
of the United States.

The name of Kent holds an eminent position in American law.
James Kent (1763-1847) was a New York man educated at Yale. At
an early age he became Judge of the Supreme Court of New York State,
Master in Chancery, and Recorder of the City of New York. With Judge
Ratcliffe, he revised the legal Code of New York. He was appointed
Chief Justice of the State, and later Columbia appointed him Professor
of Law and Chancellor. His fame rests mostly upon his lectures, which
he printed in book form under the title of "Commentaries on American
Law" and which have become classics for every member of the bar.

Few jurists have enjoyed the respect that has been accorded to Joseph
Story, a classmate of the great preacher Channing, a pupil of Samuel
Sewall and Judge Putnam. His name became prominent for the first
time in the course of the debate relative to the Embargo Act. Though a
Democrat and a faithful follower of Jefferson, he separated himself from
his leader when the question arose of the repeal of that act. When Madi-
son took Jefferson's place as President, he appointed Story as Chief Justice
of the United States. Story was only thirty-two then, and he filled that
responsible position with ability for thirty-four years. He helped to
revise the Constitution of Massachusetts, and taught law at Harvard Col-
lege. His lectures covered a very wide range of subjects; laws of nations,
laws of the sea and of commerce, federal equity, constitutional law, etc.
His opinions on these various topics generally agreed with those held by
Chief Justice Marshall. Story's written works make over sixty volumes;
not only do they contain an invaluable treasure of information but their
clarity of style makes them documents of no mean importance in American
letters.

A great statesman as well as a jurist was Rufus Choate (1799-1858).
His splendid legal talent made him the peer of the greatest lawyers in

407

AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

history. It has been said, that whether he addressed a jury of twelve men
or a crowded audience, he seemed to bend men's minds to his own will,
for no one had a better knowledge of psychology and of the means to make
the most effective appeal to human intelligence and emotion. While
arousing his audience to the highest pitch of excitement, he remained per-
fectly cool and self-controlled. Later, he held the Senate under his
mighty power as he had the court-rooms. His addresses on the McLeod
case, the Fiscal Bank Bill, Oregon, the Tariff, the Smithsonian Insti-
tute, mark an epoch in the proceedings of the Senate, although he remained
a member of that body but a single year.

Those were days of epoch-making decisions. There was a young
student under Judge Story in the Harvard Law School, who afterward
became his most intimate and faithful friend. It was Charles Sumner
(1811-1874), who studied so diligently that he was admitted to the bar
at the age of twenty-three. Those, too, were the days when men like
Wendell Phillips, Gerrit Smith, the Tappan brothers, Salmon P. Chase,
and others, were devoting their energies to abolitionist propaganda, and
the country was becoming deeply divided on the subject of slavery. It
was impossible for an intelligent man to remain neutral on that question.
Simmer's feelings were with the abolitionists, and before long he had be-
come well-known as their exponent. His Fourth of July Oration, de-
livered in Boston in 1845, was reprinted throughout the country. It
thrilled the American people with the spirit of liberty.

In the Senate, Sumner opposed courageously the Fugitive Slave Bill,
which made it lawful for United States officers to arrest runaway slaves
found in the Northern States, and he was one of the leading debaters on
the famous Kansas-Nebraska Bill. It was after a splendid address in
favor of admitting Kansas into the Union, in which he showed the grow-
ing power of slavery, that he was attacked by an ardent opponent in Con-
gress and so severely injured that for a number of years he could not enter
into active public life.

Near the close of Buchanan's term, Sumner returned to the Senate
and pronounced his famous speech on "Slavery." He worked for Lincoln
in his presidential campaign, and, although the two did not agree on the
method of solving the slavery question, they were very warm friends.
Sumner was Lincoln's constant adviser in legal and public matters and
was known as a minister outside the cabinet. Sumner made a speech in
1869 that has remained historic — it was a brilliant argument upon the
Alabama Claims, that is, the claims of the United States upon Great
Britain for the damage done by the Alabama and other Confederate priva-
teers allowed to escape to sea. His last important act was to press his Bill

408

GREAT AMERICAN JURISTS

of Rights, by which the law was made the same for colored and white peo-
ple in every State of the Union.

Sumner was a man of extraordinary will-power and influence. There
was perhaps no one in the Senate, during the twenty years he was a mem-
ber of that body, who could wield so strong an influence on the American
people. Favor or popularity did not count with him, but he often suc-
ceeded in creating a favorable feeling about certain unpopular causes by
the honesty and the ardor with which he championed them. This was
plainly the case in regard to the Confederates, Mason and Slidell, who had
been taken off a British vessel during the war; in regard to the act of free-
ing the slaves, which he urged Lincoln to perform after Antietam; and
upon the San Domingo question, when he opposed the idea of making that
island a part of the United States.

The front ranks of the legal profession included William Maxwell
Evarts (1818-1901), educated at Yale and later at the Harvard Law
School. He became Federal District Attorney at thirty-three years of
age. When President Johnson was impeached, Evarts was his chief coun-
sel. Soon after that great question was settled, he was appointed Attor-
ney-General of the United States. Four years later, he was again con-
nected with a famous case. This was the affair known as the Alabama
Claims on which Sumner delivered his famous address. When at last a
convention was agreed upon to effect a settlement, Evarts acted as chief
counsel for the United States. His conduct of the case was brilliant,
and our case was won with credit to the republic and to himself. He
appeared as a national figure in the presidential election dispute, when
the whole country was in doubt as to whether Tilden or Hayes had re-
ceived the greater number of ballots. To decide the matter an electoral
commission met to hear the claims of both candidates. Hayes was repre-
sented in the controversy by Evarts, who secured a decision in favor of his
client and of the Republican Party. Evarts was a member of the Inter-
national Monetary Congress in Paris, in 1881, and was elected Senator
to the United States from New York in 1885.

So it has been that America always has had, and has to-day, many
of the ablest jurists in the whole annals of human law. The record is
too long and the fact too well established for further discussion in these
pages. We will dismiss the subject with a statement of the duties of a
judge as defined by Socrates: "Four things belong to a judge," he said,
"to hear courteously, to answer wisely, to consider soberly, and to decide
impartially." The greatest warning of all to the American people are the
words of the Earl of Chatham in the case of Wilkes : "Where law ends,
tvranny begins."

409

PART V CHAPTER XVI

GREAT AMERICAN FINANCIERS

"Money was made not to command our will,
But all our lawful pleasures to fulfill."
— CovAey.

"\HE building of a nation requires four dynamic forces — the do-
main on which to build ; the plan with which to build ; the men
who are to build; and the money or resources to finance the
three preceding factors. The importance of the last-named
must not be either under- or over-estimated. It is the motive power be-
hind men and ideas, the propelling force behind progress, the economic
momentum behind all civilization.

"The almighty dollar" is an American phrase, used first by Wash-
ington Irving. And it is quite true that the American people have placed
a high standard on the creation of wealth, but it must also be remem-
bered that the ambition for riches is as old as the human race; that men
and nations fought and intrigued and went to decay in the seeking of
wealth long before the American continent was known to exist. It was
in fact the Old World's greed for gold that created the impulse which re-
sulted in the discovery of America and which led to the founding of nearly
all the settlements (except the Pilgrim, Quaker, and Jesuit foundations)
on the Western Hemisphere.

Ovid in the days of ancient Rome declared: "Money brings office;
money gains friends; everywhere the poor man is down," and spoke of
"the ungovernable passion for wealth." Horace remarked: "All power-
ful money gives birth and beauty," while Sallust exclaimed: "Few set a
higher value on good faith than on money." In the days of glory
in England — the Elizabethan days — wealth was the mightiest power.
Shakespeare, in his "Merry Wives of Windsor," proclaims: "Money is
a good soldier, sir, and will on!" Milton, in his "Paradise Regained,"
pays this tribute to the power of money: "Money brings honor, friends,
conquest, and realms." Pope exclaims in his moralizations : "Get Place
and Wealth, if possible with grace; if not, by any means get Wealth and
Place." Ben Jonson, in his characterization of the times, declares: "Get
money; still get money, boys; no matter by what means." While Byron
remarks that "ready money is Aladdin's lamp."

Thus, let it be known that the American people did not invent wealth,

410

WHERE THE CREAT AMERICAN WAKKIOKS ARE TRAINED — Glimpses at West Point on the
Hudson River — This institution was founded in 1802 — Appointments are made by tne
1'resident — Nearly all the great commanders in the American wars have been graduated »
from this institution — It has contributed many eminent engineers and dis-
tinguished statesmen — The institution is limited to <5(5S cadets.

WIIERB THE <;REAT AMERICAN NAVAL OFFICERS ARE TRAINEI> — Here wo look upon

the .Midshipmen at the I'nited States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland — This

institution was established in 1M4ii— It is hero that the sea fighters are made

who have fought so gallantly in the American wars — Their skill and

bravery has given them first position.

GREAT AMERICAN FINANCIERS

but created it out of their own genius and the bounties of nature. It
is neither the standard of attainment nor the goal of ambition in America,
but merely the medium for expressing ideas, realizing higher ideals — the
machinery for the operation of an economic system that brings to all the
people the full measure of "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

The financing of the American republic has been a heroic task — the
banker has been of importance equal to that of the soldier. The untold
wealth of the continent — its coal, iron, oil, gold, silver, copper — would
still be slumbering in the earth were it not for the financial organization
necessary to bring them to utility. The world-revolutionizing inventions
— electricity, the telephone, telegraph, railroading, steamshipping — could
not have come into existence without the finances with which to develop
them. Labor and capital are brothers inseparable — each is impotent with-
out the other; it is men first — and then money that forges the way for civ-
ilization.

The United States has achieved the stupendous feat of growing
from a wilderness into the richest nation in the world in the brief span of
one hundred and twenty-five years. It is a race of great financiers who
have constructed our banking credit and have built our canals, and rail-
ways, opened our mines, developed our agriculture, established our in-
dustries, and financed our wars. Some of these men were heroes, some
of them were romantic figures, some of them were saviors of the Govern-
ment itself, some of them were great statesmen, and without their com-
bined genius for making and using wealth, this continent never could have
been conquered from nature. No people in the world owe so much to the
men who know how to accumulate and use wealth wisely as the people of
the United States owe to many of their great financiers.

We can speak of but a few of the best-known "kings of finance" in
this brief chapter. The first is Robert Morris (1734-1806), the "financier
of the American Revolution." At the outbreak of the war there were
only 3,000,000 people in the colonies, and all of them together did not
possess as much wealth as five rich men in the United States to-day. Yet
this daring little group of liberty-loving people, separated into widely
detached localities and without an effective, organic national government,
undertook to throw off the yoke of the strongest nation in the world.
They could not borrow a dollar abroad, for their so-called Congress had
no power to tax them, and even the power of the individual colonies to tax
their people was very limited.

In the darkest hour of the American Revolution, just after the battle
of Trenton, even the great Washington himself almost despaired. He
wrote to Robert Morris, who had been appointed by Congress Super-

413

AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

intendent of Finance, to raise immediately $50,000 in gold and silver to
pay the troops, warning him that failure would mean that a large number
would refuse to re-enlist. They would not accept the worthless paper
money. Morris knew the case was desperate. He was a prosperous
merchant and a man of wealth — one of the signers of the Declaration of
Independence and a great leader in the business world. Morris spent the
whole night calling on his friends and begging them to contribute. At
daylight he had raised the money that did a greater service to humanity
perhaps than the expenditure of any other $50,000 had ever accomplished.
The army was saved. From that time on to 1784, the finances of the
country were in Morris' absolute control. And the man who had saved
the country was made a pauper by unfortunate land speculations and died
in a debtor's prison.

The second great financier of historical importance is Alexander Ham-
ilton (1757-1804), who organized our national financial plan. We have
made seventeen amendments to the Constitution of the United States
since it was ratified, and we have made hundreds of laws modifying its
workings, but the vast machinery by which the revenues of our Govern-
ment are collected and disbursed is still that which was devised and set
in motion by Hamilton — the first Secretary of the Treasury. It was a
tremendous undertaking, the work of a fertile and inventive mind, to or-
ganize a machinery so effective and yet so elastic that it would run for
more than a century and work for a 100,000,000 people as it had done
for less than 5,000,000.

The Department of the Treasury, the whole financial system of the
Government with its banking and credit, was the creation of Hamilton.
It has been called the least of Hamilton's splendid work for the young
republic, and yet it is a monumental achievement for the career of any
man. When the United States had won its independence and had adopted
the Constitution, chiefly under the leadership of Hamilton, almost every
State was in a condition of fiscal debouch. Many thousands of dollars of
worthless paper money were issued to bolster up the depreciated currency.
Public and private bankruptcy prevailed, and industrial distress stalked
through the land. Any sort of a financial system that would bring order
out of chaos, stabilize financial transactions, and give integrity to public
debts, would be an act of supreme statesmanship. Without this confidence
and stability the republic would perish.

It was at the hour of this crisis that Hamilton introduced his first
report on the public credit. His plan was to have the National Govern-
ment assume the responsibility for all public debts. These public debts,
foreign, national, and State contracted in the war, amounted to about

414

GREAT AMERICAN FINANCIERS

$80,000,000. This whole debt was to be met by a system of taxation,
the revenues of which were to come partly from a tariff on imports and
partly from excise. Hamilton's second plan was for the establishing of
a National Bank. It was this bank of which Daniel Webster spoke,
when he said: "He (Hamilton) smote the rock of national resources,
and abundant streams of revenues gushed forth; he touched the corpse of
public credit, and it sprang to its feet."

Hamilton was born on the little island of Nevis in the West Indies
and was of dubious parentage. When a lad of thirteen, while employed
in a mercantile house, he wrote such a graphic description of a hurricane
that swept the island, that his friends decided to send him to America to
be educated. He gradually emerged from obscurity, becoming an officer
on Washington's staff, a distinguished lawyer, a partner in litigation of
his future mortal enemy, Aaron Burr, one of the leading spirits in fram-
ing the Constitution and getting it adopted, culminating his career as
Washington's Secretary of the Treasury — then to be slain by Burr in a
duel. Great as was Hamilton's work, he was never honored as was his
great rival, Thomas Jefferson, and there is as yet no statue on the vacant
plaza in front of the Treasury building of the first and greatest Secretary
of the Treasury.

The third great financial problem in this country came with the Civil
War. Before that date the word "billion" was never heard even in Wall
Street. A billion dollars had been an unthinkable sum of money for
even the Government to borrow or to owe, but with the war the Govern-
ment had to borrow over $2,000,000,000 to restore the Union. As Wash-
ington had found in Hamilton the man to construct the financial founda-
tion of the Government, so Lincoln was to find in Salmon P. Chase
(1808-1873) the man to construct and operate the financial machinery to
carry on the Civil War. When Chase came into the Treasury Department,
a gigantic task lay before him. Public credit was at a low ebb. Not
only had the Southern States, with their sources of governmental revenue,
withdrawn from the Union, but there was a powerful financial party in
the North which denied the Government the right to coerce the South.

Congress had been so disorganized by factional fights that it had
been impossible to enact the requisite financial legislation. But Chase,
under the circumstances, had a very clear conception of what to do and
how to do it. He knew how to make the public understand financial
questions. He launched his system of National Banks designed to super-
sede the banks organized under State laws and then remove the depend-
ence of the Government upon such banks. The circulating notes of these
National Banks, secured both by private capital and Government bonds,

AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

furnished a sound and uniform currency. As soon as he succeeded in
passing his scheme through Congress, the Government was in a position to
obtain all the money that it needed.

The nation then needed only one or more great bankers to promote
and exploit its borrowing capacity to the full extent of the war's de-
mands. That banker was found in the person of Jay Cooke, of the firm
of Jay Cooke & Co., Philadelphia. Cooke had made a great reputation
and much money in financing railroads, from 1858 to 1861, such as the
Missouri Pacific and other Western roads. He had a control of the
money market almost as complete as J. Pierpont Morgan had forty-five
years later. Cooke was born at Sandusky, Ohio, and he and the secretary
were old friends. He was now made the principal financial agent of
the Government, negotiating three loans of $970,000,000, $200,000,000
and $830,000,000, in all $2,000,000,000, or the bulk of the money bor-
rowed to finance the war. He was also a great financial power after the
war in the building of the continental railways. It was the failure of his
house, in 1873, due to too heavy investment in Northern Pacific Railway
securities, that caused a financial panic.

Among the potent financial figures in America during the Nineteenth
Century were many vigorous men. There was Stephen Gerard, America's
first great merchant prince, in Philadelphia, in the first half of the Nine-
teenth Century. There was John Jacob Astor, whose investment of his
$20,000,000 from the fur trade in New York real estate, had an im-
portant economic effect — through it more than sixty per cent, of the peo-
ple became renters and that condition has increased with the years. As-
tor's great wealth did much to develop New York. Then there is
Cornelius Vanderbilt's $75,000,000 to develop the coastwise trade and
the railroads of New York. Vanderbilt was one of the great builders
of the nation. At his death he owned more than twenty ocean-going
steamers. The call of his ships at the Isthmus of Panama showed De
Lesseps what a great trade-route a canal there would at once become.
He was not only a pioneer railroad builder but one of the very first to
begin the consolidation of railroad lines which had grown to such extent,
and power that forty years later the Government found it expedient to
step in and dissolve them. Probably no two men ever had a clearer
vision of what New York was destined to become than the first Astor and
the first Vanderbilt. Certainly no two men did more to determine that
destiny.

Jay Gould — a master of organization — became one of the leading
figures in the financial world in the first decade after the war, when the
country began its great railroad development. In those days, Wall Street

416

OUR COUNTRY — AND ITS DEFENDERS — Gallant seamen upon whom we depend for the

safety of our national existence — The United States expends more than $40,000,000 a

year to provide for the welfare and comfort of the officers and enlisted men.

BATTLESHIPS OF THE AMERICAN NAVY — These ships are maintained wholly for the purpose
of protecting our country against injustice or invasion — The American Navy now ranks *

third as a sea power — It has the longest coast line of any nation to defend.

GREAT AMERICAN FINANCIERS

was a battle ground of men. Gould manipulated the stock market with
the hand of a wizard. He had only to whisper or to nod his head to pre-
cipitate a bear market. He secured control of the Erie Railroad in 1868,
and soon possessed a controlling interest in the Union Pacific, the Missouri
Pacific, the Wabash, the Texas Pacific, the St. Louis and Northern, and
the St. Louis and San Francisco. The control of these great systems
enabled him to consolidate all the competing telegraph-lines into the West-
ern Union in 1881.

Russell Sage — a man of remarkable financial insight — was Jay
Gould's partner in many of his railroad properties and in the Western
Union Telegraph Company. Sage's great role in finance was that of
money lender. He always had at his disposal more cash for other men's
enterprises and dreams than any other financier in the country. Sage pos-
sessed much wisdom in advising borrowers how to invest the money that
he loaned them. In this way, his service to the railroad development
of the country was invaluable. Perhaps no man ever knew as much about
Wall Street and the market as did Sage.

The names of Harriman, Morgan, and Hill are intimately associated
with the financing of the development of the country. Harriman began
as stock broker and devoted himself to the study of railroading. When
the Union Pacific was bankrupt, he prevailed upon Kuehn and Loeb to
allow him to reorganize it with their help. He merged this road with
the Chicago and Northwestern. Under Harriman's management, the
Union Pacific became prosperous; credit was obtained to acquire the
Oregon Short Line and the Oregon Railways and Navigation Company.
The controlling interest in the Southern Pacific was turned over to the
Oregon Short Line. This gave Harriman a central direct line to the Pa-
cific. He waged many memorable financial fights for the control of prop-
erties. After the panic of 1907, Harriman helped to develop the Erie
Railroad, turned the Central of Georgia over to the Illinois Central,
and became a director of the New York Central. He also established
close traffic connections between the Union Pacific and Kansas City South-
ern. A week before his death, he had made public plans for new rail-
road construction and improvements involving an expenditure of over
$300,000,000. He was in control of the Pacific Mail Steamship Com-
pany, the Portland and Asiatic Steamship Company, and the Wells Fargo
Express.

A great movement for the consolidation of transportation systems,
industries, public utilities, etc., set in about 1898. There appeared as the
master-mind of this group of financiers — J. Pierpont Morgan. His career
began early in the Civil War, and by 1902 he had attained in the finan-

419

AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

cial world a power unequalled at any time by any man of affairs.
There is no positive record of the properties he held but it has been esti-
mated that he was "identified with" at least sixty railroads. His financial
control extended over ten billion dollars. The achievement of Morgan's
life was the organization of the United States Steel Corporation.

Morgan was a powerful influence in our national affairs. During
the panic of 1907, it was Morgan who prevented the rate of interest
from reaching exaggerated figures by depositing very large sums with the
various banks that were most seriously pressed for cash. During this panic
the Steel Trust bought from the Trust Company of America all its stock
of the Tennessee Coal and Iron Company as collateral for loans, and thus
eliminated its only competitor in this country.

The last of this generation of great financiers is James J. Hill —
the master-builder of the Northwest. He was born in Guelph, Canada,
1838, went to Minnesota in 1856. His fortune began when he and a
group of other promoters bought the property of the bankrupt Saint Paul
and Pacific Railroad Company in 1878. Hill paid $6,780,000 for all
the property which had been mortgaged for over $28,000,000. The sale
was not made for cash, but Hill was allowed to turn in as payment re-
ceiver's debentures and bonds. Hill secured more franchises, built exten-
sions, and organized the Great Northern Railway. Then by forcing the
application of the 1857 land grant act, he secured valuable land in Da-
kota. He owned immense ore desposits in Minnesota and leased them to
the Steel Corporation on a royalty basis for 25 years, the payments amount-
ing to tens of millions of dollars.

There are many other notable names that should be added to this
list of master-builders, such as Rockefeller and his organization of the oil
fields ; Spreckles, who opened the market for Hawaiian sugar to the United
States; Havemeyer, who organized the sugar industries; Arbuckle, who
organized the coffee markets; Hearst, who developed the gold and silver
mines of the West; Plant, who developed Florida and Cuba to com-
merce— and a list of thousands of other men of affairs whose financial
genius forged new roads for progress on the American continent. It is
not possible here to make economic deductions into the effect of the genius
of these men on American civilization, but it is sufficient to state that
finance is the power behind progress. It develops many economic prob-
lems that require constant readjustment to restrain the power of finance
from becoming despotic; it has its dangers and its incalculable benefits to
civilization, but under control it is the genius that has not only developed
this nation, but is reconstructing the world.

420

PART V CHAPTER XVII

GREAT AMERICAN AUTHORS

"Books are the legacies that a great genius leaves to mankind, which
are delivered down from generation to generation, as presents to the pos-
terity of those who are yet unborn." — Addison.

BOOKS — not nations — are the world's greatest democracies. The
republic of letters knows neither monarch nor serf. The poor
man becomes rich in his knowledge of books — the rich man be-
comes poor in his lack of knowledge of books — the whole world
meets on common ground in the printed pages of literature. "All that
mankind has done, thought, fained or been," says Carlyle, "is lying as in
magic preservation in the pages of books. They are the chosen possession
of men."

"God be thanked for books," said Channing in his essay on "self-
culture." "Books are the true levelers. They give to all, who will faith-
fully use them, the society, the spiritual presence of the best and noblest of
our race. No matter how poor I am, no matter though the prosperous of
my own time will not enter my obscure dwelling. If the sacred writers
will enter and take up their abode under my roof, if Milton will cross my
threshold to sing to me of Paradise, and Shakespeare, to open to me the
worlds of imagination and the workings of the human heart, and Franklin
to enrich me with his practical wisdom, I shall not pine for want of intel-
lectual companionship, and I may become a cultivated man though excluded
from what is called the best society, in the place where I live. ... It is
chiefly through books that we enjoy intercourse with superior minds, and
these invaluable means of communication are within reach of all. In the
best books, great men talk to us, give us their most precious thoughts, and
pour their souls into ours."

Here in America we have all the material for great literature. The
drama of human life moves rapidly; human emotions are unloosed on a
vast stage of action ; the ambitions and loves of men, the tragedies and com-
medies of existence are all enacted in everyday American life. The nerv-
ous energy is here; the physical power, the spiritual force. We have not
yet passed through our "Elizabethan Age" but we have already given to
the world some of its noblest thoughts. For some 200 years, from 1607 to
1800, America followed the English writing in prose or poetry. It was in
theology that she first demonstrated strength and power. And then sud-

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AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

denly, within a few years, she gave to the world several men of genius,
genuinely American, whose every word bore the unmistakable stamp of the
New World.

American literature, as distinguished from English literature, begins
with Irving' s books. As an essayist, he was still a follower of the English
tradition. But in his legends of the Hudson and his Knickerbocker history
we find that which is not only rich of the soil but which was at the time
absolutely new in literature. The Knickerbocker is the source of American
humor. There Irving gave us imaginary histories based upon the most
careful and inimitable satire of real heroic achievements. His Legends
were even more original. Not only were the characters and the romance
purely American but they had a flavor belonging solely to the life of this
continent. Irving earned fame not only in his own country but beyond the
seas. Then came Fenimore Cooper, his junior by about six years. Cooper
not only used American material, but material which had never been used
before by any writer. In his characteristic studies of the aborigines and
their sturdy enemies, the first pioneers, the American wilderness, lakes,
mountains, prairies, the vast savagery of the new continent began to live in
literature as essential parts of the new creation. There is about his books
such a genuine note of virgin life that they carry conviction wherever they
happen to be read, be it in London or Paris — in Persia or in any part of the
world where men appreciate primitive passions.

The first world-renowned master, however, is Edgar Allan Poe ( 1809-
1849), the Ishmael of American letters. It has been said that he was not
typical of America, but his fate at least was typical of the fate of any
daring poet in his days. Nowhere else would he have evolved such a deep
psychology of life by the very loneliness to which his strange genius doomed
him. He had the sensitiveness of genius, the pride of a gentleman, and yet
he was compelled to accept charity from a world in which there was no
place for a poet unless he could be a teacher like Longfellow or could con-
duct a newspaper as did Bryant. Wandering from town to town, mis-
understood of all, battling with starvation, watching the woman whom he
idolized die without food and clothing, he might have been in the Old
World one more grotesque figure added to the gallery of Bohemians. In
the rough, indifferent New World he was a pathetic and tragic figure.
In one respect he was thoroughly, typically American. America's most sig-
nificant contribution to the world's literature is the short story. Whatever
honor is due to us on that account should be offered to Poe, who much more
than Irving carried that literary genre to the highest degree of perfection.

America's household poet is Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-
1882), the most widely known and quoted of American authors. While

422

<U\NT I'OKKSTS OF CALIFORNIA — These gigantic trees along the Yosemito Valley are the largest
to be found on the earth— This Is one of the natural curiosities of America, with its
canyon, cascades and famous trees,

GREAT AMERICAN AUTHORS

he was still living the school children began to celebrate his birthday and
there are few schools in this country where the 2jth of February passes
without some commemoration of the poet's services to letters. Longfellow
reflects not the froth and surface agitation of life, but its serene flow and its
soulful undercurrents. His first book appeared in 1839 at the beginning
of the turmoil about slavery; in his last volume in 1882 the wounds of the
conflict were healed. In the midst of our greatest political strife, Long-
fellow sang the legends that united North and South in the pride of a
common country. "Evangeline," "The Courtship of Miles Standish,"
"Hiawatha," are full of understanding and sympathy for the people of all
races and all times. Longfellow avoided the cold impassibility of Bryant
and the morbidity of Poe. In spite of his scholarly interests and associates,
of his long training as a teacher of literature, he took his subjects near at
hand, indifferent to the disparaging criticism that he was the "poet of the
commonplace." By showing the poetic side of American history, he has
opened a mine of literary material out of which other poets were to bring
greater treasures.

Perhaps the most striking figure America has given to the world of
letters is Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882). The difficulty of charac-
terizing him in a short sketch is suggested by the titles which his admirers
gave him. To some he was the western Buddha, to others the Yankee
Shelley, to others the epitome of Puritan idealism and independence.
George Eliot spoke of him as "the first man I have ever seen." All his life
long, he was a preacher of high ideals. The nobility of his life gave force
to every word which he uttered. As lecturer, poet and essayist, his greatest
service was to stimulate thought without ever arousing his readers' or his
hearers' antagonism. A clergyman, he disdained theology and church his-
tory ; a naturalist, he never studied science ; a writer on art and literature —
in everything he relied on intuition. What interested him most in life was
individual effort and accomplishment. His prestige was due to his man-
hood— the fact that he was such a splendid individual, whose absolute
independence might have led him into dangerous paths had he not been
always saved from error by his wonderful mental and moral integrity.

Another powerful individualist, whose genius Emerson was the first to
recognize, was Walt Whitman (1819-1892). Printer, teacher, carpenter,
idler, reporter, editor, Whitman led a picturesque life. In his 36th year,
he published his "Leaves of Grass." This book has been acclaimed by all
the foreign critics as the highest form of original literary art ever written
in the New World — a poet typical of the American continent. American
critics, on the other hand, are divided in their opinion of that work. They
are astounded by his brutality, by his vigor, which cares little for what is

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AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

generally called delicacy of expression. It is contended by his devotees
that Whitman is America's greatest poet, the true bard of Democracy.
They point out that, in contrast to all the other poets of this land, he alone
has created entirely his own rhythm, his own meter, and his own vocabu-
lary; that he owes nothing to Old World masters and thinkers; that his sub-
ject always was the power, the greatness, the immensity of his native land;
that he has felt and expressed more clearly than any other American writer
the wonderful qualities of the new race which was being created in the
great "Melting Pot" of the world; that, after the stifling influence of Puri-
tanism, he had rendered a signal service in singing in the healthy physical
life of a new continent of nature, unembellished by poetical adornment.

A man apart in American literature, a solitary genius whose methods
were so exclusively his own that it is impossible to compare him with any
other writer, is Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864). His style, preten-
tious but artistic, was always in harmony with his subject. He wrote
largely of the Puritans from whom he was descended and whose moral
make-up he reflected in a large measure. His "Scarlet Letter" was the first
great American novel. This, and his other books, reflected his aloofness
from his contemporaries, his brooding contemplation of the past. He had
no literary friendship; he reveals himself very little in his writings. More
at home with historical figures than with die living people who surrounded
him, he gave to literature a type which no one had attempted to sketch —
the Puritan. His creation of that type was very romantic ; he emphasized the
Puritan's idealism, his superb faith, his constant brooding over the question
of sin and of expiation. His neglect of contemporary life, his indifference
to the modern energy make him the classicist among American authors.

America's great humorist, and one of the most pronounced geniuses of
his times, was Mark Twain (1835-1910). He was at heart a reformer
and a hater of shams. In ridiculing real or fancied wrongs, he displays
an amazing dramatic vigor. His wandering life which took him every-
where from miners' shacks to millionaires' drawing-rooms gave him a very
keen insight into human psychology. It is not altogether an exaggeration
when he tells us that he met on the Mississippi the duplicate of every im-
portant character in history, biography, and fiction. His "Life on the
Mississippi" will probably remain his greatest claim to glory.

There were Prescott (1796-1859), Bancroft, Motley and Parkman,
and of these we chose Prescott. He had not the monumental form of
Bancroft, the fire of Motley, nor the intimate touch of Parkman, and he
was without the humor of Irving. But Prescott is superior to all the former
in poise of judgment and distinction. His "Conquest of Mexico" is a his-
torical work, whose literary excellence is without an equal. Prescott

426

GREAT AMERICAN AUTHORS

wrote history with a historical exactness and literary artistry that even
Greene, and Gibbons, and Froude, and Mommsen do not maintain. Pres-
cott, like Hawthorne because of his style, has won for himself an immortal
place in English speech. His books have been translated into all the great
European languages, his style retains its charm. But only the English
reader can appreciate the beauty and fitness of the diction, Prescott is
elegant without being florid, and yet musical and full of vigor. The
periods and the characters selected by Prescott abound with the romantic;
and whether we review the fortunes of the patrons (Isabella and Ferdi-
nand) of Columbus, or follow the banners of Spain to the halls of Monte-
zuma or to the home of the Incas, we cannot move a step without treading
on enchanting ground. Yet the author does not strain after picturesque
effects like Lamartine. And he wrote his three great histories: "Ferdi-
nand and Isabella," "Philip II," and "The Conquest of Mexico" under
the great physical infirmity of partial and at times total blindness,
but there was never a moment that there did not emanate from him a
gayety of spirit. It was this affliction that diverted him from law to lit-
erature and gave to the world one of its greatest literary historians.

William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878) was the father of American
poetry, that is he was the first man in the Western Hemisphere to write
verse that compared favorably with much of the verse of Wordsworth,
Keats, Coleridge and Shelley, though in stature it is not claimed that he
measured up to any one of these. He wrote "Thanatopsis" his greatest
poem at seventeen. His father, without the son's knowledge, sent this
poem with others to Willard Phillips, the editor of the North American Re-
view> then published in Boston. Phillips was so amazed at the great merit
of the poem (and not knowing who wrote it) that he hurried to Cambridge
to show it to his associate editors, Richard H. Dana and Edward T. Chan-
ning. When Dana heard the poem read, he smilingly said : "Oh, Phil-
lips, you have been imposed upon. No man on this side of the Atlantic is
capable of writing such verse." His remark at the time was most natural
for America had produced only three one-poem poets and no more, John
Howard Payne, the author of "Home, Sweet Home," Francis Scott Key
with his "Star-Spangled Banner" and Joseph Hopkinson of "Hail, Colum-
bia" fame and these poems would have been long since forgotten but for the
music written to them. In Bryant, America entered the Hall of Parnasus
and took its seat with the gods. But to the present generation of Amer-
icans, Bryant is an Ossian ghost almost as remote as Homer. He never
acquired the popularity of Longfellow, though when his "Thanatopsis" and
"Water-fowl" appeared they were read with eagerness and delight by al-
most every man, woman and child in New England. "Thanatopsis" is

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AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

Puritan New England to the soul, and that is why it is not to-day read in
America, for the last thing Americans now think of is death, that is death
as Bryant described it in his sonorous verse. Bryant's mental defect as a
poet was his lack of emotion. He is too self -con trolled for a race of men
who live in laughter and tears.

Bret Harte (1839-1902) would still have been a genius and a great
writer if gold had never been discovered in California, but the man and the
opportunity met on the Pacific Coast on the heels of the Forty-Niners.
Harte did not spin out his characters from his own brain like the great
novelists. Like Kipling in his novel writing he failed, but no writer has
ever seen with a clearer vision the workings of character and of human
nature in the men and women about him under unique conditions. There
was never before and there will probably never again be such a chapter in
human history as that narrative of the gold fever in California. Had
there not been a historian of the human heart like Harte on the spot, the
world of letters would indeed be poorer now. The average man knows not
what his most intimate friend would do under any and all circumstances,
but Bret Hafte always knew what all whom he met would do and his gift
to describe each and every character's actions was always both full and
perennial. Harte had the sentiment of Dickens, though it was not so
morbidly developed, and the satire of Thackeray, though it was not of such
rapier-like edge. He scorned hypocrisy, and especially the hypocrisy of
Puritanism, with an intensity that few artists have ever been able to put
into words. But it is for Harte's sentiment, his pathos and humor, that
the world will read him and ever love him. Ages ago an eastern sage said
he would like to write a book that every one should conceive that he mi^ht
have written himself, and yet so good that no one else could have written
the like. Bret Harte is said to have fulfilled this ideal. There is a choice
of words, a balance of sentences and a rhythm of paragraph that very nearly
approach perfection in the literary art. In conciseness, in artistic restraint,
he is declared the equal of Turgenieff, Hawthorne and Newman. Because
Bret Harte was so essentially an artist in every fibre of his being, he left
California when society had settled down there and became commonplace.
The whole country was growing alike and he could find no place that suited
him but London. His best story, he said, is "Tennessee's Partner."
"The Idyl of Red Gulch" and "The Rose of Tuolumne" are two of the
finest pieces of work of the kind in all imaginative literature. And who,
that has read him, will ever forget "Colonel Starbottle" *?

Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809-1894) was one of the purest American
types of temperament and mind. To recall him brings back the most gifted
group of men of letters that have ever appeared in this country. Of this

428

HISTORIC PALISADES ALONG THE HUDSON — These rocky cliffs, broken and fantastic
appearance, are considered the most picturesque in the world — The walls of rock rise
about 500 feet in height and extend about fifteen miles along western bank of river.

LANDMARKS OF AMERICAN LEGENDS — The Hudson River occupies an important place In

American literature and art — Washington Irving immortalized its charming villages — Poets

have lived along its shores — Artists receive inspiration from the magnificent scenery.

—

GREAT AMERN AN AT TIIORS -This rare engraving bv Chappell is entitled "The Literary Party at the Home

of \\ashiiiKton Irving"— Irving Is seated with kerchief in hand— Facing him, with extended Uuud, is J.

ieuimore Cooper. Among the others are many noted authors.

AMERICA'S CONTRIBUTORS TO WORLD'S LETTERS— Standing at extreme left is Hawthorne— Seated in
rront of him is Longfellow — Standing in centre of group is I'rescott Seated in front of him is
Bryant. Under the bust of Shakespeare Is Emerson.

LARGEST RIVEK STEAMSHIPS IN THE WORLD — The magnificent steamboats of the Hudson

River Day Line accommodate (>. 000 passengers on a single voyage — Travelers from all parts

of the earth make this historic journey — They pass through a beautiful country.

ALONG THE HIGHLANDS OF THE HUDSON — Here we pass the stately military structures

crowning the hills at West Point — The river Is navigable for 117 miles from the ocean

— Its whole length is about 300 miles, nearly every foot of which is historic.

GREAT AMERICAN AUTHORS

group Dr. Holmes remains the freshest and the most perennial. He is still
with us in his boundless humanity and sympathy. A learned man he
was, but he could write pathos with humor in admirable combination and
controlled by perfect taste and kindliness. He could poke fun at his "Un-
married Aunt" but no one loves her the less. His humor was never wit and
was always without sting. It was his "Autocrat of the Breakfast Table"
that made the Atlantic Monthly a great magazine from the beginning.

"The Bigelow Papers" made for James Russell Lowell (1819-1891)'
a name sui generis to the world of letters. As Emerson stood for American
thought so has Lowell become our representative man of letters. He at-
tained that position not so much as an indomitable writer nor chiefly as a
poet but from being the best equipped all-around writer and man of letters
this country has ever produced. His acquirements, his versatile writings,
the conditions of his life, the mold of the man, and the spirit of his whole
work have given him a peculiar distinction. He stands out in our history
not only as a man of letters, but as an exemplar of culture, a citizen of the
world, and a better American, because he was also a cosmopolitan. And
the beauty and excellence of the man were that in him was the true Amer-
ica. In his poetry he wrought to unite the human and the divine and give
a word of hope to men.

John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-1892) was pre-eminently the poet
of New England. There has indeed been no New England poet for whom
New England itself has not largely furnished material and inspiration.
But Whittier's poetry in the essence attempted an appeal as wide as the
nation and the race. In a group of distinguished critics shortly after the
close of the Civil War, Horace Greeley was asked who was the best Amer-
ican poet and he at once replied with the name of Whittier and for once all
were in accord. It was discovered that Whittier at that time most nearly
satisfied the poetic needs of the typical, vigorous American. The English
who studied him at that time to get at the soul of America, pronounced
him the most "national and most characteristic" of all our writers in his
extraordinary fluency, narrow experience and wide sympathy, which meant
to the average Englishman, loquacity, provincialism, and generosity of
heart. Whittier was great for his time and he served well the purpose for
which he sang. If his song was never that of the people at large, it sought
to remove that which separated the country into sections. Therefore, with
his pen, he helped make America what it now is — a nation, in will, feel-
ing and emotion. He played a great part in our Civil Reformation. He
surpassed Longfellow in force and in truth for he was no imitator of the
Old World. Whittier belongs with Greeley and Harriet Beecher Stowe
in his work for Abolition.

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AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

An Englishman who packs his grip to this day, we are told, puts in it
a copy of Artemus Ward's lectures. As popular as this first of Ameri-
can humorists was in America fifty years ago, he was more popular in
England, and is still a prince of American humorists. In his own coun-
try his fame was somewhat obscured by the growing reputation of Mark
Twain and other humorists. Artemus Ward's humor has spontaneity,
warmth, color, richness, purity and sweetness. He made his first repu-
tation as a humorist on the Cleveland Plain Dealer and for a few years, or
from about 1863 to his death, he lectured in America and England, con-
vulsing the sides of more people than any other speaker who had ever occu-
pied the lecture platform.

The realm of Southern folklore gave to us Joel Chandler Harris
(1848-1898). His Uncle Remus' stones are more than a collection of
folk stories, but rather a revelation of the soul of the humbler classes of
American negroes. In the gay adventures of Br'er Rabbit, who typifies the
triumph of weakness and mischief over strength, we see a reflection of a
race that could laugh and be happy in a condition of slavery. Uncle
Remus is a real artistic creation, a character that will live. Human,
lovable, he has endeared himself to millions.

The "Battle Hymn of the Republic" and "Uncle Tom's Cabin" entitle
Mrs. Julia Ward Howe and Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe respectively to
honored places among great American authors. If Thomas Nelson Page
had never written anything but "Mars Chan," he would have well earned
for himself the membership to such company. James Whitcomb Riley,
the Hoosier poet, belongs here too. There was Timrod and Lanier of the
South in the past. They too sang for the world.

Modern American literature is rich in great names but almost every
one of those great names is that of a novelist. We have many modern
poets, but this Twentieth Century does not seem to inspire either the perfec-
tion of Longfellow or the strength of Walt Whitman. The work of our
dramatists also seems to present contemporary themes without intent of
preserving them in book form. Our fiction writers, however, exhibit the
qualities which have always been praised in the work of the great European
novelists.

The movement in fiction began with Henry James and William Dean
Howells, two extremes. Henry James, who spent most of his life abroad
and became a British subject, likes to depict some American whose crudities
or peculiarities are thrown into strong relief against the background of a
more formal European life. He analyzes the most tenuous psychological
motives. HowelPs psychology on the contrary gives us for the first time
a faithful picture of the American in his natural environment, a picture

434

GREAT AMERICAN AUTHORS

which is neither idealized by a patriotic bias nor distorted by snobbery. It
is especially as a painter of American society "in the making" that HowelPs
will endure in this country and abroad.

Most notable among the more modern writers of virile American life
are Jack London, Edith Wharton, Frank Norris, Robert Herrick, Winston
Churchill. London sounded a purely American and extremely original and
powerful note in his first book, the best known of which is perhaps the
"Call of the Wild," depicting the lure and mystery of the Northland and
the rough energetic life of that region. Edith Wharton wrote the epic of
New England in her sober, gloomy masterpiece, "Ethan Frome," Norris
in "The Octopus" tells a powerful tale of California at the time of the great
railroad expansion. It is also one of the first economic reform novels, ex-
posing the wrong from gigantic industrial enterprises. Winston Churchill
is perhaps the most truly American novelist of the times, depicting as he
does the sturdy American characters in the various epochs of our national
life with a firm hand and keen understanding of the underlying psychology
of American institutions, especially in matters of church and state.

Literature has reached a very democratic stage in America. More
persons are engaged in the profession of writing, and more books and stories
are being published in America to-day than in any other nation in the world,
or than at any other time in the world's history. But, as Voltaire said,
"It is with books as with men; a very small number play a great part; the
rest are confounded with the multitude."

The love of beauty is inherent in the human race; it waits only the
opportunity for expression. Our hands and minds have been fully occu-
pied in the building of trans-continental railroads : in each of these there is
a great poem ; every stroke of the axe has been an immortal elegy. Greater
poets than ever wrote a sonnet in the Elizabethan Age have been blasting
the mountains to make way for the whirring wheels of commerce. The
large purring, puffing locomotive is an ode to triumph. The swiftly mov-
ing electric train is a lyric to power. The great modern towers of Babel
are idylls to valor. The mediums of expression may differ, but the instinc-
tive ability of man to create from his imagination always is with us.

The day will come when the Americans shall rest from their labors
and give full expression to their inherent love for the finer arts through the
more leisurely and conventional mediums of genius — then we shall picture
and paint, and mold and relate forms of rarer beauty than the world has
yet seen.

435

PART V CHAPTER XVIII

GREAT AMERICAN ARTISTS

"The Fine Arts are those which have primarily to do with the imagination
and taste, and are applied to the production of what is beautiful."

— Webster.

** A RT is the effort of man to express the ideas which nature sug-
gests to him of a power above nature, whether that power
be within the recesses of his own being, or in the Great First
Cause of which nature, like himself, is but the effect." This
is the definition given by Lytton in one of his essays. It is Irving who
adapts this to the American nationality when he adds: "In America,
literature and the elegant arts must grow up side by side with the coarser
plants of daily necessity."

It is frequently charged by Europeans that we Americans are wholly
a material people; that we are producers of wealth, but not producers of
art. There could be no falser falsehood. "Art," Emerson said, "is na-
ture with man's will applied thereto" — and here in America we are laying
the foundation for the truest art that the world has ever known. It is
quite true that during the first epochs in our national life we have been
directing our larger energies to lay the material foundation for the great
stnicture that we are erecting — a structure of society that gives every indi-
cation of contributing more liberally to the Fine Arts than any system of
society under which mankind has ever worked.

The love of beauty is inherent in the human race — and American
nationality is but a composite of all the races of the earth, an embodiment
of their hopes and ambitions. The foundation is laid solidly, and upon
this we are to erect the edifice of American Art. Let us survey our ma-
terials. The first centuries in the history of America were devoted to
securing for the settlers the prime necessities of life; all the energies of the
time were spent in practical pursuits, and consequently the arts were long
neglected by the sturdy pioneers. Then came the colonial period and
the Revolution, during which British influences prevailed in the New
World, with an inclination to follow the Italians.

Great events always produce the man — latent genius is inspired by
social convulsions. Thus, from the American Revolution and the first
struggles of our national existence there arose the first American school
of art, which in its originality and skill has left its permanent impression

436

LARGEST RIVERS IN WESTERN AMERICA Along tbe Columbia or Oregon River; with its branches

it has 2,132 miles of navigable waters — It drains an area larger than the German Empire

In Europe — The cliff is Cape Horn.

GREAT AMERICAN ARTISTS

on the art world. There came forth a group of men with brilliant imagina-
tions and the artisan's skill — West, Copley, Trumbull, Stuart, Allston,
the Peaks, and Sully.

We can linger but a few moments over these painters and their easels.
The first of the American painters was Benjamin West, the Pennsylvanian
(1738-1820). After some instruction he painted "The Death of So-
crates'* for a gunsmith, and established himself as a portrait painter in
Philadelphia at five guineas per portrait. Soon he visited Rome and
painted "Cimon and Iphigenia" and "Angelica and Medora." He was
elected a member of the Academies of Florence, Bologna, and Parma, and
finally settled in England, where he painted a historical canvas of "Agrip-
pina Landing with the Ashes of Germanicus," for the Archbishop of
York, who introduced him to George III. The king became his steadfast
patron and for many years gave him commissions. He was appointed
in 1772 historical painter to the king and later surveyor of the royal pic-
tures.

Benjamin West was one of four selected to draw up a plan of the
Royal Academy and was one of its original members. There he exhibited
his painting, "The Death of General Wolfe," departing from the custom
of the artists of the day of giving the characters Greek or Roman costumes.
It was then that Reynolds, who had endeavored to dissuade him, said, "I
retract my objections. I foresee that this picture will not only become one
of the most popular, but will occasion a revolution in art." West painted
a series of historical works for Windsor Castle ; also a series on the progress
of revealed religion — antediluvian, patriarchal, Mosaic, and prophetic —
for the chapel. This American, on the death of Reynolds in 1792, was
unanimously elected president of the Royal Academy. He continued to
devote his genius to religious and historical subjects on very large can-
vases, and among them we find "Christ Healing the Sick" (in the National
Gallery), the "Crucifixion," the "Ascension," and "Death on the Pale
Horse" (Pennsylvania Academy). The "Battle of La Hogue" is con-
sidered by critics the best of his historical paintings. West left about
four hundred paintings to his credit.

America was beginning to establish itself in the world of art when
John Singleton Copley (1737-1815), a Bostonian, brought glory to his
beloved country. Copley sent anonymously to Benjamin West in Eng-
land a portrait called "The Boy and the Flying Squirrel." This was ex-
hibited and gained recognition by the best English artists of the time.
Copley left his native land and sailed for England, visiting Italy and set-
tling in London, where he developed rapidly as a portrait painter. His
genius was given full recognition when he was elected a member of the

439

AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

Royal Academy. His most celebrated paintings are portraits of the Eng-
lish royal family: the "Death of Lord Chatham," now in the Lon-
don National Gallery; "Siege and Relief of Gibraltar," in the council
chamber of the Guildhall; "Major Pierson's Death on the Isle of Jer-
sey"; "Surrender of Admiral De Winter to Lord Duncan"; "Charles I.
Demanding the Five Impeached Members in the House of Commons";
"The Red Cross Knight"; "Mrs. Derby as St. Cecilia." Copley left fifty-
four paintings, which he presented to Yale College in consideration of an
annuity of $1,000.

The dramatic events of the American Revolution aroused the genius
of a Connecticut youth — John Trumbull (1756-1843). He was gradu-
ated at Harvard three years before the outbreak of the war and served
in the Revolution. He, too, went to England to study under West, but
was imprisoned on a charge of treason and forced to leave the country.
Some years later, after the angers of war had subsided, he returned to
England and became the pupil of West. Trumbull's first historical pic-
ture was the earliest direct contribution to American national art, when
he painted the "Battle of Bunker Hill." This was followed by the
"Death of Montgomery Before Quebec" and "Sortie of the Garrison from
Gibraltar." He was appointed by Congress to paint four pictures for the
rotunda of the Capitol at Washington, "The Declaration of Independ-
ence," the "Surrender of Burgoyne," the "Surrender of Cornwallis," and
the "Resignation of Washington at Annapolis."

The fourth to join this illustrious group of American painters was
Gilbert Stuart, a Rhode Islander (1755-1828). He was a born portrait
painter and was busy at his easel when thirteen years old. West recog-
nized his talent, took him into his home in England, and gave him in-
struction in art. The young American obtained distinction in London
and painted portraits of George III, George IV, while Prince of Wales,
Mrs. Siddons, Sir Joshua Reynolds, and Benjamin West, after which he
went to Paris, where he had Louis XVI as a royal subject. His great
ambition was to practise his art in America, and he returned and opened
a studio first in New York and subsequently in Philadelphia. Here he
painted Washington during his term as first President of the United
States. This was the first of the famous portraits of the "Father of His
Country" by Stuart. He also painted a full-length portrait of Wash-
ington for the Marquis of Lansdowne. Nearly forty copies from the
originals of various sittings made by Stuart are now in existence. He
is represented by six paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art:
"Washington" (two portraits), "John Jay," "Captain Henry Rice,"
"Mr. David Sears," "Commodore Isaac Hull." Stuart painted the first

440

GREAT AMERICAN ARTISTS

five Presidents of the United States. He ranks with the best portrait
painters of the English-American School.

South Carolina now contributed to this galaxy of masters an Amer-
ican who has been called the "American Titian" — Washington Allston
(1779-1843). He studied art in Europe and, after a residence in Eng-
land, opened a studio in Boston. His painting "The Dead Man Re-
vived" was awarded a prize of 200 guineas. His canvases include "The
Prophet Jeremiah"; "Spanish Girl"; "Spalatro's Vision of the Bloody
Hand"; "Belshazzar's Feast," and portraits of Benjamin West, Coleridge,
and himself.

Then there are the Peales — father and son — an old Maryland fam-
ily. The sire, bearing the name of Charles Wilson Peale (1741-1827)
turned from saddlery to portrait painting. He became a pupil of Copley
at Boston and of West in London. Portraiture, mezzotinto engraving,
modeling in wax, and casting and molding in plaster, received his atten-
tion. He opened a studio in Philadelphia in the year of the Declaration
of Independence and was elected to the Pennsylvania legislature three
years later. During Jefferson's administration, he opened Peak's Mu-
seum, including collections of portraits and objects of natural history.
Peale was a collector of natural curiosities and a lecturer on natural his-
tory. It is said that "he sawed the ivory on which his miniatures were
painted, molded the glass that covered them, and made the shagreen cases
that enclosed them." For many years he was the only portrait painter
of importance in the colonies. Washington granted him fourteen sittings
in all poses from colonel of Virginia militia to "father of his country.'*
Peale also painted Robert Morris, financier of the American Revolution,
Hancock, Gates, Baron de Steuben, Comte de Rochambeau, Franklin, Na-
thaniel Greene, Jefferson, Hamilton, Monroe, Jackson, J. Q. Adams, Cal-
houn, and Clay — all notable figures in the early days of nation building.

American painting was rapidly earning its full recognition, when an-
other Pennsylvanian appears — Rembrandt Peale (1778-1860), second son
of C. W. Peale. He became one of West's pupils in London, and later
went to Paris to paint portraits of celebrities for Peale's Museum at Phila-
delphia, to which city he returned. Two of his great exhibition paintings
are "The Roman Daughter" and "The Court of Death." He painted
Washington several times. The original of his portrait of 1823 was pur-
chased by Congress for $2,000. Chief Justice Marshall called it "more
Washington himself than any portrait I have ever seen."

It was now that an English-American entered this group of American
painters — Thomas Sully (1783-1872). He was born in England but
came to the United States with his parents, who were actors, and studied

441

AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

painting in Charleston, South Carolina, and Richmond, Virginia, later re-
moving to New York. He returned to London to complete his studies,
and two years later came back and settled in Philadelphia. He stands
out as one of the leading American painters of portraits, the best known
of which are the full-length portraits of Dr. Benjamin Rush, Commodore
Decatur, Thomas Jefferson, and Lafayette. His celebrated painting of
"Washington Crossing the Delaware" is in the Boston Museum.

With the passing of these founders of American art we enter the
middle period when native stylists began to appear — such as Thomas Cole,
Kensett, Church, Bierstadt, Thomas Moran, Harding Inman, Hunting-
ton, Mount; Emanuel Leutze, Hicks, Fuller, and William Morris Hunt.

Art life in America had been an incessant struggle for recognition up
to this point, and it only began to come into its own with the sudden
growth in wealth and taste following the American Civil War in 1865
and the Centennial Exhibition of 1876. Then it entered upon the third
period with Johnson, Vcdder, and La Farge ; Homer, Inness, Wyant, Mar-
tin, Chase, Cox, and Blashfield; Twachtman, Robinson, Harrison, and
the modern masters — Whistler, Abbey, and Sargeant. Their works are
so well known to the present generation that it is needless to enlarge upon
them.

Here, after many travails, America at last produced a master who
may be called the greatest innovator of his century — James A. McNeil
Whistler (1834-1903). He was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, and at
seventeen years of age was appointed to the West Point Military Academy,
which he left after four years to become a draughtsman in the Coast and
Geodetic Survey. It was in this work that he learned the first rudiments
of his great art, but he soon left it to go to Europe. In Paris, he became
a pupil in the Art Studio of C. G. Glere of The Ingres' School. Previous
to the series generally styled the "French Set," Whistler is known to have
etched three plates. The French Set depict street scenes, interiors and
figures. Then going to London he etched the "Thames Set," treating of
the river craft. The unfailing characteristics of all his etchings are pre-
cision and flexibility of line and remarkable picturesqueness in the render-
ing of shade and light. Their observations and their technical skill are
alike noteworthy. All of Whistler's plates are highly prized by connois-
seurs, even more than can be said for Rembrandt. Whistler is without
doubt the most original genius of plastic art born in America, one of the
world's finest etchers. He belongs to no particular school, and whatever
he did was his own, barring the influence of the Japanese. His art is
simple — the maximum of effort with the minimum of point. The por-
trait of his mother ranks with the world's greatest paintings. Whistler

442

GRAN DEI R OF NIAGARA— "The most awe-Inspiring spectacle In the world"— The waters plunge
165 feet into whirlpool rapids — The crest of the American Falls extends 1,060 feet;
the Canadian Falls, 3,013 feet.

GLITTERING BEAUTY OF NIAGARA IN WINTER — This Impressive sight demonstrates the

power of nature — The ice king touches the mighty waterfalls and they are

transformed into myriads of sparkling Jewels under the light of the sun.

GREAT AMERICAN ARTISTS

was personally a most eccentric man and delighted in making enemies.
He died in London.

Among his contemporaries, Winslow Homer and John La Farge did
very strong and original work. Homer's individuality of conception has
never been surpassed, and La Farge's sense of color and line has made
him America's greatest decorative painter. Edwin Abbey, whose paint-
ings decorate the Boston Library, is another voluntary exile, who first had
to seek recognition in England, but finally came into his own in America,
as a master of mural painting.

Paris, Munich, London, and Rome have large colonies of American-
born painters whose work, however, is more European than American.
The Paris colony includes men like Bridgman, Dannat, McEwen, Walter
Gay, and Sergeant Kendall. C. F. Ulrich makes Munich his home ; Shan-
non is in London, and Coleman in Italy.

America has contributed to the art world portrait and genre painters
like John W. Alexander and William Chase, men of cosmopolitan tastes
with a leaning toward French methods. Our landscape painters have al-
ways had a distinctly American flavor. The strongest landscapist of our
times, George Innes, is an innovator and an experimenter; further, he
knows the solidity of nature. The mass and bulk of landscape are ex-
pressed marvelously by his brush. No one has visualized with more
power the savage grandeur of the desolate New England shores. Among
the men, who have taken landscape and figure as their subjects, there is
a notable energy of treatment and a very gratifying sense of the things
typically American — Tyron, Dearth, Crane, Murphy, Dabo, Horatio
Walker, Weir, Twachtman. Gedney Bunce, drawing upon European
memories for his inspiration, has painted Venetian marine scenes of charm-
ing quality. De Haas, Maynard, Snell, Butler, Chapman have selected
their subjects nearer home and obtained very striking effects with views
of the Ad an tic and Pacific coasts. Thus we find that in America we have
a national art which is building steadily upon the foundation that has been
firmly laid.

The ancient masters of sculpture might also look with expectancy
upon their pupils in the New World. Great memorial shafts, monuments,
mausoleums, fountains, and heroic statues are rising in the public squares
and parks in every town and city of the land — tributes to the valor of
men or landmarks to great events in the building of the republic. While
these do not as a whole typify great art, they are at least an expression of
the growing instinct of the people for the Fine Arts.

The history of American sculpture begins in 1820, when John Frazee
made a bust of John Wells for Grace Church, NfeW York. This was the

445

AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

first marble portrait made by an American sculptor. Before John Frazee,
during the Eighteenth Century, we hear of a Mrs. Patience Wright of New
Jersey who "executed wax figures." Her wax likeness of Lord Chatham
was considered good enough to be admitted to Westminster Abbey.
There was also John Dixey, an Irishman, who came to America in 1789
and made the figures of "Justice" for the City Hall, New York, and the
State House at Albany. An Italian, Guiseppe Cerrachi, came to this coun-
try in 1791 with a design for an elaborate monument to "Liberty." A
public subscription was started to enable the artist to have his design car-
ried out in stone; in spite of the fact that George Washington headed the
list of subscribers, the necessary sums were not raised. Cerrachi, disap-
pointed, left the country after having made a few interesting busts of
Washington, Hamilton, Clinton, Paul Jones, and John Hay.

Sculpture struggled nobly to obtain a foothold in America. William
Rush, of Philadelphia, a self-taught genius, carved in wood and mod-
eled in clay and wax. His bust of Washington in the Pennsylvania Acad-
emy of Fine Arts and his wooden "Water Nymph," now reproduced in
bronze, decorate Fairmount Park in Philadelphia. Horatio Greenough
was charged with indecency for his marble group, the "Chanting Cherubs"
and his statue of "Venus Victrix." It was only after a committee of
clergymen had passed upon the "Greek Slave" that Hiram Powers was al-
lowed to exhibit it in Cincinnati or to make replicas. Crawford, Browne,
Story, Ball, Harriet Hosmer, and others, followed the classical principles
of Canova and Thorvaldsen and adapted their master's work to the prudish
taste of their times.

It is not until we greet Quincy Adam Ward that we finally meet a
great American sculptor of the sturdy type. He took a bold stand, little
affected by foreign influences. Ignoring entirely the so-called classical
subjects, Ward derived his inspiration from national American types.
He treated very successfully subjects like "The Indian," "The Freedman,"
"The Pilgrim," the "Private of the Seventh Regiment." His masterpiece
is the noble statue of Henry Ward Beecher, in Brooklyn.

Behold, the master! The advent of Augustus Saint Gaudens, son
of a French father and an Irish mother — but born in New York — gave to
America one of the greatest of modern sculptors. Saint Gaudens was
trained in the Ecole des beaux Arts in Paris, but, deeply in love with
American subjects, has been the most powerful factor in bringing American
sculpture to its present state of excellence. In his bas-reliefs of the sons
of Prescott Hall Butler, in his caryatids for the house of Cornelius Van-
derbilt, the wall reliefs in All Souls' Church, New York, and the Prince-
ton University Chapel, Saint Gaudens has shown that he had the soul of

446

GREAT AMERICAN ARTISTS

the Greek sculptors in grace and purely external charm. But it is in ex-
pressing individual character that he achieves his greatest triumphs. Look
upon his statue of Admiral Farragut in Madison Square; the Lincoln
Statue in Lincoln Park, Chicago; the statue of Deacon Chapin, better
known as "The Puritan," in Springfield, Massachusetts — here we see the
hand of the great American master.

The granite hills of New Hampshire have given the modern world
another great craftsman — Daniel Chester French. He early attracted at-
tention by his bronze statue of the "Minute Man" unveiled at Concord
in 1875. After passing through a period of struggle, he emerged into
real fame through his colossal statue of the "Republic" for the Columbian
Exhibition, and his remarkable relief of "Death and the Sculptor." His
statue of General Cass, his reliefs of angels for the Clark Memorial, and
his group for the John Boyle O'Reilley Memorial, are works of the very
first rank.

Modern America is beginning to produce the highest art of the times.
Frederick MacMonnies, a pupil of Saint Gaudens, had first to seek rec-
ognition in other lands. His statue of the "Bacchante" aroused the ire
of the conservatives in Boston. And yet that statue, as well as his "Boy
and Heron" and his "Pan," are striking examples of true American energy
and directness in art. His statue of Nathan Hale in the City Hall Park,
New York City, is one of our best civic monuments.

The work of Herbert Adams, of Brooklyn, shows his indebtedness to
Saint Gaudens in his bronze angel for Emanuel Baptist Church, Brooklyn,
and his marble bas-relief for the Judson Memorial Church, New York.
Almost alone among our sculptors, Adams has turned to the Florence of
the Fifteenth Century for his inspiration. His delicately colored female
busts, and his relief entitled "Orchid," have an exquisitely refined Floren-
tine charm.

Sculpture is coming in America — in fact it is already here. The list
of sculptors is by no means exhausted with the names we have mentioned.

Art in America has arrived; its various schools are performing an in-
estimable service to the American people; estheticism is ingrafting itself
into our national life. And yet we are only in the beginning of our art
era. If, as Zangwill says, "Art is Truth made Beautiful," or, as Delsarti
has said, "Art is Emotion which has passed through Thought and become
fixed in Form" — then the world must in the coming generations look to the
American democracy for the liberalizing influences, the emancipation from
old schools and forms — for the new era in the Fine Arts.

447

PART V CHAPTER XIX

GREAT AMERICAN COMPOSERS

"The man that hath no music in himself,
And is not moved with concord of sweet sounds,
Is fit for treasons, strategems, and spoils."

— Shakespeare: "Merchant of Venice."

American Longfellow in one of his poems denned music as
"the Universal Language of Mankind." It is indeed this and
more — it is the medium of national expression, the voice from
the heart of the people, the outpouring of a nation's soul. Music
may speak in a "universal language," but it assumes the physical and
spiritual intonations of the various groups of people in their individual
nations and is a true psychological interpretation of national character.

Music is not only a psychological revelation, but it is an index to the
economic and social status of a nation and authentically narrates the his-
torical development of the people. It may be a joyous outburst as in
exultation over victory, or sorrowful as in a pseon of discouragement and
misfortune. It assumes the melancholy tones of revolution or the light
moods of a pleasure-loving race. It depicts the varying national moods
in the various national epochs — tragedy or jubilation, comedy or romance
— and rises in devotional supplication according to the spiritual insight of
the people.

Music is technically defined as the science of combining tones in me-
lodic, rhythmic, and harmonic order, so as to excite the emotions or appeal
to the intellect. For untold ages it was purely emotional. With its de-
velopment as a science, in the Middle Ages, it appealed almost entirely to
the intellect, until to-day the truest music is that which combines both
the intellectual and the emotional — the mind and the heart.

In America, we have produced but few masters of matured musical
expression, but rather a race of music-lovers from which eventually will
arise the American masters. It may be truly said that the American people
have been bringing their music with them in their migrations from the Old
World. The American democracy is composed of the blood of all the
races of the earth — it is the product of the older civilizations turned into a
new mold from which is evolved a new, strong, virile race. Thus we
have in this country the living spirit of all the world's music — the millions
of Germans, Italians, Polish, and those of other strains that have given the
world its noblest compositions have brought with them to America the

448

MOST MAGNIFICENT LH'.UAKY ISUILIUXG IX THE WORLD- Library of Congress in Washington

— It occupies three and three-quarter acres and can accommodate over 4,<K)0.<)00 volumes

— It cost $6,500,000 aud contains tlie work of forty American painters.

NATIONAL MfSKI'M AT WASHINGTON— This is the National Depository for scientific
collections— The building cost $.'{,500,000 and contains exhibits relating to
the origin and development of the American people,

ind historic

GREAT AMERICAN COMPOSERS

very soul of music. These peoples who have come to us from foreign
lands bring with them the genius of Beethoven, the world's supreme mas-
ter, and the passionate intensity of the great Wagner.

The strains from the masters rise from the homes of the people
throughout the republic. All the tone-masters of the modern world are
the common heritage of the American people, and their voices live and
speak throughout the nation — the organ tones of the greatest of all masses
from Bach ; the noble melody of the world's greatest oratorio from Handel ;
the scores of the first dramatic school of operatic music from Gliick; the
classical piano sonatas introduced by Haydn, improved by the melodic
grace of Mozart, and brought to a culmination by the super-master
Beethoven ; the varied works of Mendelssohn, Schubert, Schumann, Verdi,
Bizet; Liszt, king of the pianoforte, and Chopin, the poet of the piano.
A host of modern composers have endowed America with their melodies
— Russians, Polish, Hungarians — the genius of the earth finds its patrons
among the American people.

So it is that the time cannot be far distant when America will pro-
duce its own masters — its own school of native music which will contribute
generously to the world's masterpieces — for we have here in this country
the nervous energy, the suppressed emotions, the spiritual force, the intel-
lectual growth, the spontaneity from which all art bursts forth.

The first settlers of America viewed music very suspiciously; they
were a colorless people, prosaic and without temperament. Their fore-
bears had never produced a musician of the first rank; then music like many
other arts was held to be sinful under their theocratic regime. Some New
England communities banished it under the pretexts that "the names of the
notes are blasphemous; it makes a disturbance, grieves good men, exasper-
ates them and causes them to behave disorderly."

Music in America is a very recent development. Indeed, with the
exception of a few names, every American composer of note is of the pres-
ent generation. While almost every American composer received his train-
ing at the hands of German teachers, American music has always struck
a personal note. Nor is this due to the use of negro or Indian themes
from which native composers cannot be said as yet to have derived much
inspiration.

America has brought forth, in the last generation, a school of orches-
tral writers of which John Knowles Paine (1839-1906), George Whitfield

Chadwick (1854 ), and Edward Alexander MacDowell (1861-1908),

are the foremost, while Horatio Parker (1863 ) has brought the

American oratorio to a much higher standard than it had ever before at-
tained. These names are now familiar to European concert-goers.

451

AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

Let us meet these men with a passing introduction in the order of their
day. Paine, the American organist and composer, was born in Maine and
at an early age felt the spell of Germany ; and there he went to study with
the masters. The love of homeland soon called him back, and he found
himself in the classic surroundings of Cambridge as a professor of music
at Harvard. The Muses cast their spell over him, and his first contribu-
tion was the music for the "GEdipus Tyrannus" of Sophocles. He was
chosen to write the "Centennial Hymn" to Whittier's words for the Cen-
tennial Exposition at Philadelphia in 1876, and the Columbus march and
hymn for the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893 — thus
bestowing informally upon him the first "laureateship" in our national
music. He rose to his full height, however, when he wrote the opera
"Azara," which is worthy to become a permanent work, and later pro-
duced many symphonic poems and cantatas.

New England, that portion of our country which has contributed so
largely to American nationality, then gave another of its sons to the Muses
— George Whitfield Chadwick — a product of Massachusetts. Chadwick,
too, was drawn to Leipsic and then returned to Boston, where he became
a musical director and conducted the annual music festivals at Worcester.
His claims to distinction lie in his opera "Judith," a symphony "Jubilee,"
a comic opera "Tobasco," and a chorus, the "Columbian Ode."

The greatest American composer, according to the foreign critics, is
Edward Alexander MacDowell. A New Yorker by birth, but of Scottish
descent, MacDowell early won recognition in Europe. He studied in
Paris and in Germany. At the age of twenty-one, he was invited by Liszt
to play his first piano suite before the formidable Allgemeiner Deutscher
Musik Verein, the most exclusive musical society of Germany, which ac-
corded him an enthusiastic reception. His works succeeded from the first
in winning favor; they are played constantly in Germany, Austria, Hol-
land, Russia and France. One of them was performed three times in one
single season in Breslau.

MacDowell never was attracted by negro music, but always contended
that the virile strains of Indian songs are more adapted to the American
temperament than the rather lazy, sensuous slave tunes of the South. He
collected and compiled the folk-music of the prairies and based one of his
most important works upon Indian themes. This is his "Indian Suite" — •
a work which is being performed frequently and always leaves a very
profound impression on the audience, especially the solemn dirge which
constitutes one of its numbers. Besides the "Indian Suite," MacDowell
has written several poems for orchestra and orchestral suites. His so-
natas, "Eroica," "Tragica," "Scandinavian," and "Celtic," his various com-

452

GREAT AMERICAN COMPOSERS

positions for piano, and his many songs have great charm and individu-
ality. In recitals of his own compositions MacDowell showed that he
was not only a great composer but a pianist of the first rank.

The classicist of the conservative academic school in American music
is Horatio William Parker — the scholar of almost every known musical
form from a symphony to an operetta, from an oratorio to chamber music.
Parker is another product of Massachusetts brought into an European
environment. He was graduated from the Munich Royal Conservatory
and then came home to his native land as an organist and professor of the
theory of music at Yale University. His compositions rank high in Amer-
ican music; they include the oratorio "Hora Novissima," the first American
music presented at an English musical festival; "A Wanderer's Psalm,"
which also was given at the English festivals; the oratorio of "St. Chris-
topher"; the cantatas "King Trojan" and "The Kobolds," with many later
works. It is Parker who holds the distinction of composing the first opera of
the classical school that approaches the long-sought ambition of "the great
American opera." His production of "Mona" received the $10,000 award
offered in competition with all the American composers by the Metropolitan
Opera Company. This earned for him the position of our "greatest Amer-
ican composer" after the death of MacDowell.

The Spirit of Music is now reigning over America — genius is strug-
gling to break its bonds and soar to the pinnacle of the divine art. Many
notable composers are rising, whom, however, the limitations of these pages
will not allow us to discuss — but among them are Converse with his "The
Pipe of Desire" and other notable contributions; Victor Herbert with his
"Natoma," and Arthur Nevins.

America has produced a popular idol of modern pianists — Ethelbert
Nevin. He was born near Pittsburgh. His writings have been altogether
along the smaller lines of composition, short, simple, delicate little pieces,
which have won him an enviable place as a worker in gems. It is pleasant
to record the achievements of a composer who has been financially success-
ful without ever forfeiting the respect of the greatest artists and harmonists,
and without sacrificing his own conscience and individuality. Graceful
and lyrical, though not afraid of radical modernism in harmony, he devoted
his genius to songs and piano pieces exclusively. His "Sketch-Book,"
"Day in Venice," "In Arcady," "Serenade," justify fully what the famous
pianist and musical editor, Klindworth, said of him : "He can say for the
musical world something that no one else can say."

America has given the world one of the most versatile of geniuses in
John Philip Sousa, bandmaster, composer, novelist, and writer of humor-
ous verse. At the age of 1 1 he first appeared in public as a violin soloist,

453

AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

at 15 was teaching harmony, at 22 became one of the first violins in an
orchestra conducted by Offenbach, and later was appointed conductor of
the United States Marine Band.

It was when he began to compose marches that his fame spread, first
throughout this country, then abroad. Such is the lilt of his music that
his marches have invaded the realm of the dance. There is probably no
composer in the world whose financial success equals his. He sold his
"Washington Post" march outright for $35, but his "Liberty Bell March"
has netted him $100,000, and his "Stars and Stripes Forever" added
greatly to his fame and his income. He became too big for the Marine
Band, and organized the Sousa Band, touring his own country, Europe;
and then the world. When he began writing comic operas his success
was still greater. He has written the music for eleven, including "El
Capitan," "The Smugglers" and "The Charlatan." Also he has composed
several suites, symphonic poems and many songs. Lately he has com-
posed numerous other marches, including "America: The Messiah of Na-
tions," "The March of the States," and "The Hippodrome March." Not
content with musical fame, he wrote two successful novels, "The Fifth
String" and "Pipetown Sandy." He has been decorated by the king of
Great Britain and by the French Government. His compositions for the
band, however, have won universal approval. Thus it is that the son of
a Portuguese father and a German mother has made at least one variety of
American music famous in all parts of the world.

Among the thorough Americans who should be mentioned here is
Edgar Stillman Kelley, a son of the Middle West, having been born in
Wisconsin. His first work was stage music to "Macbeth," and was played
in San Francisco with great success. His second work, a comic opera,
was refused by the man who had ordered it; completely discouraged, Kelley
abandoned music for journalism. He was, fortunately, prevailed upon to
return to composition. A humorous symphony and a "Chinese suite" met
with immediate success after his previous disappointment. Two songs
which are settings of verse by Poe, "Eldorado," and "Israfel" will prob-
ably prove his masterpieces; for they are perhaps the greatest lyrics in
modern music.

To Anton Dvorak, the Bohemian composer, who came to this country
in 1892 and glorified Southern music in his symphony, the "New World,"
America is in a measure indebted for the compositions of Harvey Worth-
ington Loomis. An amateur until he met Dvorak, Loomis received so
much encouragement at the hands of the Bohemian master that he decided
to givt a free rein to his artistic leanings. Although Loomis has written

M \STERPIECE FROM MORGAN ART COLLECTION — This inannilicout painting is reproduced

in this volume through courtesy of Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan — It Is Raphael's "\ irjjin and

Child Enthroned with Saints" — The original Is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

GIANT DINOSAUR FROM WYOMIN

PREHISTORIC SKULI

GROUP FROM A HOPI VILLAGE

AMERICAN INDIANS IN ARIZONA

AMERICAN BIRDS - BROWN PELICAN FROM INDIAN RIVER IN FLORIDA

IROQUIOS INDIAN WOMAN POUNDING CORN

AMERICAN ANIMALS -ROOSEVELT ELK FROM NORTHWESTERN UNITED STATES

BROUGHT F"ROTH GREEN LAN ID ^ROBERT ZPEARY BEAVERS FROM COLORADO - SHOWING HOW THESE ANIMALS LIVE AND W

HISTORIC COLLECTIONS IN FAMOUS AMERICAN MTSEl'MS — The exhibits on these pages are repro-
duced by special permission from the Museum of Natural History of New York — This Institution
is a treasure house of all mementos gathered from all parts of the earth.

WEIGHT 40 TONS- LENGTH 70 FEET

LIFE AMONG THE AMERICAN INDIANS

NAVAJO INDIAN GROUP

PREHISTORIC SKULL

INDIAN WAR CANOE FROM AtASKA-64X2 FEET LONG DUG FROM A SINGLE TREE

POLAR BEARS -MALE ON RIGHT BROUGHT FROM ARCTIC BY ROBERT E.PEARY

AMERICAN EGRET FROM SOUTH CAROLINA

r-RlCAN BISON OR BUFFALO - FROM THE PRAIRIES OF THE GREAT WEST

SHELL CAMEO CARVED IN ITALY
GEM COLLECTION OF J. PIERPONT MORGAN

MISKTM OF NATURAL IIISTOKY — This institution is rich in its archeological collections — Here we can

flnd the remains of all epochs of mankind; Egyptian nommlajL war implements, stuffed animals,

birds, flsh ; exhibitions of Costumes and customs, gems, and other objects.

BEAUTIFUL WATERFALLS OF THE YOSEMITE — Here silver streams fall through solid granite

precipices into the valley below — These streams flow through the most beautiful pine

forests in the world and form hundreds of glacier lakes.

GREAT AMERICAN COMPOSERS

over 500 compositions, only a few have been published, the flimsiest of'
them at that, ballet suites which reveal him as a master colorist.

Another composer with a strong national tinge is Henry Schoenfeld,
of Milwaukee, who, long before Dvorak had called the attention of Amer-
ican musicians to Southern melodies, embodied them in his "Suite," his
"Sunny South," and other orchestral works. Indian themes fill the texture
of his "Three Indians." Finally, his patriotism expressed itself through
his "American Flag," a festival overture inspired by Rodman Drake's
familiar poem.

While Arthur Foote, of Salem, Massachusetts, has written very solid
compositions, some of them performed with success by the Boston Sym-
phony Orchestra, his real contribution to American music will probably
be his choruses for men's voices. For two years the leader of the Glee
Club of Harvard University, Arthur Foote acquired a decided fondness
for the color and warmth which characterize college singing. He came
to appreciate the leaning toward dramatic effect, as well as the sense of wit
and humor which glee clubs cultivate, and which is not essentially incom-
patible with real value in music.

There is also a large body of naturalized foreigners, the best known
among them being Walter Damrosch, born in Breslau, Germany, and Vic-
tor Herbert, born in Dublin, who are giving their genius to make American
musical life one of great activity. The present generation of American
composers gives the most glowing promise for the future.

"Let me write the songs of a nation and I care not who makes the
laws," said a philosopher. This is especially true in America, where the
popular song is having its vogue. In the short song form, native talent is
being more and more recognized.

America will give the world great music, because the national charac-
teristics of this country embody all the essentials of the Art — nervous en-
ergy, reserve force, controlled temperament, human passion, dramatic ac-
tion, intellectual poise, economic ideals, and spiritual power — all of which,
when directed in the channels of music, will make noble contribution to
the art which "raises the soul above all earthly storms."

In the words of Longfellow we may say:

"Yea, music is the Prophet's art
Among the gifts that God has sent,
One of the most magnificent"

PART V CHAPTER XX

"I speak of that learning which makes us acquainted with the boundless
extent of nature and the universe, and which, even while we remain in this
world, discovers to us both heaven, earth, and sea." — Cicero.

building of a democracy — its success or failure — depends
upon the average understanding of the average man — a com-
mon standard of the common knowledge necessary for each to
assume his portion of the responsibility and perform his part
of the labors required in the daily task of self-government.

"Knowledge is power," said Bacon, and Emerson added, 'There is no
knowledge that is not power," while Addison sounded a warning when he
declared: "I would rather excel others in knowledge than in power."
This is the handwriting on the wall to all nations struggling toward
democracy — their security rests in free and equal distribution of educa-
tional opportunities ; in common knowledge as the common property of all
the people. This problem is of larger economic importance to a nation
than the distribution of its wealth, for any community in which knowledge
is the common property of all the people will be able to solve wisely all
other problems that may arise.

Emerson defines knowledge as "the amassed thought and experience
of innumerable minds," but we would add — placed at the disposal and
within reach of all the people all the time. Education of the fortunate
few develops an educational autocracy which is equally as dangerous as
financial oligarchy or industrial feudalism. The education of the masses
is the whole secret of democracy, and self-government cannot exist with-
out it.

This is the foundation stone upon which American nationality is be-
ing constructed — the free public school, which is perhaps America's great-
est contribution to civilization. There are to-day more than 20,000,000
children in the public schools of the United States — raw material being
molded into units capable of self-development, self-control, and self-gov-
ernment. This is costing the nation annually more than $800,000,000,
and it is the biggest dividend-paying investment that a nation has ever
made. It is estimated that we expend $2,000 on every child in the
United States in equipping it for self-support, to send it out into the
world to develop the natural resources of the earth and thus increase the

460

GREAT AMERICAN EDUCATORS

wealth of the nation. Each child is itself a mine of hidden wealth for
which the public school acts as a prospector and endeavors to strike a
paying vein of natural wealth. The public school system is a co-operative,
profit-sharing plan, whereby all the people as common stockholders under-
take to develop the natural resources of their offspring, thus increasing not
only the earning power of the individual but multiplying the wealth of
the nation many fold. The discovery of native genius in one child in a
generation may contribute billions of dollars — incalculable wealth — to
human society. "The learned man," as PhEedrus said, "always has riches
in himself."

The origin and development of this educational system, like that of
all other momentous ideas, were born of many struggles and much oppo-
sition. Education for many centuries, until the American idea was es-
tablished, was left largely to the church. It was a monopoly controlled
by a few privileged persons and dispensed only to those favored ones who
could pay for it, or a matter of charity. From the earliest times the church
encouraged learning and there were many great mediaeval universities. Its
first liberation began when the church discovered that knowledge was one
of the attributes of God and the common inheritance of all the human
race, and undertook to administer it as an adjunct to its ministry to the
spiritual forces, as the first step in finding God.

When the first Dutch traders came to New Amsterdam and the first
English colonizers came to Jamestown they were in search of increased
wealth and had no intention of founding a government. The earlier
Spanish and French explorers were precursors of commerce and trade —
not education. The Pilgrim migration to Plymouth and that of the Puri-
tans to Boston were wholly for purposes of liberation from autocracy.
They came to establish religious ideals, but brought with them also an
almost complete indifference to educational problems. It was not many
years, however, before the Puritans recognized that there could be no
freedom of religious expression without free knowledge. It was left to
them to establish the first free elementary school, the first free Latin school,
and the first university. The records of Boston show that in 1635 it was
agreed upon "that our brother Philemon Pormort shall be entreated to be-
come schoolmaster for the teaching and nurturing of children with us."
For the support of that school the principal inhabitants of the town sub-
scribed from four shillings to ten pounds each. Pormorfs school still ex-
ists as the Boston Latin school.

It was on Christmas Day, in 1641, that the first real free school re-
ceiving an allowance "from the common stock of the town" was opened
in New Haven, three years after the foundation of the city by a Massa-

461

AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

chusctts company. This school had as its first teacher Ezekiel Cheever,
America's first great educator. From the age of twenty-three when he
arrived in Boston till he died hi his 94th year, Cheever devoted all his en-
ergy to the training of youth and to devising educational methods.
Cheever wrote the first text-books ever published in America. When he
died at his post the great divine, Cotton Mather, delivered the funeral
sermon and in speaking of Cheever's services said: "Ink is too vile a
liquor; liquid gold should fill the pen by which such things are told."

Education, however, was an aristocracy in America for these first
hundred years or more. Massachusetts and New Hampshire were the only
places having a few free schools and those institutions had to wage a bitter
struggle for existence. The American Revolution awakened the first real
consciousness of the need of liberal education among the people. During
the period following the war the typical New England Academy was
originated. One of those institutions, Dummer Academy, had as one of its
pupils Samuel Phillips Andover, to whom American learning is deeply
indebted; he was instrumental in establishing Phillips Andover and Phil-
lips Exeter Academies.

The greatest pioneer of free education outside of New England was
the Governor of New York, George Clinton, who constantly tried to im-
press upon the people the necessity of training the minds of the young for
the duties of free citizenship. It was not until 18 12, however, that the
movement which he had initiated in 1787 triumphed over indifference and
prejudice and received the attention necessary for the establishment of
free schools. The growth of democratic ideals found its reflex in the pub-
lic school system. Daniel Webster sounded its depths when in his oration
at the laying of the cornerstone of Bunker Hill Monument, he declared:
"Knowledge is the only fountain, both of love and the principles of
human liberty."

It was about the middle of last century that there appeared a man
devoted to educational freedom and inspired by his comprehension of its
power as a democratizing influence. To Horace Mann, America owes
the absolutely modern and progressive trend which characterizes all her
schools. To realize what forceful influence this great educator wielded
over his times we only have to remember that the British Parliament or-
dered one of his reports on education printed and distributed all over
England and that the German government had his fifth and seventh re-
ports translated and printed in several large editions.

Born in poverty, Horace Mann (1796-1859) struggled to acquire a
little education while working on a farm in spring, summer and autumn
and while braiding straw for hats all winter long. Until he was fifteen

462

FIRST UNIVERSITY IN AMERICA — Glimpse of campus at Harvard, in Cambridge, Massachu-
setts— It "was founded in 1636 as centre of American culture — 'The institution has
about 5,000 students — Its productive funds are nearly $30,000,000.

HISTORIC CAMPUS AT YALE UNIVERSITY— This institution was founded in 1701 — It
located in New Haven, Connecticut, where it has about 4,000 students —
Its productive funds and endowments are about $16,000,000,

IN THE SOUTH — Washington and Leo University at Lexington,
mi — v iiiiiLrii-n ».- 'Liberty Hall Academy" in 17*2 ; became Washington College in
1813 — (Joneral Robert E. Lee became its president at close of the Civil War.

HISTORIC UNIVERSITY
Virginia — Chartered

UNIVERSITY FOUNDED 15 Y THOMAS JEFFERSON— University of Virginia, located at Char-

lottesvillo — Established by the State legislature in 1.K1!» from a plan by .lefferson -The

buildings form a picturesque quadrangle — Institution has about 1.000 students,

GREAT AMERICAN EDUCATORS

years old, he never attended school more than ten weeks a year. The
privations which he had to endure in order to go through college unaided
made him almost a physical wreck, but his indomitable will carried him
over all obstacles. After graduation, he found employment in a law of-
fice. At thirty, he was a member of the legislature and at once stepped
into prominence. Disdainful of the business opportunities which his seat
in the House could have secured for him, Horace Mann unselfishly gave
his time and thought to educational reforms.

There has been no other instance in the parliamentary history of any
State where a born leader, a man of commanding ability, of recognized
skill in law and politics, devoted himself to legislative life for years with
only one purpose — to pass laws for the benefit of children, idiots, the in-
sane, the deaf, and the blind. Elected to the State Senate and almost
immediately after to the presidency of that body, Horace Mann unhesi-
tatingly abandoned what might have been a brilliant political career to
accept the modest position of secretary of the State Board of Education.
His reports created a violent outburst of indignation among the smug
schoolmasters of New England, who felt to quote Mann's words, "driven
out of the Paradise which their self-esteem had erected for them." Op-
position to his ideas became venomous.

Fortunately, men of liberal minds like Josiah Quincy, Charles Sum-
ner, Edward Everett, John G. Whittier, Theodore Parker, and others,
pledged themselves, with a few prominent merchants, to protect Horace
Mann against the machinations of the schoolmasters who had all but won
over the legislature to their conservative views. Charles Sumner himself
gave bond for the expenses that Horace Mann's proposed reforms would
entail. The great educator began his work in earnest. Better teachers,
better schoolhouses, and better books — such was the first part of his pro-
gramme. Normal schools for the training of teachers was its first corol-
lary. Mann started on a campaign tour of all the cities and towns in his
State. He gave everywhere educational addresses and aroused the public
and especially the newspapers from their indifference to matters of
liberal education.

This American educator proclaimed that the day had come when the
school system should be emancipated from its autocratic pedagogy. He
asserted the rights of the pupil; he declared that flogging should cease;
that fads should be eliminated from elementary schools; that schools
should be placed in the hands of experienced superintendents; that the
school year should be longer, and that more of the public moneys should
be spent for public education.

These principles, which no intelligent person would even discuss in

465

AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

our days, were revolutionary to Mann's contemporaries — to them he was
a radical and a fanatic. At fifty-six, Horace Mann found himself de-
feated both as an educator and as a politician. Poor, broken in health,
he left the State that had refused to recognize his talent and accepted the
presidency of a small college in Ohio. There again the trustees soon made
life unbearable for him. But during the six years of his presidency he
labored to strengthen the faith and inspire the devotion of thousands of
young men and women all over the West.

Mann died, however, in the knowledge that he had won a great vic-
tory. To-day the leaders of thought, men of character and weight in every
line of endeavor, recognize in glowing terms the debt which they owe to
Horace Mann. His last utterance was typical of his spirit: "Be ashamed
to die until you have won some victory for humanity."

The next progressive step in the educational emancipation of the
American people introduces a woman — a woman with only the most rudi-
mentary schooling, who never could write well, who never was a brilliant
speaker, who never received much recognition in her day, and whose highest
salary throughout her entire life was $260 a year. This woman was Mary
Lyon (1787-1849), the mother of educational privileges for American
women. Something of her life is told in the chapter on "Great American
Women." It is sufficient here to state that sixty years ago there was not
one endowed seminary for girls on this continent. Now girls have at their
disposal hundreds of colleges, seminaries, and normal schools. The first
seminary was founded by Mary Lyon, who, after years of downright beg-
ging for the cause of education, finally collected $60,000 wherewith she
established Mount Holyoke Seminary in Massachusetts in the autumn of
1837. The opposition she encountered was very powerful, for in those
days it was thought wrong, if not immoral, for girls to attend school. In
fact, as late as 1810 there was no provision anywhere in America for the
education of girls. Mary Lyon was submitted to much ridicule for insist-
ing on the Mount Holyoke scholars doing a certain amount of housework
every day. In spite of all the criticisms, pupils flocked to the new institu-
tion. The American public soon began to extend its endorsement to Mary
Lyon's favorite saying: "Educate the women, and men will be educated."

The work of developing the normal school system was promulgated
by David P. Page (1810-1848), who has deserved the name of "The
Normal School Leader." No book on the subject of education has been
more widely read and pondered over by American teachers than Page's
"Theory and Practise of Teaching." He, too, encountered fierce opposi-
tion on the part of old-fashioned teachers and politicians. The normal
school idea was considered as visionary. Page had to imitate Mann's

466

(GREAT AMERICAN EDUCATORS

tactics and present his case to the public in a series of addresses throughout
New York State. Exhausted by the fight, he died in his thirty-eighth year.
His book, however, has remained the gospel of the teaching profession.

To Henry Barnard (1811-1900), Connecticut and Rhode Island owe
their system of free schools which for the past fifty years have ranked
with the best in the country. A lasting monument to his fame is the
"American Journal of Education," which he founded and supported, sink-
ing ultimately his entire private fortune in the venture. The files of that
journal contain an enormous amount of information about education the
world over; no such series of books on education had ever been published.

A notable name in the West is that of Newton Bateman (1822—
1897). No higher tribute can be paid to him than to characterize him
as educational leaders of this country have done — "The Horace Mann of
the West or the Abraham Lincoln of education." Many eminent men
arose with the liberation of education: John Dudley Philbrick (1818-
1886) is recognized as the greatest City School Superintendent; Edward
A. Sheldon, founder of the Oswego Teachers' Training School; James P.
Wickersham is Pennsylvania's famous educator; his book on "School Man-
agement" remained a standard for over a quarter of a century and has been
translated into many foreign languages, being used at present by all the
normal schools in Japan. Due homage must be rendered to men like
Mark Hopkins, Frederick A. P. Barnard, and Charles Finney; their lives
were spent in building up a certain institution of learning rather than to-
ward the introduction of educational reforms of general interest.

The future of the American nation rests largely in the control of the
public school system. It is here that we are training each generation to
assume the responsibilities of government. Here we find in embryo the
business men of the future, the industrial leaders, the statesmen, the me-
chanics, tradesmen, and professional men — all must come from the ranks
of our schools. We have established in this country the democracy of
education — and it is to this principle that we must subscribe : Education
is democracy; it is emancipation first from ignorance, then from oppres-
sion by others, then from bondage to self, and finally it is a complete spir-
itual awakening. "Every addition to true knowledge," said Mann, "is an
addition to human power" and consequently to the ultimate greatness and
permanency of national existence.

467

PART V CHAPTER XXI

GREAT AMERICAN WOMEN

"Woman's empire, holier, more refined,

Moulds, moves, and sways the fallen yet God-breathed mind,

Lifting the earth-crushed heart to hope and heaven."

—Kale's "Empire of Woman,"

""W""^ ARTH'S noblest thing," remarks Lowell, "is a woman per-

L^ fected." And as Macaulay reflected: "The most beautiful

j object in the world is a beautiful woman" — a woman beauti-

ful in character, in intellectual poise, in achievement. This

epitomizes the American woman to-day and her service to the nation —

"first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of her countrymen."

The most significant spiritual fact of the Twentieth Century is the
struggle going in the breast of humanity to balance and readjust sex.
The whole human race is at last becoming vaguely conscious that it can-
not move onward without this readjustment. Therefore, an entirely new
conception of the meaning of sex, and of the relation of men and women
to each other, are being born out of this struggle. Woman's economic
freedom, which has slumbered for ages, awakes, responsive to the forces
of the stern world of man. The change startles the world, for it is shat-
tering age-long customs, and one of the results of this revolution is that
woman is emblazoning her name in the light of action and history. More
women are actually under the light of public attention at this moment,
because of their achievements, than there were through the whole two thou-
sand years preceding the Nineteenth Century.

Who are the famous American women, and how did they acquire their
fame? According to Mrs. Cora Sutton Castle, who is regarded as an au-
thority on this subject, there are in all history the names of 868 women,
each of whose achievements were sufficient to give her permanent record.
Of this number seventy-five are American women, a very large number
considering the short history of the United States. Mrs. Harriet Beecher
Stowe is the most widely known American woman in history.

It is a remarkable fact that, with the increase of population of the
American people by every ten millions, their increase in eminent women
is far more than corresponding. The status of the American woman has
so changed that her world fifty years ago is as much a stranger to her
world to-day as the Tenth Century is to the Twentieth Century. This

468

OLDEST COLLEGE IN THE SOUTHERN STATES— William and Mary College was founded at

Williamsburg, Virginia, in 1693 — Second oldest college in United States, with

Harvard first — First American college to establish chairs of law and history.

GLIMPSE OF PRINCETON UNIVERSITY— This institution was founded in Princeton, New

Jersey, In 1746 — It has nearly 2,000 students — Its productive funds are nearly $6,000,000 —
< Woodrow Wilson was at one time President of this University.

FIRST COLLEGE FOR WOMEN IN" AMERICA — Vassar College is located at Poughkeepsie,

New York — It was founded in 1H01 "to accomplish for young women what other colleges

are accomplishing for young men" This institution has about l.iiOO students.

EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN AMERICA — Smith College is located at Northampton, Mass-
achusetts— It was founded in 1871 and was among the first to recognize music and
art among the qualifications for a degree — It has over 1,700 students.

GREAT AMERICAN WOMEN

great change in her position has been brought about by the revolution in
her education and the wide extension of her employment. No woman is
making such progress as the American woman.

Here only brief sketches of a few names taken from history can be
given. The eminent living women are so numerous that it would require
more than a chapter of this book simply to mention their names. The fol-
lowing sketches are of nine representatives of famous American women.

The first of these was Deborah Sampson, a school teacher born in
Plymouth County, Massachusetts, 1758. At the age of twenty, she as-
sumed male attire and joined the Revolutionary army. She enrolled un-
der the name of Robert Shirtliff and was one of the first volunteers in
the company of Captain Nathan Thayer, of Medway, Massachusetts.
She took part in many brisk actions and was twice wounded, once by a
sword cut on the left side of the head. Her companions called her Molly
in allusion to her bashful behavior and her beardless face, but to the last
day she escaped detection, even when she was taken with brain fever and
almost died. Finally a physician discovered her patriotic fraud and sent
her with a personal letter to George Washington's headquarters. The
great man received her without speaking one single word and handed her
a discharge from service together with a round sum of money. After the
termination of the war she married Benjamin Gannett, of Sharon, Penn-
sylvania. When Washington was President she received a letter inviting
her to visit the seat of the Government. Congress was then in session, and
during her stay at the capitol a bill was passed granting her a pension in
addition to certain lands which she was to receive for her services to the
country in a military capacity.

Margaret Fuller (1810-1850), who was the most brilliant of New
England women, came from a family in which there had been many men
of unusual intelligence. All her life she was fortunate enough to enjoy
the acquaintance and the friendship of the leading people of her day.
Her first meeting with Emerson, when she was about twenty-five years old,
had a decisive influence upon the whole course of her life. He saw at once
what a superior woman she was, invited her to Concord, and, when it be-
came necessary for her, owing to her father's death, to earn a living, Emer-
son introduced her to many people whom she taught or before whom she
lectured. Her first literary effort was a translation of Eckerman's con-
versations with Goethe, when she was only twenty-eight years of age.
One year later she became editor of the Dial, which was published to spread
the doctrine of transcendentalism. After she had held that position for
five years, she was invited by Horace Greeley to take charge of the
Tribune's literary department. Some of the essays she published in the

471

AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

Dial and the Tribune: "Summer on the Lakes," "Woman in the igth Cen-
tury," "Papers on Literature and Art," have been frequently reprinted and
live in our literature as classics of their kind.

Margaret Fuller's character made her perhaps more powerful and
better known than her writings. Her great love and her helpful influence,
her active mind, her strong nature left a very deep influence on all those
with whom she ever associated. At thirty-six she went to Europe and
added many great names to her list of friends. In England she was most
intimate with Thomas Carlyle and in France with George Sand. While
in Italy she married Marquis Ossoli and, as Rome was then under siege,
she took charge of one of the hospitals and distinguished herself for her
zeal and devotion. Soon after she decided to return to America, but the
vessel on which she sailed was wrecked off Fire Island and she was drowned
with her husband and child.

Lucretia Mott (1793-1880) was one of the first women in this coun-
try to take a decided stand against slavery. Before the names of Garri-
son and his friends were heard, she began to use her influence in favor
of abolitionism. She taught and at a very early age preached in Quaker
meeting houses on slavery, temperance, and pacificism, and gained so
much popularity that she journeyed over the country addressing groups of
Friends. She and her husband were appointed, together with Garrison,
and Mr. and Mrs. Stanton, to represent America at the World's Anti-slav-
ery Convention in London in 1839, but with the other women she was ex-
cluded from participation in the meetings. By Garrison's efforts, "break-
fasts" were arranged at which they were allowed to express their opinions
before the members of the congress. Lucretia Mott believed that women
should have perfect equality with men, and, when the first Woman's Rights
convention met at Genesee Falls, her husband presided and she proved
one of the most active members. Besides being an eloquent speaker and
an able worker, Mrs. Mott was a model housekeeper, who trained her
children carefully, and loved her husband whose views coincided so com-
pletely with her own.

The career of Dorothea Dix (1802-1887) is a romance of philan-
thropy which the world cannot afford to forget. She has been called the
most useful and distinguished woman that America has produced. As the
founder of institutions of mercy she has no peer in history. She was first
a school teacher and then a governess in the family of the famous Dr.
Charming, but ill health compelled her to abandon an educational ca-
reer. In spite of her weakened condition, however, she engaged in phil-
anthropic work. The first thing that she did was to improve the condition
of the women inmates of the East Cambridge jail, where she taught Sun-

472

GREAT AMERICAN WOMEN

day School. For two years, note-book in hand, she traveled from town
to town, investigating the condition of the various jails, after which she
sent seventeen appeals to as many legislatures, describing the condition of
prisoners kept in "cages, closets, cellars, stalls, pens, chained, naked, beaten
with rods and lashed into obedience."

The result of her exposures was the enlargement of three asylums,
at Worcester, Massachusetts, Providence, Rhode Island, and Utica, New
York; the establishment of thirteen asylums, one in each of the following
States: New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennes-
see, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, North Carolina, Maryland; and the
Hospital for Insane Soldiers in Washington, D. C. She proposed, in 1850,
a larger scheme of philanthropy than had ever been projected before. She
petitioned Congress to appropriate 12,000,000 acres of public lands for the
benefit of the indigent insane, deaf mutes and blind. The bill passed both
houses, but President Pierce vetoed it. Dorothea Dix served as su-
perintendent of women nurses during the four years of the Civil War,
after which she returned to her former work and continued it until 1881,
promoting the erection of hospitals and visiting those that had already been
established. She built a hospital in Trenton, New Jersey, and died there
in 1887.

Harriet Beecher Stowe (1812-1896), the most famous of American
women, was the author of "Uncle Tom's Cabin," which appeared nine
years before the Civil War and was undoubtedly the most widely circu-
lated book in America. More than any other writings and more than
all the speeches of all the abolition orators did it shape public opinion
in the North as far as slavery was concerned. It was "Uncle Tom's Cabin"
that built up the Republican Party and raised volunteers when the great
conflict became unavoidable. Harriet Beecher Stowe was the daugh-
ter of the great divine, Lyman Beecher, and she was one of the most gifted
members of the famous Beecher family. While in Cincinnati she mar-
ried Professor Stowe, then president of Lane Theological Seminary, which
her father had helped to found. She lived for some time on the boundary
line of the slave States, and many a time she saw fugitive slaves who had
crossed the Ohio River from the Kentucky shore dragged back to the life
they hated in spite of what white people could do for them. The Aboli-
tionist party was organized then, but was despised, even in the North.

Mrs. Stowe thought that if the world could realize the negroes' suf-
ferings and the degrading effect which slavery had on white people, pub-
lic opinion might change. It was then that she conceived the idea of
writing "Uncle Tom's Cabin," and though very poor and obliged to care
for several young children, she undertook her great work. Before this

473

AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

she had written stories, but her name had never attracted much notice.
Her book appeared in instalments in the Washington National Era. Be-
sides creating a tremendous impression all over the States, "Uncle Tom's
Cabin" brought its author fame and wealth. The most eminent people
in the world entered into correspondence with her and her success as a
literary woman was assured. Out of the fifteen volumes which she pub-
lished, only two have retained a certain popularity.

Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906), like Lucretia Mott, was born a
Quakeress in Adams, Massachusetts. She taught school from the age
of fifteen to thirty, and then became very active in the total abstinence
and anti-slavery movements. After the Civil War, she devoted herself
entirely to the woman suffrage movement. In 1868 she founded The
Revolution, a women's rights paper, which she edited for three years.
She suffered valiantly for the cause which she advocated, and in 1872 de-
cided to test the election law by casting a vote. She was arrested, tried,
and fined, but this did not discourage her in any way. She spoke through-
out the United States and England, took part in many State campaigns,
and appeared before several congressional committees. She contributed
to the leading magazines, and, with Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and
Mrs. Matilda Joslyn Gage, published an extensive history of the suffrage
movement in three volumes.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815-1902), who had attended the Lon-
don Anti-slavery Congress with Lucretia Mott, was the wife of an ardent
abolitionist, Henry B. Stanton. She had for her time an unusual educa-
tion, having studied mathematics, Latin, and Greek and having won a
scholarship. She graduated at the head of the class at the Johnstown
Academy and felt very indignant when she was not allowed to enter col-
lege, although the boys, who in scholarship had ranked after her, were
granted that privilege. She helped her husband in his anti-slavery work
and soon took up the cause of women's rights under the influence of the
little Quakeress, Lucretia Mott. The way in which she had been treated
at the London Convention aroused in her the indignation which she had
felt at the end of her academic course over the disabilities of women, and
she resolved to do all that there was in her power to have woman's posi-
tion changed. It was partly due to her efforts that the first Women's
Rights Conference met at Seneca Falls in 1848. Ever afterward, she de-
voted all her time and energy to creating a feeling favorable to the grant-
ing of equal rights to women.

Frances E. Willard (1839-1898) was the greatest woman orator that
this country has ever produced and one of the greatest woman leaders of her
time. She possessed eloquence, pathos, and humor to such a degree that

474

UNIVERSITIES IX THE SOUTHWEST — This is the University of Texas, located at Austin-
It was founded in 1883 — The University is conducted by the State and has about 2,700
students — It exerts a wide influence in the affairs of the Southwest.

! I HI I if if 111

H'211'fli)

CLOISTEK CAUDKX AT I5KYX MAWK COLLEGE— This educational institution forewomen is

located at P.ryn Mawr. Pennsylvania — It was founded in isso and has about 50O students

— This photograph was t:ik<'ii during an open-air play near the library.

BIRTHPLACE OF FEMALE EDUCATION IN AMERICA — This; is Mount Ilolyoke College at
South Hartley. Massachusetts — It was founded as a seminary by Mary Lyon in 18:>(> and
became a college in 1S81 — This institution is a pioneer in female education.

AMERICAN COLLEGE CIULS AT WELLESLEY— This institution is located at Wellesley. Mass-
achusetts It was founded in 1N~5 and numbers about 1.50(1 students — This picturesque
scene shows the girls rowing on the lake, a feature of their student life.

GREAT AMERICAN WOMEN

she was surpassed by few platform speakers, and she threw into the great
reform work for temperance an indomitable masculine energy. Inciden-
tally, Miss Willard made a great speech at a Woman's Missionary meeting
in Chicago in 1870 and spoke of her vision of a new chivalry — the modern
crusade which the women of her country should enter upon; the chivalry of
justice; the justice that gives to woman to be all that God meant her to be.
The next day a wealthy, well-known Methodist called on her and en-
treated her to use the remarkable gift that she undoubtedly possessed and
to speak out to the world that which God had put into her heart. She ap-
pealed to her mother for advice, and that large hearted woman told her
to enter upon the work. The next day she addressed a great audience
and on the following morning she awoke to find that her eloquence had
made her famous.

The great temperance movement swept the country in 1874, and
Miss Willard was the torch-bearer. She was made President of the
Woman's Christian Temperance Union of Illinois in 1878. Her eloquence
now reached the ears of the habitues of the saloons, and, looking into their
pinched faces, she was reminded of the hunger which she had suffered in
the last year or two while working without money. The next year she was
elected President of the National Woman's Christian Temperance Union,
and in 1881 she made a tour of all the Southern States, and not once did
she offend the South. She was the first to conceive the international
scheme of binding women in a strong bond of union the world over. It
was this grand conception that culminated in the magnificent demonstra-
tion accorded her in Albert Hall, London, in 1897. She was called "the
best loved woman in the United States." Congress gave her statue a
place in Statuary Hall in the rotunda of the Capitol, and she was called
the "Uncrowned Queen of America" on that occasion.

Clara Barton (1821-1912) began her career as a school teacher,
and later, while working in the Patent Office in Washington, she discov-
ered her real vocation when the first train loaded with wounded pulled
into Washington on April 19th, 1861. She set out to nurse and feed
the victims of the war and to cheer them up by reading to them news-
paper accounts of the actions in which they had been injured. This, how-
ever, did not satisfy her. She applied for a pass beyond the firing line
and obtained it. No one employed her, and no one encouraged her at
first, but it was not long before the quartermaster recognized the value of
her work and began to honor all her requisitions. She actually organized
the hospital service of the Northern armies and compiled carefully the
hospital lists. After the war, she conducted a vast correspondence, ac-
counting to inquirers for over thirty thousand men dead or alive.

477

AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

When in Geneva in 1869, she heard of the International Red Cross
Society, which had been recently founded. A year later, she could watch
its wonderful work during the Franco-Prussian War, in which she served
as a nurse. After her return to this country, she labored for five years to
found an American branch of the Red Cross. In 1882 President Arthur
showed himself willing to second her efforts.

The first American Red Cross Society sprang into existence, with Clara
Barton as its president. She modified the aims of the society, to enable it
to render services in time of peace. At present that great society ministers
to all those that need its services. Its stamps are sold to help the con-
sumptive, and, wherever a great conflagration breaks out, or wherever a
flood or an earthquake makes thousands homeless, the Red Cross is there
ready for work of mercy.

One of the most useful and best beloved women of this country was
Mrs. Mary A. Livermore, who passed away a few years ago. The name
of Dr. Maria Mitchell also well deserves to be included in this list.
While in charge of the chair of astronomy at Vassar, she discovered a
new comet, a discovery regarded of so much importace in European sci-
entific circles that on her visit abroad she was accorded great distinction.
Dr. Mitchell was one of the two first American women to receive the
honor of being admitted as members to the American Society for the Ad-
vancement of Science, the other woman being Mrs. Elvira Lincoln Phelps,
who distinguished herself by popularizing the study of the science of bi-
ology a generation ago.

Every profession and vocation now contains the names of eminent
women. Within the last thirty years, more than twenty-five American
women have attained eminent distinction in literature. Some of these
names are household words among the American people. There is not a
well read girl in the country and scarcely a well read man who has not
perused the stories of Louisa M. Alcott. It is true that she belongs to an
early generation, but her work is still perennially vital in the heart of the
American people, which is more than can be said for some of the eminent
male writers who were her contemporaries. And every one is familiar with
the names of Mrs. Spofford, Miss Orne Jewett, Mrs. May Halleck Foote,
Mrs. Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward, "Octave Thanet" (Miss Alice
French), "Charles Edgebert Craddock" (Miss Murfree) and the author of
"The Quick and the Dead," Constance Fennimore Woolsen, Frances Hodg-
sen Burnett, Mary Mapes Dodge, Mrs. Deland, Alice Gary, Louise Imogen
Ginney, Edith Thomas, "Olive Thorne" Miller, Mrs. Jackson, and not
the least among them is the American woman in Italy who assumed the
famous pen name "Ouida."

478

GREAT AMERICAN WOMEN

All these names belong to the history of American letters, and the
works of their successors now crowd our libraries and book stalls. They
are a still more numerous company, for there are now more women writing
in America than there were women writing in all the world forty years ago.
And among them such women as Agnes Replier, Edith Wharton, Gertrude
Atherton, "Kate Douglas Wiggin," Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Mrs. Wil-
kins Freeman, Mary Johnson, Mrs. Glasgow, Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Ida
Tarbell, Elizabeth Jordan, and Elizabeth Bisland deserve to be mentioned
for at least the contemporary fame which they have won.

And there are a number of other women like Helen Gould Shepard,
Jane Addams, Mrs. Russell Sage, Mrs. E. H. Harriman, and Sister Rose
Hawthorne, who have become famous on account of their great usefulness
to the American people. These women are much loved by the people.

One of the most encouraging features in the progress of woman in
America is the important position she is now taking in the advancement of
science. Miss Edith Mosher has made a reputation for herself in the study
of trees in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Mrs. D. D. Gailliard is well-known
in the world of botany for the work she has done with orchids at Panama.
Mrs. Myrtle Shepherd Francis, of Ventura, California, is now known as the
"female Burbank." She experiments with old flowers. Dr. Elizabeth
Babcock and Miss Alice Johnson have rendered excellent service to science
at the Carnegie Institute, Boston, in their work in nutrition and diet. The
science of archaeology has acknowledged its debt to Miss Edith M. Hall
in her noted work at the University of Pennsylvania. Wellesley College
has also contributed original results of value to this science. In the As-
tronomical Observatory of the Carnegie Institute on Mt. Wilson, six
women are employed on the staff. Miss Ella Flagg Young, the Su-
perintendent of the Chicago Schools, and chosen a few years ago as
residing officer of the National Educational Association, is an eminent
woman in the field of education. From no list of contemporary famous
American women could be omitted the name of Dr. Anna Howard Shaw,
who has led the battle for woman suffrage. Dr. Shaw belongs to the min-
istry. The whole country knows the distinguished Washington lawyer,
Mrs. Belva Lockwood, who was the first woman to practice before the Su-
preme Court of the United States. Nearly every State Supreme Court
has its women practitioners. Mrs. Mary Margaret Bartelme is the pre-
siding judge of the Childrens' Court in Chicago and well-known for her
great tact and wisdom.

Some of the women mentioned above have not historically won fame,
but they have achieved contemporary eminence. Many of them have done
more than their famous historic predecessors.

479

PART VI CHAPTER XXII

GRANDEUR OF AMERICAN
SCENERY

"All are but parts of one stupendous whole,
Whose body Nature is, and God the soul."

— Pope.

THE Americans can proclaim with Milton: "Accuse not Nature,
she hath done her part; do thou but thine !" The American con-
tinent is the garden-land of the world; its beautiful rivers flow
through fertile valleys, garlanded in multi-colored foliage; its
majestic mountains lift their heads far into the sky like great watch-towers.
Nature has reflected all her moods on the American continent.

While the blue seas sweep the southern shores under drooping palms
and tropical skies, the snow-clad peaks stand guard over the ice-bound bor-
ders of the Arctic north. Every degree of temperature — the fruits and
bloom of all climates, in contrast with frigid barrenness, make this continent
a veritable planet in itself. There are rocky pinnacles, chasms, glaciers,
extinct volcanoes, geysers, canons, waterfalls, lakes, rivers, plains — all the
creations of nature and geological wizardry.

Americans are discovering that American scenery is just as picturesque
and much more grandiose and wild than the Alps of Switzerland. Swit-
zerland has no such groves on its mountain-sides, and even the giant cedars
of Libanus cannot compare with the big trees of California. Where else
could one find those chasms of fearful depth and length for which a new
word canon had to be added to the vocabulary?

All the savage beauty of the Norwegian fjords adorns the coast of
Maine. Mount Desert, some hundred miles from Portland, surrounded
by the sea and crowned with mountains, affords the only instance along
our Atlantic coast where mountains stand in close neighborhood to the sea.
Upon its shores are masses of cyclopean rocks heaped up in titanic dis-
order, reminding the onlooker of the most picturesque medieval fortresses
of the Old World. This island is about one hundred square miles in area.
It bears thirteen peaks, the highest being Green Mountain, from which the
view is most magnificent, for the forests of Mount Desert are crowded with
evergreens, tall firs, and spruce trees, and the slopes of every peak descend
into beautiful blue lakes.

Passing from Maine into New Hampshire, the traveler, seeking relief
from summer heat in the lowlands, can range over a high tableland forty-

480

STUPENDOUS MOUNTAIN CANYONS IN GKEAT WEST— The Royal Gorge in Colorado— More than

200 majestic peaks lift their heads Into the clouds- — I'orpondlcular KOI-JTOS drop a mile in depth.

Great railroads wind their way through these mountains.

NATURE'S MASTKRI'IKCK IN UOCKY MOUNTAINS — Here wo look upon the scenic grandeur of the "Amer-
ican Alps" — Its beauties are equal to those of Switzerland or Italy — Jlere 130 snow-capped
peaks pierce the clouds — Fifty peaks rise above 14,000 feet

l-'AMors I'AIXTINO BY AN AMKHK'AN ARTIST— This canvas is from the celebrated collection by Albert
Bierstadt (1830-1902) — His paintings of the scenic grandi'iir ..' America pave him interna-
tional reputation — lie was elected to the National Academy In 1860.

_ CANYON OF COLORADO— It is :500 miles long, nearly a mile deep, and about ten mil<
wide from rim to riin— A river flows through this gigantic gorge — Its rocky sides are
tnugTiUicctitly aculpturod with pinnacle* and bo-called temple*.

GRANDEUR OF AMERICAN SCENERY,

five miles in length by thirty in width, on which rise some of the highest
mountains of Atlantic regions — Mount Washington, 6,285 feet> Mounts
Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, all above 5,000 feet in height. Sev-
eral valleys, watered by streams which run into the Connecticut or Canadian
lakes, lie in this wilderness. The most picturesque of all is the Saco Valley,
which spreads toward Lake Winnipiseoges, surrounded by the Sandwich
and Cesipee hills, of which White Face and Chocorua are the loftiest peaks.
The most impressive view of Mount Washington is from Mount Monroe.
This peak rises in a lofty cone and shines with bare, gray stones across a
wide plateau strewn with boulders. This elevated plain is about 1,000
feet above the sea. Patches of grass and hardy wild flowers appear in the
crevices of the rocks, and now and then one comes upon small tarns or
mountain ponds.

The Lake of the Clouds, the head-water of the Amoonoosuc, is the
most beautiful of these crystal waters. Passing around the side of Mount
Monroe, one looks into a frightful abyss known as Bates' Gulf. Clouds
and masses of vapor hang against its precipitous sides, and gigantic rocks
strew the bottom of the gorge. Opposite Eagle Cliff there rises Profile
Mountain, covered with forests far up its side, over which, looking down
the valley from a height of 2,000 feet, appears the wonder of the region —
the Old Stone Face as clearly defined as if chiseled by a sculptor. Haw-
thorne has written some of his most charming pages about this curious mass
of granite blocks, which form an overhanging brow, a large, clearly defined
nose, and a sharp, decisive chin.

We must now leave New England, with its many beautiful vistas of
mountain, lake, and seacoast and pass into the valley of the Hudson. This
river rivals in beauty the most picturesque parts of the Rhine and of the
Danube valleys. The Old World streams are romantic in their feudal
castles that rise on every hill, commanding their banks, but the Hudson is
a more powerful stream than the Rhine or Danube, and the magnificent
Palisades are higher and more savage than the Rhineland hills. For thirty
miles or more, their wall of vertical and columned rock rises to a height of
three hundred and sometimes five hundred feet, attaining their greatest
magnitude in enormous and jutting buttresses, that thrust themselves into
the river opposite Ossining. Here and there, the wall is cut by deep and
narrow ravines. Through these fissures in the cliffs are gained some of the
most perfect views of river and landscape in the world.

The region is rich with legendary and historical associations. There
is Stony Point, where Anthony Wayne led his men through the July mid-
night in 1776; Treason Hill, where Arnold, the traitor, matured his plans
and where Andre, the spy, took the papers that betrayed the secret. Finally,

485

AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

the whole region is peopled with creatures of Irving's fancy — Rip Van
Winkle, Icabod Crane, the "headless horseman," and all the folk of the
Catskill legends.

We find many interesting hills and streams and picturesque lakes along
the southern Palisade country. Greenwood Lake, on the boundary line
between New Jersey and New York, has been compared to the famous
Windermere Lake of England. The hills are rugged and wild — Eagle
Rock and Washington Rock.

Some one hundred and forty miles from the sea in the northern Pal-
isades, rises a cluster of mountains to which the early Dutch settlers gave
the name of Catskills. They approach to within eight miles of the Hud-
son, and, like an advanced bastion, command the valley for a considerable
distance. They slope gradually on the western side toward the central part
of New York State, running off into spurs and ridges in every direction.
On the eastern side, on the contrary, they rise abruptly from the valley to
a height of more than four thousand feet, resembling, when looked at from
the river, a huge fist with the palm downward, the peaks representing the
knuckles and the glens and cloves the spaces between them. The traveler
seldom sees a greater variety of hill and valley. The Catskills contain
some of the most picturesque scenery in the world. The beauties of the
Clove and the falls of Kauterskill have been immortalized by Irving,
Cooper, and Bryant.

The Adirondacks is a savage mountain forest of immense area in the
most advanced State of the Union. This region is therefore an anomaly.
Until late years it has been given over to solitude and has had no counter-
part on this continent east of what may be called the Far West. It pos-
sesses a labyrinth of beautiful lakes and rivers, such as is to be found in no
other mountain forest. Every year thousands of excursionists from the
great urban districts invade its silent valleys, climb its rugged cliffs, and
canoe on its limpid lakes. The Adirondacks is becoming one of the great
summer playgrounds of the nations and yet there are many hundreds of
square miles in this region that has never been trodden by the foot of the
white man, except the surveyor. The wild beauty of this region is a con-
tinuous discovery.

Niagara Falls, with its Whirlpool and Whirlpool Rapids, is conceded
to be the sublimest of the natural wonders of the world. Five great in-
land, fresh water seas hurl themselves over these falls 165 feet high on
their way to the Atlantic at the rate of 20,000,000 cubic feet of water
a minute. Nowhere on this globe, three-fourths of the surface of which
is covered with water, is there to be seen such a grand exhibition of the
power of water. Men and women from over all the world, who see the sun

486

GRANDEUR OF AMERICAN SCENERY

as moles, who look at the sea with blank souls, and for whom a land-
scape or a skyline with its mountain peaks or the stars of the night are
nothing but nature's hieroglyphics, will sit for hours and days at a time
by the Niagara River, literally spellbound by the spectacle of the mad,
thundering waters. The true psychology of Niagara Falls is yet to be
written, but it is a spectacle that has borne many a spectator away from
himself and out of his clay. Nature summons its formative might to im-
press man with the presence of God in the fall of a river. The re-
fined, educative value of Niagara is inestimable. Father Hennepin, who
first viewed it in 1678, is said to have been moved to tears by its power.

The glory of Niagara is rivaled by the magnificent falls half-way be-
tween the great cataract and New York City — the Trenton Falls, which
are fourteen miles from Utica. The River Kanata here makes a torrentu-
ous descent from the mountains into the valley by a series of six falls,
every one of which has a perfectly distinct character owing to the varied
geological formation along the bed of the river.

We would linger along the St. Lawrence and the Thousand Islands
on the Canadian borders, but these pastel sketches require us to hasten
across the vast continent on a rapid sight-seeing journey. Let us stop a
moment on the small Island of Mackinac, in the Straits of Mackinac, con-
necting Lakes Huron and Michigan. It contains in its six square miles
some of the wildest and most picturesque scenery of the continent. The
Arch Rock is a natural bridge one hundred and forty-five feet high and
only three feet wide, spanning a chasm with airy grace. Fairy Arch is a
similar formation rising from the sands of the beach. There is also the
Sugar Loaf, a conical rock 134 feet high, breaking up the monotony of a
grassy plain; there is Robinson's Folly, a stern bluff on the water's edge;
Lover's Leap, a strange pile of rocks towering over the blue-green spruces;
while the woods covering the small island contain very beautiful trees.

Passing down from the Great Lakes, we come to the Blue Ridge Moun-
tains in Pennsylvania. Here we find the glacier rocks cut in two by the
mighty Delaware River, which opens through it a passage or canon called
the Delaware Water Gap. The two mountains which form this great
chasm are named fittingly — the one on the Pennsylvania side is Minsi, in
memory of the Indians who made the region their hunting ground; the one
on the opposite bank is the Tammany, in memory of the grand chief who
under the elm tree of Shackamaxon made a covenant with William Penn.
The bold face of Tammany exhibits vast, frowning masses of naked rock,
while the densely wooded Minsi displays a thicket of evergreen, with the
railway tracks skirting it by the water's edge. One of the curiosities of
the Gap is a wonderful lake on the summit of Tammany. Masses of bare

487

AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

graystone stand about its margin. In this unbroken solitude is a single
Indian grave in a narrow cleft of rock.

Along the winding range of the Blue Ridge, we view many objects of
interest and beauty. Crossing the North Fork of the Cacapon River into
West Virginia, one passes the imposing cliffs of Candy Castle. A few
miles distant along the same stream is the famous natural ice-house called
the Ice Mountain. Then near Romney we have Hanging Rock and the
view from the yellow banks. Farther on, we pass through Mill Spring
Gap and wonder at the long, regularly scalloped ridge of the Trough
Mountains. A few miles from Petersburg one reaches the pinnacles, one
of which bears a crude resemblance to the Obelisk of Luxor, and the other
to a monumental spire in Gothic style. Cathedral Rock is the wonder of
the region — a vast minster with a great portal, a pointed arch, a tall spire
with its pinnacles, turrets, oriels, and double arched windows. Below,
the foundations are laid in square cut blocks; the sides are ribbed with in-
clining buttresses; stranger than all, the short, unfinished tower has not
been omitted.

The Natural Bridge of Virginia has a grandeur not equaled in any part
of the world. It is in the southeastern corner of Rockbridge county, in
the midst of the wild Blue Ridge scenery, fourteen miles from Lexington
and about thirty-five miles from Lynchburg. The arch is some two hundred
feet high and surmounted by solid live rock, over which grow giant white
oaks. The rocky sides of the arch have tempted many a climber, and
among the names of the daring ones, who have crept up part of the way,
is that of George Washington.

The Natural Cave is located in Edmonson County, Kentucky.
Here we find five hundred known caverns penetrating a level plateau
rising out of a limestone plain. This plateau is held up by a capping
of massive sandstone. These many caves have been carved out by the
action of the water on the carboniferous limestone. In passing through
the limestone the water becomes charged with lime and this is redeposited
forming stalactites and stalagmites. The upper member of the limestone
contains iron pyrites and through the agency of moisture and air upon
these and the limestone, sulphate of lime or gypsum is formed and the
gypsum crystals incrust the walls and ceilings in the drier and upper
portions, more especially in Mammoth Cave, the largest of these caves,
where beautiful and fantastic figures of sparkling white are formed.
These gypsum formations grow out of the rock as hoar-frost grows out of
the ground. The stalactite formations in Mammoth Cave, while beau-
tiful, especially in some of the great domes, are surpassed by the wonder-
ful pendants, alabaster and many onyx columns, and translucent curtains

488

NATURAL BRIDGE OF VIRGINIA — This is one of nature's strangest moods — Tlie mountain,

forms a perfect arch 200 feet high — It is surmounted by solid rock over which

grow giant white oaks — Washington climbed this rock barrier.

LARGEST SKA OF FRESH WATER IN THE WORLD — The area of this chain of five lakes is

90,000 square miles (larger than England. Scotland and Wales combined) — These

great inland seas are important factors in the development of American

commerce — The cities around the Great Lakes are developing more

rapidly than any group of cities in the world-

GRANDEUR OF AMERICAN SCENERY

in several of the caves in other parts of Edmonson County; but no cave
approaches the Mammoth in size and sublimity of its avenues, its awe-
inspiring domes, the mysterious rivers and in the rare beauty of the fes-
toons of flowers and sparkling crystals ornamenting miles of avenues.

The tableland of the Blue Ridge in the valley of the French Broad
River in North Carolina is another part of the country which is almost as
replete with strange geological phenomena and startling contrasts as the
Yellowstone or the Yosemite. The geographical center of the region is
Asheville, over 2,000 feet above the level of the sea. The view from the
city embraces on one side interminable ranges of mountains, on the other
the deep, savage valley. The river is torrent-like, boiling and bounding,
cut by rapids and tumbling waterfalls, detaching from its steep banks
masses of rocks that stand column-like or undermining the cliffs which in
many places hang over its course threatening momentarily to topple down.
Mt. Mitchell here is the highest peak east of the Rockies.

The sun-kissed hills of the Southland, washed by the blue waters of
the gulf and the Southern Atlantic, form a garden-land, appareled in trop-
ical foliage — an American Mediterranean.

The scenery of the Atlantic region, rugged and grand as it may be,
does not compare in any way with the mighty aspects of nature west of
the Great Plains. In the Rocky Mountains, or in the California ranges,
we step into a Land of the Gods — an American Olympus. There we find
the most extraordinary scenery preserved as a recreation-ground for the
nation. The greatest of America's natural wonders are the Yellowstone
and the Yosemite Parks, which are described in the chapter devoted to
Beautiful American Parks.

After crossing the Wyoming border and the Laramie Plains, we reach
the first buttresses of the Rockies. On the way there one meets the curious
buttes, which are grouped together like giant fortresses, with fantastic
towers and walls, lonely, weird, and strong. The Church Butte is the
grandest of all ; it looks like a gigantic cathedral falling into decay, quaint
in its crumbling ornaments, majestic in its height and breadth, surrounded
by the barren waste.

The Rocky Mountains in many respects surpass the Alps. From the
summit of Mount Lincoln, on a clear day, a view is obtained which could
not be duplicated in Switzerland or Italy. Peaks ascend so thickly that
nature seems to have built a dividing wall across the universe. There
are 130 of them; thirty of these are not less than 13,000 feet high, al-
most the altitude of Mount Blanc; fifty rise above 14,000 feet. It is
only the Himalayas which could present such an aggregation of lofty
mountains. The virgin beauty of the Alpine snow plains is changed in

491

AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

form, for the snow in the Rockies accumulates in banks or masses but
does not conceal the landscape, as it does on the Alpine plateaux. But
the Alps never present anything as curious as the various canons of Col-
orado, the Grand Canon, Labyrinth Canon, Cataract Canon, Marble
Canon, and one hundred others cut by ancient glaciers through limestone
or marble.

In contrast with the Atlantic coast, the whole Pacific seaboard pre-
sents a bewildering variety of scenery, fantastic in its aspects. The Sierras
descend almost into the ocean and the tremendous waves of the Pacific
have scripted strange and wondrous shapes into the cliff of the shore, beat-
ing out caverns wherever the lower strata were mere conglomerate, de-
taching huge column-like rocks on which myriads of sea birds perch.
The Golden Gate has been described a thousand times in prose and in
verse but a book could be written on the wonderful Mendocino coast
alone. It is the gate through which the sun in his majestic splendor
passes from the American continent to the Western seas, night and the stars
stealing in behind. But nature, in her generosity of beauty and utility,
has built into the Western wall of the continent at San Francisco a golden
sea-gate. This wonderful gate forms the entrance and exit for the com-
merce of the Pacific. Two great, gray rocks jut into the waves, and be-
tween them the deep, blue tide flows in and out. But with the even-
ing comes a change. The sun now touches the heavens and earth and
the sea with his magic brush of fire and the low clouds glow with a golden
fleece ; then the rocks become burnished, and a sea of molten gold sweeps
through the Golden Gate. A new, strange world seems suddenly to have
dawned upon the senses of the spectator, but with every passing moment
there is a change in tint, until the splendor of light fades into the steal-
ing purple shadows, and night spreads its mantle upon shore and sea.
Nowhere on the globe does one get such vivid sunset color effects. A
wild exultation flames up in the heart of almost every beholder. Nature is
almost garish in its splendor here, so that it may not escape even the dullest
soul. One who has seen a Golden Gate sunset, never forgets it.

492

PART VI CHAPTER XXIII

BEAUTIFUL AMERICAN PARKS

"Go forth under the open sky, and list to nature's teachings." — Bryant.

CIVILIZATION is a destroyer as well as a creator. It first de-
stroys nature — and then erects its counterpart in art. It fells
the majestic forests, it despoils mighty mountains, it harnesses
silver rivers, it bridges silent chasms in its utilitarian spirit, and
then proceeds to restore or imitate the lost primeval grandeur. And so
civilization has been fast sweeping out of existence what was once the sav-
age beauty of the American continent, to take coal, and iron, silver and
gold from the breast of nature, until to-day in all parts of the country it is
designing and creating thousands of public parks and beautiful drives
through the art of the horticulturist.

The dense populations in all the large American cities have found
that to live without nature is not to live at all. Buildings have been razed
and thoroughfares diverted to create broad expanses of greensward and
winding paths, hedged with blossoming flowers and arched with spread-
ing trees as "breathing places" for the populace. Every American city
to-day is studded with public parks, like emeralds set in rings of gold.
Every small village has its "green" under the shade of towering oaks, and
elms, and maples. There are probably more than ten thousand of these
public parks in the United States.

We caught a glimpse of nature's virginal glory in the chapter on
the "Grandeur of American Scenery"; we will now take a hurried journey
through the reservations that have been set aside as National Parks —
vast empires in themselves. These domains alone are larger in area than
some of the kingdoms of the Old World. Only a generation ago the
Grand Valley of California, 500 miles long and 50 miles wide, was but
one sea of golden and purple flowers. Now it is plowed and pastured.
The gardens of the Sierras are trampled ruthlessly by settlers; the slopes
of the Rockies are laid bare by lumbermen. But, even with this de-
spoilation by encroaching civilization, some forty million acres of land
still clad in its primeval grandeur have been reserved for the benefit of
the people. The National Government keeps as a playground for its chil-
dren and adults five parks and thirty-eight forest preserves, which equal
or surpass in beauty the most marvelous scenery of the various continents.

493

AMERICA: THE LANTD WE LOVE

The largest National Park is the Yellowstone. It is a wilderness
on the broad summit of the Rockies, a place of fountains and brooks which
on their way to the sea grow to be the greatest rivers of America. The
central portion is a wooded, volcanic plateau rising to a height of 8,000
feet above the sea, and surrounded by a host of imposing mountains.
Numberless lakes reflect the sky, united by a system of streams that spurt
out of hot lava beds or tumble from snowy peaks.

All the common aspects of nature that one encounters in the wilder-
ness are here to be found. The Yellowstone is like a precious jewel case,
rich in gems and diadems of nature. Geysers rise amid boiling springs,
whose basins are arrayed in the most gorgeous colors; mud volcanoes; hot
paint pots, whose contents defy classification, plash and roar in bewilder-
ing manner. In cool fountains, petrified forests are revealed, tier above
tier where they grew, rigid and silent in their crystalline beauty. There
are hills of crystal, hills of sulphur, of glass, of ashes; hills covered with
tender bloom, and hills baked in "hell's fire" the color of brick.

These bewildering wonders are now under the protection of troops
of United States cavalry. Under their care, the forests are protected both
from axe and from fire; the curiosities are preserved, and the furry and
feathered fauna of the region, which at one time was disappearing rap-
idly, is now increasing. The Yellowstone is the highest and coolest of all
the National Parks. Frosts occur every month of the year. Its altitude,
which varies from 6,000 to 13,000 feet above the level of the sea, makes
it a wonderful health resort.

The Yellowstone has been justly called nature's laboratory; its four
thousand hot springs and one hundred geysers, innumerable paint pots,
flasks, retorts, seem to hold or belch a galaxy of color and substance —
no two of them are the same in temperature, color, or composition. And
what an ideal place for the seeker after the moods and mysteries of na-
ture. The ground sounds hollow under foot; now and then it shakes when
the subterranean thunder starts rumbling. In the moonlight or under
an overcast sky, the geysers seem to be monstrous dancing, tottering ghosts.

In the center of the park we come to the famous Yellowstone Lake.
It is about twenty miles long and fifteen miles wide and lies at a height
of nearly 8,000 feet. Let us follow the noble river that issues from it —
behold, we stand before the wizardry of nature — it is the Grand Canon
into which it thunders in two magnificent falls. The wild beauty of the
Canon cannot be described — it must be seen by one's own eyes. Its walls
from top to bottom glow in a glory of color. All the earth seems to be
writhing in sensuous color — passions in white, green, yellow, blue, red,
retaining its dazzling hues while beaten by centuries of wind and rain.

494

BEAUTIFUL AMERICAN PARKS

Here and there a herd of buffaloes is seen grazing. Bears growl through
the canon — touched by civilization and becoming tame since they have
found that no danger threatens them.

On the glorious Sierra Nevada, a section of wilderness thirty-six
miles in length and forty-eight miles in breadth, has been set apart — it
is the Yosemite National Park. The famous Yosemite Valley lies in the
heart of it and there are found the headwaters of the Toulumne and Merced
Rivers. The Yosemite is quite different in aspect and character from
the Yellowstone. Here nature appears in a gentler, less turbulent mood.
The ground is frequently shaken by earthquakes, but the chemical experi-
ments of Mother Earth are not as disturbing and obvious in the Yosemite
as they are in the Yellowstone. Instead of ghoulish geysers we find pic-
turesque, dreamy waterfalls.

While this glorious park embraces exhibits of every one of the Sierra's
treasures, it is extremely accessible. It is only 150 miles from San Fran-
cisco, and many lines of railroad lead to its foot-hills. The park is well
divided into lower, middle and Alpine regions. The lower, with an aver-
age elevation of 5,000 feet, is the region of the great forests of gigantic
sugar-pine, the largest and most beautiful of all the pines in the world.
The yellow pine is next in rank, and then come the Douglas spruce, and
the "big tree," the Sequoia, the noblest of a noble race. The middle
region is dotted with hundreds of glacier lakes and glacier meadows. It
shows the wonderful examples of glacier pavement. Here is the region
of primeval granite, heavily sculptured by glaciers, and graphically telling
the story of the glacial period on the Pacific side of the continent. The
most attractive phenomena are the glacial pavements, flat or gently undu-
lating areas of solid granite over which the ancient glaciers slowly crept.
Granite, slate, and quartz alike have been planed to a wonderful finish,
which in the sunshine gives the impression of burnished silver. Above,
tower the granite domes and peaks of the Sierra.

The most interesting feature of Grant National Park and Sequoia
National Park is the "big trees," or sequoias, which give the latter park
its name. The "big tree" is nature's forest masterpiece. It belongs to
the most ancient flora of the world. Old rocks show that this genus was
widely spread over the earth, but in the present age the big tree is only
found in California and in a few groves of Oregon. The big tree attains
a height of 300 feet and a diameter of 30 feet. The bark of the full-
grown tree is from one to two feet thick and is of a rich cinnamon brown.
The big tree keeps its youth longer than any of its woodland neighbors.
While silver firs are old in their second or third century, the big tree does
not reach its prime before its fifteen hundredth year, nor does it show signs

495

AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

of age before it has weathered 3,000 winters. Many of these American
trees are much older than this.

With the giant parks, we must mention among the nation's greatest
playgrounds, some thirty-eight forest reservations — a magnificent realm of
woods. In the million-acre Black Hills Reserve of South Dakota, the east-
ernmost of the great forest reserves, there are delightful sauntering grounds
in open parks of yellow pine.

The Rocky Mountain Reserves — Teton, Yellowstone, Lewis and
Clark, Bitter Root, Priest River, and Flathead — comprise more than twelve
million acres of unclaimed, rough, forest-clad mountains, where the
mightiest streams of the country have their source. The vast Pacific re-
serves in Washington and Oregon include more than 12,500,000 acres of
magnificent forest, peopled with gigantic trees. Along the moist, balmy,
foggy, west flank of the mountains, facing the sea, the woods reach their
highest development, and, excepting the California redwoods, are the
largest on this continent. Leaving the heavy shadows of the woods, one
steps almost everywhere into natural gardens of lilies, orchids, and wild
roses. Along the lower slopes, especially in Oregon, there are lilies and
rhododendron in glorious masses of purple in the spring.

The Mount Rainier Forest Reserves present some of the most won-
derful scenery in the whole world. Of all the volcanoes, which once
blazed along the Pacific Coast, Mount Rainier is the noblest. It bears the
most picturesque forests, and, with the exception of the Shasta, is the high-
est. Its massive dome rises out of the forests like a world by itself to
a height of 15,000 feet. The forests cease at a height of 6,000 feet, and
then begins a zone of the loveliest flowers, fifty miles in circuit and two
miles wide, after which the icy summits rise into the sky.

The Sierra of California is the most beautiful and the most useful
of the forest preserves, embracing four million acres of the grandest scenery
and largest trees on the continent.

The Grand Canon Reserve of Arizona, two million acres in area, is
noted for its supreme grandeur and beauty. There one finds suddenly
the most tremendous canon in the world. It is 6,000 feet deep and from
ten to fifteen miles wide. The vast space between the walls is crowded
with Nature's most powerful and weirdest structures — a city of giants
adorned with an endless, bewildering variety of battlement spire and tower.

Thus, we might spend a lifetime in steeping the senses with beauty
on the American continent, in intoxicating the vision with riots of ravish-
ing color and form, in intellectual and archeological study in search of
the secret of nature's genius — for truly it is not in distant Italy, or Greece,
or Egypt that nature created her masterpieces, but here in our homeland,

496

PART VI CHAPTER XXIV

GREAT AMERICAN ARCHITECTURE

"The architect

Built his great heart into these sculptured stones,
And with him toiled his children, — and their lives
Were builded, with his own, into the walls."

— Longfellow.

* 4 4 RCHITECTURE is the work of nations," said Ruskin. It is
more than that — it is the physiognomy of a nation ; it shows
not only the features of the face of a nation, the expression
of its countenance, but it shows the predominant temper, the
qualities of mind — it denotes the character of the people.

Upon this scientific foundation let us record at the beginning of this
chapter that America is producing the truest and the greatest architecture
of modern times — architecture with virile individuality and vigorous char-
acter. If architecture is the composite face of a people, then we have in
our national structures the spirit of all the Old World masters in our public
buildings.

The migration of a million immigrants a year from all parts of the
earth infuses into our nationality the souls of the builders of the Pyramids,
the Greek temples, the Byzantine churches, the Romanesque monasteries,
the Gothic cathedrals, the palaces of the Renaissance. In our great Jew-
ish population — far exceeding that of Jerusalem in its zenith of glory —
we have the blood that erected the Temple of Solomon. The Hellenic
age comes back to us from the Mediterranean. The spirit of the Pantheon
and the Coliseum is here — Italy and France, Spain and England — all live
again in the New World and transfuse themselves into the new American
race.

Behold the result! Here in America — under the spell of the spirit
of liberty — emancipated from the monarchial forms of the Old World —
we see huge structures of granite and marble rise — structures which almost
stagger the imagination. The courage, daring, indomitable will of the
American people are typified in the giant steel edifices that stand in the
cities throughout the continent — monuments to American energy and prog-
ress. The sky-scrapers in the great metropolises are mighty creations of
the imagination — united with the genius of invention, the power of in-
dustry, and the skill of hands and brains. The Government buildings,
courthouses, post-offices, and State capitols in the forty-eight States (see

497

AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

the illustrations in this book) symbolize the present status of American
civilization — the remodeling of Old World forms on substantial founda-
tions for the purpose of utility and business administration, according to
the needs of an industrial age. Photographic reproductions of many of
these buildings are given in these pages.

It must be remembered that we are an industrial people, building a
new nation, and we do not claim to have cultivated the aestheticism of
the ancients. We erect railroad stations, museums, churches, schools first
for purposes of utility — to meet the needs of the people. The element
of sestheticism that may be shown in this undertaking is, in the present
state of our national development, secondary. Ruskin remarked that the
value of architecture depends on two distinct characters: "the impression
it receives from human power; the other, the image it bears of the natural
creation." The first we claim in the highest degree ; the second we are de-
veloping with our economic system and will perfect, as did the older civ-
ilizations, as we acquire more leisure. As Ruskin also said : "Better the
rudest work that tells a story or records a fact than the richest without
meaning."

Let us now briefly survey the general development of American archi-
tecture. America has had a distinctive national architecture at two dif-
ferent periods of her history — during the Colonial period and during the
Twentieth Century. The first settlers found no aboriginal style that could
be developed and improved into any sort of architectural order. The
conical wigwams of the East and North, the primitive community houses
of the South and West were very unpromising models from which to
start.

When the English established their settlements on the Eastern sea-
board, the Dutch in New Amsterdam, the French in Canada, the Carolinas
and Louisiana, the Spaniards in Florida, New Mexico and California, they
built their homes according to the fashion prevailing in Europe during the
Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. Yet a distinctly American style
was evolved. Even though the builders brought over a large amount of
their materials, the new structures assumed a character different from their
prototypes, owing to the difference in climate and building materials.
Where in the old country the work was executed in stone or in brick with
stone details, the construction in this country was in wood or in brick with
wood ornamentation. The Roman orders were the basis of every archi-
tectural design; but the proportions adapted to stone structure were too
massive and ponderous to be repeated in a lighter material. Thus columns
and pilasters became higher in proportion to their diameter, entablatures
lower in proportion to the height of columns and pilasters. The facile

498

MAGNIFICENT ARCHITECTURE IN AMERICA— St. Patrick's Cathedral on Fifth Avenue, New

York City — The finest types of architecture are found in churches, libraries, and

government buildings — Private residences equal those of many royal palaces.

GREAT AMERICAN ARCHITECTURE;

nature of wood enabled builders to give the details a delicacy to which
stone could not lend itself.

The Colonial house, so perfectly individual, was formal and stately;
it avoided all picturesque or romantic detail; its studied symmetry, its
fastidious precision indicated a large but ceremonious hospitality, drawing
the line very strictly between the aristocracy and the common people.
Old mansions of that type are preserved with reverence along the shores
of New England, especially in Portsmouth, in New Hampshire, in Salem
and Cambridge, Massachusetts, and in Newport, Rhode Island. Within
a range of fifty miles from the coast, they are not unusual in the Middle
States. We find many on the banks of the principal waterways in Vir-
ginia and other Atlantic and Southern States. Many of them have passed
unscathed through the social and political storms which took place between
the Colonial period and our own.

Early religious buildings in America showed the same adaptation of
European styles to American conditions. In California, and the Southwest,
the Spanish missionaries had the Indians erect adobe or rubble mission-
houses with arcaded cloisters and porches, churches with low towers and
belfries piously preserving the characteristics of their rural Spanish proto-
types. But here again the difference in the material employed invested
those structures with a certain originality. California is now adapting
this Spanish-American architecture introduced by the missionaries to her
scenery and the building materials found in the region. The beautiful
buildings of the Leland Stanford University at Palo Alto show what
powerful effects can be attained through a judicious use of those old styles
modified to suit climate and conditions. In Florida the adaptation of
the more monumental forms of Spanish art to modern use, as in the Hotel
Ponce de Leon and the Alcazar of Saint Augustine, has been so successful
that it will probably be employed more widely in that picturesque region.

After the close of the Colonial period, we witness in our public build-
ings a return to the Greek and Roman models. One of the most interesting
of these classic efforts was constructed by Thomas Jefferson at his home in
Monticello and at the University of Virginia, which he founded. It was
while he was a cabinet minister and later President that the project of
erecting a national capitol and an official residence for the Executive as-
sumed a definite shape. His powerful influence was an important factor
in securing for the construction of those buildings the best available talent.
This was very fortunate, for the Capitol and Executive Mansion have
served as the models for countless national buildings and the majority of
State capitols, all over the country. The National Capitol as it stands to-
day is the work of Charles Bulfinch and Thomas U. Walter. After the

501

AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

capitol had been burnt by the British, in the War of 1812, Bulfinch was
placed in charge of the work of reconstruction. It was Walter who ex-
tended the original plans by building the great wings, and the lofty central
dome.

The function of designing and building Federal courthouses, custom-
houses, post-offices, and other national structures was in the hands of the
supervising architect of the Treasury Department for many years, that
official having at a time as many as fifty or sixty buildings in course of
construction. The result has been an established style in our national
buildings.

There came a period when private architecture discarded the Greek
and Roman styles, following the Gothic forms. Immediately upon the
Gothic vogue there followed the so-called Queen Anne revival initiated by
Norman Shaw. Any account of the architecture in the middle of the
Nineteenth Century would be incomplete without a mention of Richard
Upjohn's work. He has been called the "father of American architec-
ture" ; he did not initiate any purely American movement, but, at a time
when soberness and reserve were the qualities least observable in American
buildings, he rendered a great service to the country by returning to pure
archaeological Gothic. We are indebted to him for Trinity Church and
Saint Thomas Church in New York, Grace Church and Christ Church in
Brooklyn, Grace Church in Providence, St. Paul's in Buffalo, St. Peter's
in Albany, the Bangor Cathedral, St. Paul's in Baltimore ; also many other
churches. Upjohn became president of the American Association of Archi-
tects, when it was founded in 1866, and till his death in 1878 devoted his
energies to elevating the level of the architectural profession in this
country.

America is becoming a nation of magnificent cathedrals and church
edifices. The most beautiful among them is the St. Patrick's Cathedral,
and the St. Thomas Church, in New York, perhaps the most splendid
church of this side of the world. The new cathedral of St. John the Di-
vine, now in course of erection on Morningside Heights, New York, is a
masterpiece in Gothic.

In the past forty years architectural schools have been established
in this country and have contributed greatly to freeing the native architect
from bondage to European methods and standards. We may point to
many magnificent private residences throughout the United States, but it
is in commercial architecture that America has developed a style all her
own. Commercial buildings have gradually eliminated massive masonry
foundations and the huge piers anchoring the structure. The lower floors
are used for display purposes — consequently columns and piers must be

502

GREAT AMERICAN ARCHITECTURE

abolished or reduced to a minimum. The walls are done away with;
gigantic steel structures take their place.

Architects insisted until very recently on building their sky-scrapers
on the plans of Greek temples, raising the lintel to the top floor and re-
taining on the ground floor the pillars characteristic of the various Greek
orders. It is only within the past ten years that the sky-scraper has as-
sumed a distinct individuality. The Woolworth building, in New York,
the tallest building in the whole world, is absolutely and exclusively
American in its general plan, the treatment of its fagades, and its orna-
mentation. The Metropolitan building is another imposing example.

Many bank buildings assume the form of Greek temples; some of
them are good imitations of classical monuments. The large number of
libraries built by public institutions and made possible by the munificence
of multi-millionaires has led architects to evolve a beautiful type of build-
ing well suited for that purpose. One of the best examples of that type
of architecture is the New York Public Library. Educational buildings
have been generally designed according to classical styles. Yale, Harvard,
Princeton, and many other universities preserve a classical atmosphere.
The various buildings which have been added in recent years to Columbia
University, West Point, Annapolis, Berkeley, and other institutions of
learning are notable for their impressiveness.

Art and industry are joining hands in the railroad stations in the
larger American cities. The Union Station in Washington, District of
Columbia, is an interesting type of building, monumental in appearance
and harmonizing well with the other edifices of the capital. The Penn-
sylvania vStation in New York is an imposing structure. The Grand Gen*-
tral Station in New York is a gigantic structure with tremendous areas in
which passages lead to subways and to various adjoining streets like huge
arched vaults. The public concourse is an impressive hall which is beauti-
ful in its conception.

Thus, we might continue to travel through the United States, gazing
upon many notable edifices and reading the whole story of the rise and
development of the American nation in these tablets of stone and marble.
Let us follow the rule of Ruskin : "When we build, let us think that we
build forever. Let it not be for the present delight, nor for present use
alone. Let it be such work as our descendants will thank us for, and let
us think, as we lay stone on stone, that a time is to come when those stones
will be held sacred because our hands have touched them, and that men
will say as they look upon the labor and wrought substances of them:
'See ! this our fathers did for us.' '

503

PART VI CHAPTER XXV

GREAT AMERICAN MUSEUMS '

"It is the treasure-house of the mind, wherein the monuments thereof
are kept and preserved." — Fuller.

MUSEUMS — the treasure houses of antiquity and the galleries
of the arts and sciences — are the truest records of the prog-
ress of the human family. More clearly than on the writ-
ten page, can be traced the ambitions and passions of men,
their habits and customs, in the creations that they leave behind — the
armors, helmets and shields of warriors long gone; the robes and sandals
of men whose feet trod the earth generations ago; the woven fabrics of
women whose laughter rang through civilizations that were in their glory
in centuries of the far past.

It is weird indeed, and yet how close we come to life, when we touch
the gems that adorned the throats of the lovers of past ages; when we
stand before the petrified bodies of Egyptian kings; when we look upon
the swords that once dripped with human blood. When we gaze in ad-
miration upon the canvases painted by the hands of the masters, we can
see in our mind's vision the brush of the painter as it dips into the colors
on the palette, or the clay and scalpel in the firm hand of the sculptor.

There was a time when these priceless relics of past ages were all
treasured in the museums of the Old World. But that time is now also
with the past. America to-day is becoming the keeper of the world's
treasures. Magnificent edifices have been erected to hold the relics of
stone, and bronze, and precious metals, the fabrics and utensils that relate
the story of human development. Beautiful structures of marble, tem-
ples of the Fine Arts, have been constructed to preserve the masterpieces
of the world's greatest painters and sculptors. During the last genera-
tion the treasures of the art world are being brought to America, until it
seems that the American connoisseur is denuding Europe of its art and that
in the coming years the work of the old masters will find its final resting
place in the American museums and galleries.

America never had any national museums until an act of Congress,
in 1846, when the Smithsonian Institution, at Washington, became cus-
todian of various national collections. This institution, which is at pres-
ent one of the greatest scientific institutions in the world, was created in
accordance with the will of James Smithson, an Englishman born in

504

REMAINS OF THE FIRST AMERICAN CIVILIZATION" — Palaces of the cliff dwellers who lived lu

New Mexico before the discovery of America — They constructed their principal villages

on the mesas in the shelves of rocky cliffs.

A RIVER SCENE IN THE EVENING
DUN COLLECTION

RUBENS - THE HOL
SMITH COLLEC

FRANS HALS YONKER ROMP
ALJMAN COLLECTION

VAN DYCK-DUKE OF RICHMOND
MARQUAND COLLECTION

REMBRANDT- PILOT WASHINC
ALTMAN COLLECTK

VELASQUEZ-CHRIST AND THE PILGRIMS
ALTMAN COLLECTION

ROSA BONHEUR -THE HORSE FAIR - CORNELIUS VANDERBILT COLLECT

MASTERPIECES IN AMERICAN ART GALLERIES — Collection of paintings shown on these pages is repro-
duced by special permission of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York — They js how some of
the world's greatest Art treasures — Nearly every large city has Its Art Museum.

AMERICAN PAINTING BY INNESS — PEACE AND PLENTY
HEARN COLLECTION

E (AMERICAN) - GEORGE WASHINGTON
HUNTINGTON COLLECTION

WEST(AMERICAN)HAGAR AND ISHMAEL
SEQUIN COLLECTION

CHASE (AMERICAN) CARMENCITA
VAN HORN COLLECTION

SSONIER - MAN READING

COLES COLLECTION

GAINSBOROUGH-A CHILD WITH A CAT
MARQUAND COLLECTION

Y (AMERICAN)

JALLERY OF PA INTINCS FROM M KTKOl'OUTAN MfSKfM OF ART -Tlu- Old World masterpiece! are
being brought to the United States by private collectors — The canvases reproduced on these pages
are estimated at a. value exceeding $3,000,000 — Several American painters are included.

GREAT AMERICAN MUSEUMS

France, who never set foot in the United States, and who for unknown
reasons bequeathed to this country an estate of over half a million dollars.
The aims of the institution are: to stimulate men of talent; to make orig-
inal researches by offering them suitable rewards ; and to diffuse knowledge
by publishing periodical reports on progress in the various lines of scien-
tific endeavor. The Smithsonian Institution is in charge of the National
Museum of the United States, the designated depository for all the zoolog-
ical, botanical, geological, ethnological, archaeological, and art collections
belonging to the government. There we find the most complete collection
in existence of documents and materials relative to the aborigines of North
America. Later donations and Congressional appropriations have enabled
the regents to establish a bureau of ethnology, a national zoological park,
and an astrophysical observatory.

Museums have been erected in nearly all the American cities. It
would well repay any American to visit the most important scientific
museums in the United States — the American Museum of Natural His-
tory in New York, the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Cambridge,
Massachusetts, the Peabody Museum in Cambridge, and The Field Co-
lumbian Museum in Chicago. The Army Medical Museum in Washing-
ton is devoted to the structure of man, the effect and treatment of injuries
and disease. The Commercial Museum of Philadelphia is the sole insti-
tution of its kind in the United States. Almost every one of those mu-
seums issues guide-books and invites the public to lectures on topics illus-
trated in their various departments. The steady trend of museum de-
velopment has been in the line of extending the educational influence of
their collections and in making them useful to the whole people.

This is the age of art in America. A half century ago there was not a
single public gallery of art in this country. At present there is not a city
which does not set aside at least one room of some public building in which
are collected paintings or statues of artistic merit. The leading art mu-
seums of this country are the Metropolitan Museum of New York, the
Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts,
and the Corcoran Gallery in Washington.

The Metropolitan Museum is a treasure-house of the Fine Arts. Its
growth has been fostered by individual initiative and love of the arts. It
had no Government foundation, as did the great museums of Europe,
which often are assisted by royal bounty. Municipal help did not come
to the collections until the value of the museum's work had been clearly
demonstrated. The first suggestion to establish a museum came from the
great diplomatist, John Hay, in an after-dinner speech delivered in Paris.
A few prominent New Yorkers met and considered the advisability of or-

509

AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

ganizing a museum of art in 1869. The museum was incorporated in the
following year. A president and twenty-one trustees assumed the task
which was then colossal ; every one of them had to give liberally from his
own resources.

The first exhibition hall was in the rooms of a dancing academy.
One hundred and seventy-five paintings of the Dutch and Flemish schools,
which had been purchased in Europe for the trustees, were hung and pre-
sented to the public, together with a collection of various art works. The
Legislature authorized the Department of Parks to erect a suitable museum
building in Central Park in 1871. The Central Park building was in-
augurated in 1880, and the Catherine Lorillard Wolfe collection of paint-
ings, which had been bequeathed to the museum, was then placed on
view for the first time. The presidents of the museum have all, one after
another, left to the institution wonderful collections of paintings, statues,
or curios. The Johnston, Marquand, and Morgan collections have greatly
added to the treasures. The income of the Roger bequest of $5,000,000
is constantly used in making the collections complete from a historical or
artistic point of view. George A. Hearn offered a long sought opportunity
to American artists by establishing a fund of $150,000, the income of
which was to be spent in purchasing canvases by living American painters.
Many other donations have enabled the museum to acquire large groups
of paintings or statues, one of the most notable being the Thomas Fortune
Ryan donation which added a remarkable collection of Rodin's work to
the sculpture section of the Metropolitan. F. C. Hewitt and John Stew-
art Kennedy left $1,500,000 each to the museum.

The Metropolitan Museum has the largest collection of American
paintings, both old and modem, to be found anywhere. Among the most
famous canvases from the brush of native artists we may mention Whist-
ler's "A Lady in Grey," "Nocturne in Green and Gold," "Nocturne in
Black and Gold," several of La Farge's paintings, Winslow Homer's
"Cannon Rock" and "The Gulf Stream," William Chase's "Fish" and
"Carmencita," John W. Alexander's "Study in Black and Green," Mur-
phy's "The Old Barn," and Horatio Walker's "Sheepfold." The more
modern men are represented: Dessar, Dearth, Mary Cassatt, Arthur B.
Davies, Thayer, Tryon, Vedder, Ranger, Alden, Weir, and others.

A collection of works by American sculptors is now being formed.
The work of the foremost American master of sculpture, Saint Gaudens,
is represented here by replicas of three bas-reliefs. George Gray Bar-
nard's marble group, "I feel two natures struggling within me," Paul Way-
land's "The Bohemian," MacMonnies "Bacchante," exiled from Boston,
Gutzon Borglum's "The Mares of Diomedes" are rare exhibits of New

510

GREAT AMERICAN MUSEUMS

World sculpture. Several American sculptors have won fame in animal
sculpture. Foremost among those represented in the Museum are William
Rimmer, A. P. Proctor, Edward Kemeys, and Anna Hyatt. A fine ex-
ample of realistic portraiture is D. C. French's bust of Emerson.

The masters of the foreign schools, classical and modern, are repre-
sented by canvases which place the Metropolitan on a par with the best
European galleries. We can only mention Rubens' "The Holy Family,"
'The Portrait of a Man," by Franz Hals; "The Portrait of James Stuart,"
by Van Dyck; "The Portrait of Don Sebastian Martinez," by Goya; "A
Seaport," by Claude Lorrain; "The Sleep of Diana," by Corot; "The
Brothers Van de Velde," by Meissonnier; "English Landscape," by Gains-
borough, and many other masterpieces.

The Boston Museum of Fine Arts was opened to the public in 1876,
after six years of conscientious work on the part of the trustees. Several
Boston institutions wished to have a suitable place in which to exhibit the
various artistic or archaeological works in their possession. The Institute
of Technology needed a place to keep its casts ; Harvard College needed a
fireproof building in which to place the Gray collection of prints; the
Athenseum had closed its art galleries in order to make room for its books.
The several bodies were brought together and determined to build a mu-
seum, relying for its support on voluntary contributions from the citizens
of Boston.

The building was begun on the site dear to all Bostonians — Cop-
ley Square. Gifts soon began to pour in and also large collections, like
the Way collection of Egyptian antiquities, the Japanese treasures of Dr.
C. G. Weld and Dr. W. S. Bigelow, the Japanese pottery collected by
Edward D. Morse, and the superb gifts of Dr. Denman Ross.

Many masterpieces were bought, including ten paintings of the Dutch
school, purchased at the sale of the Demidoff Gallery, Turner's "Slave-
ship," the beautiful Velasquez, "Don Balthazar Carlos and His Dwarf,"
and a portrait of Franz Hals. In the Ross collection, which was pre-
sented to the Museum in 1906, are a Monet, a Tiepolo, a Philippe de
Champaigne, and two Turners, besides exquisite examples of Persian il-
luminations. Modern pictures have been bought chiefly from the be-
quests of Sylvanus A. Denio and William Wilkins Warren, each of these
funds amounting to $50,000. The American School of Painting is nobly
represented in Boston and is perhaps the most interesting of its depart-
ments. Owing to inadequacy of space, it was found necessary to build
a new and larger museum on the Fenway, standing on twelve acres and
fronting on Huntington Avenue. The new structure is laid out on the
general plan of a series of courts surrounded by smaller rooms, which

511

AMERICA: THE LAND WE LOVE

makes it possible for large objects to have open space around them, while
the smaller ones can be studied at close range.

The Corcoran Art Gallery in Washington is one of the modern art
palaces in America. It has no connection with the Government, but is
wholly the result of the philanthropy of a wealthy citizen, William Wil-
son Corcoran, who died in 1893. It was opened in a building facing the
War Department. This has now been superseded by the splendid gallery
on Seventeenth Street, facing the Executive grounds. The Corcoran Gal-
lery, including the building, has cost $1,600,000.

The Corcoran Gallery contains several old paintings, including the
"Virgin and Child" by Murillo and "Christ Bound" by Van Dyck. There
is a Corot and many canvases by modern French painters. One room is
devoted to portraits, and the visitor finds there the most complete collec-
tion of portraits of presidents of the United States. Among the marbles,
Hiram Powers' "Greek Slave" is perhaps the most celebrated. The Barye
bronzes are especially notable as the largest extant collection of fine animal
sculpture by this great French modeler.

These travels through the American museums and art galleries would
require months of study. There are the galleries in Detroit, and Chicago,
and nearly all the large cities. The private and public galleries in the
cities throughout the country are treasure-houses of esthetic wealth. Here,
in these pages, we can leave merely an impression of these riches, and re-
mark with Goldsmith: "I love everything that's old — old friends, old
times, old manners, old books, old wine," that come to us from the ages
when men were molding the centuries with their hands and minds. We
utilize the tools and labors of the generations so that "men may rise," as
Tennyson said, "on stepping stones of their dead selves to higher things.'*

512

BUNKER HILL MONUMENT — This obelisk stands on famous battleground of American Revolu-
tion— It is a granite structure 221 feet high — Lafayette attended ceremonies at
laying of corner stone in 1325 — l>UUiel Webster delivered oration..

IIISTOIUC WASHINGTON MONUMENT — This marble shaft rises 555 feet in height within
view of White House in Washington- — Almost every country of the earth
contributed a stone — Corner stone was laid on July 4, 1848.

A 000 758 707 4

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Full text of "America, the land we love; a narrative record of the achievements of the American people, their history--government--wars--inventions--discoveries--great men--famous women--industry--commerce--and the essential elements that have entered into the building of the republic"

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