Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1877-10-26

Imagination. II is not generally known
even among cultivated sayans. that tn
amount of arabic soil in North and Soutl
America is larger than that of Europe, ASH
and Africa, taken together. | lind ten mos
striking physical contrasts between the tw'
continents and all the advantage of produc
tive qualities of the soil on the side of Amer
lea. This continent is narrow, hence tn
ocean winds water il well. The Easter
Continent is broad on the contrary. Also il
the new world the mountain chains on th'
east side OF the continent are low and do no
so much intercept the trade winds blowing
west, as do those of the old world. which ar,
high on the east side. Ours is the continent
of wet ocean winds the old continent, o
dry, land winds. The new world is the hu
mid. and the old world the arid side of the
| globe. But next, America is the continent
of fertile plains, and the old world that o.
frozen, or scorched plains. Remember, too
| that our mountains run north and south,
| and we have the sun on both sides and
those of the old world run east and west,
and have the sun chiefly ON one side, the
southern. When the sun rises on the At
lantic he casts his beams into the gorges OF
the Alleghaneys when he sets on the Paci-
nc, they are cast into the gorges of the
Rockys Again the cooling inlets OF the
ocean, like the Gulf of Mexico and the Car
ribsan Sea, are found in America, under the
| equator, but the great inlets of the old world
| are found in the north. Remember also that
America is high and the old world low, under
the equator The table land of Mexico and
Brazil are comparatively cool although in the
| tropics. Then next, the new world is mar
| row under the equator and the old world
wide there. ! know that the equator runs
over the bed of the Amazon, but the line of
the greatest annual heat runs over the Oron-
oco, q narrower part good many miles fur
ther north but it burns through Africa
from shoulder to shoulder. Here then bursts
upon us the great organizing American fact
that the new land can sustain greater popu-
lation than the old 1t can probably it ul-
timately will. America is yet in the gristle.
Her soft Young feet, not without some stains
of blood too, have wandered so little onward
in the uneXplored continent of American
time that the eterities breaking on the shore
kiss them with spray out of pity for their in
fancy. Some of us here are young now and
in this audience are many who may see
the population increase from 10000, 900 to
so, 900, 600 1t has been proved by the ex-
perience of the United States that prosper
Gus community III possession of an abund-
ance of unoccupied soil, not aided by emf
grafton, will double its numbers in twenty
five years. But the human surge moves now
yet more rapidly. Its progress was little
checked by the Revolution, and not very
greatly impeded by the civil war. IT, at this
hour, a shaft could be erected upon the spot
where the centre of population lies lin Gin
cinnatD, that shaft would stand little east
OF Cincinnati by tomorrow morning. to take
up its march toward the Mississippi. Ii is a
narrow outlook that pauses at time when n
country that can sustain population equal
to that of the world. shall have an hundred
millions of people. At the place where the
popular Imagination pauses | would begin.
If the natural resources of America were
fully developed, it would afford sustenance TO
eight billions, number nearly five
times as large as the entire mass of human
beings now existing on the globe. | am
aware of but three methods Of estimating
the future of our population. We NAV take
as a standard of Judgment either in the ca
pacity of our soil or the law of growth as
exemplified by our own experience, or the
law of increase exhibited by other parts of
the world. Two of these methods / have
already used. | now take the last, which
was the standard used by De Toqueville.
Will America have harder fate than Europe
under the bayonet, the cannon, and the hosts
of wars But We have fifteen millions OF
square miles, and Europe only three millions.
Look forward then to a population in Ameri-
ca equal to the average in Europe-that is,
twelve hundred millions. And | assert open
ly that America can sustain a larger popula-
ton than Europe, ASIA and Africa. taken to-
gether. America is therefore in its infancy.
We stand in the test and our age, therefore,
has not ceased to be crisis. And therefore
it is well to go out of here under the wing
that broods over the ages and eternities
for We know that the wing is there. even in
the dark.
l have spoken of the certain future, and
from this are TO be distinguished partly the
probable and possible future which here ex-
pose themselves by glimpses. 1t is probable
(snd De Toquevile thought it certain) that
when America is iull, it will have but one
language, and that the English 1t is proba-
BILE that Its forms of government will be free
and representative II is probable thit aris-
tocracIes and primogenlture and State
Churches will never exist here it is proba-
ble that one chief transit by land between
Western Europe and Eastern Asia will be
American. Not more than II century or two
distant lies in the possible, (notice do not
say in the certain, future an alliance Il do
not say union, of all English speaking
people, Great Britain, the United States,
Australia, India betting the world pnd pos
sessed of power Of influence. Such an al
lance was deliberately proposed in New York
the other day in speech before II select au-
dience Of the Union League Club, by Mr..
Foster, member of the British Parliament
and Mr.. Gladstones successor as the leader
of the Liberal party.
But return to certainlies and of these
there is | think only one more, undoubtedly
America will be the land of great cities.
Add to New York seven OF the largest cities
of the United States. and there are only
three millions Of people and London claims
Just under four millions We have no Lon
don, but ultimately We shall have, and what
are We to do with our civil service reform
when our cities are as large rs London. and
We have one on the Atlantic and one on the
Pacific and perhaps one in the north We
have New York now. But ARE We making It
more orderly as II increases in population
Is it brought up IN the nurture and admira-
ton of respectable powers even. We know
New York and We know that II 1t were as
large rs London it would he New York ten
times AS much then as it is now. One-fifth
of the population now hive in the cities
Pretty soon n quarter will live in the cities
And if New York were AS large as London is
now, feel that not only my native common
wealth under the Highlands would he under
her control, but many other OF the great
cities also. The railway and the Telegraph,
and all means of communication, help to
bring men to the great centres. And with
the growth Of great cities the problem con
cerning the dangerous masses becomes more
complex Disraeli who thinks that a Demo
cratic government must fail, and Carlyle,
who says that no nation will prosper long
which gives Judas and Jesus equal political
power, can't cross the water to-day and find
Ann pit n al ~ 4 gIyn taf
is well governed. What shall We do with
New York when our land Is full, if We are to
depend ON elective JuGiciaries, and ignorant
ballots and insufficient churches our or
ganiZation will resemble that Of old North
Atlantic Europe when the country is full
We shall have several cities which shall hr
the metropolis of different parts. They are
excellent servants of civilization. If they
each have their Ariel and such Nh ARIEL as
Shakespeare represents
'To swim, to dive into the ire, to ride
On the cuTl'd clouds "
Such an Ariel must the American church.
the American people, the American platform.
the American press make itself in the Pros
perO isle of American civilization. The ia
PRODUCTION INTO this country of the law OF
primogeniture would soon make us II land
wholly new ia our social instincts, but with
all its almost fethomless evils, one good does
result from it. One class in society IL lifted
above any danger of being hrIbed. 1t is one
of the things least heard of now, that n case
of financial corruption is proved against a
peer. lie has money enough to rcslst that
temptation. and so III the lower house. We
shall never have that benefit John Stuart
Mill said that lit will be impossible to bring
any check here to bear upon the commerclal
vices, which the predomInence of great and
corrupt cities foster" Competition encour-
ages pretence, but competition IL greater IN
the United States than in any other nation.
| "Smartness," 'acuteness, shrewdness,
''quickness !" these attributes as understood