The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1892-08-11

mistress OF continent, America will
pc safe from foreign aggression safe
from the armed alliance of the world.
with another condition of permanent
existence secured.
Do you say that in times past too
great extent of territory has caused
the dissolution of mighty kingdoms?
Granted. But since then the electric
telegraph has annihilated space and
time. The president, sitting in his
room at Washington, at eleven o'clock
in the morning, telegraphs his wishes
to the governor of California, at San
Francisco. That message is received
at San Fancisco at eight o'clock, of the
same morning-thr hours before it
left Washington. Great empires of
the past went to pieces, not so much
because of their extent, as because the
different parts lacked cohesion. Here
we find a different order Of things. 1t
is true we have many state govern
ments, but the national government
controls them all as the great sun
binds to himself the lesser planets.
This land is and forever must be one.
The interests of the different sections
make it necessary. We are held to-
gether by net work of railways, that
bind tighter than chains Of steel; every
river and every mountain chain is a
fresh tie. Best of all thirty millions of
people have sworn that this land shall
be one-have sworn it with an oath,
.cememted with blood, costing half a
million of lives and billions of money.
A country's resources have an i'm
portant influence upon it's well-being.
That nation which can find at home it's
food, clothing, fuel and metals is rich;
and the nation dependent upon others
for them is poor. The resources of the
richest nation of the old world are
niggardly compared with the boundless
profusion of wealth which nature has
thrown at the feet of this country.
Nowhere else are earth's treasures
found in such variety and abundance.
Elsewhere they are widely scattered;
and few of them are found within the
bounds of one nation-gold in Austria
liza, silver. in Spain, tin in England and
oil near the Caspian; but they are all
found within our boundaries. The
gold picked out grain by grain in the
old world, is taken from its bed in mug
gets in our California mountains.
While the worn-out silver mines of
Europe are CLEANED again and again
we are melting solid veins into silver
bricks by the ton in Arizona. Rubbing
our mountains, and underlying the soil
of every state, are abundant treasures
of coal and iron. Sometime since the
prime minister of England warned the
HOUSE of Commons that the British
coal mines, now eXcavated for miles
out beneath the ocean would soon be
exhausted. While it has been esti-
mated that in our Pennsylvania alone
there is coal enough to warm and
light the world for two thousand years.
To fill our lamps, petroleum comes
gushing up from it's exhaustless foun-
tains in Pennsylvania, natural gas in
other states, and in Nevada, Tennessee
and Louisiana, there is salt enough to
keep the world fresh for ages, Indeed,
there is not one mineral substance.
necessary and useful, which is not found
somewhere within the compass of our
country. .... .-s. 5..s'...
No other country can compare with
ours in the variety and comprehensive
ness of the products of the soil.
Generally the country that grows corn
does not grow cotton; the country that
grows apples does not grow oranges;
nor are sugar and wheat, rice and rye
often found within the same territorial
limits. But in our country they are
ALL found. Somewhere between Key
West and the Columbia River you may
see growing almost everything that is
worth growing whatever quarter of
the globe may be it's native home. If
all Europe united in proclaiming an
embargo upon our commerce and a
blockade upon our coast, no doubt some
of our mercantile interests would suffer,
but we could stand it and Europe could
not. The looms of Lincolnshire would
stop for want of cotton, the ships
OF Liverpool would lie rotting at their
wharves, and the masses of continental
Europe would lift a hungry cry for
bread. While we, clothed with what
ever is necessary for the comfort and
adornment Of, the body, could sit at
our tables, laden with all the neces-
stiles and most of the luxuries of life.
CHARACTER OF TIE PEOPLE.
There is yet another element to be
considered in predicting the fate Of
nations. The vast waste Of the past is
OF, Va 80