The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1895-04-08
PRAISE FOR THIS COUNTRY.
rofessor Bryce Tells Why 1t Is Destined
to Be Very Great

rofessOr Bryce Tells Why 1t Is Destined
to Be Very Great.
Professor James Bryce, in the new
edition of his American Common
wealth." says: Mature has furnished
the United States with resources for
production ampler and more varied
than can be found in any other country
an immense area Of fertile soil, sun
shine and moisture fit for all the
growths Of the temperature, and even a
few of the torrid zone. store Of min
erals so large az to seem inexhaustible.
She has given 1t climate In which the
foremost races of mankind can thrive
and (save in a few districts) labor, an
air In most regions not only salubrious
but more stimulating than that of their
ancient European seats. She has made
communication easy by huge natural
water courses and by the general open
ness. and smoothness of so much of the
continent as lies east OF the Rocky
Mountains.
I'm laying out vast central and al
most unbroken plain, she has destined
the largest and richest region Of the
country to be the home of one nation,
and one only. That the lands which
lie east OF this region, between the Allie
ghanies and the Atlantic, and those
which lie west of it, between the Rocky
Mountains and the Pacific, are also oc-
cupled by that one nation Is due to the
fact that before colonization Of the CEN
tral region had gone far means of COM
municaton were invented which made
the Alleghanies cease to be barrier,
and that before the Pacific coast had
been thickly settled the rest of the
country was already so great in popu-
lation, wealth and power that its at
traction was as irresistible as the moon
finds the attraction Of the earth to be.
"Severing its home by wide ocean
from the old world Of Europe on the
east, and still wider one from the half
old, half new world Of Asia and Aus
tralasia on the west, she has made the
| nation sovereign of its own fortunes.
1t need fear no attacks, nor even any
pressure from the military and naval
powers of the Eastern Hemisphere, and
it has little temptation to dissipate it's
strength in contests with them. 1t has
no doubt astrong neighbor on the north,
but a friendly one, linked by many ties
oflnterests, as we'll as kindred, and not
likely to ever become threatening. 1t
had on the south neighbors who might
have been dangerous, but fortune fav-
ored it by making one of them hopeless
ly weak, and obliging the others, strong
as she was, to quit possession at crit
ical moment Thus it Is left to itself as
| no great state has ever yet been in the
| world; thus its citizens enjoy an oppor-
| tunity never before granted nation,
of making their country what they will
| to have it,
"These are unequalled advantages.
! They contain the elements of immense
| defensive strength, of immense mater
ial prosperity They disclose an unriv-
allied field for the developement of an
Industrial civilization. Nevertheless,
| students of history, knowing how un-
predictable is the action of what we call
moral causes-that Is to say, of emo
| tional and intellectual Influences as
contrasted with those rooted in physi-
| cal and economic facts-will not ven-
| ture to base upon the most careful sur
vey of the physical conditions of Amer
lea any bolder prophesy than this-that
not only will the state be powerful and
the wealth of it's citizens prodigious,
but that the nation willprobably remain
one in its government, and still more
probably one in speech, in character
and in ideas"