Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1901-11-21
WILL LEAD WORLD.
This Country Destined in Short
Time to Take First Place.
Resources and Enterprise Combined
with Absence of Class DistIne-
tions Give Advantage over
other Nations.

States, in very few years, must hold
the first place in the world without
dispute. Its population viii soon
double that Of any nation Of western
Europe. That population will have
an education second only to that of
Germany and Switzerland, and su-
perior to that Of any other European
nation, says Frederic Harrison, in the
Nineteenth Century.
The natural resources of their
country exceed those OF all Europe
put together. Their energy exceeds
that Of the British; their intelligence
is hardly second TO that of Germany
and France. And their social and POI
litical system is more favorable TO
material development than any other
society ever devised by man. This
extraordinary combination of nation
al and social qualities, with vast num-
beers and unbounded physical re-
sources, cannot fail 10 give America
the undisputed lead in all material
things. IL is a curious instance OF
the power Of national egotism that
Europe fails 10 grasp this truth
that Germans, with their wretchedly
poor country. narrow seaboard and
scanty rivers. ports and minerals,
still aspire TO the first place; that
Frcnchmen fail to see how their pas
sion for art, rest and home has
Handicapped them in the race for SUI
premaey In things material; that
Hritens, in their narrow island and
their comfortable traditions. viii not
recognize that the industrial prizes
must ultimately 90 to numbers, ma
tional nnity, physical resources. geo
graphical opportunities, trained in
telligence and restless ambition.
The ease with which men can pass
from one locality 10 another, from
one climate to another. from one
business 20 another, the entire abb
sence Of social barriers or class dis
tinctions. the abundant means OF
technical and scientific education.
leave II open 10 each man and woman
20 make their own lives. The vast
continent. with its varieties Of eli
mate and soil, produces almost every
thing except champagne, diamonds
and ancient buildings. With New
York and San Francisco, the two
grandest natural ports in the world.
open 70 the ships OF the Atlantic and
the Pacific. with Chicago or 81.
Louis as the center OF traffic, the
clearing house OF this boundless
trade. the material prosperity of the
American continent must reach In
the twentieth century n height 81
which the nineteen centuries before
IL never dreamed. When the English
man talks about the evils of protec-
ton and the benefits of free trade
he is reminded that the United States
occupies a continent self-suhicing.
except for a few Injuries, which has
its own free trade on a gigantic
scale. over an area far greater than
all western Europe. IL seems inn
pertinent 20 lecture men about their
neglect OF free trade, when in their
own country they can travel in every |
direction thousands OF wiles without
even meeting a customs frontier.
They insist that they are the great
est free trade people on earth.
OF course, for the American citizen
and the thoughtful visitor the real
problem is whether this vast pros
perity, this boundless future OF
theirs. rests upon an equal eXpan-
sion in the social, intellectual and /
moral sphere. They would be bold
critics who should maintain il. and
few thinking men in the United
States do so without qualifications
and misgivinrs. As 10 the universal
diffusion OF education, the energy
which Is thrown into il and the
wealth lavished on il from sources
public and private. no doubt can ex-
st. Universities, richly endowed. eN-
st by scores. colleges by many hun
ireds. in every part of the union.
Ar schools. training colleges, tech
meal schools. laboratories, polytech-
1ics and libraries are met with in
very thriving town. The impression
eft on my mind is that the whole ed
icational machinery must be az
east tenfold that of the United
Kingdom. That open to women must
,e at least twentyfold greater than
With us. and Il is rapidly advancing
o meet that of men, both in number
md in quality. Nor can / resist the
impression that the education in all
trades is less perfunetory. amateur
sh and casual than is too often our
,wn experience at home. The libra
les. laboratories. museums and gym ,
,asia of the best universities and
colleges are models Of equipment and
The ''pious founder" /.
las long died out in Europe. lie Is
live in America. and seems TO pos
ess some magic source of inexhaus-
bic munifcence.
QuaIihed.
!.