Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1901-07-06
WILL HOLD FIRST PLACE.
This Country Destined in Short Tim
to Lend the World.

This Country Destined in Short Time
to Lead the World.
Frederic Harrison in the Nineteenth Century
No competent observer can doubt that In
wealth, manufactures, material progress OF
all kinds, the United States, in very
rev years, must hold the first place IN the
world without dispute Its population Will
soon double that Of any nation Of western
Europe. That population will have an edu-
cation second only to that Of Germany and
Switzerland, and superior to that OF any
other European nation.
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 political system is more favoraoie TO
material development than any other So
ciety ever devised by man. This extra
ordinary combination of national and So
cial qualities, with vast numbers ana I'M
bounded physical resources, cannot rail- 70
give America the undisputed LEAD In al
material things. 1t Is curious instance
of the power of national egotism that Eu-
rope fails to grasp this truth-that Ger
mans, with their wretchedly poor country,
narrow seaboard and scanty rivers, ports
and minerals, still aspire to the first place.
that Frenchmen fail to see how their pas
sion for art, rest and home has handicapped
them In the race for supremacy IN thin s
material: that Britons, In their narrow is,
land and their comfortable traditions, Will
not recognize that the industrial prizes
must ultimately go to numbers, national
unity, physical resources, geographical OPP
portunitieS, trained intelligence and rest
less ambition.
The ease with which men can pass from
one locality to another, from one climate to
another, from one business to another, the
entire absence of social barriers or class
distinctions. the abundant means of tech
nical and scientific education, leave 1t open
to each man and woman to make their own
lives. The vast continent, with its varle-
ties OF climate and soil, produces almost
everything except cham. lgne, diamonds
and ancient buildings. With New York
and San Francisco, the two grandest nat
ural ports in the world, open to the SHIPS
Of the Atlantic and the Pacific, with Chi
cago or st. Louis as the center OF trafflc
the clearing house Of this boundless trade,
the material prosperity of the American
continent must reach in the twentieth CEN
fury height of which the nineteen centu-
ries before it never dreamed. When the
Englishman talks about the evils Of pro-
lection and the benefits of free trade he Is
reminded that the United States occupies
a continent self-suff1cing, except for rev
luxuries, which has Its own free trade on
a gigantic scale, over an area far larger
than all western Europe. 1t seems 1mpertl-
nent to lecture men about their neglect OF
free trade, when IN their own country they
can travel in every direction thousands OF
miles without ever meeting a customs from
tier. 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 prosperity, this bound
less future of theirs, rests upon an equal
expansion in the social, intellectual and
moral sphere. They would be bold critics
who should maintain it, and few thinking
men in the United States do so without
qualifications and misgivings. AS to the
universal diffusion OF education, the energy
which is thrown into it and the wealth
lavished on it from sources public and pr1-
waite. no doubt can exist. Universities,
richly endowed, exist by scores. colleges by
many hundreds, in every part OF the Union
Art schools training colleges, technical
schools, laboratories. poiytechnics and IL
braries are met with in every thriving
town. The impression left on my mind Is
that the whole educational machinery must
be at least tenfold that of the United
Kingdom That open to women must DE
at least twentyfold greater than with us,
and It is rapidly advancing to meet that
of men both in numbers and in quality.
Nor can / resist the impression that the
in all grades is less perfunctory.
amateurish and casual than is too often
our own experience at home. The libra
rfes, laboratories, museums and gymnasla
of the best universities and colleges are
models Of equipment and organization.
The "pious founder" has long died out IN
Europe. He Is alive In America; ana seems
to possess some magic source OF 1nexnaust-