The Nome nugget., 1902-02-05
Recovering, Settling and De-
 velos.ing New Lands
OF TWO CONTlHENTS
A Prediction rlade That by the End of the Twentieth Century BerinG Sea May Become the "Midd!e Sea of the World"

With the closing of the nineteenth .centusy and the beginning of the twentieth two questions naturally sug- .ge,t themselves. About one year ago they were occupying the peoples mind considerably: were the cause of many discussions. and were answered by the ,hriyh,e,t men all over the world. Not one of the Sc answers seemed, however, broad enough to give general 6atis- faction. The fr-t question is: 'iWha; has been the greatest and Iriucipal achievement of the nincteeulh cen .tury?"
 Modesty is a virtue the ASleri,an citizen, as d rule, will not be accredjted with; therefore. it has been all the more strange lha. no American 'haS come forward and answered the ques- tion. as history undoubtedly will an- swer it. Who will doubt that the future will adjudge a| the one aCh eve .ment of the njneleenlh century above all, as the achievement which is bound to be the longest remembered, as the achievement of the ereatC-t mOment and of the most far-reaclipg importance to all the world, the powerful and harmQpious .gruwth ofthe United States into lAe greatest republic ever knowD.' lhe battle of Gettysburg. where the republic was confirmed with fire and blood, will be ranked by the his .torians with the few great battles which form turning points in the history Of the world.
 The second question is: "What is the greatest and principal task to be .accompliSted ed by the twentieth cen tury?"
 ,Oul of the many an Wer5 which have and could be given. like best the fol- lowing: There lies no grancer task be- recovering, seltlingand developing hy the new and strong christian clNil- ization oi all the wide lands in the northern latiluGe| of the earth's two greatest .cputIISn.S, tlle ttutEl Ci America and Asia.
 lne northern reaches Of Europe are splendid today with civllIZat!on. and are studded with large centers. oi llfe's best aCtlvilie, and m ,us,rieS. IEe sane attitudes in Amer, Cd an ..s,a are, as yet, wasteland and w.ldernesses. There wa, the wisesL of slatesmanship in the quiet man who purchased Alaska. Tbe great march of civil ,ization into these immense northern areas has just begun. From now on it must grow with ever increasing strength, and it will spread to the east .and west from Alaska, by nature the very center of the large new empire peacefully to be conquered. It may be looked upon as idle prophecy today. but history will oear me out, and our chll- dpen 'Glay live to see the time when Alaska. by its. propitious. positionin the center of all the continents of the world, will have reached us destiny and tbeo~me tue very center of the searth's greatest an l most splendid civil izatiun. anu the end of the twentieth century may witness Bering sea the very middle sea of the word.
 'Vhe past is only valuab e for the les sons it teaches, and history shows the fact that great ceHterS of civiizatiGl on, this earth have never sprung up. b! chance, but have always been the re suit of fortuitous location. Egypt grew great n its day by being the meeting place. of two continents, and a.ter two thousand years Of blasting wars anC Turkish rule it is about to flourish again, rejuvenated by the strong Anglu-Saxon civilizati n. Greece ano Rome gaIned their power and >plendOl ,hy be,ng centers on the Mediterranean for thousands of years the middle sea ,of the world. We'll, you may say .AClluatic conditions turthered and tos tered their exotic growtl>; our mol th Beyng sea from becoming second Mediterranean. 1 have had occasion to call the Ber.ng sea the "Greatel American Baltic"
 You. no doubt, have read Juliu Caesars comm entaries, CT Tacitus ol other Roman historians. Perhaps yol may have eeen tine chrJnlcles 0f st Wnitred B0nirace, the apt stle of Ger many, and other old German chronicles and histories saved up in monasteries which in those early days largely tool the place of our present mission sta . lions. They all tell you of conditions