Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-12-15

cred that by the use of the proper seed
alone. without increasing the acreage or
cost OF cultivation, it can be doubled, thus
adding hundreds of millions of dollars to
our national income"
One Hundred Years of America.
Nevertheless" said 1, I'VE can hardly
claim TO be very young as nation. We
are more than 100 years DID,
"One hundred years" said the Vice Presi.
dent What Is 100 years in the life of q
nation? /. myself, know men who are nine
ty years old know some who are doing
active work a: eighty. and have met two
who have seen their full century of age.
These men had lived almost as long as our
nation. 1t is. in short only three genera
lions old.@Take your own years and mine
and add them together and they will reach
almost back to the beginning of our gov
eminent ] know that our hundred years
have been live years. They have comprised
more progress along most lines than any
other hundred years since the world be-
gan, and We should be glad to have been q
part of them but to say that there is to be
no continuance Of that progress in the flu
ture is absurd. Indeed, our prospects are
far greater now than ever
And yet continued the Vice President,
reflectively, "Our progress has been SO
great that 1t amazes me. When go back to
my old home in Ohio and think of the condi-
lions of my boyhood in contrast with the
present l am astounded 1t is fifty-odd
years since l was born there and my baby
eyes looked out upon a wilderness covered
with giant trees. My father chopped down
the woods and built the log cabin where I
spent my boyhood. and the same work
was going on for miles in every direction.
That country today is a great farm VIII
lage with fine homes built of stones bricks
and boards. During my boyhood the roads
were full of stumps and you could not drive
a wagon along them without danger of
being overturned or spending hours getting
out Of the mud holes. The roads today are
equal to the famed Appian Way, and cleo
trio cars are moving across the country al
most within hearing distance of the old
farm. While was at home not long ago
stood in the old house and talked through
our farm telephone to the governor of In
diana, at Indianapolis, more than 100 miles
away. Fifty years ago indianapolis was q
village, and Chicago, as a city, had only
begun to be.
:. How We Grow.
"Have you considered how fast we are
growing as a nation?" the Vice President
went on. ''Our population is increasing at
the rate of million and half every year.
In 1890 we had only about 62, 600. 900. In
1900 we had more than 76,0Oo, 900, and now.
only six years later. We number between
eighty and ninety millions, and shall soon
have 1000 600 souls. Take that yearly
increase of million and half. We are
getting about a million year by immigra-
ton now, and the increase is probably
a half 1t is enormous. Think what it means$
Take the city of Washington with its 300,-
Co., Indianapolis at 100000 and Kansas
City equally large. Add Cleveland with its
100000 and San Francisco with 200 more.
Those cities altogether contain just about q
million and a half people and our increase
of one year would fill them to bursting.
Suppose they could be wiped off of the face
of the earth and rebuilt, in one year and
YOU have our present condition. Suppose
that you add that many consumers, that
fhaf
muscle and that mighty composite brain to
our nation this year, and then an equal
amount next year, and the next, and the
next That is what is going on in the United
States today. We are increasing at the rate
of a Philadelphia every twelve months, and
in some years almost to the extent of a
Chicago. We are growing in wealth as
rapi6Iy as in numbers, and our possibilities
are it seems to me, almost beyond human
conception
FRANK G. CARPENTER.