The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-10-12

a great river. cape and mountain named for him. His greatest monu- ment is the world he discovered.
 The vision that led Columbus west ward opened to the world an aera or over 13,00o.000 square miles on the American continent alone, and tnls great pioneer discovery led to others. Much of Asia and Africa and ali of Australasia and the Polar regions were as a closed book at that time. Thanks to the spirit of exploration which ne inparted to the race. almost every page of that book has become known.
 The vast area of the two Americas is four times as large as that or Eu- rope. larger than that of Africa and almost as large as that of Asia. There is. room for a least billion inhabi- tants, or two-thrids of the population of the entire globe, without their be- ing any more crowded than are the people in Europe. When Columbus landed at San Salvador the population of the Americas consisted of wander ing bands of savages and few set dement's of the semi-civiitzed Indians. Today probably 175,000,0c people are living and prospering in the land he found Over half of these are in the United States, which exceeds in popula- tion any other country except Russia, India and China.
 He opened the way for the realiza- tion of the rosiest dreams of the Span fish cavaliers, and their Fl Dorado has materialized in the western world. Columbus companions found the Carib- bean Indians wearing necklace of gold nuggets, and since that time the worlds production of gold and silver has been increased by the western hemisph ere's production until 1t went to upwards of twenty-five billions of dollars. He doubled the wealth of the world now estimated at three hundred and fifty billions or more. of which perhaps half is on the American con- tinent. Tn the United States the esti- mated wealth is over a hundred and twenty-five billion dollars, the per capita distribution being twice as large as 1t Is in Europe. The great resources of South America, yet undeveloped, will increase the total of American wealth enormously in few years.
 It took 300 years after Columbus, a new system of government, the best that the mind of man has yet devised. '"The mills of the gods grind slowly but that 300 years is a short time com pared to the thousands af years before them. when the light of freedom which illumines the Declaration of Indepen- dence remained undiscovered. That QOCuIuCnL TUT tuC French Revolution. and marked the be- ginning of the decline of Spanish power in America. However, Colum- bus and his Spanish successors had builded so well that 1t was not until 400 years after his time, when Cuba be- came independent and Porto Rico was annexed to the United States. that Spain's dominion in the western hem isphere ceased altogether. The last aF peared from South America when Elm peror Dom Pedro of Brazil was exiled.. with the exception of few scattering and unimportant colonies there Is now popular government from Cape Horn to the Arctic Ocean under a score of republics and autonomous Canada.
 When Columbus discovered America intertribal trade of the plains Indians, the Aztecs and the Poruvians. Now the total foreign commerce of the Americas is about $6,000, 0o0, ,000, or one quarter that of the entire world. The internal commerce of this country is very much greater, that of the United States alone being estimated ct S26,- 900 100000 annually. Columbus sought route westward that he might res- tore to Europe the monopoly of East Indian trade; he made way for a trade far greater than the vast riches of Ind,
 If Columbus could return to the scenes of his historic exploits today, he would experience a revelation more marvellous than Aladdin could have 1 wrought with his wonderful lamp. Where 1t took him two months to bring over his 120 men in three Vessels-the largest of which was about the size of twenty-ton brig-he now could come in. four or five days on board a modern ocean greyhound that would carry 5000 people. Where then he had to recross the sea after several weary months to apprise their most Catholic Majesties' that he had touched land, he could now sennd message in a few l minutes by cable or wireless telegraph | Where then only few naked savages knew he had come and word was borne | inland by runners, he could today, by wire. auuonce his landing to the heads l of twenty five prosperous American | governments Where on one voyage l he touched only Cuba of all the North American continent, he could now see much more. He could cross by boat and train to Florida, and reach Wash | ington in twenty-four hours. He | could tour the country on 225, 900 miles of railway-over half the railway mile. | age of the world-seeing farmlands | factories. mills and mines by the thou | sands, and pass on to sister republics | In South America with only a slight
 gap in the great railway system
 Where four centuries ago he returned l to Spain in sea-beaten, elumsily mend
 ed caravel, he might elect in the nex'
 decade to go by alrship or submarin,
 vessel. Such is the wonderful develop
 ment of the continents that his faiti
 and perseverance gave the world.
 With the establishment of the Centra
 Amercian international court of justic,
 and with the United States practical!
 guaranteeing peace in Latin America
 the future of the Americas is beyont
 the power of the imagination t,
 picture. The least the New Worl,
 can do for the man to whom 1t owe
 SO much today Is to make October 12
 "Columbus Day, an international holi
 day.