The Meeker herald., 1910-12-24
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 20, 1910
Supreme Epoch in History of ankind
BY BENJAMIN IDE WHEELER
President of the University OF California

| President of the University OF California
The opening of the Panama canal
makes supreme epoch in the history
of mankind. The celebration Of that
event, if there is to be one, must pay
heed to the historical meaning of what
is being celebrated; otherwise it will all
be II perversior,, n violence and vanity.
The canal means, first of all, that our
land joins the two oceans, and looks out,
Janus faced, towards its rights and its
risks on both. For the exercise of its
rights and the facing of its perils 1t
must unite the waters of the two oceans.
1t is one nation, and its two oceans
must become one highway.
Our existence hitherto has been shap-
en- bv our position cn the Atlantic fac
ing Europe 1t is quite likely that the
coming years, in increasing measure,
will take their form and color from our
position on the Pacific facing Asia.
The opening of the canal Yields its
Significance in terms of our nations
new outlook through the Golden gate
upon the western ocean, and it is only
at the Golden gate that the event can
tell its meaning to the world.
And there is a second consideration.
When Columbus started across the seas
he was seeking. not America, but the
old Orient of India and China and their
gold and spices. Men had always de-
sired the East and the gold and the pep
per. There was nothing new about the
object of search. All that was new
was the direction. Columbus went west.
Judged in terms of it original purpose
his voyage was a total failure. He start
ed straight for Asia, but ran upon the
long, broad dyke OF land we now call
the Americas. 1t has cost more than
four centuries for him and thosed who
swarmed after him to conquer this him
dering dyke which arose in his path and
forbade him Asia. The opening Of the
canal is the first cutting of this dyke
the avenging of Columbus-the end OF
the four-century halt-thr resumption
of the advance toward the Orient.
1t would be u pity and shame to
celebrate this event behind the bunker.
We have been there four hundred years.
Let us get out now into the open air of
the Pacific.
But there is third consideration
weightier than all. The civilization
which we inherit, in which we are shap-
en-, and made to be what we are, and to
do what we do. had its origin in the
valleys of the Euphrates and the Nile
and on the billsides of Syria and Greece.
With its back turned toward the old
Orient of india and China it pushed its
way around the world. 1t passed from
Greece to Rome, to Spain and France
and Germany, to England, and to
America across the seas. The opening
of the canal means that it has entered
the Pacific; and this is the arena In
which the two world halves, the Orient
and the Occident, are to stand. no long
err back to back, but face to face. and no
man can forsee the issue thereof.
But every man who can see and think
can know that with the opening of the
canal the history of the human race
passes to its last and final phase. Such
AN event must be celebrated at a place
where it has signiticance-where the
races meet, where the arena, be it mart
or battlefield, is fixed and prepared,
where the look is straight out westward
not averted or askance, but straight
out westward toward the duty which
awaits this nation.