The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1915-07-11

ties and the increase and utilization
tof the public wealth. The seven seas
and the rivers that make into them
are the inter-continental highway.
L1aid by the Almighty, In the heart and
4 members of the globe, to suggest and
| effect a worldwide inter-soul COM
imerce--to organize the great wNlirling,
wideswept. wastrei world and fulfil,
IL. Thy way liz In the great water.
I says the Psalmist.
The Beginning OF Things.
So New England came to the new
world and planted the political right
of conscience around the rim Of Mas
sachusetts Bay, up the Connecticut,
/ the Merrimac. the Kepnebec, the Pc
I nobscot because the great, eosInic,
| level. seif-repairing Atlantic road was
open thither. So French simplicity
land thrift erept up the St Lawrence.
while La Sale, Vancouver, Marquette
land Joliet sought out the head waters
OF the Ohio and the Mississippi So
jimperturbabie Dutch thoroughness
possessed New Amsterdam, the Hud-
son and the Mohawk. So the Cavaliers
took up the watershed of the James,
So rne Catholics sailed into the Pa
[ tapsco with the flag of ancient and
4 infaiiihie authority. And so the
Quaker pre-empted the Delaware in
the name of divine and human friend
illness, the finest political doctrine
ever framed.
| Then. for hundred and fifty years,
the Westering star of empire hung
iaground upon the Appalachian Noun
i tain tops. and the dead hand of hereai-
tary privilege held us hard and fast,
across three athousand miles of sea,
haea s4fie=it- had thr-pswer of the read
| Then we began to stretch the sea
| by building roads. Quaker Phiiadel-
phia. Dutch New York and Puritan
Boston ran together. on the great
turnpike. As the nineteenth century
was opening. Henry Clay. the Column
bus of internal improvements in
/ America promoted the national road
/ from tae District OF Columbia TO the
Ohio River. Then Cumberland Gap
was negotiated into the heart of the
/ Southwest and the barren brtars OF
iharbarism began TO bear the roses OF
religion and reform Then the santa
/ Te trail bored through the wilderness,
[ the desert and the Rocky Mountains,
| into the land Of gold. Then r.le Ore
gon trail crept down Shake River to
| the mouth of the Columbia. and new
race of men. Americans. new form
of government a representative de-
mocracy, q new nation. with new
/ name, America, were horn. and
new world was In new hands for
good or Ill.
From these instructive beginnings
| of American development. up TO the
/ ba filing perpiexities OF ahess days of
ethical adventure. II has been the mag
netisrn OF the road, that drew and
drilled and ruled the people.
Romance of Trails.
| Our internal history Is romance
| of trappers' trails, corduroy bridges
across tsle marshes, then of the evo~
luton OF wagon roads and bridges.
then of canals and railroads, then or
ltelegraphs. telephones and pine lines,
| then Of the miracle OF aeroplaues' ana
the Phoebus Chariots of harnessed
lightning flashes racing across the
sky, and now at last. of the welding
OF the two oceans at Panama, into
the greatest act of creative energy
since nae morning stars slid singing
down their shining ways. The con-
quest OF the sea, the earth. the sky,
and thus the organization Of the new
world, Of matter, mind and spirit, al
ways proceeding by the slow. sure. nn-
ceasIng answering law of the road.
The march Of the continent. mp from
savagery to the right OF time In world
wide civilization. has camped upon
three economic levels the road, moro
roads. better roads every new alti-
tude discovering new horizons OF
vision, power and obligation. This
lis the epoch Of better roads. The from.
tier has gone The whole land IL a
I gridiron of what Isaiah calls paths
! to dwell in and the problem Of the
lunion of politics. economics and re-
Elirion---the real business of defnoc-
| racy---takes on new phases. higher
land more difficult phases Night has
4 fallen on the Babel tower of quantita-
tive America IT is the morning dawn
lof qualitative democracy, In matter
| and In spirit,
In the Southwest. awhile ago. saw
acres OF melons. going TO waste In the
Fields. for Jack Of transportation In
the Northwest saw the fruit Of many
Orchards rotting on the ground, In
the West saw them burning corn
and Alax, for fuel The stoves and
\ swine were eating Hp the choicest
produces or the soil. for which men.
wumen and children were suffering
In the citfeA. while the Incorporated
4 swine 81 wall Street were eating out
the yita1e Of the railroads themselves.
that were the keys TO the prnbtem.
That AttnNxton calls simply for het-
i Ser rcndk md HE answer n CONF
trk ~ pidly i0wer