Free trader-journal. (Ottawa, Ill.) 1916-1920, 1917-10-08
AMERICANS ARE NOT
MONEY MAD;;PASTOR
CALLS Us |DEAL|STS
BAPTIST CLERGYMAN ExTOLLS
SPIRIT THAT PROMPTED U. S.
AN IDEAL-usEs STATISTICS TO
TO ENTER WAR TO PRESERVE
SHOW NATIONS VAST WEALTH.

Continuing his series OF patrl0tlc ad-
dresses, Rev. George W. Chessman,
pastor OF the First Baptist church. last
night delivered sermon rich with ma
tional pride. selecting The Wealth of
the Nation" as his topic. He said in
part:
Like the spies Moses sent out who
came back reporting concerning the
Promised Land, a land flowing with
milk and honey so Columbus and 9th
er daring explorers who found contin
entail America. went back home and
reported it to be wonderful country
Today one hundred millions of Amer
leans know America to be land flow
ing with milk and honey
The nation is wealthy in territory
and natural resources. 1t is rich in
arabic land, forests, mineral deposits,
and in navigable lakes and rivers. We
have country of 2,973,S90 square
miles and an Alaskan annex 1900 by
1000 miles. You could put Germany.
Austria, Spain and Switzerlasd in the
states east of the Mississippi and
China in the states north of the Red
River and west of the Mississippi
Texas would swallow up Great Britain,
Ireland. Denmark Holland and Bel
| pium Iapan uoul1 loot lilo
liputian In California. Oregon and
Washington would take in consider.
able more Of other world territory and
Alaska would open its capacious arms
to look after still more. Four.ffths Of
the fresh water Of the globe is con-
tanned in our lake and river systems
The Rhine the, Rhone the Seine and
the Poe of continental Europe are like
tiny rivulets beside the Yukon and the
Mississippi
The nation is wealthy in crops and
money We have answered the Mace
donian cry for help by producing the
greatest crops we have ever raised in
this country. This year it is three bill
loin three million bushels of corn, a
billion five hundred million bushels of
oats and million bushels of potatoes
This is representative of our gigantic
harvest and is data in handy bundle
for the CaGsandras or woe who proph.
esied a possible food famine this win.
ter.
The wealth of the United States Is
nearly double that of the British En-
pire, two and half times that of Ger
many, Austria and Turkey combined
fiv0 times that OF France six times
that of Russia. twelve times that of
Italy, sixteen times that of Japan. Our
resources are nearly match for those
of the Allies big and little all put to,
gether.
THE total wealth of the United
States todate is $1s7,739,O7l ,OO0. Will
, some arithmetician enlighten us. How
glibly we roll it out, one hundred ant
seventy eight billions. One billion is
staggering. Think OF it, since the birth
OF Christ there have been only a few
more than billion minutes. A bill
lion dollars piled one on the Other
would soar up 24S miles in the air
Edge to edge they would reach from
|. New York City to Salt Lake City. 4
bililonaire counts his money at tn,
rate OF one dollar for each tick of tht
. watch would work day .and nigh
. without ceasng for six years and foe
months to complete the job. A rifle
u ball going half mile a second ,sho
u at man a billion miles away woult
u arrive IN 500 years. And the wealth
J. of the U. s is 1877 billions plus.
q mo wonder we are dubbed money
mad abroad. The German author O
'Atlantus' takes pains to depict us
Grass materalstic nation and this /
representative of considerable litera
ture. In Germany they say we onl
joined the Allies in fighting German
'kultur' for the money we could max
out of the war.
But voice has been raised In col
tnental Europe in our behalf. Hem
Bergson the French philosopher, sal
In a speech in Paris upon his retur
from visit to the United States thf
1t was not Or selfish purposes tn
United States entered the war.
was for real principles. America
a country Of idealsm. II Is a land {
the ideal There is no country in t,
T. world where money means less. II
- - certificate of efficiency. High ideal
. moral and religious, have first pla,
over thore.
:, "It highly complimentary and v
=. ~ feel It to be true We repudiate u
= indictment that we are mere dolli