davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-02-23

obligation consisted simply in the making
OF such laws as would insure to industry a
fair field and no favor Then industry
must build itself in it's own good time
Since the beginning of settlement of
America the flood of immigration has found
our Eastern coast, and progressive settle
ment of lands has moved thence
straight westward. Look at the maps and
you will that since 1890, when the ma
tional centre of population was at Bslti-
more, this centre has followed the seth
parallel to southern Indiana with almost
mathematical exactness. From decade to
decade for a century and quarter there
was not at any time variation of one-half
a degree from that line. The verse writer
wasn't joking at all when he said "West-
ward the star of empire takes it's way"
he couldn't have made his statement any
more exactly true if he had laid it out
with compass and rule. The human tide Of
occupation set precisely Westward and it
has known no shadow or turning.
When the days of railroad building came
the railroads were built upon those lines.
Of course! Their object was service. The
builders were not engaged in boys play.
Step by step they kept pace with the move
ment of men.
Well, migration went on-always west
ward. The pioneers WERE first of all. land
hunters. Mere adventurers-a few; but so
few that they didn't count One common
motive held those millions of men west
ward bound. Here was an all but mex
haustble treasure of fertile land free for
the taking, and they wanted it,
After the first Occupation came use-pro-
ductlon-surplus of foodstuffs and of all
manner of raw materials for human needs
The settlers were farmers, not artisans.
They had raw hides, but they were not
shoemakers or harness makers; they had
forests of oak and pine, but they were not
woodworkers; they found ores, but they
were not metal workers.; they were merely
farmers. Save in the crudest fashion they
were not even skilled enough in indoor
craft to be able to mill their own grain. 1t
was infinitely easier, and more the part of
wisdom, too, to send these materials to the
nearest craftsmen for conversion than to
try making themselves jacks of all trades
Constructive industries fitted to use these
materials were already established back
East. And here were the railways ready
for service. SO the farmer put his raw
hides on board cars, and in due time there
came boots and shoes, gloves, harness, in
comparably better than anything his own
clumsy artitice could contrive. Under the
old conditions there was genuine economy.
Cost? Well, it did. something; but it was
service the pioneer farmer could not get
along without. And so, logically wisely,
he did the same thing with his wool, his
rough lumber, his ores.
Multiply one farmer by millions, extend
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-02-23

AFTERNOON. Some Of the fellows did that
and got away with it; but while killing
Huns was everybodys job just then all
you could get that way wouldn't make any
difference in the end and there was always
the chance there might be others around to
make trouble. 1t paid to play safe.
And when you did play safe and correctly
analysed the situation you could do lots of
things that at first thought seemed out Of
the question. For instance, on coming to
town at night the natural thing to do
would be to sneak through alleys and fe :
lest any one should see you. But it was
every bit as safe to march down the middle
of the main street.
No one ever saw you if you did that
The inhabitants were all indoors with the
shades drawn and the lights out The Ger
mans saw to it that you didn't meet any
inquisitive civilians. Any one stirring out
at night belonged to the military, especially
any one walking boldly through the streets,
and British hobnails sounded exactly the
same on the pavement as German hobnails
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-02-23
on landing and then start out on their

on landing and then start out on their
tasks.
LIE Blanc tried it once in practice He
jumped felt the mad rush of air past him
as he fell, doubled up in ball, shut his
eyes and waited for the smash that was to
be the end. 1t was overly long in coming.
He waited little longer but was still
alive. Finally he peaked out between his
arms and there was the parachute opened
wide above him.
He landed safely, went back to headquar-
tiers and told the general that there woul>
be no more parachute jumping as far as he
was concerned. He was perfectly willing to
be delivered behind the German lines by
airplanes, but the parachute business dill
not accord at all with his idea of a we'll
regulated life. He got his way.
1t the same with the DISCUSSES
What kind did he care to use? None, thank
you. He would put on an enlisted mans
uniform, take rifle and pack and be
quite comfortable. He had an idea it would
be far nicer so, in case he should happen
to be caught. There were things they did
to spies that we're decidedly unpleasant, and
sidered spy, matter where found
Probably it was just a little notion Of
his, but he felt it paid to look after the
details. The staff wasn't sure it could be
done, but it felt that in his position he had
a right to be humored.
For almost year he divided his time
between the two sides Of the front, always
in uniform. In that time he was never
seen by German, although he watched
whole armies of them from his hiding
places. 1t was pleasant life on the whole
especially when living at headquarters, and
while the general opinion was that it was
extremely hazardous, he couldn't see it that
way.
The main thing was to run no unneces-
sary risks. If you were concealed in some
bushes at the side of lonely road and
big German soldier came along there might
be temptation, of course, to shoot him;
even if only to relieve the monotony of the
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-02-23

hides for the distant shoemaker. cotton for
the far off loom, rough lumber for the cab
inetmaker, whose shop lay halfway across
the continent; skins for the New York glove
maker, ores for the Pennsylvania smelter.
continued supplying raw materials for the
creative industries everywhere beyond the
rim of this interior world and taking in
exchange finished products for the needs of
their own people
10 west of the Mississippi to-day and,
excepting few foodstuffs, you will search
long before you find an industry of any
consequence whose output is finished
product. Measured by the scale of national
production the whole volume of trans
Mississippi output is insignificant.
The long and short of it is that in the
past this wide region of the interior has
been furnishing the raw material upon
which the constructive industry Of New
England and the Middle Atlantic states has
grown great. The interior has surrendered
the prestige, the profit and the pride which
go with the higher forms Of industrial per-
1ormance. What is more, the interior has
thus passed into the hands of the sEastern
seaboard states all the prestige, profit and
pride OF world trade in finished products.
Excepting always meat and flour and lum-
Der and raw cotton, the world overseas
knows just next to nothing of, because it
has no contact with, this great basin of the
Mississippi Valley states
80 it has been in the past. And why?
There must be some sort of rough logic in
It, Sdch conditions do not endure for a
half century without pretty solid reason.
In fact, it was inevitable that it should
happen so-just as inevitable as the change
now under way.
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-02-23
When Plans
Went WrOnq

1t was a comfortable life, usually. If
occasionally it was necessary to sleep out
in the rain it was only occasionally. Most
of the time there was shelter of sort, and
in the towns there was nearly always
place where one could go and knock in the
right way and find friends and food and
wine and, best of ALL bed with sheets.
There were uncomfortable times, too.
For instance, when the day came on which
one was due to go back, one went to a
little point marked on the map and waited.
If the weather was bad one waited all day
and perhaps the next and the next Once
in an unusually bad season lie Blanc waited
two weeks for his transportation to arrive.
He says he was beginning to wonder a
little whether there hadn't been some over
sight in putting him down for a return
ticket. 1t was long and somewhat diff
cult route to walk.
Gathering information was not the only
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-02-23

task. An offensive was planned on q GER
tain sector. When it came the Germans
would try to bring up men and supplies by
a certain railroad. On this railroad was
long viaduct. What more natural than that
one night figure should begin crawling
out upon the structure, past the unobserv-
ant landsturm guards; that little later
it should come crawling back, and that
half an hour after that the centre span
and guard OR two should start heavenward
with terrific roar and dazzling flash of
light?
The next afternoon IN a little valley ten
or fifteen miles away throttled airplane
slipped down quietly in between the trees
and settled itself upon a smooth stretch of
grass. The pilot clambered out and looked
around. A man in khaki detached himself
from the woods and came across to the ma
chine. The pilot shut off his idling motor,
greeted the newcomer and each smoked
cigarette while they chatted A glance
over the machine, they crawled in; there
was burst of sound from the motor and
they were roaring out over the trees It
some 5000 feet few minutes later thcy
NAACiCu ouCo W Set q SOOO picture OF what
had been the viaduct and then went home.
This life might have gone on indefinitely
had not a staff general had an idea. If
such useful information was being obtained
from the occupied portion of France, why
not extend the operations beyond the Ger
man border? Surely there were many
things worth knowing there.
They told lie Blanc the plan 1t was
fine plan, he agreed, but if they were ex-
pecting him to take part they would have
to be disappointed. 1t was one thing to
operate in thoroughly familiar country,
where the inhabitants were friendly, and
quite another to go into hostile region
with maps the only guide. He had no OBJ
lection to serving in any sensible capacity,
but suicide was far, very far, from his
thoughts.
The general took offence at that. 1t
was a reflection upon his judgment in pro-
posing it. He became disagreeable-a
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-02-23

And slowly constructive industry has
been catching up with the westward move
ment of the first migrants. In the ten
years covered by the last census period the
value of manufactures in the twenty-one
interior states increased SO per cent, as
compared with the preceding ten years,
whereas the value of output of New Eng
land and the Middle Atlantic states in
creased but 55 per cent
Those figures are for the time before the
world war. The demands of war have given
an incredibly strong impulse to manu-
featuring In all this region, perhaps not in
relative increase over the East, but in
actual increase of volume of output; and
what is more important, this service has
given sudden new firmncss to the whole in
dustrial fabric Of the West. The people
have found out, beyond all doubt, that the!
can do big things in big way, efficiently,
economically. They served the emergencies
of war well, now they are going on With
what is SO admirably begun
With this basin the seat of large and
enormously increasing part of the national
output of finished products for the world
markets-then what? Slowly, but with all
the certainty of Fate itself, productive n
dustry in this region is reforming itself
into new line, a north and south line
paralleling the line of centres of production
OF raw materials and paralleling the great
natural outlet to Gulf waters
Don't you see what that means? Not b!
virtue of any human contrivance, but under
the irresistible impulse of sound economy
traffic in the products of this interior en-
pire destined for the outside world Viii
follow, not the east and west route OF tra
dltlon to Atlantic ports, but the low reslsF
ance and low cost route Of the valley itsA}
Do not misunderstood This is not &C.
pendent upon deep waterway project TO-
the Mississippi River. 1t isn't question
at all of boat transportation in competitor
with rail But water or rail, one or b0!a'
this way lies the maximum of efficiency VILE
the maximum of economy. There is c0n
bination which cannot possibly be Ignores
Of course this implies a mighty organs
change in the Mississippi Valley. In''
change is under way to-day. No longer 81.
these people dreaming and murmuring
a great time to come but yet afar off; tae'
are actually at work to-day Change
everywhere. from the Canadian border
Gulf tidewater.
What do they see, these people? In''
see this basin dominant in American >.
dustry; they see this valley the wor''.
nightiest pathway for world commerce
they see UP and down the valley eha',
of interlocked industrial communities y
inviolable strength; they see at the moa's
of the valley. at Gulf tidewater-at Ns'
Orleans--a world port second to none.
They are not merely visioning, they ~
building.
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-02-23

-
"a struction. Not mere restoration
~ of the old, but the building of
something new and better and
more impregnable to disaster; something
modern and strong, and more fit to serve
the needs of the long, long future.
We shall have a hand in the reconstruc-
ton of those lands where the actual blight
OF war has fallen. That is an obligation we
cannot avoid. The smoothing of the war
torn battlefelds and their return to the
uses of peace-tkere is very obvious need.
But reconstruction is broader than that. 1t
must touch every human activity the world
over. Nothing can be the same
hereafter as in the old days.
Our own greatest part in the new task
viii be here at home. Whatever helpful
service we may render to stricken peoples
overseas, it cannot possibly equal in i'm
portance the things we shall have to do in
our own land. This is our job. Out of the
raw material of isolated strength we are
TO build world power. Not world dominion,
but power for world service For that, we
shall need to perfect ourselves, to pick
up the loose ends of the past, to think in
new terms. to know that we are forever
done with the careless tricks of loutish
immaturity
Greatest and surest Of the tasks Of 4he
new time is to be the industrial recon-
struction of the Mississippi Basin. It ia
already begun in fashion which gives an
absolute pledge for the future. This region
10 not now surrendering itself to the mere
ecstasies OF vague prophetic vision; instead.
It Is concerned with achievement II has
had enough OF rainbow chasing; it has set
its hand now TO bold, significant successful
performance.
1t is altogether right to speak of this
as reconstruction. What war has done in
the devastation Of the famous Lille Triangle
has not been more complete than war-times
destruction Of old Industrial tradition in tina
Mississippi Basin. Upon the wreckage of
that tradition the new structure Ia to be
founded.
Here in this vast basin, from Ohio IN
Wyoming and from Minnesota TO Louixiana
lie the sources of all national strenoth-
producing powers. Twcnty-one of the forty,
eight states form this group They argre-
gate AZ per cent of the land area of the
United STATES. They contain as per cent
Of al population and more than So per cent
OF rural population. The centre of popuIa.
ton IL in southern Indiana. Seventy per
cent Of the improved farmland Of the
United States lies here, and 70 per cent Of
tne money value of all farm property.
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-02-23
A Great Artery
Unused

And here within this basin, its vital ar
terry, is the greatest of all the worlds CONT
mental outlets to the sea, with free access
to the markets OF all the world.
If you will, imagine this vast volume of
wealth in the interior basin as fluid and
free, and it needs no imagination to dis
that it would move by its own weight
down the great valley to tidewater at the
Gulf. There is transportation reduced to
it's simplest terms.
Add to all this the fact that within this
basin lie unmeasured and all but immeas-
urable sources of the cheapest of all power
for industrial use.
And yet, in real constructive industry
wealth, this mighty region has always
played very squeaky and amateurish sec
ond fiddle. The constructive industry by
which the nation is judged in the courts
of the world lies beyond the rim of the
basin. Commerce with the world in the
finished products fashioned from the raw
material provided by the interior is a bust
ness in which the interior has had only
the meagrest share. The profit of that in
dollars and cents has gone elsewhere; and,
what is infinitely worse, the communities
of the great basin have not gained that
frmness and strength of civic fibre which
has distinguished the industrial common
wealths of the East. The strength con-
ferred by the higher forms Of industry is
not fanciful; in all ways it is very real
In the years before the world war; the
twenty-one states forming the Mississippi
Basin, though they furnished so over
whclming part Of all raw materials, them
selves delivered less than 40 per cent Of
the nations manufactured products. And
that 40 per cent included the products Of
the huge meat packing industry--lcader Of
all in volume of business; it included the
products, Of lumber mills third in rank of
all industries, according to volume of pro-
duction; and it included flour milling, fifth
In rank. These three industries. though
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-02-23

Tn E HAD two major claims to dis
~ tinction. The more obvious one
81 was that he was probably the
first American citizen to get into
the world war. The other, certainly the
more interesting, was that in him Bernard
Shaw's "Chocolate Soldier" came into actual
be;ne. Bluntschli with modernizations,
naturally, but as true to type temperament
ally as if he had just stepped out OF Arms
and the Man"
We we're with him in the last weeks of
1t. which was fortunate, for there was none
left who had been his friend in the first
week-at Mons and afterward. He told
about those friends that had been, and OF
going through it all himself without even q
scratch. with grimness that could not keep
out q touch Of enjoyment. 1t was the vlndi-
cation of his chocolate soldier" theories.
He happened to be in Paris when the war
broke out His home was in Boston and his
regular job in the interior of Morocco, but
he had just finished driving a car in road
race to Constantinople and back for the
fun of the thing.
When the war was two days old he and
several friends of assorted citizenships met
to see what was to be done about it. They
decided it couldn't go on without them, and
when some one suggested that the British
army would do as we'll as any, and that 1t
was supposed to be landing on the Belgian
coast they caught the first train in a body
and hunted it up.
The British army didn't want them par
ticularly, having other things to occupy it's
attention, but it took them in. LIE Blanc
not that it matters, but that is his name
was made a sergeant and put in charge Of
the others because he could speak French
and German.
On che way across Belgium somebody
found out about the road race, SO he went
through the Battle of Mons and the retreat
as motorcycle dispatch rider. Then came
the first terrible winter in the trenches.
1t was about this time that there came
to him the realization that the soldier who
does his job without getting killed in doing
it is a better soldier than the foolhardy one
who doesn't last long enough to be of any
use.
He may have gained his first ideas in self
preservation before the through being
a neighbor of the bandit Raisuli in Moroc-
CO. RaisWi's neighbors had opportuniti IS
for education along those lines. He may
have picked up other pointers from fight
ing beside Major d'Espery against the ma
tives, who were always ambushing one in
the desert or penning up in consulate
giving way to their feelings in one way
another. The major must have picked
up some ideas, too, to judge from his good
work later as commander in chief at Sa-
loniki.
At any rate, LIE Blanc soon had abundant
instances to bear out his theory. It seemed
that many of his comrades were possessed
of the liveiiest curiosity as to whether the
Germans were still occupying the trenches
across the way.
Every SO often one Of them would feel
that he simply must know about those Ger
mans. Thereupon he would stick his head
up and look over to see what they were
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-02-23

this condition till it covers the whole of
the great interior basin, and it is clear
enough why the interior continued for so
long to produce raw materials and nothing
else. Clear enough, too, why these east and
west railways became so powerful Pred
atory grip? 1t was nothing of the sort;
it was the grip given by indispensable
service.
But IN the mean time manufacturing in
dustry was moving to the westward also.
Not in long, reckless leaps, but far and
safely in the wake of the land hunters
One by one sagacious pioneer makers of
finished products crept quietly from New
York and Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania
into eastern Ohio, then on into Indiana,
then to Illinois and on to the Mississippi,
moving with all caution, seeking for closer
contact with the sources of their
materials. Success was won. There grew
up in those Middle Western states long
chains of sound industrial communities
firmly knit together by the railways into
east and west lines. With the waterway of
the Great Lakes to supplement the rails
that east and west direction of commerce
took the appearance of having been
divinely ordained. At any rate, it became
the established order of things. Few were
bold enough to argue seriously that time
FIR change would come.
That time has come. Since the beginning
of this century there have been plenty of
signs-not cryptic handwriting on the wall
which only a seventh son might decipher,
but signs of the plainest. And now the
experience of enforced service in the
world war has brought 1.-THE Day" to this
interior empire.
Independence of the East? No, not mere
ly; something greater. Supremacy over the
East in an industrial rivalry? No, nor that
Rather the building of great industrial
structure to which all national industrial
experience has been steadily pointing;
structure not to be jealousy bounded and
safeguarded by the rim of the BASIN but an
integral part of the national structure,
truly American and dedicated to the broad
est of human service.