almost wholly undeveloped, our foreign trade of no account, few steamships, and less than 3,000 miles of railroad. No equal period in all history can at all compare with the two generations just passed in the creation of wealth and the exploitation of natural resources. It has been an age of unparalleled advance in man's ability to control and direct the forces of nature, the age of steam and electricity. "The United States has to-day within its borders," says an eminent economist (President James), "an effective power in the engines at work, far surpassing the total possible power of the entire population of the world a century ago. In many lines of work one man, with the aid of a small machine, may do as much as fifty or a hundred men could have done at the beginning of the century. While in other departments, owing to the development of the application of steam and electricity, one man may do what all the population of the world combined could not have accomplished a hundred years ago."

The spirit of pioneering. The achievements of the last century, particularly those of the last score of years, are of such stupendous magnitude and so revolutionary in character as to fix a gulf between the life of to-day and that which our ancestors led when they began the conquest of this new world. The man who braved the dangers of the deep, for weeks together, in a sailing vessel, tossed about on an uncharted ocean and landed upon an inhospitable shore, had faith and fortitude and courage unknown to those of us to-day who think of a sea voyage as a pleasant relaxation from every-day toil. The prayer for the person going to sea is no longer suffused with the emotions which once characterized that formal appeal

to the "Eternal God who alone spreadest out the heavens and stillest the raging of the sea to guard the loved one from all danger, from sickness, from the violence of enemies and from every evil to which he may be exposed and to conduct him in safety to the haven where he would be."

The pioneer who set out alone to explore unknown wilds, or with wife and children turned his face to the setting sun to found a new home beyond the mountains, or on the plains, or across the great desert, was made of sterner stuff than his descendant who complains of the luxuries of the palace car and chafes under the restraint of a few minutes delay in making schedule time across the continent. The man whose success calls for individual initiative, whose subsistence is gained by the work of his own hands, whose life depends upon a quick eye and a sure aim, such a man is somehow radically different from the men of to-day. He belongs to a by-gone age, to the days of homespun and log cabin and flintlock - the days of the simple life, the hardest kind of living.

The willingness to take a chance. It is little wonder that the typical American has learned to take chances, that the gambler's instinct within him amounts almost to a passion, that on the thing he wants he will stake his last dollar, even life itself. Without this passion to win out or die in the attempt, a direct inheritance with our AngloSaxon blood, this country could not have been developed as it has. Without it we should doubtless be playing the rôle of a South American republic, or be like Africa, a bone to be snarled over by European dogs of war. As a people we have taken the chance that was offered to us a century ago and we have played the game, most of the

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never before seen.

It has raised up men who have dared

to harness the steeds of the Sun and drive them abreast across our heavens from the Massachusetts Bay to the Golden Gate, men who have burrowed into the earth and brought forth light and heat and power that defy the limitations of time and space, men who have organized and directed commercial enterprises productive of wealth beyond the wildest dream of oriental potentate or of the avarice of imperial Rome.

The land of opportunity. In the olden time men saw eye to eye, they stood shoulder to shoulder, and they fought hand to hand. Individual initiative, personal prowess, reckless daring, and persistent effort were the vital factors in securing success. These qualities are still important, indeed they are absolutely indispensable, but in the future that awaits the young American of today, it is a different kind of initiative and another type of prowess that is needed. The extraordinary increase of man's power over the forces of nature witnessed in the lifetime of those of us who are not yet willing to be called even middle-aged, has revolutionized communication and bids fair to put transportation by steam out of business. Who knows but the next generation may see new methods of transportation as far superior to the steamship and railroad as the telephone and telegraph are superior to the post rider and letter carrier? Who will search out these undiscovered forces and who will direct their use in ways beneficial to mankind? Who, indeed, if not the

young men, who are going forth strong to battle and confident of victory? If it be true that the life of to-day is far removed from the life of yesterday, it is equally true that the man of to-day far surpasses the man of yesterday, surpasses him, I mean, in ability to do simply because he has more power, infinitely more power in many ways, with which to do the work of the world. The youth of to-day have the hand, the eye, and the strong right arm that their great-grandfathers had, and I doubt not could, if necessary, acquire something of their skill and cunning; they have inherited their zeal and indomitable courage and, if need were to arise, would demonstrate it again as their fathers did before them; they are, or may be, all that the men of the past have been, but they are more -infinitely more than their forefathers ever were simply because the intervening years have added untold wealth to the patrimony of every person who enters this new century. They are "the heir of all the ages, in the foremost files of time" and may be the possessors of the best the world can give. The fact that some will seize this birthright and lead the way to new conquests and enjoy new triumphs discloses the meaning of civilization. If human genius has increased the working efficiency of Germany ten- or fifteenfold in two generations, what may not be expected in young America in the next half century? "Better fifty years of Europe than a cycle of Cathay," sang the English poet eighty years ago. I say to you better fifty years of America than anything that the world has to offer. America still is the land of opportunity for us as it was for our fathers when they spied it out and took possession.

we live will surely go down in history as the age of power and wealth. It is an age in which man has counted less as a mere laborer and more as a human being than in any past time. Increased power means increased wealth, and wealth makes leisure possible. The widespread use of machinery on the farm, for example, makes it possible for the farmer to gain subsistence with less expenditure of time and labor than in the days of hand power; or if he works diligently and intelligently he may accumulate wealth in a manner not usually gained by tillers of the soil. Science and natural resources. The markets of the world are controlled by those who can best use the forces of nature. Danish farmers, I venture to say, are no stronger, no more diligent, no more anxious to succeed than are New York or Georgia farmers, and Danish farms are naturally no more productive than the farms of New York, and far less fertile than the best of the South or of the central West. But Denmark has been making good use of trained leaders. When, some forty years ago, she saw depression settling down on her agriculture like a mist, she set about finding the means of dispelling it. She sent envoys to the London markets to find out what was wanted; she established Agricultural Colleges to find out new methods of farming; she founded scores of Agricultural Schools accessible to all farmers' boys and girls; she sent out trained inspectors to advise and counsel with farmers on ways and means of improving their output; she set up testing stations where anyone might ascertain the quality of his goods; she organized coöperative agencies for