THE 



POPULAR SCIENCE 



MONTHLY 



MARCH, 1908 



AMERICA'S INTELLECTUAL PRODUCT 1 



BY Professor ARTHUR GORDON WEBSTER 



CLARK UNIVERSITY 



IT may not be out of place for one who is unaccustomed to the 

 constraint of reading from a pulpit to fortify himself with a text. 

 From an excellent source I select the following : " Behold, a sower went 

 forth to sow; and when he sowed, . . . some fell upon stony places, 

 where they had not much earth : and forthwith they sprung up, because 

 they had no deepness of earth: . . . but other fell into good ground, 

 and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some 

 thirtyf old." And also : " Ye shall know them by their fruits." 



This is an epoch of the superlative. The prosperity of our country 

 is at its highest. Our exports and imports have reached the highest 

 figures of a succession of record-breaking years. The crops are so 

 great that our railroads, of greater extent than those of any other 

 country, congested with traffic, are unable to find cars to transport 

 them, and parts of the country are suffering for such necessities as coal, 

 owing to the plethora of others, such as grain. Business undertakings 

 are greater than ever before in the history of the world, and as a 

 consequence we have merchant princes whose wealth beggars the 

 imagination and makes the rich men of antiquity look poor in com- 

 parison. Not only have we greater millionaires, but more of them 

 than any other nation, and our total wealth far exceeds that of any 

 other land in this or any other time. Not only have we rich, but our 

 working classes are more fortunate than others; they are all busily 



1 The following article was given as an address at Clark University on 

 Founder's Day, February 1, 1907, and although some of the statements therein 

 made might now be somewhat modified, it has been deemed best to print it 

 verbatim, and without removing the local allusions, since its application is 

 general, rather than particular. 



vol. lxxii. — 13. 



