The Meaning of the Atlantic : 57 



tor, representing an Eastern and a Western Hemisphere with the Old 

 World on the right and the New World on the left. This corrects 

 some of the defects of the Mercator map; it does draw the merid- 

 ians so that in each half of the representation they are seen to 

 intersect at the pole; it avoils the distorted largeness of high lati- 

 tude areas and the relative dwarfing of equatorial areas; it does 

 come nearer to representing the continents in their true shapes 

 and proportions. But it also, unfortunately, does violence to the 

 oceans. It splits the Atlantic wide open, leaving only a margin of 

 water around the continents of either hemisphere. It thus not only 

 destroys the unity and integrity of the Atlantic but also makes it ap- 

 pear that the Atlantic serves to split and separate the hemispheres. 

 This psychological impression is in the main unreal and even con- 

 trary to the fact for as we shall see demonstrated in many ways the 

 Atlantic has served mainly to unite the continents and to serve as a 

 highway between them. 



The disregard or disrespect for the ocean expressed, perhaps un- 

 consciously, in these maps is also found in much of our modern 

 writing and teaching. Earlier in our history most American citizens 

 lived on or near the Atlantic seaboard and many of them had but 

 recently crossed the ocean to establish homes here. Most of them 

 were in some way directly or indirectly dependent upon the ocean 

 and quite conscious of its importance to them as a source of food 

 and fuel, as a channel for their trade, a highway for their contact 

 with the rest of the world and a wide frontier to be defended. As we 

 have expanded to fill up a large part of a continent the proportion of 

 landsmen who seldom or never see the sea has increased and the 

 proportion of those that dwell on or along the sea has diminished. 

 This change in knowledge and interest is no doubt reflected in our 

 writing and thinking. More and more our history, our literature, our 

 political theorizing, our news has been written by landsmen for the 

 benefit of other landsmen. The good seamen, the fine naval leaders, 

 the merchants and those who know the science of the sea are still 

 with us, but they are outnumbered and it is difficult for them to be 

 clear and articulate and eloquent about their problems where a com- 

 mon background of information and interest has ever to be created 

 anew and almost rebuilt from the ground up. It is not true that the 

 Atlantic is less important to ourselves and to other nations than it 

 was in the past. It is probably more so, but the relative number of 

 people who understand this importance has decreased. 



The materials for understanding exist. There is indeed a vast new 



