302 HOWARD J. ROGERS 



Delaney application of telegraphy, whereby a letter can be 

 transmitted from New York to Chicago with small expense 

 and with little loss of time, and the systems of wireless teleg- 

 raphy with all that they mean to ocean traffic, are the main 

 examples in point. Already the Marconi patents have passed 

 into the control of the Lloyds, the chief marine insurers, and 

 vitally interested in reducing the risks of maritime insurance, 

 as well as in developing the safety of ocean transit. 



Such are some of the facts which indicate the tendency of 

 our national development, the nature of the great interests in- 

 volved, and the spirit and courage of our great republic. What 

 have been the underlying principles and agencies whose de- 

 velopment has caused this wonderful fruition, — for nations 

 do not develop in a day, — and to what must we look for 

 the preservation of this same spirit and intelligence in the 

 future? 



Nothing has more tended to open our own eyes to our 

 strength and greatness than the concern and consternation of 

 foreign nations which have begun to realize it since the Span- 

 ish war. The " American peril" is a real one to them, since 

 successful competition with it means a readjustment of their 

 social and political as well as commercial relations. We can 

 well understand the cry of the European editor who, after a 

 resume of our power, growth, and energy, threw up his hands 

 in the admiration of despair and said : " A continent has come 

 of age." And I do not believe there is one of us, whether he is 

 expansionist or anti-expansionist, no matter where he comes 

 from or what he may be, that does not take pride in that forced 

 tribute, or look forward to the time when to say in any capital 

 of the world, "I am an American," will demand the same 

 respect as the shibboleth of ancient Rome — civis romanus sum. 



The world is entering upon a new age. We can scarcely 

 call it a scientific age, as that name has been appropriated, and 

 justly, too, by the latter half of the nineteenth century, but it 

 will be an age in which the development of the sciences will 

 predominate. Hitherto we have restricted the word "age" 

 to a phase of development in a single country : The golden age 

 of Rome, the Elizabethan age of England, the Renaissance of 

 western Europe; but this is no longer possible. The world 



