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has ceased to be a vast area. The demands of society and the 

 response of ingenuity have overcome the obstacles of both 

 time and space. The world has been transformed into a com- 

 munity, with common ties, common problems, and common 

 obligations. Henceforth, the world may go forward, it may 

 go backward, but it will go together. What part each member 

 of the great family of nations plays in this stupendous drama 

 depends upon its genius, its enterprise, and its traditions. 



The twentieth century will be the scene of a struggle for 

 commercial and industrial supremacy. As indicated in the 

 examples already given, the successes of the United States in 

 the preliminary contests have been so marked that other na- 

 tions have paused in sheer astonishment to review the situa- 

 tion, inspect their equipment, and make a comparison of 

 methods. This comparison, to be of any value, must go far 

 beyond the apparent machinery which controls our industrial 

 methods. It must take into consideration the spirit which 

 animates our institutions; it must reach the antecedents and 

 traditions handed down to us by our liberty loving fathers, but 

 more than all, it must reach and fully realize the educational 

 methods which equip our youth for their work in the world. 



A nation cannot rise to a higher level than its citizens. It 

 is not the height of intelligence, but the height of the average 

 intelligence, which determines the capacity of a state. It is 

 true that we are a young nation, a vast territory — rich in 

 natural resources, with undiscovered possibilities greater than 

 any past development; but the record we have made would 

 have been impossible had it not been for the initiative and 

 self resource of the American type of citizen. It is this type 

 which has attracted the attention of late of the nations of 

 Europe. It has caused admiration, not a little envy, and some 

 consternation. The type is not new to us. We found it in the 

 civil war, we found it in the Spanish war, we found it in 

 every emergency which has ever confronted our republic. 

 Were I fond of metaphors, or writing, maybe, for the news- 

 papers, I might term it, as he often has been termed, "the 

 man behind the gun," but I prefer to designate him as the 

 product of our public school. He is the direct opposite of the 

 machine drilled man; for, though they may have in common 



