296 AT THE SIGN OF THE STOCK YARD INN 



at once in touch with the present. We have left 

 the world of CHARLES COLLING, HUGH WATSON and 

 BEN TOMKINS and enter a domain in which such 

 men as J. OGDEN ARMOUR, JAMES J. HILL, Louis and 

 EDWARD F. SWIFT and TOM WILSON of MORRIS & Go. 

 are towering figures. 



The largest body of productive soil in all this 

 world is that which would fall within the circum- 

 ference of a circle, say 1,000 miles in diameter, 

 the approximate center of which might be the 

 campus of the University of Illinois. I presume 

 that one may safely say that in respect to the 

 number of comfortable homes, distribution of prop- 

 erty, high average intelligence of the people and 

 the independent character of its citizenship, history 

 has no record of conditions at all comparable, 

 extent of territory considered, with those existing 

 today throughout the vast region that would be 

 encompassed within a radius of about 500 miles 

 measured from Dean DAVENPORT'S office. But 

 harvests however bountiful, herds and flocks however 

 countless, surplus soil products however abundant, 

 merely cumber the earth as waste material until 

 touched by the magic wand of someone able and 

 willing to buy. In a land, therefore, like ours, 

 where the very cornerstone of all prosperity lies in 



