320 MAJOR JOHN F. LACEY 



From Winnipeg to Biloxi the same plants and grasses 

 may be found, and though the variation of climate is 

 great in so wide a range of latitude, the most valuable of 

 all cereals will grow in the whole region. 



THE POWER OF COAX. 



The same native animals grazed from Hudson's Bay to 

 the Mexican Gulf, but with all its wealth of soil, climate, 

 forests, mountains, lakes, and rivers there is stored with- 

 in its bosom the mineral power for ages yet to come. Not 

 long ago a young Englishman, Mr. Coates, the superin- 

 tendent of the Uruguay Railway in South America, asked 

 me the question, "Do you realize what a tremendous 

 handicap it would be upon your progress if every loco- 

 motive that pulls a train out of New York, Baltimore, or 

 Washington should be first coaled up from the mines of 

 Wales or Australia? That is practically the situation in 

 South America." In 1902, when for five months 150,000 

 miners laid down their tools and ceased to work, we had 

 in a small way a sample of a coalless continent. 



Imagine our country bereft of the great motive power 

 which moves our trains, our steamers, and our factories, 

 which makes life comfortable in the rigors of the north- 

 ern midwinter. Without the coal the days of steam 

 would have come in vain, and the age of electricity would 

 have sought other fields. But the great Louisiana Pur- 

 chase is filled with the most valuable deposits of coal, 

 stored by the providence of God within its limits long 

 before Adam found himself alone in Eden. 



UNEXAMPLED GROWTH 



Since the annexation of Louisiana its growth has been 

 so reasonable, so expected, and so natural as to recall the 

 explanation of the Irishman at Niagara. "See how it 

 rolls down. Is it not grand? Is it not wonderful?" in- 



