20 THE TIME FACTOR IN THE PROBLEM. 



score years ago, of the most enlightened of the nations, 

 hasty as it has been, suffices to remind us of the amaz- 

 ing changes which have taken place within a few years ; 

 and to show that if we reckon time by its results, twenty 

 years of this century may out-measure a millennium of 

 olden time. 



As the traveler in Asia follows the sun westward 

 around the world, he finds life growing ever more in- 

 tense and time more potent. 



" Better fifty years of Europe than a cycle of Cathay." 



And to carry the comparison between the East and the 

 West a degree further, permit me to quote an intelligent 

 Englishman who is a competent witness; viz., Mr. Jo- 

 seph Hatton, who says : ' ' Ten years in the history of 

 America is half a century of European progress. Ten 

 years ago the . manufactures of America were too insig- 

 nificant for consideration in the Old World. To-day 

 England herself is successfully rivaled by American 

 productions in her own markets." ^ But the comparison 

 does not end here. Ten years in the New West are, in 

 their results, fully equal to half a century east of the 

 Mississippi. There is there a tremendous rush of events 

 which is startling, even in the nineteenth century. 

 That western world in its progress is gathering mo- 

 mentum like a falling body. Vast regions have been 

 settled before, but never before under the mighty whip^ 

 and spur of electricity and steam. Referring to the 

 development of the West, the Londoyi Times remarks: 

 "Unquestionably, this is the most important fact in 

 contemporary history. It is a new fact; it cannot be 

 compared with any cognate phenomenon in the past." 

 And, as it is without a precedent, so it will remain with 

 out a parallel, for there are no more New Worlds. 



» To-day in America, 1881. 



