AMERICA 



keep ever in mind that the people of the United States must 

 sooner or later be the vast controlling factor in the destinies 

 of modern nations. There is population, there is wealth, and 

 there is character." 



One ship drives East, another drives West, 

 While the selfsame breezes blow; 

 Tis the set of the sails, and not the gales, 

 That bids them where to go. 



Like the winds of the sea are the currents of earth, 

 As we journey along through life; 

 'Tis the set of the soul that decides the goal, 

 And not the storms that are rife. 



Is not the " set of the soul " of America the creation of a 

 great Christian world civilization? 



In the first half of this chapter have been sounded some 

 encouraging notes. In the latter half a few minor chords 

 will be struck. Today America is half city and half country. 

 In round numbers there are fifty million inhabitants in her 

 cities and fifty million inhabitants in the country. One thing 

 is absolutely certain and that is the two populations must be 

 in more or less perfect equipoise or development will be one- 

 sided. No harm would be done if in the course of time 

 America should become almost exclusively an agricultural 

 nation, which the great French writer, Jules Meline, in his 

 book, " The Return to the Land," prophesies will* eventually be 

 the future of all the nations, owing to the fact that the two 

 things which have made some of the nations of the world 

 industrial are rapidly being exhausted coal and iron. But 

 if in the course of time America should emphasize too greatly 

 the industrial side of her national development and continue 

 to agglomerate populations in ever-growing metropolitan cen- 

 ters, a crisis might be precipitated that would retard progress. 

 So the great problem is keeping in balance urbs and rus. 

 Now, as a matter of fact, the tendency of the present time is 

 a rapid increase of the population of the cities and a very slow 



