AMERICA 



life. Her first duty was to free herself from a tyrannous 

 foe and this duty was well performed. Thereafter she under- 

 took the building of a constitution, which, if democracy 

 proves to be the regnant tendency of future civilization, will 

 mark one of the epochs of world progress. From the adoption 

 of the federal constitution down to the present time, two facts 

 stand out in bold relief in the nation's life. One is the preser- 

 vation of the union, which involved decades of controversy 

 and a great civil war, and the second is the splendid achieve- 

 ments of an aggressive people in taking possession of the 

 greatest country, from the standpoint of material resources, 

 under the sun. This record of a people, now one hundred 

 million strong, indicates that America has lived a clean life. 



Fourth, America's Training, No other nation on earth, 

 during the past generation, not even the English nation, has 

 responded so sympathetically to ideas that have world signifi- 

 cance. In every field of human endeavor, America's interest 

 has gone beyond the local. It is America that has had the 

 big share in causing the world to become a contracting, 

 shrinking world, because never in human history was there 

 such a marvelous demonstration of inventive and scientific 

 achievement as characterized the last century in the United 

 States. America has also had a large share in the wonderful 

 work of making plastic all the peoples of earth, preparing 

 them to be molded into more perfect images of the Creator. 

 Moreover, freed from the fear inspired by covetous neighbors 

 and stimulated by the greatest inheritance of ideas that have 

 ever filled the mind and heart of a people, America has been 

 a nation of peace, contentment and prosperity. America has 

 no great problems to solve such as the Civil War settled. 

 There are plenty of problems to keep the nation busy for 

 generations to come, but the point especially to be noted is 

 that America for a period of half a century has had an 

 abundance of surplus mental energy to give to the larger 

 problems having world-wide significance, such as the gospel- 

 izing of all peoples, discovering the hitherto undiscovered 

 portions of the earth, investigating from many standpoints 



