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proven must for ever remain a mystery. But while we have liad our 

 faihires and made mistakes, while we are still submitting to close in- 

 vestigation several matters of detail and shedding new light upon 

 familiar problems, yet to look back on events in the order of time is 

 to read a grand, unparalleled history of achievement, whose fmal issues 

 may be resisted somewhile yet, but can never be averted. 



So many years of progress in practical matters, as well as in 

 theory, have now passed by. Any forecast of our progress fifty years 

 ago would have seemed the wildest of dreams. We have found that 

 method, unlike luck, does not lead us astray ; on the contrary, to 

 acquire a business habit of proceeding methodically, is to turn many 

 a seeming impossibility to the best possible advantage. Our 

 principles, the result of steady thought and the observation of facts, 

 are grouped together, and await only a fair and reasonab'e test. 

 Every trial eliminates some tempting form of error, every failure is a 

 step to success. 



Our primary business to celebrate the first season of the New 

 Century, is to pursue as far as we can the system under which we 

 enjoy a higher level of prosperity than anglers have known in the 

 course of their previous existence. Our second business is to see that 

 our progress suffers no check. 



The question arises as to what steps should be taken to ensure 

 this. 



It might be interesting to some, even with other matters pressing 

 upon them, to turn to the future and contemjilate what the next few 

 years can possibly bring forth— to inquire whether it is really true 

 that the logic of events can possibly work out for them the big 

 problems of the age with sufficient clearness. 



