176 WILHELMINE E. KEY 



and notably with his advisers the political heritage of his time. Yet only 

 he was able to cope successfully with the manifold dangers and vicissitudes 

 of that time. Hamilton framed a financial policy, far-reaching if not satis- 

 factory to his opponents. His materials were at the command of many an- 

 other of the able founders of our government. Yet it was Hamilton who, 

 through his temperament and mental gifts, conceived and put into execution 

 the many-sided features of that policy. Examples of this sort could be 

 multiplied indefinitely. 



The search for "laws" governing national evolution has led to many hy- 

 potheses regarding its primary factors, and successively, geographic location, 

 soil, climate, numerical increase have been stressed as foremost in deter- 

 mining trend. Only lately have the factors, racial and personal been given 

 any considerable place in these deliberations. To be convinced of the simple 

 logic of this new attitude, one needs only to ask, "What kind of a civilization 

 would a lot of morons build? Or once achieved, how would they manage 

 to maintain it?" But perhaps we shall some day have a painful answer to 

 these questions. 



We may conceive then of national evolution as depending in large measure 

 on the biological and psychological constitution of man. According to this 

 view, the status of a people is an index of their abilities, these, of course 

 taken in relation to the virgin resources of the territory they occupy, and 

 the types of culture with which they have contact and which they are fitted 

 to adapt to their peculiar purposes. 



We may illustrate this view by brief allusion to the early colonization of 

 this country. Spain, France, Holland and England all made extensive ex- 

 plorations and ambitious attempts at settlement. They found here many 

 tribes still in the hunting stage of development as well as others, such as the 

 Incas and the Mayas, who had achieved a considerable culture. The mode 

 of life of the former had persisted for hundreds of years in the midst of a 

 continent abounding in means of promoting a high state of civilization. 

 Granting the power of endurance and self-control, the high standards of 

 morality of these tribes, the fact remains that under natural conditions highly 

 favorable to the growth of a material culture, they left those resources prac- 

 tically untouched. It has been pointed out that lacking any tool but a 

 stone hatchet, the clearing of the virgin forest was impossible; without beasts 

 of burden, ploughing was out of the question. It must also be remembered 

 that through contact with the white man and access to his means and meth- 

 ods the Indian of these sections was no more inclined to the exploiting of 

 our natural resources than he was in the Pre-Columbian period. Yet here, 

 a few handfuls of immigrants so secured themselves in a few decades that 



