INTRODUCTION xv 



or indirectly are in some part in our hands. First, and 

 without delay, we must know ourselves. The localism 

 with which the East has always justly charged the 

 West, is disclosed as its own greatest weakness, also. 

 The swift rush of events and swifter achievements of 

 science in practical application have annihilated tune 

 and space. East and West exist no longer, but the 

 sectionalism and misunderstandings which character- 

 ized their former existence remain. The facts and 

 problems of each are now equally the business of the 

 other. Reclaiming, for one example, the exhausted 

 farmlands of the East and the potential farmlands of 

 the West are equally the nation's business if it is to 

 perform its duty to itself and its people, and accom- 

 plish its destiny among nations. The initial condition 

 for national and international achievement in the fu- 

 ture immediately before us is self-knowledge. 



As my contribution to this end I offer here neither 

 a history, a handbook, nor a treatise; the literature of 

 detailed information available to students is sufficiently 

 large and complete. This book, remarkable chiefly per- 

 haps for its omissions, addresses only those, West as 

 well as East (but they are millions), who know their 

 national estate little if any better to-day than I did a 

 dozen years ago, but upon whom the new future of the 

 nation depends. It outlines, not details. It sketches 

 the great whole in perspectives, which it fills only with 

 facts that clarify. It will have achieved its purpose if 

 it imparts the vision of the whole which emerged in 

 my own mind out of the studies of a decade, if it makes 



