446 THE GEOSPHERES 



were broad and fertile, agriculture spread more rapidly than 

 ever before, more rapidly than would be possible under other 

 conditions; next the magnificent distances and rich produce 

 compelled improved transportation facilities, and steam was 

 harnessed more effectively than would be possible under other 

 conditions. Meantime the broad problems presented by a broad 

 land widened the views of men already inspired by political 

 freedom, and America became a nation of inventors, a people of 

 applied science ; geography was studied more broadly than 

 would be possible in a petty province ; it grew into a science of 

 geology, inspired by the breadth of the formations and their 

 wealth in resources, guided b}^ intelligence broad as the land, 

 and today the geologists of this country lead the world in their 

 science. The sister sciences were invigorated by the associa- 

 tion. I have said that the solar system has been weighed and 

 measured with unparalleled accuracy during recent years, and 

 may now add that the work was done by American genius, and 

 that today the shipping of the civilized world is guided by nau- 

 tical almanacs based on this American work. Another science, 

 regenerated in America by reason of favorable conditions, is an- 

 thropology. We have had better opportunities than the students 

 of other countries for research concerning mankind ; we have 

 in Washington and in other cities representatives from every 

 important country on the face of the earth, representatives of 

 ever}^ living race, of every blood in human veins ; then we have 

 a wider range of culture constantly before us than any other 

 nation, a range running from savage aborigines through bar- 

 baric tribes up to the representatives of the kingdoms and em- 

 pires from other countries, and finally to our own enlightened 

 people, standing on the highest plane which mankind has ever 

 attained — the plane on which social organization is based on 

 intellectual freedom. We have every stage in human culture 

 before us, and hence have been able to develop a broader and 

 profounder science of anthropology than the world has seen 

 before. Especially during the last half century our country has 

 sprung forward in the race for intellectual attainment, surpass- 

 ing all other nations ; and our application of scientific princi- 

 ples has kept pace with our development of knowledge. Today 

 if English promoters in Egypt want locomotives furnished on 

 short notice, they send to America, knowing that, despite the 

 doubling in distance, the order can be filled more quickly than 

 at home ; today if a bridge is to be built more rapidly than the 



