384 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONERS OF 



weeks of travel loses its freshness, and the impressions gained may be soon forgotten 

 or may be imperfect in consequence. One should visit one region well and then 

 return home to reflect, digest and modify these impressions. 



Many Americans claim that Europe is effete and declining, that the people lack 

 ginger, and that society is in a stratified condition ; that owing to the density of 

 population land and materials are scarce and labor abundant ; that the people are 

 conservative; that the tools in use are clumsy; that the government is too paternal; 

 that transportation is too slow, etc. 



One's conclusions, however, may be easily upset. In Holland alone there are large 

 areas of uncultivated waste land. Land is cheap in some parts of Europe, and one 

 is surprised to find a new settlement on the heath lands of Holland called "America." 

 Labor is abundant and cheap, but it costs just as much to do things in Europe as it 

 does in America. With American machines an American could harvest a forest 

 crop as cheaply if not cheaper than it is harvested in Europe. Europeans in this 

 country say that they worked harder and longer in Europe, but they accomplished no 

 more; in fact, less. An American with an .American axe can chop twice as much in 

 a day as a German can with some of the axes I have seen in use in one of the finest 

 forests in the world. Progress has been by leaps and bounds in parts of this country. 

 But this progress has been often one-sided. This is usually the case when things go 

 with a rush. Europe has been held back. She has been hampered by the inherit- 

 ances of ages. A new country is free from these fetters, but suffers from other 

 dangers. We have gathered together much of the loose, restless material of the 

 whole world for a population. This has been planted in a region where there have 

 been few restrictions on individual liberty. Here a man may set fire to another's 

 land to improve the berry crop or pasturage. He may even take the law into his 

 own hands at times to hang a horse thief, or lynch a negro, or do what has been 

 often done in this country — set fire to woods in order to be able to buy it cheaply 

 for charcoal ; or, in other instances, to get the job of helping to extinguish it. 

 Europe has too much conservatism and paternalism — and we have too little. This 

 to be sure is the spirit of this country, well illustrated by gangs of small boys in the 

 woods shooting at all kinds of birds at almost any time of the year. 



One often meets with what appears to be anomalous conditions in Europe. I 

 have seen natives drying cow dung for fuel in one of the finest forests of Germany. 



There is one important difference between Europe and this country and it seems 

 to me the most important. This country, in spite of the great variety of people 

 which constitute it, is homogeneous throughout. Europe is divided into many small 

 states, each with customs, language, aspirations, jealousies, and laws of its own. 



