GEOGRAPHICAL INFLUENCES IN OHIO 481 



whence energy radiates. Contiguity to activity is an incentive to en- 

 deavor. We can scarcely find an area of the earth so void of possibilities 

 as not to experience some stimulation from without. The internal fac- 

 tors in this development are generally obvious. Mineral wealth, energy- 

 producing waterfalls, broad rich fields, varied uplands, a gently blend- 

 ing topography, constant rivers, and a range of climate, make a state 

 self-assertive. Ohio has never been conspicuous for mineral resources : 

 in the early days relative importance might be granted its output of 

 iron ore ; the annual production of bituminous coal, while of great ad- 

 vantage to the state, has never been very large, and even now its rank is 

 fourth; natural gas and petroleum have been of much importance to 

 the state, but these resources are always temporary ; the supply of clay was 

 great enough even under partial exploitation to stimulate the manufac- 

 ture of clay products in which the state will be apt to hold a permanent 

 position; in the coarser abrasives, as grindstones and pulpstones, Ohio 

 has always been a foremost producer; with the increasing use of con- 

 crete for structural work, greater importance will be given still other 

 natural resources. 



But the human responses to natural resources and to geographic en- 

 vironment vary with the people. The same inorganic conditions have 

 elicited a variety of reactions under shifting populations ; this variation 

 may after all be the best testimony of geographic influences. Move a 

 people into a different physiography and for some time they will still 

 be the children of their former surroundings. Adaptation is slow, but 

 the law is relentless. 



When population becomes too dense for the economic development 

 of a people, the more sturdy among them are the first to emigrate. With 

 few exceptions the earlier settlers in the Ohio area represented the very 

 best colonizing material of the seaboard states. These hardy volunteers 

 in a contest with unbroken lands and unfriendly Indians led to the 

 foundation of one of our most important commonwealths. Among them 

 were not only yeomen, but the enlarged outlook of the land between the 

 lake and the river attracted many of the best schoolmen of the thickly- 

 settled parts. These pioneers not only cherished and perpetuated the 

 place names of New England, but transplanted also the New England 

 zeal for education. In testimony of this spirit among its founders, Ohio 

 possesses more institutions of higher learning than any other state of 

 the union. There was a time in the development of our frontiers when 

 many centers of higher education were needed. Travel was difficult, 

 money was scarce and barter to quite an extent entered into financing 

 these primitive college courses; the colleges and seminaries in Ohio 

 were once even more numerous than now. Advanced standards in edu- 

 cation, by a process akin to natural selection, have eliminated many. 

 But the cumulative results of about a century of opportunity for gen- 



VOL. LXXV. — 32. 



