Courtesy of Southern Pacific Railway Co. 



A BIG TREE AND A LONG TRAIN IN CALIFORNIA 



Nowhere else in the world do such massive living things exist as the big trees in the 

 State of California. Not only are they the greatest of all living things in bulk, but they are 

 the oldest. They had begun their existence on earth before Joseph appeared at the Court 

 of Pharaoh and interpreted the dream of the lean kine and the fat. From that time forward 

 they have written their record of the lean years and of the fat ones of the world's history. 



In other ways it is kept, too, in the 

 forefront of your mind. The motifs of 

 sculpture, mural paintings, and decora- 

 tions lead up through historical sequences 

 that begin with the voyage of Leif Eric- 

 son and his Norsemen to the coast of 

 Maine, follows the Spanish conquest and 

 Anglo-Saxon progression westward to 

 the culmination in the heroic groups of 

 the "Eastern and Western Nations"' that 

 crown the lateral arches in the "Court of 

 the Universe/' 



The most remarkable phenomenon in 

 commercial history is and has been the 

 slow progression of the economic power 

 westward from its ancient source in the 

 East. Through Asia and Europe it slowly 

 passed, each principal nation holding it 

 for its little hour before it crossed the 

 Atlantic to us. From the beginning of 



time this movement proceeded steadily 

 toward the culmination prophesied in a 

 verse of Whitman's that is hewn on the 

 face of the western arch beneath the pio- 

 neer group : 



FACING WEST FROM CALIFORNIA'S SHORES, 

 INQUIRING, TIREEESS SEEKING WHAT IS 

 VET UNKNOWN, I, A CHILD VERY OLD, OVER 

 WAVES TOWARD THE HOUSE OF MATERNITY, 

 THE LAND OF MIGRATIONS, LOOK AFAR — 

 LOOK OFF THE SHORES OF MY WESTERN 

 SKA, THE CIRCLE ALMOST CIRCLED. 



PROPHECY FT r 



That prophecy is no ^. com- 



mercial dominion, it is u ._, now rests 

 with us, and, thanks to the impetus that 

 is certain to result from the European 

 war, will' attain power and importance 

 under us such as the world has never 

 seen before. But, flowing on still west- 



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