i 94 The National Geographic Magazine 



from one end of the cord to the other, by 

 which the ages are united, he will find 

 twisted into it the whole of human his- 

 tory, all the physical sciences, and the 

 record of the progress in illfare and in 

 welfare which has accompanied the cot- 

 ton manufacture to the present time. 



I may not enter into any minute state- 

 ment of this long period of investigation. 

 Suffice it that I learned how futile must 

 be the effort of every tropical country 

 and of almost all the semi-tropical coun- 

 tries to compete in the production of the 

 useful cottons of commerce with the cot- 

 ton states of America, there being only 

 one exception developed by my geograph- 

 ical studies. From Commodore Paige's 

 explorations on the Paraguay and Pa- 

 rana rivers, subsequently sustained by 

 Charles Darwin's explorations, I became 

 convincedthat the only considerable area 

 of the earth's surface where a well- 

 trained, well-bred, and well- governed 

 population could compete with us was 

 on the great pampas of the Argentine 

 and of Bolivia, which, rising in alti- 

 tude as they approach the equator, repre- 

 sent a huge area of the most fertile land 

 which can compete in wheat and in cot- 

 ton with the United States, but now form- 

 ing a part of what I call " the lost conti- 

 nent of South America, ' ' still waiting for 

 good government and the immigration of 

 Germans, Italians, Hebrews, and other 

 industrious and energetic races, by whom 

 that great continent may hereafter be 

 developed. 



Having thus come to a clear compre- 

 hension of the absolute necessity of a 

 complete mastery of what maybe called 

 commercial geography, geology, and 

 climatology, I made an effort, being one 

 of the directors of the Massachusetts In- 

 stitute of Technology, to induce the cor- 

 poration to establish a department of 

 instruction on these lines. I had made 

 an investigation of the department which 

 existed in the University of Edinburgh. 

 I investigated as well as I could the 

 courses of instruction given in Germany 



and in Austria, and I found that we 

 were then, as we are now, years behind 

 these states, and to them we may now 

 add Japan, where complete departments 

 of instruction on these lines are well 

 established. 



The other day a professor of the De- 

 partment of Commercial Geography in 

 one of the great schools in Japan called 

 upon me to make certain inquiries in 

 regard to specific industries, that he 

 might investigate them and find out 

 why they had centered at particular 

 points in this country. I then learned 

 that he had been sent here by the gov- 

 ernment of Japan two years since, study- 

 ing the geography, geology, and the 

 climatology of every part of this coun- 

 try. 



But I failed in my effort to get such 

 a course established twenty-five or thirty 

 years ago. Today there is general in- 

 terest in the subject, and it will not be 

 long before every principal university 

 and technical school will have such an 

 established course. 



I have made similar investigations in 

 regard to wool, flax, hemp, silk, and 

 other fibers, and the amazing thing to 

 myself has been the ignorance of the 

 great mass of the dealers and handlers 

 of these fibers in respect to the very 

 A B C of their production and the con- 

 ditions which have centered them at 

 different points of the globe. 



Were I not an old man, still burdened 

 with many duties, I should feel inclined 

 to take up a line of work which some 

 bright investigator may well assume, 

 namely, to write a treatise or book on 

 the * ' Natural History of Industries. ' ' 

 Why have the various branches of man- 

 ufacture of this country centered them- 

 selves around special points, not al- 

 ways single points, but here and there 

 throughout the country ? Such investi- 

 gations would of necessity compel the 

 study of commercial geography, as my 

 own effort to comprehend the cotton 

 plant has not yet ended, and every day 



