INTRODUCTION. A publication which assembles the best thought of recognized authority on the commercial industrial, political, and social development of the United States, is an epitome of our national life. The Making of America aims to present, not only all phases of our growth, all important achievements contributing to it, and impartially to discuss the complex problems ever pressing for solution, but broadly to make the work, as a whole, reflect the true spirit of this mighty nation, and the true character and nature of the forces within, which are working out its destiny. As a source of exact information-marshalling the vital facts which have been permanently wrought into the lives of the American people-this publication, the only one of its kind, will have the highest educational value. But beyond and above this, it is believed that taken all together, vividly portraying as it does the making of America, it must carry with it every where, its impressive lesson of patriotism and its earnest appeal for the higher ideals in citizenship. For, after all, the glory and achievement of our country is men, not things. We build railroads and bridges and factories and markets, and outstrip the nations of the earth in trade and commerce. And what does it all signify? Is it the mere indication of the fatness of our land? or has it a deeper meaning? Manifestly these material things represent the energy, the ingenuity, the intelligence, the courage, of four generations of men, inspired with the conviction that they were born free and equal. Take the spirit of our free institutions out of the life of this nation and we would be compelled to re-write the history of our material progress. No just conception of the making of America from the beginning, no rational understanding of her pres ent and future, can ignore the relation of man to the material development of our country and the influence of modern business methods upon the citizen and his government. Consider, then, the making of America in fact. We are advancing into the second century of our national life. The past is crowded with great achievement. In the succession of events a continent of wilderness has been transformed, and in its place are cultivated fields and factories throbbing with life and power, and churches, and schools, and universities, and libraries, and temples of art, and happy homes. We possess a domain greater in extent than all Europe, capable of sustaining by agriculture alone, more than a thousand million people. In the first hundred years of our national life our population has increased from less than four million to more than sixty five, and by the close of another century, it is estimated that it will number at least five hundred million. Our industrial and commercial progress has amazed and alarmed the competing countries of the world. We stand foremost among the nations of the earth in agriculture, in mines and mining, in manufactures, and in commerce. There is nothing to approach it in all history. Yet the American people should never forget that it was not for all this wonderful development, all this marvelous acquisition of wealth and territory, that America was made. It was not because they saw the America of the twentieth century outstripping all other nations in worldly power and prosperity, that our forefathers laid the foundations of this republic, amidst the peril and havoc of revolution. They proclaimed their purpose to the world, giving form and expression to an ideal in government, for which men had been groping in all the ages past,—an ideal which must ever remain a sacred trust for all the generations to come. Never were these words more precious to us than now: "We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain, inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; and that whenever |