Your mathematics are not equal
to it. The available productivity of the Mississippi Valley exceeds
the supply of all the fertile regions of fable or history. The country
watered by the Columbia or the Oregon surpasses in wealth-producing
power the valleys of the Nile or the Euphrates in ancient times.
Our deposits of coal and iron already under development are equalled
nowhere on earth except perhaps by the unopened mines of China; and
greater fields of ore and fuel than those which we are now working are
known positively to exist within our dominions. The mere indexing of
America's material possibilities well-nigh stuns credulity.
But all these are definite and physical things, things you can measure
or weigh. More valuable than all of these combined are our American
institutions and our exalted National ideals.
You can meditate all day on the reasons for pride in your Americanism,
and each reason you think of will suggest others. The examples I have
given are only hints. Be proud of your Americanism,
therefore--earnestly, aggressively, fervently proud of your Americanism.
I like to see patriotism have a religious ardor. It will put you in
harmony with the people you are living among, which, I repeat, is the
first condition of success.
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