the natural food of man. The civilization of ancient Greece was
built upon the Nile Valley wheat. It is the one complete, perfect,
vegetable food. It contains all the elements necessary to the making of
the human body. The supply of wheat is the arterial blood that makes
this world of ours do something. Without wheat we would languish--go
quickly to seed, as China has.

Saint Paul and Minneapolis lie at the head of navigation on the
Mississippi River--a little less than two thousand miles by water from
the Gulf and about the same distance from Puget Sound tidewater by rail.

These cities are in the middle of the wheat-belt. To this point came Mr.
Hill, a green country youth.

Transportation was his theme, and transportation of wheat has been the
foundation of his success. Wheat is of more importance to us than
anything else--than gold or cotton or coal or timber or iron.

Mr. Hill carries all these over his railroads. The Great Northern
Railway, the Northern Pacific, and the Chicago, Burlington and
Quincy--over twenty thousand miles of track--are in the hollow of his
hand.

He directs, controls, even to minute details, this great transportation
system. His seventy-fifth birthday was celebrated a year ago last
September. Still he fails not. He has given up the Presidency of the
Great Northern Railway, retaining, however, the title, "Chairman of the
Board." But we all know that his hand is felt just the same in every
part of the working of these miles of track.

Rareripes rot. But the man who comes into his own late in life has a
sense of values and trains on. Mr. Hill does not ask for taffy on a
stick. And while he prizes friendship, the hate or praise of those for
whose opinions he has little respect are to him as naught. No one need
burn the social incense before him in a warm desire to reach his
walletosky. He judges quickly, and his decisions are usually right and
just. It isn't time yet to write his biography. Too many men are alive
who have been moved, pushed and gently jostled out of the way by him, as
he forged to the front. Perspective is required in order to get rid of
prejudice. But the work of James J. Hill is dedicated to time; and Clio
will eventually write his name high on her roster as a great modern
prophet, a creator, a builder. Pericles built a city, but this man made
an empire. Smiling farms, thriving schools, busy factories and happy
homes sprang into being in the sunlight of prosperity which