cludes the recognition of duties as well as of
rights, self-respect and respect for one's fellows, has contributed
fully as much as the magnificent resources of their country to the
brilliant success of the American people.

"Of the qualities that have cooeperated to elevate them so rapidly to
such a commanding position, the most impressive is a great, a tireless
energy."

1. Our debt to the pioneers. The early history of American life has
many wholesome chapters for modern men to read. The religious basis of
the state was a much more evident and vital fact in the life of the
founders of the Republic than of many modern leaders. Quotations from
the early charters make it clear that there was a wonderful religious
significance in their nation building. "This thing is of God," said
the London Trading Company to the Pilgrim Fathers. "In the name of
God, Amen," are the opening words of the Mayflower compact, and that
document ends with these words, "For the glory of God and the
advancement of the Christian faith." The early settlers of North and
South Carolina declared themselves to be actuated by laudable zeal for
the propagation of the gospel. America owes much to the character and
vigor of the German and Scandinavian elements in her population as
well as to those of English parentage. No land has had a higher grade
of founders than has the United States.

Leroy Beaulieu says, in _The United States in the Twentieth Century_:
"The Americans have been the product of a selection and of a double
selection. Only the boldest, the most enterprising of men have the
courage to traverse the sea for the purpose of carving out a new life
in an unknown and distant land. Then, having arrived, only the most
energetic, the wisest, and the most gifted in the spirit of
organization succeed in a struggle which is more severe, more
merciless to the feeble, in new countries than in old ones. Thus
America, so to speak, has secured the cream of Old World society. That
is why the human standard is higher there than in other countries."

2. Mechanical genius. In the world-wide propagation of the gospel the
ability to master the forces of nature and so make modern progress
possible has a place in the fitness of character displayed by American
life. A large number of the modern labor-saving inventions have come
from America as shown by the fact that in one of the great International
Expositions five gold medals were offered for the greatest lab