unit, and liberty and equality flourished in the
frontier periods of the Middle West as perhaps never before in history.
American democracy came from the forest, and its destiny drove it to
material conquests; but the materialism of the pioneer was not the dull
contented materialism of an old and fixed society. Both native settler
and European immigrant saw in this free and competitive movement of the
frontier the chance to break the bondage of social rank, and to rise to
a higher plane of existence. The pioneer was passionately desirous to
secure for himself and for his family a favorable place in the midst of
these large and free but vanishing opportunities. It took a century for
this society to fit itself into the conditions of the whole province.
Little by little, nature pressed into her mold the plastic pioneer life.
The Middle West, yesterday a pioneer province, is to-day the field of
industrial resources and systematization so vast that Europe, alarmed
for her industries in competition with this new power, is discussing the
policy of forming protective alliances among the nations of the
continent. Into this region flowed the great forces of modern
capitalism. Indeed, the region itself furnished favorable conditions for
the creation of these forces, and trained many of the famous American
industrial leaders. The Prairies, the Great Plains, and the Great Lakes
furnished new standards of industrial measurement. From this society,
seated amidst a wealth of material advantages, and breeding
individualism, energetic competition, inventiveness, and spaciousness of
design, came the triumph of the strongest. The captains of industry
arose and seized on nature's gifts. Struggling with one another,
increasing the scope of their ambitions as the largeness of the
resources and the extent of the fields of activity revealed themselves,
they were forced to accept the natural conditions of a province vast in
area but simple in structure. Competition grew into consolidation. On
the Pittsburgh border of the Middle West the completion of the process
is most clearly seen. On the prairies of Kansas stands the Populist, a
survival of the pioneer, striving to adjust present conditions to his
old ideals.

The ideals of equality, freedom of opportunity, faith in the common man
are deep rooted in all the Middle West. The frontier stage, through
which each portion passed, left abiding traces on the older, as well as
on the newer, areas of