ANY foreigners who cross our country are impressed by two facts its vast extent and its very apparent sparsity of population away from a few great centers. We are among the most populous nations in the world but our domain south of Canada is so great that with all our 77,000,000 people we have an average density of population of only about twenty-eight to the square mile, in which respect we are comparable with Norway, one of the most thinly peopled countries of Europe. That part of Great Britain occupied by England is one of the most densely peopled regions in the world; but if England had only our density of population its inhabitants would number less than one-fourth the number in Greater London.

GREAT DENSITY OF POPULATION We have really no conception derived from our experience at home of what

ETC., ETC.

great density of population means. Perhaps the following facts may give a vivid idea of it. If we were to crowd our 77,000,000 people into Texas and add to them 40,000,000 more we should have a density of population in that state comparable with that of the lower Yangtse valley and the great eastern plain of China between the Yangtse and the Hoang rivers. But human experience has recently recorded a still greater density of population than this, and the following is deduced from the census taken last year by the Chinese government and already accepted by statisticians as a fair approximation of the number of persons in China. we were to place in Texas double the population of the United States, or, say, 150,000,000 persons, we should have in that state approximately the density of population that is to be found. in the Shantung province. Our nation may never be called upon to confront

If

the problems growing out of such a prodigious congestion of humanity as this; and these illustrations of great density of population are given here only to show one aspect of our enormous territory. China is not half so large as our country and its natural resources, area for area, are no greater than our own; so the 408,000,000 souls in China proper at least give emphasis to the thought that we have as yet scarcely began to scratch the surface of the capacity of this country to support many times its present number of inhabitants.

OUR DIVERSITY OF CLIMATE AND PRODUCTS

Another influence of our vast area is permanent, far-reaching and most significant. The United States extending from ocean to ocean reaching far into the north and far into the south, with vast areas only 1,000 feet or less above the sea and others of high altitude, has great variety of climatic conditions and therefore great diversity of products; so that we grow nearly all the commodities of the temperate and subtropical zones, and not a few products of the tropical zone. We raise the citrus fruits of the Mediterranean, the figs of Smyrna and the dates of the Persian Gulf. We find that we can grow the famous Sumatra tobacco which we still import to the amount of millions of dollars every year; that we can produce Egyptian cotton, and Egypt does not raise all that the world would like to consume of that unique and superior fiber. This diversity of products and our large mineral resources make the country practically self-sufficient. No nation can become self-sufficient unless it reaches across a continent and embraces a wide latitude like the Russian Empire, Australia and the United States. We really need to import very little except certain raw materials from the tropics which our own colonial possessions may some day supply.

SOME ADVANTAGES OF OUR GEO-
GRAPHIC POSITION

We may properly treat not only the vast extent of our country, but also its situation with respect to other nations as among the geographic elements that have helped our material development, which is the topic assigned to me. It is to our advantage that we are on the same side of the tropics with the nations that are the greatest buyers of the bread and meat stuffs and other commodities we have to sell. It is a great disadvantage to be compelled to carry perishable commodities across the tropics. India raises large quantities of wheat and Europe would have been glad, many years ago, to buy Indian wheat; but before the Suez Canal was built India could not export this breadstuff to Europe. Steamers could not carry the wheat because, to double the south end of Africa, they had to recoal at St. Helena or Cape Town and coal was very dear for it was brought from Europe. 5,000 or 6,000 miles away; the cost of the trip was very high and wheat being a cheap and heavy commodity can never be transported far at high freight rates. Wheat often sells for sixty cents a bushel in Chicago, and unless rates are cheap it cannot be moved. Neither could sailing vessels carry the Indian crop because they moved slowly through the hot latitudes both of the Indian and Atlantic Oceans and by the time the long journey was over the deterioration of the grain rendered it almost unsuitable for flour. But when the Suez Canal was opened India could send her wheat to Europe by steam and the problem was solved.

Before the days of refrigeration meat could not be sent to markets across the tropics; but even with refrigeration it is a great disadvantage to be compelled to freeze meats solidly in order to insure their good condition upon reaching the consumer. There is much prejudice against frozen meats in some parts of Europe, particularly in Germany, but consumers there are willing to buy enor