discover the eastern shores of Asia. He set sail for Cathay and stumbled
upon America. With that change in the outlook of the world, what
happened? England, that had been at the back of Europe with an unknown
sea behind her, found that all things had turned as if upon a pivot and
she was at the front of Europe; and since then all the tides of energy
and enterprise that have issued out of Europe have seemed to be turned
westward across the Atlantic. But you will notice that they have turned
westward chiefly north of the Equator, and that it is the northern half
of the globe that has seemed to be filled with the media of intercourse
and of sympathy and of common understanding.

Do you not see now what is about to happen? These great tides which have
been running along parallels of latitude will now swing southward
athwart parallels of latitude, and that opening gate at the Isthmus of
Panama will open the world to a commerce that she has not known before,
a commerce of intelligence, of thought, and sympathy between North and
South. The Latin-American States which, to their disadvantage, have been
off the main lines will now be on the main lines. I feel that these
gentlemen honoring us with their presence to-day will presently find
that some part, at any rate, of the center of gravity of the world has
shifted. Do you realize that New York, for example, will be nearer the
western coast of South America than she is now to the eastern coast of
South America? Do you realize that a line drawn northward parallel with
the greater part of the western coast of South America will run only
about one hundred and fifty miles west of New York? The great bulk of
South America, if you will look at your globes (not at your Mercator's
projection), lies eastward of the continent of North America. You will
realize that when you realize that the canal will run southeast, not
southwest, and that when you get into the Pacific you will be farther
east then you were when you left the Gulf of Mexico. These things are