high as in our own country; but has any one ever seen this claimed
or even stated? It may be that the people of Japan are more kindly,
brave, courteous, and patriotic than they were, and that their
improvement has been due to their imitating us in these matters;
but this is not the belief of many who have been in Japan. One
thing, however, is absolutely sure; and that is that Japan's advance
has been simultaneous with her acquirement of the engineering arts,
especially as applied to military and naval matters and the merchant
marine.

But even supposing that China does not take part in the world-wide
race for wealth, we cannot shut our eyes to the fact that Great
Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, Argentina, and the United
States, besides others like Sweden, Norway, Belgium, Holland, Spain,
and Portugal, are in the race already; and that several in South
America bid fair to enter soon. Not only do we see many contestants,
whose numbers and ardor are increasing, but we see, also, the cause
of this increasing. The cause is not only a clearer appreciation
of the benefits to be derived from commerce across the water under
conditions that exist now; it is also a growing appreciation of the
possibilities of commerce under conditions that will exist later
with countries whose resources are almost entirely undeveloped. For
four hundred years, we of the United States, have been developing
the land within our borders, and the task has been enormous. At
one time it promised to be the work of centuries; and with the
mechanical appliances of even one hundred years ago, it would have
taken a thousand years to do what we have already done. Mechanical
appliances of all kinds, especially of transportation and agriculture,
have made possible what would, otherwise, have been impossible;
and mechanical appliances will do the same things in Tierra del