“ He was to be the Father of his Country, From his seat at Mount Vernon, which he had been progressive enough to link with the rest of the world by a private wharf, he watched the clouds gathering in the political heavens, and he showed a statesmanly prescience in being almost the first American to perceive that a complete break with England was necessary to the peace and prosperity of the colonies. ”

“ His career does not enthrall us as does that of Alexander; it has not such tragic elements of inspiration and pathos as has that of Hannibal; it does not leave us breathless with admiration as does that of Cæsar; it does not exalt us and horrify us as does that of Napoleon. But it does give us that supreme sense of satisfaction which flows from the perception of harmony and proportion; it does thrill us with the intense and elevated joy which must ever follow the spectacle of great powers consciously working for the successful accomplishment of divine justice ”

“ BOTANY, the natural history of the vegetable kingdom, the science that treats of plants. It forms, with zoology, the subject of biology in its more comprehensive sense. Plants are living beings which derive their chief sustenance on the one hand from water, which, together with certain dissolved mineral substances, they take in through their roots from the soil, and on the other from carbonic acid gas, which they absorb through their leaves from the atmosphere. Plants alone are able thus to unite inorganic materials and create from them organic compounds capable of sustaining life. ”

“ The best example of exclusive American art in Washington is the Library of Congress, situated just east of the Capitol. Built primarily for Congressmen, this great storehouse of valuable books and works of art is used more freely by the people than any library in the world. Its interior is the most inspiring and marvelous combination of gold, silver, rare marbles and mosaic on such a gigantic scale to be found in America.
The Treasury building, just east of the White House, is in every way the most substantially built government building. ”

“ This was the great achievement of the war, in which the army and navy co-operated so perfectly that in little more than a year after the United States entered the war three hundred thousand men were landed in Europe monthly. It may be too much to say that America won the war. But without the American army, the war would have been lost. And the American navy "put the army across." ”

“ A perfect equipoise of powers, which taken separately would not be supreme, appears to be the characteristic mark of his rare variety of genius, which among men of action is illustrated in Alfred the Great, and among men of letters in Sophocles. It is to this class that Washington belongs—to the class of men whose balance of faculties is so serenely perfect as to constitute genius of perhaps the highest order. ”

“ In a new country, the soil of which has been accessible to all, the farmers have not been prompt to turn their attention to the strictly scientific aspects of agriculture, yet the government has manifested appreciation of the spirit of the age and the needs of the future by its generous provisions for the founding of agricultural colleges, and by its admirable system of agricultural experiment stations. The latter, like the agricultural colleges, are modeled upon the technical institutions originated in Europe for scientific investigation concerning all the branches of agriculture. ”

“ From an early age he had to rely on himself, and so he attained to that self-discipline which is indispensable to a political leader. Circumstances determined that he should learn the lessons of life from men rather than from books; thus he stood in no danger of becoming a doctrinaire. His early experiences as a surveyor, a backwoodsman, and a soldier gave him a true sympathy with democracy, and hence enabled him to understand the only rational principle on which a stable government could be founded in America ”

“ The rapid growth of agricultural colleges in this country, fostered by Government and State aid, has given a great impulse to the study of botany. That branch of it which concerns itself with the diseases of plants, called pathology, has been carried to a point of efficiency not yet reached in any other country. The methods of American botanists have caused systematic botany or taxonomic botany to register great advances during the two decades of the present century. There is now under way a complete revision of North American flora in the light of the geographic relationships of plants. ”

“ Agricultural Interests and the Government.—The growth of agriculture and the evolution of enlightened governmental administration have uniformly gone hand in hand. The great distinguishing characteristic of the Dark Ages in Europe was the crushing oppression of the rural population. The lifting of the arbitrary burdens resting on the agricultural class has in all countries marked the beginning of the era of enlarged civil liberty and of diffused intelligence. ”

“ In the Middle Ages, agriculture was almost wholly disregarded throughout Europe, and, consequently, civilization was generally at a low ebb. On the other hand, the era of the Saracens in Spain is memorable for civilization, and particularly for its admirable agriculture. Without exception, all the European nations that enjoy eminence to-day possess carefully developed agricultural systems, while in Spain, the one noticeably backward country, agriculture languishes. It is proverbial that the wealth of France is not in her luxurious capital, but in her provincial acres. ”

“ Adjoining the new Senate wing by a corridor is the old Senate Chamber, now used by the Supreme Court of the United States. To the south comes the great awe-inspiring Rotunda, 300 feet in circumference and over 280 feet in height, adorned with marvelous life-size paintings and beautiful statuary. Through another corridor, the old Hall of Representatives, now Statuary Hall, presents itself. In this Hall each State may contribute bronze or marble statues of two of her most illustrious soldiers or statesmen. ”

“ Chemical science, as applied to agriculture, is based on very simple elements. The arable surface soil becomes exhausted if grain is sown upon it in successive years, this exhaustion being occasioned by the removal of the mineral substances necessary to the life of the grain. By the system of rotation, a cereal crop is followed by a so-called green crop, the roots of which penetrate deep into the subsoil and extract from it a fresh supply of the needful minerals; thus the vigor of the surface soil is renewed and it again produces an abundant grain crop. ”

“ Without railway transportation modern trade and commerce would be an impossibility.
Rails, as a means to facilitating the drawing of heavy loads, preceded the invention of the locomotive by more than a century. In 1649 wooden rails were laid by the collieries in the north of England for cars drawn by horses, for the transportation of coal from the pits to the near-by towns, and even to the waterfronts, where it could be loaded on barges and vessels. Along these flanged beams cars were drawn by horses with such comparative ease that instead of a load of 1,700 lbs. ”

“ Agriculture.—The State possesses exceptionally great agricultural advantages, embracing varieties of products appertaining to the temperature and to the semi-tropical zones. Cotton is grown throughout the State, and gives the largest general average yield per acre in the South. S. of the Red River, because they are usually more remunerative than cotton, sugar cane and rice are by preference cultivated in a great portion of the alluvial lands, and in recent years the prairie region of S. W. Louisiana has been converted into the most extensive region of rice culture in the United States. ”

“ Government.—The so-called Russian Socialist Federal Soviet Republic is nominally governed by a constitution adopted by the Fifth All-Russian Soviet Congress in July, 1918. According to the terms of this constitution Russia is a republic of Soviets of workers, soldiers, and peasant delegates, and the central and local authority is vested in these Soviets. Private property in land is abolished, all land being common property of the people. The state owns all factories, mines, railways, and other means of production and transport. ”

“ The Federal Reserve banks are not chartered primarily for profit. The capital of the Federal Reserve banks is owned by the member banks, subject to a cumulative dividend of 6 per cent. Profits in excess of this revert to the Government, with the provision that one-half of these excess profits shall be diverted to the creation of a surplus fund for the Federal Reserve bank until the fund shall have reached 40 per cent. of the capital of that bank. Primarily the duty of the Federal Reserve banks is to act as the custodian and guardian of the bank reserves of their member banks. ”

“ Among the more recently established forms of insurance is the casualty, based on the legal liability of employers of labor, in which the company insures an employe against accident or death resulting from any cause for which the employer is responsible, and makes settlement with the injured and those who may be killed or die from the results of the injury. A clerk, public officer, or other person required to give bonds for the faithful performance of duty, may have his fidelity insured by another style of company, whose guarantees are received the same as regularly executed bonds ”

“ The United States, which, up to about 1890, was almost negligible as a naval power, and as recently as 1914 was contending with Germany for third place among the naval powers of the world, is now little, if at all, inferior to Great Britain, which, until the beginning of the World War, was the leading naval power of the world by a margin so wide that neither Germany nor any other nation thought of disputing its primacy. ”

“ Life Insurance.—In the United States the companies are distinguished as stock or proprietary, mutual, and mixed as to organization, and level premium, natural premium, and assessment as to system of operation. A stock company is one organized on the cash capital subscribed by its projectors. The capital is held as a pledge for the payment of policy holders' claims while premiums are accumulating, and as the liability is limited to the aggregate amount of policies in force it is necessary to provide only a sum sufficient to meet these liabilities. ”

“ The Civil War, naturally, checked the further development of railway enterprise for five years, but with the close of hostilities it was continued more energetically than ever. Railway lines were now pushed out into the great broad, fertile prairies, and where only a few years before buffaloes and Indians had roamed undisturbed, vast grain fields began to appear. Man power being insufficient, machinery was invented to work these broad stretches of rich agricultural lands, and the reaper and harvester appeared. ”

“ The Supreme Court is the judicial court of last resort in the Federal system of courts. The sessions are held in Washington, D. C., and any 6 justices constitute a quorum. Each judge of the court, moreover, must, at least once in every 2 years, attend a term in 1 of the 9 circuit courts in those parts of the country where those courts are held. The judicial power of the Supreme Court and of the inferior Federal courts extends to all cases in law and equity arising under the Constitution, the laws of the United States, and treaties made under their authority ”

“ Neither savages nor treacherous guides, nor ice-gorged rivers could prevail against so bold a heart or so keen an eye; nor could flattery at home undermine a nature so well balanced, a modesty so innate and pure. He was at once put in command of the temporary militia of the colony, and was subsequently made lieutenant-colonel of the augmented forces. ”

“ The city is a great medical school center, containing some of the highest rank in the country. It has very many special schools of all kinds and the art school of the Art Institute of Chicago is one of the largest in America.
The city's progress in education has been as rapid as its development along other lines. Thus, in 1841 the public school enrollment was only 410 and the teachers numbered 5. In small parks and play grounds which are closely connected with the school system of the city, Chicago is unsurpassed by any American city. ”

“ The city's foreign trade is close to $2,000,000,000 a year. Federal government figures show the city's foreign trade as being about $100,000,000 a year. The reason for this is that the government gives credit for shipments to the port of entry, or exit. Therefore the seaboard cities get entire credit for the business that is really done in Chicago, and merely passes through these ports. Under the British system, credit for foreign trade goes to the point of origin, not to the city through which the business happens to pass on its way to its destination. ”

“ The Chicago river traverses the city, and by its peculiar course divides it into three sections, known as the North, South, and West Sides, which are connected by many bridges and tunnels.
Commerce.—Chicago is the commercial distributing center of the country; it is the heart of the greatest producing region of the country and the greatest railway center in the world. It is the principal center of the world's meat packing industry; it is the world's greatest live stock, grain, and lumber market ”