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place among the powers of the .first
rank."
In 1835, French statesman Alexis de
Tocqueville visited America and wrote
"The 111hoie continent,
in short, seemed
prepared to be the abode of a great
nation."
Famed Colombian exile, Jose
Eusebio Caro, wrote in 1851 that the
United States "will undoubtedJy be the
CREATEST
(nation) on earth."
America did not need to seek an
empire
around the world. She had her
blessings in the huge block of land
between the AtJantic and the Pacific and
between the Great Lakes and the Rio
Grande.
Author Fair.field Osborn says, "Our
people carne to a country of
rmitf11e nat–
ural advantages."
Steel magnate Charles
Schwab said, "Our United States has
been endowed by God with
everything
to make
it
and keep it the foremost
industrial and commercial nation of the
world."
Take a look at
some
of the "unique
natural advantages" which have made
America great.
To begin with, the United States is
blessed with a
BTG
land - an arca of
well over 3.5 million square miles. Of
course a vast land does not necessarily
mean wealth and power. The USSR,
China, and Canada are larger, but not
nearly as wealthy.
America is protected on both sides by
vast oceans and for over a century
friendly neighbors to the north and
Armco
Stool Photo
south. This has eliminated the need for
continuous massive and costJy offensive
oc
defensive war efforts, which sap a
young nation's power.
The land was rich and unused. A
varying assortment of ideal
clima/es
has
blessed America with bumper crops of
many different types of food and fiber.
Citrus fruits, cotton, and sugar cane in
the south, wheat, Douglas fir, and
apples in the north.
Forty percent of America was covered
by forests. So great was the amount of
lumber that the U. S. has logged nearly
three
trillion
board feet since 1776,
enough to build 300 million five-room
houses!
America's natural minerals have also
helped build the nation - the Mesabi
iron-ore range of Minnesota, the copper
of Arizona, coa! of West Virginia, and
oil of Texas. In 1950, the U. S. led the
world in production of coal, copper,
iron ore, lead, petroleum, zinc, pig iron,
and aluminum. In sorne of these the
U. S. produced more than all the other
nations combined.
America the Beautiful
The Great Plains, the Mississippi
River system, and the Great Lakes rep–
resent perhaps the fincst breadbasket,
grazing land, drainagc system, aod com–
mercial water base any nation could
desire.
"This is one of thc wonders of the
world: if God, man, or geological
Gronl Heilmon
Photo
chancc were to create somewhere an arca
of the earth most suitable for sustaining
and nourishing manlike creatures, the
result would be the
same piain and
prait·ie iandscape
that now gently rolls
and undulates from eastcrn Ohio to
eastern Colorado"
(The Amet·ican Heri–
tage,
p.
154).
Thc Great Plains are "quite simply
the
greales/ area of rueflli land in the
worid,"
according to
The American
Heritage,
edited by Alvin M. Josephy.
The Great Lakes system contains
"about half the fresh water on earth,"
conti nues
T he Americt/11 Hnitage.
"Around it was built the solid core of
America's industrial strength ... Incal–
culably rich deposits of iron ore, coal,
and l imestone líe along this waterway.
On them was built the world's greatest
steel industry, and on that in turn was
crected the vast productive mechanism
that has made America the strongest
and richest nation on earth. Pittsburgh
and Gary, Detroit and Chicago, and all
that these citics mean, the industrial
sinews of the world's most highly
industrialized state --
aii ou•e their
exislence lo the Great Lakes"
(p.
122).
The St. Lawrence Seaway, connectiog
these lakes with the Atlantic, handles
three times more tonnage yearly than
the Panama Canal, and more than Suez
did at its height!
But the bounty and power of Amer–
ica as a single nation or the Com–
monwealth of Britain is overshadowed