Now as to population: Our present population is said to be about 85,000,000 of people. If the influx of population shall continue at its present ratio, by the middle of the twentieth century there will be upwards of 200,000,000 of people within the United States. "The boys and the younger men of today," suggests Mr. Edmunds, "will be active business men of that period." Commenting on the ability of the United States to support that and even a much larger population, our authority says: "In area the United States covers 3,000,000 square miles, with an average of less than 26 persons to the mile. Settled as densely as France, we could accommodate 570,000,000 people; as densely as Great Britain and Ireland, we would have over 1,000,000,000 people. Or compare our capabilities with the density of population in such states as Ohio, Pennsylvania, or all New England. In Pennsylvania the average number of people to the square mile in 1900 was 140. At this average for the whole country we should have a population of 420,000,000--certainly Pennsylvania is not overcrowded. Ohio has 102 people to the square mile, and New England an average of 90. On the basis of Ohio's average the United States would have over 300,000,000, and on the New England average 270,000,000 people. So great is the extent of our agricultural land that with the continued improvement in farming methods now going on, with the reclamation of our overflowed lands, and the extension of irrigation in regions formerly regarded as forever doomed to the cactus and sage brush, with the development of scientific forestry, too long neglected, but still capable of saving our timber reserves and protecting the sources of our rivers, we can so build up our farming interests as to provide an ample food supply for as great a multitude as the future seems sure to give us. With resources for the creation of industries, the development of mining, the extension of railroads, and the enlargement of trade and commerce at home and abroad, we are abundantly blessed. Nature has lavished her riches upon this country as upon no other, as far as human knowledge has yet discovered." I have hastened over the items, reading hurriedly, because I did not wish to weary you with details; but the author from whom I quote these statements suggests that we ought to remember that while we are justly proud of the progress made by the United States, yet in considering the future and in contemplating the almost limitless potentialities of our own country, as compared with the past, "we must remember that Mexico and South America, and Canada are running rivalry with us in the expansion of industry;" and I would add with resources second only, perhaps, to our own.