In its possession of these natural resources, the United States is unexcelled. Its climate, while generally temperate, varies sufficiently to give an excellent range of products; harbors and rivers are abundant; forests and minerals are scattered everywhere; and the agricultural land, rich and well watered, is as extensive and as potentially productive as any equivalent area in the world. So far as natural resources provide a basis for a Super Race, the United States occupies a position of almost unique prominence. The stock of the dominant races may or may not be a cant phrase. Notwithstanding the effective work done by Ripley in his _Races of Europe_,[19] an impression still prevails that certain races are, from their racial characteristics, specially fitted to dominate others. Woodruff, in his _Expansion of Races_,[20] takes this view, strongly urging the claim of the northwestern European to the distinction of world ruler. Whether race be a matter of supreme or of little concern, in determining the development of a Super Race, the United States possesses an admirable blending of the western European peoples who now occupy the dominant position in the commercial and military affairs of the world. If racial stock be a matter of no importance, it requires no emphasis; if, on the other hand, it be a significant factor in the creation of the Super Race, then the United States holds an enviable position in its racial qualities. Thus the raw materials of nation building--the natural resources and the racial qualities, are possessed by the United States in generous abundance. Has our use of them tended toward the development of the Super Race? Leisure is an opportunity for the pursuit of a congenial avocation. It must be carefully differentiated from the idleness with which it is so often considered synonymous. Satan still finds mischief for idle hands. The man who idles in leisure time is as likely now as ever in the past to find himself breaking several of the commandments. Leisure merely provides an opportunity for free choice. Unwisely used, it leads to individual dissipation and social degeneracy. Wisely employed, it is a most important means for the promotion of social progress. Most of the great things of the world have been done in leisure time. A poet cannot create, nor can a mechanic devise, if he is forced during twelve hours each day to struggle for the bare necessities of life. A study of the lives of those who have made notable achievements in art, science, literature, and diplomacy shows that they were free, for the most part, from the bread and butter struggle. They had estates, they were the recipients of pensions, but they did not submit to the soul-destroying monotony of repeating the same task endlessly through the long reaches of a twelve hour day.