prise, demanded and received the unconditional surrender of the garrison, and by this remarkable exploit rid America forever of foreign domination.

Capt. George Rogers Clark was among the greatest of the forefathers of the mid-West. By the inspiration of his spirit, fortitude, and courage, this handful of men acquired possession of this inland empire of America. By acts of heroism, serving without pay, and assuming the debts contracted in this campaign, Captain Clark magnified his devotion to his country. The memorial to his self-sacrificing service is not to be found in tablets or statues of bronze, rather in the great Commonwealths that now comprise this territory-the heart of America.

Lewis and Clark.-In May of 1804, Capts. Meriwether Lewis and William Clark proceeded to St. Louis, Mo., in obedience to the following order issued by President Jefferson by authority of Congress:

Go up the Missouri to its sources; find out, if possible, the fountains of the Mississippi and the true position of the Lake of the Woods; cross the stony mountains, and having found the nearest river flowing into the Pacific, go down it to the sea.

Outfitting in St. Louis, they began the long tedious journey up the swift current of the Missouri, reaching its headwaters approximately one year later. Crossing the Rocky Mountains, through the Bitter Root Range, they found the Clearwater River. Proceeding down its course through exceedingly rough country to the Snake River, in what is now Idaho, they continued on to the Northwest to the junction of the Snake with the lordly Columbia.

Launching their canoes upon the broad reaches of this most beautiful stream in October, 1805, they drifted down to the Pacific Ocean, reaching their destination November 7, one month later. Returning from there to St. Louis, they completed the journey, required in obedience to orders, in a little over two years' time.

How little was known of the great domain secured to the United States in the purchase of the Louisiana Territory is revealed in part by the wording of the President's order. How much was learned and its importance to the Nation was contained in part in the report those two intrepid Army officers gave upon their return. The most important result obtained was the firm establishment of the claim. of the United States by overland exploration, its first claim being made through the earlier discovery of this north Pacific country by Capt. Robert Gray, of Boston, who sailed his ship from the Pacific Ocean up a great river in 1792, naming it the Columbia, in honor of the three hundredth anniversary of the discovery of America by Columbus.

The Lewis and Clark expedition gave the people their first idea of the vast area, enormous natural resources, and the grandeur of the

Pacific Northwest. They were the forerunners of what soon became a mighty host of emigrants into the land of the setting sun.

Rev. Marcus Whitman.-Thirty years after the Lewis and Clark expedition Rev. Marcus Whitman packed all his earthly possessions in a wagon and, with his bride, treked across the plains and mountains, over what became known as the Oregon Trail, to the Walla Walla country as a missionary to the Indians.

Impressed with the beauty and richness of the country, he seemed to have lost sight of his special mission, as seven years later he took the trail back to civilization, there to urge his countrymen to follow him in the possession of this new land.

Acting as guide for this band of emigrants, recruited largely in New England, he led them ever westward in the all but impossible journey of nearly 4,000 miles. The story of the hardships and perils, the labor, sickness, and starvation, the fight with Indians and nature, serves again to prove the sturdiness, self-reliance, and courage of the pioneers of America.

Every advancing step in the progress of our Nation emphasizes the sterling qualities of the racial stock that, handed down to succeeding generations, has given the urge and the will to do, the fruits of which are to-day enjoyed by a prosperous and happy posterity.

These men and women, who so bravely followed Whitman over the Oregon Trail, saved that great country to the United States. The cry in 1846 was "The British must go-The whole of Oregon or none-54-40 or fight." In the spirit of fair play and justice, the differences with Great Britain were adjusted, the boundaries were fixed, and another great step in the expansion and settlement of our Nation was accomplished.

Gen. John C. Fremont.-As a junior officer of the United States Army, at the age of 29 years, Fremont was designated by the Secretary of War to explore a route from western Missouri to the "South Pass." In accomplishing his mission he followed the Arkansas River to its source in the Rocky Mountains. On a later expedition he made his way through Utah to the Great Salt Lake and then through the deserts of Nevada and across the Sierra Nevada, where he found his journey leading through the mammoth trees and along the roaring torrents of the California country, reaching the Mexican city of Monterey, some 130 miles south of San Francisco on the Pacific Ocean.

Through exercise of diplomacy he was able to remain in this vicinity until after the outbreak of the Mexican War, when he headed a revolt against that Government and freed the territory of California from Mexican authority, becoming the governor of the terri

tory which was ceded to the United States by treaty following the conclusion of the war with Mexico.

Contemporary with Fremont, another brilliant young Army officer, Colonel Kearney (afterwards brigadier general) fought his way across the plains of Texas to Santa Fe, N. Mex., and after its capture continued across the deserts of New Mexico, Arizona, and southern California to a union of his small army with Fremont in California.

As a result of the splendid work of these men, coupled with the success of Generals Scott and Taylor in Old Mexico, there was added to the domain of the United States the last of the great southwestern area, a territory of nearly 1,000,000 square miles, a section of our country which within one year thereafter became the goal of the adventurous spirits of the world due to the discovery of fabulous gold deposits along many of the water courses flowing to the Pacific Ocean from the western slopes of the mountains bordering eastern California.

In a brief space of time, 50 years, was accomplished the stupendous task, entitled by President Roosevelt "the winning of the West," an accomplishment made possible by the sturdy character of the men and women who so fearlessly and laboriously carried on once they set their faces toward the golden West.

Accustomed to frugality and hard labor, inured to hardships and privation, stern in self-discipline and faith, mighty in determination and self-reliance, they not only left to posterity an inheritance of fertile land, virgin forests, great water resources, and untold mineral wealth, but, greater than the sum of all material gain, they passed on to this and succeeding generations the principles and traditions of independence, liberty, and justice, an example of the worth of clean living, high purpose, and great faith that should be an inspiration to every loyal American.

Eli Whitney, the pioneer of modern industry.-A school-teacher from Massachusetts living in Georgia in 1793 invented a machine called the cotton gin, by use of which a negro could easily clean 300 pounds of cotton a day, demonstrating thereby, as no previous invention had done, the value of machinery in replacing or augmenting manual labor. The whole question of cotton production and cotton manufacture was changed through the use of this invention.

Previous to the invention of the cotton gin cotton yarns were spun and woven into cloth by hand in private homes. Necessarily, by this slow method of manufacture, but small quantities of cotton were used.

So rapid was the development of the industry, stimulated by this new "gin," that within the next 20 years exports of cotton to Liverpool increase tenfold.

As a result of this invention a cotton factory was erected in Massachusetts to produce cloth like that made in England. Here was constructed the first loom operated by water power in America. In 1814 there was builded at Waltham, Mass., the first cotton mill in the world, in which the raw material direct from a Whitney cotton gin was spun into thread, woven into cloth, and printed with colors, all under one roof.

The invention of the cotton gin created unforeseen social, economic, and political conditions; it largely put a stop to the discussion of slavery; the southern planters and northern manufacturers of cotton found it to their mutual interest to keep the negro in bondage, since by his labor they were rapidly growing rich.

Due to climatic conditions the manufacture of cotton goods was carried to New England, thus opening a new channel of employment, causing in following years a radical change in the nationality of the citizens of these Northern States.

The production of cotton was stimulated and made one of the leading industries of the country. Cotton exports enormously increased; allied industries developed; communities grew rapidly into cities. Thus the simple invention of a Yankee schoolmaster was destined to add greatly to the complications as well as to the comforts of civilization.

Robert Fulton, the pioneer of modern transportation.-It is proper and fitting to designate Robert Fulton as the pioneer of modern transportation by reason of his success in driving the Clermont, in the year 1807, against the current of the Hudson River from New York City to Albany. It is true that no less than eight men had at various times and places propelled boats by steam power prior to this accomplishment by Robert Fulton, yet none of them carried out their experiments to a successful issue.

Fulton's success was largely due to his pronounced inventive genius, coupled with the fortunate circumstance of a partnership formed with Robert Livingston, one of the men of wealth of that period, also interested in solving the problem of steam navigation.

Livingston was so sure of final success through his own various experiments as to induce the Legislature of the State of New York to pass a bill granting exclusive right to navigate the waters of that State by steam power upon condition that a boat of 20 tons be driven by steam at a minimum speed of 4 miles an hour against the current of the Hudson, this feat to be accomplished within one year from the date of grant. He failed in his effort. Later he was appointed minister from the United States to France.

Robert Fulton became acquainted with Livingston while in Paris, where he was successful in interesting Napoleon and his Minister of Marine in steam navigation, demonstrating his boat to the people of

Paris in 1803. Encouraged by the success of this experiment, Fulton and Livingston ordered a steam engine from Watt & Boulton in England, to be shipped to America, where Fulton found it on his return in 1806.

In the following year the Clermont was built and launched in East River. Its successful trip opened the way to a complete revolution of modern transportation. Within the next few years, so rapid was the adoption of this new method of travel, steamboats came into use upon the principal rivers and the Great Lakes, rendering splendid assistance in establishing easy communication between distant sections of our country traversed by the great waterways.

To fully appreciate the value of the contribution made by Fulton and Livingston to the economic development and enrichment of America, one has only to review the remarkable progress made in water and land transportation, contrasting the present accomplishments with those of 100 years ago.

Robert Fulton is entitled to credit not alone for his success with the Clermont but by reason of the fact that through his vision, patience, and persistence he found success where others had failed, and in so doing opened the way to the rapid development of this mighty agency in the advance of civilization.

Samuel F. B. Morse, the pioneer of modern communication.-Without our present facilities of communication, modern civilization could not continue. Deprived of telegraph, telephone, and radio, the wheels of industry would be stopped and the economic welfare of nations destroyed. We can not too greatly emphasize this benefaction conferred upon all people through the accomplishment of Samuel Morse and the brilliant men who followed him with improvements upon his basic invention, the telegraph.

In keeping with all leaders in every field of endeavor, Morse trained himself to think. Of all the thousands whose attention was engaged by the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825, he alone caught the significance of the passage of time in relaying the message heralding that event. The signal was delivered by cannon placed at intervals between Buffalo and New York City, the successive reports of which, conveyed from one emplacement to the next, consumed one and a half hours of time in delivering the message a distance of 500 miles.

Apparently Mr. Morse alone took time to ponder. Reason and logic compelled him to believe that electricity made to travel many miles over a copper wire in an instant of time could by some method be interrupted in its passage so as to produce certain signals susceptible of interpretation.

Busy in his profession as an artist in London, Italy, France, and at home, the idea of the control of electricity and its conversion to the use of man ever persisted in his mind. With the passage of years