Whatever the product of that change after the revolutions that are yet to be, no man of all the future will ever again behold a land like that American West which is now no more. That was indeed a land rich in the bounty of nature, rich in opportunity for humanity. It was a land where a man could indeed be a man; where indeed he might live honestly and cleanly and nobly, unshrinking from his fate, unfearing for his own survival, helpful to his neighbor, independent as to himself.
Now we have seen our old rider going far, our flap-hatted man, the fearless one. He has strange company to-day, at home and abroad. In all reverence, let us hope that God may prosper him! In all reverence, let us hope that there may never arise from the great and understanding soul of any leader of this country that sad and bitter cry, "Give me back my Americans!"
Canada does not lack a fearless view in some of these matters. In 1902 a prominent journal of Halifax, N. S., boldly compared British and American institutions: "Had our forefathers thrown in their lot with the other American colonies at the time of the Revolution," says this journal editorially, "Nova Scotia would now be a greater Massachusetts. The Dominion of Canada would have five-fold its wealth and population." Per contra, American emigrants face some facts which to-day are not wholly satisfactory. Taxation in Canada in 1901 was $10 per capita, and but $7.50 per capita in the United States. To-day the debt of the Dominion is $66 per capita, whereas that of the United States figures but $14.52. In proportion to population, Canada has twice as much foreign trade as the United States; yet much of her foreign trade is with the United States. The Dominion of Canada clings still to the mother country, but in these modern days, the lines between states and provinces and governments become annually more faint. Life bases itself upon the doctrine of the survival of the fittest. The interdependence of a mutual self interest makes the strongest bonds between peoples, between governments, or between government and people.
Unless it might perhaps be the republic, France, from whom took the difficult doctrine that all men are "free and equal."