the best kind of protection for all honest and industrious men and women. The convention met and worked for many months and they organized the government we are now living under. The next few chapters of this book describe the constitution and the work which our country is now doing under it. You should try to understand the whole of it, for it is one of the best forms of government that human beings have ever worked out.

296. Accepting the New Government. The convention made the agreement that if nine of the thirteen States accepted the new constitution a union of those accepting it would be formed whether the other four agreed to it or not. There were many leaders who did not want a strong union; some opposed it because they thought their separate States would lose something by it, others simply because they could not understand it. Hamilton had great difficulty in bringing New York in. It was particularly important that he succeed because the country would have been cut in two if that State had not joined. Washington's great influence was probably what finally made the union possible; and people accepted it because they thought he would be the first president under the new constitution. After a long delay all the States did accept the agreement, and the government began its work.

SUGGESTIONS AND QUESTIONS

1. Draw a map of the thirteen original States as they were in 1787. Put into the map the principal rivers and cities.

2. Look into your history of the United States and find out what boundaries were in dispute, and mark these on your map. Also find out what States were disputing about their trade.

3. If you can get the information, show on your map where slavery was. Also show what parts of the country were com

mercial, and wanted the new government of the Union to control

commerce.

4. From your history of the United States find out what kind of government was set up through the Articles of Confederation. Make a list of the reasons this government was not a success.

5. How many miles is Mt. Vernon from New York? How far can a carriage drawn by horses go in a day over poor roads? How many days did it take Washington or Jefferson to get from home to the capital when it was in New York?

6. How long would it have taken a letter or a newspaper to go from Boston to Charleston, South Carolina? Calculate it for yourself. How long does it take a letter now to go from New York to Paris?

7. A philosopher once said: "I cannot hate a man if I know. him." Write a paragraph on the importance of travel and communication to peace in the world.

8. Get a copy of the Federal constitution. Make a list of the subjects of its articles. There are only a few of them. Compare this constitution with that of your State. Which is the easier to understand? Which was the more difficult government to set up?

9. Write a paragraph describing the difficulties our States would have had with each other if the Union had not been formed. 10. Make a list of the changes we have made in our Federal' constitution in the last one hundred years. Was it wisely

drawn?

CHAPTER XXXI

THE UNION AND CONSERVATION

297. The Work of the Union. In the last chapter we saw how the union of States was formed. Now we come to some discussion of the work we do through its government. In this chapter and the two which follow it we speak of a part of this work; but it is of course impossible in these few pages to do more than to hint at the many things which this great government has to attend to. These chapters speak of the conservation of resources, the aid of business, and the care of our people by the support of education and the protection of health. In later chapters we shall discuss the work the Union does in our relations with other countries, for which work we have to support an army, a navy, and many agents in foreign countries. For all of this complicated and difficult work we must provide officers and make laws; and to do this we must have a constitution. After we have examined the work as carefully as we can, then we shall see what form of constitution such work requires.

298. New Lands. We saw that the Union was made up at first of thirteen little colonies along the Atlantic coast. The population of all of them was not as large as that of the present city of New York. But the territory and population have increased rapidly until now we have the most powerful country in the world. We saw that the small States insisted that the large ones turn over to the Union

their territories west of the Allegheny Mountains. A few years later we bought from France a great tract of land west of the Mississippi. This was called the Louisiana Territory, reaching from the Gulf of Mexico to Canada. Later we acquired from Mexico the land between this territory and the Pacific Ocean. Finally Russia sold us Alaska, which is rich in coal, gold, and other resources. It is easy to see, therefore, that the importance of conserving the resources of the country has grown with great rapidity. We are trustees for the coming generation for great quantities of the world's wealth, and we must depend on our government to see that it is not wasted. Therefore the selection of our officers is worthy of the best attention we can give it.

299. Pioneers Are Extravagant. People who move into new lands are called pioneers. They go into unsettled places, find rich farm lands, great forests, and valuable minerals which have before been unknown. They forget the poverty and suffering in the thickly settled cities of the old lands; and so they see no reason for taking pains to preserve these resources. In pioneer days some of the resources cannot be preserved. Timber has to be wasted in order that the land may be cleared; water power has to be given away to private companies in order for them to run the risks of opening the region to settlement. The wastefulness of the pioneers is unfortunate, but it is natural and it does not justify us in blaming them. It is for us to push on after them with our organized government and to make arrangements to save carefully what is left after the pioneer has passed on farther and farther westward.

300. Forests on the Mountains. In an earlier chapter we saw that the State governments do some work to save

the forests and to replant places which have been wasted. But no one State can attend to this in the great wilderness of the Rocky Mountains, and it is not fair to expect a single State to attend to it alone even in smaller sections. Many States are benefited by a great mountain forest preserve, and therefore many States should unite in providing the preserve. The Ohio and other rivers rise in floods every year. We saw that Dayton was nearly ruined by one of them. These floods rise partly because the rivers are not guided as they should be and partly because the mountain streams are not conserved by forests and dams. Think what quantities of water power are wasted every year in such floods; what fertile soil is carried away in the muddy water; what crops are destroyed while hundreds of people are in need of the food and other wealth that is being lost. This waste occurs because we are not yet wise enough to manage very simple matters on a large scale. We do not select and support well-trained officers for our government. It is not the fault of a few people or of one party, but of all of us. It is hardly our fault even; it is our misfortune that our civilization is still only partly grown.

301. Minerals, Oil, and Gas. These vast regions which have not yet been thickly settled may contain great mineral wealth. We are in danger of losing this wealth in either of two ways. Either we shall let people take it out carelessly and spend it foolishly; or we shall make such unreasonable laws about it that no one will risk the money to sink mines and build railroads to it. This paragraph does not suggest how we should handle these things. There is doubt whether we know what is the best way to solve the problem. But it is certain that we should use the best experts that high salaries will procure to guide the government in deciding