5. Agricultural products. Two of the staple agricultural products are corn and wheat. The United States had two and four fifths times as many acres of corn in 1910 as all the rest of the world. According to figures given out by the Bureau of the Census the cotton crop of the United States in 1909 was five eighths of the total grown in the world. Russia alone of all the countries in the world grew a few more bushels of wheat last year than the United States.
The value of the farm products of the United States in 1909, according to the report of the Department of Agriculture, was $8,760,000,000. The farm products have considerably more than doubled in ten years, equaling in value eighteen times the world's output of gold. In commenting on these figures, a writer in the Literary Digest gives the following concrete illustration of what they mean: If the money were all in twenty-dollar gold pieces, it would make a pile 720 miles high, and if the gold pieces were laid on the earth touching one another, the value of the farm products of that one year would make a line of twenty-dollar gold pieces reaching across Alaska, Canada, the United States and Mexico to the Isthmus of Panama, and there would then be enough of these coins left to make a line of gold from New York to San Francisco, and some pieces would fall off into the Pacific Ocean before they were all used! Even this fabulous amount of wealth produced on the farms was increased by one hundred and sixty-eight millions of dollars in 1910.
These few facts, startling as they are, are only the beginning of an exhibit of the prodigality of power centering here. The moral and spiritual meaning of these resources constitutes a challenge to our best civilization.
God needs tremendous financial resources for the work of winning the world. Vast resources are needed for the educational, evangelistic, philanthropic, and industrial work of missions. There seems to be no place on earth where in our time there are such available resources for this task as here in this land.
One of the supreme tests of our civilization is the use we are making of this God-given treasure, for cash and consecration should increase in proportionate ratio. How to be rich and religious at the same time is one of the burning issues in our land to-day. The release of a legitimate portion of this wealth for the blessings of mankind and the refreshing of the thirsty earth is evidently a part of the purpose of God. If the riches of America are to be a resource and not an incubus, a highway and not a terminus, American men, to whom God has given the ability to get great wealth, must be brought face to face with the challenge of the needy world in order to save them from the disaster of selfishness and sin. God is not grieved when his men get rich, but he is grieved when riches are not invested for the enrichment of the world. It seems inconceivable that America could throw away this supreme opportunity for service. "Napoleonic energies require an international program."
America Can Retain Her Place of Leadership in
the Kingdom of God only by Developing Vision
and Consecration Adequate to Her Task
It will be well for American Christianity if it learns the eloquent lessons which are written on many pages of the world's history, telling of the setting aside of nations and men who have had a great opportunity but have failed to carry out the divinely appointed commission.
All the facts given above emphasize the imperative necessity for greatly enlarged home missionary effort. The world battle cannot be won unless the attack upon sin and the defense of the bulwarks of righteousness at home are aggressive and victorious. The home battle and the world battle are one.
What then is America's share of the world task? How much will be required of money and men if America does her duty to the non-Christian world?