The United Seas.

by Robert W. Rogers.

INTRODUCTION.

VISION, THE NEED OF THE HOUR

We are living in a day when it would almost seem that the person who does not value vision is neither helpful nor wise. For it is a day when the people everywhere need an essential vision in order that they may gain courage to settle down to constructive effort after the close of the world war.

In other words there are mult.i.tudes who feel that there is a far deeper significance to the opening of the Panama Ca.n.a.l as commemorated by the Panama-Pacific International Exposition than what appears on the surface. There never was an Exposition like it. There never will be another similar to it in the future. Simply because there seems to be something written between the lines. It is an Exposition in which it appears to be natural for the sanest men to be prophetic--one in which men not only behold the star of faith but also feel that the star is calling them to move toward something better, even if they have to grope their way. An obscure vision seems to be in the sky of hosts of people and they are anxious to hear the interpretations of men who are brave enough to suggest one. They are asking what does the peculiar inspiration of this Exposition mean?

This book in which the commemorative chapters are written in rhythmic prose--for which the author need make no apology, in as much as Whitman and others have already blazed the way for independence of poetical expression--is given to the public with the sole object in view of conveying a message that has impressed the mind of the author. For among the many kind expressions of commendation on the prose-poem, "The United Seas," none has been more appreciated than that given by David Starr Jordan in these words, "Your prose-poem has a strong message and many striking lines. I shall be glad to see it published."

Josiah Strong in one of his most recent books ent.i.tled, "The New World Life," says: "Socrates in the Phoedo compares the people of his day, to whom the lands about the Aegean were the whole world, to ants and frogs about a marshy pond. Where would one find a more fitting comparison for people of the same sort in our day? The development of a world life bids us pry out our horizon and learn to think in world terms. Facts are G.o.d's alphabet from which we may decipher tendencies and tendencies are prophetic."

And this prying out of the horizon from the nation to the world--as the viewpoint of the sons of the pilgrims has been widened from a New England to a continental scope--is one of the highest responsibilities and duties of our day. Please remember then that the object of this book is to help others glimpse the vision. You may say that there is no practical power in vision. But we have been following the lure of the Golden Age and the Holy City for centuries. Visions are the only powerful things in life. And this is what the people everywhere need now; not only practical instruction but also a vision of something grander and better than what they now have, in every land; so that they will be inspired to action. I repeat it: The most necessary thing for America, the waring and neutral nations of the hour is a powerful vision of what ought to be and what can be. Men ought to arise in every country and give the people the vision.

So go forward, O book, not for the sake of displaying any merit of words. But because you are winged by the mighty inspiration of the hour.

Speed on and in some slight way help our international statesmen and advocates of peace to carry their message to the peoples from the nations about the seas.

_Dedicated to my good wife, a lover of flowers, mountains and sea_

I

The United Seas

FLOWERS ON ALL Sh.o.r.eS

Not long after the opening of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, Blossom Day, an annual feature in California life was observed, to be followed later by nature's offering of flowers on the sh.o.r.es of all nations. Here are some blossoms:

Flowers speak in all nations of hope to the fainting heart. And in the nation where flowers degenerate man cannot live.

"I believe a leaf of gra.s.s is no less than the journeywork of the stars And the running blackberry would adorn the parlors of heaven And a mouse is miracle enough to stagger s.e.xtillions of infidels."

--Whitman.

Who am I and who are you to shun the sea-born rain when trees and flowers and birds are made merry by it and never think of shelter.--Adapted from Quayle.

"Flowers and fruits are always fit gifts because a ray of beauty is appreciated all over the world; because the language of the flower can be understood in any land."--Comfort Guild.

[A]THE UNITED SEAS

The wise men from every land, believing That unseen good is often With great events allied unawares, Must be asked to unfold the meaning Involved in the uniting of the Earth's greatest seas.

For after aeons of isthmian neighborliness And ages of barrier'd friendship, Herculean genius has removed the mountain And stubborn nature has yielded to the union of the Pacific With the impetuous Atlantic, To be commemorated with an apocalypse of light and color, By the races a.s.sembled at the Golden Gate, Within the natural sanctuary of our Bay, Cathedralled by the mountains and the arching blue sky built o'er Immensity.

The petty Shylocks have not been invited To be there with unfilled bags for gold, Nor the sordid traffickers in human flesh, To daily swarm a city's pits of h.e.l.l And by a lewd commerce augment their filthy gains.

Sad wretches! They that holy hour would misfit and defame.

For their hands, the jewels could finger And the pageantry their eyes could observe But their souls could never divine the sublime thought Of the bridal of two vast seas.

So give way, blind temporizers!

For the seers and prophets have seen our star and have arrived Rightly to interpret the emotions struggling for utterance in that unusual hour.

In these ominous words, silencing all speech: "The Human mind is Leaving the Log Cabin and Statehouse To Enter 'the Parliament of Man,' the Federation of the World."

So the true from every land, vast armies of welcome guests, they come!-- The sons of kings and n.o.bles and the late-increasing hosts of freemen, so innumerable, To see the pa.s.sing of provincial national life.

And our imagination now hears the mighty tread of pilgrims, And sees this Western paradise bestirred in final preparation for its festive attire-- Our Rocky's wide slope, within its hidden laboratories, By some chemical's new magic hastening to make more enchanting its coast-wide tribute of flowers; If possible more stately its redwoods, more mighty its hills; And our stars in the heavens are brightening their lights To welcome the long caravans from the nations, The ships from all the seas,-- To a ceremony epochal, from dawn into days worthily prolonged.

For the silvery Queen of Night will tarry in a veiled appreciation Until the powerful King of Day comes resplendent from the east, in a new vernal splendor, While the globe, electrified and cabled into hearing, With its armies momentarily halting in embarra.s.sed meditation, Will quiver with attention at the dawn of that momentous day When it is authoritatively announced: That the tumultuous Atlantean stalwart, the first born of the east And the interminable Austral ocean, gentle empress of the west, Have been joined in the tidal grasp of a spheric wedlock Uniting two hemisphere estates.

Sure to be conducive to international progress, Prophetic of a planetary brotherhood, And bravely resolute for world-peace.

Yes, in spite of war and carnage, The invincible human spirit will then escape the thralldom of a temporary despair; For in this land of hope and courage, which is a prophecy of the world to be, Where the strong sons of freedom's pioneers still breathe a bracing air, And drink a freeman's water fresh from every hill--and not human blood with warring kings-- Here, the vision so transforming, The vision of our fathers, will become the vision of all the sons of men!

Here, where reason and not hate is peculiarly creative, Where the intelligence of peace is so successful--and not the blind force of retrogressive men-- Here, the new spirit of World Democracy, still youthful like David, must be strengthened to slay the European Goliath; To defy Mar's staggering bluff and check the antiquated ambition of war.

For not only will the vision of our fathers become the vision of all the sons of men, But the resolution of their heroes is also to become the purpose of the race!