Page:(Commercial character) The Joseph Fisher lecture in commerce, delivered at the University of Adelaide (IA commercialcharac00jessrich).pdf/11

7 things and himself of anything. Nobody, of course, reads Tristram Shandy nowadays, but there's a sermon by Sterne well worth the studying, the text, For we trust we have a good conscience. America has been called the land of effort, and if strenuous industry and an insatiable habit of accumulating count for anything, then she should be the richest country in the world, and not only that, but an object lesson in many, in fact in most, vital respects. A land of some 80 millions of people, absorbing a million aliens in a year; a land possessing an independent geographical position, vast and diversified resources, and a race of financial giants, whose methods we may condemn, but whose ability is convincing; a land with a colour question always growing,; a land, if common report is not a common liar, honeycombed with corruption—political, social, commercial, but the most interesting land in the world, especially to Australia. For notwithstanding a perennial deluge of legislation, as many as 15,000 Acts of Parliament having been passed in one year, Cunning exults, Greed triumphs, Wealth accumulates; and thanks, possibly to the infusion of new blood, no talk of men decaying. Labour alternately fights and coalesces with Capital; and Boodle and Graft are the greatest Gods in the national Pantheon.

But look at the other side. Consider the incessant influx of selected brain and muscle from other countries. Think of the fight America has had to make to achieve her marvellous industrial success. To use the words of Mr. Fraser:— "She has milked the world for ideas, appropriated anything and