ped the others in world rivalry until the great
modern nations, each with its own peculiar qualities of efficiency,
overtopped their predecessors of all time.

317. =The Story of the United States.=--The story of national life in
the United States is especially noteworthy. Within a century and a
half the people of this country have passed through the economic
stages, from clearing the forests to building sky-scrapers; in
government they have grown from a few jealous seaboard colonies along
the Atlantic to a solidly welded federal nation that stretches from
ocean to ocean; in education and skill they have developed from
provincial hand-workers to expert managers of corporate enterprises
that exploit the resources of the world; and in population they have
grown from four million native Americans to a hundred million people,
gathered and shaken together from the four corners of the earth. In
that century and a half they have developed a new and powerful
national consciousness. When the British colonies asserted their
independence, they were held together by their common ambition and
their common danger, but when they attempted to organize a government,
the incipient States were unwilling to grant to the new nation the
powers of sovereignty. The Confederation was a failure. The sense of
common interest was not strong enough to compel a surrender of local
rights. But presently it appeared that local jealousies and divisions
were imperilling the interests of all, and that even the independence
of the group was impossible without an effective national government.
Then in national convention the States, through their representatives,
sacrificed one after another their sovereign rights, until a
respectable nation was erected to stand beside the powers of Europe.
It was given power to make laws for the regulation of social conduct,
and even of interstate commerce, to establish executive authority and
administrative, judicial, and military systems, and to tax the
property of the people for national revenue. To these basic functions
others were added, as common interests demanded encouragement or
protection.

318. =Tests of National Efficiency.=--Two tests came to the new nation
in its first century. The first was the test of control. It was for a
time a question whether the nation could extend its sovereignty over
the interior. State claims were troublesome, and the selfish interests
of individuals clashed with revenue officers,