Blessed of the
Lord be his [Joseph’s] land, for the dew and for the deep that coucheth beneath.
For great rivers, fountains, and
lakes, America is far ahead of any part of the world.
According to Hendrick Van Loon’s Geography,
the Mississippi-Missouri River is the longest river in the world (4,221 miles).
It is navigable 3,550 miles inland from the Gulf of Mexico, a distance greater
than from New York to London.
The Yukon, known as the “Wandering
River,” rises within fifteen miles to the Pacific, flows 2,300 miles, then
empties into the Pacific. Steamboats cover all but fifteen miles of it. Next to
the Mississippi-Missouri River, the Amazon is the longest river in the world
(3,900 miles). For volume of water, no river can compare with the Amazon.
During the wet season, the mouth of the river is said to be fifty miles wide.
The Amazon River drops only one inch each five miles in its last seven hundred
miles and flows only two and one quarter miles per hour, yet its current is
felt two hundred miles at sea.
And for the
precious fruits brought forth by the sun.
The agricultural fruits of America are
indeed precious now. Because America is so far ahead of the rest of the world
in agricultural resources, it is helping greatly to feed the world. Countless millions
across the sea depend upon the world’s bread basket (Mississippi Valley) for
their food. In statistics published in 1938, before the war had upset the world’s
economy, the United States (only one of the nations living in Joseph’s land)
was producing 60 per cent of the wheat and cotton of the globe).
And for the
precious things put forth by the moon.
It is well known that the moon as well
as the sun plays its part in influencing and wooing plant life into the maximum
activity.
Mr. Nadaillac says:
In no region of
the globe has nature been more prodigal in
the vast districts stretching from Guiana to Uruguay, from the Atlantic to the
forest spurs of the Andes, forming the empire of Brazil. The fertility of the
soil, under the double influence of heat and moisture, is wonderful; forest
trees grow in great variety everywhere; valuable medical plants spring up in profusion
which are not to be met with any other climate; and vegetables, good for food,
or fruits pleasant to the palate of men, with flowers of the most brilliant
colors. Fifteen thousand vegetable species peculiar to Brazil have already been
recognized. (Nadaillac, Prehistoric America, page 465)
And for the chief
things of the ancient mountains.
There are no forests in the Old World
that begin to compare with the vast forests of the United States and Canada. “Founder’s
Tree” on the Eel River in northern California is the tallest tree in the world
(364 feet). In the Sequoia National Forest in California, there is on tree
which contains enough lumber to build fifty-five five-room homes. Hooker’s Oak,
near Chico, California, is the largest oak tree in the world. There are trees in
California with a circumference of ninety-eight feet.
In the Kansas City Star for
March 24, 1949 is a feature article about three giant cypresses in a valley in
Mexico. The largest of these trees has a circumference of more than 114 feet.
Its age is estimated as high as 10,000 years.
And for the precious
things of the lasting hills.
The United States possesses (1938)
almost $11,000,000,000 in gold, or nearly half of the world’s monetary metal.
It has two thirds of civilization’s banking resources. The purchasing power of
the population is greater than that of the 500,000,000 people in Europe and
much larger than that of more than a billion Asiatics. These figures are to be
found I the record. They are the envy of the world. Turning to one of our
journals, The United States News, we find more statistics concerning automobiles.
This country has 22 to every 100 persons, Canada has 11; France, 5; United
Kingdom, 5; Germany, 2; and Italy, 1.
The United States produces 50 per cent
of the copper and pig iron, and 40 per cent of the lead and col output of the
globe. (Article, Oakland Tribune, January 8, 1938)
These figures are taken from an
article published in 1938. The title of the article is “America Has Highest
Living Standard of the Nations.”
According to a recent chart prepared
by the National Federation of Small Business in Washington, D.C., the United
States has one auto for each four persons, Britain one auto for each twenty-two
persons, Sweden one for twenty-nine persons, Italy one for ninety-three
persons, and Russia one auto for two hundred and fifty-two persons. And though
only possessing 6 per cent of the world’s land area we possess 40 per cent of
the world’s telegraphs and 30 per cent of its railroads.
And for the
precious things of the earth and fullness thereof.
The United States, exclusive of the
other countries of the New World, produces 70 per cent of the world’s oil (1937-38).
The United States contains 6 per cent
of the world’s area and 7 per cent of its population; but because of its
wealth, based on the richness of its vast natural resources, it consumes 48 per
cent of the world’s coffee, 53 per cent of its tin, 56 per cent of its rubber,
72 per cent of its steel, 36 per cent of its coal, and 42 per cent of its pig
iron. (Roy Weldon, Other Sheep: Book of Mormon Evidences [Independence,
Miss.: Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and Herald
Publishing House, 1958], 37-40)
Further Reading: