"The United Seas"
By
ROBERT W. ROGERS

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."

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

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 shores of all nations. Here are some blossoms:

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

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—Whitman.

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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.

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"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.

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Charles Francis Adams, whose grandfather was one of our early Presidents and whose father was a Minister to London before the Civil War, felt with overwhelming reality the inspiration of the world vision.

Mr. Adams, a man of sound judgment and of importance and distinction, a month before his recent death, in writing about the European War, made the following sage remarks:

"We suddenly find ourselves thrown back an entire century. Again we are confronted by 'paper and blockades' on an almost unprecedented scale, and by 'Milan' and 'Berlin' decrees, with 'orders in council, in reserve and in response thereto.

"Such a situation has got to work itself out; and, in my belief, can do so only through the complete exhaustion of those more immediately engaged. When that condition of exhaustion is fully developed the neutral powers, if in the interim they have held themselves in reserve, will be in a position effectively to intervene. The whole sea usage of nations, commonly known as 'international law,' will then have to undergo a process of fundamental revision. The basic principles only will be left; and a new system, which will include in my belief a world federation, an organized judicial tribunal and an international police must be evolved.

If God is light, Edison and his disciples must have glimpsed some of His glory.

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"They shall splash at a ten league canvas with brushes of comet hair."—Kipling's words that might be used in describing Jules Guerin's masterful work in painting a thousand acre canvas.

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"Fair city of the sun, laved by the blue seas, glowing like a topaz within a setting of dark cradling streets, that rose tier on tier around it."—Whitaker's impression of the Exposition received upon entering the Golden Gate from the sea.

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The creamy surface of the tower of jewels is studded with 125,000 great glass jewels made in Austria and safely landed in this country, which with the floods of light diffusing from concealed sources, creates an illumination that is peculiarly impressive against the background of the night's sky and often makes the Exposition grounds lighter by day than by night.

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If Whitman was right when he said "dazzling and tremendous how quick the sunrise would kill me, if I could not now and always send sunrise out of me," then we do not exaggerate in saying that the sunlight has partly spoken through the builders of the Jewel City.

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Two cities on the Western coast are heralding to the world the triumphant completion of the Panama canal. And if a certain writer is right in saying that there are seven wonders of the modern world—telephone, wireless, aeroplane, radium, and antisceptics and antitoxins, spectrum analysis and X-rays—as there were seven wonders of the ancient world, we can well add that the Panama canal is the eighth modern wonder and that it is the wonder of all wonders, ancient and modern.

And it is well that nearly a year is to be given by both cities to the commemoration of this event in order that the whole world may fully feel the significance of this remarkable engineering feat to its whole life.

The Panama-Pacific International Exposition held at San Francisco, from February 20 to December 4, 1915, is the national celebration authorized and sanctioned and partly financed by the government of the United States, the total investment being $50,000,000. The Exposition area covers 635 acres of ground, having a frontage of two miles on the bay immediately inside of the Golden Gate. The grounds are divided into three main divisions; the foreign section nearest to the Golden Gate, the central portion with its exhibit palaces and great Tower of Jewels rising 435 feet high and the eastern section for rest and amusement. In keeping with the world consciousness four courts are found on the grounds; the Court of the Four Seasons; Court of the Universe; Court of Abundance; Court of Palms; Court of Flowers. Every state and territory in the Union has made exhibits and in spite of the world war more than forty foreign countries are represented and co-operating in the commemoration of this most historic event.

The following prose-poem is written from the viewpoint of the national spirit, pressing toward the world vision which directly controls the thought of the previous prose-poem. For the Golden Gate, especially during the Exposition is for the quickened soul the portal—the pulling aside of the curtain through which one gets the world vision. The title, "Our Pacific Sea" might well be interpreted:

Our—Democracy.

Pacific—Nationality.

Sea—Verging into the world-vision.

Here on this shore—as prophets are, of course, doing elsewhere—we are putting our feet on the rock and looking out over the waters and into the skys. With San Diego, which is even nearer to the canal, our whole coast is peculiarly susceptible to world thought at this time. And the people who come here may forever after have an outward and upward look in their lives.

Much has been written concerning the flowers, hills and climate of California, but at this time, when the world is looking toward our coast, would that more writers would reveal the thoughts that have been inspired in their minds by the sight of our great Western sea.

The prose-poem itself is a denial of the thought that the Pacific is a monotonous calm—an appreciation both of its storms and serenity written after several visits to the beach in which both moods were displayed. The first three verses, the prelude, describe the impression made by the movement of the boisterous sea landward, upon the observor when first arriving at the shore.

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