10 Cbc Conservative.
that government of nncl by and for the
people nmy never perish from the earth.
God of our fathers , known of old ,
Lord of our fur-Hunt , ' battle linu ,
Ri'iieath whoso awful hand wo hold
Dominion over palm and pine
Lord God of Hosts , bo with us yi't ,
Lest we forgot lust wo forgot.
Far-called our navies molt away ,
On dune and headlands sinks the lire ;
Lol all our pomp of yesterday
Is one with Ninovah and Tyrol
Judge of the Nations , spare us yet ,
Lest wo forgot lost wo forgot !
If. drunk with sight of pow > r , wo loose
Wild tongues that have not Thee in awe
Such boasting as the Gentiles use ,
Or lessor breeds without the Law-
Lord God of Hosts , bo with us yet ,
Lest wo forget lest wo forgot 1
TIIKKK IS NO AVI LI ) W1JST.
[ "Current Literature" for April.1
There is no portion of our national
story more thrilling in adventure , more
interesting in its record of heroic endur
ance and indomitable effort than that
which records the advance of civil life
from the slopes of the Alleghanies to
the coast line of the Pacific. Only the
self-reliance , the high privilege to con
ceive and execute which is inspired in
the citizen by the spirit of our institutions -
tions , could have accomplished such
magnificent results as now appear in the
proud domain known as the "Great
West. " Less than fifty years ago this
was n wilderness extending from the
Lakes to the Pacific , unsurvoyed and
almost unexplored. The Sioux and
Apache and other hostile tribes disputed
with pavage bravery all advances of
peaceful or industrial life.
Within almost a generation this broad
area has become an empire of active in
dustry and great commercial prosperity.
There is no record that portrays to a
greater degree such a courage of man
hood , such faith in power to accomplish ,
such a wealth of patriotism as has been
hero manifested in the subjection of na
ture , such a triumph of the arts , such a
development of national civilization and
pocial advancement.
The magnitude of these splendid re
sults will be bettor appreciated when it
is understood that this domain of our
republic tying west of the Mississippi
embraces seventy per cent , or over two-
thirds of the area of the United States ,
not including Alaska. All of this terri
tory has been and is being brought to a
higher , better and purer civilization than
could have been dreamed of by our wis
est statesmen. Such have been the con
quests of peace by the inspiring spirit of
our institutions and American manhood.
It will be remembered in contemplat
ing the advancement of the arts of peace
to the westward developing a wonderful
industry and commercial enterprise in
the great area west of the Mississippi ,
that in 1840 Chicago , now the great me-
Dropolis , had but 4,500 inhabitants.
There was not a bridge over the Missis
sippi nor any of the great rivers west to
the Pacific. The buffalo roamed from
the Rio Grande to the Red river of the
North. The treasures of California had
nor. been discovered. The munificent re
sources of mines , of plains and forests
were conjectured , but not known. The
wealth of this domain of valleys and
mountain ranges , of forests and fields ,
that stretched out in loneliness but
beauty towards the setting suns , was
not alone in these inexhaustible re
sources so prodigally provided , but in
the courage , self-reliancn , hardy man
hood and unfaltering faith of the sturdy
pioneers , who crossed the Mississippi and
Missouri and those who followed immed
iately in their footsteps. They were the
"avant couriers" of this splendid civil
life now existing. Those magnificent re
sults now before and around us have
been mainly accomplished since the
close of the civil war. Now five great
trans-continental lines of railroad tra
verse the great plains , pierce the Rook
ies , and the Sierras , and bind the shores
of the Atlantic and Pacific with bands
of steel. The frontiers have vanished.
The great plains of Kansas , Nebraska
and thn Dakotas have been transformed
into immense fields of grain that undu
late in the summer breeze like the waves
of the sea. Through those the Missouri
peacefully pursues its tortuous course to
its confluent , the Mississippi , like a
thread of silver in a oloth of gold. The
same spirit of freedom and adventure
that landed at Plymouth Rock and
Jamestown was inherited by the sons of
the Puritan and cavalier , and has in the
century inspired those who crossed the
continent and have brought the wealth
of gold and silver from the hills of Col
orado and California that excel the
fabled stories of Ophir and Tarshish.
The evidences of this social and ma
terial civilization with such wonderfully
transforming power over the area be
yond the Mississippi are manifest and
many. In this area are nineteen states
and four great territories , containing
2,117,920 square miles , with a population
in 1890 of 12,403,860 , and now estimated
at 10,000,000. There are 104 cities , hav
ing each a population in excess of 5,000 ;
80 cities in excess of 10,000 ; 30 cities ex
ceeding 20,000 each ; and eight cities each
in excess of 100,000. Hero are 83,32 ! )
miles of railroads not only traversing
this great domain from east to west , but
north and south from Manitoba to the
Gulf and to Old Mexico , form a vast
network of transportation lines upon
which an immense internal traffic is
conducted that represents a wonderful
exchange of domestic commodities that
in value exceeds the wealth of the In
dies.
dies.The
The harbors of the Pacific are crowded
with ships of the Orient , and isles of the
sea laden with the teas of China and
Japan , the silks of India , the coffees
and spices of South America and the
isles of the Pacific bring their rich con
tributions to the great volume of traffic
that daily moves from the west to the
east over the trans-continental lines.
Those are the rich compensations that
have been returned for the lavish invest
ment of energy , industry , intelligence ,
and manhood that flowed from east to
west in such recent years.
While the Great West hns contributed
an immense volume to the wealth of the
republic , and that contribution is yearly
increased , they who have lavishly fur
nished the energy and measured their
manhood with the forces of nature have
received liberal rewards. The people of
the West are growing richer ; question
able as it may seemnevertheless it is true
they are growing rich more rapidly than
they of the East.
The wealth of those who dwell west
of the Mississippi in real and personal
property in 18)0 ! ) aggregated the sum of
$20,744,925,947 , less than one-fifth of the
population with nearly one-third of the
wealth of the nation. The per capita
wealth was $1,022. All of this has been
acquired within about a generation.
This much excels the per capita wealth
of any state or section of the Union east
of the Mississippi. In the light of this
fact how unwarranted the statement of
borne that the West is poor and growing
poorer. Lot a few comparisons be made.
The per capita wealth of Kansas is
§ 1,201 ; Nebraska , $1,205 ; Maine $740 ;
New Hampshire , $803 ; in North Dakota ,
$1,844 ; South Dakota , $1,293 ; in Now
York , $1,430 ; Pennsylvania , $1,177 ;
Ohio , $1,070 ; Montana , $3,429 ; Wyom
ing , $2,797 ; and California , $2,097 ; Con
necticut , $1,119 ; Massachusetts , $1,252 ;
New jersey , $1,117 ; and Delaware ,
$1,043 ; and the per capita wealth of all
the people in the United States was
$1,030. It will bo seen the per capita
wealth of the West was $500 above the
general average.
More ample have been the almost fab
ulous returns from the farms of Mis
souri , Iowa , Minnesota , Kansas , Ne
braska nnd Dakotas , and the fields , or
chards and vineyards of California ;
from the wide ranges of Colorado , Wy
oming , Utah and New Mexico , the
fields , fisheries and forests of Washing
ton and Oregon. In California the value
of the wheat crop alone from 1808 to
1890 was $228,879,407 greater than all
the gold and bilver taken from the mines
in that time. The total value of the
wheat crop for these years was $028,040-
810. The wheat crop of the states and
territories west of the Mississippi in
1897 was worth at home $250,000,000 , or
nearly three times the value of all the
gold and silver mined in the United
States , Alaska included. Is this not a
splendid tribute to the resources of soil
and climate and the industry of the people
ple of the great West ?
The West has become the granary of
the world. But the political pessimist