The future of the Great West must be considered from two view points:
(1) In its relation to the Asiatic countries and their trade; and (2)
in its ability to support a large population. These will be taken up
in their order.
Asia and Oceanica comprise an area of 21,262,718 square miles, and
have a population of 847,000,000, or more than half that of the globe.
Of this number, 435,000,000 are in China and its dependencies, Japan,
Asiatic Russia and Corea. Asia, and the islands of the Pacific,
annually buy from the world goods valued at $1,446,000,000 and sell to
it goods of a value of $1,436,000,000, representing a total trade of
$2,882,000,000. The United States will in time have a tremendous trade
across the Pacific, although at present our proportion of the business
is inconsiderable. In the year ended June 30, 1901, only 9.25 per cent
of our foreign commerce was with Asia and Oceanica, of which 2.17 per
cent was with the British East Indies; 2.09 per cent with Japan; 1.67
per cent with Chinese ports, and .37 with the Philippines. The new
theatre of the world's activities is a virgin field, as little
understood on our Pacific seaboard as on our Atlantic seaboard, for
the exporters of both sections make the same mistakes in packing, and
in long range dealing with the Oriental customer, to whom the first
essential in trade is what our consular officers persistently pour
into unwilling ears as the "look see," or the privilege of inspecting
the commodity offered for sale, before buying it. These, however, are
details of commercial organization which our exporters can be depended
upon to settle on a satisfactory basis. The fear expressed in some
quarters that the opening of Siberia by the completion of the great
Russian railroad, and the consequent development of a region that will
become a competitor of the United States in the trans-Pacific country,
would appear to be groundless so far as any detrimental effect upon
our country is concerned. Our general development is based upon the
attraction of our institutions, the freedom of industry, the cheapness
and fertility of our lands, hospitable climate, and above all, to the
long enjoyment of the guarantee of peace. No other country in the
world can offer the same inducements to progress and no country in the
world can compete with us on our own terms.
Viewing the future of the West from the point of its ability to
support a large population, the measure must be the record of the
half-century just past. It has done more than its most sanguine friend
dared foretell of it a century ago and it is not half developed.
Excluding Alaska, it has an area of 2,138,488 square miles and a
population of 20,971,062, with a density of 9.8. The population
density of the Union is 25.6 to the square mile. The West is capable
of reaching this mark and on this basis its population would be,
approximately 55,000,000, a little more than the states east of the
Mississippi had in 1900. Every foot of the West is useful for some
purpose, the purpose depending in some degree upon the success of
irrigation. The high lands of Nevada are no more to be ignored in the
general scheme of economy than the irregular and broken surface of
Vermont, where intensive cultivation of the soil now obtains as a
result of Western competition in agriculture. When one contemplates
the rugged mountains of Idaho, eastern Montana, northern California,
Oregon, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico, he should reflect
that some where in this broad land cattle must have range if the price
of meat is to be kept within bounds. Conditions for horticulture and
agriculture in Louisiana are as favorable as in any other State in the
Union. The Columbia-river basin in Oregon, Washington, and Idaho is an
empire in itself, with a population less than Chicago, and eastern
Oregon, under irrigation, could produce 100,000,000 bushels of grain.
There are those who expect Alaska to take station as an agricultural
community. Manufactures in the West will ultimately bear a close ratio
to population. Commerce will depend largely upon the effort the Nation
in general makes across the Pacific.
The West comes on the stage of the world's activity in an era of
peace, prosperity, and advancement of American principles and
institutions. Its loyalty to the Union never has been doubted and no
cloud of discord appears to bring it into contest with the East, for
its interests are identical with those of that section, and community
of interest promotes community of purpose. The West, instead of
proving the Nation destroyer, has proved its savior. What the future
is in all its aspects, no man can say. The Briton would have been
thought insane ten years ago who would have dared to predict the day
that Canada, Australia, and New Zealand would be called upon to uphold
the prestige of the empire at the Cape of Good Hope. No American,
however pessimistic, contemplates with pleasure the possibility of
war, still every American is pleased to see his country protected
against the day of war. The generation that was contemporaneous with
the statesman who said Oregon was not worth a pinch of snuff left sons
and daughters to see an Oregon regiment sailing away from San
Francisco to plant the Stars and Stripes at Manila and raise the
United States to the dignity of a world power. In that city whose
legislative halls echoed with dire warnings if Louisiana should be
accepted from Napoleon, the citizens of some future day may be
gladdened to the heart by the sight of a regiment from the Yukon River
marching down the broad avenues to the defense of the national
capital.