Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1881-08-12
In Half q Century More.

United States has, during the last te
years, shifted from Columbus. Ohio. I
the Indiana boundary iiue; in a fe,
decades more it will reach the Missis
sippi River. At the rate Of increas
prevailing during the present centur,
the country will. in 1920, contain he
tween 15O.0OO.OOO and 16O. 600, ,OOO
This is only forty years hence, spac
easily grasped by those who can re
member 1.-The Harrison Presidents
campaign" len or twelve years more
equal to n look backward as far as tn
days OF Jackson, nullitication and tn,
United States Bank. the country vii
se found to contain 200, 600 OOO-eoua
to the present population of Europe ex
elusive OF Russia, Austria and Turkey
1t is hard to imagine the changes i.
the social and commercial phases O
the country which this population i'm
plies; the Immense domestic trade. tn,
large interior cities-Chicago large
than New York or Philadelphia, Gin
cinnati and st. Louis than BROOKLYN
Boston and Baltimore; Cleveland, De
troit and. cities of that grade contain
ing half million of people. Alread,
the New England and Middle States
are falling behind the average rate OF
growth. and they will tend more and
more to the stationary point, when
their annual increase will be insignifi
cant.
Under these circumstances, there il
every reason to suppose that there will
grow up in this central portion an i'm
mense city, perhaps more than one,
which will be the great metropolis and
distributing point of the continent.
1t may be Chicago. 1t may be, also,
Kansas City. or some other point far
ther west. For, when this country con.
tsins two hundred millions of people,
certainly when east of the Mississippi.
It begins to approach the density OF
European population, its domestic
commerce will be more important than
Its foreign commerce., and ito iutuI iur
cities moro important than its seaports.
The metropolis will not be New York,
out the central point of distribution
and exchange. This is true of nearly
every country and its metropolis the
world over, and there is no good reason
for doubling that it will prove true of the
United States. London, Paris, Rome,
Berlin, Vienna. Madrid, Pekin, in mod,
ern days, Athens, Babylon, Bagdad,
Palmyra, in ancient times, are or were
all interior cities. 1t will attract, as
they have attracted, the swarming
multitude. the intelligent, the energetic
the pleasure-loving, the adventurers
from the immense reservoir of popula-
tions around it. 1t may be less Co.'S
mopolltan, but it will be more Ameri.
can than the seaport cities, just as
Paris is the lost distinctively national
Marseilles one of the 1ost cosmopolitan
cities in the world. New York socially,
Boston intellectually. are already
dominated to some extent by foreign
influerces, and are not likely to be-
come less so in the future. They are
already settling down into hard, fixed
modes of thought and life.
Tho newspaper press of tho different
kinds OF cities in the United States be-
gins to family prophesy their re.
spective tendencies. The press of Bos-
ton and New York is comparatively
provincial. Almost wholly in its news,
and mainly in it's comments, it scarce
ly recognises the existence of any in.
terest west Of the Alleghanies. If
there is any striking characteristic in
tho New York press at all, it's manage
ment and tone partske of the English
type. On the other hand, the Chicago
papers show on their very face that
they are published at a central point.
Every point Of the compass is fully
represented. Their drag net of enter
prise is thrown over the whole con-
tinent. This will be the law Of their
future growth, and the law of the
future growth of Chicago or whatever
the great central metropolis may be.
1t is to be O vitalized, energetic, dis
tinctively continental center of COM
merce, art, literature and amusement,
and will suck into its whirling current
of business and pleasure, the teeming
millions which will then swarm in the
great central States of the Union
detroit Free Press,
A Fourth of July Reminlscenoe.
A San Francisco paper whose editor
has recolleotions of the earlier scenes
of Independence Day in that city has
the following:
Although procession of the Chinese
residents of the city through the prin-
Opal streets would now be locked upon
mainly as an Indication that the Csles,
tials were treading on the corns of the