The river press. [volume] (Fort Benton, Mont.) 1880-current, 1881-03-02

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Austria and Turkey.
It is hard to imagine the changes in the
social and commercial phases Of the country
which this population implies; the immense
domestic trade, the large interior cities
Chicago larger than New York or Philadel-
phia, Cincinnati and St. Louis than Brooklyn,
Boston and Baltimore; Cleveland, Detroit
and cities Of that grade containing half a
million Of people. Already the New England
and Middle States are falling behind the aver
age rate Of growth, and they will tend more
| and more to the stationary point, when their
| annual increase will be insignificant.
Under these circumstances, there is every
| reason to suppose that there will grow up IN
this central portion an immense city, perhaps
more than one, which will be the great me-
tropolis and distributing point Of the CONT
nent. 1t may be Chicago. It may be, also,
Kansas City, or some other point farther
| West. For, when this country contains two
hundred millions Of people, certainly when
east Of the Mississippi, it begins to approach
density of European population, its domestic
commerce will be more important than its
foreign commerce, and it's interior cities more
important than its seaports. The metropolis
will not be New York, but 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 modern days,
Athens, Babylon, Bagdad, Palmyra, in an
cient times, are, or were, all interior cities.
It will attract, as they have attracted, the
s%warming multitude, the intelligent, the ener-
getic, the pleasure-loving, the adventures
from the immense reservoir of populations
around 1t. It may be less cosmopolitan, but
it will be more American than the seaport
cities, just as Paris is the most distinctively
national Marseilles one of the most cosmo-
politan cities in the world. New York soci-
ally, Boston Intellectually, are already domi-
mated to some extent by foreign influences,
and are not likely to become less 50 in the
future. They are already settling down into
hard, fixed modes of thought and life.
The newspaper press Of the different kinds
Of cities il the United States begins to family
prophecy their respective tendencies. The
press of Boston and New York is compare
lively provincial. Almost wholly in it's news,
and mainly in its comments, it scarcely rec
ognizes the existence Of any interest west of
the Alleghanies. # there is any striking
| characteristic in the New York press at al,
its management and tone partake of the Eng
lish type. On the other hand, the Chicago
papers show on their very face that they are
published at q central point. Every point Of
The compass is fully represented. Their drag
net Of enterprise is thrown over the whole
continent. This will be the law Of their fu-
ture growth, and the law Of the future growth
Of Chicago or whatever the great central
metropolis may be. It is to be a vitalized,
energetic, distinctively continental center of
commerce, 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.
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