The National tribune., 1882-08-12
The West.


account of the birthday festivities Of Mr..
| Carpenter, who settled there when the pop
uIation was but two hundred souls all told,
whereas it is now not very far from three
quarters of a million. Indeed the develop
ment of the West has been so rapid that
even yet it is difficult for the people of the
Atlantic States to comprehend it, and for
the most part they have but'a vague idea of
its proportions. Hereafter their Ignorance
will be without reasonable excuse, however,
for Mr.. Robert P. Porter, one of the present
Tariff Commissioners, and chief of the
Wealth, Debt, Taxation and Railroad div
ision of the Census Bureau, has just given to
the public, under the title of "The West,
from the census of $780," published by
Rand, McNally & Co., Chicago,) work
which supplies in the most compact and
perfect form all the information that could
possibly be desired concerning the progress
of that portion of our territory. In the
preparation of this work, which has evil
IDENTIFY been attended with great labor, and
required for its accomplishment the most
untiring industry, Mr.. Porter enjoyed the
assistance of Mr. Henry Gannett, Geographer
! of the Tenth census, ard Mr. VIM. 2. Jones,
of the American Geographical Society, but
in the arrangement and grouping Of the
/ statistical matter, the extraction of vital
facts from the confusion of figures, and the
| introduction of striking comparisons, the
work of his own master-hand is apparent.
It is impossible, of course, to present within
! the narrow compass of an editorial review
augiIt save the most meagre outline of the
/ contents of volume of six hundred pages,
and we shall not attempt the feat, but it is
well worth the while to give some Of the
more impressive facts which are adduced to
/ illustrate the marvellous growth of the
West and the present extent of its resources.
| To begin with, then, it should be remarked
that under the head of "The West" Mr..
Porter includes the ten prairie States viz:
Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Iowa,
Wisconsin, Minnesota, Missouri, Kansas, and
Nebraska; the Territories, viz: Dakota,
Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Utah, New Mex
leo, Arizona, and Washington; and the
mining States, viz: California, Colorado,
n ,n {t,e
division that we shall concern ourselves
At the beginning of the present century
only two of the prairie States-Ohio and
Indiana-had any white population at all !;
in 1910 they still had a population of only
1851, ,542; in 1850, of 5,4O3,595; in 1860, of
1901, 49, in 1870, of 12,966,93O; while at
the date of the last census they had II 229, $40,
or little more than one-third the popula-
tion of the entire country. AT the same
date the valuation Of real and personal
property in these ten States reached the
astounding total of $5,532, ,159,699. The
chief foundation Of their wealth and pros
ducts Within the last decade their cereal
crops have increased very nearly one hundred
(9l56) per cent, and in 1880 amounted to
1907, 100000 bushels, or fully seventy
per cent. of the production of the entire
country. OF this total 1876, ,720,466 bushels
was wheat-the yield of the United States
being 460 100000 bushels,-and ,293, 800 107
bushels of cOrn-the product Of the United
States being 1,754, SCI, ,535 bushels 1t is
worthy OF note also, in this connection, that
the centre of wheat production, which less
than half century ago was east of the Ohio,
has now almost reached the Mississippi Of
other products the prairie States were
credited in 1880 with 7O,167,982 pounds of
tobacco, little less than one-sixth the total
for the United States; 68,742,O0 pounds of
fish, valued at $1,652,900, and live stock
valued at nearly $50,OOO00O.
Nothing perhaps more strikingly illus
! trates the prodigious character of the devel-
opment which the prairie States have un-
dergone than the statistics of railway con-
| struction. Within the last forty years the
mileage has increased from 324 to 43399
miles, (the total in 1880, when it was more
than half the total for the whole country,)
and it is still gowing. Many persons are
accustomed to think of the West as purely
an agricultural region, but the truth is that
its manufacturing interests are of great
magnitude. The four States of Illinois,
Wisconsin, Indiana and Kansas produced in
1879 more than thirty per cent. of all the
iron rails made in the United States The
total iron and steel production of the
country in 1880 was 7,265,140 tons, and
the prairie States manufactured 1,9126s9
tons, or more than one-fourth, the capital
employed being $50, ,755, $50 and the value
of the product $76.933,GS6 Almost as re-
markable progress has been made in other
industries. Not dollars worth of furni-
ture is now bought east of Grand Rapids,
Mich, and the factories of that bustIipy
town are now supplying the markets of
Great Britain. There is indeed scarcely
| any branch of manufacture that ia not