The National tribune., 1882-12-28
SHALL I GO WEST?
The Problem Which is UppermOst in the Minds of
Thousands.
Iron, the December Cent,ry.J

From The December CentuTy]
! The young man in the older communities OF
| the East, reading of the marvellous growth OF
! this new western country often asks himself
whether he could not wisely join the ranks of
| the next annual migration. No doubt the
| question, "Shall go West?" is the uppermost
problem in the minds of thousands of the young
men of the East, who have still their careers to
make and have not yet gained a secure and
promising footing IN the business world. 1t is
question which each must answer for himself
aud concerning which no advice can be given
/ that would be of universal application. 1t
would be grievous mistake to suppose that a
change of longitude alone inSUreS success Idle
ness, lncompetency, and a neryeleSS, drifting
disposition have no better chance in Montana
than in Massachusetts, Indeed, there are some
men who run along fairly well in the East, III
the grooves of custom and of established ac-
quaintance and business connections who
would make lamentable shipwreck if set adriit
III new western community.
On the other hand, the chances for Young
man of average pluck and energy are unques-
tionably much better in the West than in the
East He shares the advantages of being among
the first to open fresh store-h house of natural
wealth He gets the first dividend on the in
crease of value resulting from bringing pOpuIa-
tion upon the soil The land he buys for three
or four dollars an acre, or gets for nothing by
homestead aGtUicllenI, soon becomes worth ten
or fifteen. Ii he embarks in trade or in any
mechanical pursuit, his wares or his services
are i'll brisk demand, because all the newcomers
around him require goods and implements
Then there is a certain stimulus i'll the moral
atmosphere caused By the ambitions and ener-
gies of new community full Of hope and
activity, which makes hardshipS easy to bear,
aud causes buOyancy of spirits.
Western people find it hard to make their
friends in, he Ea-t uDdarSto,,I hot
mean when they speak of the difference in the
business and social tone OF the two sections IT
Is a difference 10 be felt rather than defined.
There is vastly more energy and more hope per
cGpita of the population i'll new communities
than Old and the immigrant feels at once the
resulting stimulus. 1t braces up the Iistless
and the desponding, and makes even the most
active man conclude that there is a deal moro
in him IN the way of work and ideas than he
supposed. Many young man who would have
remained a clerk or snal-salaried employee of
some kind all his life had ne stayed in the East,
becomes, amid the larger opportunities of the
West leading citizen" and the owner of a
fine farm or a prosperous business.
The young man going West can, therefore
count upon the opportunities of obtaining good
land at small cost, the business openings grow
ing out Of the wants of new community. and
the moral incentive that comes from contact
with hopeful, cnterprising people. If he does
not succeed in gaining a full measure of indie
pendeucc in the course of ten years, the reason
will lie in his own disposition He will either
lack energy aud capacity or he will be so much
a creature of habit and so thoroughly the out
growth of an older civilization that he cannot
adjust himself to the new environments. There
are men, well as trees, that will not thrive
when tranSplauted The intending emgrant
would do well 10 study his own disposition
carefully, and make sure that he is not of that
:, ind