Idaho news. (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1887-1891, 1888-04-14
THE NATIONS GROWTH.
Curious Illustration of Our Unexpected
Growth in Population and Area
New York Herald.l

Growth In Population and Area
New York Hersld.l
Here is q curious fact, which illustrates
our unexpected extension in territory anG
population. Just after the revolutionary
war Lord Sheffield published book in
London entitled. Observation on the Com
merce of the American States" Sheffield
was, to be sure. not over friendly to US, his
loyalty to the crown giving possible colo
10 his views, but he was supposed to be Z
careful and shrewd observer At any rate
his statements were received in England a
reliable, and they acted as a balm to the
British disappointment ut the loss of the
colonies
lie declared unreserVedly that the Amer
lean continent was practically valuelesl
for commercial purposes. 1t was simply 9
vast wilderness which could never be
thickly populated, with certain natural
obstacles which rendered any extensive
commerce impossible. The states on the
Atlantic seaboard, LIE admitted, might in
time rise to some Importance, but the vast
tract OF inland territory was hardly worth
consideration. He yentured the prediction
that settlers beyond the Allegheny noun
tains can not become commercial because
there Is no possible outlet to the sea for
their products. These mountains, his
lordship declared, were barrier to pros
perity that could never be overcome
II he could return from his grave now,
start in Pullman car from Philadelphia,
travel over the Alleghanies at q speed
which would make each particular hair
stand on end, and so on for seven days and
nights at the same rate Of speed through
countless villages, towns, and crowded
cities, through what was in his day an
almost impenetratable forest, over the
prairies, of which he never dreamed, and
thence over the Rockies, to find an i'm
mepse population on the Pacific coast, he
would probably entertain as slender an
opinion OF his prophetic powers as we do.
II he had been told, after the publication
Of his book, that this great wilderness,
which he believed to be q barrier
to our western advance, would be
changed into fields of grain, upon
which English lords and English work
men would largely depend for their daily
bread; that the Mississippi river, in the
course Of three generations, would flow
through the geographical center Of -epub-
lie numbering sixty millions of people, and
that the whole continent of Europe would
be yearly dependent upon the abundance
of our crops, his lordship would have
looked upon the speaker as fanatic or q
mailman.
At the time when Lord Sheffield made
his lugubrious prophecy the total area
OF the United States was 1877, S44 square
miles. In 1903 the province of Louis
lana was coded, containing an area
Of 1,17l,931 square miles, and ex-
tending northward from the mouth of
the Mississippi to the British possessions
and westward to the Pacific ocean. In 1919
we acquired Florida, 59,265 square miles;
in 1S45 Texas, containing 376, 1873 square
miles; in 1-43 the first Mexican cession of
545, 1893 square miles was made; in 1853 A
second Mexican cossOn of As, 1874 SQUARE
mile, and lastly, in 1867. the Russian cos-
SION OF Alaska, containing SIT, 300 square
miles. This makes the total area of thu
United States 3.60},Ss4 square miles, or
more than four times what it was in 1887,
The present size Of the republic and our
sxhsustless material resources emphasizs
bur responsibilities and duties as American
:itizenA