Devils Lake inter-ocean. (Devils Lake, Ramsey Co., Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1905, 1888-04-21

South Dakota is almost unanimous in
favor of division, and 1t would be 20 in
North Dakota but for the fear Of It's peo-
pie that II they are continued in terri
torial dependence they will for years to
come be made to endure the,'same delays
in their own. efforts for admission. 1t
has from the beginning been the one
desire upon which the people of Dakota,
throughout all oftheir contentious, have
been agreed-that in time two states
would be created from 1t. On this fore
cast the public buildings have been built
in duplicate for each division, north and
south.
"The physical geography of that terri
tory bears upon this question and fur
nishes another reason why it should be
DIVIDED into two states-a reason so CON
vinoing that it has operated upon the o-
litical instinct of the people in adjusting
themselves to boundaries for ages before
the principal was recognized as an ele-
ment of political science. 1t is this:
South Dakota lies mainly on the line of
different productions and intercourse
from that occupied by the region to the
north. It lies in the latitude of south
ern Minnesota and Iowa. Immigration,
moving as 1t does in parallels, has large
~ gone into that region from states
directly east and south. North Dakota
has been populated by a much more
diverse multitude; and 1t is generally
accurate to state that a large majority of
its inhabitants has gone there from
regions lying nearly in the same lati-
tude. The overflow from Minnesota
has not been less than fifty thousand
people. The Scandinavian population
is not less than sixty thousand.
ut Is, perhaps. too much to say that
there are NOW few points in common be-
tween the Inhabitants Of these two
regions, but it is entirely correct to state
that there are points of divergence be-
tween them from which an e%ver-widen-
ing process will inevitably 60 on. The
products of each region will be different.
North Dakota's principal staple will
always be wheat. The products Of South
Dakota will eyer be more various. Such
difference, it is we'll known, has its
effects upon the characteristics of COM
munities, and from the beginning gives
rise to opposing interests and desires
often irreconcilable, to different markets,
to different commercial lines of inter-
course, and to conflicting modes of
thought and action. y
1.-THE work OF man in that territory
has already corro5orated these assertions.
Trade, like migrations, moves in paral7
lois. South Dakota is tributary to Chi
cago, and reaches the seaboard through
that city. North Dakota is bound COM
mercially to st. Paul, Minneapolis, and
Duluth, and its products find their way
to the seaboard through those cities,
thence by the way of Lake Superior
during navigation. The railroad re-
Gently completed through northern Wis
consin and Michigan, to the Sault Ste.
Marie, which there connects with the
Canadian system of railways, furnishes
a winter outlet and saves the necessity
Of the detour around the southern ex-
tremity Of Lake Michigan.
1.-THE instinct of railroad builders has
been from the beginning actuated under
the impulse of these conceptions. The
east and west lines Of Chicago traverse
South Dakota and are directed toward
the Black Hills. Far to the north of
them lie two other east and west systems,
the Northern Pacific and the st. Paul
Minneapolis and Manitoba, each running
into Duluth. The effect of this mandate
Of nature and of this obedience to it by
man will be strikingly manifest twenty
Ave years from now. when each of these
regions will contain moro than two
millions of people.
"There is another convincing reason
why the present territory should not
constitute a single state. It is too large,
and in time will betoo populous and pow
erful to subserve the equilibrium which
ought to be maintained between the
states. It contains l5O, 900 square miles.
All New England can be included in it
and still leave room for New York,
Delaware and Maryland. The distance
from its northern to its southern bound
ry is equal to that between Washington
and Ottawa, in Canada. Divided as
proposed, it will give two states Of rs 600
square miles. There is little waste land
in this wide expanse. It will sustain
millions of people. As one political
body it will inevitably, and at no distant
day, as time is measured in the life Of
nations, exercise an undue ascendency
in political action.
''This is an evil which we have only
begun to experience, but it is felt to-day
In the averpowering influence of great
states and ever in that of great cities
1t needs no prophetic gift to fear and set
the power which Texas must at some
time exert upon the affairs Of govern
ment, when her imperial domain, which
no Texan will for this very reason con
sent shall be DIVIDED into new states, a
was originally contemplated, becomes
populous with millions Of people
MOVING under the momentum Of tnordi
nate power, Of common interest, ant
concentrated intelligence.
"The present government 10 insum
cient. It has for years been an anach
ronism. The territorial system Of ad
ministration 10 in theory, and ough
always to be in practice. merely tempo
rary and provisional for the short tim,
during whichthe process of forming tn
state is gone through. The true enablin
act. in principle, is the act establishin
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