Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1898-02-11
HOW IT HAS GROWN.
WESTWARD THE COURSE OF EN-.
PiRE HAS PURSUED ITS WAY.

Some Very Absurd Ideas of Very
Sensible People Regarding This
Part of the Continent and Its
Resources - Even the Middle
West was Terra Incosnita.
A few years ago we read of an Eng
lishman who came to New York to
see America. At the dinner table he
inquired if he could run down to San
Francisco for supper. When told of
the immensity OF our country he was
dumbfounded, and few days later got
him an outfit for hunting and run
down to Chicago to hunt buffaloes.
When told that he was only half way
across the continent he coolly re.
marked that this country is a bore
anyway" We smile at the ignorance
OF foreigners, yet century ago the
great west was less known in Washing
ton than the dark continent is now.
In 1889, when Congress had under
discussion the fixing of permanent
seat of government, the center of
population was a pointer in that dis.
cussion. Mr.. Goodhue, of Massa-
chusetts, argued that the center of
population "would not vary con-
siderably for ages yet to come" His
argument was that the increase would
be eastward rather than to the south,
as the manufacturing centers would
gain population rather than the agri-
cultural south. The west was not
taken in consideration by him.
At that time it is said that that the
center of population was about twenty
five miles east of Baltimore. The
Congressman never dreamed that it
would move westward along the
thirty-ninth parallel at the nearly
uniform rate of five miles year, and
at the end of the first century it would
be nearer the Mississippi river than
the Allegheny mountains.
Fisher Ames, in discussing the
possible figure that Ohio might make
in the future, referred to her as "the
almost immeasurable wilderness"
even when settled, her government
was "past calculation" and thought
them romantic dreamers who would
make the decision of a seat for the ma
tion's capital turn ON that circum-
stance, as " it would be near century
before the people of that region would
be considerable"
Great as was the foresight of DIR.
franklin his prescience was unequal
to the great possibilities of the then
great west. He foresaw the pos
sibilities of that scope of country east
of the Mississippi and sweeping the
northern lakes and st. Lawrence,
and thought it capable of sustaining
1OO.OOO,OOO people, but predicted that
"this must take centuries to fulfill"
In 1925, when the United States
Senate was discussing the occupation
of Oregon, Mr.. Dickerson, Senator
from New Jersey, declared that it was
impossible for that country to ever
become State and went into elaborate
calculations to prove the physical inn
possibilities of such an undertaking.
He demonstrated the fact so apparent
to him that it would require q whole
year for representative of the Co.
lumbia valley to reach Washington
and return, travelling continuously at
the rate of thirty miles day. In the
heat of his oratory he affirmed that
ait would be more expeditions to
double Cape Horn, or to pass through
the Arctic ocean" than to undertake
such a dangerous journey. He thus
concluded his prophetic vision: "Itis
true this passage is not yet discovered
except on our maps, but it will be as
soon as Oregon shall become State.'
1t is fact that trip can be made
from Portland to Washington City in
five or six days, and Oregon is rich
and prosperous State with nearly a
half million people in her borders,
and her sister Washington, possesses
equal population and is even more
prosperous, while the whole Of the
Columbia river country now has more
than million population and almost
boundless wealth.
In 1S46 while defending the Treaty
of Washington, Daniel Webster said:
ave have heard vast deal of the
commercial value of the Columbia
and its occupation; but 1 will under.
take to say that for all purposes of
human use the st. Johns is worth q
hundreds times as much as the CO.
lumbia is or will ever be-"
We sometimes think that if any
man in the early part of this century
was broad enough to grasp the future
possibilities of this great west, that
man was Henry Clay, yet he said in
1882 in discussing our public domain: ::
ave may anticipate that long, if not
centuries, after the present day, the
representatives of our children's
children may be celebrating in the
halls of Congress on laws relating to
our public lands"