The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1899-12-17
Should STUDY GEOGRAPHY
a MAGAZINE WRITTEN pREsuniBEs
ron coNGRnssMEN.
Thinks They Would no Isetter y
They Gave More Attentien to the
Nature Of the Cosntry ana Less
40 Potitics--ri,neiy suggestions.

Congress would do a great deaf better II
It would study more geography and less
politics, Is the View Of a writer In Ainsiee's
for December. This Is the way the sug-
gestfon e put:
THE original thirteen states understood
one another's territorial idosyncrases
thoroughly. and framed constitution elas-
tic enough to allow them. But the original
thirteen have been swelling until they
are forty-nve, and VIII soon be forty-eight
ana there has been little or no further al
lowancc for further Standardization. Po-
litical critics call the river and harbor bill
great graft Il Ii really but deadlock
between geographical ambitions Congress
has fallen into checker game of DIVERSE
fled interests and conflicting demands. all
growing out Of divergence OF territory and
distinctiveness Of pursuits and products,
vet no one seems to understand the COM
plexity or the way out of IT,"
The Afnslee writer advances this View
after somewhat novel study OF the effect
Of topography upon the character Of peo-
pie In different sections Of the United
States. His article Is In part ms follows:
when the Pennsylvania farmers build,
ed ship and foated down the Ohio river
into the country which now bears that!
rivers mime, they set the precedent for
future westward migration. Going In the
easiest manner possible to the easiest ies-
tlnation, they obeyed the geological law.
Of least resistance by which habitation has
since been made the thickest where IT.
could become so with tho minimum of diff
ficulty.
ssyyhcn the roId htinters rrcps1pyj ftnnn
the Colorado mountains. leaving only the
mountnineers to fight II out with the iso-
lation and altitude. and to found state
fifteen years subsequently, and when the
emigrants who could stand the overland
trail no longer camped by the waysde in
Kansas. and, In the face Of Indians and
cyclones began growing corn and wheat.
another law was obeyed and another pre-
cedent established, namely, that the char
acter Of peoples is determined by the
amount Of combat with the natural OBJ
struction Of progress.
"These two laws conjunctively-the law
Of least resistance. and the law of great
est conquest and endurance--have fixed
upon the area Of the United States a.
population as varied as the topography, a.
replica In almost every respect OF its phys
ical features.
what "sectionalism" Really Means.
This IS what 'sectionalism.' OF which
We have heard much In latter-day politics,
really means 1t is deep laid trait Of the
republic Between the sea level of the
Atlantic and the ocean shores OF the Pa
cific lie habitats as differentiated, save for
community OF language and patriotism,
as the antagonistic states OF Europe. Be-
tween Sault Ste. Marie and Baton Rouge
lie groups Of people secticna,ized by geo.
graphical demarcatlony as distinct as
those made by the Alleghan.es or the Mis-
sissppi or tha Rocky mountains. Moth
ing is likely to obliterate these seyerances
and particularities. They viii increase in
force and potency as the sections grow
older; they VIII ASSUME a constantly more
active function in the constructive pro-
cesseS Of the American commonwealth.
AT the apex of the continent, for ex-,
ample, In Colorado aud the adjoining sill
YER states north and south, is an ebullience,
and venturesomeness as amazing to the
people OF lower attitudes as It IS puissant
among the inhabitants themselves who
have mountains to conquer and rarified
atmosphere to breathe. 1t Is no more apt
to pass away than are the lofty. mountains
nor will 1t ever cease to be an
agent to disturb political conventions or
to supply enthusiasm to new propaganda
Of many sorts.
'Along the flew Of the Ohio, and along
the edges Of the navigable Great Lakes, Isl
\ geography that makes mechanical and
mineral industry az natural as living, and
no impulses other than those Of
cautious. daily, thrifty advancement.
Around slhe head of the Great Lakes
the population :mhibes the zest of cold
subsists upon the luxurfance of a
fauitless soil and sends to congress men
with the zeal and swift progressiveness Of
the chairman of the senate foreign rela-
tons committee.
'Southward, where the chivalry Of old
France has merged with the doughtiness of
American engineers, and the nasterful
Mississippi has baffled human ingenuity
after generation until the river
las now become colossal avenue of COM
nerce, they put forth men who stake their
'ame upon the construction of .nterocean-
e canals, or who disrupt political party
% preserve the sugar interests which have
been handed down to them from foreign
ancestors.
Western Individuality, !
Ear our upon the Pacific coast. isolated
,v dividing ,nounta,n ranges but sun
ported NV natural resources which have M