The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-07-19
THE WEST OF TO-DAY.
A Region Whose Industries Have
Given 1t Power and Standing.

w. r. Lighton. in the Outlook.
Ten years ago the working West was
hopelessly dependent upon the older East
Everything 1t had to sell in the worlds
markets had to go through Eastern chan
nels; everything it bought came by way Of
the East. The vast corn and wheat fields
of the prairies-an empire in themselves
sent almost every bushel of their surplus
product to Duluth or Chicago, and thence
to the Atlantic seaboard. The West, which
grew the grain, had nothing to say about
the price 1t would get for it; the Boards of
Trade in Chicago, New York and London
fixed prices and dictated all the conditions
of traffic; the producer could do nothing
but accept such terms were offered
him. His millions of pounds of wool went
the same way, along with his millions Of
untanned hides-it was all shipped to the
East as raw material. Then, if he wanted
a suit Of clothes or pair of boots, he
must buy them in the East, made of wool
and leather of his own production. In
neither case had he anything TO say about
price.
A change has been wrought within the
last decade. 1t began with the establish
ment of the vast packing houses at various
points on the Missouri river. These. by
moving the market for live stock several
hundred miles westward, gave a new i'm
petus to stock-raisng on the big prairies
But cattle. swine and sheep that have been
brought to maturity on grazing land are
not yet ready for the packing houses: they
must first be corn-fattened The multiple,
cation Of the herds was thus of threefold
benefit; 1t turned to profitable account i'm
mense tracts of land unsuited to other
uses; 1t made an increased demand for
prairie corn; and il brought the corn mar
ket to the growers very gate. With every
year these WeStern-grown, corn-fattened
cattle and swine come nearer and nearer TO
consuming the one-time troublesome sur
plus. The corn-grower is relieved OF a
great worry. while the prairie packing
houses are enabled to put their meats upon
competition. Here is at once the solution of
a mighty economic problem and a definite
answer to the question. Where is the
Within very few years IL will be seen
of all men that 1.-The Vest is no longer
a wild and woolly sort of No-mans Land.
where spurred and pistoled braves do moth
ing all day long but fling defiance in the
face OF heaven and its laws; il will be seen
that the West has. by hard. patient. per-
sistent labor. won an unequivocal station
worlds food supply. Very few persons ap-
preciate the volume of traffic in Western
address address, in CHICAGO. declared that single
Western city (Minneapolis) now manufac-
lures and sends abroad carload OF -four
for every ter minutes of day and night. the
year round. He said also that the Detroit
river Zone of the links in the great lakes
traff1c) carries four times as much tonnage
as does the Suez canal. The significance OF
remembered that they represent only a
small fraction of the whole commerce
Since 1880 the transmississippi country has
discovered that the logical outlet for its
export trade is by way of the gulf ports
rather than by New York and Baltimore:
very large portion of Western meat and
grain and -four is now sent TO the South
and thence to Europe. with a large decrease
in cost of transportation The West Is
thus evolving commercial independence OF
the Eastern States, saving TO itself the per-
centage once paid To Eastern middlemen.
Heretofore the bulk of exported food
stuns has gone 10 Europe, but within
three or four years Asiatic markets have
begun to yawn for American corn and
wheat In 1881 for the frst time In her