Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1906-06-15
Colorado, and everything this side of
tha Cascade Mountains ;c oast IN the

:
this: The West is where man is; the
East is where he or his father came
from. So it comes to pass that the
West has no geographical limits like
the South and New England. 1t is
something more than a geographical
term. Like Boston it is a state of
mind. There are mountains and rivers
and oceans within the limits Of which
this state Of mind is pre-eminently to
be found, but it is to be recognized in
others regions as well.
You can tell Westerner as you can
tell a Southerner, sometimes by his
speech, always by his attitude toward
life.
There is great difference between
the West today and the West of fifty
years ago. When Mr.. Jefferson in the
year 1904 sent Lewis and Clark to dis
cover the Northwest by the route of
the Missouri river, they did not find
things as you or / would find them
now.
They left the town of St. Charles
early in the spring, sailed, poled and
dragged their boats up the muddy and
treacherous stream all summer, win
tered with the Mandan Indians and
reached the Great Falls of the Missouri
in about year and a quarter from the
beginning of their voyage. After en-
during many and severe hardships they
found the valley of the Columbia and
explored it down to the Pacific ocean.
If you wished to make that trip now,
how long would it take you? About
three days; a great deal better than a
year and quarter, with little discom-
fort to the traveller.
They also saw great heards Of Buffa-
10, which are now nearly extinct; and
even the Indian who ruled supreme
here is pushed and guarded in small
reservation. But the Indians were not
the only obstruction met by early set
tiers. They started out with little cap
ital, arrived with none, probably lost
most of their stock and in many cases
whole families were killed or died of
some sickness. When they did settle
down they had to be on constant
guard against Indian attacks, and their
crops were liable to destruction by
fires, grass-hoppers or some other pest.
But in the face of such dangers, in the
face of such misfortunes, they conquer
ed and prospered, even daring to cross
the great American desert.
Fifty years ago surveyors said that a
railroad could never be built across the
Rocky mountains as the difficulties
were too great. Today we have net
work of rail all over the Rockies and
to the Pacific coast.
How many of our sturdy western
settlers owe their first inspiration to go
west to the railroads? Very few adj
NIT it, but as matter of fact, fully
seventy-five per cent Of them can
thank the railroads for their bettered
conditions, and yet one hardly thinks
OF railroad as being philanthropic;
indeed philanthropy does not enter into
their plan; it is wholly bushes trans
action from start to finish. Few people
realize the value of the railroads in
this direction; and admitting that their
motives are of selfish nature, they
are nevertheless accomplishing a great
work.
The opening Of these lands by the
railroads attracted great numbers from
foreign countries as well as the East
all were attracted by cheap lands and
the possibilities Of becoming rich anc
independent. For years this movement
continued. New settlements were
built, new industries were established
and general wave Of property was
attained by railroads for the sections
through which they passed. New
towns, number Of which have since
grown into cities of considerable prom
inence, were given birth in those few
short years.
| But irrigation has helped greatly ir
the settlement of the West. The gooc
done already by irrigation can hardly
be exaggerated. Hundreds and thous.
ands of acres of the arid West have
been reclaimed by irrigation. But al.
though great amount of good has
been done, the great wo.k has but be.
gun and in few years the Great
American Desert will be thing of the
lpast.
i Years ago Westerner was setting
forth the magnitude of the transaction
of the Board Of Trade, when an Easterne,
asked Of him, how about culture in the
West. "Gulture?" said he, eve
haven't got that, but when we do vel
make culture hum" And the West is
just now taking culture seriously.
u The great struggle which the early
settlers waged with nature was Of ne.
cessity the great characteristic Of the
early years Of the new states. But
through all their struggles the early
SETTLERS, whether born on European o,
American soil, held steadily to some
things that are better than crops and
railroad rates. Even during the dark
years of the early nineties they re-
NAMED loyal to their ideals and in spite
of foreclosed mortgages and drouths
they voted their annual appropriations
i for their state llniuersities and normal