Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1907-03-02
THE NEW NORTHWEST.
BY Hon. j. NJ. Devine. !.

r
Ladies and gentlemen, fellow citi-,
zens of the state of North Dakota:
| 1t is difficult, really very difficult to.
know wehere to begin and what to
say after so much has been said and
well said by the gentlemen who have
preceded me. If North Dakota was.
not 50 big, if it was not so splendid
in all of the things which go to make
sit the great commonwealth, so much
bigger than any of the states east
or west of it. there would not be
anything left to say. But it is so
big in its bigness that these gentle
men have not exhausted the subject
by any means.
We are living in a great age, in a
great country, and in a great state;5
a state that has grown in all those
things which go to make up a great!
commonwealth and that growth has
been SO rapid I: the movement so
swift that it is beyond the compre-
hension of the slower, more conserv-
atiVe sections of the East Think of
it! After eighteen years Of state.
hood we today point to the remark
able fact of an assessed valuation of
1896, 462,584, with a total value Of
all property of more than a billion
dollars. We have 368 state banks,
40 national banks, and all Of them
prosperous. Such a condition could
not exist in any of the states east OF
us with five times the population
that our state has had Take the
per capita value of one crop, the di-
rect and indirect product of the soil
within the boundaries of this state
in 1906 which amounted to $357.12,
q greater amount than can be shown
by any other state, and mark You,
this per capita value was more equi-
tabIy distributed than could be pos
sible in any state of the East. But
my subject is THE New Northwest =
BY that ] assume is meant Bottineau,
McHenry, Ward, Williams and Nc
Kenzie counties, having within its
boundaries the greatest stretch of
richly productive upland to be found
within this rich, productive state.
This new northwest portion Of the
state holds and sustains population
of 10000 people; people who
are prosperous, happy, and content
ed. There are $40 miles Of river val
ley in this SETON comprising 10000
acres of the richest soil the sun ever
shone upon. live in county, Ward,
that eight years ago had a poulation
LOT 5000 people, today it has popu-
lation OF 5000 eight years ago It's
assessed valuation was less than two
million, today it is fourteen million;
eight years ago it had 40 schools, to-
| day It has 370, with an expenditure
for these schools during 1905 of $240.-
1000 for maintenance eight years
ago there was very little farm land
taken under the homestead act, to-
day It Is all taken and there is prac-
ideally no good farming lands left
in the entire northwestern portion
Iof this state. One may drive for So
miles east and west and for z miles
north and sonth and In all directions
Lone sees red barns, comfortable
homes, well cultivated farms, sclloo
houses dotting the prairies every
where, and the newcomer TO tlis
section would find It very difficnli
matter to realize that all this splen-
did progress has been brought aboul
/ with the binding swiftness Of en-
chantment. Men came to this sec
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