The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-06-20

is just about the same as that of the
United States leaving out Alaska and
the islands of the sea.
That conditions of life will change
to meet the responsibility of the great
growth of the country is inevitable.
From movements now under way it is
possible to foresee some of these
changes. The arid deserts of the great
west will be turned into wonderfully
fertile fields and gardens. Irrigation
and the science of dry farming Will
reclaim every possible square inch of
soil, and the desert will be pushed
back to the very feet of the bare
rocks of the mountain sides.
The swamp lands of the country will
be drained and turned into productive
fields. The Everglades of Southern
Florida will be transformed from an
impossible morass, and in ninety years
from now will be famed as the rich
est garden of tropical fruits in the
world The broad acres of the swamps
of the southern Mississippi valley will
be reclaimed for the use of the farmer
who will supply the people with cot
ton for their backs and sugar Tor
their tables.
The Panama Canal will then be the
great center of the worlds trade and
the United States will have a metro
politan city on the Canal Zone, freed
bv science from every terror of the
tropics. The influence of the Canal
will have built up great ports on the
Gulf of Mexico New Orleans and Gal
weston will outstrip the ratio of in
crease and will be we'll in the million
aire" class of cities. The Great Lakes
will be connected with the Gulf of
Mexico by a deep waterway following
the course of the curbed and restrain
ed Mississippi. Ships will sail direct
w from Pittsburg to the Orient by
way of Panama. The steel from the
birmingham iron center will be load
ed onto deep water ships at the very
mouths of the furnaces. This prospect
is wonderful, but not nearly so Won
derful as the Manchester ship canal IN
England would have seemed a CEN
fury ago.
The development of Siberia and the
opening of China to world-trade
ninety years hence will have made the
Pacific Ocean the great commercial
sea. and the western cities OF the
United states will have profited there
by. | requires no prophet to see the
commercial greatness of the Puget
sound country with cities of the mil
lion class. San Francisco at the Gold
en- Gate. with its clustering sisters
will he as large then as New York is
now. Los Angeles viii reign in the
fas, nesses of her tributary valleys
over a population half as great as all
the nation has now, most of them nv
ing on land rescued from the blight of
the Desert.
Manhattan will in that day be the
capital of the commercial world 1t
will he the center of a city of many
millions. but the island itself probably
will have fewer people than 1t has to-
dav. The downtown office district Will
extend all the way to the Bronx The
whole island will be given over TO
business and pleasure, while the peo-
pie will have their homes OUTSIDE. 1t
will not take more than twenty years
of the projected ninety for New YORK
to take away from London the hlgh-
est place in the worlds commerce
When the year 1000 comes the whole
world will look to Manhattan for It's
financial intelligence. What city 1t
will be then-honeycombed under by
tunnels. lowered over by towers or
Babel. perhaps obscured by the fitting
shadows of myriads of machines which
have learned the secret of the birds!
Washington, Sublinated Washing
viii be the gayest social capital and
the most beautiful city of earth. me
immortal patriot for whom it was
named was a surveyor. a mathemau-
clan and a seer. He laid out the
Federal City according to his own /
plans. The limit of his genius is only
now being reached. but his scheme
was so simple and beautiful that II
NAV be extended indefinitely. The
citv will have overlooked the narrow
limits of the District of Columbia long
before POGO But in the grandeur OF
rs buildings. the magnificence Of its
vistas and the glory of its parks It
will be the premier capital Of all the
nations.
Speculation? AS to population it
snrt at all. The figures are projected
according to a rule devised by the
eminent statfstician. Dr.. Henry :.
Prftchett. He has estimated the in
,rease of the population for several
decades. and he has never missed it;
more than a comparatively few thou
sands. During the time the rule has