The Daily Missoulian., 1909-10-27


Of the morning session, made "A very
! friendly talk. calculated Ia aid the dry
farming movement and incidentally he
! sounded a few words Of warning. He
said in part:
Il feel more ut hnme in a farmers
! crowd than | do anywhere else Al
though not a member of the Meth
odist church. | have attended it q
great many times and there in one
thing | learned, they all reserved the
privilege of talking back. and l. like
them. feel that have the privilege
and as long as | can hang OF to il
| hope to do il.
The development Of the west il
too big a subject for US to handle to-
day. but Ne may cover a very few
points. 1t began with the fur trade.
Later the discovery of gold led ad-
renturouS spirits to the Rocky noun
tains from beyond the Cariboo dis
trict, tn Mexico. | remember when
the first expedition coming to Mon
tana was turned back by the hostile
Indians somewhere west OF the Mis-
souri, river, The next year they found
their way through. and i am not one
of those who want to bury the old
timers. | have the greatest respect
for them. The women who sat in the
stage coaches all the way from CO.
rinne To Helena We're angels. Some
of you may not know where Corinne
is; it is down near Salt Lake; it was
the jumping off place.
Stands Foremost.
Later when the placer gold mines
gave way to silver and copper, Mon
tana, as much as any other OF
the mineral states showed Il develop
ment until today of all the states in
this country Montana stands in the
front in the production ri some of the
minerals within her borders and it has
served IA good purpose: it is serving
it's good purpose. because it enabled
those who came here to pay higher
prices. to pay, if necessary. $50 IL sack
for flour. You could not have lived in
the country If YOU had to make your
living off the cultivation of the soil
At that time. Later the Northern Pa
cific railway WAS built through the
northwest. The men that worked on
the line from morning until night and
from night until morning-their lives
were in danger from hostile Indians
and their camp was guarded by
United States troops and it took a
good deal Of faith To build in those !
days: and long weary years of wait
ing and years of failure ensred and /
We look down on the Northern Pacific
and see marvellous railroad well /
equipped. on Il fine track from end |
Ia end, and we are apt II forget ahat .
II is the result of three or four fail /
ures. You had not the people. You |
might put Il railroad i'm the garden /
Of Eden and If there was nobody |
there but Adam and Eve it would be /
IL failure.
Good keshbors.
Nov, it is easy to build Il railroad /
in Montana and you want good .
many miles of railroad that you have f.
not now. and If | may just speak Il
word Of advice. be good neighhors To
your railroads and depend upon 1t they
will he good neighbors To you. because
before they can get one dolars of
products, or get il out of your prod
ucts. You have got to earn it and pay
for ii and they would no more iniurc
you and they would no more destroy
your power to produce than the fa-
ther of ii good family would destroy
or impair the strength of his chill
dren. You are not our children. but
We are in the same boat with YOU.
and we have got 10 prosper with you
or NE have got to be poor with You.
And the development of the west
in the past: let us relegate ii to the
past and the development that We
are more concerned with today is the
of the west in the future
and in the very near future. If we
increase our population as 1t has in
creased. or even at lower ratio, We
would have tn figure exactly on the
basis nj 70o. coo emierants per annum.
and we have not had year since 1902
that it has not exceeded that. and
some years il has run as high as L.
23n. 600 ar more: but take il 1T 100. 900
and the natural increase tn 1850. we
would have over aa0. 900 900 people.
Now. where will they go and what
will they dos People sometimes say
| am Il pessimist. | am not
have full confidence that our coun-
try today with not to exceed 30 people
IL the square mile. can support and
support well 1aa. or five times our
present population and then We would
not be crowded. our state of Rhode
Island. which il largely a manufac-
tarins state and the home of that
great statesman, Senator Agdrich
has about 4a5 to the
square mile. The average Of Connect
ieut AMI Massachusetts is greater