The Washington herald., 1912-09-21
arrrzla READY FOR 4 TUMBLE.


tcourisht. isis. By O. n. Keys. Ns~ York;
Nearly twenty years ago the American
West had q fine big boom in real estate.
Good farm land for miles arousd the
cities was cut up into lots and sold to
the public at good substantial prices.
The balloon burst. as balloons always
will under pressure. and one could 20
through the West and buy a whole town.
site for as much as couple Of lots
would have cost In the same town two
yeafs before. Records have come down
to US from that time Of so-called cities
that moved In order to avoid the pay
ment Of municipal bonds and for other
purposes. Some of the States Of the
West were full Of episodes like this. A
great many thousands of people lost all
they had in the crash and never got any
OF II back.
With such a spectacle and warning as
this. II seems almost incredible tbat a
similar boom should be able to start and
grow to almost equally great proportion.
relatively speaking, In a country almost
similar. speaking the same language. pro-
ducing the same crops. and generally
under the same conditions. Yet IL We
can believe the evidence OF competent
critics who have Travelled through the
Canadian Northwest. the process OF land
speculation and land imitation In that
territory Is on as mad a scale as Kansas
or Minnesota ever saw. There Is an army
of agents scattered throughout the mar
kets of the world selling lots in the sub
urbs of almost every city In the Canadian
Northwest. II
Recent researches in that territory
seem to indicate that in a great many
cases. this subdivision of lots lies as
far out from the cities as any of the
wildcat subdivisions of our own boom
In 1880 and succeeding years. In a good
many cases. the prices received for those
distant lots would seem to Indicate that
the prairie village Of to-day Is to be a
Chicago some time in the future. II you
take the records. IL would appear that
the boom is largely based upon the the
ory that there will be a dozen or more
cities In the Canadian Northwest within
the next few years as big as Kansas
City. Omaha, St Paul. CT even Chicago.
OF course the ultimate result is quite
obvious II has been estimated that in
order to maintain the present values Of
the subdivision lots on cale in the Cana
dian Northwest. the population of the
towns In that region In 1870 would have
to be something over 1000, 900 people. II Is
quite obvious that there Will not be L.
00o 900 people in the cities of the Canadian
Northwest In 1890. Therefore, II Is quite
obvious that the prices of to-day have
not only discounted the future growth
but nave over-discounted that growth
over and over again, and the Canadian
Northwest Is ready, or nearly ready. for
the same collapse that smashed the al
legged era OF prosperity in the Western
States twenty years ago
This is not a criticism OF the Canadian
West, II seems 10 be a great rich coun-
try. So was the American West twenty
years ago, probably as rich. and posi-
bly, richer in its power to produce wealth
than the Canadian Northwest which Is
largely a one-crop country Yet the col
lapse came in our West and II will come
in the Canadian West, not because Of
lack Of wealth in the earth itself. but