The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1912-12-27
MATHEMATICAL SIDELIGHTS
ON THE STATE OF N. DAKOTA

In the booster literature, reprinted
beloW from a Great Northern folder
distributed at the Chicago Land show,
some striking mathematical side lights
are thrown on his state.
Nineteen to Five.
That's the cry from the great north
west. Fix it in your mind until it
keeps o awake nights. Start up in
the morning with it calling you to
breakfast. Eat to it at the dinner
| table.
Nineteen to five!
That's what the great northwest
along the Great Northern Railway
wants. Nineteen men like you TO
every five 1t has now. Nineteen men
to break it's sod, and tap it's irrigation
bitches, where now only five are at
the job.
Nineteen men to own it's homes,
and draw it's bank checks, and send
their youngsters to it's schools.
Here's the Reason.
Present population of the northwest
5,753, O54.
Population the northwest ought to
have 10, 462.2 10.
Contemplate those figures. They're
easy. No mystery about them. They
don't make you chew your pencil or
J close your winkers. They simply say
to you:
"The northwest wants"
But, oh, yes; we haven't told you.
yet what the northwest is. You know
well enough, only, of course, it's wise
to nave no mental slip-ups in cases
like this.
The northwest is Minnesota-which
some people say is the great North
American pantry"
The northwest is North Dakota,
| uhiph UhnfhnF Gnn1a nn0nln saw as
much or not, is another North Ameri-
can pantry, a sort of continuous eX-
| tension of the Minnesota shelves, with
specialties Of it's own.
North Dakota.
Of course, if you think you'd rath-
er Horace-Greeley things a little more
and go farther west than Minnesota,
| stick to the nineteen to five wagon
until you get to North Dakota. It's
only the next stop to Minnesota, you
know. And elbow room. just now,
elbow grease.
It's mathematics on the population
side show UP something like this:
| Number of persons North Da-
kota ought to have ........2,1SS,9OS
Number of persons North Da-
kota now has ............. 577'O5S
Number of people North Da-
| kOta mas yet 10 get 1DOAAso1t
Doesn't that reminder" hit your
Greeley spirit right between the eyes?
Pretty nearly three times as many
more persons wanted as are already
| there. And only think what those who
are already there-the SIT thousand
have done! Improved so many acres,
for instance, in proportion to the
whole number of acres in their farms,
that they could support three and a
/ AL;rJ ,.iIIina Tpnnro norSnnS than Them
| selves, Got their elbow grease work.
ing to that degree that there are
thirty-fve acres Of and titled for
every man, woman and child In the
| state, while the best that Uncle Sam
can do, on the whole, is to till about
five acres.
It's like this:
Number of persons North Da-
kota might support on her
present titled acreage ...3,9SS,662
Number of persons North Da-
kota now supports ........ 5ff,Uoo
Additional persons North Da-
kota might support on her
present titled acreage ......3,356,5O6
You might almost say that thirty
five pounds of elbow grease on the
farms of North Dakota to five on the
farms of the nation at large. And
people that are made that way are
likely to be a pretty good people to
be among, aren't they? Make good
neighbors. Keep things in general
fabricated. The wagon don't lose
an axle going to town. Prosperity
is inclined to reach for h motor
bus.
Why, bringing this propensity for
digging UP and turning ver and Gull
tivating the soil down to particular
turnips, so to speak, and see what 1T
means. Look what North Dakota
does in the potato line, where she
could supply 100000 more people than
she does. Grows enough tubers to
keep the potato buyer away from
all her 100000 inhabitants, and yet
has enough left to do the same kind
ness for once and a half as many
more.
In arithmetic it's like this:
Number of persons for whom
North Dakota could supply
potatoes .l,32l,7 1853
Number of persons for whom
North Dakota now supplies
potatoes 5775O56
Additional persons for whom
North Dakota could supply
potatoes ...... (. ....... 144,l13 |
That's about the same thing as
saying there's 81 worth of po-
tatoes for home and a dollar and a
half's worth for the market. Multi
gt /