Norwich bulletin., 1916-07-10
THE BORDER STATES.
Great Human Drama Being Enacted Along 1,81o Mile Boundary Line.
Especial to The Bulletin }

Washington, D. C., July 9.-Many in teresting facts about the border states of the United States and Mexico have been compiled and issued by the Ma tiOnal Geographic Society today as a war geography bulletin on that section of the continent to which our National Guard has been ordered The bulletin gives the following comparative sta tistics:
 While the whole of America is vitally concerned in the present Mexi- Han situation, the great human drama is being enacted along the 1,81O mile boundary line which separates the four American border states of California, Arizona New Mexico and Texas, and the five border states and one territory of MeXico-Lower California, Sonora, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon. and Tamaulipas. The area of the Aneri- can border states is Q little more than One-siXth the total area of the United States. including Alaska, while the area of the Mexican border states is more than three-sevenths the total area, of that republic, yet the territory embraced in the bounds of the Amer ican states is almost twice as exten- sive as that of the six political di- visions of the smaller country.
 "The population of the six Mexican states is 100000. compared with G. 800, ,000 on the American side, the
 
 the total population of Mexico while the four American states have only about one-fourteenth of the total pop ulation of the northern republic.
 '1c is an odd coincidence that the four American states on the border are with the exception of Montana and the territory of Alaska, the four Iarg- est political divisions in the Nnion, while three Mexican border states Chihuahua, Coahuila and Sonoda-and the territory of Lower California are, likewise, the largest divisions of that republic.
 "All of the American border states were Q, part of the Mexican nation up to the middle of the last century when Texas seeded from the southern re- public and subsequently, cast her lot with the United States. Other terri tory was acquired in the War of 1S46. the boundaries being fixed by the treaty of Guadalupe Hida1go which fol- lowed. and by the Gadsden Purchase.
 "The Rio Grande forms natural boundary line of more than HOO miles separating Texas from the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Neuvo Leon and Tamaulipas while the ar bitrary boundary of nearly 700 miles, Zigzagging from Fl Paso to a point on the Pacific Coast about ten miles south of San Diego, separates New Mexico, Arizona and California from Chihua- hua, Sonora and Lower California.
 Five great railway arteries, over which has flowed the commerce of the two republics and which are of vital importance in all military operations. cross the border at. Brownsville. Laredo. Eagle Pass, Fl Paso, and Nogales. The corresponding Mexican towns are Matarnores, Nuevo Laredo. Ciudad Porfirio Diaz, Juarez. and Nogales, the last named being bisected by the boundary line. The main lines of four of these railroads run in a general north and south direction through the states of Sonora, Chihuahua Coahuila and Nuevo Leon. but the line which crosses the Rio Grande at Brownsville runs west from Matamores through Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon, and Goa huila, turning to the southwest at Torreon and extending through the state of Durango.
 ''The mouth of the Rio Grande, which marks the eastern end of the boundary, is more than 450 miles nearer the equator than the western end of the line %