Plentywood herald. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1908-current, 1927-11-11

process, its most significant meaning is
found. A universal common task was
impressing its standardizing influence
upon all the people who came within its
reach. Everywhere on the frontier civili-
cation was being manufactured out of
raw material and personnel. Few per-
sons came to the frontier except to make
homes for themselves, and to stake their
hardihood and fortune against the
chances Of isolation and hardship. Most
Of them had little to hope for in their
older homes, and made the emigration to
advance their chances and their chill
dren's.
For the interval between two genera
tions, in any frontier region, the typical
life was that of the frontier farmer clear
ing his fields and building his cabins.
then came the group-the school and the
church, local government and statehood
and the crafts Of industrial supply fol-
lowed the more primitive ones of agri-
culture. After the lapse of 20 or 25 years
these needs had ordinarily been met in
any typical frontier region, and the first
born children Of the early household
had grown to maturity and gone off
in couples to a newer frontier to repeat
their parents experience.
In the multiple repetition of this, at
every crossroads in America, through
nearly three centuries. each geenration
has in turf been able to challenge the
social values Of the common heritage,
and to modify its institutions to fit the
shifting need. History has here more
nearly repeated itself than in the other
experiences of the past. This was a social
laboratory for the mixed races that
thronged the continent. The frontier
process and it's consequences give the
special meaning to American life.
The frontier as a region was that area
Of the United States in which the from
tier process was going on at any moment.
The immediate family need came first,
In the early seventeenth century 1t was
along the lower courses of the Atlantic
rivers. In the early eighteenth century
1t was along the foothills of the eastern
mountain ranges. BY 1853 it filled up
many of the parallel valleys of the APP
~palachians; and until the end of the
story 1T was an irregular strip extending
across the whole width Of the United
States, and advancing relentlessly toward
the setting sun, finding its final chapter
in Montana only a few years ago.
The American frontiersman a to
erect, in the course of a lifetime, all
the institutions of private or public life
that he desired. At the start, he was
forced to shift them over, and decide
which duty first. Invariably the earliest
OF his problems was that of land, since
his first need was to find a place that
he might call his own, and build his
home. The conditions under which, from
decade to decade, the frontier farmers
acquired their land titles, shaped the
course Of their immediate growth, and
left habits of thought or a%ntipathies
that have moulded public opinion and
given direction to national government.
No disturbance has ever succeeded In di-
verting their attention from the land.
In the French wars n the Revolu-
ton the common soldiers were ever
thinking of new homes to be acquired,
and their officers were debating the
chances Of profitable speculations in
western titles. In all of the states there
was yet, in 1888, an abundance of land
waiting to be developed; but nowhere
was this SO in the forefront of public
interest as along the border. The land
less man n the landless state were in
the spell Of such opportunity; their ON
MOI bond operated to hold the tottering
Union upright while it was learning 10Y
to walk.
After the Revolutionary war, several
Of the states found themselves with out
lying western possessions which they
were in no shape to govern and from
which they could not reasonably expect
a revenue. In the fall of 1880, congress
urged these states to cede their western
lands to the Union. 1t pledged its faith
that as the lands were occupied they
should be divided into new m
wealths, with admission to the Union as
a natural goal. Thus was the American
public domain brought into being.
The principle Of rectangular surveys
was established in our national lane
system by the ordinance Of 1875, accord