The Quarterly of the Oregon Historical Society Part 9

=============+=================================+======================= Acres improved. Acres per inhabitant.

+-----------+-----------+---------+-------+-------+------- 1900. 1890. 1850. 1900. 1890. 1850.

+-----------+-----------+---------+-------+-------+------- Arkansas 6,953,735 5,475,043 781,530 5.3 4.8 3.7 California 11,958,837 12,222,839 32,454 8.0 10.1 0.35 Colorado 2,273,968 1,823,520 4.2 4.4 Idaho 1,413,118 606,362 8.7 7.0 Iowa 29,897,552 25,428,899 824,682 13.3 13.3 4.2 Kansas 25,040,550 22,303,301 17.0 15.6 Louisiana 4,666,532 3,774,668 1,590,025 3.3 3.3 3.0 Minnesota 18,442,585 11,127,953 5,035 16.2 8.5 0.83 Missouri 22,900,043 19,792,313 2,938,425 7.3 7.3 4.3 Montana 1,736,701 915,517 7.1 6.8 Nebraska 18,432,595 15,247,705 17.3 14.4 Nevada 572,948 723,052 13.2 15.8 North Dakota 9,644,520 4,658,015 30.2 26.0 Oregon 3,328,308 3,516,000 132,857 8.0 11.2 9.0 South Dakota 11,285,983 6,959,293 28.1 21.1 Texas 19,576,076 20,746,215 643,976 6.4 9.2 3.0 Utah 1,032,117 548,223 16,333 3.7 2.1 1.4 Was.h.i.+ngton 3,465,960 1,820,832 6.6 5.2 Wyoming 792,332 476,831 8.5 7.8 Alaska 159 Arizona 227,739 104,128 1.8 1.7 Indian Territory 3,062,193 7.8 New Mexico 326,873 263,106 166,201 1.7 1.7 Oklahoma 5,511,994 563,728 13.8 9.0 +-----------+-----------+---------+-------+-------+------- Total 202,543,416 159,097,543 7,131,518 9.6 9.5 3.56 -------------+-----------+-----------+---------+-------+-------+-------

The new farms opened since 1850 are nearly equal in the aggregate to the land area of the original thirteen states. The new farms opened between 1890 and 1900 are more than the combined land areas of the states of Tennessee and West Virginia. North Dakota, with a little over 300,000 population, has more land by 1,500,000 acres under farms than has all New England with 5,600,000 people. The average number of improved acres per inhabitant more than doubled in the West between 1850 and 1890 and showed in 1900 a slight increase over 1890. In the older agricultural states it is steadily decreasing. Thus, in New England it fell from 4 acres in 1850 to 1.4 acres in 1900; New York from 4 to 2.1 in the same interval. The Ohio valley states have held up steadier. Ohio has decreased from 4.9 to 4.6, and Illinois from 5.9 to 5.7. Indiana has increased from 5.1 to 6.6.

The West has 2,056,748 farms compared with 1,491,405 in 1890, and 119,510 in 1850. Texas, with 352,190, leads the Union, and Missouri, with 284,886, holds second place. Iowa has 37,000 more farms than all the New England states combined. While the West has not quite half the improved acreage of the country, it has 63 per cent of the unimproved acreage or 269,000,000 acres out of 426,400,000 acres. Farms average in size from 93.1 acres in Arkansas to 885.9 acres in Montana, 1,174.7 acres in Nevada, and 1,333 acres in Wyoming, where stock raising predominates and requires large ranges. The average for the West is 229.1 acres against 146.6 acres for the Union.

The proportion of the total land area in farms ranges from 3.7 per cent in Nevada to 97.4 per cent in Iowa. Kansas has 79.7, Missouri 77.3, Texas 74.9, Oklahoma 63, Nebraska 60.8, and Minnesota 51.8. No other State has 50 per cent. In the Rocky Mountains and Pacific states the average, considering the capabilities of the soil, is surprisingly low. California reports 28.9, Was.h.i.+ngton 19.9, Oregon 16.6, Wyoming 13, Montana 12.7, Utah 7.8, and Idaho 5.9. Iowa leads the Nation in this respect, followed by Indiana with 94.1, Ohio with 93.9, and Illinois with 91.5. It is from these four states, whose areas are so largely taken up and whose land values are high, that the extreme West is seeking by reason of its cheap lands and equable climate, to draw its new population. East of the Mississippi River the percentage ranges in New England from 32.9 in Maine to 80.8 in Vermont. Along the Atlantic coast the average is from 59 per cent in New Jersey to 85 per cent in Delaware. Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois have already been shown in comparison with Iowa. Kentucky has 85.9, Tennessee 76.1, Wisconsin 57, and Michigan 47.8. Florida with 12.6 and the District of Columbia with 22.1 are the only percentages reported from east of the Mississippi River, that look like western figures. Values follow: =================+=================+================+============ Total farm The Union. The West. Per cent values. in West.

-----------------+ ----------------+--------------- +------------ 1900 $20,514,001,838 $9,155,558,744 44.1 1890 15,982,267,689 5,872,085,782 36.7 1850 3,967,343,580 276,464,837 6.9 Value of farm products. 1900 4,739,118,752 2,050,766,616 43.2 1890 2,460,197,454 920,823,920 37.4 1870[38] 2,447,538,658 499,092,093 20.3 -----------------+-----------------+----------------+------------

Productions in quant.i.ty of princ.i.p.al crops in the West in 1890 and 1850 and percentages of the total for those years are thus shown:

===================+==============+==============+===========+========= Per cent Per cent Product. Yield, 1900. Yield, 1850. of total, of total, 1900. 1850.

-------------------+--------------+--------------+-----------+--------- Wheat, bushels 431,963,900 5,288,868 65.5 5.2 Corn, bushels 1,363,983,943 70,467,713 51.1 11.9 Barley, bushels 93,767,657 47,709 78.2 .92 Buckwheat, bushels 312,456 77,341 2.7 .86 Oats, bushels 454,460,412 7,849,962 48.1 5.3 Rye, bushels 7,705,068 76,255 30.1 .53 +--------------+--------------+-----------+--------- Total grain, bushels 2,352,193,536 83,807,848 53.1 9.6 +==============+==============+===========+========= United States, + + + bushels 4,424,800,923 867,453,967 ---- ---- b.u.t.ter,[B] pounds 390,810,814 15,184,444 36.4 4.8 Cheese,[39] pounds 7,609,331 614,732 46.4 .58 Wool, pounds 193,516,806 2,500,885 69.8 4.7 Flax seed, bushels 19,791,647 16,010 99.0 .28 Hay, tons 44,799,194 253,297 53.3 1.8 Potatoes, bushels 87,288,453 1,764,969 31.9 2.6 Hops, pounds 31,673,821 12,719 64.3 7.1 -------------------+--------------+--------------+-----------+---------

The West leads the East in flocks and herds, viz:

===================+=========================+======================== The Union-- The West-- +------------+------------+------------+----------- 1900. 1850. 1900. 1850.

+------------+------------+------------+----------- Dairy cows 17,139,674 6,385,094 7,011,333 722,221 Other meat cattle 50,682,662 11,393,813 35,585,356 1,756,059 Mules and a.s.ses 3,366,724 559,331 1,655,654 122,371 Horses 18,280,007 4,336,719 10,063,260 528,459 Sheep 39,937,573 21,723,220 26,940,389 1,628,159 Lambs 21,668,238 ---- 13,632,117 ---- Swine 62,876,108 30,354,213 32,274,381 4,193,895 +------------+------------+------------+----------- Total 213,950,986 74,752,390 127,162,490 8,951,164 Per cent 59.4 11.9 -------------------+------------+------------+------------+-----------

MANUFACTURING.

The center of area in the United States, excluding Alaska and recent acquisitions, is in northern Kansas, the center of population in Indiana, and the center of manufactures in Ohio. The center of area will always be in the West and the centers of population and manufactures are slowly moving that way. Manufacturing is of minor importance, though the aggregate of output exceeded the agricultural output in 1900 by over $50,000,000. Relatively its position is not so strong, being but 16.1 per cent of the total, against 27.5 per cent for population and 43.2 per cent for value of farm products.

Manufacturing increased substantially in the 1890 and 1900 decade and materially in the past fifty years. Thus,

======================+================+=================+============= 1900. 1890. 1860.

----------------------+----------------+-----------------+------------- Value of products $ 2,104,940,868 $ 1,367,835,887 $ 40,398,488 Number of operatives 652,561 508,371 30,084 Dollars per operative 2,991 2,690 1,342 Per cent of total: Product 16.1 14.5 3.9 Operatives 12.2 11.9 3.1 ----------------------+----------------+-----------------+-------------

Missouri is the princ.i.p.al State for this branch of industry, California second, and Minnesota third. These states stand for nearly half the total output of Western factories. The output of California, Oregon, and Was.h.i.+ngton, in 1900, was $435,670,399, const.i.tuting 3.3 per cent of the value of products for the United States. Commenting on this, we find the census of Manufactures (part 1, page CLXXVIII) saying:

The industrial condition in this group of states in 1900, considering the value, but not the character of the products, was about the same as the New England states in 1860 and the Middle states in 1850. From this point of view, the growth of the Pacific states has been remarkable. The character of its industries is still determined largely by its natural resources of farm, forest, and mine, but the recent wars in the Orient, resulting in the opening of new markets, gave to the industries of this section a great stimulus which had only begun to be felt at the time the twelfth census was taken.

COMMERCE.

The combined imports and exports of the United States in the year ended June 30, 1901, were geographically distributed as follows: New York, 45.73 per cent; other ports east of the Mississippi River, 35.24 per cent; the West (Pacific and Gulf ports), 19.03. Of the seven great ports in the Union, three are in the West, New Orleans ranking the third, Galveston sixth, and San Francisco seventh. New Orleans has a foreign commerce of $173,000,000 a year; Galveston $102,000,000, and San Francisco $70,000,000. Puget Sound and the Columbia River, which before many years will be large ports, have between them $40,000,000.

Of the total exports of the United States in 1901, the West reported $354,682,075, or 23.1 per cent. Imports were $86,275,443, or 10 per cent. Breadstuffs form a considerable item of the exports of Western ports. For the ten years ended June 30, 1901, s.h.i.+pments were 240,000,000 bushels of barley, corn, oats, rye, 450,000,000 bushels of wheat, and 26,000,000 barrels of wheat flour, of a total value of $521,000,000. San Francisco led in this business, with New Orleans second, and Portland, Oregon, third.

MINERAL PRODUCTIONS.

Ever since the discovery of gold in California in 1848 mining has been one of the most important industries of the West. Between 1848 and 1900 California yielded gold valued at $1,385,197,097, about one eighth the total gold production of the world from 1493 to 1900. The West in 1900 produced 99.6 per cent of the Nation's gold, 99.8 per cent of its silver (commercial value), and 15.1 per cent of its coal, viz:

==============+=============+=============+=============== Gold. Silver. Total value.

+-------------+-------------+--------------- California $15,816,200 $ 583,668 $ 16,399,868 Colorado 28,829,400 12,700,018 41,529,418 Idaho 1,724,700 3,986,042 5,710,742 Montana 4,698,000 8,801,148 13,499,148 Nevada 2,006,200 842,394 2,848,594 Oregon 1,694,700 71,548 1,766,248 South Dakota 6,177,600 332,444 6,510,044 Utah 3,972,200 5,745,912 9,718,112 Alaska 8,171,000 45,446 8,216,446 Arizona 4,193,400 1,857,210 6,050,610 Texas, etc. 1,587,100 704,568 2,291,668 +-------------+-------------+--------------- Total $78,870,500 $35,670,398 $114,540,898 --------------+-------------+-------------+---------------

Other mineral productions are 30,000,000 tons of coal; 200,000 short tons of lead; 413,000,000 pounds of copper; 3,600,000 barrels of petroleum, and 30,000 flasks of quicksilver. The copper mines of Montana and Arizona have lessened the importance of the Lake Superior region as a source of supply, cutting its percentage of the total American output from 62.9 in 1862, to 25.9 in 1899.

One of the greatest gold mining regions of the world is located in eastern Oregon, covering a gross area of between 3,000 and 4,000 square miles. Prof. J. Waldemar Lindgren, of the United States Geological Survey, believes that the strong, well-defined veins upon which most of the important mines of this region are located will continue to the greatest depths yet attained in mining.

LUMBER INDUSTRY.

According to the census reports for 1900, lumber is excelled in value among American productions only by iron and steel, textiles and slaughtering and meat packing. The West, having 607,500 square miles, or 55.4 per cent of the total wooded area of the country, exclusive of Alaska, will surely be paramount in this important industry. Indeed, we, this early, find the Director of the Census making this important admission in one (203) of his bulletins:

The white pine area in the Northwest has pa.s.sed its maximum of production and the attention of lumbermen is being diverted from this region to the Southern pine forests and to the enormously heavy forests of the Northwest coast, which will, in the course of a decade or two, become the chief source of lumber for the country.

Texas, with 64,000 square miles, leads the Union in wooded area.

Oregon is second, with 54,300 square miles, and Minnesota third, with 52,200 square miles. Arkansas, California, Missouri, Montana, and Was.h.i.+ngton each have over 40,000 square miles of wooded area. Oregon, Was.h.i.+ngton, and California have at least one third of the standing timber of the country, but they cut less than ten per cent of the total lumber product. The redwood forest of California is, perhaps, the densest forest, measured by the amount of lumber per acre, in the world. In quant.i.ty of standing timber, Oregon leads the Union with 225 billion feet; California second with 200 billion feet, and Was.h.i.+ngton third with nearly 196 billion feet. Minnesota, with a product of $43,600,000 leads the West and Was.h.i.+ngton is second, with $30,300,000.

The total value of the lumber product of the West in 1900 was $184,135,988, against $109,201,667 in 1890 and $6,075,896 in 1850. The lumber cut was 10,925,736 M feet, board measure, or a little less than one third of the output of the Union. Among Western states, Minnesota led with 2,342,388 M feet, Arkansas second with 1,623,987 M feet, and Was.h.i.+ngton third with 1,429,032 M feet. Oregon cut 734,528 M feet.

RAILROAD TRANSPORTATION.

The transcontinental railroads have brought the West up to its present state of development, for they have opened it to settlement, and provided reasonable rates for the transport of its products to the Eastern markets, even if at the same time they have exposed its infant manufacturing industries to the compet.i.tion of the large capitalization of the Atlantic seaboard and the Ohio Valley. In 1850 the West had 79 miles of railroad, all in Louisiana. All the rest of the westward stretch of the nation to the Pacific was without so much as a single rail. What Louisiana could so proudly boast of in 1850 was less than the mileage operated by the Boston and Maine and its branches in Ma.s.sachusetts that same year. By 1900 the total had swelled to 87,406.13 miles out of the 193,345.78 miles in the United States and the percentage from .25 to 45.2. On the basis of miles of railroad per 100 square miles of territory Iowa leads with 16.56 and Nevada is lowest with .83. In miles of line per ten thousand inhabitants Nevada is first with 214.98, and Louisiana last with 20.44.

In view of the enormous railroad construction in the West in the past thirty years it is worth while to recall President Buchanan's telegram to John b.u.t.terfield, the pioneer of Western overland transportation, when the first direct overland mail arrived by stage at Saint Louis from San Francisco October 9, 1858:

I cordially congratulate you upon the result. It is a glorious triumph for civilization and the Union. Settlements will soon follow the course of the road, and the East and the West will be bound together by a chain of living Americans which can never be broken.

FINANCE.

In 1850 there were thirty-one banks west of the Mississippi; twenty-five in Louisiana and six in Missouri, with deposits aggregating $9,500,000. It is difficult to figure the condition of the people with regard to money as statements of private banks are obtainable in only a few states and the national banks are the only guide. On July 16, 1902, the individual deposits in these amounted to $639,180,306, and the loans and discounts to $615,116,949.

FUTURE OF THE WEST.

The future of the Great West must be considered from two view points: (1) In its relation to the Asiatic countries and their trade; and (2) in its ability to support a large population. These will be taken up in their order.

Asia and Oceanica comprise an area of 21,262,718 square miles, and have a population of 847,000,000, or more than half that of the globe.

Of this number, 435,000,000 are in China and its dependencies, j.a.pan, Asiatic Russia and Corea. Asia, and the islands of the Pacific, annually buy from the world goods valued at $1,446,000,000 and sell to it goods of a value of $1,436,000,000, representing a total trade of $2,882,000,000. The United States will in time have a tremendous trade across the Pacific, although at present our proportion of the business is inconsiderable. In the year ended June 30, 1901, only 9.25 per cent of our foreign commerce was with Asia and Oceanica, of which 2.17 per cent was with the British East Indies; 2.09 per cent with j.a.pan; 1.67 per cent with Chinese ports, and .37 with the Philippines. The new theatre of the world's activities is a virgin field, as little understood on our Pacific seaboard as on our Atlantic seaboard, for the exporters of both sections make the same mistakes in packing, and in long range dealing with the Oriental customer, to whom the first essential in trade is what our consular officers persistently pour into unwilling ears as the "look see," or the privilege of inspecting the commodity offered for sale, before buying it. These, however, are details of commercial organization which our exporters can be depended upon to settle on a satisfactory basis. The fear expressed in some quarters that the opening of Siberia by the completion of the great Russian railroad, and the consequent development of a region that will become a compet.i.tor of the United States in the trans-Pacific country, would appear to be groundless so far as any detrimental effect upon our country is concerned. Our general development is based upon the attraction of our inst.i.tutions, the freedom of industry, the cheapness and fertility of our lands, hospitable climate, and above all, to the long enjoyment of the guarantee of peace. No other country in the world can offer the same inducements to progress and no country in the world can compete with us on our own terms.

Viewing the future of the West from the point of its ability to support a large population, the measure must be the record of the half-century just past. It has done more than its most sanguine friend dared foretell of it a century ago and it is not half developed.

Excluding Alaska, it has an area of 2,138,488 square miles and a population of 20,971,062, with a density of 9.8. The population density of the Union is 25.6 to the square mile. The West is capable of reaching this mark and on this basis its population would be, approximately 55,000,000, a little more than the states east of the Mississippi had in 1900. Every foot of the West is useful for some purpose, the purpose depending in some degree upon the success of irrigation. The high lands of Nevada are no more to be ignored in the general scheme of economy than the irregular and broken surface of Vermont, where intensive cultivation of the soil now obtains as a result of Western compet.i.tion in agriculture. When one contemplates the rugged mountains of Idaho, eastern Montana, northern California, Oregon, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico, he should reflect that some where in this broad land cattle must have range if the price of meat is to be kept within bounds. Conditions for horticulture and agriculture in Louisiana are as favorable as in any other State in the Union. The Columbia-river basin in Oregon, Was.h.i.+ngton, and Idaho is an empire in itself, with a population less than Chicago, and eastern Oregon, under irrigation, could produce 100,000,000 bushels of grain.

There are those who expect Alaska to take station as an agricultural community. Manufactures in the West will ultimately bear a close ratio to population. Commerce will depend largely upon the effort the Nation in general makes across the Pacific.

The West comes on the stage of the world's activity in an era of peace, prosperity, and advancement of American principles and inst.i.tutions. Its loyalty to the Union never has been doubted and no cloud of discord appears to bring it into contest with the East, for its interests are identical with those of that section, and community of interest promotes community of purpose. The West, instead of proving the Nation destroyer, has proved its savior. What the future is in all its aspects, no man can say. The Briton would have been thought insane ten years ago who would have dared to predict the day that Canada, Australia, and New Zealand would be called upon to uphold the prestige of the empire at the Cape of Good Hope. No American, however pessimistic, contemplates with pleasure the possibility of war, still every American is pleased to see his country protected against the day of war. The generation that was contemporaneous with the statesman who said Oregon was not worth a pinch of snuff left sons and daughters to see an Oregon regiment sailing away from San Francisco to plant the Stars and Stripes at Manila and raise the United States to the dignity of a world power. In that city whose legislative halls echoed with dire warnings if Louisiana should be accepted from Napoleon, the citizens of some future day may be gladdened to the heart by the sight of a regiment from the Yukon River marching down the broad avenues to the defense of the national capital.

HENRY E. REED.

FOOTNOTES:

[37] For 1870.

[38] Not reported by United States census prior to 1870. Values for this year in depreciated currency. To get true value, reduce one fifth.