Approaches to the Pacific Coast 

 solitary wanderer had traversed Alta California 

 when, in 1769, a military expedition was sent out 

 to occupy San Diego ana Monterey. On the other 

 hand, the personal initiative of the English-speaking 

 adventurer has carried him across the continent — 

 across an ocean and a continent — and has more 

 than once created embarrassment for the govern- 

 ment to which he owed allegiance. So, in Texas, 

 Oregon, and California, the United States appears as 

 following with hesitation the leadership of an in- 

 significant number of westward-moving frontiers- 

 men. Following this leadership, however, the Euro- 

 pean advance to the Pacific has been consolidated 

 by the completion of the overland railroad in 1869, 

 and of the Panama Canal in 1914. 



It is due to the personal initiative of many gen- 

 erations of Westerners — the Pilgrim Fathers among 

 the number — that the West now" confronts the East 

 across the open space of the Pacific Ocean. At 

 every step in the approach to the present situation 

 two great difficulties have been continually growing 

 clearer: it is irksome for a government to admit 

 that the sparse population of a far-lying outpost 

 may intrude itself into the complexities of inter- 

 national policy; it is hard for the man on the 

 frontier to remember always that territory not fully 

 occupied in proximity to overpopulated lands must 

 needs be filled up. 



