INDUSTRIES OF THE WEST 367 



territory of the United States outside that portion which I 

 here represent. 



Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota have more than a 

 national reputation for their lumber interests, and this is well 

 deserved, yet the mines of these three western states produce 

 seventy five per cent of the nation's output of iron ore, more 

 than all the German empire and about the same as Great 

 Britain and France combined. 



Colorado produces nearly forty per cent of our gold, 

 and more than forty per cent of our silver. Not one per 

 cent of the precious metal is found outside the limits of the 

 territory west of the Missouri river. Montana has produced, 

 during the last five years, more than forty per cent of our 

 annual product of copper. The west, therefore, produces 

 ninety nine per cent of the gold and the silver, and the copper; 

 ninety per cent of the zinc, seventy five per cent of the iron, 

 all the lead, all the nickel, and all the quicksilver, an aggregate 

 of more than $250,000,000 worth of metallic minerals per 

 annum, nearly eighty per cent of the nation's output. 



While it is true that the production of grain in the states 

 named has not increased as rapidly as their population, it is an 

 encouraging fact that their manufactures, their commerce, and 

 their banking facilities have increased more rapidly than in the 

 nation at large. The United States increased her manu- 

 factured products seventy per cent between 1880 and 1890, 

 but the states for which I speak increased theirs 112 per cent 

 during the same period. This country now manufactures 

 $13,000,000,000, an amount in excess of the output from all 

 the factories and all the shops of Great Britain and Germany 

 combined by more than 3,000 millions. This enormous show- 

 ing records an increase of 40 per cent in the last decade, but 

 the territory I have defined made an increase in the same 

 period of 45 per cent. 



A few illustrations of what has been done must suffice 

 to show what can be done, and hence what will be done, even 

 in the smaller cities and towns, in this yet undeveloped 

 though wonderfully progressive west. 



A prairie town in Illinois, with no coal, no iron, no water 

 power, and with no means of communication save one rail- 



