THE PROGRESS OF WESTERN AMERICA. 



11 



their dried fruits. The reduction reported is sufficient 

 to prove a material factor in the prosperity of the 

 producers. 



Of all the railroads that might be built t 



0t Raiiroad em P lo 7 tne idle laDOr of tne countrv to- 

 day the most beneficent would be the 

 line suggested between Salt Lake City and Los 

 Angeles. Better than almost any existing line this 

 would illustrate the high function of the railroad as 

 an avenue for the exchange of products letween lo- 

 calities of radically different capabilities. This road 

 would open to the citrus fruits of Southern California 

 the splendid markets of Utah, Idaho and Montana. It 

 would furnish an outlet for agricultural and horticult- 

 ural products, which the high altitudes raise with 

 more success and profit than the expensive lands of 

 the South, and it would encourage the budding manu- 

 facturing industries of the inter-mountain States. Not 

 only this, but it would open up to the miner the won- 

 derful Deep Creek country of western Utah and east- 

 ern Nevada, and awaken the slumbering agricultural 

 possibilities in the central and southern portions of 

 the latter State. And if San Diego rather than Los 

 Angeles be made the western terminus, it would give 

 the localities connected with it by this road the benefit 

 of the grandest seaport on the Pacific coast. Further 

 than this, the existence of such a direct line between 

 the growing cities of the mountain regions and the 

 growing cities of the far southwest would develop a 

 surprising passenger traffic. Utah would then winter 

 in California and California would summer in Utah 

 the fairest land beneath the western sky! It is exas- 

 perating to realize that this inevitable railroad of the 

 future, with all its potentialities for good, must remain 

 unbuilt for an indefinite period to the tremendous dis- 

 advantage of the men of to-day. 



Nevada would be benefited more than 



aiuT again. anv other State bv 8uch a railroad, but 

 Nevada is not basing its hopes of a re- 

 vival of activities upon contingencies so remote aa 

 that. From the time when Hon. Francis G. New- 

 lands began to assume the place of leadership in that 

 State the possibilities of reclamation and settlement 

 have been steadily kept before the public. When he 

 published his "Address to the People of Nevada," re- 

 lating to storage and reservoir sites and irrigation 

 systems, he started public thought in earnest in anew 

 direction. The result is seen by the present activity 

 of the Nevada State Commission, appointed by Gen. 

 John E. Jones under the Los Angeles platform, and in 

 the general discussion of the subject in the press. The 

 renewed interest amounts to a genuine revival. What 

 is needed now is a systematic scheme of colonization 



to attract people to Nevada. This will come. Gen. 

 Jones and his colleagues have the daring ambition to 

 locate the next irrigation congress at Carson or Reno 

 and the claims of Nevada on this point will be fully 

 presented in THE AGE at the proper time. 



Fair. 



The Midwinter fair at San Francisco 

 will prove to be an event of very much 

 more interest than the public at first ex- 

 pected. While it will not duplicate the Chicago fair 

 in any respect, it will still be worth a trip across the 

 continent to see. And^the fact that it is unlike the 

 great show of last summer will make it all the more 

 worth seeing. The first reward of the trip will be 

 that charming spectacle which too few Americans 

 have seen California in winter. Any undertaking 

 which induces our insular easterner to explore his 

 country is praiseworthy. The site of the Midwinter 

 fair is typical of the glories of the Pacific coast. 

 Golden Gate Park is superior to Central and Fair- 

 mount parks, in New York and Philadelphia, respect- 

 ively, as mere landscape. The fair buildings are 

 quite as beautiful in their way as those at Chicago, 

 and within its limitations the exhibition will be com- 

 plete. The Midway Plaisance will be there, but 

 Chinatown is a more vivid and equally picturesque 

 affair. Credit for the success of the San Francisco 

 enterprise is due first to Director-General M. H. De 

 Young and his newspaper, The Chronicle, and next to 

 the Examiner, which has devoted money and energy 

 to exploiting it with lavish generosity. 



"The A.(ie's" 



The new character of the IRRIGATION 



AGE as a comprehensive "journal of 

 Features. Western America" is not fully repre- 

 sented in this number, but the ideal will be approached 

 by gradual steps. New departments soon to be added 

 will be "Irrigation Engineering," by a practical man 

 of reputation, "Irrigation Law" and "The Mining In- 

 dustry." The latter will aim to present a better general 

 review of the month's developments among the mines 

 of the West than can be found elsewhere, although it 

 will be in the form of a compact, well-digested state- 

 ment of a few pages. The department on colonization 

 will sketch the best efforts yet made in this field, with 

 suggestions for new ones and information of progress. 

 "Water Power and Electricity" will point out the op- 

 portunities existing for this development and deal 

 with the methods of utilization. And, let it be under- 

 stood, the broadening process will in no way impair 

 the value of THE AGE as the great exponent of irri- 

 gation, but will serve rather to draw together all the 

 elements that are working to develop a symmetrical 

 industrial and social life in Arid America. 



