THE IRRIGATION AGE 



VOL. VI. 



CHICAGO, APRIL, 1894. 



No. 4. 



THE PROGRESS OF WESTERN AMERICA. 



THE LATE HON. ANDREW GILCHRIST, 

 Of Cheyenne, Wyoming. 



The men of the West are digging for 



Outlook gold in these spring days, but they have 



for Silver. not f or g Otten t h e s ii ve r issue. Nine 



months ago they were talking and fighting for free 

 coinage. To-day, in the opinion of the friends of the 

 white metal, free coinage is working out its own solu- 

 tion. What the men of the West and South fought 

 for unsuccessfully at the extra session of Congress, 

 the silent forces of commercial economics appear 

 now to be fighting for with better prospects. De- 

 pression is universal, and as time goes on the 

 demand for a larger volume of money increases. 

 The German emperor has appointed a commission to 

 investigate bi-metallism. The London Chamber of 

 Commerce has petitioned the new premier to con- 

 vene the International Monetary Conference. The 

 financiers of India are calling for relief from the 

 single standard, and Congress has passed a bill 

 providing for the coinage of the seigniorage. No- 



body now pretends that the repeal of the Sherman 

 law helped matters financially. Those who explained 

 in advance how money would be made more plenty 

 by making it more scarce have observed that 

 their theory fails to connect. The men of the West 

 will bide their time. If the world wants gold they 

 will mine it. If it wants silver, it will be forthcoming. 



A severe loss has fallen upon Wyoming 

 Andrew in the death of Hon. Andrew Gilchrist, of 

 Gilchrist. Ch e y enne, the last honor of whose life 

 was his recent election as a member of the State Irri- 

 gation Commission. It is a saddening thought that 

 the forthcoming report of that body will miss the im- 

 press of his clear and vigorous mind, and that the 

 State he loved so well will be deprived of the benefit 

 of his wise counsel in framing its demand for a new 

 national policy. Mr. Gilchrist was a type of a certain 

 sturdy element in the citizenship of the West which 

 is the mainstay of its growing civilization. He was 

 one of those men who acquire large means, locate in 

 a new country, settle down deliberately to the work of 

 building it up, and then never turn their faces back- 

 ward, no matter what difficulties and disappointments 

 may be encountered. These are the men who make 

 progress possible, nay, inevitable. Very frequently, 

 as in this instance, they say little, but they do much. 

 Mr. Gilchrist was largely identified with the impor- 

 tant cattle industry of Wyoming, but he was not of 

 the element that sees no future, and desires none, ex- 

 cept the increase of herds. His large investment in 

 the Wyoming Development Company the most im- 

 portant irrigation works in the State is evidence 

 that he not only desired to see the farmer replace the 

 steer, but that he was willing to risk a daring invest- 

 ment in order to make the result possible. A man of 

 pronounced convictions and plain words, Andrew 

 Gilchrist had human sympathies as broad as his in- 

 tellect was clear and his frame sturdy. He will be 

 long remembered as a man of honor and public spirit, 

 as one of the builders of the commonwealth. Although 

 he seriously differed with the writer on a memorable 

 occasion, THE IRRIGATION AGE reverently bows to 



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