THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



VOL. VI. 



CHICAGO, MAY, 1894. 



llo. 



THE PROGRESS OF WESTERN AMERICA. 



Chicago Chicago is rapidly becoming the corn- 

 Western mercial and financial metropolis of the 

 America. new \y est tne f oca j p O j n t o f the mighty 



energies which are about to create the institutions of 

 the new empire. It is generally believed that 

 Chicago has a quick eye for the recognition of its 

 opportunities, and a strong and ready grasp to make 

 the most of them. And yet it is plain that the average 

 citizen of Chicago is not yet awake to the tremendous 

 significance which Western America holds to the 

 future of his city. On the contrary, certain influences 

 in Chicago have sometimes seemed to be moved by 

 an actually hostile disposition toward the only section 

 of the United States which has the capacity to very 

 largely increase the volume of its business and 

 wealth. Some of its prominent daily newspapers 

 have been needlessly and cruelly severe in their 

 comments upon western aspirations. Particularly 

 has this been true in their expressions about the 

 silver movement. The people of the West are broad 

 and tolerant in their views; They do not hold it to 

 be a crime to believe in the single standard, and they 

 freely concede that the great majority of single 

 standard men are perfectly honest and sincere. 

 But they claim equal honesty and sincerity for them- 

 selves. They are willing to be opposed and to have 

 their arguments met by candid discussion, but they 

 have never been able to understand why they should 

 be met with statements that are about one part 

 argument and nine parts abuse. If there is any 

 place which can afford to be tolerant of western 

 convictions, and to treat honest western opinion with 

 a fair degree of respect, it is the city of Chicago, 

 itself the grandest product of western energy and 

 faith, and certain to be the largest single beneficiary 

 of the further expansion of western States and Terri- 

 tories. On the subject of irrigation Chicago sentiment 

 has been far more friendly. To-day its newspapers , 

 are not only fair but very sympathetic in their attitude 

 toward the reclamation of arid lands and the promo- 

 tion of worthy colonization enterprises. It may be 

 predicted with confidence that within five years, and 



possibly much less, the influential elements of Chicago 

 will realize the full extent of the benefits which will 

 accrue to their city from the prosperity of the 



SENATOR ALLEN OF NEBRASKA, 



Author of the Bill Providing for an Irrigation Survey of the 

 Semi-Arid Region. f 



wonderful country lying between the 100th meridian 

 and the Pacific ocean. It is to Chicago that the 

 people of this new empire will look for sympathy 

 and support in all of its enterprises, and the powerful 

 daily press of Chicago to which they will look for the 

 vigorous championship of their economic and in- 

 dustrial policies. And from this prediction we do 

 not exclude silver itself, for there are many indica- 

 tions that extreme views on both sides of this question 

 are rapidly turning to a common center of reason- 

 ableness and conservatism. 



"79 



