THE PROGRESS OF WESTERN AMERICA. 



55 



cents per bushel in the European market should be 

 the result of our retiring from the present ruinous 

 competition, and adding to this the 25 cents tariff 

 now operative, we have 88.8 cents per bushel as 

 the value of our wheat instead of 53.8 cents as 



was found to be the case at the close of 1893. In short, 

 whatever the price, fixed as it now is, we should have the ben- 

 efit of the 25-cent tariff and of any rise that might come in the 

 European market. But this is not all. By devoting the seven- 

 teen million acres of land thus relieved from wheat-bearing to 

 other and more profitable uses, such as pasturage or mixed 

 cultivation, it is reasonable to assume that a net income of $5 

 per acre could be obtained. This would add $85,000,000 more 

 to the right side of the farm ledger, beside relieving this large 

 body of land from the continual and exhaustive drain of wheat 

 production. In conclusion it may be said that this condition 

 of things can be brought about in a single year by the farmers 

 themselves, and without any invocation of supernatural or 

 superhuman agencies. It is a condition easily reached, and 

 requires for its attainment only the plainest common sense, 

 hearty cooperation and honest tenacity of purpose." 



Amid the gloom of the memorable month of July, 

 State of 1894, one bright star shone out suddenly and 

 Utah ! resplendent. It was the star of the new State of 

 Utah ! The bill providing for its admission finally passed the 

 House July 12th, and the President affixed his signature a few 

 days later. And so the greatest of all the Territories becomes 

 a full-fledged American commonwealth. The event is ex- 

 tremely gratifying to western men, because it means more 

 votes in both branches of Congress for those policies which 

 western men believe necessary to the realization of national 

 destiny. The meanest critic of western institutions has never 

 denied that Utah has the population, wealth and potentialities 

 of growth essential to Statehood. The admission has been 

 opposed only on the ground that the preponderance of Mormon 

 voters would render the State practically subservient to the 

 church. There are those, not only in the East but in Utah 

 herself, who harbor this fear in all sincerity to-day. The writer 

 does not. Doubtless Mormons will fill the greater share of the 

 offices, and wield the larger degree of influence, precisely as 

 would be done. by Methodists or Baptists if they held the 

 numerical strength in Utah that the Mormons hold. But that 

 the majority of Mormons will regard citizenship as merely a 

 new power to be placed at the disposal of their church, we 

 emphatically refuse to believe. Such might have been the 

 case if Statehood had been conferred fifteen or twenty years 

 ago. At that time the whole Mormon body stood upon the 

 defensive, seeking to protect a " peculiar institution " against 

 what they sincerely believed to be unwarrantable persecution. 



But that " peculiar institu- 

 tion '' has passed away. A 

 new generation has grown 

 up. Their interests are sim- 

 ilar to those of the people 

 of Colorado on the east 



" ;>~ ' 1" - and California on the west. 



These interests will cause 



them to divide between the great political par- 

 ties. Their supreme interest is the progress and 

 prosperity of Utah that land which they love as 

 Germans love the Fatherland. Utah will be an 

 American State, and, in time, one of the foremost of 



