THE PROGRESS OF WESTERN AMERICA. 



167 



satisfaction to reflect that the Legislature can make 

 amends for the neglect of the convention to some 

 degree. 



The little farms of Utah are looking very 

 Mormon ... ., . -1-1 



Object bright and prosperous this spring. Early 



Lesson. j n ]yj a y t jj e orc hards were laden with 

 blossoms and the garden' stuff was beginning to make 



JOEL SHOEMAKER, 

 Manti, Utah. 



straight green lines on the black soil. The alfalfa, 

 or lucern, as it is always called there, had begun to 

 paint the valleys with its deep green tint. Fat horses 

 and cows loafed comfortably about the barnyards in 

 the little agricultural villages. As usual, there will 

 be no empty stomachs among the sovereign laborers 

 of Utah who work for themselves. The figures of 

 Mormon earnings, published in the Century Mag- 

 azine for May, have called out some letters which 

 dispute the showing. These figures were furnished 

 by the church authorities, and were given for what 

 they are worth. But in considering the Utah experi- 

 ence there is no need of disputing about figures. The 

 simple facts are luminous. Everybody knows that 

 these people carved out 10,000 small farms from the 

 virgin desert, having almost no capital except their 

 labor. Everybody knows that the cost of their ca- 

 nals, stores, factories, banks, railroads, telegraphs, 



churches, temples and missionaries, as well as the 

 stupendous item of the living of all these people for 

 forty years, came from irrigated soil. A few millions 

 more or less are not important. The great fact is 

 that these people started practically without capital 

 and have prospered and multiplied. Their experi- 

 ence constitutes the stupendous object lesson the 

 unanswerable argument which Arid America shows 

 to the world at this time, when there is so fierce a de- 

 mand for labor and homes for the masses. Those 

 who quibble about figures lose sight of the larger 

 consideration. 



Nevada has the smallest population of 



Nevada's 

 Strange any State in the Union. It is the only 



Delusion. State wgst of the Allegheny mountains 

 which has ever shown a record of decreasing popu- 

 lation. And yet perhaps no State could more easily 

 develop its resources and swell the number of its in- 

 habitants. The greatest lack in Nevada is the lack 

 of public spirit. It has been said so many times that 

 the State is worthless that a large majority of its peo- 

 ple appear to believe it. The strangest thing 

 about the whole matter is, that everybody thinks 

 the restoration of her prosperity is to be secured 

 only by the revival of the old mining activity, 

 and yet any one who takes this view, must shut 

 his eyes to facts written in legible characters upon 

 every page of Nevada's history. Such prosperity as 

 the mining industry alone can confer upon a State 

 Nevada has enjoyed beyond all other localities. Did 

 it make her rich? No, it made her poor. Her wealth 

 was steadily drained to build palaces in San Fran- 

 cisco, New York and London, and to recruit the 

 waning fortunes of unworthy foreign aristocrats. 

 The world needs both precious metals, but mining 

 made Nevada neither rich, nor populous, nor respect- 

 ed. And yet Nevadans as a people see nothing in 

 this world to hope for, or work for, except the return 

 of the good old mining days. Nevada has built 

 enough palaces in distant cities. What she needs 

 now is to build humble houses by the thousand in her 

 beautiful valleys. 



The man who knows Nevada only from 



Nevada's . . 



Supreme the car window, would meet this observa- 

 Advantage. tion by say j n g t h a t the State has no beau- 

 tiful valleys, and no opportunity to develop prosperous 

 industries beside mining. People who talk this way 

 are simply ignorant. Nevada has a wealth of water 

 and land, a considerable home market for her pro- 

 ducts and a good prospect of an increased market in 

 the future. In the Carson Valley, as in several other lo- 

 calities, may be found farmers whose prosperity is as 

 great, po.ssibly greater, than that of the best agricult- 

 ural counties in New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois or 

 Kansas. The soil and climate are exceedingly favor- 

 able to diversified agriculture, though the higher val- 



