206 THE EXHAUSTION OF THE PUBLIC LANDS. 



the Mississippi— not excepting bald mountains and alka- 

 line deserts— were divided into townships six miles 

 square. From 1870 to 1880 the trans-Mississippi popula- 

 tion increased a little more than sixty-one per cent.^ 

 The Census of 1890 shows in this region a population of 

 16,419,459— an increase in ten years of 45.8 per cent. 

 Even if the ratio of increase during the next ten years 

 should fall to thirty-three per cent., which is unlikely, 

 there would be in 1900 a population of nearly 22,000,000 

 —sufficient, if it were evenly distributed, to place 384 

 souls in every township west of the great river. The 

 natural distribution of such a population would mani- 

 festly result in the settlement of about all the habitable 

 regions. Consider the location of the unoccupied land. 

 It is not a vast island, like Australia, separated by 

 thousands of miles from its sources of population. It 

 lies close to one of the greatest peoples on the earth ; and 

 not on our north or south, but on our west, which is 

 important, because great migrations move along lines of 

 latitude. Moreover, this great territory is gridironed 

 with transcontinental railways. Every circumstance 

 favors its rapid occupation. 



We must note, also, the order of settlement. In the 

 Middle States the farms were first taken, then the town 

 sprung up to supply their wants, and at length the 

 railway connected it with the world; but in the West 

 the order is reversed — first the railroad, then the town, 

 then the farms. Settlement is, consequently, much 

 more rapid, and the city stamps the country, instead of 

 the country's stamping the city. It is the cities and 

 towns which will frame state constitutions, make laws, 

 create public opinion, establish social usages, and fix 

 standards of morals in the West. The character of the 

 West will, therefore, be substantially determined some 

 time before the land is all occupied. 



* During the same period the average per cent, of increase of population 

 in all the states of the Union was 29— in the territories, 77. Idaho increased 

 117 per cent., Wyoming, 127, Washington, 213, Arizona, 318, Dakota, 858. 



