196 THE HIGH COST OF LIVING 



from the cities, and the immigrants from Europe 

 moved westward on to the virgin lands awaiting 

 their settlement. 



No hardship was severe enough to halt the move- 

 ment and no tales of suffering and privation de- 

 terred the colonists of the East or the immigrant 

 from crossing the continent. The settlers suffered 

 from cyclones and tornadoes. They lived through 

 cropless years in dugouts and hastily constructed 

 shacks. They suffered from drought. Their cattle 

 perished. They had no companionship and few 

 of the comforts of life. Their children had no 

 educational opportunities; there was no means of 

 communication and few visitors relieved the monot- 

 ony of existence. Yet the lure of free land was 

 stronger than any hardships. It filled in a conti- 

 nent. In a few years' time the great stretches from 

 the Mississippi to the Rocky Mountains and the 

 Pacific slope were divided into homesteads and peo- 

 pled by the Anglo-Saxon race. Even the "Great 

 American Desert" was not so desolate as to be 

 able to defy the land hunger of the settler. 



Such is the magnetic power of the land. It 

 defies all obstacles. It lures, as does the quest 

 for gold. It attracts the Anglo-Saxon, the Teu- 

 ton, the Latin, and the Slav. The experience of 

 America and Australia, the more recent experience 

 of Canada, the peopling of the reclamation proj- 

 ects, even the settlement of human beings in the 



