INTRODUCTION 



In our study of typical communities which have 

 grown up among western plains and mountains dur- 

 ing the past half -century, we shall see how the pi- 

 oneers unconsciously shaped their institutions to suit 

 an environment hitherto unknown to men of English 

 speech, and how these institutions, with the tenden- 

 cies they set in motion, fortunately conform to new 

 economic conditions in which machinery and large 

 capital play so important a part. 



In our review of the States and Territories which 

 compose Undeveloped America, we shall behold their 

 material achievement and the state of their civiliza- 

 tion at the close of the present century, and the wide 

 opportunities which wait upon the future. 



We shall then seek to find the relation between the 

 crowded population and superabundant capital which 

 have accumulated in the old States, and the sur- 

 plus resources of lands, forests, minerals, and water- 

 power lying unused in the West. We shall consider 

 how surplus men and money may be brought to sur- 

 plus resources, and applied, under sound business prin- 

 ciples, to the making of homes, industries, and insti- 

 tutions in consonance with the traditions of our race 

 and the genius of our people. 



Whatever may be the nation's ultimate policy in 

 the Pacific whether to rule or to emancipate the 

 new impulse now clearly apparent in the intellectual 

 and industrial life of that part of the world will ma- 

 terially assist the settlement of the Far West, and 

 indefinitely widen the market for its products. The 



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