BETTER HALF OF THE UNITED STATES 



then, in the striking character of its climate, springing 

 from these fixed and fundamental conditions, that the 

 great West scores its first superiority over the well-settled 

 states east of the Mississippi river. 



But the nation's sanitarium is also the nation's treas- 

 tire-house. Without the store of precious metals which 

 sleeps in the bosom of the western mountains the Ameri- 

 can people would be practically dependent on foreign 

 lands for their supply of gold and silver. From this 

 pitiable plight the nation was saved by the wise states- 

 manship and the great good fortune which brought into 

 the Union the States of Colorado, Utah, and California, 

 of Idaho, Montana, and Nevada, of Washington, Oregon, 

 and Wyoming, and the Territories of New Mexico and 

 Arizona. European nations testify their appreciation 

 of such resources by struggling for the possession of 

 South Africa, a mineral field scarcely worthy to be 

 mentioned in comparison with that of our own great 

 West. 



The western half-continent is rich not merely in the 

 precious metals, but in all the raw materials of economic 

 greatness. Its supreme advantage consists in the ex- 

 traordinary diversity of its resources. In sketching the 

 peculiarities of the several Western States, further on in 

 these pages, the facts will be stated with more detail. In 

 directing attention to the general superiority of these 

 States over their sisters of the East, it is sufficient now to 

 say that they have more water-power than New England ; 

 more coal, iron, and oil than Pennsylvania ; larger and 

 better forests than Maine and Michigan ; and produce 

 better wheat and corn than Illinois and Indiana. The 

 time is rapidly coming when they will produce more and 



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