THE PEOPLE AND THE LAND 



What a new country needs is gradual growth and 

 sober development of its resources on sound economic 

 lines. What a settler wants is a calm and candid state- 

 ment of the opportunities existing in the locality tow- 

 ards which he is looking, and a perfectly truthful account 

 of the experience of the people who preceded him there. 

 It is as important for him to know the drawbacks as tho 

 advantages ; to learn of the failures, and the reasons 

 thereof, as of the successes. In the advertising matter 

 sent out by interested individuals, companies, and com- 

 munities, intending home-seekers get only partial and 

 misleading information as a rule. They learn only of 

 the advantages of soil, climate, and location. The ex- 

 amples held up for their consideration are exceptional 

 instances of prosperity rather than average results. Of 

 the failures and disappointments nothing whatever is 

 reported. Thus it happens that the masses of our peo- 

 ple who would gladly make homes in the undeveloped 

 parts of the country suffer about equally from lack of 

 good information and surfeit of misinformation. 



There is another reason which accounts for the back- 

 wardness of western settlement, depriving even the class 

 who have the financial ability to move of the necessary 

 courage and confidence. This is the fact that great 

 numbers of people who went West in the past incurred 

 failure or disappointment. This is an influence which 

 may be observed in every eastern State. There is 

 scarcely a community which has not sent at least a few 

 settlers west who reported later that they were sorry 

 they left home. It is true that millions of eastern peo- 

 ple have settled between the Mississippi river and the 

 Pacific Ocean, and prospered. On the other hand, it is 



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