Show THE GREAT INLAND CITY what 31 hw helped la in her ph I 1 gomex l groth Growt gro th tt A generation ago says the london spectator pea ator america consisted of the settled northeastern and southeastern eastern states stales and of the treat great expanse of more or less wild continent behind them year by bv year however the population P has been spreading west and every fresh census has pushed inland the mean line of population the line oleither on ou either side of f which the population is equal th tha significance orthis gradual withdrawal 1 of the mean population line from the coast must not be missed the fact means that the anglo saxons in the united states are becoming what they have ne never yer been before in their history an a u inland people in a very little time the tast rast majority of americans will not only ha have v e never seen the sea but butwill will never have been within a thousand miles of it th the e destiny of the american people is too to be v ome as muc much h a people of great inland plains kalns as the russians and this fact will be made clear to the world when travelers leave the ocean at new york and after traveling inland ove over a thousand miles find themselves in a city as bigas vienna and ten times as rich and energetic the existence of a great city so BO far removed re alved from the sea is probably unique in the worlds history delhi in the days daya of its greatest prosperity had no doubt a very large population tio n but unless moscow can be called great we can recall no other great city of ancient or modern times situated in the heart of a continent it may be said that chicago is an exception only in pame name and that it could never have achieved the position it has achieved but for foi the fact that it is situated on the shores of a great agrest double armed in isad aa Xa douht doubt the great lakes have helped chicago and na no doubt also the fact that they require from the populations which surround them thern all the seafaring sea faring qualities of the eng lis hrace will prevent its iti inhabitants from becoming too in their habits chicago how however evir is not enough in the midela of the conti continent to hold forever the position of the typical american city As the center of population shifts westward her relative position will decline and she will ultimately have to give way to some younger rival in the west and south possessed of a geological position more suited to the commercial capital of a nation of some two hundred ii of inland people still as ve ne have aid above chicago for the time will barve ai ve as an object lesson in re regard ga rd to t the h e great change which has come over the condition under which the american continent is inhabited |