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Show Ij " J THE WEST AND NORTHWEST, j ' c T?he northwestern states are growing as never j before. The new population is not gravitating to i the cities, but is absorbing the agricultural lands. I Idaho's population will increase 100,000 this year. Itk the same in Oregon and Washington; it j would be the same in Montana if the water was j ; ready to turn upon the lands. The northwest is '; swiftly becoming a great granary and' great fruit orchard. We do not realize the full significance of this because we do not realize the mighty area of the four above named states. It is more than seven times the area of all New England, ! nearly four times the area of the old middle states; ' a greater area than all the thirteen original colon- , i ies, and more than all the area of the Atlantic ' J coast states from Maine to Florida. The west J i shore of our republic is beginning to come into its 1 v, own. Each one of its states will soon be a little - empire in itself. After the next census their repre- j j' sentation will be greatly increased in congress. ! :'', Then in mineral wealth there is a steady ad- I ' ' i j vancement all over the west. Formerly nearly all j I j ! the profits from western mines went east. Now a I J j ij great proportion remains in the west, and the re- j suit cannot help but be the swifter and swifter I ' building up of both the coast and interior of these I states. They will soon begin to be factors in the world's commerce that will be in some respects 1 controlling. In the foregoing we have not men- i tioned California, the very greatest state of all, ' the France of our republic, and the state wherein j! cluster more glories than in any other state. |