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Show nrWLivestoclc fMjXM' NAUCH rUNT) ' The Kiisl Is moving West! Whi n the country cusl of the Mississippi Klver had already become nn Intense ly cullivuled n k r leu 1 1 u ni I urea, wllh ureut centers of population unit industrial in-dustrial activity, tin far west was u, land of unfeiu'od ranges, forhldillnt; deserts and primeval forests. It took many months to travel from the Mississippi Mis-sissippi Valley to the West. Those, who did nuiko tlio trip were hardy pioneers who tilled the soil, mined for precious metals or eugiiKod in hunting and trapping. Tho other day, I was shown an old contract made by a California cattleman in which hn sold his herd of cuttle, regardless of numbers, sex or condition, at $-1.(10 a head, with calves thrown in. The value of the cattle was mainly In tho hides - for there were comparatively few people to he fed nearby, and there was no practical means of shipping tho meat nor the entile to the more thickly populated sections of the East. How the picture has changed! With tho uniting of tho Pacific and Atlantic and intermediate territory by transcontinental railroads, eastern east-ern people began moving West where land was cheaper, soil was richer and opportunity seemed greater. The curtain goes up again and we Bee practical trips by airplane and railroad rail-road from ono side of the continent to the other In thirty-six hours. The West Coast is now a great center of population. California alonu is credited with C. 000, 000 souls one county rightfully claiming a population of 2,000,000. Rich valleys are producing enormous amounts of foods and grains. The range land is fenced and big numbers of high grade cattle, hogs and sheep arc. raised in the country that was once composed of desert and wilderness. Because of the grent productive ability of the soils and ranges, it wa? natural that our production of foodstuffs food-stuffs and meat animals made far greater progress than our growth in population. The result was that tho amount of foods needed in the far West was a small part of the production, produc-tion, and the final result was that the West naturally looked to thu East for a market for live stock, hides, pelts and foodstuffs. We are now consuming a very large share of the grain, fruits and vegetables, cattle and sheep produced produc-ed in the West - and we import the greater percentage of the pork needed need-ed on the Coast. Great meat slaughtering slaught-ering and distributing centers have grown up in the West, but we are still sending our hides and pelts back East, where the wool is fabricated and much of it made into clothing, to be shipped to the Atlantic seaboard sea-board to be tanned and converted in: to shoes and leather goods. Certainly a very large portion of this Western wool and leather is sold to consumers on the Pacific Coast. Our cotton crops are shipped back east to be fabricated, fab-ricated, despite the fact that our great tire industries and consumer demand for cotton goods is greater than our cotton production. Modern transportation has cut down the time between East and West - but costs of transportation have not decreased; and the high cost of settling up the country forbids for-bids decreased transportation costs. There is an enormous economic waste , in shipping our raw materials East : and shipping back the manufactur-, manufactur-, ing products for Western use. It is just as reasonable to ship our live stock to the Missouri River and have the meat shipped back as it is to interchange in-terchange our other raw material? for manufactured goods. The economic waste is still greater great-er when we realize that raw wool carries car-ries about 40 per cent of grease of no commercial value. Hides and pelts' contain about 10 per cent salt to preserve pre-serve for long distance shipping. It handled directly from the point of "take off" to tannery, this expense would be obviated. The favorable climatic and living conditions of the Pacific Coast have attracted the greatest population influx in-flux in history - so that we now have the labor supply, the consumer demand, de-mand, the raw product and every essential es-sential for the building up of our manufacturing centers. Undoubtedly the proper economio setup is to do our manufacturing of raw iniilerliils from tin Interior on! the I'iicilic Coast and our 1'rlcndu in the Interior hIiuiiM keep le-lore them the Idea that whenever the Coast celn a new Industry It Is bound to relied souii-lbln of v:ilue to the interior. or course, the mere shilling of the, populnt Ion from one section of the country to another except, to relieve the Hitrplus here and there, means I but little to the country as a whole, hut. when we remembur that the Wi st Is capable of supplylug much more t han ever 'be consumed locally ,'ind that, wi; an; Heveral thousand miles nearer than the East Coast to two-thirds of llm world'B population, it. is not dilllcult to see tho tromend-ous tromend-ous advantage of WeHtern development develop-ment to meet the demands of foreign trade. |