Page:Cambridge Modern History Volume 7.djvu/743

1890-1902] Recent progress in the United States. Til equalled in any period of equal length in its history ; and this has been accompanied by notable changes which demand special consideration. The long period of depression which followed the panic of 1893 came to an end in 1897. The enforced economy of that period had reduced pro- duction till the surplus stocks were exhausted. The country had grown up to its surplus silver currency, which had resulted from the dangerous experiments of 1878 and 1890 ; and, more important still, the election of 1896 had settled once for all the question of sound currency and insured the legal maintenance of the gold standard. The prices of agricultural products began to rise in the autumn of 1896; and good crops, with a growing foreign demand, initiated that agricultural prosperity which has been the basis of the whole movement. Before considering the more striking developments in industrial production and organisation and in foreign commerce, a word may be said of the condition of the West. A glance at the census map of 1900, showing the various centres of the country's economic activity, gives a vivid impression of the dominant position of the Mississippi valley. The centre of population has moved west during the last decade at a slower rate than in preceding years, and now lies near the southern boundary of Indiana at longitude about 85 49'. The centre of manufactures had crossed the Ohio before 1890, and now lies fifty-nine miles south-west of Cleveland, Ohio. The centre of agri- cultural production lies along the Mississippi. The centre of the " six cereals " is exactly on the river about half-way between Hannibal and Burlington ; and the three points representing the centres of improved acreage, farm income, and corn-production fall almost together just above the junction of the Illinois and Mississippi. The centre of total farm-area has moved west to the ninety-third meridian ; and the centre of wheat-production north-west across the Mississippi to a point seventy miles west of Des Moines, Iowa. This is the most noticeable change of all, and marks the increasing preeminence of the north-western wheat-fields. The population of North Dakota and Minnesota made large advances in the last decade, while the more southern States of Kansas and Nebraska did not increase at all, owing to the reaction from the abnormal settlement of the previous decades which had been followed by the agricultural depression. For the first time, the " North Central " division, including the chief wheat States, showed, as a whole, a smaller proportional increase in population than the North Atlantic division. On the other hand, a notable increase took place in the South Central division, especially in Arkansas and Texas, and above all in Oklahoma, to which district a wild rush took place on the opening of the new lands. The largest proportional increase has been in the Western division, including the three Pacific States and the growing districts of Montana and Colorado. It will be seen, then, that the westward movement continues, CH. XXII.