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COMAN'S ECONOMIC BEGINNINGS OF THE FAR WEST 73

plete the occupation of the eastern half of the Mississippi Valley.

Conditions have been comparatively favorable in the Eastern States for the development of a forceful appeal of the past through the objects in the environment of the dweller there. From the Jamestowns and Plymouth Rocks as natal spots, the radiating lines of growth of populations and of institutions can be readily visualized. There have been orderly expansions and increasing complexity of organization from these simple germinal centers. Dramatic incident and crises of revolutionary struggle when great issues were at stake have marked the prog- ress of events leading up to the present. Historians of high- est skill and genius have spared no effort in bringing that part of our national annals into instructive and charming form. The easterner should naturally come under the spell of such surroundings ; and the sense of having a precious patrimony to conserve should be kindled and strengthened. Communal regard for his land as his home must naturally arise, and what is of moment far and beyond all else, the meaning and spirit of this past so fully realized becomes the vehicle through which the communal and commonwealth hearts and minds may pro- ject their ideals.

No such vitalized traditions speak from the surroundings of the resident of the newer West. We are, of course, joint heirs with our eastern brethren of the glorious national tra- ditions, but our mountains and plains, rivers and valleys do not serve us as bearers of historic associations. We cannot, as is possible with those in the East with their surroundings, people in imagination our landscapes with scenes that enrich the thought and 'nourish the heart. Yet it is this consciousness of a common heritage associated with one's home surroundings and this use of it that affords the best basis for strength of the sentiment and the spirit of communal unity. All those who dwell in that larger portion of the country stretching from Min- nesota to Southern California and from Louisiana to the Puget Sound country are in prime need of halos of associations for