sioners. In 1897 he became first-assistant secretary of the navy. When war broke out with Spain he immediately volunteered, acting first as lieutenant-colonel, and later as colonel of the Rough Riders. After the war he was elected governor of New York state. In 1901 he became vicepresident and, at the death of McKinley, president.

Roosevelt has written a number of useful historical books, the best being his volumes on "The Winning of the West,' and the "History of the Naval War of 1812."

Roosevelt was born in New York City, October 27, 1858.

CHAPTER XVI

GROWTH OF THE REPUBLIC

1860-1902

686. Growth in Nationality.-The civil war marked the beginning of a new era in national feeling. Never again would a state dare to resist the general government. Extreme care for the rights of the individual states was lost in considering the welfare of the whole union. The whole had become more important thar parts. Never again could a state secure what it wantsa by threatening to leave the union. Sectional jealousy was now destined to disappear.

Now that the cause of all the discord between the sections had disappeared in the abolition of slavery, the United States soon took place among the foremost nations of the world. When the sections ceased trying to get the advantage of each other, the people advanced rapidly in invention, in education, in manufactures, and in all that goes to promote general happiness and comfort.

POPULATION

687. Numbers.-The census of 1900 proved that the first rush to the new world had passed; that the remaining public lands were not so attractive as those first offered had been; and that nothing had occurred recently in Europe to drive people to seek new homes. The United States had passed laws to keep out undesirable immigrants, and this also helped to reduce the number. During the ten years since the last census, the population had increased less than ever before. Yet the total of over seventy-six million inhabitants formed quite a contrast with the three and a half million who adopted the constitution. The people had multiplied almost

nineteen times in one hundred and ten years.

Since 1830,

they had multiplied six times. In population the United States is surpassed only by Russia in Europe, by China and India in Asia, thus taking fourth rank among the civilized nations of the world.

688. Growth of Cities.-The enormous increase in manufactures and commerce has built up cities in a way which in Washington's time would not have been thought possible. In his time only three people out of every hundred in the United States dwelt in cities. Now thirty-three out of a

hundred, or one-third of all the people, prefer to live in a city. Then there was only one city, New York, that had over 25,000 inhabitants. Now there are 161 cities with more than that number.

TWENTY-FIVE LARGEST CITIES IN 1900 WITH POPULATIONS FROM 1860-1900

* Estimated for Greater New York district by Director of Census since 1860.

Some cities have increased more rapidly than others. Chicago, for instance, situated at the end of a lake that pushes trade around it and thus becomes a transfer point for the northwest, was not worth counting separately in 1830. Ten years later it had five thousand inhabitants and in 1900 numbered over a million and a half. Another western city, Kansas City, increased nearly twenty times in the twenty years before 1900, and a southern city, Birmingham, Alabama, multiplied over twelve times during the same period. The enormous increase of factories and the centralization of railroads are largely responsible for the growth of cities.

689. Growth of Territory.-The home possessions of the United States changed little between 1860 and 1900. The additions came in the shape of colonial territory-Alaska,

Hawaii, Porto Rico, Tutuila, and the Philippines.

main body of the national domain stretches from ocean to ocean and from the Lakes to the Gulf. It contains over three million square miles. This is three and one-half times as much land as the republic had when it began in 1783. Or if the new colonial territory be counted in, we own more than four times as much as we began with. Over all this expanse of the continental United States the people are distributed, except in some portions of the Rocky Mountains where mining is not carried on, and in the dry regions about them, where there is not sufficient rainfall to allow farming.

690. Public Lands.—Although the United States government has sold millions of acres of its public lands to make homes for its inhabitants, it still owns over half a billion acres in the western states. This is selling very slowly because most of it is mountainous, and also because the mountains prevent sufficient rainfall on adjacent parts of it. For years farmers and companies have been digging ditches to convey water from the streams to this arid land, but the work is costly and only a small part of it has thus far been irrigated. The United States government is being asked to undertake this work, as a kind of "internal improvement,” just as it formerly built wagon roads and helped to build canals and railroads. So important has irrigation become that the president has frequently called the attention of congress to it.

Montana has the most of this vacant United States land, and much of it is irrigable. New Mexico is next, and is even more capable of irrigation than Montana. So the number of acres ranges down to Nebraska with nine million and Kansas with one million acres. The land in these states lies largely in the "sub-arid" district, which does not need irrigation so badly as states further west.

EDUCATION

691. The Public Schools.-Few nations have tried to secure the education of all the people as systematically as has the