publican, looked with reluctance upon the
addition of more Democratic states; but in 1907 it was literally
compelled by public sentiment and a sense of justice to admit Oklahoma.
In 1910 the House of Representatives went to the Democrats and within
two years Arizona and New Mexico were "under the roof." So the
continental domain was rounded out.

THE INFLUENCE OF THE FAR WEST ON NATIONAL LIFE

=The Last of the Frontier.=--When Horace Greeley made his trip west in
1859 he thus recorded the progress of civilization in his journal:

"May 12th, Chicago.--Chocolate and morning journals last
seen on the hotel breakfast table.

23rd, Leavenworth (Kansas).--Room bells and bath tubs make
their final appearance.

26th, Manhattan.--Potatoes and eggs last recognized among
the blessings that 'brighten as they take their flight.'

27th, Junction City.--Last visitation of a boot-black, with
dissolving views of a board bedroom. Beds bid us good-by."

[Illustration: _Copyright by Panama-California Exposition_

THE CANADIAN BUILDING AT THE PANAMA-CALIFORNIA INTERNATIONAL
EXPOSITION, SAN DIEGO, 1915]

Within thirty years travelers were riding across that country in Pullman
cars and enjoying at the hotels all the comforts of a standardized
civilization. The "wild west" was gone, and with it that frontier of
pioneers and settlers who had long given such a bent and tone to
American life and had "poured in upon the floor of Congress" such a long
line of "backwoods politicians," as they were scornfully styled.

=Free Land and Eastern Labor.=--It was not only the picturesque features
of the frontier that were gone. Of far more consequence was the
disappearance of free lands with all that meant for American labor. For
more than a hundred years, any man of even moderate means had been able
to secure a homestead of his own and an independent livelihood. For a
hundred years America had been able to supply farms to as many
immigrants as cared to till the soil. Every new pair of strong arms
meant more farms and more wealth. Workmen in Eastern factories, mines,
or mills who did not like their hours, wages, or conditions of labor,
could readily find an outlet to the land. Now all that was over. By
about 1890 most of the desirable land available under the Homestead act
had disappeared. American industrial workers confronted a new situation.

=Grain Supplants King Cotton.=--In the meantime a revolutio