The Mining Advance Into the Inland Empire. By William J. Trimble, Professor of History and Social Science in North Dakota Agricultural College. (Madison, Wisconsin. The University of Wisconsin, 1914. Pp. 254.)

This monograph, which was written as a thesis for the doctor's degree while Mr. Trimble was a fellow at the University of Wisconsin, is an epic in spirit, though a work of historical and economic science and expressed in prose. It is the thrilling and romantic story of a movement which, because it eventuated in the creation of civilized society and political order, is of kin with the swarming of the Teutonic peoples into the Roman Empire.

Specifically, it is a study of the beginnings of mining for precious ores in the territories now known as the Inland Empire, and also in parts of the regions adjoining this territory. In addition, it studies laws and institutions originating from the mining industry. It is a significant symptom of appreciation of the Pacific Northwest and especially of this inland district by old institutions of learning east of the Rockies.

Investigation of the subject was rendered feasible through use of such libraries as those of the University of Wisconsin, the University of California, the Province of British Columbia, the Historical Society of Oregon, the Historical Society of Montana, the University of Idaho and the private collections of Mr. Bagley of Seattle, Mr. Howay of New Westminster, Mr. Justice Martin of Victoria and others; and through the generous cooperation of personal authorities on our northwestern history as Professor Frederick J. Turner of Harvard University, Judge Howay of New Westminster, Mr. Elliott of Walla Walla and others. It opens with the statement that the decade following 1858 brought the expansion of American mining on a large scale for gold and silver into many parts of our mountainous area.

Who first discovered gold here is not known. But the vicinity of Fort Colville, Washington, saw the occurrence of a movement in 1855 which ushered in the golden age of the Inland Empire. The miners labored under measureless disadvantages. Supplies were scant. From Puget Sound there were no suitable roads. Steamboating on the Columbia had only begun. The Indians frequently proved a baffling obstacle at first. But the friendship of the Nez Perces for the whites and the policy of peace pursued by this tribe became a determining factor in the wars with the natives and the development of this new country. In justice to the Indians it is due to admit that conditions for which they were not responsible made the situation ripe for desperate measures on their part.

On November 23rd, 1857, the miners in the neighborhood of Colville effected a rude governmental organization. In 1858 the stern measures of Colonel George Wright brought just and lasting peace to the Indian country and cleared the way for pushing forward the frontier of civilization. In 1861 the final fixation of the boundary between British Columbia and Washington drew clearly the artificial line of different governments where, as Professor Trimble exhaustively and conclusively demonstrates, nature had made one country. Consequently, the political differentiation contributed to making the construction of the famous old Mullan Road in every way an important matter. This noble highway of empire, not unworthy of comparison with Rome's Appian Way, was completed in 1862 at a cost of $230,000 for its 624 miles of length.

In a few years the carriers on the Columbia enjoyed an immense and profitable traffic in the transportation of miners and their supplies. Professor Trimble's description of steamboating on the rivers of the Inland Empire is intensely vivid and interesting. In 1861 came the great movement of miners into these new fields. Among the most important of the localities they entered were the Nez-Perce and Salmon-River districts in northern Idaho.

A swiftly accelerating stream of travel started in 1861 for the new mines. A new era of development began. The Portland Oregonian then predicted that there would follow "tremendous stampedes from California, a flood of overland immigration and vastly increased business on the Columbia." The shrewd forecast of the sagacious editor was fulfilled to the foot of the letter.

Of the total yield from the mining districts in northern Idaho it is impossible to secure exact figures. A conservative estimate would put the production from the time of discovery until 1900 at about $50,000,000, of which probably $35,000,000 were obtained before 1870. In this connection Dr. Trimble rightly directs attention to the fact that the mines of eastern Oregon have not yet received the study that their importance as builders of that part of the state would warrant.

The mines of the Boise basin in Idaho not only were rich and easily worked, but were so situated as to encourage homemaking and the up-building of a permanent community. Soon towns with stable interests and staple industries arose. The mining founders of Boise showed themselves to be exceptionally enterprising and farsighted men.

As the Caribou, British Columbia, mines had shown that in placer fields the individual, once a camp was established, could do little except labor for some one else or in lieu of this prospect for new fields, some form of organized or cooperative effort being essential to the development of mining, even in its simpler stages; so now the War-Eagle quartz-mines of Idaho, remote and newly born, called for outside capital and for science.

The mining advance gave occasion for the creation of British Columbia, Idaho and Montana as political units. In considering the societies that owe their origin to mining it is essential to remember that almost from the moment of discovery cooperation is indispensable in the development of gold-fields and also that the individualism of placer-mining frequently is greatly exaggerated. In the period now under review "the lone prospector" was much of a myth. This and similar seemingly small matters are among the many observed by Dr. Trimble's microscopic eye, which also is not wanting in telescopic range, that show how thoroughly he has surveyed his field and with what scrupulous science he has interpreted all his facts.

Prospecting generally was done by organized parties numbering anywhere from five to fifty men. These companies consisted of experienced miners, who usually had already mined in California. Careful preparation in advance was made. An expedition might travel for weeks or even for many months, studying the geology of the land as carefully as professors from great universities and prospecting wherever promising indications presented themselves. When diggings that seemed to afford reasonable likelihood of profit were found, claims were staked out. The plan of the miners' camp corresponded more closely to that of a town than to that of a country district. This feature is another of several which prove that combination, cooperation and organization formed basic features in the work of the miner. It is not the least of the merits of Dr. Trimble's monograph that it enables and in fact compels the lay reader unacquainted with the ways of miners to see that their social and governmental activities were a seed of the political commonwealth and rendered its existence and growth inevitable.

The discoverers of pay-dirt as a rule had to return for supplies to some commercial center. Here the news of a find invariably leaked out and generated a stampede to the new field. Merchants and packers pushed freight-caravans ahead with strenuous but reasoned energy. The man who rushed a well supplied set of teams into a new community was certain to reap great profits. Before much work was performed by the miners at their Eldorado they held a mass-meeting and organized the community. A judge, recorder and sheriff were elected, and laws for the camp enacted. The political instinct of the English and the Americans for government and ordered society was prompt to manifest itself.

Men who had been schooled in the Californian camps not only had learned to mine skillfully, but turned spontaneously to the form of political organization that the mines of that golden commonwealth had developed. This was the case no less in British than in American communities. Work on claims ceased and universally or almost universally in winter, but might stop at other times, such as seasons of drouth, when want of water handicapped operations. The arrangement gave the miners an opportunity to visit home or to pass the winter at such towns as Boise, Lewiston or Portland. Men seldom thought of making homes for themselves at the Mining camps. But a considerable number would usually remain there through cold weather, and in deep diggings actual mining could still be carried on.

The miner's lot was a most laborious life. It did not consist in picking large, loose nuggets from streams and in spending most of the time on fun or adventure. There were cabins to build—and the skill of American axmen, especially of the Missourians, was greatly admired by English observers—ditches to be dug, flumes and sluices to be constructed, and lumber to be obtained.

The skill of the pioneer Californians in every industry stood out preeminently. Everywhere their methods and judgment were held in high esteem. At Orofino they superciliously sneered that the Willamette farmers in the mines did not know how to sift gold from the dirt, but the Oregonians could have retorted that they were not Californian experts at losing their gold in gambling. But placer mining then, in spite of such skill as that of the Californians, was wasteful work. Men mined to make the maximum of money in the minimum of time. The enormous expensiveness of operation and transportation rendered it profitable to work only the richest gravel. In 1868 Ross Browne, who knew mining conditions better than any other American then living, declared that "since the discovery of our mines there has been an unnecessary loss of more than $300,000,000 of precious metals. The question arises whether it is not the duty of government to prevent, so far as may be consistent with individual rights, this waste of a common heritage in which not only ourselves but posterity are interested."

The early mining communities whose economic basis was placer mines were unstable, and this is a fact of social importance. For the purpose of overcoming this instability business men, the more substantial miners and governmental authorities everywhere turned their attention to quartz. Working quartz claims and building quartz mills required the use of capital and of corporate methods. The significant development of mining in the Inland Empire during 1860-70 consisted in the supersedure of the surface methods of the placer by quartz mining and in the working of deep placers by corporations. The individual working in informal organization had free play, but his day was passing. Individualism began to become submerged, capital to become foremost and corporate methods to enter.

What was the total of the product from the labor and capital invested in the mining advance? Until 1867 there was no governmental attempt in the Inland Empire, though there was in British Columbia, to gather statistics. Express companies, however, especially the Wells-Fargo, were a fairly trustworthy source of information. George M. Dawson's estimate for British Columbia and Ross Browne's for the Inland Empire are regarded by Dr. Trimble as falling well inside the truth. British Columbia during 1858-67 inclusive is believed to have produced $26,110,000 of the precious metals; Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington together from the beginning of mining to the close of 1867 to have yielded $140,000,000. Montana led with $65,000,000. Idaho followed with $45,000,000 and Oregon with $20,000,000. Washington brought up the rear with $10,000,000. After deducting the probable production in western Oregon, because this territory lies outside the regions considered by Professor Trimble, the grand total for British Columbia and these four American commonwealths during the decade of 1858-67 appears to have aggregated $156,110,000.

In order to value this stupendous yield aright, it must be borne in mind that nearly all of it was an economic surplus and also in such shape as to be transformed with ease into the commodities of civilization. Consequently civilization's material body sprang forth full panoplied from those early mining communities. This aspect of the mining advance—a phase too frequently forgotten these days—gave the first civilization in the Inland Empire a compelling power and a vitalness that were out of all proportion to the relatively small number of the miners who originated that civilization. This life and energy contributed greatly to the swift development of this Inland Empire after the railroads arrived. The production of so huge and mobile an economic surplus as $156,110,000 of the precious metals helps to explain the greatness of the immigration in the eighties into these mining commonwealths. The farmer, the manufacturer, the merchant and the banker of the Pacific Northwest during the past generation owe a great debt to the miner of the sixties of the last century.

Nor these only. The nation also is deeply indebted to the economic development wrought here by mining in those far days. The Inland Empire's production of gold during the terrible years of 1861-5, when the republic was pouring out blood and treasure like water to save its life, had great effect in supplying those financial sinews of war on which so largely depended the credit of the United States.

Thus Dr. Trimble threshes out to the last straw the bearings of mining upon government in the Inland Empire, upon agriculture, grazing, transportation and many other interests. What he has done is really to write a history of civilization in these states during their intermediate era.

Every page presents evidence of his competence and trustworthiness. He inspires confidence thro his candid confession that "the student of the history of a section may overrate its importance. * * * It may be that revaluation by comprehensive historians will be necessary." There speaks the historical conscience that rates loyalty to the fact as the supreme good in writing history. But this student has done his work so judicially and with such scholarship, that it will not require to be done again. It is an honor to him and his university and an invaluable service to the Pacific Northwest.

Frederic Perry Noble, Ph. D.
Spokane, Wa., June, 1914.

Masters of the Wilderness. By Charles Bert Reed, M. D. (Chicago, The University of Chicago Press, 1914. Pp. 144.)

This beautifully printed and illustrated little book should find many readers among those who care for the beginnings of American history. Its scope and purpose are well revealed by the brief table of contents as follows: The Masters of the Wilderness, a study of the Hudson's Bay Company from its origin to modern times; The Beaver Club, some social aspects of the fur trade; A Dream of Empire, the adventures of Tonty in old Louisiana.

Dr. Reed has assembled his material in very readable and entertaining fashion. For the benefit of those who wish to pursue the subjects further he appends a brief but serviceable bibliography. The book is one of the Chicago Historical Society's Fort Dearborn Series.

Edmond S. Meany.

The United States Federal Internal Tax History from 1861 to 1871. By Harry Edwin Smith, Ph. D., Instructor in Economics, Cornell University. (Boston, and New York; Houghton Mifflin Company, 1914. Pp. XIX, 357.)

This useful and valuable volume is one in the series which owes its existence to the generosity of Hart, Schaffner and Marx, of Chicago, and the one which received the first prize of $1,000 for the year 1912. Dr. Smith came to the University of Washington this fall to take up work in connection with the newly established courses in commerce. His book is a carefully worked out and scholarly presentation of a difficult and involved subject. The treatment of the subject by Dr. Smith has made easy for the student to get access to the facts for they are all grouped about the separate and single phases of the subject. Following an introduction a chapter is devoted to each subject, as for example the "Direct Tax," "The Income Tax," "The Inheritance Tax," and "Stamp Taxes."

The closing chapters, XI and XII, present concretely "The Influence of Internal Taxes on the Import Duties," and the "Administration" of the whole system. Students interested in these subjects owe a debt of gratitude to Dr. Smith for the masterly and painstaking way he has made available a world of badly scattered material. Nineteen statistical tables give in graphic way the statistical side of the study. An exhaustive bibliography and an adequate index complete the volume.

Edward McMahon.

The Establishment of the State Government in California, 1846-1850. By Cardinal Goodwin, M. A. (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1914. Pp. 359. $2.00.)

This book covers the period of California history from 1846 to 1850, dividing the period into three parts. It deals first with the period from the American acquisition of the territory to the meeting of the constitutional convention; then follows the history of the constitutional convention; and the last part deals with the organization of the State government.

Much new material has been used and consequently many accepted facts and interpretations have been proven fallacious. One of these errors was the great influence of New York on the constitution; but Goodwin finds that Iowa contributed about seventy of the hundred and thirty-six articles and New York only twenty. He also has found new material which explains the entrance of the slavery question into the State: a Texan using his slaves for mining claim registry.

The book is well written; it is, however, a bit broken and irregular in its story through following carefully the chronology of events. The conclusion is very disappointing as a resume of the whole book, of the valuation of the new material and of the events.

J. N. Bowman.

Proceedings of the Washington Bankers' Association. Nineteenth Annual Convention, 1914. (Spokane, Shaw & Borden, 1914., Pp. 232.)

This volume, compiled by W. H. Martin, the Secretary of the Association, gives the Proceedings of the 1914 Convention, held in Walla Walla. All similar records of the proceedings of Washington associations become a part of the institutional history of the state. Of special interest in the present volume is an article on the History of the Walla Walla Valley by Allen H. Reynolds.

The Seattle Municipal Water Plant; Historical, Descriptive, Statistical. By John Lamb. (Seattle, Moulton Printing Company, 1914. Pp. 316.)

This report upon the Seattle Municipal Water Plant is a model for clearness and completeness. It is well printed and well bound and contains many excellent illustrations. It gives a surprisingly full account of the early water systems antedating municipal control.

The Rise of the American People. A Philosophical Interpretation of American History. By Roland G. Usher, Ph. D.. author of "Pan-Germanism," Etc. (New York, The Century Co. 1914. Pp. 413.)

An attempt by a well known writer to present for the general reader a lucid account of the results of American History without over-burdening him with the details and processes by which these results were obtained.

University of Illinois Studies in the Social Sciences. (Urbana, Illinois, 1913-1914.)

Three of these Studies have been received: The West in the Diplomacy of the American Revolution by Paul Chrisler Phillips, Ph. D., Assistant Professor of History in the University of Montana; The Development of Banking in Illinois, 1817-1863, by George William Dowrie, Ph. D., Assistant Professor of Economics in the University of Michigan; A History of the General Property Tax in Illinois by Robert Murray Haig, Ph. D., Instructor in Economics in Columbia University.

History of the United States. By Matthew Page Andrews, M. A. (Philadelphia and London, J. B. Lippincott Company. Pp. XVII. 378, XLVIII.)

A text book for schools in which the subject matter is up to date but the arrangement, proportions and printing are decidedly behind the times.

Writings of John Quincy Adams. Edited by Worthington C. Ford. (New York, The Macmillan Company, 1914. Vol. 3, 1801-1810. Pp. 555. $3.50 net.)

Volume I of this important work was noted in this Quarterly for April, 1913, page 131 and Volume 2 in the issue for January, 1914, page 61. At the chronological rate followed it is likely that the next volume will reach the time when the distinguished statesman began his work on the Oregon question.

The Balkan Wars, 1912-1913. By Jacob Gould Schurman. (Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1914. Pp. 140. $1.00 net.)

This timely work by the distinguished President of Cornell University is divided into two parts: Turkey and the Balkan States and The War Between the Allies. Each part is supplied with a map and the book carries an adequate index. Interest in the work will, of course, be enhanced by the present war in Europe.

The Physician in English History. By Norman Moore, M. D., Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians. (Cambridge, England, University Press, 1913. Pp. 57.)

This is the Linacre Lecture, 1913, in St. John's College, Cambridge. It is issued in the same attractive form that characterizes all the works from the Cambridge University Press. Those in the medical profession will find the book illuminating.

Writings of Washington Relating to the National Capital. (Washington, The Columbia Historical Society, 1914. Pp. 258.)

This may be called a source book on the subject indicated as there is no attempt at narrative or connective matter. The letters are simply reproduced. However, the source of each letter is shown and there is a preface by the compiling committee. The book is Volume 17 of the society's records.

The Year Book of British Columbia, 1911-1914. By R. E. Gosnell. (Victoria, B. C., by authority of the Legislative Assembly, 1914. Pp. 406.)

This is a reprint of the elaborate Coronation Edition of 1911. Statistics for the years 1911, 1912, and 1913 have been added, bringing those useful features down to date. In the beautiful pictures, as well as in the compiled facts, there is much to serve the historian of the Pacific Northwest.

An Artilleryman's Diary. By Jenkin Lloyd Jones. (Madison, Wisconsin History Commission, 1914. Pp. 395.)

This extensive work gives the rich details of one part of Wisconsin's remarkable participation in the Civil War. The book is embellished with portraits, the frontispiece being a portrait of the distinguished author. The work is listed as Wisconsin History Commission: Original Papers, No. 8.

A History of the National Capital. By Wilhelmus Bogart Bryan. (New York, The Macmillan Company, 1914. Pp. 669. $5.00.) This elaborate history of Washington City carries maps and plans and a copious index. All citizens are interested in this subject, and this new work will undoubtedly find its way to the reference shelves of all the best libraries.

The Birds of El Paso County, Colorado. By Charles E. H. Aiken and Edward R. Warren. (Colorado Springs, Colorado College, 1914. Pp. 455 to 496 and 497 to 603.)

These two pamphlets are in the College's General Series, Numbers 74, 75 and 76. Besides maps, the illustrations show a fine use of the camera. Other counties of the west would do well to follow the example set in these pamphlets.

The Archaeological Collection from the Southern Interior of British Columbia. By Harlan I. Smith, (Ottawa, Government Printing Bureau, 1913. Pp. 40.)

When Harlan I. Smith was associated with the American Museum of Natural History in New York he did much work on the archaeology of the Pacific Northwest. This new publication shows that he is continuing his work for the far west, though now for the Canadian Government. The book is beautifully printed and is enhanced in value by sixteen full-page plates, mostly of stone implements. Future students will find the work of prime value.

Other Books Received

American Historical Association. Annual Report,. 1912. (Washington. Government, 1914. Pp. 734.)

Canadian Annual Review, 1913. (Toronto, Annual Review Publishing Co. 1914. Pp. 766.)

Cross, Arthur Lyon. History of England and Greater Britain. (New York. Macmillan, 1914. Pp. 1165. $2.50.)

Frank, Tenney. Roman Imperialism. (New York, The Macmillan Company, 1914. Pp. 365. $2.00 net.)

Illinois State Historical Society. Transactions, 1912. (Springfield, Society, 1914. Pp. 233.)

New Hampshire Historical Society. Manual, 1914. (Printed for the Society, 1914. Pp. 62.)

Rhode Island Historical Society. Proceedings. 1913-1914. (Providence,, The Society, 1914. Pp. 66.)

Royal Society of Canada. Proceedings and Transactions, Third series, Volume 7, 1913. (Ottawa, Hope. 1914.)

Sonneck, Oscar G. T. The Star Spangled Banner. (Washington, Government, 1914. Pp. 115. Pl. 25.)

Washington State Grange. Proceedings of the Twenty-sixth Annual Session, 1914. (Olympia, The Society, 1914. Pp. 196.)

Washington State Federation of Women's Clubs. Eighteenth Annual Report, 1914-15. (Hoquiam, The Society, 1914. Pp. 135.)

Wisconsin State Historical Society. Proceedings, 1913. (Madison. The Society, 1914. Pp. 238.)