home chosen for the Indian tribes between 1825 and 1840.
Under the influence of migration to Oregon and California the real
character of the Far West became known, but not until the continental
railways were finished did many inhabitants enter it. In 1889 and 1890
the "Omnibus" States were admitted, embracing all the northwest half of
the old desert. Utah followed in 1896. Arizona and New Mexico and
Oklahoma developed rapidly after 1890 and were all demanding statehood
in 1902.

The advance of population into the Far West revealed the existence of
large areas in which an abundant agriculture could be produced through
irrigation. Private means were inadequate for this and the land laws
discouraged it. A demand for federal reclamation appeared in the
eighties. In 1889 a survey of available sites for reservoirs was made by
government engineers, and in 1902 Roosevelt cooperated with the
Far-Western Congressmen in securing the passage of the Newlands
Reclamation Act. By this bill the proceeds of land sales in the arid
States became a fund to be used by the reclamation service for the
construction of great public irrigation works. In the succeeding years
dams, tunnels, and ditches were undertaken that were rivaled in
magnitude only by the railroad tunnels at New York and the excavations
at Panama.

The aggressive assurance with which the Roosevelt Administration handled
the problems of diplomacy and administration created for the President a
wide and unusual popularity, which was strongest in the West. Many
critics, also, were created, who distrusted personal influence when
injected into government, and who doubted the solidity of Roosevelt's
judgment. Personal altercations, in which the President was often the
aggressor, were numerous. Among professional politicians dislike was
mingled with fear because the President had established personal
relations immediately with their constituents. Under President McKinley
the state delegations in Congress had controlled the appointive federal
offices of their States, and had been secure in their personal standing;
under Roosevelt their control of appointments was less secure. When
matters of legislation were taken up, this dissatisfaction among
members of Congress was a serious obstacle to the attainment of
constructive laws.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

After the Spanish War the secondary materials for the history of the
United States become fragmentary and unsatisfactory. Peck, An