nd Japan, by passages around the southern capes of the
two continents, the paths of water and land traffic were to be
directly from China, Russia, and Japan to northern America. Noticing
that England had made herself the world's banking-house, he saw that
the time had come when the United States (which he believed to be
potentially, at least, a larger and a nobler England) must stretch out
her left hand, as well as her right, for the grasping of the world's
prizes. He pointed out the wonderful openings along the shore,
providing harbors at the mouths of the two great river systems on the
Pacific Coast, those of the Sacramento and the Columbia.

Carleton urged that "A railroad to Puget Sound, constructed
immediately, alone will take the key of the Northwest from the hands
of the nations which stand with us in the front rank of power."
Important as the railway to San Francisco was, it would not yield the
prize. To his vision it was even then perfectly clear, as to all the
world it has been since the Chino-Japanese war of 1894-95, that the
chief American staple which China and Japan needs is cotton, though
machinery, petroleum, and flour are in demand. After giving facts,
statistics, and well-wrought arguments, he wrote: "Again we say it is
easy for America to lay its hand upon the greatest prize of all times,
to make herself the world's workshop,--the world's banker. Shall
England or the United States control the northwestern section of the
continent and the trade of the Pacific?"

Over a decade later on, in 1869, Carleton revelled in the opportunity
of being once more the herald and informer concerning regions ready to
welcome the plough, the machine-shop, the home, the church, the
school, and the glories of civilization. He spent several months
mostly in the open air and chiefly on horseback, though often on foot
and in vehicles of various descriptions, camping out under the stars,
or accepting such rough accommodation as was then afforded in regions
where palace cars, elegant hotels, and comfortable homes are now
commonplaces. His letters to the _Journal_ were breezy and sparkling.
They diffused the aroma of the Western forests and prairies, while
marked with that same wealth of graphic detail, spice of anecdote,
lambent humor, and garnish of a conversation which delighted the
readers of his correspondence from the army and from the older seats
of empire in Asia and in Europe. Carleton's literary photographs were
the