AMERICAN SCENE: The Great Wild Californicated West

If votes were cast with feet and tallies read off odometers, the West would win the U.S. popularity contest in a landslide. The 1970 census figures show that the population of mountain and Pacific states has increased by 24.1 % since 1960. v. an increase on the other side of the Great Divide of only 11%. Horace Greeley's advice, "Go West, young man," is still being heeded by young and old alike, in spite of the fact that the "frontier" is now posted at intervals with taco and fried-chicken stands. Ecologists point out that the very nature of the West—little...