The Massachusetts spy, and Worcester County advertiser. [volume] ([Worcester, Mass.]) 1825-1831, 1829-04-15
FOR THE MASSACHUSETTS SPY.
RAIL ROADS.

FOR THE MASSACHUSETTS SPY.
RAIL ROADS
Farmer A. What do you want rail road
for am opposed to it. 1t is a wild project.
We get to market we'll enough by the old roads
l like the old way best. l have made up my
mind
Farmer B. Have you given the subject
fair examination? Have you read the report
A. No. l made up my mind when the pro-
ject was first stated. l have not altered it.
Boston market is not large enough for US now,
and if we let the western farmers come there to
trade, we shall all be ruined.
b. have been opposed to the rail road, but
since reading the report, have altered my mind.
would advise you to read it. We are both
farmers of Massachusetts, and interested in this
subject. We shall be called on soon to dispose
OF 1t finally. 1t becomes us to do it understand
ngly. In the report we have the facts and
arguments necessary to judge from. 1t has
cost much time and labor TO procure them.
They are for us to decide upon, and are now
before us. The objection against the rail road,
that the price of our produce will be reduced
in Boston market, by the great quantity that
is expected to be brought there from the west,
which is almost the only one have heard from
the farmers around me, and which | once
thought was a very strong one, | now think
amounts to nothing. The great supply of pro-
duce from the west, which is much dreaded,
if it come at all, will come gradually, and the
capacity of Boston to receive and dispose of it,
will grow as this quantity increases. Besides,
it will come to Boston whether we have a rail
road or not, if Boston is better market for it
than New York. 1t can be, and already is,
brought from Albany by water in large quanti-
ties. You cannot prevent it from coming to
Boston, if Boston is the best market. The cost
fafio fha fo1l
not be much less by the rail road than it now is
by water.
A. What benefit, then, will the western
country produce be to the rail road, if it can be
transported no cheaper by that, than by water
1t will go by water STILL and none will use the
rail road but those who live upon it, and their
business will not support it. | have made up
my mind.
B. The greater security and rapidity of its
transportation on the rail road will secure to it
the western trade that comes to Boston, in pref.
erence TO the more dangerous and circuitous
route by water, and the profits of this business
will help to pay for making the road, and add
to the permanent revenue to be derived from it.
So says the report, and SO it appears to me.
You complain that Boston market is to be open
ed to the western farmers. The road runs both
ways, and if the western farmers can come 20
Boston, we can, if we please, go to New York
or Albany. Instead of having but one market,
we shall have our choice of three. 1t will cost
US less, find, to transport our produce to New
York when the rail road is made, than it now
does to Boston You say Boston market is not
large enough for US, and yet, instead of using
the means TO make it larger, you would build
wall round the country that now trades there,
and prevent those beyond from tresspassing on
your ground. If the territories that de pend
upon Boston market are not TO be enlarged,
Boston must remain only what she now is, or
increase only as the population and trade of her
present territories increase. Now, think the
more you can add to the population, business,
and wealth of Boston, the better it will be for
u.s. If Boston is better place for us to carry
our produce now, than it will be when it has
increased ten fold, then Worcester by the same
rule, must now be better market than Boston
Now, | sometimes trade in Worcester, and
though can sometimes sell my produce there,
if carry it in small quantities, for a higher
price than can get in Boston, yet can place
no dependence upon Worcester market Some
times can sell well, and sometimes | cannot
sell at ALL There are not buyers and consum-
ers enough there. Even in Boston, though
can generally dispose Of my produce there at
some price, sometimes find the market crowd.
ed, and am obliged to store it. / should rather
sell it for cash, for commission mei chants some-
times fail, and lose whole years produce,
which l have worked hard for. | think the
more populous the city the better. Where
there are half dozen markets in different parts
OF the town, if cannot sell at one, can 90 to
another; and where there are a great many
buyers, can find some one among them that
will buy and pay me the cash at fair price
Not only Boston market will be improved by
the rail road, but other markets, still more con-
| venient, will be created by it. The numerous
water privileges on the line the rail road will
pass, will be taken up for manufacturing estab-
lishments, as soon as the raw materials and
manufactured goods they have to carry to and
from market, is reduced to the low rates the
rail road will admit Of These manufacturing
establishments will afford employment for thou.
sands of our people, especially our girls and
boys, who now find it difficult to obtain pro6ta.
BILE employment. Villages will grow up around
! them, where mechanics of all kinds will find
I business, and where the farmers in the vicinity
will find readY market for whatever they have
| to sell. Their lands, as the report states, will
be doubled in value, and, in short, the rail road
WILL before many years, exhibit, what is always
seen on great navi gable rivers, a chain of flour.
| ishing cities and villages from one end of the
| State TO the other
A. Talk Of building UP d chain of cities and
villages through Massachusetts If cities could
be made OF rocks and hills, you might have
them in abundance but to fill them with peo.
pie and feed them-it is nonsense-you might
as we'll maintain them in desert
B. have better opinion of Massachusetts,.
| 1t is true her soil is hard and rocky, and this
compes those who cultivate it to be industr-
Gus. Their Industrious habits, which are. fixed
and permanent, are equivalent to greater fer.
tility of soil. Where the soil is more fertile,
| the inhabitants are more indolent and wasteful'
Massachusetts produces as much as any terri
! tory Of the same extent in the union. You NAV
think this is bold assertion, perhaps, but It
must be true. Massachusetts, supports a great
er population to square mile than any other
State in the Union, and supports them we'll
There arc no people in any part of the country
who are collectively better fed and clothed than
l. .oh, L.