The Kansas herald of freedom., 1856-05-03
saw-MilIs and Liberty.

The facts which we have published in
the Advertiser of Saturday and Monday
on the number and character of the pres
ent inhabitants of Kansas, and emigra-
ton now entering thatTerritory sufficient
ly explain how it is that intelligent lovers
of Freedom there make "Saw-mills and
Liberty" a sort of confession of faith.
Where saw-mill is planted there grows
up town. Where a town grows up,
made out of the great north western ems
igration, it is Free State town. 1t con-
yerts all settlers to the Free State doc
trine, by that irresistible logic which
asks, "Will you have your claims worth
what land is worth in Iowa, or shall they
sell for ninepence an acre, as In Mlssou-
ri ?"
If Kansas is to have $50, 900 people
next summer, as her true friends desire,
and she may if those who go there stay
there-she must have the means of max
ing homes, though they be shanties, for
these $50 thousand people. The expe-
rience of year has proved that the econ
omist's fancied law of "supply and de-
mand," will not furnish fast enough the
mills which must make their homes. So
little is this to be relied upon.t that at this
very moment, with their immense crop
of corn harvested, the settlers have not
one grist mill to grind it.
Kansas appeals, therefore, to her real
friends, to furnish homes for her new
people, by furnishing saw-mills. 1t is
thus that she cries, "Saw mills and Lib
erty." We could wish that any sugges-
tions of ours might give further extension
to this cry.
We could wish that some of our en-
terprising machinists-the Taunton, Low
ell, Lawrence, Worcester and Bridgewa-
ter men, who read these lines, would be
tempted as individuals, to try the invest
ment, which is so simply made in Kan
sas, and to send thither a steam engine,
with saws attached, in the charge OF
some of their able young coadjutors.
Such an engine would not only yield an
annual rent of some 80 OF 40 per cent,
but be an apostle for freedom such as no
man In Massachusetts, is. We have the
public statement of Mr.. Eli Thayer,
whose genius and energy have started the
enterprise which has saved Kansas,
''that there is not the public man in
Massachusetts worth so much to thecause
of freedom, as one ffty-horse steam-en-
glne in Kansas il" We cannot conceive
feeling of pride more honorable than
such manufacturer of machinery would
have, when he found thriving towns and
villages growing up in the prairie where
he had placed his mills-bearing down
to all time his name as one of those who
acted while others talked, in making Kan
sas free.
Such investments, however, do not
rush into Kansas. But Kansas cannot
wait, and therefore it is that the only ap-
parent resource for furnishing houses to
the men and women now moving there,
is in the operations of the Emigrant Aid
Company. We should be very glad to
create private rivals to the enterprise'o col
this Company. 1t is cause in which
the more rivals the better. Meanwhile,
let the reader of these words remember
that if he have a dollar to give for the
future freedom of the Western Valleys,
now is the time, and Kansas is the place
for it. Five thousand dollars plan ia
large steam saw mill, and builds toTn
Around that town, within eighteen
months, will be a population of. near five
thousand people. This is the temptation
offered when Kansas appeals for mills to
make houses for her pioneers.-Boston
Er