The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1856-05-22
From the ST. Louis Intslligencer.1
keokuk and FOrt Des Noincs
Hail Road.

The peculiar claims which this improve
! ment has upon the countenance and support
| OF st. Louis. have already been adverted to.
| Many of our merchants are familiar with
| the location of the lourishing city at the
| foot of the lower rapids, it's commanding
| Importance, and rapid growth; and while
acknowledging it's intimate relationship with
| St. Louis business, have handsomely re-
| sponded to the call made upon them by
Messrs. Leighton, Parsons, and McGavic,
| the Committee, and subscribed literally 10
| the stock in the road.
! The capitalists, as well as the merchants,
are interested in this matter, and should look
to it now, when their aid is needed to place
the first division of forty miles in such a po-
sitlon as TO insure It's completion in time for
| the fail trade.
There are various lines of railroads pro-
Jeeted and in progress acrsss the State of
Iowa, starting from different points on the
Mississippi river, above the lower rapids .
from Dubuque, Davenport, Burlington, &C.,
oil running nearly due east and west, all of
which, without a single exception, are de-
signed to attract the trade of Iowa and Ne
| braska and Minnesota, to Chicago, as their
controlling commercial centre. These i'm
proyements are backed up by Chicago, and
Northern Illinois generally, and have no
claims whatever upon the sympathies of st.
Louis. Their ayowed object is to draw of
from 81. Louis large trade--an annually
increasing trade, which has hitherto sought
St. Louis. No exertions have been spared,
none will be spared to bring about this re-
suit. keokuk Is the only place on the Mis-
ssslppl river, IN the State Of Iowa, where
the trade of Iowa, Nebraska, and Minnesota
can be rghtfully claimed bv St. Louis with
out fear Of rivalry. The Kcokuk, Fort Des
Moines and Minnesota Railroad, is the only
Improvement which can command and bring
the trade to that peculiar point.
The people Of keokuk and Of the lovely
valley Of the Des Moines, have not been idle
spectators of the exertions made in more
northerly portions of the State, to steal their
business away from its natural outlet. They
have boldly undertaken n great work, and
subscribed their own means most literally,
without outside aid. They have pushed for
ward the graduation vigorously on the first
division, purchased their iron rails, locomo-
tiyes and cars and now, having shown their
own confidence in, and high appreciation Of
the merits of their great project, ask Of this
city, which has the next deepest interest al
stake, for what? For donation? By no
means. They ask for a subscription Of stock,
undeniably contains within itself the ele-
m ents of complete success as financial in
vestment. If any road in the west can be
made to pay, surely tins one, running through
q valley of the highest capabilities, well set
tied already with superior class of farmers,
and stretching ont to an immense region of
almost boundless fertility, will be a paying
al.
The Des Moines Valley lies in northwest
and southeast direction across the entire
State of Iowa, and contains nearly half the
population of the State. The local business
alone, on a railroad running through such
vail y, cannot fail to prove largely remunera-
tive, whilst the through business upon 1t must
soon be immense.
Without this railroad, allowing that the
lines north Of heokuk should be completed
70 the river, keokuk and St. Louis must be
content TO lose large portion OF tins great
business. Were there no railroads az all in
Iowa, 1t would be entirely another question.
heokuk could then sustain her relative posi-
ton without fear but she cannot afford to
yield the advantage of railroad connections
to other river cities, and rest alone upon her
final natural position. No city, indeed, can
afford to rest at all. Every city, to sustain
its relative advancement with the country's
growth, must be not only wide awake, but
lnteliigently active in guarding and extend
ing its commercial relations.
Let st. Louis look to Keokuk as her great
up-riyer outpost, through which she is to Sc
cure her rghtful share of a commerce, which,
though now III its infancy, no less than four
rival railroads across Iowa are striving to
draw from her. Time, in the opening of
these lines, has much to do with securing
trade. Like the mind, ''iust rs the twig is
bent, the trees Inclined" Let our capital
lists see these keokuk gentlemen, and let
them not return without good report of
their doings among us.
CT London Review, in answer to the
question, " What is man." says s. Chemi-
cally speaking, man is forty-fve pounds of
carbon and nitrogen, difused through five