Quasqueton guardian. (Quasqueton, Buchanan County, Iowa) 1856-1858, 1857-05-16

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Pacific Company, which offered no such
advantages, either TO the people or the
state, would not be the successful com
pany, and the prospect was presented Of
entailing upon the county an onerous debt
in the vain endeayor of competing,
upon individual enterprise, with com
pany having a large land grant to back
it. And then, should the Dubuque &
Pacific Co. be the fortunate recipient of
the grant, there would be no necessity for
county help, as the grant was sufficient
for the construction of the road. The op-
ponents of that proposition had, there
fore, the best of reasons for their course,
but these reasons are not applicable in
this case. This Company does not ask
the county TO become a stakeholder, but
simply to loan its credit, giving all the
securities needed to insure payment of
both principal and interest. 1t is not SUBJ
ject to the competition of land grant Co.'S,
nor has it a grant of its own to assist its
construction, but if ever built, must be
SO by individual and county exertion. If
the people of Buchanan County desire the
road they must put their shoulder to the
wheel, and now is the time to do it. By
liberal action on our part now, the road
can be secured without peradventme.--
Vote this proposition, and in less than 60
days the road will be under contract, and
beyond the reach of competition. Defeat
it, and allow rival roads to get the start OF
us, and it may never be built.
The absolute necessity of railroad COM
munication in this western country, where
other means of ready transit are wanting,
is apparent all around us. In counties
where railroads are projected, with rea-
sonable probability of their construction,
lands are held at a much higher figure
than in those, equally as productive,
where the probability of such communi-
cation is remote. We have few figures
demonstrating this fact, which will pro-
badly do more to convince than all the
arguments that can be used. From a re-
cent report of the Illinois Central Rail
road Company, we gather, among an ex-
tensive amount of interesting iniorma-
ton, the following facts, bearing upon
this subject:
The interior Of the State of Illinois, UP to
1850, was very thinly settled, by the reason of
the inaccessibility OF the land to market, and
the want of wood. The Federal Government
held in those regions some / I 900 900 ceres of
land, which had been on the market from 10 to
80 years withou, finding buyers. The State was
| embarrassed, and the Governor in his Message
stated that migration had ceased, that produce
could not be conveyed Ia market, that no new
lands were coming under taxation and that abso-
lutte inability to pay must he the plea for not
meeting the public obligations The Federal
Government had granted land that it could not
sell TO the Canal, which was incomplete A loan
upon that land completed the canal, and the
Federal Government found market for its own
contiguous lands. Acting upon that hint, it
gave the State 1855, 900 acres, or about one
fourth of It's totally unstable IL 600 900 acres to
aid The railroad. The State made the land over
to the Illinois Central Railroad Company That
Company has borrowed on those lands $40 600,
900, with which it has constructed road 704
miles long, possessed OF IS stations, 700 ears,
and 81 locomotives. The immediate effect of this
construction was to cause the sale, by the Gov
eminent, of NIL It's remaining ands, which are
now in the hands Of settlers, whose annual crops
pour over the road TO market. If the Federal
lands are settled in the same proportion rs those
OF the railroad, the effect of the work viii have
been to place 100 900 families, say 500, 009 souls,
upon land which the Government had in vain
offered. during the % years, for sale The Com
rany has sold nearly one million acres of its own
for nearly Sl2,000,000, which applies to the
redemption of the bonds, and it still holds
SOC, 900 acres, which are worth more than those
already sold, since being of equal intrinsic val
ne. they are surrounded - population incrcas-
ing in numbers and wealth, and they will
undoubtedly realize at least $l5, 100000.
We NAV now look at the actual quantity of
produce brought to the stations in 1855, 10 be
forwarded over the road: