The Kenosha telegraph and tribune. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1859-1860, 1860-03-08
The New York Tribune on West
era Reputation.

The New York Tribune of March End has an
article on western finances and W. stern repudi-
alton, which appears especially designed for ap-
plication to Wisconsin. While there NAV be ma
ny things stated by the Tribune which are truth
fnl. some OF the imputations against the west are
entire y untounded. The representation that
there is no security in the west for the invest
meht of eastern capital is not true Eastern
capitalists can make investments in Wisconsin
as safely as elsewhere if they choose Specula-
tive schemes-enterprses, Il values of which
a re based on future contingencies, can never be
accounted safe in any country. 1t is in things of
this sort. that eastern capital has more generally
been invested in this State No State or Terri
tory in the Northwest, offers better inducements
for good investments in real estate now than
Wlsco nsin. Lands improved or unimproved
c an be bought cheap Owing to the money
pressure, farms can be purchs sed at prices on
which from Fifteen to twenty per cent profit per
annum, can be realized before the expiration Of
another three years. This must certainly be the
case, unless western harvests continue to be
failures. Give us two or three years of produce
tive crops, such the farmers of the west, were
accustomed to gather a few years ago, and real
estate will be advanced from twenty-five to fifty
per cent Lands IN Wisconsin when there is no
especial financial pressure, must always bear
propOrtOnate value to lands in New York or
Pennsylvania the difference in price, will he
the cost OF transportation of agricultural prods
ucts to an eastern market. At present there is
no just proportion between the estimated value of
lands in Wisconsin and New York; this dispari-
ty in prices is sure not to continue long
The concluding part of the Tribune's stric.
lures, especially in respect to Wisconsin are as
follows -
I'VE have been impelled to these reflections
ny glance at the present financial and neral at
titude of Wisconsin. That State was peopled
mainly (though in part at second handy from
New England and there is no better stock
She has had very rapid growth, and will proba-
bly, exhibit population of Seven Hundred Thou |
sand 10y the sensus # 1860. She is we'll timber |
I'd, well watered, has excellent SOIL is eligi- |
bly, located. and has healthy though rather Sc |
we're climate. She has already anlassed consid |
cradle wealth, and would have been richer by
this time if she had been content to make haste
slowly But her villages Were all eager to be-
come cities at the pace Of Jonah's rourd, while
her farmers wanted to enrich themselves At rail
road speed. So every little port on Lake Michi-
gan must undertake to run its railroad back to
me MlSslsslppl and every county must run in
debt for few hundreds of thousands in aid of
some advantageous line. Not content with
these evidences of public spirit; thousands of
farmers mortgaged their farms for the largest
sum that they could DE made to carry, subscrib-
ed the mortgages as stock or exchanged them
for bondsin these embryo railroads, expect ng |
expecting thus to be made rich, Everythne
was conduc ed for time on high pressure prin. |
ciples, and the result is general burst
The dis astrous consequences of this epidemic
deiusou are wide spread and very severe Some
Of the railroads thus constructed are worth to.
day Just what their rails would sell for AZ old
ron, less than the cost of taking them up and
marketing them. Others are doing better but
hardly one Of the railroads thus flnnciered can
pay the interest on its bonds, leaving its stock
dead loss any how. Of course, the farm not IT.
cages nave been exchanged for what has no pc
cunary values Cities and counties have furnish
cd their tens and hundreds of thousands. and in
vested them in stocks that are not worth so much
white paper he scanty means of widows and
'rpbans at the East have been invested in these
stocks, these bonds, these mortgages; and. az no
interest or dividend is paid on any Of them there
much resulting privation and distress W,rst
'eloped. An utterly Insuvent man NAV be tho.
uughly upright but if there be any latent ras
raity in mans nature, bankruptcy is sur, TO
nring it 10 light. City and county loans are re
undated, and suits brought to enforce collections
IT forcclose mortgages thereon are defended on
'retexts which Tombs lawyer, defending a
'ickpocket in our Police Courts wonld he
shamed to StOop to. The creditors are few ar
ii,tant, the debtors are many, compact and now.
'tni. They elect the Judges, and the JUDGES
emenber their (human) creator The long and
ho't OF the matter is that neither bonds nov
mortgages, principal nor interest, is paid. nor
'Ver Will be. The debts are practically repudi.
ted and Wisconsin hides her burning bushes
IN the bosom of Mississippi. Her project last
logical sequence is one to stop the cn,lect1on
i oebts by law-an experiment that We should
IKE to see tried in any State with reference 10
Obligations contracted after the passage of the
ct, but which, as applied TO debts previously
ncnrred'is nothing less than wholesale robbery
We do not dwell on this deplorable state oil
mngs with any hope of amending it. Nor do
We regard the Wisconsin repudia,Urs as sinners
'oove all otbers-far from it. We design only
o exhibit in vivid colors the truth that lending
capital to young State, whether to communi-
les or individuals is to do its people great harm
and row away your money Shall not the
lesson be needed ~