The Nevada journal., 1860-05-11
Effects of Railroad Enterprise.

Abe astonishing progress OF our country
in material wealth is evident to all. The
rapid increase of population, the extension /
of cultivated fields, the sudden growth of
cities the immense annual addition to the |
productive resources of the country, nay, |
the extraordinary creation even, of thriving |
Ltates in the very centre of Territories that |
lately were an unbroken wilderness, are |
facts in our history as marvellous as they |
are common.
This is not due alone to the sudden in
gress of population from abroad. 1t is not
the result of the sudden impulsion of an
overcrowded population from the older
states upon the virgin lands of the great
West The marks of improvement are as
visible III The old as in the new States, i'll
the centre of commerce as in the Territories
Just occupied by the hardy pioneers of our
civilization.
Much of the prosperity that is such a
prominent characteristic of our country
spring from the gigantic railroad enterprises
in which the people have embarked. What
the gold bearing strata have done for Cali
fornia and are now accomplishing for JEFF
ferson Territory, the local railroads of the
various States have accomplished and are
still doing for each state of the Cnion.-
They have added to the wealth of every
country through which they pass more than
! the unexpected discovery of auriierous veins
would have done. They have stimulated
industry, which, by its aggregate results,
has surprised the most sanguine and disap-
pointed the cautious statician.
Let one who twenty years ago had trav
erSed the interior of Georgia and noted the
indolent habits and careless men of its in
habitantS. devoted more to the sports of the
field or the stream than to the labors of the
farm Founging sluggishly around the cross
roads tavern, or listlessly enjoying repose
beneath the ruder porch of their rustic
homesteads, or the thick branched trees that
overshadow them-now pass through the
same districts. and he will find no traces of
their former life. The same men and wo
men occupy the lands the same grand out
lines of natural scenery remain; but how
changed the scene! Life, energy, enterprise
and industry have girded up the sinews and
given elasticity to the movements of the
people The fields are filled with a wealth
of production that betokens intelligent en-
terprise. Comfort. even luxury, marks the
former rude country cottages, and the whole
State is alive with busy, thriftful toll. The
iron horse, traversing the country formerly
labor beyond what was necessary to pro-
duce the rude necessities of life, useless,
has afforded them an incentive to effort
Their lands have quadrupled in value, and
every article of production finds ready
purchaser. The great State railroad has
made corn worth dollar and half per
bushel has done the work. Nineteen mill
ions of dollars expended by Georgia on
railroads have added 225,000,000 to her
real estate. creating as by arts of magic a
capital that has revolutionized TIE industry
of the common wealth.
Massachusetts has expended sc, goo, 900
in works of internal Improvement, and
Boston alone has received from it more than
a duplication of the value of real estate,
while the entire area of the State has been
more than trippled in value.
When New York entered upon her career
of domestic improvement, her taxable prop
erty was only S3l2, 100000. She has now
spent on her railroads and canals Sl95, ,000,-
900 and the valuation of her property has
risen to 81, 1000 900.
In Virginia and East Tennessee the value
of lands in the neighborhood of the Vir-
ginia and East Tennessee Railroad in six
years has been raised from S26, 100000 to
sos 900, 900.
The lands in the vicinity of the Orleans,
jackson and Great Northern Railroad, in
Louisiana and Southern Mssissippi were
entirely unattractiye at the small price of
twenty-five cents per acre. They cannot
now be bought for ten dollars per acre. In
that region Of wilderness. the sounds of in
dustrv, the culture of taste, tle works of
thrift are every where visible. Population
springs up along the line of this great ar
terry of travel, and even .terility grows pro-
ductive.
Such facts show what is to be expected
by the present endeavors to extend our
works of home Improvement, or to aid
those which propose to connect this city
with the plains of Texas and the great South
Sea. What New York has done for her
commercial capital is now in progress for
New Orleans and the entire Southwest. The
propositions to aid railroad enterprises
should be viewed with this statement of
facts before US. We should survey what
has been written in the history of the prog
ress of the whole country as the result of
railroad enterprise. when we are called upon
to contribute State or individual aid to new
enterprises, ard we shall bring to aid our
decision enlarged views and liberality of
feeling. There seems, at the present mo-
ment, to be need of these aids to public
deliberation as well as individual action
". o. Pic.