The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1864-07-05

The growth Of the new states In the North
west is due In large measure 10 the judicious
legislation Of Congress, both as regards the
disposition Of the public lands, and the en-
couragement given TO their improvement and
settlement. The free-iarm system has drawn
TO our shores a vast number Of immigrants
from Europe, who have taken up small tracts
ofground on the remote frontier, and invested
In their cultivation whatever money they
brought over with them, in addition to their
skilled labor. The land thus occupied rendered
all the contiguous country moro attractive, 80
that the tide Of emigration has, for years
past, set steadily westward, and is rapidly
bringing into use a wide expanse Of territory
which all indications assure us is destined to
be the richest, most productive, and powerful
portion Of the United States. ....
Illinois has more voters than New Hamp-
shire, Vermont, and Connecticut Ohio has
more voters than Maine, Massachusetts,, and
Rhode Island. And as they have exceeded
their elder sisters in population so will they
In process Of time excel them In wealth.
The same liberal policy Of the general
Government which has operated so beneneially
thus far In the settlement and development Of
our extensive national territories, should be
persistently pursued until the whole continent
from ocean TO ocean and from the lakes TO the
gulf Is covered with a homogeneous and
thriving people, working out, under the fos-
tering care of central political system, their
own individual happiness and the grandeur
and felicity Of one common national organi-
zAtion and life. Every legislative measure
that contributes to that end should be cheer.
fully supported by every Representative in
Congress.
The only real value Of the public lands to
the nation lies in what private industry and
enterprise can bring out Of them for the good
of all and the progress Of civilization Hence
the nation gains more In giving them away to
actual settlers than in selling them, in the
proportion that Its first mode OF getting them
occupied and developed IL more certain and
expeditions than the latter.
And here let us remark that those persons
who complain that the Government has made
certain grants of the public lands to railway
companies In the West do not rightly appre.
ciate the great advantage which the whole
country has derived from those donations.
The construction of the railways through the
Western States has tended, in a very large
measure, to I'LL wild regions with an
energetic population, whose labor and intelli-
genee have much more than repaid the Gov
ernment in revenue, direct and indirect, for
the thousands of acres given to the various
! railroad corporations that have interlaced all
the Western country with those iron high
ways which carry population and wealth with
them wherever they go.
In the last ten years there have been built
at the West, 1856 miles of railroad, at a cost
OF $253, ,S20 ,464, mostly by eastern or imported
capital. The Illinois Central Railroad Com
pany alone sent into Illinois $30O00,000, and
built road which enabled the Federal Gov
ernment to sell 81, 100000 worth of land, and
the Company to sell $20,O00O00 more to actual
settlers-making over S61 900, 600 concentrated
in that State by the operations Of one com
pany. The chief effect of this has been tC
swell the aggregate receipts of grain al
Chicago during the ten years, to 15S544554
bushels, which at an average price of so cents
per bushel, 1.-THE value for 1860 at Chicago)
would be worth $128,O0OyOOO, thus exceeding
by $31 900 900 the cost of the railroads through
the agency of which the grain was mad'
available. In 1861, the grain increased tt
1897, 400 bushels, the Southern routes being
closed and in 1862 the amount was 6O,150,39t
bushels. These figures but indicate the ex
tent OF that prosperity which has developed
so rapidly during the last ten years in th
northern section of the West.