The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1864-02-25
Eas,ern and Western Profits.

Improvement
and extension Of their mills Before the war six
per cent was considered large profit and adequut
ltmust be apparent to western business that New
England capitalists in enjoy peculiar
be attributed the superiority 90 Of that
sGeon or TO any Superior enterprise on the Of its pop
aation On the contrary itself has been partial
the western states Our supplies found
We produce than we consume. Iron leaj, copper
wheat-a Of wealth that nature in its bounty ca be-
upon reward the industry of his hands
fusion We have heads machinery hands
to manage it, water power run it, material to employ
and fuel to iced the furnace he Then why are western
toll ana enterprise rewarded with poverty and why does
western capital, upon the average return but copata
atlYey small percentage to the holder Why this steady
flo" Of wea from te gardsn Of the land toward the bleak
The secret is easily found by those whe search
for it, The tariff bills the tax bills and the UpratOn
that mercessiy the fruit of ashes
and mysterously converts the rocks Eng
land solid gold emanates frem Washington sefshness
ana ianatcism like twin kings reign supreme
ng in tides toward the Northeastern coast the pro
duets o. western soil and western labor transferred by
partial and nsdious legislation from the packets Of our
people to the Golfers Of eastern captallsts-'L News
We made some comments on the above
item last week to show that we must look
to some other cause, than to the Adninistra-
ton at Washington, for the supposed differ
ence between eastern and Western profits. "
The wish to create feeling of antipathy be
tween the East and West, and at the same
time to foster and nourish hatred of the Ad-
ministration, was undoubtedly the motive Of
the article. But there is a general view of
the subject that calls for more than a pass
ing rebuke Of the demagogues.
There is an apparent discrepancy between
the condition Of the East and the West. But
it comes from natural causes. In q visit we
made to New England a short time since, we
found it hard to convince the jewellers upon
the slopes of the Green Mountains and in the
valleys and ravines among the White Noun
tains, that their scanty soil was not more
productive than the plains and praries Of the
West. Said they, look at the wealth Of New
England and the poverty Of the West. There
is hardly a cultivator of these hill farms but
who has money to loan to your Western PEG
pie and you call for it at enormous interest,
and too often fail to pay back again. We
knew the truth of these assertions, but they
did ms prove that the soil or climate Of New
England was more productive or more gen
ial than that of the West, any more than it
proved that the thrift and prosperity Of New
England was the result Of ''selfshness and
fanaticism' at Washington, for under the
Administration of Pierce and Buchanan, the
editor of the Ners would hardly admit that
those twin kings reigned over us supreme. y
New England, as States, is several years
older than the West. There have been more
improvements made-more land cleared up
and brought under cultivation-more build
ings erected-in the West, during the last
twenty five years than in New England dur
ing the last hundred and twenty-five years.
We say this in no disparity of the East, but
simply to show that while our New England
neighbors have been accumulating-layin
up money, we out west have not only been
spending all we could make but all we could
borrow into the bargain, in improvements
in clearing up and cuItivating farms, and
building cities towns and villages. And a
great share Of this was done, either on Dor
roWed Or fctiLions capital. Nine ,enths of
the fortunes that have been made in the west
have been made by speculations in corner
lots. Now, although this kind of specua-
ton may be perfectly legitimate, we ought
to remember that it adds nothing to the real
wealth Of country. 1t produces nothing.
One man may sell hundred corner lots at
an enormous price, and make himself indie
pendently rich, but he has added nothing to
the production of the country
The News says that New England capital
lists used to be satisfied with or 7 per cent.
We are not aware that western capitalists
were ever satisfied with any such percent
age
We have here at the west fertile, produc-
tive, healthy country. Nature has given us
all the conditions or requisites for wealthy
and happy country. But we Shall never be
''s45th% in the way oflarge surplus capital,
like our New England neighbors, so long as
we are exclusively an agricultural people
1t is not IN the nature of things for COM
munity Of small farmers, remote from the
great markets, to ever be a monied commu-
nifty, we care not how productive the land
may be. Such a community may be indie
pendent, and thrifty but it will never be a
money loaning community. The reason is
obvious. They have to enrich too many
other communities. The specuIator who buys
his grain,may grow rich-the5 warehouSemen
who stores his grain may roll in wealth
the transportation company that carries his
grain to an eastern market may grow rich,
and the insurance companies that insure his
grain in transitu may grow rich-but west
ern farmers-the men who alone produce all
this wealth will never grow enormously rich.
Nor would the farmers ofNew England grow
rich, if they had to transport their products
to the west and enrich, as western farmers
now do, all these middle men who are non
producers.
II we would take pattern from our New
England brethren, instead of berating them
SO foolishly and unjustly, we might make
more money, Suppose, for instance, one half
our population to be engaged in the various
departments Of manufacture. Suppose we
all the cotton cloths, all the
all the cassimeres, tweeds, woolens,
&c, &c, that we wear-all the thread but
tons, pins, hooks and eyes, pocket-knives,
&c, &C., and thousand other things that
enter into every day consumption. Suppose
we manufactured all these articles for our
consumption, and fair surplus to supply
our neighbors Of the far west? Does any
body suppose under such state of things,
that we should be quarrelIing or trying to
quarrel with the Administration at Wash