The Hillsdale standard. [volume] (Hillsdale, Mich.) 1851-1909, 1865-09-12
What Makes an Inland County Rich
-.od and Prosperous.
From The Grand Rapids Eagle

1
1 s 1880 --
! o. H From the Grand Rapids Eagla
i Ifany one will take the trouble tc
study the census statistics Of the Uni
ted States--or, indeed of any country
l-Ac will find the seEeyident cause
that has created large cities and rich
populous counties G, everywhere to be
manufacturing advantages combined
with transit facilities, or transit tacili-
ties alone. The great cities Of all
modern countries owe their greatness
to transit facilities. Commerce builds
UP prosperity and population; and com
merce always seeks those points that
have the easiest, cheapest and quickest
communication with the rest of the
world. If any body were asked what
makes New York the metropolis Of
America, instead of Baltimore, or Phil
.adelphia, or Chicago, or Cincinnati? he
would at once reply that her noble har-
Dor her system Of railroad, canal and
river transit haye built up her great
ness, Commerce and wealth center in
New York simply and only because it
is easter and cheaper. TO go there than
to any other point. -.
Philadelphia, Baltimore, Boston, Mo-
bile, New Orleans. Chicago, Cincinna-
Il, Buffalo, Detroit, and various other
large commercial cities owe their great
ness to similar causes- They all have
fne harbors, easy Of access, and they
all have wide and and far-reaching com
munications with distant markets by
water and BY rail- The combined ad-
vantagcs Of water and railroad oommy-
nication have built them up, as great
commercial towns, without. much aid
from manufacturers.
But, Of we look at another class of
large, prosperous and growing towns,
which have not the advantage Of both
wather and railroad communications,
we shall find, as an invariable rule, that
manufactures and railroad have built
them up.
There are large number.of towns
in the Republic having no more natur-
al advantages than Grand RapiGs-
some of them not half so lavishly provi-
ded by nature-which have far exceed
ed Us in growth and wealth. In every
one of them we find first, good-at
least Q wellimproyed-water power;
second, . convenient aRd far-reaching
system of railroads. Very few of them
have navigable river, like ours, or the
near vicinity Of navigable chain of
lakes to aid them. Look at some nots-
BILE instances.
Lowell, Mass, had a population, in
1860, of 80, 1927 persons. Lowellis now
seaport All her manufactures de-
pend upon railroads for transportation.
Yet Lowell is immensely rich. Her
wealth consists in magnificent water
power, naturally not Of much account,
but made Sxhaustless by art. There
is not a farm in Middlcsex county, of
which Lowell is the chief town, which
will not readily sell for 81 900 per acre.
Columbus, Ohio, has but one advan-
tage over this city, that of being a
State capitol. Her population in 1860,
1850. Columbus has no water nava-
cation. All her prosperity is solely
due to railroad facilities and manufac-
tures-mostly to her railroads.
Indianapolis, Indiana, is another
wholly inland city. It is not even
near any great lake, sea or river. Her
population in, 1850 was 1851, and
her growth is exceedingly rapid. Tn
1850 her population was only s,334-
very little more than ours, She ows
her extraordinary growth solely to her
system of railroads. aa
Rochester, New York, is, perhaps,
the best example of what a WATERPROOF
Of and q system of railroads can DO for
an inland place. The population of
Rochester, in 1850, was AZ, ,204-an in
crease Of IL ,80l i'll ten years. We de-
fly any person to point out any natural
advantages possessed by Rochester
except her natural waterfall-that is at
all to be compared with the natural ad-
vantages of this city and county.
But, if nature has given Rochester
a splendid water-power, nature has
given little to Schenectady, Troy, Wor-
cester, Saryacuse, Reading, Elmira,
Cambridge, Manchester, Nashville,
New Haven and Montgomery. These
cities have been built by enterprise in
procuring Railroad transit and in build
ing up manufactures; and there is no
reason why the same enterprise, exer-
erted in the same directions, will not
enable this city and county to speedily
eclipse most OF them in wealth and pop
ulation: