Cedar Falls gazette. [volume] (Cedar Falls, Iowa) 1860-1895, 1865-09-01
&C. L0uiSC0rres nandenee
sr.LouIs, Mo, Aug. 18Th, 1865.


EBfross GAzETrE:
Ithss bccn SOME time since fhad the
pleasure Of sccing h copy of yenr valu.
able paper. L find it, as usual, full OF
interesting reading matter, and 1 hope
you will not consider it an insult when
l say, you publish one of the best coun-
try newspapers in the West, and Cedar
Falls should be indeed proud of your
journal. Such paper is the life Of any
town or city. My short stay In your
town was 4 pleasant one, and 1 became
very much attached to the people and
the place, and i would be there to-day
ii business matters did not prevent. l
see by the last three issues of your pa
per that you at Cedar Falls are agita-
ting new railroad project, --comneno
! Ing at a point on the Iowa State line
where the North Missouri Railroad will
terminate, thence running north thro'
Appanooseand Monroe Counties to Oska
loosa in Mahaska, thence through Pow
eshiek and Tama Counties to Cedar
Falls, in Black Hawk County, there to
connect with the Cedar Falls e. Mime
sofa Railroad to Minneapolis and St.
Paul. This is indeed a grand project,
and in every particular practicable; and
l most sincerely hope your people of
Cedar Falls will not rest day or night
until this thingis completed, for know
when 1t is done it will be the best rail-
road route in the West, and will pay a
good dividend. A glance Mt the map of
the Western States will prove this be-
You'd any doubt. The people of st.
Louis, can assure you, are aroused to
the Importance of this enterprise, and
will leave nothing undone on their part
to bring about SO desirable an object as
the completion of the Iowa Central
Railroad. 1t is all in all to st. Louis,
and well might her people be looking
about them, and see where they are and
where they have been the last four
years. and where Chicago Is, and what
it has been doing. No time or oppor-
tunity has been lost by the latter city,
and it has now got control of about all
the railroads in Iowa, which are bear
ing tremendous loads of all kinds of
produce into her lap, and taking
back in return all kinds of meridian
disc. This trade st. Louis should
have, and can have, if she will 60 to
work. She has some w. Il. Ogdens if
they will come out and work, but there
is no time to spare. There is no doubt
on this point, viz: when this road is
completed to Cedar Falls it will make
it the best inland town in Iowa. The
competition in railroad routes, and the
great manufacturing interests of your
city will put you long ways ahead of
the most formidable rival. You now
have three of the best Touring mills in
the West, and water-power sufficient to
do any amount of other manufacturing.
You have already sash and door facto-
ries, foundry and machine shops, and
various other manufacturing establish
ments, and, by the way, see you have
a concern in the wholesale cracker BUSH
L
City Railroad people do not feel very
friendly to your new enterprise. 1t
will not do them much good, ] think,
and shall not feel very sorry for them.
l shall not forget that Company very
soon. I, with the rest of the shippers,
was treated most outrageously last fall
and winter, when there was no occasion
for it. I, with many other operators,
lost money in my business by reason of
a neglect on the part of the Company
to furnish cars to move my produce for
ward. They claimed that they had not
the cars, but this consider no excuse
whatever. 1t was their business to fur
nish adequate means for transporting
with dispatch. This l think was not
the case in all instances, for l was in
formed by good reliable persons that in
many instances cars stood on the track
at Waverly for a week without being
loaded, and the shippers said they had
no trouble about getting cars at that
place. By reason of this delay we were
compelled to lose heavily on. our wheat
and dressed pork.
One of the big men of that road, said
on certain occasion that he could not
see why the people would pass by Wa
verify and go to Cedar Falls to sell their
produce, and said we must put stop 20
this, it will net do our branch .oad will
not pay il that thing Continues. I do
not know how true it is. but I am told
that the c. f. & NJ. Railroad is owned
by few gents in New York and Du-
buque, who are also members of the
Board of Directors of the ID. & s. G.. II.
R., and they get Is per cent. on freight
from the former road which passes over
the latter. If this is the case this TO a
certain extent shows the object of the
Ccmpany's doing as they do by you
people at Cedar Falls. Let them go on,
the day of retribution is near at hand.
L see the Company have new Presi-
Diet, and also new Superintendent
good for Gov. Young. l hope flor the
sake of the good people along that line
that the change is for the better. Do
not forget your great Iowa Central r.
r. enterprise; keep ii before the people.
want TO see it built Immediately, and
want to take the first train over this
road and will do so if l am a living
man. 10 Ii,
In an article on the markets the Chi
cage Journal has the following, which
is very good argumentin favor of the
building of the Iowa Central Railroad:
Flour manufactured along the Miss
issippi Valley is shipped to st. Louis
by river for 80 cents to 50 cents per bar
rel, while it costs from so cents to ST 90
to get it 10 Chicago; and when in St.
Louis 1t Is worth from 81 cents 10 81 90
a barrel more than here. @a * a ~
x Il N
Wheat from Iowa and the valley con-
tinues to come to Chicago because of
the great expense of barging. and the