The Montana post. [volume] (Virginia City, Montana Territory [i.e. Mont.]) 1864-1869, 1868-05-02
LIGHT IMmIGRATION---
AND REMEDY.


From all indications the immigration
to Montana will be small the present
season. The number of trains overland
will be limited the river papers mem
ton the lightness of the passenger lists,
and the floating element of the regions
to the westward has principally tended
farther to the southwark. This is attri-
butable to variety of causes, the prinN
cipal ore Of which can be obviated by
another season, and should receive the
earnest attention of those interested in
the development of the Territory. One
cause of the few trains that will start
from Omaha, Nebraska City and Leay-
enworth is the savage barrier builded
upon our most direct highway by the
Peace Commission. Another is that the
agricultural prospects in Kansas and
Nebraska have never excelled those of
the present season, and the immense
demand for farm labor at the unusually
high wages of twenty-five and thirty
dollars per month has anchored rural
lists drained the town and given en-
ployment TO that surplus which ordina-
rily inclines to migrate westward. ANY
reader of newspapers from Colorado,
Dakota and the river States will have
noticed also the frequency of paragraphs
disparaging Montana, and speaking of
half its population only desiring suffi-
cient money to pay their expenses out,
to leave the Territory. All these adverse
influences have their effect, and that
effect is detrimental to Montana. The
principal cause, however, is that infor-
nation in regard to this Territory is
extremely limited in the States. The
immense gold discoveries in California
astonished the world, and it became the
topic of every tongue. Nevada, Oregon,
and Idaho have been advertised by thou
sands of reports published and distribu-
ted, gratuitously, by their governments
and corporations, to every corner of the
land. Colorado had her department for
minerals in the Great Exposition; agents
from the old world have been sent to
examine and report upon her resources,
and descriptive pamphlets have been
printed in different languages and dis
tributed throughout Europe as well as
the United States. What has Nom
tana done to induce immigration ?
Comparatively nothing. Her gulches
first worked during the war when
million of the adventurous, loose footed
men of the country were in the army !;
isolated and difficult of access, Montana
is at once the richest and the least
known of any of the mineral producing
regions, A few pamphlets in the inter
est of certain companies the Territorial
papers limited in circulation, and the
meagre Commissioners Reports, not
reaching the masses. are, with the exeep
ton of personal influences and Col Nc
Clure's Tribune letters, about the only
agencies that have been employed to
induce capital and emigration. In ad-
verting TO these facts some months since
we urged that in no manner could the
Legislature better subserve the interests
of the Territory than by appropriating
sufficient amount for the compilation,
publication and gratuitous distribution
of pamphlet descriptive of the great
resources of the Territory and the in
inducements offered to capital properly
invested in mining and manufactures !:
laborers, mechanics and husbandmen.
Had this been done four months since,
we have not doubt the influx of immi-
grafton and capital would have been
doubled he present season, and the ex-
penditure amply repaid Let the ex-
perience of the present We lesson for
the future. r-r ...-.
Since writing the above we have read
in the Herald of last evening an article