The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-07-28
Frrn on Oaea..onel ootresponaeaL

ers. Al q time of commercial depression
like the present, when every large city has
5ts thousands of unemployed workmen and
other thousands Of the trading class hardly
making g living, the only escape for
these people from inevitable poverty is to
seek some place where there is a wider field
for their labor, and where competition is not
present to crush them helplessly to the earth.
But it is well, when in such a position, to
bear in mind the old proverb, "Out of the
~frying-pan into the fire." for when q man
has spent his little means in removing
his family to q distant region, in the
hope Of lettering his condition, and then
finds that his industry is not adapted to the
locality he has selected, that mans mistake is
indeed q serious one. / have long thought
that Horace Greeley discriminating advice
10 ali his unprosperous readers to go West,
and thus escape the tyranny of landlord and
employer, is apt, if followed to any great
extent, to infict as serious evils upon many
individuals as are those which be designs
them to escape. Such a resort may certainly
tend to relieve the dense pressure of crowded
cities. but 1 submit whether this end might
not be attained in some easier way than the
possible sacrifice of the health, comfort, and
usefulness Of those who are led to follow such
advice.
/ live in Kansas, and therefore can speak
Of the advantages offered by this State to
those removing from localities further east.
Since the completion of the Pacific Railroad
and the opening of the Kansas Pacific branch
TO Sheridan, an immense influx of settlers
has been pouring into the West; and as Kan
sas offers the advantages of cheap lands,
fertile soil, and favorable seasons, this State
seems to be attracting the largest share of
settlement. Any person travelling westward
over any of the trunk lines connecting with
the East cannot but be struck with the
constant tide of population, composed of all
nationalities, which is flowing in this direc-
ton. And as but few of these persons
return, it is fair to presume that the large
majority become absorbed in some industry,
and, either for better or for worse, make this
region their permanent home.
II should be borne in mind by all
VINO propose removing West that
hired labor is not in demand here.
We have no concentration of capital.
Our principal industries are agriculture and
we have no large workshops to
absorb those who look solely to capital for
support. There is some mechanical work
pursued, it is true. The thousands who come
here every season require homes to live in,
clothing to cover them, and articles for
domestic use; and to supply these wants
affords employmentto anumber Of mechanics.
But the work is all done in q primitive way.
We have no heavy contractors who
keen a. force of hundreds of men
at work during the building season. If a set
tier buys a piece of land, his first object is to
put a house upon it. But this is only a
slight structure. He comes with limited
means, and has forty ways for every dollar he
Possesses. Pioneer settlers cannot study
comfort or elegance: they have to be
content with the qualification of their
simplest wants. In building a house,
then, he procures material from Chi
cago, for pine lumber does not grow in this
State, through the factorship of some local
dealer; then procuring the assistance of SOM
rough Trainer, who can cut a mortice and
tenon, he, with some ~neighboring settler,
knocks a habitation together that will with.
stand the prairie winds and keep out the
fervors of the suns rays.
Now, a city mechanic, no matter what hi
occupation, if he is only handy in the use o
tools, can come to this or any other Western
State with perfect safety, providing he has
few hundred dollars to make provision for hi
family before ne seeks to follow his bust
ness. He can get a piece of railroad land
forty or eighty acres, at a price ranging from
five to ten dollars per acre, payable in hv
years, and put a cheap house upon it. Fl
can then break a fewacres of prairie and plan
it with seed-corn, reserving a patch for
vegetable garden. Thus, with a COW and
few hens, he is relieved from the dire neces
sity of waiting on Saturday night for hi
weeks wages, and has also achieved his de
liverance from the exactions of the landlord
In ell communities We find that the earlies
settlers are those who have grown wealthy b.
the enhancement of property; and j
a State like Kansas, whore popula
ton is pouring in SO rapidly, value
increase in such a ratio that q homesteal
upOn which little else than a few years indus
try has been expended becomes eventually
handsome property to shield a man in his de
Ginning years.
But it is an error in political economy t
take a mechanic from a business where hi
industry is useful to the communit
and put him to farming, in which pun
suit he is unskilled and for which he ma
never acquire a taste. Nor is such an en-
forced change of occupation necessary here
Communities are springing up almost daily