New-York tribune., 1870-12-15
NEW-IERSEY-

The revolution recently wrought -. lew
Jersey, whereby q Republican delegation in
Congress, in Senate, in Assembly, and de-
cided popular majority, are secured, carry
ing with them a U. S. Senator for six
years from the 4th of March next, from
State which gave majority of thou
sands against Lincoln and against Grant, will
prove permanent or transtOry according to the
spirit in which its opportunities are improved.
If the new Legislature shall prove as corrupt
and as facile as its predecessor to the behests
of the great Railroad corporations which have
hitherto ruled and shamed the State, then the
story of Republican ascendency will soon be told.
If the People shall discover that their interest
is held paramount to the banquets and bribes
of the chartered monOpOists, they will take
care that the authors of this salutary change
shall not soon give place to the tools of the
great companies.
Nearly half the area of New-Jersey is to-
day unimpTOved. Millions of acres of warm,
facile level land, which ought to be growing
Vegetables and Fruits for the great cities on
either side, are surrendered to scrub oaks and
stunted pines, and scarcely more useful to man
kind than when this whole country was peOpled
by naught but red savages three centuries
ago. The soil Of South Jersey is, for the most
part, light and thin, and needs heavy applica-
tiOns of fertilizers to fit it for profitable cul-
ture. The mari which will render it productive
underlies in abundance considerable portion
of that region but its great bulk renders
the use of Railroads indispensable to its ade-
quate distribution. The farmer who must
wagon his mari over Deep clOgging, sandy
tracks through the wilderness for ten to twenty
miles, rarely or never does or will apply
enough of it to fit his land for growing the
crops which his markets require. Quite often,
he scratches bare subsistence from hundred
acres, when tenth of it, adequately fertilized,
would insure him generous income Thousands
after thousands have given up in despair and
migrated TO the West, abandoning lands on
which crops might be grown as amply and
cheaply as in the Great Valley and sold for
twice as much, if they had enjoyed facilities
for cheaply fertilizing their lands from the
marl-beds not twenty miles distant.
The needed Railroads would rapidly be CON
structed if the legislation of the State favored
them. What is needed is general law, au-
thOrizing, under proper safeguards, such roads
to be built wherever capital can be found to
construct them. IF this cOnsummatiOn can be
hastened and assured by a prospect of shar-
ing in the caTying-trade between this City
and Philadelphia, the interests Of Ncw-Jersey
imperatively demand that this prospect be
held out. Had there never been a monopoly
Of this trade accorded to the Camden and
Amboy combination, there would have been
not less than four through lines in operation
TINS day, as there are four distinct lines (by |
Hartford, by Norwich, by Providence and by
fan RyeD between this City and Boston |
Under this policy, the population of New-.Jer- |
sey by the census of 1870 would have been at
Ie Quarter of Million more than it is, |
her annual production One Hundred Millions
greater and her wealth immensely more. The
past cannot be recalled; but the monopoly |
has expired by limitation; and it should now |
be established, as a corner stone of New-Jer- |
sey's policy, that wherever capital can be found |
10 construct n railroad, there it may be con- |
structed, and may carry all that offers ON sucb |
terms az the parties may agree upon.
The great companies are powerful and |
wealthy. They can afford TO spend Half a |
Million per snnum at Trenton TO maintain for |
a season their gainful monopoly. They need |
no reenactDent Of that MONOPOLY in terms il |