Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1871-05-04
Shall Rutland Have Manufac'
turesq How it Can be Done.

SMALL
turesp How it Can be Done.
Several of our citizens are just now can
wasting the introduction of manufactures
as an important element in assisting tol
regain the position occupied before rail-
road misfortunes and consolidation had 30
materially affected the business ana
growth Of the town. This movement
ought to receive the cordial endorsement
of every business man and friend OF the
town. That something must be done is
apparent to every thinking, observing
man, and what can be so efectually en-
tered into as manufactures
Rutland is to have more railroads ere
long. The Addison county railway,
reaching the business Of the western
shore of Lake Champlain, will, within IA
year, be brought in connection with
Rutland. The Rutland and Woodstock
railroad as a link in great through line
is sure to be built eventually. But time
must accomplish all these things. Faith,
perseverance and labor, perhaps of years,
will bring them They must come because
Rutland is in the path of the great highway
of the nation, which is fortunate, for they
would not be CONSTRUCTED from any en-
enlargement that Rutland as a town has
yet given them. What has been done is
due to the persistence with which such
ratn INhn ponaI
have pursued these enterprises, at the
sacrifice of their own personal cost of
time and money. These gentlemen have
worked in different directions from each
other, and have been antagonistic, per-
haps, personally-but they have both Ia
bored for the same end-the ibeneft of
the town of Rutland. Their labors have
run parallel in their desire to promote
the business prospects of our people. AL
though their labors have been separate
and distinct, both have the welfare of
this people, and desire to benefit them by
the accomplishment of their several en-
terprises. Whatever either of these gem
tlemen may think of each other, the pub
lie can but look upon them both as labor
ing in one direction, and that their labors
will ultimately rebound to Rutland's BEN
eft. Had they labored together, had
their efforts been seconded as they should
have been by their fellow towsmen, Rut-
land would have been independent of
any injury that might have come to it by
the lease of the Rutland railroad to an
other corporation. We confidently be-
lieve that Mr.. Cain will eventually Sc
cure the building of the Rutland and
Woodstock railroad, and that Gov. Page
will accomplish the Addison County
road and bring the business both of the
Champlain and Passumpsic Valleys to-
our doors But while our leading men
have been laboring almost single handed
and alone, in self-sacrifcing spirit, our
citizens have not only not seconded their
efforts, but have been on the other hand
rather aiding by their dormant and life
less inactivity, in drying up the increase
of business and the sources from which
it is drawn. If each one of our business
men and each citizen will look at their
own case, their own inactivity, and their
duty, and then look at their neighbor,
and so on through the community, they
will find that we have painted a true
picture.
But while we are waiting for these en-
terprises what shall Rutland do? This
is the question. We answer, introduce a
system of manufactures, that shall be
permanent. There are many branches of
industry which with one hundred thous-
and dollars iudiciously expended would
bring to Rutland two or three hundred |
operatives the coming year. Rutland to-
day is the best distributing point in New
England, but we have nothing to dis
tribute but our marble. AS distributing
point Rutland stands in very nearly the
same position as Springfield, Massachu-
sets. Springfield is the very home of in
dustry, its manufactures stand monu-
ment of enterprise on every side. Mill
ions of dollars of manufactured articles
are annually turned out. It is not the
railroads that make Springfield. 1t is her
manufactures that feed her railroads, and
make them remunerative investments The |
result is that both railroads and manufac-
turing companies pay. IfSpringfeld bad
sat quietly and relied alone upon its rail-
roads it would not at the present day
have been as large as Rutland. The
DnNrla go DrfnC Of 1J toOH +irpo hxr hal
forelock; having secured railroads they
like enterprising men went to work to
sustain them, and in doing 80 they fed
the business man, the laboring man, the
farmer, and have built for themselves a
large, prosperous and go-ahead city, sec
ond to none in New England.
How was it done ? Not by inactivity
aud sitting in their stores and growing
about hard tir.es, and crying down their
town-but by energetic, active movement,
all united, each one contributing from bis
resources, and going out into the streets
and joining hands with every other live
man, creating a strong chord of sympathy
in the community by this means they
built up the manufacturing interests
which are the strong pillars of their
strength to-day. Springfield was not rich
it had, at the completion of its railroads,
not one-fourth OF the wealth Rutland has
to-day. But they had pluck, energy, en-
one, from the smallest to
the greatest, contributed his mite of
money, labor, infuence-and there arose
before them, as if by magic, City of In
dustry set upon a hill, which no change of
railroads, money market or stock board
can affect. They did not sit down and
wall, but they aoorked. They put under
their feet all party divisions of Wings or