Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1871-05-05

The Disease that Towns Die of.
There is so much concentrated
good sense in the following from
the State Register, applicable as
well to independence as to Des
Monies that we copy it entire:
An intelligent gentleman, man
of fine business reputation and large
capital, now on visit to our city,
said to us yesterday, "You have
fine town here, one that is substan-
tial and solid now, but it's greatest
wealth is in the future. You are
building it up well and rapidly, but
you are not laying your foundations
SO wisely as you might. You can't
make this town what you would
like to have it, simply with stores
and Offices. You hope and expect
to make it the metropolis of Iowa.
1t will never be this, if you continue
to fashion and build in the manner
you are now doing. You can't be
great town, without the elements
that make great towns to help you.
A portion of these, Nature has pro-
vided you with. Indeed she has
been generous with you, exceedingly
generous. But on these very things
and your location, you are relying
too much. You arc not the first
town suffering from that disease,
which might not inaptly be called
commercial consumption, manifest
destiny and if you don't mind,
you will not be the last one to die
with it. More towns have died
with that disease that with any
other half dozen. | don't know,
butt think you folks have got it
badly. / think l may say l am
sure you have. TO me the eviden-
ces are quite plain, that while you
have done well, you have not done
half SO we'll as you might. You
have not wrested from your superior
advantages, one-fouth Of the benefit
that they could have been made to
confer upon you. To state with
bluntness what l believe with all
my heart, you have all the while
firmly believed that the grateness
of Des Moines was a dead sure
thing, was surely coming some
time, and that, in the meantime, you
could all live on the profits of a
yard of calico and bushel of grain.
If you haven't believed this, why
haven't you built more manufac-
tories and secured more railroads?
l put manufactures before railroads
and for your town first before any
thing else. Here you are, in the
center of the finest agricultural
States in the Union, filled up with a
class Of farmers who use more
machinery than any other | know
of. They pay millions of dollars
every year for this machinery.
How much of this money would you
get, could you supply them with
what they want? Ocer hoT Of it.
How much do you get as it is? Sar-
cely any of it. And yet you have
every advantage for a superior
manufacturing point. Manufactures
would bring you money and popu-
lation. Start a dozen factories, as
you should Immediately, and which
would pay immensely, and what
would they do for you, financially
and numerically? Saying each
one would employ fifty hands, each
one would add to your population
at least two hundred persons-the
twelve, twenty-four hundred. While
these twelve factories would bring
capital here, and draw hundreds Of
thousands Of dollars of trade that is
yours but which you never get,
what would their six hundred labor
ers do for you? They would earn
nine thousand dollars week, al
most all of which would pass into
your city circulation, into the hands
of shop-keepers and dealers, quick
ing your trade with the only red
blood that will quicken it, every
Saturday night. The trouble with
you now is, that it is the many who
have something to sell, and the few
who have to buy. Hence the grum
BILE about the scarcity Of money you
have in circulation. Where do you
expect money to come from? There
is hardly any Of you making any
thing that will make money. You
are only making per cents on things
made by towns that have manufac-
tories. What you must do is to
make the whole dollar here at home,
on your own anvil and with your
own hammer, and then when it is
put in circulation you will have all
and not merely one-tenth of its
benefit. You must some Of you
produce, create, coin,-not so nearly
all Of you merely retail, peddle, and
barter, playing at commercial jack
straws, and trying to make a living
and a fortune by selling one an