Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1871-02-09

you will, and you find no more natural
wealth, not so great natural advantages as
we have but you find people who recog-
nizes wealth. not. in pinching penny until
the eagle on 1t squalls, but in extending
aid TO public enterprises, which in time
make the penny into dollars- Eighteen
years ago the Fl. Wayne Road was pro-
jected. am Its father, and am proud of
It. got the first subscription of stock.
/ called the first meeting. / made the first
speech. went on foot through the Kan
kakee marsh to see If it was hard bottom
| or bottomless. / was chairman of the
meeting that organized the company, and
took in the subscription list from this
county that enabled ii To organize. And
was so poor that | borrowed money 10
pay my expenses to the meeting. l men.
| ton il, first, because / want you to note
what follows; and secondly, Lam proud
Of my connection with 1t. and | want you
10 do as 1 did then, if you wish to prosper
We then bad a.sparse population. GIades
of land land some OF the same lands) now
held at S75 per acre, took into the COM
pany as stock. at So per acre. We then
hauled wheat Is miles and got As and 80
cents for il. Good horses were worth
$50 to 500. Good oxen worth S35, TO
So, per yoke. Good cows worth $40 TO
SIS. Pork worth 81 % per hundred
Chickens, one dollar per dozen (ror few
dozen). Eggs cents per dozen, butter
aud 10 cents per pound, lumber 81 To-
S. per 1000. Wood 80 cents per cord,
imbei 9 to- cents per foot, board 10 10
~ shillings per week, labor to shill-
iDgs per day, and so on.
Suppose we had all refused To do any
thing? Poor as we were. l took in $780,
| 100 of subscription, and got the right of
way through the county, iic.udidg good
deal of fencing, at an avererage of $50 per
mile. Here was gy enterprise and
liberalty amoung our people. See the
result, But in time il became monopoly.
Ii charged higher prices than it needed to.
| While IL sent car load of cattle from
! Chicago to New York, 904 miles for So.
| il charged us for car load OF potatoes To
Cincinnati, less than 800 miles, $50, and
so in other cases But it brought our
lands up-it brought our grain and cattle,
and pork up. 1t carried off our timber
and shingles and lumber, our eggs, chick
ems. butter, beef and hogs. Ii .1ade a
market for wood. il brought us steam saw
mills and single machines. IL opened
markets even as far as London for our
(untilfDen worihless) black walnut timber
1t built up for us Bourbon and lnwood,
and cleared up the lands about there and
made so much more taxables; AMI made
land which L sold there at 81 per acre,
worth $50 TO $50. in cash. And last, it
brought out machines. men and money
from Chicago aid cut The worthless grass
On the marshes Of the kankskee, and
shi pped il. baled for market, as hay, and
left the money with US, and brnught the
lands into market at some value-beforc
utterly worthless. But the new road was
projected aed finally built south. Croak-
ers said it would kill the town. Did il
hurt the county, 1t saved $500 in re
duciion Of fret .hts 10 the business men of
the county the first year. Before then we
paid 20 cts per hundred Ia send produce
10 Chicago Now we get ii for S25 per
car, making So and over on Zach Car, in
our favor. Ii built up Walnut and Argos
stations. II added over bali million
dollars TO the taxables of the county
Have the farmers or business men been
hurt? Is Marshall county poorer to day
than before either or both these roads
were. built? No. She Is richer. have
NOT the exact figures can only approx
in ate by estimation, but, we have 40
square miles of land and better land or
better timber. does not lie out of doors
nor better distribution CT timber, water.
and grass land. We have near half a
million bushels OF corn--over quarter
million bushels of wheat and other agri-
cultural productions in proportion. We
have about Is mills, averaging over 200
feet OF lumber per day which Is about two
millions per month, of the value OF Sl+
per 900 to $40 per 1000, or s260,000 TO
$3.50, 900 per year. and keeps over Geo men
and a prOportioate numter OF teams al
work. This is much ander the trae esti
mate, but desire to simply give you an
idea Of what YOU have and are throwing
away. Over $50. 600 of hnnn nnlrs aione'
IS one Item. Then comes ties, hewed
timber. round timber. ship knees, slaves,
aud single bolts, heading. logs for ven
GERS. stuff for gun and pistol stocks,
short walnut logs for cabinet STUFF
and various other kinds of productions.
AT Bremen and Bourbon, considerable
stuff is worked up into wagon, carriage,
sleigh, agricultural implement and other
stock, ready for the makers. On all this
we have the profits Of working up. and
all we buy back We pay freight and
profit on both ways.
The receipts for freighis and passen
gers at Plymouth IL over SlO0,O00 per
snnum. We have in our county nearly
fifty miles of railroad, making abou:
$40, 900 per mile of taxable real estate,
and we have not one good organization,
in prosperous circumstances, in the coun-
~ for any purpose. This one has a fee
Die existence, and will die of hamilton
unless its management is changed and we
spend some money as p people 10 give us
J q market and bring capitalists among US.
We have mol even good school in
the county, mean such as we ou.h, To
have: and we have too many men who
fight railroad projects new school houses,
churches, and even new court house.
and grumbe all The lime about high tax
rs. Why If they had their way
their farms woulsi not buy them
cow Like the squirrel with his nuts and
the hog with lis z rass roots, ibey would
get no more than any other Irrational an
imal. If we lad more taxes for public
buildings and more churches, school
h1uses, railroads and factories, we would
lave more taxables, and consequently less
/ animal about us. Until we break down
| this spirit by some means, we can never
have an agricultural society. | will tell
| you why, and bring home 40 us now all
this reasoning and show its bearing upon
our society. 1t is very briefly stated.
| The same spirit Of illiberality that oppo-
ses the the public enterprises is inimicai
to the existence of agricult ural societies,
and helps 20 break them down when We
have started .hem. TO succeed, we must
have a market--so TO speak. We must
bring people here from abroad with some
thing To exhibit at our fairs W orth having.
and which we wish to try and surpass
w. must get good fair ground, with
! good yaid, stables, time track and build
ings. We must put our hands in our
pockets and advance money enough to
take stock or by way of joint loan to
the society, and then get a competent
superintendent and let him hire men aud
go on and do the work. Then we must
begin by encouraging public enterprises
in the same way, and get ours town and
county known abroad. Then we must
open the door to foreign competition
among farmers and producers. and
keep out mere turf men and gamblers in
fast horses The man who breeds and
trains fine and fast stock is the man to
exhibit To us and carry off our prizes,