The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1872-03-19

unrlvallcd position. Vermont is the
: nearest first-class farming land, to the best
markets for agricultural produce in Amer
lea. The manufacturing districts of
: southern and southeastern New England.
: Her position as regards the market'of that
great hive of consumers clustered about
the mouth Of the Hudson river, is not in
0 ferior to that OF any rival. But, better
than all, in the near future there is,
q firmly believe, to spring up market
/, right among us, that must yield us our
D best profits, because we shall not be tax
ed with any cost Of transportation.
l know that there is feeling of incred-
r ulty in Vermont as to any development
, OF new resources, new sprays Of wealth,
In our midst. Indeed am astonished,
when | talk with the people, to see how
, little faith they have in the future of our
State. Vermont will never be much
; mere than she is" is very common say
ing OF Vermonters. But why are they
so blind to the signs of the times?
Let us look around us a little The
United States is but in the outset Of that
career which is to make her. ever within
the next fifty years, the greatest, the rich
est, the most powerful, the most cnlight-
ened nation that has ever existed upon
our earth. Before this century expires
1OO,0OO,O00 of people will be at work
developing the resources Of the North
American Continent. 1t is the greatest
movement that the world has ever seen
The industries that we now call great in
our commercial and manufacturing GEN.
tiers will be dwarfed into insignifcance
compared with what the next twenty-five
years will show us. Ia that time the
present centers Of industry existing with
in $50 miles of every part of Vermont,
will have expanded to more than treble
what they now are. Three Or four mil
lion of people will cluster in compact
cities around the bay of New Y ork. One
or two million around the peninsula of
Boston; hundreds of towns and cities to
the South and southeast of US, will count
their population in tens and hundreds of
thousands. Can Vermont, standing al
most in the very vortex Of this whirl Of
busy life stand still, and stagnate like u
Marsh The very thought is impossible
when once we take in the future that
must be in store for the Great Republic.
So far, Vermont has, comparative speak.
ing, lain little to one side Of the course
Of progress. But that great stream Wild
ems so fast that what was an eddy yester-
day, will be tomorrow in the full rush of
the current. Already we feel that cur.
rent begin to draw. The rapid develop
ment Of our railroads is an indication of
the set Of the stream. The wave Of COM
mercc beats stronger and stronger upon
our bordcrs its tide is wearing away
through our mountains at many points
1t is not alone the railroad that is show
ing this Some morning within few
years We shall wake up and find Burling-
ton seaport, and no longer an inland
State, Vermont spring at once to a high
position as maratime community, her
territory the highway of commerce by
ship as well as by car. The ship canal
from Lake Ontario to Lake Champlain is
necessity Of the age it is sure to come,
and that almost before we have time to
think Of it, or of its necessary results.
What follows from all this d? What
must follow Make Of Vermont series
of highways for commerce between the
rich commercial, manufacturing east and
the Gigantic West, and what say, must
Of necessity follow? Vermont at once
becomes the very best locality, for many
kinds Of manufacturing, that there is Oh
the Continent OF America We have
waterpowcr for the machinery of Il ma
ton probably the very best waterpower,
for our rivers not only send an evener
current, fed by our mountain springs, than
those Of other localities, not only make a
greater fall within n shorter distance, but
they aIc neither too small for profit, nor
to large for control and have the au-
thority of skillful engines for saying that
the force of our waterpower can be put
to use with less average expense in pro-
portion to value, that Of any other section
of the country. Everything will unite to
invite capital into Vermont for manufac-
turing purposes, so soon as the great high
ways now so near completion begin to
show their results in turning the tide OF
business across our State, In accessible
ty our mill sites will be unrivalled labor
is abundant aad will continue 50, far
aside from immigration, the tide of emf
grafton will be stayed. When our young
men and women find paying work in
abundance at home. Then the produc-
tiveness of our land comes into play max.
ing food cheaper and better in our towns,
than those which have to be mostly sup
piled from distance; an important item
in relation to the cost of labor, and the
consequent cost Of production. Certainly
every one who keeps himself informed in
regard to what is going on in the world
must observe how, starting from the old
er marts Of business along the Atlantic
the circle Of manufacturing energy has
widened year by year. Take Boston, as
one Of theose centers for instance Be- |
ginning on the old mill dam in Boston,
spreading to the mill privileges of the
Charles and Neponset rivers, reaching
soon to the Mcrrimac at Lowell, Law
renee, Nashua and Manchester. Meeting
the smaller circles from Rhode Island at
Taunton and Fall River; spreading into
Maine, first at Saco, then at Lewiston and
Augusta, pushing west in Massachusetts
through Worcester, Fitchburgh and many
other towns, and meeting the upward tide
from New York that has flowed up the
vallies of Connecticut to Springfield,
Holyoke, into the mountains of North
Adams, already beginning in Vermont at
Brattleboro, Bellows Falls and other
places running north far up into New
Hampshire. 1t is already at our doors,
yet we do not see NOR believe in it, Like
doubling Thomas, We must put our fingers
into the prints Of the nails, before we can
believe in our redemption.