Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1873-01-24
Settlement Of Soldiers on Public
Lands.
LETTER FROM JUDGE KELLY.

"uuress, nlaSs meetlnB OF soldiers,
who propose to organize a colony
and settle upon the public lands,
and their friends, at Concert Hall,
on Saturday evening, has been re.
ceived. @
1t would give me pleasure to ac-
cept your invitation. were it in my
power, as l have great faith in the
recent practice OF settling the pub
lie lands by colonies. This mode
OF settlement relieves frontier life
Of many OF its hardships, and of it's
tendency in the first generation to-
ward barbarism. In former times
the hardy pioneer went into COM
parative solitude, and deprived
himself and family Of the enjoy
ment of social life and those daily
comforts which are only attainable
as the results Of neighborly rela-
tons, social organization, and the
commerce which naturally arises
between parties engaged in differ,
ent pursuits. He also had to wait
the slow increase OF settlement to
enhance the value of his property;
but each member Of the colony adds
to the valve of the land Of all 9th.
ers, and they in turn impart to his
homestead OF village lot that add.
tional value which attaches to i,
by reason Gifts proximity to church,
school-house, and lecture-room, to
the store, and the mechanical or pro.
fessional skill Of his co.colonists
These considerations are very i'm
portant to the hardy settler, but
UNNECESSARILY more SO to his wife
and children, who may enter with
regret and misgivings upon an en-
terprise which fills him with hope
and enthusiasm.
In view of the difficulties which
deprive so many American boys OF
the benefit of apprenticeship, or the
privilege of acquiring on any terms,
q competent knowledge Of any OF
the mechanic arts, some Of which
result from the rules Of trades un.
ions relating to apprentices, and
others from those adopted by the
owners of large establishments,
who prefer to employ skilled men
to manage their machinery rather
than to train youth for its future
management, it is of primary i'm
portance that those of our country
men who may be thus denied the
the privilege Of earning the wages
due to skilled labor, and those who
by the vicissitudes of war have
been SO injured as to be unable to
follow the trades to which they had
been reared, should avail them
selves of their rights in the public
domain.
1t has been my privilege to visit
a number of successful colony
towns, each one of which has served
to confirm my impression in favor
of the colonial or cooperative sys-
tenn of settlement. In these young
towns there are no trades unions or
large manufactures. In them the
workshop prevails, and the fair
hand finds employment at current
wages, whether he has served a
full apprenticeship or not; and the
sturdy boy encounters no obstruc-
ton to his desire to learn any
branch Of handcraft that is prac-
ticed in the town or vicinity. In
all Of them work is honored, and
skilled labor in demand. Thus
these new settlements are made to
the evil tendencies which
seem to me to be for the present
inseparable from great industrial
centres in which there are large
Of capital and Ia
Dor, with their inevitable antagon-
ism.
Another reason for promoting set
Elements by colonies is that too
large proportion of our Western
eople are engaged in agriculture,
10 which the individual pioneer
must devote himself, though he may
be aware of the fact that wheat,
corn, or oats will not pay the cost
Of transportation to market, and
leave him anything as wages for
his labor, or rent for his land, ex-
ccpt the simple elements Of his own
hard and unrefined existence. But
q colony composed largely of skilled
mechanics at once proceed to avail
itself of the natural forces, or, in
other words, to command those SER
wants which Providence has so
bounteously provided in almost
every part of our country, such as
water power, coal, and minerals,
whether they be iron, copper, lead,
silver, gold, or others, thus provid-
ing for their own wants and Great
ing a local market for the existing
surplus Of wheat, corn, beef, and
bacon. The farmer Of the Missouri
Valley and Of Iowa are at present
in most anomalous condition.
They are all rich in the products of
he farm, but are all very poor,
many Of them even to restitution,
if their resources are estimated by
heir ability to buy for cash the
most ordinary necessaries Of life.
This state of affairs result from the
fact tina THEY have all raised the
81 me commodities-wheat, corn,
bats, and live stockton which
here is no market, inasmuch as
The States lying between and dis
ant markets have been able to sup
ply the demand from their abun-
liant crops. As striking proof of
he correctness Of this proposition.
point to the fact that, though
Iowa is one vast coal field, her far.
mers, regardless of the fact that
each successive Drop of corn absorbs
= given percentage Of the produc-
tive power of their land, and thus
mpairs, in some degree, its pro-
luctive power for the future, are
corn as fuel. Were
here in their midst towns settled
BY colonists, who had at once en-
gagged in mining coal, blacksmith
ng, manufacturing, even on a
small scale, wooden goods suitable
or the local market, wagons,
>loughs, and other agricultural i'm
or in shoemaking, tailor