The Andrew County Republican. [volume] (Savannah, Mo.) 1871-1876, 1873-08-15
How to Start Manufactures in q
Farming District.

. - -l:l ~
the bottom of the farmers fight with the
railroads in Illinois, is a serious trouble
in many parts of the East. The farm
ers who are neal large cities and vii
liages do well enough, but there are
still large districts remote from railroads
where there is little variety of labor, and
the farmers have nobody to feed except
the blacksmith, the shoemaker, the mer-
chant and two or three professional
gentlemen. They have to drive from
twelve to twenty miles to market every
load of wood, every pound of animal or
vegetable food that is sold from the
farm. This Is a rery serious drawback
to the profits of husbandry in such dis
tricts; SO serious, that it discourages ef-
forts and sends multitudes to more ia
vored regions. The farms are running
down, the buildings are going to decay,
and the price of lands is even less than
it was fifty years ago. In many cases
the old homestead is a ruin, and the
land is sold for a song to the next neigh
Dor. And this happens, too, in places
where there is good water power wait
ing to turn wheels, and abundance of
"ooo Az otiiC law III lstiI
features. The best remedy for these
unthrifty regions, in the East certainly,
is the Introduction of manufacturing in
dustry. Some kinds of manufactures,
no doubt, are best carried on in cities,
Notwithstanding high rents, costly
steam power. and expensive labor.
But other kinds may be probably pur-
sued in the country, where there is plen-
ty of room, cheap and raw material, and
cheap food and labor. An agricultural
town does not always see that it is
much cheaper to create a home market
in their midst than it is to carry their
products twenty miles to market. They
would not positively make war upon a
man who should propose to invest a
hundred thousand dollars in manufac-
turing industry in their midst, but they
would expect to get an extra price for
the lands watered by the st-eams that
was to furnish the power, and they
would get all the taxes they could out
of such an investment from the start,
without any reference to the productive
of the capital. A proposition in a
meeting to remit taxes 10 a man
n~facturiHg company tor five or ten years
rs an inducement for them to start a new
enterprise would be voted down by Il
large majority. Yet this kind of in
ducement is often the thing that deter
mines the minds of men of large capital
who are looking for new localities TO
start new manufactures. The advant-
age of such diversity of industry to the |
fortunes of farmers is not likely TO be
oyerestimated. The fruits of such in
are visible in all the southern
of New England. and in many
other places, The changes wrought by
them, even within the memory of mid
dle-aged persons, is wonderful. From
the window where we write we look out
upon a valley with a population of over
Tour thousand, where but a few years
ago there was hardly a dozen families
engaged in the cultivation Of the soil
There was no home market. Grain was
TO the distant city, and butter
and cheese TO the South. So small were
profits that not much was raised,
AID there was not much capital besides
he land, the stock, and the buildings. ,
The scene is much changed now, and it.
IS all owing 10 the business enterprise of
! few individuals who studied the nat
Iral resources Of the valley and dcvel-
ped them. Every farm within ten
niles Of the village feels the effects OF
his large increase Of wealth and popu-
alton. There is not only u home mar
ctfor everything the neighboriag farms