Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1874-07-25
THE OLYMPIA-TENINO RAILROAD.
From StciIacoom Express.

From Stci!acoom Express.
\ paragraph has been going the
rounds Of the newspapers, lately, to the
effect that county bonds in favor of rail
roads were the greatest modern curse
to farmers and luborinG men. First
sounded in the State of New York,
where, beyond dispute, the statement
proves true, the warning note echoed
through the wild forests of the farther
est West, where it has no application
whatever. Thinking minds can easily
penetrate so far into the future as TO
distinguish between results to follow
from bonding II county III the East for
the sake of securing railroad running
hrough from one end to the other, and,
on the other hand, the effect on Il
county in the West, where the railroad
h'yi,ls and terminates within the county.
But the statement that farms and
land adjoining railroads has decreased
in value in the Eastern States since the
railroads were built, and especially as
the statement came from Il committee
appointed to investigate that matter and
ascertain the truthfulness of a similar
assertion which had often previously
been made, was an item of such vast
use to railroad attorneys of lines strug-
cling for the peoples confidence and
afraid of seeing competing lines SPRING
ing up around them that it was well
coined as godsend and through one
means or other found its way into the
Western journals, only to mislead and
create distrust in the minds of the pco-
pie less informed. The evil the publ
cation of that paragraph intended to ac-
complish has to certain extent al
ready been felt Let us live long
enough to know who will be benefited
10y proving the wicked motives that
caused it's untimely appearance in one
of the newspapers of this Territory.
For the very reason that population,
capital and trade in the Eastern States
flow to the termini of railroads, coun-
ty cut through like a cobweb, with
neither beginning nor end of railroad
within it's boundaries, is naturally left
to subsist on its own resources; and if,
besides, its inhabitants have been lured
into bonding themselves to aid an en-
terprise that i'll such case will and must
canse them more harm than benefit, woe
to them. But railroads in this Terri
tory and especially the Olympia-Te-
nino railroad, to which we have refer
ence in this article, cannot possibly de-
crease the value either of land, or other
real estate, or produce where it passes.
The Olympia Tenino Railroad, us now
contemplated, will, on the other hand,
enhance the value of farms and other
real estate throughout the county; it
begins in Thurston county and ends in
Thurston county; it connects the city
of Olympia with the Northern Pacific
highway, and it cannot go farther than
to the mudtlats at the head of the
Sound. The travel to and fro will make
times livelier in that town, when the
products of the farm will be i'll more
demand; certainly products will find
market. The price of land in that
county cannot wane in figures because
the fertile acres adjoin the railroad; ON
the contrary, it will increase in value
and thereby remunerate the owners for
the small tax they of their free will bond
on themselves.
In truth, rs the Olympia enino
road was first projected we had no
faith in the enterprise, and so expressed
ourselves; as it now stands we add our
voice in its favor and urge one and all
of property-holders in Thurston county
to aid by their vote and willing mind
the undertaking greatest of all and
of more importance to our sister
Olympia than any ever laid before her
consideration. Well-meaning hands
and determined muscles started bravely
grand work; now, when one can
rncknn tho DAYS to its cnmnlatinn Lot