Weekly Trinity journal., 1874-08-01
PARTY OF PROGRESS.

from Journals which have drawn their
chief support from the party they are
now denouncing and endeavoring to des-
troy. In politics, as in war, the renegade
is invariably the most bitter in his de-
nunciations of the cause he abandons-
doubtless to impress upon his new allies
a belief in his sincerity. Hence the viru-
lence with which these coined charges
are constantly repeated, and in every
phase of the railroad question which pre-
sents itself, the attempt is made to throw
upon the Republicans the odium Of being
in league with the railway monopolists in
expressing the people. The term "rail-
roadized" will, however, admit of diff
ferent construction from that usually Civ
en- by the demagogue press, and, believ-
ing the so-called expressions Of the rail-
road companies to be more fancied than
real, we rot only admit, but claim that
the party is railroadized" to that
extent, that it believes railroads and kim
dred enterprises TO be beneficial agents in
the development of the country, and wor
thy Of proper encouragement and sup
port.
The progress of our country, from the
hour Of its birth, has been of character
10 elicit unbounded admiration. But the
process of development for the first eighty
years of our national existence was but
as child's play in comparison with what
has been achieved within the past twenty
years. The reason of this is obvious
So long as the pathway to the great and
fertile prares of the West was only to
be traversed by toilsome journey Of
weeks or months, while the produce of
the soil, though returning fifty, sixty, or
q hundred fold was worthless for lack of
purchasers, just so long did those broad
Yves tern acres seem as far out OF the
world as if they had lain amid the steppes
of Siberia. Along the navigable rivers,
and nesr the great lakes, settlements
sprang up, receiving an impetus from the
water communication which gave an out
let to the markets of the world for their
produce, But the progress of settlement
and development was necessarily SLOW
Everything raised on the farm command
ed but a low price, while the necessities
of life for which they were dependent up
on other sections, were correspondingly
| high. The old Democratic party WAS in
power the greater portion of the time,
and while lavish of the national treasure
TO prepare the coast harbOrs for the needs
of foreign commerce, looked with jeal-
Gus eye upon any money appropriation
designed to facilitate commercial inter
course between the different States.-
Wings favored internal Improvements
the Democrats as sedulously opposed
them. And President Folks veto of the
Harbor and River bill, in 1916, was one
of the chief causes Of the distrust with
which The party Of which he was then
head was regarded in the Western States,
and the short-sighted policy Of the De-
mocracy toward the yeomanry of the
West, who had been classed among its
most faithful adherents, assisted greatly
in giving the Western RepG bicans the
overwhelming preponderance Of strength
which gathered to their banners in after
years.
The transportation question then, as
now, exercised an important influence
upon the politics of the West. But with
the reorganization Of parties then, grow
ing out Of the encroachments of slavery.
more enlightened ideas of inter-Sta re.
lations became popular. A liberal sys-
tenn of appropriations to the barbors and
rivers OF the interior, added to the net
work OF railways pushing into the West,
gave opportunities to settlers to seek To-
cations, and at the same time placed
Western products at the farm more upon
an equality of value with those of the |
East, than had been enjoyed in the first !
years of the country's settlement. With |
the closer proximity to market thus Gre |
ated land rose greatly in value in the !
space of a few years, while the popua-
tion is counted by thousands where there
were but hundreds a decade ago. That
the present prosperous condition of the |
States west Of Ohio, is due, in the main,
not to their great agricultural advanta-
ges, but to the fact that railway commun-
lcaton has made these advantages of val
ue, none but mind biased by prejudice
will attempt to deny.
In the years during which these great
changes have been taking place the Re-
publicans have been in the ascendency,
both in the States benefited, and in the
nation. All great measures tending to
bring the resources of the country into
prominence, received favor at their hands.
In this sense and in this sense only, is
the Republican party railroadized. -
We are proud of its achievements, and of .
the era Of national prosperity which has
been inaugurated under its rule. But for
Its attainment to national power, the Pa
cific Railroad, thing held under Demo
cratic rule as chmera, would yet be
without an existence. The Republican
party is party of progress-it recogni-
zes what is necessary to build up the
country, and it does not make it its mis-
sion to block the wheels of enterprise.
-
HIS LoEG Lost BRoTHER.-Robert NJ,
Green has been knocking around the ter