Iowa voter. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1867-1874, 1874-03-05

Inanent channels of water COMMUNE
cation, always open TO competition,
and free from the deleterious infla-
! ences OF combinations and nonopo-
lies, must consent 10 expend money
upon the enlargement OF canals aud
and the Improvement of our rivers
and harbors.
The expenditure Of three hundred
million dollars, though internal inn
provement. bonds should be Issued
and added to our public debt, would
still be an enormous saving 10 the
entire nation, if thereby the price Of
transportation for heavy freight
could be reduced 80 per cent.
| a ship canal around Niagara falls,
the enlargement Of the Erie canal,
| the Improvement Of the Fox and
i Wisconsin rivers, and Of the Missis-
Isippi and its chief tributaries, are all
essential for the securement Of per-
manent cheap transportation.
1t should he remembered that our
nation Is only in its infancy--that,
for instance, the State Of Iowa alone
Is capable Of supporting population
Of ten million people, and that at no
distant day, unless some revulsion OF
nature should intervene, this mag
aiticent continent will have three hun.
bred millions Of inhabitants; there
/ fore, in the Inauguration Of system
| Of cheap water transportation, not
merely our present wants should be
kept Ii view, but also those Of the
Immediate future.
| There are only two policies before
| CongreFsthe Opposition policy
which seeks to worry it into exhaus-
ton and adjournment without ac-
comp!lshing anything; and the
Republican policy Of responding u
the demands of the people by enter
| ing upon a system OF navigation i'm.
provements which, while it gives
employment 10 newly arrived emf
| grants aud 10 our own working men
generally, will also hold out the hope
10 tho millions of.liusbandmen of the
West that in a very short time their
complaints will be relieved.
Which shallitbe? Shall timidity,
parsimony and littleness sway the
action Of our national legislation ?
Or, shall 1t take the high comprehen-
sive stand OF craftsmanship?
Many scholarly complaints, of
excellent rhetorical finish, have re-
Gently been made against our cur
rency, but with all its theoretical de-
fects, 1t has, nevertheless, enabled
orr nation to accomplish during the
last ten years more wonderful results
than any one would have dreamed
Of being within the realms Of posi-
bility.
There is, for instance, the city Of
Chicago. Two years ago the fire
tiend had leveled 1t with the prairie.
To-day, some ten miles of palatial
and substantial six and eight story
brick blocks constitute the evidence
OF the general prosperity Of the city
and the nation, the enterprise OF our
people, their skill and energy as
wOrkmen, aud the excellence Of our
financial system.
To their eternal fame be 1t said,
that the citizens Of that desolated
city did not sit down panic.stricken
70 bewaii the past. They did not
rake for months in the ashes to save
old iron aud molten scraps. They
incurred new debts, to be sure, but
they knew that two years profit on
their business would go far toward
tightening the load. Had they fol-
lowed the Fabian policy Of the OPP
position in Congress, and belabored
each other with vile epithets their
confidence in their own future would
have departed, and business would
have taken other channels.
Financial revnlsions we shall al
ways have; bankruptcies, like ship.
wrecks, will occur; but while war,
inundation, aud conflagration .actu-
ally destroy existing things, panics
simply cause articles OF property TO
be measured by less nominal value
or tochange ownership. Thus panics,
however disastrous To individuals,
are b. Ear less calamitous 70 the ma
ton at large than war or contlagra-
ton.
In these circumstances Congress
will.speediIy devote, in obedience to
public opinion, It's attention 10 the
solution OF the cheap transportation
problem, and inaugurate a Well.eon-
sidered system, trying no new ex-