The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1874-12-25
INTERNAL IAa sR Owe
IEENTS.


est attention ofthe President and |
Congress, it is the subject Of III
ternal improvements.
Whatever may be the cause, it is |
nevertheless a fact, that the bust
ness interests of the country, the |
itself and the people gen
orally, are in an unenviable situa-
ton.
For fourteen long, weary
months the people have been drag
ging themselves slowly through
the mire of financial panic, such
as the world has seldom witnessed
Serpent-like, it insinuated itself
upon the country, and death-like
it holds its grip.
Already it has created wide
spread distress, anu unless relief is
afforded by the present Congress,
financial ruin is inevitable.
In the East, as we'll as in the
South and West, we see many of
our best business men driven to
the wall, while many others con-
time staggering along from day
to day, living on hope and dying
in despair.
Scarcely an individual Or an in
terest of any description has es-
capped the whitening blasts of this
unnatural panic. The farmer, the
mechanic, the merchant, the min
lister, the professional man, rail-
roads, manufacturing establish
ments-in short everybody and
almost every branch of legitimate
business is suffering most keenly.
Work upon internal improve
ments, and especially upon rail
roads, has been suspended. Man
ufacturing establishments are clos
ed, and the labor of the country is
idle.
Fifty thousand people in a sin.
gle city. out of employment, and in
want of the necessaries Of life,
while thousands more in other cit.
les are in the same situation.
State authorities applying to the
General Government for rations
and clothing for their poor; aid
societies at work throughout the
country, to prevent suffering and
starvation.
Such is the spectacle presented
and yet the half is not told. Now
in view of the situation, is it moi
time for Congress to act?
They cannot say let the people
go to work, because there is nc
work to be done and no money
with which to do it. The laborine
people are willing to work, buI
who can employ or pay them
This question is easily answered
nobody, until Congress move!
in the right direction.
That body has the power and tn.
means to relieve the country anC
the people from present embar
easements, Can they afford t.
shirk the responsibility? Few
countries have been more liberalI,
endowed with natural gifts, sucl
as are necessary to build up ant
maintain a great nation than ours
and no government was ever sup
ported by a more loyal, self-reli
ant, self-supporting peoples thai
this.
If our people are sometimes re
. duced to the necessity of askin,
for bread, it is through no fault O
theirs-they beg rather than stea
F or starve, but under no other eli
cumstances. Then let Congress
do its duty and adopt q board
, liberal policy, beneficial alike t,
the people and to the business in
terests of the whole country.
: While the Government under
takes to furnish circulatin.
medium, let it furnish an amour
sufficient to meet the demands O
, trade. The contraction policy
whether dictated by Wall street o
otherwise, has been tested, ant
the result, so far, is general stag
nation under q fourteen months
panic, with the end still in an I'm
certain future. Coupled with thi
contraction policy has been anoth
: er no less detrimental to the inter
ests of the people. Millions O
dollars have been collected by tn
Government annually and appliet
to the payment of bonds not du
for many years, under the frivo
lous pretext of keeping up til,
credit of the country.
Now let Congress call a halt
and go to work to devise the
means whereby this indebtedness
may be paid, as it was contracted
when it becomes due.
Let them show an ability to pay
by developing the resources of thu
government, and the credit of the
country will take care of itself
Not only will a broad, liberal in
ternal improvement policy
strengthen the credit of the coun
try, hut it will give employment tc
the unemployed, and homes 10 the
homeless. 1t will revive business
generally, open our workshops
and rekindle fires in the furnaces
Then let Congress try the exper
iment. Our Western Territories
abound in mineral wealth. Gold
silver, iron, copper, coal and quick.
silver are found in great quaint
ties, and only await transportation
for labor and machinery to make
them available to the people and
the government.
In New Mexico and Arizona
alone there is mineral wealth suf-
ticient to pay off twice the amount
of our national Indebtedness, and
at the same time enable the gov
eminent to resume specie pay
ments, without borrowing the spe-
Gle. These Territories embrace
an area of about 100000 square
miles. They are greater in extent
than all New England, Great
Britain, France and the German
States combined, and richer than
all in mineral wealth. Neverthe-
less, they are allowed to retain
their rich deposits of gold, silver,
and other ores, buried and lost to
the commercial world-for want of
an appropriation of few dollars
by the General Government. All
that is needed to insure the open
ing and development of these in
exhaustable mines is transporta-
ton for men and machinery.
A national trunk road from Al
buquerque on the Rio Grande
through Arizona to the Pacific,
with the Atchison, Topeka & San
ia Fe, the Atlantic d Pacific,
and the Texas & Pacific completed
to Albuquerque, would afford the
facilities for transportation. This,
however, is a work of too great
magnitude to be accomplished by
private individuals in panical