New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1878-08-09
KENTUCKY.

There are two or three points IN the IN
formation concerning this State, which we
offer in another column, to which we wish to
call the especial attention of wOrkingmen.
/. That 1t is absolutely out of debt ;
and that, being an old State, its nearness to
the markets. and already constructed rail-
roads, give it an advantage over the new
undeveloped Western States as place for
the investment OF capital or labor The Louis
vile and Nashville Railroad is to Kentucky
what the Pennsylvania Railroad has long been
to Pennsylvania-the great artery OF life and
trade.
2. That, although it is an old State, 1t is not
an exhausted one. But One-third of its terri
tory has ever been under cultivation. Yet
such is the quality of the soil that twenty
seven other States rank below it in product
iveness. We have scarcely touched in our
article on the enormous wealth possessed by
Kentucky i'm her timber q resource as yet al
most undeyelOped, which waits for the COM
ing settler.
8. The cause of delay in the development
of this State is not, as in those further South,
that one most likely to be permanent-the
sluggish content of people in love with
their own poverty, discomfort and grievances.
The native Kentuckian combines the broader
warmer temperament of the Soutberner and
the energy of the NewEnglander with a
physical strength peculiarly his own. There
is no reason why such a people should not
push their State to the front rank, if REIN
forced by emigrants Of the right sort. The
reason, as we state elsewhere, that emigrants
have not crowded to it before Is, first, that it
has had no great highway open to the Eastern
ports; and secondly, that its claims as a
home for them have not been properly set
forth to incoming settlers, both OF which
obstaeles to progress we hope will soon be
removssR
4. We would advise persons of small means
who propose to find n home in this State to
avoid the larger towns. 1t is the timber
land that needs them, and will pay them best
Also, TO keep to the uplands the lower water
courses, like all others IN the country, being
sometimes malariOus.
5. Not to be inyeigled into purchase, or
into any definite action, by the representations
of spectators or land agents. Let every man
20 and see for himself before removing his
family, or let him apply for information di-
rect TO the fountain head, to the Commissioner
of Agriculture. individuals or colonies will
be supplied, we venture to promise, with am
pie official information, which will guide them
in making wise choice.
Lastly. The all-abounding lOafer, who
thanks good luck for the hard times which
Justify his lazincss and beggary, is wanted
lust now nowhere-neIther in town nor cOun-
try. God, in His infinite wisdom, may have
some use for him, but man has not yet found
il out. The pity of it, however, lies in the
fact that for the industrious, sober man, who
is only anxious for work to support wife and
children, there has seemed during the last
year TO be- no place either. Trade, manufae-
lures, mining, the myriad industries of towns,
all are suddenly closed on him. He finds him
self, and for no fault of his own, thrust out
of the towns as summarily as was the leper
of old from the camp.
We wish to remind him again that there is
but one place and career to which he is in
yited, urged TO come, simply because 1t is the
one place where he is needed, and which, in
the great system of production, consump-
ton and commerce, is left open for him. 1t
is the vast region of undevelOped land in the
States, the rich virgin soil waiting to become
capital in his hands. The mechanic or
laborer out of work who has gone from street
TO street and factory to factory this Spring,
rebufTed, hopeless, half.starved, has no ground
for complaint. We have published urgent calls
from the Governors of all the border States,
TO which we now add Kentucky, for him to
come and occupy the land, promising assist
ance, advice and cordial welcome. Thous-
ands of workingmen have accepted the inyi-
tation, and we confess we have little pity for
those who starve because they slight it.