The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1878-05-23
FON IND WISCONSIN RIIF,R
IMPROVEMENT.

| lOng-HVed fraud and 0umbug OF this
generation. There have been other au-
dacious and to some extent attractive
swindles; and the duration of some has
been remarkable. But none have equal
led this in audacity,in majesty and long
evity. When we contemplate it now, it
almost commands our respect for its
magnitude and for the awe which it has
inspired.
For its whole life time it has been in
the hands of private spectators. Yet
for the most of that period it has inspired
such fear in the minds of demagogues
and politicians, that no party of the peo-
pie or in the Legislature has dared to
question it. Occasionally Milwaukee
or Chicago newspaper has hesitatingly
expressed doubt whether it was really
worth all ii was costing, but they have
been at once hushed by howl of exc
Grafton and the charge that they we've
bought up by the railroads to oppose a
rival line of transportation. We rejoice
that the PILOT lifts up its voice, and
| hope it will not be silenced; and we ask
others to follow its example. Such a
course will soon relieve parties from the
incubus, and politics from the burden Of
carrying this exploded folly, delusion
and snare. With little healthy freedom
of speech on the subject it will not be
able to control every political conven-
ton, to keep such men as Philetus Saw
yer ten years in Congress, and to clothe
with power, corrupt damagogues in both
parties.
The first grant of Congress for this
subject, was in 1916, and comprised 31S,-
720 acres of land. In 1853, it WAS found
| that les, 900 acres of these lands remain
ed unsold and they were valued at $685.
900. From this fact the value of the
whole grant may be estimated. In 1854
another act of Congress was passed max
ing another grant, under which 415,1
mole acres of land were selected, pre-
sumably of equal value to the first grant.
1t should be said of these grants that
they were not made from lands contigu-
Gus to the line of the work as railroad
land grants were made. But they were
all selected lands, the choicest sections
in the north and northwest part of the
state, including the best farming and
pine lands, and passed into the posses
sion of this trumpery affair.
In the mean time the state had ADAM
doned all control of the work and turned
it over with all the grants to a private
corporation. Pudding and incomplete
jobs of work had been done on the lower
Fox, not making navigation, but making
an immense and valuable water power
along many miles of its course, which
yields greater income five times over
to the individuals owning it, than the
gross proceeds of all the tolls from ves-
sells on the whole line of the improve
ment. The result, most significant
one, is that while the company, notwith-
standing all its rich grants, notwithstand-
ing it kept open gorgeous land office,
notwithstanding it owned three quarters
of million acres of land, valued at So
an acre, it was always poor and sometimes
| bankrupt. while the individuals have
| become men of colossal wealth. In 1865
Lew change-the third or fourth, took
place in the CORPORATION. In all these
changes, wiping out old companies and
forming new ones, the same individuals
disappear and reappear like a transfer
nation show, except Morgan L. Martin,
whose great fortune he loaned to it in
its ineipiency, and which he has never
! been able to recover.
In 1870 the grandest ''strike' of the
whole was made. The grants from Con-
gress had been exhausted, and nothing
more WAS to be made by keeping up the
farce of attempting to make navigable
water of the rivers. BY adroit manage
ment, this company sold back to the
government its whole property, which
the government had given it. The gov
eminent paid for it Sl45, 900, except the
water power which is worth half million
dollars at low estimate, and which will
perpetually increase in value. Let MS
see what this bargain was. The govern
ment first gave 31S, 720 and afterwards
415, 1874 more acres of land. Total land,
1873, S54, worth s. an acre: at least such
was the estimate placed on portion of
the first grant. This amount WAS 50,
$50, 270. This sum was expended along
up to 1870, and then for all the results
of their labor and expense, the govern
ment paid Sl45, 900 leaving the most val
liable part of the works and franchises
in the possession of the sellers.
Since that time Congress has appro-
priated in money, in 1870, 800, 600;
in 1873, $500, 900; in 1874, $500, 900, in
1875, $500, 000-total Sl,200,000. We
have not before us the amounts if any,
appropriated in 1876 and 1877, but the
seven million bill now pending in Con-
gress includes an item of S250,00 for
this object.
In all this time, the legislation on the
subject had by the state, has cost I'M
told thousands. Annual appropriations
have been made to protect the interests
of the state and to aid the improvement,
which governors have used in paying
their own expenses OH pleasure trips to
Washington, generally taking in New
York and other eastern cities. When
the governors have not gone themselves,
or in addition to their own Journeys,
they have delegated politicians and IA
vored friends who have made the jauut
st public expense, and from all this the
improvement has never received cent
of benefit.
1t is time that the plain truth were
al Al - ~,