, 1880-12-31
PUGET SOUND ARGUS.
the BUSINESS BOOM.
New York Herald.

one dizzy to read our money COL
umns. Enterprises which a genera
ton ago would have tried the re-
sources of the nation are tossed up
and down and handled as easily as
an ordinary business transaction. "A
railway king will buy railway as
he buys cigar. One syndicate OF
bankers. subscribes S4o,Ooo,o0O to
complete the Northern Pacific rail-
way-an enterprise which a few
wears ago the same bankers con-
.demned as almost as visionary as a
railway to the moon. A Broadway
frm buys Long Island railroad
and the transaction is NOT deemed
worthy Of more than passing notice
in the news columns. Never was
there SO much activity in railway
building. The Atkinson & Topeka
people are pushing their road toward
California. The Southern Pacific is
driving toward the Gulf OF Mexico.
BY the first of the year a junction
of these roads will be made, and we
shall have two roads to the Pacific
1t is proposed to build another from
Ogden to Portland, Oregon, through
the heart of the best Of our West
ern Territories. Two or three roads
are going into Mexico, one of which
will6Dd an outlet at Guayamas, and
be a fourth route to, the, Pacific.
Then, il our Canadian friends are
serious and propose to build their
road to British America, we shall
have, in few years, FIVE distinct
railways between the Atlantic and
the Pacific. If the Mexican enter.
prises flourish, in five years that
country, which now has only few
hundred miles Of railway, will have
$500.
This activity, is, of course, one Of
the results of the prosperity which
our country has enjoyed for the past
few years. We have recovered from
the paralysis which fell upon us in
1873. In those days conservative
business men would have nothing to
DO with the West or the South. The
West was twenty years ahead of
time. The Territories were good
enough for Indians and buffaloes-
there was no money there. The
South was in the hands of the Ku.
Klsx and carpet-baggers--ther was
no safety for capital. The only
things worth having were the old es.
tablished concerns--the railways
that ran between great cities and
through settled communities. Now
all is changed. The West and the
South are the favorite fields Of en-
,terprise. Money fears neither the
Indian nor the Ku Klux. CONNER.
.cial ambition has arisen, as it were,
from dream, and advances in all
directions through Texas, New Mex
leo, Montana, Colorado and Califor-
mia. And even old Mexico, the land
Of the Aztec and the Spaniard,
which seemed to have gone into a
comatose condition, content to sleep
and dream OF its romantic and ven.
cradle past and pay no heed to the
rush and roar Of this busy century,
a~akes to the possibilities Of her do,
minions, and proposes to keep time
with our republic in the march Of
commercial destiny.
II we use our present prosperity
with caution il will be to the general
good. If we rashly embark IN every
wild scheme that is presented we run
the risk Of danger as great as that
OF 1873.
Il is reasonable 10 suppose that
our prosperity husbanded wisely will
become part of our national power.
But prosperity is not found in Wall
street. Wall street thrives on
change. If prices are high there is
profit in breaking them down. If
prices are low there is profit in
ibailding them up. s Whenever there