Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1880-12-22
Kansas DrOuths and Michigan Pros
perity
From the Detroit Ere

huuShs DINWlNs anu AAANhAH VIZ = ~
perity
From the Detroit Free Press.
The principal cause and origin
of the present invasion of Indian
Territory by colonists, is the pow
ertv of the Kansas settlers who
compose the invading force
Scarcely a year passes that Kan
sas is not stricken with some dis
aster. Grasshoppers, locusts, tor
nadoes, drouths, succeed each
other in q CHASTITY procession
Scarcely a year passes that some
portions of the people do not be-
come objects of charity. The col
ored people, seduced by gorgeous
fictions of agents or political agi-
tators. 60 there to starve. For
eigners, besieged at their very
homes in the old world by the
gaudv advertisements of railroad
companies and State Representa-
tives, arrive there in hordes TO find
that the sterile soil viii not yield
them living, and begin their new
existence by begging for food. The
Pacific Railroad has this year al
ready spent $4,000 furnishing seed
wheat to the Kansas farmers, so
ruthlessly did the drouth sweep
away the fruits Of the hard labor
and anxiety which the new settler
bestows upon his first tillage.
1t is the best advertised State in
the Union. Its richness, fertility
and rapid growth are systematic
cally and extensively trumpeted.
Maps, newspapers, circulars and
pamphlets are distributed by mil
lions. and the throng hence is still
moving, though its barrenness Is an
nually exposed by appeals to the
benevolent in behalf of those who
have been starved and ruined by
insects or by drouth. The victim
Of the grasshopper ratires only to
give place TO the victim Of dearth
or the impoyeraged and naked col
ored refugee.
In the meantime Michigan is
passed by-a land equal in fertil-
ity Of soil and in larger variety Of
product; a land Of wheat and
fruit, of lumber and Of minerals.
Although the first years Of labor
in clearing the land of Michigan
are more severe than those Of Kan
sas, vet this once accomplished, the
citizen Of Michigan is immeasur-
ably more prosperous than the
Kansas mendicant His fencing
and his fuel stand in his future
door yard or his future pasture.
Freights upon his produce and his
purchases are smaller because Of
his comparative nearness TO n mar
ket. All that goes to build mp an
enlightened, thriving, enterprising
community is offered to the pas
senger at the Emigrant Bureau Of
Castle Garden a thousand miles
nearer. A generous soil, genial
climate, mines under his feet, tim
Der around him, moisture from the
lakes, that forbids serious drouths,
a public school system equal to
any in the Union, an intelligent
and enterprising press, all offer the
immigrant the advantages, and
spare him the Affections of ill-star-
ed Kansas.
1t will be to the credit, as it
must to the advantage Of Michi-
gan residents to make proclama-
ton of both the comforts and the
Injuries which the State proffers
to him who is willing to sacrifice Q
few months of hard labor than per.
haps be may have to expend Oh
prairie soil. But, like all advan
tages won at extra cost, these are
more substantial and satisfactory
than those which are alleged anC
beset with Egyptian plaques anC
Persian famines.