Morning journal and courier., 1880-06-01
Tuesday Morning, June 1, 1880.
MIR. HELPERS VISION.

Now that the minds of the American peo- pie are aroused to an unusual degree of activity by the maneuverings of the poll for them to attempt to take in the length and breadth of Hinton Rowan Helpers railroad scheme. This attempt would please Mr. Helper and would not hurt the people There is, too, a substantial reason for trying to rise to the height of Mir. Helpers argument, for he has offered $5,o00 in prizes to be awarded for the three treatises in prose and two in poetry which shall most vigorously and truthfully advocate what he proposes. This money is already deposited in the St. Louis Bank of Commerce, and is payable Dec. l, 1880.
 MT. Helper believes that it is laid upon him to induce the people of the United States to build longitudinal midland double track steel railway, from point high in North America, running more or less southwardly through Mexico and Central America, to a ultimately to such necessary and gradual extensions at either end from time to time, as will eventually place Behring Strait and Cape Horn and all the intermediate localities in uninterrupted and continuous overland communication by steam and by tele- graph. He hopes that such an in- tense earnestness and enthusiasm may be awakened throughout all the coun- tries from Alaska to Patagonia, inclusive, as will lead to the granting of all the requisite governmental guaranties and privileges and charters by or before the 14th of October 1882. He has a vision of the great enter prise begun on that day, with 150, GOO labor CTS at work on the several sections of the line. He sees the road finished seven years thereafter, and it's rolling stock bearing to St. Louis the people, products, fauna, flora, and minerals of every nation between the Arctic and Antarctic seas, to be exhibited in a stu pendous worlds fair held there three years later, on the four hundredth anniversary of the discovery of Americas He believes that St. Louis will receive at least $1O0, GOO, GOO from the railroad, which, in his opinion, will be worth $3, GOO, ,OoO, 900 to North America, the same amount to South America, and $1,- 800, GOO, GOO to Mexico and Central America But these pecuniary advantages are only 8 small part of the benefits which will flow from the enterprise. Every intellectual, moral, social, civil political and industrial in- terest of mankind will be advanced and, as an inevitable and delightful result of the aesthetic culture which will prevail the most simple and unaffected amenities elegancies, refnements and parties of life will every where increase and aboundn
 
 the above an erroneous idea of Mr.. Helpers mental state, we hasten to say that he is ap- parently as sound in mind as when he wrote ''The Impending Crisis before the war. And he is also not without supporters of his lofty imagination. One of these writes to him: Your proposition im- parts standing and strength to those other resolute and gigantic schemes in which, so to speak, are concreted and crystallized the pre- destined aspirations and intentionalities of mankind now agitated and oscillating with a spirit of unrest aroused by the consciousness of an unduly lengthening period of imperfect advancement in the worlds wea1.'' Dr. Harris the well known philosopher and su- perintendent of schools in St. Louis, joins with two prominent railroad men in express ing Thigh degree of confidence" that the railroad from Alaska to Patagonia will be built by October 14, 1892 and other sane correspondents of MT. Helper give him en- couragement. No capitalists, however, have yet taken hold of the matter, and they will probably want to wait before investing at least until after 1881, in which year the world is expected to come to an end