The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1881-01-13

richer stoo, but not 80 fast. They were
each individually ION the sverage) l6 per
cent, richer in 1860 than in 1850, q COM
parison OF the two rates of increase shows
that the people of Illinois got rich more
than ten times as rapidly as the people OF
Massachusetts,. And so the whole west
was growing in individual wealth much
more rapidly than the east, as. having
better chance, 1t ought to.
Then the protectionists got hold OF the
reins, and we shall
SEE WHAT THEY WROUGHT
in ten years. We will compare 1880 with
1870, az we compared il with 1850. and
see who pocketed the dividends on the
investment. ln 1870 the population OF
Illinois was $3.50 SCI; the aggregate
wealth was %. III, $50, 5fs. The population
of Massachusetts, was l,457.35l; the
aggregate wealth $2.l32. l5S.74i. The
per capita wealth of Illinois was now 1885.
OF Massachusetts $l463 The inhabitants
of the new, roomy, and fertile state of
Illinois were still getting rich; but strange
to SAY. they were not getting rich as
rapidly as the Inhabitants of the old
crowded, comparatively barren state of
Massachusetts They had increased their
accumulated wealth by 81 per cent, while
the citizens Of Massachusetts had increas-
ed theirs by ll8 per cent. Instead OF
getting rich ten times as rapidly as the
people of Massachusetts,, as they did
before the war, they now got rich only a
little more than half as fast. This tells
the whole story. 1t is impossible that the
census should be so yitiated by wrong
methods of counting as TO make the
people of Illinois appear twenty
times more sprofgate than they are. IN
comparison With the people OF Asssachu-
sets. 1t is equally i'm possible that they
more profigate in item years and nobody
observed the fact. II il was bad crops
that % ade them accumulate three times as
slowlyain tho last decade. what made
Massachusetts accumulate seven times as
rapidly AZ before7 Was il the war;
Then the good people of Massachusetts,,
when they have finished their monument.
to Oakss Ames, ought to erect one to
Jefferson Davis. If their gratitude were
proportionate TO the benefit received, the
monument would cost many millions Of
dollars, The operation nettsd them about
q thousand millions OF dollars. sBy the
way whatsa rsfreshinsis :Hpudsnt way
some OF these same Massachusetts, people
have OF attributing all our financial
troubles to ''ths var" The war might
have retarded the growth OF illinois. but
how eozld il seeslerats the accumulation oil
wealth seven fold in Massachusetts ct the
q lms timer Certainly not by any fair means
But why seek for an explanation? Why
indeed. when every body knows that dur
ing eight Of these ten years the people of
Illinois, in addition to the inevitable bur-
deDs of the war, were compelled to buy
their textile goods in Massachusetts at
from one and half to tvs PRICES? Every
body Knows, too, that they had 10 means
of retaliation This
BUSINESS OF sPOILATToN.
continued two or three years longer. add
then the gift horse was ridden nigh unto
death. fer le!-the panic Then the mill
lionairs paper quietly unloaded his mill
and loaned his money to the man he had
robbed, at good round interest aud on
"cut throat" colaterais saeh y the
genesis OF the Massachusetts, mortgage
on the Illinois farm. This is the sub
stratum of truth underlying the wild