Jamestown alert. [volume] (Jamestown, Stutsman County, D.T. [N.D.]) 1878-1882, 1881-04-22
The Future Of North Dakota.
Fargo Daily Republican.


AS hundreds Of energetic settlers
begin to arrive in North Dakota,
one is naturally led to wonder what
is to become Of all these people and
what will be the result of the mighty
labor so many hands are capable Of
executing. It is question involv-
ing important, even if not vital,
points for the consideration of all
thinking men interested in the per-
manent welfare and the permanent
prosperity Of this region. With
many, perhaps, a majority,
who come her, there is a fix
edness of purpose to make it their
home for life and establish con-
petence for their posterity, that
will work great good in building up
the foundation upon which the fu-
ture greatness Of this region must
rest. All their plans and all their
labor are conceived and executed
under the inspiration of that mag
netic word 'home.' They wish to
make every days work tell to the
profit of the future, thus giving to
their labor a character of perman-
ency which naturally rebounds to
the benefit of themselves and the
county in which they may cast
their lot. Such settlers are valu-
able ones to new country, and
form the bone and sinew with which
we expect to carve out of crude ma.
ture commonwealth, and erect on
the now unbroken prairies of North
Dakota, a vast and prosperous COM
munity.
In marked contrast with these
''actual settlers comes the specu-
lators, who come for the purpose of
buying land and with the idea of
holding it for rise. They never
intend to make their home here,
but rather to acquire all the mon
ey they can in as short time as pos
sible and leave the country. They
make no valuable improvements,
and all their plans are laid in the
light Of new departure, in conse-
quence of which every thing they
do has temporary cast and of no
lasting benefit to the country. Not to
say that under some circumstances
this class cannot be of some benefit
no doubt they are but the most
of them are of positive injury to
country and retard rather than
promote it's progress. Every new
country has had both these classes
of people, and by what are we to
Judge the probable future of this
country, if not by the condition of
older ones, where the farm of the
industrious settler is surrounded by
the idle acres of the speculator!
How much or how little idle land
Of the speculator tends to retard the
progress of the section in which it
is located, is, Of course, beyond ac-
curate solution, but that such is
the tendency of idle land, is, with
out doubt, true in fact, as old res
idents of Iowa and Minnesota can
testify.
North Dakota speculators, how
ever, are different from those
who operated in Minnesota and
Iowa, years ago. It is true they
come here and purchase large tracts
of land, but the majority of them
do not permit it to lie idle; on the
contrary they bring men and
teams with them and, as if by
magic, transform the wild prairie
flowers and grasses into fields of
wheat and oats. These gigantic
farms do not monopolize the land.
There are still millions of acres of
land for the government settler,
and acres of land for the settler of
moderate means to purchase at very
reasonable prices. The speculator
cannot interfere with the settle
ment, although he may be instru-
mental in spreading it out over the
country.
With these two classes of people
to WELD the vast resources of North
Dakota, what must be her. inenvit-
able futurea 1t seems as though it
could b, nothing short Of great,
with big G.