The Russellville Democrat., 1882-02-02

ration and increasing the capabilities of life. The products of the farm are now worth as much at the farmers door as they previously were after being hauled long distances by his teams Land in Dodge county is worth from $40 to $75 an acre, which, without railroads, never would have been worth to exceed Sl0 an acre. 4 thrifty farmer can become rich in a few years by the sale oI the surplus of his farm, which, but for the railroads he could not sell at all The handsome farms, the fine school houses, the elabor- ate churches, the comfortable dwellings, the thickly planted villages of Wiscon- sin and Of the whole Northwest, are the direct result Of the railroads, which have made every county accessible aud con venient forsettlement There are g ,000,- 900 acres of land in Wisconsin, which, taken as whole. without railroads, would be scarcely worth more than the gov ernment price per acre, or, say $40,000,- 000 This land is assessed for taxation at $500. 100000. which is less than half said that every dollar of additional value above the government price has been placed upon it by the railroads which tdTTy ltS pfOuuCto Ot kidliir cbOcA, luhiOcl and manufacturers to distant markets which they never would have reached but for the iron highway.
 This relates to Wisconsin alone. When the mind considers the vast territory which lies to the northwestward, between the Mississippi river and the Rocky mountains, and which forms one vast wheattield, waving in the harvest time with the yellow grain, which, but for the railroads penetrating and crossing all it's diverse sections. would have re- mained wild, barren and worthless in all the future as it had in the past, we can have some idea of the vast individual and national wealth which the railroads created. They have increased many fold the value of every product in industry, and of every class of property in the Northwest and throughout the country.
 Individual capital, industry and en- terprise would have been totally power less to build the systems of railroad by which these splendid and beneficent re- suits have been established. Vast aggre- gations of credit and capital, as they are created by the great corporations, could alone have built these roads, and estab- lished them as connecting lines leading to millions of homes--spreading out, fan-shaped from the great commercial centers to inc immense radius of wheat fields, pastures, forest and mines where the property which they transport is pro- duced, and forming unbroken channels of commerce between the most distant points of the country. These aggrega- tions Of capital are formed under the laws, and are fostered ani regulated by the contracts with the state under which they are created. They should, of course, be also restrained by law, and aggression upon private rights, extortion and wrong shonld be resisted. But simply becans- they are mouopolies, because they are powerful in their resources and capabili- ties, does not destroy the fact that they have been of incalculable benefit to man kind and 10 civilization, and that We can hardly conceive of an evil which they might cause that we would not cheer fully endure rather than to have them oblitera:ed from existence.