The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1882-01-12
THE GREAT CORPORATIONS.

TIE GREAT CORPORATIONS.
Their Benefit In Developing tho Country.
From the Milwaukee Sunday Telegraph.
BY contrasting tho situation of the great
northwest now vita what It was thirty
years ago, We can imagine what it would
still have been but for the railroads which
have been built across it in all directions.
Thirty years ago the population of the
ports and on the margins of the rivers. The
scattering settlers in the interior lived in
tho poorest primitive manner. II thew
raised little surplus in tho way of crops.
tho cost of getting it to market exceeded its
total value. A farmer living ir one of the
interior counties would take from two to
four days to get wagon load Of wheat, of
thirty bushels, or ]. 500 pounds. to market.
and half that length of time to return to his
home. and his expenses on the road both
ways, and while transacting the little bust
ness involved in its sale. left him but
little or nothing out Of the price
for which he sold his wheat. The lakes
which were the oaly outlet for the produce
Of the West. were closed five months in o
year, and during tina: time there was liter
ally no market at MI for grain. Every pur-
suit Of industry and trade sympathizsd with
the depression in agriculture. Tho mer-
chant and mechanic were no better off than
tho farmer, for. as the people had but lit
tie to buy with, the manufacturers and
dealers could sell but little, and there %as
no growth OF. prosperity in any department
of labor or commerce. This was not tho
case in one state. H. WAS so EVERYWHERE.
A fumer who lived fifty miles from sea-
port at tho last was no better off than one
in the middle of Wisconsin or Iowa. for
his produce had to he hauled by wagon
roads to a market. and the cost of Transport
tation equalled the price for which it could
be sold. Throughout Pennsylvania, Ohio,
Indiana and Illinois, farming on large and
profitable scale was impossible, because a
farmer could raise nothing that he could
sell at e price exceeding the cost Of getting
it to the market.
Travel from place to place was wretched
experience. 1t took q majority of Con-
gressmen from three days to two weeks to
roach Washington from their homes.
Members of the Legislature were from two
days to week reaching the Capitol. 1t is
but few Years ago since q member of the
Wisconsin Assembly, MIR. Whittiesey, OF
Bayfield,, tramped on snow shoes 200 miles
10 reach the Capitol Of Wisconsin. and his
picturens he appeared in his travelling outfit
is now in the State historical rooms at Mad
isoa. Six cents mile was the lowest rate
at which passengers were conveyed by stage.
coach, and rates by the natural water
routes were in proportion. II business
man was called to Now York once a wear
it took him month and more to 20 and
come, and give few days to business.
Relatives and friends in parts of the coun-
try distant from each other were as abso-
lute}y separated as people now are on op-
posite sides of the world. A man now liv-
ing in San Francisco can visit New York as
easily as one could living in Pittsburg thirty
years ago; and every species Of personal
and commercial communication was then
praportionately inconvenient, slow, toll
some and expensive.
No lapse OF years, no process Of time or
change, no influences Of growth or culture,
would have changed this condition of things,
without means for rapid Transportation
from one part Of the country to another.
The country would have become very thickly
settled near the lakes and rivers and by the
artificial watercourses; but the vast interi-
ors. the rich forests, the broad prairies, tho
magnificent intervals would have had but
slightly increased population daring this era,
and it would always have been rude popu-
htion. badly housed, poorly schooled,
roughly clad, with few of the comforts OF
life aside from the food produced on tho
soil, like the frontiersmen and borlerers,
whom We know in tradition and romance.
The land twenty miles away from the steam
boat landings would never have been worth
much more than the original government
price, certainly not to exceed $40 to $40 IN
acre. There would have been but little or no
wealth in houses, barns and faruls, and in
stock and grain; nor but few school houses
and churches; but few and scattering remote
villages, and the nation would have been
poor, provincial, IN its pupilage and adde's
caG:e,
The railroads have wrought the revolution
which ms been accomplished before oul
eyes. Half the cost in money of travel.
and seven eighths of the time are saved. in
effect frightening in many fold the Duration
ant increasing tho capacities Of life. The
products of the farm are now worth as much
az tho farmers door as they previously we're
after being hauled a long distance Nv his
teams. Lind 200 miles from the Great
Likes is worth from $40 to $75 an acre.
which, without railroads, never would have
been worth to exceed $2Onn AGRA. A thrifty
farmer can become rich in few years by
the sale Of the surplus of his farm, which,
but For railroads, he could Lot sell at all.
The handsome farms, the fine school
houses, the elaborate churches, The COM
Portable dwellings,, the thicl1ly- planted viii
lagos Of the whole Northwest, are the direct
result OF the railroads, which have made
every county accessible and convenient for
settlement j'CHpre are 81 O00,U acres of
land in Wisconsin, which taken as whole,
has been increased in value IS per
acre, or $160.00O, 900 in the aggregate.
This land is assessed for tax ltion at $780,
sou, coo, which is less than half its actual
value, and it might also be said that every
dollar of additional value above $40 per
acre has been placed upon it by the rail-
roads which carry its products Of grain,
stock, lumber and manufactures 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 rorthward, between the Missis-
sippi river and the Rocky Mountains, aud
which forms one vast wheat field, waving
in the harvest time with the yellow grain.
which, but for the railroads penetrating
and crossing all its diverse sections, woul
nave remained wild, barren and worthless in
all the future as it had in all tho past, We
can have some idea of the vast individual
and national wealth which the railroads
created. They have increased many fold
the value ct every farm, the value of every
product of industry. and of every class of
property i'll the northwest and throughout
the country.
Individual capital, industry and enter
prise would have been totally powerless to
build the systems Of railroad by which
these splendid and beniAcant results have
been established. Vast aggreg.tions of
credit and capital, as they IRE created by
the great corporations, could alone have
built these roads and established them as
connecting lines leading to millions Of
homes--srreading out, fan shaped, from
the great commercial centers to the in
mense radius Of wheat fields, pastures, for
ests and mines where the property which
they transport is produced, and forming
unbroken channels of commerce between
the most distant parts of the country. These
ageregations Of capital ara formed under
the laws, aud are fostered and regulated by
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