The Osceola times., 1882-02-11
The Great Cornorations.

MuMduhtS Nuuudy leleEThpu.
By contrasting the situation Of the
great Northwest now with what it was
thirty years ago, we can imagine what it
would still have been but for the rail
roads which have been built across ii in
all directions. Thirty years ago the pop
ulatinn Of the Northwest was clustered
around the lake ports and on the mar
gins of the rivers. The scattering set.
tiers in the interior lived in the poorest
primitive manner. II they raised little
surplus in the way Of crops, the cost Of
getting it to market exceeded its total
value. A farmer living in Jefferson or
Dane county would take from two TO four
days 70 get n wagon load of wheat of 80
bushels, or 500 pounds, to Milwaukee,
and half that length of time 10 return to
bis home, and his expense on the road
both ways, and while transacting the lit.
tie business 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 only outlet for the pro-
ducc Of the West were closed five months
in year, and during that time there was
literally no market at all for wheat. llv-
cry pursuit of industry and trade sympa-
thized with the depression in agricul-
lure. The merchant and the mechanic
were no better Off than the farmer, for
as the people had but little TO buy with,
.he Manufacturers and dealers could sell
but little, and there was no growth or
prosperity in any department of labor or
commerce. This was not the case in
Wisconsin alone. 1t was 50 everywhere.
A farmer who lived fifty miles from
seaport at the East was no better of
81. .
Iowa, FOR his produce had to be hauled
by wagon roads to a market, and the cost
of transportation equalled the price for
which it could be sold. Throughout
Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Hi
nuis, farming on a large and profitable
scale was impossible, because a farmer
could raise nothing that lac could sell at
a price exceeding the cost of getting it to
market.
Travel from place to place was
wretche9 experience. II took majority
Of congressman from three days TO two
weeks to reach Washington from their
homes. Members OF the legislature were
from two days TO a week reaching Madi-
son. 1t is but few years ago since
member of the assembly, Mr. Whittle.
sey, of Bayfield,, tramped on snow-shoes
two hundred miles to reach the capitol
of Wisconsin, and his picture as he ap-
peared in his travelling outfit is now in
the State Historical rooms at Madison.
Six cents mile was the lowest rate at
which passengers were conveyed by
stage-coach, and rates by the natural
waterroutes were in proportion. Ii
business man was called to New York
once a year, it took him month and
more to go and come, and give few
days TO business. Relatives and friends
in parts of the country distant from each
other were as absolutely separated as
people now are on opposite sides of the
world A man now living in San Fran
Cis,o 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
proportiouately inconyenient, 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 condi-
ton of things, without means for rapid
transportation from one part of the couu.
try to another. The country would have
become very thickly settled near the
lakes and rivers and by the artificial
water. courses; but the vast interiors. the
rich forests, the broad prairies, the mag
nifcent intervales would have had but
slightly increased population during this
era, and it would always have been a
rude population, badly housed, poorly
schooled. roughly clad, with few of the
comforts Of life aside from the food pro-
duced on the soil, like the frontiersmen
and borderers whom we know in tradi-
tion and romance. The land twenty
miles away from the steamboat landings
would never have been worth much
mori than the original government price,
certainly not to exceed IS TO $40 an acre.
There would have been but little or no
wealth in houses, barns and farms, and
in stock and grain; no or but few school
houses and churches; but few and scat
tering remote villages, and the nation
vould have been poor, provincial, in its
pup'agc and adolescence.
The railroads have wrought the re volu
ton which has been accomplished before
oureyes. Halfthe cost in money of travel,
and sevep-eights of the time are saved,
in effect lengthening many fold the du.