Press and daily Dakotaian. (Yankton, Dakota Territory [S.D.]) 1880-1889, 1885-05-18

It is claimed by o heavy property
owner of Yankton and man of long
years of experience IN money making
transactions that investments in public
improvements which might seem ex-
travagant are in reality the wisest and
most economical outlay a municipality
can indulge in. He argues that if his
property is taxed five per cent. to pay
workmen for judiciously improving the
city he will receive return tenfold that
of the investment imposed upon him by
taxation. It is workmen, he says. who
make city. A hundred OF them brought
into community to engage IN labor for
wages means an addition of five hundred
persons to the population of that com.
munity and the money they earn goes
back to the people in the purchase of
supplies for the maintenance of the five
hundred. Five hundred laborers add
twenty-five hundred to the population,
thousand, add five thousand, and so
on. Labor is the basis Of prosperity.
A town which contains few hundred
ever busy wage workers imperceptibly
booms itself. The case OF Kansas City
is cited. Located by few enterprising
men upon the most unforbidding site on
the Missouri river, its first move to at
tract the attention Of the outside world
was the employment Of a thousand la.
borers to dig down its rugged hills and
create by artificial means town site for
which nature had made no preparation
The scheme bore immediate fruit. En-
terprising capitalists looked upon the
scene of busy activity and they reason
ed, "here is live town." They invest
ed their money, one by one. They bull,
and improved and drew to them othel
capitalists who built and improved, ant
to-day Kansas City is the most thriving
city west of Chicago. Its beginning
was townslte company of energeti,
men and thousand laborers shovelinl
dirt from the hillsldes into the valleys
They bonded themselves to procur,
money to meet the expense and from til,
profits wide margin is left after paying
the bonds. This is one instance wherein
town was doomed into unlimited pros
perity by the active labor of men work
ing for wages. Chicago furnishes an
other. Its foundations are hani
made, and the men who shoveled th
filling into the marshes upon which i
stands formed the nucleus of the immens
population of to-day.
The gentleman who furnishes th
inspiration for these remark
argues that God has done too much TO
Yankton. He made for it the most beau
tiful townsite in all the west and left to
little for the people to accomplish in til
way of perfeoting labor. Still there is
chance for the use OF the spade and th,
pickax. Tho Rhine could be change
into covered sewer for the drainage Q
the city. the blaff streets could b
out down to their proper level. til
streets could all be gravelel an
the broken spots in the levee coul,
be repaired. More important still
railroad could be built. Thi
would give employment to labor an
bring thousand fold return to the pee
pie who invest in its construction. W
need to operate upon the propositio
that all things are possible by calling {
our aid the proper amount OF cnerg,
1 good Judgment and public epirit. Th
{ construction Of thirty miles Of trsc
would make Yankton the terminus Of