Lexington weekly intelligencer. (Lexington, Mo.) 1871-1887, 1886-03-27

ueTS dlOuS luc VllsoOulA AIsSA OOt'o
from Arrow Rock to st. Charles, and
then across the Mississippi at Alton
and around to East st. Louis, is a st.
Louis road. 1t goes to Alton to meet
a Chicago road and avoids st. Louis.
If this road makes anything it will
have to do it on its through traffic, it
will never do it on its local traffic.
What do you think of a railroad that
for 10 miles does not touch a single
town, store, blacksmith shop; or gro
cery-no place where a man can wet
his whistle? But they say the road
will make up tor all this by the richness
of the country between Arrow Rock
and Kansas City. Well if that is the
case-if they intend to make up for all
the towns that ought to be in that 40
miles of wilderness, they will have a
string OF towns in the southern part OF
your county, and, right south of you
here, where the proposed C., b. u =.
would cross the Central Mo-, there will
be a city which will injure all the CEN
trail portion of the county, and will
| kill your town of Marshall and per-
haps take away from it the county seat.
| But if you get the Short Line you are
| safe and can then have the other roads
too if you so desire. But these other
roads are not built. One is not sur
veyed, if the other is; and if the other
is it is not on paper.
The ten counties through which the
| Short Line will pass: st. Louis. st.
Charles, Warren, Montgomery, Gala
| way, Boone, Howard, Saline, Lafay-
cite and Jackson-cOltain One-half
the wealth of the state. They raise
one half the wheat of the state. They
contain more than one-third of all the
population of the state, and contain
80 per cent of all the live stock grown
i'm the state. The local traffic along the
line will treble that of competing lines
from the very start. When railroads
were first built in this western country,
they were built to develop the resources
of the country and populate the wild
lands. But these railroads did not
make money first. The money was
made out OF them by those who owned
the lands and the railroads we're built
by public aid. All this was all right.
These roads opened up the country and
did a great deal of good. But the
Short Line will be a different kind Of
road. 1t will not run through a wilder
ness, but the frs: train will find crowds
of men at the depots with their grips
ready to take the cars, platforms piled
up with their grain, and stock-pens full
Of stock ready to be shipped. Why, all
these Missouri roads pay! The
Wabash, though connected with the
bankrupt systematic Missouri portion
OF it has never ceased to pay. The
Missouri part of the Pacific pays SO
per cent. of the yearly products of the
whole road. The &. Il A. is coming
money. Some of you sold your stock
at $5 per share, l hear. Well that
stock cannot be bought at any price,
and is quoted at 81 40. Our company
determined not to ask any money from
the people along the line, but simply
TO take stock in the road to the amount
of 1900 per mile. We want you to
take this stock for one reason alone.
Now this Short Line company are all
home men; there is no foreign brain or
enterprise in it. We want to bond and
build the road and run 1t for the people
As an independent road. But when
we go to ask capitalists to put seven
million and a half in our bonds, they
will ask us, "Do the people want it!
Will they p~atronize it3 Will it pay for
us to put our money in it?' Then we
can say here is what they have SUBJ
scribed and here is the right of way.
That shows whether they want it or
not. There was never such a time to
build a railroad as now. There is "A
plethora OF idle capital IN the vaults
in the east and Europe. We have
worked on this enterprise a year, have
made a survey and have got under
fifty foot grades, thirty feet lighter
than any other grade in the state-you
hear about the easy grade OF the Cen
trail Mo-; it runs through a rougher
country than ours and has a heavier
is the maximum grade that counts, no
matter how far a road may u along
Il level prairie, its the steepness of the
maximum grade that tells the tale,
when they get to them and have to
double the locomotives. We intend to
build a fine, first-c!ass road, no depot
to cost less than S6,000-36 Id. steel
rails and everything complete-build-
ing no for Il day Or a year but for all
time. You pay your subscription for
stock in three installments-one third
when the cars are running AMI notice
thereof published i'll the county papers;
II third i'll n year thereafter, and
one third i'll two years thereafter. If
the road is not built in three years you
pay nothing. My opinion is that when
the road is completed your stock will
be worth its full value.
We OF Boone are with you in this
matter. Our fate is wrapped up with
yours, and we beg of you t help us in
this struggle; but if you desert us i'm
Our hour OF need, we will be forced
to seek an outlet through some other
connection. But Saline cannot, must
not fail us! DO you know what Saline
is! She is greater in than a
sovereign state of this Union that sends
two senators to congress. Saline has
16O square miles, while Rhode Island
has 1880, but when you subtract the
barren sea beach and the inlets of the
Narragansett bay from Rhode Island,
it leaves Saline with double the amount
OF improved lands, nor is there SlOO, 900
difference in the value of the live stock
in the two sections. Yet Saline has
$4,000 people, while Rhode Island has
269,OOO. Saline has more than double
the capacity of Rhode Island in the
shape of soil and other resources, and
could support twice the population of
Rhode Island. Think Of the
fence, i'll a social aspect, of an air line
communication with the chief towns of
Central Mo-, to whose colleges you
send your ch%ildren,and where you have
relatives and friends and other social
relations. For that reason alone
enough money should be subscribed
to insure the Short Line.
Then the moral aspect. A pious
owner Of large property interests in
Columbia felt constrained to refuse TO
take stock in the Short Line because he
said that it would bring tramps and