Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1888-02-02
THE STATE FROM 1915 no 1925.

THE STATE FROM 1915 TO 1925.
"During the period Of which we are
about to treat, there was a stagnation
of business of all sorts. To relieve the
pressure in the midst of IL, Congress re-
dueed the price OF their lands in the
West, from two dollars to one dollar
and twenty-five cents an acre. Thisre-
duetion was extremely injurious to
land owners, many Of whom had large
tracts, on which they had long paid
taxes, until the taxes themselves
amounted to more than the lands were
worth. The productions of the labor,
meat and bread, no longer found a
market near their place of production.
A want of good roads, either by land or
water, on which our home productions
coul,i be transported, added to our far
inland situation, operated severely on
industry of all sorts, and palsied every
manly effort, either of body or by mind
in Ohio.n
"Three-fourths of the State, all south
of the summit which separates the
waters of the Mississippi from those Of
the st. Lawrence, carried their produce
to New Orleans for sale. This trade
was very little better than no trade,
only as it tended to keep men out of
idleness. The 'arks', or as they were
called New Orleans boats cost about
two hundred dollars each, where they
were built, and as they were of little
value at New Orleans and could not be
used by their owners only for descend
ing the river, the entire cost of the boat
was lost. The hands employed in this
long, tedious aud expensive voyage,
provided they escaped death by the
yellow fever or by some robber, were
compelled to return home by land
through the Indian country. In the
interior where these boats were built,
along the Ohio and its branches, after
building the boats and loading them
with flour, pork, lard, whisky, cider,
apples, fowls, etc., the freshet must
come before they could depart on their
perilous voyage. And it might happen,
and often did happen, that all the
streams in the State of Ohio were up
at nearly the same time. The flood
came and with it departed such an
amount of produce, that the market
was glutted. which amounted
to total loss of the cargo, or the boat
sunk on its voyage, and not merely
were the boat and cargo lost, but every
man on board it perished."
THE STATE BANKRUPT.
"From these causes. and those causes
heretofore enumerated, the State
Treasury at length became wholly
bankrupt. All the salaries of the State
officers were in arrears, and all these
officers, and even the members of the
General Assembly were paid in audit
ing bills on the State Treasury. Gov
ernor Brown, though faithfully exert
ing every power he had, actually failed
to borrow twenty thousand dollars on
the credit of the now great, populous
and wealthy State of Ohio"
THE STEAMBOAT ERA.
''The first impulse which reused into
activity the sleeping energies of the
western people was Fulton's steam
boat. The first one built on the west
ern waters was constructed by Robert
Fulton, at Pittsburgh, departed from
that place in December, 1912, and ar
rived at New Orleans on the oath of the
same month. 1t was called The Or
leans. The second was called The
Comet, built by Samuel Smith and |
went to Louisville in the summer of
1913. Third, The Vesuvius, was built
by Fulton, and descended to New Or
leans in the spring of 1914. Fourth,
The Enterprise, built at Brownsville,
Pennsylvania. was owned and con-
structed by Daniel French, on his pat
nnt. This boat made two voyages to
Louisville, in the summer of 1914, un-
der the command of Capt. Israel Gregg.
Fifth, Etna, was built at Pittsburgh;
1915, by Fulton & Co. This business of |
building steamboats, increased annually |
until in 1919, forty-one steamers had |
been constructed on the western
waters"
THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY.
"From 1903 to 1920, our General AS
sembly spent its sessions mostly in
passing acts relating to the school lands: |
in amending our militia laws; and re-
vising those relating to Justices Courts
Every four or five years al! the laws
were amended, Or as one member of
the Assembly well remarked in his
place, were made wOrse.' At low es-
innate, this preverse legislation cost |
the people one million of dollars. The
laws were changed so frequently that
none but the passers ofthem. for whose
benefit they were generally made,
knew what laws were really i'm force.-
New laws were often made, as soon as
the old ones took effect"
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