New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1889-05-05

OF country rs ole would wish TO see. Lake Peli.
can. long and narrow. Is side. Lake
Kampesks, broad and wide and agate bound, is
on the other. Behind il is the prairie, limited
only by human right. tinted with green and gold
and traversed by the shadows of the clouds. Re
fore it Is the city, than which there are hosts Of
worse looking places II is choice site for
any public building. Watertown has not been
considered a factor in tie capital fight until re.
Gently. but she has been stirred up by other
smaller towns around here. which have urged
her into the field, and now. an announced cand-
date she is running for votes To outside
the capital question is delightfully."- amusing Ealh
town can figure out it's majority before your eyes
and show where every vote Is coming from. 1t
is all perfectly clear and indisputable until some
body from another town comes along. Then the
figures whirl and the facts futter. until you feel
as If a sand blizzard had hold uoon you and was
turning you around, upside down. inside out, and
filling nose, eyes, cars and mouth.
In It's animating spirit, Waertown wants moth
ing. 1t has all the push and energy that 1000
people could conveniently IL is wealthy,
wealth goes here. It's banks in 1888 wrote
s5,l44, 600 Of exchange and carried from seven
10 ten millions Of deposits. Its -four mill rolled
out 90, 600 barrels Of -four from the grain picked
up all around the city. It's farmers marketed
100000 bushels of wheat and $1,000 bushels OF
flax go 900 bushels OF potatoes and 70, 600 pounds
OF wool In It's ten manufactures a round million
OF money Is invested and from five ailroad sy,-
tens its receiving and distributing service is
acquired.
Now, when you group facts a little when you
consider that there are here six banking inStitu-
tons, one with an office building that cost
ss6, 0Oo three public school houses, and a fourth
soon to be built at cost OF $40 900: a mOrr
street railway; handsome and trim little opera
house; Grand Army assembly hall: three good
hotels, loan, trust and insurance companies, brick
yards, paint factories -four mills, fOundrics, tan.
neries, carriage and plough factories, and around
1t county with $4,000 acres of land under cult
"ation and yielding over 500 600 bushels Of
grain year. where in 875, were but three white
inhabitants, and in 1887 only one franc house
when one takes birdseye view of these facts
he appreciates the stuff these Western folks arc
made Of He appreciates. too. the wisdom of
those much abused Con sresses that devised the
homestead laws and that made il to the practical
advantage OF capital 10 come out upon these
prairie wastes and risk money in railroads
II is, know, the popular thing
with certain class Of politicians nowadays TO
abuse the railroads, to call their grants land
grabs and to beat a tattoo upOn the heads OF
the legislators who conceived the policy which has
turned a desolate. barren trackcss wilderness into
rich and populous States. The people who con-
tribute to that chorus OF silly chatter have never
been West They don't know what they are talk
ing about II they would come out here they
would soon feel heartily ashamed of themselves
That individual railroad rings have done certain
tricky dishonest acts, that Con gressIOnal fcsG
has sometimes proved weak, may all be true. but
what of it2 The Government policy of free homes
O. industrious people and Of free lands to railroad
capital, read in It's practical results proved 70
be one Of the wisest noblest conceptions Of states
manshp ever recorded on a statute-hook. II the
good it has done in turning poverty into
parative wealth and misery into happiness IN con
trihuting to the food Of tic country in relieving
congcsted populations, and thereby diminishing
crime, and in thousands OF collateral ways could
be put into figures and measures, the fool who J.,
big fool as to find fault with 1t would be a
curiosity.
Townships in this country are blocks Of land six
niles square, and divided into sections or square
miles. Two sections in each township, Nos. Is
and 80. are held under acts of Congress until the
Territories become States Nobody is permitted I,
touch them. They are called school sections. and
when tho Dakotas, Montana and WASHINGTON be
come States these school sections millions Of
by the National Government to that Of the States.
10 be employed III the creation and maintenance Of
4 public school fund Many Of tAcs" section,
would sell to-day for s2j. 600 Some ar, III tn.
heart Of growing cites. These States will from
the very start possess "A school fund that will re
heve the people OF oil educational taxation. They
are not waiting 10 avail themselves Of this fund.
however. They have already provided Themselves
with an excellent graded system, and ! nightly
wish the people of the East could have the Oppor-
unity to make an ANALYSIS OF the EXPENDITURES and
taX-rates out here. It would open their eyes
These folk think nothing OF spending $4,000 OF
10000 for school or other public buildings. And
vet they regard a tax OF one dollar on the hundred
the valuation being third Of the real valuation
exceedingly high. Watertowns assessed
value is 81 100000 It's taXrate j,
l6 l-2 mills on the dollar The m"aning
Of this is simply that the rsscals in politics
here. Public contracts are honest contracts
They not let to enable rings TO cheat the
people. The engineers do not stand in with
the contractors and the contractors with the poll
ticians. The people not yet civilized 10 the
point at which such methods are regarded with
indifference.
In the Dalotan vocabulary there are two words
rustler' and BOOM which occur with m lrked
frequency in every conversation. The ruStlcr is
the direct product Of the blizzard. lie moves with
a quick resistless force lie does not rest for
sleep or food. He knows no WEAKNESS OF the
flesh. He has no doubts or fears lie believes
and he an insLlrer of faith He will build hotel
Of 300 rooms on a street-motor railway on the
blank prairie and wait for town TO grow up
around 1t. The town always comes, if he be a
genuine rustler.
You can't tell him by his looks. nor hv the cut
OF his clothes. His grammar is often added. and
he makes bib Of his napkin at table. But when
he turns himself loose upon project with money
in it the project projects 1t looms. 1t yawns.
He keeps it ever in the way OF your eyes. and be