Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1889-09-08
A Question Of Humanity and sagacity.

| To tie E'difOr of the DiSDGtch:
When the people of Richmond accu-
mulate a surplus or have an attack OF
speculation they 60 off to Duluth, Min
neapolis, or ST. Paul, some thousand or
more miles distant, or they Try their
hand on Birmingham, or Florence, or
some such place or, by a somewhat
windy and ephemeral process now pretty
we'll understood, they get up a "boom "
in small district Just above the city,
| leaving the substantial property Of the
town TO take care Of itself 1t never oc-
ours TO them to invest in the real estate
of Manchester and its suburbs, lying
right under their sapient noses.
The conduct of foreign investors
forms queer commentary on this.
When q northern man comes here pros
pecting he takes map, and putting his
finger on a piece OF property in Rich
mond asks: "What is the price OF
that 2" He is told, say, $50 or $500 per
foot, according tc locality. Then put
ting his finger on piece Of property IN
Manchester equally convenient TO the
river and railroads.&c. asks: And
what is the price of hGt?" They tell
him, say, from 81 TO $50 per foot. Then
seeing no real reason for this difference
in price, he invests in the cheaper pro-
perty. And so it happens that the pre-
ponderance of foreign investments Is
greatly in favor of Nanchester-as
taking all things into consideration, 1t
should BE-.
Recently two or more syndicates from
Baltimore have bought property in both
the upper arr lower parts of Manches-
ter and then suburbs, and one OF them
has gone to work to improve its fran
chse IN q very substantial way. In the
DispGtch OF August 10Th We are told
that Boston syndicate has now come
in, and supplementing its recent pur-
chase of Mayo's bridge 10y buying the
Manchester Railway and Improvement
Company, gives out that 1t meditates
much more in the same line. 1 suppose
that they really mean to do q good deal
and that they have the means TO do It.
This | believe on what ] deem good
grounds: Rural New ENGLAND is becom-
ing a desert. The surplus earnings of
her citizens cannot be placed there.
They cannot sell their lands even around
Boston. They cannot induce immigrants
to cultivate the rocks and sands that
form their soil Their manfacturers
also, despite protection, show here and
there signs of decey-presage OF what
will overtske them all. They have tried
mortgages on the farms of the West
TO the extent of hundreds of millions of
dollars in Michigan, illinois. Wisconsin,
Iowa, and Kansas, and they find 1t is
capital locked up. The Puritan race is
giving place to the foreign element once
or twice removed, as the genealogists
say. Something must be done. The
shrewdest of them SEQ this and
are investing elsewhere. Some of
the wisest OF them are coming
to the shores of the James river.
on the Manchester side, though they see
Duluth, ST. Paul and Minneapolis with
its |. 900-horse power as plainly as the
gentlemen from Richmond did. They
see property here selling cheaper than
similar property anywhere else in the
United States, and where they can build
ships and can manufacture without
limit. For the river, with 1000 cubic
feet of water per second flowing over a
fall of 1l6 feet in Is miles, with horse
power Of ,010, and near by the Apo
mattox with fall of 10 feet for 81
miles, with its horsepower of 10000,
which, adding Swift creek and Falling
creek. gives nearly 40,0O0-horse power,
which is 5000 more in that small area
than the whole Of Massachusetts.