The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1890-10-02

Under the combined lnHuences Ol lnese adverse
agencies it may confidently be affirmed
that profitable agriculture with them no longer
exists, and it is only by supreme energy they are
enabled to cling to this last source OF departing
prosperity. This opens up to our people a bound
less field of profitable enterprise, for our land is
comparatively new, intrinsicaly rich, and admira-
bly, adapted to the growth of all the staple products
in demand. With genial climate where labor may
be performed the year around at outdoor work with
cheaper clothing, less fuel, and more economical
expenditures for the necessary care of stock it will
in the course of time, become impossible for any
country in the world to compete with in the
cheap production of bread stuffs and other food
products. Then all we shall need is the proper
commercial accessories, embracing ready, safe, and
economical land and ocean transport, to increase
the consumption of staple articles by those who
will be forced to look more and more to for u
mho of promiscuous articles of diet which our soil
lc!state, and native ingenuity fit us chiefly to sup
ply. We have an immense source of growing and
assured wealth in these promiscuous articles of
food-such as canned fruit and vegetables dressed
beef condensed milk, desscated vegetables, hams
bacon, butter and cheese, which with the refrigera-
tory and other modern improvements being
arranged in transatlantic vessels may with all other
products of our soil however delicate, be transmit
ted into gold by sending it to the hungry mouths of
the laboring classes of other countries. And
should at the same time be able to fill the avenues
of trade with home manufactured articles, such as
household furniture, kitchen accoutrements, heat
ing apparatus, gas and water-ppe and fixtures, agri
cultural implements, mechanical inventions of all
kinds, and manufactures of every description, in
Guiding boots and Shoes and the cheaper articles of
clothing hats and caps 1t is safe to say that with
sufficient capital all the uxuries and necessaries of
life save few Indigenous specaltes could be bet
ter made and more economically furnished here,
account of the proximity of the material, mild
of the climate, and the saving of transportation
both ways with the numberless items of cost attach
ing to frequent handling, and the incidental profits
to ALL so long we have to depend upon the furni
ture makers Of Michigan, the boot and shoe makers
of New England, and the agricultural implement
makers of Ohio, and other kindred organizations.
With the increase of population which we may
pect, innumerable home demands will be created
for the mulfarious manufactures, and the pro-
ducts of vast and varied industry, which will
nerve those who have money to invest with an ad-
ded stmulous of assumed remunerative dividends,
in almost every line of business they may select.
These advantages, when once fully appreciated,
will bring all the foreign capital we may need to
our relief, and force all fictitious barriers aside
Chief among the things which all right thinking
men desire to speedily accomplished may there
fore be reckoned the establishment of every egiti
mate enterprise, and every character of business
venture upon permanent basis, and the steadfast
prosperity of the people through the material inde
| pendence and utmost development of all its mag
| nifcent resources. The ambition that does not
point to these things, is an unworthy ambition.
When we secure the erection of factories and mills
| the dull thunder of whose looms reverbrate night
and day as they tremble beneath the throb and
thrOe of their intricate machinery, and their wooden
and cotton fabrics sent into every state, while
| the peculiar adaptation of her western plains for
sheep grazing and the value of the fleece, and the
demand for the mutton causes an increase in those
engaging in the avocations of Abel when we nerve
| the hand that would utilize the eXhaustless maya
zines of heat and mechanical forces planted in the
soil and beaten down with the tread of ages in the
| bowels of the mountains, and interlace state
with complete network of railroads carriers and
| distributors of her products, then will the whole
| state begin to wear n brighter aspect trade will
spring up enterprise set in and give to all the peo-
pie profitable investment and remunerative employ
ment and enable state to reach its full statue
as perfect commonwealth, by standing prominent
in free and liberal institutions moral fiber intellect
ual reach and all the glories which the most
elevated civilization. In the early days of the
United States the government had large regions of
country it wanted inhabited. These lands were
not situated as to induce settlement. People in
search of homes rarely willing to go to points
remote from markets, and they were compelled to
rely upon water transportation to facilitate the rea-
tons that established between the inhabitants
of different states and territories, to invite exchan
ges and transportations of all kinds as
the souls of commerce which civiliza
ton was the offspring. And this civil
ization penetrated but slowly into the uninhabited
stretches of the interior its progress being almost
invariably paralelled with the of rivers and
streams. But in 1871, when the whole of the west
was an unexpored land, that great statesman
Stephen A. Douglass, impressed with the impOr
ance and difficulty of its speedy settlement, and
realizing that its population was dependent upon
steam transportation of some kind to give it access
to the great centers of trade, and knowing that az
the profits of these railways to come from
their freight and passenger tariffs, the volume OF
their business would necessarily depend upon pop
ulaton, which consideration would make them act
i've colonization societies, he inangurated the policy
of granting them sixteen alternate sections of the
public domain in aid of their construction-givinl
to the Illinois Central sixteen sections per mile
And it was under the operation of these laws tina
the great tide of population rolled westward laying
the foundation of that thrift which has added state
| after state to the Union And the Law
; provided that the reserved section
should be sold for double the former price-a
which they had found few purchasers-this transac
ton not only withheld nothing from the treasury
but experience proved that sections within railroad
grants sold much more rapidly than formerly a
half the price, that the people sustained not los
$ but the gamers by a better market for thei
, lands, and more rapid development of the coun
G try As soon as a railroad was projected and he
fore it could be graded, the land along the line wa
: sought in anticipation of its construction. In 1854
: the wise statesmen of Texas had the policy il
view for the settlement of the state with the tller
of the soil when they enacted the general railroad
t law which gave sixteen sections per mile in aiC
of their construction In conjunction with this the
n relied upon the principles of the homestead Law
G which not new in this country. Spain AM
Mexico had from n very early period, promoted tn
= settlement Of their territories by liberal grants
r land to individuals who would undertake to sett
D them. New Mexico and California are covered b.
{ these concessions which embrace vast bodies o
many leagues in extent. The Atlantic states, Will
Y colonies, had been settled in this way and in 1850
congress- in order to promote the settlement of Ore
gon promised the conditions To realiz
r these promises many hardy pioneers traversed
wilderness of plain, mountain and unknown stream
Texas, too, followed in line with this policy, Away
carrying as u condition to the various grants settle
i ment residence and while there remains probably
3000 900 of good land in the state still subjec
to homestead and pre-emptiOn rights, it can onl,
contribute to the growth in population Of the sec
f ton where it is located and as the policy of lanC
subsidies is no longer authorized by law, the peop
must now rely upon other means to build up TIN
: country | believe that the large pas
( lures of the west mark a transition periOt
in the history of its progress The land will becOm
too valuable for settlement to be devoted to TIN
present imprOvident and Improbable mode of cat
tie raising. 1t would be fortunate for the state
large if the unfailing remedy of self
e interest should induce the large Ian,
holders to adopt the policy pursue,
= by the federal and state governments in dealin
with the public lands and cut their possession
into alternate sections smaller subdivisions, AM
e then proclaim to the world that they wou
e fell the old sections at nominal pric
on long time, at low rate of interest 1t is certa
from the history of the past, that they would en-
hance the aggregate value of their possessions; tn
: lands would be rapidly improved and cultivated
houses would be built; crops raised on small farm
d well stocked and well cultivated and the materia
wealth Of the state aggrandized by the products
= the soil. Towns would be built to supply the de
o mands of trade to these farms, and these tow
o would furnish employment to other industries, an
y valuable tax-paying citizens, who would swell tn
n revenues of the state and counties, and help til
a citizens bear the burden of government. In tn
g meantime should give confidence to capital an
h honest industry and secure the greater develOI
Il ment of our transportation facilities without whc
II there will be but little hope Of future commerci'