, 1891-08-06
THE WESTERN FEVER.
A Leader" Correspondent Has a
Talk With Eastern Farmers.
They Want to Move Where They
Can Make Money Faster.
A Suggestion as to How to Get
Them to Come to Wyoming.


LYNNvILLE, Iowa, Aug. 3-This is the
country for pork and corn. There are
thousands and thousands OF acres of corn
and much of it is higher than an ordi,
nary mans head, some of it sixteen feet
high. All kinds of vegetables and small
fruit, apples, a berries, etc, do ex-
tremely we'll. 1t is not much of a wheat
country but oats are good. Crops have
not been very good for the past four
years but this year the harvest will be a
bountiful one. Old timers who have
lived here more than thirty years say that
IN all that time there has never been a
total failure, especially OF the corn crop.
And yet your correspondent was sur
prised at two things, VIZ:
l. There are not as many large barns
and fine farm houses as he expected to
see.
?, Many of the people mot only here
but IN Minnesota) are not contented and
are very DESTROYS of going either west OF
south. The principal reason the farmers
of Iowa, Illinois and MINI esota have not
better residences, is that they have proba-
bly, paid more attention to land s%pecula-
tion-getting more and more land-than
to home comforts. Surely the majority
OF them could afford better homes. This,
though not a land OF m~illionaires, is not
a land of paupets.
Most Of the land is cultivated by Its
owners and there are but Jew renters.
The reason Of discontentment is, the peo-
pie realize that in this part OF the country
the time for making quick money and
large fortunes has passed. Men who are
well off say that it is hard to hold their
own and hat to further increase their
fortunes is almost out of the question.
Thus it happens that many of the wealth
Ter are looking about for a chance to bet
ter their condition. When told that in
the west the resources are much more
varied, and the opportunities to make
money greater, they at once express a de-
sire to emigrate. Indeed nothing seems to
interest them more thar talk of the west.
1t is very easy for a westerner to entertain
his hearers by telling not only of the
mountains and game. but of the stock in
%terests, of the mines. and OF the cities that
have sprung up as if by maeic-of the
(lost) opportunities to speculate in real
estate.
Some readers of THE LEADER may
think your correspondent has been telling
big stories to tenderfeet. Such is not tho
case. Seriously, when he visited the old
farm In Minnesota, he was impressed this
way: We'll, am glad my father did
not stay here" In nearly every place
where he has lived in the West the
opportunities were so much greater that
he might have made more money in one
or two years than he possibly could have
made there in a lifetime. Those who
have remained are aware of the same
truth. While they have plodded along
and worked bard these many years to find
themselves only comfortably fixed, they
are aware that in the West cities have
grown up and fortunes have been made.
And right here seems to be the
proper place to mention that while
in st. Paul the writer came to
the conclusion that the people
of Wyoming and the press OF Wyoming
had not done their full duty. Indeed it
seems that the whole West may be
blamed. That it is comparatively dull all
over the West must be admitted. The
looked for capital and immigration is not
arriving as was expected. But how
about the new South?' Why has i'm
migration turned from westward to
southwark Why is it that in the South
new towns are %springing up and new man
ufacturinG interests are beng started
while the West is being neglected? In
deed there is not only immigration from
the East, but from the West TO the
South. The present situation and the
facts noted above Chat people of the
central states ere anxious to immigrate)
when considered together certainly pre-.
sents a problem and a problem which the
West would do well to study. But what
is the remedy Well, the only remedy a
newspaper man can give is, of course,
advertjse. Advertise the sou of the
West. Advertise the Of Wyo-
ming, the opportunities OF making money
there by judiciously investing in mining,
stock raising and real estate.
There are those who will say the news
papers have already ''blowed the country