The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1891-02-27

Own Efforts, Lose Little Time In Con-
sidering Visionary schomes, and Apply
Industry and Common Sense in Equal
Parts.
The article which follows was pre-
pared by Mr.. F. I. Whitney, General
Passenger Agent of the Great N orthern
Railway, and read to the Minnesota
Editors and Publishers Association, in
st. Paul, Feb. 10. 1t is well worth care
full reading and study by every one, and
is Of especial Importance and value to
the farmers of Minnesota:
One of the subjects to be discussed by
your association is encouragement of
immigration by the state. We are in
favor of encouraging immigration to
Minnesota because it has splendid re-
sources, a glorious and healthful eli
mate, a surface diversified with forests,
prairies, lakes and streams-not matched
for excellence in any other equal area in
America charming landscape, rich
mineral deposits, water power, quarries
of every kind, an abundance of building
material and fuel, two water ways to
the sea--one Of the six states thus fa-
vored-railways, a sturdy and enlight-
ened people, a superior educational sys-
tenn and the largest school fund in the
Union, thriving cities and towns, a live
and energetic press, and broad and well
laid foundations of statehood.
We believe in encouraging immigra-
ton to such state by legislative, indi-
'vidual or community aid, but what is
quite as important is encouragement to
those already here. We have achieved
help restrain and quiet this restless
ness through institute work and associ-
ated efforts, by showing the importance
of Investigation and rotation, the util-
ization of materials and forces now
wasted, by the dissemination through the
press ot,new ideas combined with old
and economical methods.
1t is freely asserted that the general
condition of agriculture is not good
indeed it is claimed that affairs in the
country are going from bad to worse,
while extremists and alarmists make it
about as bad as it can be- All sorts of
reasons for this condition are alleged.
Some have laid it at the door of the
tariff, others to the banking system. and
so on through long list of ills, bat the
main charge is that it is due to legisla,
tive favoritism to corporate interests
combined with the extortionate and rep
rehensible conduct of corporations in
general, but of railways in particular.
The fact is either forgotten or ignored
that the railways depend more upon the
prosperity and success of farming com,
munities for support than upon any
other source. The best paying roads and
those upon which rates are the least, are
those which traverse the thriftiest agri-
cultural regions, and vice versa
Laws Can't Cure All HIS
Railroads, for apparent reasons, desire
the building up, not the breaking down,
of any interest-the farming interest in
particular. The politicians plan of sal.
walton for the farmers who have failed
land unfortunately they have succeeded
in causing large number of respected
and worthy citizens to accept their
UACOIICSJ 40 4No railway
poration can well object, and the least
possible number will object, to a fail
system of legislative regulation and re.
striction; but they may well complain
of measures whose authors are really
ignorant of the subject they profess tc
know so much about; whose provisions
are unwise, unjust, and positively
I'D iol, H.
effect, would prove destructive. A wal
upon any one of the institutions OF the
country is harmful to every other
Many people like to believe that they
can secure prosperity without earning
it. Once in a thousand times it is done
perhaps, but every one knows that the
rule is that There is no excellence
without great labor, a maxim as true
as it is old. The successful men of the
country are those who have depended IN
the main upon their own efforts; who
have lost but little time in the considera-
ton of visionary schemes or in running
after rainbows or politicians, who know
and care next to nothing of the theories
and opinions of modern social reformers
1dUOl DIC6U6IS S5l ulSCOu
tent, and who at all times and under all
circumstances have made the most OF
situations and conditions.
Farmers Need Not Live in Poverty.
Farmers are not and cannot be made
exceptions to the general law. There
are all over the country farmers who
are prosperous; they are to be found by
hundreds in Minnesota and the Dakotas
men who are well qualified for their
calling, are confident of the future, who
are today ahead, have something in the
old stocking leg, and who are not COM
planning nor grumbling. They don't
wait for chances, they make them, and
obey the injunction: Whatsoever
thy hand fndeth to do, do it
with thy might" They live in the
same community where other farm
ers are in debt, in distress and discon-
tented. They pay the same tariffs as
their neighbors; are subject to the same
Styrannical" restrictions; till the same
kind of soil; buy and sell in the same mar
kets, and receive only the same favors
and enjoy only the same natural privi-
leges. Why are they prosperous and
their neighbors unthrifty? If farming
is not profitable in Minnesota and the