St. Paul daily globe., 1891-11-26
WHAT THE RAILROADS HAVE
DONE.

ment of the Northwest, the Importance
and the significance of which its people
are inclined to overlook. We have
founded here in few years powerful
and thickly-populated empire, rich IN
resources, and filled with prosperous
cities and happy homes. At an earlier
stage Of the worlds history such an
achievement would have been impoSsi-
BILE, and could only have been ap-
preached after centuries of time and
painful toll. In these days towns grow
in all hour, and the cOnyeniences and
The comforts of civilization are the
property Of settlements remote from the
centers of commerce and the points of
production.
The explanation Of this difference
will be found in the existence of the
modern railroads. Men forget what
these have done for them, and criticise
theirmanagement and berate their serv-
Ice, Oblivi0us OF the fact that, were they
destroyed, all the attractive and delight
full features of society as at present con-
stituted would perish with them. The
pioneers Of the past quarter of century
have not been adventurous men like
those who, fifty years ago, went out
into the forests and the unploughed
fields to wrestle with nature and to sub
due it. In advance of men in this later
time have gone the steel rails and the
locomotives to spy out the land, and to
open it for the occupation and enjoy
ment of settlers. The capitalists who
have had the courage to risk their accu-
mutations in such unpromising enter
prises have been the creators of this
empire for whose prosperity we offer
thanks at this season.
The spirit which animates the con-
temporary protector Of great public
works like railways in new country is
the modern form of the pioneers type
of mind. Men who deserted the haunts
of their fellows with no other equipment
than the ak and the rifle could not have
hoped for big rewards in the course of
their own lifetime. They sowed seed
the fruit of which other generations
were to see. And in the same way rail-
roads were pushed across uninhabited
plains and through trackleSs woods to
bring nothing but disaster to those who
built them. Large fortunes have been
made in such ways, but seldom by their
original promoters. When they have
been wrecked because there was not
patronage enough to support them,
starting anew from basis OF nothing,
they have, after reorganization, brought
a return to their new owners out of the
civilization which they had called into
being.
There is nothing new about this idea,
but the GLOBE calls attention to it be-
cause there is no more substantial cause
for gratitude than the possession of
this important agent for development
and protection. The tendency of the
average mind is to take what of good it
sees as matter of course, and to insist
on more as matter Of right. There
are towns in Minnesota which enjoy
the great boon of good water given them
by the construction of public water
works. Without these they would have
to depend on wells, with their attendant
risks of i'll health, Scant supply and
physical discomfort. And yet their
people never stop to think of the bene-
fits they have received from the COM
panies which have supplied them with
these advantages, but pay their rentals
grudgingly, complain savagely when
there are paltry failures in the service,
and scrutiniZe the dividends earned as
though they were blood money torn
from them by force of arms.
In like manner the community is in
clined to treat its still greater benefact-
Ors, the railway companies. 1t is come
to depend on them so completely that il
does not conceive of them as anything
different from the air which it breathes
or the food which it eats. The good
they have accomplished is lost sight Of
and their slightest deficiencies are made
the subject of hot denunciation and the
apology for threats OF destruction. One
would be as much justified in cursing
his father and mother who gave him
birth for their faults of character as any
settlement in the Northwest is in dream
ing of schemes for the ruin of the rail
roads which enter it. In the East there
are cities which grow to great size with
out the help of the steam engine, bu
there is no place in this region which il
not the offspring of railroad building anC
which would not fade away in a montl
were it deprived of this support anC
vitality.
While the earth is bountiful to tht
farmer, it will pay him to contrast TIL
now that is with the then that was
Let him think of his father, who car
ried his wheat 200 miles and sold it fo
thirty-fiVe cents a bushel, because hi
market was limited by the distance hi
horses could travel. Then let him re
fleet on his own condition, with tn
markets of the world at bis command
because he is united closely with al
by ribs of lrOn and steel. Were it no
for the railroads, the prairies woul,
know no other harvest than the vii,
grass, and DO other population thai
buffalo herds and gophers. Withou
railroads, 150.0C0,000 bushels of whea
would have grown in these three state
this year only 10 rot in the fields whic
yielded them. AS it is. the famine @
Europe is cur opportunity. The starJ
ing peasants abroad get the food Whic
they need, and our abundance is place
at their door in exchange for their az
cumulatiOns and products. The gla
wheels of commerce turn happily for L
all, and the motive power is the pisto
rod and the cylinder which STEVENso
invented, and which the great railroa
monarchs of our day have brought t
perfection.
r VARIETY OF RESOURCES.
Minnesota has few. if any 'one-hoss
towns, few one-idea men, and the stat
at large is far from being a one-cro
state. 1t is true that this idea has oil
tIined in the extreme eastern portion {