Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1893-01-27

sin the dependent and the destitute
are in the majority.
Far be it from me to trifie with a
theme so serious, for these startling
facts appeal to the higher and better
qualities of both mind and heart.
However, l confess to no feelings of
exaltation when l turn to summary
of ten years toll and investment in
two states: Massachusetts and Ohio.
Comparisons are at times odious but
by their aid we better see some things.
Is it a mere coincidence that Ohio
with one half more people; with eight
times the productive soil; producing a
hundred and sixty times the pig iron,
indeed surpassed by but one state in
its production; with fourteen times
the production of steel, in fact sur
passed by but two states in pro-
ducing steel; with coal output going
beyond all states but two, while Mass
achusetts has none whatever; with
four and half times the mich cows;
nine time the cattle; seventy times the
sheep; thirty eight times the hogs;
twelve times the horses; raising thirty
seven times the oats; rating fourth
among all states in the production of
wheat, while Massachusetts in 1891 re-
ported none whatever; to be exact,
Ohio raised in 1891, forty times the
entire wheat crop of the six New
England States; with forty-five times
the production of corn, with it all
what did the people of Ohio gain in
wealth in ten years compared with
what the people of Massachusetts
gained in the same time. Keeping in
mind that in 1880 these two common
wealths started almost exactly even in
wealth, would you believe that with
the vast advantage the people of Ohio
mad that Massachusetts gained in ten
years two dollars to Ohio's one, with
eighty one million dollars to spare.
Perhaps it is less matter for wonder
when we recall that it was the people
of Ohio who recently with eager haste
crowded to the polls to confer the
highest honor in their gift upon an ig-
norant fanatic of their state who did
all in his power when chairman of
the congressional ways and means
committee to bring about just this ex-
hibit of his constituency.
The people are beginning to think
there is somewhat rotten in Den
mark" when six great states: Kansas,
Nebraska, Ga state in which it became
necessary for the supreme court of the
United States to gently but firmly
lift by the nape of the neck out of the
Governors chair one Thayer by name,)
Iowa, Wisconsin,. Illinois and Indiana
starting ten years ago with five times
as many people as Massachusetts, in
creasing in population during that
that time more than sufficient to make
Massachusetts; with forty times the
productive soil; with cereal crops, live
stock, minerals, railways so great that
Massachusetts suggests no comparison;
with ten dollars to six dollars of
wealth in 1880, shows gain less than
half as great as Massachusetts shows.
Or again, we may never tire in our
boasting of the ineNhaustible mineral
resources of the west, we invoke the
voice of poetry to describe the hardy
miner of the mountain Businesses and
the treasures hidden by nature in the
recesses of the rock; we marvel at the
colossal fortunes of bonanza kings,
but we overlook the hardy miners of
Massachusetts, who are working veins
of gold and silver hidden deep in the
recesses of the laws passed at Wash
ingtan, d. c., which have yielded them
in ten years, a reward more than half
as great as the entire increase of
the mining states and territories Of
Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana,
Colorado, Wyoming, Arizona, New
Mexico, Utah, Nevada and California.
F. M. DYER.