Devils Lake inter-ocean. (Devils Lake, Ramsey Co., Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1905, 1899-07-14

North Dakota are prOsperOuS-becauSe
there is nobody else in North Dakota
who produces any wealth-there is not
any thing else that will produce wealth
than the cultivation of the soil. You
have no forests and you have no mines.
You have no ocean. This is the near
est to it and the fish in the sea do not
sell for as high a price as they do in
Cape Cod. Unless you can be pros.
porous my enterprise will be poor.
l have got to stand with you and fall
with you. You, individually, for any
reason, may sell your land and go else.
where; l may do the same; l may
change my home and in a few years
| will have to whether / like it or not
but the railway will be here and the
land will be here and they will prosper
together-they will suffer together.
If one falls the other will fall. This
may seem strange doctrine from me,
but think if you will ask yourselves
n go back-l IN not aware of any
man in the land of North Dakota
whose face | have ever ground. l do
not know any man cnltivating land in
North Dakota whom I do not wish
we'll, and do not know any occasion
and do not mean that there shall be
any occasion or any time that that l
do not feel the deepest interest in the
prosperity of the farmers along the
country served by our line because, if,
as l said before. there is no prosperity
we nave made a mistake in building
a railroad (Applause) we have made a
terrible mistake in building a railroad.
When I went to the state of Wash
ington the first time and saw the
magnificent forests they told me of the
towns and cities they were going to
build On Puget Sound, what harbors
they had and what golden oppor
tunities there were, 1 made up my
mind there was one thing that we had
to do if w built a railroad there. We
had to be able to carry their lumber
lumber from their numerous forests
to market aud if we couldn't dc that
there was no more use for a railroad
there than there was to build one liz
the garden of Eden when there was no
n there except the original two.
(.Applause.) And we we're able to. we
cut the rate in two-the rate that we
foundthere we cut it in two--and during
the years of financial depression fol-
lowing 80. '91, '92, '93 and '94 Oregon's
shingles or cedar shingles were almost
legal tender on the Sound because we
made it possible to bring them so far
east. They have been found even
down in Portland, Maine.
Now | may, as | said, have made a
mistake. l may have built roads that
if l had to do it over again 1 would
not build At the same time l have
always had this in mind, and it is a
settled conviction with me that what
will help you will take good
care Of me. You cannot earn
any money %cultivating the land,
| do not care what you do, with
out giving me some of it., 1 mean with
out giving our railroad some of it
great applause)-and the only ques.
ton is to have a fair divide. Con
tinued applause.)
l think when / told you, and if you
will investigate it you will find it true,
and it may surprise some of you that
your transportion here from Devils
Lake to the terminal market of Min.
neapolis aud Duluth is lower than it is
for the same distance from anywhere
between Manitoba aud Mexico. ZAP
plause.) If that is true and your
climate is reasonably good, your sill
is fertile, why is not your land worth
just as much as it is in older places
that pay a higher rate of ~transporta-
ton to get to market? l contend that
it is, and the time is not far hence in
fact it is only a question of a short
time-when your land will be worth as
much and will sell for as much. You
must not get discouraged. This coun-
try was not made in a day. | remem
Der when the far west was in Detroit
and the mouth of the Maumee river
was where the black walnut logs shook
with the ague until they shook their
bark off. (.Applause.) People would
not go out on the western prairies of
Indiana and Illinois not even with a
supply Of quinine. But these prairies
to-day they blossom as a rose, they are
the richest part of the country and
when I look back-it is only a short
time, it is a span-twenty-nine years
ago travelled from the international
boundary line along the edge of the
valley here without finding a house
until | got to Georgetown, just a little
north of Moorhead-there was not a
single house. People twenty-one and
twenty-five years ago would tell you
CioC iC AVOu AGlNCA Sol1CJ II CAoO JIG
entire country was too cold, the land
was sou and every thing except good
land. But / had seen the grass grow.
| had seen where the wheels had cut
the sod and crumbled it up and l saw
the grass growing higher after the sod
had been cut and the ground pulver-
lied, SO that the land was cultivated a
little. The grass would grow a foot
higher than it was where it had not
been, and | knew enough about land,
or | thought | did, and the facts have
proved that l am right, that the Red
River valley was not sour aud that the
Red River valley would support a
population and today this is confirmed.
l thought this morning when 1 awoke
up in the valley, that the scenery was
very beautiful. I remember riding
through the Cascade mountains with
a foreign gentleman travelling with his
wife, and she was greatly taken with
the mountain scenery. He sat in the
car and she called his attention and
said "Oh, look at the side of this
mountain, it is equal to anything in
Switzerland" We we're passing
another train and he did not answer
for a time, but when he got through