Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1899-09-22

know why the ready-print trust
shouldn't be listed among the combines
to which Iowa pays tribute. He said
that there Is the most distinct UNDER
standing between the ready-print
houses. Each has its own list of papers
and they all agree not to invade each
others preserves. OF course they cut
prices on each other occasionally. but
they do it with the greatest care, so
that rivals will not know it is being
done. Some weeks ago the American
Press Association came into Des
Moines and undertook to buck the
combine by making ready print, su-
perior in quality and equally cheap. But
it couldn't get the business, because the
houses in the combine were ready to
cut prices rather than let in an outsid-
er. The ready-print business is as
completely in control of the combine,
according to this patron of the print
houses, as any line in the west, and
every country editor knows it.
Secretary Aldrich of the State His
torical Society is preparing a valuable
historical contribution to the coming
issue of the Annals of Iowa. 1t will
give the history of each of the several
military posts which We're established
in Iowa in the early days of the terri
tories, first of Wisconsin, and after
ward of Iowa. It is hard now to realize
that sixty years ago what little of
Iowa was really held by white men was
kept by virtue of federal forts and mil
itary garrisons. Most of the popula-
ton of the state was composed of In
dams, and these included some of the
most powerful and closely organized
tribes in the country.
Very poor records have been kept
concerning the military posts of those
days. Mr.. Aldrich has devoted a deal
of effort to discovering the facts con-
cerning these establishments and to
setting forth the important documents
related thereto. He proposes to pub
lish a series of articles on this part of
the states history
The most important military points
in Iowa We're Fort Madison, named at
ter the fourth president of the ted
States, during whose second a. s.
tration it was founded; the Council
Bluffs bockhouse,; Fort Des Moines
No. l, which was in Lee county, near
the site of the present town of Mont
rose; Fort Sanford, Wapello county:
Fort Dodge, Webster county; Fort At
kinson, Winneshiek county, which was
the strongest military point in the
state, but whose very site is now all
most lost; and finally, Fort Des Moines
No. 2, at the junction of the Des Moines
and Raccoon rivers. and ON whose site
the present capital of the state has
been builded.
Nearly every fort has been made the
site of an important city. Fort Sanford
in Wapello county, and Fort Atkinson
in Winneshiek We're two notable excep-
tions. The former was located out ir
the woods few miles from where OF
tumwa now is. It's site is almost for
gotten, but for years more troops were
stationed there than at any other Iowa
post. But Fort Atkinson was by far
the most interesting of the old posts. 1t
was built on a high, almost inaccessi-
BILE hill, and was planned with the
greatest care, and by a skillful engi-
neer. A regiment of troops could have
held it against an almost unlimited
force of Indians. who never used artil-
terry. Mr.. Aldrich has discovered a
fine engraving of this fort in book of
old records and will publish it with his
articles.
Fort Dodge is one of the most inter
esting of the old forts, because it was
long the most northwesterly military
point, and from here the troops went to
fight the Indians after the Spirit Lake
massacre. the most notable outbreak
that occurred in this state.
Old Fort Armstrong, which was built
back in the earliest years of the coun-
try on an island in the Mississippi. now
called Rock Island. was the beginning
of the greatest arsenal in America-the
Woolwich of the United States. 1t was
practically an Iowa fort because it had
to do with tribes to the west of the riv-
err. 1t was older than Fort Madison
and was an important point from the
time 1t was founded down to the pres
ent. 1t has remained In control of the
government. first as military post
and afterwards as an arsenal. During
the civil war it was most important
station, and it has become much more
so since.