Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1900-09-15
BUILDING UP TOWNS.
RAILROADS A MIGHTY FORCE IN THIS
DIRECTION.

western hnilwny companies to
Build Two Hundred Towns In the
Next Two Years Things to Com
slider In Selecting sites.
American railroads and railroad com
panies have been town builders since
railroad tracks began to be II marked
feature OF the national landscape, says
the Kansas City Star. 1t was fire.
Quently the case In the west that the
railroads came first and the towns
came after, but there are few towns,
great or small, that were not made by
the railroads. The railroad as To-
Gator, promoter or dictator in town
building has always been n conspicuous
factor
Where there was a division of In
tereSt, and the town company and the
railroad company worked mt cross pur-
poses, aggravatlng conflicts occurred.
The town which the railroad company
was going to boom in. spite of every
thing was an expensive nurseIing for
the stockholders. \ rich and W "icgat
ed variety of human meanncss was dis
Elayed in profusion-the travelling pub
lie suffered. the railroad service was a
crying disgrace, and the towns which
were the victims of the original con
nict evoked no other notice than the
passing tribute of a sigh
With the cessation of the building
Of the long transmlssissippi lines in
unsettled countries there has been less
talk of railroad towns and town build.
ing, but it is now announced that the
railroad builders of the past are to
become, on an extensive scale, the
town builders of the future. The Atchi-
son, Topeka and Santa Fe, the Chicago
and Northwestern. the burlington. the
Chicago, Milwaukee and st. Paul. the
Northern Pacific. the Chicago and
Eastern Illinois and the Eastern ILL
nois have determined to build 200
towns within the next IS months or
two years in Oklahoma, New Mexico,
Kansas, Minnesota, the Dakotas, Mich
igan, Wisconsin, Montana, Idaho,
Iowa, Nebraska. Wyoming. Colorado
and Oregon.
The railroad companies should bring
to this enterprise a great amount of
y
should know all the signs by which the
future infant cities may be read. They
should be able to locate the future
centers of population and marts of
trade with reasonable certainty. Past
experience should teach the companies
not to attempt Representatives,. No eff
fort should be made to found towns
where the Almighty has distinctly
signifed his nonapproval-in Swamps
and deserts on the surfaces of bald
and shining rocks, In localities cut off
from earth. air and water. Great as
Is the power of corporations, they can
not make a town grow with these nat
ural features in its make up.
The prerequisites for town are an
accessible site, water within conven-
lent distance and the assurance that
the railroad company is to be II friend
to the end. Take two towns. one plant
ed by hand and the other by the rail
road company, and the latter should
the more abound provided the railroad
town has from its birth a certificate Of
style, gait and action which child of
nature town can hardly possess. With
the presence of q railroad company
which has suprrintendents and assist
ant superintcndcnts and general and
department managers is associated the
idea of arrangement, order and disci-
pline, and it may be believed that a
railroad town will grow up In order
and not diifuse itself over the ground
after the manner of eczema.
Two hundred railroad towns, wheth-
cr destined to replace Carthage, Nine
veh, Babylon and the like or otherwise,
should be respectable additions to the
populouS centers of this great country.
Places rescued from ugliness and
sQualor, fastened by bands of iron to
the rest of the living. breathing world;
within touch and hearing If not sight
of it, shaken loose twice a day by the
rushing train. with its jar and call.
from the great world; never dead or
dying and with the hope and impulse
of lifc-thcSe are the monuments of en-
terprisc which the railroads are rear
ing all over the land.