The weekly Iberian. (New Iberia, La.) 1894-1946, 1900-05-16
81 a YEAR,
THE BENEFIT OF RAILROADS.


much information from it as re
CARDS the use Of railroads to Il
community
American railroads and railroad
companies have been tOwn-builders
since railroad tracks began to be a
masked feature of the national
landscape. 1t was frequently the
case in the West, that the rail,
roads 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 locator, promoter or
dictator in town building has al.
ways been a conspicuous factor.
Where there was a division Of
interest, and the town company
and the railroad company worked
at cross purposes, aggrayating con
Hicts occurred. The town which
the railroad company was deter
mined to down was of few days
and full of trouble. The town
which the railroad company was
going to boom in spite. Of every
thing was an expensive nurseling
for the stockholders. A rich and
variegated variety Of human mean
ness was displayed in profusion;
the travelling public suffered; the
railroad service was crying dis
grace, and the towns which were
the victims of the original conflict
evoked no other notice than the
passing tribute of sigh.
With the cessation Of the build
ing of the long transmississippi
lines in unsettled countries there
has been less talk of railroad
towns and BODYBUILDING, 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 At.
Gibson, Topeka & Santa Fe, the
Chicago & Northwestern, the Bur
lington, the Chicago, Milwaukee 4
st. Paul, the Northern Pacific, the
Chicago q Eastern Illinois and the
Eastern Illinois have determined
to build two hundred towns within
the next eighteen months or two
years in Oklahoma, New Mexico,
Kansas, Minnesota, the Dakotas,
Michigan, Wisconsin, Montana,
Idaho, Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming,
) Colorado and Oregon.
The railroad companies should
bring to this enterprise great
amount of information and expert.
ence. They should know all the
signs by which the future of in
FAINT 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 impossi-
bilities. No effort should be made
to found towns where the AL
mighty has distinctly signifed Hi,
non-approval-in swamps and des-
erts, on the surfaces of bald and
shining rocks, in localities cut off
from earth, air and water. Great
Is is the power of corporations,
hey cannot make town grow
with these natural features in it's
makeup.
The prerequisites for town are
an accessible site, water within a
convenient distance, and the as
suyance that the railroad company
is TO be friend to the end. Take
two towns, one planted by hand.
and the other by the railroad com
pany, and the latter should the
more abound, provided the railroad
town has from its birth, a certiti.
cate a style, gait and action, which
a child.of.nature town can hardly
possess. With the presence of
railroad company which has super.
and assistant superin-
tendents and general and depart
mental managers, is associated the
idea OF arrangement, order and
and it may be believed
that railroad town will grow up
IN order. and diifuse itself over
the ground after the manner of
eczema.
Two hundred railroad towns,
whether destined to replace Garth
Ire, Nineyeh, Babylon and the
ike, or otherwise, should be re [
pectable additions to the popu-
Gus eenters of this great country. )
'laces rescued from ugliness and
qualor, fastened by bands of iron
0 the rest Of the living, breathing
'orld; within touch and hearing T
not sight of it, shaken loose G
vice a day by the rushing train y
18th its jar and call from the great !,
orld; never dead or dying and "
18th the hope and impulse of life
lese are monuments of enterprise
hich the railroads are rearing all q
'er the land. I"
That the writer of the above p'
tlcle is correct in his ideas, there
), la No ,,ac.th1n In,lN& w l.,