The herald-advance. (Milbank, S.D.) 1890-1922, 1905-05-12

Government Control and Uni
form Rate will not Permit
Reduced Immigrant Rates.
c;o, Eo11c &c n Move 1OOs

Sioux Falls,eS. D., May 6, 1905.
| An nnthought of opposition has
arisen in South Dakota, to the regu-
lation of passenger and freight tariffs
/ by government boards. That OppOsi-
ton developed first among the land
! and immigration agents who are look
ing to the settlement of large areas of
cheap lands, that fear that govern
ment control would lack fexibility
and that the state of South Dakota
would not have the advantage of the
low excursion rates that are made
during the entire year into all parts
of this state. They also point to the
fact that immigrants coming into the
state are brought in with practically
no expense by the railroads, in so far
as carload lots of household and other
effects are concerned. They also fear
that the agents of the various land
companies would be compelled to pay
/ full railroad fare while in territory
from which they draw the large num-
Der of land buyers that come into
South Dakota annually. They seem
to think that such system of control
ling rates NAV be all right for the
old and settled states, but that it will
work a great detriment to the property
| Interests of the unsettled west, and
! will retard the rapid increase in the
price of farm lands and will practical
i ~ stop the development of many OF
the thriving towns dependent upon the
agricultural and mining prosperity
| that have been SO marked in many
| parts of the west during the past seven
: years.
1t is safe to say that in no other
state in the Union is the feeling of the
people toward the great railway lines
in the state more cordial and friendly
than in South Dakota. This is due to
the fact that South Dakota owes its
! present prominence in the sisterhoOd
of states to the liberality and encour-
agement given by the railroads.
When railroads were first extended in
to what is now known as the state of
South Dakota, this region was classi-
fed on maps of the United States as a
part of the great American desert.
The railroads We're the advance guard
of the present civilization, for whom
they had extended into and opened up
the country: farmers and others by
the thousands came to occupy the rich
lands lying along the newly construct
ed railroad lines. At the time of the
great railroad construction era early
| in the eighties, Dakota had only
small settlements here and there out
side of the town of YanktOn, in the
extreme southern part, and few
other frontier settlements along the
: Missouri river, and in the eastern part
Of the territory now embraced in the
state of South Dakota. Such towns
as were already in existence were mere
struggling settlements, none of which
attained any size or prominence until
after railroads had extended net
work of lines through the territory.
Then the towns already in existence
! took on new life, scores of other
towns were started at convenient
points along the new railroads, and,
where few short months before had
| been solitude, whose silence was brok
en- by the whirr of the rattlesnakes,
the yelp of the wolf and coyote, and
the cries Of other wild animals or the
shouts of the Indians who roamed at
will over the vast region, became a
scene of animation and activity.
Long trains of immigrants and their
effects were to be seen unloading at
every one of the new stations along
the newly constructed railroads: !:
| "prairie schoOners" and their loads
of living freight lined every prairie
trail and passed in one long and end
less procession to every part of the
vast region, which had been made ac
cessible and habitable by the indus
try and enterprise of the great rail
road corporations in extending lines
through a country which many be-
| lieyed would never sustain popula-
ton of any size. From the new towns
along the recently constructed rail-
road lines the thousands of hardy and
ambitious white settlers spread over
the surrounding region like swarm
of locusts. But, unlike the locusts,
their object was to build up and not
destroy, and in apparently the twink
ling of an eye, houses commenced to
dot the prairie in every direction, and
in all directions over wide scope of
country: thousands of men with plows
attacked the virgin soil; and millions
of acres of land, up to that time des-
ert waste and non-prOductive, was
broken and brought under guilty alton,
to yield its rich treasures of corn,
grain and other products to the worlds
supply.
In all the vast work of opening up
new country, the railroads never fail
ed to render what assistance they
COulu. ICcuuCcu IdOco were maze 1Or
the benefit of the poor men who had
been crowded out of the east, and who
were imbued with the determinatio to
wrest fortunes from the virgin soil of
South Dakota. Without these re-
duced freight and passenger rates
many of the pioneer settlers of South
Dakota would not have been able to
cast their fortunes in this section
But the railroads were equal to the
emergency, and, as stated, fixed spec
ial rates for the new settlers and gave
them every assistance in establishing
new homes on the prairies of South
Dakota. AS the country settled up
and developed, branch lines of rail
roads were constructed to interior
points which had become we'll settled,
and thus the pioneer farmers were
given the best of facilities for the ship
ment of their surplus products to the
markets of the east. There is not the
slightest doubt that the liberal policy
adopted and followed by the railroad
corporations had everything to do