Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1907-03-03
EARLY EXPERIENCE OF lOWANS
DeS MOines Paper Tells About the SHOWS and Railroad
BlOCkades Of Years AgO-ExperienCe
Of DakOtans is ECIpsed

OF DdkOtdns
The following editorial is taken
from the Upper Des Moines (Iowa)
Republican:
We are saying nothing of the wis
dom Of the hegira into the land of the
/ Dakotas. It would do no good if by
4 good is to be meant the keeping Of
people out Of there. How singular it
/, is that young men in this section
which as itself been reclaimed from
! snow waste and blizzard are not sat
isfied to stay her or to go south or
southwest. Why do not the milder
climates attract them? is it to be
! counted as cause or effect that
through all times has identified the
strong and virile peoples with fierce
climates and the weak and decadent
with tropical and semi-tropical? No
matter. AS the boys desert the fur
mace heated room and seek the storm
!, and Wallow in the snow, these settlers
Of the northern wilderness have gone
!, into the teeth of the blizzard, known
as such since it was first heard of,
and there they seem bound to stay.
Some of these new settlers are sons of
men who drove OK teams into Iowa in.
!; the fifties in the face Of billiards as
I dangerous. Our country is under the
greatest obligation to the men who
! have pioneered into the west since our
| first settlers encountered what was
considerd the most inhospitable of eli
mates on the Atlantic coast. There
/, has been a succession Of pioneerings
which have been the marchings for
ward Sof settlement and civilization,
and these pioneerings have been the
making of the greatest nation Of the
earth. 5sa.
Some of the new settlers in the
Dakotas were surprised when after
| four or five open winters the terrible
| storm and cold of last December came
upon them, just as the farmers of Iowa
were surprised not many years ago
to have their entire corn crop cover
! ed up by a deep snow in October SO
that they could not pick till Easter.
Likely the hard winter will give a
set back to the enthusiasm Of some
who were figuring on going up there
this spring. It ought to have the eff
feet to prevent the influx Of unprovid-
ed women and others unable to cope,
with emergency in an inhospitable
cline. It may eventually be a good
thing by keeping out of the country
all but the hardy and the capable. It
needs men and women of the sterner
stuff to make the bone and sinew of
great commonwealth.
But as to the test of the Dakotas,
we incline to the belief that it is yet
to come. If the country has enough
rainfall it will continue to grow In
wealth and population in the years
to come. II the people plant the tim
Der they will likely get the rainfall.
People forget that this state Of Iowa
has been redeemed from the dominion
Of the blizzard. In the first place the
early settlers had precisely the same
impression of the country when they
came here that the Dakota settlers
had of that region when they hunted
claims there. They came here just
the same and most Of them staid.
Iowa people whose fathers endured
hardships in this state equaling any
thing reported from the Dakotas are.
saying that this winter settles the
case of those states. 1t doubtless will
in the minds Of many, but it prabobly
will not much change the trend of
settlement. It did not for Iowa and
Minnesota. It did not for Wisconsin
nor Nebraska. There is no over
whelming reason why it should. The
early settlers all remember how the
entire Ingham family came SO near
freezing to death on a trip from Esth-
lerville to AIgona that their preseva-
ton was accounted an accident or an
Iinterpo position Of providence, perhaps.
that the present editor of the Register
and Leader might furnish brains for.
1.-THE progressives.
It is well remembered how In this
garden spot Of the world, not to men
tion the fifties and sixties of the pio-
|neer settlement. when there was not a.
railroad in the county, we had winters
to match anything that is reported
now from the northwest. In the seven
ties the one railroad through this
lcounty was blockaded for months at a