El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1911-10-04

One hundred and forty years ago,
Adam Smith, the great economist
boosted North America, as follows:
In our North American colonies,
where uncultivated land is stin to be
had upon easy terms, no manufactures
for distant sale have ever yet been es-
tablished IN any of their towns. When
an arttflcer has ACQUIRED a little more
stock than is necessary for carrying on
mis- business and supplying the neigh
boring country, he does not in North
America, attempt to establish with II
a manufacture for distant sale, but
employs it in the purchase and i'm
prOVements Of unCultiTated lands From
artiflcer, he becomes planter, and
neither the large wages nor the easy
subsistence which the country affords
to artificers can bride him rather to
work for other people than for him
self He feels that an artificer is the
servant Of his customers, from whom
he derives his subsistence, but that
planter who cultivates his own land
and derives his necessary subsistence
from the labor OF his own family, is
really a master, and independent Of all
the world"
Was Original Booster.
It IS thus that old Adam Smith did
little original boosting for North
America He spoke from the standpoint
OF the Englishman living in country
where cheap land was thing Of the
past Opportunities for investment in
lands were all gone, and the land was
held in such a fashion that much OF II
could not possibly be alienated from
the particular family in which the title
happened to rest. So when a man man
aged to make a little money out Of his
trade or business, the only avenue Tor
investment was found in the enlarge
ment Of his business, and the conSe-
guent entering of new markets with his
products. In that day, the investor
listened to the story OF undeyeloped
areas in the new world, and the tar-
cid Col Of Ia
which was waiting to be occupied at
that time, rising In price IS people IN
creased and the demand for land be-
came greater and greater They saw
that IL was merely a matter OF time Tor
North America to I'LL up just as Europe
had filled up with people, and by sim
pie analogy, they knew that land In
North America would one time De as
valuable as land IN Europe
Land Proves Road to Wealth,
And IN time New England and other
coast colonies were populated and de-
velOped, and land values rose and con-
tinued to rise. Fortune after fortune
was made. Look at the wealthy Iaml-
lies Of America today and see what a
large percent Of them were started on
the road to wealth by the rise In the
price OF land As the younger genera
tons came on in the older colonies, they
commenced casting about for land
which they might develop and call their
own. Tt was not to be FOUND east OF
the A-AeBndulebs and u6uC6 the great
movement west There were knockers
In those days The weak hearted soon
tired OF the hard conditions OF piO-
neer life and went back to the older
settled sections with tales Of hard luck,
Of the unhealthfulness Of the new
country across the mountains, Of its
terrible storms, Of its drouths and gen
eral unproductiveness and undesirable
ity.
But there was each time enough OF
the "prOspectors" who went across the
mountains who stayed with the game
to develop the sections in which they
settled, and to form a new base Of sup