Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1912-05-24
THE MATTER WITH EAelE RIVER
Editor Eagle River Review

1 Ii my recent Gay ride from MllWau-s
kee to Eagle River / was much utter
ested in noting the evidences of pros
perity and enterprise in towns and
villages along the route, more espec-
tally after passed Appleton Junction.
1t seemed to me that the extreme
weather of the last winter had been
an incentive to labor, as along every
siding and side-track were piled huge
/ banks of hard wood logs, thousands of
railroad ties, staye and sfingle bolts,
/ vast quantities of cord wood all ready
] for market and shipment, in many
! places a new saw mill had been built
to cut the hard wood into merchant
able lumber. In all the towns on the
slime new buildings progress aud look
/ OF thrift and enterprise seemed topper
wade. On my arrival at Eagle River |
naturally looked for such results have
mentioned but saw no hard wood
log piles, no wood corded along the
track, only few railroad ties thrown
promiscuously as they had been dump
ed in hauling. / saw no new build
ings, nor heard the hum of industry
that had marked the stations further
south. Now maintain that such
conditions as exist in Eagle River to
day are unnecessary and unjustihable.
Let me cite the little town Of Luck
in Polk County Wisconsin, nearly the
same latitude as Eagle River,
last year there was shipped from this
point on the 500 Road to New York
/ City, $4,000 pounds of butter, this
place is less than ten years old with
only 800 population, and located in a
county much rougher and harder
to clear than is land in Villas County.
! From Barron, town of 1000 east of
Luck, was shipped last year $4,000
pounds of butter, the sale of this pro-
duct brought to that town nearly a
quarter Of d million dollars. / suggest
that a creamery would, in few years
mean quite as much to Eagle River.
/ We do not need to create new Offices
+ for this county, we do not need to send
committees to Madison to intercede the.
i Legislature to prescriberelieff from the
i burdens we bear, but we doneed tobe
alive to the necessities OF the occasion
and to the opportunities offered. The
/ matter with Eagle River is that ithas
not yet awakened to its needs and
possibilities Let there be united eff
fort made nsecuring new settlers, 9TH
er towns are appropriating money
for this purpose, why not our town.
/ have owned and paid taxes on 25O0
acres Of good land in Villas and Oneida
/ Counties during the past nine years,
in that time | have sold forty acres
and | am Offering it.at one third the
price that Land Companies are asking.
Do any carloads Of immigrant goods
unload at Eagle River? knowsof only
one settler locating in this county
since January first, last
/ We boast, and justly, OF our stupen-
dous water power, and plant at Otter
Rapids. but as pass there | cannot
but feel that this harnessed giant, as
the water tumbles and foams, over
and thru the dam, is enraged at his
own impotency and uselessness. From
the dynamos there installed there
LEADS no throbbing arteries of electric
lily that connect with shop, factory or
mill, no impulse is there dispensed to
create new industries. This wonderful
power generates no genial glow, nor
generous current that warns the home
and makes glad the hearts of mother
and children. from its mighty voltage
there is impelIed no. subtle forces to
keep moving the spindle, the forge or
the turning lathe.
/ It's wonderful motors contribute
1 nothing towards the development of
the county or the towns progress moth
ing towards creating new enterprises,
or employment to waiting labor From
its inexhaustible supply of energy not
thrill is sent out to help restore the
waste of material existence, or to cor
rect the unbalanced equilibrium OF so
cial conditions, or to help adjust the
economic problem of living, OF bright
| en- the burdens of those who toll.
The turning of it's ponderous wheels
| invites no capital, nor guarantees
/ stipend for workers. The dam and
plant at Otter Rapids should be u
source of profit to the management,
instead Of which they are a reprOach
against individual apathy and collect
i've inertia of those who could make
it possible for Eagle River, by virtue
of its location and environiiients. to
become nucleus of industrial and
commercial activity the center of a
thriving agricultural community,
with prosperous farmers steadily con-
tributing to its growth and import
ance.
/ hold that these latter conditions
should exist in and around Eagle Riv
er and they may exist-and the time
will surely come when our growing
civilization will force them to exist,
when around our myriad lakes, along
Il