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About The west shore. (Portland, Or.) 1875-1891 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 1, 1882)
October, 1882. THE WEST SHORE. 95 BEFORE AND AFTER. Is it not strange that it should be difficult at this time to convince the inexperienced farmer that railroads are a positive benefit to him. By inexperienced, we mean one who has not enjoyed lie benefits which we propose to point out. The effect upon a new country of the construction of railroads, although generally admitted, is denied by a few whose time is not taken up sufficiently with their own business to prevent their attending to that of others. Iowa, one of the most prosper ous states in the Union, contains proportionately a greater number of railroads than many whose peo ple have discouraged railroad construction. Iowa is free from debt. This freedom from the clutch of that terrible power, was not secured by exces sive taxation, for aside from the rate being very low, values have been greatly enhanced in all things that have been produced from the soil- This state of things does not exist to the cost of the poor man, for the reason, that by exchange o! commodities which could only take place with ample transportation facilities, the price of the thing produced generally exceeds the thing consumed Iowa is essentially a railroad state. There is hardly a county in the state that is not traversed by one or more railroads. The people do no1 merely exist. They live in enjoyment. They have maintained no destroying antagonism between the soil of their farms and the iron of the railroad. They produce, and the railway finds the market. They purchase, and the railroad delivers to them from the market, and the difference which they gain in the transfer is the profit on their labor, to which is added still another profit growing out of the transportation facilities they had in previous years encouraged and drew to their very doors. The cry against railroad grants is no longer heard in Iowa, and yet, with the exception ol less than one sixth, the whole state was in its infancy literally blank' eted by railroad grant. Illinois is another iilusttra- tion of the good influence of railroads. Before the advent of railroads in that state, owing to poor and yet expensive transportation to and from the interior, corn sold from 12 to 18 cents; wheat, 30 to 45 cents; oats, lo to 15 cents; pork, from to 2 cents, trade prices. By trade prices we mean not cash, but trade in store goods, brought to trre state by teams, oxen, or vessels, after a multitude of handlings, and for which the farmer paid 100 per cent, more than the New York or Philadelphia prices. Under the condition ol things this could not be avoided. After the railroads were built and many of them were land grant roads- the cost of goods became less, much to the iiiscoin fiture of merchants with large stocks. New mer chants could undersell them because of reduced freights. Buyers of produce could pay better prices, because it cost so much less to get the thing bought out of the interior, to market; as a result, tea, sugar, clothing, books, furniture an.l everythine the farmer needed and could noi grow, became lea in price, while everything he pro duced and did not need-being a surplus-went up. The instrumentality of this-hi farm, his labor and everything that wai hi', became wore valuable. Farms went from $43 10 ' acre; produce brought cash. Corn sold at from . iJ to 37 cents; wheat, 45 to 80 cents; oats,, 1 5 1" 3 cents; pork atf to cents, and farm labor went from $14 lo $18 per month. This latter rate the farmers paid willingly, for aside from knowing that their own labor ruw auvanceu, ceived made it easy. When the war came, the government drew heavily upon the means of transportation, and corn, etc., dropped to lo cents while labor maintained a high rate, simply because it became senrce-because the laborers had " gone to the war." After the vui, price, of produce up to 1873 when the panic came were good; corn averaged 25 to 45 cts.j wheat, 75 els. to $1 ; beef and pork, 4 to 6 cents; while farm lands, im proved, in 1880, were valued at from $Jo to $50 an acre. The railroad in the stales mentinned, not only gave the farmer a market to buy in at cheaper rates than before, but it gave him a mar ket to sell in at better rates than without. Mil advantage over the anlir-ailroad farmer is not confined to his mere personal needs, but by its means he can secure farm machinery greatly decreasing his costs of producing at much less cost than his antagonistic brother. He began with small means and each year he gathers im provements, small in number at first. His orchard takes the place of bare land, a comfortable house takes the place of his lug cabin or lx, a buggy tnkca the place of his heavy wagon, a fair day's labor takes the place of a long weary ding and plod from gray morning until the midnight crow of the cock nil from the soil, all above a mere existence, quickened, enriched, smoothed and made enjoyable by the means of tranortation offered by the railroad. Now look at the old way, before railroads were built, All was waste, work, weary and wrong. Wheat was hauled a hundred and fifty miles when it did not pay to haul more than 25 or 30. It lixik so much lime and toil to do one thing that the farmer had no lime or energy for another. I le never finished. I le was always behind. Worms, bugs, gopher and crows destroyed his labor. Frosts came liefore he was ready. Floods washed away his Irnces. The sun burnt his crops. Kain came loo eaily or loo late. When a good crop and fair prices did reach him. his wagon axles were broken, or the roads were miry beyond a poiliilily of (ravel. I he buye could not reach him and he could nol reach the buyer, a hundred miles away. His sons became distrusted t ibe s'gnt of wheat, or corn, or hjI toes or hogs. His horny hands and rheumatic feet and quick asthmatic breath and bible back arose like evil cenii for the future ol his sons, am they hurried lo the cities to become grocery and dry cornls clerks, leaving the old man mine iirren and in the breast of their mother a mixture of false pride and lonclinrwt-all before the raitroai was built. All that is true of Iowa and Illinois, and other .tales without a railroad, and all that is true of Iowa, Illinois and o her stale with thousands of milts of railroads, i. applicable 10 lire Pacific Northwest, Kernemlr that Iowa and Illinois had their Mississippi river, their Missouri river and llie (ireal Lakes, all of which afforded a certain amount 1 traiisuoilation: but il was nol until Die railroail iwnrltaled the interiors and connect! d with the lakes and rivers, that their great piosrwrily set In, S it is. and so il will '' i''ifii: North west, with U'"1 ''leljf of soil- g'"! 'he i.t in the I'nited Mie-wiih H uinrle Sound, incrand Columbia, its Snake, its Willsrn ette and other navigable river., I01II Iheic must be added the rail, llie lotomolise and the car, I fore our transportation facilities will fill the mt 1 ,1. It Is s crime In stand in the way of such means lo an end, ami Ibe man who does raise his embittered voice it an enemy to life and a stranger lo all that is worth living for. Go lack but a few years to the time when a sack of wheat was handled fourteen limes between Ihe producer in the Walla Walla valley and Ihe ship ping merchant in I'ortlnnd, and compart It with the convenience and cost of transKrtalloa of to nywhen we have a continuous railroad line I We have heard men say that Ihey did much towards developing Ihe Pacific Northwest, We can assure all such that Ihe development of this country has just aUiut begun. When railroads run over it so thickly that on Ihe map of Ihe Untied States the Pacific Northwest looks like 1 spider eh, it will be lime enough to talk alxmt the country being devehqied, llefore we let goof this subject we want to talk a little lo Ihe farmers showing how this development may or may not reach this country. In the first place, every man who comes lo Oregon or Wash ington or Idaho must, if he has any feeling against railroads, wash il out. It don t make a particle of difference whether the state he came from was cursed by momitmllcs or mil. Then ait ntne such here In Ihe transportation business. Then we want to tell him that ha must K into partner ship with ihe railroads each and every one of them. I le must ralst all Ihe wheat, oats, barley and flax he can. He must raise sheep ami wool, cattle ami beef, vegetables and fruit) out ol these products he must make all he possibly can. If the prices are low, he can hold until they art belter. The railroad won't grumble because he sn'l giving il any freight. If wheal is worth 45 cents on his farm and he Isn't satisfied with fifteen cents profit he can wail until it goes up lo 65, and the railroad won t ask him to pay one cent mort freight than if he had sold at the low figure at ( cents profit. The fanner will get iht benefit of the rise -not iht railroad company although their cars may have been standing Idle and their rail rusting. Now you could not afford to havt that whs-al hauled 30 miles by learn, and yet Iht railroad will carry il swiftly and safely two thous and miles or more and return you profit. Every well managed railroad proiert when vou prosper. The inleiests of llie farmer ami iht lallrntd kit Identical. They art as essential lo you aa your right hand. To build and equip the railroad lo connect you with Iht market costs Iht railroad more than all your combined farm put together) and yet you add iht profit of Iht farmers of any country together and those of Iht railroad connect ing (hem with market would bt a mcrt cipher nothing compared with Ihe sum. Just look into this moment and yon will set that naif of thtanil-rallmad people aie cranks ami Ihe hslsrv.t haven't brains enough lo give font lo iht one Idc4 that makes them notorious. A. rmlayson, living in Klickitat county, W. T., sheared t$,ot sheep, the fsveiagt being IO pounds lo llie fleece. A Spanish Merino buck sheared 47 pounds, and Iht Champion buck, Im ported by Mr. G. W Waldron, from iht band of Ml. lUmmond, of Vermont, piuduced lU uupit cedcltted amount of $J pound, of wool Ihu clip. 1 A farmer in Hunger, Clallam county, W. T., bat Just Ihieshed ami measured 954 bushels 0 first tloM wheal limn fourteen acre of land. Of these fourteen acre five averaged ninty ont tw h el per acrt.