Jasper Republican, Volume 1, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 March 1875 — The Chicago and South Atlantic Railroad. [ARTICLE]

The Chicago and South Atlantic Railroad.

•.vntlotiKH us mental, as well as financial ability, met at Indianapolis, in the interests of the Chicago and South Atlantic Railroad, and observing that a spirit of “deep and abiding faith” in the vital importance of the enterprise, and an appreciation of its power as an aid in the-de-velopment of the resources of our State, attended their delib’erations, I beg so express the position of our people upon that subject, and to note the substantial encouragement it is receiving here. Situated midway between the greatest interior shipping port in onr country and the most important railroad center in the world; surroundod also by a section of country unsurpassed in agricultural wealth, as well a 3 natural facilities for the foundation and development of manufacturing industries, our people keenly realize the unusual commercial advantages this road would establish, and the powerful impetus it would contribute to all kinds of business. . They have, therefore, from the incipiency of the enterprise to the present time, and through all its varying prospects and fortunes, never wearied in their efforts in its behalf. We have accumulated in the way of tax and subscription a reliable subsidy to the amount of 8200,000, and have at the present time about eight miles of the road bed nearly ready for the ties and iron in our county. The five piers in the Wabash river are above high-water mark, and nearly enough material on the ground to complete them. Between forty-five and fifty miles of the road bed between here arid Chicago are substantially ready for the superstructure, while all of it is under contract, and the contractors are at their posts ready to push the work as soon as the season will permit. They will commence locating and constructing from here in the direction of Indianapolis in a few days. Major L. S. Olmstead, the genial and good-looking chief-engineer of the line,who in the science and the art of locating railroads has made an enviable record, has his instruments nicely adjusted, his flag-staffs newly painted and pointed, and is daily seen looking toward the “promised land,” while Messrs. Gutches and Smith, the inoxorable coutracto rs, armed “cap-a-pie,” with well greased carts and able assistants, sniff the battle from afar, and are eager for the fray. Clinton county is moving energetically in this matter, and if the people of Indian polis will manifest their usual spirit and enterprise and develop an energy commensurate with the inestimable commercial advantages that will accrue to hep, there will be no difficulty in having the road, as far as Indianapolis, in operation by the middle of autumn.

Our county feels peculiarly interested in this road, as perhaps there is no county in the State that nature has so truly and plainly marked out for the abode of manufacturing pursuits as Carroll-, and we are well admonished that the rumbling of the first train over the Air-Line road will be but the key-note to the music of the manufacturer’s machinery which will surely follow. Agriculture finds a more profitable home in the fertile valleys of the farther West, and in the future the capital of the Middle States must and will seek investment in manufacturing enterprises. Ohio, realizing this fact, is straining every nerve to extend her channels of commerce southward as well as eastward and westward. Shall Indiana be behind her sister State in accepting and fostering the new era in commercial affairs? The Chicago and South Atlantic Rail, road once in operation, Indianapolis brought into direct communication with the Atlantic jseaboard at Charleston, the rapid and economical interchange of the varied commodities of these two great producing sections will give to Indiana commercial advantages second to no State in the Union. Foreign capital will utilize and develop that which nature has so profusely expended upon our State, and her rapid streams will pay tribute to our wealth as they give life to the spindle .and the loom. r - Let the people of the State along the line take hold of this great enterprise, give it their sympathy and substantia! support, hurry it through to a speedy completion, and “generations yet unborn will rise up and call us blessed.” Tom. Delphi, Ind., March 15.