Rensselaer Union, Volume 5, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 September 1873 — Go West, Young Man, Go West! [ARTICLE]

Go West, Young Man, Go West!

The Starke county (Knox) Ledger acknowledges having taken in five dollars on subscription during last month. The poet who wrote those touching lines beginning with “Man wants but little here below;” was certainly the editor of a country newspaper. This issue completes the fifth volume of The Rensselaer Uxiox. Next week it enters upon its sixth year. The proprietors thank its readers for (heir very liberal pntronage'and friendship during the years that are past, nnd hope all may find it profitable to continue their favors. It is reported that Judge Denny has already caused to be collected nearly $25,000 of fines and forfeited recognizances from the various justices of the peace and county officers of the Slate, Underthe law passed by the last assembly. About $7,000 of this money has been paid into the State treasury, but a majority of the money has been turned over to the-counties in which it was collected, for the benefit of the common school fund. John B. Stoll, editor of the Li"onier Banner, offers a special preirnium of two do'lars in money for the nicest done up shirt exhibited al the Noble county fair, the washing and ironing to have been done by a young lady under sweet sixteen years of age. Also a copy of his excellent paper one year to the honorable head of a family in which there are no less than seven daughters. It is said that the last premium is causing much complaint on account of the short time in ; which to prepare for the exhibition. The Clerk of White county was compelled byjhe Attorney General of Indiana to disgorge $538.32 that had accumulated:]!! his possession, to the county ’treasurer,; for assignment to fund. He will do so some, more, before long, it is reported. Although a Democrat Mr. Dale was not successful in hiding his peculations from Republican officers. — Rensselaer Union.' And now Mr. Union if you will please elevate that disgorgement from $538.32 to $2,129.02 you will have it as riiown by’ the records, and then state that over S3OO still remains on the docket unpaid.—Monticello Herald. If it is just as agreeable all around we prefer to let D. D. D. “elevate that disgorgement” But that worries us is, If he couldn’t keep it, what did he take it for?

After counting noses in the Massachusetts Republican Convention last Wednesday and finding a very decided majority opposed to salarythieving, Hon. Benjamin F. Butler gracefully withdrew’ from the contest for the gubernatorial nomihatym, professing continued allegiance 10*111 e Republican party and pledging Lis support to its nominees, whereupon Mr. Washburn, the present Governor, Was unanimously nominated. What a pity it is that so shrewd a man as Mr. Butler, with his splendid abilities, should be such a consummate rascalshould be so unscrupulous and so corrupt. - Ave are authorized to announce that Edwin P. Hammond, of Rensselaer, is a candidate for Judge of the Thirtieth Circuit, composed of the counties of Benton, Newton, Jasper and Pulaski, subject to the decision of the voters therein, irrespective of party, at the election to be held on the 14th day of October next. presided over the courts of this circuit since the law abolishing the Common Pleas court and redistricting the State for judicial purposes went into operation last spring.— How successful he has been and what that success promises for the future every intelligent man in the four counties knows, and whether nr not he is likely tn prove as acceptable for six years to cquie the people are just as well qualified to determine for themselves as though conventions had been held and candidates formally nominated by a few individuals calling themselves “party leaders.” There seems to be a growing tendency throughout the United States to ignore political cbiisiderations in making selections for judicial positions, and perhaps the opinion is based on a wise foundation, but whether it is or not is not necessary to discuss in this connection. He is emphatically our choice before all and that, too, we are certain, witliont bias from political considerations. He is now before the people as a candidate, let the people decide without excitement upon the merits of his legal, mental and moral qualifications. *

They have commenced asking people to give the right of way for the Indianapolis, Delphi & Chicago railroad in Carroll county, and down on the Ohio river quite a lively spirit of rivalry is being .manifested by towns that hope to secure the crossing. Deputy John G. Culp writes that on the Bth instant he organized Monon Grange, near Winamac in Pulaski county, with twenty-one members; John G. Boyles, county surveyor, W. M.; Adam W. Nye, Secretary; postoflice, Winamac.— Also, Beaver Grange on the 10th instant with twenty-four members; J. Stone, W. M ; J. W. Vint, township trustee, Secretary; postoffice, Francesville, Ind. Ike Sluder is dead. He came to Indiana before, .it, had aTState government- The latter years of his life were spent at Evansville. He was only 110| years old when hedied. Poor man! had he moved to Rensselaer he would now be a hale and hearty pea nut, seller,playing marble with The boys and Otherwise enjoying himself Sundays, instead of being cut off in the bloom and innocence ttf youth and going down to an early grave. Poor Isaac! Why did he not move to Rensselaer ? The Laporte Argus announces that Hon. William George, of South Bend, and Major Calkins and General Packard, of Laporte, will or do aspire to the Republican nomination for Congress and S2O a day from this, district next summer. Before General Packard assisted the Democrats in passing the salary grab act of last Congress the Argus pledged itself to support the aspirations of Commodore Huckleberry George Netherton, of Stark~e~ county; but since General Packard showed a full hand with real Democratic grace, the Argus doesn't smile any more on gentle Huckleberry George, but seems to be tooth and toe-nail for the salary-grabbing Barnstabber. Has Jasper been putting any of the swag where it would do the Argus most good? Over the Northwestern Indiana Conference of the Methodist Episj copal Church which met at South Bend last week, Bishop Simpson ! presided. Rev. J. B. DeMotte, of Rensselaer, was made a member of the committee on education. The churches at Battle Ground, Brookston, Reynolds, Asbury, Bradford, Medaryville, Rensselaer, litorocco, Brook, Beaver Lake, Kentland, Goodland, Remington, Wolcott, Fowler, Earl Park, Oxford, Boswell, Pine Village and Montmorency comprise the West Lafayette district, with Rev. AV. Graham Presiding Elder. Among the assignments made are the following: Rev. Thos. Meredith to Remington. Rev. J. Baycourt to Medaryvilie? ■ Rev. J. M. Stafford to Goodland. Rev. H. M. Middleton to Bradford. Rev. D. A. Patrick to Broole-andz Beaver Lake. Rev. J. B. DeMotte to Battle Ground. ■ Rev. C. B. Mock to Lebanon Sta- , tion. Rev. H. A. Gobin to first charge at South Bend. , Rev. J. H. Cissel t<> Michigan street church at South Bend. Rev. J. F. Stailord to Pittsburg and Francesville. Rensselaer to be supplied. The Rensselaer Fair taken throughout was not as good ay last year. It seemed to lack much in the manage- ! ment, the attendance was not as large as it was expected to be by a great ' deal, and, to make ail feel and go I wrong, the weather on Friday and , Saturday was very unfavorable, Q.uite ■ a number have complained to us that | they were not well treated, that there was no fairness shown to exhibitors, and that much partiality prevailed. —Francesville- Local Topic. It is indeed a pity that the young prodigy whose genius moulds the destinies of a universe through the potent medium of a three-column rural paper should have been afflicted with his monthly periodical attack of worms on the very day selected to visit our fair. It is a great pity for several reasons: In I that, condition geniuses are liable to have a drabbled.appearance not calculated to inspire, us common folk with that sense of deferential awe which those beings seem to think should be manifested towards them on all occasions; then victuals usually found on the tables in public houses don’t flavor agreeably to the dainty appetites of anybody troubled with worms; unsettled weather also is apt to disturb 35 the delicate organism of wormy, geniuses, particularly about this time of year when there is a tendency to colic. We hope everybody w’ill take these pathological facts into consideration and allow them to have their full extenuating weight, while reading the foregoing quotation, and not decide the Topic man to be such a fault finding granny as a perusal thereof writhout a knowledge of the infirmities of its author would reasonably seem to indicate.

Ho! for Kansas. Some parties from Jasper county passed through here over land for the Arkansas valley.One of them had been there prospecting, and rejoiced in the prospect of his new home. We added a little to his happiness, and he went on rejoicing.—Kentland Gazette. The editor of the Kentland Gazette is an authorized agent of at least one of those soulless creatures known as railroad corporations. The railroad company that fees him for laboring to depopulate Newton, Jasper and Benton counties, and to send abroad the bone and sinew needed to cultivate our broad prairies and assist in developing the bidden wealth of this locality, is one of those iniquitous monopolies that received millions of acres of the public domain from a subsidized Congress for which the men who compose the company did not pay one cent into the public treasury. The millions of acres w'ith which this railroad company was gratuitously endowed belonged to the people, and of right should have been given tp those who were willing to go on, cultivate and improve it, for a home and a perpetual heritage without money and without price. But instead a railroad company has it now which, under the delusive pretense of “providing cheap homes for the homeless, ami cheap lands for the landless,’’ sells it out to men of small means at from $5 to $lO, sls and S2O an acre, and at ruinous rates of interest wheie they accommodate (?) people with credit. We have by us a copy of a paper published in one of the districts where what should be a ' blessing proves to be a great curse, ; and earnestly urge all who have I been listening to the cunningly ! worded speeches of these sharpers and their “cappers” to at least read the other side of the story before| they take a step which will more or less affect the balance of their lives. The intrinsic value of our lands has not increased, above the cost of improvements, one cent in three years. Most of them Have been lying idle and unsalable on the hands of the Railroad Company, and, like the merchant, the company has become rich by annually raising on the price and marking them up. Many of these lands are held at eight dollars an acre that are not worth two. The whole thing has been overdone. What are called “eligible village lots,” and which are only raw prairie, have been I run up to $1,600 an acre when they i are not worth sl6 an acre. They are i unoccupied and unimproved, and, the way business has been managed in years past, will not be used during the lifetime of the coming generation. We are done with the delusion that the county is improving. ft is not improving; Ris retarding; and we see where-the blame lies. It is now plain that the lands of the Railroad Company are rated too high, and are unsalable at present prices.— The tariff on them is more than onehalf too high. Much of this false estimate is owing to the intemperate i representations made by the Press and | the narrow-minded and bloated van!- : ty of Mr. Joy. ; Another bubble is this: Forming : their estimates partly from the value ihat the Company has placed on these | lands, and partly upon the reckless ; statements of the Press, our county ! officers have been led to assess the i lands at more than twice their proper : value, ami unjust and onerous taxes ' have been levied for both State and i county purposes, that neither our po- . sition, our prospects or circumstances will justify. There must be a revision ! of all this business and a more equit- I able standard assumed. Much of the lands of this county will not produce the cereals, and, possessing no water, ; are unfit for pasturage. They are . probably underlaid with some undis- 1 covered mineral. Certainly for-farms these lands are not worth two dollars , an acre, yet by the Company’s stand- ■ ard in proximity to their railroad, they : arc held at eight and nine dollars, | and the tax levy is four. But the Press, with an onion or other liquid in each eye, has wept ; for Joy over the value of our rich farming lands, and the material prosperity of the dear settlers who were ; annually growing poor through the payment of interest and taxes and the freight tariff for shipping produce. Now when the effect of this is seen in the discontented condition oTthe people, and it is known that immigration to the county is worse than suspended—that there is an exodus ‘ from the county and the population I has turned on the decrease —that the ; gross and weeds growing in our streets : literally have to be mowed down with j scythes or dug up with hoes, the Press smiles through its tears and exclaims, “What a productive soil! How the grass grows I Our merchants ean this ‘ year put up 5.000 tons of prairie hay!” t | The deuce they can ! Is it a sign of | | commercial prosperity because prairie ; I grass grows ? When did it not grow ? If trade was brisk would merchants cut grass? Active men will not be idle; if one kind of business is not satisfactory they turn to something else. Here, in Girard, where one-third of our store rooms are empty and an- ' other third are labelled “to rent.” and , where half of the time you can not I buy a peck of potatoes or a pound of butter—where these facts stare you in the face at every corner and meet you at every turn, we are told by the subsidized Press that “itis all just so, and they are sorry for it,” but then the statement is “untrue” and merely summed up by an “anonymous scribbler to injure our business and tarnish our fair fame! ” Your fame!! bah ! But your business, as conducted now, must be either reformed orabandoned. You are injuring yourselves; your employer and the people of. the county. If our trade is not languishing, if it is increasing, what are the evidences besides the marking-up process of the Company ? Is money plenty ? Every dollar that can be collected in the county, or brought here from abroad, would Ipan at the kiting, ruinous rate of three per cent, a month. Is busi- j ness brisk? How is it then that onethird of the mercantile force here two years ago can transact all the business done now and add other de- '

Cartments of labor to their work ? If usiness is brisk, why is it that farmers do not bring their produce to market? But we are not the only sufferers by the suicidal course of the Railroad Company, backed by the panegyrics, apologies and arguments of the Press. Nor are the settlors of the Neutral Land the only sufferers. _lf_we are enjoying rapid growth and great prosperity, why do our merchants make hay and ship coal? The above interesting quotation is from the Girard Pharos, a paper published at the cOunty-seat of Crawford county, Kansas, in the midst of that, celebrated tract of country known as the “Cherokee Neutral Lands” or the “Joy Purchase.” Having visited that country with an especial view to making observations of soil, climate, location, minerals, health and the like, we can truthfully say that the land is beautifully located, that it produces fair crops when properly cultivated, that there are extensive fields of coak on it easy of access, that it is as healthy as most Western localities; but on the other hand there are drawbacks which have a tendency to make a residence there less desirable than the paid agents of speculators interested in selling those lands are willing to acknowledge, or do tell the people. What is sa’d of Crawford county is also applicable to other portions of the far West. The Parsons Herald, published in Labette county, Kansas, in a recent issue speaks as follows: Crawford county showsan increase in population of 38sinee 1870. This is accounted for, first, by the unsettled condition of the Neutral Land question; and, second, because it was decided in favor of Joy and the Gulf | railroad. The appraisement has been I so high that it is impossible for farm- ' ers to pay for the lands. Raw prairie j is appraised on an average at SI,OOO I per quarter section, and by the time i the necessary improvements are added the land stands to the farmer at nearly S3O an acre, which, taking the average crops,' will liuLpay 2 per cent, per I annum on the investment. The time | payment with interest, is a humbug and a delusion. Many, perhaps, will go on to the lands, and if they have good crops and fair prices can make three or four payments; but let there be a partial failure of crops, or sickness, and all they have paid in will stand fob naught. ? The land will revert to the railroad company, and some other deluded victim will step in and try his hand with the same result. Tiiis will be dofie for years, and the counties of Crawford and Cherokee will be drained of their last dollar to pay interest every year for the Hext twenty years. If the M. K. & T. should, by some unfair means, secure the Osage Ceded Lands, the counties of Neosho and Labette will be in the same condition as Crawford and Cherokee. The policy of granting lands to railroad companies is ruining the country, and we are glad to know that the Grange Movement is opening the eyes of would-be representatives of the people. This is told of Southeastern Kansas, a locality of which it has been said “the sun does not shine on a fairer,’' and what is said of Southeastern Kansas applies with equal truthfulness to every other portion of the West where railroad companies own the land and sell it to the victims of their accommodating system of long credits and seven per cent, interest. And it is only reasonable that such a deplorable condition should exist in the localities mentioned. Let any intelligent person think about it for an hour, and it will be impossible to arrive at any other result. In the first place that AVest country is 1,500 miles further frdffi controlling markets. These markets can only be reached over single lines of railroads operated, not to develop the cauntry or benefit the poor man, but to enrich speculators. The people who go out to settle on the frontier are usually men of small means whose all is exhausted in -making first payment, necessary improvements, and for the sjibsistance of the family until a crop is raised.— After the first year their money is gone, not left in the neighborhood where it can be used to trade on, but taken East and divided among the share holders of the railroad company that inveigled him to a retired and convenient spot where his pockets might be’drained at leisure. And all his neighbors are in the same condition. There is no work to be done, or rather theie is no mdney fd b’ef for doing' work. There is no local market where a basket of eggs, a few bushels of potatoes, a dozen chickens, or a load of grain may be taken and traded for family supplies, except it is a market controlled by the railroad corporation, whose policy is to get as high tariff as possible On all the goods it carries either way. To us. it looks like very great folly for people to leaVe Jasper, Newton and Benton counties within one hundred miles of Chicago and its great markets—within a few hours travel of healthy local markets—surrounded by thousands of acres of uncultivated lands, equal in quality of soil, equal in productiveness, with as good climate as can be found anywhere —with from one hundred to a thousand per cent, better improvements than

can be expectcd in a new country —with roads and bridges, schools and churches, mills and poßtofficGs at convenient distances—with settled society—where -land is as cheap, wages better, rates of interest lower, and taxes much less—it looks to us singularly unwise that men should become BO infatuated through the representations and misrepresentations of heartless speculators as to deliberately throw away the opportunities and advantages here offered, leave friends, neighbors and acquaintances and take their families to a new country where toil, privations and innumerable hardships incident to frontier life await them. Better is forty acres in Jasper county and contentment with fair surroundings, than the purchase of a quarter-section in the Arkansas Valley of Southwestern Kansas on long time with Seven per cent, interest on deferred payments and the certainty of enormous local and State taxes added thereto. If you do not believe it, try it.