Rensselaer Union, Volume 6, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 September 1873 — Cheap Transportation. [ARTICLE]

Cheap Transportation.

Mr, Henry S. Travis writes that the petitioners for the removal of the county seat pf Benton county from Oxford, finding they were likely to be beaten, dismissed4heir I case last Holiday. So that matter is temporarily settled. The Not them Indianian advises its patrons to put on their shoes and stockings now. Most everybody hi Kosciusko county regulate their meals, sleeping hours, sparking, religion and business by the Indianian. It is a great paper in more than one respect. The Jasper county papers are wild With delight over an elephant which was recently exhibited there by a circus. It was the first “insect”' of the kind ever seen in that section of the country.—Mishawaka Enterprise. Wild with delight! Oh, what a whopper! Where will that editor go on resurrection day unless he repents? Under the caption of “Notable Men I’the 1 ’the editor of the Valparaiso Vidette says that himself, Bishop Simpson, Rev. E. O. Haven, Rev. Arthur Edwards and two or three others were invited to take tea with Mr. Colfax and his wife during the recent session of the M. E Conference at South Bend. The modesty of Bro. Gurney will be no serious obstacle to his political aspirations. Boys, don’t drink so much intoxicatmg liquor. You are not any better for it either in health, morals or respectability. You cause your friends sorrow, and beside when under its influence you create more

or less disturbance of the public peace and render yourselves liable to arrest and fine. Listen to the advice of friends, young men, and do not drink so much liquor nor have your sprees come at such frequent times. This has - a”per ; sonal application, dear reader, and means you if you drink; topic of conversation and newspaper comment for the past week, lias been the great financial crash in Wall Street, which, for widespread effects and disaster, is even more dreadful than that of 1857. The famous houses of Jay Cook & Co., Fisk & Hatch, Henry Clews & Co., together with scores of firms and individuals of less prominence, have succumbed to the terrible pressure and been compelled to suspend payment. Without doubt the effects of this financial disturbance will be felt in every department of business, causing general stagnation in trade, depreciating values, increasing rates on loans, creating a feverish distrust of all securities, and bringing about a stringency in monetary affairs all over the nation such as has not been experienced for many years. All great private enterprises, like the construction of railroads, will at once be stopped —and dor an ind efinit e period. And the effects will not be confined to our side of the Atlantic ocean, but American securities will fluctuate in European markets, and the confidence which foreign capitalists had learned to place in the great schemes of our business men will receive a rude shock from which it is not likely to speedily recover. Short crops would have made money tight and times hard in the West, but this crisis will increase the stringency of the money market beyond computation, and universal embarrassment may be expected-among all classes; An economizing of expeditures would seem, under the circumstances, to suggest iUelf as the prudent policy for all to adopt

At a recent meeting in New York City, about twelve hundred men, representing a business capital of five hundred millions of dollars, assembled to talk over the subject of cheap transportation between the East and West They talked about legislating to bring about reforms in the management of railroads, they suggested that the national government assume control of through lines of railroad, and they urged building of new lines of road, by assistance from the government or. by private enterprise, which should increase the facilities of transportation and ex? cite healthy competition. But they did not seem to get at the root of the difficulty in a manner fully satisfactory to themselves—at least they agreed upon no definite plans looking to a speedy solution of the problem that had called them together. However, it is a step towards the right direction, when Eastern capitalists, and business men are brought a frame of mind

favorable for discussing a question more vital than all others to the prosperity of Western interests.— Something must be done eventually—speedily—to establish a rate of exchange more favorable to the farmer between the articles he produces and those he consumes. He must get more for the products of his labor, and be compelled to pay less for what he has to buy. There seems to be three ways of bringing this about, one or more of which .will ultimately be decided upon.— They are, first, a modification of the tariff laws in such a manner as to afford less protection to manufacturing monopolies and bring foreign fabrics into just enough competition with those manufactured at home as to compel sales at fair profits instead of such enormous percentage as is now charged on many articles; second, by compelling railroads to adopt schedules of carrying rates more equitable to the West, which may be accomplished by legislative enactment or the building of more roads; third, by reducing the distance between markets and grainfields. To us the latter plan seems most feasible and most likely to produce the desired result. We mean by it, that manufacturing establishments employing operatives who consume the products of the farm and which produce articles consumed by farmers —machinery, clothing fabrics, &C., <fcc.—should be built up in the vast agricultural regions. In this way railroad corporations would only levy tribute upon the raw matenal brought to factories and Western people would be relieved of half their burdens from this source.