The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Vol. 09 (of 12): Dresden Edition—PoliticalIngersoll, Robert Green
History
The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Vol. 09 (of 12): Dresden Edition—Political
Ingersoll, Robert Green
Free thought
the control of a single corporation, from the government of an oligarchy
united, watchful, despotic, and vindictive. It will liberate the
farmers, the merchants, and even the politicians of the Pacific coast.
Besides, it must not be forgotten so to frame the laws and charters that
Congress shall forever have the control of fares and freights. In this
way the public will be perfectly protected and the Government perfectly
secured.
Look at the map, and you will see the immense advantages its
construction will give to the entire country, not only to the South, but
to the East and West as well. It is one hundred and fifty miles nearer
from Chicago to San Diego than to San Francisco. You will see that the
whole of Texas, a State containing two hundred and ten thousand square
miles; a State four times as large as Illinois, five times as large
as New York, capable of supporting a population of twenty millions of
people, is put in direct and immediate communication with the whole
country. Territory to the extent of nearly a million square miles
will be given to agriculture, trade, commerce, and mining, by the
construction of this line.
Let this road be built, and we shall feel again the enthusiasm born
of enterprise. In the vast stagnation there will be at last a current.
Something besides waiting is necessary to secure, or to even hasten, the
return of prosperity. Secure the completion of this line and extend the
time for building the Northern Pacific, and confidence and employment
will return together.
More men must cultivate the soil. In the older States lands are too
high. It requires too much capital to commence. There are so many
failures in business; so many merchants, traders, and manufacturers have
been wrecked and stranded upon the barren shores of bankruptcy, that
the people are beginning to prefer the small but certain profits of
agriculture to the false and splendid promises of speculation. We must
open new territories; we must give the mechanics now out of employment
an opportunity to cultivate the soil--not as day-laborers but as owners;
not as tenants, but as farmers. Something must be done to develop the
resources of this country. With the best lands of the world; with a
population intellectual, energetic, and ingenious far beyond the average
of mankind; with the richest mines of the globe; with plenty of capital;
with a surplus of labor; with thousands of arms folded in enforced
idleness; with billions of gold asking to be dug; with millions of acres
waiting for the plow, thousands upon thousands are in absolute want.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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