Maumee City express. [volume] (Maumee City, Ohio) 1838-184?, 1839-06-22
MAUMEE CITY EXPRESS.
SATURDAY, JUNE %. 1889.


SATURDAY, JUNE %. 1880.
RAILROADS. AND COMMON RoADs.-Ihe
high value that is placed upon railroads. as
the means of directing the trade OF large
sections of the country to a particular point,
and the low estimate in which, both in theo-
ry and practice, good McAdam and COM
mon roads are held, especially IN this coun-
try, has led us TO think frequently upon the
subject, for the purpose oftrying to deter
mine whether, in this case, popular opinion
has taken the right direction. Towns that
are looked upon as the prospective tcrmin-
ating points of railroads are estimated high
lyby those interested, as places of future
business, while to the same persons, the
proposal of McAdam or a good common
road, over the same ground, would, if not
entirely neglected, DC furthered with little
spirit, and would raise no lofty expectations
as to the business it would be likely to con-
centrlte.
In thinking upon this subject we have
been led to compare the real business
created at Toledo by the railroad, with
that which would probably have centred
there, had a good McAdam or even com
mon road been made over the same track.
We adopt this road as an example, because
we are best acquainted with its operation
and business, and not for the purpose of Gre
ating doubt as to its effects upon the pros
perty of rival town. We honor the per-
severance and enterprise that carried on
that work, and rejoice that in its operation,
it has been productive ofmany and import.
ant benefits, and we only speak the scnt-
ments of its warmcst and most active
friends, when we state, that, in proportion
to the business done upon the road, the
trade it has brought to the town has not met
their expectations.
The surplus of Michigan, that finds its
way 10 market by way of the Toledo rail
road, consists in the productions Of the soil,
principally wheat either ground or unmnnn-
factured. The amount Of flour, from the
last harvest, is estimated in the Detroit
Free Press at $4,000 barrels, and to sup
pose that in wheat and other grains an
equal amount las been sent off, would be a
large calculation. This produce passes from
tho h,nJe of ,ha f,rmarc in tho intrrinr
The transfers are made before it touches the
railroad. The farmer does not become the
transporter Of his own surplus. The goods
are sold, the money paid, md the trade
completed at Tccumseh, Adrian, or somc
other place along the route. Toledo be-
comes merely the place of trans shipment.
Her merchants sell no goods to the farmers,
because they do not come in contact witt
them. The business is merely the ordlna
Cy storage and forwarding trade, which, al
though perhaps lucrative is not capable O.
great extension, and viii not, Of itself pro
duce great effects in the building up of {
large town.
That the results are such as here stated
there can be but little doubt Adrian anC
Tecumseh have become important places o
trade, and the sales of merchants goods are
very great. They hold the positions where
there is transfer, and not merely trans
shipment the subjects of trade, and al.
though, nomnaly, many of the purchases
and sales are made with and for cash, still
they are places where those who have the
will and the means to purchase are brought
directly in contact with those whose busi-
ness it is to sell.
On McAdam road the farmer can be.
come the carrier of his own produce, and
had the route now under consideration been
traversed by road Of that description,
there can be no doubt, but the merchants of
Toledo would have become the purchasers
of much of tile produce of the section
through which the road passes. This
would have brought large amount Of trade
to that place to the advantage Of both the
merchant and the farmer-to the merchant
by bringing the producer to him with his
hands full, and to the farmer'by enabling
him to receive the profit of carrying as wei
as producing, and by giving him choice
between the market at home, and thai
abroad.
3UnoLARY.-The store of w. P. Rcz
nor of Perrysburg was broken open Oh the
night of Monday last, and robbed of goods
to the amount of six or eight hundred dol
lars. On the same night the grocery store
of VIM. Russell at the same place was en-
tered and considerable amount Of pro
perty taken.
There is, without doubt an organized
band ofrobbors prowling around this vicinity
and possessing numbers and means of lnfor
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