Daily Davenport gazette. [volume] (Davenport, Iowa) 1854-1855, 1854-10-27

Under this head the Cincinnati Railroad
Record gives the following abridgment Of
what railroads have done and are doing for
that city. In an even greater ratio do they
tend to advance the interest and prosperity
OF a smaller place. Davenport, for instance,
from an insignificant town Of 1900 inhab,-
tants, has through. the potent influence OF
the Rock Island Railroad alone, in two years
attained population OF over 5000 'nhabl-
tants and assumed the Importance OF many
cities several times her age:
| We recently heard one OF tho wiseacres
| of the times say, that railways were The
| great cause of the scarcity, aud derange-
ment of money. A country, which is pay
| ING forty millions per annum in gold, for the
balances only, due for foreign fabrics, as cas-
jly made in this country as corn Is raised,
suffering from too many railways!
The idea 10 too absurd for contradiction.
But it did occur to US, what would have been
the condition Of Cincinnati, for example, at
this time without rail,caps! Under the MISE
rable legislation we have had, with the pre-
sent financial crisis, Cincinnati, and all 9TH
err large towns in Ohio. would have been
commercially crn shed-literally trodden
down. But, on the contrary, with utter de-
rangement in currency, and with the ONO
river reduced almost to dry canal, Clncin-
natl commerce was never so great and the
activity OF its energies never greater. 10
to the railroad depots and the whole thing
is explained at once. We happened TO be
at the immense freight depot OF the Little
Miami railway last week, and what did we
| see, Yards, buildings, roads, every space
where room could be found, literally cram
med with produce and merchandise going and
coming.
Now let us see where this mass of sugar,
and coffee, and moasses is goingl 1t is 60
ing through the whole North from Oswego
to Chicago-oyer a country whose radius
was five hundred miles! Was there any
such commerce with the river, or with turin
pixies, or even with canals! The radius OF
trade here with turnpikes was 100 miles,
with canals more than 200 miles. and with
railways it is 800 miles! Doubling the RAJ
dius Of trade, trebles the surface over which
the trade extends To the north and east,
this trebling has taken place in Cincinnati,
but it remains for the completion Of the
/ oHto ~ MisoisstPPi 'ohio"u "See =" ~
Louis, and the Covington & Lexington to
East Tennessee, to complete the trebled
surface Of commerce in every direction
! This will take place in a short time, when
the grand revolution in Cincinnati COM
meree will also be complete, making the ag
gregate commerce of Cincinnati treble wha t
il was in l850-say tro hundred and TIN mil
lions Of exports and imports. Granting the
Southern line be not completed before 1860,
it will be but ten years, in which the COM
merce of Cincinnati will be trebled-its
wealth more than trebled, and tho cost of all
the railways Of the West, immense as it is,
will be returned to this single city /!
We know that this is startling result,
but we have accomplished much OF it, and
with the completion of the roads south and
west, the whole will be accomplished.
Nothing can be greater mistake than to
suppose railways have absorbed too much
capital, or. any way affected the curren-
cy of the country. We have sent .ffy mil
lions Of gold to Europe in lS54-and it is
THE RAILROADS ALONE WHICH HAVE SAVED
THE COMMERCE OF THE COUNTRY FROM Ut
TER PRosTRATIoY.