New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1854-06-05
GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS.


route by Cat Island
GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS.
New Orleans and Mobile are now the only
large cities in the whole country having no di-
rect railway communication between them,
either completed or in progress. The reason
why one has not been constructed before this is
that its place has been in measure supplied by
a good line Of steamers, which, however, on ac-
count of shallow water and other causes cannot
maintain q regular and punctual commnnica-
ton The greatly increased business and travel,
with that which is to result from the great sys-
tenn Of railroads centering at either city, can no
longer be accommodated by the old mode of con-
veyance, but demand new one, more in ac-
cordance with the spirit of the times
The line proposed will reduce the time OF
transit between the two cities for passengers to
three or four hours and for freight to about ten
hours 1t will open another avenue for the IN
PRODUCTION of o large amount of building mate
rails to meet the continually increasing demand
for these supplies. 1t will stimulate the pro-
duction of many articles of food from the garden,
orchard, and dairy, along the line OF the road,
within few hours reach OF either city, that
will add greatly to comfort and cheap living.
It will render residence in either city much
| more desirable, as it will afford safe and de-
lrhtful retreats in epidemic seasons to their in
habitants, within two hours ride, thus inducing
them to remain at home, to engage IN perma-
nent occupations, and correct the crying evils OF
| absenteeism, and at the same time increase the
! permanent population, ana aHord nome nafAeI
| for home productions.
| It is common, where railroad is built con-
Meeting two cities of disproportionate magni-
tude, for the smaller to fear that the influence
4 will be such as to draw off its trade to the
greater 1t may change in some particular the
previous existing relations but the advantage,
/ without exception, is believed to be mutual
/ . lie thn Nnrthp
Eastern States afford many striking illustrations
| of this fact. No instance can be pointed out III
which a town has suffered in consequence of its
connection with any other.
The civ of Albany has received great i'm
pulse by the construction of the Hudson River
Railroad, by which passengers are taken to
| New York, distonce Of $50 miles, in four hours,
at cost of two dollars. The same may be said
of Troy, and of the numerous cities on the great
| line Of travel between Albany and Buffalo. All
these cities offer every facility for the passage
Of the trains through them at high speed, and
their rapid growth proves the advantage to
themselves of an unrestricted commerce Inc
city of Providence did not become an Important
place till its connection with Boston, by the
Boston and Providence Railroad The cities of
Salem, and Newburyport, and Portland, have
had new life infused into them by their connec-
ton with the metropolis Of New England. Phil
adelphia, instead of losing any portion of its
trade by her increased facilities of communica-
ton with New York, is rapidly increasing 1t.
The effect of improved highways is to benefit
4 every town and every section of the country
through which they are built, and the fear
which was formerly entertained, and which is
still cherished in some portions of the country,
that they may exert contrary tendency, is en-
tirely groundless.
While Mobile has nothing to fear from the
construction Of any road leading from herself in
any direction, she can build none that will con-
duce more to her prosperity than the Mobile
and New Orleans Railroad. 1t is the only work
that will bring her upon the great line Of travel
of the United States The convenient road Of
travel is always through the larger towns Let
the Mobile and New Orleans Railroad be built
and she will place herself upon this route. The
terminus of this great route Is not Moplle, mol
New Orleans, nor Texas, but the Pacific. Let
the construction of this work be postponed fol
several years, and the trade and commerce OF
the country will become accustomed to other
channels, which will leave the city without at
fractions either to its own people or strangers
The latter will 90 to more enterprising commu-
mites that receive their impulse from the great
tide of human life passing daily through them
What will Mobile be unless she places herself Ell
route of the great avenues of the country Hel
enterprise Will vanish, her trade will decay
Her railroads will become merely local works
without alliance or connection with the system
of the country But let q Western outlet 81
opened, and the railroads entering Mobile upoI
! the eastern and northern sides, will bring IL
daily swarms of travellers and emigrants, moving
towards the fertile West If this western outle
for her railroads be not built, this travel vii
take the routes that South Carolina Georgia
part of Alabama, and Mississippi are making
such vigorous efforts to open, running IN an
easterly and westerly direction, to the north o
Mobile. So convinced am of the truth of thes'
observations, believe as much as the road vii
benefit New Orleans, there are good reasons
why the people of Mobile should feel muci
e greater interest in its construction Build Till
t road, and it will give employment to all hel
other lines, to which the city is making sucl
liberal advances 1t will stimulate its domestic
trade IL will secure to it the favorable atten
ton of the public, which will lead to the intro
duction of new elements of prosperity. BY thu
points of contact it will present to the bushes
:, world, it will become the inviting residence Q
d the business man, whose interests will be al
Il vanced by the promotion of those of the city.
. While | have alluded particularly to the in
= fuence that railroads, connecting neighborln
cities, exert upon their prosperity, 1t IS prope
to state that the trade which Mobile and Ne'
| Orleans enjoy, is the natural result of their re
spective positions, and that by no mode OF com
g munication between them can the approprlat
d commerce of one be drawn off to the other
a They are respectively the depots of tributar
= territories with well defined limits For tn
J accommodation of the trade now received, an
: to be received by her projected railways troI
the interior, Mobile, in her present position, OF
fers greater facilities than New Orleans. Ihes
h can be greatly improved by deepening the chan
= mel to her lower harbor, which is capacious
land locked, and has depth of q feet water
,, or as this improvement may, for want of neces
1t sary means, require time in execution, access
1t the harbor may be had by a railway of abor
: twenty five miles long, over a level and favora
10 BILE country While, therefore, Mobile must re
y tain the trade she now enjoys, or to which b
L. her position and her projected railways she ha
any claim, she can add largely to it by til
proposed road.
Similar views may be taken as to the influ
ence of the proposed road upon the interests (
New Orleans, but as they will be more readil
/, admitted from the fact that it is large city,
OF is not deemed neeessary'to repeat what has bee
lg said 1t may be safely affirmed, however, this
8 the road is indispensable to New Orleans, If Sd
IN is determined to hold the rank she now holds
oil the scale of American cities, and to move fol
re ward with the energy due to her unmatehe
is position ut the mouth of the greatest and mo-
productive valley in the world. 1t is not to /
sc denied that New Orleans has not made the pr
~ gress due to this position. The fact is aacribe
o to her neglect of the construction of railroad
gu without which, no matter what may be IL
natural advantages or facilities of water con
~,