New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1856-03-13
NUMBER g..
Letters Hs5 of James Robb
ON INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS.
,f, u Y, q q ~ lsT ii5 ! = e
= - Z -. q 81 G3s2.gEsi
y EsI 3ll.5 II yRLEAss, Feb, 10. 1875,

D. ,.,-fsss a'ssf no VI .Ststts Ststs 4 q " & &
q E#s Feb sI2, 1856.
To His ErceHeaeg EsebeEc,. EVieHiae, =, qs
c.. g, G9ns,aosl 20 Of tae state ef Louisiana
subject of my preceding letters has inperceptiby ey
tendedteir length, and fear may oVertas With
and exhaust yournterest In seeking to- c6nfine nv
observations to the points most prominent in favor ~
attaining the great end have much at heart am
precuded from enlargiDg upon the feeble objections
which know to prevail, ,nots much to public works
themselves as to aiding them. must be content to
rest the cause am advocating its own merits and
what have already expressed in its favor, and COM
fine this letter to the plan Of those preceding.
Having concusvely set forth what the importance
of New Orleans will wheninter communications
extended and improved i wiIInow invite your at
ention to the Consideration Of the external advan
tages that Will follow The citizens of New York
have constructed at great cost a railroad the
lsthmus of Darien, Terminating at Panama on the
Pacific side. The distance from New York to San |
Francisco by this route is 1892 miles, and the voyage
has never been performed under twenty-five days; !
the average Of the voyages Of the year being twenty
four The distance from New York to San Fran
cisco, sgia Eashngton City, and by railroad from
Waslnna nasen gitygto New Orleans and hence by Te- |
shuantei IgG miles, making difference Of sg6
miles inIaF9rof eW Orleans and Tehuantapec, and
gain ofsnefe than two thousand miles in ocean nag
lgati9n. III ne allow seven days from San Francisco
to Y entosap On the Pacific end Of thespropoSed road
across Telaantepec, and for days thence to New Or
leans and three days hance by railroad to New ork,
itsiyes fourteen days asthe time employed in travel
ing between New Yorland CalifoFna, and gain Old
eight days over the shortest time by the Isthmns of
Darien, which is more than onethrd The time saved
IN going to and returning from California would aver
age twenty days and lessen the cost of travel more
than thrtyt per cent. The simple statement Of
these facts disnisses the necessity of any engthened
argument to prove their importance, and if public
attention were fairly awakened to their claims We
would hear less Of the Utopian schemes of Pacific
railroads to dbe located trackess deserts and
mountains. of perpetual SNOW II have Confidence in
American enterprise that it will ever be equal to its
purposes but it will never be directed to faaces
which experience already acquired exposes and con
demns. The Opelousas road,s located over assaVan-
nah, iii three years ig not quite completedaseyenty
two miles, and the Great N orthern Company has. fin
ished in the same time onehunred and sixteen miles
and graded sNtysadditional miles of its road. How
long twill take to extend the former thousand
hundred miles this scale of progress country
of great physical obsctiol and destitute Of popula
ton and provisions Greatlnes of railroad are not
the creation Of month year, and ifOpulent and
popuous cities like New York and Philadelphia have
consumed twenty years in the building Of the Erie
Railroad, and ten years for the Pennsy Central
both OF which penetrate regions where a largeS and
active population resides and aboundng in materials
and all the aids needed in the construction Of great
public works, Washonld assign the building of a Pa
I cltic railroad to- remote generations When popula-
ton extends its wants and their convenient sup
ply will be met as necessity and interest will point
out and eitherof these causes urges usn our present
circumstances to consider population already settled
and not anticipate that of the future We need the
Concentration Of public attention to local schemes
To succeed in those already commenced we must
solidate resources and calculate our purposes We
must be satisfied to do one thing at time and do il
well, and this will give to other, and fresh scheme:
4 life and intensity from the success Of Undertaking
that have made progress. When the captalinvestel
in present railroads becomes productive, its
poyment Gan be diverted to other channels without
embarrassment or Inconvenience 1t is the assurance
4 of large profit as well the security Of capital that
4 attactit fromthe ordinary channels of ats EN-
4 ployment. The mere y-lender, and he belongs
to class distinct as the mporteror factor, caleu
ates with singular prudence the aud profits O.
his Investments. In onr region Of comtry where the
demand for capital is active, he can have CHOICE O
securities, and schemes however attraetye in theor
Or plausible in promises viii never overcome his pre-
FERENCE for those that are solid and reliable Scheme
which are 50 extensive as to be define ysno bonn
.dafy seldom orheyer comman Confidence swith4 tt
money lender Or capitalist.
The Importance that would accrue to New, OTleal
by becoming the great centre of intercourse betwet
the Pacific and Europe and North America, Ineed
enlarge upon no one can foresee or estimate its ma
J nitule but the first and immediate influence that
follow the completion of its communications, eXter
and interior, will be the increase and expansion of OF
import trade, which, is now Insignificant. New 0
leans now exports coastwise and to foreign countre
4 larger amount in bulk and value of raw produt
. than any city in the world Its cotton, whicllis fir
in Importance, is an element in the exchanges
commerce greater than that of gold or silver I'll
States cutivatng it require its value to be retume
to them, not in gold or silver but the manufacture
and products OF Europe and Asia, from the most us
fu to the most ornamental and expensive, the create
proportion of which finds its way to the interit
through the Northern cities, owing to their superC
advantages in the facilities Of cheap and rapid dstr
0 button OF commodities by means OF their railroads.
Q The constant and serious Interruptions betWee
New Orleans and the interior, tend to lessen and II
tard this most important branch Of the trade of grea
city. Large and populous districts cut off fo
Whole seasons at time, and the transportation en-
poyed to supply the Inhabitants in their most ord
nary and pressing wants is both tarly and expensiv
u and unless overcome by improved facilities of nte
course must retard all progress if it does not lead
the abandonment of districts the most fertile and
uable The loss of interest alone on the crops detan
in Western Louisiana and Arkansas the last year ca
> not be less to the cutivator than 100000. This
& sufficient to discourage both merchant and plant
and render all calculations insecure. The one has
certainty when he will have his customers crop, al
the other,has no means to buy so long as his cott
i is detained on his plantation; but merchant al
he planter are altered circumstances when the obsrt
F tions to intercourse disappear-b0th then buy ii
Ii sell without the risks of the depreciation of the stoc
of merchandise of the one or the loss of interest
cs the cotton of the other. The advantages that W
it. flow from this enlarged freedom Of intercourse will
ly attended with the greatest encouragement to cult,
lie tion and every description of improvement that
insure the comfort luxury and happiness of the
habitants.
VI u. Having passed in review the external benefits
rt establishing the most extended system OF commune
Ut ton With distant regions shall invite your atten
he to the study of practical picture of collateral ava
tages which our railroads will give to New Orleans.
is have adycrted to the extent of population locat
'r east of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers estimated
three millions Of inhabitants that residing west
re- those great rivers is still considerable and h
1T over five thousand miles of finished railroads. If Il
nd dilatory modes of conveyance which now preva
were superseded by the cheap and expeditions iaci
afforded by railroads. how many of this vast popul
en- ton would be attracted to New Orleans that
he prevented from visiting it at ALL when the disan
en- between New Orleans and Louisville would be trl
he eled in thirty hours and that between New Orlea
ce and Chicago in tlrtysiX hours, with greater safe
en- and comfort and smaller expense? 1t will not appe
ID, any cXlggeraton to you, to estimate the annu
number at SOC, 900 persons but suppose reduce
or to 800 COO some of whom would be attracted by n
tives of business and traffic, but the larger portion
o those of change of climate, recreation and peasul
IRE and who are generally the spending class The e
m pendurc of such movement of population will
immense, considering that the planters of the Sout
~ western States receive large sums for their crops
are proyerbia for liberality in personal expenses.
80 we assign two hundred dollars to each person, a
take into the average the supplies purchased by
so country dealer, it will give sixty millions of doll;
o W., that would be expended in our stores, shops a
hotels every dollar of which is and will be diverted
~ and expended in the cities of the North, if we neg
!" to initiate the example of their enterprise. =
er The resort of this large and opulent population
nj New Orleans for six months of the year would be
the season of its raiety and pleasure, as it now