The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1858-09-14

1t is of manifest Importance to the citizens of
Baltimore, that they should be kept well informed
concerning the progress of those works of public
improvement in whose completion they have a
direct commercial interest. Several times already.
we have pointed out the opportunities offered TO
them for the extension of the trade of our city, by
the recent opening of various lines of communica-
ton to the Great Northern Lakes We have shown
as any good map will indicate at a glance
that we are considerably nearer to Buffalo than
either Philadelphia or New York; that when the
Sunbury and Erie Railway is finished we shall also
possess a similar advantage with respect to the port
of Erie and now that the last rails are in the act
of being laid down, at the rate of mile a day.
on the remaining forty-siX miles of the Pttsburg,
Fort Wayne and Chicago Railway we may safely
calculate upon having an unbrokcn connection be-
tween Baltimore and Chicago by the early part of
next November. To many persons this fact may
appear, at the first glance, matter of comparative
Indifference but to those who comprehend the vast
extent of the Lake trade, and the absolute ncces-
sty of providinS for it more than one outlet to
the Sea Board, the Importance to Baltimore of the
completion of this new link of communication.
will be readily understood The merchants and
capitalists of New York have expended ninety mil
lions of dollars in the construction of three great
highways to the Lakes, and by thus opening out
channels for the transportation of the products of
the Northwest to the Sea Board, they have aided
immensely in building up the city of New York,
and in extending its commerce. Up to this time.
they have succeeded in monopoising nearly the
whole Of the Lake trade but that trade is expand
ing itself so rapidly as to battle all previous cal
culations. In lS4l, the aggregate amount of the
Lake trade was sixty-five millions of dollars In
1876, it amounted to one hundred and twenty-five
millions. In 1913, to one hundred and eghty-six
millions, and in 1851, to nearly seven hundred
millions of dollars. The aggregate ralue of the
Lake hade for 1857 being equal 10 the ralue of the
achole Foreign Commerce Of tile Unued .Shtes.
the amount of the latter from July LIST, 1856.
to June 80, 1857, being a little over six hun
dred and ninety-cight millions of dollars. Turn
ing now to the city of Chicago, we find
that its growth has kept pace with the
increasing commerce of the Lakes In 1910, that
city contained but four thousand four hundred
and seventy inhabitants. In 1850, is population
had increased to twenty-nine thousand eight hun
dred and siXty-three. At this time the number of
It's inhabitants is estimated at one hundred and
nineteen thousand. The value of articles manu-
featured There last year was sixteen millions of
dollars, while the total value of articles of COM
merce received at that Port, for the same period
exceeded two hundred millions of HoIIor-. Nor is
this all. ''The statistics of the movement of
population Westward, show that people enough
'found their homes west of Chicago, during the
"year 1857 to form two entire States; and it has
"been plausibly estimated that within the next
"quarter Of a century, fourteen States as large as
t'Ohlo, but, on an average, more wealthy and
''populous, will have grown up on the magnificent
Country lying between the Lakes and the Rocky
'Mountains" These evidences of the growing
trade, and the extraordinary prosperity of the
Northwest, sufficiently indicate the importance
of every new railway that brings us into direct
communication with the Lake Ports and the inte-
mercial progress OF that region. 1t would be i'm
possible to estimate the amount of business which,
in the course of a few years, must crowd all the
great thoroughfares from the Lakes TO the Sea-
board, or to sum up, with any degree of accuracy,
the advantages we should derive from entering
early into the field of competition The move
ment of emigration is towards the Northwest
and, in consonance with well known law, the
centre of population for the United States, within
period of time not very remote will be estab-
lished at some point on the borders of one of our
great inland Lakes. All history teaches us, that
it is in the interior of the country that its greatest
cities must arise, and as the Lake Basin next to
the vallies of the Mississippi and the Ohio presents
tl,o l., a.,
comprises within its limits a more fertile soil
and possesses climate better ADAPTED TO
develope the energies of the Anglo-Saxon
race the growth of the Lake cities has been in cor
respondence with this general principle Every
new Railway, therefore, which connects the sea
board cities with the Northwest, and offers to the
commodities of that region a choice of markets is
productive to a certain extent of notifications in
the course of trade. Heretofore, we have regarded
ohicago us point too remotely situated to fall
naturally within the scope of our business opera-
tonS. indeed we have been SO much in the habit
of considering the whole commerce of the Lakes rs
properly belonging to New York that we have
taken little or no interest in the marvellous in
crease of the Northwestern States in wealth and
population during the last ten years Yet NOTHING
is more clear than that it needs but moderate dis
play of enterprise, on our part, to draw towards
this city fair proportion of the trade of that re-
gion. 1t has cost New York ninety millions of dol
lars TO establish connection with the Lake ports
Without any cost at all, we have had RAILWAYS
opened for us by which we are able to reach the
same ports, over a shorter line of road and OF
course in less period of time. Baltimore and
Buffalo have been brought already within fourteen
hours distance from each other We are nearer to
Erie than either Philadelphia or New York. An
air line from Baltimore to Sodus Bay needs but
one short link of some thirty miles to perfect it,
and within couple of months we shall have di-
rect communication with Chicago by a route which
is shorter by one hundred and twenty-five miles
than the route from Chicago to New York. and
twenty-three miles shorter than the route from
Chicago to Philadelphia. 1t is time, then. that we
began to realize these facts; Baltimore is nearer to
the Lake cities than either Philadelphia or New
York. An unbroken railway connection between
the two points is either already formed or will be
completed at an early day. The total trade of the
Lakes at the present time is equal in point of value
to the whole foreign commerce ofthe UNITED STATES,
and is annually increasing. 1t is looking for new
outlets to the sea board, and is capable of filling
every favorable outlet to its utmost capacity The
attention of Chicago has already been drawn to
and if to Philadelphia why not to
Baltimore