The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1860-03-06
BALTIMORE.
TUESDAY, MARCH 6, 1860

Bill authorizing the sale of the present STATE
Tobacco Warehouses, and the erection OF olners
on deep water, has passed the House OF peie-
gates and only awaits the concurrent action of
the Senate tn become n law. As the Bill expressly
nroy;des that the new Warehouses shall be built
with the nroceeds of the sale of the DID, the change
if made. will be attended with no expense to the
State 1t may be doubted, however, whether such
q proviso will not in effect, render the Bill in
lucrative The buildings which it is proposed to
sell are scarcely adapted for any other purpose
than that for which they at present used, and
would probably sell for little more than the value
of the materials. The lots are unquestionably
valuable, but so, we presume, are deep water
fronts. The chances are that the sale of the one
will about pay for the purchase of the other, leav-
ing the cost of building, which would be consid-
cradle, wholly unprovded for. Unless, therefore,
the owners of property on deep water should gen.
erously step forward and supply the deficiency,
by giving for the present Warehouses more than
they are really worth, or by presenting the State
with new Warehouses erected at their own ex-
pense, we do not see that the passage of the Bill
is likely to have any practical effect.
With respect to the general merits of the Bill
opinions are naturally divided according to the
diverse interests of persons owning property on
deep water or in the vicinity of the present Ware
houses. 1t is said that the Tobacco-growing
counties are in favor of the Bill-that the in.
terests of the Planter will be promoted by
the change-that vessels will be enabled to load
and unload at the same wharf and that the expense
of drayage will consequently be considerably
diminished In this opinion, however, persons in
the trade do not appear to concur All the Tobacco
which comes to Baltimore is either water-borne or
is brought over the BALTIMORE and ONO Railroad.
That which comes by water is brought in steam
boats and in small craft-which usually have
mixed freight-which do not require deep water for
their accommodation and whose convenience
would be rather interfered with than promoted by
an arrangement which should compel them to stop
at Canton, or any other point ON deep water, to
land few hogsheads of Tobacco, before coming
up to the city to discharge the balance of their
cargo-or to return thither for the purpose, after
landing their passengers. In the case of the
Tobacco which comes from the West, and which
constitutes nearly one-third of all that comes
to this market-the removal of the warehouses
TO point several miles further off from the depot
of the BALTIMORE and Ono Railroad would be
by no means certain to reduce the expense of dray-
age, which might or might not be, accordingly as
the situation of the new Warehouses should favor the
transportation of such tobacco through the city
by rail. So with respect to the shipment of to-
bacco abroad The vessels which come here to
load with tobacco do not ordinarily come empty.
They have cargoes to discharge as well to re
ceive. The probabilities are, therefore, that
they would continue to load with to-
bacco at the wharves where they dis
charge their cargoes-that the tobacco would be
brought from the warehouses in drays, as at pre-
sent-and that the expense of drayage would be
about the same. There would therefore, be no
saving to the planter effected by the proposed
change, while the convenience of those engaged in
the trade in this city might be seriously affected.
The great distance at which the new Warehouses
would be from the present business centre of the
city, is, indeed, very strong argument against
the Bill, and quite sufficiently accounts for the
opposition which is generally manifested to it. That
opposition has already taken the shape of an ener
getic remonstrance the part of large number of
merchants, and of the Board of Trade, against the
removal of the Warehouses, while the owners and
occupants OF wharf properly on Inc line OF the
Basin are alarmed at what they consider to
be an entering wedge for the project of closing
and filling that portion of the harbor. Whether
any opposition, however, that can be organized
against the Bill will avail at this late stage of pro-
ceedings TO arrest its passage is more than doubt
full, particularly it be true, stated, that the
planters who the tobacco and who claim the
right therefore, to say where it shall be stored,
are in favor of the change