The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1860-09-20
a. Leuis-Cemmerciai and Manufacturing


The census of ts60 shows the CITY of St
Louis to be the most populoua city IN the
West. A st. Louis journal remarks that she
is indebted for her extraordinary growth to
her commerce, but whether her commerce will
continue TO increase in the ratio in which II
had been increasing up to 1857. is question
that receives no satisfactory answer in the
business circles of the city. The railroad short
cuts 10 the seaboard have diminished the area
of St. Louis trade. which, when the transpor-
tation OF freight was restricted TO water car
riaee embraced the Missouri and the Missis-
sippi and their several tributaries; but the
new railroads of st. Louis Will open to her q
new. though somewhat smaller, area. Her
journals poiut to manufactures rs a great re-
lance for the future, and insist that their
banks should extend as great accommodations
to the mannfac turing as to the mercantile
classes. The Democrat observes that fifty thou
sand dollars invested in manufacturing es-
tabiishment feeds clothes and houses perhaps
ten times rs many inhabitants of ST. l. uis As
the same amount ted in commerce There
fore, ii is urged that that establishment has
precedent and peculiar claims upon the bank,
If they claim to be institutions of public utiIi-
ty II is said that by means of the bank IA
cilities always accessible to the Cincinnati
furniture manufacturers, they are able to carry
on a successful competition in the streets of
ST. Louis with the furniture manufacturers
OF that city, and the Pittsburg iron men pos
sess a similar advantage over the ST. Louis
iron men.
The wise and proyident foresight of St. Louis
is worthy the consideration of our own peo-
pie The census shows that her population is
larger than that of Cincinnati and the invest
ment of over seven millions of dollars in the
erection of buildings last year, showed the ex-
| istence of much surplus wealth. The field of
| her. commerce is susceptible of indefinite ex-
mansion in the future. A vast territory west
| and southwest OF 81. Louis is fast filling up
| the trade OF which she may safely calculate
mon A revision of commercial treaties with
| The Central and South American States and
| the West Indies, by which As close an approx
nation as posi- ole to Fl tee trade will be secured,
| is of vast importance to the West, and St Louis
must be the great collecting ana distributing
| point both for the exports to and the imports
from the South American region. NeVerthe-
| less whilst these advantages and opportuni-
| ties ought 10 be developed and improved to the
utmost, the Democrat looks TO the indus rial
| and manufacturing interests of s.. Louis Us
| the cornerstone OF her future prosperity aid
| greatness.
| We trust that Richmond, which has I'M
! co ualled manufacturing advantages, which
| has III her Immediate nelghborhood iron and
| coal in juxtapositon, and which has almost
| lilimitable water power, will turn TO the best
| account these immense advantages. She ought
10 be the first nanutac turing city OF America
| She has not only the coal, the iron and water
power but is the heal thiest city Oh the Atlantic
| seaboard, with climate which, at ali seasons
| of the year. is favorable TO the exercise OF
| mechanical industry. She should bend her
enterprise, therefore, like St. Louis, like Balti-
| more, like Phiiadelp hia, and other cities which
| might be named, 10 the production as well rs
| to the exchange of commodities. We should
| hold out inducements 10 laboring men TO come
| here, and should encourage such institutions
| rs the Virginia Mechanics Institute, which
! aims to supply with skilled labor, and to
render more efficient and Intelligent the me
| CHI nical classes. We should complete at once
! those lines of railroad which destined to
| connect us with the West and Southwest, so
| as to give our productions easy access to the
| vast regions which Will be penetrated and
| Jraversed by our con plated improvement Is.
| We may DO all this, and at the same time avail
| ourselves 10 the utmost Of such commercial
| advantages as circumstances and situation ac-
| cord to US, and which may be IN Ade as great as
| those Of any city on the Atlantic seaboard.