, 1860-04-20

road was the result Of Tho personal eHcrtlous
and Individual enterprise Of the cltiEona o1
Chicago. Ttst effort was one os the turning
roints il ths history Of the city, for the Ga
lem was, 60 to speak, the parent Of the :ail'
WHY'S Of the West. -.
Tho Development and the extension Of our
railway system has, for tho Int eight ysars,
been mainly left to Eastern capitalists. The
csn,uercial men Of Chicago up to August
1851, had forced upon them all the business
they could do. All their energy, and their
capital too, found ready aud actiye employ
1ncnt Dut fur the last two years re have
been struggling with the effects Of tho fnan-
cial storm which fell upon tic cities o: the
scabonrd III August 1861, and extended its
rayagcs all over the country. Chicago is now
slowly and surely recovering from elnbarrass-
1aeut. A vigorous and united effort On The
part Of our citizens, 10 extend our commerce
and give new impetus TO the growth Of tic
city, is now Al absolute necessity. Wo bo-
leye it to be rs important, aud that its results
would 10 as marked and salutary, as were
those which gave us the canal and the Galena
Railroad. 4 new impulse to our commerce
must come from our own citizeus it will ney-
er do to whit for outside parties and capital
lists to give it. We must show ourselves
worthy Of our commercial position if We mean
to inspire confidence in our future growth.
Neglccting, for the moment, manufactures in
Ill their vast mud varied Importance, the cult
walton Of the lands about the city, and nany
other kindred topics, We name hero but two
great works, tue ono Of Immediate and abso-
lutte necessity, and tue other soon to become
equally essential to the prosperity Of the city.
We mention, first, the completion Of some one
or two Of our railway lines through Iowa to
the Missouri river. For the last few weeks
we have referred to tho Cedar Rapids aud Mis-
souri, river railroad, as that camo before us in
tho shape Of news growing out Of the recent
transfer Of lands from the Iowa Central Air
Line to it, by the State Of Iowa, to aid in ita
construction. But the extension Of the Rock
Island road, Or Of the road from Bur1ing.
ION, would also give us-tho control Of tho
trade Of tho Upper Missouri, aud what is now
still more Important the trade and tho travel
to and from the Kansas Geld Fields Now
that there is a prospect that the bill for the
construction Of The great Pacific railway on the
central rcute, will pass Congress during the
present. session, ono branch Of which il tc
start from Western Iowa, the carly completion
either Of the Cedar Rapids, the Burlington, O,
the Davenport road, becomes an absolute ne
! cessity to tho commerce Of the city.
Our capitalists and business men must no
let this matter 60 by default. Tho interest:
ut stake are too vital to the growth and tht
commercial supremacy Of Chicago to ALLOW
them to 50 to sleep and let other cities rcal
tho advantages now within our grasp. III
| refer to tue facts in regard 10 the gold field
published almost daily and to the map for fur
ther and convincing arguments Oh This topic
The other great improvement to which III
refer is the digging down Of tho summit leye
Of the canal and its enlargement to the siz
originally proposed. The sana.ory import
aace Of having pure stream Of water iron
the lake, constantly flowing through the city
the Improvement Of the navigation Of the I'll
nois and the enlargement Of the canal, so tia
steamers can ply between New Orlcans IN
Chicago without breaking bulk, will bc full
discussed hereafter. For tho present let u
mako ono united, vigorous effort to complet
one or moro Of our railways to the Missouri
and when that is done We shall hare both Ii
strength and tue meaus to complete tho can;
as originally projected.