Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1861-03-26
p From the New York Evening Post, March 20. y
Chicago Shaking Hands with Liverpool-Ex-
traordinary Proposition Of the Chicago Grain
Shippers. ta i.Hs ..g.-f UrI"tY

Last September, q Canadian purchased il
Chicago sixteen thousand bushels of wheat fol
shipment to Liverpool, part by the st. Lawrence
route and part by New York. The wheat was
shipped to Port Dalh0usie on Lake Ontario
| where the cargo was divided, ten thousand
bushels going down the st. Lawrence, and six
thousand to Oswego and through the canals to
the Hudson and this city. The time occupied
in transportation to Liverpool by the st. Law
renee route was twenty-six days, at q cost, GOV.
eriDg all charges Of freight, insurance, commits
sion, &C., OF fsixty-seven cents per buehel; while
that sent by the New York route cost eleven
cents more per bushel IN charges alone, besides
arriving at Liverpool fifty-four days after that
sent by the ST. Lawrence. 1t should be stated
that the lot from Montreal was shipped by q
steamer and crossed the Atlantic in ten days,
while the six thousand bushels from this city
waited four days here for sailing vessel, aud
when finally shipped, were fifty five days In tram
cit, which will readily account for the difference
In time between the two routes. 90 E ...
The Chicago papers are agitating project for
the establishment Of q regular line of propel-
lers between Chicago and Port Colborne, to
connect with similar line from Port Dalhousie
to Quebec. At the latter point It is proposed to
transfer the cargo, by the use Of elevators, to
ocean steamers, and to forward grain direct to
Liverpool, at a through cost for freight, insur-
ance and commissions, of only thirty seven cents
per bushel. Before this can occur, however, the
"daly line ofpropellers of one thousand tons each,
and speed Of twelve miles per hour" must be
launched, the elevators at Quebec erected, and
the money for both purposes be raised; all of
which may be said TO 90 "against the grain"
just now, as matters stand at Chicago.
BY the proposed route, the wheat must be tran
shipped at three places--Port Colborne, where
1t goes by the Welland Railroad to Port Dali
housie, where 1t is shipped TO Montreal or Que
bee, and thence TO its destination, Liverpool.
BY the New York route. IL is shipped from Port
Dalhousie to Oswego, and by canal TO New York.
The distance from Chicago to Liverpool by the
Lakes and the 81. Lawrence Ia 4,025 miles.
Some four years ago, there was quite an ex.
element at Chicago on the subject of direct
shipment of grain from that port to Liverpool.
A schooner, the Richmond, started with car.
go of wheat, passed through the Lakes, the st.
Lawrence, and across the Atlantic, making the
entire passage, we believe, in less than forty
days. On her arrival the cargo and vessel we're
sold at handsome profit TO the owners. Sub
sequently another vessel from Milwaukee made
the came voyage with equally successful result.
Wheat at that time was held at "war prices'--
In the neighborhood Of two dollars q bu shell.
and might have been sent by almost any mode
Of transit, short Of ballooning, and the shipper
could well afford to pay the freight. The en-
terprise of direct communication between Chi
csgo and Liverpool came to sudden end first,
by the fail in wheat; nextby the fall in freights
and especially the difficulty In finding return
freights to Chicago at anything like remunera-
tive prices, h
There Is one thing which would probably re-
suit in the establishment of the proposed line
OF steamers between Chicago and Quebec, and
that Is another war on the continent-for q
European war ia almost always attended by a
short crop of wheat on the shores of the Baltic
With even this impulse, it would be some time
before the line would be "daily'' line, and,
considering the matter of return frieghts, q
while longer before it would be a paying line.
The latter consideration is supposed to have
some influence in so Important matter as that
Of establishing daily line Of steamers, partc-
ularly when one terminus of the proposed route
is called Chicago. I'd -. ''