The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1863-05-25
The National ship Canal Convention.

This body meets at Chicago on the I'd of
June, and there is a prospect that delegates
will be present from all parts of the free States
1t is probable that Canadians will also be in
attendance. The project of ship canal ex-
cites great interest, not only in Canada, but
even in England, where the wealth and pro-
ductiveness of the north western grain fields
are but just beginning to be appreciated. The
London Times for April 20 discusses it in
leading article from which we make the fol-
lowing extracts:
The authority is nothing less than an act of
the Governor and legislature of Illinois, aud
thorizing the Commissioners to proceed to
Canada, and TO England, if necessary, in order
to present statistics of the trade and produc-
tions of the northwestern States, and to solicit
from those governments early consideration
and early action on the subj ect. The case is
wonderfully strong one. and though the fact of
such mission having been sent to enforce it
might pass without observation in times less
eventful than those in which we are living, the
remarkable coincidence between this move
ment and the events which seem to prove that
the northwest must give up for the future the
hope of seeing the Mississippi again open to
their commerce seems to point TO motives yet
more urgent than mere wish to increase an
already existing trade. The northwest, in fact,
seems, however tardily, TO be awakening to
the real urgency of its situation. Ii has tax
EN- upon ITSELF with gallantry equal to its ILL
fortune, the task OF fighting the battle of the
whole Coulederacy. 1t has bled freely at ev-
cry pore, without receiving any of the conso-
lation which the public plumber has afforded
TO the feryd patriots of New York; aud the
return which it receives for its gallantry and
devotion is that it has alienated the South,
who are its natural customers, without any
hope of restoring that Union for which it has
fought and bled.
The Northwest seems to have arrived at the
conclusion that nothing but ship canal which
shall open the furthest extremities of Lake HUI
ron and Lake Michigan can enable it 10 pour
its produce, on a scale commensurate with its
abundance, into the lap of Europe The canals
at present connecting the lake states with the
Atlantic are small, shallow, and, though fit for
lake craft, quite unsuted for sea going vessels.
The railway communication is entirely made
quate, and large quantities of Indian corn are
described as left in sheds, one of which was
two miles long, by the side of the railways,
from the harvest of one year to the harvest of
the next, because the railway is unequal to the
transport of so vast mass of food. In 1861
the United States-which may for this purpose
be cosidered to mean the northwestern States
since the eastern States consume more corn
than they produce-lmported into England
alone, 2,501,744 quarters of wheat, !, 733 1874
quarters of Indian corn, and 2, TIA ,S95 hundred
weight of flour, the whole of which are COM
puted to have been sold 10 England for e12,-
643,91S But this wheat, flour and Indian corn
was worth in Chicago only e4,sl7,567, so that