Daily Davenport Democrat. [volume] (Davenport, Iowa) 1864-1874, 1866-03-20

Fer The pest few months the subjects Of
Atsights, ship canals, railroads end storage.
have occupied The puhais mind y sonsid>
srsbls sateut Throughout she West, the
demand ~ bssn f. cheap fbsights 10
end from Ohicage, and Ices sxhosbitant
rate Of storage casrgsd in that city. TO
bring that shout, various measures have
been spoksn u. The most effective one Wa
he improvement Of the Upper Mississippi.
thus giving IN unobstrustsd navigation to
The oceaA Whsn this prejssAsas bsoached,
Chicago seemed 70 ~ charmed. In isst, 70
carry out ths plan would divert vast trade
heA that city. That Chicago eomprshended
ths situation . evident from the way it,
Journals bslaborsd the railroads for the
serias put upon the transportation Of grain
iron the Aississippi TO the lakes. Shortly,
whom ths daooe sbs cheap transportation
~ q it, hight, Chicago cot up hue and
~y for . ship canal around the Niagara
Ialbs p eivs The Wsst IN Americas outlet
Into Lake Ontario, and thence down the
st. lawrence TO the ocean. incidentally
tho proposition was made to enlarge the
Michigan and Illinois canal, and deepen
the Illinois river, TO such an extent -
would relieve the country, BY giving Chica>
70 n estlst 70 the ocean through the Mis-
eissippi river. This latter scheme was
thrown in, NO doubt, Is kind Of = soothing
powder; 70 cool the irritation Of the public
on tho freight question, and prevent the
improvements Of the Mississippi from being
urged to the sxtent necessary to allow
freight 10 b shipped down Il direct.
The great complaint Of those west Of
Ohicass has been and still is, the enormity
Of the tariff west Of and ct Chicago. W.
oil know that summer freight by the lakes
end canals east are reasonably cheap, end
that towards the close Of navigation, wher
the dangers increase aud the difficulty o.
obtaining vessels accumulate, the prices
charged must rangs higher. The widening
Of the Welland canal, the building of one
By Lake Simces, Or even around the Fall,
will not change this. These projects, MOI
the one snlarging the Michigan canal, d.
net tsusA The needs Of the producers. They
rather avoid thsm. The great cause Of com,
plant, and The ono which our people mos,
want rsnsdisd, 10 the railroad freight L
and the sxpsnsss in.Ohicago. This 10 what
our business men complain Of and wan,
rsmidisd. They believe that the frsigh,
tariffs excessively high To have this tar
ID brought to living rate 10 the object o.
the meetings and the discussions that hav.
been eping %. These discussions hav.
developed the fact that the forwarder in tn.
vicinity of the Mississippi can control Che
fsishts sufficiently to divert majority Of
the freight dOwh thaA liver as soon a. a
few obsts6ctions IN it ars removed. Even
with the chanasl - i 10, large amounts o.
eastern bound freight seek this route in
prsfarssss 10 bsios ''leschsd" BY the roads,
and others, In Ne transit across the coun
try. The high tariffs put upon freight
necessarily drives it to seek other chan.
nels than by rail to market. No amount
Of charges hids u The roads, or palaver
about ship canals around the Fails, can ais
iay the feeling throughout the country that
unnecessary bufthens are imposed on tie
freight Of the country, to and from Chica-
80, and this feeling will intensity until the
trade west Of the Mississippi and along the
Illinois taras ~ che naturul channel for an
outlet to the ocean.