The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1867-06-17

MR. EDIToR,-As I have said before, We
nave no time to lose in bringing this grea
question before the people so that it may be
well understood, before we take another ster
in the business.
III the seheme be altogether what it seems
to be, If there be no chance for mistake, and
no reasonable ground for apprehension. then
| what is our duty?-Our duty to ourselves and
to others? Where such great ADVANTAGES are
in prospect, we need to be very cautious, even
while we are most enthusiastic; lest we NAV
be led astray by our hopes, instead of relying
upon demonstrations b..
Your correspondent B., wbo was one of our
party, having already furnished you with
spirited and trustworthy details of our trip,
snail not interfere with him, but pro.
ceed at once to general view of such consid-
erations as would be likely to present them
selves, not to the general or miscellaneous
reader, but to our men of business. ENTERPRISE
and foresight and to capitalists eyerywhere
In the hrst place, do we need new OPENING
to the West? This is question sure to be
sprung upon us at the very outset of our en-
quiry, by all who, like ourselves but the other
day, are unaequaintrd with the subject.
To this we answer-Look at the man. and
and then at the statistics of growth in tbe
great West; and you will find all the avenues
OF trade either choked up OF over-crowded for
large part of the year, the prices of trans
portation greatly enhanced, without advantage
to the stockholders, and the delays and hin.
ORANGES at certain seasons of the year SO great.
as to be well nigh discouraging to business
men. t a. ... t.. .
Abridge the distance, or shorten the line of
transportation, between two given points and
you augment the commercial capital required
for that particular business, between these two
points, in the same proportion-to say nothing
of interest, and nothing now of the diminished
cost of transportation. If returns can be had
in three months instead of six, of course only
on that business; or what amounts to the same
thing, double the business may be done with
the same capital.
The probability is, that however many dis
charging avenues or sluice-ways may be OPEN
ed between the Great West and the sea board
they will never be equal to her necessities and
ours. Her astonishing business growth and
her marvellous prcductiveness have always
been ahead of her markets and her means OF
ansportation-whether by her lakes, her
turnpikes, her plank roads, or even by her
system of railways. Wkau then is to be done?
Her granaries and her treasure houses of beef
and pork, must be tapped, and tapped in such
a way that they shall empty themselves with
out hindrance, and spontaneously as it were,
into our harbors: there to le-absorb our ex-
changes, our manufactures and other CONNER
cal returns, as naturally, as freely, and with as
little effort as the air we breathe is taken into
our lungs, after they have been emptied in a
wholes 0me atmosphere. 800 It..f
Can this be done? We say it can, without
peradve nture, if we will but work together
honestly and heartily, with reasonable fore
sight and a steadfast determination.
The movement has begun with Vermont-or
rather, we should say, with two men in Ver-
mont, Ex-Governor Smith Of that State,
President of the Vermo ont Central Railroad,
and also the President of our
great Northern Pacific Railroad cooper
ating with Mr.. Horace Fairbanks, ofSt. Johns
bury, son of the late Governor Fairbanks and
true chip of that "old block" )" W hich has been
such help for thousands and tens of thous-
ands, during the last fifty years-two men who
of themselves, if they were not helped by others
ofNew Hampshire and from all parts OF the in
termediate region, as they are, might carry out
anything the should undertake; being both
wise and cireumspect, both enterprising and
cautious, of large experience and large re-
sources. But OF these gentlemen and their as
sociates, enough, until we have time to deal
with them as they deserve
JOHN NEAL.