The Portland daily press., 1868-11-04

But one resource then is left; that succeed
ing, Boston may regain her old rank as a cos.
mopolitan city; that failing, she had best quiet
ly resign herself to her fate as an outlying
province OF w all street. By some comprehen-
sive scheme, by some we'll organized syste m
she must make herself and must make expert
ence prove her to be a cheaper and more con-
venient centre Of certain trades than any of her
riU0ls.
Throwing herself body and soul into the de-
velopment Of the railroad system has made
Chicago great and has secured to her great
future. Thirty years ago Boston had one sim
gle track railroad line directly connecting her
with ALBANY and the West. She has one sin
gle track railroad line now, and no more. But
it is we'll established fact that freight from
the West, forced out of its direct channels,
seeks Boston by devious ways-Through Port
land a rival On one side, or through New York,
a rival ON the other.
Meanwhile what was New York doing
through all these years? Her great rivers of
commerce had not been stationary. Day and
night they had poured into her streets an ever
increasing volume of wealth. The figures tell
the comparative tale. On the New York Gen.
trail road during nine years, from 1855 to 1854,
the increase of through tonnage was 400 per
cent. on the New York and Erie road it was
800 per cent; while on the Western road
(Which tapped the New York Central at AL
bany and ran to Boston only g. per cent.
What is it that Boston wants? Trade and
commerce obey law of gravitation of their
own, just as much as water. In obedience TO
its law water will always run down hill; and
so trade in obedience to laws which patient
study will discover will always flow down the
steepest decline; and by steepest decline is
meant through the most Convenient and cheapest
outlet and inlet. The object to be attained then
ls-to make Boston as an outlet and inlet for
some existing demand of trade as cheap and
more convenient, or as convenient and cheap
er than any other geographical point.
The one single fact necessary to- be borne in
mind is, that, for the Liverpool trade, for the
European export and import trade, Boston is
twenty -four hours nearer the foreign termin-
us than New York. Regarding Boston as
standpoint, the United Stat may best be
considered as resolved into three trade Sec
lions or zones-the Southern or Gulf Zone, the
middle or Railroad Zone, and the Northern or
Lake Zone. A glance at the map would show
that, to reach Boston, Southern trade must
flow down hill as far as New York, and then
up hill to its point of destination. The Gulf
zone may then be left out of the question.
Next comes the middle or Railroad zone. Is
competition for the trade of that region posi-
BILE to Boston? Must not trade in the nature
of things, ascend an incline to get to Boston
from that region as compared to New York
after it has once touched the Hudson? TWEEN
ty years OF bitter experience should have made
1t evident thar 1T must, to all who are not will
fully blind. ~ De Witt Clinton ac-
cepted the Niagara Falls as an essential fea-
ture OF his scheme, and placed the terminus
OF Lake navigation at Buffalo as an establish
ed fact Steam navigatior-impossible on the
Erie canal-and ship canals around the Falls,
have changed the whole nature of this prob
lem, by extending the Lake zone from Superb
or to Ontario and by bringing the terminus of
Lake steam navigation not to Buffalo but to
Ogdensburg-a point equidistant from New
York and from Boston. 1t remains, then, only
to consider the practicability of competition
for Boston in the Lake zone. New England
and New York have thus assumed new
shape. They are nOw-what De Witt Clinton
found the State of New York east of Niagara
Falls-a great peninsula some three hundred
miles wide, separating the waters of the lakes
from the sea. 10 cross that peninsula By the
shortest and cheapest possible route is no,o the
great problem throughout One-hdkf of the Vest
The West may well be uneasy for the
future, as it sees the facilities for reaching the
Eastern and European markets increasing in
no appreciate proportion to the increase of its
crops In solving this transportation problem,
railroads running along the shores of the lakes
may be left out of the account For moving
large masses railroads cannot compete with
open steam navigation. Now, as in the DAYS
of Gov. Clinton, trade will naturally find its
way across the peninsula which separates the
Lakes from tide water, along the line of short
est land transit. That line, the map shoes u.s.
starts from the eastern end of Ontario. Thitber
the water flows down hill. The point of pos
sible competition, if any exists, is, then, estab-
lished at the eastern terminus of Lake nayi-
cation, and so far the problem is simplified.
Trade has arrived at the peninsula, and the
question is now simply one of competition in
cheapness, convenience and speed in crossing
it.
one accessible point of competition, shrewd
Bostonans long ago directed their eyes. To it
road was built, but it was a road that origi-
mated in accident, and the existence of which
has been one of trouble Instead of leaving
Rutland and striking out boldly by way of
Tlconderoga, through the Adirondac wilder
ness to Ogdensburg-securing the drainage of
Ontario and trusting to itself and the future
to people its line of route-it ran deyiousIv
along through Central Vermont, turning pain
fully aside to visit each town of note here in
the hands of one corporation. there in fine
hands OF NOTWITHSTANDING the eastern shore
OF Lake Champlain and finally reaching Og-
densburg through alien territory with the
breadth of the peninsula increased from the
necessary three hundred miles to more than
the two routes between Boston and ogdens-
burg is held by five and the other by seven
different corporations
The West is a country of large ideas. even
though those ideas are sometimes incorrect:
they do things on large scale; their talk is
tall their figures grand, their distances fab
ulous. Their elevators will hold million
bushels and they forward their produce thou
sands of miles to market; they will not deal
with conflicting interests, with trustees law
yers and courts; their way must be made
plain. The next era in the history of these
Lake lines therefore must be consolidation.
But to-day, in that consolidation of lines
which brings commerce, Boston stands almost
a lifetime behind any other considerable CITY
in America To the north lie Montreal and
Portland, with the Grand Trunk road Of thir-
teen hundred and seventy-seven miles of track
under one direction. Westward is New York
stretching out her double consolidated lines.-
South is Pennsylvania with her Pennsylvania
Central and Erie. And on the
shores of Lake Michigan is Chicago, the great
railroad metropolis-with the 5000 miles of
track of which she is a centre holding out her
hands to Boston who advances to meet her
over $50 miles of road in the control Of tcelUe
'Sqad6bting corporations.
Already transportation company owning
fifteen steamers finds itself unable to satisfy
the demands of trade between the Western
terminus (Ogdenshurg) of these roads and
Chicago. During the past year it has turned
away hundreds of thousands of bushels of
breadstuffs, simply because it had not capacity
to carry them 1t now asks for thirty steam
ers and it will soon demand sixty. 1t may yet
prove the nucleus of Boston Ocean steam nav
igation. Portland is the winter port of Mon
treal. Baltimore is the tide water outlet of
Cincinnati and the Ohio, as New York is of
the great body of the West, while Ogdensburg
Is the throat of New England. Boston through
her existing lines of lake steamers, should
make herself the seaport of Detroit, of Chicago
anu OF milwaukee. Her commercial deUeLOp-
menu eStstS IN this alliance or it does not erist at
az. ne Despots are at Ogdensbatrg Nth all their
oJo.,x. A