The Portland daily press., 1868-05-25
Wednesdays Election.

1t will be seen by reference to our advertis-
ing columns that the Board of Aldermen will
be in session to-day and tomorrow to correct
the voting lists for the important election oil
Wednesday. The choice which our citizens are
as soon to make is one which vitality concerns cur
future prosperity The Atlantic and st. Law
renee road found Portland a village and has
made it a CITY. 1t has brought us line of
foreign steamers during the winter months
But it has done for us all it can do. We have
reached a new point Of departure Our rapid
growth has ceased Our young men are leav-
ing their homes for other scenes Of activity.
If we are still TO continue our prog ress, If we
are to keep pace with the deve pemeht OF
the rest of the State, we must improve our
harbor as Lewiston and Augusta are improv
ing their water power. We must bring it into
use. We must have Il line of Liverpool steam
ers the year round.
1t happens fortunately that just at this cri-
sis n our history, the agricultural products OF
the West, our chief exports, are increasing be-
yond all measure and seeking new and cheap
er outlets to the sea. The demand for a ship
canal around Niagara will not suffer that en-
terprise to be long delayed. Ontario instead
of Erie is to be the great reservoir into which
the grain crop of the West will flow, and Ogdens-
burg is to be the eastern limit OF inland naviga-
ton. By the Grand Trunk it is 4OS miles TO
Prescott opposite Ogdensburg. From Boston
it is 406 miles to Ogdensburg by existing
lines. From Portland to Ogdensburg it
is only $50 miles by the proposed route
through the White Mountain Notch
which seems to have been cut there by the
hand of the Creator for such highway of
traffic as we now need. With seventy miles
of land carriage less than any other route it
is demonstrably clear that this line, if we can
secure it, will furnish precisely the stimulus
we need. 1t will bring the products OF
the West to our wharves for shipment
abroad; it will furnish business for Il
daily line of steamers within few years; and
they will return laden with imports for West
ern cities There will be collateral advantages
of course in increasing our facilities for sap
plying the State of Maine and the region
reopened to. us in Northern New Hampshire
and Vermont, but the main advantage lies in
bringing our harbor into fuller use, in improv-
ing the opportunity which we enjoy by vr-
tue of our position in the pathway of trade
between the Old and New World, and that
alone will build Portland up into city of
frst-class commercial Importance.
1t is conceded by the most determined op-
ponents of this enterprise that it will build up
the city as nothing else can. The most active
writer against it actually objects to it this
ground, arguing that it is peasante- and
cheaper living in a small city than in large
one and that nobody has any interest in the
influx of new business except owners of real
estate. 1t would be easy to show that every
soul that lives by bread is directly inter
ested in an enterprise which will bring the ag-
ricultural products Of the West to Portland
as cheaply as they are now brought to Balti-
more New York. But the matter is too
plain for argument. 1t is conceded that the
opening of this road will bring an influx of
new business, and will increase the valuation
of the city, beneftting especially the holders
of real estate. What then can be safer than
an investment which even if it were los.
would be repaid by the increased valuation of
the city? What business man will vote
against an increased business? What laborer
will vote against cheap food? What tax-pay =
er will oppose growth which will diminish
his burden?