The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-07-09
No. of

TeS.sis. Ton'ge. vessels. Ton'ge; vessels. Ton'ge
Average size of vessels, 256 tons; IA arrivals
per day 1Or II months.
This trade is increasing with rapid progress
sion, the present lake commerce being the
growth of the present generation. The average
cost of moving bushel of corn from Chicago
to New York in 1867, by lake, canal, and
liver was thirty-three cents and two mills. 1t
cost five cents additional to take it to Boston.
The cost of moving corn by rail from Chicago
10 the seabOard is one and half per cent. per
mile, which is calculated at 45 cents per
bushel But the crops can never be moved
by rail. One GO0-ton vessel can carry as many
bushels as 100 freight cars. 1t is estimated
that the cost of conveying a bushel of grain
from Chicago to Boston vid canal around the
Falls of Niagara and the st. Lawrence river
will be thirty cents. 1t is estimated that a
direct commerce between Chicago and Boston
would thus spring up which would be more
profitable to Boston and to the navigation in
terest than the foreign trade which is now
mostly lost, ever was. Low freights would make
Boston a market for Western products, and
New England manufactures will find market
in the West. This view is thus summed up
"We have endeavored to show some of the
benefits that would result to the commerce OF
Boston from this canal; but equal good would
come to the manufacturing interests Of New
EDgland-a great market would be open for
goods which are now prohibited by high
heights, and in the reduced price of food
which would follow this work, her operatives
would be placed more on a level with those of
Europe. The cheapening OF the food of a
nation is generally difficult problem to solve.
In this case it is simple and easy, and the
process carries with it many collateral adyan-
tages.
Boston commerce and Boston trade are on
H., 40, IL, of - kIn L.,
cline of all New England, and until a measure
becomes essential to the benefit of New Eng
land and Boston, it has no merits according to
the system of political economy which pre-
walls East of the Hudson. A ship canal around
the Falls of Niagara is direct necessity. Its
! non construction is an annual charge of from
ten to twenty cents per bushel upon all grain
of the West moved to the East. SuppOsing that
| sum to be paid by the consumers, then it has
! been so much added to the cost of the bread and
II eat of the people Of the Eastern States. They
have enjoyed the luxury of paying ten cents
| per bushel extra for their corn and wheat
and, in proportion, for their flour, beef, pork,
| lard, and other Western products, in order to
! leTpetuate the monopoly of transportation in
the Erie canal. 1t is no longer, however, a
| question of extorton; it is a question of capa-
| city. The canal and the railroads combined
are not equal to the task of moving the Western
crops to the Atlantic. The additional high
way must be furnished, and very soon.
Private enterprise and capital will find it to
be source of profit, and private enter
prise and capital may yet transfer from the
| Atlantic to the st. Lawrence the united centre
of the foreign and domestic commerce of the
| United States.