The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1869-04-15
THE GRAIN MOVEMENT.

be a movement in New Orleans in responseto
the efforts of the people in the great gram
growing districts of the West, to open new
line of trade through this city. There is to
be a meeting tonight, at the rooms OF the
Chamber of Commerce, at z o'clock, for the
purpose of taking this subject into considera-
ton, and of devising some practical method
of ACCOMPLISHING the great object in view.
The design is not to expatiate on the natural
advantages of New Orleans as an entrepot for
Western products or to describe IN those
glowing terms to which our ears have been
accustomed, the grandeur of the spacious
valley at whose gates we sit, and the mag
nifcence of the river which ought to |
bear its tributes to the sea- We have
heard all this before. We know
it by heart. AS far as flowing rhetoric and
eloquent description go. the subject is ex-
hausted. But flowing rhetoric and eloquent
description can not affect the routes Of COM
merce any more than fair words can better
parsnips Costly experience has shown that
fine talking and fine writing can not compete
with energetic effort and persistent enterprise
Whilst we have been serenely contemplating
the resources which nature has bestowed on
us. we have permitted more sagacious rivals
20 min the rrize which -L~5-s~pposed
would fall into our hands. We know that, all
other things equal, the Mississippi river will
command the Western trade, and that New
Orleans will be the point of transhipment for
Western products; but we have hitherto failed
TO recognize the fact that all other circum-
| stances are not equal. If we would reap the
| advantages conferred on us by our position,
we must remove those inequalities; we must
! do something to utilize our resources; we
must prove by fact, and by actual experiment,
as well as by, assertion and speculation, that
New Orleans offers better facilities for the
export of Western products, and for the i'm
port of supplies destined for the Mississippi
valley, than are possessed by the Eastern
seaports. To effect this we must act as well
as talk, and action to be effective must con-
sist in the removal OF artificial obstacles to
the course of trade in such reforms in our
local commercial system ss the case demands,
and in the fearless expenditure of money and
effort for the purpose of making the initial
movements successful. In brief, We must
make the line of the Mississippi the line of
least resistance between the West and the
markets of the world When this is accom-
plished, trade will flow over that line as
naturally, and for the same general reason
that water seeks its level. The people of the
East understand this principle; and they not
only understand it, but they apply it and act
upon it. Before the movement looking to a
change in the great commercial routes has
attained alarming proportions, the merchants
of New York have devised expedients for
meeting the coming crisis, and for retaining
their actual supremacy.
A great portion of the grain trade of New
York passes through the Erie Canal but the
canal, like most public works, has been ex-
trayagantly managed, and the consequence of
this extravaganza is seen in high rate Of
tolls. The public now imperiously demand
more economical administration and conse-
quent reduction of tolls The elevators have
placed their rates so high that grain has been
handled in New York without their assistance,
and in the interior complaint is made of a
similar evil. To remedy this committee of
New Workers have visited the cities of Albany,
Buffalo and Others urging a reduction OF rates
TO one-half, not only as to elevator charges,
but as to railway freights, and the prospect is
that they will succeed in accomplishing this
purpose. Thus it will be seen that the work
before US is no holiday sport. We must meet
these efforts and expedients by counter
efforts and expedients, or we shall fail in
our attempts to draw the grain trade from its
present channels. The elevators which have
already been constructed at Cairo, and st
Louis, and New Orleans, supply one of oul
necessities, and the great movement in St
Louis shows that We can count on the assis
} lance of the merchants of that great city
But something must be done here. The PEG
pie up the river may, perhaps, force their wa.
to the sea through New Orleans in spite o
8 inaction on our part, but it is our duty ant
r our interest to give them active and practica
5 assistance. The meeting tonight is prope
D and desirable movement, and we trust that
3 will be well attended by persons representa-!
: all branches of trade and industry. All ar
s interested in the commercial prosperity of tn
4 city, and all should contribute toward the sue
cess of an enterprise which will make NeS
Orleans the emporium of America.