The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1869-01-23

Niagara Ship Canal bill, ives such - any man
of moderate sagacity must have foreseen. A
fair opportunity was given the friends of the
measure to present its claims, and then the
Illinois member Of the Washburne family, who
has duly installed himself as Cerberus at the
door of the national treasury, quietly gave the
bill its quietus by conigning it to the COM
mon tomb Of all such projects as the house is
unwilling to kill outright, yet not disposed to
| act upon-"the committee of the whole on
the State Of the Union"
So the Niagara Ship Canal may be set down
as a dead cock in the pit for the next half de-
cade at least. The question arises, is it such
a calamity as should fill the west with lamen-
tations What is expected of the Niagara
Ship Canal The produce of the west, we
| are told, needs new outlets to the sea. True,
we have five through lines of railroad from
Chicago to the Atlantic; and in summer we
have the great lakes and Erie canal. But al
these are inadequate to carry off the rapidly
increasing products of the west. The rail
roads charge extortionate freights, and the
Erie canal is choked with excess of business.
Give rs a ship canal around the falls, and our
vessels loaded at Chicago can float into lake
Ontario, thence down the St. Lawrence to the
sea, and thence, with unbroken cargoes, to
Liverpool and so on.
All this is very fine on paper, but how is it
in practices Are you aware, gentle reader,
that there is already ship canal around the
falls of Niagara-that the Welland canal,
starting at Fort Colborne, on lake Erie, and
extending thence to lake Ontario, does afford
feasible and practicable navigable route for
vessels from Chicago to the ocean through the
ST. Lawrence; Vessels have actually come
straight through from Liverpool to Chicago,
and have gone from Chicago to Liverpool,
finding their way to the ocean through the
Weiland canal and the St. Lawrence.
If the produce of the west Is so Overwhelm-
ingly pressing Tor passage way to the ocean
that all our railroads and the Erie canal are
hopelessly choked up, how is it that it fails to
find an outlet through the Welland canal 2
True, that canal is owned by Canada; but the
dominion" is most solicitous and anxious to
get western trade. Free admission of western
produce into Canada is approximately offered,
and tolls and freights are put at low figure
Yet, although every bushel Of grain arriving
at or passing Montreal is carefully recorded
the receipts at that port, last year, from the
West and all Canada included, were but about
2,5Oo,0ee bushels of wheat and 1880, 900 bush
els of corn, while in the same year there passed
through the Erie canal alone 10, 900, 900 bushels
of wheat and 1s,0oO,0 900 bushels of corn.
VIII the trade down the st. Lawrence be
SO nightly increased, as stump orators we're
telling us year ago, by the construction of
the Niagara Ship canal We fear not. The
st. Lawrence route is long, tedious, tortxous
and often dangerous Thea there is no return
freight by that route. The natural distribut-
ing points for imported goods in the U. S. are
New York, Boston, Philadelphia, &c. 1t will
be a long time before such freight will seek
Chicago and the west by the long, tedious
route of the st. Lawrence while we have the
expeditions conveyance offered of FIVE through
lines of railroad and the Hudson river and
Erie canal.
The point we are aiming at is this. The
Niagara ship caxal will cost from sixteen to
twenty millions Would it not he better far
the West land ell concerned" to expend that
money On doubling the capacity of the Erie
canala We believe there is greatly mistaken
| notion abroad in reference to that canal We
have heard it decried in our court house as
giant monopoly, upon which New York is
iattening 1t the expense Of the West. Yet the
Erie canal has never put one cent into the
treasury Of New York. The projectors of that
splendid Improvement were patriots as we'll as
far seeing statesmen. The national character
Of the work was foreseen from the beginning,
and has never been lost sigh Of and the state
has never used dollar of the tells levied up
on transit except to repay the cost of making
the canal and maintaining it. The leaders of
public opinion in that state, wSthout distinc.
ton OF party, still adhere to tie views thus
early adopted. The present debt of the state
of New York on account of the Erie canal is
some Sls,0u0OO0. In less than six years, at
the present rate Of receipts, that debt will he
paid. Then New York is willing to throw
open the use Of the entire canal to the vest at