The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1869-10-13

1913.
M. po.r,s Railroad speech.
Mr. Poor has published, in pamphlet form,
his sneech delivered at the Railroad Conven-
t;or at Rutland last June. 1t is replete with
facts and statistics touching the growth and
development of particular lines of trade, the
influence of improved REORGANIZATION
upon population and wealth, and the COM
parative cost of railway, canal and natural
water transportation, which will make it
convenient reference book for all persons de-
sirous OF finding information upon these sub
Jects in compact and accessible form. In
the statistics of railroads and trade Mr.. foor
must now be considered an authority; and In
the advocacy of railroads as promotive OF the
public wealth, he has now for many years
found his speciality, through which he has
derived wide reputation aud achieved an
enviable public usefulness. 1t is very desir-
able for man before his powers have begun
to decay to discover his own strong points, the
lines of thought and effort in which his fac
Mites work to the best advantage, and with
the most satisfactory results. Mr.. Poor must
be considered to have wisely measured his
own powers in turning resolutely from the ex-
Clements of politics. the destinations of specu-
lation, and the ambitions of his original pro-
fession, to devote himself exclusively to the
study of the railway system, and the promo
ton of legislation and the solicitation of capt.
tai to aid in its further development
Mr.. Poor says, we think truly: "My advo-
cacy of railroads has been devoted mainly to
their moral, social and commercial value,
rather sthan as means of money-making, or
the investment of capital" He delights in
the creation of new projects, he enjoys the
distinction of leadership in formative stages
OF enterprises, in which States and cities and
people can be combined. In his mind no
route is local or petty. 1t becomes thorough
fire OF universal travel, line of cosmica1
commerce. Slow and respondent men look
upon frontier railroad through the woods as
only good for the freightage of hemlock bark
and Niger shingles, and for the discouraged
settlers to emigrate over to more habitable
country. To him it is a worlds highway from
the gates Of the opulent East groaning with
the merchandise of India and Japan, and
resonant with the speech of all outlandisll
races. But after road has been built he has
no disposition and no thrifty faculty to man
age it, no ignoble ambition to monopolize its
franchises, or to speculate at the expense its
stockholders.
The points OF the Rutland speech most no
ticeable are these: Its manifest devotion to
the interests of Portland, its just appreciation
of the advantages to Portland of the Grand
Trunk line, and its showing how nearly thu
cost Of direct, through railway transportation
approximates to the cost of indirect and in
terupted canal or natural water transporta.
ton.
The charges that have been insinuated
against our fellow citizen of hostility to the
interests of the city, in which he has so long
lived, of being bought up by Boston railway
corporations would be absurd, if they were
not SO flagrantly unjust and ungratefu. We
hear many men, by no means personally pre-
possessed in favor of Mr.. Poor, acknowledge
Obligations to him for the inception and com.
pletion of the Atlantic and st. Lawrence road
not second to those due any other man living
oridead, and We are confident that his agency in
this great work is sure of more general recog
milton. No one now hesitates to attribute al.
most exclusively to him the scheme so fully
developed in the Rutland speech of connect
ing the commercial interests of Chicago, Buff.
alo and Oswego with Portland, and an estah
lished line of European steamers, to which
the leading men of those cities have so hearth
ly committed themselves. No one doubt,
that if snch aSscheme is practicable it insure.
the commercial future of our city.
There always seemed to us an incongruity in
Boosting of our enterprise in establishing raj
road communication with the st. Lawrence
an enterprise by which one half our wealth
and population have been gained, and at thu
same time stimulating the hostility of oul
people to the management of that road, anG
endeavoring to increase its embarrassments
We have not been able to understand how de
crying as a failure a road, for which Portland
risked so much, was the best mode of promo
ting another lineno more direct to almost the
same terminus.
Wehave only space to observe further, tina
the statistics of Mr.. Poor's speech show tina
direct, through, rail transportation seems t.
be gaining upon even direct aoater communi-
cation. Goals that used to be carried coast
wise to London now go largely by rail. Rail
ways from the northwest to the Atlantic
have largely diverted the trade that formerly
went by river and ocean via New Orleans
The limited capacity of canals, the delay o.
LlAolrn, thA .pnAnsn of handling and storage
when freight is borne partly by land and part
ly by water enables the well-managed, straight
lOw-graded, double-tracked railway to carr
even bulky merchandise nearly as cheapl
and much more rapidly, than it can be by
water and rail, or water and canal.
If this is so, then, whatever Portland doe:
besides, she ought to connect her unrivallet
harbor with the great centre OF the produc
tive West by railroad as straight and as leve
as the face of the earth will rornaat, and
that road can at the ~eine time tap any depo
of lake ...ngation its success will be doubl,
assured.