The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1870-02-18

the government OF the Onlteu states is
able and willing to protect its citizens
from constant aggressive warfare, waged
in the very heart of its territory by an
enemy which utterly contemns its power.
/ 1t is the public sentiment of the East
which is at fault in this matter; and re-
monstrance of this kind by you would
show our eastern fellow-citizens that the
4 entire State is in sympathy with the dis
tant border when the hardy pioneer and
his helpless family are menaeed by sava-
ges, and that we would prefer to see more
of the troops we help to support sent
there rather than such representatives OF
highly respectable imbecility as the one
who travelled through the West short
time last summer, protesting to have Off
cial sanction for his philandering," and
who wheedled an eastern magazine into
publishing his falsifed narratives and
maudin dispositions on philanthropy.
I will leave this subject by stating that it
is of the utmost importance to the pros
perity of the whole State that our frontier
be protected from hostile incursions.
For fuller and more complete state
ment concerning military affairs, refer
you to the report of the Adjutant General.
l will add, however, that / made every
| possible effort to have more United States
4
thority to raise volunteers for the United
States service last summer.
AGRICULTURE, COMMERCE AND MANUFAC-
TUREs.
| Those of our citizens who have been
engaged in agricultural and horticultural
pursuits, have met with that decided sue
cess which may ever be hoped for from
the application of intelligent labor, under
conditions so favorable, as to genial eli
mate and generous soil. The unpreee-
dented growth of population, and the rapid
increase of surplus products, demand that
your attention be given to the problem of
procuring adequate facilities for the trans
portation of our heavier and more bulky
products to the markets of the world.
The rapidly extending railway system
meets the demand of the public for the
purposes of travel, and the transportation
of the lighter and more valuable commo-
dities, even for great distances, but it is
well ascertained fact that grain, for in
STANCE, cannot be proftably sent by rail to
distant market. 1t is demonstrable that
transportation by water is vastly cheaper
than is possible by railway. This being
the case, it behooves us to look for some
water line, whereby we can cheaply place
our heavy products upon the Atlantic sea-
board for distribution there or transmittal
to foreign marts. There exist, it is true,
routes ria the Missouri, Mississippi and
Illinois rivers the Illinois and Michigan
canal; the great lakes of the north, and
the Erie canal and Hudson river, or the
Welland and Lachine canals, of Canada,
and the St. Lawrence river. The objec-
tions to these routes are that they are very
circuituous; that they involve the cost of
many transhipments and the payment of
tribute to Illinois, the Dominion of Can
ada, and the State of New York. More
over they are closed by ice during large
portion of the year, and rendered danger
Gus and doubly expensive by tempestuous
weather during the season when 1t Is most
desirable to move crops nor can these
routes be used without passing through or
along the borders of the dominion of a
| foreign government, thus making their use
contingent upon amicable relations with
that government. There is also another
route reaching the Atlantic by water, ria
the Missouri and Mississippi rivers to the
Gulf of Mexico, thence through the
Florida pass to the ocean but this route
has. nearly or quite as many objections as
the northern ones, through the lakes.
This line is also very long one, and it
passes through climate quite unfavorable
to the preservation of most of the products
of this latitude. Transhipment at the
gulf is also necessary, and the dangers of
navigation in the vicinity of Florida Keys
and the Bahama Banks are so great that
insurance on voyages that way ranges as
high as two and a half per cent. on the
value of vessel and cargo.
1t is the duty of the national legislature
to see that route is provided from the
4 IL. soI 80 4,xr IL
labor of the working man seventy five per
cent. simply to furnish transportation for
the resulting product. In view of these
facts and others, which furnish reasons
equally cogent, deem it eminently fit and
proper that YOU should memorable Con.
Cress, asking that as national enterprise,
the James river and Kanawha canal be
enlarged and completed in such way as
to connect the navigabie waters of the
Ohio and James rivers, thus affording
means of transit by water from the navi
gable streams to the interior of the Allan
, tic ocean, without the necessity of tran
shipment. and without risk from climate
tempest or alien enemy, and at cost fol
transportation vastly less than that which
is entailed upon us by the ineficiency o.
the present lines of communication.
Our geographical situation should inter
est US in the prosecution of this work, fol
? when it is completed barges may be loaded
l at Leavenworth, Atchison, Wyandotte, o.
any point on the Missouri river-or upoI
the Kansas river, if some improvement!
+ be made for its navigation-and the bar
d ges thus freighted could be towed by steam
: to the head of navigation on the Kanawhi
0 river, thence passed through the canal a
j. canal boats to tide water in Chesapeake
# Bay, whence access is easy to the bes
markets, both foreign and domestic. TIL
J, barges could be returned to the Yves
Ii freighted with such commodities as ma
l. be in demand here. 1t seems to me tina
e the opening of such line would enhanc
IS the value of all products, and cheape
such articles as we find necessary or desil
IT able to bring from distance. As a cor
n sequence of these advantages the price c
Il real estate would be greatly advanced, an
labor made more productive.
make this suggestion, not unmindfG
- of the facts that it is our duty and interei
= to produce or manufacture everything thi
Is we can proiitably, and that manufacture
2r of many kinds are being establishe
le within our borders; yet the capabilities {
e this State for production are so great thi
he we must ultimately look to distant market
e. and devise ways and means to place Oh
n products there safely and economical
ne 1t is to the interest of all, whether Ell
m gagged in production or traffic, that this
Odds TO ha