The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1871-08-30
CHICAGO.
The Importing Trade-Newspaper
Comments on its Advantages and
Disadvantages - Health OF Vice.
President COlfax.


President Colfax.
CHICAGO, August 29.-The Tribune
this morning, in response to an article
in the New York Bulletin, which says
that the merchants of Chicago will find
it more to their interest to buy their
goods in New York than to import
them direct, because to import success
fully requires great experience, and
when conducted on a large scale, de-
mands liberal expenditures for the
maintenance of the purchasing agents
at the other sice, and that there are not
a dozen merchants in Chicago or any
Western city who will ever seriously
undertake it, replies as follows: There
are already more than one or two
dozen of the merchants in Chicago who
have learned from their own experience
the advantages as well as the difficult
ties Of the importing trade, and who
have their purchasing agents in
Europe constantly, who never fail
for any single week Of the year TO
receive invoices of foreign goods, and to
pay to the Government thousands OF
dollars on duties on them. We have at
least half dozen merchants who will
pay into the treasury an average Of not
less than quarter Of a million Of dol
lars each in duties. AS to those who
import on large scale, though not as
large as this, they are numbered by
scores, while those who import more or
less merchandise are numbered by hun
dreds. Under the stimulus of the in
creased facilities for expectation now
offered, the number Of importers and the
extent of their importations are rapidly
increasing, 30 that the opening season
will see this branch Of business devel-
oped to an extent vastly greater than
that which the opening OF the present
season witnessed. We have already
about three propellors week bearing
merchandise, billed from Liverpool
straight through to Chicago, and four
weeks from the Continent Of Europe, or
from the inland manufacturing towns OF
England and Scotland, is fair average
of the time occupied en- route. These
propellors connect with the weekly
Allan Line from Montreal to Liverpool
and Glasgow, and form, virtually, for
freight, a continuous line to Europe. The
good effects already witnessed from
the establishment Of this connec-
ton are mainly the cheapening of
freights, the shortening OF time IN
transit, and the great simplifcation Of
the process of entering goods and dis
charging the duties on them. There
are two inconvenience still experienced,
viz: the breaking up of invoices in the
transfer at Montreal and the lack OF
cheap warehousing here at Chicago for
bonded goods. These are due, however,
to the newness Of the mode OF business,
and will undoubtedly be remedied be-
fore next springs business shall Set In.
One of the results Of the advantage
named has been a sudden increase OF
the amount OF foreign goods which our
merchants are ordering, and another
the shifting to this route Of the large
pig and railroad iron traffic OF which
Chicago is the centre Of distribution.
Vice President Colfax has arrived at
Minneapolis from his trip to the Red
river region. He says his health is
now better than it has been for many
years; the roughing it has experienced
had wonderfully beneficial effect upon
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