The Portland daily press., 1872-06-24
The Portland and Ogdensburg Loan
Question.

To the Editor ofthe Press.
In my judgment the whole question of loan
ing the credit of the city to the construction of
the Portland and Ogdensburg road has become
borrowed to very small limits. l ask leave to
refer briefly to two essential points in the con-
troversy. We hear much said by the opponents
of the road about the tapping process at three
points, with prospect that these drains will be
eventually multiplied. We propose to make
that sort of warfare even by tapping Boston
roads in return, for the benefit of Portland. 1
propose to discuss this part of the question in
directly.
Those of us who were familiar with the
trade OF Portland thirty years ago, will remem-
Der the teams loaded with Vermont produce
that used to find market in Portland filling
the yards of our hotels and our streets, giving
the town lively appearance and laying the
foundation of some of the fortunes which help
ed build the Atlantic and ST. Lawrence rail
road and extended our lines of communications
to the eastern ports. When Boston capital
pushed railroads up into the agricultural re-
gions of Vermont and New Hampshire they
changed the method of business in those re-
gions The farmers were no longer obliged to
load their wagons and pungs and go in search
OF market, runners and commercial agents
bought the produce at their doors, paying cash,
and engaging their diaries and their fruit and
Vegetables III duNdnce. Boston capital freight
ed this produce to the sea and Boston became
distributing point because her merchants
bought of first hands and consumers had but
one, or at most two profits to pay. A wall was
put across the road from Portland to Vermont
which was practically insurmountable True
Portland has increased somewhat as distrib-
utlng point, but at grievous disadvantages,
owing to the want of sufficient routes to the
producing regions. We have been dependent
upon Boston for a considerable amount of the
nrOVSiopS that wa how can't into fha int
of the State, and after paying her merchants
their commissions there has been little profit
left for ourselves. Genuine competition has
been almost impossible and the progress
made has been only by indomitable energy and
perseverance, which if expended under reason
ably favorable circumstances would have given
our merchants and our business a much more
enviable position. Now we ask a direct road
to this fertile region. Enable us to take our
money to the doors of this people, and we be-
come the equal of the Boston buyer. Our mon
ey is as good as his. We can pay the same
prices, and the seller will not ask whether we
wear Washington street a Middle street
coat. We can bring the butter of st. Adams to
Portland, and send it to our eastern towns and
stop some OF the trade in provisions that has
flowed between Maine and Boston, simply be-
cause we could not supply Maine people at the
same rates that Boston could. One thing more
The opening OF new road will draw to us an
intelligent and thrifty class of merchants Run
the eye over the business houses of CONNER
cial street and tell me where your most enter
prising and successful business men con FROM
Portland did not produce them ALL They came
down on the Grand Trunk on the Kennebec
and other roads centerng in Portland-energet-
ic young men who had built up and controlled
a business in their country homes, and sought
a broader field and from a greater centre sup
ply their former customers The business of
Boston has been built up by men from Maine
and New Hampshire and Vermont who emf
grated there and carried self-supporng bust
ness with them. Vermont and New Hamp-
shire will send us some of their best mercantile
talent the moment we can offer them an in
ducement
Now single word in regard to the prevalent
talk about the Portland & Ogdensburg road be-
ing tapped at North Conway, at Whitefield.
&c. In my opinion we shall gain more than
we shall lose. A road to the Connecticut will
open to us the whole net work of roads built by
Boston capital. Instead of one road to the ag- |
ricultural regions that we desire to reach we
shall have dozen, built by our rivals money.
Then we can put dollar against dollar and rail |
against rail.
One more division of the subject deserves at
tentlon. 1t has been discussed repeatedly, but |
it will bear repetition of arguments. If the
city of Portland owns and controls the Portland |
& Ogjensburg road, she cannot be forced to |
part with it by any combination of opposing
interests. The only thing to be feared in the |
future is the Impotence of her people, who |
want to count three four per cent. dividends |
III tile PAIN VI HdHuS every SIX months
from the day the first through train is run, and |
forget that they are all-all of every class and |
calling-receiving more than that in the in
crease of business, the reduction in the cost of |
provisions and the greater market for all
kinds of labor To invite and foster manufac-
lures we require cheaper food and lower rate
of taxation. An increase of capital and popu-
laton and more ways out into the world will
bring these. Portland can forever control one or
two avenues if her people will. The business
which our present number of merchants will do
over the Portland & Ogdensburg road will, in
my belief, be sufficient to pay every dollar of
interest on the city's bonds, if the city should
IN any emergency be called on to pay it.
nave confined myself, in this article, to the
limits OF Portland and Lake Champlain. When
we cross the lake for business CONNECTIONS the
subject is OF greater breadth and Importance.
and gives material for volume of arguments
/ have not arrived at these conclusions Inv hear
ing the spoken or written arguments of the
friends of the proposition, for have avoided
them all as far as possible, nor have 1 been in
fluenced by the reduction of the amount of citv
aid asked for l have studied the subject care
fully and arrived at my conclusions from nv
acquaintance with the region to be opened, and
an intimate knowledge of the history of Port
land for twenty-five years. A MECHANIC.