The Portland daily press., 1872-05-18
0nr Railroads and our Commerce.

The single condition which alone can be said
to be essential to the development of our COM
merce is the extension of our means of trans
portation. Our resources for profitable
production are simply exhaustless. Of our
1000 millions of square miles of territory,
a very large per centage needs but to be- made
accessible and to be supplied with labor, in or
der that it may yield larger returns on the out
lay than can be drawn from the lands of other
countries. The only limit to our production
therefore is that which arises from our inability
to construct roads and to supply labor; and, by
parity of argument, the chief condition ante
cedent to the success of a railroad, through
well chosen country, is that we are prepared to
populate the route through which the road
runs. 1t is evident, therefore, that those who
timidly declaim against the recent expansion of
our railroad interest, overlook the fact that, in
the United States railroads create their traffic,
as well as provide for a commerce already ex-
listing. Where would the vast trade of the
Mississippi Valley have been to-day but for the
system of railroads which interlaces it? and
what is the history of that marvellous expan-
sion of agriculture and commerce but the his
tory of the Western railroads? Time was when
the Erie canal sufficed to bring to the Atlantic
seaboard nearly the whole surplus of food pro-
ducts from that fertile region As roads were
constructed in the West, the New York Cen
trail and the Erie lines were found necessary to
accommodate the growing traffic; and, now,
those great trunk lines, with their 100000
of earnings, are found utterly inadequate to the
work they were constructed to perform. Twenty
years ago, the Western States had but 2, 426
miles of road to convey their products to mar
ket; ten years ago, they had 1867 miles; and,
now, they have 28,102 miles. OF the %, 263
miles of road constructed in the United States
since 1862, 1915 miles have been built in the
Western States. The result of this large in
crease in transportation facilities we see in part,
already, in the increase of population and of
production in the sections thus opened to trade;
but we have to anticipate still more important
consequences in the commerce of the near fu-
ture. And yet, with the immense preparation
for Western development, there has been no
proportionate increase of facilities FOR bringing
products from that section to the Atlantic sea-
board. The Erie, New York Central and the
Pennsylvania, have increased their carrying
capacity; but not at all in proportion to the ex-
listing requirements of our great agricultural
region; much less have they or can they have
the ability to move the enormously increased
freights which must result from late and cur
rent railroad extension at the West Freight
now accumulates on their hands, much to the
inconvenience and loss of shippers; and their
lack of adequate capacity literally checks, to a
very important extent the great work of pro-
duction throughout thewhole western country.
Moreover, being thus over-supplied with freight
they have not the inducements to economy
which arise from competition and from the de-
sire to extend their business; and the result is
that Western products have to pay rates for
transportation which prove an important OBJ
stacle to our acquiring that commanding posi-
ton in the European food markets which des-
tiny has placed within our easy reach Yet, as
dam only temporarily stems the course of the
stream, so Western production continues to in
crease, in spite of the distractions imposed by
the trunk lines of the Middle States The
course of the past foreshadows the future. We
have to anticipate a vaster expansion of West
ern population and industry than anything yet
witnessed; and that within short period. 1t
is clear, therefore, that one imperative neces-
sity of the commercial situation of the country
is increased railroad facilities between the At
lantic and the Mississippi Valley.-[Ne,o York
Daily Bulletin. - --s