New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1872-02-09
A BUSINESS CALAMITY.

a
Comfortable citizens, engaged in the ordinary
routiue Of any business which does not have
widely ramifying connections, cannot appre-
ciate the real disaster which has been wrought
by the suspension of railroad communicative
between the Atlantic and Pacific Ibey reau'
with little SILVER Of trains OF passenger car
riages snow-bOund in the defles OF the Rocky
Mountains: but the sun shines, travel Is un-
impeded, and trade fourishes on Broad
way and Pennsylvania TO DanKers'
commission merchants and railroad man
ayers. however, the snow blockade has brought
confusion and disaster. Trade between the
East and the Far West Is practically suspended
Gold coin, cash remittances, bills OF eA-
change. letters of credit, commercial ao-
vices. orders for goods, instructions to sellers
and offers to buyers, are all, with vast huu-
die of wares and merchandise, locked up IN tSe
snow-drifts of tho heart OF the continent.
Peraonal discomfort ia undoubtedly very great
indeed to prevent starvation OF the beleaS.
ured passengers, the Government has dispatched
proyision trains, Just as it paternaily sent
similar relief to the unhoused people OF Chi
caoo. but the priyations of these way
farers are small, compared with the
troubles Of those whose business Is
crippled by the snow blockade THAT mas lasteu
for weeks and may last for weeks 10 come
The Pacific States, which have just begun 10
feel that they are now part of the SOCIAL group
which We call The Union, are relegated to
their old secluson, made more unbesrable by
their change from tho former order OF things
to the new. We can appreciate something OF
the deprivation Of business facilities to the
chief port of the Pacific when we think OF IL
as utterly cut off from railroad communication
with the great money center OF the nQHon'
with weeks Of mails, great sums OF money,
and piles of merchandise buried in the snow
half way across the continent.
The snow blockade is unfortunate because
| of its probable influence on foreign trade. The
| last monthly steamer for China and Japan
sailed without the mails and goods which were
on the way from Europe and New-York to
| San Francisco. French mails for the French
Pacific colonies and English mails for Aus
tralia and New-Zealand, viii be detained;
and an important embassy from Japan, COM
posed Of men unused to an American climate,
but having great faith, hitherto, in American
| railways, is snOw-bOund in Utah. SO the IN
| fluence of the snow blockade will extend far
into the Pacific Islands, Hawaii, China, and
japan, All these considerations make the case
more grave, and intensity desire to break the
enforced embargo. We cannot say II
any previous neglect on the part OF the
Union Pacific Railroad managers has FASTENED
OF aggravated this disaster. Impatient pas
sengers and perplexed business men will be
swift to blame the corporation On whose line
travel has been suspended. But. after all, no
single interest is 80 much concerned In ter
minatlng this state of things as that Of the
Railroad Company itself. Perhaps the priva-
| tons of the passengers might be mitigated by
more liberal care on the part OF the railway
| people but these last suffer the greater mis-
! fortune.
| It is fortunate for the business men of both
| sides the continent that the old steamship IA
cilities, via Panama, have not been with
drawn; and it is sign of hope for the flu
| ture that we mean to have more than one
| transcontinental railroad before many years
have passed. Experience has proved that We
cannot depend on single iron track, reaching
| from sea to sea, great though the achievement
| of that work was. We must have Northern
and Southern Pacific Railroad. The present
disaster will show how the Union Pacific may
hereafter be better defended; but we cannot
afford to risk again an utter blockade of our
| highway to the Indies.