Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1872-02-27
Washington Put I'm Connecti0a with
the Cotton Fields Shall We Improve
our ODpOFtunifieS?

In less than three weeks travel will be opened
over the new Long Bridge. The contractors
with the railroad have double force Of men on
and little remains to be done except the COM
pletiOn of the two draws. The rails will be laid
in the mean time. and with the completion of
the bridge the first link in the ZOO miles of
Tom. SCOTS railroad connections south will be
ready for service. With the shortening Of
few of the connections further south the run
nIng time between W ashngton and New Orleans
will be reduced TO forty hours, or about half
what il now is. Mr.. Scott proposes to move the
next crop OF cotton TO Philadelphia by rail. Ii
now goes by rail to Charleston and Savannah,
and from these points to New York BY water
BY having possession of interior lines controlling
the cotton traffic, he will be enabled to inter-
Cept 1t and send the cotton by fast freight line
direct to Philadelphia and New York. When
this arrangement goes into effect, which will be
before next fall, cotton can be supplied in Wash
ingtOn at a Iess price than in Philadelphia and
New York.
Ought we not to prepare ourselves to utilize
the notable advantages we shall then have for
manufacturing operations? We shall have the
remarkable combination Of a fine water-power
right on navigable waters, with q canal direct
from the coal-felds, bringing cheap bitumnous
coal, and railroad direct from the cotton-felds
landing cheap cotton at the very point OF juno
ton of all these advantages. We have an ade-
qaate supply OF the material for operatives to
run the cotton mills in the large number of
men, women and children in our community
needing just this sort Of employment For va
rious reasons there is an unusually large number
of half grown boys, girls, and even sble-bodied
men unemployed here. The decrease OF work
at the Arsenal and the Navy Yard has been one
cause OF this; the rules of the trade unions here
restricting the number of apprentices is another;
but the main reason is that we have no such de-
mand for this sort of labor is afforded in the.
New England States by the various manufsce
turing operations that give employment to
every man, woman and boy in the community
We have a legislative committee, sitting
during the recess to ascertain the best
mode of encouraging manufactures here
Let the committee report in favor of exempt
ing from local taxation for ten years any capital
put in manufacturing enterprises. Where the
manufacture is OF Importance it might be
well TO add money inducements to make il
worth while for manufacturers to come here
The returns from the encouragement of such
enterprises here would be certain and imme-
diate; and in ten years the amount of taxable !
property would be quadrupled, making the re- |
mission of taxes for that length Of time a pay
ing operation. In New England the wisdom Of
thiS FolCH Has 4ong Deeh seen ana acted upon.
Villages on the Androscoggin and Kennebec
and other rivers having water privileges have
built themselves up to fourishing cities by hold
ing out large inducements in the way of land
grants and water privileges to the capitalists of
Boston and the manufacturers of Lowell and
Providence. Even the small villages having no
water privileges or railroad facilities enter
keenly into the competition for business, and
We note that one of them, of three or four hun
dred Inhabitants, the other day raised $4,000,
with the additional offer of exemption from tax
alton for ten years, to induce a shoe manufac-
turer in Auburn, Maine, to set up business in
theirplaee. III the District OF Columbia, with
its hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants,
would enter upon the work Of encouraging man
ufactures here with the same energy Is these
New England towns and villages, there would
soon be a scene of business activity here unsur-
passed in the country.