The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1873-04-04

|
Till the morning,-then awake me,
Dearest Lord! to dwell with thee.
The Necessity of a Trans Allegheny
Canal.
So long as the subject of trans-Alle-
| ghany water communication was viewed
as one merely affecting individual
| States, it possessed no national inter
est. But in its present aspect it is OF
vast moment, both national and inter-
national. While many over-crowded
portions of the world are eoften confront
ed with both the spectre and reality of
gaunt famine, and their breadless thou
sands are looking wistfully to the fresh
| and prolific fields of the New, for re-
lief, there are annually lost to the coun-
try and the world vast stores of corn,
which the Western farmers cannot af-
ford to send by railroad to the seaboard
for foreign shipment, and freely use as
a substitute for fuel. This fact is sug-
gestive and significant. To understand
its import we have only to look at the
geo raphical position of the West and
the Mississippi Valley, isolated in the
heart of a continent.
There are three outlets for the COM
merce of these sections seeking New
York, the emporium of the New World,
and the chief transatlantic markets !:
l. BY the Mississippi river to New Or
leads, and thence by transhipment to
New York and Europe. 2. By the
northern lakes to the st. Lawrence Val
ley, or by the former to the Erie Canal
g. By the costly transportation by rail-
roads over the Alleghanies or along the
lake-shores eastward.
The first of these routes is of course
the longest, both in time and distance.
It takes thesmerchandise by an exten-
sive detour, which, from the mouth of
the Ohio river, Uid the Gulf, to New
York, exceeds three thousand miles.
Although lying in the powerful current
of the Gulf Stream, which is a prOpel-
ling force speeding forward the vessel
that trusts it's warm, blue, waters, this
route is exposed to the most violent cy
clonic storms, and navigators shun and
evade it during the equinOctial or hurri
cane season. But, barring danger and
distance, no country with such and out
let to the sea as the Mississippi river
affords can be considered to be depend
ent upon any artificial communication.
Notwithstanding the objections which
exist to this long route (Which is both
expensive and long,, its trade is rapidly
increasing from the very exigencies of
the case. The introduction of the barge
system on the great Western rivers has
greatly facilitated and cheapened trans
portation. Steam-tugs, carrying neither
passengers nor freight, are substituted
for the steamboat These tugs never
- 70 Of ha hor
es. already loaded before their arrival
at city, and proceed with great dis
patch. Steaming steadily on, night
and day, they make the trip from st.
Louis to New Orleans almost as quick
ly as the oft-detained steamboat. The
distance have been made between these
cities by tug, with ten heavily freigh-
ed barges, in six days. The tugs ply
ing on the Minnesota river carry with
good speed barges containing 10000
bushels of wheat, and the freight of a
single trip would fill more than eighty
railroad cars. This transportation is
cheap, because the tugs require less
than one-fourth the expenses for run
ming and management required hy
the steamboats,. The carriage of grain
from Minnesota to New Orleans by this
method costs no more than the freight
age from the same point to Chicago by
rail. A boatload of wheat from st.
Paul, taking the river route, is not once
handled until it is put aboard ship at
the Crescent City. The mighty energy
of the Northwest" the Germany of
America" as it has been well called by
Mr.. Draper-has long since discovered
that the Mississippi is the best existing
route to European markets. Grain can |
be shipped by way of ST. Louis and |
New Orleans to New York and Europe |
twenty cents bushel cheaper than it |
can be carried by the other existing |
routes. AS long ago as 1868 the Hi |
nOis Central railroad took hold of the |
West India and the Southern trade |
the river route, and offel ed |
such commercial inducements to West |
ern importers that HAVANA sends her |
products by this route to the Northwest, |
instead of by New York. As the North |
west expands and multiplies in resourc-
as and population, it will be compelled |
TO transact its foreign and seabOard |
commerce through the noble navigable
waters of the Mississippi, unless it can
obtain a short and cheap transportation
TO New York by some trans-Allegbany /
water-line. In the event of the North
western trade being diverted southwark
along the great natural artery of the
continent, where no tolls, no tariffs,
and no transhipments are required, the
loss will fall most heavily upon New
York and the seaboard marts. The in
,reasing stream of South American COM
nerce, in the same event, must inevita-
Oly take the short, speedy, and entirely
route to the Northwest
through the broad and free highway of
he Father of Waters ~, rather than
encounter the delay, danger, and ex-
oense of the Gulf Stream route to New
York. and thence by rail or the Lakes
10 it's destination. The longer the pres
mt trade status continues, and the
mammoth corporations of the railroads
orce the transportation of the North
vest, the West and the Mississippi VAL
ey to take the river and Gulf route to
he sea, the greater and more fixed be-
comes the diversion of this incalculable
commerce from the great markets of the
Middle and Eastern States. So far,
therefore,. from the far West being at
he mercy of the East in this matter,
he former has the advantage. The
Cast, rather than allow the present ten
lency of the commercial current to set
veil in toward the Gulf, and wear a
hannel for itself, seould strain every
lerve to keep it steadily moving toward
Is own maratime cities. The great
ities of the Atlantic seaboard can bet
er afford to construct ater-line over
he mountains at their own cost thanNto
un the risk of the Mississippi river be-
oming the commercial avenue for its
asst valley and drainage, and thus bear
ng the golden stream away from their
arbors and streets,