The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1873-05-22
From the augusta Constitutionalist, May IA.
The West and the South.

Pursuant to the call, the delegates from diff.
ferent parts of the West and South assembled
to-day in the room of the Augusta Exchange
of the Augusta Exchange, called the Conyen-
tion to order. After welcoming the delegates
present in the name of the city of Augusta, he
announced as the first business in order the
election of a permanent President, proposing
the name of Col. Henry Moore as President,
and G.. w. Trotter as Secretary. This motion
was unanimously adopted.
Col. Moore, upon taking the chair, thanked
the Convention for the honor conferred upon
him, asking the cordial cooperation of the
delegates present in the furtherance of the
great object which he understood to be para
mount with them, in which all present, how
ever they might differ as to details, or as to the
best means to be used, were nevertheless COM
prised for the general purpose OF promoting
intercourse and inter- communication with the
Northwest and the Southern Atlantic coast.
Such desire had long existed in the South.
All efforts heretofore had been made by the
South, unaided, to attain such an end, and
whatever of nter-communication the West and
the South, the result of art and enterprise,
now enjoyed were due her efforts. Recently,
however, the great West, grown into power and
strength, so as almost to be the great power and
the chief strength of the Union, had awakened
to the necessity of multiplying the lines Of in
tercourse and strengthening the bands of inter-
est and friendship Railways were the great
channels of modern commerce, which art had
so deftly constructed to overcome obstacles as
to almost eclipse those channels provided by
nature herself st. Louis was reaching out her
arms in all directions southwark, and Louis
Vile, with great sagacity, and indomitable per-
severance, was still pursuing policy which he
believed she was the first to inaugurate in the
West; and Cincinnati and Chicago we're NOV
ing in the same direction, seeking for reciprocal
benefit in intertropical trade and alliance. He
was pleased to welcome here gentlemen from
the great West, who, he understood, came for
no holiday purpose, or with political ends
but came on business, meant business, and
nothing but business earnest, active, enter
prising. He was pleased to see also present
those from the South, who had spent their
lives in such great designs, and was glad to re-
cognize that they had lost nothing of their zeal
nor abated one jot of heart and hope for the
accomplishment of the great purpose of ce-
menting the bonds of union and reciprocal in.
terests between two great sections, which seemed
80 eminently fitted by nature to contribute to
the prosperity and strength of each other. To
each and to all he extended q cordial welcome,
hoping that by harmony in action, concert in
purpose and combination in interest the great
end for which they had assembled would be
speedily and prosperously advanced.
The Chair then announced the Convention
organized and ready for business.
DIR. R. Casey announced that there were
many gentlemen here from the West who had
come among us to see our people and know
them and learn their interest in Western rail-
road connections with the South, and among
others was the Hon. W. s. Raymond, of In
diana, President of the Chicago, Delhi and
Indianapolis Railroad Company, from whom
he-would like to hear.
President Raymond then addressed the Con-
vention at length. He said that there was the
kindest and most fraternal feeling in the West
for the South. No partisan feeling existed
there towards the South. The people of the
West never had any such feeling, no matter
how it may have been represented. The inter-
ests of the West and South were reciprocal =
there was no conaict-no clash. The surplus
of the West was Just what the South needed,
and the South was the best customer of West.
ern farmers. The South produced just that
which the West needed. But the barrier of a
chain of mountains had interposed. There
had been too little social intercommunication
too restricted commercial intercourse. The
rivers which hitherto determined commercial
intercourse on the north side of that mountain
barrier flowed northward towards the great
lakes. The rivers on the south side flowed to
the Atlantic, and the people on either side had
followed the course of the rivers looking north
ward or southwark, according to locality. When,
therefore, western farmer wanted Southern
products he looked not Southwark but East,
and sent his products several hundred miles
east to be exchanged for southern products. So
also the men of the South, needing Western
supplies. looked not to the West, but to the
northeast for such supplies. Both had to go
many hundreds of miles out of the way to get
what they wanted, and each suffered by the in.
creased cost of transportation and by the mid
die men who controlled both sections and lived
upon both. This was an evil that the West
ever sternly resolved must be remedied and
should be remedied He saw that Gov. Smith
had stated that the South needed fifty millions
of bushels of corn. The single valley of the
Wabash, in which he lived, produced this as
surplus. But what could they do with it? 1t
was better economy to use it as fuel, for corn
made good and beautiful fire, than to SEND nd 1t
by the way of New Yo'l 70 this market. This
might seem strange, bu, =. was true. But when
he placed one point of the compass at Chicago
and another at Augusta, he found that this
point was nearer by two hundred and forty-six
miles-nearly half the distance to New York,
where the corn was as far from the true market
as when at home. Again-Western sagaci;y
had already perceived that the tide Of com. ON.
merce was changing, and looked forward not
alone to the Southern Atlantic coast trade, but
to trade with Cuba and South America, and he
predicted that the day is not far distant when
this inter.tropical trade-the most profitable of
all trade-would be the great trade of the coun-
try, and your city of Augusta, standing at the
gates of four great ports Savannah, Port Roy
it. it to degree not now dreamed Of: But he
would not indulge in speculation. The Presi-
dent had said, and he was glad to hear it. that
this was business meeting. The speaker then
TO srSsd ns from Chicago woud
als Bave Sisp along the line and derive from its ter
mini Second-The business which might be
counted upon after the construction along the