The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1873-05-23
The Wants of the West.


The following extracts are from the
speech of Gov. Stanard, of Missouri.
before the Congressional Convention at
st. Louis : MIR. Standard said the CEN
trail plain of this continent has greater
capacity for cereal productions than any
equal area on the globe. Seventy-five
to eighty thousand miles of railroad are
now employed moving the productions
and commerce of the country, yet there
is great and pressing need of increas-
ing facilities and cheaper transporta-
ton. Millions of tons of breadstuffs are
wasted in Western fields, or consumed
for fuel, while multitudes in Eastern
cities and foreign lands suffer for food
The Western farmer obtains but about
fifteen cents per bushel for corn, while
the consumer in the East has to pay
sixty-ive cents for it. The farmer is
not reimbursed the actual cost of pro-
duction, while the cost of living to the
consumer is excessive and burdensome.
All the profits of production, and more
too, are demanded for transportation.
The producer is impoverished, commerce
languishes, and bankruptcy threatens
the entire country, and must ensue unless
relief is afforded from the exactions OF
tyrannical monopolies.
A system of canals south of the freez-
ing line would afford great relief both in
the continuity of transit and cheapness,
and would hold railroads to uniform
and lower rate of charges. The James
River and Kanawha, the Atlantic and
Great Western, and the Fort st. Philip
canals should be completed without
delay; but Notwithstanding their COM
pletion would be almost equivalent to
duplication of the present capacity
of all the trunk railways, still the neces-
sites of the country are so rapidly in
creasing that the wants of commerce
would not be met, and the demand for
more and cheaper facilities would still
exist.
He showed by statistics that by fan
the greatest increase in population, agri-
cultural, and manufactured products
during the past decade occurred in the
West, and that the present and future
demand for increased transportation
facilities is and would be in the Missis-
sippi Valley. He then entered into q
comparison of the cost of railroad, canal,
sea, lake, and river transportation, and
showed that the river transit is one hun
dred per cent. cheaper than canal, and
nearly five hundred per cent. cheaper
than railroad, and asked, Does not this
fact suggest solution of the question
under discussion? The value of grain
to the producer is the price paid il
Liverpool, less the cost of transit. He
then shows that grain can be laid dowr
in Liverpool, via the Mississippi river
and New Orleans, sixteen cents cheaper
per bushel than via New York, and tina
if the advantage of river transit could
be fully used, the exports from the Mis-
sissippi Valley would soon turn the bal
ance of trade in our favor, and gol(
flow from the Old to the New, rathe
than as now from the New to the Ol(
World.
He then stated why the advantages o
cheap transit on the Mississippi rive
could not be fully realized by explaining
the distractions at its mouth, the in
adequacy of the water on the bar, etc.
and cited the fact that during Marcel
and April just passed nearly fifty vessel
were obliged to anchor off the mouth %
the river and wait two to three weeks TO
totally inadequate Government boa
to cut the channel through the bar be
fore they could reach the deep water o
the river. Let this obstruction be re
moved, and the Mississippi river vii
give to the oceans tonnage equal to tina
of the whole world beside. Less thai
half the amount of money worse thai
wasted above the amount requisite t.
subsidize single Pacific railroad, woul'
give to the Mississippi river depth O
water sufficient to allow vessels con
structed for the purpose to sail direc
from Liverpool to st. Louis. If thi
were accomplished, wheat could be trans
ported from the Mississippi Valley t
Liverpool eight cents per bushel cheape
than from the Baltic grain regions, an
eighteen cents cheaper than from tn
Black sea.