The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1873-01-08
WEDNESDAY EVENING. JAMS, lsl
OUR WATER LIME.

edtor,of the Petersburg Appeal, on the con-
stitutionality Of appropriations by Congress
for the completion of the James River and
Kanawha Canal. We omit the part of the
letter which relates to the history of this
great work in the past, and of the writers
connection with it, as they are of minor I'M
portance compared with the more vital
question that will be raised for the defeat
OF Mr.. Negley's bill, now before Congress,
for the appropriation of eight millions OF
dollars towards the completion of this
most important national work.
We doubtir the people Of Virginia are
half awake to the importance Of this enter
prise which is now attracting the attention
Of Congress, and which has for its object
the completion of a continuous line ofwater
communication from the Chesapeake Bay,
by way of Richmond and the James River
and Kanawha Canal, to the Ohio rivera
distance of between six and seven hundred
miles. That this work is Of incomparably
greater importance to this State than any
ever before projected, will be apparent to
almost every mind capable of graspng the
possibilities of the future, such as lie
almost upon the surface of probable
events.
Everybody must see that the great want
of New England, and many of the other
Eastern States, is cheap transportation
between every one of their manufacturing
and trade centers and the great wheat and
grain fields of the West. In many of
these manufacturing and trading states
there are not annual agricultural products
enough to supply their populations
with bread for ninety days in the
year. In some Of these States wheat can
not be raised at all, and the demand fO,
this great Western staple is equal to thu
entire consumption of it by the people
Many of the great grain staples of thu
West are being shipped to this State, at al
expense of nearly dollar per hundred
pounds, to supply the needed wants o
our own people.
But New England and New York city
above ali other sections and cities, deman
cheap transportation for these importar
grain staples ofthe West. They want chea
bread. With their laboring classes, cor
stitutng the chief bulk of their populations
this want is becoming annually, if not dali
and hourly, more imperative than evel
Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhod
Island would encounter nine months I
famine in each year, if it We're not fl
their grain supplies from the West. 1t
their destiny to advance not by agricultul
but by manufacturing and commerce. Chez
transportation is demanded not merely
bring wheat to their doors at low rat
but to take their manufactured articl
Westward at the lowest possible rate
Every diminuton in the expense Of transpo
tation is profit to be divided betwe
the manufacturer and consumer, or betwe
the Western grower Of wheat and the Eas
ein purchaser.
But how is this growing demand
cheap transportation to be realized? II
well known that transportation by re
however continuous and unbroken, cam
be cheapencd into competition with Il
by water, especially where water-lines {
equally continuous and unbroken. For
least four months Of the year, and those
a time when Western grains await ira
portation, the Erie Canal and the CIR
Lakes are closed to all commerce. L
interruption in transportation, always
fortunate at best, is made doubly so
the sharp corners" uniformly sought
be made by the heavy operators
the grain staples, the moment it
ours. 1t often happens that fl
is ten and twelve dollars barrel in
East when it is drug at half that pric
the West and all because of the in
ruption in cheap transportation betw
the two sections.
To meet this great want of the I'll
and to put it beyond the power of 81
spectators and monopolists to create tt
villainous corners and to wiring extort
ate prices from needy consumers, the c.
pletion of the great work, PROJECTED
many years ago for Virginia, is what
the Eastern and Western sect
OF our country now demand. 1t is
only feasible line Of cheap transporta
which offers solution to the great p
lem of cheap bread and cheap proyis
generally in the East. 1t is line
would be open at all seasons of
year, and rarely interrupted, except
intervals Of few days, during the sevt
of our winter months. It is this featu
the enterprise which gives it national
portance, and really constitutes it {
national work--one that should
begun and finished at the cal
practicable moment by the Federal COY
ment.
Let every Virginian, whatever his +
san views may have been in the past, Il
aside his opposition to this great work
and join in united effort to secur
passage Of Mr.. Negley's bill by the PR
Congress.
THE election Of United States Sci
from Massachusetts, for six years in
of Henry Wilson, whose term expires