The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1873-05-27
The Necessities Of Commerce.


The rigid and irresistible demands of com
m"rce are not fully appreciated by the great
body Of people. These demands are derel-
oping themselves in all great commercial
communities, developing themselves with
reference to the amazing growth of trade and
the immensely increased volume of freights
which flows from land to sea and from sea
10 land. The facilities for transportation and
delivery must keep pace with this vast
growth, and the charges for handling and
break of bulk must be avoided wherever it
is possible.
We have the most striking illustration just
now in New York in the expenditure OF mil
lions TO unite the island of Manhattan with
the mainland and with Long Island by con-
tinuou> roadways. The stupendous bridge
across East river to Brooklyn is in course of
construction, and tunnel under East river
'or increasing the means of the same COM
muncation between the great Gotham and
her tiourishing neighbor Oh Long Island is
authorized and will be built i'm few years.
But now New York is looking to the Hud-
son river, which, while it is to her an inval-
liable conduit Of trude, yet is an obstacle in
The way of her intercourse with the Jersey
shore, and obstacles must be gotten out Of
the way of commerce wherever it is possible
to remove them. So plan is formed, and
the New York Legislature Is asked for a
charter to authorize the building of a tunnel
under the Hudson the said tunnel to COM
mence in New York between Chambers and
Fourteenth streets and to be continued across
10 the jersey shore.
This tunnel will be authorized, and it viii
be built. 1t will be the greatest work of the
kind in the world-,. e., the greatest tunnel
sn,der a rlUer. There are longer tunnels
under mountains, but nothing to compare
with 1t under rivers. 1t will be the grandest
of the age, and is indeed the only practicable
means of etfecting u continuous roadway
from the right to the left bank of the Hudson
AT New York.
The main object Of this tunnel Is to enable
the railway trains from the interior to pro-
coed direct to depots within the city of New
ioiN' ~ NouiL NC ulHlcuiL 10 cOmprc-
bend fully the facilities that will be thus
afforded to trade. These facilities aggre-
gated are the measure of the demand of
commerce for them. and society cannot re-
FIST such demands anywhere. and above all
nre they imperious and irresistible in New
York.
That grand city is above all others on the
continent. 1t has greater requirements and
greater means than any. But even the hum.
blest community may borrow lesson from
its grand enterprises, and learn how to meet
the demands of the day upon their energies
and forecast. Trade Is arbitrary. When
il addresses it's demands TO community
they must be respected, or it will turn its
back upon that community; and when it
docs that, it were better that that eommu.
nifty had never been known as trading peo-
pie, for their doom is settled. There is no
recupeiation, no recovery from lost oppor-
tunily for them. They may fold their arms
and look for the coming of better times, but
they will look in vain. DumfrIes, on the
"Quantico," the former mistress of the for.
elSn commerce Of this State, could Oh well
rise from her solitary and deserted streets
'hloa ilourisbing city as could city which