The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1874-12-11
The Elevator.

A communication will be found elsewhere
on the subject OF the proposed purchase OF
Calls wharf by the city for enlarging our
commercial facilities. We publish it in pur-
suance of our principle of giving hearing
to all sides of public question, although we
are compelled in this case to question some
of the premises and dissent from the general
conclusion OF the letter. The whole purpose
of the negotiations which have been for
some time pending between the Grand
Trunk and the city is to effect such com
bination of effort as shall produce result
mutually beneficial-the accommodation re-
quired by foreign commerce, which shall give
freights to the railroad and business to the
city. To speak of the city giving money to
the road is to misrepresent and obscure the
transaction. Our correspondent makes a
like error in speaking of putting $13O,0OO
'into venture" The real proposition as
it now stands is that the city shall provide
the wharf and make repairs and the Grand
Trunk build the elevator-the road to pay for
the wharf in thirty annual payments amount
ing to the sum OF $130,000 and to own the
wharf at the end Of that .ime. Thus the
real cost TO the city will be the interest on
$130,000 annually, less the interest on the
sinking fund created by the payments of the
railroad, which will diminish the cost to the
city year by year until it entire
ly extinguishes it. Another specious
and 0d captandam argument made by our
correspondent is that the city may be COM
PEELED to pay large bill for the falling down
of the elevator with its contents. As the
Grand Trunk will hold the wharf under a
long lease, and will build and own the eleva-
tor, it is little difficult to see whence the
city's responsibility arises, and the PROPOSE
ton looks like an attempt to startle the un-
thoughtful citizen-a little device which
throws something of suspicion upon the cam
dor of the writer.
The statements Of fact we are not prepared
to fully discuss. Whatever may have been
the usefulness of the old elevator, il is clear
that everybody interested means that the
new one shall be so placed ard cons structed
as to load foreign ships, and neither the road
nor the city with the engineering talent at
their disposal, will be likely to place large
sum of money in structures which will tum-
BILE into'the mud, or which cannot be az
preached by large vessels. The proposition
is to use the end and the eastern side of the
wharf for ocean steamers, and it is said that
very little dredging is required to fit them for
the purpose. Steam colliers of large draft
now 60 to the wharf, and the difficulties indi-
Gated are probably not insurmountable and
have been considered by the acute and expe-
rienced business men who have special charge
of the enterprise. At all events, this is a mat
ter which very little investigation by the
city's engineers can settle. The complaint
of want of room TOR cars on the wharf seems
hardly tenable, as the area is about three
acres.
The discrimination in rates of freight tariff
in favor of this city was not made as part of
this negotiation nor in the way of considera-
tion. Its discussion is pertinent to this sub.
ject only as showing the general tendency to-
ward friendly and mutually helpful relations
between the road and the city-a tendency
which it is certainly worth while to recog-
nize and encourage. Over six hundred and
forty Of the principal business men and firms
of this city, with the accurate knowledge Of
the situation and the wants and interests Of
the city incident to their occupation, repre-
senting more than three fourths of the taxa
BILE property, have expressed the opinion that
the proposed action is wise and useful. Theil
testimony is of great weight and value. We
have hitherto fully discussed the Importance
of some such action to the city. As to the
matters of detail, they are in good hands and
the objections raised by our correspondent
will not escape their attention.