Holmes County Republican. [volume] (Millersburg, Holmes Co., O. [Ohio]) 1870-1895, 1874-01-22
Our Great Highways.
Natural and Artificial Water
Routes to the West.


Natural and Artificial Water
| Routes to the West.
The Products of the Country too Much for
the Railroads to cdrry-the Shortest,
Cheapest and best lines--Deseription Of
Proposed neu and Improved Old Routes
Rapid Development of the Northwest
Millions Of Bushels Of Grain Wasted
for pant Of Transportation Trunk rail-
toay and Water Lines Across the Cont
neat.
There are to-day about G., 900 miles of
railway in the United States. There
are also many thousands Of miles of
water channels, such as nayigable rivers,
lakes, and canals, capable of carrying
many times as much freight as the rail-
roads, and. yet all the railroads, the
rivers, the lakes, and the canals COM
bined do not now afford so cheap trans
portation as We desire, and are made
quate Of course to our prospective needs,
both in respect to cheapness and capa-
city.
THE NATURAL HIGHWAYS.
The area of the United States and
Territories is about 100000 of square
miles. This expanseis naturally divld-
ed into three divisions, as follows: The
Atlantic and Gulf slope, 1000 square
miles; the Mississippi and Lake valleys,
J, $780, 900 square miles; and the Pacific
slope, 10000 square miles. The total
population in 1870 was 1855, 81, and
lis presumed to be about 40, ,0O0, 600 at
the present time. The amount carried
Of the three principal commodities in
1872 was 5,25s, ,eO9, as follows:
Tons. Il
Coal, 4i,75s6Os
Cereals, 40,00O,000
Cattle and hsgs, 3,5OO0o0
This is leaving out of the question all
other products, both imported and do
nestle, such as cotton, ,s..lumber, ores,
and manufactured goods of all kinds.
1t will be seen at glance that no arti-
fetal channels, such as railways are ad-
equate to move such an immense
amount of freight. If a corporation
like the Erie Railway or the New York |
Central were to devote its whole ener-
gies to transporting nothing but. grain
from Buffalo to New York, it would re-
quire seven or eight years for it to move |
the grain crop of one season.
Nature has been very benignant in
providing channels for the outlet of
these immense yearly productions. The
centre of the continent is large plat
eau about 1900 feet above the level of
the sea, and including several of the
most productive States in the Union.
From this region, which may be con-
sidered the heart of the country,
streams flow, emptying into three great
oceans. To the South flows.the Missls-
sippi River, with continuous. natural
navigation of 1900 miles. To the East
there is the great chain of lakes, with
continuous natural and artificial navi-
CATION for $500 miles to the Atlantic
Ocean. To the West is the Columbia
River, flowing through the Territories
into the Pacific; and to the Nerth wa
ter flows though not continuously nav
igable, even when not frozen, for 1000
miles to Hudson Bay and the Arctic
Sea. Limiting the area of This region
which has been called the plateau, by
the basin Of the Ohio River on the south
and the Missouri on the west, and it in
cludes the ten. Northwestern States and
a part Of Canada. 1t contains 100000
square miles and population of H.
000, 900, with forests of the finest tim
Der, mines pregnant with the most use
full minerals, and a soil which in 1871
produced cereals worth $5OO,OO0,OOO.
What this region, or "granary," as it
has been well called, should have, if the
world were to be created anew, is an
water channel to the At
lantic coast below the latitude where its
mouth would freeze, and large enough
to empty it Of its contents once year.
The Mississippi is out of the question so
far as the traffic of the Northwest with
the Eastern States and with Europe is
as it carries the cereals too
far out Of the way, and detains them
too long in the warm Southern climate,
which would be dangerous to them. The
greatest natural water route leading
from the Atlantic sea-board to the in
terror of the grain-producing West and
Northwest is found by entering the
Gulf of St. Lawrence, which is about
l 900 miles north of New York, and fol-
lowing the river by that name up into
Lake Ontario, and thence through, by
the Welland Canal, into the chain of
lakes, by which the navigator has a
clear course again on to Chicago, az the
head of Lake Michigan, or he can pass
through into Lake Superior by the Sault
St. Marie ship canal, and thus reach
Duluth, which is 800 miles further west
and within 100 miles of the head-wa-
tiers of the Mississippi River. The
greatest artificial and natural water
to the West is up the Hudson
River to Albany or Troy and thence by
the Erie Canal to Oswego, or to Buffalo,
or again up the Hudson to Fort Edward
thence by canal to Lake Champlain,
through the River Richelieu into the st.
whence the course is the
same as that just described. In tie
same year Qsl7) that the people OF the
State of New York resolved to begin
the work of improving this. water
course to the lakes they decided to short
en- it several hundred miles by the con-
struction of the Erie Canal, putting the
Hudson River in direct communication
with Lake Erie, with Lake Ontario at
Oswego and with the st. Lawrence by
Lake Champlain. The Hudson River
alone cuts through the Allegheny range
which stretches from Vermont to Geor-
gia. 1t foi ms solid barrier to the nav
igator who seeks passage to the West
by entering the mouth of any river
emptying into the Atlantic south of the
Hudson. Nevertheless the prize offered
to those whO,open a new channel to the
grain country is so great that efforts are
making to annihilate this barrier. The
waters of the Ohio River approach so
near to the Western slope of these
mountains that some sanguine projec-