The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1875-04-01
THE COMING GREATNESS OF GAL
WESTON AND or TEXAN CITIES.

THE COMING GRRATNEss OF GAL
WESTON AND or TEXAN CITIES.
Capt. John Cowdon, who was born, reared,
nurtuTed and educated and is coeyal with
the Mississippi, and whose life has been
part and parcel Of the tempestuous current
Of the majestic river, tells us that the
freight charge on wheat from Chicago to
Montreal and thence to Liverpool is forty
five cents per bushel; from Chicago through
New York to Liverpool the cost is forty
nine cents per bushel; from St. Louis to
New Orleans aud thence to Liverpool the
freight charge is only thifty-seven cents per
bushel. II Mr.. jefferson Dayis's scheme be
successful and the Hirseh- English patent
steamers with double keels be seaworthy
and otherwise successful, as now approved,
it signifies nothing whether Eads's jetties
deepen the mouth Of the Mississippi or not.
Hirsch's steamers draw only sixteen feet
and these can ascend the river as far as
Cairo at almost any season, and in winter
and spring cast anchor IN front of St
Louis. II this be accomplished the whole
system Of trade between the West and Eu-
rope will be turned backward and even
from Pittsburgh and Cincinnati and Louis
vile, as well as from st. Louis, Chicago
and Kansas City, it will be diverted to New
Orleans. Therefore the Importance, as it
affects Texan commerce, of the proposition
of Mr.. Eads to open ship channel at
the mouth Of the Mississippi. If the
Hirsch steamers navigate the river and cross
the bar, Eads's labors are almost needless;
if they do not, his toni is endless, and the
cost as hmitless as the continent which the
great river ever uplifts, until Cuba be an
nexed. Meanwhile, when Eads's Sysiphean
tasks have become hopeless, the govern
ment will at last be persuaded to construct
a slackwater ship canal, even from New
Orleans to tidewater, and then the revolution
in the course Of American trade, ofwhich Mr..
jefferson Davis dreams and Cowdon phil
osophises, win be finally accomplished.
Texas is not a hstless spectator of CONNER
cial events affecting every city in the val
ley of the Mississippi. From these and
from the very river banks, imperial wealth
is now borne away one and two thousand
miles by countless railways, that Montreal
and Boston md New York ald Baltimore
may be aggrsndized. Our Southern cities
along the Mississippi rapidly go to decay.
They buy groceries and sell cotton, and
are mere conduit pipes between producer
and consumer. They are not seats Of in
dustry or homes of manufacturing toll
They produce absolutely nothing, and give
employment to the fewest possible people.
They are drained OF everything by railways,
which drag everything from their very
doorways into the insatiate nav of the
mighty gasping commercial metropolis of
the continent. Make the river an inland |
sea by opening its mouth or utilizing light
draught but heavy freight-carryings steamers,
andsuch revolution would shock American
commerce that cities would be shaken as by
a Lisbon earthquake. Facts affecting |
cheapness of water transportation from the
West to the seacoast, as above given, show
that the consummation contemplated is
possible, probable and eminently desirable.
To its achievement Mr.. Davis, the states
man, and Cowdon, an original thinker and
philosopher, are deyoting the best years of
their lives, They say that Texas, like
other States Of the great valley, is inter
ested deeply in their schemes; that the
fortunes of Galveston, Houston, Austin,
San Antonio, Dallas, Marshall and Jeffer-
son, are lnseparablo from those of New
Orleans. They would enehain Texas, and !
bind this isolated empire to the car of
triumphal progress, in which the CONNER
cial mistress Of the South is to be en-
throned. There can be noiobjection to the |
ends they would accomplish, but it is not
true that Texan cities will be subordinated
to New Orleans. The reversal Of the course |
of trade in the valley of the Mississippi ag-
grandizes Galveston, and the commercial
vassalage of that city will never be re-
newed. Once liberated, its freedom is
final It's bank account, when not kept in
Wall street, will be transferred, not to
New Orleans, but with that of New Or
leans, to the Bank of England and Thread
needle street. When the road to Mexico is
opened, and the wealth and trade of an un-
developed empire begin to flow into Texas,
il need not cross the continent to reach the
seashore at New York. or even at New
Orleans The. sea win be then accessible,
with cheap water transportation, even at
GaIveston. Whenever the commercial rev
Olution IS wrought in the valley of the
Mississippi, sought to be effected by those
who would open the Mississippi to the
worlds commerce, Texas becomes as free
and independent commercially as was the
Republic Of Texas politically, and Calves
ton becomes the commercial capital, not
only of Texas, but OF Colorado, Of New
and old Mexico, and the Island, now only
dotted here and there with abodes of
wealth about q little centre Of trade and
opulence, win become as rich and pOpu-
lOus as Manhattan.
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