New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1875-11-28
THE RAILROAD TO THE PACIFIC.

The projected road which has recently
received the sanction of large convention
at ST. Louis is the most important work
of internal improvement now proposed.
1t is the first diagonal which traverses
the region intermediate between the manu-
factu ring and provision States of the
Union and the great field for the consump-
ton of each in exchange for the precious
productions of other climes whose COM
merce is compensatory for our own.
That the trade on isothermal lines of
equivalent production has attained its
maximum; that Europe can no longer
consume our surplus, and that we will no
longer derive our supply of manufactures
is proven by facts so notorious as to save
comment Sixty thousand people sent
back to Europe, and American cotton
prints sold in Manchester mean, that our
demand for labor and skill of Europe and
her demand for our surplus provision can
not be longer relied on.
The Development then, of lines which
supply the products of the tropics to the
emands of civilization marks the era
when the United States follows the prime
val ind ications of international commerce,
when Solomon and Hiram with the ships
of Tarshish brought gold and apes and
ivory from the coasts of Africa, when
Persia sent her tissues of silk and gold,
and Indian wares were camel-borne across
to the ports of the Levant to supply the
Injuries of Rome, and when Columbus,
inspired by the same exchange, sought
the land of Carthage and found it ten
thousand miles this side, in country
whose products were so rich as to COM
pensate for mistake which Columbus
never discovered.
The Southern Pacific railroad is the
first international work which realizes for
us the trade wants of the civilized world.
The Pacific railroad will present result
similar to that recorded of Columbus. 1t
will find in the development of interior
Mexico more than can be obtained in
Asia, 1t will turn population and capt.
tai into the mines, sugar and coffee fields
of Mexico, and it will make the tropical
fruits as common as potatoes throughout
the whole American interior. The market
for our manufactures in the Northern
States of Mexico, as also in Sinaloa, Co
lima, Michoacan and Oajaca, on the Pa
cifc and southern boundary, will be far
greater than could be expected in
China or Japan. We would find
these longitudinal lines, whether direct
through our Gulf ports or diagonal
as to Mazatlan, indispensable to establish
this interchange of products grown on
compensating parallels. Neither will be
perfect without the other. Those who adj
vocate railroad to the Pacific should de-
mand connecting postal service from
the Gulf ports to all the principal ports of
the American continent and its islands
south of the United States. This would
make large federal system adequate to
relieve the United States from its colonial
dep endence on Europe, and give it COM
mand of compromising commerce in the
tropical products Of our own continent,
equal in value to that of any one European
power with the lands of ''Ormus or of
Ind"
Railroads are to the merchant source
of gain, to the farmer means of market
to the statesman physical agency to in
crease the intelligence, wealth and power
of the nation for which he thinks We
have only considered the Southern Pacific
railroad in these aspects, and especially
in the last. So soon as we can read the
debates OF the convention we propose to
treat of this great work in its practical
effect on the commercial interests of the
country, and especially of the South.