The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1877-09-28
TEXAS AND NEW ORLEANS.

The recent arrival In this 3ity OF wheat
from Kentucky directs attention to the
important grain trade which would be
controlled and the great manufacturing
interest which would be created by the
construction of the New Orleans Pacific
Railway. There is undoubtedly strong
tendency of Western grain to this mar
ket, and 1t is pretty certain that New
Orleans will within brief period be-
come a market for Western grain of no
mean Importance. We should not,
however, overlook the rich grain fields
that lie to the north west Of us, waving
almost in sight Of our doors. Within
the last seven years Northern Texas has
become one of the finest wheat growing
regions in the Union, and any man Of
intelligence acquainted with that coun-
try and with the grain growing capabil-
tiles of the Indian Territory and Ar
kansas must see that those regions are
destined to become the vast granary
of the South, of Mexico and of the
countries of the South Atlantic coast.
New Orleans Is the nearest market for
this grain trade. It naturally tends
toward this port. All indeed that pre-
vents 1t from coming here is the absence
of a highway.
st. Louis enterprise and capital have
already built two great railroads into
the wheat regions we have described
one running all through Arkansas into
Northeastern Texas. the other through
the Indian Territory into Northwestern
Texas. Over these roads nearly all the
wheat Of Texas is shipped to st. Louis,
manufactured into flour and then
shipped down the Mississippi to New
Orleans. And yet st. Louis is twice as
far from those grain fields as New Or
leans is. Thus the remarkable, we
might almost say disgraceful, spectacle
is presented to the country of great
Southern city within three hundred
miles of a vast and invaluable trade
lying idle and apathetic, while West
ern city, double the distance from that
trade, grapples 1t and controls it, and
grows rich off of it over tortuous, ex-
Now, we ask any merchant, property
holder or other individual interested in
the growth and prosperity OF New Or.
leans, how long Chicago, or Cincinnati,
or Milwaukee, or even any fourth rate
town in the West would permit a trade
Of immense and rapidly glowing volume
and richness to lie within three hundred
miles of its wharves without building a
railroad to reach 1t? In the East. or
in the West, or in any other country,
such city would dwindle into insig-
nificanee; wretched villages would sap
It's commerce and its people would
become the laughing stock of the eoun-
try.
The construction Of the New Orleans
Pacific would give this city large part
of the present grain trade of Texas, and
secure to us the control of that vast
trade which is growing up throughout
all the regions we have mentioned.
More than this. it would lead to the cre-
alton here of great flour manufactur-
ing business, giving employment to large
capital and to multitudes OF laborers.
More even than this; it would lead to
the opening of trade of vast capabili-
ties of development between New Or
leans and the Mexican and South
American ports.
The sum required now to insure the
completion of the New Orleans Pacific
is comparatively insignificant; any
fourth rate town in the West would
raise, for such purpose, double the
amount