The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1877-06-30
GREAT MATTERS OF FACT,

GREAT MATTERS De EAOT,
The distance from Shreveport TO st. Louis
via the Texas and Pacific Railroad and the
Southern and iron Mountain Railroad, Is
about six hundred miles. The distance from
S hreyeport, Louisiana, or Marshall, Texas,
to New Orleans is three hundred and thirty
six miles by way of the proposed New Or
leans Pacific. Thus 1t appears that New
Orleans, with her spacious harbor and thou
sand ships, II nearly three hundred miles
nearer the Texas South Arkansas and North
west Louisiana trade than st. Louis.
This simple statement Of the relations of
st. Louis and New Orleans TO the regions re-
ferred to, conveys only a partial idea of the
advantages New Orleans, with the compile
tion OF the New Orleans Pacific, will possess
over st, Louis for the control of the Texas
trade. Cotton and grain are bulky and weighty
commodities and naturally seek the nearest
and cheapest seaport. st. Louis is an
interior city and when the cotton and grain of
Texas and Arkansas have reached her mar
kets they still have many hundreds OF miles
of rail to pass over before they reach the sea-
board. The cotton and grain of Texas and
Arkansas, and North Louisiana, therefore,
with short, cheap, regular and rapid high
way open 10 them win irresistibly seek the
sea at New Orleans.
All these facts have been time and again
presented TO our people. and deliberately dis
Y cussed; the press of the East and the West,
and even of st. Louis itself, understands and
does not attempt to deny them. But there is
an advantage Now Orleans with the compile
tion Of the New Orleans Pacific will possess in
the struggle for the control of the trade in
question an advantage which, joined with the
others, will make her power irresistible
about which very little has been said and of
which very few have any knowledge. st.
Louis IL double the distance from the focus of
the Texas trade that New Orleans is If,
therefore, the grades, curves and haul
ing capacity Of the New Orleans Pa
cific and the Southern and Iron Noun
tain road were equal, New Orleans,
with display Of enterprise and liberality
equal to that of st. Louis, would have
double the power and influence of st. Louis
over the Texas, Arkansas and Louisiana trade
But the roads are not Of equal capacity. The
pfoflles Of the New Orleans road, made by
able and experienced engineers show that its
grades are lighter, its curvatures slighter,
and consequently its hauling capacity greater
than those of any other road in the United
States. So great is the advantage that the
New Orleans Pacific will possess in this re-
gard, that it will be able to transport freight
and make money at the unprecedentedly low
price Of two-thirds of cent per ton per mile,
while the Western roads are now charging an
average of one and a half cents per ton per
mile, and making insignificant, IL any, profits.
Major Greene, in his report to the company,
says:
1T is not to be overlooked that these
grades Of the New Orleans Pacific Railway
route. which are almost unknown and unat-
tainable in the Northern and Middle States,
peti,g lines practically much create. IN its
faeor as to cost of freighsimg than the mere
difference IN distance shops."
The Importance of these light grades and
slight curvatures may be more fully realized
when we repeat our statement made a few
days ago that, while forty ton locomotive
Which, owing to the heavier grades and
more abrupt curvatures of the Texas and
Pacific can only haul on that road a
train Of fifteen loaded cars, a locomotive of
that capacity will be able to haul over the
New Orleans Pacific train of
forty-ive or fifty loaded cars.
A carefully prepared and accurate estimate
now before US shows that such a train on the
New Orleans road could transport grain from
Marshall and Shreveport to New Orleans at
seven cents per bushel. and yield the company
a net profit of $780, and cotton at one dollar per
bale, and yield the company net profit Of !
$lsIa. The grades and curvatures on the |
Southern and Iron Mountain Road are greater |
than those on the Texas and Pacific. But |
estimating them at about the same, and the |
hauling capacity of a forty-ton locomotive /,
ON that road at fifteen or eighteen loaded |
cars over double the length Of the New
Orleans Pacific, ii will be very easy to see
that New Orleans, with the completion of the |
New Orleans Pacific, viii have practically, a
much greater advantage over st. Louis than
g the mere difference in distance shows
We have not given the details of these esti- |
mates. but they are in our possession and may |
be seen at the Office of the company, at No. q
Camp street They are based upon irrefuta |
BILE facts, and present perhaps the strongest ,
of arguments why those interested in the
welfare and growth of this city should lend