The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1880-03-13
THE SHIP CANAL MEETING.

lust now. For years the people on the line OF
the canal have been trying TO agltate the sub
iect but except from La Sale to l.ockport, no
body seemed to care much about it, Now We
have the whole river region walked W on the
subject. The Alton, Pekin and Peoria papers
respond heartily To the call upon them and
urge a large attendance AT the Ottawa meeting
on the 18th inst Even one OF the Springfield
papers, where heretofore We had always looked
only for opposition, now has IL friendly word
for the project
But of more importance than all, perhaps, is
the earnest interest which { icago Is begin
ming to exhibit in the work Even the Cook
County Democratic Committee is moved t.
take 1t up and urge It's recognition at the hands
of the democracy and the attendance of its rep
rescntatiye men at the Ottawa meeting. When
a purely political body undertakes to endorse
such project it must sec in it elements OF uis
Questionable popularity that are worth Selling
before they can be appropriated 10y opposing
parties.
But. Of course we refer to this only as an
evidence Of the growing popularity OF the pro
iect, and not to show that it possesses any par
tlsan importance or significance. In Tact, on
no point have the instigatOrS Of this meeting
on the 18th, and through ii of the renewed agta-
ton Of the subject, been more careful than to
diyest 1t Of all partisan significance or bearing.
The movement is intended to be prominently
one of the people, and in the highest interest
OF the laboring and producing classes who
constitute the backbone and BODY OF the people.
On the eve of the great meeting we expect
| to see here it is neither necessary nor would 1t
perhaps be strictly appropriate for us to en-.
large on the importance of the great work IN
behalf of which this agitation Is to be inaugu
rated That will be the province of the emil
nent speakers who will be present to address
the people Yet we cannet refrain from max
| ing single alluslon, particularly in view OF
the singular Indifference not to say hostility
| Chicago had 50 long shown towards this Ship
Canal project to the wonderful intelligence
and grasp with which, two years ago, in the
midst of that Chicago indifference and hos,
| tllty, the present distinguished Mayor of that
city, then member OF congress, toresaw and
took in the importance Of this improvement
and the irresistible pressure with which it
would yet force itself upon the attention of the
city he so ably represented in congress.
We have before us copy OF speech made by
the Hon. Carter II. Harrison in congress May
DIST, 1878, in favor OF the proposed Illinois
Ship Canal. 1t was made at time when Mr..
Harrison believed he had got the consent of
the River and Harbor Committee 10 report in
favor of large appropriation to the work, but
on account of the death of one Of the members
of the committee at the time he was disap-
pointed in that expectation. We close this
article by extracting paragraph or two from
that speech, which was really ore Of the ablest
ever made on the subject;
Sir, the Mississippi and its navigable feeders
give water line of nearly twelve thousand
miles They water soil capable of producing
nearly every fruit and grain known to the
world. The lakes have a shore line of five
thousand miles. Every foot of that shore line
except on Lake Superior Is as rich AS the val
eys of Judea, the home Of Gods chosen peo-
pie The rugged shores Of Superior are solid
with minerals as pure as the product of the
furnace.
Mr.. Speaker, all OF this vast water inland sea
board can be brought into union by "a canal
thirty-sx miles long and yet our statesmen
ask, Is it NATIONALLY
Sir, look again at the railroads entering at
the mouth of this canal Fourteen different
roads, whose arms reach over and through all
of the grain fields Of the Northwest, enter at
Chicago. One can read on the sides of cars
AIRY day within her limits the names of nearly
every railroad corporation Of tins northern
continent.
All OF the fourteen roads entering in Chica-
90 whose connections are like the nerves OF
the body, leading to every extremity OF the Re
public, unite, and their rolling stock is free.
| ly transferred from one to another They all
run into a common stock yard. They all run
into the great lumber.yards. They all lie
along the huge grain elevators, many of which
have storage for over a million bushels each.
| These elevators handle carload of grain rs
readily as a man can bushcl measure. Deep
water washes their walls. \ carload OF wheat
is lifted on one side and poured into THE ships
hold on the other. Thirty thousand bushels
are thus poured into the vessels hold, so that
she can arrive and depart between the rising
and setting of single days sun
| At an expense of "a few millions of money
the Mississippi steamer can be enabled to lie
against these elevators, or at the piers OF huge
lumber-yard, and after unloading upon the
| lake ships the produce Of the far West or the
extreme South, she can steam to Upper Nj
souri, laden with lumber or ready-made hous-
es, or to New Orleans with grain and pork, and
he minerals of the Superior, to be poured INTO
an ocean-bound argosy. \ vast trade would
thus, Mr. Speaker, he divorced from the more
costly railroad transportion. Corporations
weuld be brought to assume the semblance of
having souls. Though they possessed none.
THE PALMER BOOM.
The springfield State Register OF Wednes-
day brings US the proceedings of very large