The daily Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1878-1???, 1881-08-10

New Orleans and Memphis to Cairo and
st. Louis is creating as much alarm in the
former cities as the diversion of the grain
trade from the east to st. Louis and Cairo
is creating in the city Of New York, and
both are of equal importance to Cairo.
st. Louis papers, have for week
past agitated the question with view to
inducing the buisnese men Of that city to
create more extensive facillltiis to meet the
great influx of cotton that is anticipated
when the next season opens. Column at.
ter column in the Globe-Democrat has
been devoted to the discussion of the
question in all its bearings. Tables, show
| ing the gradual increase Of the the trade
since 1871, the points to which it was
distributed it the source from which
it came and the handling capacity of the
city, have been carefully prepared and pub
lished, and from these deductions have
been drawn, which, taken In connection
| with the extension of the Iron Mountain
railroad into the cotton districts of Arkan-
sas, the building of the Texarkana and
Cairo narrow gauge, are made to show that
a great boom in the cotton trade of
St. Louis is a certainty and
that extensive extra facilities are necessary
to meet the expected boom. Mr.. l.. U
Reavis, the gentleman who some days ago
so ably discussed the question of the trans
portation of grain by river to Europe via
st. Louis, Cairo and New Orleans, seems to
have given the cotton trade of st. Louis
deep and comprehensive study, the results
of which he gives in an article Of two
columns and half in length in
a recent issue of the Democrat, OF
which the following extract is of interest
to the readers Of The BULLETIN:
"In the early days of the cotton trade at
| st. LOUIS the National Cotton Exchange
refused to class Its shipment in the same
grade as those of New Orleans, although
they were substantially identical, and the
cotton marketed at ST. Louis was produced
In section CT country which had hereto
fore been almost entirely tributary to New
| Orleans. Now, however, this senseless
discrimination has been done away with,
and the cotton dealers Of st. LOUIS are al
lowed to grade or class cotton there as high
as at New Orleans, hence it is safe to argue
| that the cotton trade of st. Louis will IN
crease witt, ratio corresponding with the
increase of population in the states of Ar.
kansas and Texas, and with the construc-
ton of new railroads, which will render the
production of larger crops of cotton in these
two states equally feasible and remuners-
tive. Twenty-three years ago the govern
or of the state of Arkansas in his message
to the legislature, said "If we had labor
enough to cultivate all the cotton lands in
the state, Arkansas alone could supply the
markets of the world with as much cot.
ton as is now raised by all the cotton grow
ing states Of the United States When the
proposed extension of the ST. Louis, Iron
Mountain and Southern Railway is built
from Knobel, on the northern state line Of
Arkansas, southwardly along Crowley's
Ridge, via Forest City to the southeast
corner of Asbly county, on the
state line If Louisiana, a distance of about
D $50 miles, aud when the Arkansas Division
of the st. Louis and San Francisco Railway
is constructed further south; also, when the
narrow gauge live, now in course of con.
struction from Texarkana to Cairo, is com.
pleted, and forms connection to st. Louis,
| it may be estimated that the receipts of
| cotton from the state of Arkansas will be
increased fully 100 per cent, and that they
will amount to fully 500,0 900 bales annually.
| There should be similar increase in the
annual receipts from the state of Texas,
when the railroad system in that state, now
controlled by the Missouri Pacific comblna-
tion is equally developed, and when all
the plans now under consideration are fully
carried out; hence it is by no means an ex-
| aggerati0n to estimate that within the next
| five years the cotton receipts at st. Louis
aggregate fully 100000 bales per year. If
| the value of the cotton trade to the city of
St. LOUIS increases in ratio corresponding
with the receipts, 1t will be worth at that
time fully $lO0,O0O,0O0 per year. Special
allusion has been made to the additional
railroad facilities, which are about TO be
furnished, because every mile of railroad
which is constructed into the cotton.grow-
ing regions of the south increases the pos
sibilitles of the st. Louis cotton trade
similarly, every new line projected from
st. Louis to the east renders this city
more available and advantageous market
for the spinners and buyers of the Eastern
States, because increased transportation
facilities keeps rates down to minimum,
and there is no possibility Of traffic being
strangled by oppressive taxation and arbi-
trary monopoly"
Mr. Reavis speaks of Arkansas as a great
cotton growing state aud anticipates q
great influx of cotton into st. Louis by
way of the Iron Mountain and the Caro-
and st. Louis narrow guage railroads,
when the contemplated extentions of those
roads shall have been completed. He
expects that the cotton of Arkansas and
Louisiana shall pass through Cairo, en- route