The daily Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1878-1???, 1882-12-20

|
practicable and ought therefore to be adop.
ted, we have in former issues given fair
showing to each of them, and have earnest.
| ly favored the prosecution Of the work,
1t has been our firm conviction, and the
figures heretofore published in our columns
seem 10 render my other view of the csse
| unteuable-that TO render the Mississippi
available to the fullest extent for the trans.
| portatlon of American products to the
European market is a work of trsuscnn.
dent national importance. How it can be
Otherwise regarded, when We fairly con.
slider the vast area and immense produc-
hVeness OF the regIonof the Mississippi is
the natural commercial highway, its GER
taicly difficult to comprehend. If there
Is one thing vitality important above all
Others to the prosperity of American farm.
ers, 1t is that they should be able TO com.
mand good prices for their surplus crops.
A reduction OF the cost of trauspor alton of
grain by one cent per busbe enhances its
value to that precise degree in The hands
| OF the producer. The value Of the surplus,
moreover, determines that of tn. whole
crop; and it follows tn It in the articles Of
corn and wheat alone, OF which our pro
ducuon this year considerably exceeds
2,0OO,OO0,00O bushels, gain OF one gent
per bushel in price puts into the pockets
OF American farmers more than $4,000,
900.
Let 1t be borne in mind that in this
statement only two Of the manifold products
ofour soil are included that we speak
only Of the harvests of the current year,
saying nothing of the vast increase which
they will undelgo five, ten or twenty-five
years hence and indefinitely thereafter; and
that we have based this calculation on SO
small saving in freights to Liverpool IS
one cent per bushel, whereas 10 cases actu-
ally on record difference of from eight
to twelve cents has been realized and We
cents is regarded by competent judges as
reasonable estimate of the permanent bene.
tt to be derived. 1t is not necessary here
to repeat the statistics which have more |
than once appeared in our columns With |
the most moderate allowance for the ex.
panslon OF our agriculture, and taking the |
serviceable value OF a river route at its low
est reasonable apprasement, the profit to
American industry to be gained from its
command of such facilities rise into hun
dreds Of millions of dollars annually. If
this does not constitute an issue of national
interest, not to be bounded by state lines
or the limits of any group of states or Sec
ton of country, it would DO hard to preset
q topic to which that rack would be
conceded.
We are led to this repetition Of some of
our former utterances on this question by
the singar attitude which various journals
have assumed in regard to it. The recent
railroad war in the northwest has been
made the text of many grave discourses
on the alarming growth and possible future
enroachments OF the railroad power
in this country. The opinion has been ex-
pressed that it may so enlarge its scope
and strength as to become formidable
rival Of TIE government itself, and establish
q tyranny Of its own with which the indus
tries OF the nation will be unable to cope.
Yet there are journals which in one col.
umn warn their readers of the approach of
the evil day when they may be'bound hand
and foot and delivered into the grasp OF the
railroad depotsm, and in another dlsparace
such schemes as the improvement of the
as matters Of merely local in.
terest which should be cared for by each
state in its own way and at its own cost,
and for which no call should be made upon
the resources OF the nation. Admitting the
Tact 30 plain that 1t cannot be ovadcd, that =
Free canals aud river routes to the sea are
The great censervators of freight rates and
the one invincible barrier against railroad
,xactions, they still resist the measures
which are indispensable Tor turning this
sure remedy to account. Nature has pro.
'ided the means by which deliverance
nay be wrought which Legislation seems
,oweress to accomplish. IL the people
,f the United States will help themselves
n the way which is Enthusiastically
pointed out to them by the geography of ]
heir country, they will have little to fear
rs regards the ultimate ability of any class
If monopolists to cripple or overtax their