Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1882-05-13
Bua Stnf correspondent.

By a STAFF Correspondent.
In a previous article we alluded to the We'll
land canal as a work undertaken by Canada
and the British Government at cost of S54,
| 900 900, with the express view OF competing for
| American transportation on the great lakes.
and argued the necessity of speedy develop
ment of the great natural advantages of the
| Mississippi river and its tributaries. not as a
means Of preventing the proposed British
| competition on the lakes, which we then treat
ed as foregoae conclusion. but as movement
to check their progress toward the conquest of
our whole great interior empire. Since the
writing Of that article some one has enclosed
us printed slip, from which we make the fol-
lowing extract:
1.-THE enlarged weIand canal is now open for
traffic. and for the past few days the hearts of
| our citizens have been gladdened by the up-
ward and onward movement OF vessels
| through this channel-a channel destined when
fully completed to revolutionize the carrying
| trade Of the lakes = = .
| The propeller John @. Gault, of the Wabash
Line. which passed down the enlarged Welland
canal on Saturday last is the largest propeller
| which has yet gone down to this date. The
| Gault hes length of hull over all of 233 feet.
| breadth OF beam over all of 80 feet, and depth
o
| bushels of corn on draught of II feet inches
| of water. and $4,000 bushels of corn on 13 feet
6 inches. Her cylinders are 2i and 81 inches
bore (compoundl. with three feet stroke.
in diameter and 16 feet long, single furnaces.
and five fues and a steam pressure of
| 102 pounds. The time occupied in going
| through the new cut from Thorold to Port Dali
housie was twelve hours, and sixteen hours in
| going through the entire canal. Not the slight
est hitch or difficulty occurred in the trip
through the canal. and Captain Stewart ex-
pressed himself well sati fed with his first eX-
perience in navigating the enlarged Weland
canal. It is very satisfe cory to know that
the NAVIGATION is found TO be satisfactory.
MANY Of the gates work stiff1y as YET, and some
OF the lock-tenders are rather green at the
work. But this will soon be remedied by ex
perience and use. The lockages are made in
ab tut twenty minutes.-St. CGtherirse'S (Ont)
Dispatch to Chicago Tribune"
From this it appears that the competition of
the Welland canal is no longer thing of anti
cipation, but established fact. now to be
met il at ALL with magnsuimity and grand
national enterprise on our part. As the We'll
land canal never assumed such dangerous
magnitude until it became the work of the
british Government, the fact admonishes us
that its influence can only be cOunteracted by
like power to execute colossal enterprise.
glance at the map will show the
canal to be a master stroke of policy
on the part of Euglapd-nO less than
the capture of the entire carrying trade b.
border eight of the richest and most populous
States of the Union. The lakes. forming great
inland seas, the Mediterranean of North
America, stretch along our northern border to
the very heart of our mighty empire. AS we
have already shown by facts and figures, the
railroads of the North and West are, and will
remain forevers powerless to prevent the con-
centratlon OF our trade upon this cheap water
transportation; and unless We speedily find
some less costly method of transferring the
great surplus OF the valley to the Atlantic.
Oh oYlon and hall 10 e,
surrender to England what remains of our
foreign shipments from the Northwest.
Through the Welland canal Chicago and
New York and Baltimore, with the great ad-
vantage of situation in the midst of the grain
producing country, while extensive railroad
systems, which heretofore poured the products
or that mighty region into the cities of the
Atlantic, must henceforth, by the inexorable
law OF trade, pour them into the cities of the
lakes.
Here then is revolution "actually begun"
While we harangue petty republics of remote
South America on the ownership of guano
beds, higgle over tariffs-we do not mean to
reform, or skirmish away time and opportunity
in filling offices with partisan adherents--Eng-
land announces to the world the opening of
canal which entails to her the carrying trade
of half the American Union.
Has this revolution already begun to be felt
in the metropolitan city of New York; May
the 10th, 1881, the New York Board of Trade
said: Steamships and sail vessels are now
almost daily leaving this port New York; in
ballast for New Orleans to obtain caryoes
there" Here we find that steamships must
leave the metropolis of the country empty,
double the dangerous capes of Florida and
navigate two thousand miles of ocean before
they load for the return trip But we
have another item of news connected with
this matter, clipped from the Scientific Anleri
can, which reads as follows;
1.-THE speculative holding of grain at Chicago
for higher prices led, in the fore part of April
to some curious results. The exports of grain
had been stopped. the market rates at Liver
pool being lower than those of Chicago. The
railway officials refused to lower their rates.
saving that they saw no good reason for sac
rif1cing their revenues to enable the promo
tors of corners" to adjust questions of supply
and demand between themselves and con-
sumers. The managers of certain ocean
steamship lines having steamers billed
for early departure were in great
for grain to be carried as ballast, freight free.
A press dispatch from Chicago, April z said
that the day before the agsnts of the Eastern
lines terminal there were asked by wire IL they
could not furnish small cargoes on condition
that no charge should be made for transport
ing it by water to Liverpool. Again, on the 7th,
the steamship people renewed their appeal,
Offering additional inducement q premium
of several cents per hundred pounds to the
shipper. The offer of a premium was made by
the four lines running between Boston and
Liverpool
There are some curious If not startling facts
concealed under the words, speculative hold
ing of grain at Chicago" OF course it could
be speculativelY held wherever it chanced to
be, but why was not this grain in the shipping
port where the great empty ships were beg
ging and offering premiums for cargoes and
at last had to leave and sail four thousand
miles out OF their way to obtain them? If
great valley of the Mississippi against
the empty ships IN New York
and Boston harbors before the British ships
passed out OF the Gulf OF ct. Lawrence, what
will she be able to do when those ships come to
anchor on the broad bosom of her great lakef
Can it be that the double lines Of costly rail-
ways which have so long enabled New York to
monopolize the trade of the West, now fail her
in the height OF her power and glory What
means this state Of affairs if not the ebbing of
the tide OF her commercial power If Chi
cago can send the ships away empty out of
New York and Boston harbors no1C what
assurance have they that she will for
bear in the pregnant future Verify,
it would seem high time for the
great cities of the Atlantic to consider from
whence they are to draw supplies against the
annihilation of space and time which have
brought the desert and the wilderness to the
doors Of civilization. If those ships could have
loaded with grain in Savannah, Brunswick
Port Royal, Charleston, or any other port on
the South Atlantic, would the speculators of
Chicago have sent them away empty from
New York and Bost0ns
The Florida peninsula and Mississippi barge
canal, then. is the remedy. New York and
Boston, Philadelphia and Baltimore, are
NlbdnJ Au1CiCSGCu III H. HOb only as q means
of preserving their own commerce, but also as
an efficient counter current against the ma
tional dishonor Of permitting foreign nation
to break down our internal lines of transporta-
tion and bear away the profits of our foreign
trade.
Construct this canal. open up the Mississippi
and its tributaries to cheap barge transporta-
ton, and while untold millions are saved to
the pockets of our own industrious popula-
tion, foreign powers will have the benefit of
our mighty surplus without dividing with us
the profits of its transportation. L. CB