Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1890-09-28
unw roMAKE A GREAr CITY.

The Pittsburg Dispatch has been call
ing for views upon this interesting and
complicated problem as applied to Pitts
burg. offering prizes for the best essays
nnon the subject. The essays thus
brought forth are clever in school
boy sort Of way, but the paper most in
teresting and weighty, is signed Non
Competitor" and is credited to Pitts
burg business man, who evidently writes
from a business point Of view, though
his scheme completes in grandeur with
the Arabian Nights tales. 1t IS how
ever. not new and has been frequently
alluded TO and advocated by the REGIS
TER. II is. in brief, the Improvement
of our waterways as follows:
The control and canalization of the
Mississippi and its tributaries, TO make the
Mississippi. Ohio and Missouri navlga0le
for large steamships. and lesser tributaries
for river craft; imp0unding the Hoods TO
float ships in due season.
4 ship canal connecting the upper
ONO with the lakes
g. The conversion Of the Erie Canal INTO
q ship canal.
4. The construction of the Hennepin Ca
5. a ship canal connecting Lake Michi-
gan with the Mississippi.
These Improvements will be made
thinks the writer, and, though eX-
pensiye. would pay now. Fifty years
from to-day. he thinks. they will be i'm
peratively necessary, for these reasons:
We necessarily transport oar raw and
manufactured products immense distances
subiecting our railroad system 20 "a strain
even now almost exceeding their capacity.
Witness frequent freight bl0ckades, short
AGES Of rolling stock. slowness Of delivery,
excessive rates. etc. Our population ana
productive capacity increase AT tremen-
dous ad ever-accelerated rate, ana WILL con
tinue 20 do So, provided we have cheap anu
abundant means of transportation. beyond
"a certain limit we must find these III our
WATERWAYS. 10 which Nature mas set no
limitations. whereas she has set definite
bounds 20 the economical development OF
the railroad system.
All natural roads are now occupied Oy
railroads. which may multiply their capac-
itv several times by laying more tracks ana
improved equipment and management
But beyond these limits, now nearly reach
ed. are engineering difficulties which can
bc overcome only by expenditures SO great
as 20 raise the cost Of transportation SO
high as 20 be am incubus on the energies OF
the people and hinder their advancement
We must. therefore, turn 70 our water
routes which. when improved. Will never
.-N.. anI.n d. Tent HInrfI fa-
comes as dense as that OF Belgium. Inc
cost NAV now appear tremendous. but 10 Is
not beyond our means. II 10 were Sio,UOO'
OOl.OOO and SD years We're required u would
only be S2OO.OOO.0O0 annually less sum
than we now spend on railways Nor Is
the sum vast relative % the bulk of com
nerce % be served. Our present )Mlssls-
sipui Valley annual commerce now prooa-
Div exceeds the total cost Ten years from
now IL will be treble IT, What IL will be
I'm SD years mind cannot conceive
All of this is truth, and the sooner
We recognize IL the better. The
benefits of these improvements would
not De for PittSburg alone They would
benefit in equal proportion Wheeling
and every other port between here and
New Orleans.
The subject is comparatively a new
one and has, heretofore, been thrust
aside with q smile and shrus as Ito
plan and impracticable, but il will not
down and every time 10 reappcarS it has
had added strength and new adherentS,
uuuow il has the unqualified endorse
ment of practical men of business and of
equally practical engineers.
The thing is vast. indeed. and will bee
the most costly Improvement we have
ever undertaken: but % will come, and.
as the cssayist from whom We have
quoted SAYS. il would pay now.