Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-11-07
The Need for Cooperation and More Pub
lie Enterprise in P1ttsburg.


lie Enterprise in P1ttsburg.
To the Editor Of The Dispatch
This is an age of keen competition among cities.
no less than among individuals. The fttest city
survives, and the city fttest to survive is the
which Is best united to promote Its own interests.
secure its rights and display Its advantages to
the world at large.
Public spirit can do more for Pittsburg than pri-
vate enterprise, and private enterprise should see
that 1t can derive immense benefits by pooling Its
issues in general matters for the advancement Of
the municipality whole.
This clipping from the able editorial in
THE DISPATCH of November 3, under the CAP
ton "Union Is Strength" ought to be kepu
standing in every newspaper in the city un-
til it has been read and pondered by every
man interested in the progress and prosper
ity of this capital of the iron, coal and oil
industrie s-until every citizen of Western
Pennsylvania, West Virginia or Eastern
Ohio realizes how the prosperity and devel-
opment OF this entire region is SO indis-
solubly bound up in the prosperity of Pitts
burg that they will see their plain duty to
their best interests is to rally round their
industrial capital and enable Pittsburg to
speak with the power and authority OF 2,000,-
COO of people. The main trouble with
public spirit here is too much talk
and too little do-an entire willingness
to have the General Government, or the
State, or anybody else carry out undertake
ings for them, instead of doing what is
needed themselves. Another trouble is slow
ness and timorous handling of needed i'm
provements. A live city would have built
O'Hara avenue, and opened to Forbes street
a w1dened Diamond street, since we have
been talking and doing nothing else about
these improvements. When Pittsburg daw-
dies over such municipal trifles and looks
on the absorption of Allegheny as "a lion in
the way" and begs, prays and lights for
frna lN,.id iy,ot dofh httiI bo1f n
it is hard to arouse her to contemplate the
value of her position and how completely it
is in her power to amend unjust d1Scrimlna-
tions by railroads by opening the magntf-
cent waterway transportation which leads
east, west, south and north from her doors.
Looking back on the progress of the past
half century is it futile to attempt to meas
ure the accelerated pace of development In
the future, and what may we not hope Tor if
PittsDurg and her people make the most OF
their opportunities. If they reach up and
grasp the advantages nature offers SO Law
ishly we will then see the Allegheny slack
watered to Olean, the Monongahela to West
Virginia and the Ohio to the Mississippi, as
would have been done long since but for the
interested opposition of the railroads 10 any
and every kind of competition.
But the first great object of Pittsburg
should be the opening OF a ship canal be-
tween Cleveland and Beaver ana the sem
sible Improvement of the Ohio to the latter
point. Such q work is entirely feasible, and
by opening the Great Lakes would bring to
this port volume of trade whose onward
rush would never stop until it reached tide
water through the valleys of Wills creek
and the Potomac, enabling Pittsburg man.
ufacturers to load their products in vessels
for delivery to the utmost parts OF the
earth, without the leave OF license of any
railway corporations. But perhaps Pitts
burg, as usual, will wait until rival lines
make the effort to hold her own sufficiently
costly. Wait till ocean waterways are under
way through New York via the Erie Canal
or Lake Champlain, or through the James
and Kanawha rivers and Miami to Lake
Michigan.
Possibly our children or grandchildren
may do this work and place our city on the
pinnacle natufe intended for her, and until
we feel able in our day and generation to
abolish smoke, put electric wires under
ground, build free bridge, widen an alley
or two into Streets OF determine in our own
minds whether the city belongs to the
or to a Philadelphia syndicate or
two may be we had best not try anthing
great, but it won't nurt our people to know
what their duty is to the city of their love.
PITTSBURG, Nov. 4. ENGINEER.