The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1893-12-01
THE MANCHESTER SHIP CANAL.

This will be a memorable day in North
ern England. To-day the Manchester ship
canal. into which water was let few days
ago, will be opened for regular traffic, en-
abling cotton ships to land their cargoes at
the door of the mills without breaking
bulk at Liverpool. The enterprise has
been ef0re the public for three-quarters
of century. but work only began ABOUT
ten years ago. Since the first spadeful of
earth was turned 1t has been prosecuted
with vigor; money has been lavshed in
the enterprise; its total cost cannot have
been much less than $50 000, 900. though
the canal is only about thirty-five miles
Icing. There must have been a heavy ex-
pense in the purchase of right of way.
The proportions of the canal are well
worth study. The minimum depth at low
water is &c feet; the bottom width at the
west end is 200 feet, at the east end 10
feet, and between these points about 12O
feet The calculation is that two vessels,
each of fifty feet beam, can pass each other
at any point. The time occupied by
steamer in passing the locks will be about
fifteen minutes. 1t seems to be understood
that the hauling power used 10 towing yes.
sells will be electricity, the trolley system
having been found we'll adapted for the
purpose on the Erie canal in New York.
For more than century Manchester has
set an example to commercial cities. The
city itself has upward of half million
population. With Stafford and other
suburbs it contains not less than $50, 600
Ieople. A hundred and thirty years ago,
when the Bridgewater canal was opened,
the two cities housed about 10000 people,
but the impetus given to trade and indus
try by that artery of commerce swelled the
population decade after decade. Sixty
years ago the opening Of the Liverpool
and Manchester Railroad started the
present railroad system of England;
it was followed by so rapid a growth
Of population and products that
Manchester became the leading in.
dustrial center in the kingdom. Com
mercial and manufacturing activity devel-
oped political intelligence. In concert with
Birmingham Manchester took the lead in
the agitation for Parliamentary reform and
for the repeal of the corn laws The city
ontains the Oldest free colony and the
Oldest free school in England outside of
London. Education has rpened the wits
and enlarged the grasp of the workingmen's
mind so that. though our civil war cut off
the supply of cotton, the men OF Man.
chester never swerved hairs breath from
their sympathy with the Union.
An idea Of the vastness of the business of
Manchester and of the close attention paid
to detail may be formed from the fact that
the spinners and their friends could afford
to spend S75, 900 to substitute a water
way for railroad for so short distance
as thirty-one miles. The difference in the
cost of carrying cotton and coal for short
distance by rail and its transportation by
water must be small and the expense OF
transhipment at Liverpool cannot have
been very heavy; but they were enough
to figure in the cost of producing cotton
goods. and Manchester felt that, in the
keen competition with her rivals. she could
afford to lay out seventy-fve millions to
save them.
The opening of the canal is another step
in the great work of cheapening transpor-
tation. to which reference was made in
yesterdays CALL in connection with the
| scheme of Governor Lewelling of Kansas
to ship the wheat crop of the Central