The daily morning Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Oregon) 1883-1899, 1894-07-03
seaports Of
the Northwest
lconLlnued from YesLerday.l

CONTINUED from Yesterday
How much Hamburg has lost because
of being inland rather than seaward
win be seen by noting how Havre ant
Dunquerque have lessened Hamburs''
commerce. by securing what might N
part have been received or shipped
through Hamburg, had that city been
On the coast. More broadly, this canb be
seen by noting how England, well tc
seaward, has secured the worlds com
merce, rather than Hamburg.
Altoona is sometimes improperly rep
resented as a would-be rival Of Ham
burg lower down the river and as a
coast port that has failed, as such, to
supersede Hamburg. The statement Is
misleading and deceptive. Altoona Is
only three miles below the centre OF
Hamburg's wharves, and is connected
with Hamburg by a continuous line OF
Wharves, being practically one city with
Hamburg.
The conditions mentioned at Hamburg
apply to Antwerp, except that the polit-
ical considerations holding Antwerp 10
her present position are still stronger
That city is practically the only seaport
of Belgium. To rave moved to a coast
location would have been natural death
To her. An attempt TO establish a rival
there was promptly prevented by the
Belgian governments action.
The seaports Of Great Britain, k
collectively, show the great value OF a
seaward location. England Is mistress
Of the seas because Of It. She stands in
her outpost position, capturing incoin-
,ne tonnage at its first contact with
Europe, and distributes 1t by a hundred
uater routes 10 all the continent. Car
gees and consignments of one class Oh
Foods can be immense, much greater
than IL the ocean vessel had gone bur-
rowing inland tn Europe to supply
one limited area Of customers only
The saving in the purchase n hanu-
ling of such large ~consignments over
balances. perhaps many times, any mere
transportation loss by the vessel not
going nearer the individual consumer
II england had tunnels under the
channel, permitting the concentration
M land radials as we'll as water radials,
she would gather to herself the larger
part of the business In most grades oil
freight now delivered at many Oh the
continental ports, and would hold an
ideal commercial seaport except on her
shoal local distance from the coast. 1t
cannot be too strongly emphasized that
n natural commercial location Is where
the centre lines OF a tonnage belt In
t~ersects q coast line, II n good set OF
radlals, preferably both land and water,
be possible for such a point. Such a
location loses nothing either of land or
sea.
Taking London, Liverpool, and South
ampton individually, we see how much
London, in spite Of her age and her ex-
pendltures upon her port, has lost of
English tonnage in favor of the other
ports, by London's being Inland. In
one year the exports of Liverpool have
been known to exceed those Of London
by $3.50, 900, 900. In 1891. the tonnage of
entrances and clearances Of Liverpool
was 16, 02l, 421, against only 2O,962, 1884 for
the great city OF London. In osher
words, taking tonnage gathered from
without zach city, Liverpool vastly ex-
ceeded London In foreign commerce.
London's old and established CONNER
cial supremacy acquired under the slow
and obsolete conditions already named,
enabled her, like Hamburg land Glas-
cow to make expenditures to
hold commerce to her port, and by les
sened terminal costs to neutrallze the
disadvantages to m due to the
extra time and the additional mileage
OF her docks. The area OF her water
docks Is over 500 acres, of her wharves
over 1000 acres. Nor could London well
been situated lower down the
Thames. Any one familiar with that
river can recall between thirty and
forty marshes lying along the banks of
Of the Thames, constituting almost one
continuous marsh.
Glasgow Is situated in the heart OF a
great coal and iron producing country,
and became a great mining and manu-
featuring centre before she was a port
OF any sort, BY 1850, or before railways
to make q port nearer the sea
possible. Glosgow's population was
about 800, 1000. She had only fifteen inches
Of water where the harbor now Is, but
had grown so great from local tonnage
originating in herself, as an inland cen
Ire might have grown, as to be able to {
spend over 1856. 900, 900 in digging an out
to the sea for her local tonnage. ]
Had railways then existed, as now, this
enormous expenditure. constituting In
interest alone enough to send all her
tonnage several hundred miles by rail, !
would not have been made, Her case Is !
/ vivid example Of the danger OF form {
ng differences about new lands by mere
y CHANGING al a map OF older countries.
Manchester Is quoted as now making