People's voice. [volume] (Wellington, Sumner County, Kansas) 1890-1917, 1897-03-11
NEW YORK MUST LOOK OUT
AN ARTICLE BY j. A. SLElCHER
ON GULF EXPORTS.
Why Port Arthur Will GrOw-EaSt
and West Rivalry.
Galveston News.

Galveston News.
The News is in receipt of the proofs
OF an exhaustive article on the Kansas
City, Pittsburg & Gulf railroad, which
will appear in Leslie's Weekly of Feb
ruary 18th. The article is written by
John A. Slelcher, a prominent news
paper man of New York City, and
who is also one of the leading pOliti.
clans of the Empire state. Mr..
Sleicher writes under d Port Arthur
date, and from it are taken the fol-
lowing extracts:
eff the commerce of New York is
to be preserved the business men of
that city must bestir themselves. 1t
Is Incredible that they are not in
formed as to the gravity of the situa.
tiOn. Here, for instance, is a railroad
direct from Kansas City and costing
over twenty million dollars, on the
eve OF reaching this magnificent new
harbOr on,the Gulf of MexicO-a rail-
road whose board Of directors includes
such eminent and influential fnan-
ciers as John Lowber Welsh and EFT.
StOtesbury, Of Philadelphia; A. A.
HecksCher, of New York, and A. E.
Stilweil, E. L. Martin and W. S.
Woods, of Kansas City. Delegations
of business men from the West, north
west and south have already been
here, and Chairman Hooker, of the
house committee on rivers and har.
bOrs. with majority of his associate
committeeman, has just inspected
this port, which is shortly destined
to play an important part in cOnnec-
tion with our commerce. New York
seems ObliviOus to the menace of the
situation.
1T is comforting to krow that
Congressman Hooker, though he
comes from one of New York's inter-
ior counties, realizes that something
must be done to save New York from
the constantly increasing competition
Of the deep-water ports on the South
Atlantic and gulf coasts. Through
his efforts mainly the last river and
harbor bill was made to include pro.
vision for careful survey of the har-
Dor of New York. with view to in
creasing the depth of the channel to
thirty-fve feet, so that it could float
larger ships than any other harbor in
the country and thus retain the COM
MERGE of which it has been so long
the sole master, but which is now
breaking away from it.
'The rivalry between the East and
the West has reached point where
the danger becomes acute and the
possibilities serious. Boston is ship
ping more food products to Liverpool
than is New York. Montreal con-
tinueS to increase its shipments of
flour from our northwestern states.
and St. John, New Brunswick, espe-
cially in winter, is the point of de-
parture for AZ enormous and steadily
charging freightage of American
flour. Erie and Fairport, on Lake
Erie, are intercepting freight from
the northwest and diverting it from
New York to Baltimore and Philadel-
phia.
"Chicago is as near to New Orleans
as it is TO New York, and when the
Illinois Central railroad takes Chicago
freight to the wharves in New Or
leans, where-Steamers wait to load it
for European and South American
ports, without the payment of New
York'S excessive port charges, it is
very likely that Chicago will fOrsake
New York and patrOnize the gulf
route. Five years ago only three
southern ports had direct lines of
steamships to Europe, the freight
from other southern ports being left
to such tramp" vessels as might pick
it up. Now eleven southern ports
have regular lines to British and con-
tinental harbOrs, and most of them
have cargOes engaged for all winter.
Not only New Orleans and Newport
News, Norfolk, Galveston and Balti-
more have their foreign steamship
lines, but Charleston, Savannah and
Brunswick are all entering, or. have
entered, a field that formerly belonged
almost exclusively to New York.
"FOr twenty years the great produc.
ing states and territories of the west
and northwest have been searching