The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-06-28

city is doomed, predestined Is a. better word.
to be the metropolis of the central West oy
at the farthest 1920. BY 1850 it will be the larg-
est manufacturing center in the world. just
think Of 1t! the little city Of Hammond asplr-
ing to be the center of manufacturing industry
and all within the next fifty years. too
The support offered by the city's boosters can
not be easily disregarded, however. Hammond
certainly is located in a most advantageous po-
sition and offers all the facilities necessary to
such a metropolis as 1t is claimed to be becom-
ing.
Rubbing elbows with Chicago, its nearest
neighbor this city of northern Indiana is today
shouldering a large part Of the industrial cur-
den which has become too great for the Illinois
metropolis.
Hammond has been called the most concen-
trated railroad center in the world, and 1t Is
So With more railways within its corporate
limits than any other city on the face Of the
globe, save Chicago, Hammond has the entire
railroad system within Of some seven
square miles. These consist of seventeen differ
ent roadster great trunk lines and seven belt
lines 1t Is hardly necessary to point out WhaF
this means to the interests Of the manufacturer
1t means that the Hammond manufacturer has
q SIX hours start of his competitor in Chicago
In other words, goods sent from Chicago must
De on board the cars at noon on the day they
are to be shipped, but those from Hammond are
already six hours toward their destination
Freight rates to all sections of the country are
the same from Hammond or Chicago. Carriage
does not enter into the manufacturers ex-
penSeS. He loads and receives his commodities
upon and from the cars at the very platform Of
his plant. There is point the continent
which he cannot reach by rail line from his
own doorstep.
Electric lines in operation and doing their
share of the passenger business the South
chicago City Railway company and the Ham
mond, Whiting & East Chicago Electric Rail-
way company. Within year Cincinnati and
Chicago will be connected by an electric trolley
road which will pass through Hammond
Side by side with It's unsurpassed railroad ia
cilities the advantages which this region
holds for purposes of lake commerce. 1t is a
matter of record that every government engineer
officer who has made study of the subject
has declared that the best natural harbors Of
northern Indiana and the Chicago region Of
northern Illinois lie wholly within the district
he Calumet. 1t is a fact Acknowledged
even ~ the men Wnvse proper IL lie on it's
banks. that the Chicago river is no longer a lit
h1Sci -"f - . = 49, TIT ~ - ,H..-o.
For years the commerce has been drifting
steadily to the southwark and the eastward. To-
day the only harbors into which the grain and
re-bearing vessels of greatest draught may
enter are those within this section At South
Chicago the United States government has spent
IHllnonS LOT uredglng the calumet river and
constructing a harbor The government funds
available for deepening the river were used
wisely, and the Improvement of the navigable
channel of the Calumet was carried to a point
one-half mile to the east Of Hammond, a dis
lance of fourteen miles by way of the river
from the waters of Lake Michigan.
At Indiana harbor, the East Chicago company
has canal under construction which is to con-
meet the harbor with the Calumet river at the
point where the government engineers ceased
their work The completion OF the canal work
upon which is being rapidly pushed, will make
an island Of the entire Calumet region, the sur
rounding river and canal waters being 200 feet
wide and twenty-one feet deep, sufficient to float
the largest steamer that ever breasted the waves
of Lake Michigan.
The benefits to be derived from the great
drainage canal, connecting the lakes with the
Illinois and the Mississippi rivers and the Gulf
of Mexico will be 6. factor in the prosperity Of
the Calumet region. The territory to be in
cluded within the sanitary and as it is event.