Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-05-23
AFTER EXPORT TRADE.
Virginia Ports Showing Splendid Com.
mercial Growth.

The bids that the south Atlantic ports
especially Norfolk and Newport News, Va,
are making for the export trade, as evil
denced by a recent statement by the bu-
reau Of statistics Of the Department of
Commerce and Labor, is attracting wide
spread attention In the commercial world.
This fact is Of concerp~to Washington and
vicinity for the reason that it will have the
effect of causing this city and the Virginia
ports to become greater railroad centers.
A number of railroads, including the
Wabash, which at present do not enjoy
south Atlantic coast terminals, are making
strenuous efforts to gain an entrance to
such ports. with view to sharing the
profits of the freight traffic in connection
with the export trade through such points.
The statement of the department shows
the value of domestic manufactured prod
ucts exported from the United States in
January and the seven preceding months.
For January alone the expectation amount
ed to nearly forty million dollars, which is
triple the amount exported in the same
month a decade ago. The document fur
Their shows that each succeeding year the
southern ports, such as Galveston, Savan-
nah and especially Newport News and Nor
folk, are securing a larger share of the
manufactured products destined to Euro
pean points from the Industrial centers of
the Mississippi valley and the middle west
The effect of this great increase in the
expectation trade through the Virginia
ports Is clearly apparent In addition to
causing the contiguous country to become
more thickly populated, the increase has
caused the Chesapeake and Ohio railway
and the Norfolk and Western railroad
which control large part of the export
freight traffic into the ports, to install
greater facilities, such as grain elevators.
warehouses and such other accessories as
are necessary for the handling of the traffic.
lie hot
systems entering the ports in the compett-
ton for the transportation Of the products
which are billed through to Liverpool, Lon
don. Rotterdam and Hamburg 1t is esti-
mated that the Chesapeake and Ohio the
Norfolk and Western, the Southern, the At
lantic Coast Line and the Seaboard Air
Line have expended more than twenty mill
lion dollars in the last few years In the i'm
provement of the facilities at Norfolk and
Newport News in effort to gain the
trade. In the last ten years one steam
| ship company alone has increased its fleet
from four small-sized vessels to eleven of
the heaviest tonnage steamers built.
The population In the vicinity of the Vir-
| gtnia ports has likewise witnessed a great
increase. The territory has a population
| at present of more than 100000 people,
with an influx Of immigrants that is stead
| lily growing. Along the shores Of the
| James river from Old Point Comfort to
| Richmond the population is being swollen
with Scandinavians and Germans, who,
with their greatly improved farming meth
| DDS, are gradually making the section one
of great productiveness. This class of i'm
migration is receiving great encourage
ment from the railroad systems operating
| through the territory. These immigrants
| have heretofore been secured by the west
| ern railroads for the wheat belt of the Da-
| kotas and other portions of the west.
| General Manager c. e. Doyle Of the Ches-
| apeake and Ohio and General Manager C.
| H Ackert of the Southern railway are en-
thusiastic over the results thus far attained
in inducing the Scandinavians and Ger
mans to locate in Virginia, and are the
chief factors in the movement. They clear
Iy foresaw the great development that
would follow the tapping of the territory
by the railroads and it's habitation by de-
sirable class of immigrants, and for that
reason are using their utmost endeavors
to bring the section to the front. They be-
lieve by such policy Newport News and
Norfolk can secure preponderance of the
traffic of the staple products OF the west
en- route to European ports.