The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-05-14

Omaha, Neb, May 1s. 1905.-Wheat and corn from the spreading farms or the West flow in many streams to the seaboard, and great cities are spring ing up on the banks of these rivers or golden grain. just as prosperous towns have multiplied and hourished on the shores of the Mississippi and the Ohlo. The phenomenal growth made during the past year by the city of Omaha as a grain distributing point is just now attracting the attention of commercial circles. Together with the recent re- markable stride in the business of Cal weston, New Orleans. Mobile and other Gulf ports it Is due to the fact that en- ergetic and far-seeinG men haVa been able to divert some of the rivers or grain to new channels.
 The appearance of Omaha among the great grain marts Is in line with the history of nearly every leading West
 ern city, since the beginning of rail- road construction and the development of the grain fields. Chicago, which has
 grown fro ma mere trading post. as 1t
 was in the early thlrties. to the great city of 2,O00,O0O inhabitants which 1t Is
 today. owes It's prosperity to tho Tact
 that 1t was for a long timo the sole
 outlet of the wheat and corn country
 northward. southward and westward Of
 1t. It was the only port whence the
 enormous quantities of cereals brought
 in by rail could be readily shipped by
 water. and thereforY cneaply, to Runh-
 To and to the St. Lawrence. The ex-
 traordinary railroad extension which
 began about fifty years ago immensely
 developed the grain growing regions or
 the West and made them all trbutary
 grown from a mere trading post as It
 to Chicago. Commerce brought in
 manufactures. sand manufacture
 again stimulated the prouuc-
 tion of iron. steel and staple raw ma
 terials of all kinds. The various ac-
 tivities reacted upon one another to
 assist their common growth. as always
 happens. until the present metropolis tbe second city of the country-is the
 result. But 1t was first grain and sec ond the carriage of that grain that laid the foundation of this stupendous structure Of wealth and business that
 still sustains 1t.
 Duluth, a city of comparatively re- cent origin, has been built up by the
 railroad development of the Northwest and of Manitoba, which opened one or the most fertile agricultural sections or inc world to settlement. It is a strik- ing Illustration of the truth that com mercial centre whose business has eX- tended too far will be relieved of part of if by another place possessing the reouisite advantages. Duluth took much of the northern grain traffic which once went to Chicago; and she took fl because she was favOrably sit mated at the very end of the water route which reaches to Buffalo. No railroad freight rate calculator. howcv- CT skilful. could have divided the grain transportation business of the North = west between Duluth and Chicago in nortIon-but it divided itself according to the certain and fixed laws of trade. The story of Minneapolis. St. Louis and Kansas City has much in common with that of Chicago and Duluth. With I.all these grain distributing points. 1t might have been supposed that there was no room for more great cities on the rivers of grain. but new fields were being developed and euterprising busi- ness men were discovering how to get a share of the trade of today and cap ture that of tomorrow.
 A year ago Omaha was a farmers city. the commercial centre of an agri- cultural region of limited area, but sixteen railroads operated lines run ming into Omaha. and grain and corn passed through the city on its way to the East The experts of the United
 States Department or Agriculture. In a publication issued last fall, pointed out that while there are two great routes leading from the grain growing regions
 to the seaboard. one ending on tho At
 lantic coast and the other on the Gulf.
 there is @ section from which mercian-
 disc is shipped for export either cast