Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-07-19
HAS ALL OF THE FACILITIES
VIC BEAUTY NOT ENDANGERED

BUT w nat IL NEEDED Also Is Local
Patriotism and Much
Hard Work. ..
Written for The Star.
Senator Stephen B. Elkns a few months
ago. in speaking Of the commercial and
| industrial outlook Of Washington. said the
capital was funnel between the south and
the north. He pointed to the fact that
several OF the great railroad systems OF
the southern states terminate on the banks
OF the Potomac, that river being q
natural barrier to the further extension OF
these systems northward. More than 20 600
miles of railroad already built. as the SEN
ator expressed it, with their distant termini
stretching in circle from Cincinnati to st.
Augustine. converge at a single pont-the
bridge across the Potomac-finding their
outlet over the Pennsylvania trunk line to
the north
With this fact as a text Mr.. Elkins
argued that Washington would almost i'm
mediately exhibit large commercial expan-
sion to be followed by indefinite Industrial
growth that would finally make this city
one of the most important trading and
seaboard.
Washington having this unique position at
the head of tidewater on navigabie river
with a twenty-foot channel, at the point
where the finger of fate has established the
highway of traffic between the south and
the north. it is inseparably bound up with
the commercial and Industrial progress OF
the southern states. 1t is fair to say that
Washington trade boom is but an echo of
the movement which has filled the pockets
of the southern planters with money, en-
riched her country merchants and caused
the hills of Dixie to blossom and her valleys
to hum with the music of industry.
Gateway of the South
That steel bridge over the Potomac Is a
gateway on the outlet of trade, opening
and closing at the portals of the capital.
Progress in the southland must be reflected
here, Washington is the natural financial
center of the south as it is destined to be
Its chief depot of supplies. The needs OF
trade along every line of Its network of
railroads will demand larger invoices OF
merchandise, more prompt delivery and
cheaper freights than any other emporium
can furnish. Even the forty-fve miles be-
tween here and Baltimore will be con-
trolling factor In the development of job
bling trade. The upbuilding of wholesale
trade and the distribution OF supplies over
the south is as much a part of the progress
of Washington as its growth in art, educa-
ton, letters. music and statecraft.
That necessity in the topography of the
southern states which has brought the ter
minals OF the railroad systems to Alexan-
dria and Rosslyn lays a responsibility upon
the business men of the District of Column
bia to make use Of these great lines of
traffic to supply the south with what It
needs commercially. That duty cannot be
shirked or placed upon other shoulders.
New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore may
for a time control the trade of the south.
as they have done in the past, but the time
has now come when the source of distribu-
ton must be moved a peg nearer to the
consuming territory, and those who look
askance at the movement for the upbuilding
of Greater Washington or who openly
sheer at 1t are struggling with fate only
to be miserably beaten and crushed in the
march of events.
Virtue Of Propinquity.
Wholesale trade born of this nearness Of
Washington to the south will beget Its kind
There will be more and more jobbing. SIM
liar to that now In operation. The situation
demands greater diversity of wholesale
houses, and these will be esta blshed from
necessity. Trade thus expanded will beget
more trade over a wider field. The increased
volume of commodities assembled here for
distribution will call for new facilities of
transportation, and one of the first steps
in the development Of the Greater Wash
ington'' will be the landing of cargoes here
by water. The ice fleet from Maine and
the vessels bringing stone from the New
England quarries should soon be augmented
by fruit ships from the West Indies and
Central America. The city's permanent pop
ulation and the needs of the nearby towns
in Virginia and Maryland should be suffi-
cient TO dispose of ship loads of tropical
fruit and coffee, which can be brought as
cheaply to the wharves OF Washington as
they can to Baltimore Philadelphia. The
same Is true of other commodities which
will be demanded to fill the wholesale stores
of the future.
But one OF the essential features OF water
traffic is that the incoming vessels shall
have a cargo to carry out. Coal would be
the natural freight with which to load the
fruit ships from the southern seas. The
Potomac fats on the Virginia side present
perfect natural facilities for the shipment
of coal by water, and the railroads which
terminate there pierce the bituminous coal
fields at several points. The incoming of
sea freight and the outgo of coal requires
only the enterprise of capital, the energy
of merchants and the cooperation of the
railroads to reach fruitfon 1t is all part
and parcel of the commercial and Industrial
expansion of the south
Virginia Territory.
The principle that trade begets trade fur
Their applied leads inevitably to manufac-
ture to supply the commodities handled by
the jobber. For the very reason that whole
sale trade is now required in Washington
to supply the south promptly and cheaply
holds good in establishing factories for the
production of various articles In the valley
of the Potomac to supply the wholesaler
The unwrought materials from the mines
forests plains and plantations of the south
as we'll as from the north, can be laid down
here as cheaply as at any other point. The
Virginia side of the Potomac, with its miles
of new railroad yards accessible to the
whole OF Dixie by rail and to the seaports
of the world by water. is specially adapted
to the requirements of manufacture. The
movement to establish a shoe factory on
the upper Potomac which may utilize the
water power of the Great Falls grows out
of the fact that given the power, the raw
materials fof>shoes to supply the south can
be delivered here cheaply in New
England and large expense in freights In
the distribution of the product saved. 1t is
said that shirt factories. the manufacture
of clothing, buttons and other products
would succeed here, as well as the making
of trunks. hand bags and leather goods
which has been part of the output of labor
In Washington for the past forty years
There is no reason In the nature of things
why much OF the cotton manufacture of the
Connecticut valley should not be duplicated
on the Aaores of the Potomac, especially