Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-12-03
HILL ON couNTRY's TRADE.
Noted Railway Man Declares New
York Cannot Handle It.

NEW YORK, December 3.-James J..
Hill. foremost of transcontinental rail-
road builders and developers Of the great
northwest. sat in his office in the Mutual
Life building Saturday afternoon with a
:arse map of the United States before
nina. On 1t were traced various lines of
railroads. rivers and canals, each in a
different color.
New York" said Mr.. Hill, has reached
the climax Of her commercial supremacy.
NO city can maintain its control when it's
chief claim is that it is the dearest place
in which to do business. The cost of ev-
erything relating to trade and commerce
mas increased here beyond the point of
profit. Traffic will be forced to seek other
outlets. business other locations.
New York is enormous. Your real estate,
your docks, your means of commune ca
ton, all are burdened with heavy charges.
Your budget this year is somewhere about
$!4O,OOO.OOO That is more than the cost
of running the federal government before
the civil war.
THE price to live and to do business in
New York is growing beyond the ability
OF the people to stand. They will be
forced to go elsewhere, seeking places
where the cost is more reasonable. It is
easy to disintegrate commencement
easier than to concentrate 1t. What has
taken years to establish may be lost
quickly.
Traffic cannot be damned up. 1t will
seek an outlet somewhere, by going
around the edges or making for itself en-
tirely new channels. The enormous prod
ucts Of this country flow outward toward
the markets of the east and of Europe.
They have moved toward New York only
to find two great obstacles-delay in
transit and high cost.
THE measure of prosperity is the ease
and certainty with which commodities
may be moved. What must be the effect,
then. on the producer and shipper of the
west to encounter in the autumn a block
AIDE at Buffalo that holds up his products
for days and weeks? The boats on the
great lakes bring down their cargoes from
the northwest only to find that short
stretch between Buffalo and the seaboard
Is blocked. The shipper inquiries for how
long. He is told that the delay will be
for two weeks anyway, and how much
longer no one can say.
From the prairies to Liverpool the
average time required for shipment of
grain is forty days Twenty and some
times twenty-five days Of that time are
consumed in covering the short distance
between Buffalo and New York. The re-
suit of this has been to compel the grain
buyers In the northwest to make their
grain in storage until spring, and the
farmers have been compelled to suffer the
loss.
There are two outlets for the west pos
6lDl0 Oh ueSelOpulcut UcSlucS INSW 1OTk
and the adjacent ports. One is through
Canada, down the st. Lawrence, and the
other down the Mississippi to New Or
leans Canada is constructing new out
let for traffic by means of canal con-
Meeting the great lakes with the st. Law
renee by way of the Ottawa river. When
she gets a twenty-one-foot channel it
will mean that Montreal will be no further
away from Duluth or Chicago than Buff
falo. 1 listened recently with much in
terest to a member of the Dominion
cabinet say that Quebec or Montreal or
some harbor as yet unknown would be
the great traffic port of the future.
ITO many parts Of the west st. Louis
Is as convenient and as easily reached as
Chicago. From there to New Orleans is
the Mississippi. Can you imagine the ef-
feet of fleets Of modern steel barges car
rying thousands of bushels of grain run
ming down fourteen-foot channel in the
Mississippi?
1.-The products Of the west are bound
to reach their markets. Therefore, If
they are blocked and overtaxed on their
way through New York they will find
new channels for themselves"