Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-12-24
FUTURE OF NEW YORK.
Has Limit Of Big City's Commerce
Been Fixed.

From the New York Sun.
There are stages in the development OF
every great city when further growth
is dependent upon the foresight Of its
inha bitants rather than upon gratuiious
advantages of location. New York en-
tered upon a stage Of this character early
in the last century, and now again its
position with reference to the future dc
nands wise counsel.
The opening of the Erie canal in 1897
decided the prosperity OF New York
from that time to this. Then the princi-
pal gateway OF the continent was the
Potomac river instead Of the Hudson.
and the interior commerce Of New York
was being DETECTED to Canada by way of
Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence and
to Chesapeake bay over the Susquehanna.
The Erie canal and its branches tapping
Lake Erie Lake Ontario and Lake Cham
plain brought three distinct streams Of
traffic to the port of New York. and In
1926 fully 1900 boats and RATS from
the Erie and Champlain canals were
counted at West Troy on their way down
the Hudson. The Erie canal furthermore
shifted the great trans-Allegheny route
from the Potomac to the Hudson. In a
few years the cost of transportation from
Buffalo to Albany declined from $SS a
ton to $5.9S.
When. railway building began it in
evitaby followed the existing highway
Of commerce. In 1851 the Hudson River
railroad completed the first rail connec-
ton between the Atlantic seaboard and
Lake Erie. Two years later rail- connec-
ton between New York and Chicago was
portation was introduced. In 1852 the
through freight east on the Erie canal
was twenty-six times that carried by the
Central and Erie railways: but year
later it was only fifteen times greater.
In 1869 the Union Pacific supplied the
gap in land transportation between the
Atlantic and the Pacific.
For q generation now the bulk Of the
interior commerce has followed the east
and west trade route across the conti-
nent. Meanwhile the granary Of Amer
lea has moved from the Genesee valley
to what was once the great desert beyond
the Mississippi. In the wake Of this mi
grafton has gone the manufacture of farm
machinery and the varied industries d.
rectly associated with agriculture. Until
recently the Mississippi valley has inter-
copied only small fraction of our COM
merce with the west, but the heavy rail-
way building of today is southwark to-
ward the gulf ports. which will, before
long, benefit also from the traffic through
the Panama canal
Some Of the leading transportation au-
thoritfes of this country believe that the
limit Of expansion for New York's COM
merce and industry is already fixed. But
cost Of transportation 10 not Of necessity
the determining factor In the competi-
ton between trade centers. Higher freight
rates may be Offset by. greater economy
and efficiency in business. 1t is the total
cost of production and distribution that
decides. Important elements of that cost
may be largely controlled by the citizens
Of this town. We may exact a dollar
worth Of service for every dollar con-
tributed in taxes: We may lower the cost
Of transshipping goods within the city;
we may by proper measures reduce the
heavy burden of fire insurance, and we
may refuse to advance business rents by
vicious building laws.