The Washington times., 1914-11-22
THE CANAL AND TRADE

! lie Sdildl NeCOIu, InS oiiSlel
organ of the Panama canal com
munity, comes to hand, under dat
of November II, with some particu
larly suggestive information abou
the movement Of traffic through tn.
canal. 1t appears that in the frs
two and one-half months of its op
Grafton, the canal passed seventeen
eastbound vessels laden with grain
from Pacific ports of the Unitet
States; eight vessels in ballast
west-bound, passed through, in tn,
same traffic; going for cargo. OF
wheat and barley it is calculated thai
over 100000 bushels passed the
canal, all going to Britain. An in.
teresting detail was the passage OF
one vessel from Chile, also with
wheat for England.
Pacific coast grain goes by the
canal to the same market as in the
past. The canal does not change il
in this regard. For many years the
big surplus of coast wheat has gone
to Europe, by way of the Horn. The
canal merely makes it cheaper to
take grain by that route. This
cheapening makes it possible to
reach farther back into the hinter-
land of the United States, from the
Pacific coast, for supplies to be
moved in this way.
Some of the results of this open
ing of interior traffic to the Pacific
ports have already been making
themselves observable. For instance,
Montana is becoming a great wheat
growing State; and it is stated that
this year its output will largely go
to the North Pacific ports for ex-
port; in former years much of it has
gone eastward. The heavy railroad
toll on grain from the interior has
made its production of doubtful ad-
vantage in considerable areas well
adapted to its cultivation. The West
ern coast already had surplus for
export; the East and Middle West
could get their grain without going
to the Far West and paying the high
railroad charges.
But now the interior grain can be
hauled to the Pacific coast from far
ther inland, because the total Of
rail-and-ocean rates is not so large
as formerly. And an increasing
amount of it is moving that way.
Another and perhaps even more
important commercial development
in which the canal has a part, con-
Germs livestock. A few years ago, a
carload of hogs shipped from central
South Dakota to the Pacific coast
would have been an anomaly worthy
of especial attention. Commercially,
such movement was impossible.
Today, the transcontinental roads
across South Dakota are carrying
large proportion of hogs westward.
Those hogs used to go to Chicago,
Sioux City, and South St. Paul. This
season those markets have to divide
honors with Seattle, Portland, Ia
coma, and other North Pacific
points. 1t is an unexpected develop
ment in traffic conditions, and the
North Pacific railroads are encour-
aging it, naturally; they get a long
er haul. The canal is not believed
thus far to have had much influence
in giving direction to this movement.
The Pacific coast country does not
raise many hogs, and there is a local
demand that draws these from as far
east as South Dakota.
But the canal, it is now very OBJ
vious, is going to cause a develop
ment and an increase of population
on the Coast that will command yet
larger proportions of the agricul-
tural and livestock product of the
That development is now
we'll begun, and certain 70 continue.
AS the far west reaches east
ward into the interior for increased
there will be less and less
of the interiors surplus to be sent
either for consumption
here or for export. And as the guam
tity of Western stuff in Eastern
markets is reduced, its tendency to
flood out and sweep aside the efforts
Of Eastern agriculture will be cor
respondingly reduced.
Thus, in the not distant future,
there may be expected a rapid re-
Mobilization of agriculture in the
East. The East" may be defined
as meaning not only the
northern country east of the Allie
ghenies, but Ohio, Virginia. and
much of the South. There is no bet
ter producing section of the country
than the East and Middle Atlantic |
section; but it contains, despite that
it is right at the doors of the great |
est markets, too many idle acres. 1t |