Year: 1873

How the Matter is Viewed Officially In


the West.


In letter from Gov. Carpenter, of
Iowa, to Gov. Woodsoh, of Missouri,
we find the following extract:


"The enormous over-production of
the Mississippi Valley now seeking an
eastern outlet, but absolutely withheld
from market, and the consumption of
population, clamoring for bread because
of lack of facilities for transportation,
and the exorbitant charges of railways
now in existence, cannot be regarded as
financial stringency arising from the
wild speculation, or any of the ordinary
causes of business stagnation nor is it
a portent of evil in the future. It is,
on the contrary, simply an evidence that
the industry and enterprise of the ag-
ricultural population of the West have
reached point in advance of the trans
portation and manufacturing interests
of these States therefore, it is not
strange that the people of the Missis-
sippi Valley clamor for increased facili-
ties with which to carry on profitable
exchanges with consumers upon whom
they are dependent for market. Ii
railroads charge 81 1-5 cents a bushel
to move grain from st. Louis to the city
of New York in the month of January,
when there is no water communication
between those two markets except by
way of the Gulf, (and this [ find to be
the average of winter charges for the
last five years. and if, as is claimed,
the same grain could be moved, were
there a direct water communication
from the metropolis of Minnesota to the
seaboard, for 103 cents q bushel, the
necessity for increased facilities Of
transportation and cheaper carriage
than the producer can now obtain, is
enforced with powerful effect. And
when we consider that the present pop
ulation of 100000, now occupying
the grain-growing portion of the Mis-
sissippi basin, will soon be increased
by another 100000, while the pro
fusion of marketable products will be
more than correspondingly increased
as improved machinery in the future
as in the past, will enable the agricul
turist to realize more returns from
given amount of labor-the Importance
of this question becomes of such sur
passing magnitude as to promise al
irrepressible agitation until finally ant
wisely solved.


If, as have above advanced, and il
believed by practical men, bushel O.
corn can be carried from the Mississippi
River to the Atlantic Ocean for less
than eleven cents, proper facilities fo,
transportation being provided, it serves
to show that whatever improvement
may be made for the purposes of util
izing any water route at all practicable
and whatever may be done to establish
new railway lines andto protect the peo
pie from their consolidation when built
will be of vital benefit to the entire
country. And it is believed to be de
monstrable that the difference between
reasonable price for transporting West
ern surplus products and the presen
charges of freight lines, for single
year, would 60 far toward the compile
ton of an entire double-track railwa,
from the Mississippito the Atlantic sea
board. The whole railway problem il
comparatively of recent origin, having
grown up within the last half century
AS preliminary, therefore, to the dis
covery of a remedy for evils inseparablt
from vast corporate enterprises, man
aged solely in the interest of individual
corporators, to which the commercial
habits of every civilized people have al
most entirely committed the carrying
business of the world, more specific anC
general knowledge among the people o
the whole transportation question is o
the first Importance. And aconventiol
of the character contemplated would
if no other result followed it's action anC
its discussions, enlarge the boundarie
of public information upon the issue,
involved in the question of harmonizins
the business of transportation with th,
interests of the people, %