Leaving for effective navigation,. Which with 100 boats daily and 170 tons, average cargo of last year would pass through in the season, 162 days. 2,754,000 tons. Instead of what was done in the season of 1866,... 2,523,664 An excess of only,. 230,336 tons. Whilst the tonnage of the Western States has doubled every ten years by the canal, the increase has been still greater by the railways. The total movement upon the N. Y. Erie and the N. Y. Central in the year This increase has not been spasmodic, but remarkably regular, yet these roads have been scarcely able to keep up their equipment to the yearly increasing demands upon them. Indeed, during nearly every fall for several years when there has been a full fall crop, their freight houses at Buffalo have been steadily crowded with property awaiting shipment. It was so last fall. Can these roads then be depended upon to do more than keep pace with the regular and rapid increase in the future so clearly indicated by their business of the past? We think not. The same rate of increase for the next decade will make the total annual movement over 13,000,000 tons, requiring on each road at least 60 daily trains every day in the year. A business half as large as this, would exclude nearly, if not all, the passenger trains from these roads. The present traffic on each, with a full fall trade, requires about twelve daily freight trains east and the same west. How apparent it is then we must look elsewhere for the accommodation of this great and increasing trade from the Western States in the future. It has fully kept pace with, and on several occasions for considerable periods of time choked up all the existing channels of transit through this State not only, but through the states of Maryland and Pennsylvania as well. Still comes the clamor for more ample outlets from the lakes to the ocean. If nothing but [CON. No. 164.] 2 capacity was wanting, we might return to the common wagon road and the six horse teams of fifty years ago. But trade revolutions, like political, never go backward. We must accompany large capacity with a satisfactory celerity, and moderate rates of freight before the wide spread feeling of discontent in the West will be dissipated, or efforts from that quarter to establish other avenues of transit around us abandoned. What then can be done in this State to meet the exigencies upon us in the near future? Will it pay to construct a double track railway from Buffalo to New York, exclusively for freight? This would furnish the required capacity, for transit for many years, accom. panied with celerity of movement so desirable. Of this there can be no reasonable doubt. It only remains to inquire what must be the average rate of freight per ton, from Lake Erie to the Ocean, to pay a fair return for the capital required to construct and equip such a road. Fortunately this information is at hand, ample in its character, replete with minutiæ, and in every respect sufficient and worthy of confidence. The New York Central Railroad, in its sworn reports to the State Engineer and Surveyor, shows the cost of transportation upon the large tonnage of that corporation, to have been as follows, for the past four years, closing on the first of October: 1864. Total tons for the year, 1,557,448, cost per ton per mile, 2c. 78 equal on the average to $9,7% per ton from Buffalo, if through by rail to New York, and but a trifle less for eight months in the year, if transferred at Albany to barges upon the Hudson River. The river route being so short, coupled with handling the property twice, it becomes nearly as expensive as the "all rail route.” Taking as a guide what it has cost this road, on the average, for the past four years to do its freighting business, (well managed roads in other States show about like results) and we can safely make the following computation for the proposed railway: First, its probable cost. Road complete with necessary buildings and accommodations for the transportation and handling at the ends of the route 1,000,000 tons annually, will be cheap with a double track at $40,000 per mile for 450 miles, $18,000,000. Equipment for a through business of 1,000,000 tons annually would require about what the N. Y. Central Railroad for 1,600,000 tons on their road of less length requires, or say $7,000,000. Second. What it will cost to do the proposed amount of business at a rate of freight which experience proves to be necessary to pay seven per cent upon the cost of construction and equipment. Cost of transportation for 450 miles between Buffalo and Profit per ton through to pay 7 per cent. on capital,.... Making freight through by canal,.. $9 78 1 75 $11 53 The average rate of freight from Buffalo to New York on wheat, by canal, for the last four years, including over two dollars per ton toll to the State, has been about $5.70 per ton. If this rate by canal has caused great discontent in the west for its alleged extravagance, how may we reasonably expect the proposed necessary rate by the new railway will be received in the same quarter? Exasperation will take the place of previous mere discontent, when it is settled and generally known that the Erie canal can no longer be relied upon to accommodate the full trade of the west for its surplus products of forest and farm, and the only means of transit through this State is subject to $11.53 per ton freight. What outlet, then, except an enlarged Erie canal, will the west find to the ocean, commensurate with their wants and their necessities, cheaper than by the proposed freight railway? On the 10th of March, 1862, five commissioners, appointed by the State of Illinois, proceeded to the seat of government of Canada, with a memorial to his excellency the Governor-General, urging upon him and the government to open up a route through their dominions adequate for steamships suitable for the ocean, with 1,200 to 1,500 tons cargo, to pass out from the lakes without transhipment to all foreign countries. One very remarkable and significant statement is made in this memorial, that these commissioners estimated the saving in transportation from Chicago to Liverpool by this route, as compared with the route though the city and State of New York, at thirty cents a bushel on grain. The canals connecting Lake Erie with Montreal are insuffi cient in size.for steamers suitable for the ocean. It is estimated that it will require $10,000,000 to make them so. The Canadian government, in the year 1858, caused a survey to be made of the Ottawa and French rivers, with the view of making a ship navigation through that way to Lake Huron. This survey was completed, with maps and plans of the route, with an approximate estimate of the cost of the work. Another survey, more full and minute in its character, was subsequently ordered. This was made by Thomas C. Clark, and by him submitted to the government on the 2d of January, 1860; a copy thereof is hereto annexed, with the maps of the previous survey. These surveys show that from Montreal outward to the ocean, the St. Lawrence is navigable fully seven months in the year, with at least twenty feet of water over the shoalest places, and that for eleven years past in succession, the upper Ottawa has opened on the 27th day of April, on the average, and closed on the 27th of November. That from Montreal to Lake Huron is 430 miles, 351 miles of which is now good ship navigation, and by the construction of a few dams there will be 401 miles, requiring only 29 miles of canal, with 64 locks, to complete the route; 8 miles of which canal, with five locks, is already completed of nearly the required size. The estimated cost of the improvement is $12,058,680. The distance from Chicago to Buffalo is 1,000 miles. From Chicago to Montreal, via Ottawa river, one authority states at 930, another at 980 miles. From Chicago to Liverpool, via Ottawa river, 3,720; from Chicago to Liverpool, via Erie canal, 4,480. Average freight and transfer charges at Buffalo, during the past fall, from Chicago via Erie canal to the city of New York, 30 cents per bushel; from New York to Liverpool, including charges for transfers, &c., at New York, say 11 pence sterling or 30 cents, making, without insurance, in our currency, 60 cents per bushel from Chicago to Liverpool. If this wheat had been transported by the proposed railway, it would have cost, in addition to the above, 18 cents per bushel, in such case making 78 cents per bushel. If any stimulus were needed to hasten the completion of the work in question, what one can possibly be greater than such exorbitant rates of freight upon property from Lake Michigan, passing through this State, destined to a foreign market? An average of full 60 cents per bushel for three months, and for the month of October 70 to 74 cents per bushel; and this, too, accompanied with the fact that the receipts of corn this season at tide water has been some six or seven millions bushels less than last year. What may we reasonably expect would have been the state of things in this regard, with these millions of bushels added this fall to the trade we have had? A good steamer, suitable for the lake and the ocean, within the limits of the locks on the proposed Ottawa route would easily carry fifty thousand bushels of wheat, and make the round trip, Chicago to Liverpool and return, with a proper dispatch in port, in forty days. With such extravagant rates outward and only a moderate cargo in return, her net profits could scarcely fail to pay out of the proceeds of one trip fifteen per cent upon her cost. Not only would this route be formidable, quick and cheap for the foreign trade, it would also be quicker and cheaper for the New England ports than through this State in its present condition. ADVANTAGES OF THIS ROUTE. First, Mainly to the States bordering on Lake Michigan, by furnishing a cheaper and quicker avenue of transit for their exports and imports with foreign countries not only, but to the New England States as well; opening up all the ports on that lake at once and likewise on Lake Superior, with only slight improvement in the outlet, to the shipping of the world for seven months in the year. Second, To Canada generally, by the inducements it would offer to the settlement of an extensive portion of that country, now a wilderness; the better market it would insure for their inexhaustible supplies of lumber, and the vast water power along the route at all the locks for its manufacture, as well as the very superior advantages there afforded for the manufacture of flour; by the closer practical proximity to the producer in the west and the consumer abroad, and in the eastern states. Like advantages, but less in degree, would extend to the states west of the Mississippi river, and perhaps even along the Ohio, and south to Memphis. Boston and Portland could scarcely fail to profit and thrive under the enlivening influence of a large direct trade with Lake Michigan and Superior. |