HUNT'S

MERCHANTS' MAGAZINE

AND

COMMERCIAL REVIEW.

OCTOBER, 1854.

Art. 1.-OUR AMERICAN LAKE CITIES.

THE rapid growth of the cities on the central plain of our continent, is attracting much attention. This is especially true of our lake cities. To many persons this seems unaccountable. The reason of such rapid development is, however, easily found.

On the borders of the lakes and west of the mountains, in our central plain-including the Canadas and the southwestern states, there live some fifteen millions of people, among the different communities of whom a great Commerce is springing up. Of this number, a less proportion than one-eighth live in cities and towns. The other seven-eighths, over thirteen millions, are chiefly engaged in cultivating the earth. The product of their industry so far exceeds the consumption of the interior cities, that the whole world scarcely affords a sufficient market. The increase of their number, yearly, is some eight hundred thousand, soon to become a million. This increase should be absorbed in the towns, because, the thirteen million of farmers are more than sufficient for the production of food and raw material for both home supply and foreign demand. In England and Scotland, but one-third of the population is engaged in agriculture. In our central plain, one-half will be an ample proportion for feeling the other half, for furnishing supplies to the less fertile states, east, and for export abroad. At this time there are, in our cities and towns, on the borders of the great lakes and the St. Lawrence river, about six hundred thousand. These cities and towns are the natural concentrating points of commerce for more than six millions of people. They are rapidly forming railroad connections with the cities and towns having an aggregate popu lation of 800,000, situated on the navigable waters of the Mississippi and Mobile basins; and, what is of more immediate benefit to their growth, they are being, by the same means, intimately connected with each other and with the great region around them whose indigenous products and imports they receive and distribute. Here, then, are the elements for

computing the future growth of our lake and St. Lawrence cities: six million of industrious and commercial people having but one-tenth of their number living in cities and towns which are used for their commerce. This disproportion is being corrected by the very rapid growth of the centers of trade which nature has most strongly marked for great cities. By means of railroads over the level surface, the best harbors are easily reached. The six millions using the lakes and St. Lawrence, as their chief channel of Commerce, will, in fifteen years, swell to twelve millions. The chief cities of these millions, to overcome the present disproportion of the rural population, should have a growth much more rapid than the average aggregate increase. If these cities should absorb the whole increase of the fifteen years, to wit, six millions, the rural population would still be equal to that of the cities and, capable of feeding, besides themselves, nearly twice the numbers which their cities would then contain. It is not unreasonable, therefore, to expect a growth of these cities, during the coming fifteen years, adding some six millions to their present numbers. This will give them a growth more rapid than heretofore and much beyond that which has been witnessed in the cities of any other country. If we allow to the three largest one-half of this increase, being three millions, it would, equally divided, give a million to each. If, instead of one-half, we allow one-third only for the cities, in the year 1869; and if, of this third, being four millions, we concede two millions to the three largest cities with their dependent suburbs, it will give to each of the three twothirds of a million.

It will be natural to inquire whether, up to this time, the lake cities have given indication of such extraordinary future increase. Let us see. Chicago, from 1840 to 1850 increased from 4,479 to 29,963. This is nearly equal to a duplication each three-and-a-half years. The same rate of increase continued from this time (July 1854) fifteen years, would give to that city over a million. Since 1850, it has increased (in round numbers) from thirty to sixty-six thousand, showing about the same rate of increase as before. Toledo increased from June 1850 to January 1854 from 3,870 to 8,700, being very nearly equal to a duplication once in three years. This rate, carried forward fifteen years from this time, would give it a population of over three hundred thousand. If the rate of increase of the last year (34 per cent) should be continued, fifteen years would give it over seven hundred thousand. Cleveland with Ohio city, which has been united to her, will have, at the rate of increase since 1850, some 900,000 in 1869. Detroit, from 1840 to 1850 increased from 9,102 to 21,019, or 120 per cent. If seven years be adopted as the period of duplication, Detroit will have, in fifteen years, one hundred and fifty thousand. Buffalo, from 1840 to 1850, increased 132 per cent, which will give a duplication in about seven years. This rate continued to 1869 would swell her population to about 270,000.

These would be great results and incredible to those who have not looked well into the elements from which they are to be produced. If it be asked, how are we to know beforehand with reasonable certainty which are to be the favored cities destined to show forth such wonderful augmentation, the answer will, on investigation, be found less difficult than, at first, would seem probable. Our interior plain presents so few obstacles to the construction of railroads that its land Commerce, by their means, might be concentrated at almost any point with equal facility. If Com

merce could be carried on by railroads as economically as by lakes, rivers and canals-these water channels, so far from drawing it to their borders, would be but obstructions to turn it aside, and the largest interior cities would grow up at points intermediate between the lakes and rivers. But the cost of transportation by water is but a fraction of that by the best railroad. For long distances, on the lakes, it scarcely exceeds one-eighth, on the rivers one-fifth, and on good canals one-third. In the race of improvement between the water and the land channels of trade, it is impossible to foresee which will advance on its rival, but it does not seem probable that during the next fifteen years railroads will be operated so as to bring the proportionate cost of transport, by their means, nearer than three to one of that by the average water channels. The chief cities of the lakes must, therefore, be built where the Commerce of water channels is greatest, and where railroads are invited to concentrate, by the conformation of the surrounding country, as well as by the advantages offered at the best points of concentration of water channels. Chicago, Toledo, Cleveland, Buffalo and Oswego possess these advantages, in different degrees. They all unite lake and canal Commerce and possess more or less advantages for the concentration of railroads. These advantages, in extent, may be attributed to them in the order they are named. Chicago seems to have the advantage of the others in position, being nearer the center of fertile territory and having an easier connection with the Mississippi river. Toledo, in these respects, stands next and possesses some advantages over Chicago, in easier and better means of intercourse with Cincinnati and the Ohio river generally, as also with the Canadas. The Illinois canal, one hundred miles long, gives Chicago a cheap water connection with the Illinois navigation and, by that channel, with the Mississippi. The Miami and Erie canal, two hundred and forty-seven miles long, connects Toledo and Cincinnati; and the Wabash and Erie canal, four hundred and sixty miles in length, traverses the Maumee and the best portion of the Wabash valley, connecting Toledo with the lower Ohio at Evansville. The tonnage of these canals, to and from Toledo, has doubled once in three years, since they were opened. Chicago and Toledo, it will be perceived, have no rivals on the lakes, in the great advantage of holding the shortest and cheapest channels of trade connecting them with the great rivers of the plain and the great cities, St. Louis and Cincinnati, &c., bordering these rivers. By means of these channels, and railroads parallel to them, they hold the keys of the Commerce, soon to become immense, between the great rivers and the great lakes of the continent. Chicago and Toledo not only possess this advantage, by means of their water channels, but they are the natural points of convergence for the railroads that, from the gulf cities and the chief cities of the great river borders, seek exchanges with the cities of the lakes. Cleveland, in a less, though in a large degree, participates with Chicago and Toledo in the advantages of an exchange commerce with the river cities. She is the lake port of Pittsburg and the river towns on the Ohio below to Maysville; and she will contest with Toledo the railroad passenger traffic to and from the lake, of Cincinnati, Louisville and some other western cities to and from New York and New England. Her control, by means of canals and railroads of the lake trade of Pittsburg, and the upper waters of the Ohio, with that portion of southwestern travel and trade which her position and commercial strength will enable her to command, will, with other advan

tages, insure for Cleveland the third rank among the great cities of the lakes. Milwaukie, Detroit, Buffalo, Oswego and one or more cities of Canada will continue the rapid growth which has heretofore characterized them, and hold a high position on the list of great American cities. Let us revert to some considerations of a general nature which have an important bearing on the prospects of our future great lake cities. Railroads, next to good water channels, will have the chief agency in so concentrating commerce and co-operative industry, as to build up our great cities. These railroads, if wisely located, will be connected with good harbors. Other advantages being equal, such harbors as can be most easily reached by railroads commanding the land trade of the largest extent of country, will be the sites on which the greatest lake cities will grow up. The value of a harbor is not alone determined by the ease with which it may be reached by railroads. Its position, in relation to the natural course of trade, by water and by land, the eligibility of its site, its climate, &c., must be taken into consideration. The climate of all the lake cities is temperate and invigorating. In this respect they are equal. No better climate can be found in any large region of the United States than on the southern borders of the great lakes. Commerce has, already, so concentrated around the heads of lakes Michigan and Erie, as to indicate and fix the places of their future great cities as near their southwestern waters as good harbors and good sites could be found. Already are Chicago and Toledo the greatest primary gathering and distributing ports on the lakes. The localities of both, in their natural state were rather forbidding, but, on closer examination, both are found to possess great advantages for such improvements as are needful in building large cities. That of Toledo, elevated from ten to fifty feet above the harbor, has a variety of surface well adapted, when properly graded, to quick surface drainage, while that of Chicago, lying but little above the lake, admits of a sewerage connection with the lake waters that, with an ample use of water from reservoirs, may keep the city healthfully clean. For commerce by water, these places are unequaled and cannot be rivaled. Chicago, by means of her canal and the Illinois river, will command the heavy freights exchanged between the great river region below the mouth of the Illinois and the two great lakes Michigan and Superior, with a large portion of lake Huron.

Toledo, by means of her canals to Cincinnati and to Evansville, will hold equal control of the exchange freights adapted to water transport, of all the countries bordering the lower Ohio and Mississippi waters, to be exchanged for those of the regions around lakes Erie and Ontario and a portion of lake Huron. How extensive this commerce will soon become, the most sanguine will fail to duly estimate. Raw materials of manufacture, such as cotton, hemp, wool, tobacco, dyewoods, cabinet woods, will, for some time, be prominent in the commercial movements from South to North; while, for all time, the interchange of commodities, the products of diversity of climate, may be relied on. First, the most common articles of food interchanged will swell the tide of commerce between the North and the South. Afterwards, in greatly increasing quantities, fruits of cold and warm climates and the same fruits and vegetables ripening at different times, will be exchanged and constitute an important part of their trade. Of the food, sugar and other products of the cane have become prominent, in these channels. Last year the production of sugar in the Gulf States reached about five hundred million pounds. A considerable part of this

is in progress of distribution from Chicago and Toledo to the people who deal primarily with lake ports. Most of the tropical products of the Gulf border, indigenous and imported, destined for consumption about the lakes will, probably, reach the lakes chiefly through the Mississippi river and be distributed, primarily, from Chicago and Toledo. The fish of the lakes, scarcely equaled in delicacy of flavor, will be a considerable article of Commerce to be distributed from the principal lake ports over all the plain. Lumber will be an item of great importance, in the interchange of commodities between lake and river regions. White pine has become indispensable in the construction of good dwellings. This grows only in high latitudes. The northern shore of lake Erie, both shores of lake Huron, and the eastern shore of lake Michigan have pineries of great extent and excellence sufficient for the demands of Commerce, very many years, perhaps for all time. Below the latitude of Chicago and Toledo, this timber does not grow. These places, by means of their canals and railroads, possess the best channels to carry it to the towns south and west which can be reached by canal, railroad or river transport. On some of the upper Mississippi waters there are good pineries which may supply that river and the places which carry on their primary trade at the towns on its banks. So, a portion of the Ohio river and its commercial dependencies will be supplied, in part, from the Allegheny river with an inferior article. With these exceptions, western Ohio, northern and middle Indiana and a large portion of Illinois will receive their supplies of pine lumber from Toledo and Chicago.

Coal will be distributed inland from Toledo, to a considerable extent of country. This is also true of all the lake cities, in respect to anthracite brought to Buffalo from northern Pennsylvania. Bituminous coal is distributed, at present, from Cleveland and Erie, to the other lake ports, above. It is dug from the great Allegheny coal field which has its northern outcrop about 40 miles from the shore of lake Erie. The Michigan coal field which crops out on Saganaw bay and is distant about sixty miles from Detroit and Toledo will, probably, be the source of supply to these cities, and possibly, to all the ports on lakes Huron and Erie. Chicago will receive her bituminous coal, by canal and railroad, from the great coal field of Illinois. The eastern outcrop of this coal field is about 80 miles west of Chicago. Gypsum and water-lime, obtained on the shores of lakes Erie and Michigan, will contribute considerable freight for the benefit of Chicago, Toledo and Cleveland.

The indigenous trade of the central plain has been rather touched upon than exhibited in detail, in the above sketch. This home trade now furnishes a large proportion of the tonnage of the lake cities; and, as it will grow in magnitude and value much faster than the trade with regions out of the plain, the chief agency in the future increase of the principal lake cities, should be looked for in this direction.

It will be proper, before closing the notice of this department of their Commerce, to take into consideration the advantages of our best located lake cities, in reference to their capacity to manufacture and to collect and distribute the manufactures of the cold regions around the lakes.

Since machinery, moved by steam, has taken upon itself to make most of the useful and ornamental articles that pass under the general name of manufactures, it has found itself best placed in large cities and populous districts. Machinery for one branch of manufactures flourishes best near