STATE CIRAXCIE OF ILLINOIS. 57 



total neglect of the vast interests of the people of this valley. 

 We find there has been expended in the valley since the organ- 

 ization of the government to the present date, $11,000,000, this 

 being only about $150,000 per annum; while it is known that 

 an amount more than equal to that has been appropriated in a 

 single year for the building of custom houses. 



We gather from reports of a committee of the board of trade 

 of the city of St. Louis, and also from a speech of Mr. Stan- 

 nard, delivered in the House of Representatives of the United 

 States, March 14, 1874, some very important statistical informa- 

 tion, from which we make a few of the followinsr extracts: 



''A bushel of wheat shipped by rail from St. Paul to New York 

 -costs 50 cents; the same by river and ocean to New York costs 

 33 cents, showing a diflPerence in favor of the water route of 17 

 cents per bushel. The same from St. Paul to Liverpool, England, 

 by rail and ocean, costs 71 cents, the same by river and ocean 

 •costs 48 cents, showing a difference in favor of the river route 

 of 23 cents. A bushel of grain shipped from St. Louis to New 

 York by rail costs 36 cents; the same, shipped by river and 

 ocean, costs 22 cents, showing a difference in favor of the water 

 route of 14 cents per bushel. A bushel of grain shipped from 

 St. Louis to Liverpool by rail and ocean, costs 56 cents; the same 

 from St. Louis by river and ocean costs 35 cents; showing a dif- 

 ference in favor of the river and ocean route of 21 cents per 

 bushel. Taking the average, with all the intermediate ports 

 between St. Paul and St. Louis taken in consideration, we find it 

 leaves 12 cents per bushel in favor of the all-water route between 

 these ports and New York." 



Ninety-two million bushels of wheat were shipped from the 

 Northwest, according to the census of 1870. Could it have been 

 shipped by the water route, there would have been saved to the 

 people of the Northwest the handsome little sum of $11,500,000. 

 But it is not claimed here that all this 92,000,000 bushels would 

 have naturally gone to market by water; but we state, without 

 fear of successful contradiction, that at least 50 per cent, of that 

 amount would naturally have taken the water route, thus saving 

 to the people a sum in a single year equal to half the amount 

 government has expended since its organization. The sum of 

 12 cents per bushel, saved to the farmer, is equal to $6 per acre 

 for every acre of his surplus crop, basing the calculation on an 

 average crop of corn of 50 bushels to the acre. This amount 

 saved on a surface under cultivation equal to the number of 

 acres under cultivation in the State of Illinois, would amount 

 to the enormous sum of $114,000,000 and over, Illinois having 

 under cultivation, according to the census of the last decade, 

 over 19,000,000 acres. 



The question might be asked, in view of these statements, 



