Chicago To The Sea

Last week we called attention to tlie f act that the sceptre of political power was stirely passing westward. "We showed that the control of tho United States Seríate lias already gono far beyond the Alleghenies, and at tbe present rate of settlement wil], in the life-time of those j now living, cross the Mississippi. To-day we present a piece of significant raihvay neus demonstrating that the commercial domination of tho country will accompany the political supremacy on its westward rnarch, if it does not precede it. The Illinois Central railway, for this 1 spring and summer, advertises through ! tickets to Havana and return for $90, ! and also from Chicago to the City of Mexico and return for $164. In i both cases the route is via ! New Orleans. This is tho first stop fcoward makiug New Orleans the seaport of the Mississippi Valley and the great North and West, am I Chicago their great commercial center or metropolis. It is the tirst stroko towards cutting off the ; Atlantic slopo and reducing it to a mere ' provincial section of our great continental ! empire. The rovolution which this bold movement portenda any tyro in the grand ■ strategy of trade and travel can comprehend at a glimce. Already tho coastwiso trade of Philadelphia and New York is gono, or at least we carry no longer for tho whole country, but only for that little strip of it this side of the Alleghenies. The whole Mississippi Valley - that enormous stretch of territory drained by ! the Mississippi and Missouri, with their great branches - its trade and travel, its surplus grain and cotton, now will iüxl its way to the sea ond tho outer world by its' water-courses. This ambitious stroke of the Illmois railway demonstrares the fact that the West is awake to tho wonderful possibilitiea of its commercial future, and when we know the resistloss energy and daring achievement with whicJi that I tion puahes forward every work and enterprise we may feel sure that that future is near. Perhaps in the new light of this idea, too, the main body of the continent finding an outlet to the world by a port directly to the South, some of the skeptical raihroad kiugs may begin to undorstand the full meaning and idea of the North and South railway system, and see its rolation to the ultímate development I of the