The Chesapeake Bay Trade, Part 1

OUR TRADE WITH THE EASTERN SHORE.

A member of THE SUN'S staff has interviewed a number of merchants who are engaged in the trade with the Eastern Shore peninsula and with the tidewater section on the west side of the bay, in order to investigate the complaints about the transportation facilities. In the first article, which appears in THE SUN today, it is said that "the unrest and dissatisfaction of the men who do business with the Eastern Shore and the other tidewater counties is positive and undeniable." It was found that the general belief is that the reason much of the Chesapeake trade is slipping away from Baltimore is because the Pennsylvania Railroad Company is deliberately trying to divert this business to Philadelphia and New York. One merchant whose customers are down the bay said: "It looks as if the Pennsylvania was trying to break us up." This great corporation controls all the lines leading from Delaware and the Eastern Shore of Maryland and Virginia, those leading to Baltimore as well as to the North. The complaint heard among business men is that better facilities are offered for shipments to Philadelphia and New York than to Baltimore, and as trade follows the line of least resistance, it goes North. Baltimore, with its great packing industry, is the principal market for fruit and various kinds of vegetables. This city is the greatest center of the packing trade in the world, and a vast quantity of the products of the Eastern Shore are consumed in the canneries and in the market as food for half a million people. Besides this, Baltimore has been the favorite distributing point. Railroads that used to be competitors for business carried the surplus which was not needed her to various cities in the North and West. In the opinion of some of our business men, the Pennsylvania company is engaged in an effort to divert this trade, which has always been and still is of enormous volume, to Philadelphia. All the principal shipping points are reached by the tracks as well as by the boats of the Pennsylvania company. If the shipper can get his perishable goods into Philadelphia in time for the early market and cannot get them into Baltimore until the middle of the day, when marketing is over, then there is no choice. He must send to the place where his goods can be sold to the best advantage. The complaint is general that the steamboat schedules are now well arranged. THE SUN will make further investigations into these complaints. If they are justified by the conditions, if it is actually true that the Pennsylvania Railroad Company is discriminating against our business interests, then the people should know it and take measures for self-protection. Fortunately, the Chesapeake bay and the rivers which empty into it are magnificent high ways upon which no toll is charged, and which are free to all who desire to navigate them. There is no reason why a great city should lose its trade when such highways are open. The Chesapeake bay trade is the most valuable asset of this city, and measures should be taken promptly to safeguard it, if such measures are really necessary.