Chapter II: Part 2

“The water power furnished by the Niagara River above the
Falls,” continued Col. Shaw, “is estimated to be equivalent to
3,000,000 horse-power. When we recollect that the Connecticut
River at Holyoke only furnishes about 24,000 horse-power, and
the river at Minneapolis only 18,000, some idea can be obtained
of this enormous power which has hitherto been going to waste.
The American company has built a tunnel 8,000 feet long. The
entrance to it is a long distance above the Falls, and the exit
where the waste water flows into the Niagara River is just below
the suspension bridge. This tunnel is capable of furnishing
power equivalent to 140,000 horse-power, an amount of power
which vastly exceeds anything furnished anywhere else in the
world. The Niagara River never runs dry. There never is an
appreciable diminution in its body of water. Everywhere else
where water power is used manufactories are compelled either to
have a steam plant which can be relied upon in dry weather, or
else to run the risk of shutting down for lack of power. That
can never happen on the banks of the Niagara.”

Col. Shaw went on to speak of the plans of the American company, with which he is familiar. After stating that manufacturers from all parts of the country have been in communication with the American company with a view of locating plants in the city of Buffalo, and that expert engineers estimate that the electric power which can be developed and furnished will be practically illimitable, he said:

“The Canadian company will be able to furnish tremendous voltage
whenever wires properly insulated are ready to receive it. The
New York capitalists who virtually own the American company, and
will be in harmony with the Canadian, are even more enthusiastic
than they are in Buffalo. I have talked with a number of them
since I have been in the city. They are careful men, not likely
to be carried away with false enthusiasm, and who look at such
things purely from a commercial point of view. They are of
opinion, as I am, and as everybody else is who has made a study
of this matter, that the great manufacturing city of the future
is to be located upon the bank of the Niagara River, and the
time is not far distant when the city of Buffalo will extend
from its present site full twenty miles to the north. The number
of manufactories which have already decided to move from various
other towns, some of them in the far West, to Buffalo, is an
indication of what the future will be.

“The power is permanent and is dependent upon no changes of
the weather. Moreover, it is cheap power, and will always be
sufficient, no matter how greatly any manufacturer may desire
to increase his plant. Furthermore, the contiguity of this
place to convenient transportation is another temptation to
manufacturers. For instance, it has been demonstrated that the
grain of the West can be brought there and manufactured into
flour at least 10 cents a barrel cheaper than in the great
milling cities of the West, and that of itself is a handsome
profit.

“Furthermore, transportation charges, such is the relation of
Buffalo and its vicinity to water and rail routes, will be
cheaper there than at any other manufacturing center in the
United States. The raw material can be brought either by the
lakes or by rail to the doors of the mill, and the finished
product can be sent out by lake, by the Canadian Canal to the
St. Lawrence River, by the Erie Canal during the season when
water transportation is open, and there are 26 different lines
of railway centering there. The manufacturers have been figuring
pretty closely. Competition is so great that it is frequently
the economies which represent the difference between success and
failure, profit and loss. All those of them who have already
decided to locate in that vicinity and utilize this great power
are of opinion that the saving in expenses will of itself
represent a fair profit on the capital invested. Within 20 years
it would not be surprising to see a city, or a link of cities
practically one, containing 1,000,000 people, and perhaps the
largest capital investment in manufacturing in the United
States, with perhaps one or two exceptions.

“It is strange that this magnificent power which has been wasted
heretofore should not have had earlier development. Several
attempts have been made to develop it, but capital has been
timid until some of the great financial geniuses of New York
City became interested.”

ELECTRICITY IN THE HOUSEHOLD.

It is certain that electricity will be so cheap and plentiful in Buffalo that it will come into general use in the homes of our people. It will be cheaper than gas for light, and coal for heat. It will run the family sewing machine. The electric motor will become a part of every well-ordered household.

The _Scientific American_, speaking of the new uses of electricity coming in the train of its cheap production, says:

“Domestic life will be attended with many comforts and
conveniences. The cook will only need to touch a button, and
presto, her electrical stove will be in full operation, the pot
will boil, the oven bake, the turkey roast, the pump move, the
washing machine turn; while the electric refrigerator will
freeze the water, preserve the meats, vegetables, milk, butter,
eggs, and other supplies. No coal, no wood, no dust, no dirt, no
oil, no gas. The lady of the house will be relieved of care. She
presses a button, and every nook and corner of her dwelling
glows with cheerful light. Touch another and the electric fire
glimmers in every room, diffusing genial warmth. The electric
lift takes her up or down stairs. The telephone conveys her
orders to market, and distributes her social commands among
friends and neighbors.”

NATURE AT HER LOVELIEST — THE PARK LAKE.]

ELECTRICITY’S MANIFOLD USES.

In the same article occurs a concise statement of the varied uses to which the incoming low-priced power will be applied in Buffalo. It is as follows:

“Near to Niagara, only twenty-two miles distant, is Buffalo,
already a large and prosperous city, the head centre of lake
navigation. The simple extension of conductors over the short
distance above mentioned will bring to the people of Buffalo
direct share in the economic and other advantages of the new and
great enterprise. Light, heat and motive power for streets,
vehicles, works, shops, factories, stores, churches, dwellings,
can be supplied from the dynamos at Niagara more economically,
probably, than by any other means. Local steam engines may be
dismissed; their occupation, for Buffalo, will be gone. Even the
steam fire engines may retire. The electric pump will beat them
out of sight.”

PLENTY OF BANKING CAPITAL.

Buffalo is blessed with splendid banking facilities. There are now nineteen banks of deposit in the city with a total capital of nearly five million dollars and a reserve of nearly eleven millions. Five new banks have been started here since the spring of 1891. Our bankers are cautious, conservative business men, and banking business in this city has always been conducted on conservative lines. The solid financiers who control these great barometers of our business life have never invited disaster by loose, speculative methods. Like the arch in the foundation wall of a massive structure, gaining strength from increased weight, has been the prudence of our bankers, and to-day our banking institutions rest upon secure foundation and are ready for the branching out and growth that will come to them with the rapid increase in industrial enterprises resulting from the world’s cheapest power. Prudence has been the watchword of success in the past, and it will continue as the governor in the greater transactions of the greater future.

OUR LOW TAX RATE.

Some facts about Buffalo’s tax rate are fitting at this time. In a carefully written article from the pen of the Hon. Charles F. Bishop, Mayor of Buffalo, and printed in the Sunday _Express_ of April 3, 1892, the following facts are given:

“Property in Buffalo is assessed at much less than its real
value, and its tax rate has for many years, for all purposes
(State, County and City) except local improvements, averaged
about two dollars per hundred on the assessment. At first
thought this may seem high, but a careful examination of the
reports of other cities shows that the rate elsewhere is
generally much higher. In New York it is $1.95; in Chicago
$5.00; in Brooklyn $2.57; in Cleveland it is $2.79; in
Cincinnati $2.85. And this reasonable rate of taxation is not
obtained by rapid increase of our bonded indebtedness except for
acquiring valuable property for permanent use, or the extension
of great public improvements.

“Indeed, so careful has the increase of indebtedness been
guarded that now with an indebtedness of $11,464,531 the city is
the owner of real estate valued, in 1890, at $7,804,267 and
personal property valued at $6,828,765. Surely this statement
shows a due regard for the tax-payers’ interests; and coupled
with the fact that Buffalo maintains school facilities as good
as those of any city, police and fire departments that for
efficiency are unsurpassed, and furnishes a water supply that
for purity and cheapness is unequaled, it presents a very
well-grounded claim for municipal economy.

“The total of assessments annually shows a gratifying increase
of wealth, and of necessity the expenses of the city must also
increase with greater population to serve and more extended
public improvements to maintain. I am sanguine, however, that in
a few years the increase in values will create a noticeable
decrease of tax rate.”

OUR CITY WATER.

Buffalo’s source of water supply is the same as the source of our marvelous electric power. It is the Niagara. We get it pure and undefiled, in unlimited quantity, and it is as cheap as it is pure and plentiful. The service is under the control of the city government. Our water rates are cheaper than those in any other large city in the country, manufacturers are given very low special rates, and yet there are several hundred thousand dollars available every year for further extensions to keep pace with the rapid growth of the city, which is constantly pushing out and developing in new sections. The pumping engines and entire plant are first-class in every particular.

Niagara’s water, as is generally known, comes down from the great lakes, and enters the river at the foot of Lake Erie, where Buffalo is located. A mile down stream is an inlet pier through which the water supply for the city is drawn by mammoth pumping engines. Analysis shows that there is no organic matter in the water, and that it is absolutely pure. There is an entire absence of any possibility of its being defiled before it reaches Buffalo. All dredgings from the Buffalo harbor and river, canal and slips must be and are, as provided by stringent law, dumped below the inlet pier.

Thus it will be seen that this great requisite in the health and prosperity of a city is assured in pure and unlimited supply forever.

NATURAL GAS FUEL.

A very large section of the residence portion of Buffalo is supplied with natural gas fuel. It is brought in pipes from Pennsylvania, and also from Canada, and is extensively used for fuel in this city. It is sold to consumers for 25 cents per thousand feet net, and on an average costs no more than coal. The freedom which it gives from the task of handling coal and ashes, and the entire absence of dust and dirt in connection with its use, are greatly appreciated in thousands of Buffalo homes. The Canadian supply gives rich promise of abundant yield, and its principal market is in Buffalo. The source of the Canadian supply is only a few miles from Buffalo. The tremendous extent of the Pennsylvania field is well known.

WATERWORKS POWER HOUSE AND INLET PIER IN NIAGARA RIVER.]

ELECTRICITY SUPPLANTING STEAM.

As electric power has heretofore been produced, for the most part, by the consumption of coal and evaporation of steam, it has had to compete with steam on disadvantageous terms, as the steam lay one step nearer the base of the power, namely, the fuel.

Coal produced steam; steam, in turn, produced electricity; and as success in any line of manufacture consists largely in the application of economical methods, steam power has been preferred to electric power because it has been cheaper, except, probably, in running small plants with electricity supplied from a central station. In Rochester, N. Y., this is done to a very considerable extent, the idea being that electricity produced by steam can be furnished from a central station to many small factories as cheaply or almost as cheaply as steam power could be produced on a small scale in each one of the factories. The centralization of the power economizes both in machinery and labor. In larger plants, however, it has been found impossible to produce electricity from steam power to compete with steam. Waste in the process, steam being the parent force, prevents a pound of coal from producing as much electric power as steam power. To accomplish such a thing would be like turning base metal into gold.

But with electric power produced by the water power of the Niagara Falls tunnel, steam is dethroned as the King of Force. Electricity takes its place and builds an empire on the banks of the Niagara. And the heart of that empire is Buffalo, and will be forever. The wonderful power has its source near to us; only a few miles of copper wire brings it to our workshops; and here are concentrated shipping facilities unequaled upon the continent. Economy in collecting the raw material, and distributing it again in the shape of manufactured articles, is as important as economy in manufacturing. With cheap power from the Niagara we have the two great economies joined. What a tremendous aggregation of advantages! No wonder conservative business men prophesy a million population for Buffalo within ten years. No wonder the New York _Tribune_ says that our “manifest destiny is evidently to be something tremendous.”

ROOM IN WHICH TO GROW.

When a person undertakes to point out sections of Buffalo that will be most affected by cheap electric power he is confronted with a difficult task. It is certain that the entire manufacturing district will at once respond to the vivifying influence of the electric currents, and that new industrial sections will be opened up at many points. Manufactories will be enlarged, hundreds of new ones will be started, as hundreds of manufacturers from the outside will crowd in to take advantage of the splendid opportunities open to all. Fortunately, we have a great deal of room in which factories may grow and spread, and as the railroads tap a very large portion of the city, there need be no fear of restricted shipping facilities. Although Buffalo has a population of nearly 300,000, its population per acre is only 10.23. St. Louis is 11.51; Cleveland, 16.41; Cincinnati, 18.56; San Francisco, 30.22; Brooklyn, 47.62; New York, 58.87.

These figures are full of suggestion. There is room in Buffalo. And beyond the city line there are thousands of broad acres ready to be used for factories or homes.

There has been a steady, legitimate increase in values in all parts of the city and surrounding country. Particularly in the northern part of the city, to the north of the park, among lands lying in the direction from which the electric currents will flow, there has been a strong movement, and it is probably true that this foreshadows a growth in values that will be startling to many.

Far-seeing men forecast the future by picturing a city that will grow towards the seat of the electric current, followed always by the railroads in the path of progress, until Tonawanda is reached and absorbed; and stretching further still, will finally reach the great cataract itself. Is this too much to expect of a city that holds within its exclusive grasp the two great economies--cheap power, cheap freights! It is well to keep these two things steadily in mind.

But as the city grows in length it will grow in breadth. It will widen out on all sides, and all parts of the city will share in the general prosperity.

THE PHILADELPHIA & READING.

Nothing gives better evidence of the growing importance of Buffalo than recent action of the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad Company. This great company has at Philadelphia and along the Delaware River greater terminal facilities than any other railroad company operating on the Atlantic seaboard. In February, 1892, it obtained control of the Lehigh Valley system, thereby securing a direct route from Buffalo to Philadelphia. The new and more active management saw the tremendous importance of obtaining a foothold in Buffalo, which already holds the key to the traffic of the great lakes, and now stands upon the verge of extraordinary manufacturing development by reason of Niagara’s cheap and unlimited power. Within a comparatively few years Buffalo will be the chief manufacturing center of the country; the possibilities of traffic radiating from this point are boundless. It was a master stroke of President McLeod of the Philadelphia & Reading to establish his railroad securely in Buffalo. It is a well-known fact that the Lehigh Valley has the best terminal facilities of all the railroads centering here. Within the past few years millions have been spent in perfecting them.

Following this stroke with the Lehigh Valley, the Philadelphia & Reading made a traffic contract with the Buffalo, Rochester & Pittsburg for fifty years, giving still further evidence of belief in Buffalo.

The export business of the Philadelphia & Reading is vast, operating as it does in connection with a line of transatlantic steamers, and this opens up a new line of thought. The impetus given by cheap and plentiful power to manufacturing in old and many new directions in Buffalo will of course be very great, and it is certain that thousands of industries depending upon export trade will flourish here, close to the storehouses of the raw material and of the world’s cheapest power. Numerous avenues to the seaboard are therefore an essential part of the grand plan of our industrial prosperity, and the addition of the Philadelphia & Reading is one of very great importance.

Yet this should always be held in mind--would the Philadelphia & Reading have reached out after Buffalo business if it had not been worth while reaching for? The fact is that we attract great transportation enterprises as the magnet does the needle.

THE UNION IRON WORKS.

During the present summer the Union Iron Works, long unused, are being rebuilt in the southern part of the city, the plans calling for one of the finest plants of the kind in the United States. Part of the plant will be used for the manufacture of steel, and at the beginning a force of about 1,200 men will be employed in this part of the works alone, in three shifts of eight hours each, work being constant night and day all the year ’round.

What stimulus is it that brings this industry into life? Why was it not located at any one of a dozen other points that might be named? Why wasn’t it located close to the iron mines? These and all other collateral questions have already been answered in this volume. We have power cheaper than the cheapest anywhere else, joined with transportation facilities that are unexcelled--the two great industrial economies again, cheap power, cheap freights.

THE COPPER INDUSTRY.

One of the largest aggregations of capital in the world is the Calumet & Hecla Smelting Company. It controls the rich copper mines of Lake Superior with all their inexhaustible stores of wealth. Two years ago the company bought a very large tract of land on the banks of the Niagara within the city limits of Buffalo, and began the construction of an extensive smelting works. The ore is brought here direct from the mines, and here it is reduced and the whole output of the mines distributed from this point. Why did the Calumet & Hecla Company locate in Buffalo? Because of its peerless location as a distributing centre for one thing, and cheap electric power for another.

Not long ago, in Buffalo, a live electric wire fell athwart a lamp post, and in the twinkling of an eye the iron was fused by the current. That was smelting by electricity. The brainy men of the Calumet & Hecla Company knew what they were doing when they located beside Buffalo’s electric power house.

THE ERIE COUNTY SAVINGS BANK--A MILLION DOLLAR BUILDING.]

ENORMOUS MANUFACTURING CAPITAL.

The foregoing are simply instances of many new enterprises that have lately been started in Buffalo. The manufacturing establishments of this city tripled during the ten years between 1880 and 1890, and the proportion of increase since 1890 has been much greater than before. It is believed that the capital invested in manufacturing enterprises of all kinds in Buffalo amounts to nearly $100,000,000. What will it be after the full force of Niagara’s lightning has struck us?

AN ETERNAL POWER HOUSE.

The source of Buffalo’s electrical power is the force in running water, but unlike almost every other water power it is never-ceasing. Its supply comes from the hills and watersheds of half a continent. The Niagara can never run dry, can never diminish in volume to make an iota of difference. It is the narrow end of a funnel through which a resistless force must ever flow. It is a force that will always exist. For all time the power of the Niagara developed into electricity will turn the wheels of industry within the great city upon its banks. No emergency steam plants will be needed, as on the banks of many rivers, to supply the place of failing water power. Niagara’s power is eternal.

A GREAT FIELD FOR INVESTORS.

Nowhere on the North American continent is there so grand a field for investment as in Buffalo. Values here have been and are phenomenally low. It has been and is a conservative city. There has never been a boom in Buffalo. There has been increase in values, but no inflation, no boom. Talk of a Buffalo boom has been heard, but the presence of a boom is here denied most emphatically and earnestly. Values in Buffalo and vicinity are lower than in any other progressive city of its size in the country. There has been so much available land that inflation has been checked. A great deal of Buffalo property has changed hands within the past year or two, but at very reasonable figures. Millions will be made within a few years by landholders, and without effort on their part. A dollar planted in the soil of Buffalo today will spring up as two dollars next year.

When a city doubles its population it at the same time quadruples the value of its real estate. It is freely prophesied that Buffalo’s population will be doubled in five years, quadrupled in ten. The cheapest power in the world and unequalled shipping facilities--by railroad, lake and canal--will produce this wonderful metamorphosis.

Cheap power! Cheap freights! A world of wealth is contained in the combination.

Buffalo has a most substantial foundation on which to build a manufacturing metropolis. It is a conservative city, full of careful, cautious business men. It has come along by comparatively slow and always steady progress, taking no forward step until strong and ready for it. Commercial depressions have affected us but little. Panics have avoided us, for panics are like plagues and seize hold where the conditions are unhealthy. We have had neither plagues nor panics; we have a healthy city physically and financially.

Now a new era has dawned. We are about to leap to an eminence undreamed of in years gone by. Strong from the strength of right business living we are equal to the swifter pace of the new order of things. The sublime force of the Niagara is chained and diverted to manufacturing uses. Every wheel in Buffalo will be turned by this marvelous power at far less cost than machinery can be run anywhere else in the wide world. There’s a giant force behind the leap. Cheap power! Cheap freights! These are the talismanic symbols of a mighty greatness.

GREAT IMPORTANCE OF THE LAKE TRAFFIC.

The _Review of Reviews_ in a recent article on the traffic of the Great Lakes, proves the extraordinary importance of this traffic and of Buffalo’s location from a commercial standpoint. It must always be borne in mind that the great bulk of the lake traffic is tributary to Buffalo. The article referred to is as follows:

“Few persons who have not made a personal study of the matter
realize the magnitude of the traffic of the Great Lakes. There
were over 1,100 more vessels passing through the canal into
Duluth, Minnesota, in 1891, than passed through the Suez Canal
the year previous. Through the “Soo” Canal at the outlet of Lake
Superior there were more than three times as many vessels and
nearly a million and three-quarters tons more freight in 1890
than through the Suez Canal during the same year. There is not
the same absolute record of vessels passing through the Detroit
River as is obtainable for the two points previously mentioned.
But an estimate made by Hon. George H. Ely, of Cleveland, shows
that in 1889 there were more than 36,000,000 tons of freight
carried through the Detroit River. This sum seems large when it
is stated by itself, but the real magnitude will perhaps be
better appreciated when it is known that this is 10,000,000 tons
in excess of the tonnage at all the seaports of the United
States for the same year, and 3,000,000 tons in excess of the
total arrivals and clearances, both coastwise and foreign, of
Liverpool and London combined. The arrivals and clearances of
vessels at Chicago for 1890 numbered 21,541, while the
corresponding aggregate for New York was but 15,283. The entries
and clearances for the entire seaboard of the United States in
that year were 37,756, while for the United States ports on the
Great Lakes the arrivals and clearances numbered 88,280. The
traffic of the Great Lakes in 1891 was 27 per cent of the total
traffic of all the railways of the United States for the same
year, and if the tonnage carried on the lakes had been carried
instead by rail, at the average price per ton per mile, it would
have cost, in round numbers, $150,000,000 more than was actually
paid for its transportation by water.”

BEAUTIFUL GRAND ISLAND.

Down the Niagara river from Buffalo a few miles the noble stream divides and forms Grand Island. This is Buffalo’s watering-place. Hotels, club-houses, summer residences and public pleasure grounds abound all along the river’s banks on either side of the island, while the rich farming land of the interior is devoted to agriculture. The air of the island is pure, the scenery delightful, and the ride upon the river to and from the city is full of restful charm.

Many pleasure steamers ply between the city and the island resorts, and do a large and remunerative business. But for the great mass of busy people some sort of transit more rapid than steamers is necessary. This want is about to be met. A project has lately ripened to build a bridge from the mainland and run an electric railroad across the bridge and clear around the island, connecting with the street railroad system of the city. Long-headed men foresee that when this is accomplished there will be a quick and large appreciation of land values on the island, and it is certain that within the next few years fortunes will be made in Grand Island lands as well as in those of Buffalo and other sections of the mainland. With the increased demand for manufacturing sites, industrial enterprises will certainly seek that portion of the island nearest to Buffalo and Tonawanda, and the other side, facing Canada, will continue to be occupied by summer resorts, club-houses and residences.

CONCLUSION.

In this little volume an effort has been made to acquaint the reader with the splendid present and the glorious future of Buffalo.

Among the great events in the history of industrial enterprises the turning of Niagara’s water power into electric force is one of the most portentious.

A vast field, teeming with wealth, lies open to our view, and the tremendous possibilities--nay, the certainties--for Buffalo are sharply defined. If one tunnel can be constructed, so can two, or a dozen, or a score. Power will keep pace with the demand for it--power cheaper than any other on the face of the earth--and, as it can be easily transmitted, it will be chiefly used where it can be best used, and that is, where the acme of shipping facilities is found and must always concentrate, in Buffalo.

The thunder of the Niagara will remain where the waters leap, but its swift lightning is Buffalo’s.

_NIAGARA FALLS_
160 FEET HIGH]

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● Transcriber’s note:

○ Missing or obscured punctuation was silently corrected.

○ Typographical errors were silently corrected.

○ Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation were made consistent only
when a predominant form was found in this book.