If we claim for the upper lake country some superiority of climate for city growth over the great river region, we do not doubt that the future will justify the claim. More labor will be performed for the same compensation, in a cool, bracing atmosphere, such as distinguishes the upper lake region, than on the more sultry banks of the central affluents of the Mississippi, where are the best positions for the chief river cities.
Refraining from further comment, let us bring the actual development of the interior cities--on the navigable rivers and on the lakes--into juxtaposition for easy comparison. As our comparison of Atlantic cities with the cities of the plain has been made for thirty years, from 1830 to 1860, we continue it here for the same period, between the river cities and lake cities. We select twenty cities, now the largest of each region, and put down the population in round numbers as nearly accurate as practicable. That for 1860, is of course, an estimate only, but it is certainly near enough to the truth to illustrate the growth, positive and comparative, of our interior cities.
This table exhibits a growth of the interior cities on the navigable waters of the Mississippi and its affluents, which brings their population, in 1870, up to 11-1-10 that of 1830. This is, unquestionably, much beyond the expectation of their most sanguine inhabitants, at the commencement of that period, being three times that of the chief cities of the Atlantic border. Yet even this rapid development is seen, by our figures, to fall far behind that which has characterized the cities created by lake commerce during the same period.
Cincinnati and dependencies, 25,500 250,000 Pittsburg, " 15,500 155,000 St. Louis, " 6,000 180,000 Louisville, " 11,000 80,000 Memphis, " 2,500 25,000 Wheeling, " 6,000 20,000 New Albany, " 1,500 20,000 Quincy, " 1,000 19,000 Peoria, " 800 18,000 Galena, " 2,000 18,500 Keokuk, " 50 16,000
Dubuque, " 100 16,000 Nashville, " 6,000 15,000 St. Paul, " 15,000 Madison, Ind., " 2,500 13,000 Burlington, Ind., " 12,000 La Fayette, Ind., " 300 13,000 Rock Island, " 8,000 Jeffersonville, " 800 8,000
Chicago and dependencies 100 150,000 Buffalo, " 8,663 100,000 Detroit, " 2,222 80,000 Milwaukee, " 50 75,000 Cleveland, " 1,047 70,000 Toronto, C. W., 1,667 65,000 Rochester, " 9,269 50,000 Hamilton, C. W., " 5,500 25,000 Kingston, C. W., " 2,500 20,500 Oswego, " 3,200 20,500 Toledo, " 30 20,000 Sandusky City, " 350 14,000 Erie, " 1,000 10,000 G. Rapids, Mich., " 300 10,000 Kenosha, " 10,000 Racine, " 10,000 St. Catharine's, C. W., " 400 10,000 Waukegan, " 8,000 Port Huron, " 100 8,000 Fon du Lac, " 20 8,000