Mr. Stafford is a keen, shrewd, level-headed business man, and has made a large fortune by judicious investments in Buffalo real estate. He believes that Buffalo will have a million population within ten years, as a result of an industrial revolution in this city that will amaze the world, the chief and controlling reason for which will be the introduction of cheap electric power.
THE BUFFALO LIBRARY.
In the Buffalo Commercial of December 22, 1891, the following interview with Mr. Stafford was printed, under the heading “Buffalo’s Gold Mine:”
“If the richest gold mine in the whole world were discovered in a suburb of Buffalo, what effect do you suppose it would have on our people?” asked Mr. James B. Stafford of a Commercial reporter.
“There would be tremendous excitement, of course,” was the reply.
“There would,” returned Mr. Stafford; “but do you know that the richest gold mine in the world would be a mere bagatelle compared with the wealth that will spring from the Niagara Falls tunnel? Do our people stop to think what it means? It means prosperity for Buffalo beyond the wildest present expectation. I believe I speak entirely within bounds when I say that it will make Buffalo the second greatest city in the whole United States, and that you and I won’t be very old when our city reaches that place. Looking into the immediate future, I will prophesy that we will have a million population within ten years.
“Just look about you and see what electricity has already done for the world, and yet we are scarcely entered up in the Electric Age. We are at the dawn of a new era, and electricity, now in its infancy, will grow and develop until it revolutionizes the world. It will give us power, light, heat, refrigeration. It will do everything for us that steam now does, and here in Buffalo it is going to cost less than water power.”
“What does it cost manufacturers for power now?”
“The water power of the country now in use costs from $16.67 per horse-power per year at Lockport to $56.25 at Manayunk, Pa., while steam costs all the way from $35 to $175 per horse-power per annum.