When the widening of the Panama Canal is completed in 2014, and bigger ships are able to move more cheaply from the Pacific Ocean to the Eastern Seaboard, the Port of Baltimore will be ready. Baltimore has dredged the channel into the port to 50 feet, the depth required by the larger vessels, and so will be first in line for greater container-ship traffic from China and other Asian manufacturing centers.

Rhode Island should look closely at Baltimore, because shipping is only part of the story. What Baltimore will really be first in line for is jobs. That is because thriving container ports are among the biggest job creators. Ports not only create high-paying jobs, they also boost other aspects of their region’s economies, by moving goods more cheaply, cutting business costs.

Baltimore sure needs jobs. In that respect, it is not very different from other venerable East Coast seaports, such as those on Narragansett Bay.

Rhode Island’s great advantage is that the channel to a container port at Quonset only has to be dredged for three miles. The Baltimore project’s price tag, $120 million to $130 million, was a big number to raise. But Baltimore and Maryland’s leaders did it, in the interest of creating a thriving economy.