If canal boats are supplanted by railroads, serious unemployment will result. Captains, cooks, drivers, repairmen and lock tenders will be left without means of livelihood, not to mention the numerous farmers now employed in growing hay for horses. Boat builders would suffer and tow-line, whip and harness makers would be left destitute.
Canal boats are absolutely essential to the defense of the United States.
In the event of the expected trouble with England, the Erie Canal would be the only means by which we would move the supplies so vital to waging war. As you may well know, Mr. President, railroad carriages are pulled at the enormous speed of 15 miles per hour. In addition to endangering life and limb of passengers, they roar and snort their way through the countryside, setting fire to crops, scaring the livestock and frightening children. The Almighty certainly never intended that people should move at such breakneck speed. As I am sure all of you know, here in 1995 we are still wrestling with the problem of how to pay for the costs of savings and loan failures that occurred before the creation of the Resolution Trust Corporation in 1989.