The Somerset herald and farmers' and mechanics' register. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 183?-1852, 1846-03-17
For the Somerset Herald.
OUR PUBLIC WORKS.
( DEDICATED TO THE CITIZENS OF PHIL
ADELpHIA AND PITTsBURG.

OF It's early friends, is subject deeply
felt not only by them, but by the citizens
Of the state at large. 1t was confidently
expected and predicted, that they would
yield a revenue not only sufficient to pay
the interest on their cost, but leave sur
plus towards sinking fund for the pay
ment of the principal. But instead of
this, they hardly yield (nett) one fourth
of the interest, burdening the people with
an onerous tax of II millions andleaving
the extinction of the debt wholly out of
the question. BY the Auditor Generals
report from five to six millions are or
become due this year-how is that TO be
paid! Sell the works for half their costs,
and make up the balance by taxation!-
Neither can be done. There is then no
prospect that the people will EVER be re-
lieved of state taxes to pay the interest
on the canal debt. Nothing but gloom
and dependency stares us in the face.
The Improvements of the State were
undertaken mainly to preserve for Phila-
deIphia the trade Of the great west. The
estimates Of the costs were, in the first
place, a gross and shameful deception, be-
ing hardly half of the actual cost-and
| their construction and management most
splendid affair 10 those concerned, and
most stupendous outrage upon an honest
and confding people. From the COM
mencement until the completion OF these
improvements. deception. fraud, pecula-
ton, waste and extravaganza TO greater
orless extent: prevailed, and dlegions OF trea-
sury leeches battened on the toll and sweat
of an abused and deceived people, who are
now, their agency, burdened with debt
of forty millions! And even when fin
ished, what are these works WORTH
With Philadelphia at their eastern termi-
nation, and the large trading and manufac-
turing city of Pittsburg with water COM
munication from thence 10 every part of the
great Mississippi Valley at the western,
and rich settled country with towns and
cities between them, what have these
splendid Improvements been worth TO the
state! A paltry million, after being in
"successful experiment for some ten
years or upwards. The heart sickens to
contemplate these things.
And why are the Penn. Improvements
such miserable failure, compared with
the improvements of our neighboring
states! How comes ii that New York,
whose canal was made half It's length
through a wilderness, and terminated, not
at large commercial and manufacturing
city, but at a (then) little village (Buffa-
io) of perhaps a thousand souls, now
derives the splendid revenue of 2! mil
lions from 1t, and will be enabled in
few years to pay the last dollar of her
canal debt! And how comes it that Ma
ryland, with her railroad terminating at
small town in the mountains Il had al
most said, in the woods and but two or
three years open, is aIreading deriving an
income from it nearly or quite equal TO
the interest on its cost! Aye-I ask the
question enlphaucally-how come these
thingsl
1t is in vain for the Governor and 9TH
ers TO TALK of the "great and incxhausti-
bic resources of the state:" il is in vain
for your citizens to establish boards of
trade and chambers of commerce, and in
vain to cite an addition of one or two
thousand houses annually to your cities,
as an evidence of their prosperity or in
crease of business. All this is idle
Neither talk in the executive chamber nor
calculations behind the counter affect the
business on our Improvements one fig
IT is CAPITAL AND ENTERPRIZE
THAT Is WANTING. This is the secret
which enables New York and MARYLAND
to outstrip us and take from us the trade
not only of the west, but of a great part
OF our state also. What is it that has
built up five or six cities and innumera-
bic towns along the New York canal, and
made the wilderness to blossom as a
rose! And what has made Cumberland
rise out of the ashes of burnt village,
to take the rank of CITY in half do
zen years! ENTERPRIzE AND CAPITAL,
is the answer. The people of the cities
Of New York and Baltimore understand
their own interests, while they also know
how to promote the interests of their res
pective states. As their public works
progressed, they threw capital into the
villages along the line, and with il crea-
ted stir, business and market for eve
ry thing in the neighborhood. 1t was
CAPITAL thus employed which built up
those villages into cities, and with these
grew and improved the country. Nor
did they stop there. New York capital
is actively employed 10 buy up the -four,
wheat, pork, ashes, and innumerabIe 9TH
er produce of Ohio, Indiana, Michigan,
Illinois, &C., and forward TO their great
emporium of trade. And where are the
towns and cities that have sprung into
existence along the Pennsylvania works,
through Philadelphia capital! Where,
between Harrisburg and Pittsburg, is the |
market, where the farmer could sell his