New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1853-03-21
OUR CANAL POLICY.

We have not FELT sufficient interest 10 inc
present doings Of our Legislature with regard
TO the Canals to scan them with close and con-
slant attention. for they have seemed to Us eX-
tremely vasciIlating and inconclusive. Rail
road Tolls are voted down one day and up
the next Bank Taxation ditto and the car
rying OF q proposition by stwo-thirds vote to-
day is no guaranty that it will no; be repudi-
sted tomorrow. Evidently. the State Admin
istration has no clear idea Of what il wants to
do, or its large apparent majority in the House
ia not available on questions Of Finance and
Internal Improvements. We may as well
await, therefore, the disposal of the Railroad
Consolidation and one or two other measures
of great personal and pecuniary but secondary
public importance before devoting much time
or thought TO the debates or even votes on
Canal questions in the Legislature. Mean
time, our own views of the leading questions in
issue are substantially these:
l. We believe the interests of our State,
of our City, and of the Great West, whose
prospects and growth are 50 bound up with
ours, urgently demand the immediate and en-
ergetic prosecution to completion Of our I'M
finished Public Works. especially their chief,
the Erie Canal Enlargement. We believe
that. beyond the immediate and obvious loss
of transportation to our Canals prosperity to
our City, and revenue to our State, caused by
the non-completiOn Of those Canals, we are in
danger of permanent and serious injury
through the drawing of Of our transportation
to other and director channels, should our
Canal Enlargement remain uncompleted for
seven or eight years more. Revolutions do
not 90 backward and trade once lost is seldom
regained. AT this moment Virginia and other
States are pushing forward new avenues to the
Great Valley which would hardly have been
undertaken had our Enlarged Canal been
finished some years since. There is not a lot
in our City or suburbs, and hardly farm or
quarter-section between Csyuga Lake and
Mississippi. which would not be increased in
value by the prompt completion of the Erie
Enlargement.
ii. We see no reason for taxing the People
Of our State for Canal purposes. The Canals
are abundantly able to provide and pay for
their own completion the money can be bor-
rowed on their credit without involving that
of the State, if this course is preferred to
removal of the Barnburner clogs from the
Constitution; and it really is not fair to tax
$40 to 800 wantonly, needlessly, out of a
Delaware, Suffolk or St. Lawrence farmer for
Canal purposes of great general utility, but of
no pecuniary benefit to him. The people who
use the Canals ought TO pay for them; and
they are perfectly willing. They don't ask
Duchess and Ulster to construct highways for
them There is no collision in the premises
except that between a pet Barnburner hobby
and the interests and convenience of several
millions of people; and we think the latter
should not be sacrificed to the former.
III. We believe that many if not most of
the champions of Taxation for Canal purposes
are at heart opposed to the Speedy Enlarge
ment at all, and are pushing on the LOOMS
project with a view to its defeat. When the
tax-gatherer next goes around with his largely
increased bill, "a duplicate in every sense be
will be asked, What makes my taxes so much
higher than ever before and he will an
swer, There is an extra tax this year for the
Canal Enlargement % hang the Canal En-
largement he will exclaim and be will hence
forth dislike and oppose the Enlargement
policy, from no other impulse than his dislike
to increased taxation. We cannot be a party
TO the game played with a view to this end
". If taxes are to be levied for Canal pur-
poses, we see no reason for taxing certain de.
scriptions Of property higher than others. If
it be wise and proper to tax specially the prop
erty invested in Canals and Railroads, such
taxation should be permanently engrafted on
our general system of taxation, and not re-
sorted 10 as a sort Of forced loan in a special
emergency. II il be right to tax Banks and
Railroads as Mr.. LOOMS proposes in 1853, it
always was and always viii be right to tax them
after that fashion. A special need of funds
does not justify the State in going out to levy
them on particular descriptions of property,
leaving others untouched. And il is peculiar
ly hard to tax our outside Railroads in order
to enlarge the great Central Canal, by which
enlargement they are morally certain to lose a
part of their present freighting business
v We believe the Canal tolls originally i'm
posed on the Central Line Of Railroads ought
never to have been taken OF, and ought now to
be restored. They enjoy immense advantages
over all other lines Of Railroadsfrom the concen.
tratiOn of business on their route through
the efforts and sacrifices of the State. The