Lewisburg chronicle. [volume] (Lewisburg, Pa.) 1850-1859, 1858-04-30
Remarks Of
CHR'N NJ. STRAUB, of Schuylkill Co.
IN THE STATE SENATE,


On the Bill authorizing the safe Of .he remain
der Of the State Improvements TO the sun
bury and Erie Railroad Company.
/ Mr. SPEAKER.-It was my intention tc
have given my reasons more fully, why
favor the sale of the improve ments to the
Sunbury Il Erie Railroad Company but
the friends Of the measure desiring a vote
to be taken to day, I shall be brief What
l will say, shall contain no statistical state.
ment, ncr Will ] repeat what the Senate
has already heard on both sides of the ques-
ton. | agree in the main with those
Senators who have taken the affirmative.
because am convinced that large ma
Jority of the people favor the sale of tie
remainder Of our State improvements; the
principal points to arrange, being, How
much ought they to bring? aud Who ought
TO be the purchaser As to the price
named in the bill, | can see 10 serious OBJ
Jections, shaped, as it row is, by an amend
men', tha. in the event of purchasers from
the S0nbury & Erie Company, the State
Is to receive seventy five per cent. on the
sum realized, when the same amounts 10
more than three and talf millions. Pre-
vious to the inserting Of this amendment,
and one excmp;iog the State from all la
bi!ity as endorser, would not have voted
for the bill. Ii the sale be fair, and the
conditions carried ou: in good faith on the
part Of the purchaser or purchasers, | can
see no substantial reason why any one in
favor Of the sale ought to object to the bill
under consideration, or to the price OF
terms therein indicated.
The people have the honor to repre-
sent in this body, have direct pecuniary
interest in prcferring the sunbury & Erie
ComPany,to any other,as purchaser Most
devoutiy DO | believe, that the completion
Of the Sunbury & Erie Road will benefit
us more than any improvement now con.
temPlatcd, 10 any part of this glorious
Union. \ single link, of few miles only,
of the chain Of railroads between Potts
vile and Sunbury, will complete the con.
nect.on We have psssedSaitIhSifin dSaiISfnr Of his
link, to wit : from the western terminus
Of the Shamckin road, Northumberland
county, to a point at or near Ashland,
Schuyiki,l county.
Mr.. Speaker, predict that in less than
ten years from to-day, unless an avenue
be opened to the western forests, the coal
mines in great measure, in Schuylkill
county, must be abandoned. This, to
many, may appear fgurative, but | will
furnish my reasons for saying SO. 4 great
deal has been said about The worthlessness
of the barren wilds of Western Pennsyl.
vania that no good could possibly be de-
rived to the public by the completion of
this great and magnificent enterprize. To
this opinion, l enter my protest. The
history Of every wild spot in Pennsylvania,
or any other State, after being reached by
the improvement of canals or railroads, or
both, contradicts the opinion 50 palpably, !
that / consider it too simple to offer any
remarks in contradiction. Great as has
been the improvements in the West, so far
as single county is concerned, Schuyl- /
kill has equaled, if not exceeded in i'm
provements any other in the Common.
wealth, if not in the United States, east
Of the Mountains, A retrospective view
will Erove this. The schuylkill canal wss
fiuished about 1920; the first census l
have been able to find on record, was taken
in lSi0-Schuylkill then contained 90
900 inhabitants; in 1850, G0,7l3 an in.
crease Of 100 per cent. in ten years. About
the year 1926, the President of the Canal
for the first time noticed tho Coal Trade
in his report, in which he stated tha: coal
would probably become in time an item of
considerable consequence to the carrying
trade on the canal, there having that year
been a fec hundred tons transported on it;
DOW the quantity has run up to millions Of
oas.
To Col. Peter Frailey, deceased, of
Schuy ylkill, belongs the honor of conceiv-
ng this great and stupendous project. He
was what is called "self-made man." q
practical and far-seeins statesman, man,
90, Of sterling integrity; notwithstanding
his, lie ut that time little calculated that
/ canal, built exclusively for transporting
umber and merchandise, would, in few
'ears after completion, be used for another
md an entirely different purpose. Instead
If lumber being conveyed doicn, we have
'een compelled to carry up the Schuylkill
anal, lumber and timber, for the last ff-
cen years, in great quantities. Let me
lere state that there remains no other di.
ection than westward from whence Schuyl.
,ill can obtain supply Of those precious
nd indispensable articles; timber lands
onvcnient to the mines, even at this day,
re more valuable than caal lands.