The Evansville daily journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ia. [i.e. Ind.]) 1848-1862, 1859-02-08

Whilst the bonds issued on account of the
Wabash and Erie Canal was 81, 900 to
which, adding the expenditure on account OF
the Crosscut Canal, S436, OBI 80, now part
of the Wabash and Erie Canal, we have the
sum of 81, l63,0 OBJ 49, as the share of the
counties now directly interested in the canal
as highway, in the general relief furnished
by the State debt arrangement. The fore
going are principal sums, without the ac-
crued interest, which was funded in that ar
rangement, but it shows the relative benefits
conferred on the various portions of the
State by the adjustment of the. State debt,
in which one-half of the general burden
was thrown upon this canal.
Your memoralists express the opinion that
any aid furnished by the State to save the
loss of the canal, will only be temporarily
required, and Notwithstanding the fact that
during the past two or three years its rev.
enues have fallen short of its necessities for
maintenance, and Notwithstanding the Sc
we're trials which the competition of the
railroads lay upon it. yet there IS good rea-
son to believe that in future years the canal
will be self-sustaining The past three
years have been attended with failure of
crops throughout the West, and particularly
along the line on the canal, and the surplus
productions of this region have been limited,
so that the railroads were atno time pressed
with business, and were compelled contin-
ually by their own necessities to struggle for
every pound of freight to be transported
In the meantime, the canal, from accidental
causes, has not been always reliable. This
state of things cannot continue, andwe may
rely upon the return of fruitful seasons,
when the capacity of our railroads will not
be adequate to move the whole production
of the soil. And your memorialists do not
doubt, that with close and careful man.
agement of the canal under some new system
of economical administration different from
the present Trust, SO soon as we shall be
again blessed with abundant crops, its
revenues will exceed all its wants for main
tenance.
To show the interest that the Agricultu-
rists on the line of the canal have in its
preservation and use as we'll as those who
have the benefit of railroad transportation.
as those who are without such benefit, your
memorialists state that the average amount
of surplus grain, which, in the fruitful years
gone by, was taken from the counties on
the Wabash, north of Terre Haute, was
1000, 900 of bushels per year. 1t can moi
be doubted that if this canal was dried up
and the .raiIroaass8f the State were solely
depended upon for the transportation of this
surplus to market, the extra cost on each
bushel would not be less than five cents
more to the Lake, than it would cost tC
transport it either by canal or railroad, il
the navigation of Che canal was maintained
This loss, by the abandonment of the canal
would fall wholly upon the producer, for by
that much at least would the price of his
grain be diminished, and in the aggregate
of the 100000 Of bushels would amount
in each year, to the farmers, to the sum Of
100000. In view of this illustration, the
canal is presented, not only as means o.
cheap transportation for heavy commodities
far above and preferable to railroads, but a:
regulator upon the railroads themselves
controlling them and preventing them from
erecting monopolies in transportation, I'm.
reasonably charging the productive value o
all commercial commodities.
Your memorialists refer your honorable
body to the fact shown by various report:
made by the Board of Trustees to the Legis
lature, that for two or three years, and unit
the construction of competing railroads
this canal did furnish a revenue suf6cien
to maintain itself in all respects, and leav
a considerable surplus over. That up Il
the time when the railroads came int
competition with it, its earnings were yearl.
increasing, end as a productive establish
ment fully promised all that had been hope
for it. But fiom the time when the frs
railroad tapped its sources Of business it
revenues began to wane and in the prsgres