The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-06-09
Eiitor Of The Eoening Telegraph.

4 be district, and a very extensive one, i'm the
4 very heart of our Commonwealth that has in
4 the past exhibited vast resources upon which
4 our emporium has drawn largely on all the
4 elements OF trade and commerce that give our
4 State pre-eminence parayzed and prostratcd by
an apparent anomalous apathy. Our domestic
industry scarcely furnishes parallel in the
history of the past when such abounding
. material for substantial wealth should remain
inert and unproductye under the immediate
observation of the custodians of the welfare of
4 our noble old State One would suppose cupidity
alone would have elected ere this the fostering
& hand of announcement towards those who have
been making herculean efforts to disenthrall
themselves the past three years from the effects of
3 the misfortunes with which they were suddenly
overwhelmed. Although unfortunate, and
= meeting almost on every hand either decided
( hostility or the more enervating smiles of those
4 who hold the "word of promise to the ear and
break it to the hope" yet, undesparing aud un-
dismayed, they are struggling towards the goal
! of their wishes.
ID But while thus laudaby engaged in individual
and disjointed effort to recuperate, they are
looking with anxiety begotten of hope for auxi-
W liary aid from those who will be immensely
benefited by the restoration of those works of
transit upon which they rely to furnish an out
let to the eXhaustless wealth Of this interesting
valley They have abiding faith in the intelli-
W gence and astuteness characteriZng those who
have control of our magnificent internal tho
roughfares of trade, that on being reminded of
the loss accruing to the interests of commerce and
trade by the almost entire suspension of activity
in the manufactures and mines thickly dotting
the valley, and acting upon the policy of ''help-
ing those who help themselves" they will at
once come to the rescue, or at all events give
10 affO tn
resuscltate and restore it to health and vigor in
its diversified industry.
The encouragement required will not involve
any present expenditure of money on the part
of the corporations into whose arteries of trade
Il will be poured this invigorating and healthful
commerce, but guarantee from them to those
W who furnish the means to repair the canal that,
by almost imperceptible reciprocity, they will
reimburse them the amount advanced for the
purpose. viii they demur to the generous pro-
position to yield twenty-five per cent, while re.
ceiving seventy-ave per cent. on a trade from
a which they are now almost entirely cut off
There have been spasmodic indications of at
AItempts to come to the aid of the gentlemen who
have an immense capital invested in the real
estate and mines and manufactures wide spread
over the valley and lining the banks of the
canal.
An offer was made by one of the managers of
the West Branch division Of the Pennsylvania
Canal to give a drawback of % per cent on the
trade coming out of the Bald Eagle Canal and
passing through that division; but while ne
gotiations were going on, the Pennsylvania
Central Railroad stepped in and purchased the
West Branch Canal.
The President of the Union Canal Company
offered drawback of twenty cents per thou
sand feet on lumber from that canal, and pass
TTni Canal IN philodplnhio. hut
intervention of the sale of the West Branch
Canal rendered the offer unavailng. Shall the
Pennsylvania Railroad Company, the Tide
water Canal Company, and Chesapeake and
"a Delaware Canal Company, be less munifcent
and magnanimous than the Union and West
Branch Canal? We cannot be brought to do
them the injustice to believe they will suffer
"a such leading interests to languish, by withhold
81 ing the slight boon craved by those struggling
for existence They do not ask it mendaciously:
they are not of the ilk who folding their hands
with culpable apathy, ''Micawber'- like, expect
ing something to turn up in the shape of gra-
tuitous tender of means of eXtrication.
In 1865 destructive freshet swept the en-
bankments and locks, and SO injured the Bald
Eagle Canal that the company were not able to
repair it. Already there have been six miles of
the twenty-four miles of canal recovered, by
repair of embankments, bridges, and locks, by
the labor and at the expense of one firm, at a
large outlay, and drawback is needed by which
they can get some returns for the outlay OF
capital invested while the canal was in opera
ton. Last year the result of this outlay was the
sending of 100 cargoes of lumber from the six
Y miles of recovered canal. And this firm, with
four or five others cooperating, are prepared to
repair and deepen the entire twenty-four miles
of canal, that boats drawing four feet water may
W pass through 1.-THE average depth of the Penn
sylvania canals.
= 1t is only necessary to furnish the approximate
statistics of the interests involved, perhaps, tt
II excite inquiry and investigation in the proper
\Ouarters and topromote the unity of action neces
sary to the attainment of the desired consum
= nation. There would it is believed pass
over this canal when In its normal state, twenty
A to twenty-five million feet of lumber annually
# manufactured from its noble forests.
The Snow Shoe Coal Company, who have
railroad from their mines to canal at Milesburg
and whose coal is unriyalled for its purity ant
g. fitness for manufacturing steaming, and othe
~ purposes to which btuminous Goals are applied
W propose to cause their ten thousand acres o
coal lands to disgorge forty to fifty thousan
TONS and increase to one hundred thousand pc
* annum from their mines.
The iron ore of the valley, Incompatible
valuable and pure, would soon relight the extin
H suished fires of their dozen furnaces and rollin
mills