New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1870-12-30
TOLLS md YUNNAGE.

If experience has settled anything il is that
the amount Of tuunace TO be carried on the
canals docs not depend, i'll any appreci;ble de-
gree, on the current rates of oil. In an I'M
proptious state of the business and finances OF
the country, complete remission Of tolls
would not be likely to attract tun to the
canals which would not have found It's way
there without it. This TACT is so inconsistent
with relations assumed to exist between them,
which. il is insisted are as nsCparable as cause
and effect, that sturdy or affected believers III
the plausible theories On the point are prone
to characterize as mere condolences such evil
dences and illustrations as steadily refute
them. But condolences which happen uni
formly, under certain Ike conditions, look so
much like consequences that the differences
between the two arc not readily seen.
so little account is made by so
many people of an important change
which has come to pass, that it may almost he
said that popular delusiOn prevails on the
general subject Of the canal interests of the
State. The canals 10 longer occupy the first
place among the Observation-Disclosures of inland
Transportation. This is so hard q saying that
many refuse to bear it. Nevertheless, that
position Just now, is held 50 securely by rail
roads that the means TO dislOdge chem are yet
to be invented. Not that they too, some
| time, viii not have had their day; hut their
supremacy will be lost only as the canals have
! lost theirs; not by inherent defects, but be-
! cause something better has been devised.
| Such changes are but the proper achievements
of the intelligence, energy, and practical skill
! of the age, and the true friends Of human
| progress will rejoice over them. Tears shed
because stage-coachcs have been superseded
by drawing-rOOm cars ought to evoke more
mirth than sympathy.
If railroads have in n certain sense quite re-
versod the relative position they once held, it
by no means follows that the canals have
ceased to be either useful OF valuable They
are both in an eminent degree; but in the
secondary position they now are, they are not
fit subjects for idle experiment; and remem-
bering the debt they are charged with, they
cannot afford to be plundered perennially. 1t
is by wise and prudent management only that
they can be kept from becoming intolerably
burdensome. Especially is this sort of man
agement needed so long as the constitutional
iniunctiOns in respect to revenue remain of
force, or the mortgages are unsatisfied, which
the same instrument imposed on the revenues it
created. With the payment of the one the other
would cease. and then new career Of useful
ness would open for the canals of which the
wisdom of the time would not fail to take
advantage. For the present purpose, the
truth would seem to be that the tunnage of
the canals depends so much on the existing
state Of trade, commerce, finance, and pro-
ductiOn of every sort, and the difference in
time required for transit is so much in favor
of railroads, that the element of tolls can be
felt hurtfully only under rates above any that
have ever prevailed in this State, and then,
probably, only in respect TO special articles.
The general level of tolls most favorable to
revenue and least obstructive to com
merce had been ascertained 10y series of
experiences too conclusive to be disregarded,
and too costly to be wasted. In the same way
some knowledge had been acquired Of the
rapidly increasing control over the Legislature
exercised by the natural enemy of the canals
the Railroad interest. 1t seemed wise to the
people that so important public trust as tho
canals should be protected against the innOva
tons of Missionaries, the incompetence or We
nality of officials and the hostility of rivals,
by something more than the safeguards of or
binary legislation. For this purpose they
amended the Constitution, In 1854; and having
engrafted the decree of the people upon the
organic Law, it was supposed that the desired
objects had been secured beyond all contin-
gences II was ordained that those of 1862
should I've the minimum rates of toll
and the Canal Board was forbidden to
reduce them below that standard, except in
an event which has never happened. and ac-
cording to method which has never been
followed. The same article vested certain
rights Ill connection with the same subject
which maze 1t doubtful whether the assent
of the public creditors to any such reduction
is not condition precedent Under the con-
stitutonal schedule the tunnage of Che canals
exceeded 100000 tuns annually. The fnan.
cial Revision of 1857 reduced the annual ac
gregate TO about 100000 tlns, showing plainly
the nature of the causes on which the sum of
tunnage really depended.
BY political mischance thc canals passed
under Democratic manipulation for the years
1868 and 1859 MistakiEg both the cause of
the falling off in the year before and its rem
edy, tic Democratic Canal Board, with faulty