The anti-monopolist. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1874-1878, 1874-12-17
merce of this re1ion as long as tt
world stands.

world stands.
rHB FOX AND WISCONSIN CANAL.
| An effort is being made At this time
to achieve free water communication
between the Mississippi river and Lake
Michigan, via the Fox and Wisconsin
rivers, within the State Of Wisconsin.
Viewed as an abstract proposition.
should not have one word to say
against it. The Northwest, to-day. en-
.ertaius the sentiment embodied III the
old rhyme:
s'The rat that only trusts to one poor hole,
Must surely DE rat of very little soul
We want all the practical outlets we
can obtain. If the route proposed IS
practicable, and Wisconsin can obtain
governmental appropriation to improve
it, we'll and good. fear, however, that
it is not practicable. 1t consists OF
three hundred miles Of land locked nav
CATION. through small rivers, one OF
them, the Wisconsin, 4 shallow stream
full of shifting sand bars, and liable to
torrent like overhows, which would
sweep away all the locks and dams that
could be constructed upon it. But |
am not here to object to the Fox and
Wisconsin canal, per Sc, if it is to rest
upon its own merits. and to he support
ed by it's own friends.
THE DEMAND FOR CHEAP TRANSPORTATION.
But the whole nation has been.
during the last few years, filled with
the clamorous demands of the agricul-
turists Of the West and South for
cheap transportation. No political
party can long resist this demand.
1t may be well doubted whether, I'M
der our form of government, the public
money, collected by taxation from the
whole people, can be, under strict in
depreciation of the national constitution,
taken to improve any section OF the
country but the West and South have
been, during SO many years, taxed by
the protective tariff system, to enrich
Eastern miners and manufacturers, that
they now demand that they; too, shall
have some of the advantages which re-
suit from the national government, 1t
is not enough to stop the robberies tie
which they have been hitherto sub
jected they must be remunerated. by
great works of internal improvement.
for the losses which they have already
sustained. 1t will, of course, require
wisdom and honesty 10 SO direct and
! limit those works that, while aiiordlng
relief to the interior populations of the
country, the door be not thrown open
to reckless extravaganza and shameful
| fraud.
If, then, Congress is about, in obedi
ence to this powerful sentiment
to do something to give the farm
ers Of Minnesota free water communi.
| cation and cheap transportation to the
lakes, then protest that the Fox and
Wisconsin canal is not what Minnesota
demands. And if we are to have the
Fox and Wisconsin canal, and nothing
else, then | protest against it
with all the force | possess.
This would, indee |, be to barter away
our birthright for mess Of pottage.
And evidently this is what Is meant
whsn We are told that 10000 petitions
have been sent out through the North
west, and that million petitioners
from Iowa. Wisconsin, Nebraska and
Minnesota are expected to ask Congress
for the Fox and Wisconsin canal as
their first and last and great need.
1t looks to me very much like great
blunder or a great crime; and in an
emergency like this we might adopt
Napoleon S sentiment that "a great
blunder is great crime"
If Congress, in obedience to the de-
mand of these million petitioners,
should adopt the Fox and Wisconsin
canal as their great work for the relief
OF the Northwest, we could not then
ask them hereafter for millions more to
open us free pathway to Lake Sups-
rior. They would tell US that we had
alrea dy received all that we had asked
for; tina: the bounty of the nation had
exhausted itself. If we then replied
| that the Fox and Wisconsin canal was
of no use whatever to US, their reply
would be that we should have under
stood all that before we petitioned
for il.
And tins blow Of incalculable force
would be struck at the commerce and
agriculture of Minnesota. We would
be, in effect, set back 265 miles from
the external world; we would be de-
prived of our natural outlet to Lake
Superior l35 miles distant, and relegat.
ed to an outlet 400 miles distant.
Tie intellect and capital of Wiscon.
sin and Illinois now make us tributary
to those States, and our wheat fields
are building up Milwaukee and Chicago.
at loss upon every bushel of wheat we
send them. Are we now to be made
tributary to petty canal project of
Wisconsin, to build up for her another
great city, at Green Bayi ..Self-pre-
servation is the first law of nature
Let US defend our own rights. and
claim the full fruits Of that great geo.
graphical fact on which our commercial
greatness is hereafter to repose.
Now all these objections to the Fox
and Wisconsin canal would be we'll
founded if the proposed work CON-
menced at Prescott. at the mouth Of
the st. Croix, and ran in an air line to
Lake Michigan. But instead of that it
leaves the. Mississippi River below
Prairie du Chen, two hundred and fifty
miles below this city, and trends in
northeasterly direction, via winding.
and shallow little rivers, until having
passed dlagonally through almos. the
whole length Of the State of Wisconsin,
it reaches Green Bay nearly
ihrec hundred miles from its point
nf COMMENCEMENT