Clearfield Republican. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1851-1937, 1876-08-02

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public character was recognized by
the ordinance of 1887, and traffic was
shown TO have existed there since
171S. The general principle is that
where a river is not navigable in fact
that Congress has no control over it,
+ but that its control belongs exclusive
ly to the States, and that whether
such stream is part of a continu-
T GUS line from navigable stream, nat
urally navigable, into another State or
whether it lies wholly within the State
is immaterial. If river be navigable
IN fact within State as part of q
continuous line of communication Con
gress has the power to appropriate
money to improve it so far as it is so
navigable under tho power to regulate
commerce. If IL lie wholly within o
State and be navigable in fact if not
part OF continuous line Of commu-
nication Congress has no control over
it, and it belongs to the State to regu-
late its commerce. If il be part Of q
continuous line from without to within
a State, but its character is such that
no ascending navigation in fact exists,
nor can naturally exist, the Congress
has no control over it under this pow
er, but the jurisdiction of the State is
exclusive.
Apply these doctrines, these rules of
law, the now settled law, not the the
ories and dogmas OF fifty years ago but
the law that has grown up from the
necessities Of your ever expanding
commerce, that which has come from
the growth Of your country, that
which has crystalized itself through
the decisions of the Supreme Court
upon the power to regulate commerce
among the States. Apply these doc
trines to our present bill for improving
rivers, for appropriating money to that
object, and we have the question set
tied, because the court has given us
settled doctrines. The rivers to which
we may give the money OF the United
States are those which the CoDstitu-
ton Of the United States as interpret
ed by the Supreme Court have recog-
nized to be navigable waters of the
United States, and those, and those
alone, are such as are navigable in fact,
and are avenues Of interstate COM
merce.
In this bill as ii came to us from the
House there are at least twenty in
stances Of appropriations of money TO
rivers which are not navigable rivers
within the meaning OF the Constitu-
ton and laws. II is not question of
a short river reaching from lake into
State. Such stream may be navi-
gable for but ten miles and still be
within the purview OF the general
power. 1t seems TO me then that there
is no room Tor difference between my
friend from West Virginia and my
friend from Maryland. They will
both agree that the doctrines Of the
Constitution as interpreted by the Su-
preme Court are our platform, and
that the decisions of the court have
followed the progressive march of that
commerce which the intense desire of
our countrymen for gain has pushed
to its fdrthest limits in the develop
ment Of the natural highways and in
ternal arteries of our great network
Of lakes and rivers.
Take my own State. What would
become of the finances Of the govern
ment if under the doctrines that are
inculcated in this bill that great State
were to como here by her representa-
tives and demand that because the
Susquehanna is connected with the
Chesapeake Bay and bears upon its
bosom annually millions OF dollars
worth Of commerce from its headwa-
ters TO tide-water, because that river is
navigable for descending in its food,
that therefore the General Government
is bound to appropriate the money
which would be at least SAC, 100000 to
create ascending navigation, to clean
it out and make q channel by which
to ascend TO our mountains and draw
therefrom the vast treasures of coal, of
iron, of grain, and OF lumber that we
annually produce. No such wild the.
ory has ever been entertained, and we
of Pennsylvania prefer that none such
ever should be.
Yet that is the doctrine upon which
many appropriations in this bill rest.
That is the inevitable result of the ap-
preparation of money tor these small
and non-navigable streams. We be-
lieve in no such doctrine. The Sus-
quehanna, like many of the small
streams named in the bill, is properly
and legally under tho control OF the
State in which they are. The State
has exclusive control of them. II is a
sound theory and good Democratic
doctrine that tho State is to control
the streams that are within the State
when they arc not navigable in fact
by ascending navigation,
The bill, Mr.. President, is too large
in its proportion, too proiuse in expen.
diture, have nothing TO say about
what the House did in reference to the
bill. Whether IL was or was not con-
sidered there does not enter into the
question in my mind, but | take the
bill as find 1t and but state my con-
viction when say that il is enormous
in its proportions.
In 1866 and 1867, when we had
good times, when there was rcdun-
dancy of money, when the revenues of
the government were larger than ever
before or since, the river and harbor
bill was but tride over 100000.
Yet now, in these times in which every
man is economizing in which all are
retronching, in which the necessity for
retrenchment comes TO the government
as it does to the private citizen, this
bill is doubled in its proportions. In
place of being s3,000,0O0 and triHe
over, as in 1866, we find il now nearly
81 100000. 1t is said that political
capital is TO be made from this. Then
if the bill in the House contained but
s5,s00,00 and political capital was
made out of IL in the House, what is TO
be made Of il in the Senate when ii is
swollen TO the proportion OF nearly
$1,000, ,O00Y II necessarily follows that
the Senate has taken the same line
that the House took, and is inclined to
make political capital too. But, Mr..
President, ii is nothing of the kind.
We understand the process by which
this bill has been made 10 assume these
unwieldy proportions, and for one
go as far as ] can to reduce its size.
Ii | fail TO obtain reduction of its
proportions i shall vote against it.
Rather will ! permit no appropriation
for rivers and barbors this year than
to permit bill with such proportions