Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1889-05-30
The Canal Commission
AND ITS MUCH ADVERTISED
FINDS.
An Old Canal Man incidentally Talks
ofIts Work.

of the States management OF her ca
nal property during the past twenty
| five years, he was asked what he thought
Of the work being done by the cana
commission.
"Well," he said, "the true inward
ness of the case is the commission j:
doing no work for the State"
"Are not the lands of the State being
surveyed by the commission" wa:
asked.
"NOt by the commission. Parties n
engineers are making surveys and plat'
under the directions of the State engi
neer The law authorizing the eXpendi
ture of money for this purpose is EN-
bodied in the law creating the commits
sion, but the work is in no sense neces'
sarily dependent upon the commission
The board Ofpublic works and the State
engineers planned this work and are
carrying it out. 1t is all well enough
but about the finding Of lands!"
"Oh, well; there is no law against the
commissions finding lands and anus
ing the public with stories of theiI
wondrous achievements in that line; and
so long as their official life is perpetu.
but it will be some time before you see
an official record of their having Sc.
cured to the State one foot of land, the
title of which was in dispute"
"Has not the commission recovered
for the State good deal of land at Ak
ron. Toledo and elsewhere?'
"Not one foot"
"Did not the Journal of yesterday
say something about the recovery OF
some land held by a Mr.. Jackson at
Akron, and the leasing Of it to him for
500 a year,"
eyes, but there was no question OF
title involved. Jackson leased of the
board of public works a piece of swamp
land for lum ber yard. He agreed to
pay 500 year for its use, and ship his
lumber by the canal. The land had
always been totally unproductive.-
improvements on the land. A nosing
lawyer discovered that the board had
exceeded its authority in leasing the
land, and informed the commission
The commission had Jackson in q hole,
and squeezed him. But to increase the
showing on paper, the commission re.
leased him from his obligation to ship
his lumber by the canal, and gave him
permission to sub-let to two railroad
companies portions of the land. So far
as canal interests are concerned, the
new lease is worse than the old, but the
money rental has been increased"
"Have no settlements been made in
any of the many other cases that have
been reported in the papers?"
"No. And then bear in mind that
these Akron cases had been worked up
to about the same condition the day
the commission was created that they
are in to-day. The board of public
works had worked them up"
"Well, have they really found any
land that had been lost track of by the
State?n
mot single acre. The finds that
they talk most about are of lands that
have been at one time and another in
cilentally flooded by canal or reservoir
water. They are lands that are now
and ever have been in the peaceable
possession of the men and their assigns,
who bought them of the general gov
ernment-The men who have unbroken
chains of titles from the government
down, and who have given to them, by
their hard labor, about all the value
they now possess. They are lands to
which the State has not the shadow of
q title in equity or law, except such law
as comes of legislative and judicial cor
ruption-such law as the act that this
sneaked through the last
just at its close, and the
bought judicial decision that confirmed
the Cleveland and Toledo steals. No,
this canal commission is entitled to no
mans respect. 1t is simply dishonest
tool of dishonest ring that has in view
the abandomenta and sale of the canals"
"If the commissioners reclaim lands
and lease them out to create fund for
5he support of the canals, will they not
be working in the interest of the ca
laIs?u
"The proposition of the canal COM
missioners is to steal lands from honest
citizens for the creation of this fund
through corrupt legislation and corrupt
judicial decisions. Is that a way in
which the canals can be maintained?
What good are the canals without
ooats, or mills or warehouses, with
which to transact business on their
waters? The canals would pay as we'll
Is the Hooking railroad if they had its
No man will build
boat because of the uncertainty of the
of the canals. So of mills
md warehouses. t-...
The boats are going, and none are
oeing built So of the mills and ware
houses. The two mills at the two best
water powers at Toledo burned down
everal years ago, and have not been
'ebuilt, and will not be. There are
scarcely any servineable boats on the
canals. If the legislature would but
enact that whoever build boat, or a
Mill, or warehouse, on the canal,
should be paid for the same, in case of
he abandonment of the canals, boats
md mills and warehouses enough to
Dut the canals on a self-sustaining basis
would be built within q year. But has
he Governor, the commission, or any
Of the ring that are wrecking
he canals, asked for such an enact
nent? Bills for this purpose have been
Introduced in the last two Legislatures,
,ut they have been smothered in the
committees through the. wreckers' in
iuence."
"How is the canal commission to
erve this ring?'
"The canal commission by the law
lrawn by one of its members and
passed by the last Legislature, is to
'ecretly manufacture prima facia per-
ect titles to vast amount of property