Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1890-03-27
[FrOm the columb~ Peal E
THE CANALS.
Has the General Assembly Any Pow.
erto Give Any Part OF the Canals
Or Other Public Works OF the State
to Any Corporation or Person?
The Legislature Is Simply the Trustee
ofth People.

OF the People.
ED. PosT.-The Cincinnati chamber
of commerce has indicated its intention
TO have their part of the Miami canal
within the corporate limits of the city
declared public nuisance, for the pur-
pose Of obtaining grant of that part oi
1t from the State TO the city. This is q
bold demand. The chamber of COM
merce, and all who favor the proposed
donation, proceed upon the fallacy that
the General assembly is invested with
power to make the donation. That
Is hurtful and very dangerous fall
lacy.
The General Assembly is the trustee
only Of public property, including the
canals, State-house, benevolent insti-
tutions, penitentiary, &c. All this
public property belongs to the people
of the State. Every acre of land, every
house and lot in the State has contrib
uted to pay for these public works and
property. They therefore belong to the
people, Of whom the Legislature is their
trustee, in perpetuity.
The General Assembly is invested
with such power only as the people
have given it in their supreme legisla-
ton, known as the Constitution of
Ohio. They have not clothed their
General Assembly with authority to
give to any person or corporation any
part of their public property.
II the Columbus board of trade and
the press of our capital city should
take measure to have the penitentiary
declared nuisance, as q foundation
for legislative gift of that valuable
property to the city Of Columbus, such
a proposition would be deemed too
absurd to be entertained by any sane
person.
The Legislature has about as much
moral and constitutional authority, to
give part of the canal mentioned to
the city of Cincinnati as it has to give
the State house and surrounding
grounds to the city of Columbus, and
| no more.
While an act of Assembly establishes
the fact that some sixteen or eighteen
years since the General Assembly do
mated the north end of the Ohio canal
to the city Of Cleveland, that act was
condemned as cross breach of legisla-
tive trust from one end of the State to
the other.
Complaint is made on the part of
stockholders in lines of railways in
competition with the canals in the car
rying business, that the canal tolls are
insufficient to keep them in efficient
condition.
Some newspapers have been busy In
urging an abandonment Of the canals on
the ground that they are not self-sus-
tanning. Upon inquiry it will be found
that such papers receive much of their
business support from the competing
lines of railway.
The canals had been under lease for
twenty years when the State resumed
their operation, some ten or twelve
years since. During that lease no very
substantial repairs were made, nor has
the State put them in proper condition
for effective service. When the lessees
turned them over to.the State the wood
work about the locks was much decayed,
the channels 80 filled with mud as to
require dredging, neither of which has
been done.
The great and aggressive railroad in
terest that appears to have the news
paper press Of the cities pretty well un-
der control, has been clamoring for tie
sale of abandonment of the canals for
the past thirty years. They no doubt
would have been sold years ago if the
General Assembly had been invested
with power to sell. They would have
fallen into possession of railway COM
panies at nominal price.
Thirty years ago, when Richard A.
Harrison, then of Madison county, s.
w. ellison, of Mahoning, w. H. West
Of Logan, VIM. B. Woods of Licking,
since Judge of the Supreme Court Of
the United States, Jacob A. Amber of
Columbiana, Bassett Langdon and Isaac
G. Collins Of Hamilton, Judge Stafford
Of Chillicothe, r. G. Parsons of Cleve.
land, and other such lawyers, were
members Of the General Assembly, the
matter of constitutional power of the
Legislature, to sell or dismember the
canals of the State, was fully considered
by special committee of the House,
and the conclusion was, that no such
power had been given to the Legisla-
ture by the people.
It is as idle to expect any revenue
from the canals, In the condition they
have been since the expiration of the
lease, or even that they should De self
sustaining, as it would be for the best
farm in the Scioto valley to yield an in
come to its owner when his fences have
rotted down and his fields left un-
cultivated and overgrown with weeds.
Without any State policy in respect
to the canals that the business COM
munity can rely upon, no prudent man
will risk his money in building boats
and re-establishing lines Of transporta-
ton.
The prudent course for the assembly.
now in session to adopt, is to make
provision to dredge the canals, repair
the l0cks-in other words, establish
such course of policy as will assure
the public that they will be kept in con-
dition for efficient service; then, and
not before, they will be self-sustaining.
This will require an expenditure of q
few million dollars in the outset. The
expenditure will return in the way of
cheap freights upon the products of the
farms, mines and forests.
The General Assembly has no ca
pacity to divest itself of this great
trust imposed by the constitution. It
Is as much the duty of the Legislature
In good faith to execute the canal trust
by making such appropriations OF
money as may be necessary for efficien-
cy and preservation, as it is to make
appropriations to maintain the COM
mon schools, and the benevolent insti-
tutions.
Tn caoo ~ shall ho daarnad avnod;aut