Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1898-03-07
THE ERIE CANAL,
The Part 1t Played in New YorI's Ad.
vancement in Wealth and Population.

vancement in Wealth and Population.
Mr.. Ernest Ingersoll writes an arti.
Gle for st. Nicholas on the Greater
New York, his paper being entitled
Reasoning Out Metropolis. Mr..
Ingersoll says:
The greatest OF all the influences
that assisted New York to reach first
place was the Erie Canal The first
quarter of this century was the era Of
canal building No matter how fine
the turnpike may be, horses can haul
in wagons only high-priced merchan
disc, in comparatively small quantities
and for short distances, unless the
cargo is to cost for transportation
more than it is worth. Men found out
in Europe and Asia long ago that fol
moving grain, coal, timber, ore, and
similar bulky or heavy goods, where
speed was not especially important a
ship or boat was the only practical
method. If river were not convent.
ent, then an artificial waterway, called
canal-that is, channel-must be
made. When in any country some.
thing of this kind cannot be done,
that country must remain undeveloped
and thinly populated, like the Sahara.
Why is canal so much better than
good road for commercial purposes?
Because, while two horses and one
man can haul on hard, level road
perhaps two tons, the same driver with
two horses harnessed to canal boat
can move twenty tons nearly as quick.
ly; that is, the same force and expense
for pay and food of men and horses
accomplish ten times as much in re.
suit, which really makes the goods
ten times cheaper at the end Of the
route.
Hence, before the invention of rail-
roads, it was necessary for any grow
ing country to dig canals to serve as
the highways of commerce; and this
the young United States hastened to
do. New York, as usual, moved
among the foremost. She planned
and constructed, besides some lesser
ones, that great waterway, four hun
dred miles long, from Albany to Buff
falo, which was called the Erie Canal,
and connected the Hudson with the
Great Lakes.
This canal was finished in 1926, and
immensely stimulated the growth, not
only of the western part of New York
State, but of the whole region of the
Great Lakes; for now farmers in the
Northwest could send their grain and
fruit and cattle, and the miners their
ore, and the lumbermen their ship
timber, and boards and slaves, to the
seaboard at profitable rates; and in
return they could obtain the imports,
merchandise and manufactures of sea-
coast cities at fair cost. A fleet Of
vessels on the lakes came and went,
bringing from farm, mine and forest
cargoes which were loaded into canal
boats and sent east, often to be trans
ferred to vessels for foreign ports
without ever touching land at all. And
back went supplies for the interior of
New York State, and for settlers in
Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois,
and beyond, who could never have
lived and worked in those distant
parts except for this means of cheap
communication. To them, also, every
summer, went thousands of new set
tiers from New England and Old Eng
land and all Europe, who needed no
longer to spend weeks and weeks in
travelling in wagons before reaching
their new homes.