New-York tribune., 1899-05-25

sIeep LITTLE more slumber." taking twenty
vesrs n do IN part what should have been
ful,v done in as many months and has reached
the climax of its enterprise in paying inter-
mjnoblc rental ON monument to bureaucracy.
II a comparson--ro, a contrast-of wnat mas
been done AZ weland and Lachne with what
has been fddled at and jobbed at all the way
from Buffalo TO Hell Gate, and especially from
Spuyten Duyvil to Port Morris. is not enough
TO make the Yankee behoder blush with shame,
II must be because his cheek Is less sensitive
than that OF any surviving pachyderm.
And now that official acknowledgment Is he
ing made of what has long been unofnciaily
we'll known what is TO be done? Commission
ers concede that IL Montreal shall provide ade-
ouate terminal facilities. as no doubt II WILL
the present Erie Canal will not be able to com
pete with the st. Lawrence system. or course
II will not 1t Is not able to do so now "A
barge ditch eight or nine feet deep cannot be
expected to compete with ship canal fourteen
feet deep What them The suggestion Is
made that It might be we'll to abandon the Erie
Canal altogether and let all our traf1c 70 py
tho 81 Lawrence route. 1t would be conspic-
uouslv credltable TO the United States. would
u NOT to confess itself beaten In competition
by Canada? 1t would be vastly advantageous
to this city, to this State, and TO the Whoie
Union To have Montreal. instead OF New-fork
become the chief port Of shipment OF Ameri-
can produce. Oh, yes; by all means! Ana
while we are about It, why not have all our
foreign traffic centred there and when we want
to 90 TO Europe, 90 up to Montreal TO take snip
and send our mails thlther for transportation
and turn our own harbor into duck pond ana
orr piers into courts for pitching quoitsf
Those who regarded with incredulity The
Tribupe's revelations Of Canadian canal COM
netitlon may regard il with renewed sceptlclsm,
but we think we can tell what the creators OF
New-York's commercial greatness would do II
they were living now. They would make our
waterway from the Lakes to the sen at least
as deep and as broad and as commodious as
any competitors. They would free IT from
bampering restrictions, so that 1t could be used
in the most efficient manner, with all the re-
sources OF capital and modern science. Ihey
would free Its terminals from vexatous delays
and oppressive charges. They would perfect
according to the original design, Its most direct,
most natural and best connection with deep
tdewater AT n point where the wharfage-room
is not already overcrowded and where no In
cessant battle with the Atlantic Ocean Is neces-
sary TO maintain ample sea-room for the largest
ships af1oat and where such vessels couid ar
rive or depart on schedule time regardless. OF
the tides That, we believe, is what Clinton
and his compeers would do were they mere
now. And If any one of this day thinks they
were old fogies, let him contrast their WORKS
with the works Of the greater geniuses VINO
have followed them. Cntons monument, the
work of three years. stretches from Lake Erie
TO the Hudson. The monument OF his success
sors the work OF twenty years, Is n flne heap
of limestone near Spuyten Duyvll Creek