Omaha daily bee., 1900-01-26
CANALS TO CHECK RAILROADS
Governor Roosevelt submits Report
of Commission to New York
LEGISLATURE.

| ALBANY, N. Y, Jan. Ex-Governor
Roosevelt, in transmitting to the legislature
today the report of the New York Commerce
commission appointed in 1898, directs espe-
cial attention to the way in which the rail-
| roads, and particularly the railroads of this
state, discriminate against the city of New
York in the interest of competing ports.
| The committee shows that the dfferential
| agreement is made so as to overcome the
advantage which New York would have
! under natural conditions as the cheapest
| route to foreign markets for the products
| o. the west, and comments with especial
severity upon the New York railroads which
have received benefits from the state and
| yet participate in the discrimination to the
serious injury of New York
| The commission, Governor Roosevelt says
in the message accompanying the report,
discovered that "the question of the canal
was really the central question around which
hinged all others concerned with beneftng
the commercial development Of New York or
arresting the decline of this development.
This is further proof, if any be needed,
os the immense Importance OF the canal
and extreme unwisdom of abandoning it as
an outworn instruction.
THE commission makes eight recommen-
dations for legislative action. To seven of
these there can be no question in my opin
ion. Proper terminal facilities should be
Immediately provided as the commission
outlines. The act regulating the fees and
charges for elevators should be amended
The act limiting corporations designed to
navigate the canals to a capital stock of
S50,0 900 should be repealed"
The governor also directs especial at
tention to that portion of the commissions S
report which treats of European canals ut
appears from this" the message says, chat
in the most highly developed portions of
Europe there has been an immense positive
and relative increase in the canal systems
and in the traffic upon them; so that the
experience of Germany Russia, France,
Belgium, and in short all the great indus
sible is that it is desirable and profitable
to keep up the development of the canals as
fast as the railways are developed.
1T is alleged, however, that owing to
Americas advanced position in the equip
ment and management of it's railways as
compared with France, the problem here Is
different, the canals being hopeessly at
disadvantage it being alleged specifically
that the railroads competing with the canals
can now carry freight so cheaply that under
no circumstances would II pay TO TRANSPORT
1t along an artificial waterway through this
state This subject the commission dis
cusses at length. They come to the con-
clusion, and fortify it by arguments which
are seemingly irrefutable, that If the canals
are modified to meet the requirements Of
the business of today freight can be trans
ported upon them at about one-thrd of the
cost by rail, and that, so far as human fore
sight can look into the future this result
can be guaranteed for at least a generation
II the facts thus set forth are true, and
seemingly they cannot be successfully con-
troverted it is a matter of vital interest
to New York state, and TO New York City
Buffalo and the great cities between them.
that the canals should be put upon a really
satisfactory working basis"