The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1903-03-03
CANAL SYSTEM OF OHIO:
WHAT 1T HAS BEEN AND
WHAT 1T MAY BECOME
written for The News-Demoorat by W. A. rAYLoR.)

Columbus, March 2.-Transporta-
tion has always been one of the great,
II not, indeed, the very greatest of the
problems of civilization, and in turn
civilization has always kept abreast
the successive steps in the solution OF
that problem. When the evolutionary
steps Of the solution have been slow
and uncertain, the progress Of the
world has been slow and hesitating;
when they have been rapid and prac-
tical, the world has moved in perfect
unison with them. tt. 5er
People who contemplate the won
derful facilities of transportation in
Ohio, as we'll as throughout the en-
tire continent, today, without going
back and studying the history of its
development in the state, have but a
faint idea of the great and continuing
questions and principles involved in
Fit.
1t is quite the vogue, in most quar-
ters, to look with contempt upon the
canal system of Ohio, now that it hal
passed through nearly forty years OF
abusive neglect at the hands of our
lawmakers, and possibly Of our execu-
tives, and it is modern saying, with
a retroactive application, that they
never cut any ice anyhow"
The unthinking may deride the ca
nal system, but the thinking do not,
in any civilized country on the globe
They see in it the first great and prac-
tical triumph of the human mind over
the obstacles Of nature, in that solu-
ton Of the transportation problem
which invited civilization back from
the shores Of the oceans and the
banks of the great rivers, into the
wilderness that only lacked the pres
ence of man and woman and the fam
lily altar to convert them into Edens
In Ohio, thoughtful people know
that the steam railway and the trac-
tion lines are but incidents, and tho
natural sequences of the canal system
Of 20 years ago. They are not the be-
ginning, and no one will be bold
enough to assume, that they are the
lem. They are but parts Of it, and
the real progress Of the whole de-
pends upon the preservation of the
vitality and yirility of all the parts
All these parts are as essential to the
social and economic body, as are the
limbs and lOins and head and heart to
the human body. Who, after achiev-
ing a competence in the race of life
would be beguiled into the amputa-
tiCn OF his legs, on the plea that legs
, are but antiquated accessories to To-
comotion. which may readily be SUP
plemented by newer discoveries, Oh
part with the arms because automatic
machinery is for sale in all the man.
ufacturing centers? And who, upon
due reflection, would strike out Of the
equation, natures first great gift to
human ingenuity and engineering
and that at a time when the demand
for transportation is not only increas-
ing. but is proportionally further be-
hind the line Of supply, than 1t was
when the canal system of Ohio was
first opened to traffic?
We still need the feet and legs to
keep pace with the activities Of the
brain, and the hands and arms to
CLEAN the fields, that it is little less
than criminal to neglect.
Students of American history. and
the history Of Ohio. know that had
the country lacked the far-seeing neil
who, just before and at the beginning