The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1904-01-08
The Strong Array Of Forces
m Favor Of Abandonment
Of the Canal.
THE STATE NOT REPRESENTED
The New England Society Advances
Strong Arguments Against the Plan.
The Company should Perform It's
Functions as a Common Carrier or
Forfeit Its Charter. A Situation of
Great Peril Confronrs the state.

1t has already been stated in the
Chronicle that the Public Service Cor
poration of New Jersey and the New
ark Board of Trade we're working hand
in hand with the Lehigh Valley Rail-
road Company for the abandonment of
the Morris Canal. The influence
these powerful bodies with their repre-
sentatives of "the third house can
exert in the Legislature cam
not yet be determined. In any event
their audacious and determined at
tempt to supersede the State Commits
sion-to force it out of business, as it
we're and forestall their recommend
ations should meet with the severest
condemnation.
There is another peril facing the
friends of the Canal as well as the in
terests of the State. Assemblyman
Colby, of Newark, warm advocate of
abandonment, has been chosen as the
majority leader of the Assembly, and
this, as the Trenton State Gazette
forcefully remarks, is regarded as 81 a
victory for the influences that are
working in the interest of the Morris
Canal Abandonment scheme"
! This danger may be overstated, yet
it is but a few years ago that similar
conditions existed and the Lehigh Val
ley Company thought the battle was
over all but the shouting, when Sena-
tor Mahlon Pitney stepped to the front
and by force of argument convinced
the Senate that the passage of the
abandonment bill would be crime
against the State-and the Lehigh S
shouts of victory were placed in cold
storage.
The most encouraging sign to cheer
the anti-abandoniStS is that the agita-
tiOn has attracted attention not only
throughout the State but beyond its
borders, and it has become topic OF
common debate. The counties in the
southern half of the State are as deep
ly interested as Morris and other coun-
ties along the line of the waterway for
reasons that will appear further on.
The New England Society of Orange
met in Newark on Saturday night and
under the head of "Public Welfare .
the subject of the Morris Canal was
discussed. Henry G. Atwater submit
ted an exhaustive and comprehensive
paper detailing the history of the Ca
nal, the plan for its abandonment, and
pointing out the value of the water
way to the State and to the Lehigh
Valley Railroad. After commenting
on the singular fact. that the State
was not represented before the Com
mission by the Attorney-General, he
utterS these trenchant words
"It would seem to bea fair prOposi-
tion for the State to make to the Canal
Company that the latter should adopt
one of two alternatives either it
should carry out the conditions of the
charter and operate the canal to the
end of its corporate life or, if it found
the operation burdenSome, it should
anticipate the the time at which the
property should revert to the State
and forthwith turn over the canal to
the State in the same way as it would
be obliged to do seventy years from
now"
A letter from Q. G. Nermeule twhC
appears to have recently experienced q
change of hearty was read. Mr.. Yer
meule, after reviewing the case, says
that the company should be made
to perform its proper functions as a
common carrier.
4 If it fails to do this, or if, as is
maintained by Walter J. Knight, OF
i Newark, it has already laid itself open
to forfeiture of its charter, then an
action should be brought on behalf OF
the State to forfeit the charter and
close up the canal. F."