Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1910-01-29

Morris Canal Company, and are pay
ing 10 per cent. on the preferred and l..
think Z per cent. on the common stock
of a company that is not earning a
cent, and Is, as a matter oil TACT, q
tremendous loss. 2. Because they want
to cease operating the canal as sucn,
but wish to hold fast to the water
| rights and land values, the worth OF
| which is at least a hundred millions.
8. Because they know that at present
they have no ownership in the canal,
but that under its charter the state
can buy the canal at cost in, | think,
1928, or fourteen years more, or that
it will absolutely revert in 1873, and
they will lose all they now hold.
II cannot go into this thing at length.
1t would fill a book. The fact is that
the I.ehigh Valley Railroad Company
bought the n for no other purpose
than to wreck it, that each year they
have made some effort to get a change
OF charter. and that, to the everlasting
credit of Us late, they have In thirty
years failed to find a Legislature will
ing TO grant their requests. The Lee
nigh Valley has got the worst of a
bad bargain. and they know it. They
can make something of the canal IL
they so desire. A waterway over a
hundred miles long from the Hudson
TO the Delaware, right across the State.
and then, via the Lehigh canal, from
Easton, Pa, to Philadelphia, Trenton
and into Pennsylvania, has a value as
a canal. Perhaps 1t cannot compete
with railroads in transporting perish
able freight, but it can act as a carrier
in connection with the Erie canal ION
which the State of New York is spend
ing $l01.C0 ,000) in carrying lumber,
grain, etc, to the cities of northern
New Jersey n in competition with
the railroads. /. live within a quarter
of a mile of the canal, and / haven't
seen a back-load of FIRE. ght come up
the canal in ten years. Why not? /
will buy a boat-load of ma nure shipped
that way tomorrow if thsy will send
1t at a fair price. My n%eighbors wiz
also buy lime, lumber, agricultural i'm
PIGMENTS, furniture, wagons, groceries
and what not. 1t is folly to say that
the canal has outlived it's usefulness
as a canal. If this is so. the people of
other States are a hundred years be-
hind the times. 1 think we are all
agreed that the Lehigh' Valley Rail-
road Company has outlived it's useful
ness as the operator of the canal.
H III COlCluGioii iCL iit Vdt|liic iht VIEW
as to an equitable disposition of this
very troublesome question which will
be fair both to the Lebigh Valley Com
pany and to the State. and will meet
all the objections.
Let the State buy back the remain
ing leasehold of the canal from the
Lehigh Valley Company and pay them
just what they paid in 1873. Then let
competent engineers improve the canal,
equip it with boats that will work In
with those to be used on the Erie canal
so that a fleet of them can be brought
down the Erie and then sent up the
Morris n singly without the neces-
sity of unloading or transferring. Let
the motive power for the present be
mules until the canal can have electric
equipment. To rid Newark and Jersey
City of the canal nuisance let the pres
ent canal end at the point in Newark
where 1t runs near Second river at
Woodside and thence via Second river
TO the Passaic. The cost of construct
ing the short section of canal would
be paid for many times over-perhaps
many hundred times by the sale of the
property recovered and made available
for buildings in Newark and Jersey
City. In fact, the property so obtained
should a the entire cost of the whole
project If the Jersey City basin is worth
what it is reputed to be.
Lake Hopatcong would have no
cause to complain If the water wasted
should be saved. If l am creditably IN.
formed, the lake was never interfered
with in the days when the canal was
Kept in repair, wen with its feet of a
thousand boats or more"