Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1915-06-14

separate arrangements and in compe-
tition with each other, he people
would have been the gamer by mil
lions of dollars.
On the other hand, h popular
conception OF the railroads as having
deliberately planned the absorption
and closing of the canal systems Is
not altogether borne out by the facts,
for the State repeatedly tried to sell
the Pennsylvania canal, for instance,
to the Pennsylvania Railroad, and
only succeeded after the proposal had
been put to a referendum vote and
approved by a majority of the voters
of the Commonwealth. after which the
sale hung fire for years before a bar
gain was struck between the State
Government and the Pennsylvania
Railroad Company.
AS an illustration, when the Penn
sylvania Railroad Company did offer
in 1855 the sum of s~7.5OO,O0O for the
public works"-meaning canals-be-
tween Pittsburgh and Philadelphia,
Governor Pollock in his message to
the Legislature heartily approved the
sale as the beginning of a process
that would free our Commonwealth
from debt and Jul people from taxa
ton"
However. once acquired the whole
policy of the railroads has been to
put the canals out of business, either
by the slow process of strangulation or
by arbitrarily closing them. In the
history of Pennsylvania, "a charters
were issued to canal companies, but
only 2S of these ever became opera
tive, and of these the records accoun
for only 10 as having actually con-
structed and operated canals. All but
three have been abandoned, either by
the decision Of the railroad companies
under whose control they eventually
fell, or because the cost OF operation
was greater tina receipts and they
were put out of operation by their
owners or sold out by order of the
sheriff.
These three canals still in opera
ton are the ~Schuylkill Navigation
company's ditch, which follows the
Schuylkill River from Port Clinton to
the city of Philadelphia, a distance
of 80 miles, and two operated by h
Lehigh Coal and Navigation Com
pany, extending from Coalport to
Easton, As miles, and the Delaware
Division Coal Company, which it leas-
es. extending from Easton to Bristol,
on the Delaware River, so miles.
Neither the Department of Internal
Affairs nor the State Public Service
has in its records any fig
ures showing either the tonnage or
the tariffs on coal. the principal item
of canal freight, in the early days OF
their operation, but that such lntor-
nation exists and is at h hands OIL
the railroads controlling the anthra-
cite traffic between the mines and n
city of Philadelphia, is shown by quo
tations in the testimony of witnesses
for the companies in the coal AK case
now pending in the Supreme Court,
by the Public Service Commission
at it's c~opcrusions in h recent Phila-
delphia coal rate controversy. Such a
comparison would be highly interest
ing. Possibly. also. it might have a
tendency to cause canal advocates to
move a little slowly, for while advanc-
ing freight rates make the canal
proposition look attractive in a gen.
eral way, a closer examination may
tend to the belief thai reconstruction
at this time of the States inland wat
erways is not so imperative as high
building and certainly Pennsyl-
vania is not now in position to Shout
der both at one time.