Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-02-19
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have been given attention by Statv
Commissions, the public service board
and legislators lately, have been dis
cussed in Harrisburg for the last GEN.
tury and more without desiring in
any way to talk about the difficulties
! of the plan to make the Ssuquehanna
navigable, which excited the risibili-
| ties of q Harrisburg editor some eigh-
| ty-f1ve years ago and grave doubts .
| among the first citizens of HarriSburAN
loo years since, it may be stated that
William Penn once journeyed as fai
| as Middletown, the confluence of the
| Susquehanna and the Swatara, to
study possibilities of waterways. One
of the prime motives that led John
| Harris to select this site was the
| chance that it would be a great trans
| portation center because of the water
| way and the valleys opening here.
| The founders foresight was correct
although the iron horse and not the
| river barge furnishes the means of
transportation. Propositions to make
the SuSquehanna naVigable in chan
mel are going to be much heard of in
the next few years. 1t may be that
| something may be started in the way
of tests of channel possibilities before
the anthracite and bituminous coal.
the vegetables and grain and other
products of the Susquehanna, Juniata
and other valleys, now being whizzed
through Harrisburg get down to rea-
sonable figures. Just what could be
brought to Harrisburg's front door
| from up-river farms or those along
| the Conodoguinet or other streams by
motor boats, barges or flats pushed by
the same kind of steamers that propel
the coal fleet can be easily imagined
Away back in 1893 and 1894 the
citizens of the counties in Pennsylvania
and Maryland abutting on the river
were alive to its possibilities, accord
ing to old records and were keen to
get the rocks out of the stream. That
old standby of the historian and ances-
tor of the Telegraph, the Oracle of
Dauphin, notes that on August a.
| 1895, men from Dauphin, Lancaster,
York, Cumberland, Miffiin and North
umberland counties met with men
from Cecil and Hartford counties in
| Maryland in our courthouse. This
meeting named committees on sub
scription, including some eminent
men; appointed men to take charge of
the work of blowing up the rocks.
The work proved very expensive and
was dropped. But Harrisburg was
growing and so were the up and down
river towns and while all were i'm
pressed with the beauty of the stream
| and its value as water supply, they
wanted to make the river work. 1t
was in the Legislature of 1906, just
112 years ago, that sentiment of the
State crystallized, largely through
| Harrisburg efforts, and it passed the
first bill for removing distractions
and improving that navigation of
| the river Susquehanna and it's
branches" This bill was signed 112
years ago yesterday, February IS, by
Thomas McKean then Governor. or
course, it chose the lottery as the
means or raising cash. In those days
the Legislature was principally occu-
| n r. ~ n IpNC on
thorizing lotteries for something or
other including the first Presbyterian
| church, built in Harrisburg, whose
lottery tickers are dated April 1. 1903,
by the way. What the State permit
ted agencies for good to do it eXer-
cised itself. The right to run a lot
| terry was a State concern and not to
| be voted lightly as was evidenced by
the fact that before the people of
Somerset could build town hall they
had to send committee to the Legis-
lature. Not few of the churches IN
the other places in Pennsylvania oWV
their first houses of worship to the lot
terry and when Pennsylvania was
hard up" as it often was in those
days, it used to resort to the lottery
to do everything from building roads
to buying cannon. 1t is a little hard
to think of Robert Kennedy Young,
the Treasurer of the Commonwealth
of Pennsylvania, who disbursed some
IIlnR IlkC SOO,UUU,UUU ldSI year.. SOL
emnly collecting the States revenue
from a lottery or to imagine Governor
Brumbaugh calling Francis Skunk
Brown into council as to whether q
bill should be signed to allow q Pres
byterian church in Pittsburgh to build
house of worship by means of money
to be derived from game of chance.
This particular Susquehanna river
improvement bill carried $4,000.
That much has been asked to straight
en- up a creek in Crawford county in
recent years. Now such an ambitious
project as improving the navigation
of the Susquehanna" would call for q
bond issue of at least $1,00,000 or may
be $5,000,000. And moreover Edwin
S. Stuart and NJ. Hampton Todd had
nothing on lawmakers of that day in
the way of specific appropriations.
The legislators were not hampered by
any constitutional inhibition of special
legislation, either. They specified
everything. They named the commits
sioners, which is interesting in view of
the Democratic demand that the pro-
posed investigation of government
nowadays be made by n commission of
men outside of the Legislature. In
those days Lieutenant Governor Nc
Claim would not have had to rule that
the Legislature could not delegate its
powers to outsiders" because this
old-time commission was to investi-
gate and to go ahead. The whole bill
appears to have been with the idea
that the commission should become
active. However. the legislators were
specific as to the itemization of the ap-
preparation, big for those days. The
way it divided up that $4,000 did
not leave very much for expenses of
the commission. 1t was apparently
desired that the work should be ham
died expeditiously. The funds were
to be allotted for removal of obstruc-
tions and improving the navigation,
both objects, mind you. as follows
From the borough of Columbia to
the mouth of the Swatara, (Which was
between Middetown and Portsmouth,
later Royalton), $500.
From the Swatara to the Juniata,
$500.
From the Juniata to Northumber-
land, $4,000. -
From Northumberland to Nanti-
coke Rapids, $1,000.
For Anderson's creek improvement,
$1,000.
For Improvement of the Juniata to
Frankstown, $4,000
For improvement of the Raystown
branch of the Juniata, $1,000.
For improvement of Bald Eagle
creek, $1,000.