Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1934-09-20

Then the trade Of the Mississippi
valley grew consequential and the sew
eral states began to battle for it. Even
George Washington lent his prestige
10 the endeavor to hold it for Vjr-
ginia.
But De Witt Clinton outwitted them
all. Never had old Cato cried out
more earnestly or more persistently,
"Delenda est Carthage" than De Witt
Clinton urged that "The Erie Canal
must be built" 1t was a momentous
undertaking in those days to raise $780,
100000 for a waterway.
"Clinton's Ditch" won, and present.
ly the lions share of the Mississippi
valley trade was moving through the
Mohawk country and down the Hud-
son, because it could float to the sea
on lake and canal and river, while
other states labored and tugged over
the mountains in Conestoga wagons,
railroad inclines, and the like.
Gone is the glory of Erie canal.
The elite, who once Travelled through
the state atop its lesurely moving
barges, now roll at high speed in mod
ern motor cars on superhighways, rush
along on world-famed express trains,
or fly like birds along the sky paths.
seldom giving it either glance or
thought.
But New York, both the state and
the city, whatever their unrivaled posi-
ton, will ever owe homage for their
primacy to De Witt Clinton and that
symbolic ditch.
Never has state possessed clear
er title to its sobriquet than the land
Of the Hudson. the Mohawk. and the
Genesee holds to it's name of Empire
state.
Measured by the hosts of its people,
by the magnitude Of its wealth, by the
extent of it's industry, by the splendor
and variety Of its scenery. or by the
magnifcence of its program for the
public veal, New York inspiringly
lives up to that title.
Really an Empire.
With more than twelve and a half
million people, it is indeed an empire,
outranking Canada by margin of two
million and coming close to doubling
Austria. 1t has two people for every
one on the entire continent of Aus
tralia and three for every two in the
Union of South Africa.
With $37,0O0O00O00 of wealth. 1t
stands ahead Of half of the nations Of
the earth. Even the whole United
States, as recently as 1870, could not
match that figure.
Most assuredly in the variety and
splendor of its scenery 1t is an en-
pire. After rambling throughout the
entire state-gridronin Long Island;
checkerboarding Westchester county;
zigzagging up the Hudson and down
the Champlain country; crisscrossing
the Adirondacks and Catskills; skirt
ing the st. Lawrence and Lakes On
tario and Erie; peeping into every cor
ner Of the Niagara front; exploring
the Genesee area; threading in and
out among the interior lakes, from lit
tie Conesus to big Cayuga, and from
beautiful Skaneateles to gorgeous OF
sego; revealing in the many beauties
of the valleys of the Mohawk, the
Chemung, the Susquehanna, and the
Delaware. one thinks he knows some
thing of Empire state scenery, and is
ready to say Of 1t, as Wallace Nutting
saws of the Hudson, that here we find
"civilization set in beauty"
The magnificence Of its park system,
the perfection of its parkways and
boulevards. the fine quality of its
schools, the care it gives its dependent
population, and the plans It projects
for the future, all stamp 1t as imperial
alike in understanding, vision, and pur-
pose.
There is no finer chapter in the
history Of any state than that which
deals with the deep concern New York
shows In the conservation Of its scenic,
historic. and recreational resources.
This concern is fitting companion
piece to the ever-growlng care with
which the state educates its youth-a
growth represented by tenfold in.
crease in expenditures for elementary
and high school education in the last
30 years.
From Lake Champlain to Niagara
falls, from the western end of Chautau-
qua county, on Lake Erie, to the east
ern tip of Suffolk, at Montauk Point.
New York has set up series Of GO
parks, of varying type and area to
nroyide recreation centers, to save
scenic regions, and to safeguard his
torie shrines, and is developing them
in a manner that no great community
has ever surpassed and few have
eQualed.