Year: 1877

The Canal Problem.


a good many canals have been
abandoned within the last twenty
years simply because they could not
successfully compete with the rail-
pads that traversed the same region
Qfeourtry. In Pennsylvania the ca
PAL correcting Lake Erie with the
Ohio river, formerly link in the
great highway of commerce between
View York and the West and South
West, was illed up, and the other
two principal canals of the State
We're given away by the Legislature
linsorder to get rid Of the cost of keep
ing them in repair. They fell into
the hands Of railroad corporations,
II 70 took them pot because tEsnys
Wanted them, but merely to got rid
of the competition in heavy freight
which was kept up as long AS the ca
nails had the State Treasury to fall
back upon to make good the defici.
ency in the working expenses. If
both these costly bitches could be
filled up to-day we do not think that
either the general public or the cor
p0rations that own them would lose
anything by the instantaneous des-
tructi0n ola means of transportation
which must in the course of few
years become obsolete.


1t was supposed for a long time
that the Erie canal, connecting the
Hudson with the Lakes, would prove
an exception to the other canals of
the country, and that by reason Of
its extraordinary advantages, natur-
al and artificial, could defy railroad
competitor. With navigable river
for its outlet, and the city of New
York drawing the trade Of the West
to itself like a mighty loadstone, the
Erie canal certainly had better
chance to become self-supporting
than any other ditch on the continent.
Buffalo, its western terminus, grew
to bea great city and built some
thirty elevators for the purpose of
attracting the trade of the Lakes and
turning the current into the canal.
Some sixty millions Of grain are dis
charged from ships into canal boats
at Buffalo and taken to New York
every year. In spite of the enormous
business done by the canal, the an
nual expenses for repairs always
greatly exceeded the sum received
for tolls, and the Deficiency had to be
made up by the taxpayers. The
people of New York city never made
much complaint about this, for they
supposed that cheap transportation
was highly advantageous to them,
even if their property was heavily
taxed to keep the canal in repairs.
In the country districts, however,
not contiguous to the canal, or its
branches, there was a good deal of
grumbling at the constant drain
upon the revenues Of the State for
the benefit of the canal.


Mr.. Tilden owed his election as
Governor in large part to the popu-
lar dissa tisfaction with the manage
ment of the canal. 1t was charged
that the annual deficiency was occa-
stoned by useless waste and cOrrup-
ton on the part of the superintend-
ents and contractors, and it was be-
lieved that reform in the methods
of administration was all that was
necessary to make the canal self
sustaining. Mr.. TiIden attacked
some of the more glaring abuses, dis
missed a few suspected officials, re-
vised the contracts that were in pro-
cess of execution, and repudiated
snch as he supposed to be fraudulent.
Having done this, he set up the
claim for himself that he had lessen
ed the burdens of the taxpayers of
the State by some nine millions of
dollars.


But for some reason or other the
canal did not prosper under the Til
den system of administration. Busi-
ness fell off, the receipts from tolls
declined, trade was diverted into
other channels, and New York city
saw with amazement the rapid
growth of the grain trade of Balti-
more. In the meantime the railroad
war broke out, and when navigation
opened in the spring of 1876 the Ca
nal could not offer to shippers any
inducemnt in the way Of low freights
that had not been anticipated by the
railroads. The result was heavy
loss of business. New York city,
experimenting a falling off in her
trade, on account of the sharp com.
petition between the railroads, inn
mediately began the clamOr for a
reduction in the canal tolls. and when
the Legislature met, the rates were
cut down one-half though the most


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