Year: 1874

The above table is constructed from tables
Nos. 70 and IA in the last report of the Audi
tor of the Canal Department. The complete
account of the taxpayers with the canals
would be quite difficult one to make up,
but the figures we have given show some facts
of great significance. For instance, the reader
will observe that the average cost of collect
ing the tolls, superintendence and ordinary
repairs for the five years from 1859 to 1853, in
elusive, is less than One-half the amount for
the five years from 1869 to 1873, inclusive, the
average amount per year for the former period
being $7sO,OOO, and for the latter period $1SOO,
OOO This increase in ten years strikes us as
being altogether unwarranted, seeing that the
canals were exactly of the same length and
size in 1850 as they are now. The removal of
bench walls, construction of additional locks,
iron bridges, &C., are not included in the ordi-
naru repairs, and therefore do not enter into
the above comparison. 1t is also to be remem-
bered that dishonesty in the dealings of the
canal contractors with the State was quite as
notorious fact fifteen years ago as it is now.


In the second place it is important to observe
that the revenues of the canals in the years
1861, 1862, 1863, and 1854 were munificent, and
it is to be supposed that the largo surplus in
those years was the parent of present and
future extravaganza, just as it has been in the
case of the National finances during the last
six years. But the mischief is that the extrav-
agance and stealing, though they invariably
grow with the surplus, do not disappear with
the fund which brought them into existence.
This truth also we see illustrated in the present
state of the National finances. For our part
we cannot admit that there is any great merit
in not stealing from an empty cash-box, and
any greater merit than this it is impossible to
concede to the men who have recently had
the management of our canals-we refer to
the Canal Ring and to its tools in the Legisla-
ture and executive offices of the State. BY
cutting down the tolls the available fund for
ordinary repairs and the extinction of the Canal
Debt according to the requirements of the Con-
stitution has been reduced since 1859 from over
four million dollars year to barely three mil
lions, and has thereby been made insufficient
for the colossal robbery which was born and
had fourshed under high tolls heavy tax
was made necessary for deficiencies, and 1t was
not a matter of choice but OF necessity
that the canal contractors should be less
greedy. This can no more be called econ
Omy and retrenchment than the abstentiOn of
thief from stealing when shut in by the four
walls of his cell can be called honesty. The
traveller whose pockets are empty is safe in
all countries. Even in South Carolina and
Louisiana they can boast of "retrenchment and
reform" to which nothing is SO conducive as
an empty treasury and ruined credit. In the
case of our canals, the Constitution presents al
most an insuperable obstacle to borrowing
and taxation for the canals has been carried
of late to the extreme limit of endurance.
Hence this reform" which, when looked into,
turns out to be stealing three dollars where
formerly you stole four. there being now only
three dollars to steal.