Year: 1875

We recollect that Cobbett. In series OF


articles in his Political Register on an ex-


citing question of English politics, put them
in the form Of letters to his friends in
! America, saying that the only way to make


the subject Ineligible to the English people


was TO assume that they were as ignorant of


their own affairs as the inhabitants OF n


foreign country. An intelligent American


correspondent of the London Times would


probably convey to the British public a


clearer idea of the great contest OF Governor
| Tilden with the Canal Ring than the readers


Of our newspapers have yet received The


discussions of our press presuppose so much


more familiarity with the topic than the


public actually possesses that they run the


constant risk OF being obscure, lest they should


insult the intelligence of their readers by too
elementary explanations. Cobbett's plan Of
addressing his own countrymen in the form
L-of letters written for the information OF
foreigners, in spite of its touch Of grotesque
humor, evinced tact and sense.


The majority of our people of this end of
| the State know very little either of the history


Of our canal system or of the bearings of the
I canal controversies which from time to time
arise. Even Senator Jacobs, OF Brooklyn,


who has had q varied experience in State
affairs, began his speech yesterday by acknowl-
| edging his slender acquaintance with canal
affairs; but he stated some good reasons why
they arc really of great interest to citizens of
,this part of the State. He contended that the
counties below Albany where there are no
: canals, had paid ten or eleven of the fifteen
smillions which have been raised by State
taxes and expended on the canals within the
last five years. Strong as this reason is, he
might have added another of still greater
!. force. The prosperity of this city depends
on cheap transportation between it and the
Finterior, and the heavy taxes we have been
paying nominally for the improvement of the
canal, but really to enrich the set OF graceless
contractors and officials known as the Canal
Ring. have injured the city by impeding
its growth to twenty times tho amount
of the money squandered- By the
misdirection of tho money nominally
paid for improving the canal its bed has been
gradually filing up with silt and rubbish so
that its navigation Is rendered year by year
more dilatory and expensive, and we are los
ing the advantages of the canal competition
which is the most effective check on the ex-
tortions Of railroads in the prices of freights.
The legal depth Of the canal is seven feet;
but it averages less than six at the present
time and in some places is not more than five
and . half. Now it is obvious that boats
must be loaded at Buffalo lightly enough to
foat over the shallowest parts of the canal
lose about one foot and a half of the depth to
which they are legally entitled The effect of
this difference on the economy of navigation
is obvious The expenses for men to manage
canal boat are precisely the same whether it
carries light cargo or heavy one, and there
is no perceptible difference in the cost of
towage. Each boat therefore, loses in each
trip the profits on body of wheat filing the
horizontal area of the boat and fifteen or
eighteen inches in depth. The full
legal depth Of seven feet is still
! more important in connection with the
attempts to introduce steam on the canal. The
machinery for this purpose is necessarily
heavy and sinks the boat SO deeply in the
water that it can take only q small cargo OF
grain without greater depth of water than
the canal affords. But with the full seven
feet the boats could carry steam machinery
and also large carqoes, and the result would


be an immense cheapening of freights.


We have explained this matter in detail in
order to put readers in possession of Cover
nor Tilden's point Of new at the time he pre-
pared his annual Message. The chief object
of the canal policy which he then recon-
mended was TO cut off useless and dishonest
expenses and apply the savitgs to deepening
the bed Of the canal IN order TO secure an
easier movement of the boats, enable them TO
carry heavier cargoes and prepare for the
introduction of steam, which would shorten


the time Of the trips by oDe-half Ii we have
succeeded in rendering the Governor S am in


this respect Ineligible the reader will have
no difficulty in following our explanation OF
his great coop and the sensation it has made


both III Albany and throughout the State.


| In order to carry out his canal policy Gov


ernor Tilden was anxious to have the Canal
| Committee of the Assembly composed of men
| favorable to his views, and desired that Mr.
| Davis, who was his chief spokesman in the
/ Assembly yesterday, should be its Chairman.
! Speaker McGuires refusal to CRAFTY him was


the beginning Of the estrangement between


the Speaker and Governor which has resulted


in an open rupture. Instead of putting, Mr.
! Davis at the head of the Canal Committee,


Speaker Mcclure appointed Mr.. A. S. Page,


who has close personal and pecuniary relations


with J. J. Belden, his assignee in bank


ruptcy, and one Of the heaviest contractors


charged with corruption IN the recent ex-


posures- Such a constitution of the Canal


Committee was equivalent to strangling the
Governors canal policy in its cradle. Hence
the motive for hls Merciless assault on the