1907] HAUPT— TRANSPORTATION IN THE UNITED STATES. 173 



The Baltimore and Ohio was also pressed westward along the 

 Potomac, following closely the lines of the Chesapeake and Ohio 

 Canal to Pittsburgh and Wheeling, which latter was completed in 

 1851 at a cost of $11,071,000. The railroad was opened to Har- 

 per's Ferry, 82 miles, in 1834 at a cost of $4,000,000. When ex- 

 tended to Chicago, 795 miles, the capital reached $57,000,000. 



The Delaware and Raritan Canal, which was controlled by Com- 

 modore Stockton, was so bitterly opposed by John Stevens who was 

 applying for a charter for the Camden and Amboy Railroad that 

 it was found only possible to secure either by a consolidation of the 

 two companies requiring both to be completed and opened at the 

 same time. 



From these early beginnings the contest between the two systems 

 for the internal traffic of the country waxed warm and the higher 

 speed and greater latitude of the railroads enabled them to tap 

 the business at its sources and retain it at the expense of the canals. 

 Frequently where this could not be done, the canals were leased 

 for long periods of years and the tonnage diverted even at a heavy 

 charge for the maintenance of the canal. Such leases by common 

 carriers, exercising the rights of eminent domain, should never have 

 been authorized as they are clearly against the public interest and 

 in restraint of trade. 



So rapidly has this extermination of the waterways proceeded 

 that in this great commonwealth where there were 1,084,87 miles 

 in operation, in 1872, it was reduced to only 217 miles (as reported 

 by the census of 1889) while the last report of the Secretary of 

 Internal Affairs states : '' At the time of the sale of the public works 

 many years ago, it was in the contract of the sale that the canals 

 should be kept open by the purchaser for the convenience of the 

 people in the transportation of their productions." 



*' The canal of Pennsylvania is a reminiscence. It is not easy 

 to discover the bed of the old canal. The levelling process is 

 rapidly filling up its trenches and the young growth of timber has 

 obscured its location." Then follows the very significant remark 

 that : '' The average receipts per ton mile upon all the railroads are 

 very much lower than they were when the canals of Pennsylvania 

 were all in operation," and also the average rates on the New York 



