A. L. Bishop — The State Worhs of Pennsylvania. 245 



Chapter VI. — The Disposal of the Public Works. 



The movement for the withdrawal of the state from the owner- 

 ship and operation of the public works originated during the years 

 of financial embarrassment between 1&39 and 1844. At this time 

 numerous arguments were brought forward in the press, in pam- 

 phlets and in petitions showing why the divorce of the state from the 

 transportation system was desirable. In attempting to arrive at 

 the causes for such a complete change of public sentiment one finds 

 a variety of influences appearing. The utter financial failure of 

 the improvements has already been fully discussed. This was 

 one of the strongest contributing factors to the movement under 

 consideration; for at this time the financial difficulties were 

 attributed largely to the squandering of money upon works which 

 were neither yielding nor could be expected to yield a respectable 

 revenue. Again, bad management and corruption combined to 

 make the improvement system unpopular. Moreover, there was now 

 a gradual awakening to the fact that the only means of preserving 

 the state's honor was heavy taxation. A sale of the public Avorks 

 would not only lighten this burden but also diminish the debt and 

 assure the public that the latter would not be further increased. 



These considerations, detrimental to the popularity of the trans- 

 portation system even in times of , commercial expansion, became 

 increasingly so as the public mind became depressed. Pennsylvania, 

 in common with the rest of the country, was laboring under one of 

 those financial convulsions which sometimes overtake communities 

 and prostrate the energies of the strongest. Under such conditions 

 it seems natural that, for the reasons already mentioned, a large 

 party should be desirous of relinquishing the improvement "system. 

 But still another factor which considerably influenced the movement 

 should not be overlooked. This was the growing consciousness 

 that the main line in particular had failed to accomplish its pur- 

 pose — that it could not compete successfully with the Erie canal 

 for the trade of the West. This point now requires some attention 

 before the movement itself is discussed. 



The trunk line of Pennsylvania's public works was opened in 

 1834 to compete for a trade which for nine years had been prac- 

 tically monopolized by the Erie canal. Again, a large proportion 

 of the most important public improvements of the northwest were 



Trans. Conn. Acad., Vol. XIII. 18 Nov., 1907 



