42 THE HISTORY AND ECONOMIC VALUE OF CANALS. 



A few years later, on April 3, 1637, Sir Edmund Freeman and nine 

 others were the pioneers at the same spot where the commerce began. 

 Unlike the fighting Standish he favored the new sect of Quakers. He had 

 arrived at Lynn on the ship Abigail in 1635 and was subsequently seven 

 times Assistant Governor at Sandwich. His daughter married a man 

 named Perry who was also a Quaker, and his son married Perry's sister. 

 From that union of Freemans and Perrys there ultimately came those distin- 

 guished fighters, General Nathaniel Greene, Christopher and Raymond 

 Perry of revolutionary fame, and the two brothers Oliver Hazard Perry 

 and Matthew Calbraith Perry, the naval fighters of the war of 181 2; the 

 latter, who opened up the trade of Japan to the world, was the grandfather 

 of the man who is now building the channel near the home of his ancestors. 



V. 



I have shown the economic results of canals upon foreign countries 

 during the long ages of the past, and that they have been of benefit to the 

 United States at large. The fact, however, must be kept distinctly in mind 

 that in this country of magnificent natural water courses their improve- 

 ment has been limited to a trifle over a century, and that we have seen the 

 introduction of steam — a power that temporarily checked canal building. 

 The time has now arrived when water transportation will find its own again. 



The railroads, heretofore antagonistic, are to-day unable to carry the 

 crude products of the country, and are in favor of canals. Two notable 

 examples may here be cited. 



Fifty-two years ago the Sault Sainte Marie canal was opened when the 

 railroads had a monopoly of the Great Lakes trafiic. Minor freight agents 

 and railroad officials made whatever rates they chose, while rivalry between 

 competing corporations reduced those rates until combinations led to ' ' sys- 

 tems, ' ' when the tarifl' was again raised. This rivalry resulted in the shippers 

 of the lake region becoming restive and initiating water lines; they were 

 fought by the railways until the broader and higher officials saw the wisdom 

 of using the parallel lakes for the movement of raw material, the result 

 being to-day the numerous fleets working in harmony with the land routes 

 to the advantage of all concerned. Thus, in 1857, the vv'isdom of the advo- 

 cates of the Erie Canal in 1825 was again shown, and to-day New York is 

 building a deep-draught barge route to cost one hundred millions of dollars. 



It is for wise statesmen to say, in view of what Canada is contemplat- 

 ing, whether or not there should be a depth of 25 feet from the Great Lakes 

 to the Hudson. 



