ABANDONED CANALS 



299 



The state engineer's report shows the abandonment of 221 miles 

 of canals with their locks and feeders. To this, add a littoral of lakes 

 and rivers of 300 miles and we have abandoned waterways of 521 

 miles. This covers a region which, in the course of thirty years, has 

 increased 1,500,000 in population and its manufactured products have 

 more than trebled. 



The American voter is not the wise man that he thinks he is. He 

 fails to grasp the primary idea of statecraft. He bends an obedient 

 knee to the moloch of the lobby. He obeyed the behest of his party 

 and sold his birthright for something as impalpable as moonlight. 

 When he sold the right of way of the Chemung Canal for $100, he saw 

 neither wrong to himself nor injustice to his posterity. A few dollars 

 of annual tax was worth more than millions in prospective. 



For years it was a vexed question in politics, with the democrats on 

 one side and the republicans on the other. The fatal blow was given 

 in the republican stronghold, central New York, by the people who 

 had the most at stake in preserving the canals. 



The republican legislature of 1873 officially abandoned them. The 

 results were quickly shown. The year before the abandonment gave a 

 loss in tons of 308,588, while two railways connecting Lake Erie with 

 ]STew York showed an excess in tons of freight over that of 1872 of 

 1,877,187. This was a direct loss to the farmer and the small producer 

 of $96,693 to save the small sum of $34,000 divided among sixteen 

 counties. A more complete demonstration of the canals as a freight 

 regulator it would be impossible to find. 





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