ON THE CANAL AMENDMENTS IN THE NEW YORK STATE CONSTITUTIONAL merce. Mr. Chairman, waterways are the highways of comWhether they be natural or artificial, they are equally well adapted to float the commerce of the world. The great historic nations were for the most part maritime nations. Their commercial supremacy was largely due to the sea. Ovid declares that "Jupiter, surveying earth from high, The commerce of the Mediterranean states has ever been such as to justify that declaration. But the great nations of the past were not confined exclusively to natural waterways. Many of them constructed extensive systems of artificial waterways, and among such may be mentioned China, India, Assyria, Egypt and Rome. Hydraulic engineering was carried to great perfection among the Romans, and their proconsuls were required to submit plans "for changing the course of rivers for the purpose of facilitating the approaches from the sea to the centers of the various provinces," and we read that "Lucius Verus undertook to construct a canal from the Mediterranean sea to the German ocean." All the states of modern Europe have constructed extensive systems of inland waterways. Addison says: "Whole rivers here forsake the fields belo, And wondering at their height, through airy channels flow." 1. In this convention Mr. Hill was a delegate from the 31st Senatorial District. Great Britain, France, Germany, Belgium, Holland, Italy, Sweden, Russia and Austria-Hungary transport much of their products by means of such inland waterways. It has been said that "Much importance is there attached to having the command of cheap and adequate water transport, and it seems to have been allowed that it is the function of railways to convey passengers and traffic that must be transported speedily, and they will bear a high rate of freight, while it is the function of waterways to convey heavy luggage or traffic that will not bear a high-rate freight, from point to point, at a low rate of speed. The sea-girt British Isles have upward of 2,500 miles of canal, in addition to the Manchester ship canal, which is thirty-five and one-half miles long, and is said to be one of the most remarkable undertakings of modern times.” The commercial prosperity of England is said to date from the period of her canal development. In 1878, Germany had in operation 1289 miles of canals, and had ordered the construction of 1045 miles of new canals. Belgium has forty-five miles. France has expended a larger amount of money than any other European nation to provide for canal navigation, and in 1887 the total length of its canals was 2998 miles. About forty-eight per cent. of the tonnage of that republic was transported on its waterways. The average capacity of boats used therefor was 300 tons. Italy has a complete network of artificial waterways, which have contributed more to her urban prosperity than has the Mediterranean. Holland, Sweden, Spain, Russia, Hungary and other European states have their respective systems of artificial waterways, whereby it is made possible to maintain an extensive inland continental commerce. In 1890 the United States had in operation 2926 miles of artificial waterways, in addition to her thousands of miles of navigable rivers. Canada, South and Central America have their respective systems of well-constructed inland waterways of vast importance to their commercial prosperity. Several mammoth canals have been projected, such as that of Hungary to connect the Danube with the North sea, the German ship canal now being constructed between the North and Baltic seas, the Italian ship canal to connect the Tyrrhenian and the Adriatic seas, the Russian canal to connect the Baltic and White seas, the Corinthian ship canal now being constructed, the French ship canal to supersede the present Languedoc canal to connect the Mediterranean and Bay of Biscay, the Panama and Nicaraguan ship canals to connect the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, the Florida, the Delaware and Chesapeake and the Hennepin canals, the latter of which is in the process of construction, and the recently proposed canals to connect Georgian bay with Lake Ontario. Such vast internal improvements as these, and many others that might be mentioned, conclusively demonstrate that the era of canal construction has not passed, but that the construction and extension of inland waterways is still going on the world over. "By which remotest regions are allied, Which makes one city of the universe, Where some may gain, and all may be supplied." The Suez canal, the "great highway to the East," connecting the Mediterranean and Red seas, the waterways of India, China, Europe and America, and other systems of the artificial water communication in the Eastern and Western hemispheres, have made it possible in the great marts of trade to make an interchange of the products of the Orient and Occident. Ocean, river, lake and canal communication form an unbroken highway for the transportation of the products of the world to every nation. Remotest regions may thus contribute their products to supply the wants of the great commercial nations of the earth. Waterways facilitate the interchange of commodities and bring the products of all nations within easy access of the people of the earth. Ever since the Homeric age, natural and artificial waterways have been the highways of commerce and a very potent agency in promoting the development of high civilization. Inland water transportation has been favored in America by Washington, in Russia by Peter the Great, and in France by Louis XIV. The wise policy, which has led modern States to provide for such transportation, is likely to continue, and New York can ill afford to be governed by a different policy. What Gibbon has said of the servitude of rivers, we may say of canals, that they are "the noblest and most important victory which man has obtained over the licentiousness of nature." Thus conserved, the bounteous waters of nature become a vehicle to transport for man the products of field and factory. Freely do they serve his purposes. As New York was the first to push forward her vast system of internal waterways, "which," it is said, "have contributed more to the advancement of commerce and civilization than any similar work recorded in history," so New York should be the last to suffer her internal waterways to lapse into a condition of neglect and disuse. Many good citizens fear that such a condition is likely to occur and think that this convention ought to recommend the adoption of some amendment which will result in the improvement of the principal canals of the State. Undoubtedly it would be unwise to undertake the construction of a ship canal between Lake Erie and the Hudson, as contemplated by some of the proposed amendments which have been offered in this convention. The cost of such a canal precludes its construction by the State, and the State ought not to relinquish to the Federal Government its vast system of internal waterways, which, as we shall hereafter show, are of great value to the State and which have hitherto and now are contributing millions of dollars, received from freights, annually to its wealth. The State should ever maintain control of its artificial waterways, and such was the opinion of the joint legislative committee of 1817. Then, again, engineers have expressed grave doubts as to the adequacy of the canal feeders of the State to supply a ship canal, if constructed, with sufficient water to float large lake vessels across the State to the Hudson. Inadequacy of water supply might prove an insuperable obstacle to such a system of water transport. There is still another objection to such an undertaking, and that is that lake freight rates are so low that capital does not find profitable investment, except in vessels of large tonnage, drawing from fifteen to twenty feet of water and capable of maintaining a speed of not less than twelve knots an hour. Slower and smaller crafts are being superceded in lake transportation by larger and swifter vessels. With the existing sharp railway competition, vessels that may be profitably engaged in lake transportation would prove unprofitable investments were they subjected to the restrictions and delays incident to the navigation of a canal connecting our Great Lakes with the Hudson. For these reasons, as well as others that might be mentioned, it must be apparent to all that a ship canal might not be a feasible waterway and that it is wiser to adopt some such plan as that suggested by State Engineer Horatio Seymour, Jr., which has the approval at least of the friends of the canals. But it is seriously contended that this convention should do nothing at this time for canal improvement, but suffer the present constitutional provision to remain unchanged; that the canals are now large enough to supply all the demands made upon their carrying capacity, and that the people are opposed to further taxation for canal improvement; that the canals are a source of expense and without profit to the State, and many other reasons have been assigned why no affirmative action should now be taken providing for canal improvement. History thus repeats itself and the friends of the canals are required to "Fight all their battles o'er again." The whole matter must be argued de novo, as though proposed canal construction were for the first time coming up as an original proposition. Living actually, or almost in touch with canal transportation, its beneficent effects upon our commercial and industrial life are so continuous that we are as unmindful of them as we are of those of the air we breathe. At this late day, after so much has been said and written by the great statesmen whose names adorn the history of New York, in favor of the efficiency and perpetuity of the canals, but little more can be said in relation to this |