74





RECORD   AND   GUIDE





July 21, 1917





USE CANALS TO  CHEAPEN  COST   OF COAL





Movement  Organized  to  Reopen  State
Waterways—Brooklyn Civic Club Active





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'HE Brooklyn Civic Club has been
•■• represented at recent meetings called
for the purpose of organizing a move¬
ment looking to the restoration and utili¬
zation of the State canals already built
from the anthracite region to tidewater,
or extending in the direction of the sea¬
board. Efforts are being made toward
bringing about the reopening of the fol¬
lowing inland waterways so that the
present traffic difficulties in respect^ to
coal shipment from Pennsylvania to tide¬
water might be relieved.

The Delaware and Hudson canal, 108
miles in length from Honesdale. Pa., to
Kingston, or Rondout, on the Hudson;
the Lehigh canal, from the anthracite re¬
gion of Pennsylvania to Easton, Pa., on
the Delaware; its connecting link, the
Morris and Essex canal, which extends
from Phillipsburg. N. J., to Jersey City;
and the Delaware and Raritan Canal,
from Bordentown, N. J., on the Dela¬
ware River, north of Camden and Phila¬
delphia, to New Brunswick, on the Rari¬
tan River, which has an outlet imme¬
diately  on  New  York  Bay.

Bringing Coal to Tidewater.

According to a statement issued by H.
C. Plummer. of the Delaware and Hud¬
son Canal Re-Opening League, the
movement is one "to realize every pos¬
sible and available means for bringing
coal from the anthracite region of Penn¬
sylvania to tidewater: to meet the im¬
mediate necessities of war; to relieve the
present economic and traffic difficulties
in respect to coal that have developed
from the war situation: and to provide
new and permanent distributing facil¬
ities and economies for the industries
and home consumers of New York and
New England."

In a memorandum submitted to the
Secretary of War, under date of June 5,
Mr. Plummer calls attention to the need
for waterway restoration in New York
and   Pennsylvania.

"By act of the New York Legislature,
passed in April. 1899," he states, "the
Delaware and Hudson Canal, extending
108 miles from Honesdale. in the anthra¬
cite coal mining region of Pennsylvania,
to Kingston, on the west bank of the
Hudson River. New York, was formally
abandoned.
Re-Open  Delaware  and  Hudson  Canal.

"The bed of this splendid waterway
remains virtually intact, in so far as
physical outline is concerned. True, to
bring it into condition for modern uses,
considerable excavating would have to
be done, but the material to be dealt
with would be largely silt, soft earth
brush and refuse, instead of hard rock
and the original geological formation cut
through in the building of the canal,
early in the last century. A single track
of the New York. Ontario & Western
Railway, a subsidiary of the New York,
New Haven & Hartford Railroad, is laid
over small stretches of the bed. The
original canal for eight miles from its
mouth at Kingston or Rondout, on the
Hudson River, is open.

"Knowing that the Government at
present desires to avail itself of every
possible avenue of transportation and
realizing that the movement of anthra¬
cite coal is one of the greatest ot mili¬
tary, as well as civil, requirements of the
moment, I respectfully urge upon you
that steps be taken to have this once
very successfully operated waterway sur¬
veyed, with a view to its early re-open¬
ing. Its opening would automatically
operate to relieve the strain upon the
coal-carrying roads, would release a
great volume of car and engine equip¬
ment for other war uses and would in¬
sure the regular and economical move¬
ment of anthracite coal from thc Penn¬
sylvania mines to tidewater.

"The great industries of Manhattan,
Brooklyn, The Bronx and Queens, in
New York City; of Jersey City, Newark,
Hoboken, Elizabeth, Edgewater and Pat¬
erson, in New Jersey; of Albany, Troy,

RECORD   AND   GUIDE





Hudson, Poughkeepsie, Kingston, New¬
burgh and Yonkers, in New York, and
of Bridgeport, New Haven, Hartford,
Providence, Lynn and Boston, in New
England, were never in a more desperate
plight as to the maintenance of their
supply of coal and power fuel. The re¬
opening of the D. & H. canal would
promptly end that plight.

"Vitally necessary as the restoration
of the canal is from a standpoint of mili¬
tary exigency, I believe its benefits to
the industrial centers north of Sandy
Hook must survive the largest possible
duration of the present war.

"Aside from the primary and broader
requirements of the anthracite coal
movement, the canal's re-opening would
have the effect of aiding the growth, or,
rather the recovery of the rich agricul¬
tural region of Pike and Wayne coun¬
ties, in Pennsylvania, and Orange, Sulli¬
van and Ulster counties, in New York,
through which the canal passes, and
which have suffered a marked economic
decline since the actual closing of the
waterway,    that    preceded    the    formal





abandonment by some fifteen years or
more. That part of the City of King¬
ston, fronting on the Hudson River, and
known as Rondout, which once enjoyed
a lively trade from the canal traffic, has
become industrially and commercially
stagnant since that traffic ceased to oper¬
ate.

"A sixteen-mile railway (the property
of the Delaware & Hudson Co., which
obtained its original charter from the
State of New York by pledging its main¬
tenance of the canal in perpetuity), links
the upper (Pennsylvania) terminus of
the canal with the anthracite mines cen¬
tering about Carbondale.

"It is no exaggeration to state that
every unit of the vast population and the
tremendous industrial energy of the re¬
gion lying eastward of the Delaware
River and northward of New York Bay
must derive a quick and potential eco¬
nomic benefit from the restoration ot
the Delaware Sl Hudson Canal to the
people of the State of New York and the
State of Pennsylvania and its employ¬
ment for the transportation of anthracite
coal and other products of the section
which it taps, and for the movement,
also, of heavy bulk freight from New
York and New England, Hudson river
and New Jersey milling centers into that
section."





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LEGAL    NOTES    AFFECTING    REALTY

Prepared  by Committee on Real Estate Laws of

Real Estate Board, Samuel P. Goldman. Chairman

Profits on Land Speculation.
HAVING rendered services to B
in the purchase of certain land, C
signed a writing stating that it was his
understanding and agreement that A was
to have one-third of the net profits aris¬
ing from the operation or final sale of
the property. The property was sold at
an advance in price, but if B were al¬
lowed interest on his investment there
would be no profits. The California Dis¬
trict Court of Appeals holds, Young v.
Canfield's Estate. l64 Pac. U34, that the
contract did not authorize B to charge
any interest notwithstanding the use of
the term '*net profits." The court dif¬
fered from the Pennsylvania court's opin¬
ion in Hentz v. Pennnsylvania Co., 134
Pa. 343, where it was held that "there
are no profits in a land speculation which
does not return to the investor his pur¬
chase money with interest upon it."
Effect of Fraud of Broker.

A broker contracted with an owner for
$100 to procure for her an exchange of
her property for that of another and
$1,500 to boot. He arranged with the
other party to pay him (the broker)
$500, and the broker's principal $1,000,
but reported to the latter that $1,000 was
the most boot he could get the other
party to pay, assuring her that he was
working for- her interest, she contracted
to exchange for $1,000. Before final de¬
livery of the papers she learned the
other party was to pay her broker the
$500, but she went ahead with the trade.
The broker sued for his commission of
$100. The defendant set up the fraud
and counterclaimed for $500 damages.
The Kansas Supreme Criurt held. Rat-
liffe V. Cease, 164 Pac. 1091. that by his
conduct the plaintiff lost all right to his
commission, and became liable to the
defendant for the $500. West, J., dis¬
sented, being of opinion that the plain¬
tiff should not be held liable beyond the
loss of his commission.

Offer to Sell and Acceptance.

To establish a contract for the sale of
real property by correspondence, there
must be a definite offer in writing and an
unconditional and unqualified written ac¬
ceptance of the offer. No contract of
this kind is complete without the mutual
assent of the parties thereto, and an of¬
fer to sell property imposes no obliga¬
tion until it is accepted according to the
terms of the offer. A proposal to ac¬
cept, or an acceptance upon terms vary¬
ing from those offered, is a rejection of
the offer, and puts an end to the nego¬
tiations, unless the party who made the

IS   IN   ITS   FIFTIETH    YEAR    OP    CONTINUOUS    PUBLICATION.





original offer renews it, or properly as¬
sents to the modification suggested.—•
Kull V. Wilson, Minnesota Supreme
Court, 162 N. W. 1072.

Option to Purchase.

An agreement contemplating the pur¬
chase of land recited part payment, but
provided that the agreement was an op¬
tion exclusively, and that the prospec¬
tive purchaser had no rights in the prop¬
erty until a second payment, and that on
default of such payment both parties
were released and tne prospective vendor
should retain the initial payment as
liquidated damages. On the agreement
were indorsements extending the date
of the second payment upon considera¬
tion of smaller payments. These in¬
dorsements confirmed the terms of the
original agreement as an option merely,
the payments made being the considera¬
tion upon which the option to purchase
rested. It was held, Compton Land Co.
V. Vaughan (Cal.). 164 Pac. 610, that
upon the lapse of the time fixed by the
contract, and extension indorsements,
and default in second payment, neither
the purchaser nor his assignee could re¬
cover any of the payments made.
Representations as to Value.

A purchaser of property must use rea¬
sonable care for his own protection and
sliould not rely blindly upon statements
made by a seller, and between parties
dealing at arm's length, where no fiduci¬
ary relation exists and no device or arti¬
fice is used to prevent an investigation,
it is the general rule that a purchaser
must make use of his means of knowl¬
edge, and failing to do so he cannot re¬
cover on the ground that he was mis¬
led by the seller. Where there has been
an inspection by a person making a pur¬
chase or an exchange of propert}^ false
representations as to the value cannot
as a rule be the basis of an action for
damages.—Reimers v. Brennan, Oregon
Supreme Court, 164 Pac. 552.

Condition of Premises Leased.

In an action by a tenant against a
landlord for injury to the plaintiff's foot
alleged to have been caused by a con¬
cealed nail in a threshold, the Nebraska
Supreme Court holds, Ranklin v. E.
Kountze Real Estate Co., 162 N. W. 531,
that the rule of caveat emptor applies to
leases of real estate, and, in the absence
of warranty, deceit or fraud on the part
of the lessor, the lessee cannot recover
for personal injuries received through
latent defects therein, of which the
lessor had no knowledge at the time of
making the lease, and which were as
patent to the lessee as to the lessor.