Jnly Id, 1890





Record  and  Guide.





71





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Vol. XLVI





JULY 19, 1890.





No. 1,166





There does not seem to be any material danger ahead for the
stock market. Wall street knows pretty well what Congress will
and will not do; it knows what to fpar and what to expect, conse¬
quently the legislative influences on the market will not be import¬
ant in the future. The centre of interest will be shifted to the crop
reports; on them prices will hang for the next month or two.
Present prospects are not bad, but there are so many contingencies
which may upset calculations that this element is uncertain. The
railroads, particularly throughout the West, are at present reaping
the advantages of the large crops of recent years, their earnings are
almost uniformly growing larger and in some cases dividends have
been increased or resumed. The street apparently does not attach
much importance tothe gold exports. Why should it? There is
apparently no fear of any immediate contraction in the money
market, and the situation in London has improved. Altogether
there seems to be nothing working against higher prices except hot
weather and midsummer laziness.





While the national government is squandering the surplus in
pernicious pension schemes because there ar^ votes in it, and State
governments are furthering, sanctioning or committing extrava¬
gances of divers sorts in the interest of " politics," the waterways
of the country, its harbors, rivers and canals are not only not being
improved or extended as wisdom dictates, but are daily becoming
more inadequate, and meet less satisfactorily the increasing
requirements of our commerce, foreign and internal. No one can
think on the subject for a moment without being sharply impressed
with how little of thought, seriousness or wisdom there is in gov¬
ernment in this country. Government has become with us chiefly
a matter on one side of place-hunting, place-getting, place-keeping,
and on the other sideof fostering " my interest here," " my interest
there." There is little of that ever-wiser ordering of our affairs, that
nicer adjustment of national life to its conditions and surroundings,
that broadening and deepening of justice, that well-tempered pre¬
vision and anticipation of things to come that alone is worthy to be
dignified with the name of Government. Party squabbling, selfish
dickering—^is tot that the chief spectacle which Congress has pre¬
sented since the session began. On not a single occasion have the
members of either house risen to the position they occupy ; not
once have they shown a disposition to throw party interests aside
and meet to act on wider lines. As for the people, the indifference
we see manifested in municipal matters is evinced towards national
affairs. In truth, the subject on any side is not a pleasant one for
contemplation ; and much optimism, much faith in our " manifest
destiny " is needed to avert unpleasant forbodings.





The foregoing remarks are apropos of many things, but the
special turn we wish to give to tbem is, as we started out to say,
toward the present neglect of our" harbors, waterways and canals.
While other nations are giving the most serious attention to and
making large expenditures for the improvements of their commer¬
cial waterways, the United States is doing practically nothing in
this direction. This is especially true of canals. France, Germany
and England in the last few years have given so much attention to
the canal, with results so considerable and promising, that there is
good reason for thinking that this old road of transportation is
destined to become very soon as important as it was fifty years or
more ago. How great was the part played by the canal in com¬
merce before the railroad era has now well nigh dropped out ol
sight, and even the factor the canal iu to-day in transportation is
greatly underestimated. In the early part of the present century
there was an era of canal construction not dissimilar to the railroad
mania that followed the year 1825 and supplanted it. In England
the modem history of canals began with the Bridgewater Canal,
constructed from Worsley to Manchester in 1759, and extended to
Liverpool in 1772. It may be said that this famous waterway
made Liverpool; at any rate it gave a tremendous impetus to the
commerce of that city and made it one of the great shipping





ports of the world. Its influence on the fortunes of Manchester
were not less marked. A canal mania followed'the construction
of the Bridgewater canal. Many others were built. A great spec¬
ulation in canals arose with the result that some of tlu.'ventures
were very profitable; big dividends were paid: but many of the
undertakings resulted in financial disaster. In this country the
canal era begun with the Erie canal which was commenced in
1817, and completed at a cost of $5,700,000 in 1825. In 1880 there
were in the United States 4,500 miles of canal which had cost
$214,000,000, irrespective of works of the general government.
Even so late as 1852 the revenue of the Erie canal was over
$3,000,000.





Of course, primarily, the failure of the canal wa.s due to the
construction of railroads. Passenger traffic which had furnished
them a large part of their revenue naturally sought the faster
means of transportation, and the wild expectations which were
held in early days regarding the locomotive and its possibilities
naturally discouraged the owners of canals. Trade deserted them.
No efforts at improvement were made, and in the war of competi¬
tion the railroad companies early learned the advantage to be
obtained by buying canals or parts of them and allowing them to
decay. Of 4,033 miles of canals in England in l!-80, 1,447 miles
were under the control of railroads. However, the completion of
the Suez canal, in 1870, and its subsequent success put a new phase
on the matter. The interest in canals revived. The possibilities
that inhered in them became apparent. It was seen that in the
transportation of the heavier and bulkier articles of commerce
where speed is of no great consequence they can successfully
compete with railroads. In 1884, the International Nav¬
igation Congress was convened in Berlin, and already it has held
four meetings, the last in Paris in 1889. In Europe the improve¬
ment in old canals and the construction of new has been com¬
menced, and is going on apace ; the most noteworthy product of
this activity being the Manchester Canal. There can be no doubt
that the movement in this direction is only just beginning, and the
return to inland navigation in a few years will be very general and
fraught with important results. That the transportation of freight
is much cheaper by canals than by railroad is not denied. In Eng¬
land the canal charges are only one-half of what the railroad rates
are, whereas in this country a bushel of grain can be sent from
Chicago to New York by water for 4.55 .cents, by rail the cost is
14c. How much chciper a ship can carry freight than a railroad
is shown by the fact that of $5.62 which it cost in 1889 to send a
ton of freight from a manufacturing town in England to India, $3.12
went to pay for transportation over 40 miles of railroad.





Now, in face of these facts, what is our national government
doing for the waterways and harbors of this country? What are
our state governments doing to extend our canals and improve
them. Session after session is passed in politics and the only mat¬
ters investigated are the character of members and officials and the
extent of their 'rascally peculations. The Harlem Canal is only
just commenced. New York Harbor is in a disgraceful condi¬
tion for a great commercial nation, yet Congress pays little heed to
the matter—^being so busy with measures that make votes. Surely
this is the right way for a people to build their greatness and pros¬
perity!

--------•--------

Senator Carlisle estimates that if the various bills pending in the
House and Senate awaiting the approval of the President become
laws, that the country will bis confronted with a deficit for the
coming fiscal year amounting to some $53,000,000. Senator
Allison's estimate is even larger, but the two accounts agree in the
essential point, that there will be a deficit. These statements
sound formidable, and are doubtless an approximation to the truth;
but, provided the money is well expended, there is nothing neces¬
sarily damaging about them to the Republicans. It is unfortunately
true, however, that the money will not be well expended, and
therein lies the sting. The above estimates include the $24,000,000
River and Harbor bill, which, it is believed, the ruling party will
from pressure of politically more important bills throw overboard.
If the Republicans do sacriflce in this way the commercial interests
of the country to their party needs, they may reduce the deficit,
but they will not increase their popularity. Such a step would
deserve emphatic expressions of disapproval. And let us hope it
would be so received. Many Eastern people are apt to consider the
River and Harbor bills as simply log-rolUng legislation, intended
to l-enefitC!ongressmen rather than commerce. But as this stigma
attaches to nearly every measure ground out of -the legislative mill
at Washington, it can hardly be regarded as a conclusive objec¬
tion to the measure. The fact remains, and only those who
are blinded by prejudice and false theories fail to see it,
that the geoIogi(»l upheavals which gave configuration to our
country were not designed for commercial purposes. Paleont¬
ologists have unearthed many interesting facts; but never,
we believe, have they claimed that the earlier Saurian inhabitants