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74 RECORD AND GUIDE July 21, 1917 USE CANALS TO CHEAPEN COST OF COAL Movement Organized to Reopen State Waterways—Brooklyn Civic Club Active yi '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." A 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.