Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the National Board of Trade (No. 5)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1872 edition. Excerpt: ...engineer, in 1863, of the expense of enlarging the Erie canal, was eight millions, and the expense of enlarging the Oswego canal two millions, making ten millions in all. I say it is an absurd proposition to ask the State of New York to surrender this valuable property for the sake of this appropriation from the Government, which is not for the benefit of the State of New York, but for that of the groups of States which lie beyond and on the other side of the State of New York. The State of New York, as you see by the statement of comparative tonnage which I have read to you, sends only two or three hundred thousand tons--less than' one-tenth of the total tonnage of the canal for many years--while the West is sending between two and three million tons. In fact the State of New York buys her bread-stuffs from the West; she does not raise one-half or one-quarter enough to sustain her population. An appropriation of this nature, I say, would be for the benefit of the people of the United States, and the enlargement of this canal would so regulate transportation that the whole country would feel the advantage of it. Not only the West, but the East and the South would feel the good effect of it. It would regulate the price of transportation upon the Mississippi river, and on all the railroads running from the West to the East. The proposition of Mr. Gano to refer this matter to a joint commission from the States named, is perfectly absurd. It would be impracticable. How would you ever get these gentlemen together? What interest would they have? What would they know about the commerce of the State of New York, or what might be necessary? Probably these Commissioners would be changed from year to year. It would be a political job. And then, the State of...