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Gov. Tilden’s Message
ON THE
CANALS,
TO WHICH IS APPENDED
Some Suggestions of a Practical Canaller.
We have taken the liberty, at our own expense, of reprinting that
part of Gov. S. J. Tild'en’s Message relating to the Canals, for a
more general circulation, firmly believing that our fellow-workers on
the canal think as we do, that it is the most important document that
has been transmitted to the Legislature on this subject in many years.
The writer will also add some suggestions of his own, from experience
as an old canaller. The first point to be considered is, what shall the
State do to retain the carrying trade of the Western States, tributary
to our great lakes ? My answer is : Make our route to the seaport the
cheapest. And this can be done by finishing the canals on the original
enlargement. Give us the honest seven feet of water, and take out the
bench walls. The present locks should be tailed out (except at Lock-
port) to three times their present length, with intermediate gates to
make the locks the length of the present ones, and some wider, to ren-
der the ingress and egress more rapid; and then one, two, or three
boats can be locked at a time, as the movement of the boats on the
canal may require. By this improvement in the locks, the capacity of
the canals are nearly trebled, and steam as a motive power can then be
made a commercial success, as a canal propeller capable of carrying
seven thousand bushels of wheat can take two canal boats in tow, each
carrying her eight thousand bushels of wheat, making the total cargoes
twenty-three thousand bushels, moved at the expense for motive power
of one engine, &c., with a movement as rapid as it is safe to the banks
3)2
of the canal to have it; with the lockage as quick as it is now done
with a single lock and one boat. The State tolls should be reduced.
The writer is of the belief that the business that can be maintained
on our canals is of much more importance to her citizens than any
amount of revenue that can be collected as toll. The business is what
we want—it makes tax-payers “fund the debt and pay it gradually
by tax/' But as this suggestion may be more radical than the people
of our State may be willing to adopt at once, I would suggest for im-
mediate action that the toll on property carried on our canals be
abolished, and the revenue be collected by a mileage tax on the boats,
and let them carry for cargo what they choose, “ only make the tax as
small as possible." Abolish the weigh locks, collectors, inspectors, &c.
In this way at least $100,000 can be saved to the State in the expense
of maintaining the weigh locks and collecting the revenue of the
canals. My plan would be, to sell the boat captains a ticket from
place to place, as his wants might require, the same as the railroad
does to a passenger. The revenue on this plan could all be collected
at an expense not to exceed $15,000 to $20,000 per year, and the
mileage tax, or toll, could be reduced that amount at once.
An Old Canaller.3
Executive Chamber, Albany, January 5, 1875.
To the Legislature:
****#-» # * * *
THE ERIE CANAL AND THE TRANSPORTATION PROBLEM.
The State of New York, not denying the general unfitness of government to own,
construct or manage the works which afford the means of transportation, saw an
exception in the situation, and in the nature of the canals, which are trunk communi-
cations between the Hudson and the great inland seas of the North and West. They
connect vast navigable public waters, and themselves assume something of a public
character,
THE NATURAL PASS OP COMMERCE.
The voyage from Europe to America, even if destined to Southern ports, is de-
flected by the ocean currents so as to pass closely by the gates of bur commercial
metropolis. That capacious harbor is open the whole year, accessible in all prevail-
ing winds, is sheltered, safe and tranquil. From it the smooth waters of the Hudson
give transit to the lightest hull, carrying the largest cargo which the skill of man
has brought into use. The head of navigation on the Hudson touches the natural
pass of commerce, opened up in the geographical configuration of this continent,
where the Alleghenies are cloven down to their base, and travel and traffic are allowed
to flow across on a level, and by the narrowest isthmus, to the lake ports, which con-
nect with all that great system of inland water communication and interior commerce,
the most remarkable in character and extent and accessories that exists in any part of
the globe.
THE NORTHWEST.
Tributary to the Western centres of lake commerce, such as Chicago and Milwau-
kee, are vast areas of fertile soils, which stretch to and partly include the valley of
the Upper Mississippi. Open prairies, easily brought into cultivation, fitted for the
use of agricultural machinery, adapted to the cheap construction of railways, and
peculiarly dependent on their use as a means of intercourse and traffic, have been
opened to settlers at nominal prices. They have been rapidly filled by a young, in-
telligent and energetic population, trained in the arts and industries of an older
civilization, and applying them to natural advantages which have been found else-
where only in conjunction with the social barbarism of an uninhabited wilderness.
They are now covered with a net work of railways, which connect myriads of little
centres with the lake ports and with the trunk railways, that bring them into practi-
cal contiguity to our great Eastern centres of population, capital, commerce and man-
ufactures.4
NEW YORK’S LIBERAL POLICY—THE ERIE CANAL A TRUST,
New York, without arrogating to itself an undue share in these achievements,
may contemplate with proud satisfaction its contribution to results so magnificent.
Important as are the advantages which have accrued to itself, it has not sought to
monopolize the benefits of its policy. The price of such cereals and other products
of agriculture as are exported in considerable quantities, are mainly fixed by the com-
petitions of the foreign markets, even for our own consumption. The cheapening of
the cost of transit, therefore, chiefly profits the producer. This consideration illus-
trates how large and liberal, in the main, is the policy adopted by the State—a policy
which I had the satisfaction of advocating in 1846 and 1867—of treating these great
works as a trust for the million, and not seeking to make revenue or profit for the
sovereign out of the right of way. In consonance with the same policy was the action
of the State in 1851 in permitting the transit, free of tolls, upon a railway which it
allowed to be constructed between the termini of the Erie Canal and along its bank,
It had originally undertaken the construction and administration of the canal in order
to create a facile and cheap transportation demanded by the interests of the people,
and not otherwise possible to be attained. It did not forget the motive for which it
had acted, and remember only its selfish interests as a proprietor. It, therefore, by
an act which anticipated the necessity afterward to arise by the construction of rival
routes, repealed all restraints on the carriage of property, and opened to free competi-
tion every mode of transit, even in rivalry to its own works, for the products of the
West and for the manufactures and merchandise of the East.
NOT TO BE ABANDONED,
The Erie Canal remains an important and valuable instrument of transport, not
only by its direct services, but by its regulating power in competition with other
methods of transportation. The State, so far as we can now foresee, ought to pre-
serve it, and not contemplate its abandonment.
DUTIES OP THE STATE.
If the State accepts the view which commands it to abstain as a proprietor from
making profit out of the canal, but to deal with it as a trust, it still has great duties to
perform. It is bound, as a faithful trustee, to protect this great work, not only from
a spoliation of its revenues and maladministration, but from empirical changes, proposed
in the seductive form of specious improvements that would destroy its usefulness while
charging it with new incumbrance, and from an improvident tampering with its in-
comes that would dissipate its means of effecting real improvements.
These are its ever recurring and its greatest perils.
LAKE AND CANAL NAVIGATION CANNOT BE ASSIMILATED.
The 925 miles of lake navigation from Chicago to Buffalo, and the 495 miles of
canal and river navigation from Buffalo to New York, and the*3,000 miles of ocean
navigation from New York to the Old World, cannot be made homogeneous or even as-
similated ; each is subject to physicial conditions which are unchangeable, and fco which
the vehicle of transportation must be adapted.5
LAKE BOATS UNFIT AS CANAL-BOATS.
The rough and stormy lakes require a strong vessel, made seaworthy by its deep
keel, fully manned, and of a form intended for speed in an unlimited expanse of water.
The canal admits of a light keel, and a shape which will carry a larger proportional
cargo; for the boat moves safely in a tranquil channel of water, closely confined by
physical boundaries on the bottom and sides, and cannot but submit to a slow move-
ment.
The propeller of the lakes tends to grow in dememsions. A recent one carries
70,000 bushels of wheat, or 2,100 tons. A barge to be towed by each propeller is a sys-
tem now being tried with fair prospects of success.
The lake craft of the average size carries less cargo in proportion to the vessel than
the canal-boat; and it cost twice and a half or three times as much as the canal-boat
per ton of capacity.
If the canal were made large enough to pass the canal craft, the transporter could
not afford to use the lake craft on the canal. It carries too little cargo—it is too costly
—it would have to reduce its rate of motion from about eight miles per hour on the lake
to less than three miles per hour, which is the highest aim of the canal-boats, that now
make only 1 42-100 miles per hour.
Such a vehicle of transport wGuld not be adapted to the water channel it must
move in, and would not be economical. Transhipment at Buffalo with modern machin-
ery, would cost little, compared with the loss incident to using an unfit and illy-adapted
instrument.
To enlarge the Erie Canal to dimensions adapted to the movement of such a
vessel, at the rate of less than three miles per hour, would be so inconvenient to the
traffic, that it would be easier and cheaper to construct an independent work. That
would probably cost a principal sum, the annual interest on which would be greater
than the entire amount now received by the carrier for his services and by the State for
its tolls on all the existing business. A shorter route would be likely to be preferred.
The Hudson river, from Troy to deep water, would need a similar reconstruction.
ENLARGED LOCKS AND UNENLARGED WATERWAY.
A project often urged within the last ten years is the enlargement of the locks and
other structures of the Erie Canal, without a proportionate enlargement of the water-
way. That plan exhibits a singular union of injurious costliness and fatal parsimony.
It is founded on the fallacy that the use of a large boat, without reference to its adapt-
ation to the waterway in which it is to move, would be economical. It is supported
by an estimate of the State Engineer in 1864 that the cost of transportation would be
reduced one-half. His opinion has been repeated on all occasions until the present
time.
But that estimate, when analyzed, is found to omit all the wages and support of
the crew during the return trip, and during the time occupied in loading and unloading,
-and to allow for the use of the boat about half its real cost. In other respects, it was
utterly unworthy of trust.6
ECONOMY FROM THE BEST GROUP OF ADAPTATIONS.
The truth is, the boat is but one part of the whole machine of transportation ;
economy in the service depends upon getting the best adaptation of all the various
.parts—the boat—the motive power—the canal, with its structures and its waterway; the
best group or adaptations which adjustments and compromises of each can work out
and combine, and the resultant of the greatest economies which can be obtained in
conjunction.
A larger boat, in a waterway which now needs to be itself enlarged and improved to
give a good transit to the present boat, would be an unmixed damage to the economy
of tie service, attained at immense cost.
PERFECTING THE CANAL THE WISE POLICY.
The Erie Canal was planned in view of the best science and experience then pos-
sessed. It has excellent adaptations. It is a superior instrument of transportation.
It should not be fundamentally changed in its character and conditions without great
consideration. It should be perfected, and so made available, to every practical ex-
tent, for facilitating and cheapening the exchanges of commodities between the East
and the West.
ITS CAPACITY—ITS ECONOMY.
The two questions concerning it are: First, its capacity to do an aggregate busi-
ness during a given period; secondly, the economy per ton per mile of the transporta-
tion it affords. These questions are generally confused in all discussions. They are
completely distinct. They depend upon wholly different conditions.
ITS CAPACITY AMPLE.
Capacity to accommodate an aggregate tonnage during a day, a month, or a season
of navigation, depends on the number of boats of the normal size which the locks are
able to pass during the period. Boats can be multiplied indefinitely. The limit to
their use is in the number to which the locks can give transit. The time occupied in a
lockage is the test. But it is unnecessary to apply that, for the actual results of exper-
ience set at rest every doubt.
Of the seventy-two locks which intervene between the waters of Lake Erie and the
waters of the Hudson, all but a few have been doubled for many years. In 1867, when
the subject was discussed in the Constitutional Convention, thirteen remained single.
For the first time, on the opening of navigation next Spring, double locks will be
brought into use throughout the entire canal. That will nearly double the capacity of
the canal to make lockages. The largest delivery of the Erie canal at tide water was
in 1862. It amounted to 2,917,094 tons, in cargoes averaging 167 tons. The lockages
both ways, and including rafts which only pass one way—at Alexander’s, which is the
throat of the canal, three miles west of Schenectady—was 34,977. In 1873 the deliv-
eries were 2,585,355 tons, in cargoes averaging 213 tons ; and the lockages were 24,960.
The theoretical capacity of -the canal will be three or four times the largest tonnage
it has ever reached. There is no doubt it can conveniently and easily do double the7
business which has ever existed, even though the locks be not manned and worked
with the highest efficiency. The subject of capacity may therefore be dismissed from
this discussion.
ECONOMY PER TON PER MILE.
The question really worthy of our attention is how we can perfect the canal so as
to reduce the cost per ton per mile of the transportation it affords.
Quickening the movement of the boat increases the service it renders in a given
period. It lessens every element in the cost of that service. It enlarges the number
Of tons carried in the given time, and by enlarging the divisor of the same expenses it
reduces the rate of cost per ton per mile.
TO BE INCREASED BY PERFECTING WATERWAY.
The economy in the transit of the boat must be made, not in the locks, but in the
waterway. The seventy-two locks in the 345 miles between Buffalo and West Troy, if
each takes five minutes, would occupy exactly six hours.
In October, 1873, seventy-six boats were timed, and their average passage down,
with average cargoes of 227 tons, was ten days, two hours, and forty-six minutes, or
nearly 243 hours. If we double the time taken in the locks, the time occupied on the
levels between them would still be over ninety-five per cent, of the whole time of the
voyage. It is clear, therefore, that the saving of time must be made in the ninety-five
per cent, and not in the five per cent. Economy per ton per mile in the transportation,
so far as it depends on the structure of the canal, is to be found in the relation which
the waterway bears to the boat.
The movement of the boat through water confined in an artificial channel—narrow
and shallow—is, at best, very slow. The engineers, in 1835, planned the Erie Canal
and the boat with such relations to each other as to give the greatest economy of
power and facility of transit. The boat has inclined to grow rather large and too
square. The waterway was practically never excavated in every part to its proper
dimensions. Time, the action of the elements, and neglect of administration, all tend
to fill it by deposits. I may be excused for repeating here what I said in the Constitu-
tional Convention eight years ago:
u What Erie Canal wants is more water in the prism—more water in the waterway.
A great deal of it is not much more than six feet, and boats drag along over a little
skim of water ; whereas, it ought to have a body of water larger and deeper even than
was intended in the original project. Bring it up to seven feet—honest seven feet—
and on all the levels, wherever you can, bottom it out; throw the excavation upon the
banks; increase that seven feet toward eight feet, as you can do so progressively and
economically. You may also take out the bench-walls. ”
RECOMMENDATION S.
I recommend that such measures be taken as your wisdom, aided by such information
as can be had from the proper administrative officers, may divise, to put in good condi-
tion and to improve the waterway of the Erie Canal, and that provision be made by law to
enable the State Engineer, soon after navigation is opened, to measure the depth of the8
water in the canal by cross sections as often as every four rods of its length, and on the
upper and lower mitre sill of each lock.
FUTURE INVENTIONS AND ECONOMIES.
Such a policy, if properly executed, will give a better and more economical transit
to the boats, if they continue to be towed by horses. It will also facilitate the use of
steam canal-boats, and the full realization of the advantages they may be expected to
give as to economy of transportation. The obstacle to their use in 1867 was that the
machinery, in its then state, displaced to much cargo to be economical, and was in
other respects imperfect. The progress of invention since seems to promise more bene-
ficial results. If the movement of the boat can be expedited from 1 42-100 miles to
three miles per hour, including the time consumed in the lockages, the improvement
will be of great importance and value. The estimate of the able Engineer of the Com-
mission on Steam Canal Navigation is that the cost of carriage of a bushel of wheat
from Buffalo to New York will be reduced from eight cents to four cents. It is not to
be supposed that the inventive genius applied to this interesting subject is exhausted,
and if these results shall, in any degree, fail to be realized by the present experiments,
we may, nevertheless, anticipate more complete success in the future.
INCOME AND OUTGO.
It will be seen that on the Erie Canal alone the surplus of income over expenditure
is about thirty-seven and one half per cent, of the gross income. If the three other
canals which are to be retained by the State as part of the system be included, the sur-
plus is but eleven and two-fifths per cent.
TOLLS.
The present tolls on wheat are three and one-tenth cents, and on com three cents
per bushel, from Buffalo to Troy—345 miles. They were reduced in 1870—those on
wheat from 6 21-100, or one half, and those on com from 4 83-100 to three cents, oi
about thirty-eight per cent.
One cent per bushel taken off the present tolls, and the same proportion on other
articles, would annihilate nearly all the net income of the Erie Canal, considered alone,
and would make a deficiency, in respect to the four canals retained, of $500,000 a year,
if future expenditure should be the same as in these three years.
The construction of the details of the toll sheet belongs to the Canal Board, and
adjustments from time to time may be necessary. Doubtless suggestions on that sub-
ject will always receive due consideration. But in the present condition of things, to
embark hastily and unadvisedly upon a general reduction of tolls might well be consi-
dered as improvident, even in respect to the canals themselves. To confiscate the sur-
plus of one cent, or one half a cent per bushel, which alone gives the means of making
the improvements expected to realize a reduction of four cents in the cost of transpor-
tation, would not seem a wise execution of the trust, even disregarding other consider-
ations which cannot be wholly overlooked.9
NO BASH INNOVATIONS.
The question of altering the gates of the locks, or otherwise lengthening the
chambers, may he safely deferred until we can he more sure of its utility. The fact
}hat, on the Delaware and Raritan Canal, which admits of long boats, the proportions
which exist in those now used on the Erie Canal are preferred, is against that altera-
don, as is also the judgment of excellent canal engineers. Holding ourselves ready
to accept improvements which have heen subjected to trial and scrutiny, until they
are practically assured of success, we ought to exercise the same caution, in respect
bo rash or crude innovations, which ordinarily governs men in private business.
FINANCIAL BESTJLTS OF THE LAST THBEE YEABS.
The financial results of the fiscal years ending September 30,1874, 1873 and 1872,
for the Erie Canal, and for the Champlain, the Oswego and the Cayuga and Seneca,
are as follows :
EBIE.
Year Ending Sept, 30.	Income.	Ordinary Repairs.	Extraordinary Repairs.	Total Expenditures,
1872		..$2,760,147 50	$1,025,079 09	$661,942 02	$1,687,021 11
1873		.. 2,710,601 49	749,977 03	967,175 39	1,717,152 42
1874		.. 2,672,787 22	• 701,340 81	973,548 96	1,674,889 77
$8,143,536 21 Income in excess of disbursements						$5,079,063 30 ... 3,064,472 91
Average for each year					
CHAMPLAIN,
1872............$150,644	28	$236,211	47	$251,871	61	$488,083	08
1873	.......... 153,417	86	234,677	37	562,782	95	797,460	32
1874	.......... 123,703	54	203,137	90	242,216	43	445,354	33
$427 765 08	$1,730,897 73
Excess of expenditure over income................................$1,303,132 05
Average for each year........................................... 434,377 35
OSWEGO.
1872	..........$90,796 57	$171,794 82	$141,673 94	$313,468	76
1873	.......... 88,428 13	93,938 80	78,880 58	172,819	39
1874	.......... 70,119 59	107,938 21	75,561 29	183,499	50
‘	$249,344 29	$669,787 64
Excess of expenditure over income................................. $420,443 36
Average for each year............................................... 140,164 45
't10
CAYUGA AND SENECA.
1872	........$17,882	58	$38,267 23	$26,319	00	$64,586	23
1873	.........22,481	11	27,143 48	6,921	96	34,064	54
1874.......... 19,311	47	28,934 08	28,517	04	57,451	12
$59,675 16	$156,101 89
Excess of expenditure over income.................................... $96,426 73
Average for each year.............................................. 32,142 42
RECAPITULATION FOR THREE YEARS.
Income over Expenditure.
Erie............................................................$3,064,472 91
Excess of Expenditure over Income.
Champlain...............................................$1,303,132 05
Oswego.................................................... 420,443 36
Cayuga and Seneca.......................................... 96,426	73—	1,820,002 14
Balance........................................................$1,244,470 77
Each year.............................................................. 414,823 59
THE PAYING CANALS.
It will be seen that during the last three years the income of the Erie Canal, consid-
ered alone, has been $8,143,536 21, and its expenses $5,079,063 30, yielding a surplus
of $3,064,472 91, or an average for each year of $1,021,490 97. The excess of expend-
iture over income of the three other canals which are to be retained by the State has
been $1,820,002 14, or three-fifths of the surplus produced by the Erie. Considering
the four as a system collectively, the surplus has been $1,244,470 77, or an average for
each year of $414,823 59.
THE NON-PAYING CANALS,
During the same three years the five other canals to which the constitutionalamend-
ment applies have given an income of $119,864 45, or for each year of $39,954 81,
against an expenditure of $1,596,499 74, or for each year of $532,166 59. They have
consumed all the net income of the paying canals, and have charged the State with a
loss of $232,164 52, or for each year $77,388 17. In addition to this annual loss, the
whole burden of the sinking fund to pay the canal debt is thrown upon the State.
INCREASE INCOME BEFORE DISCARDING INCOME.
A careful investigation whether the net incomes of the canals retained cannot be in-
creased, ought to precede a surrender of 'what little now exists. Ordinary repairs should
be scrutinized with a view to retrenching their cost, and to obtaining the largest possible
results from the outlay. Extraordinary repairs include much which so regularly recurs
in different forms, that they must be considered a part of the maintenance of the works.11
No doubt they also include improvements which are of the nature of new capital. These
and all improvements should be governed by a plan and purpose, leading to definite re-
sults ; and, instead of scattering expenditures on imperfect constructions, should aim to
complete and make available the specific parts undertaken. Unity of administration and
of system, both in respect to repairs and improvements, should be established, even if
only by the voluntary consultation and co-operation of officers having authority over sep-
arate portions of a single work. It is worthy of consideration, whether any legislation
can aid in securing the unity in this respect, which existed under our former Consti-
tution.
NEW YORK THE TRUSTEE OP THE INTERESTS OP ALL.
The State, hearing all parties interested in the use of the canals, will remember
that itself, as an arbiter and trustee, must look equitably to the interests of all. This
it will do, in a wise, liberal, and just spirit. To the last degree possible, it will cheapen
facilities to trade. It will aim to preserve for its Metropolis its position as the carrier,
merchant, and banker of the New World.
CHIEF FUNCTION OP THE CANAL SYSTEM—NEW YORK CITY.
Inevitable changes must be recognized as the results of modern inventions and
improvements in the machinery of transportation. When water routes alone existed
products came to New York for distribution to points which are now more easily and
cheaply reached directly by rail. Bailroads covering the country like a net-work,
touch so many points that they are a more perfect and complete agency for the recep^
tion and distribution of produce than a water communication connecting a few princi-
pal points, and where the transit from the producer to the consumer requires the use
of the rail to reach the water, or after leaving the water, or both, the all-rail route
will often be preferred. New rcutes will acquire the business which is naturally tribu-
tary to them, and take besides some portion of the general business. The main trans-
portation of Western agricultural products is for local consumption in the East. What
comes to us for our own consumption cannot be diverted. What goes for consump-
tion elsewhere cannot be acquired. The exports of agricultural products to foreign
countries are but a small part of the whole production. In those New York will easily
continue to maintain her pre-eminence.
The Chaplain and Oswego canals are, as well as the Erie, in some sense trunk
GaUals J and the Cayuga and Seneca Canal connects our interior lakes. It is a note*'
worthy fact that Mr. Flagg, who so long and honorably conducted the State finances
When the Canal Department was a bureau in his office, always insisted that with the
four canals now to be retained the system was complete. These it is now proposed to
abandon are not fruits of his policy.
DISPOSITION OP THE NON-PAYING CANALS.
The adoption of the constitutional amendment removing the prohibition against
“ Selling* leasing, or otherwise disposing of ” the canals owned by the State, in respect
to all except the Erie, the Oswego, the Chaplain, and the Cayuga and Seneca Canals,
undoubtedly contemplates such action on your part as will disencumber the revenues of12
the canals retained by the State, and disembarrass the Treasury of the State from th(
unproductive works in respect to which the prohibition is withdrawn. It cannot haw
been supposed possible to 1 ‘ sell or lease” those works on conditions which require th<
purchaser to maintain or operate them. To “ otherwise dispose of ” them amounts tc
a practical abandonment.
USE AS FEEDERS.
Even to deal with them thus involves many important questions of a business char-
acter. Those portions of them which descend toward the Erie Canal act as feeders to
supply water to that canal. The supply cannot be safely diminished, and might be
• judiciously increased. The improvement of the water-way contemplated will call foi
more water. The consideration of what must be done to retain as feeders portions oi
these canals not hereafter to be maintained by the State for navigation, or what othei
provision for a supply of water shall be substituted, is important. To make the
change contemplated by the amendment, with as little harm as possible to private in-
terests, and to consider and provide for cases of possible damage, which may be caused
by the works when falling into disuse, needs careful study of the facts of the situa-
tion. It is also to be ascertained what portion, if any, of the property of the State
connected with these works can be wisely sold.
A SPECIAL COMMISSION RECOMMENDED.
The best suggestion which occurs to me on this subject, is to impose the duty of
considering and reporting on these questions upon a special commission consisting of
four persons. In the meantime no expenditures should be made upon those works
which are not strictly necessary in view of their probable future.