ILLINOIS AND MISSISSIPPI RIVER CANAL.
SPEECH
OF
HON. JEREMIAH H. MURPHY,
IN TUB
HOUSE OF REPEESENTATIVES,
Wednesday, Febeuaky 24, 1886.
WASHINGTON.
ISSG,
Illinois and Mississippi Riror CanaL
SPEECH
OF
HON. JEREMIAH H. MURPHY.
The House beins: in Committee of the Whole on the state of the Union, and
having under consideration the bill (ÍI. R. 58(50) to provide for the acceptance by
tlieUnited Slates of the proposed grant of llie Illinois and Michigan ('anal, and
all its appurtenances, from the State of Illinois, and for the construction of the
Illinois and Mississippi River Canal—
Mr. MURPHY said:
- Mr. Chairman: I have thought it best to read as a part of my re¬
marks the report of the committee, feeling coiiiident that it will per¬
haps accomplish more good than any remarks I could make in the
time occupied by the reading. The report is as follows:
The Committee on Railways and Canals, to whom was referred the bill (H,
R 3022) to provide for the acceptance by the United States of the propose<l grant
of the Illinois and Michigan Ciiual, and all its appurtenances, and for the con¬
struction of the Illinois and Mississippi River Canal, beg leave to submit the
following report:
The Illinois and Michigan Canal extends from Chicago and the waters of T^ake
Michigan southwesterly to the city of La Salle, a disUince of 90 miles,and there
connects with the Illinois River Iniprovement. This canal was built by the Slate
of Illinois, aided by grant of lands from the Unit c<l States, and has l>een in success¬
ful operation since its completion in 1317. It is GO feet wide at water-line, with a
water depth of 6 feet. The total cost of the work wasSO 5.57.GS1.50. It has been
•the practice of the State to operate the canal on the policv of low tolls, and yet
its net receipts over operating expenses amounts to f2,993,691.74.
By an act of the Legislature of Illinois, approved April 28. 1882, " the Illinois
and Michigan Canal, its right of way and all its appurtenances, and all rights,
titles, and interest which the State has in any real estate ceded to the State by
the United States for canal purposes," was ceded to the United States upon the
express condition that the grant should be accepted within fíve years, and that
thereafter the said canal should be maintained as a national water way for com¬
mercial purposes, to be used by all persons without discrimination, under snch
rules and regulations as Congress may prescribe. This act was ratified by a
large majority of the voters of the State, at the election of November 7, 1882.
The proposed canal from Hennepin, on the Illinois River, to the Mississippi,
'is designated as the llHnuis and Mississippi River Canal, and is known as the
"Hennepin Canal." It has been surveyed by authority of the Fony-seventh
Uongress, under.the direction of the Secretary of War, and the United Stales en¬
gineers report " a perfectly feasible route " for a canal 80 feet wide at the water-
iine, with 7 feet of water. When completed direct water communication will be
secured between the Great Lakes and the water ways of the East to the Missis¬
sippi River on the west and the Gulf of Mexico on the south. The length of the
line from Hennepin to the Mississippi at the mouth of Rock River is 74.5 miles.
A feeder 37.1 miles in length is to be built extendi t>g to Dixon, on Rock River,
and called the Rock Islasid route. Major Benyaurd, in his report, says of the
dimensions of canal and locks:
' ** It is proposed to | lake the canal and feeder 80 feet wide on the water sur¬
face. and 7 feet deep, V;ith slopes of 1 on U. The locks for the main canal arc 170
^feet long and 30 feet wide. These latter dimensions were adopted after conaid-
4
crîtiff the question of low-water navigation on the Upper Mississippi, as affecting
barge transportation. The hull mea.surenient of the larger size barges adapted
to the passage of the locks is, according to the custom-house authorities, al>out
800 tons, though with deeper water afforded by higher stages of the river, and also
by the proposed dimensions of the canal, such barges can, with the box-top,carry
over tiOO tons; but we had to be governed by the minimum draught of the boats
at the most unfavorable stage of the main river.
"The same lock dimensions for the Hennepin Canal were also adopted by
Colonel Macomb in the report of 1874, in connection with the subject of transpor¬
tation routes to the sea-board."
The estimated cost of constructing this canal and feeder, including right of
way, is 80,672,800.07; the estimated cost of enlarging the Illinois and Michigan
Canal, 82,208,019.15 ; total, 88,971,800.82. This estimate is for the construction of
what is known as the Rock Island route, which is recommended by the com¬
mittee.
The propo-^ition in the bill is to accept of the proffered grant of the Illinois
and Michigan Canal made by the State of Illinois on the terms proposed, and to
construct, under the direction of the Secretary of War, the Illinois and Missis¬
sippi River Canal (called the Hennepin), thus connecting the great water sys¬
tems of the East and West.
Your committee deems it necessary to enter more fully into a description of
the proposed canal in this report, but would respectfully call the attention of the
House to considerations in favor of the passage of the bill.
WHY THE BILL SHOULD BE PASSED.
The four great departnaents of industry which give employment to our people
are agriculture, mining, manufactures, and commerce, and that it is the duty of
the Government to promote and protect each of these branches by wise and ap¬
propriate legislation is acknowledged by all, and il must be conceded that the
cost of transportation is a factor ol the highest importance, not only to these in¬
dustries, but, as we hope to show, to the whole country.
In discussing this question it must be borne in mind that the agricultural dis¬
tricts, which furnish a surplus of wheat, corn, oats, and barley, lie west of the
Alleghanies, an<l for tlie most part these cerealsare produced in the great valleys
of the Mississippi and Missouri and their tributaries. The distance, then, that
these products of the farm must be transported to find a market is very great,
whether that market be furnished by the more sterile Eastern portion of our
own country or abroad, whether in New England or Great Britain. It is, more¬
over, apparent that to the producer every dollar of the cost of transportation he
Is obliged to pay in reaching a market which might have been saved is a burdea
laid upon him without a compensation, and for which there is no justification.
A farmer who declines to adopt such improvements as will enable him to pro¬
duce a crop of corn or wheat at the least possible cost will soon find himself dis¬
tanced in the race for success. Tnis is equally true of a Government to wlMch is
intrusted the legislation necessary to insure the cheapest modes of marketing
the products of the soil. In this active and intelligent age the laggard nation Í9
left behind.
Railway rates on wheat mount up to from 12 to 15 cents per bushel between
Cliicago and New York as soon as lake navigation ceases, while in summer it ig
scarcely half the higher figure. The proportionate charge by rail for the transit
of a bushel of wheat between Chicago and Bufililo would be in the winter from
6 to 8 cents, while by lake it is generally 2 cents, an<l often less than that. Th®
freight on a bushel of wheat between ^aintPaul and Chicago is from 12 to 15 cents,
while'Major Benyaurd has shown that by the Mississippi and thelleimcpin Ca¬
nal it would not exceed Geents. Now.whythisdifierence? Weanswerlhatit is
owing to the existence of tiie great lakes and of the Erie Canal, a free water way
on which heavy arti< les can be carried at less cost than is possible by railways,
and with which pooling and combination to maintain prices is impossible.
Take anolher illustration, furnished in the transportation of anthracite coal.
This fuel is wanted for consumption in almost every city and village in the
great Northwest, and if the rates of transportation were reduced, as would be
the case if the Hennepin Canal was in operation, the market for this mine prod¬
uct would be increased many fold. This coal is now Inkeii from Erie, Pa.,
and from Bulfalo to Chicago for 69 cents per ton, while the railways west from
Chicago charge 82 per ton freight froni that ciiy to the Mississippi River.
Now, if thU canal was in operation freight on this coal would not exceed 50
cents per ton. thereby .«»aving $1.50 per ton over present railroad rates, and tho
eaving on salt, iron, nail3,oil,glass, paints, and all heavy merchandise would be
equally great.
Not alone in grain and coal will the construction of this water connection be¬
tween the two great national water systems of the counlry prove beneficial to
both producers and cotistimers, btit it is believed tliat it will prove a substantial
blessing to every mamifaciurer and employé in all New England, New York.
New Jersey, Peunsylvunia, and Ohio. In short, it will be the great reducerana
5
reixnîator of freight rates from the Missouri and Mississippi to the seacoast. It
willenable the manufactijrer to obtain a larger and a better market and the
producer a higher price—a benefit to all.
Is further argument necessary to convince the most skeptical that the con-
etruetion of this canal, thus forming a link that will connect the great Missis¬
sippi River with the lakes, thereby furnishing an all-water route to the com¬
merce of the East and the produce of the West and Northwest, is urgently
demanded? As it may be asked what relief would that afford, we atiswer, what
relief do the lakes, the Erie Canal, and the Hudson River afford? Let us see:
All-water rates on grain from Chicago to Buffalo, a distance of 1,000 miles, are
often but 1? cents per bushel, and contracts have been made froui Chicago to
New York, including transfer charges, for G cents per bushel. Hence, is not the
conclusion ii^evitable that if the Hennepin Canal is built and an all-water c'om-
munication furnished from all points on the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers to
the lakes the present freight charges will be reduced more than 5U per cent.?
The railroads are charging from the Mississippi and Missouri Valleys to Chi¬
cago from 12 to 15 cents per busliel. Now, if this canal was constructed, wheat
would be carried by water at from 3 to 5 cents per bushel from corresponding
points, which would be a saving over present railroad rates of from 8 to 1Ü cents
per bushel ; and thesaviug would be equally greaton oats, corn, and other prod¬
ucts. But suppose the saving to be only 5 cents per bushel over present rail¬
road rates, there would be a saving amounting to millions of dollars annually,
which would be left iu the pockets of tlie people, and not find its way into the
pockets of railroad magnates. It is thus clearly seen that the saving, over pres¬
ent railroad rates, iu one year would widen and deepen the Michigan and Illi¬
nois Canal and construct this canal over and over again.
Your oonmuttee, in giving this question that careful thought and considera¬
tion which it merits, i.s not unmindful of the fact that this question of interstate
commerce has been agitated by the public and on the floors of Congress for
years, in the vain hope that some relief would be furnisbed the people by re¬
duction in transportation rates, and we are sorry to say that so far no practical
good has restdted; hence we think it would be an act of wisdom on the part of
tins Congress if it would improve and extend our water communications, and
thereby furnish a little practical relief.
Your attention is called to a communication on this subject, addressed to the
Legislature of New York by that distinguished statesman, ex-Governor Sey¬
mour. He says :
* * ♦ " A false and mischievous idea has grown up in our country that Eu¬
rope depends upon us for food. This is not true. They can get all they want
from many parts of the world; from India, South America, and Australia. In
South America vast herds of cattle are kiUed merely for their hides. The car¬
casses are left to decay. Great Britain, which buys more of our provisions than
any other country, is building railroads in Northen India to cheapen transpor¬
tation, and in sending farming tools into that region to improve its agriculture.
This policy has been followed by a great increixse in its prodviction of grain.
Within a few years the e.xports of wheat from India have grown up tö many
millions of bushels. The governments of Europe are trying to lessen our ex¬
ports as they give ois such heavy balances against them. For this reason. Ger¬
many and France shut out our pork, and other governments show great un¬
easiness, as we distiirb their relationship totheir people. Our only course is to
undersell other countries ; as labor is higher here than elsewhere, we must de¬
pend upon smaller charges for carrying. That region is fast becoming one of
our st rong competitors.
" We only sell to Europe because we have cheaper modes of sending our prod¬
ucts to their markets. We have beeii able to do this because we have cut down
the cost of carrying. Our exports grow up as carrying rates are cut down.
Railroads have always followed lower rates upon water routes, but the last are
the cheapest, as is shown by the table of rates in the report on commerce and
navigation of the General Government. Guv agricultural interests are the most
important of all. When water routes are closed by winter, railroad rates go up;
when they are opened in spring, rail rates go down. * ♦ * We are now able,
if we are wise, to overcome the greater cost of production in our country, owing
to our higher wages, by our cheaper transportation. We are to have a hard,
struggle to keep our lead as a food-supplying country, and we must give up the
deluajoti that Europe depends upon u.s for food. It will only buy of us if we can
deliver it to them at the lowest cost. The delusion that the'OId World depends
upon us for food stimulates extravagance in Congress and corruption in Legisla¬
tures. If we fail to uphold our water routes as protection against unjust and
unwise charges fôr transportation, we shall suffer in the future."
INTERSTATE COMMERCE.
The question of Interstate commerce and of cheapening transportstion has en-
gnged the attention of the whole country for years. This agitation led the Seii-
ata in the last Congress lo appoint a committee of able and experienced Senators,
G
who have recently reported the results of their investigations in an able paper.
A careful examinât ion of tliat report fully discloses the difficulties that lie in the
way of so controlling railways as to permit of no injustice being done to the
people or to these corporations.
The aggregate capital of the railway corporations of the United States is be¬
lieved to be over ^S,t)00.(XK),000. Tlieir affairs are conducted by the best business
talent the country affords; they have before them the very natural objectof nfak-
ing their investments pay. and although these corporations are in all respects
amenable to the State and National Governments which created them, yet they
have rights that must be respected, and they have interests that must be pro¬
tected ; for the whole country has shared, and must continue to share, in the ben¬
efits and blessings of our uneqnaled extent of railway facilities; but conceding
all this does not justify the conclusion that the Government, by whose authority
these corporations have life, should place in their hands the exclusive inland
carrying trade of the country. Railway rates should be regulated in the inter
ests of the people, and your committee are of the opinion that free water trans¬
portation is well calculated to secure that end. On this pointthe testimony taken
by the Select Committee of the Senate on Interstate Commerce is so conclusive,
and applies with such force to the proposed Hennepin Canal, that your com¬
mittee insert their conclusions in this report r
THE EFFECT OF WATER COMPETITION UPON RAILROAD CHARGES.
"The evidence before the committee accords with the experience of all na¬
tions in recognizing the water routes as the most effective cheapeners and reg¬
ulators of railway charges. Their influence is not confined within the limits of
the territory immediately accessible to water communication, but extends and
controls railroad rates at stich remote and interior points as have competing
lines reaching means of transport by water. Competition between railroads
sooner or later leads to combination or consolidation, butneither can prevail to
secure unreasonable rales in the face of direct competition with free natural or
artificial water routes.
" The conclusion of the committee is, therefore, that natural or artificial chan¬
nels of commaniçat ion by water, when favorably located, adequately improved,
and properly maintained, afford the cheapest metliod of long distance transpor¬
tai ion now known, and that they must continue to exereiseiu the future, as they
have invariably exercised in the past, an absolutely controlling and beneficially
regulating influence upon the charges made upon any and all other means of
transit."
WHEAT AND CORN.
As per official estimate the crop of wheat for the year 1884 in the Upper Missis¬
sippi States was 188.349,000 bushels, and of corn, for the same year, 837,574,000 bush¬
els, making a total of 1,025,923,0110 bushels of these two staples. Now, it is well
known that the market value of this vast amount of grain is determined by the
price that can be obtained abroad for so much of it as seeks a foreign market.
The cost of production and the cost of transportation has nothing whatever to
do in determining the price. It is not, then, perfectly clear that whatever is
saved in thecost of transportation is an absolute gain to the producer, and, there¬
fore, a fiiilure to secure any possible saving in the transportation lays a burden
unnecessarily upon the iiroducing farmers of the West.
To more definitely show the immense saving which would be effected by the
construction of the proposed canal, your committee would again call attention
to the amount of wheat and corn produced in the .States of the Upper Missis¬
sippi Valley in 1884, as above stated, showing a total of 1,025,923,000 bushels.
Now, suppose one-half is shipped eastward for consumption and for export, and
the saving is only 2 cents per bushel, it reaches over $10,000,000 in a single year,
whereas, as is believed, the saving is equal to at least öcentsper bushel, and you
have the fabulous sum of over S25,(KX),000 annually, to say nothing of the saving
on heavy articles going West, which would amount to many millions more.
THE EFFECT OF FREE WATER TRANSPORTATION ON RAILWAYS.
Your committee are unwilling to admit that cheapening transportation on
heavy articles, thus benefiting the people, will result in damage to the great rail¬
way interests of the country ; on the contrary we believe tlmt whatever is for
the general good will, in tbe end, prove beneficial to our railways.
Wedo not desire to antagonize the railways, which have done so much to de¬
velop tlie country generally, and the great West in particular. The place these
public corporations Inive to fill is to serve the purpose of rapid transit for pas¬
sengers and mails, and such freighting as can bear the charges imposed without
inflicting a loss on the consumer or producer that is burdensome, but in the mat¬
ter of all heavy freights not requiring special speed, it is now demonstrated that
our extended national water ways must be brought into use. Missing links like
the Hennepin Canal must be constructed and the crippled industries of our
country must tliercby be restored to a condition of health and prosperity.
7
NATIONAL CHARACTEB OP THE WORK.
Tour committee would point to the important fact that when the Illinois and
Michigan Canal becomes a national work, and the "Hennepin" a part of the
same, then will there be a great public waterway connecting Chicago with
Saint Louis and New Orleans, on which fleets of barges towed by steam will ply
and connect these three great cities of the West.
The sugar, rice, and cotton of the delta of the Lower Mississippi and the valu¬
able lumber of Alabama, Arkansas, and Tennessee will have anotiier outlet at
rates which will leave the producer a fair margin, while the produce and manu¬
factured anieles from the North will find their way to the consumers of the
South at living rates of freight.
When, as it is hoped in the near future will be the fact, we have eitheracanal
cut through the Isthmus, or a way provided for carrying over it our merchant
vessels as they ply between New Orleans and the various sea-ports of our neigh¬
bor republics of South America, laden with the interchangeable products of the
Northern and Southern hemispheres of the American continent, then our city of
New Orleans should be, and we hope will be, in readiness to become the great
metropolis of the South as New York is of the East, and will be equipped with
a water course permeating every part of our great Mississippi Valley, ay, and
through the great lakes to the Gulf of Saint Lawrence.
EFFECT ON OUR EXPORT TRADE.
Your committee would be unfaithful to the interests of this great internal im¬
provement if they failed to call the attention of the House to the intimate con¬
nection that exists between our export of cereals, especially of wheat, and cheap
transportation. The States of Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Minnesota, Kansas, and
Nebraska, all lying westward from Chicago, are large wheat-producing States.
For many years the surplus wheat and flour of the United Stales have found a
market in Great Britain, but it has already transpired that we are severly men¬
aced with competitors for this great market, a fact that demands our serious at¬
tention.
Our shipments of cereals to foreign markets have gradually fallen off. In 1880
our exports of these commodities amounted to 288,000,000 bushels and decreased
from year to year until in 1885 the shipments had fallen to 162,000,000, being a
decrease of 126,000,000 in five years. During the same period there has been a
constant increase in wheat shipments to the English markets from Australia,
Russia, and India. The increase in exports of wheat from the latter country have
been most remarkable. In 1872 the first experimental cargo came to Liverpool
from India. In 1875 she sent only 1,500,OOOof bushels; in 1882,37,000,000, and last
year India shipped to England over 60,000,000 of bushels,
WHAT ENGLAND IS DOING IN INDIA.
How comes it to pass that the shipments of wheat from India have increased
BO enormously? The answer is that the English Government has expended
large amounts of money,over $100,000,000, to cheapen the transportation of wheat
from inland India to the seaboard, and thus the oroduction of wheat, which be¬
fore was without a market, has been largely increased. What, then, is the duty
of the American Congress? Shall we yield the contest for a market without a
struggle? Shall we not rather begin now to improve our iiatur^'water courses
and to construct such connecting links as the Hennepin Canal, to the end that
the remote portions of our great country may be brought as near as possible to
the sea by cheap freights, and thus maintain a foreign market for our surplus?
The period will doubtless come in our country when, with a largely increased
population and a diversified industry, all of our tillable soil will be required to
produce the breadstuifs we shall then need for home consumption ; but time
enough must elapse before we reach that point to justify a determined effort on
our part to maintain for our surplus cereals that foreign market we have so long
enjoyed. Suppose we fail in this, and as a conseqiience the balance of trade
turns against the United States; will anyone contend that financial disaster
and commercial ruin would not be the result? If we would avert the dire con¬
sequences that most certainly would follow such a changed condition of our for¬
eign trade, we must see to it that our inland rates of transportation on our sur¬
plus cereals are reduced to a minimum, and your committee believe that the
.construction of the proposed canal would do more to acconiplish that end than
would be possible in any other expenditure of the same amount of money,
SHALL THE UNITED STATES BUILD THE CANAL.
But, says the objector, you may be correct in your estimate of the great im¬
portance of cheap inland transportation ; it may be true that agriculture, min¬
ing, manufactures, and commerce may all be greatly benefited in the way you
describe, but it is not right for the General Government to undertake to build
canals within States ; the States through which these public improvements may
chance to be located should construct at their own cost.
Wheii the Hennepin Canal is in operation, its benefits will be felt in every
8
county between the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers, and in Kansas and No*
braska as well. Indiana and Oliio will send their bituminous coal, and Penn¬
sylvania her anthracite and her iron ore more cheaply to the SVest, and so will
New England and New Jersey feel the iniluence of reduced rates of freight}
while the Empire State, with her unrivaled metropolitan seaport, will share
with Philadelphia and Baltimore in the increase and permanence of a foreign
trade, which without cheap inland freight would notexist. Shall it be said that
Illinois should do all this? Nay, verily. Your committee are brought to the
conclusion that too much has already been done by the General Government in
the improvement of our water courses to allow such an unjust policy to prevail;
too many millions have already been expended on improvements not a whit
more national in their character than the canal, by which it is proposed to sim¬
ply remove an obstruction that nature has left in the way of connecting the
waters of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence with those of the Gulf of Mexico, to jus¬
tify the conclusion that any single State should construct this canal.
COMMENDATIONS AND INDORSEMENTS.
No public improvement, in the knowledge of your committee, has received
the indorsement that this has. As early as the year 1845 a water convention was
held at Memphis,Tenn., with Hon. John C. Calhoun, that strict constructionist
of South Carolina, as presiding officer. It was represented by five hundred and
fifty-three gentlemen from sixteen States, and the following resolution passed
that body unanimously:
¿eso/vid. That the project of connecting the Mississippi River with the lakes
of the North by a canal, and thus with the Atlantic Ocean, is a measure worthy
of the enlightened consideration oí Congress."
In 1872 the President of the United States called the attention of Congress to
this canal and other water improvements, and suggested the selection of a com¬
mittee, with power to investigate and act. In compliance with the President's
wish, the Senate selected seven out of that body. Senator William Windom, of
Minnesota, being its chairman.
By referring to page 233 of the report made by that committee to the Senate
you will find the following statement made :
" The freight charged by the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railway Com¬
pany is 8 cents per 100 pounds from Henry to Chicago, between which points
there is water competition, while the rate to Tiskihva, only 12 miles farther
west than Henry, and beyond the effect of canal competition, is 15 cents per 100
pounds, nearly as much for 12 miles as for 100 miles."
And it is proper for your committee to state that both these points are on the
proposed canal, Henry east of Hennepin and Tiskihva west.
A further reference to that report of the Senate committee will show its in¬
dorsement and strong reasons why it should be constructed in the interest of
commerce. The General Assembly of the State of Iowa did, in 1864, in 1870, in
1874, in 1880, in 1882, in 1884, and at the present session of its Legislature, memo¬
rialize Congress for the construction of this canal. Illinois, through ils legis¬
lative body, has also repeatedly memorialized Congress and requested its repre¬
sentatives to support this improvement. The Legislature of New York has twice
passed resolutions, almost unanimously, urging Congress to construct this canal,
and requested its representatives to vote an appropriation therefor.
In 1884 President Arthur saw proper to call the attention of the Forty-eighth
Congress by special message to the public importance of this water communicap
tlon.and therein recommended its consideration.
The Forty-seventh Congress ordered a survey of said canal and appropriated
$30,000 to pay the expense.
Maj. W. H. H. Benyaurd, of the Civil Engineer Corps, made said survey, and
his reports and estimates are on file, and we are confidentthat a careful perusal
of said report will satisfy the most skeptical that this canal should be built bo-
cause of its worth and merit.
Every convention that has been held in the interest of Western water way»
has given this canal a favorable indorsement. We will refer to a few particu-
arly : One in Saint Louis, in 1880; one in the city of Davenport, Iowa, in. 1881;
one in New Orleans, in 18S5, and one in Saint Paul, last September. These
conventions were composed of hundreds of delegates, representing all the
States in the Mississippi and Missouri Valleys, North and South.with governors,
members of Congress, and United States Senators of those States, and it pleases
your committee to say that after careful and general discussion all of thcso
great bodies passed resolutions unanimously indorsing the construction of this
canal, and nrgingCongress to make an appropriation therefor.
It has been indorsed twice by the National Board of Trade, held in Washing¬
ton in July, 1884 and 1885, and' by the Industrial Congress, held in Chicago in
May, 1884.
In March, 1885, a select committee was appointed by the Senate to investigate
and report upon the subject and regulation of transportation by railroad and
water routes. By reference to pages 167 to 175 inclusive, it will be seen that that
9
committee, after careful investisi^tion, concluded that this water improvement
was absolutely necessary in the interest of commerce, and that the General Gov¬
ernment should, without furtlier delay, make the necessary appropriation.
The last Conj^ress was petitioned by the leadinjï wholesale merchants, business
me.I, and manufacturins; comi>anies of New Haven, Meriden, Norwich, and
Hartford, Conn,; of Manchester, N. IÍ!"; of Fitchbnr.üf, Worcester, Springfield,
Pittsfield, North Adau»s, and Ilolyokc, Mass., and of Pittsburgh. Pa.
The commercial bodies of CIpcago, Saint Paul, Miuneapolis, Saint Louis. La
Crosse. Duliith, Davenport, Mtiscatinc, Rock Islatid, Buffalo, Syracuse, and New
York have all mcniorialized Congress for its construction.
The New York Boarii of Trade and Tj-ansportation has a membership of one
thousand business tinns in New York city. It devotes its income and time bo
the consideration and decision of questions of public interest. It is not a trading
body. Twice this board has indorsed the "Hennepin Canal," after careful con¬
sideration and full discussion.
Yourcommittee would call particular attention to the language of oneof these
indorsements, namely, the Produce Exchange, of New York. They number
three thousand members, and they never take action without careful delibera¬
tion by reference to proper committee, and then act on their report. And it
must be said to their credit, they gave tliis canal their unanimous indorsement,
which was prefaced by saying:
"That this was the first time since their organization that they had recom¬
mended the General Government to aid or construct internal improvements, or
had asked or advised their itepresentatives in Congress to vote appropriations
for any internal improvement of any kind ; that this was an exception, and if
they were not firmly convinced that it hud merit they would not depart from
their universal rule."
Again it m ay bethought that the ani«»mt required to construct the "Hennepin**
and improve the present canal (Sy.OOO.üUU) is too large a sum f«»r such a locality.
Reference has already been made to the saving of $Í0,íX)0,OU0 per annum on
grain freights alone, which it is believed this great iipprovemeut will secure,
and in this connection your committee beg leave to reiVr to the amount of in¬
ternal-revenue tax collected in the last fis( al year from the States tiiat produce
so largely the cereals for which cheap transportation will be secured by build¬
ing this canal :
Illinois $23,075,864 61
It will be seen that a small per cent, of the amount thus actually paid into the
United States Treasury aimually by the States named would build the "Hen¬
nepin " and improve the Illinoisamt Michigan Canal as proposed ; and itshould
not be forgotten that tlie people of these States contribute their full share io the
payment of whatever of duties on imports ai*e laid to raise the revenue and to
fn'otect the manufacturing industries of the country. These Stales do noteome
lere to ask for themselves special favor.s, but only that which is manifestly for
the interest of all sections,and to tiie injury of none.
The people of these States are as intelligent, .hs enterprising, and as fair-minded
as any other, and it is not too much to say that, in the name of fair play, they
insist on the construction of this great improvement.
Whenever it shall be in the future, as it has been in the past, that the great
Northwest shall be called oii to vote for the improvement of our harbors and
rivers, or to do anything properly dcujanded in the interest of commerce its
Representatives will not AvitiilioUl the needed aid ; and your committee will not
doubt but that Congress will, by the passage of this bill, accept the grant of the
ill in ois and Michigan Cat tal, generously offered by I ho State of 1 llinois, atid con-
cirneb the lllitioisand Mississippi IliverCajial, thus uniting the great water sys¬
tems of the JCast and IVest and of the North and South in one grand highway
lor internal comtnerce.
Your committee therafore, in consideration of the importance of the construo
(ion of the Hennepin and Rock Islami Cmml, and of the enlargement of the Illi¬
nois and Michigatt Canal, in the itdcrest of the great and rapidly growingcom-
inerce f>f Iheconntry and of the people, and especially of the Northwest, report
hack said House bilí 3U22 with a sub.slitute, and recommend the passage of the
substitute.
would the expenditure be a proper one?
Iowa
Kansas
Nebraska,.
Minnesota
Missouri...
2,222,069 15
170,202 02
1,971,296 12
492,704 97
6,276,165 85
34,228,292 72
Mr. MüßPHY. Mr. Chairman, is ifc not an admittetl fact tliat no
10
other country has so many great rivers and lakes, extending from the
far interior to the tidewater in so many directions, as ours? Great
navigable channels for commerce, with comparatively few obstructions,
and who says these obstructions shall not be removed, the channels
opened, widened, and deepened, so that Congress can have some hope in
the near future to render aid and comfort to the producer of the North¬
west and furnish help and contentment to the consumer of the East, a
universal blessing that all good people would take pride in? For the
true object in lile is happiness, and, as governments are founded solely
for the benefit of the governed, why should not this Government, as a
blessing to our people, improve our natural water ways, and construct
artificial ones, when such action will be productive of so much good?
Yes, Mr. President, transportation by water is admitted to be the
cheapest possible the world over, and we, the American people, who
boast that we are correct by instinct, haVe made the least water im¬
provement for navigation In the interest of commerce of any civilized
nation.
For who does not know that the sum total for internal improvements
in this country is utterly insignificant when compared with those of
European countries of far less financial ability ?
Now, in modern times civilization has but two modes of transporta¬
tion—by rail and by water. Has not the Government of the United
States furnished hundreds of millions of dollars to aid railways thatare
private corporations and under the control of persons and individuals?
For we all know that this question of interstate commerce, in the blind
effort to furnish a remedy by Congressional action, has so far proven
abortive and done no good, that State assistance and legislative action
have accomplished bnt little. And I am confident that when theCou-
gress of these United States found no legal or constitutional objection
to voting aid and assistance to private corporations, in the interests of
the public, it ought not and will not hesitate to grant the same aid and
assistance to improve our natural water ways and construct artificial
ones when it is seen that necessity demands them as the only correct
and certain regulators of railroad rates.
And it ought, and will, give to the commerce of the East and the pro¬
ducers of the West and Northwest the cheapest possible transport, which
is by water.
Mr. Chairman, the construction of this canal will connect the Upper
Mississippi with the great lakes, and 6U0 miles of that father of waters
will be made available and will make navigation continuous and com¬
plete from the city of Saint Paul to the great lakes, aud thence to the sea¬
board, a distance of 2,000 miles. You may ask, what is the induce¬
ment? What relief would that aiford? I answer, what relief do the
lakes, the Erie Canal, and the Hudson River aiford? Why, rates on
grain from the Western lake ports to Buffalo, a distance of 1,000 miles,
are often but IJcents per bushel—it has beeu shipped for less—and con¬
tracts have been made from these ports to New York, including transfer
charges, for 6 cents per bushel. Hence will any one doubt or dispute
the statement, that if this canal is built, and an all-water communica¬
tion furnished fromall points of the Mississippi River to the lakes, that
the present freight charges will be reduced from 50 to 75 per cent.;
that instead of paying 12 to 15 cents per bushel it will be carried from
3 to 5 eents per bushel. Which saving will leave in the pockets of the
producers millions that are now paid out to railroad corporations and
companies; aud what is true of the grain shippéd East is equally true
of merchandise shipped West. Take, for example, by way of illustra«-
11
tion, the anthracite coal of Pennsylvania, which, you well know, is
consumed in largeqnantities in the Northwest since the introduction of
base-burning stoves into domestic economy. This coal is brought by
water from Erie, Pa,, and laid down in Chicago, a distance of over
1,0U0 miles, for 60 cents per ton; and you all know it costs to-day $2 per
ton to transport this coal to the Mississippi Kiver, a distance of less than
200 miles.
Now, construct this Hennepin Canal and it will not cost 50 centsper
ton—thereby a saving of $1.50 per ton over present railroad rates.
What is true of coal is equally true of salt, nails, oil, glass, lumber, iron,
paints, and all other heavy merchandise; and" equally true of Eastern
shipments of all kinds of grain and farming products.
And, Mr. Chairman, I now make the statement that, by comparison
and mathematical calculation, if you adopt this report, and this great
water way is opened from the Mississippi and Missouri Kivers to the
lakes, the surplus grain of the States of Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Ne¬
braska, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, there will be a saving of 6 centsper
bushel over present railroad rates now charged, and 6 cents per bushel
would amount to $31,326,105.50. This is no dream of fancy, for the
annual board of trade for the city of Chicago, which is as follows, proves
its correctness, which I now read:
4. The vast volume attained by the annual cereal product of the States directly
tributary to the Upper Mississippi presents vet additional support to the plea
for an all-water transportation route to the East. The annual report of the Chi-
cag:o Board of Trade for 1882 estimates the crop yield thus;
Illinois : Bushels.
Wheat 52,302,900
Corn 187,330,900
Oats 18,696,000
Total 258,335,800
Iowa :
Wheat 25,487,200
Corn ¿ 178,487,600
Oats 99,141,000
Total «... 303,115,800
Kansas:
Wheat 33,248,000
Corn..., 150,452, GOO
Oats 29,700,000
Total i 213,400,600
Kebraska :
Wheat 14,947,200
Corn 82,478,200
Oats... 44,555,700
Total « 141,981,100
Minnesota:
Wheat 37,030,500
Corn 21,127,600
Oats « 9,417,650
Total 67,575,750
Wheat 20,145,400
Corn 30,201,600
Oats 12,780,800
Total
63,127,800
12
Thus is presented a grand total of 1,047,536,850 bushels as the product of three
cereals only in a single year from six btates, constituting only a part of the
widely extended area certain to be aft'ectedand benefited by an extension to the
Upper Mississippi of the water-route system of transportation reaching west»
ward from New York, but now having its western terminus at Chicago. But
consideration of these facts would be seriously incomplete were it not made to
include the fact that, vast as are the aggregates of productions in the States
named for the year 1882, they are certain to be yet largely increased year bj
year. Comparative statistics are almost startling in that regard. Thus, asa
single illustration where many might be given, the wheat product of Iowa from
1849 to 1860, as shown by carefully compiled statistics, aggregated 50,000,000
bushels ; from 1860 to 1870, 195,000,000; from 1870 to 1881, 375,000,000 bushels. Oí
•corn the yield was, from 1849 to 1860, 250,000,000; from 1860 to 1870, 550,000,000;
and from 1870 to 1881, 1,800,000,000 busliels. Estimating the wheat at 85 cents
per bushel and the corn at 35 cents, a curious statistician has recently shown
tsee Clinton'Iowa .Agriculturist, February 2, 1883) that the total value of these
two crops in Iowa, excluding those of 1882, would equal $1,177,000,000, or more
than the lughest esti»nate of the value of all the gold product of California from
its discovery on June 19, 1848, to June 30,1881.
Yes, Mr. Chairman, itisadmitted and cannot bedeniedbutthatcheaper
transportationisabsolntely necessary if we Intend to find a marketabroad
for our surplus products. For it is a maxim in commercial law that
man will buy where be can buy the cheapest and sell where be can sell
the dearest, and as experience shows that water routes are the cheapest,
why should not we improve our natural water routes and construct ar¬
tificial ones, when, like the Erie Canal and this canal, they only form
connecting links? And I refer in this connection to the following state¬
ment by Mr. Horatio Seymour, jr. He says:
Experience shows that water routes are the cheapest for many kinds of trans¬
portation, as wiil be made ciear by the following: statement:
Average rate per bushel of grain.
Year.
Chicago to Liv¬
erpool.
New York to
Liverpool.
-o
a
eS
O et
CS
•S V
>»
n
•X}
a
CS
«rr
M d
cS *»
>.
Ö
1
"3
>»
W
(R
O
s
0
1
<u
OT
o
m
n
V .
> 9i
.s
*3
03
1868
25.3
24.1
17.5
21.6
26.6
19.2
14.2
J1.4
9.7
7.5
10.1
13.0
13.2
18.6
8.7
9.16
29.0
25.0
22.0
25.0
28.0
26.0
16.9
14.6
11.8
15.8
11.4
13.3
15.7
10.4
10.9
12.0
42.6
35.1
33.3
31.0
a3.5
53.2
28.7
24.1
16.5
20.3
17.7
17.3
19.7
14.4
14.6
10.1
14.36
12.98
11.56
16.32
25.28
21.12
18.16
16.14
16.04
13.86
15.22
12.40
11.76
8.16
7.76
1871
1872
1873
19.83
15.66
14.24
15.28
13.53
14.18
11.80
10.20
9.50
1874
]875
1876
1877
1878
1879
1880
1881.#
1882
9.08
12.50
It will be seen from the foregoing statement that the average differ¬
ence in an all-rail route of transport from Chicago to New York of grain
since 18G8 to 1882 is a saving of 9} cents per bushel on the average by
13
an all-water route over an all-rail route. A nd this saving on the amount
we shipped abroad in 1880, which was 288.000,000 bushels, as given by
official statement, would be two millions eight hundred and odd thousand
dollars. Andas our foreign shipments are only about one-half that is
transported from the West to the East we can correctly calculate on at
least Ig2,000,000 more saved by an all-water transport for home consump¬
tion. That would make $4,800,000 saved by water transportation over
rail routes from Chicago to New York in one year, and if the saving on
Western shipments was an equal sum, thatwould be a saving of |9,600,000 ;
. and in this connection I wish to call your attention to the reports of
the leading trunk lines, collated by Mr. Joseph Nimmo, jr., in a table
illustrating the successive reduction of freight charges on those roads and
on the Erie Canal, respectively, which furnish striking evidence on this
point. I read from Internal Commerce of the United States for 1880,
appendix, page 230:
Of twelve of the railroads therein enumerated, maintaining an average freight
charge of from 1.85 to 3.IGS cents per ton per mile, respectively, in 18G8, the only
ones maintaining for the year 188Ü an average freight charge of .88 of a cent per
ton per mile were those having no water-route compet ition. This is a summary
of that exhibit as to the charges for 1880 per ton per mile:
RAILROADS HA VINO COMPLTITION IN WATER ROUTES,
Per ton per mile.
New York Central Tlailroad $0 00.88
Pennsylvania Railroad 00.88
New York, Eric and Western Railroad 00.84
Philadelphia and Erie Railroad 00.56
Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railroad 00.75
liliohigan Oenti'al Railroad 00.843
Pittsburgh ami Fort Wayne Railroad (for 1879, for 1S80 not given) 00.70
RAILROADS NOT COMPELLED TO MEET WATER-ROUTE COMPETITION.
Per ton per mile.
Boston and Albany Railroad $0 01.20
Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad (for 1870. for 1880not given).. 01.023
Chicago and Northwestern Riiilroad (for 1870, for 1880 not given) 01.49
Chicago, Milwaukee and Saint Paul Railroad (for 1879, for 188U not
given) 01.76
Chicago, Rock Island and Paciíic Railroad (for 1879, for 188U not given).. 01. 21
Erie Canal rate for 1880 0 00.49
Thus it will be seen that the four leading trunk railroads running to Chicago
from the Upper Mississippi Valley States maintaineil an average of .63 of a cent
per ton per mile freight oitarge in e.xcess of the average freight charge of seven
other trunk railroads eastward of Cliicago. where tariif rates were, as Mr. l'ink
has explained, constantly under the control of the potentially operative compe¬
tition of the water routes of the lakes and tlie Erie Canal. The fact thus cited
to attention is a very important one,. Its existence is urged as furni.shing an
argument for the opening up of an exten.sion of the water route of the lakes
to the Upper Mississippi so strong that its force can neither be moderated nor
escaped.
Is any more argument necessary? Will any more be required to
support the propositicn that if the Government of the United States
will do its duty to the people and construct this canal the people of
the Northwest can save 50 per cent, over present rates of transporta¬
tion, and 50 per cent, would amount to over $>10,000,000 annually?
And when you add to that a corresponding saving of 50 per cent,
to the Eastern people on their manui'actured goods and other prod¬
ucts, thatwould be a saving of $10,000,000 to them, making an an¬
nual saving over present rates of $20,000,000. TIius it can be seen
with the naked eye that the saving over present railroad rates in
one year would build the canal three times. Hence, in the light of
14
the foregoing, will any gentleman on this floor contend for a moment
that this internal (not, as it is sometimes termed, "infernal") improve¬
ment is not worthy, meritorious, and necessary? This is no local matr
ter, for cheap transportation benefits the consumers and producers alike.
It is true the farmers are moreurgentin demanding these improvements,
because cheap transportation is indispensable to foreign markets for their
surplus grain. And is there any question more seriously a^tated by
the public to day, or of so much importance as to guard with zealous
care the agricultural interests?
For you all know it has been the greatest factor in the commercial
pro.sperity of this nation, and will continue to be, if right and justice is
done. You may ask what special rights the firrmer has over any other
class for consideration. I will answer: They have all the right which
the furnishing of 80 per cent, of all our exports during the last sixty
years can give them, and they have the further right—they furnish the
production from whence comes our internal revenue.
So, you see, all the other interests combined export only one-fifth as
much as the farmers, and any one of them has received five times as
much care, aid, and protection from this Government. Will this con¬
tinue ? If we act wisely it will not, hut if we act unwisely, and fail to
do our duty by constructing this canal and improving all our water
ways, thereby increasing our facilities and reducing the present cost of
carriage, we will find that our producing rivals, Russia, Australia, and
India, will supply the Liverpool market instead of the United States of
America. For if that market takes its supply from these nations, our
surplus will be a burden; and, believe me, this is no dream of fancy,
for a casual investigation will show the situation and danger.
Will anyone deny that it is a maxim of commercial law "that man
will buy where he can buy the cheapest, audsell where he can sell the
dearest ?' ' And hence, is it not a mathematical concl usion that the sav¬
ing of 5 to 10 cents per bushel on our hundreds of millions of surplus,
in its carriage, would find a demand that if not saved it would not?
And is it not wise and just to protect our farmers, and let them enjoy
in the future, the same as in the past, the sunshine and comfort that
$200,000,000 will furnish from thes.ale of these surplus prod nets abroad?
For if we have a foreign market, that is the amount we will receive. .
Yes, my friends, investigation tells us that we have to-day formi¬
dable competitors in the Liverpool markets, and their growth and
strength increases daily. We learn that India, one of our competitors,
sent her first trial cargo to Liverpool in 1872. In 1875 she sent 1,500,-
000 bushels of grain. She kept on increasing yearly until in 1882 she
shipped over 37,000,000 bushels of wheat; which increase has continued
until last year she shipped 74,000,000 bushels, being three-fourths as
much as tíieUnited States exported inlBSO. Now, lask in all candor,
is not this conclusive that this competition is real, substantial, and
permanent ?
Supply and demand is the arbitrary rule that fixes prices, not by
force of imagination or supposition, but by mathematical calculation.
And remember there is no protection, low or high tariff, to aid or assist
our honest farmers in finding a market for their surplus products.
But it issaid canals are played out, and this age and generation are too
progressive; that we have not time to give them thought or considera¬
tion ; and I fully realize that before you can convince you must be heard,
and you can not be heard without attention. And while I am satisfied
that all things have their day and generation, do we not believe inre»-
•
15
nrrection and reform? And how often do we find reform absolutely
necessary in all departments of life, for we have ups and downs in lite
the same as " puts and calls."
Yes, Mr. Chairman, history tells us that during the la tter half of the
eighteenth century there was a greater rage for canals than for railroads.
In the third quarter of this—the nineteenth—century it was the reverse,
and I am of the opinion that the latter part of this century will ever be
famous for the canals constructed.
In England arid Wales they have 4,332 miles of inland water ways, of
which 2,919 are canals, and the total cost is estimated at j)lUU,0O(l,OU0.
Russia has 900 miles of canal, which, in most instances, unite head
waters of rivers that have their outlets at opposite extremities of the
continent.
Sweden abounds in lakes which cover 14,000 square miles, with no
navigable rivers except those which have been made so by internal im¬
provements and canals. Sweden has nevertheless great internal navi¬
gation, her lakes, rivers, and bays being connected by over 300 miles of
canals. There is direct water communication between the Baltic Sea
and Gothenburg, and the distance from Stockholm to Gothenburg is 370
miles—one 50-mile canal, and the same distance along the Baltic; the
balance of 270 miles is through lakes, bays, and rivers, and thus made
made navigable.
Germany had in 1878 1,250 miles of canals, 70 in number, which are
being increased annually.
Holland has 930 miles of canals and 340 miles of river navigation.
The North Holland Canal, 52 miles long and 16 feet deep, is the greatest
work of its day. It was constructed Irom 1819 to 1825 at a cost of
$4,.500,000.
France has the Canal du Mede, which unites the Atlantic with the
Mediterranean and Bordeaux with Cette. The celebrated canal of
Languedoc was built from 1667 to 1681—two hundred years ago. It
is 171 miles in length and 5 feet 3 inches deep. It seems France has
8,120 miles of inland water traasportation—by river, 4,997 miles, and
canal, 3,123 miles. Actual cost of these canals, $163,690,715; for river
improvements, $67,785,152, being a total, up to 1872, of $231,475.867
expended by France for internal improvements; and in the face of this,
in 1878 the estimated cost of canals and other internal improvements
yet to be completed and constructed, $200,000,000 more. Hence it will
be seen that France, with a standing array of over five hundred thou¬
sand men, three hundred and two ships of war, and fifty thousand
marines, at an annual cost of $115,000,000, a public debt of four and
three-quarter billions, almost double the amount which our national
debt ever was, and a population of only 37,000,000, has expended on
her water ways double what we have. And now, Mr. Chairman, I wish
to contrast the action and expenditure of France for cheap water trans¬
portation with the United States, for an examination will tell us that
our Government has only expended for all kinds of internal improve¬
ments since its foundation the small sniu of $111,000,000; and out of
this sura canals have only had a trifle over $10,000,000.
Mr. Chairman, shall the nations of the Old World teach us the duties
of the hour? Are we willing to yield the proud position of leader in
the world's proud march of progress to which we have been called by
the god of nature?
This nation of ours, administered by the people and for the people,
16
should not rest until our national water ways that are navigable are
made perlect and complete by water connections like this canal.
Yes, this canal is demanded by every reason which should influence
statesmen to legislate for the good of the people.
Will any one deny that the industry of our country is paralyzed for
the want of money which lies locked up in the Treasury, and if paid
out only on Government bonds will not aid or assist the commercial in¬
terests of our country or find bread and meat to the poor and needy who
are willing to work early and late to keep gaunt want and wretched
poverty from darkening their firesides? Yes, Mr. Chairman, we will do
our duty and pay out, I hope, millions of dollars that are now rusting
in the Treasury for this and other much needed public works, which
action will result in a blessing to our people whose representatives we
are, and thereby warm the firesides and gladden the hearts of thou¬
sands of our I'ellow-citizens by giving them employment and thereby
put bread into the mouths of their suffering families.
And in this connection I wish to call the particular attention of this
House to a question asked by our friend Blanchard, from Louisiana,
and the reply thereto of Hon. J. C. Dore, of Chicago, when before the
Committee on Rivers and Harbors at this session of Congress.
Mr. Blanchard said: " Would it not be proper to say, if we were
to take one-half of what it costs France, England, or Germany to main¬
tain their standing armies—such armies as we do not maintain—and
put that in improvements, it would accomplish a great deal of good?"
Mr. Dore, answering, said: " Inferentially I am on the same line.
The United States has no such burden. It is a common saying that we
have no navy, and our Army islittle more than sufficient fora national
police; and yet, forsooth, with an immense annual surplus of revenue,
how many of our legislators will say this great nation of sixty millions
of people, and having now fifty billions of dollars of wealth, can not
afford to spend $2.0,000,000 annually on internal improvements? It
•we intend to compete with other nations in the markets of the world
we mustadoptthe same means to insure success, if wecannot dobetter.
If we do not, we shall not deserve success and will continue to be beaten
as we are now."
And, gentlemen on this floor, are we ready to yield the proud posi¬
tion of leader in the world's grand march of progress ? Are we willing
to allow our foreign market to be taken from us and captured by foreign
rivals?
Mr. Chairman, I have no interest in this subject, except the interest
I take in all things that concern the honor and welfare of my country
and its prosperity. We are to have a hard struggle to keep our lead
as a food-supplying country, and we must give up the delusion that
Europe depends upon us for food, for it will only buy of us if we can
deliver at the lowest cost. The delu.sion that the Old World depends
upon us for food stimulates extravagance in Congress and corruption in
legislatures. If we fail to uphold our water routes as protection against
nnwise and unjust charges for transportation, we will suffer in the
future. Yes, Mr. Chairman, it is estiimated that the United Statescan
produce to-day enough to supply 100,000,000 of people, while our con-
Bumption is for 50,000,000, so that we have a surplus of lOO per cent.
What is to be doue with this surplus if we can not compete and find a
market abroad ? Must it not rot in the storehouse ? And in this con¬
nection I wish to c,ari your close attention to a vital fact, and upon
which rests our future prosperity, and that fact is a self-evident truth.
17
If we have a market where we can take and sell our surplus products
we will prosper, but if we have not we will not. To provide a market
for our surplus is the question, for in my judgment our want in the
near future is a market for our products.
To-day our want is supplied by a foreign demand, hut who is hold
enough to assume that it will continue with the sharp competition of
rival nations that are to the front to-day ? In that competition we can
only hope to be successful by a cheaper transportation to the seaboard.
Hence it is that the united producing interests of this country demand
with one voice that Congress shall make the necessary appropriations to
improve our natural water ways and construct artificial ones, when
they form a connecting link, like the Hennepin Canal, to the end that
our prosperity in the past will be enjoyed in the future, for without a
market our surplus would he a burden; and remember, you never miss
the water till the well runs dry. And, Mr. Chairman, I say how we are
to provide, keep, and hold a market for what we have to sell is one of
the most important subjects that can command the attention and re¬
spect of American statesmanship, for good statesmanship will not only
provide for the present, but, if wise, will look into the future. So I
may say that the construction of this water way by the General Gov¬
ernment is needed and demanded, and that demand is voiced by the
merchants and manufacturers of the East, seconded by the consumers
of western products, and echoed hack by ten millions of the producers
of the Northwest, who have sweat and toiled, early and late, in the use¬
less effort to contend by lahorand patienttoil against the unjust charges
and willful extortions of railroads.
And, Mr. Chairman, in this statement I am but echoing the refined
wisdom qf that distinguished statesman, President Monroe, who in his
first message to Congress said. I quote:
When we consider the vast extent of territory in the United State.s, the great
amount and value of its productions, the connection of its parts, and other cir¬
cumstances on which their prosperity and happiness depend, we can not fail to
entertain a high sense of the advantage to be derived from the facility which
may be afforded in the intercourse between them by means of good roads and
canals. Never did a country of such vast extent offer equal inducements to im¬
provements of this kind, nor ever were consequences of such magnitude involved
in them.
Yes, Mr. Chairman, they are of great magnitude. Now, take this
link in water connection—the Hennepin Canal—which connects the
Missi.ssippi River and its tributaries and our great inland lakes. Look
at the map attentively; study'it carefully. The now called Michigan
and Mississippi Canal will carry freight from the Mississippi River to
Lake Michigan at Chicago, and from thence the lakes will carry it to
Buffalo, thence by the Erie Canal and the Hudson River to New York
city, and from New York city by water around the world.
And, Mr. Chairman, if a single doubt rests in the mind of any gen¬
tleman on this floor 1 feel confident it will be removed when his atten¬
tion is called to an article published in the New York Herald, prepared
by that well-known writer on water ways. Col. Alexander 1). Ander¬
son, of New Orleans. He says:
Of the hundreds of streams which comprise the Mississippi River system forty-
tliree are navigable, and either inter.sect or border twenty-one of the fortv-seven
States and Territories.
These twent.v-one States and Territories contain 51 per cent, of the natiou's
area and 58 per cent, of the population.
MUR 2
18
The heads of navigation of the respective rivers are designated by cross
marks on the accompanying diagram.
The total mileage of the forty-three rivers is 15,640.
The mileage of navigation attaching to each of the twenty-one States and
Territories is approximated as follows:
Arkansas 2,100
Missouri 1,870
Louisiana 1,650
Mississippi 1,380
Montana 1,310
Dakota 1,280
Illinois 1,270
Tennessee 1.260
Kentucky 1,230
Indiana 840
Iowa..
830 I
Indian Territory 720
Minnesota 660
Wisconsin 560
Ohio 550
Texas 440
Nebraska 400
West Virginia 390
Pennsylvania 380
Kansas.. 240
Alabama 200
PRODUCTS OF STATES INTERSECTED.
The above-mentioned twenty-one States and Territories, which are either in¬
tersected or bordered by the navigable portions of the Mississippi and its trib¬
utaries. produced during the last census year 98 percent, of the sugar, 94 per
cent, of the coal, 89 per cent, of the corn, 81 per cent, of the pig-iron, 76 per cent,
of the oats, 74 per cent, of the wheat, 68 per cent, of the cotton, 66 per cent, of
the tobacco, 60 per cent, of the hay, 57 per cent, of the forest products, 56 per
cent, of the wool; and contained 82 per cent, of the swine,77 per cent, of the
mules, 74 per cent, of the horses, and 73 per cent, of the cattle, other than working
oxen and milch cows.
Their total grain product during the last census year was as follows, in bushels.
Indian corn 1,558,358,656
Wheat 342,230,515
Oats 310,271,709
Barley 18,888,089
Rye 13,947,824
Buckwheat 5,082,580
Total 2,248,779,373
In other words, the States and Territories tapped by the navigable portions
of the Mississippi River system produced grain to the extent of 44 bushels for
every man, woman, and child, as enumerated in the census of 1880. They are,
then', not only the granary of the nation, but of the world.
And, Mr. Chairman, it is with pride as weii as piea-sure I take this
opportunity of sayingthatouresteemed friend, Colonel Anderson, could
not and did not forget to mention this canal improvement, and I now
read his concluding statement:
In addition to this grand showing for the mighty Mississippi, the Michigan
and Mississippi Canal, 741 miles long, will connect this great river water-way
system with our inland lakhs—over 2,000 morp more miles of water-way—it will
cost tlie people of the United States only $5,000,000 to build it entire, and it will
save to the people in return each year, on freight, not less than $.50,000,000. And
the Dixon Sun with heart and soul says. Let Congress, for the people, build it,
and build it promptly !
Mr. Chai rman, I ask in ail candor if there ever was a canal constructed
by the hand of man upon God's "green, earth" that formed a link by
its construction, and thus connected navigable waters, that did not prove
worthy and meritorious? Hence is it rash to conclude that if you will
build this canal its benefits to commerce are guaranteed and certain?
Take for example and by way of iiiustration its twin sister, the Saint
Mary's Fails Canal, which connects two great waters of the lakes. It
was constructed by a donation of Government land, like many rail¬
roads constructed by the same aid, and is to-day a private corporation.
And be it said to the honor and manliness of the people of that section
tiiey are praying to have Congress make an appropriation and purchase
it, so tiiat it will be a free water route, and then they will not be bur¬
dened l)y its toil charges. That canal was constructed and put in oper-
19
ation in 1855, and the following table will show its increase in trans¬
portation in twenty years; and allow me to say this is no Munchausen
dream, for I was furnished this statement by the Civil Engineers De¬
partment a few days since:
Tonnage carried through Saint ilfWry's Falls Canal ; registered tonnage
used to 1880 inclusive, freight tonnage since.
1855 100,000 1871 750,000
1856 100,000 1872 920,000
1857 180,000 1873 1.200,000
1858 225,000 1874 1,060,000
1859 350,000 1875 1,2«50,000
1860 400,000 1876 1,540,000
1861 ; 280.000 I 1877 1,440.000
1862 360;000 1878 1,660,000
1863 510,000 1879 1,680,000
1864 570,000 i 1880 1,740,000
1865 420,000 1881 1,560,000
1866 460,000 1882 2,030,000
1867 560,000 1 1883.. 2,260,000
1868 440,000 1 1884 2.870,000
•1869 525.000 | 1885 3,260,000
1870 680,000 ;
This if oats, would be 203,750,000 bushels; if corn, would be 116,428,571?
bushels: if wheat, would be 108,666,6661 bushels.
Mr. Chairman, the report or our Committee on Railways and Canals
that I have read in my opening remarks shows conclusively that no
water improvement of any kind, no matter where located, has received
the indorsement that this one has. But as the Produce Exchange of
New York is one of the largest and oldest commercial bodies of this
country I wish to call particular attention to their action and memorial.
T-} the Board of Managers of the New York Produce Exchange :
Your eonnnittee on trade, to whom has been referred the question of applica¬
tion to Congress for the building of the Hennepin Canal by the United States,
have given to this subject the attention demanded by its important bearing on.
the internal commerce of the country, and respectfully report as follows :
In the opinion of your committee there can be little, if any, question that the
proposed o])ening of a water way from tlie Mississippi River to the Illinois and
Michigan Canal and the great lakes promises highly advantageous results not
only to the Northwest States but to the whole northern country east of the Mis¬
sissippi River. Besides furnishing new means of transport to the Atlantic sea¬
board for tlie produce of Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, and other grain-producing
States, sucli a canal would also act as a welcome regulator of railroad freights in
the Northwest.
There can be little question, also, that neither private enterprise nor the State
of Illinois, within whose territory the canal would be situate, nor any other
State directly benefited, nor all these combined, will orean undertake an enter¬
prise which i.s sure to meet the determined opposition of the railroad interest.
The question before us therefore simply is: Shall the United States build and
maintain this canal, and can *his exchange, in view of the well-grounded oppo¬
sition to the policy of internal improvements in general, consistently recom¬
mend such action on the part of the General Government?
After mature consideration your committee have come to the conclusion that
this question should receive an affirmative answer from your board,and forthe
following reasons:
The ground on which the Hennepin Canal is to be built has been repeatedly
surveyed with a view to that improvement by the United States Government
and by other competent parties. The practicability of the project has been es¬
tablished and the cost 1ms been reliably ascerlained. The scheme theretorecan
not be classed with a large number of internal improvements annually 1 ought
before Congress, which are indefinite in their scope and in the results expected,
and of uncertain cost.
The Hennepin Canal further differs from many of those proposed improve¬
ments in so far as it is sure to benefit a very large section of the country, our
own State included. The General Government, further seems to be committed
toan extensive improvement of the Mississippi River, of which the Hennepin
•Canal may justly be considered part and parcel ; and the fact that its construo
20
tion would inure to the benefit of the Northern States east of the Rocky Mount--
ains only strengthens its claim on the whole country, which for a long time to
come is, according to the policy already adopted, to be taxed to the improve¬
ment of the Mississippi River in its southerly course. Your committee there¬
fore feel justified in recommending to your board the adoption of the following
preamble and resolutions:
Whereas the completion of a water way from the Mississippi River to Lake
Michigan by the construction of the Hennepin Canal promises to realize advan¬
tages of national importance; and
Whereas there are insuperable obstacles in the way of having such improve¬
ment carried out by private enterprise or by the States immediately benefited ;
and
Whereas the building of the Hennepin Canal may justly be regarded as part
of the improvement of the Mississippi River : Therefore,
Resolved, That in the opinion of the New York Produce Exchange the United
States Government should undertake to build the Hennepin Canal and to main¬
tain the same free for all time to come.
And further resolved, That our Senators and Representatives be requested to
join the Representatives of other States in providing the necessary legislation
for carrying out this plan.
L. F. HOLM AN,
Chairman,
JOHN SINCLAIR.
WALTER CARR.
SAML. S. CARLL.
GUSTAV SCHWAB.
New York, December 19,1881.
Mr. Chairman, I fear I have committed waste upon your patience,
and my only apology is my zeal and earnestness. I have long since
been impressed with the importance of this canal project; that impres¬
sion has grown into a conviction; and in conclusion! thank you most
sincerely for your indulgence and beg of members on this floor to vote
for this bill, for our Government in the past has shown a genius for im¬
provement aided by many practical ideas, an indomitable industry that
has electrified the world. Will she now sit idly by and allow natural
commerce, that by right of legitimacy belongs to her, to be lost by in¬
action? If she does, that monument of "honor and glory which proudly
stands in this city, and was erected by the hand of progress, will crum¬
ble into dust and return to mother earth that bore it.
O
48th Congress, ) HOUSE OP 11EP11ESENTAÏ1VES. t Report
2d Session. ( ♦ Eo. 2455.
WATER ROUTE TO CONNECT LAKE MICHIGAN WITH THE
DETROIT RIVER.
February 4, 1885.^—Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of
the Union and ordered to be printed.
Mr. Atkinson, from tbe Committee on Railways and Canals, submitted
tlie following
REPORT:
[To accompany bill H. R. 4991.1
The Committee on Raihcays and Canals, to whom was referred the bill {R.
R. 4991) to provide for the survey of a water-route to connect the waters
of Lake Michigan with Detroit River, have considered the matter, and
beg leave to report:
That a bill of similar import was introduced into the Forty-seventh
Congress, and referred to the Committee on Railways and Canals,
which considered the same, and reported favorably thereon ; that the
Committee on Railways and Canals now report the bill favorably and
adopt the report presented to the Forty-seventh Congress, as follows :
Ttie Commiflee on Eailtrays and Canals, to whom was referred the hill (H. B. 3693) to pro¬
vide for the survey of awater-route to connect the waters of Lake Michigan toith Detroit
Biver, have considered the matter, and heg leave to report:
The length of the canal, for which the bill before the committee proposes to author¬
ize and direct an appropriation of $10,000 to be expended under tlie direction of the
Secretary of War for a preliminary survey, would be about 178 miles. The canal
would shorten the voyage, for all such vessels as could navigate it, between the lower
lake ports and Chicago or Milwaukee, about 550 miles; or, as between Chicago and
Buffalo, by one-half the distance.
It is believed that the season of navigation on the lakes would also be prolonged,
as between the upper and lower lakes, by at least thirty days, a portion of which
gain would be in the spring and a portion in the autumn or early winter months, and
would be a gain of at least 15 per cent, on the open period of navigation.
It would further appear that as to steam vessels, an average of two days' time
would be saved on the voyage each way, making a saving of four days on the round
trip, which, on the season's work of, say, fifteen round trips, would amount to sixty
days. As to sailing vessels, the difference in their favor would be much greater ; but
confining the comparison to steam vessels and their tows, the advantages of the ship-
canal which is contemplated in this bill would be in the two ways indicated equiva¬
lent to an addition of ninety days to the time of open navigation, or an addition of
nearly or quite 50 per ceut., and increase the number of voy.ages or trips in that pro¬
portion. 'The value of this cannot be even approximately estimated, but if the ship-
canal were to be of sufficient capacity to float vessels freighted with 50,000 bushels of
wheat or corn, the added value to commerce would be immensely in excess of the ex¬
penditure, which, it is believed, would not exceed $5,000,000.
The late navigation of the upper lakes is alwaj's hazardous, and it is estimated that
loss by storm and wreck between Chicago and Detroit Rivers has for twenty-five
years past been more than $1,000,000 annually. Tbe operation of the canal wottld
undoubtedly diminish this by at least one-half, which would of itself be equivalent
to the interest on the cost of the canal and the expecse of its conduct and adminis¬
tration.
"2 WATER-ROUTE TO CONNECT LAKE MICHIGAN AND DETROIT RIVER.
There has never heen an official or governmental survey of the proposed route, hut it
has been carefully examined by private parties of experience in railway and canal engi¬
neering, and your committee are informed and believe that the aspect of the country
through which the projected route would pass is of a comparatively level and even
character, abundantly supplied with water in running streams, and bordered along
a large part of the way with deep, never-failing little lakes of from ä to 10 miles in
circumference, and to the number of three hundred and more. A considerable por¬
tion of these lie above the summit-level of the proposed canal, and an abundant water
supply for a ship-canal of largest capacity is therefore undoubted.
It is proper to say, however, that the bill under consideration but proposes an ap¬
propriation for a survey, leaving to a future Congress to appropriate for the work it¬
self, if it be determined to enter upon it. The question of water supply, the depth
of cut, and general engineering problems, and ascertained conditions will then be
available for accurate information.
So long as the Dominion of Canada is an appendage of Great Britain, the necessity of
the bill before us is apparent as a military route. Its inland character, and the sav¬
ing of time and distance in the transportation of gunboats, men-of-war, and heavy
ordnance that cannot be transported by railroad, would seem to make it a military
necessity in case of war with Great Britain.
Your committee would also call the attention of the House to the vast agricultural
area beyond the western terminus of said canal.
There are five States in the .Northwest whose products would be tributary to the
proposed canal, whose united crop of cereals is now materially in excess of the whole
crop of the United States twenty-five years ago, and the rapidly increasing produc¬
tions of provisions, live stock for transportation, and other heavy freights to move
are in still greater proportion. While this is all true, it is also true that less than
one-twentieth part of even the most productive portions of our Northwestern States
and Territories are yet under cultivation, and our vast mining interests only in the
first stages of development.
The increased necessities for almost nnlimited transportation increase faster than
those facilities are furnished, and invite the attention of the Government to all feasi¬
ble imijrovements and the opening of new water-courses such as that under consid¬
eration. While the railroad companies are gradually enlarging and extending their
facilities, the ratio of increase in producéis much greater than this, so that evidently
difficulties will become greater and greater year after year without the aid of en¬
larged, better, and safer water communication for the movement of these heavy
products.
There is, in the opinion of your committee, no means of affording protection to
American industry in a manner more direct and so free from question as to multiply
the methods of cheap transportation ; and there is no method of diminishing its cost
80 promising as to increase the water-ways, which not only afford the cheapest of all,
but should remain in the control of the Government, be exempt from all questions of
discrimination, rates, and other distracting questions of carriage that agitate the pub¬
lic mind.
Taking into consideration the little opposition of nature, the shortening of dis¬
tance, the more favorable climate, and the lengthened navigation season and the less¬
ening of its perils, the inadequacy of present routes, the prospective increase of these
difficulties, and, independent of the ditference in the length of time of navigation in
the two routes, the great disparity in the distance is so importaut that the com mittee
respectfully report in favor of an appropriation for a survey for a water-route, such
as described in the bill under consideration, and recommend that it do pass.
c
RIVERS AND HARBORS.
SPEECH
OF
HON. JEREMIAH H. MURPHY,
OJS" low-a.,
IN THE
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,
Monday, June 9, 1884.
washington.
1884.
SPEECH
OF
HON. JEREMIAH H.MURPHY.
The House being in Committee of the Whoie House on the State of the Uiiion,
and having under consideration the bill (H. R, 7012) making appropriations for
the construction, repair, and preservation of certain public works on rivers and
harbors, and for other purposes—
Mr. MURPHY said:
Mr. Chairman; It is needless for me as a member of the Commit¬
tee on Rivers and Harbors, who reported this bill, to say that I am in
favor of its passage, all and every part; but as one of the greatest im¬
provements contained in said bill has been attacked I propose to answer
as well as I am able said attacks. And first it is claimed that in the
selection of a route a mistake was made. It is enough for me to say in
reply to the distinguished gentleman from Wisconsin [Mr. Jones] that
the Rock Island ronte was selected for many good reasons, and its selec¬
tion was concurred in by all the members of Congress from Illinois and
Iowa, thirty-one in number, after careful thought and close investiga¬
tion, and I am confident their judgment will be respected by this
House. And hence, Mr. Chairman, I will confine my remarks to the
appropriation of ¡5300,000, that amount having been allowed by the
committee to commence the work on said water way, popularly known
as the " Hennepin Canal, " but correctly designated as the Lake Michi¬
gan and Mississippi River Canal, for when constructed it will unite these
two great water ways and furnish 10,000,000 people an all-water route
and the onlj' rival ronte with railroads. It will be found on page 28 of
the bill, and is as follows:
For the construction of a canal from the Illinois River, near the town of Hen¬
nepin, to the Mississippi River, at or below Rock Island, and designated in a
survey made by Major Benyaurd, together with the route surveyed fora branch
canal or feeder from Rock River to the summit line of said canal, S-300,000: Pro¬
vided, That said canal and feeder shall be 80 feet wide at the water line and 7
feet deep, and the locks 170 feet in length and 30 feet in width, with a capacity
for vessels of at least280 tons burden, with guard-gates, wasli-weirs, locks, lock-
houses, basins, bridges, and all other erections and fixtures that may be neces¬
sary for safe and convenient navigation of said canal and branch as specified
in said survey ; And provided further. That it shall be the duty of the Secretary
of War, in order to .secure the right of way for such canal and branch, to ac¬
quire the title to such lands as may be necessary by agreement, purchase, or
voluntary conveyance from the owners, if it can be done on reasonable terms;
but if that shall be found impracticable, then the Secretary of Warshall apply
atany term of the circuit or district court of the United States for the northern
district of Illinois to be held thereafter, at any general or special term held in
said district, and in the name of the United States institute and carry on pro¬
ceedings to condemn such land.s as may be necessary for the right of way as
aforesaid; and in such proceedings said court shall be governed by the laws of
the State of Illinois, so far as tlie .same may be applicable to the subject of con¬
demning private property for public use.
4
Mr. Chairman, the subject under consideration is one of importance
and to my mind of great magnitude; and while I have given it some
thought I fear my inability will not do it that justice its importance
requires and its merit demands. However, I will promise you to do
the very best I can, for, believe me, my heart and soul are fixed upon
this improvement and my body and mind will not rest until it is settle d,
and settled, I trust, in accordance with the wishes and demands of
10,000,000of people who to-day are watching with anxious eye but hope¬
ful look the act ion of this House in the premises, for cheap transporta¬
tion or not cheap transportation is the question—whether we will do
our duty fearlessly, and thereby obey and respect the wishes of the
people by the construction of this improvement, which will not only
connect the waters of the Mississippi River with the lakes, the Erie
Canal, and the ocean, hut furnish to the producer and consumer a rival
transport line that will reduce the present railroad freight rates west
of Chicago and north of Saint Louis 50 per cent. ; for it will be seen, Mr.
Chairman, that this canal is national in its character and of great value
to commerce, its location and relation to national water ways being the
connecting link that will unite seven hundred miles of Mississippi nav¬
igable water with hundreds of miles of navigable water from Hennepin
to New York city, creating a union and rival transport water way from
Saint Paul to New York, which will be a true, certain, and just regu¬
lator of railroad rates, and thereby save millions of dollars which to¬
day are unjustly paid in transportation of our surplus products. For,
remember, while the star of empire westward takes its way the course of
commerce eastward makes its track, and why ? I answer it is because
the only market we have in the Northwest for our surplus products is
New York, New England, and Old England.
And in this connection I wish to call the close attention of members
of Congress to a vital fact and upon which rests our present and future
prosperity, and to my mind that fact is a self-evident truth, namely:
if we have a market to which we can take and sell our surplus prod¬
ucts we will prosper; if we have not we will not. The place, the mar¬
ket for our surplus is the question, for in my judgment our want in
the near future for our product is a market. To-day our want is sup¬
plied by a foreign demand; but who is bold enough to assume that it
will continue with the sharp competition of rival nations that are to
the fore to-day ? And in that competition with other nations we can
only hope to be successful by cheaper transportation to the seaboard;
hence it is the united producing interest of this country demand with
one voice that this Congress shall furnish a foreign market for our sur¬
plus products, to the end that our prosperity in the past may be enjoyed
in the future, for without a market your surplus would be a burden ;
and remember "you never miss the water until the well runs dry."
How to provide, keep, and hold a market for what we have to sell is
one of the most important subjects that can command the attention
and respect of American statesmanship, for good statesmanship will
not only provide for the present but if wise will look into the future.
Yes, Mr. Chairman, I am pleased to say and delighted to know that
while there are different opinions, and that difference an honest one,
between the agriculturist and manufacturer on the tariff question,
there is but one opinion upon this question of transportation, for all are
equally interested, because all will be equally benefited. Hence I may
say without fear of contradiction that the construction of this water
way by the General Government is needed and demanded, and that de-
5
mand is voiced by the merchants and manufacturers of the East, the
coal, oil, salt, iron, and all other kind of producers and manufacturers,
which is seconded by all Eastern consumers of Western products, and
echoed backward by 10,000,000 producers of the Northwest, who have
sweated and toiled early and late in the useless effort to contend by labor
and patient toil against the unj ust charges and willful extortions of rail¬
road monopolies, fixed by the selfish greed of railroad magnates.
Yes, Mr. Chairman, the Mississippi Valley, the cornucopia of this
continent, the granary of the world, is forced to pay annually over
$20,000,000 that might be saved over present transportation rates if
this canal was in operation. Why our cattle and hogs instinctively know
when they are eating the corn to fatten them that the railroad com¬
panies and stock-yard bosses have a transportation lien on their car¬
casses for at least five-eighths their value; and these railroad com¬
panies, influenced by a refined sense of unqualified greed, make their
strength most potential, ' ' Dennis Kearney ' ' like, by pooling their issues
and earnings. This pooling system is the ligature that binds them
together like the Siamese twins, and being corporations, have no souls
to damn or consciences to quicken. These statements may be ques¬
tioned; if so, go with me, and let us briefiy examine the pages of his¬
tory, which will show that th&se statements are the truth, and lament¬
ably so.
Did not Jay Gould, the tycoon of railroad magnates, shamelessly and
with bold effrontery volunteer the statement, under oath, to the com¬
mittee appointed by the Legislature of New York to investigate the
conduct of railroad management, that as manager of the Erie road he
had used money to buy up the Legislatures of four States; that in a
Democratic district he was a Democrat, in a Republican district a Repub •
lican, in a feather-head district a feather-head, in a half-breed district
a half-breed, in a sore head district a sore head, but in all an Erie man;
that large sums of money were paid to infiuence elections and guide
legislation, and when pressed for detail—his memory was as elastic as
the account—he finally confessed that instances were so numerous where
money was used that it would be as impossible to enumerate them as
it would be to recall to mind the number of freight cars that passed over
the Erie road from day to day V Why, these railroad kings estimate
their wealth in bulk and only count by millions, and so rapidly have
they acquired wealth that the tale of Aladdin and his wonderful lamp,
in comparison, has lost its gloss of fiction. It is well known that within
the last twenty years Huntington, Hopkins & Co. were only known to
the people of San Francisco as small shopkeepers. By a recent legal
inve.stigation Mr. Leland Stanford's wealth is estimated at $34,000,(X)0;
Mr. Charles Crocker about the same amount; Mr. Hopkins at .$25,000,-
000; while Mr. Huntington's wealth is estimated at more than either
of the others, making an aggregate of over $100,000,000 piled up by
these gentlemen in twenty years out of the profits of the Central Pa¬
cific Railroad Company, and in the name of the company wrung from
the laborer, who by honest industry and patient toil obtained it either
from the surface or out of the earth.
The late Commodore Vanderbilt commenced railroading some twenty-
five years ago, and his wealth at that time was estimated not to exceed
$10,0(W,000. When he died his estate was estimated at $80,000,000,
and his son William will invoice to-day at $200,000,000, to say nothing
of the lamentations of his prophet son, Jeremiah.
When Jay Gould obtained the management of the Erie road in 1873
6
his wealth was estimated not to exceed 5i5,000,000; to-day the good
Lord only knows how much he is worth, for it would puzzle the arith¬
metic of memory to compute it. AVillit be claimed that such Crœsus-
like wealth as this can be acquired in so short a time fairly and hon¬
estly ? These men, like the lillies of the field, ' ' toil not, neither do
they spin; and yet I say unto you that Solomon in all his glory was
not arrayed like one of these. ' '
And yet, gentlemen, the high rates charged, with the pooling system
as a tender to make it more binding and certain, are not so ruinous to
commerce and agriculture as the discrimination in rates. The former is
a slow consumption, that quietly but surely surrounds the lungs of com¬
merce and the products of the farm and steadily feeds while there is
life; but the latter is an epidemic that baffles the skill of experience,
and no known remedy can arrest its deadly progress. In support of
this statement, allow me to saj' that an investigation armed with au¬
thority brought to the surface the astonishing and appalling fact that
certain oil-men, whose refinery is on Long Island, got rebate from rail¬
road companies in eighteen months to the amount of over $5,000,000;
per consequence seventy-nine houses engaged in the same business
were broken up. Why, a single flour-mill in that city or town can
stop the wheels of all the rest if it can obtain a rebate of tariff and
thereby get lower rates of transportation than its competitors. A dozen
coal mines are located in a certain neighborhood, all finding sale for
their coal in the same market; if one is favored by a rebate it grows
sleek, gets fat, declares dividends regularly, while the others with all
their coal, capital, machinery, and fixtures are remitted to the blue
mold of time, only to be cursed by the rust of age.
Yes, Mr. Chairman, the American people have witnessed this state
of things for years, and have grown dazzled looking with alarm upon
theeffectof the powerwielded byrailroad companies in all departments
of life, social, political, and financial. This alarm thus created by the
many wrongs perpetrated has invoked the power of the people and
caused their representatives to come to the rescue by legislative action
and legal control. Some little good has been done in that direction,
but still the pall of oppression, like the miasma that rises from the
marshes and sour swamps of the lowlands, fills the atmosphere of com¬
merce with sickness and death, until to-day sober men are asking, with
enthusiastic earnestness, "Will this state of things always continue?"
I answer, "No; not always."
The American people (right by instinct) have tried kind words by
assisting in the construction of railroads with liberal donations and
more liberal subsidies, upon the theory that competition would furnish
the remedy. Alas, how have they been disappointed ! By natural
law the sturgeon swallows the minnow and the whale swallows both;
so it has been seen in the construction of railroads as competing lines,
to the end that freight would he carried for a fair, just, and remuner¬
ative price, the competing lines have been swallowed up and to-day
form the arc that makes the railroad circles most complete. Turf was
thrown by legislative action, and a partial attempt was made to regu¬
late railroad rates by law, but the demagogue was found in the place
of the statesman and the bribe-taker was most unanimous in loud
declamations, .specious arguments, and dislocated excuses. So you see
kind words and turf are of no avail, and hence it is the American peo¬
ple North and South, East and West, producer and consumer, have
ri.sen up like one man determined to furnish a remedy for the evil, and
7
if necessary throw stones by the improvement of our natural water ways
and the construction of artificial ones. For it is cheap transportation or
not cheap transportation that is the question.
Is there any question presented to this Congress and now seriously
agitated by the public of so much importance as guarding the great
agricultural interests with jealous care ? For it has been a great factor
in the commercial prosperity of this nation, and if we act wisely it
will continue; but if we act unwisely and fail to do our duty by in¬
creasing our facilities and cheapening the cost of carriage, we will find
that our producing rivals, Eussia, Australia, and India, will supply the
Liverpool market. That market receiving its supply from that quar¬
ter, our surplus will be a burden; and, believe me, this is no dream of
fancy, for a casual investigation will show the situation and danger.
You will all admit that it is a maxim in commercial law that man will
buy where he can buy the cheapest and sell where he can sell the
dearest. In 1880 our export of wheat was, say, 100,000,000 bushels;
of corn, say, 100,000,000 bushels. The former was worth, say, $100,-
000,000, and the latter $50,000,000, making a total of $150,000,000.
Our wheat and com producers received that sum forthatportion of their
surplus product sold in a foreign market in that year, and hence we can
conclude logically and mathematically that by reason of that foreign
demand our people enjoyed $150,000,000 more than they would have
enjoyed if no foreign demand or market existed. And the question
is existing to-day, will it always exist ?
I answer it will not, unless we see to it that our carrying charges are
lessened, for investigation tells us that India alone as a competitor in
the Liverpool market sent her first trial cargo less than twelve years
ago, and in 1875 she exported 1,500,000 bushels of wheat, and kept
on increasing year by year until in 1881 and 1882 she shipped over
37,000,000 bushels of wheat. I have not the data ibr the year 1882
and 1883, but we can readily infer it must be largely in excess of 1882,
when we call to mind the fact that for that year there was shipped from
Bombay and Culcutta an excess over former years of 9,800,000 bushels,
being an excess of 50 per cent, over 1881. If this local increase is
fair for the balance of India, her exports of wheat for 1883 would be
74,000,000 bushels, three-fourths as much as the United States exported
in 1880.
Hence is not this conclusive, that this rival competition is real, sub¬
stantial, and permanant ? And I am so impressed with its importance
I feel confident you will respect my judgment when your attention is
called to a communication upon this question addressed to the Legisla¬
ture of New York by that distinguished statesman, Ex-Govemor Sey¬
mour, who, with that natural sagacity, acquired wisdom, and refined in¬
telligence that has marked and characterized his j udgment through life,
deemeditimportanttomakethefollowingstatement. Hesaid "Afalse
and mischievous idea has grown up in our country that Europe de¬
pends upon us for food. This is not true. They can get all they want
from many parts of the world—from India, Australia, and South America.
In South America vast herds of cattle are killed merely for their hides.
Great Britain, which buys more of our provisions than any other co un-
try, is building railroads and water communication to cheapen transpor¬
tation, and is sending farming tools into that region to improve its agri¬
culture.
This policy has been followed by a great increase in its production
of grain ; within a few years the export of wheat from India has grown
8
up to many millions of bushels. The governments of Europe are try¬
ing to lessen our exports, as they give us such heavy balances against
them. For this reason Germany and France shut out our pork, and
other governments show greater uneasiness as we disturb their rela¬
tionship to their people. Our only course is to undersell other coun¬
tries. As labor is higher here than elsewhere we must depend upon
smaller charges for carrying. That region is fast becoming one of our
strong competitors. We only sell to Europe because we have cheaper
modes of sending our products to their market. We have been able to
do this because we have cut down the cost of carrying. Our exports
grow up as carrying rates are cut down. Railroads have always fol¬
lowed lower rates upon water routes; but the last are the cheapest, as
is shown by the table of rates in the report on commerce and naviga^
tion of the General Government.
Our agricultural interests are the most important of all. When water-
routes are closed by winter railroad rates go up ; when opened in the
spring rail rates go down. " I have no interest in this subject besides
my interest in all things that concern the honor and welfare of the state.
We are to have a hard struggle to keep our lead as a food-supplying
country, and we must give up the delusion that Europe depends upon
us for food. It will only buy of us if we can deliver it to them at the
lowest cost. The delusion that the Old World depends upon us for
food stimulates extravagance in Congress and corruption in Legislatures.
If we fail to uphold our water routes as protection against unjust and
unwise charges for transportation we shall suffer in the future."
Yes, Mr. Chairman, the statement of that distinguished statesman
made at that time has proven prophetic, for many of us in the West
know to our sorrow that a large portion of our wheat crop of 1883 is to¬
day stored in warehouses, elevators, and granaries of the West; that
March wheat for May delivery sold in Chicago for a lower price than it
has for twenty years—and why ? Because it was not wanted in Liver¬
pool, and not wanted because wheat raised in India could be purchased
cheaper.
It is estimated that the United States can produce to-day enough to
supply 100,000,000 of people, while our consumption is but for 50,000,-
000; hence we have a surplus of 50 per cent. What is to be done with
this surplus if it cannot compete with foreign markets ? Must it not
rot in the store-house ? Ten years ago the iarmer of the West only in¬
quired for quotations in his own State or neighboring State, Chicago,
or New York at farthest; but to-day he must keep posted upon quota¬
tions in Liverpool and Bombay, for a decline in either of these places
means a corresponding decline on wheat at home.
Although canals have not engaged that attention and respect that
they merit, I am pleased to say the present indications are in the line
of a large extension of inland water carriage by means of canals, and
the reason is that investigation shows that canal carriage is one-half
cheaper and one-half quicker than railroad transit. This statement
may seem absurd on its face, but a recital of facts will prove its correct¬
ness. .lohn Smith, a wheat merchant residing in the city of Rock
Island, 111., the point where it is contemplated this canal will enter the
Mis.si.ssippi River, has in store for shipment 60,000 bushels of wheat,
weighing three hundred tons. The market is Chicago, one hundred
and eighty-four miles eastward. He can ship by rail or by water if
this canal is buUt. If by rail, the present way, it will require one
hundred and fifty freight-cars, holding 24,000 pounds, or 400 bushels
to the car, and require five trains of thirty cars to the train to trans¬
port it; it will take two days to make the trip and ten days to make
five trips, the necessary number.
If this canal were built he could load all this grain into one boat at half
the expense it required to load the cars, and could make the trip in five
days, two and one-half going over and two and one-half returning, and
the rateof chargeswouldbeone-halflessthanisnowcharged. Butyou
may say, ' ' While you have demonstrated it can be shipped in one-half the
timé you have not shown it could be carried for one-half the price. ' ' True,
I have not, but I will. By referring to page 233 of the report of the Senate
Committee on Transportation to the Seaboard you will find the follow¬
ing statement made by Senator Windom as chairman of said committee.
A more marked exhibition of the effect of water competition in reducing
freight charges is also given by Mr. Utley. I quote:
The freight charged by the Chicago, Bock Isiand and Pacific Kailroad Com¬
pany is 8 cents per hundred pounds from Henry to Chicago, between which
points there is water competition, while the rate from Tiskilwa, only twelve
miles farther west than Henry and beyond the effect of canal competition, is 15
cents per hundred pounds, or nearly as much for twelve miles as for one hun¬
dred miles.
And it is proper to state that both these points are on the proposed
canal—Tiskilwa west of Hennepin and Henry east of Hennepin. But
one fttrther illustration, and what I now utter is from personal knowl¬
edge, having learned it out of selfish and personal interest: I am inter¬
ested in the manufacture of oat-meal in Davenport, Iowa, and our mill
has the grinding-power of fifteen hundred bushels of oats daily. I will
agree to contract to the extent of45,000 barrels of meal annually and
deliver the same at our mill in Davenport to any responsible party
upon the payment of 25 cents net profit per barrel, which sum is to be
added to actual cost of producing. I mean only cost of labor and
material. And 25 cents net profit will pay us a handsome dividend on
our capital. Now what are the facts in our trade? We ship largely
to New York, Chicago, Saint Louis, and Saint Paul. When the lakes
and the Mississippi Eiver are open we enjoy water transportation. We
can obtain railroad rates 25 cents per barrel less to these points than
when the lakes and river are closed. So you see that if we were de¬
prived of water transportation or its competing benefits we would
have to close up our mill, to the injury of the producer, consumer, and
capital. What is true of oat-meal is true of every other kind of freight.
The effect of the construction of this canal in reducing the cost of trans¬
portation from the Mississippi Eiver and the territory west of that
river may be seen by the actual results of transport on that part of
this canal already constructed from Chicago to La Salle, for it is a com¬
petitor in transportation with the Chicago, Eock Island and Pacific
Eailroad from La Salle to Chicago, a distance of one hundred miles.
The following comparative statement shows the cost of transporting
one bushel of wheat one hundred miles:
By Chicago, Eock Island and Pacific, from La Salle to Chicago 8
Henee it will be seen that the Chicago, Eock Island and Pacific when
it competes with our canal only charges 53 per cent, of the average
Cenia.
By Chicago, Burlington and Quincy
By Chicago and Northwestern
By Chicago and Alton
I^ Illinois Central
14
18
12
16
10
charg&s for the same distance by the other roads. Is any more argu¬
ment necessary to support the proposition that if this canal is constructed
the people of the Northwest can save 50 per cent, over present rates of
transportation, and 50 per cent, saved would amount to over |10,000,000
upon the surplus agricultural products of the Northwest annually, to
say nothing of the 50 per cent, that would be saved to the Eastern
people by return freight of their products which find a market in the
West?
Yes, Mr. Chairman, I can demostrate and show with mathematical
certainty that what is true of Eastern shipments is equally true of
Western. I will illustrate by taking the anthracite coal of Pennsyl¬
vania, which is used in large quantities in the Northwest since the in¬
troduction of base-burner stoves. This coal is brought by water from
Pennsylvania and laid down in Chicago for 60 cents per ton, a distance
of over 1,000 miles ; it costs $2 per ton to transport this coal one hundred
and eighty miles to the Mississippi River. I am confident that if this
water way was extended to the Mississippi River that coal would be
carried from Chicago to the river or any point north or south on said
river for 50 cents per ton, and the saving over present cost would be
$1.50 per ton; and I am firm in the opinion that the present consump¬
tion in that region is over 1,000,000 tons annually, which would be in¬
creased double, thereby saving to the people $3,000,000 annually upon
coal alone; and what is true of coal is equally true to a certain extent
of all other kinds of freight—salt, oil, iron, stone, marble, lumber, and
all the various things they enter into. Hence in the light of the fore¬
going will any member on this floor contend for a moment that this im¬
provement is not worthy, meritorious, and necessary ?
Mr. Chairman, having thus far tried in my feeble way to show that
this improvement is worthy and meritorious, I will now briefly show
the nature and character of its indorsers, which are as follows;
In the year 1845, at a convention held in the city of Memphis, pre¬
sided over by that honorable and distinguished strict constructionist
of South Carolina, Hon. John C. Calhoun, there were present five hun¬
dred and eighty-three representatives from the following States : Penn¬
sylvania, Louisiana, North and South Carolina, Virginia, Florida, Ala¬
bama, Mississippi, Texas, Arkansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Illinois, In¬
diana, Ohio, and Iowa, and the following resolution passed said conven¬
tion and received the universal indorsement of that body of represent¬
atives:
Resolved, That the project of connecting the Mississippi River with the lakes
of the North by a ship-canai, and thus with the Atlantic Ocean, is a measure
worthy of the enlightened consideration of Congress.
It may be said your improvement is not a ship-canal. I answer, you
must creep before you walk, and manhood springs from childhood. In
1866, at the instance of .several public meetings held in Illinois, Colonel
Hudnutt made it preliminary survey of this water way. He estimated
the cost at a little over $4,500,000, and in his report he stated this canal
would be the cheapest ever constructed in the United States. In 1870
a very careful survey was made of this canal by Gorham P. Low, civil
engineer, under the direction of the War Department. His estimate was
for a ship-canal, one hundred and sixty feet at the surface and one hun¬
dred and thirty-two feet at bottom, seven feet deep, with a tonnage
capacity of 2,000 tons, or 666,666 bushelsof wheat. He states in said
report that the supply of water on the summit level would be .suffi-
cieut for sixty-seven pass,ages eastward daily carrying 134,000 tons
11
of freight, or 4,4(J6,66ö bushels of wheat, and this would allow an
annual capacity for the transport of grain eastward of 1,071,999,840
bushels in two hundred and forty days, or eleven times the largest
amount ever received in Chicago in one year up to that time. His es¬
timate of cost at that time was $12,479,690.
In 1872 the President of the United States, realizing the importance
of cheaper rates in transportation, in the discharge of his public duty,
called the attention of the Forty-second Congress to the fact of its im¬
portance and suggested the selection of a committee with power to act
and report. In compliance with the President's wish the Senate se¬
lected a committee out of its number composed of seven Senatore, who
in their report, which will be found on page 229 of said report, gave
this enterprise an indorsement and clearly showed that it ought to be
constructed by the General Government. Indeed, I must say in frank
candor, for it is due that I .should, that the largest part of my present
information which I am trying to impart to you in the confident hope
it will aid our enterprise I obtained from said report. The State Leg¬
islature of Illinois and Iowa for ten years past have sent memorials to
Congress praying for assistance and urging immediate action.
In May, 1881, a convention was called in its interest which was held
in Davenport, Iowa; said convention was composed of four hundred and
twenty-six delegates representing nine States, twenty-two boards of
trade, eight farmer alliances, and sixty-six cities or towns, being com¬
posed of governors of States, members of both Houses of Congress, and
gentlemen of national repute. The distinguished and humorous Repre¬
sentative from the State of Michigan [Mr. Hobe] presided over said con¬
vention, and General Hendeeson, the Representative from Illinois, who
has taken more interest and accomplished more good for this ent erprise,
both in and out of Congress, than any single individual, was the chair¬
man of the committee on resolutions, which resolutions not only in¬
dorsed this improvement, but earnestly asked Congress to provide for its
construction.
As soon as the Forty-seventh Congress had met and organized Gen¬
eral Henderson, with a desire which has always marked his public
acts to faithfully represent his people, introduced a bill which provided
for the construction of this water communication by the Government,
which bill was referred to the Committee on Railways and Canals.
That committee, in the discharge of their duties, and feeling confident
that this water connection was worthy and should be built by the Gen¬
eral Government, made a favorable report, which report, per force of
rule, was placed upon the Calendar, and then it slept, "not the sleep
of death that knows no waking," but a quiet, innocent rule sleep that
all old members of Congress are familiar with. The friends of the
measure, feeling confident that inaction and no practical result would
not please the people, had an appropriation put on the river and har¬
bor bill while it wa.s being considered by the Committee on Commerce
in the Senate, which committee in its report recommended that the
sum of $300,000 be appropriated to commence the work upon this canal,
and while being discussed in the Senate it was thought that insomuch
as the estimates and surveys made up to that time did not furnish com¬
plete data it would be the part of wisdom to only make an appropria¬
tion for a complete survey and correct estimate, to the end that Con¬
gress might act with all the light before it. As this proposition was
reasonable the friends of the bill consented, and the Senate made an
appropriation of $30,000 for a survey, which action was concurred in
12
by the House, and by this act the Forty-seventh Congress did itself
honor in making the first and necessary appropriation to commence this
work.
This act passed August 2,1882. On the 11th of the same month Maj.
W. H. H. Benyaurd, of the engineers, was instructed by General Wright
to make said survey with estimates and report the same as by law re¬
quired. I have before me a copy of the report made, and I am firm in
the belief if every member of Congress upon this floor had the time
and would take the trouble to read said report they would be con¬
vinced of the importance of this improvement and be only too glad to
aid in its construction by voting for an appropriation to commence the
work.
Yes, Mr. Chairman, this otficial report tells us that the distance from
Hennepin, the present terminus of the water communication with the
lakes at Chicago, to Rock Island, on the Mississippi, is a distance of
seventy-four and five-tenths miles, with a feeder of thirty-seven miles
from the city of Dixon, 111., to the summit point on the main line. The
canal and feeder is to be eighty feet wide on the water surface and
seven feet deep, which will give both a capacity of three hundred tons
burden.
It is estimated that the cost of construction, including feeders and
right of way, will be $6,672,800, the construction of which canal will
connect the waters of the Mississippi River with the lakes and ocean
and thereby furnish a true and correct rival water way for the benefit of
the East as well as the West. Is it strange, then, that Iowa and Illinois,
with 5,000,000 of people, through their representatives in their Legis¬
latures, have repeatedly memorialized Congress to construct this water
way when they know that the saving on freight rates upon the ship¬
ment of one crop will build two such canals ? Can it be wondered that
their Representatives in Congress are persistent and earnest in their
eflbrta to secure its construction by Government action, when their
attention is called to the fact that Iowa and Illinois alone furnish
nearly one-third of the internal-revenue collected ? It may be said in
this connection that while it is true Iowa and Illinois pay annually
over $30,000,000 into the public Treasury, they do not drink all the
whisky and beer they make. We will admit that, but we do produce
the corn and barley from which it is made, and without it it could not
be made.
And, Mr. Chairman, I make the statement without fear of successful
contradiction that this water way has received a greater indorsement
than any other improvement provided for in the river and harbor bill,
the Mississippi River alone being the single exception. While they all
have merit and should receive favorable action, this one comes to us
with a general indorsement because it is like the Mississippi River im¬
provement, national in its character and universal in its benefits. The
construction of this canal by the Government has been asked for by all
the people of Iowa and Illinois, through their Legislatures, which action
is indorsed by all their Representatives upon this floor ; by the Saint
Paul, La Crosse, Duluth, Dubuque, Davenport, Rock Island, and Chi¬
cago Boards of Trade in the Northwest; of Buffalo, Syracuse, and New
York city, in the East; in the city of New York particularly, not only
the Board of Trade and Transportation, but the Produce Exchange, the
largest and most conservative body of intelligent business men on this
continent. They number about 3,000, and never take action without
wise deliberation by reference to proper committees and then act upon
13
their reports; and be it said to their c^anly credit and wisdom they gave
it an indorsement and frankly conl:ssed it was the first time in their
existence they have ever recommended the General Government to aid
or construct internal improvements or advised their Senators and Rep¬
resentatives to vote for appropriations for the same, and as I value their
judgment in the light of the premises as the very essence of refined -wis¬
dom I will be pardoned if I trespass upon time and patience in reading
the report of the committee, which was unanimously adopted :
Committee^ S report and the resolutions of the New York Produce Exchange, adopted
by full meeting of the exchange December 20, 1881.
the united states government should undertake to build the henne¬
pin canal.
Atameeting of the board of managets of the New York Produce Exchange,^
held December 20,1881, the following report of the committee on trade wassub-
mitted, and the recommendations contained therein were unanimously adopted.
F. H. PARKER, President.
PAUL BABCOCK, Jr., Secretary.
Your committee on trade, to whom has been referred the question of appli¬
cation to Congress for the building of the Hennepin Canal by the United States,
have given to this subject the attention demanded by its important bearing on
the internal commerce of the country, and respectfully report as follows :
In the opinion of your committee there can be little if any question that the
proposed opening of a water way from the Mississippi River to the Illinois and
Michigan Canal and the great lakes promises highly advantageous results not
only to the Northwestern States, but to the whole Northern country east of the
Mississippi River. Besides furnishing new means of transport to the Atlantic
seaboard of the produce of Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, andothergrain-produc-
ing States, such a canal would also act as a welcome regulator of railroad freights
in the Northwest,
There can be little question, also, that neither private enterprise nor the State
of Illinois, within whoso territory the canal will be situate, nor any other State
directly benefited, nor all these combined, will or can undertake an enterprise
which is sure to meet the determined opposition of the railroad interest.
The question before \is, therefore, simply is : Shall the United States build and
maintain this canal, and can this exchange, in view of the well-grounded op¬
position to the policy of its internal improvements in general, consistently rec¬
ommend such action on the part of the General Government?
After mature consideration your committee have come to the conclusion that
this question should receive an affirmative answer from your board, and for
the following reasons :
The ground on which the Hennepin Canal is to be built has been repeatedly
surveyed with a view to that improvement by the United States Government,
a,nd by other competent parties ; the practicability of the project has been estab¬
lished and the cost has been reliably ascertained ; the scheme therefore can not
be classed with a large number of internal improvements annually brought be¬
fore Congress, which are indefinite in their scope and in the results expected
and of uncertain cost.
The Hennepin Canal further differs from many of those proposed improve¬
ments in so far as it is sure to benefit a very large section of country, our own
State included. The General Government further seems to be committed to
an extensive improvement of the Mississippi River, of which the Hennepin
Canal may justly be considered part and parcel, and the fact that its construc¬
tion would be to the benefit of the Northern States east of the Rocky Mount¬
ains only strengthens its claims on the whole country, which for a long time
to come is, according to the policy already adopted, to be taxed to the improve¬
ment of the Mississippi River in its southerly course.
Your committee therefore feel justified in recommending to your board the
adoption of the following preamble and resolutions :
Whereas the completion of a water way from the Mississippi River to Lake
Michigan by the construction of the Hennepin Canal promises to realize ad¬
vantages of national importance; and
Whereas there are insuperable obstacles in the way of havirig such improve¬
ment carried out by private enterprise, or by the State immediately benefited ;
and
Whereas the building of the Hennepin Canal may justly be regarded as part
of the improvement of the Mississippi River: Therefore,
Resolved, That in the opinion of the New York Produce Exchange the United
States Government should undertake to build the Hennepin Canal and to main¬
tain the same free for all time to come.
14
And further resolved. That our Senators and Representatives be requested to
join the Representatives of other States in providing the necessary legislation
for carrying out this plan.
L. F. HOLMAN, Chairman.
WALTER CARR,
JOHN SINCLAIR,
SAM'L S. CARLL,
GUSTAV SCHWAB.
New York, Deceinber 19,188I.
Yes, Mr. Chairman, it is a part of the history of this improvement
that the largest and most creditable convention ever held on this con¬
tinent in the interest of water transportation, to the end that cheaper
rates in freight might be enjoyed, convened at Saint Louis in October,
1881. That assembly was composed of over six hundred delegates repre^
senting twenty-one States of this Union. They were three days in session,
and it must be said in their honor that this water communication con¬
necting the Father of Waters, the Mississippi Eiver, by the lakes with
mother ocean was an improvement needed and devoutly to be wished,
because they were shown and convinced of the fact that this union and
marriage would multiply and replenish the commerce of this country
tenfold.
This water route, by reason of its worth, received another indorse¬
ment, and to my mind a very potential one. The National Board of
Trade, the kings of commerce, held their annual meeting in this city on
January 24, of the present year, the friends of this improvement hav¬
ing given sixty days' notice, as by rule required before they assembled,
that it would be brought to their attention, and after deliberate consid¬
eration they wpuld be asked to recommend Congressional action by an
appropriation; and after debate a re.solution was adopted urging the
construction of this water way, and this Congress was memorialized to
provide the necessary appropriation for the same. And right here I will
add that the echo produced by the reading of said resolution had not
died out before it was taken up and increased by the sounds coming from
the action of the Mississippi River improvement convention, held in this
city a few days thereafter, who not only commended but recommended
this water route, and in their memorial urged this Congress to vital
action. The nature, character, and importanceof that assembly are so
well known to members on this floor I will not occupy time in going
into details.
Mr. Chairman, before concluding my remarks in my feeble effort to
convince this House and every member, no matter how skeptical, that '
when I made the statement that no improvement contained in that river
and harbor bill had received such indorsement as this one has, the Mis¬
sissippi River excepted, I spoke advisedly and from the record, and now
to cap the climax his excellency, our worthy President, saw proper
in the discharge of his numerous public duties to call the attention of
this Congress, by special message, to the public importanceof this water
communication, and therein recommended its consideration. Could
an3'thing more be done? Is anything more necessary? We have the
means and all we need is the will. Will that will be substantial, prac¬
tical, and real, or will we shut our eyes to the painful truth that not¬
withstanding this improvement is needed, and all the people North and
South, East and West, rich audpoor, have asked for its construction and
insisted upon action, will we postpone action and build this water
way in the manner a jail was once built in the State of Arkansas;
which was as follows: It seems that the board of county commissioners
met and first resolved that public necessity required the building of a
15
new jail. They then passed the following résolution: "Jíesoired, That
we will build the new jail out of the old one; " and then wound up
by resolving " that we will use the old jail untü the new one is built. ' '
Mr. Chairman, I fear I have committed waste upon your patience,
and my only apology is my zeal and earnestness. I have long since
been impressed with the importance of this canal project; that impres¬
sion has grown into a conviction; and in conclusion I thank you most
sincerely for your indulgence and beg of members on this floor to vote
for this as well as all other appropriations reported in the river and
harbor bill, for our Government in the past has shown a genius for
improvement aided by many practical ideas, an indomitable industry
that has electrified the world. Will she now sit idly by and allow nat¬
ural commerce, that by right of legitimacy belongs to her, to be lost
by inaction ? If she does, that monument of honor and glory which
proudly stands in this city, and was erected by the hand of progress,
will crumble into dust and return to mother earth that bore it.
[Great applause].
O