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The Wabasir and Erie Canal.AYe copy the following.sensible and I truthful article ^rom a late number of the Vincennes Gazette:The Trustees of the A\rabash and Erie Canal have just published their anual statement. They complain that the result of the year’s opex-atrons has been very unsatisfactory, attributing their misfortunes to tho “very disastrous railroad competition,” and -the floods. The damage by the railroads is beyond all computation, we suppose; but that by the floods is sot down at the round sum of §50,000.— The aqueduct over Wca creek, 140foot long, was wholly carried away; and it was at first supposed that tho damage was so great that it would bo advisable to abandon the whole Canal! They also lament that thcavail-ablo means of the trust aro barely equal to tho expenses and repairs, and say that they have been forced to postpone the payment of interest on the 0 per cent, loan until Octobci1, “when they hope to bo able to make the payment.”As for the boo-heo-ing about railroad competition cutting down the revenues of the canals, it’s all bosh.It hasn’t been possible for tho railroads to interfere with the canal; for the reason that there has been no canal to intorfero with. It hasn’t been in anavavigablo condition scarcely throe days together since it was “opened.” It has been impossible for even a crawfish to propel itself tnrough the ditch from Evansville to Terre Haute. That canal is a great improvement, to set up in opposition to tho railroads of Indiana! Why, if nil tho railroads that the Trustees are so lachrymose over, had novor been built, Indiana would to day have been the wilderness she was forty years ago, with no cities, no canal, ev^en no highways, no gigantic im-Jj ! proyc-mu ills, but sparse population;!, nothing but an overwhelming public ' j deb!, and no means of paying even ! j the interest on it, jBui this canal can’t pay anything C more than the fat salaries of tho host ; j of officials that have been quartered ; t upon it; can’t pay any interset, nndij. these officials—Tito Barnacles—who- j, ly considering that such an arrango- i ^ Tnent will not be satisfactory to the ' j holders of the 0 por cent, canal bonds, j aro .alarmed at tho consequences; and ■'t want the State to do something for !, them. Well, the Stato ought to do ; % something for these worthy gentle-',, men. if she can-—-kick them out of their fat offices, let them go to work on their own hook, and put men in their places who havo honesty, cas pacity, and on orgy enough to keep ; , the canal in working order, and notip broken down political hacks, who; aro imagined to bo able to control a i _ few politicians in some quarter of the State. This policy is ruining tho canal, and has damaged it more than all flic floods that over fell or all the roads ever built. But good, capable men at the head, men who will put i j. the canal in order and keep it in or- ! ^ dor, and there cun bo no doubt about: „ its having plenty of business to do.—-! £ To beltcto that it will not, one vnus.t i a deny the evidences of his own senses.1 T,
Newspaper Details
Worthington White River Valley Times
Worthington, Indiana, US
Thu, Aug 26, 1858
Page 2
Full Page
Clipped by
Willard P.
USA 20 Aug 2024
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Worthington White River Gazette
