CHAPTER VIII
WATERWAYS IN THE UNITED STATES
In some respects conditions in the United States compare with those of Continental Europe, for they suggest alike powerful streams, artificial canals constructed on (as a rule) flat or comparatively flat surfaces, and the possibilities of traffic in large quantities for transport over long distances before they can reach a seaport. In other respects the comparison is less with Continental than with British conditions, inasmuch as, for the last half century at least, the American railways have been free to compete with the waterways, and fair play has been given to the exercise of economic forces, with the result that, in the United States as in the United Kingdom, the railways have fully established their position as the factors in inland transport best suited to the varied requirements of trade and commerce of to-day, while the rivers and canals (I do not here deal with the Great Lakes, which represent an entirely different proposition) have played a rôle of steadily diminishing importance.
The earliest canal built in the United States was that known as the Erie Canal. It was first projected in 1768, with the idea of establishing a through route by water between Lake Erie and the River Hudson at Albany, whence the boats or barges employed would be able to reach the port of New York. The Act for its construction was not passed, however, by the Provincial Legislature of the State of New York until 1817. The canal itself was opened for traffic in 1825. It had a total length from Cleveland to Albany of 364 miles, included therein being some notable engineering work in the way of aqueducts, etc.
At the date in question there were four North Atlantic seaports, namely, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, all of about equal importance. Boston, however, had appeared likely to take the lead, by reason both of her comparatively dense population and of her substantial development of manufactures. Philadelphia was also then somewhat in advance of New York in trade and population. The effect of the Erie Canal, however, was to concentrate all the advantages, for the time being, on New York. Thanks to the canal, New York secured the domestic trade of a widespread territory in the middle west, while her rivals could not possess themselves of like facilities, because of the impracticability of constructing canals to cross the ranges of mountains separating them from the valley of the Mississippi and the basin of the Great Lakes—ranges broken only by the Hudson and the Mohawk valleys, of which the constructors of the Erie Canal had already taken advantage. So New York, with its splendid harbour, made great progress alike in trade, wealth, and population, completely outdistancing her rivals, and becoming, as a State, "the Empire State," and, as a city, "the financial and commercial centre of the Western Hemisphere."
While, again, the Erie Canal was "one of the most efficient factors" in bringing about these results, it was also developing the north-west by giving an outlet to the commerce of the Great Lakes, and during the second quarter of the nineteenth century it represented what has been well described as "the most potent influence of American progress and civilisation." Not only did the traffic it carried increase from 1,250,000 tons, in 1837, to 3,000,000 tons in 1847, but it further inspired the building of canals in other sections of the United States. In course of time the artificial waterways of that country represented a total length of 5,000 miles.
With the advent of the railways there came revolutionary changes which were by no means generally appreciated at first. The cost of the various canals had been defrayed mostly by the different States, and, though financial considerations had thus been more readily met, the policy pursued had committed the States concerned to the support of the canals against possible competition. When, therefore, "private enterprise" introduced railways, in which the doom of the canals was foreseen, there was a wild outburst of indignant protest. The money of the taxpayers, it was said, had been sunk in building the canals, and, if the welfare of these should be prejudiced by the railways, every taxpayer in the State would suffer. When it was seen that the railways had come to stay, the demand arose that, while passengers might travel by rail, the canals should have the exclusive right to convey merchandise.
The question was even discussed by the Legislature of the State of New York, in 1857, whether the railways should not be prevented from carrying goods at all, or, alternatively, whether heavy taxes should not be imposed on goods traffic carried by rail in order to check the considerable tendency then being shown for merchandise to go by rail instead of by canal, irrespective of any difference in rates. The railway companies were further accused of conspiring to "break down those great public works upon which the State has spent forty years of labour," and so active was the campaign against them—while it lasted—that one New York paper wrote:—"The whole community is aroused as it never was before."
Some of the laws which had been actually passed to protect the State-constructed canals against the railways were, however, repealed in 1851, and the agitation itself was not continued beyond 1857, from which year the railways had free scope and opportunity to show what they could do. The contest was vigorous and prolonged, but the railways steadily won.
In the first instance the Erie Canal had a depth of 4 feet, and could be navigated only by 30-ton boats. In 1862 it was deepened to 7 feet, in order that boats of 240 tons, with a capacity of 8,000 tons of wheat, could pass, the cost of construction being thus increased from $7,000,000 to $50,000,000. Then, in 1882, all tolls were abolished, and the canal has since been maintained out of the State treasury. But how the traffic on the New York canals as a whole (including the Erie, the Oswego, the Champlain, etc.) has declined, in competition with the railroads, is well shown by the following table:—[10]