Which is right or which is wrong in these
criminations and recriminations; which first or
which last perpetrated the acts complained of, is
perfectly immaterial. Let that enquiry result as
it may, it cannot, in the slightest degree, influ-
ence the course which this Convention is bound
to pursue. Be the fault where it may, the reme-
dy is the same, an end must be put to these acts
of rivalry and competition, or the most important
interests of the State are doubly, and most ruin-
ously sacrificed. The rates of tolls, as estab-
lished by the joint action of the directors of the
canal company and the State's agents, is so low
that after keeping the canal in proper repair and
discharging the necessary expenses, the State's
share of the profits will be but "a beggarly ac-
count of empty boxes." Whereas, from the best
information that I have been able to obtain, I
feel convinced that if such a rate of tolls had been
imposed upon coal, as the article would well
bear in the market, the State would be, for the
three years to come, in the receipt of from $200,-
000 to $500,000 annually, from the canal, and
that, after that period, a much larger sum would
be received. But under the present State's
agents, no such results can ever be hoped for,
The same board of directors, or those represent-
ing the same interests, will be continued in office,
and consequently the same rate of tolls, (so ruin-
ous to the interests of the State,) will be indefi-
nitely continued.
As to effecting, by the Legislature, a change in
the State's agents, it is idle to hope for it. Their
influence in the State, and that of those distin-
guished men who have always supported what is
called the Potomac interest, with the immense
resources they could command from the district
cities, and the owners of coal mines in Allegany,
added to the fact that their removal can only be
accomplished by the concurrence of both branches
of the General Assembly, renders their removal
by the Legislature almost a moral impossibility.
To this Convention only, can the State look for
relief, to extricate itself from a dilemma almost
too appalling to contemplate. By the injudicious
acts of its agents, if not here arrested, all the
bright prospects of Maryland, resulting from the
immense sacrifices it has heretofore made and is
now making to pay off in some reasonably short
time, its present enormous debt, as or about to be
nipped in the bud; and when we may anticipate
their removal, no human foresight can conjec-
ture. If an impartial observer, looking to the
condition of things only as it now exists, and to
that to which it is rapidly progressing, were ask-
ed of what interests, since June last, have the
State's agents been the representatives, and sought
most faithfully and sedulously to promote, and at
the sacrifice of what interests this promotion was
sought to be effectuated ? And whether the canal
were not, under the sanction of these agents, de-
signed to be conducted as a rival work to that of
the Baltimore and Ohio railroad, and detract
from it all the transportation it could, that the
district cities might monopolize, as far as practicable,
the entire coal trade; and thus exclude
the city of Baltimore from any participation
therein? If these agents were personally un- |
known to such an observer, and he were ignorant
of the power by which their appointment was
made, judging from the other facts before him,
would he not unhesitatingly have concluded,
that these agents were the representatives of the
interests of Allegany, the small margin of Mary-
land, bordering on the canal and the district cities
and their vicinity; that the Chesapeake and Ohio
canal was designed to be a rival work to the Bal-
timore and Ohio railroad, and detract from it all
the transportation it could; that the district cities
might monopolise, as far as practicable, the en-
the coal trade, and thus exclude the city of Bal-
timore from any participation therein; and that
this State was to receive little or no income from
the canal. That such consequences, if not de-
signs, will be the result, if this competition between
the railroad and canal, is by this Conven-
tion suffered to continue and progress, must be
manifest to every reflecting mind. Some per-
sons who would most deeply deplore the occur-
rence of the anticipated mischief, and yet are op-
posed to the organization of a board of public
works, (the only certain and effective remedy,)
console themselves with the hope, or perhaps be-
lief, that the railroad will pass through this fiery
ordeal unscathed; that eligable to transport coal
and all other articles, as at low rates as the
canal.
Can any well-judging man retain such an opin-
ion, who views all the circumstances connected
with this competition, and the unequal terms
upon which it will be conducted. Out of the
tolls, [the only source of income to the canal,]
what is the amount, after deducting its necessa-
ry current expenses, far which the canal compa-
ny is bound to provide the means of payment?
The sum of $102,000, the annual interest on the
bonds of the company for $1,700,000, and noth-
ing more. To the State it will pay nothing.—
And the effect of this reduced rate of tolls on the
canal, by the State's agents and directors of the
company, is virtually to give to the canal the
State debt, of upwards of $11,000,000, to enable
it successfully to compete with the railroad in
the event of struggle, in which it is engaged, to
withdraw all transportation that it can from the
railroad, in its onward way to the city of Balti-
more, and attract it to the District cities, that
they may be aggrandized, and Baltimore most
materially injured.
Under what circumstances does the railroad
engage in this competition? It, in the first place.
has to pay annually an interest of $193,000, the
interest on the $3,200,000. it pays also an in-
terest of about $100,000 or more, on its own out-
standing bonds or other indebtedness. It has
also to pay to the city of Baltimore and its stock-
holders, the dividends, &c., on their stock,
amounting to about $500,000 annually. Upon
such terms can the most credulous friend of the
railroad believe, that it can successfully average
from the unjust competition in which it has been
involved? He (Mr. D.) could not see how it
was possible. This unnatural, ruinous warfare,
must be put an end to by this Convention, or the
State and every important and valuable interest |
