ceipts on the one hand, and the per centage on the costs of the work on the other, is very great. A railroad or canal of the same length, and costing $40,000 per mile, would have to command four times the amount of business, to nett the same per centage as would a road costing but $10,000 per mile; admitting the wear and tear, the motive power, supervision and contingent expenses to be the same in both cases. But this cannot be; for as the amount of business is increased on the road, the contingent expenses of every description advance in proportion, so that the road costing $40,000 per mile must necessarily do at least five times the amount of business that would be required of a road costing but $10,000 per mile, to pay the same per centage on the capital invested in their construction, the tolls being the same. Moreover, the money expended on roads of cheap construction will extend them much further over the country, accommodate a greater number of people and interests, and command a much larger local trade. Take, for instance, the Philadelphia and Columbia railroad above referred to. This line of work is eighty-two miles long, and cost near three and one quarter millions of dollars, or near $40,000 per mile. This road commands the local trade and travel of only 82 miles of country. Whereas this sum, expended in the construction of railroads over the open and comparatively level prairies of Illinois, would command the local trade and travel of upwards of 300 miles of country, and diffuse its equal benefits to four times the population that a road, costing $40,000 per mile, would do.

The foregoing are the estimates of the probable revenue to be derived from the railroads, as predicated on the ordinary rates of tol's charged on similar works in other States. On most of these works, and especially on those in the several States competing for the commerce of the West, the rates of tolls are, and always must be, kept down by that competition. But the works of Illinois will not have to contend with any such competition; and the whole of the works being under the control of the State, it will be within her power to regulate the tolls to meet the exigencies of the revenue and expenses. A discriminating toll can be charged on different species of transportation; the exports of her products can be protected, and a revenue raised from the imports, and from the foreign commerce and travel which it may be the interest of the citizens of other States to give to our public works; and, generally, to regulate the whole rates of tolls, so as to sustain the system. And it is believed by your committee, that a much higher rate of tolls may be charged, if necessary to produce a revenue, than their calculations exhibit; and the works will still afford an immense saving to the people of the State, and at the same time preserve a successful competition with all other modes of transportation and travel.

There is another view in regard to the probable revenue of the works, which your committee will notice.

The whole system, as at present arranged, enables every part to contribute to the support and success of the whole. If there should be any of the branches of doubtful utility in a fiscal point of view, when separately considered, yet the travel and transportation generated by these lateral roads, when accumulated on the main lines and passing over them, will constitute the direct and legitimate means of rendering the whole system profitable. This state of things is said to exist in reference to the canal system of New York. The lateral or branch canals, considered separately and apart from the whole, do not yield a revenue sufficient to pay the interest on the costs of their construction; and it is said the main line would not be profitable without them; yet, when the whole is taken together, it forms one of the most profitable systems of public works in this or any other country. The reason of this is obvious. The main line accommodates, comparatively, but a limited portion of country, but when the arms or lateral branches are thrown out into an extensive region of country, they generate

a commerce for the main stem that would not otherwise pass over it, and this additional trade, combined with that of the main line, forms a mighty mass of business, and renders the whole system immensely productive and profitable.

In regard to the profits to be derived from the transportation of the United States mails, your committee entertain the opinion that their estimate is extremely reasonable. It cannot be otherwise than that several most important mail routes must be established across our State: and their importance must yearly increase with the settlement of the great western country beyond the Mississippi. And the route from north to south must, from the nature of things, be of immense importance so soon as the communication is once opened from the northern States and Territories to the mouth of the Ohio; and thence, by uninterrupted steamboat navigation, to the great commercial emporium of the Mississippi valley. The mails of the United States must be carried on these important routes, or every particle of its business will be anticipated, and consequently destroyed, by the expedition of the railroad communications. Then there would be no other alternative than for the Government to pay for the transportation of her mails, on these expeditious lines of communication, any reasonable compensation the State might demand. The price per mile, of $125, as estimated by the committee, very little exceeds the amount paid for daily mails on the common roads, at the ordinaty speed; and it will scarcely be questioned that this estimate is within all reasonable limits.

The committee have thus attempted to demonstrate the existence of a sufficient amount of transportation and travel in the State to sustain, by its tolls, the public works, when they are put into full operation. They will close this branch of their investigation, by giving the following statistical exhibits of the extent, costs, and actual business of some of the principal works in the United States; which exhibits, your committee believe, may be useful in the examination of this important subject.

Abstract of the Boats that have passed, and Tolls received on the Louisville and Portland Canal, from 1831 to 1837.

Length and cost of several improvements in other States, and the amount of tolls received on each in 1837, taken from official documents.

Designation.

Length in miles Total cost. Cost per mile. Tolls in 1837.

Statement of tolls collected upon the State Canals of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and upon the Schuylkill navigation in Pennsylvania, from 1818 to 1837.

NOTE. The tolls on the New York works have undergone a gradual reduction for several of the last years; and the receipts were reduced, in 1837, by accidental causes.

1

Another question of importance is, whether the railroads will possess the ability to command the travel and transportation which may exist in the State, and to compete successfully for it with other means of transit.

So far as it regards the abilities of the railroads to secure the travel and light transportation, the committee deem it unnecessary to trouble the House with an argument in detail on the subject. The peculiar adaptation of railways for the conveyance of passengers and light transportation is so well understood that little need be said in support of it. If any elucidation in support of this position was required, the committee think that the mention of the fact that a proposition to construct a railway from New York to Albany-which project is now about being put into execution-would be sufficient. This road will be constructed by private enterprise, for the purpose of yielding a profit to its owners, and at a cost of about $10,000 per mile. It will run parallel with one of the finest rivers in the continent, and which is as well supplied with commodious, safe, and expeditious steamboat accommodations, as any other in the world; and perhaps on no line of communication, of equal extent, is the price of travelling so cheap as it is on that river. Other instances of a similar character might be referred to; but the committee deem this sufficient for their present purpose.

Perhaps in no country, or in any age, or to any people, was the axiom, "that time is money," more applicable than to the people of the United States at the present day. Comparatively speaking, there are few of our citizens possessed of large and overgrown estates, and therefore men of leisure; but on the contrary, the great mass of our people are depending on their own active exertions, industry and enterprise. Despatch and speed, in every ramification of the business of life, are almost the very condition of their existence. The improvements in the means of conveyance, and the astonishing annihilation of time and space produced by them within the last few years, so far from satisfying the travelling community, has only tended to incite an increased desire for greater rapidity of movement. This is so obviously correct that the steamboat of the greatest speed is almost universally preferred, even at the risk of life. itself. To the commercial community, which forms the great mass of travel, it is of advantage, in every point of view, to perform their journies and voyages with the greatest practicable expedition; and hence, that mode both of travel and transportation which offers the greatest certainty and speed, and liable to the least casualities and delays, will always be preferred. So long, then, as this disposition to embrace the safest and most expeditious means of conveyance continues, there can be no reasonable doubt entertained of the capatity of our railroads to compete with all other modes of travel, for the transportation of passengers travelling in the direction of any of their routes.

In addition to the ordinary travel of the country that always seeks the public conveyances, the railroads will induce an immense amount of local travel, which would not otherwise exist, or be performed by means of private conveyances. Even before the introduction of railroads in England, it had become a saying "that a man could not afford to walk." Such were the facility and cheapness of conveyance afforded

by their numerous and splendid canals, that the extra time consumed. and the expense of performing a journey on foot, cost more than the fare on the canals. So it might be said in Illinois, if her railways were in operation, "that a man could not afford to ride in his own conveyance;" for the time and actual expenses he would save by travelling on the railways, over and above the cost of performing the journey in his own conveyance, would, in most instances, make it his interest and induce him. to prefer the former.

A journey of 100 miles on horseback for the purpose of transacting business at Alton, Chicago, St. Louis, or any other place, would require three days' travel in each direction, making six days' expense for man and horse, at $1 per day, is

2 days' time and expenses of horse whilst attending to the business of the journey, 75 cents

6 days' time of man and horse, at $1 50

$6.00 1 50 9.00

$16 50

By railroad-fare 200 miles

$10 00

1 days' time on the journey in each direction $1

2.00

2 meals on the journey

1 00

13 00

$3.50

Making three dollars and fifty cents in favor of the railway conveyance, by putting the expenses of the journey on horseback, (which is the cheapest mode of private conveyance) at the lowest rates, and valuing the time of the person at the small sum of one dollar per day. If these Views of the subject be correct, there cannot exist a doubt of the entire ability of the railroads to come into the most successful competition for a large share of the travel of the country.

The last inquiry the committee design to institute into the financial abilities and business capacities of the railroads, is in reference to the tonnage which it has been shown will exist in the State at the time of their completion.

The minimum average rate of transportation, on our common roads, is not less than $1 per hundred pounds per hundred miles,

or per ton

The ordinary rates of toll and transportation on railways being 5 cents per mile per ton, for one hundred miles, is

Balance in favor of railroads

$20.00

5 00

$15.00

Thus, at the lowest possible rates that a common team, during the season of the best roads, can perform the transportation, there would be a clear saving of money of $15 per ton, besides the advantage of the superior speed, certainty, and safety of the railway conveyance.

The staple productions of Illinois must, for the most part, be exceedingly bulky, and for this reason they will not bear transportation on common roads from the interior to the rivers; which they might do on the railways.