"L."-Statement of Articles cleared Illinois and Michigan Canal 1871, 1872 and 1873, and Lock at Henry, 1872 and 1873. NOTE.-The figures in the above table, from 1848 to May 1st, 1871, are as given by the Trustees of the Illinois and Michigan Canal. * In this amount is $15,400 paid collectors, locktenders, and superintendent, which would leave the amount properly chargeable to ordinary repairs $38,125. Vol. IV-106 List of Officers and Agents employed by the Board of Canal Commission Wm. Thomas. S. A. Anderson W. T. Mason W. T. House. Name. ers in 1873. Wm. Cook. Lewis Cook. † And rent of Engineer's house, at Bridgeport. * During season of navigation, with rent of old lock house. § During season of navigation (the office of Inspector at LaSalle was abolished in August, 1873). COMMUNICATION FROM THE GOVERNOR. STATE OF ILLINOIS, EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, To the Honorable the Senate: Whereas, the question of cheap transportation is being discussed by the American people, and the Congress of the United States has the same under consideration, I would respectfully suggest the propriety of the Legislature memorializing Congress to consider favorably the extension of the Illinois and Michigan Canal to the Mississippi river, at or near Rock Island, and to take early action to open up this route to the products and commerce of the North-west. If this work is undertaken and completed by Congress, it is not probable that this route, from Lake Michigan to the Mississippi river, would be under the control of the State of Illinois; nor is it hardly probable that one part would remain under State supervision and another under National; nor that commerce in its transit would submit to heavy, or any tolls, imposed by State or National authority, beyond what would be necessary for repairs. The route must necessarily be a national one, open like our navigable rivers to the commerce of the whole country. Therefore, in view of the fact that, by the terms of our Constituton, the Illinois and Michigan Canal shall never be sold or leased until the specific proposition for the sale or lease thereof shall first have been submitted to a vote of the people of the State at a general election, and have been approved by a majority of all the votes polled at such election, I suggest whether the Legislature, at this session, should not take some action looking to an adjustment of these great interests and a union of the two enterprises: the Illinois and Michigan Canal and the extension of the same to the Mississippi river by the General Government. In this same connection, I submit herewith a communication addressed to myself and the Legislature, from Thomas L. Rosser, relative to the use of the Steam Railway for propelling boats on canals, and call your attention to the proposition therein contained. Very respectfully, JOHN L. BEVERIDGE, Governor. SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS, To His Excellency JOHN L. BEVERIDGE, Governor, January 26, 1874. And the Legislature of the State of Illinois: The slow and tedious mode of transportation by the canal system of navigation, so discouraged the business energy of the American people that the public mind has long since been turned from it, and has become absorbed in the subject of railroads. To our credit as a people, I will state, that under the broad, liberal and comprehensive systems adopted by our several States and by the United States, for the government and advancement of our railroads, our country has experienced a wonderful development and growth, one which, without this railroad development, would never have been realized. Distance has virtually been eliminated; time, in its flight, has been outridden, and regions once remote and inaccessible, have been reached by the railroad, reclaimed from the savage tribes of the west, and drawn up in close proximity to the great commercial centers of the land. But in this devotion to railroad development, so necessary to our national prosperity and advancement, the subject of canal navigation has been almost entirely neglected, and allowed to languish without improvement; and now, when in some localities our railroads, by consolidations and combinations, have become oppressive monopolies, against which a large portion of our people are demanding relief, and cheaper lines of transportation from the great harvest-fields of the west to the eastern seaboard, we are forced to go back to the long-neglected subject of canals, that we may ascertain what improvements they are susceptible of which will render them more available in meeting the rapidly-increasing requirements of our growing country. The first difficulty met in this investigation is, that we have not enough through lines to successfully compete with the great trunk railroad lines. The next is, that those we have are not large enough, and their connections not sufficiently secured with the natural water lines which should form a part of them, to make them accessible to the great business which should seek an outlet through them to the seaboard; and the third objection is, that as a mode of transportatio a the canal system is slow. I will not attempt to discuss the first of these difficulties above enumerated, for I would not presume to locate the canals we require, and would certainly not attempt to provide the means for constructing them. There are committees of Congress charged with that grave mission, and they are now collecting statistics and accumulating evidence which will guide them in their action, and, as I have full confidence in their wisdom, |