the dinner given by the West Side Republican Club at the 
 Waldorf-Astoria on January ioth last, Mayor Seth Low, in 
 speaking to the toast “The City of New York," made the 
 following remarks on the subject of the improvement of 
 the Erie Canal: 
 
 We of New York, conscious of the 
 greatness of our city, are sometimes in 
 danger of thinking that the City of New 
 York not only is the centre of the universe, 
 but all there is of it. It is well for us, 
 occasionally, to remind ourselves that the 
 City of New York, after all, is only one of 
 the great cities, though indeed the 
 greatest, of the United States. It may 
 not be known to all here that a few years 
 before the American Revolution an item 
 appeared in a newspaper of Newport, 
 Rhode Island, calling upon the citizens 
 of that seaport to bestir themselves or the 
 City of New York would surpass Newport 
 in point of commerce. It may not be 
 known to all of you that in the early part 
 of the nineteenth century when the three 
 brothers arrived in America who formed 
 the well-known banking house of Brown 
 Brothers & Co., the eldest brother went 
 to Philadelphia, because that was the 
 most important city in that day; the 
 second brother went to Baltimore, and 
 the third and youngest brother was 
 assigned to the City of New York, be¬ 
 cause at that time this was the least im¬ 
 portant city. 
 
 What was it that lifted New York 
 within half a century from that position 
 of comparative unimportance into the 
 easy primacy among the American cities, 
 which it has held ever since ? Everybody 
 will agree with me that it was the con¬ 
 struction of the Erie Canal. We are 
 face to face to-day with the question as to 
 what shall be done with this old canal, 
 which in its original condition and under 
 the conditions of that day, gave to New 
 York its pre-eminence among the cities of 
 America. I remember to have heard an 
 anecdote told of the late Commodore 
 Vanderbilt, that when he had obtained 
 the control of the various small railroads 
 which make up the present New York 
 Central and Hudson River system, some 
 one said to him, “Commodore, now that 
 you have got these railroads what are you 
 going to do with them ? ” His reply was, 
 “I am going to dry up the Erie Canal 
 and drive every boat off the Hudson 
 River.” Of course he did not mean that 
 as a literal statement, but what he did 
 mean to express, I take it, was this; his 
 supreme confidence in the possibility of 
 cheap transportation by rail. And his 
 vision has been largely justified. 
 
 I suppose there is really no more trou¬ 
 blesome problem connected with- publi c. 
 work in the State of New York, than really 
 to determine what ought to be done about 
 our canals. It seems to me that we can 
 get some light upon the wise course of 
 action by considering what has been done 
 elsewhere in this regard. France has spent 
 many millions of dollars in the last thirty 
 years in improving her water-ways. You 
 may be very sure that a frugal country 
 like France would have done no such thing 
 if the usefulness of the canal was a thing 
 of the past. But the truth is, as I believe, 
 that a modem canal is just as great an 
 improvement on an old fashioned canal as 
 
 a modern railroad is an improvement on 
 an old fashioned railroad. I believe it even 
 to be a fact that in France where the State 
 owns many of the railroads, a private 
 railroad company, in one instance, has 
 contributed to the cost of the construction 
 of the canal paralleling the road, because 
 it believed that the canal would be an 
 advantage to the road by enabling the 
 road to throw upon the canal the trans¬ 
 portation of the cheaper and bulkier 
 freights. If I am right in the inference 
 that I draw from these facts—for I think 
 I am correct in my facts as to France— 
 it would seem to me to foliow, inevitably, 
 that it is still the part of wisdom for the 
 old State of New York to improve her 
 Erie Canal in the best possible way. I 
 know that it is a question of dispute 
 as to what is the best possible way. I 
 am inclined to say, however, with such 
 light as I now have upon the subject, that 
 it seems to me the part of wisdom—and 
 l think I am justified in saying that it is 
 the interest of the City of New York— 
 to sustain the proposition made by the 
 Governor of the State on that subject in 
 his opening message to the Legislature. 
 We shall never get anywhere unless we 
 can agree on some plan. The plan pro¬ 
 posed by the Governor has been reached 
 by him after one year of careful study of 
 the report submitted by the Commission 
 appointed by Governor Roosevelt, and of 
 the problem at large with such facilities 
 as the Governor of the State can command. 
 
 If there are any people in the City of 
 New York who think that if is not wis¬ 
 dom for our city to support that measure, 
 
 I hope they will speedily make it known 
 to me, for, unless some convincing reason 
 is presented to me very shortly, I propose 
 to throw whatever influence I have as the 
 Mayor of this city in favor of this plan. 
 
 It is well known that New York has 
 become the Empire State, and the City of 
 New York the metropolis of the country, 
 because of the natural advantages of 
 geography which are ours. It is through 
 the State of New York alone that access 
 can he had to the west over a compara¬ 
 tively level roadway all the way. I do 
 not believe that we shall be wise in 
 abandoning that advantage and trusting 
 to the tender mercy even of our own rail¬ 
 roads, which have to make traffic arrange¬ 
 ments with other railroads that have no 
 interest in the State of New York. I be¬ 
 lieve it to be in every sense the interest of 
 the State, and the interest of the City, 
 to make a modern canal out of our old 
 Erie Canal that shall do for us in the days 
 to come, after its measure, precisely what 
 the canal did when it was first built, help 
 us to maintain the supremacy that is now 
 ours. For it must never be forgotten 
 that New York is what it is, not primarily 
 because of the virtue of its own citizens 
 only, but, primarily, because it is the 
 culminating expression of the wealth and 
 power and good citizenship of the United 
 States. 
 
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 'a*A*y