No. 2.

1844.

Report of the Committee on Internal Improvements.

The committee on internal improvement, to whom was referred that portion of the Governor's message relating to the subject of internal improvement, and the report of the board of internal improvement, together with sundry petitions, have had the same under consideration, and report:

Your committee entered upon the discharge of their important duties, with an ardent desire to extend the liberal aid of the state to every portion of the projected works of internal improvement in the state, and that equal and exact justice might be their guiding rule in all their deliberations. With such feelings, your committee examined into the condition and wants of the people of the state, and were met at every step by the disheartening fact of inability and want of means to extend that aid, which your committee believed the various interests of the people of the state required; and however willing to grant such aid to the local interests of the state, your committee were more deeply impressed with the strong obligation resting upon the state, first, to be just. Upon examination, your committee found the state involved in a debt of $3,964,005 27; the annual interest of which amounts to the sum of $237,840 31; for the payment of the most of which, after the 1st of July, 1845, (a part of which is now due,) the faith and honor of the state is most solemnly pledged, Your committee being unwilling, for a moment, to doubt the determination of the people of the state promptly to pay such interest, were necessarily, (without designing to interfere with the duties of another committee,) led to the inquiry, how can the interest upon our public debt be paid? But three propositions presented themselves to the minds of your committee; the first, to make available the present works of internal improvement in the state; second, a resort to direct taxation; third, repudiation. Your committee dared not doubt but that the people of the state of Michigan were too virtuous, noble

and just, to disgrace the state by pursuing a course of conduct, which even gamblers condemn-repudiation of honorable debts; and your committee, well knowing the aversion of the American people to di rect taxation, and anxious themselves to avoid the second, determined unanimously to recommend the adoption of the first proposition; and your committee are of the opinion, that the second may be wholly avoided, if the first be adopted, and pursued with proper economy and energy. Here your committee were met with section 3, of article 12, of the state constitution, which says, that "it shall be the duty of the Legislature to make provision by law, for an equal, systematic, economical application of the funds which may be appropriated to these objects" (roads, canals, and navigable waters.) A majority of your committee entertain the opinion that said provision of the constituion, as understood by a few, is applicable to legislation only, (if at all,) when the state has means of its own to expend for such purpose; or in other words, when the state is not involved in debt beyond its ability to pay the interest upon existing indebtedness; that the word "economical" was intended to, and does so far prescribe and define said duty, as to make it imperative upon any legislature so to make appropriations for these objects, as to protect the state at large from the necessity of resorting to direct taxation; and a majority of your committee are also of the opinion, that legislation of the state under existing circumstances, should not be influenced by local pride, or interest, but that legislation should now be had, with a sole view to a prompt and honest discharge of all our just debts. Confident in the truth of the foregoing conclusions, a majority of your committee believe that the present and future great interests, as well as the honor of the state, imperiously demand that the present limited means of the state should be so appropriated and expended, as to return to the state treasury the largest possible amount of nett revenue, by the 1st of July, 1845.

With a view to determine on what works appropriations could be made to yield the largest nett revenue, your committee examined into the past and probable future revenue of the several works of internal improvement in the state, and after a careful investigation of said works, from almost mathematical necessity, a majority of your committee came to the conclusion that the Central railroad now does,

and for a long, and probably for all time to come, will produce a much larger fevenue to the state than any other state work. In the opinion of a majority of your committee, the nett profit of the Central railroad, when completed to Kalamazoo, will not fall short of $175,000, for the first fiscal year, and will soon thereafter increase to the sum of at least $200,000.

In support of the opinion of a majority of your committee, in relation to the Central railraad, are offered the following facts:

The Central railroad only, of all the state works, has yet paid any thing into the state treasury.

The proceeds of the Central railroad, for the year 1841, the last fiscal year before its completion to Jackson, were $25,655 30; for the year 1842, the profits were $63,075 96, or nearly six per cent. For the year 1843, $75,026 31; or within a fraction of seven per· cent., notwithstanding a loss of $20,000 in its proceeds of last year, arising from the unusual inclemency of the weather, without which, the proceeds would have been fully equal to 8 per cent. upon its entire cost of construction. And as the nett profits of the year 1841 have been multiplied by three, by the extension of the road to Jackson, so it may well be said that the present nett profits will be more than doubled by the further extension of the road to Kalamazoo, without estimating the natural increase of travel which will be drawn from the lakes upon the road when completed to Kalamazoo. The amount of further appropriation necessary to complete the road to Kalamazoo, is estimated by the state engineer, at $74,463 92, for superstructure, and house, and water stations; and the further sum of $72,920, for iron and spike.

A majority of your committee believe it inexpedient to break new ground upon any of the state roads during the present year, because they cannot anticipate any possible means of ironing such new road for a long time to come, and because at the end of three years, every dollar expended this year would amount to one dollar and eighteen

cents.

And your committee have also had under consideration, the petition of sundry inhabitants, asking for an appropriation of seventyfive thousand acres of land, for the purpose of grubbing and grading

the southern railroad to the village of Coldwater, a distance of about sixteen miles.

A majority of your committee can only say, in relation to this application, what they are compelled to say as to all others of a similar kind which have come before your committee, that "they do not feel at liberty to ask for appropriations for the extension of any of the works," (or in other words, to break new ground,) "although they are of the opinion that the interest of the state requires this extension and that they will eventually be completed, but until our resources are more ample." Your committee "are of the opinion that their extension will be more rapid if too much is not attempted at once." Your committee would state, that the southern railroad has not, until the last fiscal year, yielded any nett proceeds: That for the year 1843, the nett proceeds of this road were $7,906 85, all of which were expended in repairs and stock on the road. The receipts of this road for the year 1844, are estimated by the superintendent on the road, at 50,000, all of which will be required to be expended on the road, in repairs and new cars. The length of the road is now 68 miles. A majority of your committee can find no data upon which to estimate the nett proceeds of this road for the year 1845, above the sum of $15,000 over the repairs of the road, and purchase of the necessary stock.

It is the opinion of your committee, that the money expended on the Clinton and Kalamazoo canal, between Frederick and Rochester, can be made to yield to the state, a revenue, by the further appropriation of two thousand acres of land, for the completion of said canal sixteen miles, and repealing the proviso in the appropriation for said canal, made by the last legislature; and they therefore report a bill for the completion of the said canal from Frederick to Rochester.

Your committee have had under consideration a petition for an appropriation for the improvement of Paw Paw river, and unanimously report adverse to the prayer of said petition, for reasons