While, again, the Erie Canal was "one of the most efficient factors" in bringing about these results, it was also developing the north-west by giving an outlet to the commerce of the Great Lakes, and during the second quarter of the nineteenth century it represented what has been well described as "the most potent influence of American progress and civilisation." Not only did the traffic it carried increase from 1,250,000 tons, in 1837, to 3,000,000 tons in 1847, but it further inspired the building of canals in other sections of the United States. In course of time the artificial waterways of that country represented a total length of 5,000 miles. With the advent of the railways there came revolutionary changes which were by no means generally appreciated at first. The cost of the various canals had been defrayed mostly by the different States, and, though financial considerations had thus been more readily met, the policy pursued had committed the States concerned to the support of the canals against possible competition. When, therefore, "private enterprise" introduced railways, in which the doom of the canals was foreseen, there was a wild outburst of indignant protest. The money of the taxpayers, it was said, had been sunk in building the canals, and, if the welfare of these should be prejudiced by the railways, every taxpayer in the State would suffer. When it was seen that the railways had come to stay, the demand arose that, while passengers might travel by rail, the canals should have the exclusive right to convey merchandise. The question was even discussed by the Legislature of the State of New York, in 1857, whether the railways should not be prevented from carrying goods at all, or, alternatively, whether heavy taxes should not be imposed on goods traffic carried by rail in order to check the considerable tendency then being shown for merchandise to go by rail instead of by canal, irrespective of any difference in rates. The railway companies were further accused of conspiring to "break down those great public works upon which the State has spent forty years of labour," and so active was the campaign against them--while it lasted--that one New York paper wrote:--"The whole community is aroused as it never was before." Some of the laws which had been actually passed to protect the State-constructed canals against the railways were, however, repealed in 1851, and the agitation itself was not continued beyond 1857, from which year the railways had free scope and opportunity to show what they could do. The contest was vigorous and prolonged, but the railways steadily won.