From the first the struggle was vastly unequal. The railroads not only offered a much higher rate of speed, but very low rates as well. They entered into arrangements “with lines of propellers (steamers) on the lakes, and steam and tow boats on the Hudson, forming connected lines from the seaboard to Detroit, Cleveland, Sandusky, Toledo, and other western ports, to divert all the freight possible from the canals over their roads,” and practically “contracted to carry freight on the propeller for nothing, for the sake of getting and securing the freight of it upon their roads.”[113] This is only a repetition of an experience that has been perfectly familiar in the transportation annals of England and other countries. But in no other country did the State take up an attitude of hostility to one interest in order that the other might be advanced. The proposal gravely made in the United States on behalf of the State was that railroad tonnage should be specially taxed, in order that it might be handicapped as against the canals. The Committee of Ways and Means did not seem to entertain any doubt that this species of tyranny was within their power. “The Legislature,” they said, “has the power to move them (the railroads) in such form, and subject them to such charges and restrictions, as it may deem it the interest of the State to require.” And then followed the astounding _non sequitur_ that “the State has the power to prohibit them altogether from the carriage of freight!” The keen competition which had been going on between the canals and the railroads had no doubt seriously affected the trade and revenue of the canals, “and through them,” added the State engineer, “the interest of every taxpayer in the State.” This was greatly deplored, as the consequence of unnecessary rivalry. “The passenger travel belongs exclusively to the railroads, while the transport of cheap and heavy articles of freight belongs to the canals!” It is not too much to say that if the report and recommendations of this Committee had been acted upon in the spirit in which they were made, there would have been a revolution in the United States compared with which the Boston tea riots were a mere fleabite. As it was, no such drastic remedies were adopted. The friends of the canals were shortly found “clothed and in their right mind.” Instead of making _ad misericordiam_ appeals for State intervention, they were soon afterwards setting their house in order. Attention was given to the increased use of steam as a propelling power, and the rates of toll were gradually reduced, until the canals were carrying much more cheaply than the railways, and in 1880 the canals were enfranchised and tolls were altogether abolished, since which time they have been able to compete with the railroads on still easier terms.