Mr. HOWE. Mr. President, lam very much surprisedto hear the motion submitted by the Senfrom Ohio. If the motion had been made to postpone the bill indefinitely it would not so much iave surprised me, though such a motion as that would have surprised me, coming from the Senfrom Ohio. I assume that there are some Senators on this floor who are opposed to undertaking this work at all; and for such a one to move to postpone it indefinitely would be legitimate. I do not assume, however, that the Senfrom Ohio can be opposed to undertaking this work. If it is to be undertaken, it is to)e undertaken either as a work which interests the State of NewYork solely, or as awork which interests the people of the U.S. If it is a work which interests the peOple of NewYork alone, then the Senfrom Ohio is entirely correct in supposing that we should say nothing until NewYork has undertaken it and asks our aid or co operation; and if it interests NewYork alone, when she does undertake it, and asks our aid and cooperation, it is evident that we should But if, on the contrary, as I believe, it is a work which interests the nation more than the State of NewYork; which interests the nation almost to the exclusion of the State of NewYork; which interests the State of NewYork only as a part of the nation, then it seems evidentto me that the Legislature of the U.S. should inaugurate the enterprise, and either prosecute it, as the Senator says we have the power to do, by our own authority and with our own means, or invite to it the cooperation and the assent of the State of NewYork. Sir, we are raising in the States of the North west 900 million bushels of grain that we have got to sell somewhere; and in the States lying east of us there are a great many people who do not raise their own grain, and who want to purchase it. We are raising 500 milhon bushels of com, a very large portion of which our farmers are selling at 'rom 3 to ten cents a bushel, and it is be ing consumed in the eastern States at a.cost of not less than 90 cents a bushel. We are feeling more and more every year that we cannot afford to go to such markets at that cost. The project of building a canal around the falls of Niagara is one of those enterprises which it "is supposed will very much diminish the expense of getting this produce to market. If it will iminish materially the cost of getting the gram and the other products of the West to market, then it is a work which interests the nation not the State of NewYork, but the whole country everybody who raises or who consumes those products. Whether it will diminish that expense or not, and if so, to what extent it will diminish iIt am not prepared to state here. This bill is not, as it is now presented to the Senate, framed upon the supposition that we do know definitely and conclusively about that. This bill does not undertake to build this canal merely as a public work, but it proposes to aid private enterprise l in buildin it, and only aids private enterprise which shal come forward in good faith and 1st put in its own money to the amount of $2,000,000 before the Government will advance a cent. The committee went upon the assumption that private capital would not undertake the Work and put that amount of its own money into it if it was not satisfied that it was an important work and a proper one.