The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1853-06-06

the wages sun run on. Ii ID evident mat Tue
so cents per diem are the true cost of the tran
shipment for each man, and that the cost o.
the whole is SIC. Now, one hundred and six
ty tons, at SIC for the whole, amount TO exactly
ten cents per ton, as any man who knows any
thing about the most ordinary business trans
actions must see at a glance. Score down
then, ten cents per ton, at the very outset even
where the cargo is -four barrels and tobacco
boxes, the very easiest Of all heavy articles TO
handle or tranship. According TO Col. Gar
nett, it will take twenty hands one hour TO
tranship the contents of twenty cars, even
though those contents consist Of -four barrels
and tobacco boxes. One hour is equai 10 oo
miles of railroad travel. Score down those oo
miles, admitted thus by Col. Garnett himself
Everybody knows that with such articles az
i hogsheads of tobacco and coal, ii Will take
/ double that time, and that when man works
for an experiment and TO prove posltion,she
works at rather better advantage than on ordi
nary occasions. 1.-THE ordinary rate OF work.
ing, we venture to say, no 90 hands can trans
| fer the ordinary loads Of 90 cars in less than
two hours, and that would give US 60 miles
| But we are not establishing position of our
own we are attacking one OF his, and we have
already an admission of ten cents TO the ton,
and thirty miles of distance, from himself
That might be sufficient for our purpose.
But we wish 10 call attention to certain mat.
tiers, which are of vast Importance in such
controversy as this /; and which, strangely
enough, he seems to have overlooked entirely
In the first place, if there were no ,ranship.
ment, an ordinary depot, not such an one as
he saw at Chattanooga, and an ordinary force
at Covington, would be oil sufficient. Scere
down the difference of cost, whatever it may
be, against the supposed break in the gauge.
In the second place, he entirely owe rlooks
the damage TO the goods from handling,
and the difficulty OF getting compensation,
compen sation, where the goods of an individ.
ual have been transhipped from one car to an-
other under the charge of different company.
The estimate which we made, of so miles dis.
lance, and so cents cost, was made up of all
these subjects, and for the time lost in tran
shipping, during which, according to Colonel
Garnetts own showing, the cars would have
gone, under the most favorable circumstances,
thirty mies-durng which, we venture to say,
with the ordinary class of lading-not a Sc.
lected cargo-there are not half dozen engi-
neers, unconnected with these matters in dis.
pute, who will not say that they would have
gone double that distance.
To support his strange position, Col. Gar.
nett requires Us to make the still stranger ad.
mission that the cost Of transportation over
railroads averages but a single cent per ton
and mile! What country is blessed with
mode of transportation so wonderfully
cheap, we are utterly at loss TO imagine,
and Colonel Garnet has done injustice
to the curiosity of his readers in not letting
them know. We have read that the Albany
and Boston Railroad carries the single article
of -four in barrels two hundred miles for TWEEN.
ty.fiye cents barrel, or about two dollars and
a half ton, which is something more than one
cent per mile but we learn, at the same time,
that the company loses largely by the opera
ton, and is compelled 10 make it up by laying
additional freight upon other articles. In
stead, however, of confusing our readers by
enquiring into subject which we really can.
not comprehend, we will state what we actu.
ally know.
The rates of freight on the Virginia and
Tenne ssee Railroad are published daily in the
Lynchburg Virginian. In that paper, of the
1st Of June, we find that for the transportation
of first class articles, consisting of boxes of
hats, bonnet and furniture, to the Tennessee
line, 200 miles, the charge is IA cents. For
the second class, boxes, bales of dry goods,
feathers, shoes, saddlery, glass, paints, oils
drugs and confectionery, 80 cents per 100 lbs.
For third class articles, Virginia domestcs,
sugar, coffee, liquor, bagging, rope, butter,
cheese, manufactured tobacco, leather, hides,
cotton yarns, copper, tin, sheet iron, hollow
ware, Queens ware, castings, hardware, mar
bic (dressed) and other heavy articles not emu
merateG in special fourth class rates, 60 cents
per 100 lbs. For fourth class articles, consist
ing of -four, fin sacks,) rice, pork, beef, fish,
lard, tallow and bacon, lin casks, boxes or
sacks,) beeswax, bales of rags, ginseng and
dried fruit, bar iron, marble, (undre ssed,) mill
and grindstones, mill gea ring. As cents per 100
lbs. After this are enumerated articles which
do not come under any of these classes, -four
per barrel, 50 cents, wheat per bushel 10 cents,
| corn per bushel ID cents, pig iron and lead
| S. so per ton of 1000 lbs, lumber SO per 1000
feet, tobacco in hhds. 40 cents per 100 lbs oats
per bushel III cents, (salt and gunpowder do
not seem to go SO far West,) single COW, mule,
horse or OK, $40. Car load OF live stock, $4v.
We leave out the first class, it being the sub
ject OF measurement not weight, as we do lum-
Der, because that, too, is charged by measure,
and we have no means of ascertaining weig ht,
gunpowder and salt, as they 60 but short
distance and pay very heavy freight, and live
animals. We con6ne ourselves TO such articles
as are estimated by weight, or by measure,
whose weight is fixed. We take the greatest
distance, 200 miles, in order to give Col. G.
every possible advantage, for the freight de
creases in proportion to the length of the Jour.
ney, in such ratio, that an article costing lC
cents for carriage at the distance of ten miles