The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1853-03-22
WESTERN EXTENSION OF The
uANvILLE RAILROAD.

DANvILLE RAILROAD.
We end in the Danville Republican ie"e'
ofex.Governor Floyd upon this SUBJECT "h''"
we shall lay before our readers Tomorrow
The great advantage, to Virginia, OF an eA'en.
,;on of the Danville road to the ANS al'
bevona. il s,a,ed and maintained With clear
ness asd strength of argument "hie" - 'H''
ross;ble either TO overlook or to coniu'e'
The tendency of the entire railroad system
having for its object the connection between
the prea, valleys of The Mississippi and Ohio,
cd ,hs Atlantic. is to create for Boston, New
yo,k Philadelphia and Baltimore, monopo-
~ If their products. OF this any man who
-s;,l take the trouble TO cast his eyes over a
man of the United States, will be at once con-
WINGED. That this "sapping and mining pro-
cess" as tits very properly designated by
Governor Floyd, cannot fail, in the end, to i'm.
pair, seriously, if not entirely exhaust, the
strength of Virginia, we think there can be no
doubt. That it has already done so, in a very
great degree, is perceptitle TO the most obtuse
intelligence. Some means to counteract its
effects must be resorted TO. Where there is
Bapping, we must weaken its force; when they
mine, we must couniermine. The proposed
extension of the Danville Railroad is the only
feasible scheme, as far as our present informa-
ton allows US 10 judge, for counteracting the
influence of the fatal drain TO which we are
even now subjected, and which will gather
strength as ii advances, even as deadly dis
~ Jan l,pa Of ho
TENTS power to resist it.
Apart from the ulterior objects aimed at
by the friends Of this extension, the results
which it must necessarily produce, even before
reaching its destination, are such as are wor-
thy TO command the attention of Virginia. The
valley of the Roanoke is just beginning to be
understood in this part of the world. Twenty
years ago we heard gifts magnificent estates in
market to be sold at price standing TO the
value of estates on James River, of similar
character, about in the proportion Of one TO
three. We frequently heard gentlemen who
owned estates on James River, speak of selling
cut and buying on the Roanoke, because they
could, for the price of an ordinary James Ri.
yer farm, be enabled to purchase principal
ty there. We enquired what ould be the
cause of the difference in the price, but could
learn no more than that it was far from
market, and being far there was no encourage
meht 10 cultivate more than one crop. From
this want, for an unaccountable series of years
one of the most fertile valleys that the sun
shines upon, was kept in comparative obscuri-
~, its immense agricultural capacities having
been developed to about fifth or a sixth OF
Its capacity, and its mineral deposites not hav-
ing, in all that time, attracted the slightest no.
tice. We were wasting our wealth and our
energiesi in digging canal along the banks of
James River, while, if e portion only Of these
had been expended in the direction of the
Roanoke, the wealth which it would, by this
time, have created, would have enabled as, in.
depeR3ently of Northern capital, 10 have form.
ed network of railroads and canals ali over
our State. We regard it as a very great mis-.
fortune that this scheme was not the first
broaehed-that the legislature and the State
had not lent their full energies to it's accom-
plishment before any other was taken up. The
Roanoke valley lies right at our very door,
We ought at first to have finished some work
really feasible, and certain of making an in.
slant return. By pursuing that course, a sum
might have been laid up, and Virginia nigh,
then have used it for the prosecution of Ion.
ger, more costly, and less Immediately remu.
nerative works. 1t is impossible, however, fol
one generation to act for another. No man
twenty years ago, could foresee what would be
the condition of things now. We are not to
be understood, by any remarks made above, as
undertaking the James River Canal. We
only regret that shorter and more profitable
work was not undertaken before SO much was
spent upon that. 1t would have encouraged
our efforts, and prevented the great unpopula.
rity that, we are sorry to say, has fallen upon
that scheme.
We know not whether any bill for the ex.
tension Of the Danville. Railroad is before the
Legislature. If there is, we can hardly see
how it can be opposed with any degree of con.
sistency.